Ontario takes over Peel District School Board, halts plan to lay off 60 teachers

OTTAWA — During a ceremony this week to unveil his official portrait, former prime minister Stephen Harper made a point of mentioning the tie he’s wearing in the painting. The colours, the former prime minister pointed out during the ceremony in downtown Ottawa, represent the three key elements of Canada’s Conservatives: dark blue for the “Tories of old,” green for the “western, populist tradition” and Preston Manning’s Reform Party, and sky blue for the conservative tradition of Quebec nationalists and francophones across the country. In reality, however, according to political...