Connecting the Dots: More On the Morons

Following up on Trump, the Proud Boys and the Canadian conservative fascist connection with some assorted responses to the fallout that no one dares to mention.

As seen below, the Proud Boys include among their ranks corrupt Trump fixer, GOP operative and Nixon fanboy, Roger Stone. I don't know who those other deplorables are, but Roger is obviously the biggest name.

According to Anti-Racist Canada, Roger once held a gun-fetishist orgy at his home in Florida with onetime Rebel camgirl Faith Goldy and disgraced homonationalist rent boy Milo Yiannopoulos, once the "darling" of Breitbart and coddled wunderkind of the Mercer tech tycoons who bankrolled Steve Bannon's psy-op through Cambridge Analytica. The Mercers, by the way, also funded Islamophobic propaganda on... Rebel Media.

(NB: Bill Maher of all people called the cops on Rog for disturbing the peace, buuuuuuuuut was once perfectly content to host Milo on his show as a "free speech gadfly" until Milo fucked up bigly by shrugging off pedophilia as no biggie and an "encouraging" mentor relationship between older men and young boys "curious" about their sexuality. Yeah, OK Bill, obviously that crossed the line, but not his virulent Islamophobia and misogyny framed as a defence of liberal values. Whatever, man. You fucked Ann Coulter. Your argument is invalid.)

Anyway, Faith Goldy once ran for mayor of Toronto and convinced some twenty-five thousand people to vote for her. Faith Goldy also gave a pep talk to white supremacists at the "yellow vests" rally on Parliament Hill in Ottawa in February 2019. Among others riling up the crowd of angry muthatruckers to — and I quote — "roll over every Liberal in the country" were none other than Andrew Scheer (who appeared on Faith's Rebel webcast and even recruited her BFF as a candidate for the October federal elections), Pierre Poilievre, and Marilyn Gladu. All "mainstream" Conservatives sharing the stage with People's Party populist prick Maxime Bernier and a Nazi YouTube influencer. The latter two being hailed as prospective Conservative leadership candidates this past year after Scheer schat the bed.

At the time, though, the media was having an obsessive hatewank over the SNC bullshit and Justin Trudeau's supposed "corruption" as being somehow a far greater threat to Canadians. They ran Michael Wernick out on a rail for, as they put it, attempting to "distract" from the supposed seriousness of the situation with partisan hyperbole about Conservative calls to violence. Even though he had literally walked through the rally that Scheer and other Conservatives were at on the way to give his testimony. Almost like these bogus "corruption" stories are drummed up to distract from Canadian conservatives being and enabling white supremacists. You know, just like all the "Crooked Hillary" bullshit conveniently distracted from Trump being the inferior-quality VHS copy of Hitler?

And again, for the most part, the white-supremacy aspect was downplayed by mainstream media, in favour of sympathizing with their plight as hard-put-upon oil and gas workers struggling to break free of the yoke of Justin Trudeau's evil and oppressive eco-authoritarianism. You know, like Hillary Clinton was shamed for prioritizing the planet instead of the hardscrabble West Virginia "clean coal" miners who Trump sold a bill of goods. How dare she be so condescending as to lecture them from the pulpit of the establishment elite! How dare she bring economic realities and science into a cogent policy debate! And how dare Justin Trudeau do the same. Doesn't he know how to MAGA?

Now let's talk about Stone, the CPC, the Proud Boys, and Fox News. Read this thread, by tweep "ThomasS4217" about the Proud Boys and Tucker Carlson.

Then have a gander at this screenshot.

That's none other than blonde bitumen bimbo Michelle Rempel-Garner (before she got married to some hillbilly Yank) crying to the preppie Proud Boy about the Omar Khadr settlement, back in those "halcyon days" when the main rallying cry of why Justin Trudeau was "bad" was that he was a secret Muslim and not that he was an embezzling crook and/or a pederast. (See, Hillary Clinton can win an election; she just needs to have a penis and be Canadian.)

The riding of Calgary—Nose Pick (I mean Nose Hill) where she represents (when she's not busy shitposting and Twitter-blocking her critics from hubby's cabin in Oklahoma) is, of course, in Alberta, which as I noted, clearly appears to be the spiritual and ideological headquarters of Canada's conservative fascist movement and the media complex that amplifies it.

That same petro-fiefdom where, shortly after Trump issued his rallying cry, the Proud Boys, the Yellow Vests, the Wexiters, and other fellow travelers responded in kind — just a few blocks away from the home of provincial NDP representative Janis Irwin, a progressive stalwart in Rachel Notley's underdog party who is frequently the target of virulent hatred because she is a feminist and gay. Alberta's Kathy Wynne.

Trump is both at the centre of, and just now (re-)activated, a hornet's nest of hate that was already thriving in Canada. Fire to the fuel that powers Albertan petro-populism and white Dominionist ideology, and which is aided and abetted by the Canadian mainstream media.

As Justin Trudeau warned the U.N. in his address to the 75th General Assembly, "the world is in crisis, and it is about to get much, much worse."

Hopefully people in Canada stop to listen to another (male) Cassandra this time.

Connecting the Dots: Donald Trump, Master Debater

 

Last night was the absolute clusterfuck shitshow of Donald Trump and Joe Biden's presidential debate, if you can call it that — more like Jerry Springer shouting match or, at worst, fascist call to arms.

In my last post I previewed a project I'm working on whereby I'm connecting the dots between Canada's (or North America's) conservative fascist movement and its compromised fourth estate.

I suppose I couldn't have picked a better day to do so because Donald Trump truly awakened the beast last night. So without further hesitation I'm going to lay out the connections to the "Proud Boys" that all of us in CanAm Antifa need to be aware of, and stand on guard to keep democracy strong and free.

🇨🇦 🇺🇸 🔥 🇺🇸 🇨🇦

Quick recap: In yesterday's post I offered an explainer on how Canada's conservative fascist movement is largely centred in the laboratory of Alberta, where it is enabled and bolstered by big media and underwritten by big oil. In that piece I noted the prevalence of the alt-right Internet outlet "Rebel Media" and its origins and connections to, and mutual influence upon, Postmedia, Suncor, and (Canwest) Global News, as well as founding member Ezra Levant's "Ethical Oil" astroturfing outlet.

Rebel Media reared its ugly head again last night with Donald Trump calling out the "Proud Boys" and directing them to "stand down and stand by" when pressed to condemn and denounce white supremacism. He not only didn't do that; he basically told them to ramp up.

So who are the Proud Boys and how are they connected to Rebel and, by extension, Canada's "mainstream" Tories (aka the GOP North)?

The neo-fascist street gang was founded by former Rebel Media contributor Gavin McInnes, who hails from Ottawa and graduated from Carleton University. McInnes is known for such deplorable antics as recording a video entitled "Ten Things I Hate About Jews" and for condemning Canadian voters for electing Justin Trudeau in 2015 because "he has Down Syndrome." And also for, um, shoving a dildo up his ass on a livestream to prove that... he isn't homophobic, but also to protest some LGBT-rights law that Justin Trudeau had passed.

OK, then.

So on the surface it sounds like McInnes (who also founded VICE Media) is just another racist clown grifting for the Internet. He's not. He's a transnational white supremacist gang leader whose "movement" wouldn't exist were it not for the conservative fascist network in Canada that has mutual ties to the United States.

Like Conrad Black's Postmedia, whose "flagship" publication the National Post (or Nazi Post, as I call it) decided on this as their front-page header to encapsulate last night's Nuremberg rally:

As I told a fellow "non-commenter" at Wonkette's live blog for the debate, "Proud Boys wouldn't exist were it not for Conrad Black's right-wing media outlets expanding into cable and the Internet."

