When a heart-wrenching photo made it better for children
OTTAWA—It’s about the children. Nothing brought this home more than the 2015 photo of the body of a three-year-old Syrian refugee boy, Alan Kurdi, washed up on a beach in Turkey. The heartbreaking photo, appearing during the last federal election, stirred up the empathy of many Canadians who were starting to notice that the Harper […]
Running for office: an important, but sometimes thankless, task
OTTAWA—This week’s municipal elections in Ontario yielded few surprises, as incumbents won in most cities, including in Ottawa and Toronto. That meant there were many candidates who went home disappointed after hearing the results on Oct. 22. Four friends of mine ran for office in Kingston and Ottawa; all great candidates, they all lost. Vicki […]
Norman case will only get ‘uglier’ for Liberals already damaged by interference optics: politicos, experts
As the case against Vice-Admiral Mark Norman, accused of leaking cabinet confidences, makes its way before the Ontario Court of Justice during the countdown to election 2019, the Liberals will be tarred by the perception of political interference in an ongoing drama analysts say will only get uglier. With the trial scheduled for next summer—during […]
Myriad of Hillites take up municipal posts after elections
A number of current and former Hill staffers and politicians will be taking their talents to city halls across Ontario after victories in the Oct. 22 municipal elections in Ontario. Jim Watson was re-elected as Ottawa’s mayor for the third consecutive time, and the fourth time total. He won with 71 per cent of the […]
Comms director change-up for Science and Sport Minister Duncan
Science and Sport Minister Kirsty Duncan has a new director of communications in her office, after Michael Bhardwaj made his exit from the minister’s team. Mr. Bhardwaj had been communications director to Ms. Duncan since February 2016, starting out when the minister was solely responsible for science. Before then, he’d been a media relations specialist […]
The next election will tell us a lot about Canada
OTTAWA—With a year to go before the next federal election, all the customary calculations indicate the Liberals appear in fairly good shape to repeat their 2015 election victory. Except the usual indicators may no longer apply. Voters are clearly in a volatile what-about-me frame of mind, driven by a desire for change and impatience with […]
Jamal Khashoggi, casualty of war
Jamal Khashoggi had a vulnerability. It was a variable that weighed disproportionately in his risk-benefit calculations and that, for his assassins, amounted to an Achilles’ heel. It wasn’t power, money, fame, or security—or any of the lesser exploitable weaknesses leveraged by intelligence interests for operational purposes. It was love. It was love that outweighed any […]
Kerfuffle over Russia-U.S. nuclear arms treaty shows there are idiots on both sides
LONDON, U.K.—The last time I wrote about the treaty banning “intermediate-range” nuclear missiles was 31 years ago, and I really thought I’d never have to visit that tedious subject again. More fool me. John Bolton, the ideologically rigid and bad-tempered man whom you send when you don’t want a negotiation to succeed, has just been […]
Ministerial offices saw 15 per cent spike in spending in 2017-18
Innovation Minister Navdeep Bains’ office spent the most out of 33 cabinet offices in 2017-18, while the Prime Minister’s Office spent 10 per cent more compared to the previous fiscal year, according to newly released public accounts figures. In total, ministerial offices spent $56,880,614 in the 2017-18 fiscal year, which stretched from April 1, 2017 […]
Norman affair looks a lot like Duffy trial, and that’s bad for Trudeau
OTTAWA—The lead-in and trial of Vice-Admiral Mark Norman, accused of leaking cabinet secrets related to a major naval procurement, could be the 2019 version of the Duffy trial. Political twists can be cruel. The Duffy trial enlivened Liberal souls. The Norman court case may suck those same souls away. You’ll remember much of the period […]
