Liberal Government Must Face 'True History' Of Canada's Key Figures: Indigenous Activists

OTTAWA — The federal government is facing increased pressure from Indigenous advocates to confront how historical figures are celebrated in Canada following the passage of a motion by an Ontario teachers' union calling for the removal of Sir John A. Macdonald's name from elementary schools in the province.

A bigger conversation needs to unfold nationally about the role of historic figures in the "dark realities of colonialism", NDP MP and Indigenous affairs critic Romeo Saganash said Friday, adding it is the responsibility of Ottawa to begin this dialogue "in the spirit of reconciliation" with Indigenous Peoples.

Liberals tack right, jettison progressive policy

When the Canada-Europe trade deal known as CETA came up for vote in the European parliament February 15, the Progressive Alliance Group opposed it: 254 members of the European parliament voted no; 33 abstained; and 408 voted yes.

While in Europe championing CETA, a deal fostered by Stephen Harper, Trudeau lined up with the conservative Christian Democrats -- not the Democrats, or Socialists, or Green Party members. On key issues such as Indigenous rights, climate change, and protection of the marine environment from fuel spills, Justin Trudeau has his party moving right, taking positions defended by the Conservatives. Why is he putting his progressive image at risk?

Alexander Stubb: Europe’s endangered liberal future

To some, Alexander Stubb is the Iron Man who could save Europe: a polyglot triathlete, former Finnish prime minister, and, at age 48, part of the next generation of leaders desperately needed on a Continent battered by anti-establishment populism.

To others, Stubb is a well-chiseled has-been, whose lackluster leadership of his center-right National Coalition Party allowed the euroskeptic, anti-immigrant Finns Party to gain ground and finish second to the Center Party in the 2015 parliamentary elections, putting an end to Stubb’s one-year stint as prime minister.

Russia and the Threat to Liberal Democracy

Since the end of World War II, the most crucial underpinning of freedom in the world has been the vigor of the advanced liberal democracies and the alliances that bound them together. Through the Cold War, the key multilateral anchors were NATO, the expanding European Union, and the U.S.-Japan security alliance. With the end of the Cold War and the expansion of NATO and the EU to virtually all of Central and Eastern Europe, liberal democracy seemed ascendant and secure as never before in history.

Under the shrewd and relentless assault of a resurgent Russian authoritarian state, all of this has come under strain with a speed and scope that few in the West have fully comprehended, and that puts the future of liberal democracy in the world squarely where Vladimir Putin wants it: in doubt and on the defensive.

Liberals, Federal Officials Sing From Different Songbook On F-35s

OTTAWA — The Trudeau Liberals may have promised to exclude the F-35 from the competition to replace the air force's aging CF-18 jet fighters, but federal officials meeting the day after last fall's election were singing a completely different tune, documents reveal.

The records, obtained by The Canadian Press, show top Industry Canada bureaucrats met on Oct. 20 and discussed what advice to give the incoming government about the controversial procurement, emphasizing the decision should be based on requirement, not politics.

Stephen who? The rapid collapse of the Harper legacy

One of the most remarkable features about the Trudeau Liberals’ first five months in office is the speed and efficiency with which they are undoing the legacy of Stephen Harper.

It began their second full day in office, when the new government announced it would restore the mandatory long-form census. It was a substantive and a symbolic reversal of the previous government’s policy. Since then, they’ve kept their thumbs firmly on the delete key — which carried them right into last week’s budget, where they unleashed the wrecking ball.

Liberals dishonour generations of war and torture victims

A once-in-a-lifetime selfie opportunity presented itself at a March 10 State Department luncheon in Washington, D.C., when Justin Trudeau and his team were being feted by one of the worst comedians on the touring circuit, Secretary of State John Kerry, whose stabs at humour could only be considered capital punishment.

After the polite laughter died down, Rufus Wainwright serenaded the room as guests dug into a feast courtesy of a Montreal-born chef. Meanwhile, it seems that Canadian cabinet ministers Navdeep Bains and Mélanie Joly were busily scanning the room for famous people. As members of the Canadian delegation, one would think that they had been chosen for their ability to exercise judgment and good taste while on the international stage, rather than their skill with a smartphone.

