It would have been ‘cheeky’ for Trudeau to intervene on notwithstanding clause, says reader
Re: “Trudeau should have stood up to Ford over notwithstanding clause,” (The Hill Times, letter to the editor, p. 8). Alykhan Pabani writes that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is no leader. Prime Minister Trudeau has sidestepped the Supreme Court by refusing to revise abortion legislation, which the Supreme Court struck down, and instead took it […]
Grits in unusual spot of being attacked on both sides for controversial Trans Mountain pipeline, say strategists, pollsters
The federal Liberals are being attacked from all sides on the controversial Trans Mountain pipeline expansion and their support of the project could threaten their centre-left coalition, say pollsters and strategists. “It takes a certain amount of political skill to be shot from two different fronts,” said Robin Sears, former national director of the NDP […]
A whale of a problem developing in Canada’s Arctic
VICTORIA, B.C.—The horrors of right whales drowning in tangles of fishing ropes and the alarming prospect of endangered orcas crossing paths with oil-laden tankers has created more than a few headaches for the federal government. From the Atlantic to the Pacific, the feds have been forced to respond to public—and legal—demands that more be done […]
Tackling global warming must be this government’s top priority
It was exciting to have the prime minister visit our Okanagan city of Penticton, B.C., this summer. I am glad that his trip in early August coincided with one of our few smoke-free days. After that, for more days than I care to count, the scene up and down our grape-growing valley was more like […]
Quebec expected to be two-way race in 2019, all eyes on Québec City region, say strategists
Quebec is on course to be a two-way race between the Liberals and Conservatives in the 2019 federal election, say strategists, and the Québec City region is likely to be a hotly contested battleground amongst the federal parties. Despite the reunion of the Bloc Québécois on Sept. 17—with five MPs who had split from the […]
‘Use or lose it’: Canada’s best way to claim Arctic sovereignty
Despite department assurances that Canada’s sovereignty in the Arctic isn’t under threat, some MPs say more needs to be done to ensure Canada’s claim isn’t weakened. In the face of “increased pressure” on the Arctic from climate change, commercial interest, Russian militarization, China’s claim it’s a “Near-Arctic State,” and continued international disagreement over territorial borders, […]
Poilievre shouldn’t be misleading constituents about Phoenix pay fiasco, says reader
Re: “‘Kind of an asinine comment’: opponents react to Poilievre’s claims of ‘zero’ Phoenix pay problems under Conservatives. It is not out of character for Conservative MP Pierre Polievre to say something like this. If you follow his political career, you’ll see that he likes to distort and exaggerate. This is, after all, the man who […]
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 […]
