The day after Rob Ford publicly denied using crack cocaine, The Globe and Mail runs a story claiming that his brother Doug used to traffic in hash: Ten people who grew up with Doug Ford – a group that includes two former hashish suppliers, three street-level drug dealers and a
Continue readingAuthor: Owen Gray
Northern Reflections: The Phony Conservative
For anyone who has been paying attention, it’s been evident for a long time that Stephen Harper is a phony. There has always been a chasm between what he says and what he does. The Duffy-Wright Affair has once again illustrated that chasm. Michael Harris writes that Harper is no
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Michael Corleone In Ottawa
Stephen Harper says he knew nothing about Nigel’s Wright’s cheque to Mike Duffy. That’s probably true. But Harper’s plea of ignorance does not preclude his giving Wright instructions to make Duffy an offer he couldn’t refuse. Harper learned long ago that, like any good don, he had to insulate himself
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Their Howard Beale Moment
Yesterday Stephen Harper held a pep rally and beat it out of town. He gave no answers. He thinks it will go away. But, as Lawrence Martin wrote yesterday in the Globe and Mail, the integrity issue is reaching a critical mass. It’s not about Mike Duffy or Nigel Wright
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Who They Are
Beginning with his caucus meeting today, Stephen Harper will try to wash his hands of The Duffy Matter. But, Andrew Coyne writes in The National Post, this stain will not wash away. To begin with, Nigel Wright’s claim that his personal cheque was charity to a friend in need simply
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Nixonian
In an attempt to put Nigel Wright’s resignation in perspective, Paul Wells returns to a passage he and John Geddes wrote two years ago: Someone who was there paraphrased Harper’s message to his ministers at his first cabinet meeting in 2006: “I am the kingpin. So whatever you do around
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: The Wrong Kind Of Attention
Last week, Toronto Star columnist Rick Salutin compared Joe Oliver to Willy Loman, the woefully misguided drummer in Arthur Miller’s play, Death of A Salesman. In Canada’s ongoing pipeline saga, Salutin wrote: Resources Minister Joe Oliver is the Willy Loman of this drama, without Willy’s panache. His attacks on climate
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: A Culture Of Entitlement
Following the news that Pamela Wallin has resigned from the Conservative caucus, Andrew Coyne takes a hard look at the Mike Duffy fiasco: So Duffy’s behaviour is not the issue. The issue is the culture that enabled it. The Tories may find it expedient to disown him now, but it
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: The Henchman’s Curse
Two of Stephen Harper’s senate appointments have been shoved out of the Conservative caucus. The Senate was their reward for doing the Prime Minister’s dirty work. But one of life’s axioms is that what goes around comes around. Patrick Brazeau helped Stephen Harper kill the Kelowna Accord. It was Brazeau,
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: That Vision Thing
Tom Walkom’s analysis of the BC election is interesting. In the end, he writes, British Columbians were asked to choose between two negatives: On Tuesday, B.C. voters were left with two negative questions: Did they hate the Liberals enough to get rid of them? Or did they fear the New
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Time To Ditch The Duffer
Tom Walkom writes that when it comes to residency, Senate rules are unambiguous: The constitution act is crystal clear on this. It says a senator must be at least 30 years old, own $4,000 worth of real estate in the province he represents and be “resident in the province for
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Citizens, Not Consumers
Natalie Brender writes in The Toronto Star that, if disasters such as the factory collapse in Bangladesh are to be avoided in the future, we are going to have to stop acting as consumers and start acting as citizens. Private initiatives by non governmental agencies aren’t enough: As usual, the
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Stiglitz On Higher Education
Joseph Stiglitz writes in this morning’s New York Times that, just as America is beginning to recover from the crisis which rocked the world financial system, another storm is about to hit: The crisis that is about to break out involves student debt and how we finance higher education. Like
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: The Nasty Party
Andrew Coyne’s opinions tend to fall on the right side of the political spectrum. That fact, however, does not make him a fan of the Harper government. In this morning’s National Post he writes: We’ve had some thuggish or dishonest governments in the past, even some corrupt ones, but never
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Big Steve Is Watching You
One wonders if the Harper caucus has any backbone at all. We know that Big Steve has spent taxpayer money keeping an eye on his own MPs: Opposition parties accused Stephen Harper’s government of spying on its own MPs and being poor money managers Thursday after The Huffington Post Canada
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: You Can’t Believe A Word
Andrew Coyne has an interesting take on the National Research Council’s new mandate. The NRC was originally established to do the kind of research which business could not and should not do: Hence it is well-established economic principle that basic research is the sort of thing governments should fund. By
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: "We Don’t Make Mistakes. Bureaucrats Do."
When Marc Garneau — Canada’s first astronaut — was not invited to a ceremony celebrating the Canadarm’s contribution to space exploration, the Harper government blamed that oversight on the officials at the air museum and space agency, who issued the invitations. Hard to believe, writes Michael Harris: And is the
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Canadian Class Warfare
Linda McQuaig writes that, until the temporary foreign workers program blew up in its face, the Harper government was able to keep one of its key initiatives — class warfare — under the radar: Apart from this clumsy fiasco, the Harperites have been adroit at keeping their anti-worker bias under
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Pontification From The Pompous
Conrad Black — that great defender of the Common Man — argued in Saturday’s National Post that public service unions are a public plague. He was defending the Harper government’s decision to dictate labour policy at the CBC, Canada Post and Via Rail. The solution to public service strikes is
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: The Resource Curse
In a recent interview with The Globe and Mail, Al Gore referred to something he called The Resource Curse: The so-called resource curse is most often understood in the context of small nations whose revenue streams are dominated by the exploitation of a single resource. It’s a bit more complex
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