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 Michael Harris.
There is a lot that United States President Donald Trump doesn’t understand. Canada is close to the top of the list. Trump is accustomed to wielding the presidency as the ultimate big stick. He gets his way by threatening, not persuading or charming, as past U.S. leaders have done. Can anyone picture Jimmy Carter threatening to annex the Great White...
Instead of being slavishly tied to the U.S., Canada needs to be a truly global player. There may even be an unexpected dividend in walking an independent line. It might show American policymakers that punitive measures against Canada could have unintended consequences for them.
What on earth has happened to the United States? Canadians have been long-time admirers of so much of what America represents.
The crisis facing the Conservative party is so acute that when Canadians recently were asked who on the right has the best chance to unseat Liberal Prime Minister Mark Carney, the name most offered was not Pierre Poilievre.
Who would have thought that a hate-driven, white supremacist movement would spring up in Canada? In a country that is famously colour-blind, a place known for celebrating differences rather than trashing them, the rule here has always been inclusion. There is no doubt Canada is the better for it, and that our national mosaic is a model for the world.
The nation that was once this country’s best friend and closest ally has become its biggest potential threat. Hyperbole? Not at all. Neither Russia nor China have threatened to annex Canada. Only predatory U.S. President Donald Trump has.
So, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is making an image adjustment. He has decided to exchange his signature smirk and the snarky remarks that go along with it for a more positive pose. He is now offering to work with all parties to prevent American tariffs on Canadian exports from happening. “Conservatives are here to help and fight for Canada,” he...
Prime Minister Mark Carney is proving that politics at its most important is a big-picture game. Which is to say, it isn’t only about the price of gas, the cost of housing, and the dozens of other kitchen-table issues that normally dominate the public debate.
How is Ottawa to manage the relationship with our closest neighbour and most important trading partner? There are essentially three options for dealing with the rogue president currently in the White House.
The big question in American politics is whether the country will deal with United States President Donald Trump’s moral bankruptcy or be destroyed by it. The latest atrocity committed by the malignant narcissist who is running America is the debacle on the grounds of the White House.
If this president has somehow permanently changed American politics, if there is a Trump 2.0 with someone like J.D. Vance, Canada must embrace the wider world, as Mark Carney is doing. It's not only prudent, it is essential.
Something odd is happening in Canada’s national politics. Governing is usually a recipe for a short honeymoon followed eventually by a bitter divorce. Today’s man on the top of the wedding cake has a way of becoming tomorrow’s villain.
No Canadian prime minister has ever faced a more difficult relationship with an American president than Prime Minister Mark Carney does with Donald Trump.
Pierre Poilievre has flunked the most basic test for any leader, advancing his party's prospects to portray it as a government-in-waiting. But it will be waiting a long time under the status quo. Admittedly, part of the reason that the CPC has set up permanent residence in the political wilderness has to do with the current prime minister.
The president has dispatched thousands of troops to the Middle East where he is at war with Iran. There are wars of necessity, and wars of choice. Donald Trump has created a third category: wars of whimsy. When will Americans realize that three more years of Trump's chaos could end in unfixable catastrophe?
Whatever you may think about Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre’s chances of becoming prime minister—the proverbial snowball in hell comes to mind—he keeps trying to find a way to stay in the game against Mark Carney. It is no easy task. Prime Minister Mark Carney’s lead over Poilievre in the polls keeps growing, recently hitting 13 points. If that spread were...
The Conservative Party of Canada is now in a pickle. The recent leadership review in Calgary, Alta., produced an overwhelming endorsement of Pierre Poilievre. It was a somewhat inscrutable result. Delegates gave the man who led them to defeat in the last election, and who lost his own seat, a support level of just over 87 per cent. Political parties...
But it should be remembered that U.S. President Donald Trump is an aberration. With a change at the White House, Canada and the United States could be besties again. History will eventually win out over histrionics.
There is a great deal to love about Canada, but one of the greatest things is that this country will never have a Donald Trump. That thought crossed my mind as this narcissistic egomaniac addressed his countrymen last week in what could only be called an orgy of ego-liberation and industrial scale mendacity. One American commentator said it was as...
Just one seat to go. And it’s likely to happen as the Conservative leader causes the bleeding.
The plight of the Conservative Party of Canada, and its beleaguered leader, took another turn for the worse with the defection to the Liberals of Nova Scotia MP Chris d’Entremont on Nov. 4 and the resignation of Conservative MP Matt Jeneroux on Nov. 6. It is one thing for Pierre Poilievre to have lost a federal election that for months...
It may be true that Stephen Harper still supports the current Conservative leader. But his denials to one side, if Harper is having doubts about the current leader’s stewardship of the party, Pierre Poilievre’s days as leader are numbered. Calgary will tell the tale.
