Why we should be kinder about Xavier Trudeau's new single
Titled Til The Nights Done, the R&B song was released under the artist name Xav on music streaming platforms. While many were quick to jump in the comment section and share their critiques of the track, Toronto Star culture reporter Richie Assaly argued the (albeit bland) track offered a reprieve from an otherwise chaotic state of the world.
Today on Commotion, Assaly tells host Elamin Abdelmahmoud why he welcomes Xavier Trudeau's foray into the music industry.
WATCH | Today's episode on YouTube (this segment begins at 14:43):
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Toronto Sun
2 days ago
- Toronto Sun
GOLDSTEIN: Canada's huge federal government bureaucracy needs to be downsized
During Justin Trudeau's Liberal government from 2015 to 2024, the federal bureaucracy grew in size by 43% Get the latest from Lorrie Goldstein straight to your inbox (L) Prime Minister Mark Carney and (R) former PM Justin Trudeau. Photo by File Photos / AFP via Getty Images While the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives warned last week that over 57,000 federal public service jobs could be cut between now and 2028 due to Prime Minister Mark Carney's restraint measures – assuming they occur – the reality is that a downsizing of the federal civil service is long overdue. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account During Justin Trudeau's Liberal government from 2015 to 2024, the federal bureaucracy grew in size by 43%, from 257,034 employees to 367,772, an increase of 110,738. That far outstrips the 15% increase in Canada's population between 2015 (35,606,734) and 2024 (41,012,563). The 43% growth rate of the federal public service also outpaced the 18.5% real growth rate of the economy, the 15.5% growth in total employment and the 25.5% growth of employment across the entire public sector, counting all orders of government. As Peter Nicholson, a former senior federal public servant and business executive who cited these figures in a policy paper last month for the Johnson-Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy at the University of Saskatchewan observed: Your noon-hour look at what's happening in Toronto and beyond. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. 'There is no reason to expect the growth of the civil service to match, much less exceed, population growth … By 2024, the number of federal public servants per 1,000 population had reached the highest ratio (9.0) in at least 40 years during which governments of various ideological stripes have held power.' He noted this rapid growth occurred during an era when 'so much specialized and urgent work is being outsourced to consultants.' RECOMMENDED VIDEO On that issue, parliamentary budget officer Yves Giroux reported in 2023 that despite the rapid increase in the size of the federal public service, the Trudeau government was also spending $21.4 billion annually hiring outside help – 106% more than the $10.4 billion spent when Trudeau took power in 2015. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Giroux reported the total cost of paying a full-time equivalent position in the federal public service – including salaries, pensions and benefits – increased by 7.7 % from $126,634 in 2022-23 to $136,345 in 2023-24, 'exceeding the growth realized in any year since 2006-07.' Meanwhile, 'total personnel spending increased by 15.7% to $65.3 billion in 2023-24, from $56.5 billion in 2022-23.' Some of these increases can be attributed to new federal programs such as dental care and pharmacare and increased hiring during the 2020 pandemic. But that was five years ago and the size of the federal bureaucracy continued to increase every year after that up to 2024 – from 300,450 positions in 2020 to 319,601 in 2021; 335,957 in 2022; 357,247 in 2023 and 367,772 in 2024. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. As of March 31, 2025, the public service was reduced by 9,807 positions to 357,965, compared to the same period in 2024, marking the first annual decrease in a decade. Even with that 2.65% cut in the growth rate of the federal bureaucracy over one year, the overall 39% increase from 2015 to 2025 is well over twice the 16.6% growth rate of Canada's population during the same period. RECOMMENDED VIDEO In a paper earlier this month, the Canadian Federation of Independent Business reported that from 2013 to 2023 (two years of the Stephen Harper Conservative government, eight years of the Trudeau government) the size of the federal bureaucracy increased by 36%, compared to just 13% job growth in the private sector. 'The rapid growth of the federal workforce and the accompanying surge in payroll expenditures risk crowding out private-sector activity,' authors Alchad Alegbeh and Christina Santini warned. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. 'This trend can reduce overall productivity, slow long-term economic growth, and limit the government's ability to respond to future economic or fiscal shocks … 'The continued expansion of the federal public service – both in headcount and compensation – has become a growing source of concern for Canada's small and medium-sized enterprises which represent the core of the private economy … 'While the federal public service has grown steadily, this has not been matched by improvements in economic performance or the business environment. In theory, a larger public sector could support business owners through streamlined regulations and efficient services. In practice, however, Canadian businesses face a costly and complex regulatory landscape – amounting to $51 billion annually.' This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Read More During the election, Carney promised to freeze rather than reduce the size of the public service, while increasing government productivity. But governments of all stripes have promised increased productivity for years, without accomplishing it, meaning that new programs almost inevitably result in hiring more staff, instead of fewer workers doing the job more efficiently. Critics say Carney's recent instructions to most federal departments to cut program spending by 15% by the 2028-29 fiscal year will result in job losses and reduce the quality of government services. But the reality, according to the numbers, is that downsizing the federal public service has become an economic necessity. lgoldstein@ Columnists Toronto & GTA Sunshine Girls Toronto & GTA Columnists
CBC
2 days ago
- CBC
Trudeau radically overhauled the Senate — will Carney keep his reforms?
