If Canada is back, let’s prove it
OTTAWA—Foreign policy is front and centre on all the world’s touch screens. In the span of a week, the United States, with Canada’s support, has launched missile strikes on Syria for using chemical weapons on its citizens. There have been terror attacks in Sweden and Egypt. Now there is renewed tension in the Korean peninsula […]
Conservative MPs criticize Gilmore for floating Conservative Party shakeup, take aim at his marriage to Liberal minister
A handful of Conservative MPs are challenging Maclean’s columnist Scott Gilmore’s cross-country discussion tour on the state of the Conservative Party, questioning Mr. Gilmore’s motives and experience with the party. However, several well-known conservatives say Mr. Gilmore is right to warn that the rhetoric coming out of the party’s leadership race misses the mark for centrist […]
PMO shakeup sees Catenaro promoted to press secretary
There have been some tweaks to the staffing roster in the Prime Minister’s Office, including two new advance staff to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, one of whom has been promoted from within. Daniel Langer recently joined the PMO as an advance staffer, helping to scope out and plan events for the PM. Previously, he was working […]
MPs alarmed by Radio-Canada/CBC report on cellphone spying around the Hill
The revelation that someone may be using a device to track and spy on cellphones around Parliament Hill, and the subsequent RCMP and CSIS investigations it prompted, was the result of shrewd sleuthing by Radio-Canada investigative reporter Brigitte Bureau who, with CBC News colleague Catherine Cullen, broke the story last week. But it has created […]
Assad-ordered gas attack nonsensical
OTTAWA—Last Friday morning, U.S. President Donald Trump authorized a cruise missile strike against a Syrian air force base. This marked the first time that the U.S. has used direct military force against Syrian forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad. Trump’s rationale for the missile attack was that Assad had “launched a horrible chemical weapons attack […]
The Canada Infrastructure Bank belongs in Calgary
CALGARY—When Canada built the Confederation Bridge connecting New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island—one of the most significant infrastructure projects in our history—it ran through Calgary. Indirectly, of course. The expertise in engineering and construction management for that mega-project was located in Calgary. It was a stunning example (the St. Lawrence Seaway and Toronto subway are […]
Access to information reform could compromise ‘quality of decision making’: ex-PCO chief
One of the Liberal government’s plans to make ministers’ offices more transparent could undermine the quality of advice public servants provide to their ministers if not executed carefully, says a former head of the public service. Opening up ministers’ offices and the Prime Minister’s Office to access to information requests, as the Liberals have promised, […]
Filibuster over potential House rule changes ‘a waste of everybody’s time,’ says former Liberal MP
PARLIAMENT HILL—Former Liberal MP Paul Szabo says the ongoing filibuster at the Procedure and House Affairs Committee over the government’s attempt to expedite a study and report on the Standing Orders—the rules that govern MPs and the House—by the summer, without a preset condition of all-party support, is “a waste of everybody’s time.” Mr. Szabo […]
‘I hope he will stay,’ Bernier would consider O’Leary as Finance minister if he wins leadership and government
Conservative leadership candidate Maxime Bernier won’t say if he’s willing to work within a Kevin O’Leary-controlled Conservative caucus, but he is open to making Mr. O’Leary his Finance minister. “I think Kevin O’Leary would be a good Finance minister,” Mr. Bernier (Beauce, Que.) said in an interview at The Hill Times’ office last week. “I […]
Byelections have limited potential for fortune-telling
TORONTO—Reading the news about last week’s federal byelections, you might get the impression that the Trudeau government is in trouble and the Conservatives are on the rise, when in fact both interpretations are wrong. Mid-term elections are traditionally problematic for every government. Voters tend to unload some expected frustration because they might feel the government is […]
