Conservatives want their leader to change. He might not wish to
A failure to accommodate shifting circumstances is prompting questions inside the party about whether a 45-year-old man can truly change
John Ivison
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Mark Carney starts speaking Trump’s language
The prime minister exited the Oval Office, and the most intense experience of his brief political career, with his dignity intact
Conservatives used a meat grinder on the Liberals. They needed a wooden stake
They could grind down opponents with enough time. But the Liberals moved too quickly to dump Trudeau and install Carney for the plan to work
In a disappointing election night for all, Liberals had the least bad luck
The Liberals will be disappointed that they fell short of a majority. But everything is relative. Three months ago, they were nearly dead.
Leaders walk tightrope after Vancouver car attack
'It would be an extremely rash politician who links events in Vancouver to federal government policy'
On campaign's final weekend, the Grits have the momentum
With two days to go until polling day, Mark Carney was careful not to break into a victory lap. At a campaign event at Seneca College in this commuter community 40 km north of Toronto, Carney was asked to grade his own campaign performance.
Carney’s luck is so good, even his scandals work in his favour
Even the latest mini-scandal that broke on Thursday works in his favour, given it concerns a subject he is desperate to talk about. Article content Radio-Canada reported that in Carney’s call with Donald Trump on March 28, the president brought up the issue of Canada becoming the 51st state of the United States. At the time, Carney said Trump had...
The Conservatives’ platform undermines their attacks on Liberal profligacy
Any hopes they had of profiting from the prodigal nature of the Liberal platform disappeared when they released their own costing document
Carney takes to showboating as the Liberals savour their comfort zone
There has been a weightlessness to the Liberal campaign in the past two days, as if their internal polling shows the election is in the bag
Conservative hopes are resurrected by Carney’s eye-watering spending plan
Switch voters will likely find the prospect of adding a quarter-trillion dollars to the national debt a haunting prospect
Liberal bus stops near the border and finds reason to be confident
There are probably few areas of Canada where Liberal fortunes have turned as dramatically as they have in Niagara Falls
A debate Liberals can call a success, but not much else
The impact on the broader election race was a nothingburger: there simply were no flashpoints that would justify anyone shifting their vote
The swan song of NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh could find its audience yet
Singh thinks the polls have stabilized enough to make it safe for progressives worried about a Conservative win to 'come home' to the NDP
Carney’s rosy energy promises meet the Liberals’ dismal record
I’m reading my six-year-old son Lewis Carroll’s classic Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There, with all its delightful nonsense talk about shoes and ships and sealing wax, of cabbages and kings.
Canada’s small mercy from Trump today won’t lift the curse of tomorrow
The broad-based 'Liberation Day' exemption for Canada is good news but the crisis facing our economy remains dire
Carney’s trick is not talking about his climate policies. So far, it’s working
It takes some gall for an assailant to want gratitude after he stops punching you in the face but anything goes in a general election
Carney reminds voters why they wanted the Liberals out in the first place
Paul Chiang's comments, and Carney's defence of the candidate, are a sign that the Liberal party’s inexplicable attachment to Beijing remains intact
All knives are out to pop the Liberals’ popularity bubble
The Conservatives have a month before election day and the benefit of all opposition parties now having Carney squarely in their sights
Conservatives look like they're being outfoxed by Carney
Instead of a smooth launch to get the campaign rolling, Conservatives found themselves hurtling backwards at pace
We might get a carbon tax election after all
It seems unlikely Mark Carney will be able to resist opposing Poilievre's promise to cancel industrial carbon tax mandates
An allegedly secret foreign deal limiting Canadian propane exports could leave us all poorer
B.C. First Nations claim betrayal, bad-faith bargaining and a propane monopoly that lets a foreign company cap Canada's export potential
Carney is already having trouble not looking like Trudeau 2.0
His party and most of its senior members will remain the same people who have dragged the country to such a low ebb
Carney’s credibility cracks give Conservatives an opportunity
This week, John Ivison is joined by veteran pollster, Darrell Bricker, CEO of Ipsos Public Affairs, to talk about the unprecedented shift in public opinion in Canada since Justin Trudeau’s resignation announcement in January.
Why Conservatives say they aren’t sweating the Liberals’ Lazarus-like revival
A tightening of the polls is no surprise and might even benefit Conservatives who have become too complacent
Carney’s front-runner Liberal campaign limps passionlessly in a nation fervid with emotion
Carney will not go on to win an election unless he moves the hearts of men and women
The Arctic is Trump's obsession. Not every Canadian leader seems to understand that
Canada’s commitment to NATO is irrelevant to Trump. Europe doesn't matter to him anymore
It will be Carney vs. Poilievre. And neither has a clear advantage
The sense that the Liberals need to be consigned to the penalty box remains strong and may be a decisive factor in the coming election
Trudeau won’t deter Trump, but Doug Ford just might
On regulation, taxes, China and so much more, Ford is speaking Republican
Poilievre revives ‘use it or lose it’ Arctic plan. Hopefully it’s not already lost
Canada’s hold on the Arctic is, in the words of former defence chief Wayne Eyre, 'tenuous' — and it is likely to become more so with Trump in office
Trump’s tariff position is weakening. We need to make ours stronger
We may not have been traditionally considered an adversary, but we are now — and we should reciprocate that sentiment
Trump fools around and finds out the foolishness of fighting Canadians
'The only way out of a mess that is not of our choosing is not only to inflict pain on American consumers and producers, but to let them know who is to blame'
Tariffs should get us thinking differently, but Ottawa lacks the mental capacity
This government’s instinctive reactions have helped to get us into this mess — and are unlikely to get us out of it
The more that President Donald Trump feigns disinterest in all things Canadian, the more you have to think he really, really wants what Canada has.
