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John Ibbitson

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 John Ibbitson.

The Conservative and Liberal responses to Venezuela reflect vastly different foreign-policy outlooks

The Conservative and Liberal responses to Venezuela reflect vastly different foreign-policy outlooks

The Liberals and Conservatives offered completely different responses to the Trump administration’s abduction of Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro. Those responses reflect the world view of each party. For Conservatives, foreign policy is rooted in values; for Liberals, in interests. On Saturday morning, not long after word arrived that American special forces had captured and abducted Mr. Maduro and his wife...

  • 2026-01-05
  • — The Globe and Mail
Divisions persist, but Canadians are forming a broad consensus on the need for nation-building

Divisions persist, but Canadians are forming a broad consensus on the need for nation-building

The world of politics often embraces contradictions. Canada faces a stark contradiction today. On the one hand, our country is dangerously divided, regionally and generationally. Both Quebec and Alberta may soon be holding referendums on sovereignty. Many younger Canadians living economically precarious lives resent the Boomers and Gen Xers, with their pensions, health care and other entitlements that millennials and...

  • 2025-12-22
  • — The Globe and Mail
Mark Carney is the latest in a Liberal tradition of public servants as PM in trying times

Mark Carney is the latest in a Liberal tradition of public servants as PM in trying times

  • 2025-05-19
  • — The Globe and Mail
Chrystia Freeland’s political estrangement from Justin Trudeau is both shocking and understandable

Chrystia Freeland’s political estrangement from Justin Trudeau is both shocking and understandable

Shortly after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau named Chrystia Freeland as his deputy PM in 2019, they began having weekly meetings. At first, things did not go well. The introverted Mr. Trudeau was visibly uncomfortable, which left Ms. Freeland feeling awkward. “Conversation could be stilted, with neither quite sure where to start,” Catherine Tsalikis wrote in her coming biography of the...

  • 2024-12-16
  • — The Globe and Mail
Trump and his tariff threat now have to be Trudeau’s top priority

Trump and his tariff threat now have to be Trudeau’s top priority

He may be bluffing, but we can’t take the chance. The federal government must assume that Donald Trump intends to impose a 25-per-cent tariff on all Canadian and Mexican exports into the United States, as he announced via social media Monday evening. Mr. Trump is also increasing tariffs on China. America’s three largest trading partners will inevitably retaliate with equivalent...

  • 2024-11-26
  • — The Globe and Mail
With the Laurentian elite’s power fading, a new and less stable Canada is emerging

With the Laurentian elite’s power fading, a new and less stable Canada is emerging

Justin Trudeau’s Liberals are unlikely to hold onto the Greater Vancouver riding of Cloverdale-Langley City in the Dec. 16 by-election. The government is deeply unpopular, and it lost much safer seats in Toronto and Montreal in by-elections earlier this year. But more is going on than simply voter resentment of a government that’s long in the tooth. The Liberal Party...

  • 2024-11-24
  • — The Globe and Mail
Bloc’s demands for Trudeau government are both terrible ideas

Bloc’s demands for Trudeau government are both terrible ideas

Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet is making two demands of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in exchange for his party’s support in the House: that the Liberal government enhance Old Age Security, and that it further protect supply management. Both are terrible ideas. Many have explained why this is not the time to increase funding for OAS. I would only add...

  • 2024-10-02
  • — The Globe and Mail
Why Doug Ford won his by-elections and Justin Trudeau lost his

Why Doug Ford won his by-elections and Justin Trudeau lost his

The commentariat is obsessed with the federal Liberal loss last week in the once-safe Montreal riding of LaSalle-Émard-Verdun. Few, in contrast, took note of last week’s by-election in the Ontario provincial riding of Bay of Quinte, won by Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservatives. Why did Mr. Ford’s PCs win their by-election while Justin Trudeau’s Liberals lost theirs? One reason might be...

