Trudeau boosts parliamentary-secretary appointments, shuffles four MPs out
Four Parliamentarians are no longer in their parliamentary-secretary posts, even as the Trudeau government expanded its roster of appointees to reflect the growth of its cabinet today. Liberal MPs Celina Caesar-Chavannes (Whitby, Ont.), Jean Rioux (Trois-Rivières, Que.), Don Rusnak (Thunder Bay-Rainy River, Ont.), and Kim Rudd (Northumberland-Peterborough South, Ont.) were shuffled out on Friday. Ms. Rudd, Mr. […]
Quebec election 2018: boring, for once
KAMOURASKA, QUE.—If there is one word to describe the Oct. 1 election in Quebec, it is: boring. In the wake of the hurly-burly election of Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservatives in Ontario in June, its neighbour’s contest has all the attraction of watching paint dry. But that is just fine with my cousin Don, a 50ish […]
Bernier may not be most lingering challenge for Conservatives after Halifax
OTTAWA—Despite Maxime Bernier’s efforts at setting a different agenda, the Conservatives managed to pull off what appeared to be a reasonably successful convention in Halifax on the weekend. While at this point it is unknown what Bernier’s walk away will do to party fortunes in 2019, it is fair to say at least on the […]
Two NDP MPs join growing list of incumbents not seeking re-election
Long-serving NDP MPs Irene Mathyssen and Linda Duncan have joined more than a dozen MPs who have decided not to try and retain their seats in 2019. The two join five other veteran NDP MPs who have announced they will not seek re-election, including Hélène Laverdière, David Christopherson, Romeo Saganash, Kennedy Stewart, and Tom Mulcair, […]
Convention supply-management tumult ‘opened the floodgates’ for Bernier supporters, says organizer
A Conservative Party member and proponent of ending Canada’s supply management system said he’s received plenty of interest from current and former MPs and businesspeople in support of maverick MP Maxime Bernier’s future party. This follows a tense scene at the party convention that saw a policy resolution on phasing out the system dropped before reaching a vote. […]
Power and powerlessness: the McCain model
Among the themes emerging from this improbable political moment, in which the world is being not so much led as misled by an extraordinarily destructive American president, is abuse of power. It has been an obvious, hourly trope emanating from the White House as egregious, previously unimaginable offences are being committed against stability, sanity, taste, […]
Scheer tries out his Ford-Trump routine
OTTAWA—If you’re tired of the mendacious, anger-spewing modus operandi that now passes for political discourse in the United States, you may want to find something to do outside Canada next year. Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer, who is so uninspiring that rival Maxime Bernier finally quit the party over what he said was moral and intellectual […]
As 2019 nears, Liberals turn to pork-barrel politics
The Liberals came to power in 2015 repeating lines about “evidence-based decision-making” and pledged to take partisanship out of the appointments and other processes. Under former prime minister Stephen Harper, “Science and evidence have never mattered less; politics and partisanship have never mattered more,” the Liberals opined at the time. But as the next general […]
How Canada should use Saudi spat to its advantage
Among almost 200 independent nations across the world, there are probably few more different in their national characters than Canada and Saudi Arabia. The current diplomatic dispute erupted when Canada’s foreign minister, Chrystia Freeland, and her department tweeted concerns after several social activists were arrested in Saudi Arabia, including Samar Badawi, sister of imprisoned dissident […]
Drawing from a new well: Tories look to party outsiders to quench voters’ thirst for change
Looking to replicate their success in the recent Chicoutimi-Le Fjord, Que., byelection on a national scale, the Conservatives’ 2019 campaign chief is encouraging party faithful to think outside the box and recruit outside traditional party circles. “Especially in seats we haven’t won for a long time, going back to the same well again and again […]
