Blacklock's Reporter

When Pierre Trudeau died the Calgary Herald published a commentary calling him a Communist. As late as 1989 an Alberta Liberal running for a Senate seat drew protest after describing Trudeau as “a great Canadian.” The provincial party has not won an election in more than a century. If voters send a handful of Liberals to Ottawa from time to time, statistically a Canadian has a better chance of visiting outer space than earning an MP's pension as an Alberta Liberal. The last to serve three terms left office 16 years ago. Yet author Darryl Raymaker recalls Trudeau was once cheered on horseback in the Calgary Stampede parade and received an honorary doctorate from the University of Alberta. He was “our very own JFK,” writes Raymaker. READ MORE

Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland’s luxury tax on planes, boats and automobiles will cost jobs and generate less revenue than estimated, the Parliamentary Budget Office said yesterday. The ten percent tax takes effect September 1: "There would certainly be job losses." READ MORE

Aggressive sales tactics remain commonplace at major banks, according to an undercover sting operation by a federal agency. Auditors posing as customers were routinely oversold products they neither sought nor required: "The Agency expects banks will not misplace this trust." READ MORE

Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault yesterday approved a six-figure climate change grant to Canada's largest beer maker. Guilbeault’s department paid $250,000 to replace a diesel boiler in a St. John’s brewery: "We are a company based in nature." READ MORE

Cabinet will not overturn a CRTC decision blamed for high wholesale telecom rates, the Department of Industry said yesterday. “It would be irresponsible,” André Arbour, director general of internet policy, told reporters in a technical briefing: "That does not mean to say there is not room for improvement for competition." READ MORE

Vaccination status is “fundamentally private,” a national broadcast ombudsman said yesterday. The Canada Broadcast Standards Council ruling came in the case of an Edmonton announcer Lochlin Cross who outed a listener as unvaccinated: "Revelation of this private, confidential medical information was not only careless but egregious." READ MORE

Liberal MPs last evening invoked national security in concealing records concerning Reid Sirrs, Canada's last ambassador to Afghanistan. Sirrs was the first G7 ambassador to close the embassy and flee Kabul with staff aboard a half-empty military plane, according to eyewitness accounts: "What went wrong?" READ MORE