UPDATED MAY 11, MAY 12. Ontario residents, it is often said, are Canadians first. And nothing illustrates the sometimes bizarre linkages between federal and provincial politics in Canada’s most populous province quite so bizarrely as the demand for the resignation of Ontario provincial Liberal labour minister Peter Fonseca, over his failure to aggressively investigate alleged […]

Gordon Gibson had a column in the Vancouver Sun earlier this week, urging that British Columbia should stop re-negotiating its contract for provincial police services with the RCMP – and re-establish the old BC Provincial Police, disbanded back in 1950. (As matters stand, only Ontario and Quebec now have their own police forces. All eight […]

Pavilion Lake, BC is about 420 kilometers northeast of Vancouver – in Marble Canyon not far west of Kamloops, and “within the traditional territory of the Ts’kw’aylaxw people, and the Pavilion First Nations Indian Band.” Especially this time of year, the lake is “clear … and warm … surrounded by large old growth fir trees, […]

The budget Ontario Liberal finance minister Dwight Duncan finally tabled in the provincial legislature just after 4 PM ET on Tuesday, March 25, 2008 is, local financial experts seem to agree, by and large a cautious if also prudent document. While dabbling in many constructive directions, it does not do anything too exciting, because at […]

UPDATED JANUARY 21. TORONTO. Just as we are trying to figure out what the Liberals and New Democrats may or may not be doing to prepare for a possible Canadian federal election soon enough, more exotic news arrives from the Wet Coast. The lead item is a January 14 article by Ian Mulgrew in the Vancouver […]

UPDATED JANUARY 12. The Harper Conservative minority government in Canada, some argue, believes that the provinces should do the lion’s share of the heavy lifting in the 21st century federation. A properly lean federal government just looks after defence, equalization payments, and arranging luncheons at the Parliament Pub in Ottawa. If this were true, you might […]

The one seriously distressing result of Canada’s most populous province’s first fixed-date election on October 10, 2007 was that less than 53% of the eligible electorate finally cast ballots – a gloomy new low in Ontario politics since the start of the Canadian confederation in 1867. Beyond this, the McGuinty Liberals, as widely predicted, did win a […]

[UPDATED AUGUST 23]. The first fixed-date election in the history of Canada’s most populous province, on October 10, 2007, is now just over two months away. But by the traditional midsummer civic holiday it was still a bit too early for any great excitement among the people of Ontario. The big holiday event in the […]

Whatever else, Canada does have a vast chunk of northern geography. And both climate change and new resource technologies seem to hold out fresh prospects for far northern economic development that more southerly business interests can applaud. The eastern Arctic is also now home to the innovative Nunavut Territory – whose creation in 1999 still […]

Patches of snow on the ground in early April almost hint at a certain reluctance to get on with the new season of change in “Canada’s most populous province” (and don’t you forget it). Yet by the end of the first quarter of 2007 probably all but the most obtuse central Canadians have at last […]