This campaign: it’s about one man and how he’s run the government
Is there anyone in Canada with no opinion of Stephen Harper? He is praised as a blue-eyed crusader against Bolshevism, and cursed as a craven schemer who’d cheat at Monopoly. This is not a man who inspires indifference. Apologists portray him as Everyman, but have to reach for it. “True, Stephen Harper is prime minister,” […]
If Harper’s re-elected, feds will run up debt 34 per cent
Prime Minister Stephen Harper, if re-elected, will run up the debt 34 per cent. He has spent it on tennis courts and playground equipment and tax credits on bathroom tiling. If the NDP wrote last week’s budget, pundits would have hollered “Marx” and flung themselves out of windows. But it was a Conservative budget with […]
Journalism pay so poor job listings typically quote no figure at all
Who’d study four years at university for a shot at a job that pays a bus driver’s wage? Thousands would, eagerly. The phenomenon rates as news for any journalist—except the study is journalism, at Carleton University in Ottawa. The tuition totals some $28,000 for the four-year course. Only one in eight applicants ever work in […]
Cutting corporate taxes in a deficit year like stealing money from your children
Just in time for St. Patrick’s, a sentimental and ironic tale—on tax policy, begorrah. Once Jean Chrétien was chieftain and went on a world tour when he happened to land in Dublin. It was June 14, 1999. Spring was in bloom. Ireland had cut corporate taxes to 12.5 per cent, the lowest rate of any […]
Reporters should ask tough questions, that’s how it’s supposed to work
OTTAWA—In newsroom phraseology it’s called “asking the question.” People who work with words might contrive a more elegant phrase but “asking the question” will do. It is purposefully blunt. “Asking the question” implies reporters must press an enquiry plainly, regardless of discomfort or embarrassment it may cause a public figure. The practice goes to the […]
In their winter of despair, Libs can’t even talk hockey
Stéphane Dion was striding into Parliament’s Centre Block, late for Question Period, when a security guard asked him for ID: “Card, monsieur.” Dion was incredulous. He straightened his shoulders and snapped off his toque, too angry to speak. There were apologies all ’round. Forgotten by voters, ignored by pundits, Dion is always there to remind […]
Few among us can resist self-aggrandizing tales of childhood hardship, a deeply satisfying ritual
Belinda Stronach, millionairess, was once campaigning to lead the country when a reporter asked about her fabulous wealth. Stronach did not bat an eye. “I think it’s important to note that I did grow up in an immigrant household,” she said. Her father Frank, rated by Canadian Business as one of the 50 richest men […]
Politicians, press enthusiastically promote government’s solar energy initiative, guaranteed
Imagine turning a 200 per cent profit from the sun—guaranteed! It sounds like a sales pitch captured on hidden camera at an airport hotel seminar. Yet it’s the promise of a Government of Ontario program enthusiastically promoted by politicians, the press, even a church bulletin. It may be the strangest government initiative in the country. […]
You won’t hear Harper refer to Belgium in fundraising speeches anymore
Pointless bickering, political drift, inconclusive elections, two language groups set at each other’s throats—is this our future? No, it is Belgium’s, the tragi-comic kingdom where they’ve set a postwar record for careening 232 days without a government. “Belgium will be snuffed out slowly, like a candle, barely noticed by anyone,” a leader in the Belgian […]
Thank goodness there’s no housing bubble, eh?
“No housing bubble,” it said in the paper, which is a relief. If there was a bubble we’d be in real trouble. Canadians were told that “housing bubble talk is discounted” (Daily Commercial News) since there is “no bubble yet” (Victoria Times-Colonist) as “the housing meltdown failed to materialize” (Saint John Telegraph-Journal). The public could […]