  • 2024-09-23
  • — The Globe and Mail
With the Liberals losing once-safe seats, an election can’t be far off

With the Liberals losing once-safe seats, an election can’t be far off

  • 2024-09-17
  • — The Globe and Mail
Could Justin Trudeau’s Senate picks veto a Tory agenda?

Could Justin Trudeau’s Senate picks veto a Tory agenda?

Justin Trudeau’s latest Senate appointments demonstrate both the strengths and weaknesses of the Prime Minister’s purportedly non-partisan approach. On the downside, he has failed to make the appointment process truly non-partisan. Though his Senate picks sit as independents, most are progressives who support his government’s agenda.

  • 2024-09-04
  • — The Globe and Mail
Poilievre must hold his tongue for the sake of his party’s image

Poilievre must hold his tongue for the sake of his party’s image

No wonder Conservatives are champing at the bit for an election. This week’s cabinet retreat suggests the Liberals have simply run out of steam. But the Tories could still lose, if they let the next election turn into a replay of the one under way in the United States: a contest between the normals and the crazies. To prevent that...

  • 2024-08-29
  • — The Globe and Mail
Upcoming by-elections may reveal if it’s time for NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh to step down

Upcoming by-elections may reveal if it’s time for NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh to step down

Everybody is wondering whether Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will step down before the next federal election. They should be asking the same question of Jagmeet Singh. A pair of by-elections next month could reveal whether the time has come for the NDP Leader to depart. Mr. Singh can take pride in knowing that, thanks to him, Canada has a new...

  • 2024-08-20
  • — The Globe and Mail
Pierre Poilievre makes his case for dismantling what the Trudeau government has built

Pierre Poilievre makes his case for dismantling what the Trudeau government has built

TLN aired an interview with Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre and his wife, Anaida, on the weekend. If Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tuned in, it must have ruined his vacation. Should the Conservatives win the next election, little of what Mr. Trudeau’s Liberal government enacted will survive. Mr. Poilievre rarely grants interviews with the major networks or news publications. But he...

  • 2024-07-29
  • — The Globe and Mail
Kamala Harris is better for Canada – and the world – than another Trump White House

Kamala Harris is better for Canada – and the world – than another Trump White House

There are good reasons to believe that a Kamala Harris administration would be a friend to Canada, now that President Joe Biden has left the race and endorsed his Vice-President to succeed him. But a Canadian government led by Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, as polls suggest is likely, might well work better with a second Donald Trump administration.

  • 2024-07-22
  • — The Globe and Mail
Regardless of leader, the Liberals are at risk of a worse fate after Toronto-St. Paul’s by-election

Regardless of leader, the Liberals are at risk of a worse fate after Toronto-St. Paul’s by-election

The shocking result in the Toronto-St. Paul’s by-election leaves the Liberals with only one question: should they lose the next election with Justin Trudeau as leader, or should they lose it led by someone else? After an excruciatingly slow vote count over Monday night and into Tuesday morning, Conservative candidate Don Stewart snatched from the Liberals what used to be...

  • 2024-06-25
  • — The Globe and Mail
Freeland’s futile capital gains gambit to embarrass the Conservatives

Freeland’s futile capital gains gambit to embarrass the Conservatives

Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland appears to be attempting to embarrass Pierre Poilievre by forcing the Conservative Leader to vote against a new tax on the rich. This is wrong. Fiscal policy should not be used as a cudgel against political opponents. More important, the tax itself is unsound. The Conservatives should not hesitate to vote against it.

  • 2024-06-11
  • — The Globe and Mail
In Toronto-St Paul’s, the Conservatives appear to be sending a message

In Toronto-St Paul’s, the Conservatives appear to be sending a message

A few weeks ago, a friend who lives in the riding of Toronto-St. Paul’s heard the doorbell ring. It was Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau hadn’t even called the by-election for the affluent midtown riding, and yet Mr. Poilievre was already knocking on doors in a seat that has been Liberal for decades.

