CFN – For many weeks I have been reviewing and meeting candidates for the leadership of the federal Conservative party. It has been an astonishing race, with a multiplicity of candidates, few of whom are household names to a significant number of Canadians, and in an electoral process that is aContinue Reading
CORNWALL ONTARIO – Canadians woke up in January and realized that they had to find a way to pay for all those Christmas presents bought on their credit cards. Others, especially seniors on fixed incomes, were struggling to figure out what items they would have to do without, because theContinue Reading
OTTAWA ONTARIO – When you hear that the KKK is planning a victory march to celebrate Donald Trump’s election win, it does make you wonder whether or not it was the right move for a candidate to align herself with some of his immigration policies even if there was anContinue Reading
OTTAWA ONTARIO – So here we are in late fall with just 28 sitting days left for the House of Commons before the Christmas/New Year’s break. At last count we had 12 people who have entered the Conservative leadership race or who have said they will enter it, all believingContinue Reading
Health minister Philpott’s defence is that the car that she was chauffered around in was not a limousine but a sedan. We also know that it was a high end Lexus ES 300. Here are a few definitions of “limousine” for the minister to ponder when she comes under fireContinue Reading
A pattern is emerging in the conduct of the Trudeau government. It straddles fairly stylishly between gestures to the trendy and fashionable cutting leftward edge of its support without grossly offending the solid centre of the country that provides the majority for any Canadian federal government. That centre was fairlyContinue Reading
Former Cornwall Mayor Bob Kilger has had a busy week in the media. First the City releases the settlement with yours truly after he had me removed from a council meeting for not liking my t shirt and now Frank magazine has featured him after disclosing that Bob is nowContinue Reading
Re: The cash crunch of commitments: uncosted spending vows lurk for Liberals, Andy Blatchford, 01/17/2016 1 The Bank of Canada can never run out of Canadian dollars, nor can the federal government which owns it. In keeping their promises, Liberals should not be deterred by deficits, because if necessary theseContinue Reading
The Conservatives begin 2016 in a very different place from where they have been for the last 10 years. Defeats are never fun, but they offer the Conservatives a chance to rejuvenate, rebuild and rededicate themselves to promoting Canadian Conservative values. Forget about American, Australian and British values, focus onContinue Reading
It was in a speech on March 4, 1933, that Franklin D. Roosevelt mentioned for the first time the concept that he would deliver 100 days of action now that he was elected. Since then the 100 day mark has become a pretty common marker when looking at a newlyContinue Reading
Re: Federal parties start to play their economic cards, Jason Fekete, May 5, 2015 http://ottawacitizen.com/news/politics/federal-parties-start-to-play-their-economic-cards The conventional wisdom is that whichever party forms government will not have much financial breathing room, especially with the collapse of world oil prices. In fact, while there are ideological and eventual real resource restraints,Continue Reading
The federal government deserves credit for unveiling its plans for regeneration of Canada’s long-shrinking navy. Seven years have passed, inexplicably and expensively in terms of ultimate cost, since the prime minister announced that eight Arctic off-shore patrol ships with ice-breaking capacity would be built, the first to be delivered inContinue Reading
CFN – This past week we have seen Prime Minister Harper keep with tradition and stand during Question Period to defend two of his embattled ministers. One has to wonder why? The foul ups and bad optics that Veteran Affairs minister Fantino created for himself, should not require the PrimeContinue Reading
CFN – In “The Art of Fiction” Henry James cites “the very obvious truth that the deepest quality of a work of art will always be the quality of the mind of the producer.” Inasmuch as a country is a work of art—a work in progress, to be sure—its deepest qualityContinue Reading
CFN – It is hard to believe that it is 30 years ago today that I was a young campaign manager sitting in our riding election office trying to find ways to keep our candidate busy (and out of our hair) on what was then an election day- September 4th,Continue Reading