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THE MEETING was not going well. On Friday, Oct. 10, 2008, finance ministers and central bankers from the Group of Seven leading industrial economies had gathered in Washington for their [...]

Everyone agrees that cities matter. No, they're crucial. The Federation of Canadian Municipalities notes on its website, 'urban economies are where people live, where jobs are created and where most [...]

He destroyed himself. Nobody did it to him. He was simply asked, respectfully, to explain himself. And he could not. If the former prime minister of Canada is now widely [...]

The phrase 'paradigm shift' was coined by the historian Thomas Kuhn to describe the process by which an old belief system, long entrenched and widely shared, is suddenly overthrown by [...]

On Friday, Aug. 29, as the Conservatives were putting the finishing touches on election planning, the S&P/ TSX composite index closed at 13,771--down from its record earlier in the summer, [...]

The polls tell us the public considers 'the economy' the No. 1 election issue, and so of course it must be. For example, 26 per cent of those surveyed in [...]

This is not about abortion. This is about democracy. It is about how we decide things, and by what rules, and how we treat each other when we disagree. Indeed, [...]

WHEN I WAS growing up, the world was in the grip of what was then called the Computer Age. Computers, everyone knew, were where things were going. And so we [...]

In 1963, the historian W. L. Morton published a splendid one-volume history of Canada. The title still has the power to thrill, and to shock: The Kingdom of Canada. At [...]

Torture, like terrorism, is an issue that does not admit easily of complexity. The same people who mocked George W. Bush for his 'black and white' thinking on terrorism ('you […]

The question is not, what does Michael Ignatieff stand for? It is, what does he stand for now? It is not, what would he do in government? It is, what [...]

Dear British Columbia: I know you're kind of busy right now, and maybe it's not my place, being from another province and all, but could I just ask you, on [...]

One of the odder turns in the financial crisis has been the emergence of what can only be described as a worldwide cult of the Canadian banks. Yes, those Canadian [...]

Say what you like about the Tories: they don't do things by halves. When they spend, they spend. When they go into debt, they do it $100 billion at a [...]

On the Conservative party website, it's all about 'Harper Leadership 08.' Tory campaign ads show us Sweater Steve, shyly revealing a fondness for veterans, immigrants and his kids. Party message [...]

It is the same way every time. I get up from the chair, thank the lady who cuts my hair, run my hand appreciatively over my head, turn, and walk, [...]

If the Parliamentary Press Gallery had been the ones to cover Watergate... 'So there was a break-in at the Democratic National Committee. So they found Howard Hunt's phone number in […]

HE'S AMONG THE most respected voices anywhere on financial regulation and monetary policy, and the Canadian closest to the centre of efforts to solve the European debt crisis. Governor of [...]

BOB RAE'S RECENT intervention in the continuing dispute between Canada and the United Arab Emirates over airline landing rights has earned him a rebuke from the National Post. Under the [...]

WATCHING PETER MACKAY at the press conference confirming that Canadian troops would indeed remain in Afghanistan past the 2011 deadline, albeit in a 'classroom' role, I was reminded how much [...]

FOR ONE MAD moment, it seemed as if the standoff over the burning Qurans and the controversy over the Ground Zero mosque would both be settled at one go-with a [...]

By the terms of Bill C-232, legislation adopted by the House of Commons requiring all appointees to the Supreme Court to be fluent in both official languages, one is obliged [...]

Born of the Great Depression, the Bank of Canada has found new relevance, 75 years later, in averting another. As Canada emerges, surprisingly strong, from what many had feared would [...]

The hypocrite in our times is not, as of old, the libertine posing as moralist--Tartuffe, or Angelo in Measure for Measure--but moralists posing as libertines. Today we are most keen [...]

Once again the dollar is flirting with parity, and once again everyone is very excited about it. Why? Objectively, there is no more significance to the dollar being worth US100 [...]

It is true in politics, no less than in physics, that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Michael Ignatieff, as is well known, has seen his [...]

Elsewhere in this issue you find an incisive exploration of the Liberal party's latest self-inflicted wounds in Quebec. As for me, my only contribution is to ask of certain members [...]

It wasn't Chappaquiddick that killed Ted Kennedy's presidential ambitions. It was Roger Mudd. Or rather it was Ted's answer to Mudd's perfectly straightforward question--'Senator, why do you want to be […]

The heated, sometimes lunatic debate over Barack Obama's health care plan that has consumed Americans these past few weeks has already yielded one important benefit: it has provided the Canadian […]

In a typical year, somewhere around 450 Canadians will die by drowning. As it happened, in the first week of August this year, eight Canadians drowned--about the number one would […]

It is a special kind of boondoggle that even a politician can resist. People who spend other people's money for a living aren't in the habit of asking too many [...]

What is the cost of the federal and Ontario governments' contribution to bailing out General Motors? We know what it is in dollar terms: $10.6 billion, or about one-fifth as [...]

It would be a stretch to claim that Gordon Campbell received much of a 'mandate' in last week's British Columbia election. With 46 per cent of the vote, in an [...]

Here's how bad things have got for Stephen Harper: people are taking Garth Turner seriously. The former journalist, former Conservative, former MP s gossipy tell-all of his time in Parliament, [...]

If Canadian broadcasters were capable of producing a decent drama, this would have the makings of a pretty good pilot: 'In a world turned upside down ... as an empire [...]

My fellow Canadians; As election day looms, it is traditional for the political parties to tell you that the choice has never been clearer, the stakes have never been higher. [...]

Toward the end of last year, the Prime Minister embarked on his usual round of exclusive interviews. The news was not good. He told the Globe and Mail exclusively that [...]

Time was when a prime minister on the cusp of an election campaign would spend those last few days before the writ glad-handing through the more populous regions--'vote-rich Ontario,' say, [...]

The motto of the Order of Canada is 'they desire a better country.' This is not, obviously, a rejection of Canada--they do not desire another country--but neither does it imply [...]

Scandal time again. Once more the country is consumed with tales of politicians taking envelopes full of cash from shady businessmen. As pressure for a public inquiry grows, the air […]

THE BEST WAY to understand the situation facing the Liberals is to think of the party as a hockey team. It has won several Stanley Cups in a row, but [...]

THE SENATE IS Confederation's original sin, the great stain on the fathers' handiwork, from which much greater evils have flowed. Structurally, it has contributed to the divisions and weaknesses that [...]

YOU SAY YOU'RE bored by this campaign? Nothing seems to happen, nothing much will change? Be not downhearted. Dull the election may be, but the aftermath promises to be fascinating. [...]

People are talking about a wave of patriotism washing across the country as Canadians cheer on their Olympic athletes. I'm sure this is true, but why? What is it based [...]

Parliament returns, to a changed political landscape. As late as mid-December, the Conservatives were still leading the Liberals by eight to 10 points. Two months and one prorogation later, the [...]

For all their growing closeness on other matters, such as global warming, Barack Obama and Stephen Harper could not be further apart on the issue of how to reform banking [...]

Even the words are creepy. 'Cover-up. A description far more familiar to other countries. Until now,' But as we all know, it's the sounds and imagery that make an attack [...]

Introducing his famous motion in Parliament committing the government of Canada to abolish child poverty by the year 2000, NDP leader Ed Broadbent conjured a Dickensian vision of Canada. 'Being [...]

There are many diversions in this carnival world--canasta, bubble wrap, Donald Trump's hair--but none so entertaining as a politician trying to persuade us the emotions he puts on for a [...]

In the wake of Hydro-Quebec's astonishing $4.8-billion deal to take over New Brunswick's electric power utility, I have just one question: would Hydro-Quebec please take over Ontario's next? As long [...]