Canadian Digital Service challenged to digitize government by 2025
At just a little over two years old, the growing team at the Canadian Digital Service is busy thinking about an ambitious goal—how to make many government services available online by 2025. Just under a year ago, the federal government convened a group of Canadian industry leaders to establish economic strategies for the country, including […]
Trudeau’s ethical incoherence could be a stepping stool for May
HALIFAX—Perhaps Justin Trudeau is just whistling past the political graveyard—where his opponents have already reserved a plot for him. The PM is rolling the dice that Canadians will believe him when he says we can have it both ways on practically everything. It doesn’t have to be chocolate or vanilla because, hey, it’s Canada. Some […]
Harper, Scheer, Baird, and MacKay to top speakers list at Deepak Obhrai memorial
Former prime minister Stephen Harper and senior members of his cabinet will be in Calgary on Aug. 26 to honour the life of former caucus colleague Deepak Obhrai. Mr. Obhrai died on Aug. 2, shortly after being diagnosed with late stage liver cancer. He is noted for being the longest-serving parliamentary secretary to the foreign […]
Passions, not reason, will determine the 2019 federal election
Emotions trump reason. This isn’t news to anyone who has read or heard about books such as Nudge and Thinking Fast and Slow. More and more people are coming to understand that emotions, not logic, drive our decision-making in all parts of life, including politics. So how do voters feel about the key parties and […]
Don’t worry, political ads still work
OAKVILLE, ONT.—A poll came out recently which, if taken at face value, would be bad news for all the good people in this country who write political advertisements for a living. The poll in question, conducted by Forum Research, asked Canadians if any of the political advertisements they’d seen over the past month had an […]
Greens focus on B.C. while pollsters see opportunity in Atlantic Canada
Pollsters say the Green Party has a real chance to win seats in Atlantic Canada this fall, but so far the party has focused on sending money and support to candidates on the West Coast, leaving some eastern Greens on their own. A Leger poll released Aug. 21 suggested the Green Party in third place […]
Leaders’ debate format a recipe for populist fodder
OTTAWA—The broadcast debate rule makers need to take another look at their election work. By the current rules established for party leader participation, floor-crosser Lucien Bouchard would have been silenced. At the time of the 1993 election, Bouchard was the leader of the Bloc Quebecois, having been previously elected as a Progressive Conservative. His party did […]
Rookie Quebec Liberal MP Nassif unexpectedly says she won’t seek re-election
Rookie Quebec Liberal MP Eva Nassif was “confident,” until recently, the party would nominate her as a candidate. But on Thursday night, she announced unexpectedly she won’t seek re-election, “because of recent events of a personal nature” that she said she does “not take lightly.” In a statement on Twitter, Ms. Nassif (Vimy, Que.) did […]
Canada’s life-saving supervised consumption services could be in jeopardy
Supervised consumption and overdose prevention sites save lives by allowing people to use drugs safely under the supervision of trained volunteers and staff. This should be reason enough for any government to take bold, rapid action to scale up access to these services, especially as Canada is now fully immersed in an opioid overdose crisis—fuelled […]
Liberals on Ethics Committee kibosh motion for hearing with commissioner
PARLIAMENT HILL—A motion for a House committee to hear from the federal ethics commissioner on Wednesday fell one vote short, with all but one Liberal MP voting against the opposition’s push to have Mario Dion testify on the SNC-Lavalin affair. Liberal MP Nathaniel Erskine-Smith (Beaches-East York, Ont.) broke with party rank, voting 5-4 alongside the […]
