2020-03

Tuesday January 28, 2020

January 28, 2020

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday January 28, 2020

Peter MacKay launches his campaign promising to unify and expand Conservative Party

Peter MacKay officially launched his leadership campaign on Saturday with a speech that emphasized his experience on the world stage, and promised to unify and expand the Conservative Party ahead of the next election.

Peter MacKay Cartoon Gallery

“Together we’ll expand outward that big blue tent, while strengthening its solid poles of conservative principle,” he said in a speech in Stellarton, Nova Scotia, the area which he represented in Parliament from 1997 to 2015.

“I stand here before you today with my heart on my sleeve for every Canadian, whoever you love, wherever you live,” he said.

The speech leaned heavily on MacKay’s experience in senior cabinet roles during Stephen Harper’s Conservative government, particularly his time as foreign affairs minister and defence minister. While pitching himself as a Prime Minister in waiting, he also took shots at Justin Trudeau.

He said Canada and the planet are facing “big challenges with big complicated questions,” but the current Liberal government is “shrugging and often doing more harm than good, virtue signalling without action.”

However, there were no specific policy proposals in the speech. Notably, the speech made no mention of climate change, instead discussing the general importance of protecting the environment.

“We’re stewards of the environment,” he said. “The greatest gift that we’ve received as Canadians, alongside our freedom and democracy, is our natural splendour of land and sea.”

May 2, 2019

MacKay is widely seen as the frontrunner in the Conservative leadership race, which will end June 27 in Toronto. His main competition, at least for the time being, is expected to be Ontario MP Erin O’Toole. O’Toole is launching is campaign Monday in Alberta.

Three high-profile potential contenders for the Conservative leadership race — Jean Charest, Rona Ambrose and Pierre Poilieve — all dropped out over the past week. However, candidates still have until Feb. 27 to enter the race, so others may come forward.

Other candidates who have declared their intention to run include Ontario MPs Marilyn Gladu and Derek Sloan, Alberta businessman Rick Peterson, and former Conservative staffer Richard Decarie. (National Post) 

 

Saturday January 25, 2020

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday January 25, 2020

Could Hamilton’s Lime Ridge arena rejection cost city nearly $1 billion?

When city council voted 11-3 last week to kill the idea of any further consideration of a 6,000-seat arena at Lime Ridge Mall, it leaned heavily on a staff report urging such a decision.

Not to worry, the report implied. Having a rink downtown is way better. Besides, it won’t affect Cadillac Fairview’s plans to spend $890 million redeveloping the Mountain property. Might delay it a bit but that’s it. So go ahead and vote against it. All is well.

Not so fast, the executive vice president of Cadillac Fairview says.

“I think the short answer to that is, yes, it is at risk,” Wayne Barwise says.

Not just short term. Completely. As in, potentially no 1,250-unit residential development, no hotel, no expanded office space, no new jobs. None of it. Because what would lure people there?

“People have not traditionally chosen to live at a shopping centre,” he says. “We’re trying to transform the shopping centre into more than a shopping centre so it’s a mixed use community. So you need other things. You need catalysts.”

This should be concerning to everyone in Hamilton.

For the better part of a decade, this town has turned itself into a pretzel over the LRT because of the billion dollars of someone else’s money it could bring into the community that would transform part of the city. Supporters — including many at city hall — say it’s essential. Politicians and bureaucrats have spent thousands of hours working to make sure that desperately needed cash infusion comes here.

Yet when a company says it wants to invest nearly an equal amount elsewhere in the city, there seems to be a whole lot less urgency.

This is troubling. Even more so when one of that company’s top executives argues the numbers the city is relying on to make its decision are “plain nonsense.” He says the real amount the proposal would cost the city wouldn’t be well over $100 million but closer to $27 million.

Without the arena — or something like it — nothing will happen at the site in the next three to five years, Barwise says. Doing it at any point will require “substantial positive market growth.” A sports and entertainment complex would lure people to the area and create that, he says.

Ironically, that’s pretty much exactly the city’s reasoning for wanting the entertainment district downtown.

“I think they made the wrong decision,” he says. “I think the decision lacks vision and I think it’s short sighted.”

Of course he’d say that, some will say. He’s got an interest in this. Which he does, of course. Even so, this seems rather too large a potential investment to be something we’d take for granted.

That LRT billion? City changing. This $890 million? We’ll get back to you. (Continued: Hamilton Spectator) 

 

Friday January 24, 2020

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday January 24, 2020

Where the Tory leadership race stands now that Ambrose and Charest are out

Rona Ambrose is out and she wasn’t even in. The former Conservative minister ended weeks of speculation about whether she would run for the party’s leadership by saying that she is going to pass and “focus on making a difference through the private sector”.

May 31, 2016

She said she struggled with the decision of whether or not to return to political life but her conclusion came as no surprise. Her friends were always dubious that she would commit. She married her partner, businessman JP Veitch, last summer and people who know her well said she is enjoying the pace of life in the private sector, as well as being back in Alberta.

