Liberals rebound in polls, Nanos says women giving Grits lead over Conservatives
Liberal MPs are pointing to a strong economy and more generous Canada child benefit program to explain their party’s surge in the polls since mid-October, while one pollster is pointing to a steady advantage among female voters for the Grits, despite a deluge of negative news headlines and withering opposition attacks. The opposition Conservatives haven’t […]
Despite ministerial parity, women still underrepresented as senior cabinet, PMO staff
Even though the Liberal cabinet was designed with gender parity in mind, women only represent 40 per cent of the senior staff supporting those ministers’ offices. Those positions—made up of chiefs of staff and their deputies, directors of policy, communications, parliamentary affairs and senior advisers—are the gateways to ministers and the people who help shape […]
Broad perspectives breed great science
On Nov. 2, Science Minister Kirsty Duncan addressed the Canadian Science Policy Conference to discuss the federal government’s plan to boost fundamental research in Canada. The following text is an edited excerpt of her speech. I’d like to share my vision of science. It is a vision that sees Canadian science as a re-energized, forward-looking, […]
Of Jagmeet Singh and ‘othering’
Re: “Singh’s group loyalty challenges, and why we should be worried about that,” (The Hill Times, Nov. 13, p. 9). Nothing is advanced by calling a party and factions a tribe and sub-tribes. Under the heading “Cultural tribalism,” the article’s description of New Democratic Party leader Jagmeet Singh as markedly “different,” I believe, is an […]
Can Canadians trust CSIS to help keep us safe?
OTTAWA—This piece was never going to be an easy one to write. The organization where I proudly worked for more than 15 years—CSIS—is now the subject of a $35-million lawsuit by five employees alleging racism, Islamophobia and homophobia. Canadians may very well ask whether an agency apparently “rife” with these problems should be allowed to […]
Financial portfolios still ‘a man’s world’ on Parliament Hill
Women remain underrepresented in economic and finance ministers’ offices, a political sphere that former cabinet staff say continues to be an “old boys’ club” and especially unavailable to women at the senior level. Long before and after Michele Austin worked as a chief of staff to Conservative minister Rona Ambrose, she noticed women weren’t in […]
Women making unforeseen breakthroughs, but still have a long way to go
OTTAWA—As North Americans witnessed this past week, unforeseen breakthroughs for women in Quebec’s municipal elections and in state elections across the border, their wins signal a potential new (and better-late-than-never) era for women in politics. And while there is no doubt that many women have simply had enough, thank you very much, the story of […]
Sexual harassment bill takes on systemic power problem, but won’t touch MP-to-MP behaviour
At a time when sexual harassment has hit the Hill hard, Employment, Workforce, and Labour Minister Patty Hajdu introduced Bill C-65 on Nov. 7, which would amend existing provisions in the Canada Labour Code to prevent harassment and sexual harassment in the federal workplace, now including MPs’ offices, the Senate, the House of Commons and […]
Trump isn’t the only norm-blaster
One of the more dangerous phenomena associated with the presidency of Donald Trump in the United States is that the bellicose president is revising political and social norms with every tweet, decree, and viral outburst. No previous president, or G7 leader for that matter (with the disclaimer that Googling my way back into Silvio Berlusconi’s […]
And baby makes history: Bloc couple first pair of sitting MPs to become parents
New parents have enough work in a baby’s first weeks without having to represent two ridings, attend parliamentary votes, change diapers, and breastfeed between committee meetings and Commons sittings, but that’s the new world Bloc Québécois MPs Xavier Barsalou-Duval and Marilène Gill are navigating together. The couple earned a footnote in Canadian history with the […]
