Neil Macdonald
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
Washington, DC, United States
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Past articles by Neil:
Report on devastating Canadian climate change a far bigger issue than Jody Wilson-Raybould: Neil Macdonald
The main takeaway from a new government report on climate change is that not only is it much more frightening and immediate than we all thought, as the UN reported six months ago, it's at least twice as bad in Canada. Twice. As. Bad. → Read More
Reporters are 'used' all the time. That's the way it works: Neil Macdonald
The idea that the reporters filing on the ongoing Jody Wilson-Raybould vs. Justin Trudeau story are anyone's unwitting tools is the foolish notion of political partisans who cannot imagine anyone else not being a political partisan, Neil Macdonald writes. → Read More
Debt is a vast, sucking field of muck, and we're all flailing to get out: Neil Macdonald
Unrepayable lifetime debt now seems to be a business model. Students enter the professional world owing hundreds of thousands, and otherwise sane people carry heavy credit card balances, with the usurious vig that comes with them. → Read More
Opposition is a caricature, and Scheer is a humid performer: Neil Macdonald
Now, Trudeau might not be a particularly inspiring, or even articulate fellow. His gurgly moralizing is aggravating. But a sinister, disgraced, subversive, corrupt criminal, as the opposition claims? One suspects Andrew Scheer doesn't actually believe that. → Read More
Anti-BDS laws are more than words. They are a legal attempt to punish a passive act: Neil Macdonald
Basically, these laws are an attempt to punish entities or individual Americans who choose not to do something – in this case, choosing not to invest with, buy from or otherwise economically support Israel. → Read More
I bribed the Libyans. It's how things work in hopelessly corrupt countries: Neil Macdonald
The Quebec engineering firm SNC_Lavalin is accused of having bribed Libyan officials in order to do business in that hopelessly corrupt country. Well, so have I and most everybody else who has done business in the Middle East. That's no reason to hobble the huge employer, writes Neil Macdonald. → Read More
Donald Trump is the best president the left has ever had: Neil Macdonald
From fiscal policy, to trade, to war — when you look at what Trump has actually done, he's the most left-wing president the U.S. has ever seen. → Read More
Lose your illusions. It's an ugly, dystopian world: Neil Macdonald
People my age grew up believing the world, led by the West, was becoming ever more progressive. It wasn't, and it isn't. All it took was one ambitious real estate huckster to dispel the illusion. → Read More
With its new trade deal, Canada surrenders sovereignty to a bully: Neil Macdonald
Ottawa's calculus, in the end, was pretty obvious. Surrender to American bludgeoning on the big-picture stuff, and hang on if possible to barriers and protections that force Canadian consumers to pay for our lack of competitiveness. → Read More
Luck is nearly impossible to beat, and Justin Trudeau's has no end: Neil Macdonald
My guess is that Trudeau spent his summer vacation up on the roof of Rideau Cottage with his wife, staring at the night sky, watching the stars align perfectly. → Read More
By secular standards, the Catholic Church is a corrupt organization: Neil Macdonald
Solutions for priestly abuse: wiretaps, search warrants, informers and ordaining women. → Read More
Alex Jones deals in vicious stupidity. It's not free speech — it's incitement: Neil Macdonald
Free speech has never been absolute, even in America. Alex Jones's horrifying incitement goes too far, even for the speech libertarian in me. → Read More
Enjoying the gift of nothing, for a few moments in July: Neil Macdonald
In July, institutions the media depend on to provide the tonnage necessary to fill pages and newscasts tend to shut down. In their absence, the level of populist material rises accordingly. → Read More
This is not America? Oh, yes, it is: Neil Macdonald
Trump has sensed that his voters want ruthlessness, and that they can easily be persuaded to see the separation of children from their border-crossing parents as patriotic. → Read More
No one tell Donald Trump about Italy's new populist government: Neil Macdonald
The Five Star Movement and the Northern League coalition are threatening to swing a Trump-like hammer, advising immigrants deportations are about to begin, expanding spending, even demanding that the Euro authorities simply write off 250 billion Euros of Italian debt. → Read More
Ontario election promises a tax-and-borrow-and-spend jamboree: Neil Macdonald
The battered, unpopular premier, Kathleen Wynne, and the apparently ascendant NDP leader, Andrea Horwath, are competing over how much they'll spend. And Doug Ford is no more credible than the other two. → Read More
Call me radical, but journalists should be able to pledge support for Palestinian journalists: Neil Macdonald
Earlier this month, Canadian Journalists for Free Expression (CJFE) tore into Israel, and learned that sometimes, it's best to temper your outrage. Sensitivities matter. So, evidently, does the nationality of the journalists being attacked. → Read More
Here's why we pay more for everything in Canada — and always will: Neil Macdonald
Raising the de minimis would be a savage disruption. And Canadians aren't big on creative destruction or competition theory. → Read More
Censorship is patronizing. Always has been, always will be: Neil Macdonald
The censor never accepts the notion that his or her own values are damaged by reviewing offensive material. Rather, the censor believes he or she is acting to protect those with feebler, more gullible minds. → Read More
Canada's scorn of Donald Trump's protectionism stinks of hypocrisy: Neil Macdonald
We insist on maintaining a lopsided, non-reciprocal system, in which our retailers can sell up to $1,000 Cdn worth of goods with no impediment whatever. American retailers wishing to sell into Canada, meanwhile, face a slurry of taxes, duties and red tape on any shipment worth more than $20 Cdn. → Read More