While National Newswatch does not keep an archive of external articles for longer than 6 months, we do keep all articles written by contributors who post directly to our site. Here you will find all of the contributed and linked external articles from Aaron Wherry.
Byelections give the Liberals one of the most remarkable majorities in Parliament's history. There have been a total of 24 prime ministers in Canada's history, but before Monday night only 13 could claim to have led their party to a majority of seats in the House of Commons. Mark Carney is now the 14th to do it.
Amid the floor-crossing, Liberals may have needed to hear a salute to their party. At a moment of celebration and on the eve of potentially even greater triumph, Prime Minister Mark Carney offered a brief note of caution. "Just over a year ago, in the midst of a blizzard ... we started down the road to make the best country...
Supporters of the Liberal Party of Canada had much to celebrate in Montreal this weekend. For one thing, the party is on the verge of commanding another majority in the House of Commons. Sixteen months ago that seemed implausible, bordering on inconceivable. For another, it continues to exist as a significant presence in Canadian politics. Fifteen years ago that seemed...
During his brief and ill-fated time as leader of the Liberal Party, Michael Ignatieff invited Canadians to join him inside the "big red tent." This appeal obviously did not work out for Ignatieff. But perhaps he was merely ahead of his time. Fifteen years after Ignatieff's time as Liberal leader came to a sudden end, Mark Carney is exploring just...
The federal NDP convention in Edmonton in 2016 was the scene of two fascinating events: the unceremonious dumping of Tom Mulcair as party leader and a rhetorical clash between Alberta Premier Rachel Notley and the supporters of a broad statement of principles known as the Leap Manifesto. Notley, less than a year into leading the first NDP government in Alberta's...
In a way, the Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer came full circle this week. In February 2013, as the term of the first parliamentary budget officer neared an end, the Official Opposition put a motion before the House of Commons calling for the independence of the office to be reinforced and for the term of Kevin Page to be...
In his first year as prime minister, Mark Carney was restless. Two days after being sworn in at Rideau Hall, he made official visits to France and the United Kingdom. Shortly thereafter he went into a five-week election campaign, and a week after last spring's vote he travelled to Washington. In the months since, Carney has been to Belgium, the...
Liberals are on the verge of completing a historic achievement. If or when Prime Minister Mark Carney's Liberals succeed in cobbling together a majority in the House of Commons, it will surely be one of the most unique majorities in Canadian political history — cobbled together from 166 MPs elected as Liberals last spring, at least four floor-crossers and perhaps...
The clearest attempt at a line of demarcation during Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre's speech on Canada-United States relations was an apparent rejoinder to Prime Minister Mark Carney's insistence that a "rupture" has occurred. Quoting a John F. Kennedy hymn about the geography, history, economics and necessity that have brought Canada and the U.S. ever closer, Poilievre said the former president's...
Every prime minister is called upon, at one point or another, to comment on the actions of an American president. For Mark Carney, still less than a year on the job, there have already been several such moments. The latest moment of necessity arrived this past weekend, when the United States and Israel launched new attacks on Iran. The response...
Two weeks ago, Mark Carney and Pierre Poilievre met in the prime minister's Parliament Hill office in an apparent attempt to find common ground on the government's legislative agenda. "My message to him is to work with us," Poilievre told reporters afterwards. Perhaps Carney took that message more literally than Poilievre intended.
"Question period is broken," Liberal MP Corey Hogan told the House of Commons last week. In fairness to the current state of question period — and those responsible for it — this is hardly a new complaint. One could spend a long time discussing how Parliament's daily airing of grievances came to be the way it is or who has...
To understand the rise and stall of Pierre Poilievre, consider two polls conducted roughly three-and-a-half years apart.
In an interview with an American television network this week, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent volunteered some advice to Mark Carney. "I would just encourage Prime Minister Carney to do what he thinks is best for the Canadian people, not his own virtue-signalling, because we do have a USMCA negotiation coming up," Bessent said, using the American name for the...
The old world is dying and a new era of global instability beckons. But first, the groceries. "For many Canadians, the cost of groceries and everyday essentials has been too high for too long. They need more support now," Prime Minister Mark Carney conceded on Monday morning, speaking at a grocery store in Ottawa, almost exactly a week removed from...
