Bilateral spats need to be addressed, but outgoing South African envoy says Canadian ties still ‘strong’
Despite an ongoing “hurdle” brought on by Canada’s travel ban, the departing South African envoy said Canada-South African ties remain “strong” with their roots in Canada’s anti-apartheid advocacy. South African High Commissioner Sibongiseni Dlamini-Mntambo, who started her post in May 2017, said looking back on her time in Ottawa she was able to achieve “a […]
‘We should respect each other’: South Africa says notification not given before travel ban imposed
It’s not just the decision to implement a controversial travel ban on southern African nations, which since has been revoked, but the way in which Canada went about announcing the plan, that irked South Africa’s envoy in Ottawa. Outgoing South African High Commissioner Sibongiseni Dlamini-Mntambo said she learned that Ottawa was imposing the ban not […]
Take a look in the social media mirror before casting the first snowball
OTTAWA—Doug Ford fascinates me. Maybe I am a COVID long hauler, and I am suffering some sort of pandemic-induced delusion. Maybe my Atlantic-Canadian, Red Tory soul is opening to Ontario populist Tories. Maybe I was blind all along or maybe I just need something different to write about. Who knows? You be the judge. Where […]
Three years on, Canada delays naming an ambassador to the Holy See
More than three years after Canada’s last full-fledged ambassador to the Holy See left his post, Ottawa has yet to name a replacement. The lack of appointment has led to the diplomatic posting becoming one of Canada’s longest vacancies without a new ambassador. The prolonged vacancy comes at the same time as the Liberal government […]
Cowardly Canadian leaders point fingers at the unvaccinated
CALGARY—Imagine a Black woman who writes about, and advocates against, inequities, who rails against injustice, with an emphasis on the Black experience siding with the anti-vaxxers she cussed only a few months prior. But here we are. Politics makes for strange bedfellows. On Jan. 11, Quebec Premier François Legault announced a tax on the unvaccinated […]
Shifting trade away from the U.S. never more urgent
OTTAWA—Reducing Canada’s economic dependence on the United States by diversifying trade away from the U.S. to what the federal government now calls “overseas” markets has been an on-and-off response to American protectionism going back as far as you want to look. Promoting such a shift in sales focus among would-be Canadian exporters, for example, was […]
Sports Minister St-Onge’s office led by chief of staff Kelly Wilhelm
Among the new additions to cabinet this Parliament is Sports Minister Pascale St-Onge, a first-term MP, and she’s recruited Kelly Wilhelm to run her office as chief of staff. Wilhelm has returned to the Hill to take on the job. Previously, from May 2016 until the summer of 2018, she was a senior policy adviser […]
In the long term, nothing raises a society’s morale like the facts
HALIFAX—Is there such a thing as too much reporting on big issues? Robin V. Sears, one of the keenest political observers around, recently published a piece in The Toronto Star making a plea not to turn coverage of the pandemic into a doomsday watch. He made a good case. Day after day, the public is […]
Feds seek to ‘raise profile of housing’ in cabinet as Hussen given job to tackle affordability, supply, and homelessness
Housing Minister Ahmed Hussen will try to find the delicate balance between housing affordability and supply, say industry experts, an issue that has become more acute as millions of Canadians have hunkered down to work from home during the pandemic, and as entrants into the housing market across the country continue to be faced with […]
Something strange happening in Canadian politics
CHELSEA, QUE.—Something strange has been happening in Canadian politics since the Trump contagion to the south. Voters elect a mostly reasonable, often affable, Member of Parliament only to discover, as they watch their MP climb the leadership ladder, that they are not so reasonable, not so affable after all. That, in fact, some are drifting […]
