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TORONTO - The Ontario government has been working on plans for high occupancy toll lanes on three Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area highways since 2013, but has kept most of the details secret. When the NDP filed a Freedom of Information request in early 2014 for detailed information on the work, which includes traffic models, most of the documents were to be blacked out or not released at all, according to a report obtained by the Toronto Sun. Ministry of Transportation staff prepared the note to give senior bureaucrats and the minister’s office a heads-up about the NDP’s “contentious” request....

My newest article yesterday weighed in on the Alberta election and posed the question, "Could Alberta Vote Socialist?" The answer is yes. Tonight, the people of Canada's most conservative province have elected an NDP majority government and thus ended the Tories' 44-year reign in power. That reign was the longest in Canadian history. The NDP have been elected or are leading in 54 of the 87 seats in the Legislative Assembly of Alberta. The Wildrose Party remains the Official Opposition have been elected or are leading in 20 seats.

The honorary mayor of a village in the eastern German state of Saxony-Anhalt has resigned after neo-Nazis were given permission to demonstrate outside his home over his support of asylum seekers. Markus Nierth, from Tröglitz, said he did not want to expose his family to the slogans of National Democratic party (NPD) protesters as well as the presence of the armed police that would have to be in place to protect him. “My children are too precious,” said Nierth in a message posted on the Tröglitz community Facebook page. “What really took the the biscuit was the realization that the...

The events of Atlas Shrugged seem to be only years away from unfolding in Canada. Just like Rearden and his colleagues, some people's wealth and prosperity are on the brink of becoming redistributed by a hit squad of bureaucrats who represent the best interests of the public. The leader of this frightening mafia is Thomas Mulcair. A recent poll from Ipsos-Reid shows the NDP at 38% in public support. All the talk of Dutch Disease seems to have only stimulated the moochers and freeloaders across this country who feel they have some sort of divine entitlement to everyone else's wealth....

The registry isn’t entirely gone .... But Wednesday’s vote in the House of Commons, where the bill to scrap the registry and delete its record passed third reading — with two NDP MPs breaking ranks with their party to vote with the government — means it’s all over but for the crying .... This is a major victory for the Tories, who have been gunning for the registry (pun not intended, but acknowledged) since the day it was enacted. Some would argue its demise is a good thing for Canadians. But anyone can see that it’s a good thing for...

OTTAWA -- A rural-urban split has opened up in the federal NDP leadership race over whether the official Opposition should promise Canadians it will try to reverse the Harper government's pending destruction of the national long-gun registry. Brian Topp, the Montreal-born Toronto union leader considered a front-runner, said as prime minister, he would attempt to revive the program to register all long guns. His only caveat is that an NDP government would need to avoid the litany of errors that resulted in the Liberal program, first projected in 1995 to cost $2 million, ending up with a price tag estimated...

OTTAWA - Jack Layton, the leader of the official Opposition, died early Monday morning, his family said. Layton, 61, had been battling cancer for more than a year and, a month ago, announced he was temporarily stepping aside from his job to fight the disease. Layton's immediate family -- his wife, MP Olivia Chow, and his children, Sarah and Michael -- issued a statement at about 8:30 a.m. Monday morning. "We deeply regret to inform you that The Honourable Jack Layton, leader of the New Democratic Party of Canada, passed away at 4:45 am today, Monday, Aug. 22. He passed...

After the Governor-General delivered a Speech from the Throne on Friday that was entirely predictable as a recitation of Conservative campaign messages, Mr. Layton told reporters that he thought it was disappointing. Fair enough. You can’t expect him to say he thought it was a masterful piece of oratory behind which the whole country should unite. But he carried on. “This was really just a recitation of what they’ve said before,” he said. Or, put another way, the government was following through on its election promises. Then the reaction became stranger still. Mr. Layton complained that the Speech did not...

The military junta ruling Egypt has announced that parliamentary elections will be held in September. Rather than spending the next five months complaining, those who aren’t supporting the Muslim Brotherhood better get started actually working and organizing. I’ll analyze this a lot more in the coming months but briefly the blocs are as follows: Islamists: The Muslim Brotherhood says it is aiming at getting 30 percent of the seats. I think they’ll succeed. A smaller, moderate Islamist party — whose members split from the Brotherhood because they say it is too extremist — would be lucky to get any seats....

Lord, We are thankful for the abundant blessings You have bestowed on America. Our forefathers looked to You as Protector, Provider, and the Promise of hope. But we have wandered far from that firm foundation. May we repent for turning our backs on Your faithfulness...

