Canada’s leaders should be confronting, not encouraging, the rage movement and its anti-progressive haters
OTTAWA—It’s hard not to laugh at the guy in the tin foil crown, cargo shorts, and dishwashing gloves holding forth in front of a deconsecrated Ottawa church with some kind of homemade sceptre rendered from potatoes or papier-mâché on a stick. But it’s actually not funny. The trucker convoy-related group allegedly squatting in the building […]
Limited hope for resolution to historic Canada-U.S. softwood lumber spat, say stakeholders, MPs
As Ottawa embarks on a trade challenge of American countervailing duties on Canadian softwood lumber exports, there is a glimmer of hope that both sides can reach a negotiated settlement to resolve the longstanding dispute. Softwood lumber has long been a trade irritant along the 49th parallel, as both Democratic and Republican administrations have taken […]
Politics This Morning: Deadline for Conservative leadership ballots arrives
Good Tuesday morning, Prime Minister JUSTIN TRUDEAU released a statement Sunday expressing shock and devastation at the series of stabbings by two suspects in Saskatchewan that left at least 10 people dead and many more injured. Saskatchewan RCMP said yesterday that the attacks had happened over 13 locations in James Smith Cree Nation and a […]
Comms staff changes for ministers Lebouthillier, Boissonnault
National Revenue Minister Diane Lebouthillier and Tourism and Associate Finance Minister Randy Boissonnault have both recently made changes to their communications staff lineups. Director of communications Justine Lesage exited Lebouthillier’s office in late August, and has already begun a new job as a communications and press relations adviser with the Centre hospitalier d l’Université de […]
A landslide victory for Poilievre can unite the Conservative Party
Buckle up: federal politics is about to get a lot more interesting. For us regular House of Commons and all-things-Ottawa followers, September normally shakes us out of our summer hours and into the throws of revived political theatre, and that slightly less humid back-to-work reality. And this year, the next few weeks will not disappoint. […]
Why Donald Trump won’t end up in court over Mar-a-Lago raid findings
HALIFAX—So now the world has seen a photograph of government documents, dozens marked “top secret,” that were seized by the FBI from ex-U.S. president Donald Trump’s Florida home. It is becoming more than obvious that Trump stole these documents on his way out the White House door, spiriting them off to Mar-a-Lago with the intention […]
Hate sells, but it doesn’t sell democracy
OTTAWA—Former energy minister Marc Lalonde used to be accompanied by armed guards when he visited Alberta back in 1980. As the minister responsible for the introduction of the National Energy Program, he and then-prime minister Pierre Trudeau were hated by many Albertans. “Let the eastern bastards freeze in the dark” was a popular Alberta bumper […]
A Poilievre Conservative leadership would be a test: is love really stronger than hate?
CHELSEA, QUE.—Here’s some “plain language” for the presumptive Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre, who has announced that all government communication must be comprehensible and direct should he become prime minister: less hate, more compassion. There is no question Poilievre has struck a deep vein of discontent as he’s campaigned, drawing unprecedented crowds across western Canada and […]
The secret to Tory unity
OAKVILLE, ONT.—To some, the ongoing Conservative Party leadership contest seems less like a race and more like a burning fuse. Indeed, the way certain political observers see it, when the race finally reaches its endpoint, and a new leader is selected, it’ll spark an ideological explosion that’ll rip the Conservative Party asunder. I don’t think […]
New operations director on deck in Minister Sajjan’s office
International Development Minister Harjit Sajjan scooped up Emily Heffernan from National Defence Minister Anita Anand’s team to take over as his new director of operations in mid July. Heffernan, who had been deputy director of communications to Anand since just after the 2021 federal election, fills a vacancy left by Sher Rodrigo, who exited Sajjan’s […]
