Too L'Edgy Pour Moi

 

I'm going to cover two things in this post that may seem, at first, disconnected but do actually relate to one another: One, Canadian news media is unequivocally, and perhaps irrevocably, broken. Two... I really am completely done with seeking out substantive political discourse on Reddit.

What's the common denominator in both? Immature, myopic white guys (and some mean girls who try to get in with them), who never fucking grew up.

So first off, the Globe (Canada's so-called paper of record) is under fire for publishing an asinine op-ed piece that really shows their deterioration into a shitposting rag for Facebook boomers. Now they appear to be trying to chase after the Proud Boy demographic as... a shitposting rag for Facebook Gen Xers. Last year they gave op-ed space to Ezra Levant to whine that his free speech was being censored. This time... they gave op-ed space to a goddamn Joe Rogan fanboy who (of course) completely glosses over Rogan's amplifying of Alex fucking Jones.

 

This was one of the best reactions to it. From British-Canadian feminist scholar Lauren Dobson Hughes

Really sad that this is what the fourth estate of a G7 country has devolved to.

Which brings me to my next point and why I'm quitting Reddit. None of their #cdnpoli subs this week responded to Justin Trudeau's balanced statement on the attacks in Nice, France, and the murder of French teacher Samuel Paty who conducted a controversial in-class discussion using the Muhammad cartoons of Charlie Hebdo, with any semblance of rationality or nuance. In that regard, pretty much all they did was echo the smug, privileged, myopic Trudeau-bashing and "muh freeze peach" concern trolling as the juvenile shitposters given column space (and paid handsomely for it) in Canadian "news" media.

I tried injecting some considered thought into the discussion but got nowhere. What I posited was that Justin Trudeau is likely a disciple of Karl Popper's philosophy of the paradox of intolerance: the notion that intolerance of intolerance is not, by itself, intolerance. His statements to several Quebec reporters indicate that he is not here to defend those who commit violence for any reason, but nor is he here to defend those who are deliberately and intentionally provocative and inflammatory towards people of marginalized identities.

Redditors were quick to accuse him of saying the equivalent of a woman deserves to be raped for wearing a short skirt. Which is not what he fucking said at all.

 

Trudeau's comments come on the heels of yet another incident being covered in French-language media whereby a professor at the University of Ottawa was censured for using the N-word in class, purportedly as an "academic exercise." The Bloc Quebecois troll Yves-François Blanchet demanded that Trudeau defend the professor. Trudeau instead (no doubt reflecting upon his own history of "controversial" ethnic costuming while a teacher) said at a press conference that people in positions of influence, like teachers (but also elected officials), have a responsibility to listen to and be sensitive to concerns about cultural sensitivity.

In other words, you may (and even this is up for debate) have a "right" to offend, but you also have a responsibility not to be a dick.

Blanchet of course was incensed, and so was everyone at Postmedia, and predictably Eric O'Foole was ready to go on another tangent about "cancel culture" and statues of dead racist prime ministers all the while Blanchet was flailing wildly about in the HoC about Pierre Trudeau being a tyrant and how would Justin feel if Quebec decided to remove his name from the airport.

Postmedia columnists are even calling for Trudeau's resignation (for the eleventy billionth time) accusing him of poisoning relations with France's Macron and siding with thugs like Erdogan of Turkey, in the same manner as Trump stood with dictators over allies.

 

Still no comment from the peanut gallery about Stephen Harper cozying up to dictators like Viktor Orban. Perhaps because they all share the same white/colonial racist and specifically Islamophobic mindset that equates extremists and those who weaponize their beliefs to oppress, with innocent people either being co-opted or oppressed in turn.

As always, the right wing's caricature of Trudeau as Bizarro Trump is projection of the worst kind.

None of them, of course, are paying any mind to the fact that Muslim groups commended Trudeau for saying specifically that the people who killed Samuel Paty were not representative of Islam or of the Muslim community. He was saying this to try and diffuse potential backlash against Muslims. Which of course, will be met with deaf ears as irresponsible ideologues like Blanc Cheque and O'Foole (the latter, it should be noted, voted against Motion 103 condemning Islamophobia after a shooting massacre at a mosque by a Trump-loving white supremacist) amplify their concern trolling for "classical liberalism" to mean the absolute right to consolidate their privilege and act on hate.

Already, the Reddit shitlords are invoking their lobster king Jordan Peterson and fearmongering that the latest LGBTQ rights legislation just passed (and which O'Foole's party resisted to the hilt), on conversion therapy, is another "crackdown on free speech" like the poorly understood C-16, a torqued conservative misinforming of which formed the catalyst of Peterson's ill-gotten career. Still others are concern trolling that Trudeau, not O'Foole, is the real "religious extremist" posing a threat to LGBTQ people by his support of "Muslim murderers," to deflect from the so-con crackpots in O'Foole's own party who he owes debts to bigly for the leadership win.

And of course Blanc Cheque will be torquing this to no end in la belle province, which already has legislation on the books that discriminates against brown people in hijabs and turbans. They won't admit, of course, that their stupid and stubborn insistence on absolutist laicite is playing a role in why Quebec has failed at containing the second wave of COVID: they chased away Muslim doctors and other medical professionals. In his own way, Legault's hostility towards the medical community is comparable to Jason Kenney's, albeit not to the same extent or for the same reasons. But I mean, really, if someone is going to follow medical science, what difference does it make if they wear an innocuous garment representing their beliefs?

