Latest news with #Globe and Mail
National Post
3 days ago
- Business
- National Post
Michael Taube: No, Globe and Mail, Mark Carney isn't the second coming of Brian Mulroney
Mark Carney has been prime minister of Canada since March. He's been called many things by many people in this short time period. It never came to mind that he would be described as a 'progressive conservative' along the lines of Brian Mulroney. Article content This, in a nutshell, is the nonsense that the Globe and Mail's editorial board is currently peddling. Article content Article content 'That Mr. Carney was going to drag the Liberal Party back to the centre after years of an NDP-lite government under Mr. Trudeau was to be expected,' a June 28 Globe editorial noted. 'But more than mannerisms have changed. Since April, the Prime Minister has cut personal income taxes, boosted defence spending dramatically, pledged to cut the cost of the federal bureaucracy, tightened immigration rules, eliminated federal barriers to internal trade, created a framework for breaking the stasis on big national projects and signaled that he will dismiss underperforming top bureaucrats,' they wrote. Article content Article content The Globe's editorial board suggested 'that's an agenda that Brian Mulroney could have endorsed.' Article content Article content This analysis likely raised a few eyebrows, and not just in the Mulroney household. Alas, the editorial writers then flipped their collective wig with this bizarre assessment. 'In fact, it overlaps a good deal with the actual governing record of his Progressive Conservatives. Mr. Carney is a Liberal but, in the early going, he looks to be governing much like a Red Tory — a progressive kind of conservative.' Article content We shouldn't be surprised by the Globe's over-the-top analysis of Carney's leadership. It's become the raison d'être of this once-venerable publication to carry water for this particular prime minister. Article content Nevertheless, let's be serious about our national leader. Carney is certainly a progressive, but he's no 'progressive conservative' in any way, shape or form. Article content Left-leaning progressive conservatives, or Red Tories, generally combine two ideological components: classical conservative sensibilities (espoused by High Tories like philosopher Edmund Burke and former U.K. prime minister Benjamin Disraeli) and socialist-type policies such as government intrusion and developing a social safety net. Article content Article content As Gad Horowitz, a professor emeritus at the University of Toronto, wrote in the May-June 1965 issue of the defunct left-wing magazine Canadian Dimension, 'socialism has more in common with Toryism than with liberalism, for liberalism is possessive individualism, while socialism and Toryism are variants of collectivism.' Article content Article content Modern conservatism has little in common with classical conservatism. The former has largely incorporated classical liberal and libertarian ideals into its main ideology, while maintaining a smattering of social conservative principles related to individuals and families. That's why modern conservatives typically champion small government, lower taxes, free markets, private enterprise, greater individual rights and freedoms and so forth. Article content Carney doesn't fit into these conservative-leaning parameters. His progressive values do fit within the context of the modern Liberal Party of Canada. While he's not exactly the same as Trudeau, I pointed out in a March 16 National Post column that they're 'remarkably similar.' How so? In my estimation, 'they're both left-wing, pro-government intervention, distrust privatization and free markets, favour wealth redistribution, champion radical environmentalist policies, support woke ideology and political correctness — and more.' That's what today's Liberals basically stand for, and Carney's personal and political record fits like a glove.
National Post
3 days ago
- Business
- National Post
Andrew Richter: Keeping supply management is economic suicide
Article content Thus a question worth considering is what accounts for this support. No doubt part of the explanation is the power of several key domestic interest groups. Both the Dairy Famers of Canada and the Egg Farmers of Canada spend heavily on ads promoting it, and they have succeeded in persuading many Canadians that supply management results in safer products and more consistent supply. Article content In addition, supply management has strong support from most of Canada's media. The Toronto Star and the CBC go apoplectic at the mere mention of changes to it, and the generally centrist Globe and Mail is also quite supportive, in spite of its (supposed) commitment to free markets. Only National Post offers consistent criticism. Article content And lastly, supporters have succeeded in persuading Canadians that the program's demise would decimate our dairy sector, as they argue that domestic producers could not possibly compete with larger international players. Article content That last argument is particularly questionable, as there is little reason to doubt that in the absence of state-controlled quotas and prices, Canadian dairy farmers would become more efficient and innovative. Article content Article content Indeed, a similar argument was made decades ago with regards to wine. For years Canada's wine market was carefully regulated and foreign wines were heavily tariffed. Canadian producers argued that without such taxes the industry would be destroyed, as it could not possibly compete with French, Italian, and Spanish wines. Article content In fact, the opposite occurred. With the opening of the market, Canadian producers were suddenly forced to offer a better product, and the result has been an explosion in both the number of domestic producers (now approaching 1,000) and the quality of our wines. Indeed, Canadian wines now routinely win international competitions, something that would have been unthinkable 40 or 50 years ago (when something called Baby Duck seemed to be the best we could do!). Article content In sum, the Canada-U.S. trade talks have entered their final phase. But a familiar obstacle remains. The Canadian government seems totally committed to supply management, even if this support comes at the cost of killing a potential agreement. Such an outcome would be catastrophic, as Ottawa would literally be committing economic suicide. And yet this result is very much in play, and might be unavoidable if the U.S. decides that there will be no agreement unless Canada agrees to make dramatic changes to the program. Article content
CBC
16-07-2025
- Health
- CBC
Former AHS CEO denies defamation claims from Alberta premier's ex-chief of staff
Former Alberta Health Services CEO Athana Mentzelopoulos is denying defamation allegations from a previous chief of staff to Alberta's premier. Marshall Smith, who left his position as Premier Danielle Smith's top aide in October 2024, filed a lawsuit against Mentzelopoulos in the wake of her own wrongful dismissal lawsuit against AHS and the provincial government. While they have the same last name, Marshall Smith and the premier are not related. Smith alleged Mentzelopoulos made false and defamatory statements about him in court documents filed as part of her wrongful dismissal suit. His statement of claim also names the Globe and Mail newspaper, its Calgary reporter Carrie Tait, and an unnamed man who is believed to be a former board member for the health authority. He is seeking $12 million in damages. In a statement of defence filed in Court of King's Bench of Alberta last week, Mentzelopoulos said she hasn't defamed Smith, nor has he suffered damages as a result. The legal filing calls Smith's allegations "invented attempts to allege harm." It also says his lawsuit appears to try to "distance Smith himself from certain members of the private sector and to downplay the nature of his role in the history of events appropriately recounted by Ms. Mentzelopoulos in her action against the Crown and AHS." The statement of defence also says Mentzelopoulos's statements are shielded from defamation action because they were made in the course of judicial proceedings. None of the allegations in Mentzelopoulos's original lawsuit, or in the subsequent statement of claim and defence related to the Smith lawsuit, have been proven in court. Mentzelopoulos claims she was fired because she'd launched an investigation and forensic audit into various contracts and was reassessing deals she had concluded were overpriced with private surgical companies she said had links to government officials. AHS and Adriana LaGrange — the former minister of health who is now the new minister of primary and preventative health services — have denied Mentzelopoulos's claims in statements of defence that allege she was fired due to her job performance. The province has appointed a former chief judge from Manitoba to conduct a third-party investigation into procurement. The auditor general and Alberta RCMP are also investigating the matter.
