Brampton mayor slams high-profile rivals Brown, Gosal, setting up for a heated fall municipal election
High-profile candidates in Brampton’s mayoral race are calling their rivals’ motivations, local achievements, and roots in the community into question, in what political observers are describing as one of the most-watched municipal races in the country. The Oct. 22 election will put former Conservative cabinet minister Bal Gosal, former Ontario PC leader Patrick Brown, and four […]
Toronto should have seen this coming
TORONTO—Well, this is gonzo. Agreeing with Doug Ford. Let me just check the frequencies on my tinfoil hat, which otherwise filters out political argy-bargy. Our neophyte premier hurled a grenade into municipal governance on July 27 by confirming what the Star’s Robert Benzie had exclusively broken the night before, triggering a frantic media scramble to […]
Ford’s decision to cut Toronto City Hall down to size has all earmarks of a revenge move
OTTAWA—Premier Doug Ford’s decision to cut Toronto City Hall down to size has all the earmarks of a revenge move. And those at city hall piling in behind him have their own grudge matches to settle. Toronto city councillor Jim Karygiannis wants to increase the size of local council seats to mirror federal jurisdictions. Not […]
‘Many of us feel that Ford’s unilateral move makes upcoming vote illegitimate,’ says Toronto reader
Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s abrupt move to reduce the number of council seats from 47 to 25 at this late stage in our election period is literally gerrymandering, and calls into question our city’s capacity for self-determination. Toronto Mayor John Tory, when pressed on whether he knew beforehand that this was coming, admitted that he […]
Trudeau’s ace in the hole on climate change
The federal Liberals may be taking a pragmatic approach to their carbon tax plan by softening the blow to heavy emitters. We are, after all, living beside a U.S. president who once believed global warming was a plot hatched by the Chinese to hurt American business and is already wreaking economic havoc in some key […]
Ford’s Toronto city council shakeup is a vote-winner, at least for now
OTTAWA—Ontario Premier Doug Ford has given new meaning to starting with a bang. Out of nowhere, except perhaps the deep recesses of his mind, he announced last week that he was cutting the size of Toronto’s city council from 44 members (which was to become 47, after a planned expansion this fall) to 25. Anyone […]
Canada should not stray from climate commitments in face of criticism
Things look bleak these days for the Trudeau government’s Pan-Canadian Framework on climate change (PCF). The framework represents Canada’s primary compliance path with the Paris Climate Accord, requiring provinces to establish a price on carbon or have one imposed by Ottawa. Opposition Conservatives have railed against the plan in the House of Commons. Newly-elected Ontario […]
Ford has proven that the populist formula shouldn’t be underestimated
OTTAWA—When it appeared that Doug Ford was on his way to landing the job of Ontario premier, a lot of people tried to reassure themselves that the Progressive Conservative leader, while a coarse, macho populist, was no Donald Trump. But the Ford government has immediately shown its willingness to follow the demagogic, disruptive politics of […]
Bill Blair is a solid cabinet choice
OTTAWA—Apparently serving as Toronto’s chief of police is a good training ground for federal politics and ultimately the federal cabinet. In last 10 years, two former chiefs have gone from locking up the bad guys to making the laws that mete out the punishment. First it was Julian Fantino who served in Stephen Harper’s Conservative […]
Blair’s focus will be guns, drugs, organized crime, more than migration, suggests Parl. Sec. Vaughan
Though his new cabinet post gives him responsibility for irregular migration, the job of newly appointed cabinet minister Bill Blair will be about so much more, including “guns, drugs, and organized crime,” says Adam Vaughan, the parliamentary secretary for housing and urban affairs. “Where I see this [post] going is not around border security vis-a-vis […]