It is pretty much a political platitude these days to say that Canada must diversify its trading partners, rather than continue with a dangerous economic reliance on the United States. It is no surprise that Prime Minister Mark Carney and Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand are travelling the world to cultivate new and reliable trading relationships.
Canada’s federal politics have boiled down to a pair of intense competitions. One of them pits the Liberal and Conservative parties against each other. In that contest, the Conservatives have moved within striking distance of the governing Liberals. According to a recent Nanos poll, only four percentage points separate the two parties. In the other contest, Prime Minister Mark Carney...
Bad faith from politicians has always been a feature of democracy. What politician hasn’t made a promise while running for office, only to break it when elected? Scandal is as much a part of everyday governance as talking points and taxes. From Brian Mulroney’s pasta payoff to Jean Chrétien’s ad sponsorship rip-off, leaders of all parties stray from the straight...
Prime Minister Mark Carney made the right call on July 30 when he added Canada’s name to the list of countries around the world who have formally recognized the state of Palestine. A total of 147 countries out of the United Nations’ 193-member states have all arrived at the same conclusion: something has to be done about the slaughterhouse that...
Just because Canada is a kinder and gentler place than the U.S., and just because we mediate our differences with civil words not civil wars, it doesn’t mean we don’t know how to stand up for ourselves. For a 158-year-old, Canada is looking pretty good. We have come through world wars, depressions, recessions, natural and unnatural disasters, and the special...
The only question that remains about the Trump presidency is how much damage it can do to the United States and the world before it is over. A lot will depend on how other world leaders treat America’s first rogue president. Butt-kissing—the preferred option so far of those attempting to deal with Donald Trump—has been a humiliating failure...
If any political party in the country needs to do some serious soul-searching, it is the Conservative Party of Canada. For starters, the party managed to lose an election it was widely expected to win, and win in a rout of the hapless Trudeau Liberals.
Mark Carney has had a dream lift-off as a rookie prime minister taking charge of a country the size of Canada. Consider the recent past. A royal visit that engaged Canadians, and reminded the Orange One that Canada is very much a real country, a fully sovereign nation under a constitutional monarchy.
Former United States president John F. Kennedy once famously said that if we don’t get rid of war, war will get rid of us. His dire prediction is coming true. As the world turns and burns, war is everywhere. After three agonizing years of conflict in Ukraine, there is no end in sight, despite U.S. President Donald Trump’s idle boast...
In Carney’s world, two plus two always equals four. In banking and finance, facts matter. In the navel-gazing nightmare of intuitive Trumpism, two plus two equals whatever the president says it does.
Liberals like their leaders coming out of caucus, not left field. Carney bucked that preference. He not only captured the top job, he raised the Liberals Lazarus-like from the dead. But he has made the task tougher because he has created such great expectations in Canadians. And there won’t be much time to prepare for the biggest item on his...
With a brand new leader at the Liberal Party helm and with the distinct chance of new leadership in all the main federal parties, the old order of national politics could change faster than Newfoundland and Labrador weather.
Liberal candidate Bruce Fanjoy is running against Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre who has a national profile as both party leader and a potential prime minister. Fanjoy’s answer has been old-fashioned hard work, based on the notion that all politics is local.
The dramatic collapse in the once insurmountable lead Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre held over the Liberals is the most astonishing reversal of political fortunes I have ever seen. For one thing, it happened in a matter of a few weeks. For the two years before that, the Liberals could barely see Poilievre’s tail lights. He was on cruise control to...
Even if Trump is using tariffs to negotiate better deals with trading partners, that process could take up the rest of his presidency. After all, he has levied punitive tariffs against scores of countries. If these countries want to negotiate an exemption or a carveout, they will have to stand in a very long line to get to the president.
Historian and journalist Mark Bourrie writes, “This book is about how Canada made its own version of Donald Trump, albeit with fewer guns and less rioting, but with lots of trucks and lies.” Around the world extreme right-wing leaders are coming to power, authoritarians who offer “easy and simple answers to complicated questions.” Aggressive people see an opportunity, and COVID...
A few months ago, only people who were smoking the drapes would have thought a Liberal majority possible. Now, who knows? Driving into my hometown, there is a sign at the Four Corners in a farmer’s field. It reads “Mr. Trump. Don’t poke the Goose.” It’s the Canada Goose, of course. The words are directed at U.S. President Donald Trump...
Fading Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre should read a little T.S. Eliot. April could indeed be the cruelest month for the man who so badly wants to be prime minister. Canadians will be going to the polls soon. Should newly minted Liberal Leader Mark Carney win that election, as some polls say he could, Poilievre would have presided over the biggest...
