Plurality of Canadians disapprove of removing Sir John A. Macdonald’s name from building and landmarks; wealthiest most strongly opposed: poll
Less than one-third of Canadians support removing the name of the country’s first prime minister Sir John A. Macdonald from schools, museums, and other institutions, according to a new poll from Forum Research, despite renewed criticism over his role in creating the residential school system and advancing discriminatory policies against Indigenous peoples. The random telephone […]
Conservatives raise nearly $19-million in 2017; biggest haul of any recognized party
The federal Conservatives outmuscled their rivals in the race for crucial fundraising dollars in all four quarters of 2017, attracting $719,000 more in donations than the governing Liberals in the last three months alone, newly released statistics from Elections Canada show. The Tories posted their best fundraising period of the year in the fourth quarter […]
Vetting should include questions about sexual conduct, say ex-candidate screeners
In future election-season vetting, political parties need to ask potential candidates whether they’ve committed an act that can be seen as sexually inappropriate, say two former members of Liberal candidate-vetting committees, although they acknowledge filtering out the badly behaved will still be difficult. The two members who spoke to The Hill Times said the typical […]
Navalny vs. Putin: Russia’s David-and-Goliath campaign
Alexei Navalny has been arrested so many times that it’s hard to find the number of times he’s been arrested. The tally gets updated so often that the latest uptick has apparently been ditched from most news copy about him because it could be overtaken by filing time. The Russian opposition leader was nabbed again […]
I’ll still celebrate Sir John A., even in this era of political correctness
OTTAWA—Recently, I was the host of a celebration in Ottawa of the 203rd birthday of Sir John A. Macdonald. The annual “Sir John A. Kilt Skate” in Ottawa has burgeoned to several other cities and towns, and has proved a popular draw, if only to enjoy the novelty of seeing men and women in kilts […]
Treasury Board’s top bureaucrat to retire, likely to trigger larger DM shuffle, say observers
Expect deputy ministers to be on the move in the coming weeks, say observers, after longtime DM Yaprak Baltacıoğlu, secretary of the Treasury Board, announced her retirement last week. Ms. Baltacıoğlu, who’s been a deputy minister for almost half her 29 years in the public service, is leaving April 3. Thought to be one of the […]
For Cuba, it’s the calm before (and after) the storm
CAYO COCO, Cuba—Uprooted mangrove thickets are still piled up behind the beaches along Cuba’s north coast, interspersed with shards of concrete and steel and other flotsam left over from the destruction wrought by Hurricane Irma. Four months after the storm roared through the Caribbean island, causing widespread damage and at least 10 deaths, the bulldozers […]
What the Aga Khan Foundation does with Canadian government money
On the day the Bamyan hospital first opened its doors, 12 women arrived in various stages of labour. In Afghanistan, where pregnancy kills one of every 52 women, giving life can be a death sentence. But the chances of survival for these 12 women dramatically increased when they walked through the new hospital’s front doors. […]
MP Todd Doherty suffers life-threatening illness, urges everyone to stay healthy
An emergency gallbladder-removal surgery led doctors to discover that Conservative MP Todd Doherty was suffering a life-threatening illness. After an outing with friends and family on Jan. 20, Mr. Doherty was rushed to the emergency room, he wrote in a Facebook post on Jan. 29 from his B.C. hospital bed. Turns out he needed to […]
PMO operations team split, staff moves abound
Some major changes took place in Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s office last week, ahead of director of operations John Zerucelli’s planned departure around the end of the spring session, including splitting the PMO’s operations team into two. Originally from Etobicoke, Ont., Mr. Zerucelli is set to leave Ottawa to move back to Toronto, where he […]
