The scourge of social media skeletons
OAKVILLE, ONT.—Here’s my advice for anyone contemplating a run for elected office: erase anything and everything you’ve ever posted anywhere on social media. And then, after completely expunging your social media past, set up new social media accounts in which you post nothing but trivial and inoffensive comments, stuff like, “I really like ice cream […]
The ‘incomprehensible’ Phoenix meltdown: entirely predictable and entirely preventable
Calling the project an “incomprehensible failure,” Auditor General Michael Ferguson’s recent report on Phoenix describes not just a litany of outrageously bad and irresponsible decisions, but a stunning level of dishonesty among the senior executives responsible. For years—right from the start of the project—they knowingly hid important information and misled their superiors, concealing serious problems […]
With Wynne headed for big loss, federal NDP and Conservatives set to target Ontario ridings for 2019, say political players
With Ontario Liberal Premier Kathleen Wynne headed for big loss in this week’s provincial election, veteran federal political players say Thursday’s results will provide a roadmap for the federal NDP and Conservatives for possible winnable ridings in the 2019 election and they say the federal Liberals won’t have the provincial machine that helped them win […]
Current outcry over Huawei Canada’s R&D investments creates impression Chinese company’s doing something sinister, but it’s not
TORONTO—The current outcry over Huawei Canada’s research and development investments in Canada has created the impression that the Chinese company is doing something sinister here. In fact, it is only doing what Apple, Amazon, Alphabet/Google, Microsoft, IBM, Cisco, SAP, Samsung, General Motors, and Ford are doing here. All these companies are here because the Harper […]
Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory: why the government’s Copyright Board plans threaten to spark another lobbying battle
OTTAWA—Copyright reform has long been viewed as one of the more contentious policy issues on the Canadian agenda, pitting creators, education groups, innovative companies, and a growing number of individuals against one another in processes that run for years and leave no one fully satisfied. Indeed, the copyright review currently underway before the House Industry, […]
Why the youth vote matters
In 2015, just before the last federal election, we produced a movie, led by documentary filmmaker Robert Lang, about young people voting—or more accurately, not voting. In the course of filming of The Drop: Why Young People Don’t Vote, we found that so-called millennials didn’t think their vote mattered and that politicians neither listened to […]
The politics behind the PM’s pipeline gamble
To understand the counterintuitive political calculus behind Justin Trudeau’s controversial decision to buy the Trans Mountain pipeline, one has to go back to the fundamental equation that has governed this prime minister’s energy and climate change policies since his days in opposition. That Trudeau had no choice but to take over the pipeline if he […]
Wynne Liberals dragging down Trudeau’s poll numbers, say some pollsters, but no sign of Horwath-Singh bump
Ontarians’ dislike of the provincial Liberals is dragging down their federal counterparts, say some pollsters, but an increase in support for the Ontario NDP isn’t translating to a boost for the federal party. Others, meanwhile, said a correlation in support would be better determined after the election is finished, rather than through day-to-day polling numbers. […]
NAFTA deal in hand, Trump pulled the rug from under his own team
OTTAWA—Canada, the United States, and Mexico had a new NAFTA agreement in hand but U.S. President Donald Trump changed his mind about what should be in the deal and nixed it. After nine months of gruelling negotiations, the outlook for the overhaul of the 24-year-old free trade pact took a turn for the better in […]
One year on, a report card on Andrew Scheer’s Conservative leadership
OTTAWA—This isn’t a love letter from a delusional former hard-core partisan or an attempt at butt-kissing the Conservative leader. Qualifications aside, as Andrew Scheer passes the one-year mark of his leadership of the Conservative Party of Canada, he has done a solid job. But Conservatives shouldn’t be popping champagne corks yet, as Justin Trudeau—despite some […]
