Personally, I have always liked Michael Byers’s Liberal-NDP cease-fire proposal. But politics is the art of the possible. In Canada today the Liberals and the New Democrats are just not ready for even this limited form of vague alignment – and certainly not before the next federal election takes place, whenever that may be. In […]
It is a little late to do any good. But today’s Toronto Star article on how “André Marin left dysfunction and discontent as military ombud” has made me wonder a bit more about a question I’ve pondered a few times over the past month or so. Just how good a job has Mr. Marin really […]
[UPDATED APRIL 22, MAY 3, 2011]. In today’s Globe and Mail Brian Mulroney’s former chief of staff Norman Spector reports on an intriguing new Angus Reid Public Opinion poll, originally published in slightly more depth in today’s La Presse in Montreal. Among other things “the poll … asked Canadians how they would vote if the […]
The latest polls on Canadian federal politics clearly show the Harper Conservatives with the single largest share of the Canada-wide vote. (See, eg: Harris-Decima, May 18 ;Â EKOS, May 20 ; Harris-Decima, May 27 ; EKOS, May 27.) In all these same polls, however, the Harper Conservatives have a smaller share of the vote than […]
Late last summer former Ontario attorney general Michael Bryant was driving home in his open convertible, on Bloor Street in Toronto, after celebrating his wedding anniversary with his wife. All of a sudden he found himself in a tragic encounter with Darcy Allan Sheppard, a bicycle rider whose “blood alcohol level was … more than […]
I am not sure just what to think about Victoria Day – or May Two-Four or the May-long, etc – in the year 2010. It does remain officially, I suppose, a celebration of the birthday of the so-called Queen of Canada (at least outside predominantly French-speaking Quebec). And in this respect it still reminds me […]
Jane Taber reports that “Conservatives are vigorously defending the appointment of CFL tycoon David Braley to the Senate against Liberal suggestions he basically bought his way into the Red Chamber through thousands of dollars of donations to Stephen Harper.” (Or, as The News from Pictou County, Nova Scotia has explained: “Braley, a businessman from Hamilton, […]
“When the demonstrations began in Bangkok in March,” a New York Times report tells us, “the protesters’ central demand was that the government step down, but the movement has splintered and the ultimate aims have become unclear.” You don’t have to spend too much time on the deeper background to the current troubles in Thailand […]
It is no surprise that what you make of the deal on Afghan detainee documents finally cooked up by MPs from all four federal political parties in Canada (at the last minute, this past Friday) depends on who you are and where you sit … According to John Ibbitson at the Globe and Mail – […]
Le Devoir may have said it best, in Canada’s other official language: “Qui l’eût cru? … Le Canadien achève les Penguins, une première demi-finale depuis 1993.” In any event, it used to be said that hockey and politics are what keeps Canada going. And the sudden surprise of Montreal’s cinderella tail end of yet another […]