By cable, I mean Sun News Network, aka Canada's Fox News, ostensibly defunct yet having "rebranded" and moved online as Ezra Levant's Rebel Media where McInnes attained infamy.

Canadian media is reporting SFA on the Proud Boys because the likes of Conrad Black and his ilk are protecting their own.

Did I mention that Black got a pardon from Trump for penning a fawning hagiography of him, or that the Nazi Post is owned by an American hedge fund (Chatham Asset Management) that at one point held the National Enquirer among its assets? Yes, they of "catch and kill" infamy as reported on by Ronan Farrow.

There is no Ronan Farrow in Canada. There are, however, dozens of mini-Ronans doing yeoman's work on social media and independent outlets — yet going unheard by the masses due to regulatory capture and editorial control.

There could have been a Ronan Farrow to properly interrogate the media, had Jesse Brown not blown his wad trying to get a Pulitzer by shaking down Trudeau with WeGhazi to assuage his own and Conrad Black's vendetta against the K-brothers. In fact, some of what I have learned about the corruption in Canadian media is credited to CanadaLand — but now I approach their "work" with disgust because they turned into the monster they claimed to despise. As evidenced by the fact that Brown's lackey Jaren Kerr just got a cushy job with the Fife & Fail.

So with CanadaLand having gone the Rebel route it's up to ordinary folks like me and like so many other tweeps and bloggers to keep a chronicle of who's who in Trumpian/Canadian white supremacy.

Anyway, back to Rebel, the Proud Boys and the CPC (and provincial offshoots). Read this thread by prolific #cdnpoli tweep "Scribulatora" or this thread by Jason Pugh bridging the connections between Scheer's group of nasties and O'Toole's. Scheer's campaign manager Hamish Marshall co-founded Rebel with Levant (which launched McInnes' career and gave him enough exposure to start his fascist gang). Marshall's wife Kathryn was a key figure in Levant's "ethical oil" astroturfing operation that I wrote about in my last post. (Everything oil touches dies.)

Jeff Ballingall, O'Toole's PR flack, worked with Levant at Sun News, and now manages the aptly-named Canada Proud and Post Millennial fake news operations. Jared Holt at Right Wing Watch has done a dive into Post Millennial, whose editor-at-large, Andy Ngo, has embedded himself with Proud Boys and several other right-wing ideologues and shit disturbers, including "Patriot Prayer" and the so-called "intellectual dark web." (Nancy McClernan is another excellent blogger who's done some great investigative work on what she calls the "evo-psycho bros.")

In his rambling, paranoid, neo-Cold Warrior "going away" speech held the night of the Conservative leadership vote (even though he hasn't really gone away), Scheer encouraged Canadians to reject mainstream media sources in favour of "independent thinkers" like... Post Millennial and another upstart called True North that itself just recycles Sun News personalities' unsolicited opinions and packages them for the Internet. (Even though those "independent thinkers" are themselves sourced from Canadian mainstream media.) Or as Dale Smith of Routine Proceedings calls them, the "shitposters" who will "say anything to own the libs."

So to sum up: In his address to the American people, Donald Trump incited a violent white supremacist gang that gained traction thanks to the Conservative Party of Canada and Canada's "free press" or fourth estate.

The ties between Donald Trump, the Conservative Party of Canada, and Canadian news media are impossible to ignore. And yet, because of their complicity, Canadian news media find it very easy to do so, putting people in both our countries at risk. They would rather hammer Justin Trudeau and his Liberal Party on financial fearmongering and Clintonesque manufactured "scandals," than address the plague of systemic racism that they, themselves are not only a part of, but actively and implicitly foster.

The only conclusion that I can draw is that the Canadian news media are white supremacists, full stop.

The question, then, is what exactly can be done about them.

Connecting the Dots Preview: The Other Canadian Ryan

 

Recently I wrote about a project I'm working on, whereby I attempt to map out the connections entangling Canada's right-wing systemic threat infecting its institutions, and the consequences of their actions posing a risk to Canada's democracy. I called it Connecting the Dots because, well, that seemed the most obvious title, and because I found a cool graphic to go with the header.

This post offers a preview of what I'll be looking into: specifically, Albertan oil country as a laboratory for what Canada's conservative fascist movement plans for the whole of Canada, and how the media is public enemy #1 on this front — because they're underwritten by big oil.

So recently, a popular radio host in Alberta named Ryan Jespersen was fired from his morning talk show, after an incident in which he made a tongue-in-cheek comment that the people running a local city councillor's office must be as dumb as chimpanzees. Notwithstanding the insult to chimpanzees brought about by comparing them to conservatives, Mr. Jespersen's comments were derided as racist by said councillor even though that wasn't his intent at all.

 

According to a different tweep, what he was allegedly referring to was a decision by that office to substitute the genuine hard work of constituency engagement with automated surveys by a company called "Mail Chimp." This calls to mind the metaphor of the "Infinite Monkey Theorem," which besides being a cool name for an avant-garde indie art-rock alt-punk band, describes a thought experiment on statistical randomness in which "a monkey hitting keys at random on a typewriter keyboard for an infinite amount of time will almost surely type any given text, such as the complete works of William Shakespeare." The concept is often used to paint a picture of a poorly-run organization, such as a failing government or company, operating as if on autopilot, with a staff of incompetents making haphazard decisions with the aspirational intent of producing something resembling greatness.

 

See also: the Trump White House. But I digress.

 

Anyhow, Mr. Jespersen wasn't even given the opportunity to apologize or defend himself, because political muscle in Alberta made some phone calls of its own and got him shoved out the door. Ostensibly, this sounds like a cut-and-dry issue until some well-informed #abpoli tweeps upset by his termination started digging, and this is what they came up with:

 

Something has been bothering me over the last couple of days. And I do this knowing my mentions are potentially going to get blown up again & probably not in a nice way. But something has to be said & it is about the Rebel's attempted assassination of Ryan Jespersen's character.

Read the whole thread and it becomes all the more sinister. The Alberta government of Jason Kenney appears to have clandestinely enlisted, or at the very least turned a (winking) blind eye to, a deliberate attack campaign by the deplorables at Rebel Media to oust Mr. Jespersen from his position because he was a regular thorn in the side of Kenney and the minions of his personal fiefdom.

 

And made him sign an N.D.A. just like... Donald Trump.

The epitome of "cancel culture" by the ones who cry loudest about it.

But what is more disturbing is not just that Rebel and this city councillor were successful in their mission, but that "mainstream media" Global News Radio was so eager to please the absolute worst specimens of humanity to silence legitimate critique of the government.

 

Benito Mussolini described fascism as the merging of government and corporations. Global has given credence to the notion that Alberta is proto-fascist — and if Canada isn't careful, the rest of it could go down that same scary path.

So here's some info about Global and their web of connections: Global is owned by the parent company Corus, itself a property of the wealthy, influential, and yes, conservative Shaw family, who made their wealth in (surprise) the oil trade. Formerly Canwest Global and before that, Shaw Communications, Corus derives its assets from the family holdings of the oilfield services company Shawcor, which you may be very surprised to find was once contracted with Dick Cheney's Halliburton.

What I'm getting at here is that everything Big Oil touches dies, and that Big Oil underwrites Canada's (indeed North America's) conservative fascist movement which intends to shape public opinion and damage Canadian democracy through its ownership of the "free" press. It is barely even Canadian per se. It is a branch plant of the Republican Party and a transnational petro-theo-fascist movement underwritten by criminal masterminds like the Koch Kleptokrat Kabal. Anyone who runs afoul of its major players, like Mr. Jespersen, is guaranteed to find themselves on the unemployment line or worse.

Canada's conservative fascist movement is headquartered spiritually and ideologically in Alberta. Which, not at all by accident, happens to be the "petro-province" currently in an existential war on numerous fronts with the Liberal government and in particular, Justin Trudeau.

