Stephen Maher

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Two veteran political journalists on the making of Pierre Poilievre — and what could unmake him

Two veteran political journalists on the making of Pierre Poilievre — and what could unmake him

The following is a conversation between two journalists who have been covering Canadian federal politics up close for decades. Stephen Maher — author of The Prince: The Turbulent Reign of Justin Trudeau — spoke to Mark Bourrie on March 22 about his latest book, Ripper: The Making of Pierre Poilievre, a thoughtful and unsparing examination of the life and career...

Canadian Conservatives are desperate for Donald Trump to come to their rescue -  one of Canada’s most prominent conservative leaders asked Trump’s government to interfere

Canadian Conservatives are desperate for Donald Trump to come to their rescue - one of Canada’s most prominent conservative leaders asked Trump’s government to interfere

An election that will be fought about the sovereignty of Canada is beginning with news that one of Canada’s most prominent conservative leaders asked Donald Trump’s government to interfere. In an interview with U.S. conservative outlet Breitbart earlier this month, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said that she told Trump officials that Pierre Poilievre would be a better PM for Trump...

Mark Carney’s first week had its bright spots — but he still needs to learn this lesson

Mark Carney’s first week had its bright spots — but he still needs to learn this lesson

Mark Carney had quite a first week as prime minister of Canada. He was sworn on Friday, unveiled a smaller new cabinet, killed the consumer carbon tax and ordered a review of the purchase of American fighter jets; spoke to allies on Saturday; flew to Paris on Sunday to meet with Emmanuel Macron, and made progress behind the scenes on...

This is the signal Mark Carney is sending with his cabinet picks

This is the signal Mark Carney is sending with his cabinet picks

Mark Carney set a dramatically different tone as he took over from Justin Trudeau on Friday, swearing in the smallest cabinet in decades, telling reporters that he is ready “to get straight to work.” Carney has no choice but to do a lot of things in a hurry. The government has been paralyzed for months, with a lame duck prime...

Mark Carney made a rookie mistake and took a hit. His next lesson is how to move on

Mark Carney made a rookie mistake and took a hit. His next lesson is how to move on

During the Liberal leadership debate on Tuesday night Mark Carney looked ready to be prime minister. Then he made a rookie mistake. He was asked — as he knew he would be — to explain his role in the decision in October to move the head office of Brookfield Asset Management Ltd., the board of which he was chair at...

Trump looks at Canada and sees America’s unfinished business

Trump looks at Canada and sees America’s unfinished business

In the two elections to come — the Liberal leadership race, which ends March 9, and the federal election that will closely follow it — Canadians should be thinking hard about whether we want to give up our sovereignty. It is far from certain that Donald Trump really wants to annex Canada, but we can’t afford to assume he doesn’t...

Something irked me as I wrote Justin Trudeau’s biography. I now know that thing was his fatal flaw

Something irked me as I wrote Justin Trudeau’s biography. I now know that thing was his fatal flaw

This time last year, when I was doing final edits on my book about Justin Trudeau, I asked my editors at Simon & Schuster if they thought that any passages in the book stuck out as unfair. After two years of researching and writing about Trudeau, I had started to find myself becoming irritated by him, and I was afraid...

Chrystia Freeland just exposed ‘proud feminist’ Justin Trudeau for who he really is

Chrystia Freeland just exposed ‘proud feminist’ Justin Trudeau for who he really is

In a speech to a feminist political charity in Ottawa Tuesday night, Justin Trudeau lamented the election of Donald Trump as a setback for women’s progress. “I want you to know that I am, and always will be, a proud feminist,” he said. “You will always have an ally in me and in my government.” On Friday, the proud feminist...

Canada’s Pierre Poilievre Era Will Begin in 2025

Canada’s Pierre Poilievre Era Will Begin in 2025

It’s all but certain that, by the end of 2025, Pierre Poilievre will become our new prime minister. We don’t know when the election will be, or even who will lead the Liberals. What we do know is that the Conservatives have been ahead in the polls by double digits since September of 2022, when Poilievre became leader. He’ll probably...

To survive Donald Trump, Canada must do these four things. Justin Trudeau is going to hate them all

To survive Donald Trump, Canada must do these four things. Justin Trudeau is going to hate them all

In January 2017, the day after Donald Trump signed what he called a “Muslim ban,” limiting travel from some Middle Eastern countries to the United States, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau sent a signal, without mentioning Trump, that Canada was different.“To those fleeing persecution, terror & war, Canadians will welcome you, regardless of your faith,” he tweeted. “Diversity is our strength #WelcomeToCanada”

The clock is ticking on Trudeau

The clock is ticking on Trudeau

When Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s plane touched down in Honolulu on his way back from a summit in Laos last Friday, reporters on the plane learned that a caucus revolt was underway in Canada. While they were in the air, the Toronto Star had reported that dozens of backbench Liberal MPs were trying to figure out how to make the...

