Where will Trudeau draw the line on Trump’s trade tactics?
TORONTO—Where are we going on NAFTA renegotiation? Ill-informed grandstanding by U.S. President Donald Trump, along with the threat to terminate the trade agreement, is no doubt intended to intimidate Canada and Mexico into making concessions to advantage the U.S. But how far do we go? Facts don’t matter. The U.S. has a trade surplus with […]
Don’t poison the regulatory well
CALGARY—It’s the dose that makes the poison. You can’t live without water, but drink too much and you’ll get water poisoning. It’s the same with the regulatory decision-making process, where efficiency and inclusiveness must be balanced. Both are vital, but too much of either at the expense of the other, and the whole thing falls […]
All eyes on Canada, U.S. energy outlooks at New York summit
NEW YORK CITY—Last week, United States President Donald Trump triggered a wave of significant policy changes and made threats about trade, energy, steel, and dairy. The shifting policy landscape in Washington has raised questions about the future of NAFTA and relations with Canada. On energy co-operation, the burning question for Canadian policy-makers, scientists, and the […]
Trump for dummies: there’s no scapegoat like a foreign scapegoat
OTTAWA—The CNN anchors kept looking at each other, half-laughing. “Canada?” they kept saying, as in United States President Donald Trump is picking a fight with Canada? This was a few weeks ago, when Trump was calling Canada’s dairy policies a “disgrace” that damaged the interests of U.S. farmers. With the 100-day mark bearing down on him, […]
Cut methane emissions now to fight climate change
Methane emissions largely from liquefied natural gas (LNG) and fracking are at least 2.5 times higher than the government estimates, meaning that the LNG/fracking industry is much dirtier than we have been told. Indeed, the oil and gas sector, which includes LNG and fracking, could be the largest source of climate pollution in British Columbia. […]
Canada needs a nuclear energy strategy
Justin Trudeau’s government, as many have remarked, is distinguished by its interconnected ministerial mandates. This is good for sharing responsibilities for important political objectives and priorities. However, this could pose a challenge if the objectives are not underpinned by a unifying strategy that recognizes and uses the technologies and tools at hand. This is the […]
The wait must end: Canada needs a mining ombudsperson
Canada is a global leader in the oil, gas, and mining sector—home to more than half the world’s mining companies. As a result, the NDP believes that the government has an important role to play in making sure that our companies conduct themselves according to established international principles and norms respecting human rights, as well […]
PMO’s Canada-U.S. war room dealing with unprecedented unpredictability of U.S. administration
The PMO’s three-member Canada-U.S. relations team has been wisely playing its cards “very close to the chest” in charting a coordinated whole-of-government approach to navigating relations with an unpredictable Trump administration, say sources. “It’s created a nerve centre,” said Sarah Goldfeder, a principal at Earnscliffe Strategy Group and a former American diplomat who worked at the U.S. […]
A Trump decoder ring, 100 days in
OTTAWA—When Justin Trudeau met Donald Trump for the first time back in February, it was all smiles, handshakes and cross-border hugs. The Trudeau team had done an excellent job with the White House in paving the way for a friendly and productive meeting. There was none of the belligerence that Trump had shown Mexico, and […]
How one lobby campaign won support of mining, environment, indigenous groups and MPs from all parties
It’s not every day that a lobbying campaign can claim success based on support from 49 MPs from all four political parties in the House of Commons as well as mining, environmental, and indigenous groups. While these camps may in other circumstances clash, they spoke with one voice in recent months to push the federal […]
