Doing The Corporate Dance
The Liberal Party’s traditional strategy of campaigning from the left and governing from the right led the late Rene Levesque to conclude that the party was “the biggest whorehouse in…
Owen Gray
A Bad Year For The Environment
Canada’s native peoples understand how toxic the Harper government is for the environment. So does the Toronto Star: Bill C-38 included more than $160 million in cuts to environmental spending,…
Out of Touch
There is no love lost between Stephen Harper and Joe Clark. When Clark’s official portrait was hung in the Centre Block four years ago, Stephane Dion and Paul Martin attended…
Private Wealth and Public Squalor
Today’s Toronto Star reports that things have been as they are in Attawapiskat for decades — and there’s not a lot of hope that they will change: The community was…
How Not To Buy An Airplane
David Olive writes that the F-35 fiasco is a case study in how to bungle a military purchase: If anything’s to be gained from the monumental botch that is the…
Holding Their Breath
It’s truly remarkable. The Republican Party will not move away from its one big idea: No new taxes. Ever. After losing in November, Republicans appear to have chosen David Farragut…
Doomed To Repeat Themselves
Today, Postmedia’s Michael den Tandt asks a question of national import: Can the Conservatives learn from their mistakes? For, indeed, they have made many. But they all add up to…
Democracy Or Oligarchy
The American editor and essayist Lewis Lapham has delineated the three hallmarks of democracy. Michael Harris refers to them in a piece he wrote for ipolitics: Lewis Lapham, author and…
A Reader’s Response
Two days ago, I published a post on Stephen Harper and guns. Yesterday, I received an email from a reader. That term, while accurate, is a bit misleading. Like me,…
Behind The Numbers
When Parliamentary Budget Officer Kevin Page released a report two weeks ago, which documented the average annual salary of a federal employee as $114,100, there were howls from the usual…
Harper And Guns
On the day the NRA advocated having an armed guard in every American school, Thomas Walkom wrote that the gun issue could come back to haunt Stephen Harper. For all…
She Has His Number
As Theresa Spence enters the tenth day of her hunger strike — and as Canada’s First Nations put the Harper government on notice that they will be Idle No Longer…
The War On Wages Continues
On the subject of rotating teacher strikes in Ontario, Tom Walkom offers a little historical perspective: When Bob Rae’s New Democratic Party government overrode collective agreements in 1993, many private…
No Lincoln
Errol Mendes writes that Stephen Harper recently went to see Stephen Spielberg’s Lincoln. If Harper saw himself in the man, he’s deluded: If he saw any of himself in the…
Getting Their Act Together
A new poll, published by Forum Research, predicts that, if there is a by-election in Toronto, Rob Ford will be reinstated as mayor — unless his opponent is Olivia Chow:…
Elizabeth May
As 2012 draws to a close, Michael Harris reviews the state of all of Canada’s federal parties — except the Bloc Quebecois. He has some insightful comments about each. But…
Evidence Suggests Now Is The Time For Pension Reform
Martin Regg Cohn writes that federal bureaucrats have presented Finance Minister Jim Flaherty with a plan to shore up the faltering Canadian pension system. Private pensions have been decimated by…
Sometimes They’re Are No Words
But the American columnist E.J. Dionne has found some that adequately describe the situation: We have had enough. American politics is plagued by timidity and paralyzed by opportunism whenever we…
The Truth? What’s That?
For those who wonder why Peter MacKay is stiill in cabinet, Michael Harris has a straightforward answer: Very simple; Peter MacKay has done no worse on this file than Stephen…
Underhanded Economists
The F-35 fiasco should serve as a cautionary tale: beware of politicians who claim to be economists. For, Andrew Coyne writes, — even as the Harperites peg the cost of…