The ‘Freedom’ Convoy’s anti-democratic thugs and insurrectionists have to go, but…

We still need to have a serious conversation about more complicated issues like science and policy and politics, and how they connect and don’t. Originally published February 14, 2022. Will we look back on Friday, February 11, 2022, as Justin Trudeau’s Pierre Elliott Trudeau “Just-watch-me” moment? If so, what might that mean? For him? For […]

Canada voted, but your vote may not count… again

How likely do you think it will be that the Liberals bring in electoral reform in this term? Your first two guesses don’t count. So, one more federal election, one more failure to get the results we voted for, one more missed opportunity to change our archaic and unfair electoral system. You may remember the […]

Accountability ain’t what it used to be

Perhaps it never was. But in these days of cascading crises, it’s hard not to notice just who’s missing in action, or acting without accountability, or playing games with their obligation to accountability. ac·count·abil·i·ty | \ ə-ˌkau̇n-tə-ˈbi-lə-tē \ Definition of accountability: the quality or state of being accountable, especially : an obligation or willingness to accept responsibility or to account for […]

What to do about Justin?

Last week’s Blackface/Brownface controversy raises the complicated question of how we navigate our way through all the competing, compelling, often contradictory private and public actions of our politicians to determine who — if anyone — deserves our vote. Voting is easy. Choosing who to vote for? Not so much… In our federal parliamentary, first-past-the-post system, […]

What would Andrew do? Jagmeet?

The SNC-Lavalin affair offered a stark choice for our prime minister. We know which door he chose. But what about the opposition leaders. Shouldn’t we know what they would have done with the same choice? This column first appeared in the Halifax Examiner March 11, 2019. There is an unanswered, barely whispered question at the heart-attack centre […]

Progress isn’t easy, and sometimes it isn’t

This column originally appeared in the Halifax Examine on April 23, 2018. “We need to go forward, but progress isn’t always a straight line or a smooth path.” Barack Obama victory speech, November 7, 2012 How to explain our current political whipsaw? You go to sleep one night knowing 6,000 delegates to this weekend’s federal […]

Seniors’ pharmacare? It’s past time for a national, universal pharmacare program

Since we’ve been talking about seniors’ pharmacare, perhaps it’s time to change the modifier and resume a longstanding conversation about national pharmacare. Canada is the only industrialized country in the world that boasts a universal health care program but offers no parallel national scheme so those who need prescription medications can actually get them. The […]

Our long national Harper nightmare may be over, but…

The good news — as the late Gerald Ford so aptly put it in a different context after then U.S.-president Richard Nixon resigned in disgrace in 1974 — is that “our long national nightmare is over.” Or, to borrow a more triumphant, if cheekier chant from some social media commentators last week: “Dong Dong! The witch is […]

Justin Trudeau, the allegations and the options

Halifax NDP MP and deputy party leader Megan Leslie says she “cannot believe” Liberal leader Justin Trudeau went public with allegations of “serious personal misconduct” by two Liberal MPs against two NDP MPs. But really, given the state of the nation — the fascinating, mostly thoughtful, sometimes insightful, occasionally knee-jerk conversations triggered by recent Jian […]