Daniel D. Veniez

Last year I ran for public office for the first time. About two weeks before the end of the campaign, election workers for backbench MP John Weston, the Conservative incumbent, distributed a video and emails containing vicious lies about me. They focused on my ownership and tenure as president and...

NDP leader Thomas Mulcair's recent meditations on an economic phenomenon known as "Dutch Disease" illustrates again that NDP and their new leader are far from ready for prime time.

Western Premiers and others have characterized Mulcair's comments "divisive." Indeed, they are. They are also cynical...

HANOI -- On this, my seventh business trip to Vietnam, I finally did what many Westerners do on their first: I made the pilgrimage to the infamous Hao Lo Prison.

To Americans, it is known as "Hanoi Hilton." To the...

In light of the unprecedented incompetence exposed by the Auditor General on the F-35 procurement scandal, the swirl of parliamentary and media attention surrounding the other simmering scandal of fraudulent robocols has died down somewhat.

But the issue will not go away because a fraud occurred and Canadians must...

If the Robocall Affair has a silver lining, my hope is that it will trigger an honest conversation about the growing and deeply troubling amorality of politics.

For years, political operatives and practitioners have justified more aggressive and dirty tactics with a shrug of the shoulders: "This is the...

Today is International Women's Day, so expect a lot of feel-good words in the House of Commons.

As the father of a 13-year-old daughter, I want her to know that she stands on the shoulders of giants. The opportunities she has today were made possible by the courageous pioneering...

Some incredulous observers are saying that the "Robocall Affair" must be the work of a few over-zealous campaign workers. There's just no way that the Conservative party high command would ever permit, sanction, and be the driving force behind such conduct, they say.

In the House of Commons last week,...

Stephen Harper stood in the House of Commons today and said emphatically that the Conservative Party was not behind the Robocalls. Well, if not them, then who did?

If the Conservatives are so adamant that they have done nothing wrong, Harper should be the first on his...

Some are calling the meeting this week in Ottawa between the Harper Government and the Assembly of First Nations, "historic." In a way, I am sure it is. After six full years in power this is the very first time Harper and his ministers have taken the time to meet...

In 2009, as a new member and candidate for the Liberal Party of Canada, it didn't take me long to figure out that one of the most debilitating and corrosive aspects of the party has been the never-ending leadership wars. I discovered that it was unofficially segmented into camps from...

Queen Elizabeth II has been a tower of strength and dignity for decades. Her unflinching grace has been a source of inspiration to her subjects and to observers around the world through some of the seismic events of the 20th century. The Queen's love for Canada has been unmistakable throughout...

The Harper Government's heath care funding plan to the provinces announced earlier this week -- in which the Finance Minister said current levels of 6 per cent funding were unsustainable after 2016 -- should not be dismissed as another clever tactic to punt a political hot potato. It...

Last week, the hereditary chiefs of the Gitxsan Nation, signed an agreement with Enbridge in support of the Northern Gateway. The proposed pipeline will be a $5.5 billion project that once completed would transport oil sands bitumen from Alberta to Kitimat.

The Gitxsan Nation has broken new ground...

How utterly and depressingly tragic -- and predictable -- the scene in Attawapiskat is.

It is one that is repeated year after year. A television camera brings the third world conditions of a Canadian community into our homes. The story and images of abject poverty and despair in Aboriginal communities...

Are the attributes of the politician and policy maker compatible?

A winning politician must be an effective salesman. His most vital asset is the ability to communicate. He displays humility and is non-threatening and approachable, while conveying confidence and competence, but never arrogance. He talks in clean, tight, and...

Under pressure from Quebec sovereignists the NDP, now Canada's official Opposition, has defined what it will take for Quebec to legitimately declare its sovereignty.

Jack Layton has confirmed the NDP's policy on the terms of Quebec's separation from Canada. Last Thursday in Montreal, he said that a

In April, the Harper government fell because they were found in contempt of Parliament. Never before in our history had that occurred. It came on the heels of five years of parliamentary obstruction and obfuscations.

Winning office on a promise of openness, accountability, and transparency, Mr. Harper's government is widely...