  • 2024-05-30
  • — The Globe and Mail
For the good the Liberal party, Trudeau needs to think about his future

For the good the Liberal party, Trudeau needs to think about his future

Justin Trudeau was hoping his housing budget would reverse the government's slide in popularity. Instead, things have gotten worse. For the good of the Liberal Party he leads, the Prime Minister needs to think about his future. The government gambled everything on this budget.

  • 2024-04-29
  • — The Globe and Mail
The Liberal’s immigration policies have accomplished the opposite of what was intended

The Liberal’s immigration policies have accomplished the opposite of what was intended

In its well-meaning effort to encourage the migration of international students to Canada, the Trudeau government is turning swaths of our postsecondary education system into a grift. As a result, broad public support for immigration, the foundation stone of multicultural Canada, is eroding. My colleague Marie Woolf has been investigating and reporting on the flood of international students – there...

  • 2024-04-23
  • — The Globe and Mail
The carbon tax is almost dead, and NDP leaders are helping to kill it

The carbon tax is almost dead, and NDP leaders are helping to kill it

The carbon price is a dead tax walking. NDP leaders Jagmeet Singh and Wab Kinew are both helping to kill it. We are moving toward a remarkable place in which the New Democrats and the Conservatives have similar positions against the tax. Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau alone is prepared to defend it – even to his political death.

  • 2024-04-15
  • — The Globe and Mail
Jamil Jivani will fit right in with activist, populist conservatism of Poilievre

Jamil Jivani will fit right in with activist, populist conservatism of Poilievre

Monday’s by-election in Durham signalled a final coda for what used to be the Erin O’Toole Conservative Party and further affirmation that the party is now triumphantly in the hands of Pierre Poilievre. As expected, conservative activist and commentator Jamil Jivani took Mr. O’Toole’s old riding handily. He had won more than 50 per cent of the vote when your...

  • 2024-03-05
  • — The Globe and Mail
Liberals face political oblivion with Trudeau at the helm

Liberals face political oblivion with Trudeau at the helm

More than a decade ago, Justin Trudeau took a dispirited, strife-torn, third-place Liberal Party and recreated it in his own image, winning election after election after election. There are few voices of dissent within the party because the voices who matter all matter because of him. But the latest polls show the Liberals headed for, not just defeat, but decimation...

  • 2024-02-14
  • — The Globe and Mail
Pierre Poilievre’s carbon tax opposition is embarrassing his party on Ukraine

Pierre Poilievre’s carbon tax opposition is embarrassing his party on Ukraine

For no good reason, but several bad ones, the Conservatives have once again opposed an updated free-trade agreement with Ukraine, handing the Liberals political ammunition, while possibly pandering to the worst elements of their coalition. It’s a mess. There is a litmus test that conservatives should use when considering any aspect of foreign policy. If Donald Trump supports it, and...

  • 2024-02-08
  • — The Globe and Mail
Canada’s future prosperity, even independence hinges on the 2024 U.S. presidential election

Canada’s future prosperity, even independence hinges on the 2024 U.S. presidential election

Next Nov. 5, Donald Trump, 45th president of the United States, could be elected its 47th president. If that happens, both America and Canada will be thrown into crisis. And there is nothing Canadians can do, except watch. On Thursday, Maine’s Secretary of State ruled that Mr. Trump cannot appear on the presidential ballot in that state because he tried...

  • 2023-12-30
  • — The Globe and Mail
With one video, Pierre Poilievre has taken control of the housing debate

With one video, Pierre Poilievre has taken control of the housing debate

Pierre Poilievre’s 15-minute advertisement masquerading as a mini-documentary on the housing crisis contains inaccuracies and distortions. That doesn’t matter. The thing is a work of genius. The Conservative Leader has taken ownership of an issue critically important to many Canadians: the seeming impossibility of ever being able to afford a home, or even rent one.

  • 2023-12-06
  • — The Globe and Mail