Stephen Harper's Conservatives, like any other party, clearly want to take the next federal election. To do so, they are already falling back on the tried and true methods of mobilizing their base over issues that garner support. And negative ads will be the order of the day, even with...

So, the pieces are now in place. The leadership of Canadian political parties has firmed up. Liberal leader Justin Trudeau's ascension to the Liberal leadership puts the final piece on the chessboard.

But will the clarity surrounding leadership of the parties lead to anything different, or will the recent era...

Glad I'm not Justin Trudeau -- opinions about your swirling everywhere. Too young? Experienced enough? Effective policy? Win government?

I sat with Justin in the House of Commons for over two years and possess no worries. He was a remarkably quick study, had the ability to dissect policy easily enough,...

The young agency didn't even make it into its 20s. The Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) burst into public notice with the announcement of its first minister in 1995. Sadly, with yesterday's Conservative budget, CIDA suffered a premature passing.

Prior to that moment in 1995, Canada's foreign aid and...

The exchange back and forth in the Huffington Post between CIDA Minister Julian Fantino and I a couple of weeks ago was revealing in how the minister viewed food security as his Agency's key plank for Canada's official international development agenda.

Since food is that important to the...

I suppose I should have felt honoured that CIDA Minister Julian Fantino took the time to respond to my recent Huffington Post piece on how the politicization of foreign aid and development has hamstrung the Agency, keeping it from completing its needed work.

In my original

In so many ways, as seasoned observers warned, it was inevitable that the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) would be facing its own mortality with the appointment of Julian Fantino as its new minister. CIDA is not a full ministry or department, but an agency -- created or abolished by...

Whatever became of the "Davos Man," you know, the kind of prominent individual who was destined to come together in an opulent Swiss resort location and cooperate with other luminaries to iron out the world's problems? Like any other recurring grand gathering it's becoming somewhat less than stellar -- not...

Progress for the world's women has proceeded in fits and starts in the past century, but 2012 saw some clear advancement on numerous fronts and in diverse locations.

Four-million victims, many internally displaced, saw a new law passed in Colombia granting land restitution following the 50-year war. Mostly...

"And on earth, peace to those of goodwill"- Luke 2:14

There was a time when the concept of peace and Canada's role in the world occupied the same space. We had a Nobel Peace Prize to prove it and a history of robust membership in United Nation's peacekeeping operations.

Somewhere...

General Romeo Dallaire was in London, Ontario a couple of weeks ago speaking to a varied audience about Canada's dwindling international presence. He spoke, as always, from a place of deep conviction and disappointment that this country appears to have lost its international path on the way to ideology. He...

Justin Trudeau and I have been texting in recent weeks concerning his visit to our city and also the importance of his decision to run for the Liberal leadership on the premise that it's time for the next generation to not only believe in serving their country once again but...

War, famine, death, devastation -- we've heard it all so many times about Africa that we feel we know it by heart. It's time we acquired a new vocabulary. Just a cursory look at African stories in the media in these past few months use completely different descriptive words and...

Across Canada hundreds of food banks sent out special appeals over the Thanksgiving season asking people to donate generously. They had clear reason for doing so. Most food banks are facing record demand, as a deep recession that has supposedly ended still leaves its impact all over the country.

He pulled his broad-brimmed hat lower over his eyes to block out the setting sun and said, "We in this place have always respected Canada because you were never a colonial empire or part of the slave trade. It is why we want to work with you; why I wanted...

It was the cause of significant debate during my sojourn in Parliament: do we respond in kind to the Conservative attacks ads? The professionals within the Liberal Party were keen to do so, claiming, with some merit, that since the Conservatives had taken to the American-style of "slam, slam all...

Official international development assistance for the world's poorest countries has become a precarious business in recent years. If the first five years of the last decade were seen as a time of foreign aid and development renaissance -- debt relief, Millennial Development Goals, movement towards more aid accountability -- the...

Omar Khadr lay on the ground, blinded in one eye and shot twice through the back, asking the American soldiers to kill him off. One of the U.S. officers testified later that he commanded one of his men to grant the boy's wish, only to be stopped by a Delta...

I have seen Queen Elizabeth II only twice in my life, but both were memorable and both were roughly a half-century ago.

When she was crowned in June 1953, I was living in Edinburgh, Scotland -- a young boy only three years of age. My Mom had been a Scottish...

Seriously, what else did we expect? Like some kind of flash of alternate reality, newly-minted Conservative MP David Wilks stood up for a brief moment to the oppressive politics of the day and informed his constituents he would vote against Bill C-38 -- Stephen Harper's omnibus bill that...