Former prime minister Justin Trudeau upended 150 years of Canadian parliamentary tradition when he dumped Liberal senators, named Independents to the upper house and generally stripped the place of partisan elements. The experiment produced mixed reviews, with some old-guard senators — those who were there well before Trudeau — arguing the Senate is now irrelevant, slower, less organized and more expensive. Some of Trudeau's appointees say the reforms have helped the Red Chamber turn the page on the near-death experience of the expenses scandal, which they maintain was fuelled by the worst partisan impulses. Defenders of the new regime say partisans are pining for a model that's best left in the dustbin of history. The Senate has been more active in amending government bills and those changes are not motivated by party politics or electoral fortunes — they're about the country's best interest, reformers say. As the debate rages internally over whether the last 10 years of change have been worth it, Prime Minister Mark Carney has said almost nothing about his vision for the upper house. Under the current model, would-be senators are recommended by an outside panel but the decision is still up to the prime minister. Most of Trudeau's early picks were strictly non-partisan but, as polls showed his party was headed for an almost certain defeat, he increasingly named Liberals to the chamber. Carney has already scrapped Trudeau's carbon tax, introduced legislation to bypass Trudeau-era regulations, repaired once-frosty relations with the provinces and taken a different approach to the trade war. All that has some senators wondering whether the non-partisan push in the Red Chamber will be the next domino to fall. In an interview with CBC Radio's The House, House leader Steve MacKinnon signalled there may indeed be more changes coming. "I think the Senate is very much a work in progress," he said. "We continue to work constructively with the Senate in its current configuration and as it may evolve. I know many senators, the various groups in the Senate and others continue to offer some constructive thoughts on that." Asked if Carney will appoint Liberals, MacKinnon said the prime minister will name senators who are "attuned to the vagaries of public opinion, attuned to the wishes of Canadians and attuned to the agenda of the government as is reflected in the election results." Carney is interested in senators who "are broadly understanding of what the government's trying to achieve," MacKinnon said. As to whether he's heard about efforts to revive a Senate Liberal caucus, MacKinnon said: "I haven't been part of any of those discussions." Alberta Sen. Paula Simons is a member of the Independent Senators Group, the largest in the chamber and one mostly composed of Trudeau appointees (she is one of them, appointed in 2018). Simons said she knows the Conservatives would scrap Trudeau's reforms at the first opportunity. What concerns her more are those Liberals who are also against the changes. "There's a fair bit of rumbling about standing up a Liberal caucus again. And I am unalterably opposed to that," she said. When the last Liberal caucus was disbanded, some of its members regrouped as the Progressive Senate Group, which now includes senators who were never Liberals. "To unscramble that omelette, whether you're a Liberal or a Conservative, I think would be a betrayal of everything that we've accomplished over the last decade," Simons said. "I think the Senate's reputation has improved greatly as a result of these changes. I think the way we are able to improve legislation has also increased tenfold. It would be foolish and wasteful to reverse that." Still, she said there's been pushback from some Trudeau appointees. Senate debates are now longer, committee hearings feature more witnesses and there's more amendments to legislation than ever before, she said. Not to mention Independent senators can't be whipped to vote a certain way. All of that makes the legislative process more difficult to navigate. "Partisan Liberals don't like the