OTTAWA. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 3, 2010. [UPDATED MARCH 4]. The Canadian federal parliament is back in the business of democracy, after its controversial prorogation late last year. There will be a throne speech from the Harper minority government, read by Governor General Jean in the Senate Chamber, at 2 PM today, and then a federal budget […]

“The Conservatives,” John Ivison at the National Post wrote this past Friday, “think an election is probably at least a year away and are trusting in the public’s political amnesia … They believe the only question that will matter by then is: Who do you trust to lead the country through a period of fiscal […]

Public debate on minority Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s decision to “prorogue” the Parliament of Canada, until March 3, 2010, at least seems to have grown to a greater degree more quickly than many who follow such obscure events at first imagined. And I am among those who have been pleasantly enough surprised. At the […]

Dr. Randall White’s deep-background (and apparently appallingly detailed and lengthy) investigation of the current great Canadian prorogation debate is now said to be almost complete. It will be posted without fail at some point this coming weekend – probably just before midnight, Sunday, January 17. Meanwhile, others among us are starting to wonder whether the […]

Our resident Ontario historian Randall White had a first swing at the Stephen Harper minority government’s latest prorogation of the Parliament of Canada last week. Since then the issue has been gathering more steam (in at least some old transcontinental railway towns, across our vast treasure-chest of natural and human resources, etc, etc). And Dr. […]

I don’t usually admire the Conservative guru Tim Powers. But his January 2 note of caution on recent Canadian federal election speculation – from no less than John Ibbitson, Don Newman, and Norman Spector – seems at least somewhat wise. (Even if he left Jim Travers off his list, probably because Travers published on January […]

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 30, 2009. [UPDATED DECEMBER 31]. So all the inside rumours about Canadian federal politics have now proved true. Today Canada’s minority Prime Minister Stephen Harper phoned Governor General Michaelle Jean and asked her to prorogue Parliament until March 3, 2010. And she has accepted the advice, as some would say she is bound […]

TORONTO. DECEMBER 17, 2009. It is hardly surprising when the Toronto Star’s Chantal Hébert explains how “Harper Tories are own worst enemies” – even though: “Only a few weeks ago” they seemed “headed for a triumphant year end.” But when anyone at the National Post asks  “How does Harper do it?” – and then gives […]

You could say that current plots to “harmonize” the federal Goods and Services Tax (GST) with the Provincial Sales Tax (PST) into one more efficient HST (Harmonized Sales Tax) are only afoot in two of Canada’s 10 provinces – and thus of only slight interest Canada-wide. But the two provinces involved, Ontario and British Columbia, […]

TORONTO. SUNDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2009. Yesterday marked the 172nd anniversary of William Lyon Mackenzie’s ill-fated (and no doubt somewhat comic-operetta) march down Yonge Street in a much earlier incarnation of this city – the height, as it were, of the Upper Canadian Rebellion of 1837. On a perhaps vaguely related but much more recent wave […]