After all the blood and billions misspent, whose war was it anyway?
As meetings go, it was far-reaching and catastrophic. It happened five years ago. The anniversary is never observed. The closed-door conference cost a thousand casualties and some $20-billion on a military misadventure in Afghanistan. Parliament was never consulted; there was no public debate of any kind. It set a standard for secrecy, half-truths and self-deception […]
Today’s redistribution bill reflects 21st century Canada
“I’m not surprised!” crowed Bill Vander Zalm, former British Columbia premier, on the line from his lilac nursery in Ladner. “I saw this coming.” A redistribution bill now before Parliament grants B.C. and Alberta combined more seats in the Commons than Quebec, 76 to 75. It’s never happened before—and it might not have happened this […]
Politics in trouble, politicians don’t run it anymore
Politics is in trouble because politicians don’t run it anymore. And they wonder why voter turnout is 59 per cent. Every national party in the Commons is led by a former university lecturer. That has to be a malforming experience. By training and instinct, they talk and you listen. It’s popular to scorn genuine politicians—the […]
Private TV executives should be able to make money, eh?
TV executives in tailored suits came to Ottawa and pleaded hardship. “Can’t survive,” one said. Gosh, thought regulators, if millionaire TV managers are scraping by it must be rough out there. So the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission last week reversed itself and ruled the public should pay for American reruns whether they watch them […]
Journalists shouldn’t write Harper’s legacy yet
OTTAWA—Stephen Harper has passed four years in office. Journalists now write of his “legacy.” The Prime Minister insists the final verdict rests with God. This can only end badly. “With us,” novelist Hector Munro wrote in 1910, “a Cabinet usually gets the credit of being depraved and worthless beyond the bounds of human conception by […]
CBC displays keen sense of self-preservation
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation rated lesser mention in the 2010 budget than the tariff on duvet covers. Naturally this drew whispers on Parliament Hill. The CBC is a predictable target for cost cutting though MPs know this will take time and tact. No federal bureaucracy has displayed a keener sense of self-preservation. In an age […]
If I were finance minister, I’d impose a luxury tax on air conditioners
They played “if I were finance minister” last week. It is popular. Monte Solberg, retired five-term MP and former vice-chair of the Commons Finance Committee, fantasized in The Calgary Sun of making phenomenal changes. Solberg announced he’d abolish equalization payments for Quebec, penalize workers who draw Employment Insurance and eliminate grants “for social agencies that […]
Americans: the most self-correcting people on Earth
Of eight Canadians who carried the Olympic flag at the opening ceremonies in Vancouver, four are U.S. residents. The “Columbia” in British Columbia is named for a Boston sailing ship. Vancouver is a shorter drive from El Paso than Thunder Bay. Familiar doesn’t begin to describe our relationship with Americans. They are the cousin next […]
Bank of Canada governor draws blanket media coverage
Is there any good reason reporters still attend Mark Carney’s news conferences? The Bank of Canada governor draws blanket coverage for every utterance, though his observations are typically trite—”The thaw is coming,” Carney said the other day—and his record on economic forecasting is spotty. New economic data over the next six weeks will confirm Carney […]
Politicians: beware the Olympics curse
Did you know: Every federal government in office when Canada hosted the Olympics went on to lose 19 per cent of its seats in the Commons? Twice before the country hosted the games, twice the party in power got a 19 per cent haircut at the polls. A coincidence, surely; a statistical quirk. It probably […]