 

It's white Christians who tend to intrude in medicine with their fanaticism about abortion and gays, not "foreigners." Heck, the doctor considered responsible for spearheading the abortion rights movement in Canada, Henry Morgentaler, was a Holocaust survivor and an observant Jew. What matters, then, is not one's personal faith or philosophy but one's willingness to go above and beyond the golden rule: as the Wiccans say, "an' it harm none, do what ye will."

Violence obviously harms people. But as Cher said, words are like weapons; they wound sometimes.

So I'm on Trudeau's side here, and not just because he's Trudeau but because I support whatever is necessary to send a message to the bigots that being intentionally inflammatory is wrong. It's not victim blaming to caution people that they should really think about what it is they're saying and choose their words and images with care. You may have the "right" (within limits in Canada, too permissive and poorly enforced if you ask me) to offend, but why would you want to? To me, that just makes you look like an asshole, and asshole is not a protected class.

Welcome to the American culture wars, Canada. The jihad, if you will. Here's hoping the Popper pupil from Papineau wins out against the myopic and hypocritical Predditors.

(And on a related note: In memory of the other Dr. Henry — no, not Bonnie in B.C. but Dr. Henry Jones, Sr. — here's hoping they lose their Last Crusade.)

Weekend Coffee Talk Oct. 31, 2020: Candy and Trumpkins

Boo! Here's the latest Coffee Talk links and stories roundup for this Halloween weekend before the spectre of the American election (and a possible upcoming Canadian one, who knows). COVID continues to be a monster, while the opposition parties in Ottawa are intent on angering the dead. But Toronto is taking this time to pay homage to the ghost of a dearly departed funny man, to raise Canadians' spirits...

🇨🇦 🎃 🗳 🎃 🇨🇦

John Tory finally did something right. (Now that's a cause for celebration.) The Toronto mayor has proclaimed October 31, 2020 official "John Candy Day" in the home of SCTV, for what would have been the legendary comic actor's seventieth birthday. For some spooky fun with an extra helping of Canadian maple syrup, here's "Dr. Tongue's Evil House of Pancakes" from the "Monster Chiller 3D Theatre" recurring skit. Oooooooooh!

The Price is right? (As in, Vincent.) In advance of what (barring any chaotic shenanigans) looks to be a bigly yuge blowout on Tuesday, Hair Furor is no longer welcome at Madame Tussaud's House of Wax. Now that's what I call a Trump dump! (Reuters)

#MeanwhileInCanada -- Yves Blanc Cheque is attempting to anger the dead by dredging up the demons of the October Crisis and the 1995 separation referendum. Acting as his useful flunky (his Renfield, if you will) is Jag-o-Lantern Singh, who might not be thirsty for blood but sure is for relevance. They might want to be careful; after having spent the entire summer going after Margaret, the last thing these guys want is to see Justin Trudeau possessed by the spirit of his father. Maybe they should just... give up the ghost? (Toronto Star)

Speaking of raising the dead: Nobody cares about WeGhazi anymore, so here comes the media to make sure you don't forget. Bill Morneau ('memba him?) got cleared for what was arguably the "meatiest" accusation in the whole ordeal (and probably should file suits against a lot of these people), so all that remains is more bitching at the committees nobody pays attention to, and the inevitable (overblown) wrist slap for lack of recusals (asked, answered, and apologized for). But that's not stopping Rosie Barton from blowing more dead air into the zombie corpse of the undead nontroversy-that-never-was, with an interview with the former finance minister for her new weekend blabfest, airing in place of the once decent Sunday Scrum. I'm not watching; will anyone else be? During Infrastructure Week?

And speaking of calling an election: Moar deets from what could be happening sooner rather than later (and really should), courtesy of the inestimable Chantal Hébert. In which she praises PMJT for ripping a page from Harper's (!) playbook and beating the Cons at their own game, strong-arming the opposition and potentially killing a useless minority clusterfuck sooner than expected. This part is new, and... potentially worthy of the "eyes open" emoji 👀 (L'Actualité)

Even among the New Democrat strategists who came out on social media in support of Jagmeet Singh, he was led to suggest that the NDP had preferred to buy time before bringing down the Trudeau government when the budget update was presented later this fall.

(Chrystia and Eric both gave economic speeches this week that sound suspiciously campaignish, so...)

 

Halloween will shine a blue moon for the first time since 1944. To commemorate the occasion, PMJT will perform the sacred ritual of telling the Nazis (brownshirts in blue suits) and their enablers to stick their scare-mongering where the sun don't shine. (CW39 Houston, TX)

And finally... speaking of rituals and sexy spookiness... did I mention that our PMJT is the G.O.A.T.?

There's a joke in there somewhere. Something about getting all horny for the devil you know.

Gooood night everybody!

 

For Sophie, For Everyone

 

This poor family really are the Canadian victims of the Kennedy curse.

So let's recap 2020 for the Trudeaus thus far:

• Sophie gets sick with COVID. Gets death wishes and hacks like Bob Fife retweeting tabloid insinuations from Murdoch rags about how she "caught it" from Idris Elba.
  

