Canadians will accept higher deficits as benefits of spending materialize, says reader
Re: “Trudeau Liberals risk leaving ideological centre open by tilting further to the left in Throne Speech, say some Grit MPs” (The Hill Times, Sept. 14, 2020, p. 6). The Canadian public will accept higher deficits as the benefits materialize. Canadians did not object to massive deficit spending during the Second World War. Mobilizing the […]
Copps said it all when it comes to end of WE in Canada, says reader
Re: “The death of WE in Canada is shameful,” (The Hill Times, Sept. 14, p. 10). Sheila Copps said it all. What a disgusting display of ignorant, immoral, and unethical behaviour by the Conservatives, NDP, and other naysayers to destroy a charity that had such a strong influence for providing a moral beacon for so many […]
De Adder’s Take: 09-23-2020
Which non-violent revolutions will succeed?
The old calculation was simple and brutal: if you want to overthrow a tyrant, you must use violence. There was an occasional exception, like Gandhi’s use of non-violent protest to gain India’s independence, but people wrote that off as being due to the fact that the British empire, being ruled by a democratic government, was […]
Feds’ priorities should include ‘green’ stimulus for small businesses
As we head into the fall, now more than six months into this pandemic, owners and operators of small businesses are anxious for some certainty, in this uncertain time. While government measures have helped to keep the lights on, and our economy has started to slowly find its footing, the future of Canada’s Main Street […]
Kovrig and Spavor: nearly two years later
In fewer than three months, Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor will start their third year in the prisons of China. Since the arrival of the novel coronavirus, these prisons have been shut to all outsiders and the two Canadians have had no contact with family, legal representatives, or consular officials. Mr. Kovrig was permitted one […]
Care is no longer personal, it’s political
America is sick, broke, and hurting. The recent two national conventions had different menus on offer to satisfy a crisis-ridden nation. But the Democratic Convention tried something new, something that’s a novelty at a political convention. Care. I do not believe we have ever heard more about care at a presidential-nomination convention than at this […]
Why the government of Canada will not appoint a temporary minister of education
Adhering to the dictum “never let a good crisis go to waste,” Irvin Studin has proposed in The Globe and Mail that Canada needs a temporary minister of education to address what he calls “Canada’s post quarantine education crisis.” I do not dispute that COVID-19 has produced an unprecedented crisis in education. In fact, I recently published a […]
Advice for political staffers: whatever desk you’re in, treat it like YOU.inc
Parliament gets a restart this week, and returns to what is highly likely to be an uncertain session as parties negotiate their priorities and figure out how to conduct legislative business. As a former trade communications director to Jim Peterson in Paul Martin’s minority government from 2004-2006, something is—eerily?—familiar to me as Parliamentarians “return” to […]
Boris Johnson’s cunning plan
LONDON, U.K.—“I’ve got a plan so cunning you could put a tail on it and call it a weasel,” said Blackadder’s sidekick Baldrick in the BBC’s brilliant historical comedy series Blackadder. In fact, he said “I have a cunning plan” in almost every episode, but the plans hardly ever worked, and it became a popular […]
