Yesterday, Barack Obama announced that the United States is moving to restrict the emissions of its greatest polluter, the coal industry. The objective is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from coal by 30% in the next sixteen years. Stephen Harper responded by saying that Canada already restricts emissions from coal.
Continue readingAuthor: Owen Gray
Northern Reflections: The Quality Of Mercy
Last week the Harper Spin Machine trumpeted the message that the present government has saved Canadians and their corporations $43 billion in taxes. That accomplishment was presented as if it was one of the Corporal Works of Mercy. And the opposition parties seemed to agree that, indeed, Canadians have been
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Imprudent Economic Management
The Parliamentary Budget Office reported this week that “Canadians are paying Ottawa about $30 billion less this year — or a little less than $1,000 per person — due to tax changes introduced in the past decade. Dennis Howlett writes: But here’s the thing: The annual loss of revenue due
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Occupiers Not Reformers
Andrew Coyne is no fan of the CBC’s — even though he appears regularly on the public broadcaster’s At Issues panel: As I’ve noted on other occasions, whatever once may have been true, the case for public broadcasting has collapsed, along with the rest of the broadcast regulatory apparatus. The
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: The Madness Of King Stephen
Tim Harper writes that the the parliamentary press gallery has always known that the prime minister has a hair trigger temper: When Stephen Harper returned from political exile to lead the Canadian Alliance 12 years ago, a few of the more cynical members of the Parliamentary Press Gallery played a
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: No Sunshine
You would expect that Ontario’s Liberals would be defeated in this election. After all, Tom Walkom writes: The Liberals have been in power for 11 long years. They’ve presided over a host of scandals, ranging from the ORNGE air ambulance fiasco to the gas plant affair. The economy is just
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: The Word From Carson
Bruce Carson has written a book about his years as a Harper operative. Now he is doing the interview circuit. Jason Fekete writes in The National Post that: A former senior aide to Stephen Harper says the prime minister is prone to fits of anger, that his public dispute with
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Politicizing The Court
Stephen Harper has worked very hard to politicize this country’s institutions. The story of how he tried to politicize the Supreme Court is beginning to emerge. Geoff Stevens writes: I am indebted to Sean Fine, the very good justice reporter at the Globe and Mail, for pulling aside the curtain
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Don’t Expect An Explanation
Michael Harris writes that Stephen Harper should answer an important question: How did a lawyer twice convicted of fraud, who went to jail for 18 months for stealing from his own clients, who was charged with influence peddling in 2012, and is now facing three new counts of illegal lobbying
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: When Friends Become Enemies
The number of chairs around the table in Stephen Harper’s Inner Sanctum hasn’t changed. Same number of chairs, same number of people. But, according to Tom Flanagan, the quality of those people has changed: In an interview, Flanagan, who admits the prime minister doesn’t talk to him anymore, said, “He’s
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Therein Lies The Tragedy
Traditional Dippers are bewildered and disillusioned by Andrea Horwath. Yesterday, in the Globe and Mail, Gerry Caplan published an open letter to the leader of Ontario’s New Democrats: Since your decision to defeat the Liberal budget, many of the party’s most loyal supporters have been bewildered, frustrated, and exasperated. Your
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: They Eat Their Own
It couldn’t happen to a nicer group of people. Tim Harper reports that the battle for the Conservative nomination in Oakville North-Burlington has become toxic: Amidst a flurry of charges and countercharges involving membership fraud, intimidation and character assassination, the party took the extraordinary step of delaying a planned nomination
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Shilling For Oil
Big Oil has always been behind Stephen Harper’s agenda. That was made clear once again this week when the RCMP revealed details into accusations against Bruce Carson, the disbarred lawyer who used to work in Harper’s PMO. Linda McQuaig writes: In these new RCMP allegations, however, Carson was working for
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: They Don’t Know What They’re Talking About
Yesterday, Tasha Kheiriddin announced that she would not be voting for Tim Hudak: I have been a life-long small-c conservative. I supported the Common Sense Revolution of Mike Harris. I believe in balanced budgets, low taxes and value for money. I like the PCs’ plans for ending corporate welfare and
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Oligarchs Must Hang Together.
When Vladimir Putin annexed Crimea, Stephen Harper and John Baird belched indignation. Michael Harris writes: Apparently not, though the cover story was a little better than usual this time. Harper and his foreign minister immediately hopped on Kyiv-bound planes for the 2015 photo-ops: Canada standing up for Ukraine. Baird donned
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: The Perils Of An Inflated Ego
Next month, the Harper government will announce its decision on the Northern Gateway Pipeline. Murray Dobbin writes: The momentum of opposition to the pipeline — and perhaps more importantly, to the hundreds of supertankers that would move tar sands bitumen to Asia — is clearly growing in both B.C. and
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Listening To Suzuki
Jeffrey Simpson wrote last week that the present Government of Canada defines itself by the enemies it makes: By identifying enemies or hostile institutions, or by picking fights with individuals or institutions, Mr. Harper can better galvanize his supporters. The idea of appealing to as many people as possible in
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Who Smells Best
It’s not just Andrea Horwath’s Dippers who are acting out of character. Tom Walkom writes that, in this election, all of Ontario’s political parties are not to be found at their usual addresses. The economy has changed everything: Ontario has been hit hard by the slump. Weak U.S. demand and,
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: In League With The Elite
Carol Goar writes that the NDP has forsaken its traditional role as the champion of the poor. That is the case with Tom Mulcair’s federal party. And it certainly is the case with Andrea Horwath’s provincial party. Goar writes: Horwath is following a well-worn path as Star columnist Rick Salutin
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Hudak’s Hallucinations
Tim Hudak has been traveling around Ontario, pledging to create a million jobs by cutting taxes. Linda McQuaig writes that the problem is that Hudak’s plan is an hallucination: But what makes Hudak’s plan veer beyond nutty to insidious is the fact that it’s coupled with a plan to cut
Continue reading