Adjusting the Sails - 2024  Atlantic Canada Momentum Index

Adjusting the Sails - 2024 Atlantic Canada Momentum Index

This year’s Atlantic Canada Momentum Index offers evidence of a region at a critical juncture. The strong momentum outlined in last year’s index1 has slowed as the region struggles to adapt to the challenges that come with boom times and unprecedented population growth. Momentum remains positive, but it is more tentative now. Of the 25 indicators chosen for this study...

I found out what really happened between Pierre Poilievre and CTV. The real story was even more depressing than the lie

I found out what really happened between Pierre Poilievre and CTV. The real story was even more depressing than the lie

The facts in the brief and dispiriting feud between CTV and the Conservative Party of Canada over a mangled clip of Pierre Poilievre will eventually be litigated, and I would not like to write anything here that prevents diligent workers from winning their rightful severance, but it is, I think, necessary to lay out some facts so that Canadians will...

CTV wasn’t out to get Pierre Poilievre. The truth is more alarming

CTV wasn’t out to get Pierre Poilievre. The truth is more alarming

Somehow during the production of a two-minute news item for CTV National News last Sunday, the weekend crew mangled a quote from Pierre Poilievre. The story was about the Liberal government’s dental care program, which could have been jeopardized if the Conservatives had succeeded in bringing down the government with a non-confidence motion. I was told by two sources, independently...

Canadian parties choose to see, hear no foreign mischief

Canadian parties choose to see, hear no foreign mischief

When about 200 foreign students arrived by bus at the Liberal nomination meeting in the leafy suburban Toronto community of Don Valley North in 2019, Han Dong thought nothing of it. “I didn’t pay attention to busing international students because … I didn’t understand it as an irregularity,” he testified later. Dong, who was born in Shanghai but has lived...

Conservative leader fights with broadcaster

Conservative leader fights with broadcaster

While Trudeau was enjoying a New York broadcast, his opponent, Pierre Poilievre, was getting deeper into a fight with a Canadian broadcaster. Poilievre’s Conservative Party announced Tuesday that it will no longer give interviews to reporters at CTV, the country’s top-rated private news channel. The Conservatives are furious about a Sunday report in which the network put together several clips...

Justin Trudeau is leading the Liberals toward generational collapse. Here’s why he still hasn’t walked away

Justin Trudeau is leading the Liberals toward generational collapse. Here’s why he still hasn’t walked away

Back in 2012, when Justin Trudeau was training for a charity boxing match that few people thought he was going to win, he ran into his stepfather, Fred Kemper, who asked Trudeau if he should bet on him.‘You sure about this?’ Kemper asked.‘Yeah,’ Trudeau said. ‘I got this.’

It’s not just Trudeau: The Liberals’ days as the natural governing party are done

It’s not just Trudeau: The Liberals’ days as the natural governing party are done

Canada is likely on track for a significant milestone. If there were a federal election tomorrow, and Canadians vote as they say they would, there would be more elected NDP politicians at both the federal and provincial levels than Liberals. According to the latest projection from poll aggregator 338Canada.com, the Conservatives would win 212 seats in a federal election, up...

By slamming experts, Pierre Poilievre and his staff are degrading political debate

By slamming experts, Pierre Poilievre and his staff are degrading political debate

On Tuesday, when Doris Grinspun, the CEO of the Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario, told CBC that Ontario’s decision to close 10 supervised drug consumption sites is “a death sentence for people that use substances,” the federal Conservatives were quick to attack her. Sebastian Skamski, a spokesman for Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, slammed her on X: “CBC’s so called ‘expert’...

Harris heads into convention on a high note

Harris heads into convention on a high note

Speaking of good news for Kamala Harris, a Cook Political Report swing state poll released Wednesday shows her leading Donald Trump in five of the seven swing states that could decide the election. Cook, a highly rated pollster, finds Harris up in Arizona, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, tied in Georgia, and slightly behind in Nevada. If that holds...

