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1 week ago | 
netnewsledger.com | James Murray |Michael Taube
By Michael TaubeThere was a time when opinion polling was largely taken at face value. While each opinion research firm produced a different result, very few people expressed serious doubts about the information contained within a poll. They might have agreed or disagreed with a particular survey—which is human nature, after all. At the same time, they wouldn’t have doubted the legitimacy of polls and pollsters. That’s not the case any longer in many democratic countries, including Canada.
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3 weeks ago | 
nationalpost.com | Michael Taube |Carson Jerema
Advertisement 1Keeping him from TVA debate means fewer chances for him to go off script • • You can save this article by registering for free here. Or sign-in if you have an account. Article contentI never thought I’d live to see the day when a Liberal Leader in Canada refused to participate in a French language debate. Yet, that’s exactly what happened.
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4 weeks ago | 
the-tls.co.uk | Sam Freedman |Michael Taube |Alex Dean |Richard Toye
Until recently, the prime minister was the most important person in British politics. But when the New Statesman published its annual list of the most powerful people on the left in June last year, with Keir Starmer poised to take office, the number-one spot went not to Starmer, but to his adviser Morgan McSweeney.
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1 month ago | 
thespectator.com | Hamish McRae |Michael Taube |James Heale |Mark Galeotti
China doesn’t like tariffs, but big money in America dislikes them even more. If one thing has become clear amid the chaos of the past week, it’s that financial markets will be what constrain Donald Trump. China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, criticized Trump on Friday for imposing tariffs, adding that major powers “should not bully the weak.” While people in Taiwan might find that statement a bit ironic, his stance on tariffs aligns with Wall Street’s reaction. The markets don’t like it.
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1 month ago | 
thespectator.com | Michael Taube |Joshua Trevino |Mark Galeotti |Douglas Murray
As widely expected, Mark Carney has become the new Liberal party of Canada leader — and will become Canada’s next prime minister. The former Bank of England and Bank of Canada governor won by an overwhelming margin on Sunday, taking 85.9 per cent of the vote. Former Liberal deputy prime minister and finance minister Chrystia Freeland finished a distant second with 8 per cent. Carney will now meet with outgoing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to set a timetable for the transition of power.
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1 month ago | 
thespectator.com | Michael Taube |Mark Galeotti |Jane Stannus |Owen Matthews
As widely expected, Mark Carney has become the new Liberal party of Canada leader — and will become Canada’s next prime minister. The former Bank of England and Bank of Canada governor won by an overwhelming margin on Sunday, taking 85.9 percent of the vote. Former Liberal deputy prime minister and finance minister Chrystia Freeland finished a distant second with 8 percent. Carney will now meet with outgoing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to set a timetable for the transition of power.
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1 month ago | 
thespectator.com | James Heale |Michael Taube |Douglas Murray |Derek VanBuskirk
It is difficult to overstate how much Donald Trump has changed the dynamics of Canadian politics. When Justin Trudeau resigned on January 6, his Liberal party was on just 16 percent in the polls — 25 points behind Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives. Within six weeks, that had narrowed substantially, with Nanos suggesting there was just two points between the two parties. The top issue of national concern? Donald Trump and US relations.
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2 months ago | 
thespectator.com | Michael Lind |Stuart Jeffries |Michael Taube |Joel Kotkin
If the nightmare of anticommunists during the Cold War was an endless future of totalitarian terror, the nightmare of today’s critics of liberalism is an endless future of constant social upheaval and atomization as a result of unchecked markets and radical individualism. Not a boot stamping on a human face forever, but a high-tech appliance in need of the latest upgrades — forever.
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2 months ago | 
thespectator.com | James Carden |Freddy Gray |Robert Bryce |Michael Taube
Since 9/11, Washington has spent billions of dollars promoting “democratic norms” abroad. The policy mirrored the late Soviet Union’s attempts to promote communism in countries outside Moscow’s direct control, as witnessed under the leadership Leonid Brezhnev. And now at last it appears to have ended, following Donald Trump’s executive orders and yesterday’s State Department takeover of the United States Agency for International Development.
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2 months ago | 
thespectator.com | Kate Andrews |Matthew Lynn |Michael Taube |Joshua Trevino
What are the real intentions of President Donald Trump’s trade war? Does he really believe tariffs work to boost economic growth domestically? Does he see them as tools to prop up American businesses, as his vice-president does? Or, as in his first term, are threats of import levies almost purely about leverage — and if so, what does he want?