The announcement will be lamented by Conservatives who saw her as the most likely bet to modernize a party that has been disparaged as out-of-date and narrow-minded. In her written statement, Ambrose tacitly made the case for change. “I know we will choose a strong, compassionate person to lead us, who supports ALL families,” she said.

She joins former Quebec premier Jean Charest on the sidelines.

May 13, 2015

There is general agreement among the dozen or so senior Conservatives I spoke with on Wednesday, that this is shaping into a contest between Peter MacKay and Pierre Poilievre, with Erin O’Toole a wild card in third place but still capable of pulling off a shock.

Charest’s decision certainly upsets any plans Poilievre had of running as the rock-ribbed movement candidate, who would stop the Progressive Conservatives and other socialist apparatchiks from taking over their party.

On the other hand, Charest would have brought in new members who would have been more likely to transfer their support to MacKay, if and when Charest fell off the ballot.

There are growing concerns that this could prove to be a particularly divisive contest, if the two candidates are viewed as proxies – Poilievre for Stephen Harper; MacKay for Brian Mulroney.

But it is an over-simplification to suggest Poilievre will be the hard-right Reform candidate and MacKay the voice of the mushy Red Tory middle. (Continued: National Post) 

 

Thursday January 23, 2020

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday January 23, 2020

What we know about the Liberal plan for Parliament after the cabinet retreat

For two and a half days, the Liberal cabinet huddled at the Fairmont Hotel in Winnipeg, focusing on their objectives amid the context of their new reality: a minority government that will need opposition support to get anything done.

October 23, 2019

But from the prime minister’s closing news conference Tuesday and the ministers who spoke publicly when the retreat wrapped up, we still don’t have a full sense of the legislation the Liberals will table this winter — and they certainly made enough promises during the election campaign to keep Parliament busy.

We know the first order of business when the House resumes next week: to ratify the new NAFTA trade deal, CUSMA.

“Passing the new NAFTA in Parliament is our priority,” said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Whether it will pass, however, is another question. The Bloc Quebecois won’t support the new deal without more supports for aluminum workers, and neither the NDP nor the Conservatives are clear on their support, with both parties having said they want to review it closely.

Trudeau also spoke generally of other commitments, such as pharmacare, protecting the environment and stricter gun control measures, but offered no specifics on what may come forward as legislation or when.

“We’re stepping up to the plate. Just take our pledge to reach net zero emissions by 2050 and to preserve more of Canada’s land and oceans,” said Trudeau.

“We’re taking real action to protect our environment.”

October 11, 2019

The prime minister, however, didn’t say what that action is, nor did he give any clues as to how his government would reach net zero emissions by 2050, amid criticism that Canada is not on track to meet its current targets for 2030.

On implementing a national pharmacare plan, another campaign promise short on details, the health minister couldn’t commit to any legislation this winter.

Here, the Liberals could face opposition not just from other federal parties, but from provinces and territories, as well, with health care a provincial responsibility.

The headlines of the Liberal plan for the winter sessions may be clear — NAFTA, pharmacare, gun control, climate action — but how and when they plan to move on most of them remains a mystery. (Global News) 

 

 
 

Wednesday January 22, 2020

January 22, 2020

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday January 22, 2020

Prince Harry and Meghan’s arrival could mean ‘new grounds’ for Canada’s privacy laws

January 13, 2020

British paparazzi may soon come face-to-face with Canada’s privacy laws as the arrival of Prince Harry and Meghan has already prompted a warning to the U.K press to back off or face legal action.

But it’s unclear what legal recourse the royal couple will have to keep news photographers away from their family.

David Fraser, a Halifax-based privacy lawyer, says, when it comes to privacy claims in Canada, he hasn’t found any related to celebrities and paparazzi.

The lawsuits here that relate to invasions of privacy, most recently, deal with large-scale business data breaches, or hidden cameras, he said.

May 19, 2018

“So this is relatively new grounds that we’re looking at, maybe because we don’t have the same sort of paparazzi culture or the same sort of celebrity culture in Canada. But so far, a claim like this has not been made or at least hasn’t gone to a published decision,” he said.

“It’s not something that’s really been tested a whole lot in Canada. We don’t have a paparazzi culture.”

Buckingham Palace announced Saturday that the prince and his wife will give up public funding and try to become financially independent. The couple is expected to spend most of their time in Canada while maintaining a home in England near Windsor Castle in an attempt to build a more peaceful life.

December 4, 2012

Video from Sky News showed Harry landing at Victoria’s airport late Monday. The prince, Meghan and their eight-month-old son Archie were reportedly staying at a mansion on the island.

Lawyers for the couple sent a letter to British new outlets, accusing photographers of “harassment,” and claiming that paparazzi have permanently camped outside their Vancouver Island residence, attempting to photograph them at home using long-range lenses.

They also allege that pictures of Meghan — on a hike with Archie and her two dogs, trailed by her security detail, on Vancouver Island on Monday — were taken by photographers hiding in the bushes.

“There are serious safety concerns about how the paparazzi are driving and the risk to life they pose,” the letter read.

When it comes to privacy issues in Canada, there are a few ways Canadians can take action, says Iain MacKinnon, a Toronto-based lawyer.  (Continued: Toronto Star)