On November 5, 2014, Liberal Party of Canada leader Justin Trudeau suspended two male Liberal Members of Parliament (MPs) from caucus pending an investigation into two separate sexual harassment allegations made by two MPs of another party. While Mr. Trudeau did not identify the victims of the alleged harassment, he did underscore the principle that […]
On November 4, 2014, American voters sent President Barack Obama a strong message. They seemed angry and concerned about his leadership to date, and his inability to articulate and communicate strong, coherent messages – addressing and assuaging their anxiety about a variety of issues at a difficult time. Indeed, the President himself has made this […]
In a speech on October 24, 2014, undeclared U.S. Democratic Party leader hopeful Hillary Rodham Clinton told an audience “Don’t let anybody tell you that, you know, it’s corporations and businesses that create jobs.” Clinton was reacting to the preceding speech by Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, whose views have some weight with left-leaning Democrats. Warren’s […]
According to the Toronto Star of October 27, popular CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) radio host Jian Ghomeshi was fired on October 26 amid allegations about his sex life. The Star later published four women’s allegations of sexual violence. In a statement posted to his Facebook page, Ghomeshi denied the allegations, provided a 1600 word explanation about his sex […]
On October 22, 2014, Corporal Nathan Cirillo, standing guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Ottawa, was killed by a coward cloaked in the ideology of hatred and terror. I walked past him as he lay on the cement, surrounded by a number of Samaritans who tried to keep him alive with CPR,and […]
That is the question. Whether it is better to duck issues in the hope of not antagonizing anybody, or to take strong stands and antagonize some but rally others. To me, it’s quite simple. Leaders must lead and stand for something. They cannot try to please everyone, or they will wind up pleasing no one. […]
On October 10, 2014, the Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded the 2014 Nobel Peace prize to Malala Yousafzai and Kailash Satyarthi. This is one of those times when an award sends a variety of messages on a variety of issues – in this case, all of them good. Malala is 17, while Satyarthi is 60. The […]
There are two Ebola epidemics currently underway – one is the illness itself, and the other is the media hype surrounding this illness. I will leave managing the epidemic of the illness to others. However, I believe governments and the media must focus closely and carefully on the communications aspects of Ebola. First of all, […]
The most serious decision a government can take is to send its women and men to lay their lives on the line for their country. Any government that does so must have a clear and transparent message, and must bring all sectors of society into the decision-making and decision-taking process. Any mandate to do so […]
On September 26, 2014, the Los Angeles Times reported that: “A Dallas tour company is being heavily criticized for the placement of a photo of President John F. Kennedy on the side of one of its buses…The image that go so many fired up is a picture of Kennedy’s head with the words “Big Things […]