Why listen to Bernier?
Chantal Hébert made an interesting case the other day. She wrote in the Toronto Star that Maxime Bernier of our new People’s Party of Canada should be allowed to be…
Federal Politics
Diogenes, Leadership and SNC-Lavalin.
There is no time left for what might have been. Canadians are going into an election when what we so desperately want to say is ‘None of the above.’ Are…
When the real campaign begins.
They remind me of a bunch of outlaw bikers, warming up their hogs for a race. They have all taken off their mufflers for that extra bit of speed. The…
Who is this guy Scheer?
The conservative party has been working hard over the summer at getting ‘Chuckles’ Scheer better known. It reminds me of that old Rodgers and Hammerstein song, Getting to Know You,…
Singh sings a survival song.
You have to admit, Jagmeet Singh, leader of the new democrats, is a hard worker. His main objective in the run-up to the October 21 election is to try to…
From small creeks do mighty rivers flow.
From the Manchester Guardian to the Toronto Globe and Mail, there have been reports of our federal government scientists testing spills of diluted bitumen from Alberta’s tar sands. As one…
Never trust a guy with a pipeline.
The prime minister can joke about it if he wishes but there are lots of people who will not vote for a guy with a pipeline. If it was just…
Slicing and dicing Justin Trudeau.
You should always remember the plaint of the writer that what you write in haste, you might regret for the rest of your life. It might not be fair to…
Trudeau’s Secret Weapon.
You have probably been wondering why prime minister Justin Trudeau is so cheery and ebullient these days. It is probably not just the fact that his pal Gerald Butts is…
Are parties considering the cost of living?
There might be a problem brewing in the election that the politicians are missing. It is the real cost of living. The problem is that the parties are listening to…
Chuckles Chooses Cheap.
Conservative leader Andrew ‘Chuckles’ Scheer was not out to look cheap the other day. It was just the effect when he again announced that the conservatives would guarantee Canada’s health…
Trudeau does a Harper.
There was a strong sense of déjà vu as our prime minister headed to the far north to kick off his election campaign. It was just four years ago when…
Canada’s Senate: Still not Democratic.
Despite having many friends in the Senate over the years and appreciating some of their hard work, there is no justification for such an elitist and undemocratic component to the…
Thinking of Election Week on a hot day.
Yes, it is the dog days of summer and nobody is really interested in politics. We understand that. It is not as though the old pros are stymied. They can…
Making Canada(?) Great Again.
It is not art. It is campaign literature and it always feels like a race to the lowest common denominator, free from the rules of grammar, where less is more…
Why your vote matters.
One of the most specious arguments by people trying to promote proportional representation voting in government is that of the ‘wasted vote.’ They are suggesting that in first-past-the-post voting, if…
Bollocks to Bernier.
When a politician takes a stand that he knows is counter to a majority of voters, he must have a reason. This is the question we need to ask ourselves…
The Grand Scheme and the Ocean Drift.
At this time of the phony election that precedes the real election, we are not really concerned about where pollsters think people are at but where they are headed. It…
Showing the Scheer Sneer.
Since Andrew Scheer was made clerk of the House of Commons by Stephen Harper’s conservatives, it has been impossible to find common ground between the two of us. And it…
Butts is back.
Gerald Butts and company are back to drive the liberal campaign bus. One can only hope that a few lessons were learned from their past four years in Ottawa. After…