CETA Trade Deal Expected To Take Effect Next Year

OTTAWA — The federal government says the legal review of Canada's free trade deal with the European Union has been completed — and the door is open for the pact to come into force next year.

An agreement in principle was reached on the comprehensive deal, known as CETA, in October 2013. Negotiations between Canada and the 28-member EU began in 2009.

Why the Liberals say one thing and do another. Blame it on ‘cognitive dissonance’

If you missed it — perhaps you were shovelling the walk, or in the bath — the latest Liberal broken promise has arrived. This time the issue is the F-35 fighter jet. You may recall the Liberals vowed during the last election campaign to scrap the previous government’s controversial purchase, and start the process of finding a replacement for our aging CF-18s all over again.

Not only would the contract be put out to competitive tender, but the F-35 would be excluded from consideration — an important point of distinction with both the Conservatives, who seemed inclined to stick with the F-35, and the NDP, who favoured an open bidding process.

Liberals will find key to undoing Harper's agenda in his infamous 'firewall' letter

It didn’t take long for the new Liberal government to start undoing the changes Stephen Harper made to the way the country was run over his nine years as prime minister. Many of these changes were in the tone and style of governance: Trudeau unmuzzled scientists, said nice things to public servants, promised more access and openness to journalists.

Aside from the change in tone, Trudeau also took a few quick steps to reverse some of Harper’s key policies. Most notably, he immediately reinstated the mandatory long-form census, barely in time for the 2016 survey. Interestingly, the minister who oversaw the cancelling of the mandatory census, Tony Clement, could not bring himself to criticize Trudeau’s move, saying that in retrospect “I think I would have done it differently.”  (On a related note: Conservative interim leader Rona Ambrose has come out in favour of an inquiry into missing and murdered aboriginal women. We may eventually discover that not a single member of Harper’s cabinet privately supported anything they did.)

Corporations fill Liberal coffers

The top donors to the B.C. Liberal Party in the past decade are a well-heeled corporate coterie.

The top 20, which gave nearly $10 million to the Liberals from 2005 to 2012, include a who’s who of the mining, forestry, retail investment and building sectors, according to a detailed database constructed by The Vancouver Sun from Elections BC information. There’s also representation from resource sector suppliers, the oil and gas sector and the auto sales sector.

Canada’s Hollow Victory

Plenty of Canadians are celebrating that Stephen Harper’s autocratic and malicious rule has finally come to an end, and their sentiments are perfectly understandable.

But I hope those enthusiastic about the words “Prime Minister Justin Trudeau” will try to understand why some of us don’t feel like celebrating today, and why the defeat of the Harper Conservatives by the son of former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau rings hollow.

Gagnier scandal reminds us that lobbyists love Liberals

The Dan Gagnier affair is not merely a matter of one person's lack of judgment.

It undermines Justin Trudeau's narrative that his party is no longer the instrument of the lobbyists and special interests groups that exerted such huge influence in the days when the Liberals were the so-called natural governing party.

In light of the Gagnier revelations, voters now have a right to wonder who would determine the course of a Trudeau-led government.

Liberals' Fiscal Plan Hangs On Finding $6.5-Billion In Savings In 4 Years

OTTAWA — The Liberals released a fiscal plan Saturday that was praised by external experts as prudent and transparent, but which also opened the door to new tax hikes, larger deficits and cuts to public sector spending.

The Liberals project a $9.9 billion deficit next year, followed by a $9.5 billion deficit in 2017-2018, $5.7 billion deficit in 2018-2019 and a $1 billion surplus in 2019-2020.

Liberals Are Supporting Bill C-51 So Tories Can't Make 'Political Hay,' Trudeau Says

VANCOUVER — Federal Liberals are supporting the Conservatives’ controversial anti-terrorism bill because they don’t want the government to make “political hay” of national security issues in an election year, party leader Justin Trudeau suggested last week.

