Christopher Hume

Christopher Hume, speaker, freelance writer and former urban issues columnist and architecture critic of the Toronto Star

[Marcus Kolga 🇨🇦🇪🇪🇺🇦 @kolga]

Russia's "leaders have weaponized starvation, child abduction, sexual violence and genocide. If these are not acts of terrorism, then the word has no meaning." Canada + allies must designate Russia a state sponsor of terror. @Kasparov63 + I @globeandmail https://t.co/wC73Bf2qwp

[Christopher Hume @HumeChristopher]

Gordon ("Greed is good.") Gekko would be proud.

[Rutger Bregman @rcbregman]

We knew it, but seeing the data laid out – it's still shocking: higher taxes for most, deep cuts to Medicaid & SNAP—all to fund tax breaks for the top 1%.

It's difficult to fully grasp the scale of the con being perpetrated on Americans right now by the Trump administration.

[Christopher Hume @HumeChristopher]

Deeply depressing listening to TTC chair @CllrJamaalMyers on @CBCHereandNow. He doesn't appear to have a clear understanding of TTC operations let alone why it can't provide decent service after a snowstorm. No wonder the TTC is a mess.Time to take public transit seriously in TO.

[Rutger Bregman @rcbregman]

The blood that @elonmusk and his DOGE-cronies have on their hands because of the (illegal) foreign aid suspension.

200.000+ people not receiving their daily HIV medication.

15.000+ deaths and counting.

Source: https://t.co/svlYmgFdYw

[Stephen Wickens 🇺🇦 🇨🇦 @StephenWickens1]

Twelve weeks after giving 2 weeks notice, Phil Verster's LinkedIn profile still says he's Metrolinx CEO. Is he still on the payroll? Did he move to Riyadh, as a few good sources say? Why haven't party leaders made Metrolinx dysfunction an election issue? #onpoli

[Vatnik Soup @P_Kallioniemi]

Finnish journalist @MikkoMarttinen2 has a much simpler explanation for Trump's recent speeches:

"Trump, 78, is the most dim-witted president of modern US history, and old age has made him even dumber."

[Beth Levy @Beth_Levy66]

@TDotResident I love that the PC’s are calling out the opposition for not providing a costed platform. Costed and platform are 2 words that are NOT in a PC’s vocabulary. Pot meet kettle.

[Edmund @Kulambq]

@therealmissjo @ClarkeMicah Having a car is anything but having freedom. It provides an illusion of freedom but is nothing short of being a millstone round one’s neck. Huge costs of maintenance, traffic jams, lack of parking spaces, a thoroughly depreciating asset. People who don't own a car are happier.

[Edmund @Kulambq]

'Cover him, cover him soon!
And with thick-set
Masses of memoried flowers—
Hide that red wet
Thing I must somehow forget.'

Ivor Gurney, 'To His Love'

A poem that must be memorized.

[Toronto Star @TorontoStar]

Toronto has a lot of rich people. This city helped create the conditions to make a lot of people very wealthy. It shouldn’t be too much to ask that they step up to give something back. #Opinion https://t.co/7aQXC6b19R

[Michael de Adder @deAdder]

The world should get together and reject this bullshit from Trump. He can't impose a 25% tariff on every nation in the world.

[Laura Babcock 🇨🇦 @LauraBabcock]

Lemme get this straight: Ford now needs an election to spend our billions after spending 2.2B on Ontario Place 'spa', overpaying nursing agencies, Starlink, and planning a stupid tunnel under 401 for 50-100B? 🙄

Ontario cannot afford Ford.

#onpoli

🔗 https://t.co/9rWTu5j9Od

[Bonnie Crombie 🇨🇦 @BonnieCrombie]

This snap election isn’t about Trump or tariffs—it’s about Doug Ford scrambling to outrun the RCMP investigation into his Greenbelt scandal.

Ontario's economy is failing thanks to Ford. We are not prepared to weather this storm. And instead of owning up to his actions, Ford is abandoning his post when Ontarians need leadership the most. With the looming threat of tariffs and the challenges facing our province, Ford has chosen to prioritize his own political survival over the people he was elected to serve. He’s not a leader — he’s a coward.

Doug Ford can attack me all he wants. But as Premier, I wouldn’t run from my responsibilities or the people of Ontario. I’d stay and fight for them—because that’s what real leadership looks like.

