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 Tom Mulcair.
Former Harper-era cabinet minister Lisa Raitt — and a fellow CTV News analyst — once summed up, with a knowing smile, what she’d been hearing from voters during the last campaign: They liked Conservative policies, but they wanted Mark Carney to implement them. At the time, it was just a witty observation. Today, it looks remarkably prescient. The Liberal art...
When Prime Minister Mark Carney hinted, earlier this summer, that Canada might actually remove some of the counter-tariffs we’d imposed on the U.S., many were left scratching their heads. After all we’ve been through, how did that make any sense? Turns out that Carney was right, because we had conceded the negotiating high ground to U.S. President Donald Trump by...
Prime Minister Mark Carney got burned in the Air Canada debacle, and it’s his government’s first real failure. Carney was understated in expressing his frustration when it became clear that the union representing flight attendants would defy an order to end their strike, saying simply that he was “disappointed.” It was telling that he didn’t try to put blame on...
The NDP suffered the worst defeat in its history in last April’s election, gaining the support of just six per cent of Canadian voters. The seven remaining NDP MPs will have their work cut out for them as they try to repair the damage done by their decision to hop in the sack with Trudeau’s Liberals. That so-called supply and...
The new Carney government got elected on a promise of results. The core team he’s assembled to back him was purpose built with a single goal top of mind: Getting things done. Economic issues generally and trade issues, in particular, were dictating the agenda. What was new was the single-minded determination. The threat of a trade war with our closest...
For those of us who’ve been through the wringer of very divisive referendums, the threat of separatism is devoid of charm. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, an able politician whose success is founded on an understated populism, has decided to put her own threat under wraps for the time being and that’s a very good thing for Canada. Meanwhile, you guessed...
Mark Carney largely resisted the predictable onslaught from his opponents during the English leaders’ debate on Thursday night. He was helped by a boneheaded move by the hopeless Leaders’ Debates Commission that allowed fake news outlets into the room. Any difficult patches Carney may have experienced were pushed to the bottom of the page in post-debate analysis, owing to the...
The Bloc Québécois had expected to easily win a new riding in the Laurentians North of Montreal. The ‘Carney effect’ is being felt even in those parts of the province where the Liberals haven’t won a seat in years. Tim Watchorn is the mayor of the beautiful Laurentian village of Morin Heights. This is my neck of the woods and...
After taking part in many leaders’ debates during the 2015 federal election campaign, I may be in a unique position to comment on the Liberals’ refusal to participate in the now-cancelled TVA French debate. When Canada’s main private French network said it wanted help in paying for its “Face à Face” leaders' debate, there were some raised eyebrows. (Full disclosure...
With the campaign officially started, Canadians are about to experience something more akin to what we see south of the border: a two-party election. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not taking anything away from the NDP, the Green Party, the Bloc, or their supporters. They work hard, have their own base and promote their vision and ideals. But in a...
Monday night’s French Liberal leaders debate produced little news beyond the obvious lack of fluent French by both Mark Carney and Chrystia Freeland. Most francophone commentators managed to stay concentrated on the messages the candidates tried to put forward during the two-hour verbal joust. That being said, there was still lots of analysis of the poor quality of French. Read...
As Canadians react to the latest tariffs and threats from Donald Trump, we should all remember that the U.S. president’s family fortune began in Canada. You’d think he’d show some appreciation, but apparently not. I know, it’s hard to believe, but we really do bear some responsibility for Trump. The Trump family fortune was made thanks to Canadian natural resources...
Mark Carney is what sports writers would call a generational player. Someone who’s got talent galore and whose skills and leadership could help make a franchise a winner. The problem for Carney is that he appears to be surrounded by very experienced people from the Trudeau era. They were really good coaches for their former star player and as a...
A lot has been written and said about Chrystia Freeland’s resignation(opens in a new tab) the week before Christmas. Her bombshell letter(opens in a new tab) to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will be part of Canadian political lore for years to come.
On Feb. 29, 1984, Pierre Trudeau famously took a walk in the snow that, he explained the next day, inspired him to announce that he was leaving politics for good. Last February, on the 40th anniversary of that poetic moment, there was some speculation that Justin Trudeau might take his own walk in the snow and announce he was stepping...
Justin Trudeau recorded a long video(opens in a new tab) on the subject of immigration and released it over the weekend. It was a howler. In it, he blamed Canada’s immigration crisis on: the pandemic, provincial premiers, colleges and universities, “big box stores” (not joking) and, maybe a teeny, tiny bit, his own government. Not a word about the plan...
Commemorating the horrific terrorist attacks by Hamas on October 7th should have been an emotional moment for agreement on all sides in the House of Commons. Instead, Canadians got a front-row seat to the fear now raging in Conservative ranks as they face the possibility that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will be replaced prior to the next election. Conservative Leader...
Since the day he signed the agreement(opens in a new tab) to support Justin Trudeau’s Liberals, Jagmeet Singh has been advised that, at some point, he would have to retreat in order to save his party. That was the known part. It was the how and when of that retreat that was less clear. As Trudeau fulfilled the various conditions...
It was Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre’s birthday on Monday, but he could’ve probably done without the package that one of his more obscure backbenchers dropped on his doorstep. Conservative MP Arnold Viersen might want to consider another line of work after getting lambasted publicly by Poilievre and being forced to issue a groveling retraction. Ouch.
When federal public service unions recently threatened a summer of discontent(opens in a new tab), it would have been easy pickings for Justin Trudeau to clear his throat and deliver a heartfelt "fuddle duddle(opens in a new tab)" for and on behalf of hard-pressed Canadian voters. It wasn’t to be. Having recently signed generous collective agreements with the major public...
There are two steep hills that Pierre Poilievre will have to climb if he hopes to turn his good polling numbers into victory: the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) and Quebec. The 60 or so seats in the GTA and the 78 seats of La Belle Province have been elusive prizes since the creation of the Conservative Party under Stephen Harper...
Justin Trudeau is looking, and sounding, less and less engaged as he struggles through his ninth year in power. Uniformly brutal numbers from every leading polling company reflect a widespread view from voters: they’re just tired of Trudeau’s Liberals. He is nearly 20% behind Poilievre with less and less runway available to lift off into a potential new campaign.
Pierre Poilievre’s tirade against Valérie Plante and Bruno Marchand, the mayors of Quebec’s two largest cities, is as uncivil at it is unseemly coming from someone at his level. He knows little or nothing about either them (or their cities), and yet he’s decided they’re “incompetent.”
There really does appear to be a surliness in the land, perhaps fuelled by pent-up sentiments after several years of lockdowns, isolation and kids at home from school. The sudden return of high inflation(opens in a new tab) has no doubt contributed to the resentment. Several premiers who were riding high after the pandemic have landed with a thud. Doug...