Atlantic premiers, eastern U.S. governors take centre stage in NAFTA talks
United States President Donald Trump isn’t visiting Canada’s smallest province this weekend as New England governors meet with Eastern Canadian premiers to talk trade. But his latest threat to axe the North American Free Trade Agreement arrived days earlier, when he told a rambunctious crowd in Phoenix on Tuesday that it looked like his administration […]
PM’s words unlikely to stem flow of U.S. asylum seekers
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau travelled on Wednesday to Montreal—ground zero of the intense media coverage of the asylum-seeking issue—to try to unknit some of his own knitting. He met with the interprovincial task force set up to co-ordinate the logistics of the response to the influx of would-be asylum seekers who have been crossing the U.S. border […]
The road to clean growth
The climate change trend is stark. With rising emissions of global greenhouse gases, high-impact climate events will occur more often, and with greater severity. This reality imposes a two-pronged strategy. First, action is required on an urgent basis. Adaptive measures must be taken now, because the costs of inaction are great, both in financial and […]
Once a hero, not always a hero
If statues can be built, they can be torn down. The clash between neo-Nazis and those who were protesting them in Charlottesville, Va., earlier this month had its roots in a debate about taking down a statue commemorating Confederate general Robert E. Lee, a U.S. civil war leader who, in the eyes of many, remains […]
Still no sign U.S. gets the whole point about free trade
OTTAWA—No one seemed to notice United States President Donald Trump’s analysis of his trade negotiation aims at a Buy American event at the White House last month. Trump, who looks at trade through a simplistic protectionist lens and accuses the rest of the world of mulcting the United States, vowed his administration will restore “a […]
‘Tax fairness’ move a golden opportunity for Conservatives
OTTAWA—Until recently, one of the sneakiest political plays of the summer of 2017 was getting little notice. Finance Minister Bill Morneau’s supposed tax fairness initiative and consultation announced in July seemed to have been an easy lay-up when it was first announced. Who couldn’t be against taxing the rich, as the Liberals framed it? The […]
Why our waterways matter to me
Right now, the federal government is reviewing the Navigation Protection Act—that’s the law that should give all Canadians the right to paddle up and down this land’s waterways. That right is very important to me. In recent years, 99 per cent of Canada’s waterways lost navigation protection under the act. Unless our waterways have full […]
Supply management: Canada’s sacred cow no more?
KAMOURASKA, QUE.—In 1976, many commentators outside of Quebec attributed the victory of René Lévesque and the Parti Québécois to the leader’s charisma and the desire for independence. Within Quebec, some were astute enough to note traditional Liberal ridings in rural areas had swung significantly to the PQ. These ridings were not hotbeds of Quebec nationalism, […]
The joyous rebuke and rainbow diplomacy of Montreal Pride
MONTREAL—“A small minority—angry, frustrated group of racists—don’t get to define who we are as a country.” It seemed so easy when Justin Trudeau said it. No prevaricating, no moral equivalence, no discernibly conflicted allegiances. Just a direct statement summing up the moral principle and stakes at hand. Trudeau made that statement about a looming Quebec […]
Barcelona and Charlottesville: similar crimes, very different Trump responses
OTTAWA—In a scene from the 1980 classic comedy movie The Blues Brothers, the title characters are stuck in a traffic jam. The cause of the delay is a group of Nazis blocking a bridge while police restrain a heckling mob of anti-Nazi protesters. When informed by a policeman that the protesters had won a court decision authorizing […]