 

Which is not to say that Mr. Jespersen himself hasn't been critical of Trudeau or his government on some occasions. Rather, that he is an example of what the right-wing in Canada will do to smear their enemies and ruin their careers. For Rebel Media, FFS, to concern-troll about Jespersen being a supposed "racist" is the height of hypocrisy. Just like it was when the Conservatives went apopletic over Justin Trudeau's yearbook photos (and why the revelations didn't cost Trudeau his job).

But who is Rebel operated by? Ezra Levant, onetime gadfly at the now-defunct "Sun TV Network," a hamhanded attempt to create a sort of Fox News equivalent in Canada. It was named after the Sun chain of tabloids which themselves are/were underwritten by money from "Suncor Energy," which cannibalized the onetime publicly-held Crown corporation known as "Petro-Canada" — the cornerstone of the ultimately (and infamously) failed National Energy Program that was spearheaded by none other than Pierre-Elliott Trudeau.

 

Who, some twenty years after his death, remains a hated pariah in Oil-Berta because of it... much like his son, who the Oil-Bertan media-ideological-complex desperately seeks to not only unseat, but to force out in a fire of disgrace.

Among Sun's former anchors is David Akin, who reflexively and gleefully toes the Conservative line now at his current employer of... Global News. Alongside onetime Pentagon intern and Calgary girl Mercedes (aka "Mercenary") Stephenson.

 

But none are as infamous or as militant in their relentless campaign against all things even mildly centrist or left-of-centre as Ezra and his band of populist petro-pirates. And yet, as objectionable and odious to anyone with a sense of common decency as he is, he was nonetheless given a platform to spew his bad-faith garbage about "free speech" in Canada's "paper of record," The Globe & Mail.

 

A paper which has taken a sharp turn to the right ever since it hired several cast-offs from Postmedia offerings, including Robyn Urback and Andrew Coyne (who I'll get to later). Postmedia, I should note, currently owns the Sun chain that also employs Ezra's former partner in crime at Rebel, Brian Lilley. Postmedia, by the way, was created by a deal that split off properties from the former Canwest Global, which is now the Shaw/Corus empire that runs Global News.

Do you see how intertwined and incestuous this whole arrangement is and why they're willing to abide such deplorables as Levant and co.? Who, by the way, besides his better-known life's work as a bigoted professional shitposter, has also made something of a career shilling his argument of "ethical oil," which holds that Alberta tar sludge is "better" than imports from countries like Saudi Arabia which are run by theocratic dictators who hate dissidents, gays, and "loose women." As opposed to, you know, a wannabe dictatorship run by a buffoonish theocrat in Jason Kenney who hates dissidents, gays, and "loose women." About the only points Kenney scores here is that he didn't have Jespersen dismembered with a bone saw, which somehow makes the goop in the Athabasca tar sands more "ethical" according to Ezra.

Not only is the relationship of Canada's petro-power brokers a knotted-up pretzel. So is Ezra's logic.

Now, of course, there's much more to tie together about the petro-ideological complex that operates Canada's opinion-shaper network and the corrupt, anti-Liberal fourth estate. Considering their stalwart animosity to anything resembling environmental policy, you could say it's... just the tip of the iceberg?

That's your preview installment of my project on Connecting the Dots.

Je t'aime, Papa

 

Today marks twenty years to the day since the death of the Rt. Hon. Pierre-Elliott Trudeau, Canada's 15th prime minister from 1968 to 1984, who passed on September 28, 2000.

Pierre was elected to a majority government in 1968, a minority in 1972, another majority in 1974, and then one more majority in 1980 after a brief stint in opposition (11 months of Joe Clark's government).

Curious to note, when his son was reelected last year with a minority government, Pierre would have turned one hundred years old just a few days earlier. (Justin's eldest son, Xavier, shares the same birthday as his storied grandfather, by the way...)

The (no longer Progressive, more like Regressive) Conservatives have really been giving the Trudeau family a vicious and undeserved battering in the press lately, but it didn't seem to work last time around. Canadians don't seem to like "nasty" outside of the free-range freak show in Saskbertoba.

So, will history repeat itself and Trudeau II follow in his father's footsteps in 2021? I sure hope so. (The pundits may not cop to it, and the polls may not look like it, but the underground whispers say he just might.) If he does, it'd be the best fiftieth birthday present a Christmas child could ever have.

So in memoriam of Papa Pierre, a reflection upon the heartfelt farewell that young Justin gave his dear old dad. Who I'm sure would be damn proud of his eldest boy if he could see him leading Canada today.

"Je t'aime, Papa."

There's Got to Be a Morning After

 

Some new numbers from the moneyball machine came in today, and on the surface they're still kind of meh to worrisome for our heroes the Tru Grits.

But a deeper dive from the country's best modelers that no one has ever heard of tells a better story.

As our blogger friend Ottlib says with regards to polls, watch the parties rather than the numbers. Now of course, none of them wants to give off an appearance of panic or triumph one way or another. False bravado is key in the political battlefield. But the fact that Justin Trudeau and his team seem to just be content to keep on keeping on, in spite of the OK Doomer mentality from the punditry and pollsters, would appear to indicate that they're keeping a watch on their rivals but aren't feeling any sense of danger. Otherwise they wouldn't be making big announcements and commitments like at today's environmental conference before the U.N. General Assembly. They've got plans, they've got number crunchers and for right now at least, they're not scared. So watch the behaviour rather than the numbers.

Evan Scrimshaw says that's probably a good take all around.

The national number is a bit closer than expected, but a big part of that is strength in Alberta and Saskatchewan, which gets the Conservatives… oh wait, it gets them nothing. Absolutely nothing. The Atlantic is closer, which would see a couple Liberal seats – specifically my old boss’ – flip, but it’s the Atlantic. Overreacting to small samples is always bad process out there. All in all, this poll shows the Liberals in the same position they’ve been for this whole year – clearly winning, probably in majority, and never in doubt to be the next government. What a shock.

Other polls released recently also have a statistical tie or even a small CPC lead (!) but as Evan is intent on reminding the "nervous Nellies" of #cdnpoli social media (specifically "Liberal Twitter"), close national toplines mean SFA in Canadian elections because the Conservatives keep screwing them up with massive leads in no man's land.

In 2019, the Liberals won 157 seats with 33% of the vote. Justin Trudeau putting the kibosh on turning Canada into Italy's pizza parliament continues to be the best long game decision a Canadian politician has made in a while. Even if the diehards won't let electoral reeeeeefooooorm!!! go.

Here, he tries to calm down a #cdnpoli tweep I follow who tends to (like me) lean on the pessimistic side.

while at the same time chiding him and the punditry for obfuscating the importance of regional breakdowns

and again hitting home the point that campaigns do still matter. Yes, even in a pandemic.

Which is why I've gotten into the habit of checking Lean Tossup's response to any new polls that emerge between now and whenever the writ period happens to be (Evan says "another guaranteed few months," but we'll see what "a few months" actually means). I've given up on the prospect of any substantive conversation on Reddit about anything, especially polling (though my first mistake was expecting substantive conversation on Reddit).

My #cdnpoli lurk-follows on Twitter (lurk-follows because I don't actually have an account) might not be as in tune with the granulars, and thus more prone to react (as I often do, being a layperson rather than a math geek). But other than some real body blows at the peak of WeGhazi (or nadir), so far, their forecast for the Liberals' chances in #elxn44 appears to be: partly cloudy right now, but with a decent chance of sunny ways ahead.

Yes, even in a pandemic.

Now granted, there is the up-in-the-air question of further persecution at the committee hearings weighing them down, and yet... pandemic.

