Canada’s political leaders fiddle, while the planet sizzles
CHELSEA, QUE.—In the wake of that frightening, if familiar, UN report on the increasingly dire consequences of climate change—along with monthly reports of unusually intense hurricanes, floods, fires, and tornadoes—Canada’s political class is retreating from any sustained effort to curb greenhouse gas emissions faster than a melting glacier. The federal Liberals, self-described champions of climate […]
Former Brampton Conservative MP Seeback not ruling out nomination run in Dufferin-Caledon, blasting two other official candidates for being ‘disrespectful’ for challenging Conservative MP Tilson
The Conservative nomination in the coveted riding of Dufferin-Caledon, Ont., hasn’t officially opened up yet, but a heated war of words is happening among Tories with one potential candidate blasting the two party-approved candidates for being “disrespectful” to challenge incumbent five-term MP David Tilson, who only recently announced that he won’t seek re-election in 2019. […]
Harper stubbornly insists populism can be managed
TORONTO—Can Donald Trump be managed? Can so-called “populists” be persuaded to moderate their so-called populism? Anyone who has paid the slightest attention to politics, in the past two years, knows the answer. The answer is no. But the optimists—mainly traditional conservatives, like former prime minister Stephen Harper—stubbornly persist in a decidedly Pollyanna-ish outlook. Against all available […]
Brison’s ingenious selling of Bill C-58 to the Senate
OTTAWA—Treasury Board President Scott Brison was hard at it on Oct. 3 selling Bill C-58 as a great advance in transparency, which it is not. Kicking off Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee deliberations on Bill C-58, Brison boasted that Canada is rated No. 1 by fellow governments for its open data portal. But that’s […]
Cotter named director of communications to new Border Security and Organized Crime Reduction Minister Blair
Border Security and Organized Crime Reduction Minister Bill Blair, who will be facing intense political and media scrutiny this week as the lead minister on the legalization of cannabis in Canada on Oct. 17, has named Ryan Cotter as director of communications. Mr. Cotter arrives in Mr. Blair’s brand new cabinet office straight from the Liberal […]
End uncertainty on energy-project approvals
One hundred billion dollars. That’s the value of cancelled projects over the past three years in the Canadian energy sector. The drop in energy prices certainly played a role, but our approval process for large projects, which has a substantial arbitrary component, was also a factor. The Northern Gateway and Energy East pipelines, valued at […]
Europe’s latest upheaval, in Sweden, is ample warning of racism’s power
OTTAWA—Sweden, long a beacon of successful democratic socialism, has in the past few weeks seen its political establishment thrown into chaos by the rise of the Sweden Democrats, a right-wing anti-immigration party. Although the party polled below some expectations in the recent election, it took 17.6 per cent of the vote and became the potential […]
Humanity’s turkey is cooked while politicians play hot potato with climate change
OTTAWA—Over the Thanksgiving weekend Canadians were reminded again of the perils of unaddressed climate change. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released a gloomy report. Effectively the panel argued that limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels means the world can keep “a semblance” of the ecosystems we have; conversely, adding another 0.5 […]
Proposed Quebec ban on religious symbols isn’t freedom, it’s oppression
After defeating the ruling Quebec Liberals earlier this month, premier-elect François Legault’s Coalition Avenir Québec announced that some public employees may be banned from wearing religious clothing under a proposed “secularism law” in the province. Restrictions would be placed on all religious symbols, including a kippah skull cap or a hijab, and would apply to […]
The politics of assured destruction
Joe Cirincione understands the problem of nuclear weapons better than most. He has worked on nuclear weapons policy in Washington, D.C., for more than 35 years. He also understands how political power works in the United States from the inside. He spent nine years as a professional staffer on the U.S. House of Representatives committees on […]