The phrase "rules-based international order" became popular among Canadian leaders starting in 2017. It is not exactly poetry, but it was meant to mean something — shorthand for the web of multilateral acronyms (the UN, the WTO, the IMF, NATO, the G7, the G20, NAFTA, among others) that arose in the wake of the Second World War, all of it...
According to polling by the Environics Institute, 70 per cent of Canadians are either very or somewhat satisfied with "the way democracy works in Canada." Is that good? At the very least, it could certainly be worse. And Environics surveys show that the share of Canadians expressing satisfaction has held relatively steady over the last 15 years — it was...
A few days after Michael Ma decided to cross the floor to the Liberals, Pierre Poilievre was asked whether the loss of another MP was a problem for his leadership of the Conservative Party. On the contrary, Poilievre argued, it was a problem for the leadership of Mark Carney. The prime minister was, in Poilievre's words, "trying to manipulate his...
To illustrate the incredible upheaval that federal politics in Canada has experienced over the last 12 months, one could do worse than to simply look at the last two Liberal caucus holiday parties. A year ago, the Liberal caucus — then numbering 152 members — gathered just a day after Chrystia Freeland's stunning resignation from cabinet. Justin Trudeau tried to...
When the Conservatives tabled a motion asking the House of Commons to "take note" of the memorandum of understanding signed between the federal and Alberta governments and express its support for the construction of a pipeline, the Official Opposition presumably hoped, one way or another, to make trouble for the Liberal government. According to the logic of these things, the...
Ten months before he resigned from Mark Carney's cabinet, Steven Guilbeault vouched for the then Liberal leadership contender. "I've known Mark for many years. We've worked together on issues of green energy, transition, fighting climate change and the role of the financial sector in fighting climate change," Guilbeault told reporters when he endorsed Carney's candidacy to lead the party in...
Shortly after Prime Minister Mark Carney and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith formally signed their memorandum of understanding on Thursday, Smith joked to reporters in Calgary that she would love for "pipelines to be boring again." It's not clear that pipelines have ever been boring — they have been associated with political tumult in Canada for at least 70 years. And...
This week's budget drama does not bode well for the 45th Parliament. Is there anyone inside the House of Commons who thinks what the country wants or needs right now is another federal election? And if not, why was there such suspense and drama around this week's vote on the Liberal government's budget policy? As much as those who work...
Attempting perhaps to turn a story about his own leadership into a story about whether the Canadian news media have unfairly focused on dissent within the Conservative caucus, Pierre Poilievre challenged reporters on Wednesday to pay as much attention to the recent criticism levelled against the federal government's budget by Liberal MP Nathaniel Erskine-Smith.
Unfortunately, it can be easy for long stretches to forget about most of the 343 democratically elected members of the House of Commons — or to know next to nothing about them. But then, every so often, someone who is not the prime minister, the finance minister or the leader of the Opposition does something to steal the headlines. So...
"Generational" is the Carney government's adjective of choice at this moment of consequence. The word appeared 11 times in the prepared text of François Philippe-Champagne's budget speech and another 45 times in the 493-page budget document.
The morning after Mark Carney's 30-minute address to an audience at the University of Ottawa, Pierre Poilievre appeared before reporters to offer his review. The Conservative leader was unimpressed. "This was the sacrifice speech," Poilievre said, gamely trying to coin a moniker.
As Donald Trump explained it, he was primarily worried about the accurate and honourable reporting of Ronald Reagan's views on trade policy — and concerned that a misrepresentation of the former U.S. president's views might somehow influence the justices of the United States Supreme Court. And his belief in this regard is so strong that he was willing to suspend...
Five days before the new president was inaugurated, Justin Trudeau gathered the premiers in Ottawa to discuss the coming crisis. They emerged, Trudeau said, with a "shared sense of purpose, a shared sense of understanding and a commitment to stand together on a united path forward." Seated to Trudeau's right, Ontario Premier Doug Ford said it was "truly a Team...
When Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne appeared before the House of Commons finance committee this week, Conservative MP Pat Kelly attempted to corner him with a complicated question disguised as a simple one. "Minister, what year will the budget be balanced?" Kelly asked. Champagne spoke a few dozen words in response, but failed to answer, so Kelly tried again. And then...