• Margaret narrowly escapes a house fire. Gets death wishes that her son will have to resign for "bereavement leave".
  

• Justin, Sophie, Margaret, and even Sacha get smeared in a Hunter Biden-esque manufactured "scandal". Get death wishes galore and vile accusations of being "crooks".
  

• Some asshole plows his truck into the gates at Rideau Hall with a weapons arsenal in the bed of his pickup, intending to assassinate the PM and/or family members. (Thankfully, no one was home, and the asshole is going to prison for a very long time.) Incident gets ignored and later downplayed by Canadian media in favour of smearing the family more, to wash their hands of stochastic incitement for more "friendly sausage makers".
  

• Coke fiend Quebec-separatist shit disturber calls Pierre a terrorist for quashing actual terrorists before Justin was even born, demands "apology" and renaming of P.E.T. airport because why the fuck not. NDP stooge desperate for relevance and any port in the storm backs him, because it's fun to urinate on the grave of a man's father in the name of "civil rights." And also because he's desperate for votes he'll never get in a province that considers him a terrorist for being a brown guy in a turban. But hey, Trudeau bad.

• And now this: Sophie announces she had a breast cancer scare. Reactions range from vulgar/morbid tweets/Reddit comments/Facebook posts (etc.) to "who cares."

And that's not even counting the other tragedies they've endured over the years. Michel's death (which sapped Pierre of his last sparks of life); Margaret's mental breakdown and subsequent bipolar diagnosis; the eating disorder Sophie struggled with in high school.

But you'd think the Canadian public would spare just a little sympathy for this poor woman who had a "Halloween scare" and took the time to open up about it, encouraging other women to get tested and talk about it?

Well, maybe the broader public, but not her Instagram followers or whoever subscribes to "National Newswatch" on Twitter... posts links on Facebook or Reddit... yeah, these people are trash. They're the same types who made fun of Didi's Paw Patrol costume one Halloween (Skye, the pink poodle helicopter pilot, who despite being a cartoon dog has more experience helicopter piloting than Peter MacKay or Eric O'Foole), posting the number for child protective services and demeaning him with "the fruit doesn't fall far from the tree."

Mind you, this kid was three years old at the time. Very fine people on the Conservative side.

This kid is now six, and the one who told his dad that he was worried that COVID would last forever. In response, daddy JT said at a press conference that COVID "sucks."

I dunno, maybe it doesn't. Not if it wipes out enough right-wing assholes who also tend to be anti-maskers at super spreader events. The same assholes who called Didi a f*ggot in so many words, sneered at Sophie's breast cancer scare, spent the whole summer calling Margaret a gold-digging fame whore who rode the coattails of her husband and son's last name, and have dedicated the past five to seven years wishing and even threatening Justin dead.

Sadly, neither COVID nor cancer follows political boundaries. And yeah, I'm sure Justin and Sophie wouldn't want people to respond in kind by wishing dead the people who wish them dead.

But COVID isn't the only pandemic that sucks. COVID, at least will have a vaccine someday.

Unfortunately, there's no cure for craniorectal inversion syndrome.

 

Also known as asshole personality disorder.

Get better soon, Sophie. Haters gonna hate, but there are lots of us who still love you.

Dearest Justin: Suicide is Painless

 

I'm taking a minor hiatus from writing about the tiresome scandal-mongering and assault on deceased equestrian mammals from the Bloc Dippercon axis of evil, for a Dearest Justin post on a very personal issue: medical assistance in dying.

 

As well, I also want to announce that I plan on writing about it over at my new blog, which deals specifically with mental health and end of life matters.

 

I should also note that I did in fact write to the PM and MoJAG David Lametti a long time ago when they were seeking consultations on the new legislation, even though I'm not Canadian myself. For right now, though, here's what I would like to tell the PM in brief on a topic that I know is very sensitive for him as well.

🇨🇦 🇨🇦 🇨🇦 🇨🇦 🇨🇦

Dear Prime Minister Trudeau:

Hello again, it's me, your #1 fan and supporter from south of the 49th parallel. I wanted to take some time to contact you with regards to the new legislation introduced by your government on the subject of Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD), also known alternatively as euthanasia or doctor-assisted suicide.

I want you to know that I have some concerns with the scope of the legislation, which I consider to be too narrow, but that I can understand and empathize with why you and your government may have designed it this way.

I had written to you previously along with Health Minister Patty Hajdu, Diversity Inclusion Minister Carla Qualtrough, and Attorney General and Justice Minister David Lametti, during the initial round of consultations for the newly revised legislation. I am aware that these consultations were limited to Canadians, but I felt the need nevertheless to weigh in even as an American, and I would like to explain as to why.

Prime Minister, the United States is currently in a position where hard-fought rights of medical autonomy are under threat from an increasingly right-wing judiciary, that is out of touch with millions of Americans who want those rights to be expanded rather than curtailed. First on the chopping block is likely to be the 1973 landmark Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion. A country where abortion is on the verge of being criminalized cannot in any seriousness be considered a country where MAiD is slated to be the next medical-autonomy position granted normalization by the courts.

