How bad can it get? Look south
CHELSEA, QUE.—It is a miserable ending to a miserable political season. Spite rules the day at home, Canadian livelihoods are menaced by an intemperate megalomaniac to the south and no one seems to want to go to the famous July 4 party at the American Embassy. With a tariff war raging, no amount of bourbon […]
How the party leaders stack up, as campaign machines rev up for 2019
OTTAWA—Summer is upon us. Members of Parliament have returned to their ridings to kiss babies and shake hands wherever they can. Ottawa will feel a bit like a ghost town between now and mid-September until the elected officials return when they will begin the big push to the 2019 election. Through this session of Parliament […]
Ford Nation and the demise of the campaign playbook
OTTAWA—Last week, Scott Reid, formerly Paul Martin’s communications director and currently a political analyst and speechwriter who “was pitching in” for Kathleen Wynne’s team, wrote one of the more sobering post-mortems on the Ontario campaign. The piece, published in the Globe and Mail, posed the question as to whether campaigns even matter anymore: “In an […]
Journalist’s fake death is troubling
OTTAWA—On May 29, Ukrainian officials announced that Arkady Babchenko had been shot and killed at his apartment. A dramatic photo was released showing Babchenko’s body lying in a pool of blood. Babchenko is a Russian journalist who had been vehemently critical of the Kremlin, and of President Vladimir Putin in particular. Naturally enough, regarding his […]
Trudeau gambles his promise, his progress, our planet
CHELSEA, QUE.—What a colossal mistake Justin Trudeau has made in buying the Kinder Morgan pipeline. He not only imperils his re-election chances in 2019, he risks squandering the small, progressive steps his government has taken over the last few years: reform of the criminal justice system, the beginning of practical remedies for struggling Indigenous communities, […]
Trump has been largely successful in feeding public skepticism about the fourth estate
OTTAWA—Earlier this month, the planet commemorated World Press Freedom Day, launched by the United Nations in the last century. The recognition, proclaimed by the General Assembly in 1993, coincided with the anniversary of the Declaration of Windhoek, a statement by African journalists about the importance of the free press. The UN says the day is […]
Tories take top prize in parliamentary basketball tournament that raises $26,500 for kids charity
We don’t know what’s going to happen in 2019, but at least on the basketball court the Conservatives bested the Liberals. Team Tory took the trophy from the two-time champion Grits at the seventh annual Parliamentary Basketball Tournament to benefit Christie Lake Kids on Sunday. Four teams—consisting of politicians and staffers from the Liberals, Conservatives […]
Wynne’s Ford-as-Trump portrayal could backfire
OTTAWA—In politics, as in sport sometimes, a rally cry based around desperation can be a powerful motivational tool that changes a game or series. Many times we have heard an NHL hockey coach say of his players: “they have to play as if their backs are against the wall.” Then the team in question goes […]
The systemic subterfuge of Trump’s news firehose
In the days when the news cycle was still a cycle and not a vortex, the cliché among critics and many alumni was that the White House press corps was constrained by spoon-feeding. They were tethered by proximity, competition, and the obligations of access to the administration’s political agenda, from daily thematic policy roll-outs to […]
Ambrose’s ex-chief of staff lands new Queen Street job
Garry Keller, the former chief of staff to interim Conservative Party leader Rona Ambrose, has taken up a new job as a vice-president at government relations firm StrategyCorp. “Really pleased to be joining the excellent team @StrategyCorp in their Ottawa office as a vice president. Looking forward to working with a great group of smart […]