It seems the only people still concerned about WeGhazi more than pandemic are the CPC echo chamber. Just like they were still beating the drum on SNC when the pandemic broke out. The rest of Canadians are more focused on pandemic because pandemic.

What a shock.

New Project: Connecting the Dots

 

On the heels of the belated NYT investigative report on Trump's taxes and criminal enterprise, and the increasingly fascistic messaging and curious consolidation of power by the Canadian Conservative Republican Alliance Party (Canadian Crappers), I'm announcing a new project whereby I'll be working on connecting the dots of the desperate right-wing movement that threatens to overtake one of the world's last standing liberal democracies.

As a disclaimer up front, I want to credit the hard work of so many tweeps and bloggers doing the yeoman's work that Canada's all but nonexistent fourth estate ought to be doing, in exposing their lies and corruption — their failure to do so, ultimately, being part and parcel of the conspiracy itself. All I'm doing here is putting it together in one big package as a record of who's really in the right here (spoiler: the "right" is always wrong).

I'm thinking it'll be broken up into a few "chunks," a few of which having to do with the manufactured smear campaigns taken as gospel as Trudeau "self-inflicted wounds" or "scandals" which were really mirrors of Republican attacks on Hillary Clinton. Beyond that, however, on the broader scale there's a lot to be discovered in the ties between big oil, the media, and law enforcement.

And yes, there's a lot to be found that eerily mimics very similar patterns to those of the GOP and Trump.

I have more blogging to do about the daily ups and downs of #cdnpoli for the remainder of the year, but I'm thinking there should be something put up around the holidays when parliament is on break.

And hey, if PMJT is looking for someone to help him tell his side of the story, or "his truth" (which, as always, has been nothing but the truth), tell Superman I'm only one call away.

 

 

23 and WE

 

So apparently there isn't going to be a fall election, after the NDP and Liberals reached some kind of grumbling deal on a few minor points of the throne speech (which, for some reason, the Liberals may have thrown them as freebies, apparently).

That's good from a public health perspective, but still leaves one dangling question that could be bad from a political perspective:

What happens with those godawful WeGhazi committees that the Liberals don't have the muscle to shut down?

The short answer is, nobody knows. The longer answer... it depends on who you ask, and who (if you're a Liberal supporter and/or just fear the Cons beating a dead horse all the way to power because they don't have any credible policies to put forth) you trust.

The wild card, as usual, is the shady, shifty, self-serving NDP. Who have never forgiven Justin Trudeau for "stealing the brass ring" in 2015, and who continue to absolve themselves of any complicity in bringing down the Paul Martin government and ushering in Adolf Harper's Reign of Error following the tail end of the Sponsorgate era.

And who would absolve themselves of complicity in ushering in Harper II: Post Millennial Boogaloo, instead blaming Liberal supporters for not coalescing around the "pure" NDP instead of "corrupt" and "unfit" Trudeau. Or pressuring him to resign and save the party from certain defeat under the cloud of "scandal" (even though they despise Chrystia Freeland just the same).

You know, just like how the Bernie brigade continues to absolve themselves of any complicity in ushering in the Trumpenreich, instead blaming "establishment Dems" for not... coalescing around "pure" Bernie instead of "corrupt" and "unfit" Hillary. Or pressuring her to step aside and save the party from certain defeat under the cloud of "scandal" (even though they despise Joe Biden just the same).

Christ on a unicycle, Canadian political copycats are tiring.

Anyway, as to what happens to WeGhazi, there are a few ways this could turn out.

The worst-case scenario is that history both repeats and rhymes: 2016 U.S. and 2006 Canada. The media picks up their obsessive coverage of the committee hearings and relentlessly circlejerks about the "damning shame" of the Trudeau trilogy ethics report, instead of the pandemic that he has done an on-balance good job of managing. Justin Rodham Paul Martin Trudeau is forced out on a rail and becomes a pariah in his country, blamed as a disappointing failure who disgraced his father's legacy and lost to the party of Trump North after just five years in office. New Deplorable Progressives wash their hands of any blame and instead point fingers at Trudeau for reeeeeeeeeee not doing electoral reform.

It's possible. I don't like to think about it, but it's possible. It's what the Nazi Post and the Probe & Wail want, and what the whole of CPC's goon squad, particularly Michael Barrett (no relation to Amy the handmaid judge, I think), Candice Bergen (she of "Sweatergate" infamy) and now Leslyn Lewis (aka Canada's female Ben Carson or Black version of Amy Coney Barrett), are champing at the bit to bring about. But again, the wild card is the NDP. It's up to Jagmeet Singh to put his money where his mouth is and call off the dogs (Angus and Julian) if he's really serious about making nice with the Liberals.

The middle-of-the-road, not-great but not-catastrophic scenario is that the committee persecution continues, but the public has tuned it out because pandemic, and even the media doesn't pay it much attention because there aren't any real bombshell revelations. Trudeau has a bit of a din surrounding him but the noise is mostly amplified inside the CPC echo chamber, while the swayables are more focused on important things like pandemic and the goodies in the throne speech/Liberal platform. WeGhazi is an opposition Con talking point that comes up at the debates, but isn't the deciding issue at the ballot box because pandemic. This is what Susan Riley of CBC's Sunday Scrum, and freelance journalist Erica Ifill of The Hill Times and her own Bad & Bitchy podcast, appear to believe (even if she has misgivings about it, which I don't).

The best-case scenario is that the committees get overloaded with work on the Liberals' "ambitious agenda" and the WeGhazi fishing expedition gets drowned. This is what Dale Smith of Routine Proceedings says is a possibility, in two recent video updates at Loonie Politics:

From September 7, an update on what he calls the "WE Imbroglio" with a key takeaway highlighted:

Once the throne speech happens, the government has a very ambitious agenda that they need to get through very quickly. There's a number of bills that need to be passed as soon as possible because of court deadlines and so on. As well, they've also talked about having some kind of a fall budget or economic statement to go along with the throne speech. That's going to put a lot of work on those committees right away. If the government is playing its cards in the right way, that means that they will essentially be flooding committees with work, and taking away the time that they would otherwise have to pursue the WE investigations, therefore basically burying them, and making sure that the public's attention on them falls away and everyone moves on to new things.

In the second video, from September 20, he gives more detail as to what's in that "ambitious agenda" the Liberals are going to pursue to try and drown out WeGhazi. Besides throne speech goodies, they still have to act on medical assistance in dying legislation, a conversion therapy ban, and the landmark passage of the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which the Conservatives shamefully found ways to stonewall last year even when the Liberals had their majority. 

Here's Dale with more about the Liberal laundry list:

Dale also noted a marked lack of shoutrage coming from the Cons on the first day back, which to him suggests the tentative possibility that even they recognize there's no more blood to be squeezed from this stone:

I was expecting more howling denunciations of the WE Imbroglio and how the government hasn’t owned up to it and so on, but there were only a couple of questions, and maybe, just maybe, we’re starting to move on from it now that blood has been spilled.

And indeed it has, profusely in fact. I mean, what's left to "investigate" really? Not that there was much of anything in the first place, but let's be honest: The feckless opposition got their tonne of flesh. Morneau is gone; the K-bros are gone; the programme was cancelled, and Margaret Trudeau has been thoroughly humiliated, along with both her surviving sons. Which, of course, was the point. Really, I believe that the media and opposition drank their own Kool-Aid and believed their own bullshit about Trudeau wanting to call a fall election due to high polling numbers, so concocted this nontroversy as a way of bringing them back down to a "horse race" that would give them better ratings and enhance the drama of a "close election." When actually, he had no intent of calling a fall election because unlike the media and opposition, surprise, he actually fucking takes health recommendations seriously.