I had never heard of KAIROS until I read Colby Cosh's analysis of their partisan politics. That led me to some further reading, and I discovered that KAIROS had issued a denunciation of Alberta's oilsands, and then they went on their fact-finding trip to Fort McMurray. One might have thought it would have been in the reverse order. A quick visit to KAIROS's website shows that their most important goal now is not actually anything to do with religion, let alone with Christianity. It's about getting back to the taxpayer trough. I say let them raise their own money through...

Health Care Systems: A return to private health care is rising from the grass roots north of the border. While we rush headlong toward socialized medicine, Canadians are saying, "No, thanks — been there, done that." We recently told the story of Ava Isabella Stinson, born 13 weeks premature at St. Joseph's hospital in Hamilton, Ontario. She weighed all of two pounds and had no time to be put on a waiting list. But there were no open neonatal intensive care beds for her at St. Joseph's or anywhere else in the entire province of Ontario it seems. Canada's perfectly...

The campaign against health-care reform fuels a huge number of hate-filled Americans who will never accept a black man as president. Barack Obama seemed remarkably upbeat the other day as he left for his first formal vacation as president. It's true that this is one of the coolest cats the world has ever seen, always apparently comfortable in his own skin, unflappable, dignified, whatever the winds swirling around him. But that doesn't mean he's always right, and there are plenty of reasons to fear that he's very wrong if he doesn't think he's in big, deep trouble. It's hard when...

Medical Care: A leaked report shows that Vancouver's health authority is considering cutting thousands of surgeries to balance the budget. However organized, government-run health care inevitably leads to rationing.Defenders of ObamaCare continually point out that their plan is not like Canada's, that holding that country's system up as an example of impending medical doom is invalid. Canada's system is different. Instead of having a single national plan, Canada's national health insurance, a kind of public option, is composed of 13 interlocking provincial and territorial plans, all framed under the Canada Health Act. But based on a report leaked to the...

VANCOUVER — Vancouver patients needing neurosurgery, treatment for vascular diseases and other medically necessary procedures can expect to wait longer for care, NDP health critic Adrian Dix said Monday. Dix said a Vancouver Coastal Health Authority document shows it is considering chopping more than 6,000 surgeries in an effort to make up for a dramatic budgetary shortfall that could reach $200 million. “This hasn’t been announced by the health authority … but these cuts are coming,” Dix said, citing figures gleaned from a leaked executive summary of “proposed VCH surgical reductions.” The health authority confirmed the document is genuine, but...

Health Reform: A critically ill premature baby is moved to a U.S hospital to get the treatment she couldn't get in the system we're told we should emulate. Cost-effective care? In Canada, as elsewhere, you get what you pay for.Ava Isabella Stinson was born last Thursday at St. Joseph's hospital in Hamilton, Ontario. Weighing only two pounds, she was born 13 weeks premature and needed some very special care. Unfortunately, there were no open neonatal intensive care beds for her at St. Joseph's — or anywhere else in the entire province of Ontario, it seems.

Jack Layton says he is offering Canadians a new way of thinking. But the policies approved at the NDP conference in Halifax this weekend are not new to New Democrats.In the end, there were more than 50 policies approved. But there was little to raise the eyebrows of the party's socialist founders. The NDP Leader told reporters at a closing press conference Sunday afternoon he is extremely excited that the party has approved policies that would bridge the gap between the environment and the economy.

A beaming Darrell Dexter took the stage at a Dartmouth hotel Tuesday night as the leader of Nova Scotia’s first-ever NDP government. He and 30 other New Democrats will form a majority government. “Nova Scotians made a historic choice today,” Mr. Dexter told the crowd that included his wife Kelly, son Harris and 90-year old mother Florence. “Who would believe that NDP-orange would cover Nova Scotia from Cumberland County ...,” he said, only to be drowned out by cheers. “Let me say that again. From Cumberland County, right down through the Valley as far south as Shelburne County and right...

The National Day of Prayer is being held in many sites across Virginia. Click below or on the link above to see where your local event is being held...... http://www.ndptf.org/custom/events/eventSearch/

The National Day of Prayer Task Force, which is run out of the conservative Christian group Focus on the Family in Colorado Springs, Colo., has been eagerly awaiting word from the White House about plans for next Thursday's National Day of Prayer. Specifically, the group wants to know if President Obama will issue a proclamation observing the National Day of Prayer next Thursday and whether he'll host a formal White House event to mark the day—the latter being the practice of the Bush White House. The White House tells me that there will be a proclamation but no White House...