new independent Senate because they can't control it as easily," she said. Marc Gold, Trudeau's last government representative in the Senate who briefly served under Carney before retiring, said his advice to the new prime minister is to keep the Senate the way it is. "The evolution of the Senate to a less partisan, complementary institution is a good thing. I think it's a success, and I certainly hope that it continues," Gold said. On the other side of the divide, Quebec Sen. Leo Housakos, the leader of the Conservative Senate caucus, welcomes the idea of injecting some partisanship. He said, under the current model, the chamber is less influential. "The place has become, unfortunately, an echo chamber," he said. Housakos said the old Senate was more honest, when members were more transparent about their political leanings. Many of Trudeau's Independent appointees are Liberal-minded and their voting record suggests they often align with the government, Housakos said. "Look at how often they've held the government to account," he said. "Look how often they've asked the difficult questions in the moments when the government needed … their feet held to the fire." Simons sees things differently. "It's really difficult for people who've been brought up in a partisan milieu, whether they're Conservative or Liberal or New Democrat, to understand that it is actually possible to be a political actor without a team flag," she said. "It's not my job to stand for a political party." Saskatchewan Sen. Pamela Wallin is a member of the Canadian Senators Group, which is made up of non-partisan senators including some who, like her, formerly sat as Conservatives. She said the current process has produced some senators who are political neophytes, unfamiliar with the Senate's traditional role. "I don't care if somebody belongs to a political party.… I think people need to be better educated about what they're signing up for," she said. "Our job is to be an arbiter of legislation and laws put forward by the House of Commons. It's not a place where we can all ride our individual hobby horses." That's a reference to the proliferation of Senate public bills — legislation introduced by senators themselves. These bills often have no hope of passing through both chambers, while still taking time and resources to sort through. There is data to support Wallin's contention that there are more of these bills than there were before the Trudeau reforms. During Stephen Harper's last term, there were 56 Senate public bills introduced and nine of them were passed into law, according to a CBC News review of parliamentary data. By comparison, Trudeau's final session saw 92 bills introduced over a shorter time period. Only 12 of them passed — a worse success rate. In the first few weeks of this new Parliament, more than 32 such bills have already been introduced, some of them a revival of those that died on the order paper. Wallin said those bills often reflect senators' "personal interests or the interests that they've shared over a lifetime." She wants the Senate to take a "back to basics" approach. "Our job is sober second thought," she said. Wallin is also calling for better regional representation in the Senate, which may be a tricky proposition given the constitutional realities. A change in seat allocation would require cracking open that foundational document, a politically unpalatable idea. Still, Alberta separatists are agitating for change, calling the current breakdown grossly unfair. Housakos said depriving some parts of the country of meaningful representation needs to be addressed. In B.C., for example, the province's nearly six million people are represented by just six senators. P.E.I., by comparison, has four senators for about 180,000 people — an allocation formula that dates back to Confederation. "Western Canada has a legitimate beef. They are not fairly represented in the upper chamber," Housakos said. "It's probably the biggest problem that needs to be addressed." But the government isn't interested in that sort of change, MacKinnon said.
