resignation

Wednesday February 20, 2019

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday February 20, 2019

Gerald Butts and Justin Trudeau ‘would finish each others’ sentences’

The two men, who met at McGill, forged their bonds in debate club. In an interview with McGill News, Trudeau said the experience helped convince him he wasn’t cut out for a career as a lawyer or a debater.  

January 21, 2016

Nonetheless, in 2013, like a throwback to his college days, he was smack back in a debate while running the campaign that would land him in the PMO, and Butts was advising during each commercial break.

“Butts … practically pinned his friend against the wall,” according to a 2015 Maclean’s profile. “He slung a jacketed arm over Trudeau’s shoulder and spoke in hushed tones, inches from his face. It wasn’t so much aggressive as intensely friendly — a boxer with his longtime coach — with Trudeau occasionally nodding at Butts’s words.”

January 12, 2007

That helped reinforce a stereotype that Butts served as the brain of the operations while Trudeau provided the charming smile and personality to woo voters.

Their life stories, are of course vastly different: Butts, 47, born to a coal miner and nurse in Cape Breton, graduated from McGill, and after earning a master’s degree even briefly pursued a PhD in literature at York University in Toronto.

Before finishing his degree, he entered politics, rose through the ranks of former Ontario Premier Dalton McGinty’s office and later became chief executive of World Wildlife Foundation-Canada.

90s sensation: Beavis & Butts

Trudeau, meanwhile, the son of a former prime minister, pursued a career as a teacher after McGill until decades later, Butts helped convince him to run for office.

“I often did get the sense that they often would finish each others’ sentences,” said Jonathan Kay, who helped Trudeau with his autobiography and was a columnist for the National Post.

Kay said their personalities helped balance each other out, and the stereotype of Butts as the brains behind the operation is a mistake.

“They were very much equals,” he said, adding, “when they’re together they balance each other out.” (Continued: Financial Post) 

 

Wednesday February 13, 2019

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday February 13, 2019

Resignation of ‘very principled’ Jody Wilson-Raybould not a surprise, say former Manitoba grand chiefs

Two former Manitoba grand chiefs are defending Jody Wilson-Raybould as a strong leader following her resignation from cabinet Tuesday morning.

February 9, 2019

“She follows her convictions to the greatest degree. She’s very principled,” said Sheila North, former grand chief of Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak, which represents Manitoba’s northern First Nations.

North worked with Wilson-Raybould on Indigenous files over the years, including missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls, and said Tuesday she was not surprised by her resignation.

“Her resolve to do the right thing is always on the top of her mind,” said North.

Wilson-Raybould’s resignation as minister of Veterans Affairs and associate minister of National Defence comes in the wake of a Globe and Mail story that alleged pressure was placed on her from the Prime Minister’s Office when she was the federal Justice minister.

Animated version!

The Globe reported she was pressured by the PMO to direct federal prosecutors to make a “deferred prosecution agreement” to avoid taking the Quebec-based engineering firm SNC-Lavalin to trial on bribery and fraud charges in connection with contracts in Libya.

At a news conference later in the day Tuesday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he was “surprised and disappointed” with her decision to leave cabinet.

Trudeau denies he or his staff directed Wilson-Raybould to intervene in the SNC-Lavalin case. (Source: CBC) 

 

Friday January 26, 2018

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday January 26, 2018

Ontario PC Leader Patrick Brown resigns amid allegations about conduct

Ontario’s Opposition leader is stepping down amid allegations of sexual misconduct, dealing a severe blow to his party just months before the province heads to the polls.

November 13, 2017

Patrick Brown announced the decision in a statement issued early Thursday morning, following a hastily-called news conference in which the Progressive Conservative leader “categorically” denied what he called “troubling allegations” about his conduct and his character.

In the statement, Brown said that after consulting with caucus, friends and family, he decided to step down as leader but would stay on as a member of the provincial legislature to clear his name.

He said “these allegations are false and have been difficult to hear” and that defeating Liberal Premier Kathleen Wynne in the upcoming provincial election is “more important than one individual.”

Brown’s political future as Ontario’s Opposition leader was thrown into turmoil Wednesday as the allegations of sexual misconduct levelled against him prompted calls for his resignation.

In his late-night news conference, a visibly emotional Brown said he was made aware of the allegations hours earlier, but did not provide details on what those allegations were. He said he would defend himself in the court of law.

December 14, 2017

“I can’t speculate on the motive of my accusers, I can only say that what they are saying is categorically untrue,” the 39-year-old politician said.

