Ford’s willingness to use a constitutional nuclear bomb won’t be forgotten
TORONTO—Defeat, in politics, is almost always preceded by some sort of an overreaction. You know: Paul Martin, desperate to avoid defeat in the 2006 federal election, declares that he will take away the federal government’s ability to use the notwithstanding clause. Didn’t work. He lost. The Grant Devine government in Saskatchewan used it in 1986, […]
Trudeau should have stood up to Ford over notwithstanding clause, says reader
On Saturday, Sept. 15, 2018, I woke up and made my way to the Ontario Legislature, determined to express my utter disgust with Bill 31. A rare weekend sitting had been called to expedite the bill’s passage. It was tense. After physically turning his back to the opposition for the duration of the proceedings, Ontario […]
Lessons from the notwithstanding clause debate
When I was an assistant to the opposition leader in Newfoundland and Labrador in the early 1980s, I would often get into lengthy discussions with my friend and co-worker, the late David Kennedy, who was a poet, journalist, and political animal. One day we were discussing poetry and I asked if he knew the work […]
PM must stand up to Ontario Premier Ford, says reader
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is the leading politician in this country, but his response to Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s actions has been weak. Mr. Ford’s actions are deemed “legal;” and while he claims to be acting democratically, his actions are more befitting a dictator. I expect the prime minister to make a definitive stand on […]
Climate at the crossroads
It began and ended with two new cabinets and two new words: climate change. They were added to the title of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s first minister of the environment and climate change in 2015; and taken away from the new title for Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s first minister of the environment, conservation and parks […]
Northern food security key to Canada’s future
True or False: The Arctic is thawing, uncovering land that can grow food and eventually feed the world. Answer: both. Another answer: We don’t know—because so much is changing. And it has serious implications for food security in the north. What we do know is that permafrost—ground that remains at or below zero degrees for […]
The Ontario campaign that went from time for a change to throw the bums out
Any party seeking re-election after 15 years in office will face challenges, but it’s not impossible in Canadian politics. Provincial party dynasties with successive leaders are rare, but they do exist: the Ontario Progressive Conservatives, 1943-85, and the PCs in Alberta from 1971-2015. In each of those cases, the party shuffled out the old leaders […]
Trudeau Liberals to target NDP-held riding in northern Saskatchewan in 2019, hoping to win ‘several’ more in province: Goodale
SASKATOON—The federal Liberals have been winning only one seat in Saskatchewan in every federal election since 2004, but now are bullish about their prospects of winning “several” in 2019. In an interview with The Hill Times at the Liberal caucus retreat in Saskatoon, Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale (Regina-Wascana, Sask.) said that his party has a […]
Ford’s resort to nuclear option ought to have us all nervous
Ontario Premier Doug Ford may have good reasons for wanting to slash Toronto city council from a proposed 47 to 25 councillors. But he’s gone about it the wrong way by trying to hastily jam through legislation, Bill 5, to enact the cut in the middle of a municipal election campaign. He’s continued down that wrong […]
Rejecting the courts, Ford dismisses any limits to his power—and that’s scary
OTTAWA—Ontarians got a taste on Sept. 10 of what they are in for under Premier Doug Ford’s version of populist government. In a performance fully worthy of U.S. President Donald Trump, Ford indulged himself in a bombastic outpouring of misinformation, personal attacks, fear-mongering, and conceptions of unchecked power. He specifically rejected the role of the […]
