Federal Politics

No election for Canada. Nothing but trouble for the United States

Submitted by Geoffrey Stevens on Mon, 09/21/2020 - 19:06

With a fall election no longer in the cards, much of the drama has leeched out of the return of Parliament and the Speech from the Throne on Wednesday.
MPs, in attendance physically or virtually, will find the capital in mourning and flags at half-mast to mark the passing on the weekend of former prime minister John Turner who is well remembered as a great House of Commons man.

Let’s go down the rabbit hole with the Conservative leadership race

Submitted by Geoffrey Stevens on Thu, 06/18/2020 - 09:20

“’Curiouser and curiouser!’ cried Alice” – Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

Today’s Conservative Party of Canada is a curious movement. Even curiouser are its leadership race and its upcoming pair of television debates – French on Wednesday, English on Thursday.

The debates, to be broadcast from Toronto, may be the only opportunities for national audiences to take the measure of the four candidates who are vying to take on Justin Trudeau in the next federal election. Voting by ranked preferential ballot is to take place in August.

A pandemic lesson: Make long-term care part of the public hospital system

Submitted by Geoffrey Stevens on Mon, 04/27/2020 - 11:26

“In Canada, we shouldn’t have soldiers taking care of seniors. In the weeks and months to come, we will all have to ask tough questions about how it came to this.” – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, April 23, 2020.

Questions are good. Answers would be better.

Will COVID-19 really change behaviour in the world of a “new normal?”

Submitted by Geoffrey Stevens on Mon, 04/20/2020 - 08:06

Some day the coronavirus crisis will play itself out – and when that day comes, the world will be not be same, or so we are told. There will be a “new normal.” Everything will change, presumably for the good.

As an optimist, I would love to believe these seers. As a skeptic, I wonder. Will the COVID-19 pandemic, horrible as it is, really change human nature or behaviour?

Justin Trudeau political legacy is riding on the outcome of the war against COVID-19

Submitted by Geoffrey Stevens on Mon, 03/30/2020 - 11:23

Canadian history is full of what historians like to call “defining moments” – events or decisions that put their stamp on the country and help to secure the legacy, for better or worse, of the government of the day.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his minority Liberal government face one of those defining moments as they, along with their provincial partners, struggle to keep Canadians safe from the COVID-19 pandemic. The outcome of the struggle, which no one can yet predict, will inevitably colour history’s verdict on this Trudeau government.