“Canadian Politics”

Many Canadian conservatives speak of Edmund Burke as they would their first love. Their tributes are fond and wistful.

From Reagan-esque paeans to talk of common sense and gradual change, our intellectual and political right still speaks like it lives in a cohesive, recognizable country that treasures inherited norms and trusted institutions.

Won’t happen under the Liberals, Carney’s cut talk has been scaled back.

Our civil service at all levels of government are a reliable liberal-left vote bloc.

At a steakhouse on Avenue Road in Toronto earlier this month, a number of conservatives turned up for a Liberal MP’s fundraiser. One was John Tory, the former Toronto mayor and onetime leader of Ontario Progressive Conservatives.

It was perhaps not surprising that Mr. Tory was at this fundraiser, given that the Liberal MP in the Eglinton-Lawrence riding, Vince Gasparro, was his deputy chief of staff at City Hall. In fact, Mr. Tory was the marquee special guest.

OH NO! JOHN TORY MAY DEFECT TO THE LIBERALS!

When Canadians hire someone to represent them in Ottawa, they shouldn’t be stuck with them for four years, even if they do a terrible job.

If you hired an employee who lied on their résumé, broke company rules or stopped showing up for work, you’d fire them.

But when a politician does the same thing, voters are forced to sit on their hands until the next election.

From 2018 until early 2025, the federal government under Justin Trudeau and the Ontario government under Doug Ford dominated Canadian public policy. Despite different rhetoric, both increased spending and taxes, ran persistent deficits and made little progress on debt, revealing surprising similarities in their fiscal approaches.

Ottawa’s bureaucracy has ballooned in both size and cost over the past decade, with newly released Public Accounts showing taxpayers shelled out $71.4 billion for the federal workforce in 2024-25 — a $6-billion jump from the previous year alone.

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation says the numbers prove the system is out of control and is urging Prime Minister Mark Carney to slash the size of the federal administration.

(Incognito)

Politics over principle is hardly a new story in Ottawa, but Tuesday’s budget vote provided a master class. For weeks the Conservatives huffed and puffed and threatened to blow the Liberals’ house down over their big spending ways. Conversely, the Bloc opposed the budget over its lack of spending on seniors. Green Leader Elizabeth May couldn’t support the budget’s boost for fossil fuels, while the NDP grumbled about cuts to the public service. To add to the intrigue, Conservative MP Chris d’Entremont bolted across the aisle and joined the government, while fellow Tory Matt Jeneroux announced he was resigning his seat … in the spring. The government then survived two confidence votes on opposition motions, thanks to abstentions, and everyone went home for a week-long break prior to the big vote on Monday.

Well, that’s settled. Mark Carney’s first budget has passed, the Liberal government lives to fight another day and everyone can feel relief that Canada isn’t getting a Christmas election.

But is that relief earned, or justified?

The way in which this budget just barely made it highlights a House of Commons with some unity issues among all the federal parties — except the Greens, who only have one MP.

As Canada looks to untangle itself economically from the US, the country’s landlocked oil patch is eyeing new customers in Asia through a pipeline to the Pacific. Not everyone is on board.

The oil-rich province of Alberta has had one demand for Prime Minister Mark Carney: Help us build an oil pipeline — and fast.

It’s no small task — in fact, some argue it has become near-impossible to build a pipeline in Canada because of laws designed to bolster environmental protections. Three oil pipelines have died on the vine in the past decade over fierce opposition.

The media loves a good dramatic story to report.

When Conservative MP Chris D’entrement crossed the floor to join the Liberals, journalists licked their chops at the prospect of covering all the apparent dysfunction in the party that led up to his decision.

The federal government is expecting the budget to pass a final confidence test by a slim majority Monday as Liberals work behind the scenes to corral enough opposition votes to avert an election.

A senior Liberal told The Globe and Mail Sunday that Prime Minister Mark Carney does not have the votes at this point to win a confidence vote.

There’s always hope.