As Machiavelli taught long ago, lying has always been part of the modern political arts and crafts. But even he stressed the limits to the phenomenon. (“Occasionally words must serve to veil the facts. But let this happen in such a way that no one becomes aware of it …”, etc, etc.) As the unsettling […]
QUEEN’S PARK, TORONTO. FRIDAY, AUGUST 24, 3:30 PM. Some three and a half months ago, I was wondering: “Is Liberal Conservative détente next big thing in Ontariario .. and will it work?” My inspiration was a Toronto Star column by Martin Regg Cohn, which urged : “As labour tensions dominate the agenda, Liberals and New […]
[UPDATED MAY 8]. In this past Saturday’s Toronto Star Queen’s Park columnist Martin Regg Cohn predicted that the current “feel-good political chemistry between [Liberal minority Premier] Dalton [McGuinty] and [NDP leader] Andrea [Horwath] will prove short-lived.” A week is a long time in politics, etc. And despite the recent Dalton-Andrea budget deal: “Their parties are […]
TORONTO. APRIL 24, 2:00 PM. So … as if the Alberta election weren’t enough of a surprise, the final act of the Liberal-NDP dance of the dialectic on Ontario Budget 2012 managed to bring us something a bit different too. For the details I just quote directly from Karen Howlett’s concise summary in the self-confessed […]
[UPDATED APRIL 22, 23]. Contrary to many prognostications, the dance of Larry Zolf’s Winnipeg dialectic between Dalton McGuinty’s Ontario Liberals and Andrea Horwath’s Ontario New Democrats, over the current Liberal major-minority government’s Budget 2012, has not yet shown decisive signs of coming to some stable point of rest. (Well … that too has now changed, […]
Larry Zolf’s 117-page opus Dance of the Dialectic – on “How Pierre Elliot Trudeau went from Philosopher-King to the Incorruptible Robespierre to Philosopher-Queen Marie Antoinette to Canada’s Generalissimo and then to Mackenzie King and Even Better” – was published 39 long years ago now. In the strange spring of 2012, however, its title has taken […]
[UPDATED MARCH 27, 5 PM ET]. The Ontario budget that finance minister Dwight Duncan is unveiling later today will be “a uniquely Liberal” document. “We are taking a balanced approach. We will be asking everyone to do their share,” the minister told “a large media throng in his office” yesterday. He’s also hoping his “spending […]
Today’s by-election for Jack Layton’s old seat in Toronto-Danforth just kicks off two weeks of intense political mania at all three levels of government, in what was once mistakenly called the Toronto-Centred Region by Ontario government planners. Inevitably all this is of most interest to actual residents of the region. (See “Jack Layton’s Toronto-Danforth riding […]
[UPDATED FEBRUARY 18]. If you just feel confused by both the report of Don Drummond’s “Commission on the Reform of Ontario’s Public Services … PUBLIC SERVICES FOR ONTARIANS: A PATH TO SUSTAINABILITY AND EXCELLENCE,” and the immediate reaction from assorted business, labour, media, and political powers that be, join the club. Robert Benzie, Queen’s Park […]
[UPDATED JANUARY 24]. Ontario Liberal Premier Dalton McGuinty’s welcoming speech was one of the highlights at the Liberal Party of Canada’s biennial convention in Ottawa, more than a week ago now, on Friday, January 13, 2012. One of its most striking passages, I thought, came somewhat before the middle: “Choosing a new leader is no […]