Speaking at the University of British Columbia Wednesday, Trudeau encountered a student audience that was vocally critical of the Grits’ support for the sweeping legislation. The Liberal leader told the crowd he sympathizes with the many Canadians who have concerns about Bill C-51.

The Liberals have lost their way

In deciding not to oppose the adoption of Bill C-51, the Anti-Terrorist Act 2015, the Liberal Party of Canada has committed a serious error of judgment.

The Harper Conservatives have laid before the House of Commons legislation that would authorize the detention of Canadian citizens without evidence of committing a crime, but simply because they were thought possible of committing terrorist acts.

BC Libs Protect Farmland? Horse Manure!

"It functioned up until the election of this Liberal administration... politics has interfered and land is being removed and that is a serious, serious mistake." -- Former NDP premier Dave Barrett, Voice Of BC, June 29, 2005

Don't believe the BC Liberal government will "protect farmland" or "help farmers" -- its Bill 24 is all about continuing its attack the Agricultural Land Reserve, which began shortly after the party's 2001 election win.

Bad Liberal habits amplified by Tories

Since they took power in 2006, Stephen Harper's Conservatives have made a habit of turning their list of grievances against the Liberals into an operating manual.

In opposition, they decried the centralization of power in the Prime Minister's Office. But since assuming power, they've taken that philosophy to unprecedented extremes, turning every possible parliamentary and public service channel into a means of amplifying a message dictated in its entirely by Harper.

In opposition, the Conservatives railed against secrecy and unaccountability. Since taking power, they've similarly taken the Liberals' bad habits to new lows - reaching the point this week where they're demanding an immediate vote on a budget at a time when even their own ministers aren't well-enough informed to answer simple questions about its contents.

Here Comes the Culture War!

Somewhere between the New Hampshire primary in 1992 and the release of “The War Room,” James Carville became the Descartes of modern electoral warfare, as “it’s the economy, stupid” became the cogito ergo sum of political knowingness. Inside the Obama White House, it is a given that foreign-policy successes—from the elimination of Osama bin Laden to the withdrawals from Iraq and (soon) Afghanistan—will matter hardly at all in November. The election, the President and his aides acknowledge, will rest almost entirely on the economy—unemployment figures, the state of foreclosures, debates over bailouts, banks, deficits, taxes, income disparities, and, yes, “class warfare.”

Well, perhaps. In recent weeks, the Republican candidates, cognoscenti, and congressional leadership have all made it increasingly plain that the culture wars have not been relegated to the days of the Reverends Falwell and Robertson. Mitt Romney is tweeting furiously about the Administration’s “attacks on religious liberty.” Speaker John Boehner said on the floor of the House that Obama is forcing Catholic hospitals and charities to “provide services they believe are immoral”—i.e., an “attack on religious freedom.” Rick Santorum called Obama “hostile to people of faith, particularly Christians, and specifically Catholics.” Michael Gerson, a former speechwriter for George W. Bush, wrote in the Washington Post that “radicalism and maliciousness” has led the Administration to issue an “edict delivered with a sneer.” Gerson concluded, “The war on religion is now formally declared.”

Conservatives vs. Liberals: More Than Politics

The following is an excerpt from The Age of Austerity: How Scarcity Will Remake American Politics.

The contest for power between Democrats and Republicans pits two antithetical value systems against each other; two conflicting concepts of freedom, liberty, fairness, right, and wrong; two mutually exclusive notions of the state, the individual, and the collective good.

A wide range of academic scholarship exploring political belief-formation reveals that those who identify themselves as politically conservative, for example, exhibit distinctive values underpinning their world view and their orientation towards political competition.

Conservatives, argues researcher Philip Tetlock of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, are less tolerant of compromise; see the world in "us" versus "them" terms; are more willing to use force to gain an advantage; are "more prone to rely on simple (good vs. bad) evaluative rules in interpreting policy issues;" ¹ are "motivated to punish violators of social norms (e.g., deviations from traditional norms of sexuality or responsible behavior) and to deter free riders." ²

Some of these conservative values can be discerned in public opinion data.