John Ibbitson
@JohnIbbitson
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Writer & journalist. Senior Fellow, Munk Centre. Author: Breaking Point, Empty Planet & Big Shift (with Darrell Bricker); The Duel, Stephen Harper, The Landing.
Ottawa, Canada
Joined May 2010
A journalism student recently asked by email: How do you become a columnist? Do you have any advice? Here is the answer: 1/n
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I think we all know what he really wants: The Donald J. Trump International Bridge.
Trump: Canada is building a massive bridge between Ontario and Michigan. I will not allow this bridge to open until the United States is fully compensated for everything we have given them
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Why there’s an opportunity for Canada to help build new free-trade relationships, @JohnIbbitson writes https://t.co/s4Lde8d3dy Find out more at https://t.co/1zbPY5GAhV
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Interesting and unsettling. Echoes the @JohnIbbitson & @darrellbricker thesis.
Kate Forbes is quitting politics aged 36: I've just done an event with her in Glasgow Uni. Her parting warning? The real crisis isn't immigration - it's depopulation. A notebook from Glasgow on her point (and the painting that makes her point):- https://t.co/n7SkACP0t0
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A Q & A with me about Stephen Harper and Mark Carney. Business Brief: How Harper helped Carney
theglobeandmail.com
Also in today’s edition: The uneven outlook for oil exports
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This week marks 20 years since the 21st Century Conservative Party first won election under Stephan Harper. Want to better understand the challenges they and their progressive opponents face. Check out Breaking Point @JohnIbbitson
amazon.ca
Darrell Bricker and John Ibbitson’s explosive new polemic, arrives in the midst of the greatest political crisis Canada has ever faced. The country stands at risk. Even before Donald Trump returned...
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No, it suggests that as education improves among African women, birth rates will continue to fall. In Kenya, girls and boys are now educated equally in primary school. The TFR there has fallen from 8 in the 1960s to 3.2 today. See Empty Planet. @darrellbricker
In Africa, women who have completed higher education have very few children, while births come overwhelmingly from women of very little education. This suggests that Africa will stagnate.
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In Ottawa, today’s average high (-4C) is warmer than yesterday’s. I have long maintained that this should be a national holiday. We’ve Turned the Corner Day, or something like that. Also well positioned between Christmas and Easter.
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When David Brooks is at his best, no one can touch him. And he is at his best here saying goodbye. Time to Say Goodbye
nytimes.com
After 22 wonderful years, I’ve decided to take the exciting and terrifying step of leaving in order to try to build something new.
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We addressed the question of western alienation and separatism in Breaking Point. It doesn’t need moralizing and lectures. It needs a serious agenda for change. @JohnIbbitson
amazon.ca
Darrell Bricker and John Ibbitson’s explosive new polemic, arrives in the midst of the greatest political crisis Canada has ever faced. The country stands at risk. Even before Donald Trump returned...
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I’m honoured.
Yesterday someone approached me at CPC26 knowing I'm a big Diefenbaker fan. We talked favourite Dief-related items. Mine is my framed copy of the Bill of Rights from a 1960 issue of the Saskatoon Star Phoenix. My second favourite is my signed copy of The Duel from @JohnIbbitson!
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Canada has kicked too many cans down the road for too long and the chickens have now come home to roost. Want to understand what’s happened and what to do about it check out @JohnIbbitson
amazon.ca
Darrell Bricker and John Ibbitson’s explosive new polemic, arrives in the midst of the greatest political crisis Canada has ever faced. The country stands at risk. Even before Donald Trump returned...
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Was a superb evening of Canadian history and great to meet John Ibbitson after 25 years of email correspondence.
I greatly enjoyed talking about The Duel last week on behalf of the Canadian Institute for Historical Education. The deeply knowledgeable audience gently corrected me once or twice. A rich exchange, at least for me. https://t.co/C6M0V2Rqkj
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I greatly enjoyed talking about The Duel last week on behalf of the Canadian Institute for Historical Education. The deeply knowledgeable audience gently corrected me once or twice. A rich exchange, at least for me. https://t.co/C6M0V2Rqkj
cihe.ca
On Wednesday January 21, 2026 CIHE hosts John Ibbitson to discuss his national-bestselling history of the Diefenbaker–Pearson rivalry and how it forged modern Canada—rights, immigration, the flag,...
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In that case, thoughts and prayers from the Valley.
@JohnIbbitson This will be worse than ‘99 when all is snowed and done.
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In ‘99, when they called in the army, there were several sequential storms. Will be interesting to see which had the greater total accumulation. Is it your sense this is worse than ‘99? Back then I had to wait a couple of weeks before they ploughed my street.
Lifelong Toronto/GTA guy. Someone with an almanac can correct me, but I can't recall seeing anything like this. There's just no place to put all this snow in a city this dense. City is going to need to truck it out or dump it into the lake. It's going to take days. Wild stuff.
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A rare day when, meteorologically speaking, it’s better to be in Ottawa.
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