Paul Wells

Maclean’s senior writer Paul Wells writes about politics across Canada and abroad. Except sometimes he ignores politics and writes about music or something else.

Ottawa

Another farce on Bill Blair’s watch

Paul Wells: How badly do things have to go for a government-appointed panel to shut down because it got no usable data and no help from the minister?

Ottawa

Erin O’Toole and the search for a new Canadian centre

Paul Wells: The Conservatives need to remake their movement for a new era. Is their new leader the person to do it?

Aislin’s favourite caricature of Allan Fotheringham drawn in 1979, portraying the raconteur as an irascible scamp with a cap gun and pea shooter (Aislin)

Canada

Unlocking the mystery of Dr. Foth

Paul Wells: What would English Canada’s most-read columnist have said about the Prime Minister’s current predicament? Everything, and nothing.

Ottawa

Bill Morneau, melting away

Paul Wells: The PM is permitting his finance minister—the supposed incarnation of his government’s fiscal credibility—to be set up. It does not bode well.

Trudeau appears before a House of Commons committee on July 30, 2020 (CP/Sean Kilpatrick)

Ottawa

The Trudeau WE testimony: What, you wanted a micromanager?

Paul Wells: The Prime Minister and his chief of staff laid out their arguments for how to defend this honker. There were just a few problems.

Ottawa

The obvious lessons Justin Trudeau keeps failing to learn

Tired, wired and operating with the fail-safes turned off, team Trudeau made a big mistake. And it had an awfully familiar feel to it.

Ottawa

The Nova Scotia inquiry: Maybe next time, listen first

Paul Wells: An unprecedented avalanche of public contempt got the fake inquiry turned into a real one. The question remains, what was Ottawa thinking?

Ottawa

The Nova Scotia shooting ’review’ and the deafness of government

Paul Wells: Everyone was demanding a public inquiry. What we got was something zero people asked for—a toothless, rickety review panel.

Nova Scotia Justice Minister Mark Furey holds a briefing in Halifax on April 3, 2018 (CP/Andrew Vaughan)

Ottawa

The Nova Scotia shooting inquiry: Three months later, there isn’t one

Paul Wells: At first, it was ’imminent’. Then it was ’in the coming days’. Now it’s just ’next steps.’ Are governments even capable of following through?

Ottawa

Who makes the decisions in Justin Trudeau’s Ottawa?

Paul Wells: Unless we understand how the government decided to team up with WE, we can’t be sure such things won’t happen again

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