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Winnipeg Free Press
05-07-2025
- Politics
- Winnipeg Free Press
Canada, America — compare and contrast
Opinion Three days and 90 years. That's the difference in age between Canada and America. But the differences between Canadians and Americans have never been on starker display than this, our joint birthday week. It is truly a tale of two countries, a revolutionary society versus an evolutionary community. The United States today is undergoing a second American revolution, one that will determine whether it remains a republican democracy or becomes a presidential autocracy. The signs are ominous. Canada, meanwhile, is engaged in a debate about economic progress and regional and civil accommodation. The signs are hopeful. The Canadian Press files The Peace Tower is pictured on Parliament Hill in Ottawa. The Peace, Order and Good Government clause has shaped the character of Canada, David McLaughlin writes. Two bills tell the tale. Parliament passed Bill C-5 last month, the 'Build Canada Act' meant to eliminate internal trade barriers and accelerate infrastructure projects, with strong majority support from the governing and opposition parties. This past week, Congress passed the 'One Big Beautiful Act,' the largest wealth transfer from the poor to the wealthy in American history, on strict partisan lines. More than differences of policy are on display. Differences of values, culture, and the very role of government are coming to the fore. The U.S. today is asserting 'nationalist sovereignty,' projecting an America-first mindset to protect a perceived superior and threatened cultural way of life. Canada is asserting 'sovereign nationalism,' projecting a distinct and stronger political and cultural identity buttressed by greater domestic economic wherewithal. Consider less than half-a-year of America under Trump. Executive power has exploded at the expense of due legal process to deport migrants and immigrants, using the National Guard and masked, unidentifiable ICE agents to swoop and detain. Law firms have been forced to do free legal work for MAGA-type causes to protect their regular government work, a form of racketeering. Media companies have paid the president or his surrogates tens of millions of dollars to avoid government-sponsored lawsuits against them, threatening freedom of the press. Science and evidence have been shut down in favour of extremist, crank views on vaccines and climate change. Between 12 million and 15 million Americans are about to lose their health insurance, making people sicker and poorer. None of this is being mirrored in Canada, leftist Liberal and rightist Conservative complaints notwithstanding. Even when there is some alignment in policy goals — investing in national defence, more secure borders, less immigration — there is a legitimate Canadian difference. A difference not just in degree but in form. Not just what we choose to do but how we choose to do it. Peace, order, and good government. This sums up the Canadian difference. It sets out our governing culture in constitutional clothing. When Canada was formed in 1867, Parliament was given authority 'to make Laws for the Peace, Order, and good Government of Canada.' This 'POGG clause' was the constitutional device in vogue in the 19th century as the British Empire 'decolonized' itself. Across Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, and South Africa, each of these countries incorporated the phrase into their self-governing constitutions. Uniquely here, though, this means of figuring out who does what jurisdictionally between the national and subnational governments, grew into a governance ethos for Canada. Our constitutional history has not been without contention over this phrase. Federal governments have justified controversial pan-Canadian interventionism with it such as carbon pricing. But these fights have occurred in the courts of law and public opinion with acceptably civil discourse. Blatant disobedience rarely rears itself. This is due to a political culture in Canada that has been historically shaped and influenced by expectations of, and satisfaction with, peace, order, and good government in our political life. Not the legality of the clause but its sentiment. Even as we've experienced a decades-long decline in deference for traditional public, religious, and social institutions, Canadians have opted for an evolutionary reordering of society in response. No national guard deployed here. Even the most revolutionary development in Canada since Confederation itself, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, Weekday Evenings Today's must-read stories and a roundup of the day's headlines, delivered every evening. This is to be celebrated. For it is during the difficult, fraught periods of political and societal tension that constitutional norms and behaviour become most important. In short, it is how you get through to the other side. Especially now as we contemplate how to forge a successful transition of 'sovereign nationalism' from today's unipolar economic vulnerability tied to the U.S. market to tomorrow's multi-polar economic wealth model of multiple markets, a transition that will challenge entrenched political and economic orthodoxies across the country through wrenching, uncomfortable change. Imagine if Trump's 'national sovereigntists' had access to this type of constitutional clause to assert unbridled executive power for their federal government. For what is occurring in America today is the greatest assertion of presidential authority at the expense of congress and the judiciary in that republic's history. This has been a year of resurgent Canadian patriotism. Waving the maple leaf flags, singing the national anthem, and posting 'elbows up' are all on the rise. In this, our birthday week, we should celebrate the true unsung hero of our Constitution — the Peace, Order, and Good Government clause. Over a century and a half, it has shaped the character of governing and the distinctiveness of Canada. It has made us — and keeps us — Canadian. David McLaughlin is a former clerk of the executive council and cabinet secretary in the Manitoba government.
