Hungary cranks up anti-immigrant populism, jeopardizing EU stability
OTTAWA—Of all the indignities and blows the European unity project has suffered in recent years, the most galling has to be the decisive re-election of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán this week. Orbán, whose populist appeal hinges on vicious anti-immigrant slurs and pro-nationalist paranoia aimed at outsiders and particularly the European Union (EU), will now […]
American troops in Syria have no legal authority to be there
OTTAWA—There has been a lot of recent discussion in the United States about the future of American military forces in Syria. President Donald Trump has been impetuously tweeting out his desire to bring the Doughboys home. This sentiment has been contradicted by senior military officials who have insisted that U.S. troops should remain in Syria […]
Immigration, Refugees Minister Hussen names press secretary at last
Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Minister Ahmed Hussen recently tapped Mathieu Genest to serve as his press secretary, while promoting former communications manager Hursh Jaswal to the title of director of communications. Mr. Hussen hasn’t had a staffer working under the specific title of press secretary since taking over the immigration portfolio in January 2017. Previously, […]
Scheer might be hearing more about Faith Goldy as party edges ever-closer to an election
TORONTO—When she first appeared on Sun News, they’d hand her a microphone and tell her to go stand somewhere and pretend to be a reporter. She’d slap on fake eyelashes the size of bats—and then she’d fire off words and sentences like a speed freak running an auction. But Faith Goldy sounded extreme even to […]
No hell below us, above us only sky
LONDON, U.K.—The Pope did not say there is no Heaven. There is nothing intellectually embarrassing about the notion that good people go to Heaven when they die. It sounds a bit like a wish-fulfilment fantasy to outsiders, but it’s the sort of thing a loving and all-powerful god might provide for his creatures. However, the […]
Behind on infrastructure spending, Trudeau Liberals should’ve taken lessons from Harper era, says expert
The Liberal government could have avoided running so behind schedule in distributing billions in promised infrastructure funding had it learned from the missteps of the stimulus program helmed by the Harper Conservatives during the late 2000s recession, according to former Finance Canada senior economist Randall Bartlett. “We knew this was going to happen. We didn’t […]
Canadians should have right to know personal data held by parties after Cambridge Analytica-Facebook scandal, says privacy commissioner
Canada’s privacy commissioner, who is conducting an investigation into the Cambridge-Analytica-Facebook scandal and a separate probe into whether Canadian privacy laws were violated by AggregateIQ in order to sway the Brexit vote, says Canada’s federal political parties need to be covered by privacy laws and voters should have the right to find out what personal […]
Sitting on a list of more than 100 vetted candidates, PCO calls for more Senator applications, as advisory board sits nearly empty
The independent board set up to recommend new Senators to the prime minister has done its job and suggested more than 100 candidates, but the government is still asking more people to apply to be Senators, while the board that vets those applications sits nearly empty. A dozen seats in the Senate are vacant, and […]
Can Canadians develop new technologies essential for a low-carbon economy? It will be a struggle
TORONTO—The tiny first step to nation-wide carbon pricing, at $10 a tonne starting Jan. 1, 2019, is now a step closer with the introduction of the Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act. The federal government will have the power to impose a carbon price on any province that tries to shirk its climate responsibilities. But selling […]
Senate Foreign Affairs Committee won’t have time to fully examine how sweeping cannabis bill will affect international treaties, says Andreychuk
The Senate Foreign Affairs and International Trade Committee won’t be able to examine all the ways the government’s cannabis legalization bill will affect Canada’s international treaties before reporting back to the Senate by May 1, says Saskatchewan Conservative Senator Raynell Andreychuk, who chairs the committee. “It is going to be very difficult to accomplish what we […]