People from all over the world go to Canada every year for medical treatment that is either unavailable, prohibitively expensive, or heavily restricted in their home countries. I foresee a future where, much like in Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, women travel to Canada to obtain abortions because they have been rendered illegal in the United States. I do not foresee any objections from your government to this possibility. Yet when I read the legislation for medically assisted euthanasia, I was disappointed to find that it specifically excluded what is called "suicide tourism" — that is, people from other countries travelling to Canada with the specific intent of obtaining a safe, legal and humane solution to their end-of-life care.

I hope that at some point, either you or a future Liberal prime minister will reconsider this position. Countries such as Switzerland and the Benelux region (Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg) allow foreign travellers to access the full array of medical services, including MAiD. I foresee a lot of Americans seeking to travel north for many reasons pertaining to affordable and accessible healthcare, and particularly with the significant deterioration in conditions my country has endured due to the presidency of Donald Trump, it is very likely that a lot of Americans will be looking for a humane solution to "shuffle off this mortal coil." It is not feasible for most Americans to travel all the way to Europe; far more so, to simply catch a bus or an overnight flight north of the border. It may come across as Yankee entitlement or hubris, but I believe that access to MAiD is a human right that, since the American system shows no sign of making available, the Canadian system should open up to anyone from any part of the world.

I will also add that the other exclusion I have a personal reason for struggling with is the specific exemption of people whose sole or primary reason for pursuing MAiD is mental illness. This is the old "catch-22" whereby a person wanting to end their lives to escape mental illness is deemed not of sound mind to do so, all the while wanting to die in the first place is considered symptomatic of mental illness. This logical recursive loop is, as Mr. Spock might say, highly illogical. It is a denial of mental-health parity, and a discriminatory and Cartesian designation of mind as distinct from body. Mental illness is physical illness, and in many cases, it is "a fate worse than death."

Nevertheless, I can understand that you, yourself, may have reasons for having a difficulty supporting access to MAiD for the mentally ill. I know that your mother, Margaret Trudeau, has been a courageous advocate for mental health awareness for many years and that you are very proud of what she has accomplished. I also know that you are fiercely defensive of her in your own advocacy on the issue, and my respect for you both only increases for that reason. I wrote to you numerous times this past summer while the opposition parties were on the attack against Mrs. Trudeau during the smear campaign surrounding the Canada Student Services Grant and the WE Charity, expressing my full support and sympathy for you and your family. The work that she does is admirable and should be lauded rather than demeaned by jealous politicians with an axe to grind. I hope that neither you nor she will be dissuaded by these vile attacks and that you continue speaking out on this important issue in the future.

But all that being said, Prime Minister, I would hope that public officials, of which you are one, are able to keep their personal viewpoints on matters of civil liberties separate from how they would legislate on them in Parliament, or rule on them in a court of law. We are seeing in the United States the trouble that "legislating from the pulpit" is causing as religious hardliners are appointed to our courts. That "mission creep" is clearly happening in Canada as well from what I have been observing. Andrew Scheer was not able to separate his views on abortion and LGBTQ/2S+ from political objectivity. Erin O'Toole has proven little better on this front in how he allows the social conservatives of his party to drive his agenda with him as a mere figurehead. I am happy to find that since you took over the leadership of the Liberal Party in 2013, being pro-choice on abortion and fully accepting of LGBTQ/2S+ equality is a litmus test for running as a candidate. Can one hope, then, that the Liberal leader and caucus will be fully accepting of being pro-choice on matters of life and death, regardless of one's personal misgivings on its place in human psychology?

I am writing to you not simply as a dispassionate observer of civil liberties law but as someone who has a personal stake in this legislation. I am, as you already know, from the United States. I am also a sufferer of mental illness, though I have also developed a number of chronic "physical" illnesses over these past few years. I will be blunt, however: mental health weighs heaviest as a burden, and it is, indeed, a fate worse than death. I am unemployed, and see no foreseeable future in which I am able to obtain or keep gainful employment. I will never live independently. I do have a university degree and consistently got high marks in school but was bullied for it relentlessly, and lack the social aptitude required to get past a workplace interview, even though I know I would do very well at whatever tasks are assigned to me. I can't talk to strangers. I fear other people. I rarely leave home except to go to appointments or help my mother run errands. I am in my middle thirties, and live at home with aging parents who I will at some point be tasked to look after in spite of my own health woes.

 

Much of what I suffer from is the result of years of abuse by my father, who I am nevertheless condemned to live with because he is the family breadwinner, and my mother (another victim of his abuse) and I do not wish to become homeless or make the degrading trek to the county welfare office. Not only are the symptoms of mental ill health a torturous existence that I would not wish upon my worst enemy, but the social stigma on top of it — not to mention the embarrassment of being out of work because one is unable to hold down a job. The rest, however, is probably the result of poor genetics. In the interest of honesty and disclosure and so you can see just how bad off I am (like others in my situation), I'll give you a list of things "on paper" or in the D.S.M. I have been "labelled" with: P.T.S.D., social anxiety, avoidant personality disorder, and perhaps worst and most damning of all, Asperger syndrome, a supposedly "high functioning" form of autism spectrum disorder that has become unduly "fashionable" as of late, but does not change the fact that some ninety percent of those who suffer from ASDs are permanently out of work. The existence of a few stereotypical outliers in Silicon Valley is no comfort at all. You said at a recent press conference that COVID-19 "sucks." I can vouch personally for the fact that autism sucks much, much more.

