Now is the summer of our Twitter discontent
OAKVILLE, ONT.—Anyone who regularly follows all the political chatter on social media these days would surely get the idea that Canada is enduring an unprecedented summer of discontent. Indeed, political debate over the past few months has been as hot as the soaring temperatures. Some people are in an uproar over the removal of a […]
Hill lobbyist ties the knot, with help from legendary curler
Hill denizens Derek Nighbor and Joey Taylor wed on Aug. 11 with the help of Canadian curling legend Colleen Jones. Mr. Nighbor is a lobbyist and CEO of the Forest Products Association of Canada, and Mr. Taylor is a public affairs manager at Engineers Canada. Since they met through curling and both watched it religiously on […]
‘The only thing Ford understands is brute strength’, says Vaughan, as more Liberals endorse John Tory for mayor
The Toronto mayoral race saw a recent flurry of endorsements from Liberal MPs for candidate and incumbent John Tory, a move some observers say is a low-risk decision with easy political benefits at the local level, and a play to outflank PC Premier Doug Ford. On Aug. 8, Mr. Tory announced that Liberal MPs Marco […]
‘Buzz’ around Ford’s media strategy ‘almost bigger than the tactic,’ says digital strategist
Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s strategy of delivering spin straight to his base through his Twitter channel is less about hoodwinking Ontarians, and more about playing to his base and to the narrative of the media as an opposition party, say some political observers, while others see the start of a concerning trend. The launch of […]
Poverty, homelessness, inequality: a few causes that might outweigh cheaper beer
OTTAWA—Populism scrambles a lot of markers, so maybe nobody cares that Ontario Premier Doug Ford is making a big deal, using government promotional incentives no less, to prioritize in the early days of his administration a possible slight decrease in what Ontarians pay for beer. It’s an amateur move, to be sure, and would seem […]
Media needs to stop labelling Ford, right-wing parties as populist, says reader
Re: “Ford’s right-wing populism: the gift that keeps on giving, for the rich,” (The Hill Times, June 20, p. 9). Why do you insist on labelling Ontario Premier Doug Ford as “populist”—a term the mainstream media continues to label right/centre parties to suggest that they would not have been elected if voters had been thinking […]
Opioid crisis symptom of society that’s sick
With Ontario Premier Doug Ford threatening to fulfill his campaign promise to close the province’s seven supervised injection sites despite the rising number of overdose deaths, it’s worth stepping back to consider where the endless stream of people willing to risk their lives comes from in the first place. It’s a key question that hasn’t […]
On policy durability
Doug Ford has been premier of Ontario for roughly a month, and already his legislative changes are creating a policy U-turn on many fronts. Cap and trade: cancelled. Green spending programs: gone. Some 758 renewable energy contracts: poof. What’s noteworthy in these changes is not that they’ve happened—Ford did campaign on doing as such—but in […]
Toronto mayor should leap at chance to set city to rights with smaller council
Re: “Ford’s Toronto city council shakeup is a vote-winner, at least for now” (The Hill Times, Aug. 1, p. 10). This shakeup is long overdue and should have been part and parcel of amalgamation in 1998, but, as Tim Powers puts it, referring to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s democratic reform initiative, “it was chucked in the […]
PC propaganda Ontario News Now is news no one can use
From a purely theoretical standpoint, there’s nothing wrong with Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservative messaging machine. It’s rare to find any political operative, at any level, who doesn’t use all the digital means at their disposal to communicate with their base. This includes in-house produced videos, social media posts, podcasts—you name it, someone is doing it. […]