These fuckers destroyed a charity and eviscerated a 72-year-old woman suffering from bipolar disorder just so Jesse Brown could satiate his vendetta, his lackey Jaren Kerr could get a cushy job at the Fife & Fail, and Nik Nanos, Angus Reid, Jean-Marc Léger, Darrell Bricker, whoever the fuck does horse race punditry for the networks, could have something to do with their moneyball machines, playing with their lotto balls. The opposition was desperate for airtime after six months of what they derided as the "Trudeau show." Andrew Scheer (remember him?) was desperate to go out with a bang, and the media was desperate for something that doesn't involve reporting on a pandemic or the rise of white supremacy in the Conservative Party. So why not cook up something "scandalous" about all the Trudeaus? What's next, Evan "Poor Man's Hannity" Solomon and Vichy "Dumb Blonde Fox" Kapelos convening pundit panels to analyze the political fallout of 6-year-old Didi's "quid pro quo" trading snacks at the kindergarten lunch table?

Enough already. Here's a timeline to think about. Prorogation took place on August 18th. The committees aren't slated to return until October 6th. Parliament breaks for Canadian Thanksgiving from October 12th through 16th — which, as Justin Trudeau made very clear in his address to the nation following the throne speech, is going to be a very different holiday this year in which COVID-19 is at the forefront of people's minds. That's almost two months with little to no WE news, and it didn't seem to register on anyone's radar that the K-brothers closed up shop. The polls are still wobbly right now, but at least according to one sounder, that might be simply because people are too scared of COVID-19 to register any opinion about politics or think about "an election happening tomorrow" — and also that there might even be a "shy Liberal" effect happening that could theoretically hint at the bite of a majority:

The regional patterns indicate the Liberals are in a strong position than the national number suggests. ... The gap between the federal government’s approval rating and the Liberal vote share is something to watch carefully. It suggests the Liberal vote share has plenty of room to grow and maybe underperforming. ... If the 13% who are undecided did vote Liberal, the party’s vote share would increase to 42% and the Liberals would have a 10-point lead over the Conservatives. That gap between approval and vote is something to monitor closely over the next few months.

But I won't believe it until I see it.

That horse has been beat pretty well to a pulp, but I need to make damn sure that the zombie creature has had its brains bludgeoned out. (Which sounds very Halloween-ish, another holiday that COVID has cancelled. Masks notwithstanding.)

And when all else fails, don't forget that campaigns still matter.

Plus... isn't there a bigly campaign set to provide a yuge distraction early on in November...?

Weekend Coffee Talk Sept. 26, 2020: ICYMI

 

Some funny (and not-so-funny) things happened on the way to the (parliamentary) forum. This Coffee Talk roundup for throne speech week includes (but isn't limited to) some fine examples of Canadian Liberal oratory and a few thinkpieces on sisters doing it for themselves — in memory of the Notorious R.B.G. Plus more gripes about how the fourth estate is crumbling amid the battles against fascism we face. But if that's all too depressing, there's also some puppies, because it's 2020.

• Read the throne speech for yourself, and then watch embattled Governor General Julie Payette ignore the haters and deliver a very Canadian bedtime story. (GoC Website) CPAC Video starts at 2 hours 22 minutes into the recorded live stream.

• Justin Trudeau isn't the Grinch who stole Christmas. But COVID could be, if everyone doesn't follow health protocols and meatheaded members of parliament continue attacking the government and public health officials to score political points. Here's the Canadian equivalent of the "state of the union" address that aired this past Wednesday. Feel free to ignore the other leaders, especially the Covidiots from the Bloc and CPC.

 

• In parliament the following day, PMJT shuts down some obnoxious Con from Quebec. Something about jurisdiction and the "foolishness" of the Cons' antics provoking a national unity crisis as cover for not wanting to help Canadians because "Trudeau bad". Starts at 34m 18s

• Justin is restarting his regular COVID pressers (yay!). The first one on Friday had some big news to report: the government has signed on for one of the most promising vaccine candidates, from AstraZeneca. Here's his message to Canadians, flanked by procurement minister Anita Anand and the venerable Dr. Theresa Tam of Public Health Canada. (At one point he's asked "how far will he go" to push through his ambitious agenda if the premiers are being obstructionist... unfortunately, he doesn't say "just watch me". But you can bet he's thinking it.)

 

• A Tru Statesman who (UNSC bid notwithstanding) I can seriously foresee succeeding Antonio Guterres as U.N. Secretary General someday (a job where he'd no doubt be more appreciated than in his tragically insular home country, that doesn't know a good thing when they see it and can't get out of its own way), PMJT delivers an address for the ages, for the 75th anniversary of the creation of the U.N. "But but but he's not respected on the world stage," cry his jealous detractors... all of whom support Trump, who got laughed at like a clown falling on his ass. Seeking a lover for the end of the world, here's Justin, the Gen-X DILF version of Mike Pearson.

• Former prime minister and "lion of the Liberal Party" John Turner died this past week at the age of 91. True to form, the Con media gave him a sneering and dismissive send-off. Which is nothing compared to the sadistically jubilant heel-clicking they'll do when this current PMJT joins him and papa in the big PMO in the sky (assuming they're even around by that point, although I can totally see Postmedia just getting absorbed into Post Millennial, not that there's much difference as it is).
  
  Anyhow, here's the Right Honourable John Turner reflecting upon the role of parliament, in his address before stepping down as leader of the Grits in 1989. He is well known for having called televised Question Period "bullshit theatre"... and that was years before Harper, aided by 24/7 cable news and ultimately, the vomitorium of social media, completely debased it to the shitposting theatre it is today. RIP PM Turner, you were too good for politics and too good for this world. (CPAC Twitter)

• Feminist hero Trudeau gave a wonderful farewell to R.B.G. Even more than that, he's pissing off the troglodyte men and honouring her legacy by #BuildingBackBetter for women. (Justin's Twitter)

• Justin also gave a very nice tribute to Jean Chrétien's beloved wife Aline. Speaking of first ladies, between you (who?) and me, I'd really like to see J.T. layeth the Shawinigan smacketh down on Charlie Angus for demeaning Sophie and poor Maggie the way he did. (Justin's Twitter)
  

• After weeks of slagging their former colleague relentlessly as a "diversity hire," now the Glob & Oil gives props to Freeland as leader of the she-covery. Gee, almost like she was and is a very qualified pick as finance minister after all? (Globe & Mail)

• From that same paper: A tribute to R.B.G., from a sister in "law." (Globe & Mail)

• And finally: COVID doggos in Helsinki. Thanks to Simon for sharing this with us all. Vøøf!
  

 

Dearest Justin: The King's Speech

 

I'm back! And so is mon premier ministre d'amour. Indeed, just like he had a lot to say about the direction of Canada in yesterday's speech from the throne, I'll probably have more to say about it too.

But this week's Dearest Justin is a little bit different.

 

In his nationally-televised primetime address after the throne speech, our hero had some disappointingly candid remarks about the pandemic followed by a recap of what aspirational measures the government seeks to take in order to get Canadians through the worst and then #BuildBackBetter for the future.

But in that statement, he cautioned that if protocols aren't followed and the second wave isn't managed, COVID-19 could end up being the Grinch that stole Christmas. (Which is exactly three months away.)

Lest anyone forget, Christmas also happens to be PMJT's birthday.

So in my "address in reply" to the speech from the television, I have an early holiday wish for Canada and for the often beleaguered prince of peace, as his craven enemies are pushing him towards a premature walk in the snow.