Last month, after the federal government filed its factum with the Supreme Court in the case of English Montreal School Board v. Attorney General of Quebec, Justice Minister Sean Fraser stood accused by a Bloc Québécois MP of wanting to rewrite the Constitution. "On the contrary, we do not want to change the Constitution," Fraser said. "We want to give...
Danielle Smith wants a pipeline, but wants the prime minister held responsible. Announcing her intention to propose an oil pipeline that would run across northern British Columbia from Alberta to the Pacific Ocean, Premier Danielle Smith declared that this would be "a test of whether Canada works as a country."
At the end of a busy day at the United Nations on Tuesday, Prime Minister Mark Carney was asked by a reporter how he could still have confidence in Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree, who has been staggered this week by the release of a recorded conversation in which he casts some doubt on the government's buyback program for "assault-style"...
Pierre Poilievre was back in his happy place. Mark Carney was back in the prime minister's seat. Between them lay 396 centimetres of green carpet and the future of the country. "Why is it that all of this prime minister's promises of yesterday turn into today's disappointments?" the Conservative leader asked. "We need to be clear about the scale of...
The prime minister — and Canadians — are facing many choices in short order.Even while Mark Carney has been accused of lowering his elbows in regards to American tariffs, he continues to frame the larger challenge facing this country in stark terms. "What's going on is not a transition," Carney said last week in Mississauga, Ont., while announcing an array...
Mark Carney's announcement on Friday that implementation of the federal government's zero-emission vehicle mandate will be delayed by at least a year can be read as another retreat on climate policy from the new prime minister. It can also be read as a small victory for Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, who had been calling on the government to abandon the...
Inevitably, but torturously, this unique moment in the history of this country has come to be understood primarily in hockey terms. "His elbows have mysteriously gone missing," Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said of Prime Minister Mark Carney on Friday. "He's not thrown one elbow since he took office." A few hours earlier, a reporter had warned the prime minister that...
In fundraising appeals sent to supporters ahead of Monday's vote, the Conservative Party billed Battle River-Crowfoot as the "most important by-election in Canadian history." It was at least the most important byelection in the history of Pierre Poilievre. Not that the winner was ever in much doubt. In attempting to regain a seat in the House of Commons — a...
With the federal carbon tax dead and gone, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has found a new target among the Liberal government's climate policies — the electric vehicle availability standard, otherwise known as the zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) mandate. "We will legalize, into the future, your right to drive a gas or diesel-powered truck or car by repealing the Liberal EV mandate,"...
Can the prime minister formulate his own third option? A week after the latest deadline to somehow resolve the trade war that Donald Trump has launched against Canada — and with Canadian officials now looking ahead to a full renegotiation of the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement — many things remain unclear. But when Mark Carney spoke to reporters in British Columbia on...
It's easy to move fast if you're not worried about breaking things. The greater challenge is moving fast while fixing, improving and building things. On the day, two months ago, that his new cabinet was appointed, Carney boasted that it was "among the fastest" swearings-in after an election and that the return of Parliament would be "one of the most...
After Prime Minister Mark Carney and President Donald Trump met one-on-one for 30 minutes on Monday morning, but before their respective teams joined to continue the discussion, the two leaders invited reporters and television cameras into a meeting room in Kananaskis, Alta. to witness them exchanging formal pleasantries.
Lacking broad consensus, the onus falls on those still interested in co-operation. Fifty years ago this fall the leaders of France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States met in a castle outside Paris for three days of meetings, at the conclusion of which they issued the Declaration of Rambouillet, a 15-point statement of principles and commitments.
Viewed from a certain angle, it could be read as good news that only 30 per cent of Albertans believe their province would be better off on its own, a share that has grown only slightly over the last five years. In a hypothetical referendum, just 28 per cent said they would vote to secede. But among those who believe...
At question period on Monday, two Conservative MPs beseeched the government to approve a pipeline that very afternoon. "The prime minister is meeting with premiers in Saskatchewan today," said John Barlow, MP for the Alberta riding of Foothills. "Will he approve a pipeline at that meeting?" Such a request raises other questions. Questions like, what pipeline? To where? To be...
