Lots of Pictures
This week’s summit between First Nations chiefs and the Prime Minister played out according to Stephen Harper tightly scripted wishes. It was all pictures, good wishes and no substance. Harper…
Owen Gray
Money Means Free Speech?
In this morning’s Globe and Mail, Gerry Nicholls takes on critics of the recent National Citizens Coalition ad attacking Bob Rae. He complains that our laws: impose severe legal restrictions…
Would Ike Be A Republican Today?
As Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich tear away at each other — claiming that each benefited mightily from the government they both claim to despise — Lawrence Martin reminds his…
Stephen Harper’s Wooden Head
“Learning from experience,” the American historian Barbara Tuchman wrote, “is a faculty almost never practised.” The truth of that claim is readily apparent in Canada. In fact, Stephen Harper is…
Labour In The Crosshairs
The day before thousands of people gathered in London to support Electro-Motive’s locked out workers, Jim Stanford wrote in the Globe and Mail that labour is facing a brave new…
Blowing Hot Hair
Tom Walkom has a way of pricking the hot air balloons which the Harper Conservatives keep trying to launch. In today’s Toronto Star, he writes that Canada’s current international swagger…
About Those Capital Gains Taxes
Mitt Romney has so far refused to release information on his taxes. There is a good reason why he hasn’t. If those documents see the light of day, it will…
So Much For Republican Populism
When the Tea Party surged to the polls two years ago, some commentators saw a right wing populist movement taking control of the Republican Party. But E.J. Dionne writes this…
The Passsive Investor
Daniel Veniez argues that, under Stephen Harper, Ottawa has become a “passive investor” in the provinces. Harper’s view of the Canadian Constitution is that of a Biblical fundamentalist — the…
The Myth Of The Reluctant Politician
We all yearn for a modern day Cincinatus, who — so the story goes — left his quiet life on the farm to serve Rome. In truth, Cincinatus was a…
The Rebuttal
Roy Romanow and his associates have penned a must read rebuttal to the Conservative government’s new vision of healthcare. In today’s Globe and Mail, they write: Successful nations are built…
Math Challenged
Minister of Finance Jim Flaherty announced recently that his government is going to get serious about cutting costs: “This is hard work,” he said. “And of course, there can be…
Presidents and Busineesmen
Mitt Romney, whose reported net worth is somewhere north of $200 million, argues that he knows how to make all Americans wealthier. In what is perhaps the deepest irony of…
Lise St. Denis
The New Democrats are understandably furious at Lise St. Denis. But, as Chantal Hebert points out, her decision was hardly self serving: Lise St-Denis could easily have continued to collect…
Oil Is Their Lifeblood
If there was any doubt that the Harper government is owned by the oil companies, Joe Oliver’s rant last week against foreign “billionaire socialists” should put an end to any…
So Much For Senate Reform
“The Upper House remains a dumping ground for the favoured cronies of the prime minister,” a righteous Stephen Harper proclaimed back in 2004. As is always the case with this…
A Passion For Politics
There has been a lot of talk over the last couple of years about reforming Canada’s democratic institutions — electing the Senate, moving to proportional representation, and cleaning up Question…
Selective Memory
In his song,The Boxer, Paul Simon sang, “A man hears what he wants to hear, and disregards the rest.” Frank Bruni points out, in this morning’s New York Times, that…
A Long Way To Go
After the last election, Peter C. Newman wrote an obituary for the Liberal Party. Some of us thought it was premature — if only because a week is a long…
Where Are The Ideas?
Susan Riley writes this morning that Canada is in desperate need of new ideas: We need (another) overhaul of the tax system, to remove boutique credits that add complexity at…