 

You have also said on numerous occasions that this pandemic has exposed many of the inequities and fault lines of what, on the surface, appear to be healthy and decently-functioning societies. People from all walks of life were and are still being called to "step up" and to "build back better." You are not the only leader who has likened this to the mobilization last seen during World War II. "We are all in this together," is the new "Keep calm and carry on." From this positive language of public service  has emerged the phrase "essential workers," encompassing everyone from frontline medical professionals to those in caregiving professions to retail and food service employees. All of whom keep the economy, and thus society, afloat even in times of great crisis, warding off the harbingers of the apocalypse: war, famine, plague, and... a nationwide shortage of toilet paper.

But the flip side of that positive linguistic framing as seen in societies such as mine is a more militaristic tone, whereby if you are unable to contribute to the "war effort," you are a "draft shirker" — a 4F, as the old designation goes. I wasn't able to contribute to the pre-pandemic economy; I wasn't able (and am still unable) to contribute to the current pandemic economy; and I will be unable to contribute to the post-pandemic economy. Even if I could, my out-of-ordinary "traits" would likely make me a mark for ostracism among workplace peers. One of which is an anxiety-driven stammer. I fear the likes of a Michelle Rempel Garner doing to me what she did to you on the floor of the House of Commons last summer. Or a Sarah Huckabee Sanders making fun of me in the way she did to Joe Biden. So I don't talk on the outside and I don't talk to people I don't know. I can speak, but in the words of Bartleby the Scrivener, I prefer not to. And as a result of that and much more, I am unable to work, unable to contribute to society, which is to say, unable to "serve my country" on the front lines of the perpetual wartime economy.

 

It is considered unpatriotic and selfish in my country to expect that others can, will or should help me to stay alive if I am not able to give back. Yet paradoxically it is considered either "sinful" or "insane" of me to do what would otherwise be the honourable thing and release others of that burden, while putting myself out of my misery. I cannot work for a living, yet I cannot simply go ahead and die. Not unless I resort to desperate and dangerous measures that may not be successful, and in fact may cause further maiming or disability. A country such as mine that prides itself on "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" seems unable to reconcile that position with the notion that liberty and happiness, for some, is the opposite of life!

Forgive me for my extended rant, Prime Minister, but I want you to have as broad and in-depth of an argument to digest, from someone who has been there, done that, got the lousy T-shirt. Who is also someone who fully understands why you might be hesitant to accept that argument on the surface, but after careful consideration, can at least come to a greater understanding of why someone might disagree with your perspective even if you continue to disagree with mine.

In closing, I want you to know that I still support you, your government's endeavours at social change, and the mission of the Liberal Party to continue "building back better." I wish you well, and your mother especially, particularly in light of the cruel attacks of this past summer (which, apparently, are still ongoing, evidently because the opposition parties have an obsessive affliction of their own). But once this emergency legislation passes as imposed by a court deadline, I hope that you and your colleagues will give consideration to a broader perspective on medical autonomy, the mind/body false dichotomy, and most importantly, quality of life. Canada's motto of parliament is "peace, order and good government," and while it has served Canada well to do whatever is the opposite of what the United (or Untied) States is presently up to, I hope that you will consider this paraphrase of one of our Founding Fathers, Patrick Henry, should this legislation ever come up for review:

"Give me liberty... give me death!"

Should He Stay Or Should He Go?

So a lot of ink and/or pixels have been spilled as of late regarding whether or not there will be a federal election before the end of this year — and what could happen if there isn't.

The overall consensus seems to be that it's better for Justin Trudeau to go to the polls sooner rather than later, and that in fact, things may not get so good for him if he goes later. (Although Frank Graves of EKOS Research says that an election in the spring would be Trudeau's to lose, and that a fall election at the peak of the second wave could backfire, while Nik the malaka Nanos only says the window is about two or three months.)

I don't put much faith in the Con papers or their pundits. The old con, John Ivison, claims that Trudeau is prevaricating and thus ticking down the clock for his career and the Liberals' time in office. Like many in the punditocracy, he asserts that the two recent by-elections in the Toronto area have put a chill into the party, even though national polls at present clearly indicate a push toward majority and election calls haven't been catastrophic for the premiers.

As I wrote earlier, Chantal Hebert and even Paul Wells disagree, though with non-specific verbiage that the government's time is likely to be measured in "months" rather than years. About the only thing all three can agree upon is that the Liberals are not at all happy with Michelle Rempel Garner's COVID-19 fishing expedition — and that they don't want any more mud slung at them from the still-extant WeGhazi inquisition either.

Some of that mud is starting to get dredged up again, though. The Clerk of the Privy Council has offered to testify as to the redactions on the WeGhazi files, but it seems clear that the opposition has no interest in taking his statements in good faith, otherwise they would have accepted them already instead of continuing to dig for answers they're not going to get (which isn't the point, after all; the point is to bury the Liberals in shit with a Stupid Sponsorgate pulled from their collective asses).

And as Dale Smith puts forth in his latest piece, the WeGhazi affair looked to be a dry run for what's now being attempted at the health committee, and it's going to do damage to a lot more than just the governing party if allowed to go forth; it stands a good chance of crippling Canadian democracy itself, never mind what could happen to the pandemic response.

