According to Bill Morneau, “as Minister of Finance, my only job is to make sure that Canadians can keep food in the fridge.” That’s actually a rare useful thought for a federal finance minister to keep front of mind in calamitous circumstances like the present ones. Economist Jim Stanford (Photo:
Continue readingTag: Andrew Scheer
Alberta Politics: With coronavirus chaos south of the line, brace yourself for some of it to come to our way in Canada
U.S. President Donald J. Trump’s incompetent and ideologically driven response to the international coronavirus crisis poses a serious national security threat to Canada. Can we do anything about it? Say, closing the border to non-Canadian travellers from the United States, as Russia sealed its border with China in the first
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On continued embarrassments
Abbas Rana’s revelation that the Cons have decided to protect all of their incumbent MPs from any internal accountability seems to have received relatively little attention. But it’s particularly worth paying attention to it given how many Cons have gone out of their way to demonstrate they’re not up to
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Can Canada’s Conservatives resist temptation to try to sabotage the accord with the Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs?
It will be interesting to see how the Conservative Opposition in Ottawa and Alberta’s Conservative government react to yesterday’s announcement the federal and British Columbia governments have reached an accord with the Wet’suwet’en First Nation that would recognize its system of hereditary governance. Participants said the agreement reached yesterday in
Continue readingWarren Kinsella: My latest: police, politicians and protestors
Can the politicians tell the police to take down the barricades? If not, why not? Those are the two questions that have been mooted for more than two weeks now. Around the nation’s water coolers, in just about every Tim Horton’s, frustrated and angry Canadians – Indigenous and otherwise –
Continue readingAlberta Politics: What really happened to the Teck Frontier oilsands mine? It’s the market, stupid!
So what really happened to the Teck Frontier oilsands mine? Hint: It wasn’t anything Justin Trudeau did or didn’t do. That’s pure United Conservative Party gas lighting, a game a career politician like Alberta Premier Jason Kenney just can’t make himself stop playing. Alberta Premier Jason Kenney (Photo: David J.
Continue readingMontreal Simon: Has Andrew Scheer Finally Finally Lost His Marbles?
As you may know, I have always been deeply concerned about Andrew Scheer's mental stability. His creepy smile, his religious extremism, his feverish obsession with Justin Trudeau, and his compulsive desire to strangle the truth, always made me wonder whether he was going off the deep end.And sure enough, I truly believe
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Is the Conservative Opposition a national government in waiting or a separatist bloc? Andrew Scheer must decide
Who said, “At time of global economic instability, Canada’s government must stand unequivocally for keeping the country together”? I won’t tease you. It was Stephen Harper, on Dec. 3, 2008. Former Conservative prime minister Stephen Harper (Photo: Prime Minister of Greece). Prime minister Harper, desperate to avoid a non-confidence vote
Continue readingAlberta Politics: The state of the art of Conservative victimhood in Alberta: Cue the violins! Here comes the Buffalo Declaration!
Cue the violins! No one does victimhood like an Alberta Conservative contemplating the prospect of another term in Opposition overlooking the Ottawa River. Michelle Rempel Garner, the Blocker Queen of Twitter and Conservative MP for the monochromatic suburban wasteland of Calgary Nose Hill, apparently wants us to think she is
Continue readingAlberta Politics: We do face a national crisis in Canada; it’s not caused by a few non-violent Indigenous blockades
We do face a serious national crisis in Canada. It is not caused by a few rail and road blockades by First Nations activists and their allies, however. Nor is it caused by environmentalists to some of whom the grave issues facing Indigenous Canadians may be secondary but who view
Continue readingWarren Kinsella: My latest: ten reasons why Peter MacKay has a shot
Peter MacKay has hit a rough patch. Weird social media. Policy incoherence. Crummy French. Interviews going awry. Sure, he’s coughed up the big entrance fee, and proffered the requisite number of signatures. Came up with a nice logo. Attracted the support of smart backroomers, and figured out how to avoid
Continue readingMontreal Simon: How The Cons Became The Trump Party
It's a political story that ends in a graveyard, and I've been telling it for a long time. The story of the Harper Party, and how the Cons became more American than Canadian.So when Donald Trump came along they fell on their knees before him.Read more »
Continue readingMontreal Simon: Has Andrew Scheer Gone Over The Deep End?
He looks like the same old Andrew Scheer, the Con in the same blue suit, with the same creepy smile.But don't be fooled. He may have only five months to go as Con leader, but his feverish obsession to try to destroy Justin Trudeau has never been greater.And he has
Continue readingMontreal Simon: The Ugly Cons and the Incredible Contracting Leadership Race
The last time the Cons held a leadership contest, just about everybody agreed that there were too many candidates, and it was real horror show..But this time the Cons have another problem, an incredible contracting leadership race.Where there are now so few candidates, some are worried it could end up looking
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Peter MacKay may be One Candidate to Rule Them All — but can he save the party of Preston, Stockwell & Steve?
There are those who say we should be bracing ourselves for the return of President Steve. Say it ain’t so! Stephen Harper (Photo: Remy Steinegger, Creative Commons). We can expect know today if Stephen Harper is going to re-emerge to make a re-run to re-lead the Conservative Party of Canada
Continue readingWarren Kinsella: Of doughnuts and beards and the like
The Conservative Party – back when it knew how to win, and when it was preoccupied with winning more than whining – was pretty good at symbols. Symbol-wise, ten years ago, the Conservatives’ communications strategy always came back a single theme: that Michael Ignatieff out-of-touch and from Mars – while
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: “Enter Laughing.”
So, you want to be an actor? And Canada is the theatre. Nova Scotian Peter MacKay, once more wants to be conservative leader. It reminds us of the semi-autobiographical novel by American humourist Carl Reiner. He turned the book into a successful movie in 1967 and launched his career in
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Brace yourselves, Alberta, Premier Kenney’s promising us another spring of renewal!
Good Lord, can Alberta survive another spring of renewal like the last one? Another springtime of renewal — that’s what Government House Leader Jason Nixon and the United Conservative Party’s meme machine were promising yesterday with the announcement the Alberta Legislature well get back to business on Feb. 25. Alberta
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