Mark Bonokoski

LATEST STORIES BY MARK BONOKOSKI

BONOKOSKI: Canada's Ambassador to China's priorities in communist Beijing

At January’s end, Canada’s Ambassador to China — some 11,000 kms from his post in Beijing, as measured by the Globe & Mail — was at a boutique law office in Manhattan, giving a deposition in a case to determine whether the firm he ran for nine years had violated U.S. bankruptcy laws.

February 8, 2020 Columnists

Dominic Barton, Canada's new ambassador to China, talks with reporters at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on Wednesday, Jan. 24, 2018. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul Chiasson)

BONOKOSKI: It was a very good week for the ol’ Trumpster

Despite all the anger and disappointment, it hasn’t been a bad week for Donald Trump, the big orange-haired lug in the White House who has never seen the need for introspection and self-criticism.

February 6, 2020 Columnists

U.S. President Donald Trump holds up a copy of the Washington Post's front page showing news of Trump's acquittal in his Senate impeachment trial, as he delivers a statement about his acquittal in the East Room of the White House in Washington, U.S., February 6, 2020.

BONOKOSKI: Ambrose back in Ottawa to see tabling of sex assault bill

Rona Ambrose was back in Ottawa, but sticking to her guns that she has no interest beyond an emotional tug in vying for the Conservative leadership, even though odds say she’d be Canada’s first elected female prime minister.

February 5, 2020 Columnists

Rona Ambrose is shown during a media interview on May 18, 2017. (The Canadian Press)

BONOKOSKI: You're not Harper’s brand; your leadership road’s uphill

Anyone who worked closely with Stephen Harper’s Conservatives during his decade as prime minister remains acutely aware of the truth expressed by one of his early communications directors.

February 3, 2020 Columnists

This November 14, 2015 file photo shows Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper as he speaks during a joint press conference with New Zealand's prime minister in Auckland.

BONOKOSKI: Contraband cigarettes fund terrorism, organized crime

The Ontario Tobacco Research Unit, established in 1993 as the research and evaluation component of the Ontario Tobacco Strategy, rarely steps into the contraband tobacco arena.

February 1, 2020 Columnists

Contraband cigarettes seized near Cornwall are shown in an RCMP handout photo. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-RCMP)

BONOKOSKI: The PM's tweet keeps on giving, three years now and counting

It was the tweet that thundered ‘round a troubled world, posted at precisely 3:20 p.m. on Jan. 28, 2017.

January 30, 2020 Columnists

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks during a news conference on Jan. 9, 2020 in Ottawa.

BONOKOSKI: Canadian senator gripes we don't like 'rich' Asians

Yuen Pau Woo is a B.C. mover and shaker, a former president of the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada, a senior fellow in public policy at the Asian Institute of Research at UBC, and undoubtedly in possession of a digital Rolodex rivaling the most connected player in Canada’s Chinese diaspora.

January 30, 2020 Columnists

Yuen Pau Woo is pictured in this Postmedia Network photo.

BONOKOSKI: Conservatives weed out unfit as 'stinking albatross' returns

Those were the days, were they not?

with Video

January 28, 2020 Columnists

Peter MacKay shakes hands with Leader of Canada's Conservatives Andrew Scheer in Little Harbour, Nova Scotia, Canada, on Oct. 17, 2019. (REUTERS/Carlos Osorio)

BONOKOSKI: CBC seeks ratings from uninspiring game show to full Bernardo

No doubt there’s a multitude of Canadian channel surfers who accidentally find themselves watching CBC’s old-is-new again but supposedly advertiser-friendly, Family Feud Canada, hosted by Gerard Francis Donoghue.

January 25, 2020 Columnists

BONOKOSKI: Disproportionate jailing of indigenous in federal prisons now staggering

When Howard Sapers began his 12-year run as Canada’s independent corrections investigator, the incarceration rate of indigenous inmates in our federal prisons was 13%.

January 23, 2020 Columnists