I've said on a number of occasions that I don't expect substantive political discussion from Reddit. I'm still anxious to see, however, what pans out from this person's comments:

What I predict will happen: this motion will not be declared a confidence motion, and will pass with support from the Bloc and the NDP. Trudeau will call an election within a week after this passing, blaming the conservatives for halting progress during a pandemic.

That's what I've been hearing from the NDP insiders, exactly as you described.

I have no idea who these "NDP insiders" or if this person genuinely knows them. I will add, however, that this comment was made before the by-elections, and that literally no one but the Liberal back rooms knows what they're gathering from that. Myself, I don't think the supposed "close call" was as big of a deal as the punditocracy is making it out to be (or wants it to be), for numerous reasons. But I also think the trouble down the road could be far worse of a risk than the dice roll of an election now that could turn out for the best, even if by a hair.

Mind you, another Redditor has a different take: that Trudeau may go the Chretien route, albeit after a shorter duration in office:

All the provincial governments that ran elections recently won majorities. Trudeau will have an election this year even if he has to call it himself.

Agreed. Surprise resignation and Freeland takes the helm?

I've been calling this since she took over Morneau's job. The only remaining question is whether she ends up in the Kim Campbell Sacrificial Lamb position, or the Paul Martin Gonna Do My Best Before Being Knifed In The Back position.

Now of course, these are just completely random people on the Internet who are just spitballing and reading the tea leaves the same as you or me. The first person says "sure, there'll be an election" while the rest of that mini-thread seems to indicate... that the Liberals will win said hypothetical early election, but Trudeau will have a three-part birthday, Christmas, and retirement party?

I'm skeptical of either of those conclusions about Chrystia Freeland. There is zero indication whatsoever that Justin Trudeau would want to leave a mess for her to clean up in the way that Jean Chretien was perfectly content to allow his rival Paul Martin to end up as the fulfillment of the old axiom "be careful what you wish for; you just might get it" regarding the PM job he coveted for so long — yet held for such a short period of time.

At the same time, I don't think at all that he wants the Cons to manage (read: sabotage) the pandemic response, let alone its recovery. But what if he really doesn't want to have an election, yet has no choice lest the opposition bombard the government and burn the country down in a kamikaze quest to "own the Libs"? Does he take the risk now, or the greater one of letting the chips fall where they may?

I will say also that Ivison's own piece is rife with prevarication. It took a lot of words to say he really doesn't know:

Opposition parties worried that the almost hysterical Liberal reaction to this week’s motion, to have the health committee examine Canada’s pandemic response, was a harbinger for a short trip across the grounds of Rideau Hall. Access to future vaccines could be jeopardized and lives endangered, the Liberals claimed, which would constitute suitable grounds for a just war. They may be yet.

But the enthusiasm for hostilities seems to have abated.

That could change in a heartbeat if the Conservatives overplay their hand.

He concludes by saying that Trudeau has already missed his chance after spending the entire article saying that "hawks" around him are urging him to hurry up. Which doesn't make much sense either.

I'll give my two cents, not that anyone has asked for it. I want Trudeau to call an election. But I have as much certainty that he will as anyone writing for any of these papers or commenting on Reddit, blogs, or Twitter. In fact, the only one who knows for sure is probably... Justin Trudeau himself.

And yet, after watching today's press conference, where he was literally fighting back tears when talking about little Didi asking dad "is COVID-19 forever?" I'm actually not so sure he even wants to be prime minister anymore.

He probably misses his kids, even though he gets to see them all the time. But he likes being a dad and probably feels gutted that the opposition has sunk so low as to go after his loved ones, even his mom, in their bloodthirsty quest for power. The replies to his Twitter feed are nuclear levels of vicious. It was only a few years ago that those same vulgar, subhuman orcs were brutally bullying Didi over his Halloween costume. His wife got sick and all she got in response were vile rumours about their marriage and people wishing her dead. His mom narrowly survived a house fire only to have the opposition and media concoct some ridiculous "scandal" to portray her as a gold-digging fame whore who rode her son's coattails to profit off the taxpayers.

Maybe he will call an election. Or maybe he's had enough. I mean really, who would want this abuse?

Maybe he has had enough, but there's a way to have that cake and eat it too. He could stop the Cons from damaging the pandemic response and get while the getting is good. He could call an election now and win a majority, then hands off the problems to someone who isn't such a lightning rod for such psychotic vitriol aimed at scoring political points and media sales.

I worry for poor little Canada and I feel so badly for Justin Trudeau. I really have no idea what he'll do.

I will say this much however: I hope to God he does the right thing and that John Ivison gets CORVID-19 from eating crow.

You know, at Pierre Trudeau's funeral, twenty-eight-year-old Justin borrowed a line from Robert Frost in his eulogy. Perhaps instead of Shakespeare, as Ivison invokes (though it's really more like the Clash, and John fucking Ivison needs to get Joe Strummer the hell out of his mouth), since we all know Hamlet committed suicide, Justin could look to Frost for inspiration once again.

He could take the road less travelled by, and that would make all the difference.

Bye Week

 

Some thoughts on last night's Toronto-area by-elections won by two great female Liberal candidates in York Centre (Ya'ara Saks) and Toronto Centre (Marci Ien). Congratulations to them both! Especially since most of the punditocracy, as usual, is getting this all wrong.

