Playing Into His Hands
A lot can happen before the next election. But, Andrew Coyne writes, public perceptions of the opposition leaders are beginning to solidify. Justin Trudeau has had a good summer: The…
Owen Gray
Harper Unleashes The Dogs Of War
Stephen Harper is stocking his office with fanatical loyalists and delivering red meat speeches about the “dangerous” opposition. Clearly he is preparing to go to war — not in Syria,…
Canada’s Sonny Corleone
Scott Reid writes in The Ottawa Citizen that the Senate scandal has forced Stephen Harper to give the Prime Minister’s Office a makeover. But that makeover isn’t merely cosmetic: But…
A Dream Denied
There was a great deal of fanfare a couple of weeks ago, when thousands of people gathered on The Mall to commemorated the 50th Anniversary of The March on Washington.…
It’s Still The Economy, Stupid
Justin Trudeau has been talking about pot. Tom Mulcair has been talking about abolishing the Senate. But, Paul Wells writes in Macleans, that talk will not generate votes in the…
Hope Where Power Is Divorced From Politics
Henry Giroux is one of neo-liberalism’s fiercest critics, From McMaster University, he now writes about his native land with burning passion. In the United States, Giroux opines, power has become…
Anti Union Snake Oil
Modern conservatism has been repeating the same balderdash for three decades — that unions are bad for the economy. The Fraser Institute, predictably, has jumped on the bandwagon. Andrew Jackson…
Buyer’s Remorse
Even as Stephen Harper repeats his mantra that he knows best how to manage the economy, the ground is shifting under his feet. The Hill Times reports that: The Conservatives…
Memory Serves
A generation has passed since Sally Field won an Oscar for her performance in Norma Rae. Most people have forgotten the film. They have forgotten the battles auto workers waged…
The Artic Shadow
Michael Byers, the Canada Research Chair in Global Politics and International Law at the University of British Columbia, writes that during his recent Arctic Tour Stephen Harper tried to look…
No Simple Answers
The United States and France appear ready to attack Syria. If that happens, Iran says it is ready to attack Israel. And Israel has atomic weapons. Bob Rae wrote this…
Not Dead Yet
After the last election, Peter C. Newman offered the opinion that Michael Ignatieff had presided over the death of the Liberal Party of Canada. But Michael Den Tandt writes from…
Making Duffy An Enemy
John Ivison compares Senator Mike Duffy to Kevin Spacey’s character in the recently released film House of Cards: Frank “The Whip” Underwood was speaking from experience when he said: “Friends…
Separating The Parties
Quebec is a French island in an English ocean. That’s undeniable. The question has always been, “How should Quebecers react to that fact?” There have always been those who have…
He’s Got To Be Kidding
Peter MacKay has accused Justin Trudeau of committing a criminal offence by smoking pot. But, as Althia Raj, of The Huffington Post, writes: While it is illegal to grow, traffic…
No Economic Geniuses
Scott Clark and Peter Devries write that the stated focus of Jim Flaherty’s seventh annual “national policy retreat” was job creation and economic growth. The Harper government likes to repeat…
They Know A Phoney When They See One
The folks on the Rock are very good at spotting poseurs. The Toronto Star has reprinted an editorial from the St. John’s Telegraph which captures what Stephen Harper’s trip to…
Refusing to See Them
Stephen Harper’s Northern Tour was supposed to be a political triumph. He delivered red meat speeches about the “vacuous” and “dangerous” opposition. And he announced that he was running in…
Can We Take Him At His Word?
When asked this week if he would run for re-election in 2015, Stephen Harper answered, “Of course, yes.” It was a pretty flatfooted statement. But Tasha Kheiriddin, one of the…
The Founding Fathers Would Weep
Chris Hedges writes that, with the sentencing of Bradley Manning, the United States is now a penal colony: There are strict rules now in our American penal colony. If we…