Karim Bardeesy used to hang out in some pretty lofty places in politics. He was a top policy adviser for Premiers Dalton McGuinty and Kathleen Wynne, an “inside” job that seemed to suit his bookish, introverted personality. But he surprised many when he decided to run in the 2022 Ontario election. He lost that time,…
Is there a police chief anywhere in Canada who’s had as rough a ride over the past decade as Peter Sloly? Sloly was the chief in Ottawa when, four years ago, a trucker convoy occupied his city for three weeks. Sloly got enmeshed in a complicated stew of politics, which ultimately cost him his job….
(Here’s a sneak peek of my The Toronto Star column, which will appear in the paper this Saturday). More than 20 years ago, David Frum co-wrote a book called “An End to Evil,” in which he explicitly called for regime change in Iran. So, that felt like a good place to start my conversation with…
Much of the world is still trying to figure out what the consequences will be from Mark Carney’s speech in Davos, Switzerland. The prime minister won plaudits for daring to call out the behaviour of the world’s superpowers, particularly, President Donald Trump and the United States, although in neither case, by name. Janice Stein, the…
Margaret MacMillan is one of Canada’s greatest historians. She’s taught at the University of Toronto and at Oxford, has written a dozen books, and was even sanctioned by Russia, a country she’d like to visit but now can’t. She is also unhappy to report that this moment in history reminds her of some of the…
For the first time since 1978, when he was first elected to Parliament, Bob Rae now finds himself without a so-called “important job.” His term as Canada’s ambassador to the United Nations just ended. Now, Ontario’s 21st premier and former interim leader of the federal Liberals is just Citizen Bob. Let’s deal right away with the United…
For decades, Jim Balsillie was best known as the co-CEO of Research in Motion, makers of the Blackberry, and someone who almost brought another NHL team to Canada. But in recent years, he’s turned his attention to trying to get decision-makers to embrace a new destiny for Canada, one in which we focus less on…
Sergio Marchi got himself elected to North York city council at the tender age of 26, and just two years later, became a Liberal MP, just in time to see his party thrashed by Brian Mulroney’s Progressive Conservatives in 1984. But he stuck around, eventually earning three different jobs in Jean Chretien’s cabinets between 1993…
Article first appeared in The Toronto Star. Has there ever been a more improbable story in Canadian judicial history than Rosalie Silberman Abella’s? She was born stateless in a displaced persons’ camp in post-World War II Allied-occupied Germany, yet somehow made it to the Supreme Court of Canada. In between, she had a huge influence…
Alex Neve is one of Canada’s most passionate and decorated human rights advocates. From 2000 to 2020, he was the head of Amnesty International Canada and is in the midst of crossing the country to deliver the 2025 Massey Lectures on renewing human rights in a fractured world. Steve Paikin: This month is the 80th…