• A win is a win, period. It doesn't matter if the Liberals won by 2 votes or 2,000 votes. A win is a win and it deprives the other parties of bragging rights, especially the Cons. (Not that they don't try to brag, of course. Sore losers like usual.)

• These elections were held under unique circumstances unlikely to be replicated in a general election, whenever it's held. A few notes on that:

• First off, Annamie Paul in Toronto Centre, who came in second to Marci Ien, got a major "leader's boost" as the groundbreaking newcomer at the helm of the Green Party, while over in York Centre, good old Max Bernier got to play revenge spoiler to the Cons yet again. By-elections tend to be more candidate-centric, and the significance of having party leaders run in X seat can't be discounted. Also, Paul had gotten a lot of media attention for her prospective candidacy as the first party leader who is a woman of colour potentially entering Parliament, and several cross-party endorsements encouraging supporters of every party to cast ballots for her. It proved a stronger result than was expected, but still not enough to forecast doom and gloom for the Liberals, which is what media loves to do. (Furthermore, Max Bernier gets media attention wherever he goes just for being an asshole, but while he may not be the asshole we want, he's the asshole we need.)
  

• The pandemic likely depressed turnout in a big way, more than usual for by-elections (which don't tend to favour the incumbent), but lest anyone think that should put Justin Trudeau off from calling his own pandemic election and taking the risk that's paid off for three premiers so far, it should be noted that turnout in those provincial elections was poor as well, and yet the incumbent premiers still won, in two cases going from minority to majority government. Media messaging that these were "foregone conclusions" for the Liberals may have also caused those voters to stay home. Nevertheless, they persisted, and so far as anyone knows, a potential snap election or forced confidence vote is not off the table for the Tru Grits.

• Too many people are focusing on the Liberals' slide compared to 2019. One factor that was different then versus now? Doug Ford was the enemy and now he's a... well, if not a friend, per se, a neutral element at best. Mind you, Ford still sucks and is botching the pandemic response bigly but hasn't yet gotten a major backlash for it. What should be looked at instead is that the Liberals' results in York Centre are similar to their results in 2015, when... they won their majority, trouncing Harper. If Eric O'Foole really wants to take Ontario, he's going to have to do a lot better than barely biting the apple and hoping for all those other circumstances to re-capture lightning in a bottle. Hitching himself to Kenney's bandwagon and pushing Ford away, into the arms of Justin Trudeau (uh...?) isn't going to be a big help either.

• Ya'ara and Marci will have incumbency advantage when the next election happens (yes, even if it's in two weeks, because they'll have the wind in their sails from a fresh win). You can bet that the LPC war room will be poring over the data they picked up and probably coming to a lot of the same conclusions as here, which the punditocracy gleefully ignores (and so, in turn, do the Liberals ignore the punditocracy). York Centre in particular has almost always been a red seat, but not a deep red one, so to describe it as "safe" and pooh-pooh the LPC's showing here is being really disingenuous. And speaking of incumbency advantage, in spite of all the shit flung at him, Justin Trudeau is still popular. A little worse for wear, but let's be honest: he's no Eric O'Foole.

• Some polling out this morning claims to show a closer race than others. (Nik Nanos is also being a dick to Liberal tweeps again, who debunk his bullshit punditry by showing his contradictory data.) Guess what that means right now? Nothing. It just means that there's variance in the polling and even the best firms can come out with outliers that don't show a "trend" either way. A proper herding effect won't happen until the writ drop anyway, because campaigns matter. And, yes, we still don't know when that'll be. But again, in spite of all the shit flung at them, the Liberals remain on top in the places where the seats are. If they're showing 2015 style results in spite of out-of-the-ordinary circumstances, that's still a pretty damn good sign for them going forward. Did I forget to mention also that campaigns matter?

• Close elections like this are turnout motivators for Liberals. When an actual election happens, there'll be a major GOTV initiative, and nobody does GOTV when it matters like the Big Red Machine.

• If anyone should be taking "lessons" from this, it's the NDP, who lost bigly in both elections and are becoming as much of a regional rump as... *checks notes* the CPC they so gleefully simp for just to own the Libs. Big surprise that riding the coattails of fascists to LARP an accelerationist revolution generates piss-poor results in Liberal strongholds where progressive pragmatism wins the day. Who knew?
  

• Stop trying to polish a turd, CPC. Nobody even showed up and you still fucking lost.
  

Not Necessarily an Election, But an Election If Necessary

 

So Michelle Rempel Garner and her backup chorus of shrill Harpies are playing a dangerous game with public health — and their own electability, and credibility as well.

WE-Ghazi keeps getting cockblocked at the committees (not that anyone much cares anymore), but the real jumping of the shark is this latest "pandemic accountability study" that spurred on countless protests from public health officials, industry leaders and even the companies tasked with manufacturing the crucial COVID vaccine.

Rempelthinskin's response has been to dismiss them all as Liberal hacks. You know, in the same way as her favourite president slams Dr. Fauci as being a "lying, crooked agent of the Deep State"?

The NDP in particular should hang their heads in shame for enabling the party of Trump North again. Not content to have destroyed the Canadian nonprofit sector in their fit of partisan rage and Trudeau derangement syndrome, now they want to do something even more dangerous: drive medical investments out of Canada due to the companies not wanting to be a political football or have sensitive information released.