🇨🇦 🇨🇦 🇨🇦 🇨🇦 🇨🇦

Have yourself a happy birthday Christmas

May your polls fly high

In a year the budget better not run dry

 

Have yourself a happy birthday Christmas

May you win one more

In a year, because it's nineteen seventy-four

 

Once again, we're in COVID days

No more sunny ways, they're gone

Winter's coming, the outlook Stark

But it's always dark

Before the dawn

Someday soon you'll win one more election

If the fates allow

Until then we'll Fuddle Duddle through somehow

So have yourself a happy birthday Christmas now

🇨🇦 🇨🇦 🇨🇦 🇨🇦 🇨🇦

Speaking of which, this Trudeau salute goes out to the Cons' deputy ding-dong who did nothing but screech and bash the throne speech, and who doesn't deserve to share a moniker with Murphy Brown — and the whole blue basket of deplorables (and orange ones) who spent an entire summer relentlessly bashing the benevolent charity-giver born on December 25th... and his whole family.

The messiah has a kid brudda. Maggie's boy child was born on Christmas Day.

 

The opposition wants to crucify them all because they have no family values.

So I'm saying a little prayer that COVID, the economy, and the Trudeau family fortunes — especially Justin's political ones — turn toward the bright side of life.

Weekend Coffee Talk Sept. 12, 2020: Two Weeks' Notice

 

A different kind of Weekend Coffee Talk this time around, more like a coffee break.

I'm going to be going on hiatus until Justin Trudeau's big throne speech on September 23. I hope and I pray that it's enough to turn things around for him after an otherwise horrible summer.

Before I get to that, read this MacLean's piece from Routine Proceedings' Dale Smith about his free-spirited mom, who passed away Thursday night from stomach cancer. RIP, Dale's mom.

🇨🇦 🇨🇦 🇨🇦

Now that you're done chopping onions, here's another teaser from the Star about what the Liberals are planning for whenever they go to the hustings — and why it's definitely a campaign-ready platform.

Justin Trudeau isn’t hoarse yet from saying he doesn’t want an election. But he’s not discounting one either. ... Even if the Trudeau government survives a confidence vote that will follow the speech, it is positioning itself for a campaign either this fall or in the spring

Sounds like a plan, eh. Hope his team knows the importance of timing.

Speaking of timing, I found a somewhat old poll that the scandal-mongers aren't paying attention to — made more salient IMO by the fact that it's a month old and these were the findings even then:

• Six in ten (62%) agree (22% strongly/40% somewhat) that while mistakes were made by the Prime Minister and his government in dealing with the WE charity, they have now apologized and it is time to move on to more important matters.
• A similar proportion (58%) agrees (17% strongly/42% somewhat) that the opposition parties in Ottawa are causing unnecessary distraction from dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic by focusing too much attention on the WE charity scandal.

And in that month's time, the ratings-obsessed media and the policy-devoid opposition have done nothing but continue to beat a dead horse into glue. While Trudeau and his team do actual work, yet get accused of being distracted and not working. SMH.

One more blurb about WeGhazi, this time from Quito Maggi again. Wise man. Infuriating facts.

I want to add something to this thread about something else that bothers me on this day in #cdnpoli.

The opposition is up in arms over a WE charity contract that never actually materialized.

Some say the public sector could have managed the program, and we know that would have averaged $100 per hour instead of the estimated  $25 per hour that WE would have been paid. Others in the opposition parties say the private sector could have administered this program, and that likely would have cost an average of $200 an hour.

Essentially what opposition parties in #cdnpoli are saying is that their friends would have been better at managing the youth volunteer program than the Liberal “friends.” I respect that opposition parties oppose, but this entire scandal is a study in hypocrisy.

In a world where win/win scenarios should drive all public sector decisions, this was a lose/lose/lose outcome.

The government lost credibility, the young volunteers & their organizations lost opportunities to contribute to our society. The public lost as a result of the controversy and they are losing again having to listen to the spin from all sides of the aisle.

There are so many important issues, today more than ever. That this has taken any oxygen is the biggest tragedy.

And again I send out into the universe my hope that the throne speech and a possible early election campaign sucks up the oxygen from this whole mess, and funnels it into the void once and for all.

OK. Enough of that. Here's an inspirational photo quote of mon premier ministre de amour for your viewing pleasure. Taken from his first-ever LPC Virtual Fundraiser which apparently attracted thousands of participants. My man knows digital. (Unfortunately, he struggles with how to get around the Con-compromised MSM.) But that's to be expected from someone who's thinking about the future rather than wanting to take Canada backwards. Oh, how I wish I could be the Time Traveler's Wife...

God(dess) keep our glorious boyfriend strong and free — and reelected (with a majority!) to term number three. Please, let him have at least one more. 🙏 🤞🙇‍♀️  Just like his papa... because it's 1974.

See ya in a couple weeks. Je t'aime, Justin. ❤️️ 💕 💖 🇨🇦 🤗

Dearest Justin: Get Up, Stand Up, Don't Give Up the Fight

 

In this week's Dearest Justin I offer some words of encouragement for what looks to be shaping up to be a rough ride as this already dark year turns darker and colder. Hopefully getting it out into the universe will shape his fortunes for the better after an otherwise dreadful year.

Dear Prime Minister Trudeau:

It's been one year to the day since the 2019 federal elections were called, and what an eventful year it has been. I hope you're taking good care of yourself and want to wish your mom a happy belated birthday. I hope she's doing well, particularly amid all the unfair venom that's been hurled at her by the opposition and the media in their vicious pile-on over the charity program. Which is why I want to offer some advice and some words of encouragement as this next chapter in your career opens up.

I know you've been responding frequently to media questions speculating about a possible fall election, and that the answer has always been no. While I can understand the thinking behind not pursuing one so soon after the last one and in the midst of a pandemic, at the same time I worry that an opportunity window — however small — may not open up again. Your political opponents have moved beyond mere policy disagreements into the realm of outright personal animus, while Erin O'Toole in particular has proven disturbingly adept at selling himself as a "moderate" despite keeping the worst elements of the Conservative Party front and centre and getting little to no pushback for it. I fear that they smell blood in the water and that their deception and dirty tricks could pose a threat to your future prospects and the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for Canada to Build Back Better under a Liberal government.

As such, if there is a way to go for a fall election without facing too much backlash for it, I urge you to damn the torpedoes and find a way.

I am encouraged by the fact that you're already energizing the troops with "virtual fundraisers" and other innovative events. This will be essential going forward as Mr. O'Toole has hired Canada's biggest troll king Jeff Ballingall — the Brad Parscale of the north — to "shitpost" the Conservatives into government a la Donald Trump. I've been getting nervous about poll fluctuations and things of that nature over these past months, and have been hoping and praying that you and the LPC team are readying the "Big Red Machine" for a hard-fought campaign sooner rather than later. Again, this technical aptitude and willingness to "boldly go where no old-school politicos have gone before," is encouraging on that front. I recall how the "LPC Press Box" dropped "truth bombs" on Andrew Scheer last election. Well, Andrew Scheer is back and so are the rest of Stephen Harper's Blue Meanies, with Mr. O'Toole as the ostensible figurehead for the same agenda. Which is why I'm comforting myself with the notion that the red machine is keeping its powder dry until the fast-paced dynamic rollercoaster of the writ period when things will really get into high gear.

So if you can fight a campaign before Christmas — or even before us Americans go in November, hopefully to turf Trump once and for all — I really think you should do so before O'Toole has a chance to make a bigger "imprint" and those farcical star-chamber committees start digging up more damaging dirt in their breathless quest for mud to sling your way.

But I want you to know that I am cautiously optimistic you'll heed whatever is the best advice from your top-notch team and manage to pull off a desperately-needed victory in spite of whatever and the kitchen sink these bullies throw at you. I also want you to know that I have 100% faith that there was no actual "wrongdoing" in this contrived smear campaign that, thanks to the pile-on by the opposition and clickbait-addicted media, has destroyed a once-thriving philanthropic organization that was once lauded as a Canadian homegrown success story until it became a useful cudgel to "own the Libs." That said, my primary concern is not the fate of the Kielburgers or their organization but you, your team, and the furtherance of good Liberal government in Canada and your continued success as prime minister.

