Section: iPolitics (Canada)
Putin’s luck is running out fast
“Luck,” wrote gonzo-journalist Hunter S. Thompson, “is a very thin wire between survival and disaster, and not many people can keep their balance on it.” Russian President Vladimir Putin, who today gave the most pitiful state-of-the-nation speech of his extraordinarily lucky career, is falling off the wire. The speech was a stark contrast to...
The Drilldown: Prentice’s pipeline push turns into a listening tour
Get the Drilldown brief straight to their inbox each weekday. Just click here. ~ • ~ The Lead Alberta Premier Jim Prentice’s eastern adventure hasn’t yet moved popular interest in TransCanada Corp.’s Energy East pipeline, though his soft power approach has cooled the rhetoric around energy. After a fortnight that saw...
The case for bringing Ukraine into Europe early
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko intends to prepare his country for European Union and NATO membership within six years. Some of his fellow East Europeans who are already members of both organizations will actively encourage that ambition, while leaders of NATO and the EU will do their best to rain on Poroshenko’s parade. I think the...
One year after, Ukraine’s revolution is stalling
U.S. Vice President Joe Biden’s visit to Kyiv today was timed to coincide with the first anniversary of the Maidan protests that eventually toppled Ukraine’s corrupt regime. Still, Biden decided against attending a ceremony commemorating victims of the unrest, the so-called “Heavenly Hundred.” His Secret Service escort said it would...
The limits of gunpoint diplomacy in Ukraine
Is Russian President Vladimir Putin losing Ukraine by stoking a war to keep it? As a new military campaign appears to be getting under way in eastern Ukraine, that’s an important question. To answer it, Putin could do worse than to stop by for tea at the Makarov household in Mariupol, the region’s main port and industrial center — now...
Our leaders have a duty to fight for peace. They’re failing.
It’s not quite over yet, but I think we can confidently state that 2014 was a lousy year for peace. Lowlights included: Russia’s strategic (and well-executed) annexation of the Crimea; the Ebola outbreak; the kidnapping of 400 Nigerian schoolgirls by Boko Haram; the rise of Islamic State in northern Iraq and Syria; the relentless...
Merkel and Putin: Playing the long game
I wrote a post yesterday that said the contemptuous treatment of President Vladimir Putin at the Group of 20 meeting was juvenile and counterproductive. I knew I would get a reaction. I have received dozens of e-mails stating that Putin got what he deserved and decrying what the writers saw as my support for appeasement. There also have been...
Why journalism and jingoism shouldn’t mix
More from Andrew Mitrovica available here. It’s been another instructive week in Ottawa and beyond about how politics gets covered by much of the media. Despite their putative role as professional skeptics, our news outlets routinely prove that they’re anything but. Want proof? Here’s proof. Exhibit A: Mr. Harper in Brisbane....
The Putin-bashing in Brisbane was childish
At the Group of 20 meeting in Brisbane, Australia, over the weekend, Russian President Vladimir Putin was slighted in numerous ways, big and small. “I guess I’ll shake your hand,” Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said to his face. U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron, in a public statement, made a mocking reference to the Russian Navy...
Harper arrives in Australia for G20 summit as Russia flexes military muscles
BRISBANE, Australia – Stephen Harper and other G20 leaders kicked off their annual summit in a tense atmosphere dominated by Western anger towards Russian President Vladimir Putin and under pressure to address climate change, fight Ebola and kickstart economic growth. A senior government source said the prime minister has no intention of...
