Trump’s NAFTA hatred may help Canada
TORONTO—In a strange way, Donald Trump’s disdain for the North American Free Trade Agreement may do Canada a favour. He may end up forcing this country to reduce its dependence on the United States. We know that the U.S. president doesn’t like NAFTA. It is one of the few consistent positions he holds. He routinely […]
Small business tax reform a test of Trudeau’s nerve
GATINEAU, QUE.—Justin Trudeau’s proposal to eliminate loopholes in the small business tax is a modest step in the direction of tax fairness and Finance Minister Bill Morneau is, in many ways, an ideal spear-carrier for reform. These may not be popular claims in medical clinics, upscale salons and most editorial boardrooms, but that doesn’t mean […]
Trudeau’s ‘feminist’ government should remove sexual discrimination from Indian Act
CURVE LAKE, ONT.—Members of the Kawartha Truth and Reconciliation Support Group (KTRSG) are disappointed with federal Minister of Status of Women Maryam Monsef’s voting position on Bill S-3, an Act to Amend the Indian Act. As many people know, the Senate moved forward a version of Bill S-3, which removed all the sex discrimination in […]
Harper’s hands-off approach to Quebec
Did Stephen Harper’s approach to Quebec accelerate the decline of the sovereignty movement, or was the former prime minister just the accidental beneficiary of a collective desire on the part of Quebecers to move on from the deadlock over the province’s political future? In a text published in the magazine L’actualité on the occasion of […]
After cabinet shuffle, new Veterans Affairs Minister O’Regan hires a chief of staff
PARLIAMENT HILL—New Veterans Affairs and Associate Defence Minister Seamus O’Regan has a new chief of staff running his first-ever ministerial office. Cyndi Jenkins moved over from her role in the Prime Minister’s Office to take on the job. Until recently, Ms. Jenkins had been an Atlantic regional desk adviser in the PMO’s operations branch since the beginning […]
Much is at stake: we need a productive, innovative, and competitive economy
TORONTO—Canada has still much to do to develop a productive and sustainable economy that creates the wealth to sustain our education and health-care systems and to deliver good jobs for a prosperous and equitable society. More success in innovation is one of the key ways to accomplish this. As the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) […]
North Korea’s nukes
LONDON—The last time when North Korean nuclear weapons might have been headed off by diplomacy was 15-20 years ago, when there was a deal freezing North Korean work on nuclear weapons, and then one stopping the country’s work on long-range ballistic missiles. If they had been negotiated with the same attention to detail that was […]
The controversy around naming buildings, it’s actually a good debate
OTTAWA—Sir John A. Macdonald: yes or no? It goes well beyond our first prime minister. What’s interesting is that there are several different forces at play and the debate is a proxy for debating who we are as Canadians. The first strand is the view that buildings and schools should only be named after people […]
Alberta Liberals to investigate allegations of sexual harassment against Kang
The Alberta Liberal Party is planning on conducting interviews with current and former Liberal staffers following allegations of sexual harassment from former Alberta Liberal staffer Kirstin Morrell against former two-term Alberta MLA and now MP Darshan Kang to find out if there are any more complaints. Alberta Liberal Leader David Khan said in a statement […]
Tax reform the first true test for Trudeau
OTTAWA—Is Justin Trudeau’s government truly vulnerable for the first time? Failure to deliver on electoral reform, a badly broken deficit promise, and even a $10-million payout to Omar Khadr have had to date no real impact on his team. But what looks like an ill-conceived tax-reform package—potentially drafted by officials who have never actually run […]