I will admit, however, that I am frightened that you may lose. Indeed I lose sleep over it. The stakes are incredibly high and the deck is stacked against you. Conservatives cannot win except by cheating and attacking their opponents with lies and manufactured controversies. The media aids and abets them, under the guise of "holding the government accountable." But what they really want is to protect their status structure and their corporate ownership's bottom line. I don't want them to do that, Mr. Trudeau. I want them to go home with their tails between their legs, and for you to get at least one more term in office. Preferably a majority, as your father did in 1974.

I will continue hoping and praying that this dream comes true. And I will be watching closely to see how the rest of 2020 shapes up. I've made a promise to myself to try and ignore polling and slanted media coverage from now until at least the day of the throne speech in two weeks, as it's starting to give me panic attacks. But as you, yourself have said, politics is not (or shouldn't be) about polls, horse races and seat projections. It's about people, and how to help them. Would that the media and the Conservatives understood that. Or the NDP, who in spite of their protestations as the "conscience of parliament" have completely revealed themselves as the "New Deplorable Party" for their aggressive, gutter-politics behaviour. I like the sunny-ways positive politics attitude of the Liberals. But at the same time, I still want you and your team to get down and fight!

In closing, Mr. Trudeau, I again want to wish you all the best of luck, because it looks like you're really going to need it. I will say a prayer for you, and wish upon a star that you manage to pull off a win. May the Force Be With You, and God Save Justin Trudeau.

Charity Ends at Home

 

So the Cons, the Dippers, the Quebec nationalists and the hot-garbage Canadian media (Jesse Brown especially) have gotten a metric tonne of flesh.

WE Charity announced it's shutting down operations in Canada and the punditry and opposition couldn't wait to dance on their grave — while somehow blaming Justin Trudeau and the Liberal party for, uh, the "destruction" of something they (the axis of evil) already... hated?

Which is obviously intentional partisan cognitive dissonance framing them as a "Liberal slush fund," what with all the proof of literally all parties at all levels of government engaging with them at some point. Conveniently ignored and shoved down the memory hole just like the inconvenient testimony and documents backing up Trudeau's innocence (albeit, admittedly, the tragic naivete of the public service). Just to dunk on the prime minister, his whole family, and mimic the worst instincts of their deplorable cousins south of the 49th. (Reminder about what the GOP did to ACORN.)

It's also sad and actually quite disturbing that tall poppy syndrome is such a pathological affliction in Canadian politics. As far as I'm concerned, however, in the grander scheme of things, WE stands for What Ever. My primary concern isn't the survival of this organization but of Justin Trudeau's government and the furtherance of his career as prime minister. And since apparently he's not going to try and force a fall election despite rampant speculation, let's hope that this latest herpetic flare-up is the last anyone hears of WeGhazi for a long, long time.

At the very least, I doubt this will be the ballot box issue anyway. The crux of the next election will be who has the best plan to address the inequities exposed by the pandemic and Build Back Better (rather than Take Canada Backwards with Trump style rhetoric). Success on that front will be up to the Big Red Machine, and from what I recall of the last election, that machine is plenty formidable — and for all the media's polishing of his dome (or knob), Eric O'Foole and his merry band of weasels are giving our heroes a lot of ammunition to fire when people are paying the most attention. I have decided to ignore all polls until the writ period, which will probably be sometime next spring, because the media wants a horse race and has intentionally ignored the lessons of the U.S. in 2016. I will continue to remind myself that the LPC are keeping their powder dry until just the right moment.

Because at the end of the day, campaigns do matter — and emails about pizza parties at the Clinton Foundation are just a whole lot of insignificant fuddle duddle.

Fourteen days to go. Let's do it. Let's Build Back Better.

Enough foofaraw over arugula and Dijon mustard on a Kielburger nothingburger.

Pox Populi

 

There's an old saying: when America sneezes, the world catches a cold. Since 2016, and even more so with each passing year, America's big sneeze has infected the world with a pandemic.

 

And I don't just mean Covid. I mean ignorance and outright hate — of the educated, the diverse, the reality-based community. In this day and age, that apparently isn't the same as "the common man."

Which is why the new "pivot" of Eric O'Foole's CPC has got me a bit concerned. Judging by the messaging it would appear that, as Frank Graves of EKOS Research has been analyzing and warning about for some time, the Cons are going for a straight out-and-out populist campaign as a way of papering over keeping the bigoted so-cons in the big blue circus tent. (Dare I say, volkisch?)

The Tool claims that Canadian workers have gotten hammered by "elites" putting the screws to them. His latest ad casts who else but Trudeau and Freeland as public enemies number one and two on this front. He's signaling to the blue collar base and "suburban centrists" primarily focused on bread and butter concerns rather than "social justice" (as though one can exist without he other) that he's an "ordinary guy" from a "General Motors family" affronted by the closure of auto plants and, of course, the "phasing out" of the sacrosanct oil patch (because only snobby tea sippers give a damn about a livable planet). But he won't say the oil patch, of course. He'll say "energy industry." Because Cons operate as a perpetual motion machine fueled by an infinitely renewable supply of manure.

In short, he's (pretending to be) a (slightly) less rotund and, admittedly, less sloppy version of Michael Moore, that hypocritical champagne-socialist chaos agent who sold out the once noble principles he attained with his debut film, Roger & Me, to become a self-serving contrarian Bernie Bro crank. Invoking a classically "Can-Am" brand like G.M. is a clear appeal to the kind of 1950s nostalgia that Trump invoked and, to some extent, Doug Ford, of the suburban nuclear family seeing the U.S., eh, in their Chevrolet. "Pop" might have even worked at the plant in Oshawa (or Detroit, or Flint) and brought home a decent salary that he fed the wife and kiddies with, only to see them grow up into ungrateful hippie brats who spat on our pristine way of life. Then the damn globalist liberals came along and gave corporate welfare to their well-connected rich friends that sent all the good jobs away to Jina!!!!

 

But, you see, he's Canadian, so he's saying all that same Trump stuff more, uh, politely.

Which doesn't change the fact that it's completely devoid of facts, and references a halcyon fantasy that is impossible to revert to (and really, didn't exist at all). Not that he and the Cons won't try, of course. But foreman says these jobs are going, boys, and they ain't coming back. He might as well abandon the Chevy at the levee and hop in a DeLorean, because this ain't your grandfather's Oldsmobile. It's a whole new ballgame of apple pie and Chevrolet, one that fits a lot better into Justin Trudeau's green recovery model that puts the "EV" in Chevy and a solar farm over the Athabasca death patch. But Sunny Ways has a lot of "clean coal" voters seeing red and singing the blues no matter how much he makes it rain.

Aaand we're done with the goofy mixed metaphors. What I'm trying to say is, facts don't matter to O'Toole, the Cons, or their voter base, so why not just lie through omission?

The problem is with the stale pale male media ownership class (talk about elites) who like this sort of thing and don't inform the public properly, because they want to engineer a Con government through gaslighting and obfuscation. Why? It 1) takes the heat off them and 2) allows them to push a palatable bullshit narrative that O'Toole has found the secret sauce that will finally topple that smug crooked trust fund brat who... is just as much part of Canada's "political ruling class" as they are (as is O'Toole), but doesn't espouse the correct values that would keep that institutional power structure in place. How many puff pieces have they written about their boy versus attempts to demean and discredit Freeland as (cough) "just not ready"? So they'll shove this hokey Pleasantville crap from O'Toole in voters' faces while demeaning Justin Trudeau and his Liberals as out of touch elites pursuing social(ist) engineering projects, instead of things that actually matter to the "everyday folk." O'Toole is a General Motors guy, you see. Or maybe he's a... Ford. But Justin Trudeau? Why, he's a Mercedes boy!

