Experts, strategists warn feds of risks of appealing recent Federal Court decision on Trans Mountain pipeline
As the Liberal government mulls its response to the Federal Court of Appeal’s decision to overturn Ottawa’s approval for the $7.4-billion Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project, experts and strategists warn of risks of taking it to the Supreme Court. “Appealing potentially could add more damage, because they’re in a position where they don’t want to […]
Minister Joly hires operations director as she staffs up new office
Tourism, Official Languages, and La Francophonie Minister Mélanie Joly has finalized a few more staffing decisions in her new ministerial office, including hiring Maximilien Roy as her director of operations. Mr. Roy joined Ms. Joly’s growing staff team straight from Finance Minister Bill Morneau’s office, where he’d been working as a policy and Quebec regional […]
MacNeil steps in as chief of staff to Agriculture Minister MacAulay
Veteran Liberal staffer Vince MacNeil has landed in Agriculture Minister Lawrence MacAulay’s office post shuffle, having taken over as chief of staff in early August, Hill Climbers has learned. He officially started on the job on Aug. 7. Mr. MacNeil was previously chief of staff to Dominic LeBlanc as fisheries and oceans minister. He’d started […]
Grassroots Liberals want five-term Quebec Liberal MP Paradis to ‘show good judgment’ and not seek re-election in 2019
A group of about 200 grassroots Liberals in the Quebec riding of Brome-Missisquoi wants Denis Paradis, 69, to either not seek re-election in 2019, or to face a nomination contest, and in a show of their displeasure with the five-term MP they defeated eight of the 11 candidates on the Liberal MP’s slate of candidates […]
Candidate nominations for 2019 to ramp up this fall, Conservatives have big head start
After a summer of door-knocking and laying groundwork for the next federal election, the Conservative Party now has 128 official candidates for the 2019 election, while the Liberals have 21 and the NDP none. While there’s still a little over a year until the 2019 vote, strategists say the more work done now, the better. […]
Quebec election 2018: boring, for once
KAMOURASKA, QUE.—If there is one word to describe the Oct. 1 election in Quebec, it is: boring. In the wake of the hurly-burly election of Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservatives in Ontario in June, its neighbour’s contest has all the attraction of watching paint dry. But that is just fine with my cousin Don, a 50ish […]
As 2019 nears, Liberals turn to pork-barrel politics
The Liberals came to power in 2015 repeating lines about “evidence-based decision-making” and pledged to take partisanship out of the appointments and other processes. Under former prime minister Stephen Harper, “Science and evidence have never mattered less; politics and partisanship have never mattered more,” the Liberals opined at the time. But as the next general […]
Public services minister names a new policy director, as seniors minister staffs up
Public Services and Procurement and Accessibility Minister Carla Qualtrough has hired on a second director of policy to her office, Kristina Molloy, who’ll be focused on the minister’s accessibility file. Ms. Molloy was previously director of policy to Kirsty Duncan as the minister for sports and persons with disabilities. In the July 18 shuffle, Ms. […]
Putting off byelections until 2019 could help Liberals: strategists
Four federal ridings will soon be vacant, and strategists say putting off the byelections to fill them—including Burnaby South, B.C., where NDP leader Jagmeet Singh will fight for a seat in the Commons—would be to the Liberals’ advantage. “If I were the Liberals I would not hold that byelection [Burnaby South] before Christmas. No rush […]
Is Trudeau about to make Peterson’s mistake?
It’s the right time to call an early election, despite the fact that the government is barely three years into its mandate, said the pundits and some, though not all, Liberal insiders. The trade arrangements with the United States were worrisome and there were plenty of signs that some kind of recession was in the […]
