Some of the best Maclean’s columns of 2019
From the SNC-Lavalin debacle to Trump to Don Cherry’s firing, here is a small selection of some of the many brilliant opinion pieces published in Maclean’s in 2019
Trudeau apologizes on his campaign plane in Halifax, N.S., on Wednesday, over the 2001 brownface photo of him that surfaced (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick)
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Canada, the show
Paul Wells: You thought this government was about family benefits and boil-water advisories? The Lavalin affair offers a glimpse of the real scene—maybe the real Canada.
In the abandoned ruins of Ottawa
Paul Wells: How did the SNC-Lavalin scandal manage to rattle this government so badly? Because it reveals some truths to Canadians about this Prime Minister.
Andrew Scheer’s LavScam fumble
Andrew MacDougall: What’s needed is a calm and systematic destruction of Trudeau’s arguments. The Conservative leader is just now catching on.
‘Wow’ is the correct response to Mozart
Paul Wells: Every performance could stand to be more relaxed. Explain patiently why silence is part of the modern tradition of this music. And then accept any reaction, and welcome everyone who took the trouble to show up.
The rise of an uncaring Canada
Andray Domise: What’s behind hardening attitudes towards migrants? Some basic ignorance about the life of refugees and the reality of immigration in this country.
You are horrible people
Scott Gilmore: This is the point all the whiners need to understand after Thursday’s Amber Alert—if you want to live in a province that protects its children, occasionally you have to roll over in bed and check your phone.
Canada: A nation of strangers
Scott Gilmore: Canadians don’t often move out of their birth province. We vacation elsewhere. We barely know each other. We’re now unable to muster national responses to big issues.
The terrifying depths of Donald Trump’s ignorance, in a single quote
Terry Glavin: The president’s recent claim that the Soviets were ‘right’ to invade Afghanistan is worse than idiotic—it’s downright frightening
Hey, academics. Get out of the ivory tower. We need your expertise.
Opinion: Punditry and blunt-force debate has stolen the public discourse. More than ever, academics must inform people about the nuances of current research and ideas
Alabama is closer than we think
Anne Kingston: Canadians who reassure themselves that the southern state’s abortion ban couldn’t possibly ever happen here haven’t been paying attention
The racial profiling of Masai Ujiri
Andray Domise: Police violence, media complicity and how the Toronto Raptors’ proudest moment became another piece of evidence
Are we really okay with Jason Kenney?
Jen Gerson: The UCP is supposed to win back this conservative province. But it’s becoming clear that more and more Albertans are uneasy with what the party represents.
Justin Trudeau’s face
Paul Wells: The Liberal campaign is built around a sophisticated oppo research organization that says their opponents are bad people. Where does it stand now?
Why so many Albertans are giving up on their country
Jen Gerson: ‘Wexit’ reflects a cartoon version of the province that other Canadians find easy to attack—because it spares them the burden of self-examination
How Don Cherry resisted Canada’s brownface
Erica Ifill: Canadian hockey and Don Cherry walked hand in hand for 40 years without noticing that they lost an entire generation of highly diverse viewers
Scheer is out. What happens next will change Canada forever.
Scott Gilmore: The next leader will either be someone who resonates with voters across the country or steers the party into the ditch