Open minds, not dated rhetoric, needed to fix ailing health-care system
OTTAWA—Go to any media outlet web page, paper, podcast, radio station, or TV station across Canada and you’ll find an identical story about a challenged health-care system or a system in crisis. You know the range of headlines: they focus on wait times, cancelled surgeries, health-care worker burnout, health-care worker shortages, growing angst over all […]
RCMP Act must be ‘carefully examined’ to protect police independence from political interference, says senior civilian Mountie
A former director of communications for the RCMP says Parliamentarians should re-examine the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Act to ensure there’s appropriate protection from political interference, in an appearance at the Nova Scotia mass shooting parliamentary committee probe. Lia Scanlan told the committee she was not familiar with the language in the RCMP Act, but […]
Loss of eastern seat, division of municipalities under fire in proposed Quebec riding redraw
The first draft of Quebec’s new federal electoral map is out, and it’s raising the eyebrows of federal and local politicians who are concerned by the proposed loss of a riding in eastern Quebec and decisions to split multiple municipalities between ridings. “Although I understand the role and objectives of the commission, in particular to […]
As Liberals’ support drops, Grit MPs to hold caucus retreat next month in New Brunswick to talk strategy
With the backdrop of the Trudeau government’s waning support in the public opinion polls and the NDP threatening to withdraw support under the supply-and-confidence agreement, the 158-member national Liberal caucus will congregate in New Brunswick next month to plot strategy for the fall sitting of Parliament, say Liberal MPs. It will be the first in-person […]
Supporting and empowering immigrants will only help Quebec’s prosperity
Four billion dollars. That’s how much the Government of Quebec is spending to attract 170,000 workers over the next four years to address critical labour shortages across numerous sectors like health care, child care, IT, engineering, and construction. Jean Boulet, the minister of employment, stated the province’s labour shortage would likely reach 1.4 million vacant […]
Cycling Nova Scotia is an antidote to skepticism
MONTREAL—In the Maritimes, everyone has a story. No matter where you go, there is someone with an opinion. And Maritimers like to talk. No shrinking violets, they. I am back from two weeks in Nova Scotia, where I encountered everyone from the premier to servers in small, out-of-the-way cafés. I was first in Halifax, then […]
Nova Scotia is the ‘in’ place to be
YARMOUTH, N.S.—Tim Houston is ebullient. “We are rockin’ and rollin’ here. The economy is booming, we have topped up on our immigration numbers the last few years, and people are moving back in droves.” Houston should know, as the tall, personable 52-year old accountant is the premier of this province. He must certainly feel he was […]
NDP must counter Poilievre’s skill harnessing anger of people who feel left behind, say labour experts
Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s union endorsements in the province’s June election were more a media coup than a real shift in the labour landscape, say labour experts and NDP strategists, but they reinforced a wider perception that conservative parties are becoming a home for working-class voters who are angry about being left behind by larger […]
Committee to weigh ‘appearance’ of political interference with government status quo in NS shooting case
Despite two weeks of difficult questions and condemnations for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and members of his cabinet, analysts and Liberal strategists aren’t convinced that the controversy over the alleged interference in the RCMP’s investigation of the 2020 Nova Scotia mass shooting is something Canadian voters are actually concerned about. While the Liberals’ political rivals […]
Quebec is shrinking because of its narrow parochialism
VICTORIA, B.C.—In the summer of 1975, my cousin David, a school principal in Montreal, packed up his family and all his belongings and drove here. His children were young, his wife was a nurse, and it seemed like a good move for all of them. Having done a lot of research, they chose Vancouver Island […]
