Vaccination passports should be an election issue
Inoculate but keep it secret. That seems to be the vaccination position of the premiers of Ontario, Saskatchewan, and Alberta. It is hard to understand how conservative values align with putting people’s health at risk in a global pandemic. But in the tug-of-war between collective and individual rights, for Doug Ford, Scott Moe, and Jason […]
Survey says: health care, COVID benefits, affordability, and climate change top of mind for voters
OTTAWA—Over the past two weeks, I have had the great pleasure of guest hosting VOCM’s Openline program in Newfoundland and Labrador. Openline is a long-standing platform for all manner of discourse in my home province. It can often be a useful barometer of which issues are top of mind for the people of the Rock […]
The life-and-death stakes of politicizing COVID
OTTAWA—Some of the more harrowing stories coming out of the COVID calamity in the United States concern nurses and doctors who, having struggled fruitlessly to keep a patient from dying of the virus, are told by the expiring patient in their last words that COVID is a hoax. After watching Americans elevate Donald Trump to […]
Election 2021 won’t be pay TV worthy
HALIFAX—Try as some might—including pollsters, consultants, ex-politicians, and ever-infernal party “insiders,” Election 2021 will not be an item for pay TV. Which is to say, it will have as much drama as a morning in traffic court when the ticketing officer doesn’t show up. What’s coming down in perhaps days is a political mismatch. The […]
Sloan should ditch his party idea
OAKVILLE, ONT.—It seems former Conservative MP Derek Sloan wants to form his own political party—tentatively called “True North”—as a vehicle to promote his ideological values. Essentially, he wants to create a party that’s unabashedly to the right of Canada’s Conservatives. Now, I get why Sloan wants to do this, and I also get why “true […]
Biden-Putin Arctic co-operation gives Canada an opportunity
When the American and Russian presidents met in June for their summit, the Arctic represented a rare point of common ground. Arctic watchers noted U.S. President Joe Biden’s intent that “the Arctic remains a region of cooperation,” and Russian President Vladimir Putin’s equally interesting desire for the Arctic to continue as “a zone of understanding.” […]
Saving lives beats vaccine liberty
When does personal freedom blind us to professional responsibility? When the health-care system permits unvaccinated workers in facilities housing vulnerable people. It is the state’s job, first and foremost, to protect those who are under its care in public hospitals or long-term communal living arrangements. The Quebec government understands that. Last April, it became the […]
Sharp-witted ISG Senator Keating remembered as a ‘relentless champion’ with an ‘insatiable intellect,’ sardonic sense of humour
Sharp, devoted, and extremely funny, Independent Senator Judith Keating is being remembered by her Red Chamber colleagues as a passionate advocate for New Brunswick. Throughout her life and after she was appointed to the Senate in January 2020, she advocated for women, people living in rural areas, access to medical health, and access to abortion […]
Still behind the curve on COVID all these months later
OTTAWA—What does the fact that Canada’s prime minister lives in a nondescript old house that was once the accommodation provided to the governor general’s administrative assistant have to do with our ongoing struggle with COVID-19? The PM’s plain brick residence in the backyard of the governor general’s abode—instead of the government shelling out the cash […]
Turning guilt into political dollars
OAKVILLE, ONT.—The Ontario Progressive Conservative Party wants me to feel guilty. Indeed, the party recently sent me an email solely for the purpose of making me feel bad about myself. Bearing the subject heading, “Gerry is this right?” the email opens up in bold letters with this accounting news: “Supporter: Gerry Nicholls – Total donated […]
