Insight

The fallen media tycoon

May 082012

Love him or hate him, we cannot escape Conrad Black.

by Geoffrey Stevens

If Conrad Black did not exist, we would have to invent to him. After all, he's the protagonist in a uniquely Canadian melodrama.

For some, he has been a source of perverse pride — a Canadian whose name is recognized everywhere, a fallen media tycoon who once assembled what was said to be the world's third largest newspaper empire. For others, he has been an outrage — a rich scoundrel with political connections who renounced his own land for the fool's gold of a foreign title and who now, needing sanctuary, seeks to crawl, unrepentant, from American prison back to the embrace of the country he so rudely spurned.

Tales of orange juice and fighter jets

May 012012

Insight

Overspending on non-essential signals hubris in high places.

by Geoffrey Stevens

What do these two “investments” – $16 for a glass of orange juice and $30 billion for strike fighter aircraft – have in common?

More than you might think.

Why Peter MacKay should resign

Apr 222012

Insight

Defence Minister ultimately responsible for F-35 lies.

by Geoffrey Stevens

With Parliament in recess, an uneasy calm has settled over the F-35 scandal in Ottawa. Hostilities will not resume in earnest until next Monday when the Commons resumes after its 18-day Easter respite. (You have to hand it to MPs — they really know how to stretch out a one-day stat holiday. But I digress.)

Budgets vs promises

Apr 022012

Insight

Harper, McGuinty, working overtime to manage political expectations.

by Geoffrey Stevens

Politics and professional sports have several things in common, including the need to manage expectations.

Sports franchises build a fan base and box-office success by dangling a dream of victory — a winning record, a berth in playoffs, even a championship. The dream keeps fans coming back, renewing season tickets at ungodly prices, filling arenas and inflating television ratings.

Of course, the team has to deliver on the dream, occasionally, to keep the fan base warm. New York Yankees are particularly adept at this. Even in their down years, the Yanks manage to make their fans believe victory is within reach.

After the leadership race

Mar 272012

Insight

Can the NDP regain its momentum under Thomas Mulcair?

by Geoffrey Stevens

Ever since their breakthrough election of May 2, 2011, several huge questions have hung over the New Democratic Party.

Did that election — 103 seats, 59 of them in Quebec — signal a tectonic shift in national politics? Or was it an aberration, a fling, the political equivalent of a one-night stand?

Could the NDP consolidate its position as the official opposition? Or would it lose its momentum and slip back into its accustomed (and comfortable) third-place position?

Stamping out a pernicious practice

Mar 132012

Insight

Robocalling is largely unregulated in Canada.

by Geoffrey Stevens

Robocalling is a relatively new phenomenon in Canada. More correctly, it's been around for a while, but has only recently become a political issue — what with "Pierre Poutine" and his throwaway cell phone in Guelph and growing evidence that automated telephone calls were used in efforts to mislead voters or to suppress turnout, or both, in many ridings in the 2011 federal election.

We know the robocalling reached far beyond Guelph. Protests were being held yesterday across the country. Elections Canada, RCMP and possibly the CRTC (which regulates telecoms) are investigating, at last count, 31,000 complaints. We don't know how long these investigations will take. (Given the measured pace at which such investigations customarily unfold, one could speculate that Stephen Harper and his ministers will be holding their cabinet meetings in a home for aged privy councillors long before the investigators' reports disturb their slumber.)

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