Soul mates and the politics of fear
Fabricating a threat to the nation in order to instill fear in the population may be demagoguery, but it is also a highly effective way for leaders to rally the…
Harper (Stephen)
Harper outmaneuvers Trudeau on Bill C-51
If any political party ought to oppose Bill C-51, it’s the Liberal Party. After all, it’s liberal values that the Bill threatens to erode. And yet, Liberal Party leader Justin…
Harper fails Conservative citizenship criteria
Over the signature of Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Chris Alexander, the Conservative Party of Canada recently emailed a petition to its supporters, rallying them against face covering during citizenship…
Harper’s histrionics
Terrorist attacks are theatre. And what theatre they have been presenting lately. The 9/11 spectacle of planes flying into tall buildings was the most spectacular event ever seen on television.…
Bravo to Baird and Harper on the Cuba file
The United States has finally come to its senses and is normalizing relations with Cuba. It’s taken over half a century but—to borrow the old cliché—better late than never. And…
Mr. Harper, listen to the Commish
She’s your commissioner, Mr. Harper, appointed under your watch. She is a former mining industry executive, the kind of credentials you respect. So when she speaks, pay attention. And she…
National Post climate change deniers "paranoid"—so says their own editor
The prattling of climate change sceptics/deniers in the National Post has been ridiculed by one of its own editors. In recent comments on the CBC’s The National, Jonathan Kay repeated…
Harper—not a man for our time
Vladimir Putin is a corrupt bully and I don’t like the guy. Nor do I like the mischief he’s up to in Ukraine. Nonetheless, I am not impressed by Stephen…
NHL is worried about global warming—listen up, Mr. Harper
Surprising perhaps, but the National Hockey League now produces a sustainability report. And it’s worried about global warming. According to League Commissioner Gary Bettman, “Our sport can trace its roots…
Don’t give up on the Senate, Mr. Harper
It wouldn’t be surprising if Prime Minister Harper was in a bit of a funk over the Supreme Court’s decision on the Senate this week. The Court unanimously rejected his…
Quebec—another majority that isn’t
A lot of euphoria last night from Liberal supporters and those many Canadians (including not a few Quebecers) who don’t want to hear about separation for another generation at least.…
The "mother of all accountants" flays election bill
Sheila Fraser was once one of Stephen Harper’s favourite people. When she, in her capacity of auditor-general, exposed the Chretien government’s sponsorship scandal, sewing the seeds that would bring down…
Mr. Harper’s pilgimage to Israel—more Canterbury Tales than trade mission
Trade missions have always been questionable vehicles for boosting the Canadian economy. Nonetheless, some can be justified by, if nothing else, the trade potential of the host country. For example,…
The Conservatives turn on PR
It’s not that all Conservatives are opposed to proportional representation. Senator Hugh Segal is onside and Conservative MPs Peter Braid, Stephen Woodworth and Scott Reid have presented Fair Vote Canada…
Canada-Australia climate axis—greatest threat to global security?
Prime Minister Harper once announced that the greatest threat to global security was terrorism. That was nonsense of course—every year, malaria kills approximately 660,000 people, mostly children, and AIDS 1,700,000…
The Conservatives and the Republican disease
Being an inveterate reader, I frequently encounter something that is such a nice piece of writing it demands a second or third reading and occasionally even creates a pang of…
Harper outshames Ford
Embarrassing our country more than Toronto Mayor Rob Ford would seem to be an impossible task. Yet our prime minister has done just that. On November 12th, the federal government…
Americans support Keystone
Prime Minister Harper was talking tough about the Keystone XL pipeline this week. On a visit to New York, he told the Canadian American Business Council that he wouldn’t take…
Harper’s subversion of co-ops
One of the Harper government’s assaults on progress that I missed at the time, perhaps because the mass media made little of it, was its undermining of co-ops, one of…
Harper plays Mulcair … at our expense
If Stephen Harper is anything, he is a shrewd politician—always strategizing. He illustrated this yesterday starting off the new session of Parliament by accusing the NDP of supporting a carbon…