Tax hikes hobble young people’s job prospects
Canada’s youth are facing an employment crisis. In December there were 40,000 fewer youth jobs than the year before. That’s a three per cent decrease! Most worrisome is that youth have been relegated by the finance minister to a career of insecure part-time and contract work, unable to make a proper life for themselves because […]
No northerners in cabinet, no problem for veteran Yukon MP
Liberal MP Larry Bagnell was once invited to speak at a high school graduation in his riding, as most MPs are. However, for most MPs the journey to a high school in their riding would not consist of flying in a small plane, being grounded due to fog, and hitchhiking the rest of the way […]
Hot issues to watch in 2017
A highly anticipated federal budget. The legalization of recreational marijuana. Lingering debate over electoral reform. A controversial new American president. The end of several major reviews and consultations, including on defence policy and foreign aid. The year of the 150th anniversary of Confederation is expected to produce some tantalizing political story lines in Ottawa and across Canada. […]
Trans Mountain expansion approval already a big political mess
The Big Lebowski, one of the funniest movies ever made, begins with two hired goons threatening and demanding money from “the Dude,” Jeffrey Lebowski. When the goons realize they have the wrong Jeffrey Lebowski, they leave, but not before one of them urinates on the Dude’s rug. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Natural Resources Minister […]
Electoral reform will not happen in this Parliament
OTTAWA—I took the MyDemocracy.ca voting test and discovered what I already knew. According to the online government survey, managed by Vox Pop, I am a pragmatist. The pragmatist in me says electoral reform is dead. Its public interment by the minister responsible for democratic reform was not a pretty sight. Democratic Institutions Minister Maryam Monsef […]
Quebec, Ontario crucial to Conservative leadership race
Conservative leadership candidates are setting their sights on battleground provinces of Ontario and Quebec as the race heats up. Leadership candidates from Quebec could have an edge in what is a very crowded contest so far. Conservative MPs Steven Blaney (Bellechasse-Les Etchemins-Lévis, Que.) and Maxime Bernier (Beauce, Que.) are the only two current Parliamentarians from Quebec […]
Canada Infrastructure Bank: theft by deception
Both the Liberal government and its Advisory Council on Economic Growth are head over heels for the Canada Infrastructure Bank, announcing with fresh-faced enthusiasm that it will be an innovative route for augmenting infrastructure finance, a flywheel of institutional capital participation, and an economic stimulus boon for the middle class. Beyond the euphoria is deception; […]
Trudeau undoes own timid steps to sustainability, betrays promise to world
GATINEAU, QUE.—There is no doubt that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s approval of the twinning of the Kinder Morgan oil pipeline last week increases the danger of a devastating spill in the waters around Vancouver and beyond, despite the new $1.5-billion federal ocean protection plan. No spill response unit, “world class” or otherwise, can be confidently […]
NDP MP Linda Duncan blasts government over tanker threat to endangered West Coast orcas
Linda Duncan, the lone New Democrat MP elected in Alberta, is bucking NDP Premier Rachel Notley’s support for the federal cabinet’s approval of a new Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain oil pipeline to the B.C. coast. On Tuesday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Environment Minister Catherine McKenna approved the expansion project, which a report from the […]
Jansen’s experience of harassment is unfortunately not unique
OTTAWA—This past week, Sandra Jansen stood in the Alberta legislature and recounted some of the awful and misogynistic commentary being thrust her way in recent weeks. As is well known by now, Jansen courageously called out some members of her own party, among others, for their sexist bullying and harassment as she prepared for a […]
