Removing All Doubt
At Margaret Thatcher’s funeral this week, Stephen Harper couldn’t resist the opportunity to attack Justin Trudeau. Even though the reporter who asked the question made no mention of Trudeau’s comment…
Owen Gray
Vampire Government
Claiming “We Can’t Afford It,” The Harper government has been killing all arms length entities whose job has been to hold the government to account. Its latest target is the…
No "There" There
Taking his cue from Andrew Coyne’s recent column on the utter vacuity of Canada’s three major political parties, Zack Paikin writes that the Conservative Party has replaced values with venom.…
It’s About Selfishness
“The modern conservative,” John Kenneth Galbraith wrote, “is engaged in one of man’s oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness.” He…
Lectures From Hypocrites
Jim Flaherty’s lecture to Manulife caused the company to reverse its mortgage rate — and it caused a kerfuffle in the Conservative chorus. Mad Max Bernier publicly disagreed with his…
Propagating A Lie
Truth is always the first casualty of war. But, on the tenth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, Richard Gwyn writes that truth died before that war started: In Bush’s…
No Progressive
The Harperites — not surprisingly — accused Thomas Mulcair of traitorous behaviour when, during his recent Washinton gambit, he did not give his full throated support to the Keystone XL…
The Escalating War on Labour
We hear that Ontario’s ongoing dispute with teachers is about extra curricular activities and the deficit. It’s about neither. Tom Walkom writes in the Toronto Star: At its heart, this…
The Disposable Citizen
Several years ago, the American educator Henry Giroux moved to Canada to take the Global Television Network Chair in English and Cultural Studies at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. From…
Aboriginal Anger
Stephen Harper must feel he has dodged a bullet. Theresa Spence has left the island; and all appears calm along the banks of the Ottawa River. Now, as he did…
Life In The Land Of The Muzzled
When Hugo Chavez died last week, Stephen Harper said, “At this key juncture, I hope the people of Venezuela can now build for themselves a better, brighter future based on…
Conservative Snake Oil
For thirty years, neo-conservatives have been selling a myth. From Ronald Reagan, through George W. Bush to Stephen Harper, they have pitched the idea that they know how to manage…
Getting Tired And Tiresome
Lawrence Martin wrote in yesterday’s Globe and Mail that those who predicted Justin Trudeau would be this decade’s Kim Campbell may yet live to eat crow: When the poll numbers…
Co-operatism Vs Corporatism
Paul Adams writes that it will probably take another election defeat before the Liberals and the NDP decide there is good reason for them to work together. Each party has…
Manning’s True Colours
After attending the 1993 Reform Party Convention, the late Dalton Camp wrote: “The speechifying gives off acrid whiffs of xenophobia, homophobia, and paranoia—like an exhaust—in which it seems clear both…
Imprisoning The Disadvantaged
Howard Sapers, the ombudsman for Corrections Canada, released a report yesterday on the aboriginal population in this nation’s prisons. His findings should disturb all Canadians, native and non-native. The lead…
EI Backlash
Stephen Harper does not play well with others. Chantal Hebert writes: Under Harper, the First Ministers no longer gather and the unsolicited input of the premiers usually falls on deaf…
Real Economists
Jim Flaherty dances to Stephen Harper’s tune. Flaherty, after all, is merely a lawyer. Harper likes to remind everyone that he possesses a master’s degree from the University of Calgary.…
Too Old Or Too Rigid?
The Pope’s retirement led Gautam Makunda to write that it’s dangerous to allow the old too close to power: Power itself has profound, and usually toxic, effects on those who…
Feed The Hungry
The United Nations Right To Food Envoy, Olivier De Shutter, has taken the Harper government to task for its cavalier treatment of the hungry: The United Nations right-to-food envoy says…