CTV News reported that two women have come forward with graphic sexual misconduct allegations against Brown that date back to when the Opposition leader was a federal MP. The broadcaster did not name the women, who alleged the incidents happened at Brown’s home in Barrie, Ont., after they had been drinking in his presence. Brown was not drinking at the time, the women told CTV News.

The report said one of the women, who is now 29, claimed she was still in high school when Brown allegedly asked her to perform oral sex on him.

The other woman said she was a university student working in Brown’s constituency office when he sexually assaulted her at his home after an event she helped organize, CTV News reported. The woman said she did not report the alleged incident to authorities.

CTV News said it had viewed records of correspondence between Brown and the women. None of the allegations have been proven in court. (Source: CTV News) 

Earlier post…

Patrick Brown resigned early this morning as Ontario’s Progressive Conservative Party leader after allegations surfaced of sexual misconduct from two women. With just months to go before a provincial election, the PC party has been left in disarray, and political prospects for all 3 parties in Ontario turn upside-down. Below is the complete cartoon chronology of the now former leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario:

May 13, 2015
September 15, 2015
March 8, 2016
August 31, 2016
February 24, 2017
March 10, 2017
April 29, 2017
June 15, 2017
August 23, 2017
September 21, 2017
November 28, 2017
January 19, 2018

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Saturday April 21, 2017

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday April 21, 2017

Speculation Swirls Around Kathleen Wynne

Premier Kathleen Wynne is slapping a 15 per cent “non-resident speculation” tax on foreign investors to help cool down southern Ontario’s scorching real estate market, the Star has learned.

March 29, 2017

Wynne will join Finance Minister Charles Sousa and Housing Minister Chris Ballard on Thursday against a backdrop of condo towers in booming Liberty Village to launch a massive plan to improve housing affordability.

A key plank in that would be the 15 per cent surcharge on offshore speculators, who are estimated to make up just 5 per cent of the current market.

Modelled on British Columbia’s “foreign buyers’ tax” in Vancouver, the levy would apply to home purchasers in the so-called Greater Golden Horseshoe who are not citizens or permanent residents.

November 3, 2016

It would affect sales in and around the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area, Niagara, Kitchener-Waterloo, and encompass everywhere north to Barrie and Orillia and east to Peterborough. (Source: Toronto Star) 

Meanwhile, Speculation about whether Premier Kathleen Wynne can continue to lead the governing Liberals is at a f‎ever pitch.

Party stalwarts are hoping next week’s balanced ‎budget from Finance Minister Charles Sousa will tip the scal

September 9, 2016

es for Wynne’s teetering political fortunes.

But with public and private polling showing the Liberals languishing in third place well behind the Progressive Conservatives and the New Democrats — even after Wynne’s 25 per cent cut in residential electricity rates — there is mounting uncertainty she will remain at the helm.

The Ontario Liberal Party’s chief fundraiser, Zak Bailey, has quietly resigned just seven months into a job made even more challenging by campaign finance reforms triggered by a Star series last year.

“You’d have to ask the party what their plans are,” Bailey said Monday, declining further comment. (Source: Toronto Star) 

 

Tuesday June 23, 2015

Tuesday June 23, 2015By Graeme MacKay, Editorial Cartoonist, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday June 23, 2015

Industry Minister James Moore leaving federal politics

Stephen Harper’s Conservative government is grappling with another looming high-profile departure as Industry Minister James Moore, a well-liked politician and moderate voice in the party, announced Friday he won’t be running in the October election.

Tuesday November 4, 2014Moore, the MP for Port Moody—Westwood—Port Coquitlam, caught Conservative insiders and fellow MPs off guard with his announcement that he would be leaving politics, citing family and the health of his young son as the reason.

“Balancing family responsibilities while in public life is always a challenge,” Moore said in a statement.

“This is particularly true when you have a child with special needs. Recently my wife and I received some difficult news about the health of our beautiful son Spencer,” said Moore, who did not go into specifics.

In his statement, Moore said he would finish out his term and return to B.C. to “pursue new opportunities and be closer to my young family.”

He is the latest in a string of cabinet ministers who have either quit or signalled they won’t be running again this fall — Justice Minister Peter MacKay, John Baird, who left as foreign affairs minister, Heritage Minister Shelly Glover and International Development Minister Christian Paradis, in addition to the more than two dozen backbench Tories who won’t return to Ottawa. (Source: Toronto Star)

 

Published in the Thunder Bay Chronicle Herald, NUPGE, The Saskatoon Star-Phoenix, The Woodstock Sentinel Review and iPolitics.ca