Electoral reform will not happen in this Parliament
OTTAWA—I took the MyDemocracy.ca voting test and discovered what I already knew. According to the online government survey, managed by Vox Pop, I am a pragmatist. The pragmatist in me says electoral reform is dead. Its public interment by the minister responsible for democratic reform was not a pretty sight. Democratic Institutions Minister Maryam Monsef […]
Trudeau ‘the changer’ has morphed into ‘the compromiser’
OAKVILLE, ONT.—If for some odd reason, Canada’s opinion leaders had to choose a fairy tale character to be our prime minster, my sense is they’d pick Goldilocks. I say that because with her “not too hot, not too cold” porridge policy, along with her “not too hard, not too soft” bed strategy, Goldilocks instinctively understand […]
Quebec, Ontario crucial to Conservative leadership race
Conservative leadership candidates are setting their sights on battleground provinces of Ontario and Quebec as the race heats up. Leadership candidates from Quebec could have an edge in what is a very crowded contest so far. Conservative MPs Steven Blaney (Bellechasse-Les Etchemins-Lévis, Que.) and Maxime Bernier (Beauce, Que.) are the only two current Parliamentarians from Quebec […]
Next budget should fund Indigenous Guardians Network
One year ago this month, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission released its final report. Its pages described the anguish caused by residential schools and the gaps remaining between indigenous and non-indigenous people in terms of education and prosperity. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau praised the report, saying “This is a time of real and positive change. […]
Canada Infrastructure Bank: theft by deception
Both the Liberal government and its Advisory Council on Economic Growth are head over heels for the Canada Infrastructure Bank, announcing with fresh-faced enthusiasm that it will be an innovative route for augmenting infrastructure finance, a flywheel of institutional capital participation, and an economic stimulus boon for the middle class. Beyond the euphoria is deception; […]
Bennett: Senate Committee could study meaning of ‘nation to nation’ over three years
A Senate committee may be undertaking a hefty study to examine just what exactly a nation-to-nation relationship looks like, possibly over the course of three years. In an interview with The Hill Times last Tuesday, the Minister of Indigenous and Northern Affairs Carolyn Bennett (Toronto-St. Paul’s, Ont.) said she was “excited by the prospect that maybe […]
Pipeline decisions about getting resources to market sustainably, says Natural Resources Minister Carr
The government’s decision to approve the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain and Enbridge Line 3 pipeline projects “speaks volumes about what the government of Canada thinks of the necessity of building infrastructure to get our resources to market sustainably,” Natural Resources Minister Jim Carr told a crowd of Alberta businesspeople at a Calgary Chamber of Commerce event […]
Canada’s natural resource sector suffering
Canada’s natural resource sector is suffering. Since the election of the Trudeau government, 100,000 energy workers alone have lost their jobs and face a very bleak Christmas. The challenges facing our oil and gas sector are well known. Our land-locked oil and gas sector is constrained by a lack of pipeline capacity to tidal waters […]
Trudeau undoes own timid steps to sustainability, betrays promise to world
GATINEAU, QUE.—There is no doubt that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s approval of the twinning of the Kinder Morgan oil pipeline last week increases the danger of a devastating spill in the waters around Vancouver and beyond, despite the new $1.5-billion federal ocean protection plan. No spill response unit, “world class” or otherwise, can be confidently […]
NDP MP Linda Duncan blasts government over tanker threat to endangered West Coast orcas
Linda Duncan, the lone New Democrat MP elected in Alberta, is bucking NDP Premier Rachel Notley’s support for the federal cabinet’s approval of a new Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain oil pipeline to the B.C. coast. On Tuesday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Environment Minister Catherine McKenna approved the expansion project, which a report from the […]
