The year end interview with CTV’s Bob Fife is off. That’s because there’s nothing Stephen Harper wants to talk about. It’s been that kind of year. It’s been the kind of year that Eric Grenier believes may well have sunk the good ship Harper: The polls have gone from bad
Continue readingAuthor: Owen Gray
Northern Reflections: In A Dark Place
The Harper Party has changed its name three times. First it was the Reform Party. Then it was the Canadian Alliance. And, finally, it called itself the Conservative Party. The last label is entirely disingenuous. Both Rob Ford and Stephen Harper claim they are Conservatives. Those claims are as fatuous
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: The Same People
As finance ministers meet today, Jim Flaherty argues that our fragile economy can’t afford enhancing the Canada Pension Plan. It’s the latest version of an old argument — the very argument that got us into our mess in the first place. Paul Krugman writes that Flaherty’s world view is at
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: They Call That Accountability
Last week, the Harper government announced that it was going to tighten the rules on the transportation of petroleum by rail. But, for this government, the proclamation of the rules and the enforcement of them are mutually exclusive propositions. Cutbacks cripple enforcement. David McGuinty says: “My first concern is the
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: From Newpeak To Nospeak
We learned in the Throne Speech that the Harper government was consumer friendly. But this week — when Canadians learned that they would be paying more for less service from the Post Office — the House of Commons was empty. Andrew Coyne writes: Not only was the House of Commons
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Mr. Harper And The Pope
Conservatives are not happy with Pope Francis. He has attacked their rosetta stone. And he’s pulling no punches: “The danger in today’s world,” he says, “pervaded as it is by consumerism, is the desolation and anguish born of a complacent yet covetous heart, the feverish pursuit of frivolous pleasures, and
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Cruel And Unusual Punishment
Jim Flaherty vows that the budget will be balanced by the next election. But at what cost? Daniel Tencer, of The Huffington Post, writes: Job creation in Canada this year has been the weakest in a non-recession year in more than a decade, and the low quality of the jobs
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Where’s Justin?
There’s been a lot of talk about Michael Chong’s Reform Act. But, curiously, neither Justin Trudeau nor Tom Mulcair is doing any talking. Lawrence Martin wrote yesterday that: For a long time, the Liberals and New Democrats have been questioned about the need to prepare grand reform and for a
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Not A Banner Year
This has not been a good year for Stephen Harper. It began with Harper unleashing the Deloitte audit dogs on Chief Theresa Spence. And it ended with his attempt to call them off Mike Duffy. Between the Deloitte bookends, it was one debacle after another. Michael Harris writes: The PM
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Samller and Smaller
There has been lots of speculation recently that Stephen Harper might be ready to walk off into a snowstorm. But his appointment last week of Dimitri Soudas as the executive director of the Conservative Party has dampened such speculation. Michael den Tandt writes that no one knows what Harper is
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Paying The Piper
On Thursday, Andrew Mitrovica summarized what we know about Rob Ford: We now know this about Ford. He is a habitual liar. He is said to have uttered racist and homophobic slurs. He pisses behind elementary schools in broad daylight. He has repeatedly exchanged suspicious packages at suspicious times with
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: For The Birds
The irony is of epic proportions. The Jewish National Fund plans to put Stephen Harper’s name on a bird sanctuary. It shall be called The Stephen J. Harper Hula Valley Bird Sanctuary Visitor and Education Centre. Michael Harris writes that naming a bird sanctuary after Stephen Harper is like naming
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Nelson Mandela
For Nelson Mandela, greatness was not the province of a few. For him, every man and woman who walked the earth had the potential to be great. “We ask ourselves,” he said, “who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?” Actually, who are we not to be? You are
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Floating On Hot Air
The Warrior-in-Chief has been cowed. Tom Walkom notes that Stephen Harper’s bellicose rhetoric has cooled: The prime minister’s references to Afghanistan now are usually brief and elliptical, as they were on Remembrance Day when he listed Kandahar as one of the many places in which Canadian troops have fought and
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: By The People
It’s an indication of just how far we have strayed, that Michael Chong’s bill merely seeks to put centuries old parliamentary conventions in writing. Not surprisingly, Andrew Coyne writes, there are a chorus of naysayers: The bill, it was said, would never pass. Or if it did, would make no
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Mankind Is The Business Of Foreign Affairs
Trade Minister Ed Fast announced last week that, under the Harper government, the Foreign Affairs Department would focus on “economic diplomacy.” Michael Harris writes that Preston Manning understood Stephen Harper’s limitations: Former mentor and Conservative guru Preston Manning remembered this of Harper’s time as a Reform MP: “One thing that
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Too Late?
Michael Warren writes that Stephen Harper is rapidly approaching the moment where he will have to choose between himself and his party: The events that unfold in front of him in the months ahead hold little hope of vindication. His unlikely version of the Senate scandal will either completely collapse
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: The Surveillance State
Stephen Harper claims that Bill C-13 is the bane of cyber-bullies. That’s true. But, Michael Spratt writes, the bill is much more than that: The government’s talking points notwithstanding, only a small portion of C-13 deals with cyber-bullying. Most of the bill is devoted to expanding police powers to search
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: "I Could Care Less"
That was Stephen Harper’s message to the Conservatives Halloween convention. This week — after watching their western numbers drop, after refusing to call witnesses to testify to the Senate Committee looking into Mike Duffy’s expenses, and after listening to Paul Calandra’s absurd answers in question period — it’s obvious that
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: A Matter Of Self Respect
The Senate scandal has shredded Stephen Harper’s credibility. You would think that would cause a caucus revolt. But, Michael Den Tandt writes, it isn’t happening: I caught nary a whisper of this turning into open revolt or even a long-term subterranean assault along the lines of former prime minister Paul
Continue reading