Justin Trudeau’s on the back foot, the opposition and media are no better. No wonder ruthless authoritarians are treating Canadians like a bunch of dim-witted lumberjacks

Justin Trudeau’s on the back foot, the opposition and media are no better. No wonder ruthless authoritarians are treating Canadians like a bunch of dim-witted lumberjacks

On Feb. 21, 2021, 800 days after the Chinese government locked up Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig, Don Valley North MP Han Dong, a Liberal, called China’s Toronto Consul General, Han Tao, to discuss the case, which he shouldn’t have done. Dong testified later that he could not remember the details of the conversation, but a CSIS transcript of the...

Alberta oil flowing, but that won’t help Trudeau

Alberta oil flowing, but that won’t help Trudeau

A pipeline that gave Prime Minister Justin Trudeau a huge headache is finally delivering benefits — to oil companies, at least — although Trudeau should not expect to get political rewards for his troubles. Refineries in Washington state and Oregon are displacing Iraqi crude with cheaper oil from Alberta that is now available thanks to the expansion of the Trans...

The foreign interference revelations show that Trudeau’s security committee is fulfilling its mandate

The foreign interference revelations show that Trudeau’s security committee is fulfilling its mandate

One of the bitter ironies in the dismal, long-running foreign interference saga is that Justin Trudeau – whose lack of leadership on this issue has been so disturbing – did one smart thing six years ago that is helping us get to the bottom of the mess. In 2018, Ralph Goodale, then Mr. Trudeau’s public safety minister, established the National...

Ottawa’s Response to the Trucker Protest Was Doomed from the Start

Ottawa’s Response to the Trucker Protest Was Doomed from the Start

THE STORY OF how Ottawa failed to deal effectively with the three-week “Freedom Convoy” protest in January 2022 is a particularly Canadian story. As with so many problems we can’t fix, it involves jurisdictional overlap that allowed officials to do nothing because they would not be blamed for doing nothing.

Trudeau's blackface crisis: What Butts and Telford knew about the photos before news broke

Trudeau's blackface crisis: What Butts and Telford knew about the photos before news broke

Book excerpt: How the Liberal campaign team helped Justin Trudeau survive arguably his worst scandal of his political career

Prepare for the Meanest Election in Canadian History

Prepare for the Meanest Election in Canadian History

IERRE POILIEVRE first came to my attention in 2004, when we were both new to Ottawa and I used to sit in the gallery of the House to watch Question Period. Poilievre, then a freshly elected twenty-five-year-old, stood out as unusually combative. He sought every opportunity to take cheap shots at his opponents, like a trash-talking hockey player, always slashing...

Trudeau needs to read the writing on the wall

Trudeau needs to read the writing on the wall

In October of 2022, when I started working on my book about Justin Trudeau’s government, I told my interview subjects that I thought history would judge him favourably. It seemed to me then that Mr. Trudeau had changed the country more than Jean Chrétien, Paul Martin or Stephen Harper, and that his record could be measured against Brian Mulroney’s. Justin’s...

Poilievre refuses to be pinned down

Poilievre refuses to be pinned down

Canadian Finance Minister Chystia Freelandsaid this week that she will put forward legislation to increase capital gains taxes before Parliament stops sitting for the summer, and she urged Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre to take a stand on the issue, which he has so far declined to do. Liberals hope the measure — which will hit a small number of high-income...

Who’s afraid of Mark Carney?

Who’s afraid of Mark Carney?

Mark Carney set the cat among the pigeons last week with a speech that gently criticized the government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and tore a strip off of Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre.

Biden and Trudeau face headwinds … from Gaza

Biden and Trudeau face headwinds … from Gaza

Last Thursday, after Joe Biden promised during his State of the Union to build a pier to deliver aid to Gaza, Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet shook the president’s hand, congratulated him on the speech, and urged him to push Israel to do more on “humanitarian stuff.” Biden, caught on a hot mic, nodded in agreement and said he was pressing...

Before Liberals can replace Trudeau, they would have to reckon with Gaza

Before Liberals can replace Trudeau, they would have to reckon with Gaza

If the race to succeed Trudeau takes place while Israel is bombing Gaza, would-be leaders would be under intense pressure to appeal to voters who want Canada to push for a ceasefire. A leadership race dominated by an emotional conflict over the Middle East policy could leave the Liberals in a worse situation than they are now.

Poilievre can dish it out, but can he take it?

Poilievre can dish it out, but can he take it?

Many voters may be glad to see him treat journalists with disdain — that is for them to decide — but our job is to test him and study his character before he takes over the country, and we should not shrink from the task even if it means taking some browbeatings.