Columns

National Column: Coderre’s fall a signal for Montreal elite

To understand Denis Coderre’s stunning mayoral defeat at the hands of ValÈrie Plante, a city councillor unknown to most Montrealers only a few months ago, it is useful to turn the clock back four years to the happier 2013 night of his first and only municipal victory.
[…]

Columns

National Column: Conservatives are lost in translation

For a measure of how bad Tuesday’s French-language Conservative leadership debate actually was, consider that Kevin O’Leary – the reality-show personality who has just joined the long list of contenders to succeed Stephen Harper – probably scored in absentia. […]

Columns

National Column: Spying exposes weak-kneed judges

Connect the dots between Quebec’s police corps and the half-dozen or more investigative journalists who were put under surveillance over the past decade and you will find a gaggle of judges potentially derelict in their gatekeeping duties.
[…]

Columns

National Column: Tories poisoned own well in B.C.

The federal Conservatives are gathering in Vancouver this weekend to praise Stephen Harper today and – if they are smart – to start burying some of his signature policies over the rest of their national convention.
[…]

Columns

National Column: Nothing but grief for Liberals

Looking back on the debacle that attended the latest episode in the assisted-death debate in the House of Commons this week, it is easy to forget that Justin Trudeau’s government had a parliamentary consensus within its grasp when it set out to draft its now-contentious bill. […]

Columns

National Column: Don’t discount Chong, Lisée bids for leadership

As Stephane Dion demonstrated by snatching the Liberal crown from under the noses of Michael Ignatieff and Bob Rae a decade ago, it is poor form as well as potentially short-sighted to dismiss the possibility of an eleventh-hour leadership upset out of hand. […]

Columns

National Column: Electoral reform appears destined to fail

Among Justin Trudeau’s commitments, few are as time-sensitive as his promise to have a new voting system in place for the 2019 federal election.

And so, as the weeks turned into months and eventually into more than half a year without any action from the new government, questions arose as to how committed the Liberals were to a promise they had made when they were twice-removed from power. […]

Columns

National Column: Millennials helped, and could hurt, PM

But for young millennial voters Justin Trudeau might not have won a majority victory last fall.

As an Abacus Data study confirmed this week, the younger cohort of the electorate tilted the balance in favour of the Liberals. By turning out in greater numbers and coalescing behind Trudeau, voters aged 18 to 25 almost certainly made a difference between a minority and a majority. […]

Columns

National Column: NDP strife has no upside

The storm over the Liberal handling of a controversial arms sale to Saudi Arabia is a gift to an NDP caucus still reeling from the summary execution of its leader at the hands of party members.

It is also confirmation that fate does not always smile on politicians in a timely fashion. […]

Columns

National Column: Mulcair’s irrational road to nowhere

By the time he stood at the podium to address the NDP convention Sunday morning, Thomas Mulcair must have known he was in deep and likely irreversible trouble.

It took little more than a minimum of political acumen to pick up the negative signals that preceded the vote on whether to seek a new leader. Mulcair did not lack for antennae in the corridors of the convention.
[…]

Columns

Column: NDP has a crisis at the top

As the New Democrats prepare to pronounce on Thomas Mulcair’s leadership, here is a prediction:

Regardless of how the NDP leader scores on a confidence vote Sunday, there will be little or no cause for celebration at the party’s gathering in Edmonton. […]

Columns

National Column: Liberals pick up where they left off

For all the talk about a new activist federal era, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s first budget largely picks up where Paul Martin left off – at least when it comes to spending priorities.

Improving the terms of the relationship between Canada and its indigenous people was front and centre on the former Liberal prime minister’s radar. At the time of its defeat in 2006, the Martin government was about to start implementing the Kelowna Accord. […]

Columns

National Column: Liberal success is rivals’ failure

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is unveiling the long-awaited first Liberal budget today to a more receptive audience than when he was elected last fall.

According to an Abacus poll published over the weekend, a majority in every province except Alberta approves of his performance to date. […]