Winnipeg Free Press
2 days ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Despite cancellation, Colbert's deft late-night punches will continue to land
Opinion Getting hit in the funny bone is painful, so last week's news about the firing of Stephen Colbert really hurt. He's a funny guy, and funniness is not just good right now. It's necessary. But there are other reasons this comedy cancellation feels bad. On July 17, Colbert announced that his contract would not be renewed and that CBS would shut down the entire Late Show in May. This came three days after the 61-year-old host used his monologue to call out CBS's decision to pay US$16 million to settle Donald Trump's lawsuit — seen by most legal experts as meritless — against 60 Minutes. Stephen Colbert (Scott Kowalchyk / CBS) In his comic bit, Colbert implied the payment was meant to smooth the way for the Trump administration's approval of the US$8-billion merger of CBS parent company Paramount Global with Skydance Media. According to Colbert, 'the technical name in legal circles' for this action is a 'big, fat bribe.' The timing of the cancellation announcement and CBS's insistence that it was 'purely a financial decision' have led to a lot of talk. There's talk about the economics of a changing entertainment landscape and the conflicts of interest that can arise as media ownership is absorbed into increasingly massive corporate conglomerates. There's talk about Trump using the power of the American presidency as a form of financial extortion to crack down on the free expression of law firms, universities and media outlets he despises. Finally, there's talk about the real value — beyond dollars and cents — of comedy, especially in our fraught era. While the reasons behind CBS's decision might not be purely financial, there are economic issues at play. The Late Show with Stephen Colbert employs about 200 people, costs about US$100 million to produce annually and reportedly lost about US$40 million last year. There are other numbers, though: Colbert currently leads the late-night ratings, giving his network some much-needed pop-culture currency. The Late Show certainly generates more buzz than, say, Tracker, the CBS primetime show that Colbert has been gently mocking for two seasons. (I only know of the existence of Tracker, about a 'lone-wolf survivalist' who uses his skills to find missing persons, because of Colbert's jokes about it. And I suspect I'm not alone.) Still, while Colbert might win the late-night ratings race, it's also true late night's overall audience is a dwindling demographic. After the mid-20th-century heyday of Jack Paar and Johnny Carson, the snarkier David Letterman captured and held a younger audience for a while, but viewership for network television has been steadily declining in recent years, as have ad revenues. (And I don't really have any right to complain here. I have never watched the whole show on the television box at 11:35 p.m. Like most people, I catch up on late-night monologues on YouTube the next day.) These bottom-line financial issues are just one part of a bigger problem, however, now that CBS has gotten into a Trumpy quagmire that involves both the serious news show 60 Minutes and The Late Show, which often covers some of the same ground except with prop comedy. When networks are owned by huge parent companies, it becomes much more likely that the journalistic imperative to serve the public interest will clash with the business interests of shareholders. The proposed merger between Paramount and Skydance involves two Succession-style billionaire dynasties with all kinds of holdings, so it's no surprise things are getting sticky. Running an effective news program — or even a comedy show that comments on politics and current events — needs to be rooted in the belief democracy requires informed citizens. Colbert's commitment to the American experiment is deeply, deeply earnest, which is why he can be so funny about it. Not everyone is laughing, of course. While the Trump admin likes to complain about 'cancel culture,' it seems to love actual cancellations. After Colbert's announcement, Trump proclaimed on social media, 'I absolutely love that Colbert got fired,' while hinting that Jimmy Kimmel is 'NEXT to go.' The White House also issued a statement about The View after co-host Joy Behar suggested Trump was jealous of Obama. With all the corporate capitulation going on, Trump's attacks on TV hosts could have a chilling effect on free speech. Colbert, having been fired already, seems to be well positioned to talk back. Wednesdays A weekly dispatch from the head of the Free Press newsroom. He has a staff of good comedy writers. His delivery is nimble, his timing is deft. But more than that, he has a particular comic vibe that's very effective against Trump. His style is precise, even prim, at times. He's got that adorably dorky Lord of the Rings obsession. He has nice manners. While the shamelessness of Donald Trump means his scandals practically come pre-satirized, there's something about Colbert's approach — sharp but not cheap — that punctures that self-sealing bubble. When Colbert says of Trump, 'I don't care for him,' it lands. And this last week, as Colbert started off his monologue with his usual intro — saying, 'I'm your host Stephen Colbert,'— the roar of response from the live audience was palpable, suggesting good things for his inevitable future podcast. Trump has been dealing with a lot of unintended consequences in recent days. He might end up being less than happy about the Colbert firing. Lame-duck politicians struggle to get anything done. Outgoing comedians, on the other hand, can do a whole lot. Alison GillmorWriter Studying at the University of Winnipeg and later Toronto's York University, Alison Gillmor planned to become an art historian. She ended up catching the journalism bug when she started as visual arts reviewer at the Winnipeg Free Press in 1992. Read full biography Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber. Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
