Election reform bill needs cross country hearings
OTTAWA—Politicians can really be quite loveable. I had three politicos over to a third-year class I teach at Carleton University last week and we all had a love fest. Jim Armour of Summa Strategies and a director of communications to Stephen Harper in his opposition days was the Conservative speaker. For the New Democrats […]
Trudeau makes gutsy move, but many shoes to fall yet
A Senate with Independent Senators, be they party members or not. Jan. 29, 2014 may go down as the day Justin Trudeau’s leadership really got noticed, got admired and took off. Or will it be a day when he bombed? His move to depoliticize the Liberal caucus in the Senate was widely seen as […]
Former prime ministers: do their legacies have a future?
OTTAWA—If it weren’t for the death of Nelson Mandela, we were well on the way to forgetting that Canada ever played a key role in ending apartheid in South Africa. Brian Mulroney along with his then, foreign minister, Joe Clark did some heavy lifting in getting a good chunk of the international community to […]
Balanced Liberalism is what Chrétien delivered
OTTAWA—Twenty years ago, the Little Guy from Shawinigan became prime minister, overcoming the “Nervous Nellies” in his caucus, those MPs who were spooked by Kim Campbell’s rise in the polls when she was elected Progressive Conservative leader. Indeed, Jean Chrétien overcame all those who underestimated him at various points in his career. His sense […]
Appreciation for Kim Campbell’s legacy grows
Last week Kim Campbell was feted at the dinner of the Parliamentary Internship Program, marking the 20th anniversary of her prime ministership. So what was her legacy? The most obvious was that she was the first and, so far, only female prime minister of Canada. When prime minister Kim Campbell called a meeting with […]
Cable, roaming fee promises may prove to be elusive
OTTAWA—Suddenly the CRTC is thrust into the centre of the Conservatives’ re-election strategy. It will be the agency that will be key to changing the channel. To hit the elusive reset button. The Speech From the Throne will require the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission to a couple of irritants faced by consumers—a.k.a. middle-class […]
Feds slow to bolster cyber security
One of the major themes in the Harper government’s upcoming Throne Speech is expected to be an appeal to voters as consumers through the introduction of various consumer-friendly measures. These measures could include changes to the rules that govern some federally-regulated industries, such as airlines and mobile phone providers, in order to make their […]
Weiner says Quebec charter to break up Canada
OTTAWA—Gerry Weiner was speaking at a commemoration of the 25th anniversary of the Japanese-Canadian Redress Settlement back in 1988, during the Mulroney days, when Weiner served as the multiculturalism minister and was charged with coming up with an agreement. Weiner, a big Montreal booster, grew up in the city when anti-Semitism was a […]
Is Quebec stepping away from progress?
This is one issue where Quebec is really a distinct society as compared to the rest of Canada. Laïcité, or French secularity, a more profound form of secularism, is a value deeply rooted in Quebec society. By contrast, secularism in the rest of Canada is an accepted approach but in a more casual way. […]
Prime Minister Harper had two plans in latest Cabinet shuffle: Andrew Cardozo
OTTAWA—Stephen Harper had two plans in this latest shuffle. Plan ‘A’: this is the shuffle that will hit the reset button and this is the Cabinet that will take him into the next election. The much-ballyhooed generational change is really an acceptance of just how concerned the Conservatives are about Justin Trudeau. Harper recognizes […]
