Canada’s political leaders are having a hard time. Lawrence Martin writes: The Angus Reid Institute put out an analysis last week saying the leaders of Canada’s major federal political parties have never been held in such dismal regard. It was based on an analysis of 50 years of public-opinion data.
Continue readingAuthor: Owen Gray
Northern Reflections: Who He And They Are
Yesterday, Donald Trump crossed the river over to New Jersey and held a rally. Marianne Levine reports: Donald Trump on Saturday insulted the prosecutor who has charged him in his ongoing New York criminal trial, speaking at a large rally on the Jersey Shore filled with personal attacks, coarse language
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Championing Canada
It’s easy to paint Pierre Poilievre as the Trump of the North. His “everything is broken” meme is right out of Trump’s playbook. But Robin Sears writes that turning Poilievre into a mini-Trump cheapens Canadian politics: Justin Trudeau must avoid the temptation to paint Poilievre as a Trump mini-me. It
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Who Would Replace Him?
There’s lots of talk these days about Justin Trudeau resigning. Michael Harris writes: With Trudeau having notched three electoral victories since 2015, nobody is going to push him out — at least not yet. After all, with a handsome face and a famous name, he took the Liberals from political
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Who He Is
You know a man by the company he keeps. Consider this from Althia Raj: Perhaps Poilievre thought he had little to risk when he decided to stop and say hello to an encampment at the Nova Scotia-New Brunswick border, where a group of citizens, surrounded by weathered Canadian and “F—
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: An Intergenerational Battle
A battle is brewing between Canada’s generations. Max Fawcett writes: Young Canadians can be forgiven for being a bit confused by the latest federal budget. For the first time in their lives, they’re looking at a budget that explicitly tries to cater to their needs and interests — and
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: It’s About Over-Extraction
The Liberals say that their budget is about restoring generational fairness. Some economists say that the problem is over-extraction. Evan Dyer writes: “Income matters less than it used to. Access to secure housing matters so much more,” said Paul Kershaw, a professor at the UBC School of Population and Public
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: In The Gutter
Craig Wallace writes that you can’t run a country on outrage and insults. But that, apparently, is what Pierre Poilievre intends to do. Wallace writes: If recent polls remain the same, sometime between now and October 2025 Conservative Party of Canada (CPC) Leader Pierre Poilievre will become Canada’s next prime
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Today’s The Day
Today’s the day Donald Trump goes to criminal court. Jennifer Rubin writes: The day has finally arrived for the historic trial in Manhattan of Donald Trump on charges of falsifying business documents. The case concerns Trump’s scheme to conceal embarrassing information from voters in the 2016 election. Derided as a
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Idiocy — Pure In Simple
Arizona women are now living with an anti-abortion law that was passed in 1864 before they had the right to vote. Dana Milbank writes: Trump accurately boasts that “I was able to kill Roe v. Wade” and “I was proudly the person responsible.” As a result of his achievement, conservatives
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: The Dumbest
Max Fawcett writes that Doug Ford is dumbing down Ontario: At an announcement for a new medical school at York University, Ford suggested that he wanted to get rid of all the province’s international post-secondary students. It does not appear to have occurred to Ford that those students currently make
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: A Weird, Weird World
Fifty years ago, Louis Armstrong had a big hit singing “What A Wonderful World.” That song doesn’t characterize the world we live in. Susan Riley writes: Anyone looking for evidence that we live in a post-policy, post-fact, increasingly incoherent political moment only needs to look at the war against the
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Here Come The Nutbars
InfoWars nutbar Alex Jones has endorsed Pierre Poilievre. Emily Leedham writes: Pierre Poilievre has earned a new admirer — conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. Jones, who regularly promotes conspiracy theories and hateful rhetoric through his website InfoWars, took time during a recent broadcast to heap praise on Canada’s newly elected Conservative
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Climate Fools
Max Fawcett writes that Conservative climate policy is a joke: There’s a growing irony in the carbon tax increase falling on April Fools’ Day every year, since it now offers an annual reminder of just what a joke the Conservative Party of Canada’s approach to climate change has become. As
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Holy, Holy, Holy
Donald Trump is hawking Bibles. Michael Harris writes: It wasn’t cologne. It wasn’t those $399 Never Surrender gold high-top running shoes. It wasn’t a T-shirt featuring Teflon Don’s mugshot. It wasn’t even dubious steaks, or third-rate wine. It was the Bible. And Pastor Trump was making it available in
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Lies Can Get You A Long Way
Pierre Poilievre keeps repeating a lie. Bruce Arthur writes: The top issue facing Canadians right now, if you ask Canadians, is affordability. Inflation rose, and is falling to a new, higher floor. Housing costs are the end of the fuse on a time bomb. It’s tough out there for a
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: A Contrary View
If the polls are to be believed, we are headed for a Conservative juggernaut. Susan Riley isn’t so sure: Lurking somewhere between despair and denial, you can spot tiny glimmers of hope for non-Conservative voters in this country—in what is, admittedly, an otherwise dire and discouraging political landscape. These glimmers
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Wisdom That Will Be Missed
On the day of Brian Mulroney’s state funeral, Catherine McKenna writes that Brian Mulroney was wise in a way that today’s Conservatives aren’t: In 1987, U.S. president Ronald Reagan and prime minister Brian Mulroney stood side by side to announce the Montreal Protocol, one of the world’s most successful treaties,
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: The Carbon Tax: In Memorium
Max Fawcett writes that the carbon tax is dead: How did the Trudeau government’s signature climate policy turn into a political albatross? As Ernest Hemingway might say: gradually, then suddenly. Pierre Poilievre’s pledge to “axe the tax” has helped him open up an increasingly massive lead in the polls, while
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: No Bosom Buddies
You might think that, if Pierre Poilievre becomes prime minister, Doug Ford would be ecstatic. Martin Regg Cohn writes that such is not the case: By rights, these two right-wingers should be soul mates. Yet they are anything but. Premier Doug Ford and federal Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre barely know
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