2022-04

Wednesday February 2, 2022

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday February 2, 2022

Pierre Poilievre sounding like the next CPC leader

January 28, 2022

If you were just waking from a long pandemic nap and you turned on the television and saw Pierre Poilievre in action, you might conclude that he was the guy who’s in charge of the Conservative Party of Canada, the guy who wants to be the next prime minister.

Here was Poilievre on Twitter declaring a grocery store crisis: “If you walk into a store and you see empty shelves, thank Justin Trudeau. His … vaccine vendetta against our hard-working truckers is going to drive up the cost for our people, drive people out of work, and leave us with empty shelves.”

Or Poilievre mocking the prime minister almost every day during question period about inflation, and coining the clever hashtag #JustinFlation. His persistent needling of Trudeau and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland must surely get under their skin.

Tuesday February 1, 2022

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday February 1, 2022

Vulnerable downtown residents hit breaking point as convoy enters 5th day

January 26, 2022

Ottawa resident Jo O’Connor says she’s been living a nightmare in her home just minutes away from Parliament Hill where a convoy of trucks and protesters remain for a fifth day in a row.

Constant honking and noise outside her building, as well as the smell of diesel fuel, has left her sleepless.

“It makes me so depressed and so sad that these people care so little about people like me, or people who are disabled, people who are immunocompromised,” said O’Connor.

Jo isn’t her first name. CBC has agreed not to use her first name for fear of reprisals from protesters, some of whom are still in Ottawa.

Thousands of protesters and convoys of transport trucks have clogged downtown Ottawa streets in what began as opposition to mandatory vaccination for cross-border truckers — and has since evolved to include a range of opposition to COVID-19 public health measures.

Saturday January 29, 2022

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday January 29, 2022

What in the Wordle? The New Viral Word Game Dividing the Internet

April 4, 2020

In the past few weeks a new phenomenon has emerged on Twitter feeds around the world: a mysterious grid – five squares across, six down – littered with green, yellow and black tiles.

Sometimes it’s uploaded as a boast, sometimes a lament. Either way the grids are a something of a scorecard for the internet’s latest obsession and battleground, Wordle – a no-frills, daily online word puzzle that gives users just one chance, in six attempts, to solve the five-letter word of the day. And it’s proving to be as addictive as it is simple.

“Exponential growth cannot be denied. Maths cannot be shrugged away,” one Twitter user warned this week. “If you can’t see the terrifying truth of what is happening you are a denialist and a fool: Twitter will be 98.7% Wordle by Tuesday.”

Friday January 28, 2022

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday January 28, 2022

Erin O’Toole has to unhitch Conservatives from the ‘Freedom Convoy,’ or get run over

August 17, 2021

Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole has been putting down internal rebellions ever since last fall’s general election. This week, he is facing his greatest challenge yet: a new variant of concern running wild in his party.

Three high-profile MPs have openly defied Mr. O’Toole by coming out in support of the convoy of don’t-vax-me truckers snaking its way eastward on the Trans-Canada Highway as a protest against Ottawa’s newly imposed cross-border vaccine mandates for drivers.

One of the three, Pierre Poilievre, was named as the best choice to lead the Conservatives into the next election in a recent Nanos Research poll conducted for The Globe and Mail. Another, Candice Bergen, is the deputy leader of the party. The third rebel is Andrew Scheer, the previous leader.

Thursday January 27, 2022

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday January 27, 2022

Despite record high inflation, Bank of Canada holds interest rate steady — for now

May 2, 2020

The Bank of Canada has decided not to raise its benchmark interest rate just yet.

Like many other central banks around the world, the bank slashed its core lending rate — known as the target for the overnight rate — at the onset of the pandemic in March 2020, to ensure that consumers and businesses had access to cheap lending in order to keep the economy afloat.

But two years of rock-bottom lending rates have been a major contributor to inflation, which rose to almost five per cent in Canada last month — its highest level in more than 30 years.