Canadian politics in 2018: The year in 12 chapters
Ill-advised costume changes, a high-stakes pipeline purchase, populist politics, a presidential Twitter tirade, and more from a packed political year
John Geddes
John Geddes is Ottawa bureau chief at Maclean’s and has covered federal politics and policy for more than two decades. He also writes regularly about art.
Parliament’s Centre Block is about politics—and journalism, too
As the main building on Parliament Hill closes for renovations, a nostalgic look at how the place honours the printed word
Jagmeet Singh got lost in the noise of 2018. Will 2019 be different?
Singh has often been drowned out as NDP leader. Here’s how he plans to finally make his mark.
Freeland responds—very carefully—to Trump’s remarks on the Huawei case
The foreign minister took her time before cautiously pushing back against comments that ’seek to politicize the extradition process’
Liberals move to defuse Canada Summer Jobs controversy
In an interview, Labour Minister Patty Hajdu explains her response to faith-based groups’ complaints that Ottawa was prying into their beliefs
Jean Chrétien on why he’s leaving Ottawa
The former PM sat down with Paul Wells for a live interview on Tuesday, ending on a melancholy note about ending five decades in the capital
Liberals enjoy strong support for their renegotiation of NAFTA
A new Maclean’s-Pollara poll finds the gains, going into an election year, are biggest in Ontario, and seem to take USMCA off the table for Tory attacks
Bill Morneau looks at Trump’s tax cuts—and says Canada won’t play that game
The finance minister’s fall economic statement offers targeted measures and reassuring talk in the face of stiff U.S. competition for investment
What six soldiers in a World War I art masterpiece might tell us now
From heroism to incompetence, the Canadian officers that William Nicholson painted stand in for the full range of wartime experience
What Trump-era politicians and the press can learn from old-school journalism
Robert Lewis’s new history of Ottawa’s press gallery offers lessons for the modern era, when the media is so often under attack