[Christopher Hume @HumeChristopher]

Speer's fundamental argument that societal attitudes don't change and that it's bad when they do couldn't be more wrong-headed. If anything, the pace of change has never been so great. But as Speer reminds us, albeit unintentionally, some find it hard to keep up.

[Sean Speer @Sean_Speer]

Mark Carney puts himself first

Mark Carney’s official launch of his Liberal leadership campaign this week finally has him crossing the threshold from central banker into a politician. At least in Canadian history, it represents an unprecedented transition. Until now, the role of Bank of Canada governor has been carefully distanced from politics.

Friend of The Hub, @cardusca president @BrianDijkema, recently had a series of posts on X on why Carney’s jump into politics is a bad development for the perceived trust and independence of the Bank of Canada and its leadership.

He’s of course right. We shouldn’t want prime ministers considering the partisan instincts of prospective candidates before they are appointed or Canadians wondering if the bank governor’s communications or policy choices are influenced by their own political ambitions.

Carney’s foray into politics isn’t the first time that the blood-brain barrier between independent functions with our system of governance and raw politics has been broken. It’s a long-standing problem. And the biggest culprit is the Supreme Court of Canada.

Not only have retired Supreme Court justices entered the political fray as advocates and consultants, but the court itself has evolved into a political body by substituting its political preferences for those of our elected officials and the country as a whole. Its judicial activism has elevated the court’s nine members into Canada’s most powerful policymakers—which is to say, politicians.

The best (or worst) example is the Supreme Court’s decision in 2015 in favour of the constitutionality of physician-assisted death. One can agree or disagree with the decision as a matter of policy. But as a matter of law, it was a mess.

The court had previously taken up the issue in 1993 and determined in a 5-4 decision that there was no constitutional right to assisted death. Twenty-two years later, the court unanimously ruled that there was indeed such a right.

What had changed to produce such a divergent outcome? Nothing of course. There had been no changes to the Charter. It hadn’t been amended to add a new right. The justices just unanimously found one themselves.

It was an unprecedented expression of institutional hubris that has done tremendous harm to the Supreme Court as an institution. It’s not a coincidence for instance that we’ve since seen the growing use of the notwithstanding clause. If the court is going to act as a political body, then it seems reasonable for our actual political body to defend its unique political role in our system of government.

Herein lies the risk of Carney’s candidacy. If we come to view Bank of Canada governors as essentially political actors, then why should their judgement on monetary policy trumps those of actual politicians? Why would a finance minister defer to someone who may be vying for his or her job? Why would their independence be protected and respected?

Dijkema’s warnings are likely to fall on deaf ears. But if one cares about this issue—including those who lament the growing salience of the notwithstanding clause—then you ought to think twice about making a former central banker our next prime minister.

[Jim Stanford @JimboStanford]

“Who’s Subsidizing Whom?” I have written a new report for the Centre for Future Work @futurework_cda rebutting Trump’s arguments that the U.S. “subsidizes” Canada through its bilateral trade deficit: https://t.co/5tUoyyvkpg. #cdnecon #cdnpoli #canlab /2

[Christopher Hume @HumeChristopher]

Grovellers.

[TDot Resident @TDotResident]

#CDNpoli

NEW:
It appears that Kevin O’Leary, Danielle Smith, and Jordan Peterson were all at Mar-A-Lago with Donald Trump last night

[Christopher Hume @HumeChristopher]

Oh really? Wonder if Poilievre is aware of anyone but himself.

[CTV News @CTVNews]

Poilievre says the next Canadian election will be about the carbon price https://t.co/F487d2cKoG

[Christopher Hume @HumeChristopher]

Brilliant!

[Architizer @Architizer]

📍Vienna, Austria https://t.co/CXf46tHhnm

[Stephen Tustin @stustin]

Another Trudeau analysis ignores the unprecedented, well-funded, relentless years-long CPC attack campaign against Trudeau, aided by a willing right-wing media and paid pundits and bots. Why do these analyses ignore that? #Canada https://t.co/k1RokINrit

[Michelle Allison @fatnutritionist]

@HumeChristopher you really think he's not just gonna win again? you underestimate the power that loud & proud ignoramuses hold in this province