As Justin Trudeau gets ready to step out of the spotlight, his oldest son is poised to step into it, albeit not on the political stage. Xavier James Trudeau is releasing a debut original R&B song on Feb. 21, and the 17-year-old teased a snippet of what listeners can expect from his musical stylings in an Instagram post over the...
The curse for Carney of the ‘crazy carbon tax’ minister endorsement
There are legitimate concerns about Guilbeault’s influence on Carney’s policies on energy and growth
How Carney plans to win the Liberal leadership and hold Poilievre to a minority
Mark Carney will oppose the carbon tax and oil and gas emissions cap, while hoping to turn his elitist experience from a negative to a positive
Bureaucrats try stopping Trudeau from going out in a spending blaze of glory
Everyone knows the 'business as usual' directive is an illusion: the Liberals know it, the opposition knows it and, most importantly in this case, so does the public service
Justin Trudeau left Canadians feeling like strangers in their own land
Critics have often accused me of having my head in the clouds, if not somewhere darker and more malodorous. But I was literally in a cloud forest, sitting in a volcanic hot spring, when Justin Trudeau announced his resignation last Monday.
Crises caused by Trudeau and Trump are finally shaking our complacency
Western democracy has weathered severe tests in the past, from fascism to Bolshevism. The United States, though often late to the game, was generally on the side of open markets, self-determination and the rule of law. But Donald Trump’s extraordinary statement on January 7th — that he could not rule out the use of force to annex Greenland and the...
The more at sea Trudeau has seemed, the more assured Poilievre has been
The week in politics has been defined by a series of momentous events but Friday’s lame duck cabinet appointment process was not one of them.
Chrystia Freeland's savage exit
Who saw Chrystia Freeland pulling a gun, after Justin Trudeau unsheathed a knife? The finance minister is an unlikely champion of the Chicago Way, but she has just pulled off a coup that may end up toppling this government. Just hours before she was due to give her fall economic statement, she quit.
Freeland to reverse promised $250 ‘working Canadians’ cheques in mini-budget Monday
Cancelling the PMO's questionable giveaway may be a victory of sorts for Freeland. If you are one of the nearly 19 million working Canadians expecting to receive a $250 cheque from the Liberal government in the new year, don’t spend the money just yet.
With our ‘post-national’ leader it’s no wonder Trump thinks we aren’t a real country
Trudeau has undermined the idea of citizenship that held us together, with its sense of obligation, sacrifice and collective mission
Another wake-up call to ready for war as Canada slumbers on
On the day that Vladimir Putin said NATO members are now directly involved in the war in Ukraine because they have supplied missiles being used to bomb Russia, Justin Trudeau was announcing a yuletide $6.3-billion GST holiday on Christmas trees, beer and popcorn. Canada, remember, is the country that can’t afford to hit its NATO spending target of two per...
Canada is ‘rolling out the red carpet’ for radical Islam
Western democracies are not pushing back on violent Muslims who seek to dismantle our way of life, says author Yasmine Mohammed, who broke away from the religion
Trudeau already has Trump irritated. He might soon make it worse
Trudeau doesn’t have many options left. He might be tempted to use Trump as an insult against Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre
Liberals discover that Trudeau was never really a team player
I don’t know what it’s like to be part of a political team — as former Maclean’s columnist Allan Fotheringham once said, any journalist who wants to become a politician is like a jockey who wants to become a horse.
Canada can save our friendship with India, but probably not while Trudeau's around
Canada must convince India that it is prepared to counter Khalistani extremism on its soil
Trudeau deftly turns the foreign interference inquiry into a Liberal attack ad
On any other day, the prospect of interfering in a police matter would have dominated the news
Seeds for a Liberal revolt against Trudeau were planted long ago
The first rule of regicide is: “if you come for the king, you best not miss.” Another useful axiom is that, when you are poised to act, don’t have word leak out just before a long weekend, ahead of a break week, and a full 12 days before you can rally support at the next caucus meeting.
Canada and India need to call a swift end to their diplomatic war
While Canada has arguably 'provided space' for extremists, it is equally apparent that the Modi government has been engaging in illicit acts to stamp out opposition
The Senate is already spoiling for fight against a Poilievre Conservative government
If the latest polls are to be believed, the Conservatives are on course for a 220-plus seat majority. That could leave the Liberals, Canada’s so-called “natural governing party,” in danger of being exiled to the far reaches of the House of Commons chamber as the third party, behind the Bloc Québécois, which doesn’t much care what happens beyond the borders...
Government policy is now in the hands of pro-Palestinian radicals
The NDP ripped up its deal with the Liberals but that hasn't stopped radicals in both parties from combining to set government policy
Poilievre won’t axe all of the carbon tax, ex-Harper adviser says
'I just don't see any government in any future getting rid of that, Conservative, Liberal or New Democrat,' Ken Boessenkool said. 'The question is: will it continue to get more stringent?'
Liberals are already acting like the unofficial opposition to Pierre Poilievre
Hints of the Conservative 'hidden agenda' folklore that has been used to scare progressive in every election for the past 25 years
Mark Carney gets hired to tell Liberals they've been doing it all wrong
Why is Carney doing it? I think he wants to keep himself in the public eye, in case there's a vacancy at the top of the Liberal party soon
The NDP sold its soul. The Liberals might not give it back
Voters have likely tired of sunny ways, unfulfilled promises and vacuous slogans such as the NDP’s new motto: 'It’s the people’s time'
What an irate steelworker can tell us about the hole Trudeau is in
Justin Trudeau’s exchange with a steelworker at the Algoma plant in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., last Friday suggests two things — that the prime minister’s position is objectively hopeless but that he is not, in fact, totally helpless. Let me explain. The worker — (and it appears he was a worker, not a Conservative plant, as some online have charged...