David Miller, get off your knees! What a spectacle you made of yourself on election eve. No sooner did you win re-election as Toronto's Mayor than you began begging senior levels of government for money.

"Tonight you have given me a strong mandate to tell the Premier and the Prime Minister that Toronto needs a 1 cents share of the existing sales taxes, and we will not take no for an answer," you said in your victory speech, and then you said it again, in case the Premier and the Prime Minister weren't listening.  Full story »

Montreal was once Canada's great financial centre. Then politics made Montreal unwelcoming to business and, over time, Toronto took over. Now Toronto has become hostile to business and companies are relocating outside the city and to more business-friendly Calgary. If Toronto remains hostile, Calgary will continue to outpace Toronto and could replace Toronto as the country's business and financial capital.  Full story »

Pundits are blaming Stephen Harper's failure to win seats in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver on fears that Harper has a broad social conservative agenda. Or on a distaste that urban residents have for free enterprise. Or on his reluctance to fix the city's fiscal imbalance.

That's far too broad and complex an assessment.  Full story »

Canada's cities must "work together to make sure we all have the tools and resources we need to thrive," an inspired Toronto Mayor David Miller said earlier this week, in anticipation of this weekend's City Summit of mayors in Toronto. Uninspiringly, the resources the cities crave are more tax revenues; the tools they wave a tin cup and a begging bowl.  Full story »

Voting in federal elections will never be the same again, not once it sinks in to voters that the new voting rules let our votes count twice – once at the ballot box, in determining the immediate contest for member of parliament, and once as an investment in our favourite party, to financially strengthen it between elections and ready it for the next. The biggest potential winners under the new rules in the election campaign underway: the Conservative Party and the Green Party. The biggest potential loser: the New Democratic Party.  Full story »

The Prime Minister says he is fighting corruption, but he is merely keeping the lid on scandals. The Acres bribery case is one that could blow up

Paul Martin's spin-filled response to the sponsorship scandal failed to maintain his pre-scandal popularity. His honeymoon as Canada's dream prime minister abruptly ended only weeks after he assumed power. Corruption, however, has an international as well as a national face, and Canada's corruption problems have as much of an international character as a national one.  Full story »

Paul Martin's Other Deficit Problem: Ethics, Lawrence Solomon, Jan. 8, leaves the mistaken impression that Export Development Canada (EDC) is indifferent to the negative effects of corruption and does nothing to combat corruption and bribery.

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Canada's conservatives have voted overwhelmingly to create a new Conservative Party of Canada. They now need to decide on a leader but even more, they need to decide whether to contest Canada's urbanized ridings, home to an overwhelming number of voters.    Full story »

Three credible candidates are vying for the left-of-centre vote in Toronto's mayoralty contest. No credible right-of-centre candidate is campaigning to lead a municipal government more populous than the combined populations of Manitoba and Saskatchewan, or all four Atlantic provinces.  Full story »

Stark message for urban voters: Take a hike   by Lawrence Solomon  Full story »