The Liberal-New Democrat pact
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The Liberal-New Democrat pact

Justin Trudeau’s minority Liberal government in Ottawa entered into a supply and confidence agreement with Jagmeet Singh’s New Democratic Party in an effort to prolong the life of the current parliament until September 2024. Although such pacts are unusual in Canada, they are not entirely unprecedented. In 1985, Ontario’s Liberal leader David Peterson made a…

The covid blues

The covid blues

For nearly two years now the globe has endured a series of lockdowns and emergency measures occasioned by the covid-19 pandemic. Until recently, I treated this as a temporary blip in our lives, assuming that we would soon be returning to normal. Earlier this year, Ontario Premier Doug Ford announced that masking mandates would be…

Putin’s recklessness
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Putin’s recklessness

In 1918 pandemic followed war. In 2022 war has followed pandemic. Few of us saw it coming. Up to the last moment, I thought Russian President Vladimir Putin would continue to chip away at Ukraine’s largely Russian-speaking eastern territories, funding “separatists” and daring the rest of the world to do something about it. I personally…

The coming kingdom
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The coming kingdom

During Advent and Christmas, we celebrate the first coming of Jesus Christ into the world. The ancient creeds and the Reformation confessions tell us that Jesus is God incarnate, the second person of the Trinity, whom the Father sent to live among us, to take upon himself our sins, to pay the price for them…

Canada’s political institutions need reforms
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Canada’s political institutions need reforms

It is understandable that Canadians would become increasingly frustrated with the country’s political system. Our constitution is generally said to be characterized by responsible government, the central principle of our system since 1848. Responsible government means that the government of the day, led by the Prime Minister, is responsible to parliament for everything it does….

The choices before us
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The choices before us

As we Canadians prepare to go to the polls next week, we need to make ourselves aware of where the major political parties stand on the most significant issues of the day. The six parties we will see on our ballots are the currently governing Liberal Party, the Conservatives, the New Democrats, the Greens, the…

At last!
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At last!

Three months ago, I wrote of my decades-long effort to set the Psalms to verse so that they could be sung to their proper Genevan melodies. This began in the mid-1980s when I was around 30 years old. But I had already been inspired by Calvin Seerveld’s versification of Genevan Psalm 128 in the late…

Trudeau’s gamble
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Trudeau’s gamble

Canadians are familiar with the procedures. The prime minister visits the governor general – the Queen’s representative at the federal level – and asks her to dissolve Parliament, leading to an election. This could come at the end of the statutory four-year limit to the life of a parliament. Or it might happen after the…