Globe and Mail
13-05-2025
- Politics
- Globe and Mail
Mark Carney's bulky and performative cabinet
David McLaughlin is a former clerk of the executive council and cabinet secretary in Manitoba, and past CEO of the Institute on Governance. Change is hard – Prime Minister Mark Carney is finding that out. His second cabinet is a departure from his first cabinet, which in turn was a departure from all of Justin Trudeau's cabinets. The new PM went from 37 ministers (including Mr. Trudeau) to 24 ministers (including Mr. Carney), and is now back up to 29 including Mr. Carney, with another 10 secretaries of state, which adds up to 39, surpassing Mr. Trudeau's final cabinet. Mr. Carney has departed from his departure. That may not matter. Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau famously remarked that, 'Fifty yards from Parliament Hill, MPs were nobodies.' The same could be said for much of Justin Trudeau's ministry, and likely the Carney cabinet too. What does matter is what they do and how they do it. Mr. Carney's policy mantra is 'Build, baby, build.' He needs a governing mantra to match it. Lean and focused was the message telegraphed by his first, smaller cabinet. Now, not so much. It is bulkier and more performative than some expected. Mr. Carney heard the siren call of identity politics and reinstituted ministers responsible for women and gender equality, seniors, children and youth. A two-tier cabinet is a return to normalcy, pre-Justin Trudeau. Past prime ministers had a priorities-and-planning cabinet committee that institutionalized an inner and outer cabinet. This is where the most important decisions were made. So, maybe (just maybe) Mr. Carney's reprise of this model via a secretary-of-state designation for truly junior ministers marks a return to traditional cabinet government where ministers are ministers. What's in are some new faces. What's out is sentimentality. With a fresh and fairly convincing election win behind him, the new PM determined that this would be seen as his first term, not Mr. Trudeau's fourth term. That meant channelling his inner William Gladstone (of 19th-century British prime ministerial fame) who said, 'The first essential for a prime minister is to be a good butcher.' Mr. Carney wielded his butcher knife with some abandon, cutting 10 former ministers from his first cabinet. Politics being politics, he could not leave it there. Tending to constituencies, electoral and otherwise, is a fact of life in modern politics. None of this will ultimately matter to Canadians if his government produces results. His predecessor increasingly styled his cabinets and ministerial titles to produce political results; Mr. Carney needs them to produce actual results – on the economy, on housing, on infrastructure, on tariffs. Canadians want policy change to go with leadership competence. The alignment of personal competence with ministerial competencies can be a tricky proposition. Doctors don't always make the best health ministers, for example. But you do place your best performers in the most important portfolios. Mr. Carney opted for current experience in this case (François-Philippe Champagne at Finance, Anita Anand at Foreign Affairs, Mélanie Joly at Industry, Dominic LeBlanc at Intergovernmental Affairs) rather than newer, bolder choices from outside the ancien regime he inherited. This reflects a truism uttered by Canada's original cabinet maker, Sir John A. Macdonald. 'Give me better wood and I'll build you a better cabinet.' More simply put, you work with what you got. The real test for results will not be who sits in cabinet but how cabinet is governed. Prime ministers are always primus inter pares – first among equals. They decide what governments focus on or not. They set the cabinet agenda. They sum up cabinet consensus by putting their stamp on decisions. Thirty-eight versus one might matter in football, but not in cabinet. Mr. Trudeau ignored his cabinet in favour of a highly centralized and politicized Prime Minister's Office. His last ministry had eight full cabinet committees, including two by the same name, Economy, Inclusion and Climate, distinguished only by an 'A' and 'B'. Mr. Carney's final cabinet committee list, yet to be released, will reveal more about his actual governance approach. Mr. Trudeau embraced deliverology, a results-oriented management approach, as a governance ethos for a while. He even had a cabinet committee on 'agenda and results.' The agenda always got bigger, results less so. Deliverology failed to deliver. That's not just on the prime minister and his cabinet. As an institution, the federal government is under-performing, risk-averse, consumed by process, and increasingly unaccountable for results. Without big change inside, the new PM's agenda will be held hostage by a sagging bureaucracy. Mr. Carney needs his cabinet to deliver, and soon. To paraphrase his predecessor: Because it's 2025.
CBC
13-05-2025
- Business
- CBC
Is Carney about to overhaul his front bench?
Radio-Canada's Louis Blouin reports that there's likely to be a lot of new faces joining cabinet and a number of familiar ones leaving it Tuesday, as Prime Minister Mark Carney seeks to both focus his front bench and differentiate himself from his predecessor. Former Conservative chief of staff David McLaughlin and former Liberal deputy chief of staff Michele Cadario discuss the message Carney needs to send with his ministerial choices. Plus, Asia Pacific Foundation vice-president of research and strategy Vina Nadjibulla dissects why both China and the U.S. were willing to come to a deal that hacks down tariffs despite recent trade war escalations.
