Reading compliments into comments.
It was not until about the third rereading of a complaint the other day that I recognized the compliments in it. And I am pleased to report that most of…
Federal Politics
The land the law forgot.
We have heard the prime minister say more than a few times that Canada is a country of law. What does not seem clear is the question of applying these…
Have they ever lied to you before?
Teck Resources, the Vancouver-based company that wants to dig the largest open pit tar sands mine in Canada, tells us that the enterprise wants to be “carbon neutral” by 2050.…
Our aboriginals need better PR.
In a career in public relations work, I have never seen a group screw themselves so badly as Canada’s aboriginals. I have worked with them in fighting forest fires in…
A debutante ball for John Baird?
It is difficult to explain what kind of an event this will be. It has always been evident that John Baird wanted to make some kind of a statement in…
It costs less than a house and you feel welcome.
Huh? Sorry, I might have dozed off there. I was dreaming of running to be the leader of the Green Party of Canada. I will just have to run a…
Can the Tory race get more boring?
This is ridiculous. So far, this is not a race, it is more like a baby crawl. The conservative party of Canada, midwifed by Stephen Harper at the turn of…
The conservative leadership is no prize.
The problem most people seem to be having with taking on the leadership of the conservative party is the party itself. Jean Charest said it best when he said that…
The greed that breeds corruption.
It was never a secret that the political parties make a profit on conferences and leadership elections. They need the money for operating costs. It is that simple. In organizing…
NDP closes ranks around Singh.
‘Better the problem we understand’ seems to be the thinking of the leaders of Canada’s new democratic party. They are closing ranks around the leader who cost them almost half…
The gravitas of Justin Trudeau.
You do know that prime minister Justin Trudeau used to teach drama, do you not? Given the holiday time he had with family in the Caribbean over Christmas, he had…
Big tents are hard to move.
If only we had a nickel for every time someone told us that Canada’s conservative and liberal parties are ‘big tent’ parties. Big tent parties are, as the name implies,…
“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…
When do we get back to the environment?
Between Mr. Trump’s tantrums, the concerns over Meghan and Harry and the disaster in Iran, the prime minister is not getting much done about the environment. And why would we…
Politics of Oligarchs.
In an interesting opinion piece, recently, the Toronto Star’s Susan Delacourt said that both Stephen Harper and Justin Trudeau had to reinvent their respective parties to win election. Neither liked…
Where is the vision?
In a recent commentary we complained about the lack of leadership of all Canadian political parties. What Canadians want from their leaders is vision. It is like the vision of…
Ontario offers the bland and the pit bull.
We are still a while from knowing the slate of candidates for the federal conservative party leadership, but there are two Ontario MPs lining up their teams. They are Erin…
Defeating democracy, drilling down to dismal.
Are Canada’s conservatives making the same mistakes in their June, 2020 leadership contest as gave them Andrew Scheer last time? Some people never seem to learn. We are hearing that…
All federal parties need new leaders.
Canadians are going to be seeing a number of national political party leadership contests in the coming year. The conservatives are blowing smoke and fire as they warm up to…
Trudeau hears from Harder.
Former government leader of the senate, Peter Harder had some advice for Justin Trudeau as he retired from the senate. He expressed the hope that the prime minister might consider…