Canada needs national electricity infrastructure renewal plan
Climate change is rewriting our plans on how to protect our communities and livelihoods from Mother Nature’s vagaries. Historically infrequent, high impact scenarios are happening more often, with greater severity and disruptive impact. Hurricane Irma was the strongest Atlantic basin hurricane ever recorded outside the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea. The storm spent […]
The danger and promise of frank talk in fraught times
GATINEAU, QUE.—By some accounts, politicians and public figures live in dangerous times—only one glib remark, or one youthful mistake, away from pubic disgrace, even career suicide. But it isn’t that simple. Consider the troubling story of Wab Kinew, former broadcaster, author and now the leader of the New Democratic Party of Manitoba. Kinew’s victory two […]
Organized crime in Canada is a problem, says expert Nicaso
TORONTO—Last week, CityTV stations aired the first of a six part series of Bad Blood (8 p.m. every Thursday), a true story based on Business or Blood: Mafia Boss Vito Rizzuto’s Last War, written by Antonio Nicaso and Peter Edwards, two of the best experts about Mafia and organized crime in the world. The book is […]
Meet Grit MP Wayne Easter: defender of the tax avoiders
POWELL RIVER, B.C.—What is it about progressive politicians going to Ottawa only to end up as arrogant conservatives? The last encounter I had with Wayne Easter, Liberal Finance Committee chair, was in 1991 when he (as head of the National Farmers’ Union) and I joined other social activists to demonstrate in front of the Reform […]
Food a fundamental source of energy, Canadians must work together
This past weekend I attended a meeting of randomly selected Canadians, organized by Simon Fraser University Centre for Dialogue, and funded by National Resources Canada, to hear views on Canada’s energy. We considered many ways that energy affects our lives, made challenging by Canada’s commitment to reduce green house gas emissions. Both the gargantuan and […]
Whatever the outcome, new leader’s first job will be to heal internal divisions
OTTAWA—The New Democratic Party turban wars were officially launched last weekend. The first toxic, anti-turban bomb dropped was dropped by Quebec NDP MP Pierre Nantel on the eve of a leadership pre-vote launch in Hamilton. Nantel characterized candidate Jagmeet Singh’s religious garb as “ostentatious” and “not compatible with power.” Party officials and candidates moved immediately […]
Russian victory in Syria
LONDON, U.K.—Two years ago this month, the Russian air force was sent in to save the tottering Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad from collapse. The air was thick with Western predictions that Moscow had made a dreadful mistake. “These [Russian] military actions constitute a further escalation and will only fuel more radicalization and extremism,” said […]
Sen. Harder’s right: Upper Chamber needs independent oversight of Senators’ expenses
Peter Harder, the government’s lead guy in the Senate, is urging the Senate to act on Auditor General Michael Ferguson’s recommendations on expenses. In a piece published on Sept. 15 in the IRPP’s Policy Options magazine, Sen. Harder says although the Senate is working hard to ensure the Senate expenses scandal of 2012-16 “becomes nothing […]
Cultivating the grapes of political wrath
OAKVILLE, ONT.—Any politician seeking electoral success must learn how to harness the power of anger. And, yes, in politics, anger is a potentially powerful weapon. It’s an emotion that, if properly exploited, can mobilize and motivate, arouse and animate, energize and excite. But the key word here is “harness.” In other words, raw anger spouting […]
The link (or lack thereof) between refugees and terrorism
OTTAWA—Remember the refugee crisis of a few summers ago? We all were riveted by the pictures of hundreds of thousands of desperate Syrians, Iraqis and many others, risking their lives in overland journeys or even more perilous sea voyages, fleeing danger and violence in their homelands to start a new life in Europe. Some countries […]