Irish Times
08-05-2025
- Irish Times
Donegal landlord must pay €15,000 in damages after ending tenancy
A Donegal landlord who terminated the tenancy of a family of seven, claiming his daughter required the home to live in, has been ordered to pay €15,000 in damages after a tribunal heard she never moved in full-time but only stayed at the property 'for weekends regularly'. A Residential Tenancies Board tribunal described as 'profound' the consequences suffered by Claire Friel and her family who resorted to living in two separate mobile homes after their tenancy was terminated. Ms Friel, who lived at the house in Termon, Letterkenny, with her partner, David McLaughlin, and their five children since 2015, received a notice of termination in October 2022 from their landlord, Declan Breslin, who claimed he required the property for his daughter. Ms Friel claimed Mr Breslin subsequently began to engage in 'intimidating behaviour' after her partner requested more time to find alternative accommodation before the May 2023 vacate date. READ MORE This, she claimed, included blocking her car on the road with his car, calling her on the phone 'without saying anything' and threatening them with legal action. Ms Friel also alleged that Mr Breslin told locals the tenancy was being terminated due to rent arrears, which was 'completely untrue'. After vacating the house in November 2023, the family of seven purchased and moved into two mobile homes located on land belonging to a relative, at a cost of about €35,000. She told the tribunal she had been in 'constant contact' with Donegal County Council about accommodation, adding 'there simply were not any suitable houses to rent'. The cost of the 'cold and damp' mobile homes, she said, 'drained' the couple's savings, adding that they, and her mother, also took out loans. Ms Friel also claimed her mother and former neighbours described no signs of anyone living in the house after the family vacated. She added that her former landlord retained the deposit of €500, which Eimer Taylor, a solicitor representing Mr Breslin, attributed to 'confusion' surrounding Housing Assistance Payments. Ms Taylor claimed Bredagh Breslin, Mr Breslin's daughter, was in the house from December 2023 until December 2024. She added that Ms Breslin 'works all over' and was in Florida in the United States at the time of the hearing and could not attend to give direct evidence. Mr Breslin, who said his daughter now lived in Athlone with her husband when not travelling, claimed she moved in before Christmas 2023, stayed for about a week, 'and was then away again, travelling'. He said his daughter had not stayed full-time in the house but 'went for weekends regularly'. Mr Breslin argued he had been 'very fair' to Ms Friel in giving an extra period from May until November, but that it was not his responsibility to house his former tenant's family. Noting the reason for the termination being that his daughter required the house, expecting to occupy it indefinitely, which would be a valid ground for termination, the tribunal said it was 'not convinced by the bona fides of the landlord's intentions' and deemed the notice of termination to be invalid and unlawful. Noting Mr Breslin's evidence that his daughter 'spent weekends on and off in the dwelling', the tribunal said: 'He gave no evidence and none was provided that Ms Breslin required it for her occupation on an indefinite basis.' Describing the consequences of the termination for Ms Friel's family as 'profound,' it noted the costs incurred in establishing new living arrangements, which were 'entirely inappropriate living conditions for a family of seven people with young children'. The tribunal ordered Mr Breslin to pay his former tenant €15,000 in damages for unlawfully terminating the tenancy, alongside the €500 deposit and a further €500 for unlawfully retaining the deposit.
Yahoo
12-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Derry theatre on the 'back foot financially' as roadworks scupper shows
The temporary closure of Londonderry's biggest entertainment venue to major productions puts it on the "back foot" financially, its chief executive has said. The 1,000-seat Millennium Forum will close for seven weeks later this year to facilitate ongoing public realm works in Derry city centre. The work will block the area used by large-scale productions to unload equipment and stage sets, meaning the theatre cannot put on shows or gigs between 27 June and 18 August. Chief executive David McLaughlin said the theatre will have no income over the summer and has lost out on "a number of large-scale productions". "It is going to cause us problems," he told a Derry City and Strabane Council committee on Tuesday. "We don't know where we will stand from a profit and loss point of view. "We have a wage bill, which across the year works out about £26,000 per week – for those six or seven weeks we won't have any income coming in, we need to try to balance that off." Mr McLaughlin said a number of shows had been interested in coming to Derry during the period of closure. "You can look at what is going on in Belfast (over the summer) and see what might have been coming to the city," he said. The theatre intends on continuing with its summer project programme, Mr McLaughlin said, during the temporary closure but would do "a lot of that within the community". The biggest theatre in Northern Ireland's north west, the Forum opened in 2001. In the decades since Van Morrison, Joan Armatrading, Christy Moore and Jools Holland are among the international acts to grace its stage. It is also a key venue for the annual City of Derry Jazz festival and Derry Feis. Speaking to BBC Radio Foyle's North West Today programme, Judith O'Hare of the Londonderry Musical Society said the summer closure is "very disappointing". "It is a wonderful venue and we are very fortunate to have it here in the city. It is very disappointing for people who come, maybe on holidays or visiting, that there is no local entertainment," she said. Work on Derry's £5m public realm scheme got under way last year and is due to continue for 18 months.