Now, does all this mean the Liberals are doomed? Far from it. Because Trudeau and his team are plugged into all the right people to shape their upcoming throne speech, regardless of what the media stenographers doing free PR for the Cons are trying to push. Not once in his "viral" (narrator: it didn't go viral) Labour Day ad did O'Toole mention unions. Trudeau did. Freeland did. Unions are just one among many groups representing "the people" who are providing considerable input into the Build Back Better plan... which also happens to be the slogan of the Biden/Harris campaign. Jerry Dias of Unifor and Hassan Yussuff of the Canadian Labour Congress know how to pick a winner in this horse race, and that jackass of the apocalypse ain't Tory blue.

The truth is, O'Toole, for all his blustering blarney and bullshit about being a friend of the working class, is backed by big oil, Stephen Harper's I.D.U., and the Toronto real estate developers who fund the deplorables at Canada Proud and the Post Millennial. Oh, and the American hedge fund underwriting the National Post, and the wealthiest family in Canada who owns the Globe & Mail. (The ToryStar might endorse the Liberals again, pursuant to tradition. But it loses something knowing that one of their new techbro owners was a bigly donor to O'Toole's leadership campaign.)

 

And speaking of which, I hope Chantal Hébert is "proud" that she's no longer on the side of the angels, after none other than Commander Waterford himself uncritically retweeted her article about Justin Delaneau Roosevelt supposedly "misreading the mood" about a Canadian New Deal, then added commentary that he was imposing "socialism" on Canadians. I had only brought it up in an earlier post as a point of interest, referencing Quito Maggi of Mainstreet Research highlighting the New Brunswick elections as a possible blueprint for Justin Trudeau to pull the plug (or force the plug) sooner rather than later. But I didn't agree with Chantal's take at all, and dare I say that when the devil himself and the goddamn Stun (as retweeted by Canada Proud) are in agreement with your piece, then you as a supposedly left-of-centre-leaning columnist need to rethink your stance something bigly.

Phew. All that being said, at the very least I'm glad that it would appear the next election isn't going to be about Hillary's Emails/Justin's WeMails as the central issue at the ballot box. It'll be about Building Back Better or Taking Canada Backwards. In short, it's the economy, stupid. Fuck Michael Moore, long live Ragin' Cajun Carville, and God Save Justin Trudeau.

Minority Reports

 

So after a long holiday weekend and an unusual summer season, election fever definitely seems to be the latest "wave" coming through Canada, which suggests at least right now that in spite of some ugly battles, Justin Trudeau might very well be on track to turn things around in spite of the pandemic.

Remember that article from Quito Maggi at Mainstreet Research that I wrote about, where he posited that Trudeau might go for a fall election regardless of the outcome of the throne speech vote (or variances in polling), if other provincial elections seemed to go off without a hitch?

Well, he seems to have been the first to identify a trend. Now the Toronto Star and Le Devoir are picking up on the momentum too, though Chantal Hébert is surprisingly more skeptical of the bold agenda that Trudeau is planning being an easy sell out on the hustings. But she nevertheless is echoing Maggi's assertions that the federal Tru Grits are closely watching the New Brunswick election to test the waters for how fall pandemic elections might be received:

As recently as late spring, the notion of a federal election in the midst of the pandemic was widely considered a non-starter.

Surely, the thinking then went, neither the opposition parties nor the government would risk incurring the ire of voters by having a hand in sending them back to the polls until the health emergency is over.

But that was before New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs set out to test the electoral waters by calling a provincial vote for Sept. 14.

With less than 10 days to go in the campaign, Higgs’ party is leading in the polls and well on his way to cashing in the political capital he accumulated over the management of the first phase of the pandemic. The majority government he covets may be in sight.

That being said, she cautions that the circumstances of N.B. politics and Ottawa are quite different, particularly with regards to the profiles of the incumbent premier's opponent and Eric O'Foole.

Still, it can't be denied that this is only the beginning for a series of incumbent minority governments to try their hand at pushing through quickly to capture a coveted majority government before some tough post-pandemic decisions have to be made. (Plus the majority party in Saskatchewan going for theirs on October 26. UPDATE: The Star even points out some hints from the federal election in Jamaica.) And it would appear that this "wave" is picking up first and foremost in the Maritimes, as columnist Alan Holman notes over in P.E.I.

While neither Justin Trudeau or Dennis King are in any danger of the opposition parties forcing an election, the strong support they are enjoying these days may not be there next year when they will have some tough decisions to make. They can’t just keep adding millions and millions to the deficit. Tough decisions are easier to make with a majority government.

The polling for the incumbent Atlantic premiers — along with B.C. premier John Horgan, who also appears to be keen on an election sooner rather than later — might be uniformly better than Trudeau's at the federal level, but that's mostly because of 1) the sporadic provincial polling that gets released on a regular basis, compared to the near-constant bombardment of federal soundings from numerous firms each with their own "house effects" and other methodological disputes; and 2) obviously, some body blows from another manufactured Clinton derangement non-scandal to sell papers and generate ratings once the lying press got bored of talking about the pandemic.

Maggi insists, however, and is most likely correct, that all this instability would be sorted out if and when an election were to occur. Which means it's probably safe to ignore, or at least not get too worked up about, any polls (good or bad) that come through prior to the throne speech, and/or Chrystia Freeland's first-ever fall financial update, especially if all of that precedes an unexpected writ-drop. Campaigns do still matter, after all. Plus, Maggi also stands by his initial take from that article that an election now would produce a Liberal win no matter what, but goes on further to clarify that if the central issue is pandemic management rather than Hillary's WeMails, Trudeau would come away bigly:

Asked by a tweep if he feels the Liberals are champing at the bit because their internals show a bigger win within striking distance, he hedges only that he believes his data but sees other polls as well (and that Mainstreet will be in the field next week for a release coming soon, so something else to look forward to). Which bolsters our blogger-friend Ottlib's assertion that public-facing polls aren't as big of a deal as media and partisan team-boosters (especially on social media) make them out to be, because parties have top-notch research teams on retainer, and the key to knowing how things are going is to watch the behaviour of the parties rather than the horse race that generates headlines. If Trudeau and his inner circle are looking enthusiastic as of late, then either they are very good at bluffing bravado, or their internals must be pretty good. As Evan Scrimshaw noted recently about O'Foole suddenly backtracking on a fall election call with his tail between his legs, "no party that thinks they can win an election avoids an election." The earlier consensus about the pandemic being a nonstarter for election calls seems to have been blown out of the water.

But I therefore suspect that Maggi might have an insider track with the LPC, having been on the campaign teams of some provincial offshoots in the past, particularly in the hub of Ontario. So we'll see how this all turns out, but it's interesting that he was the first to note the N.B. election as potentially influencing the folks on Parliament Hill. By the way, the thread that tweet is excerpted from is a bit of a lol, a dialogue between the rather bullish Maggi and cynical conservative-leaning aggregate modeller Bryan Beguet of Too Close to Call. Trudeau's wanting an election call (which isn't even 100% definitive) is a "gross power grab" but provincial premiers wanting one are not?

Anyway, if, indeed, election fever is on the rise in Canada before the second wave of COVID really picks up (along with the economic fallout, and for Trudeau, some ugly inquisitions he'd no doubt like to get ahead of or avoid altogether), then as always I wish our hero all the best on turning his luck around for a bountiful autumn harvest and a cool, fresh October Surprise.

Wake me up when September ends.