war room

Tuesday March 5, 2019

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday March 5, 2019

Jane Philpott resigns from cabinet, citing loss of ‘confidence’ over government’s handling of SNC-Lavalin

February 9, 2019

Jane Philpott, one of Justin Trudeau’s most trusted ministers, announced today she has resigned from cabinet as the Liberal government’s crisis over the SNC-Lavalin affair deepens.

“I must abide by my core values, my ethical responsibilities and constitutional obligations,” she said in a written statement.

“There can be a cost to acting on one’s principles, but there is a bigger cost to abandoning them.”

Trudeau later praised Philpott for her diligent work on crucial government files.

Philpott, the MP for Markham-Stouffville, said she has been considering the events that have shaken the federal government in recent weeks and, after “serious reflection,” concluded she must quit.

She said the constitutional convention of cabinet solidarity means ministers are expected to defend all cabinet decisions and other ministers publicly, and must speak in support of the government and its policies.

August 20, 2016

“Given this convention and the current circumstances, it is untenable for me to continue to serve as a cabinet minister,” she wrote.

“Unfortunately, the evidence of efforts by politicians and/or officials to pressure the former attorney general to intervene in the criminal case involving SNC-Lavalin, and the evidence as to the content of those efforts, have raised serious concerns for me. Those concerns have been augmented by the views expressed by my constituents and other Canadians.”

Andrew Scheer Gallery

Philpott is a close ally of Jody Wilson-Raybould, the former justice minister and attorney general at the centre of the SNC-Lavalin scandal. Wilson-Raybould testified before a Commons committee last week that 11 officials in the Prime Minister’s Office and other offices inappropriately pressured her to override a decision to prosecute SNC-Lavalin on bribery charges related to contracts in Libya. (Source: CBC News)  

 

Wednesday February 15, 2017

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday February 15, 2017

Mission accomplished?: Trump’s NAFTA ‘tweak’ aside, Trudeau’s U.S. visit reassures markets

As Justin Trudeau praised U.S. ties in his debut remarks at Donald Trump’s White House, the Canadian prime minister’s top diplomat nodded along in the front row with barely a glance at her boss.

March 27, 2015

Instead, Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland’s eyes were fixed squarely on Trump, as if imploring him to let each of Trudeau’s words sink in: common goals, bilateral trade, middle-class jobs. The president soon caught her eye and nodded.

Trudeau left Washington Monday with as much as he could hope for. Trump pledged publicly to only “tweak” Canada’s side of the North American Free Trade Agreement and ease the flow of goods along the northern border, while saying he’d focus instead on the “unfair” U.S. commercial relationship with Mexico to the south.

In private, the president gave no indication of how he’d proceed on NAFTA talks or whether he’d press ahead with a border tax, according to a senior Canadian government official who spoke after the meeting on condition they not be identified. It was the clearest signal yet that Canada — and the US$541 billion in bilateral trade of which it’s a part — isn’t in U.S. Crosshairs.

September 26, 2001

“Trudeau did very well today,” Christopher Sands, director of the Center for Canadian Studies at Johns Hopkins University, told Bloomberg TV Canada Monday. “Trump made some important distinctions between Canada and Mexico. That’s reassuring for markets.”

The whirlwind visit lasted roughly nine hours. The two leaders spent four together before the prime minister’s meetings with House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky. Trudeau’s ministers also met with Vice President Mike Pence, and the prime minister’s senior aides met with their counterparts in Trump’s office, including Stephen Bannon and Jared Kushner.

Trudeau headed into the meeting biting his tongue on issues like refugee rights to instead focus almost exclusively on trade. Canada’s relationship with the superpower to its south largely consists of selling resources to Americans and buying goods in return. According to a report this month from the Bank of Nova Scotia, Canada ran a $303 billion deficit in manufactured goods with the U.S. between 2009 and 2015, and a surplus of $453 billion in energy and resource products. Mexico runs surpluses in both categories. (Source: Financial Post) 

Trudeau’s chief of staff Katie Telford, his principal secretary Gerald Butts, Canada’s ambassador to Washington David MacNaughton, Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland, and Brian Clow — who heads the recently established “war room” in the prime minister’s office devoted to co-ordinating all Canada-U.S. issues — travelled to Washington, D.C., and New York City to meet Trump officials last week. (Source: Huffington Post) 

 

Wednesday September 26, 2001

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday September 26, 2001

Canada’s war is already over

If Canada applied to participate in joint military operations, it would be turned down — which is why John Manley’s belated promise of ground troops is less manly than it sounds. He knows full well they won’t be required. His generous offer is as laughable as me offering to play in the Wimbledon men’s final. The reality is that what’s left of Canada’s forces is too poorly equipped to share a battlefield with the Americans, the British, the Australians or any reasonably funded army. Even New Zealand, which isn’t exactly a famous military power, is in a position to make a more useful contribution through its SAS, the kind of elite special forces that will be especially prized in this most modern of wars. Canada’s equivalent, the secrecy-shrouded JTF2, have no international reputation except as an ill-disciplined rabble. Intelligence? CSIS is underfunded and politically irrelevant: When they report that 50 global terrorist groups are actively operating in Canada, the Prime Minister files it in the bottom drawer under his golf club bill-of-sale napkins and, if anyone brings it up, flatly denies its conclusions. Canada is the only G7 country whose government is involved in covert sabotage of its own intelligence gathering.

Yet, confronted with an obvious truth, we persist in hunting for ludicrous alternatives. Is it that Bush personally dislikes Chrétien? You can’t blame the guy. In his speeches, our Prime Minister has a half-dozen jokes about what a dummy Dubya is: “I explained to him that Alberta is in Canada,” etc. In person, he’s boorishly patronizing: Chrétien welcoming Bush to the Summit of the Americas in Quebec: “Bienvenue.” Bush: “Thank you, sir.” Chrétien: “That means welcome.” (Source: Mark Steyn, National Post)