Frankly Speaking

If Andrew Scheer seems to be looking slightly over his shoulder in this photo, it's probably because he is the latest in a long line of federal Conservative leaders to be gutted by his own party members. Chances are, his successor as leader will suffer the same fate. Andrew Scheer has resigned as leader of the Conservative Party. This is no surprise, given the incendiary remarks about his leadership, the results of the recent election campaign and the attacks on his personal religious views. Most of the remarks can be traced back to fellow Conservatives - often whispered to the media on condition of anonymity, who then repeat these anonymous opinions as fact. It brings to mind what has often been said about those engaged in politics and other endeavours where the chief aim is to try and persuade others to a certain perspective: “When you lose the battle, one of the first things to happen is that those still standing go onto the field and shoot the wounded.” That this should ...

Justin Trudeau is following in his father's footsteps after Monday's federal election - emerging with a minority government in his second election after the Trudeaumania wave disappeared. Canada emerged very divided from the election on Monday, and the first act of the three national party leaders after the results were in did not bode well for future co-operation. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau spoke in Montreal just after Conservative leader Andrew Scheer began to speak in Regina. Scheer took to the stage while NDP leader Jagmeet Singh was winding up his remarks in Burnaby. The Liberals won a minority government, with 157 seats. Most of those seats are concentrated in the Toronto and Montreal areas, and in the Atlantic provinces. They were shut out in Saskatchewan and Alberta, and their B.C. presence is concentrated around Vancouver. They have no B.C. seats outside Metro Vancouver. The Conservatives have 121 seats, including ...

Santa Claus has a bag full of goodies for the newsmakers among us. This is an update of a sneak preview of gifts Santa has for some of the newsmakers who affect our lives. The original was written in the midst of the windstorm of Dec. 20, just before the power went out at my home and in thousands of other places on or near the B.C. south coast. Of course, that was the day the White Rock pier broke apart in the storm, and the day the electoral reform referendum results came down. As a result of all that, Santa let me know that an update of the gifts he was giving was required. Over a bowl of Christmas cheer, I acquiesced. Santa had to change his list quite dramatically this year – even as late as Thursday, Dec. 20. So many of the politicians he had gifts for were summarily dumped by voters in October, and that didn’t give the elves in his workshop much time to retool. However, he’s managed to do his best with the time he had available. He knew earlier that Linda Hepner ...