Doug Ford’s base problem
OAKVILLE, ONT.—If nothing else, Erin O’Toole’s recent unceremonious ouster as Conservative Party leader should serve as a cautionary tale to Ontario Premier Doug Ford. And that cautionary tale can be summed up thusly: don’t antagonize your base. That’s what O’Toole did, and he paid the price. The fact is, conservative leaders can’t win an election […]
Alberta: problem child of Confederation
TORONTO—Unlike the founding provinces of Confederation, Alberta was created by the federal government. Although Ottawa granted Alberta control of its natural resources in 1930, no other English Canadian province has whined as much about the federal system. Equalization is the provincial government’s current leading grievance. Alberta’s governments have fought Ottawa for over a century. The […]
In praise of Ford’s snow theatrics
OAKVILLE, ONT.—Ontario Premier Doug Ford was sharply criticized in some circles recently for doing a good deed. Okay, maybe it wasn’t so much a “good deed,” as it was a brilliantly planned public relations performance. I’m talking, of course, about how, the morning after his province got walloped by a massive winter storm, Ford was […]
COVID’s very real demands taking a toll on purveyors of populist flimflam
OTTAWA—Boris Johnson’s troubles have ballooned to the point of creating a moment of truth for the British prime minister. By the weekend, his ability to hang onto his job was dangling in the balance, as Johnson tried to fend off attacks on his integrity from across the political spectrum. One of the most successful politicians […]
Work across the aisle to advance gender equality in the Arctic
I was raised by a single mother of four boys—not an easy task in the 1960s and ’70s. But she managed to keep food on the table and clothes on our backs and care for us all by working three to four jobs at the same time. After I was born, she needed to change […]
Alexa McDonough and the cost of blazing trails
Trailblazing isn’t easy, but those who knew her say Alexa McDonough had the character and resilience to do it with grace, earnestness, and always a sense of humour. Since her recent death, McDonough has been described as a “role model,” an “icon,” and the reason many women in politics who came after her were able […]
Ottawa on the hook for $4-billion tied to abandoned mines’ cleanup in the North
Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada is responsible for $4-billion in environmental liabilities for mines abandoned by private operators in the territories, according to the federal government’s public accounts for 2020-21. This figure represents the amount required to bring 162 contaminated sites back up to current minimum environmental standards. But in extreme cases the remediation […]
Take a look in the social media mirror before casting the first snowball
OTTAWA—Doug Ford fascinates me. Maybe I am a COVID long hauler, and I am suffering some sort of pandemic-induced delusion. Maybe my Atlantic-Canadian, Red Tory soul is opening to Ontario populist Tories. Maybe I was blind all along or maybe I just need something different to write about. Who knows? You be the judge. Where […]
Anti-vaxxers are doing no one any good
KAMOURASKA, QUE.—A friend of mine recently posted the following note on Facebook: “I phoned my cousin on Boxing Day to wish her a belated Merry Christmas. The exhausted voice at the other end of the line politely accepted my pitiful attempt at good cheer. As a Quebec public health nurse, she had been working straight […]
Cowardly Canadian leaders point fingers at the unvaccinated
CALGARY—Imagine a Black woman who writes about, and advocates against, inequities, who rails against injustice, with an emphasis on the Black experience siding with the anti-vaxxers she cussed only a few months prior. But here we are. Politics makes for strange bedfellows. On Jan. 11, Quebec Premier François Legault announced a tax on the unvaccinated […]
