Only days into 2019 and we have already been sharply reminded of just how much the optics and messages of politics have changed in the last 10 years. These developments, of course, don’t represent a total change from the past. Image and narrative have long been central to politics. Pictures have built or destroyed the […]
Many believe that, in politics, your successor is your legacy. Consider the straight-as-an-arrow Sunday school teacher Jimmy Carter after the Machiavellian Nixon years. Or the steady, competent, experienced John Tory after the roller coaster term of Rob Ford. Or more recently, Doug Ford’s approach to smaller government focused resolutely on every day family affordability after […]
“Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake,” ranks as one of Napoleon Bonaparte’s most famous quotes. And it is one that a number of the politicians around Parliament Hill would do well to remember. Last week, Liberal MP for Brampton East, Raj Grewal, announced he would be resigning his seat. And just […]
Those of us who had hoped for a more placid year ahead are likely to be disappointed. If anything, Canada’s closest allies are facing even more difficult and uncertain times than had been predicted. Brexit, which by any measure was a monumental task, has grown more complicated and troublesome in recent weeks. Whilst once it […]
It was never all that clear whether or not Calgarians would approve of the city’s bid for the Olympics in 2026. Polling predictions were mixed. A few years of slumping oil prices had taken their toll on a formerly Olympic proud town. Though opponents of the bid successfully convinced the provincial government to force a […]
Another day, another bump in the road for the Canada-U. S. relationship. Spare a moment for Minister of Foreign Affairs Chrystia Freeland. After years of arduous negotiations over a renewed North American trade agreement with a temperamental and fickle President Donald Trump, she had finally come to ground on what the government believed was an […]
On Tuesday, Americans will go to the polls to elect a third of the Senate and all the members of the House of Representatives in what’s known as the mid-term elections. It is an American political tradition that the sitting President’s party is punished during these elections, with most tending to lose seats in Congress. […]
This past Monday, John Tory won big at the polls. To say it was a resounding victory doesn’t do the mayor’s win justice. He crushed his opponents: he won every ward in the city, capturing a plurality in each and a majority in most. He earned 63.5 per cent of the vote, 301,446 votes more […]
In politics, there are two factors — over which you have no control — that determine your fate: timing and luck. In running for office, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau seems to have taken his father’s advice that “the essential ingredient of politics is timing” to heart. Promises, which were the foundation of his 2015 campaign, […]
In an age of social media and intense global competition, “brand” has become more important than ever. While it was once the exclusive domain of consumer-focused companies, now individuals, organizations and nations alike have become acutely aware of the image they project and the benefits that come with successfully building brand equity. Whatever you may […]