Category: Richard Forbes

By Richard Forbes. Featured image via Justin Tang, CP. It's hard to write in an unbiased fashion on a subject as personal as the Greenbelt. Surrounded by its lush sugar bushes and trout streams, home for me has always been just north of Caledon, overlooking the Hockley Valley; where the wetlands cross red clay cliffs and … Continue reading The Greenbelt takes a chunk out of Doug Ford

By Richard Forbes. Cambridge Analytica has made headlines for the past week having allegedly used data collected from Facebook and online surveys to profile and ultimately manipulate voters in recent elections in favour of prominent right-wing candidates. This story has dominated Canadian news media given Cambridge Analytica's whistleblower, Christopher Wylie has a connection to Canada … Continue reading Cambridge Analytica doesn’t scare me but the future of voter manipulation does

By Richard Forbes. Featured image via Chris Young, CP. The symmetry was uncanny. Doug Ford was ushered in as the new leader of the Ontario Progressive Conservatives under circumstances not unlike his predecessor's own spontaneous departure: at the dead of night, facing a storm of controversy, and robbed of both dignity and pageantry. It was … Continue reading A known quality, Doug Ford brings predictability to an uncertain race

By Richard Forbes. When the NDP's John Horgan formed a laser-slim minority government last July in British Columbia, the fate of both the Trans Mountain extension and the Site C dam seemed under jeopardy. Since Horgan and his political bedfellows, the Greens, both strongly opposed the expansion of Trans Mountain during the spring election, naturally … Continue reading Ending the Alberta-B.C. Trade War

By Richard Forbes. Demonstrating its reputed propensity for self-destruction in dramatic fashion, last week couldn't have ended sooner for Ontario's Progressive Conservatives. From Wednesday, 9:45 PM to 12:00 PM, this Monday, the Tories have spent the past few days hemorrhaging public credibility like a car pissing coolant. At the centre of the unfolding disaster is … Continue reading A week the Ontario PCs will live to regret

By Richard Forbes. When debate this February surrounded the Liberals' decision to walk back on its electoral reform promise, Abacus Data's David Coletto responded to Robyn Urback in an op-ed to argue that the data was clear:  millennials were standing firm with the party they helped to elect them, despite breaking their electoral reform pledge. … Continue reading Will Canada’s millennials still back the Liberals in 2019?

By Richard Forbes. You'll find no support (at best, sympathy) for Bill 62 in this editorial. The Couillard government's controversial "An Act to foster adherence to State religious neutrality," also known as Bill 62, is a heavy-handed bludgeon against religious accommodation in desperate need of a justification, the full brunt of which is aimed at … Continue reading With Bill 62, Canadian federalism faces a test of its resolve

By Richard Forbes. Who could have predicted then that two years after "Sunny Ways, My Friends," the prime minister and an entourage of ministers and staffers would spend their Monday being driven to a family pizzeria in Stouffville? There Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that his government would meet its prior commitment to lowering small … Continue reading Why the Liberals are taking a hit at the polls: A closer analysis

By Richard Forbes. It was well past one o'clock in the morning when John Henry Pope - at that time, acting Minister of Railways - arrived by carriage to twist the arm of the then-prime minister, Sir John A Macdonald, forcing him to reconsider a loan, however reluctantly, to keep the Canadian Pacific project afloat.1 Sir … Continue reading Energy East was never the “nation building” project we made it out to be