‘Someone took their eye off the ball’: pollsters plan pinch-hitter as industry association closes doors
The association charged with holding the country’s pollsters and market researchers to high standards of transparency and accountability didn’t live up to the same measure, say pollsters, who were left reeling when the oversight body abruptly shut its doors recently. Members of the Marketing Research and Intelligence Association (MRIA), who were given mere days notice […]
Trade tops Taiwanese envoy’s priorities
Taiwan’s new top diplomat in Canada is looking to tap into the Canadian government’s desire to diversify its trading relationships. With United States President Donald Trump looking to renegotiate NAFTA and threatening longstanding trade ties in other areas, Canada is trying to forge new trading arrangements so as not to have all its eggs in […]
Ottawa advocate carrying NDP banner in ‘crucial’ Outremont byelection, hopes to wield local progressive winds to pull off upset
A familiar Ottawa face is running as the NDP candidate in an upcoming byelection in the Montreal-area riding of Outremont, where one pollster said “the Liberals have all the winning conditions and the NDP have all the losing conditions.” But Julia Sanchez, who was president and CEO of the Ottawa-based Canadian Council for International Co-operation […]
Feds deny ‘instability’ in senior ranks at support unit for injured soldiers that top general said would be abolished
The government is walking back a promise to disband and reform a problem-plagued support unit for ill and injured soldiers and ignoring the turnover in its senior ranks, say veterans affairs critics. In response to a recent House Veterans Affairs Committee report, the government rejected the committee’s assertion that the Joint Personnel Support Units (JPSUs) […]
West Block will be House Chamber’s home for at least 10 years, but part of new glass roof only warrantied for five years
The House Chamber moves into the West Block’s courtyard in 2019, where it will remain for at least a decade, enclosed by a new glass roof specifically designed for the space—but the motorized system to control light installed in the glass roof only comes with a five-year warranty. Project planning documents, obtained by Ottawa researcher […]
Brampton mayor slams high-profile rivals Brown, Gosal, setting up for a heated fall municipal election
High-profile candidates in Brampton’s mayoral race are calling their rivals’ motivations, local achievements, and roots in the community into question, in what political observers are describing as one of the most-watched municipal races in the country. The Oct. 22 election will put former Conservative cabinet minister Bal Gosal, former Ontario PC leader Patrick Brown, and four […]
Border security seems to be spooking both Trudeau and Scheer
OAKVILLE, ONT.—When Franklin Roosevelt became U.S. president during the dark days of a worldwide economic depression, he famously reassured Americans saying, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” That’s a bit of advice Canada’s political leaders of today would do well to heed. After all, it seems to me our political leaders, […]
Toronto needed Trudeau and he wasn’t there
TORONTO—Where was he? The Prime Minister of Canada, I mean. When Canada’s biggest city needed him—when the millions of people who live and work here were feeling anguished, angry, and afraid—Justin Trudeau was AWOL. He was gone. A young girl, and a young woman, murdered in cold blood on Toronto’s Danforth Avenue. A dozen more wounded […]
Toronto should have seen this coming
TORONTO—Well, this is gonzo. Agreeing with Doug Ford. Let me just check the frequencies on my tinfoil hat, which otherwise filters out political argy-bargy. Our neophyte premier hurled a grenade into municipal governance on July 27 by confirming what the Star’s Robert Benzie had exclusively broken the night before, triggering a frantic media scramble to […]
PMO seeking ‘honest feedback’ from Liberal staffers on ‘drinking culture,’ conduct of politicians on the Hill
A month after a former Liberal staffer lifted the lid off the dark underbelly of the Hill culture and attracted national media attention, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s office is seeking “honest feedback” from political aides working for Liberal MPs, cabinet ministers, and his own office about the workplace culture on Parliament Hill, including about the […]
