Stephen Harper – he haunts us still!
Stephen Harper is having a bit of a moment lately, thanks to his instantly notorious selfie last week with Hungarian neofascist Viktor Orbán, which both of them proudly tweeted about.…
Canadian Politics
Compare and contrast: Convoy occupations and border blockades versus B.C. port strike
It was almost two weeks after the trucks rolled into Ottawa and blockaded the Canada-U.S. border at Coutts, Alta., before the leaders of the Conservative Party of Canada began to…
That interim report of the Public Health Emergencies Governance Review Panel? Nothing to see here, folks
Having promised back in January that an interim report of the COVID-19 review panel for which former Reform Party Leader Preston Manning was to be paid $235,000 would be handed…
News coverage of B.C. port strike unfolds according to the usual predictable, misleading formula
The strike by 7,400 longshore workers in Vancouver, Prince Rupert, Nanaimo and Port Alberni is no exception to the rule that news reporting of labour disputes impacting West Coast ports…
‘National Citizen’s Inquiry’ into COVID-19 objects to TikTok ban; meanwhile, Alberta’s official version of the same thing is doing something
The so-called “National Citizens Inquiry” established last fall by Preston Manning complained on Easter Sunday that TikTok has joined YouTube in suspending its account, presumably for spreading misinformation about COVID-19.…
Alberta’s dangerous lurch to the far-right
The following is an excerpt from the forthcoming book, Anger and Angst: Jason Kenney’s Legacy and Alberta’s Right, edited by Trevor Harrison and Ricardo Acuña. At this book’s heart lies…
China’s spending money to undermine Canadian democracy? If they’ll just leave us alone, we’ll take care of it ourselves!
If the People’s Republic of China is trying as hard as the Conservative Party of Canada insists it is to undermine Canadian democracy, it’s hard to understand why they’re bothering.…
Federal environment minister spoke softly about that unreported toxic sludge leak, but Ottawa carries a big stick
Ottawa can afford to speak softly on constitutional matters because it carries a big stick. One of Imperial Oil Resources Ltd.’s drainage ponds at its Kearl site north of Fort…
National Advisory Committee on Immunization recommends spring COVID boosters for groups at risk of severe illness
A new guidance on COVID-19 boosters issued yesterday by the National Advisory Committee on Immunization recommends that an additional booster dose be offered to people at increased risk of severe…
Ron Liepert, colourful former Alberta cabinet minister who unseated ‘Canada’s Worst MP,’ is set to retire
When Calgary Signal Hill Conservative MP Ron Liepert announced on social media on Feb. 17 that he is about to retire, no one seems to have thought to thank the…
The unsettling truth at the heart of the Elghawaby controversy
Amira Elghawaby is Canada’s first Special Representative on Combatting Islamophobia. Photo courtesy Reuters. I recently experienced an ethical dilemma. A letter was circulated by people I admire and respect and…
Genuflecting At The Altar Of Corporate Giants
For the longest time, I have been pondering the timidity of successive governments to be on anything but the good side of the corporate titans who walk among us. Certainly,…
Ottawa’s Conservatives: always disdainful of separatists, except when they aren’t
Who can forget that time in December 2008 when Conservatives in the House of Commons recoiled in horror at the thought of a Liberal-NDP coalition government surviving thanks to a…
The curious case of Canada’s ‘tax watchdog,’ which hasn’t barked at the scandalous RStar program
The Canadian Taxpayers Federation is missing in action! Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, a former registered lobbyist for the controversial RStar scheme, now in the process of implementing it (Photo: Alberta…
Health care funding: Trudeau looks serene, even mischievous; premiers look like they’re just going to have to take it
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau looked like the smooth old political pro he has become yesterday as he laid out his health care deal for Canada’s perpetually dissatisfied and mostly Conservative…
Health care is inefficient, but not because of public spending
Doug Ford’s strategy is clear: defund health care, generate public resentment over its inefficiency, and then privatize. While unfavourably comparing Canada’s health care system to those in Cuba and North…
The 2024 Hybrid Corvette: A sign of the coming change
So anyone who knows me knows that I am not a car guy. However, one would have to be an ostrich to not see that there is a big change…
What happened to Canada’s foreign policy?
United Nations peacekeepers in Haiti. UN photo by Logan Abassi/Flickr. Before coming to live in Canada after being offered a job at the University of Calgary in 2004 I didn’t…
There’s a sedition super-highway – Canada needs to take the off-ramp
In Ian Fleming’s 1958 novel Goldfinger, James Bond’s boss M warns: “Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times is enemy action.” Protesters in Washington D.C. storm the Capitol building…
Impasse: Ottawa unlikely to fork over billions to make health care better if Conservative premiers insist on using the cash to make it worse
What did Alberta Premier Danielle Smith mean Tuesday in Calgary when she said of her plans for health care that “we’re just going to keep on making … incremental changes;…