Humboldt tragedy hits home for MPs
Speaking through tears, Conservative MP Kevin Waugh recalled bumping into Brody Hinz, a statistician for the Humboldt Broncos Saskatchewan junior hockey team, last November in Ottawa. The 18-year-old was one of the 15 people killed in a Friday evening bus crash carrying the hockey team. “Here’s a kid that was probably me 37 years ago. […]
Hockey brings Canadians together, in triumph and tragedy
OTTAWA—Far from Parliament Hill, partisan debates, and briefing notes, the real Canada works, plays, and lives in small cities, towns, villages, and neighbourhoods; and, for many, hockey is an integral part of their life as Canadians. Its speed, intensity, complexity, and excitement can arouse emotions even the least aggressive among us never knew we had. […]
When disaster strikes, real leaders set aside political opportunity, partisanship
OTTAWA—The terrible bus crash in northeast Saskatchewan involving the Humboldt Broncos junior hockey team has broken a nation’s heart. Fifteen souls, most of them 20 years of age or younger, were taken from their loved ones in the blink of an eye on a journey to compete in a playoff hockey game. It’s a familiar […]
Time to stop funding Catholic school boards
OTTAWA—The passage of Easter and Passover, the most important days on the Christian and Jewish calendars, has led me to contemplate the role of religion in Canadian public life. While Canadian politics has not been infected with the sort of right-wing evangelism experienced in the United States, we remain a country where church and state […]
Kathleen Wynne’s budget: ‘it’s free, so vote for me’
OTTAWA—Living in Ontario these days, it is hard not to feel the desperation of the governing provincial Liberals. Having been around politics for a long time, I have seen some pretty shameless pandering done in the interest of getting re-elected by all political parties, but the Ontario Liberals might be taking it to new levels. […]
Ford campaign team has ties to Bernier, Leitch, went all in on digital ads
New Ontario PC leader Doug Ford upended the party establishment through a campaign run by a small group with ties to the Ford family, as well as several high-profile federal Conservatives. The members of Mr. Ford’s PC leadership race team are still working with Mr. Ford, said Kory Teneycke, who led digital marketing for the […]
Think-tank urges Canada’s oil and gas majors to invest in renewables—or risk playing catch-up in decades ahead
As concerns grow about the long-term economic viability of drilling in the Alberta oil sands, a Vancouver-based think tank focused on creating a greener economy says big Canadian oil and gas companies need to invest in more in renewable energy projects in order to stay competitive against global firms already throwing billions towards wind and solar. […]
On the road again: how rookie Liberal MP Hutchings tackles riding bigger than Switzerland
Representing the riding of Long Range Mountains, N.L., which covers an area larger than Switzerland and includes more than 200 communities, means a lot of time spent on the road for Liberal MP Gudie Hutchings and her constituency staff team. On top of that is casework to help residents of the riding, which, according to […]
Phoenix backlog down 4,000 cases last month, but could still climb, feds say
There was some good news for the public servants affected by the troubled Phoenix pay system today: for the first time in more than half a year, the backlog has dropped. The February update of a government website tracking the issue—known as the Public Service Pay Centre’s “dashboard”—showed 4,000 fewer open cases in the backlog […]
Boushie’s uncle slams Saskatchewan MPs who won’t speak up: ‘They figure this is just going to go away’
MPs from Saskatchewan aren’t speaking out enough about racial tension and problems with the justice system in the wake of the Gerald Stanley trial, says Alvin Baptiste, the uncle of Colten Boushie, the young Indigenous man shot to death in Saskatchewan in 2016 by farmer Gerald Stanley. “These MPs in Saskatchewan here, I think they’re […]
