Trudeau calls on some celebrity friends to urge Canadians to stay inside
After a day spent imploring Canadians to stay inside, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau took to Twitter to encourage some Hollywood friends to share the message. Earlier in the day on March 23, Mr. Trudeau told the Canadian public “enough is enough.” “Go home and stay home. This is what we all need to be doing, […]
‘It’s a different world we’re all living in’: vast majority of staff working remotely, focused on COVID-19 response
The vast majority of staff—from ministerial offices on the Hill to the constituency offices of Members of Parliament—are now working from home and busy working to answer high volumes of public queries and implement new measures being announced to help Canadians amid the COVID-19 outbreak. “I think that all of our offices are seeing high […]
A few fresh faces on National Revenue Minister Lebouthillier’s busy team
AN APARTMENT NEAR PARLIAMENT HILL—National Revenue Minister Diane Lebouthillier held onto her portfolio from the last Parliament post-election, but has added some new staff to her office, including new press secretary Jeremy Bellefeuille. Mr. Bellefeuille is a former assistant to then-Ottawa Liberal MP Andrew Leslie and to new Nova Scotia Liberal MP Jaime Battiste. In […]
How the plague is going to change everyday life
LONDON, U.K.—They teach you in journalism school never to use the phrase “…X has changed the world forever.” Or at least they should. COVID-19 is certainly not going to change the world forever, but it is going to change quite a few things, in some cases for a long time. Here’s nine of them, in […]
Isolation is the new normal
OTTAWA—Social distancing to a politician is akin to a hand sanitizer ban for germaphobes. Politicians thrive on contact with people. But in the new normal, public figures may have to learn to campaign in a germ-free bubble. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is getting an early shot at the new form of communication. Self-isolation has not […]
Co-operation, but not ‘kumbaya’ will be what gets us through
There are times when Canadians can look at the House of Commons as a fine example of how not to model behaviour. Question Period, in particular, can be a frustrating exercise in head shaking at how juvenile a room full of grown adults comport themselves. In his remarks in December as he accepted the vote […]
Parliamentary Press Gallery Dinner postponed until October
Like many events around Parliament Hill, the night some call the “Nerd Prom” is being postponed until October. The Parliamentary Press Gallery executive board announced last week that the event that brings together the press and federal politicians and staffers will not take place on its originally scheduled date of May 2. “If all normal […]
One of the big lessons of the current crisis: government matters and public institutions matter
TORONTO—These are scary times, with no end in sight. While Canada has been more fortunate than many other countries, with relatively few cases of deaths from the virus, no one can say what the future may hold. Will COVID-19 largely disappear in a few months or will it extend well into next year, before a […]
COVID-19 is forcing lobbyists to significantly shift their strategies
As the federal government ramps up its effort to control the pace of the coronavirus pandemic and stabilize the teetering economy, lobbyists say much of their focus has either pivoted to responding to the immediacy of the crisis, or giving officials the breathing room they need. “I just don’t think there is lobbying during the […]
Not doing politics in the time of COVID-19: ‘the boundary of acceptable criticism just got a lot narrower’
With the country mired in a health crisis the likes of which hasn’t been seen in Canada in 100 years, federal opposition parties have been remarkably supportive of the Liberal government, with little appetite among the Canadian public for parties to score political points at this time. Since the severity of the crisis has become […]
