Now is the summer of our Twitter discontent
OAKVILLE, ONT.—Anyone who regularly follows all the political chatter on social media these days would surely get the idea that Canada is enduring an unprecedented summer of discontent. Indeed, political debate over the past few months has been as hot as the soaring temperatures. Some people are in an uproar over the removal of a […]
Public Services to pitch next step for Phoenix pay fix in September
The office responsible for fixing the troubled Phoenix pay system is taking another step forward, hoping to cut the time it will take to get thousands of public servants paid properly. Problems with Phoenix have left public servants with too little or too much pay for almost two and a half years. Les Linklater, the associate […]
400 per day? Advocate questions reliability of summer border-crossing predictions after figures fall short
Recent figures on monthly border crossings show that a prediction made by the Quebec government on flows of people coming into Canada this summer—and one frequently cited by the media and federal Conservatives—has so far fallen flat, raising questions about how border-crossing predictions are handled, says one advocate. In April, the Quebec government told the […]
Hill lobbyist ties the knot, with help from legendary curler
Hill denizens Derek Nighbor and Joey Taylor wed on Aug. 11 with the help of Canadian curling legend Colleen Jones. Mr. Nighbor is a lobbyist and CEO of the Forest Products Association of Canada, and Mr. Taylor is a public affairs manager at Engineers Canada. Since they met through curling and both watched it religiously on […]
‘The only thing Ford understands is brute strength’, says Vaughan, as more Liberals endorse John Tory for mayor
The Toronto mayoral race saw a recent flurry of endorsements from Liberal MPs for candidate and incumbent John Tory, a move some observers say is a low-risk decision with easy political benefits at the local level, and a play to outflank PC Premier Doug Ford. On Aug. 8, Mr. Tory announced that Liberal MPs Marco […]
‘Buzz’ around Ford’s media strategy ‘almost bigger than the tactic,’ says digital strategist
Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s strategy of delivering spin straight to his base through his Twitter channel is less about hoodwinking Ontarians, and more about playing to his base and to the narrative of the media as an opposition party, say some political observers, while others see the start of a concerning trend. The launch of […]
‘Just as they’re struggling to rebuild, they’re hit again,’ MP says, as constituents brace for devastating wildfire season
British Columbia is in a state of emergency for the second straight year as it grapples with controlling the wildfires that have blanketed vast pockets of the province, and one MP in the area says that while the fires aren’t as huge as last year’s, this season is breaking new records. “The smoke is literally […]
Poverty, homelessness, inequality: a few causes that might outweigh cheaper beer
OTTAWA—Populism scrambles a lot of markers, so maybe nobody cares that Ontario Premier Doug Ford is making a big deal, using government promotional incentives no less, to prioritize in the early days of his administration a possible slight decrease in what Ontarians pay for beer. It’s an amateur move, to be sure, and would seem […]
Media needs to stop labelling Ford, right-wing parties as populist, says reader
Re: “Ford’s right-wing populism: the gift that keeps on giving, for the rich,” (The Hill Times, June 20, p. 9). Why do you insist on labelling Ontario Premier Doug Ford as “populist”—a term the mainstream media continues to label right/centre parties to suggest that they would not have been elected if voters had been thinking […]
Opioid crisis symptom of society that’s sick
With Ontario Premier Doug Ford threatening to fulfill his campaign promise to close the province’s seven supervised injection sites despite the rising number of overdose deaths, it’s worth stepping back to consider where the endless stream of people willing to risk their lives comes from in the first place. It’s a key question that hasn’t […]
