Some personal news: To give myself some much needed breathing room, I have decided to relinquish my weekly column in The Star. I will be back for special occasions, including the next election campaign. You can also still follow me in all the other usual places.
So this happened last night ! Thank you for all the good wishes/merci à tous. Avec une pensée pour de grands absents de la soirée d’hier. I continue to miss them.
#jimtravers
#jeanlapierre
.
And the winner of the Charles Lynch award for distinguished, long-time service is
@ChantalHbert
, I am so delighted to report here from the Press Gallery dinner. Yay Chantal.
#cdnpoli
Today I introduced a Private Member’s Bill to abolish all current vaccine mandates, and ban any and all future vaccine mandates.
Give people back their medical freedom. Let them take back control of their lives.
Join before Friday June 3rd:
Peter MacKay tells
@EvanLSolomon
he might want to ask why other Tory leadership candidates want the campaign stopped.
"Because there's a pandemic," Evan says, after a pause.
"Is it,"
@PeterMacKay
replies.
Quite the clip. More at .
#cdnpoli
By popular demand, my take on last night’s French-language debate:
@erinotoole
has a mediocre night. The Quebec/Ottawa childcare agreement he is committed to ditching is a big deal in the province.
I had the privilege of jousting with dozens of prime ministers, premiers and opposition leaders from all parties over 25 years, and I don't remember one of them acting like this, and certainly not on repeated occasions.
Ahhh, so according to the National Post's
@CathLvesque
, it looks like
@BBCWorld
translated it wrong - he didn't say "boring," he said "not easy".
But the BBC story is now 18hrs old and still no correction by them? Are they disagreeing?
So this is happening…Honorary degree and Order of the University of Calgary recipients announced for spring 2022 convocation | News | University of Calgary
My latest - about how everything new is old again: Erin O’Toole presented himself as the new Stephen Harper. So far, he’s the old Andrew Scheer | The Star
Gotta say
@JustinTrudeau
did surprisingly well while on the stand for almost 5.5 hours of questions about his government invoking the Emergencies Act. No serious damage done.
Je voudrais vous parler de Brian Mulroney et de la fabuleuse chance que j ai eu de couvrir son aventure politique - la plus marquante de mon parcours journalistique- mais ce serait trop long. Alors je vais seulement dire merci M. Mulroney…
Le députée conservatrice
@RachaelThomasMP
insiste pour que la ministre
@PascaleStOnge_
lui réponde en anglais dans une rencontre du comité du Patrimoine. Le Bloc, NPD et Libs lui rappellent que le Canada est un pays officiellement bilingue.
@ChantalHbert
This is troubling, because I have always relied on your excellent journalism. In your experience, has the federal government tried to exercise its prerogative over what you said on CBC?
For what it’s worth, the pundit consensus in the Quebec media this morning is that
@JustinTrudeau
had a good night. The commission that puts together these events and has come up with a format that seems designed to kill debate rather than foster it did not.
NEW:
NDP leader Jagmeet Singh and two Alberta MPs "implore" the Liberal govt to help protect Albertans due to "the dearth of leadership shown by Jason Kenney and his United Conservative Government."
#yeg
#Yyc
#ableg
#covid19ab
My latest/filed before latest O’Toole flip flop on HoC vaccine mandate: Erin O’Toole is chasing Jason Kenney and Doug Ford in a race to the bottom | The Star
CBC: National news anchor
CTV: National news anchor
Global: National news anchor
Star: Ottawa bureau chief
HuffPost: Ottawa bureau chief
It’s a real mystery how these moderators were chosen.
This column has not made me a popular columnist today among a swath of the populace. But it needed to be said: Conservative lies about the carbon tax need to be called out.
#cdnpoli
Delete and try again. Name the place of worship. Name their religion. Put your arms around them. Condemn the specific pathology that drove their killer(s).
Le gouvernement fédéral doit prendre ses responsabilités. Il faut fermer le chemin
#Roxham
. Nous devons tous nous mobiliser devant la remontée des cas de
#COVID19
#Ominicron
afin de ne pas surcharger notre système de santé!
#polqc
And how about the elephant in the room ? Are we back to testing the proposition that Quebec voters will support a party led by someone who cannot address them in French ? Good luck with that.
@ChantalHbert
@TorontoStar
In terms of her future, JWR has built a brand that connects to key groups (professional women, indigenous groups, lawyers) that could be recruited in a leadership. It seems to me she actually has a shot at winning under the current rules even with the party elites mad at her.
I've been away but it did not look better from a greater distance - Hébert - In pushing Alberta’s case, Jason Kenney is just making things worse for himself via
@torontostar
Hébert: my take on the first ministers gabfest: Ontario was not on its game: Ford’s lack of experience was obvious at the first ministers’ meeting via
@torontostar
Hébert -About why sacrificing staffers probably won t do -A rising chorus of Conservative voices are raising doubts about Scheer’s leadership via
@torontostar
Well the building isn’t showing any signs of uncertainty today. Who will be coming to work here after tonight remains a mystery.
#elxn43
#ElectionDay
#cdnpoli
.
@RobertFife
suggests on
@CTVNews
that one way Canada PM Trudeau could ensure western representation in the executive branch is by appointing Ralph Goodale as his chief of staff. "Adult supervision," Fife said.
My latest- about how a post-pandemic progressive tide could play havoc with the Conservative movement - In Canadian politics, Erin O’Toole might be the pandemic’s biggest loser | The Star
That could come at a price for the Libs in the areas of francophone Quebec where they need split between BQ and CPC to squeeze through. But the sight of the Liberal leader taking Blanchet head-on could deliver votes outside the province – starting with Ontario.
Murphy is implying that the debate moderators have been selected as part of some feminist conspiracy, which is stupid. And, worse, it's not funny or clever.