Journalism

FT: Canada election fallout leaves Conservatives divided

| December 29, 2019
Photo credit: Conservative Party of Canada

The abrupt resignation of the leader of Canada’s Conservative party, Andrew Scheer, has thrown the party ranks into turmoil and triggered what some supporters believe is a necessary bout of soul-searching as it hunts for his successor.

Mr Scheer initially rebuffed weeks of calls for his resignation after the Conservative party’s poor performance in October’s national elections. He eventually agreed to step down on December 12 as reports surfaced that funds from donations to the party had gone to pay for his children’s private schooling.

The departure has exposed a deeper divide within the Conservatives between party members who supported Mr Scheer and those who believe his social conservatism on issues such as LGBTQ rights and abortion and his fuzzy environmental policies are out of step with Canada’s changing face.

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FT: Bank of Canada deputy governor leads race for top job

| December 24, 2019
Photo credit: Bank of Canada

When Bank of Canada governor Stephen Poloz promoted Carolyn Wilkins to be his number two in 2014, he praised her as a “jack of all trades”.

Now Ms Wilkins, the bank’s senior deputy governor, has emerged as the frontrunner to replace Mr Poloz when he leaves the top job next year, in an appointment that would signal continuity while emphasising a focus on emerging challenges such as climate change and the digitisation of currency.

“If she wants the job, she will be the candidate to beat,” said Craig Wright, chief economist for Royal Bank of Canada.

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FT: China rifts put pressure on Canada’s foreign minister

| December 12, 2019
Photo by chuttersnap on Unsplash

On the anniversary of the detention of two Canadians by Chinese authorities, Canada’s new foreign minister is under pressure to define the country’s relations with a more assertive Beijing.

With Chinese authorities now signalling that the cases of two Canadians held in China for the past year may move to trial on national security charges, calls are mounting for François-Philippe Champagne to take a firmer stance on Sino-Canadian relations.

He has said a new “framework” for relations is necessary following his appointment last month, but has yet to explain what that would entail — further frustrating critics who feel the Trudeau government has failed to articulate a coherent China strategy since taking power in 2015.

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FT: Justin Trudeau charts liberal course for second term in Canada

| December 05, 2019

Justin Trudeau sketched out a blueprint for his government’s second term that tilts Canada further to the left on many issues — fighting climate change, expanding healthcare and strengthening gun control, but also promising lower taxes and expanded trade.

In a speech from the throne read by Canada’s governor-general, the former astronaut Julie Payette, Mr Trudeau also positioned the North American country as a “coalition-builder” in an uncertain world by renewing its commitment to Nato and UN peacekeeping and defending the rules-based international order.

 

Image by Andrew Becks from Pixabay

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Chartapalooza 2020: The most important Canadian economic charts to watch in the year ahead

| December 04, 2019

It’s back. For the sixth straight year Maclean’s asked economists, analysts, investors and financial observers to each select a chart about Canada’s economy they feel will be particularly important to watch in 2020 and in their own words, explain why.

As in past years, certain themes emerge in this year’s chart collection. The stability of Canada’s housing market and the dangerous levels of household debt remain an obvious concern, even if there’s less focus now on rising interest rates. Canada’s weak climate for business investment and the risk from global trade tensions are also top of mind among the experts. So too are environmental and energy issues. You’ll also find charts on how Canadians live, work and shop, how Canada’s waning competitiveness is holding the economy back, and even how a deficit of amorousness could lead to a slowdown down the road.

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FT: Canada’s Trudeau sends Freeland on high-stakes mission to tame west

| November 21, 2019
Chrystia Freeland (Photo credit: Kmu.gov.ua)

As Canada’s foreign minister, Chrystia Freeland rose to prominence taking on US president Donald Trump and in the process became almost as high-profile as her boss Justin Trudeau. Now she has been given a job that could make or break her career — confronting the rising tide of anger and alienation in western Canada. On Wednesday, Canadian prime minister Mr Trudeau unveiled his new cabinet, a month after his Liberal party won a federal election but failed to secure enough seats to hold majority control of parliament.

On Wednesday, Canadian prime minister Mr Trudeau unveiled his new cabinet, a month after his Liberal party won a federal election but failed to secure enough seats to hold majority control of parliament.

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FT: Canada’s housing market buzz is back as Toronto rebounds

| November 10, 2019
Photo credit: UntitledToronto.com

The American music producer, songwriter and fashion designer Pharrell Williams peered out from towering video screens at a public square in downtown Toronto and announced that he was co-developing a condominium project in the city.

“Physical space is only a backdrop,” his voice intoned on Tuesday last week.

The backdrop to Mr Williams’ debut as property developer — a midtown two-tower project dubbed “Untitled” — is a Toronto housing market that is rapidly on the mend after a two-year slump. Earlier that day the city’s real estate board revealed the price for a typical home in the Greater Toronto Area jumped 5.8 per cent in October from a year ago to $810,900, just shy of an all-time peak reached in 2017.

The property market rebound in Toronto, and to a lesser extent Vancouver, is boosting Canada’s economy at a time when it faces headwinds from various trade wars and low oil prices that are weighing down the provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan.

But it’s also making life difficult for Stephen Poloz, governor of Canada’s central bank, who is hesitant to join the global rate-cutting party for fear of exacerbating dangerously high household debt levels.

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Maclean’s: The biggest piece of land for sale in Canada right now

| November 09, 2019
(Photo credit: Darren Sander)

Late one night in 1954, Anthony Markus hid near Hungary’s border with Austria, waiting for two friends who planned to join him in trying to escape the Communist regime. His friends never showed, so the 18-year-old Markus set out on his own to slip through the Iron Curtain. Crossing minefields and barbed wire fences, he then ran through the night until he found an Austrian vineyard, where the farmer took him in and offered him work.

It’s anything but a straight line from that escape to the small Manitoba community of The Pas, but today Markus and his son Tony operate one of the largest farms in the province’s north. Nestled between rivers in an area known as the Carrot Valley, the family’s Big Lake Angus Farm boasts 14,600 acres of land and 1,000 head of cattle.

And, along with two adjacent farms, it can all be yours—assuming you have access to $53.3 million.

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FT: Trudeau’s victory sparks ‘Wexit’ separatist talk in Canada’s west

| October 25, 2019

Within hours of Justin Trudeau’s Liberal Party winning re-election on Monday, a hashtag began trending in Canada that reflects the deep regional divisions that emerged from the poll: #Wexit, as in Western exit, or more specifically, Alberta separatism.

By the next morning a group called Alberta Fights Back had put up billboards in the province stating “I support an independent Alberta”, complete with a maple leaf, a symbol from Canada’s flag, with a line struck through it.

The separatist rhetoric, while on the fringes, reflects a drawn-out period of economic malaise in the region and poses an early test for Mr Trudeau. He has faced intense criticism in fossil fuel-dependent Alberta over his government’s national price on carbon and inability to get a pipeline built to transport crude from the oil sands to world markets.

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