So Ontario Premier Doug Ford doesn’t want to talk about it?
HALIFAX—Under his watch, a major city in Ontario was under siege for three weeks. The downtown core of the national capital was paralyzed by “protesters” who wanted to bring down the federal government, without the bother of an election; and Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s federal Conservative cousins were busy sipping coffee and taking selfies with […]
As convoy inquiry rolls on, critics spar with feds over blame for ‘abandonment’ of Ottawa residents
Political finger-pointing is in full swing as witness testimony at the inquiry into the federal government’s Feb. 14 invocation of the Emergencies Act continues, with early comments focused mainly on the effects of the so-called “Freedom Convoy” on the residents of Ottawa, who said they felt “abandoned” while police and all three orders of government […]
Privatization is no silver bullet to address health-care crisis, say advocacy organizations
‘This always comes up as a possible solution, and it never works,’ says Canadian Health Coalition director Steven Staples.
Ontario highway project and federal conservation targets prominent in July environment lobbying
Environmental advocacy led lobbying activity for the sixth consecutive month.
Ford helps undermine Ontario’s public health system, then eyes more privatization
OTTAWA—Swallowing a bee while discussing the possible privatization of Ontario health care, Doug Ford reflexively thought he might have to undergo emergency treatment. “I’ll be rushing to the hospital to get this bee out of here,” the premier speculated as he tried to continue with a press conference last week in rural Dundalk, Ont. Luckily, Ford […]
Open minds, not dated rhetoric, needed to fix ailing health-care system
OTTAWA—Go to any media outlet web page, paper, podcast, radio station, or TV station across Canada and you’ll find an identical story about a challenged health-care system or a system in crisis. You know the range of headlines: they focus on wait times, cancelled surgeries, health-care worker burnout, health-care worker shortages, growing angst over all […]
NDP must counter Poilievre’s skill harnessing anger of people who feel left behind, say labour experts
Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s union endorsements in the province’s June election were more a media coup than a real shift in the labour landscape, say labour experts and NDP strategists, but they reinforced a wider perception that conservative parties are becoming a home for working-class voters who are angry about being left behind by larger […]
Ford’s brand strength, low public appetite for change key to PC win in Ontario, say politicos
The strength of the ‘Ford brand’ that easily overmatched what the Ontario Liberals and NDP had on offer, combined with a low-key communications and media strategy, pushed Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservative Party into a second straight majority government, say politicos, with pollster Greg Lyle saying the premier “essentially won the job a year […]
Ontario’s perfect storm for apathy
OAKVILLE, ONT.—The Ontario election’s historically low voter turnout has generated lots of anxious handwringing. University professor and author Emmett Macfarlane bluntly summed up much of that anxiety when he tweeted, “The worst government in the history of the province and (censored) couldn’t even be bothered to vote. A pox on uninformed, apathetic citizens, most of […]
Federal Conservatives should look to Ford’s Ontario campaign for a more pragmatic, open-minded approach, say strategists
Ontario voters responded to Doug Ford’s more collaborative, open-minded approach to politics by sending the Progressive Conservatives to a second straight majority, say both a Liberal and Conservative strategist, but it’s not clear if any of the leading contenders for the federal Conservative leadership are interested in following that model. Shakir Chambers, who worked under former […]