Both leaders of the mainstream parties need to demonstrate their credentials for the top job, and their plan to rebuff Donald Trump. An election is the best way for that to happen. Despite the economic crisis triggered by U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade war, Canada needs to hold a federal election as soon as possible. It may be inconvenient, but...
I have just two words for U.S. President Donald Trump: Tariff off. How bad is his crazed trade war? Just a day after imposing illegal and punishing tariffs on Canada and Mexico, Captain Chaos has had to revisit the issue. In just one day. That’s because his belligerent and unscrupulous policy aimed at America’s biggest trading partners and most faithful...
King Donald and his band of enabling Banana Republicans have hit a new low. With the ceasefire in Gaza hanging by a thread, U.S. President Donald Trump posted a glitzy video on “Truth” Social complete with a catchy song. The AI-generated video depicted the war-torn region after a makeover—a kind of Las Vegas on the Mediterranean. There was even a...
Can anyone stop Mark Carney in his bid to become Liberal leader? Not likely and here’s why.
It is usually the other way around, given that America styles itself as the leader of the Free World. Instead, we have a convicted felon and an accused war criminal joining forces against a democracy.
Mark Carney has helped two countries navigate through some serious white water. While Pierre Poilievre’s monetary experience is a babble about Bitcoin, Carney has been on the font line of how economies really work in real crises.
Henry Kissinger once reportedly quipped that, “It may be dangerous to be America’s enemy; but to be America’s friend is fatal.” South Vietnam was a friend, and now it no longer exists. The previous government of Afghanistan was a friend, but has been replaced by the Taliban. The Shah of Iran was a friend, until he was overthrown in the...
It has been 14 years since Justin Trudeau called then-Conservative MP Peter Kent “a piece of shit” in the House of Commons. Since then, politics has steadily become a potty-mouthed street-fight between rival gangs.
With Donald Trump’s accession to power, a fact-free zone paralyzed by ego and propaganda, the U.S. has entered liar’s heaven and democracy’s hell.
Is it possible for the beleaguered Liberal Party of Canada to make a comeback?
So, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has decided not to play for Team Canada. It doesn’t get tackier than that. U.S. president-elect Donald Trump’s 10-thumbed meddling in Canadian affairs has led to exactly what he wants: a house divided. America First meets Alberta First is the perfect Trumpian tango.
When U.S. president-elect Donald Trump threatened a 25 per cent tariff on all goods coming into the United States from Canada, Ontario Premier Doug Ford said it was “like a family member stabbing you right in the heart.” At the time, more than a few commentators thought that Ontario’s premier was over-reacting. It was just Trump being Trump.
So America’s felon-in-chief thinks Canada would be a dandy addition to the United States? Donald Trump even referred to Justin Trudeau as the governor of the great state of Canada. I know. Puerile at one level, disgusting at another, and totally predictable. Veteran Liberal Allan Rock had it right: The guy who may well deconstruct his own country in his...
Joe Biden pardoned two turkeys in advance of Thanksgiving: good for “Peach” and “Blossom.” The president went from pardoning turkeys to pardoning his son, ahead of his sentencing on gun and tax convictions. This is bad for Hunter Biden, toxic to the rule of law in the United States, and catastrophic for the president in the dying days of his...
Justin Trudeau hasn’t been getting much praise lately, but he deserves more than a little for doing something few politicians have the guts to do these days: stand up for the rule of law, no matter who is involved.
As Canada’s parliamentary system sputters into dysfunction, Justin Trudeau’s ability to hit the reset button for his unpopular government has suffered another major setback. Just when the prime minister would like to focus the public’s attention on the government’s upcoming fall economic statement—which is likely to show that both inflation and the cost of living are coming down—the Liberals lose...
And so, two months before the White House officially changes hands, the nightmare on Pennsylvania Avenue begins. If anyone thought that Donald Trump’s iconoclastic and outrageous promises on the campaign trail were mere rhetoric to give woodies to his frothing base, his staffing appointments reveal the worst case.
It didn’t take long for the unsettling reality of a second term for Donald Trump to show up. As everyone knows, special counsel Jack Smith has pursued criminal charges against Trump on two fronts: unlawfully taking classified documents when he left the White House, and obstructing justice to keep them; and for triggering a coup attempt on Jan. 6, 2021...
Tomorrow’s American presidential election may reveal if the clock strikes 13, the way it does in the opening line of George Orwell’s dystopian masterpiece, 1984. Things have moved well beyond bizarre in the lunatic villa of U.S. politics. Americans may well elect a convicted felon who wants to suspend the Constitution, round up millions of people for deportation, and unleash...
The cardinal rule of politics and governance is presenting a united front to the public. Rubbing their noses in the party’s dirty laundry is the death march of being out of touch. Bottom line here? From the Liberal Party's point of view, the only thing worse than Trudeau remaining as prime minister is his leaving.