Politicians guiding journalism? No, thanks
Here’s what happened to newspapers. In the early 1990s, I worked at the Gazette in Montreal. In those days, on a Saturday you’d pick up your Gazette, shake five sections of classified advertising and home and car ads onto the floor, and go straight to the City pages, which featured a loving summary of local […]
With Trump and O’Leary, it could be a few long, painful years
OTTAWA—It could be a few long, painful years in North American politics with United States President Donald Trump and potential Conservative leader Kevin O’Leary. While it is quite possible they may have positive effects on their respective countries, their abrasive in-your-face style of communicating could wear thin pretty quickly. It has already for me, but […]
Time to fix the ‘value gap’
In his Hill Times op-ed (“Canadian copyright reform requires a fix on the fair dealing gap,” Dec. 5, 2016) Michael Geist takes issue with the need to address the “value gap” that is hurting Canadian artists, writers, and other members of the creative class. He argues instead that Canada faces a need to address a “fair […]
Goodbye Sparks Street, hello Queen Street: Hill Times Publishing moves to new office digs
OTTAWA—Some problems are good ones—and after outgrowing our single-floor office overlooking Sparks Street, Hill Times Publishing, which now includes The Wire Report, Parliament Now, and The Lobby Monitor, has packed up 25 years of memories and moved into two floors of bigger, brighter new office space on Queen Street, just two blocks from Parliament Hill. The new office […]
Liberal government’s electoral reform survey mocked
The Liberal government’s new survey website, MyDemocracy.ca, was roundly mocked in the MSM and social media, under the Twitter hashtag #rejectedERQs, after being launched last week as a tool to gauge the public’s attitudes on electoral reform. Thousands made fun of the survey. Conservative MP Scott Reid said it felt like “being on a dating […]
After 45 years, veteran Hill journalist Tom Clark signs off
PARLIAMENT HILL—Thanks to a taste for adventure and a thirst for news, veteran newsman Tom Clark has been at the scene for many major events in global history over the last 45 years. But he will be taking his leave of journalism and signing off for the last time on New Year’s Day. “It was a […]
Canada’s affection for Trudeau has just begun
TORONTO—Do journalistic conventions rewire our brains? It’s a serious question. In the fun new sci-fi movie Arrival, the plot posits the theory that language changes the way we think, and not the other way around. The aliens keep telling everyone what they think—kind of like a racist and sexist Donald Trump did, over and over—and […]
Leitch reaches out to those ‘ignored and mocked’ by Liberals, elite
Conservative MP Kellie Leitch’s latest effort to raise funds for her federal Conservative leadership bid invites those feeling “mocked and ignored by the Liberal and media elite” to join what she’s calling the “Revenge of the Comment Section” movement. She said in a Facebook post last week that it’s “clear that my campaign has touched […]
Funding dispute between CBC, private broadcasters based on faulty arguments
TORONTO—The dispute between the CBC and the private broadcasters over the right to collect advertising looks like the fight between tired old dogs around a shrinking bone. Private broadcasters believe their revenue shrinks because of the CBC’s “unfair competition,” being publicly subsidized and, at the same time, selling commercials. The reality is that they lose […]
Veteran Parliament Hill reporters Jason Fekete, Ian MacLeod to leave Citizen
Veteran Parliament Hill scribes Jason Fekete and Ian MacLeod are the latest big-name departures from the Ottawa Citizen. Mr. Fekete announced last week on Twitter that his last day with the paper would be Dec. 9, saying leaving the newsroom was the “toughest decision of my life.” He said he doesn’t know what’s next for him, though appeared […]