The ultimate fate of the populist appeal may depend on what His Majesty's government does next. Speaking to reporters after the speech from the throne on Tuesday, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre struck a decidedly institutionalist tone. "We joined today in thanking His Majesty for coming to Canada and delivering the throne speech, reinforcing our ancient, great British liberties," he said...
One of Mark Carney's greatest advantages over the last five months — the first five months of his political career — has seemingly been his ability to play the part of the adult in the room. One of the defining characteristics of the House of Commons is its ability to make grown men and women act like children. Carney's arrival...
What can we glean from the mandate letter the PM sent his ministers? Emerging from his cabinet's first "planning forum" — what previous prime ministers would have called a cabinet "retreat" — on Tuesday evening, Mark Carney told reporters that his ministers had all been given a single mandate letter. "It reflects a unified mission," the prime minister said of...
Standing outside Rideau Hall on Tuesday, Mark Carney said his new cabinet — the first real cabinet of his time as prime minister — was "purpose-built for this hinge moment." Carney has long been fond of thinking of this current moment as a hinge — even before its real depths were clear. The Hinge was the title of the book...
In 2013, when he was running to unseat a Conservative government, Justin Trudeau said there were a "few very big things the prime minister of Canada needs to get right," one of which was "building a constructive working relationship with the president of the United States." That of course was long before the president of the United States was Donald...
In his first news conference since Monday's election, Prime Minister Mark Carney did not shy away from some of the rhetoric and ambition that carried him through the campaign. Canada would be embarking, he said, "on the biggest transformation of our economy since the end of the Second World War." This country's "old relationship" with the United States was "over."...
For the first time in nearly a century, two parties won more than 40 per cent of the vote. Shortly after 1 a.m. on Tuesday, Mark Carney walked onto a stage at the old Ottawa civic centre — the same hockey arena where John Turner was elected Liberal leader in 1984, the last time the Liberals tried to replace a...
John Duffy, the late political strategist and author, began Fights of Our Lives, his lively and encyclopedic account of the federal campaigns that shaped this country, with a simple premise — one always worth returning to at moments like this. "Elections matter," he wrote. Writing in 2002, Duffy was pushing back against what he saw as the lazy cynicism of...
Platform published Tuesday didn't include commitment made earlier in the campaign. The Conservative Party has republished the English-language version of its platform after what it says was a "publishing oversight" resulted in the omission of a previous commitment to crack down on "woke ideology" in the public service and federal funding for university research. Earlier in the campaign, the Conservatives...
During his campaign for the Conservative leadership in 2022, Pierre Poilievre said he would never pivot. "I am who I am," he said. To a great degree, that has held true — despite periodic suggestions from the commentariat that he should change course.
New spending for defence, housing, infrastructure would mean higher deficits under Liberal plan. Liberal Leader Mark Carney framed his fiscal and spending plan on Saturday in terms of a crisis — "the biggest crisis of our lifetimes," as he put it. The United States is attacking Canada's economy and threatening Canadian sovereignty. The American president is "trying to fundamentally restructure...
Thirty-seven years ago, inside a television studio in Ottawa, John Turner thrust an index finger at Brian Mulroney and warned that with one stroke of a pen Mulroney had reversed 120 years of national development and thrown Canada into the "north-south influence of the United States." "When the economic levers go, the political independence is sure to follow," Turner said.
According to survey data released last week by Pollara, Canadians are evenly split on whether they want this federal election to result in "change" or "stability" — 46 per cent of Canadians want change and 45 per cent want stability. Among those who want change, 47 per cent say Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre would best deliver that change, while 2...
In these disorienting days, Canadian leaders are responding in real time to a deeply uncertain world. On the day the president of the United States launched a global trade war, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith chose to look on the bright side. The United States, she wrote, had decided to "uphold the majority of the free trade agreement … between our...
The Alberta premier thought it was a good thing — a top Conservative strategist begged to differ. The most controversial statement of the federal election so far was uttered before the campaign even started — not by a federal politician, but the premier of Alberta. In an interview taped on March 8 with a right-wing American media outlet, Danielle Smith...