High-profile Conservatives organizing to shift party to centre: activists
A group of influential Canadian conservatives has been working over the summer to create an organization that will try to pull the Conservative Party closer to the political centre, say several sources with knowledge of the effort. The group includes well-known conservatives in and outside of the party, according to four sources speaking on the […]
Scariest part of U.S.-North Korea showdown isn’t Kim Jong-un
OTTAWA—With all of the fear-mongering going on these days, one could be forgiven for believing we are on the eve of a nuclear Armageddon between North Korea and the United States. Military experts are coming out of the woodwork to take to the airwaves, all of them eager to convince us just how dangerous North […]
Charlottesville’s self-evident truths
Like so many places in the American South, Charlottesville is beautiful and haunted. Thomas Jefferson haunts the iconic University of Virginia campus he designed like an invisible chancellor, just as Sally Hemings and hundreds of other slaves haunt Monticello as self-evident truths in the course of human events. In 2010, I took a guided tour […]
Liberals take civics-in-action approach with youth councils
Nearly 90 per cent of Liberal MPs have established youth councils in their ridings. They say they’re a way to get young people involved the political decision-making process, though critics say they’re just talk-shops that won’t amount to much. But the Liberals aren’t the only ones trying to bolster their connections with Canadian youth. At […]
Liberals can bet opposition will target them on electoral reform
Re: “Trudeau’s 14-seat majority could ‘easily’ be reduced to minority ‘or worse’ in 2019, say opponents, but Liberals still 12 points ahead,” (The Hill Times, July 24, p. 1). As your front-page story details, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is far from guaranteed electoral success. Opposition parties will be heavily targeting the 14 Liberal ridings where […]
Brad Wall and the beginning of the next chapter of conservative politics
OTTAWA—As Brad Wall steps away from politics, an era of conservative leaders is now retired and the door is open for new champions to emerge. Since Stephen Harper hung up his skates, Brad Wall was the most powerful and dominant conservative politician in Canada. He was the dean of the provincial premiers, and the one […]
Setting aside differences, Liberals and Tories strategized to pass dementia bill
Conservative MP Rob Nicholson set aside political differences and crossed the floor to gain support for his private member’s bill to create a national dementia strategy. Mr. Nicholson (Niagara Falls, Ont.) knew how important a framework for dementia was; his father suffered from the disease. “It was inexplicable, he had always had a very healthy […]
Kim Jong-Trump, or how people can talk themselves into launching a ‘pre-emptive’ or ‘preventive’ nuclear attack
LONDON, U.K.—“I’m not saying we wouldn’t get our hair mussed, Mr. President, but I do say not more than 10 or 20 million dead, depending on the breaks.” So said General ‘Buck’ Turgidson, urging the U.S. president to carry out a nuclear first strike, in Stanley Kubrick’s 1963 film Dr. Strangelove: or How I Learned […]
IMF warns Canada to rebalance, diversify economy
TORONTO—While the International Monetary Fund forecasts that Canada will have the fastest-growing economy in the G-7 this year, it would be a big mistake to become complacent. We face a challenging future. Finance Minister Bill Morneau’s budgets, and indeed the overall messaging from the Trudeau government, are all about strengthening the middle class, the big […]
NDP MPs headed to Steel Town to attend caucus, get groove back, take in a Ti-Cats game
NDP MPs are gathering in Hamilton next month for their annual summer caucus retreat to plan their fall strategy and to raise the party’s profile in Steel Town, the working-class city where it lost some ground in the last federal election. “We have some representation already [in Hamilton], and there’s good NDP support, and my […]
