The Post: a brilliant reminder of what democracy looks like
Of all the things the Steven Spielberg Pentagon Papers drama The Post is, a period piece isn’t one of them. Yes, it’s set in 1971. Yes, there are shots of hot metal typesetting and everyone’s smoking their heads off. Newsrooms were noisy and at Georgetown dinner parties, the women, including Washington Post publisher Katharine Graham, peeled off in a […]
Keeping U.S. troops in Syria is a recipe for disaster
OTTAWA—On Jan. 17, United States Secretary of State Rex Tillerson declared that American troops will remain in Syria indefinitely. Tillerson’s remarks came on the heels of the recently announced defeat of Daesh (also known as Islamic State, ISIS, and ISIL) evildoers in both Iraq and Syria. His reason to keep U.S. soldiers in Syria was […]
Oft-critiqued Liberal mandate tracker to become ‘more useful,’ says government ‘deliverology’ chief
The government’s oft-maligned online mandate letter tracking tool will be more comprehensive in the next six months, according to the Liberals’ “deliverology” expert, allowing users to track the government’s progress in more detail, more frequently. During a sit-down interview with The Hill Times last week, Matthew Mendelsohn, deputy secretary to the cabinet for results and delivery, said […]
Foreign Affairs Minister Freeland names fellow Rhodes Scholar alum as new policy director
Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland has made a few senior staffing changes in her ministerial office of late, including naming a new director of policy following the departure of Owen Teo in December. Mr. Teo had been serving as Ms. Freeland’s director of policy since June 2016 when she was the minister responsible for international […]
All hands from all parties on deck for democracy caucus debut
The all-party democracy caucus will have a chance to make its big debut during a Feb. 6 panel discussion. The event, examining the role of Canadian legislators in democracy abroad, is organized by Carleton University’s Initiative for Parliamentary and Diplomatic Engagement. Registration starts at 4:30 p.m. at the Sir John A. Macdonald Building and the discussion will be followed […]
Summer jobs program anti-abortion clause is a crock of Liberal nonsense
OTTAWA—When Justin Trudeau’s government was elected in late 2015, one of the things the then incoming prime minister signalled was there would be a change in tone and approach: a lot less smash-mouth wedge-type politics that typified the Harper era. So it has taken many by surprise to see the Canada Summer Jobs program become […]
Trump, the first Twit-tator, enabling tyrants worldwide
OTTAWA—Donald Trump, the first Twit-tator, is changing the world, whether we like it or not. Backed by the malleable and undiscerning base he energizes through social media, the president is single-handedly undermining the principles of fairness, decency, tolerance, and accountability at the heart of United States democracy. Many presidents have had acrimonious relationships with the […]
Federal fiscal policies ‘sustainable’ over long term, says new PBO report
Parliament’s fiscal watchdog is giving a major vote of confidence in the Trudeau government’s spending and taxation plans. In a new report released Tuesday, the Parliamentary Budget Officer Jean-Denis Fréchette concluded that current federal fiscal policies are “sustainable” over the long term, pointing to new projections showing the deficit plummeting from 30 per cent of […]
House International Trade Committee delivers platitudes on NAFTA, misses a golden opportunity
TORONTO—It was a golden opportunity for the House International Trade Committee to report on the future of NAFTA and to make recommendations on what our negotiators should and shouldn’t do. But what we got from the 10 MPs on the committee instead were largely platitudes. It wasn’t for lack of information. The committee held 12 […]
Conservatives have limited strategy options
OAKVILLE, ONT.—“They came at us, in the same old style,” is how the Duke of Wellington famously described the French tactics at the Battle of Waterloo. And that tactic reminds me a bit of Canada’s Conservative Party, since, like the French at Waterloo, it keeps attacking the Liberals in the same old style. What I […]