But let me tell you something: It may still be early but already it seems to be backfiring. For one thing, they've lost Paul Wells, easily the most acidic pox-on-all-their-houses cynic since Andrew Coyne (and without the family "conflicts of interests"... but still the same animus toward Justin Trudeau). It must be a sign of the apocalypse, because along with Colby Cosh's (constructive) critique of the LPC's medical assistance in dying legislation, I find myself agreeing with not one but two Con pundits, the latest being Paul fucking Wells... at least in part. This Parliament really is broken, and it couldn't be at a worse time.

What we’re heading toward, then, is an irreconcilable difference between government and opposition. ... So where are we? We’re in a fix. On one hand, a government that is shocked at the news that anyone would believe it capable of doing the sort of things it does all the time. On the other, an opposition that advertises its incorrigible frivolousness with its grandest gestures. The rest of us at least have the luxury of ignoring them. They’re stuck with one another. But not for much longer. Sooner or later, and sooner than I would have expected even a few weeks ago, they’ll be back on the campaign trail, demanding that we settle their differences for them.

I take exception to Wells normalizing a lot of the CPC's conspiracy theories like the Harrington Lake "fortress of solitude," but I'm somewhat reassured that at least one "establishment" figure in Ottawa has also brought up concern regarding Rempel-Garner's "including, but not limited to" backdoor language. I had mentioned in my previous post that such a broad scope would pretty much give the health committee — the health committee, mind you — a sweeping opportunity to study pretty much whatever the fuck they felt like even if there is no case to be made that it's COVID-related, because "we have the votes and fuck you, we're owning the Libs." Here comes the COVID-19 committee-circuit breakdown.

The only net positive coming from this is that these shenanigans appear to be backfiring on the opposition. As of this writing, some new polls from Mainstreet and Leger haven't yet come in, but I can't imagine (or would hope not, anyway) that they show much in terms of detriment for the Liberals. Nik Nanos, meanwhile, now shows the Liberals in clear majority territory and has of course been suspiciously absent from CTV broadcasts, because there's no way he can spin his chart as being a net positive for the Cons. Suffice it to say however that if the CPC, NDP and the Bloc want to continue shooting themselves in the dicks to "get" Trudeau, they're going to wear it come election time.

Which Wells now concurs with two other columnists, Chantal Hébert and G&M's Campbell Clark, is all but inevitable to happen sooner rather than later and possibly even before the end of the year.

And again, take Reddit with a grain of salt, but whoa if Tru'? 

What I predict will happen: this motion will not be declared a confidence motion, and will pass with support from the Bloc and the NDP. Trudeau will call an election within a week after this passing, blaming the conservatives for halting progress during a pandemic.

That's what I've been hearing from the NDP insiders, exactly as you described.

Makes sense; I wouldn't be surprised one bit. Especially seeing as BC NDP won a majority - pandemic elections thus far seem to be turning out well for the incumbents.

Wait a second... a week from now, isn't that, uh...

Gee, that would be awesome — no, no, it would be yuuuuuuuuuuuuuge.

See, everyone hates each other now, which is fertile grounds for a parliamentary dissolution (or implosion as this one seems to be), but the only thing they can agree on is that the opposition all loathes Justin Trudeau and the feeling seems to be mutual. Which is a great campaign plank that's worked so successfully since 2015, they might as well run on it again. Especially in a pandemic, dicking around and indulging their fanatical obsession with this one guy, thus sabotaging a potential vaccine coming down the pike and crashing the economy, is sure to be a hit with voters.

Why do I feel a song coming on again?

I was gonna ship a vaccine
But Trudeau's a bad guy
I was gonna help address COVID-19
But Trudeau's a bad guy
I wasn't gonna make a big scene
So what if I lie?
Trudeau's a bad guy, Trudeau's a bad guy, Trudeau's a bad guy
La-da-da-da-da-da-da...!

The choice is now yours, Prime Minister. The NDP are too chickenshit to vote non-confidence because they're flat broke and their polls are in the toilet. Some of their most diehard supporters are now abandoning them for their betrayal. But the party is going to be coming after you with a vengeance.

We'll just have to wait and see if, right around this haunted Halloween on the Hill, the opposition has cast such a damaging dice roll that they have awakened the dead.

I can't be the only one who wonders if the spirit of his father has possessed Justin Trudeau. Should a Christmas election be on the horizon, it would bring about the wrath of the Ghost of Trudeaus Past.

"Hello! My name is Justin Pierre James Trudeau! You have angered my father! Prepare to die!"

Last Week (of October) Tonight

 

No Coffee Talk this past weekend because I was dealing with some personal issues and still reeling from the election-that-wasn't (while gearing up for my own country's election-to-be). So instead I'm going to offer a review-plus-preview for what lies ahead — and since the Cons (and Trump) are making headlines, there are sure to be, well, lies.

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Big day in Canada as the Liberals are on track to elect two great female candidates in Marci Ien (Toronto-Centre) and Ya'ara Saks (York-Centre), while the Cons introduce their COVID sabotage motion and the Dippers get back to their usual shenanigans at the witch hunt committee. As to why the Liberals aren't declaring this a confidence motion I'm not quite sure, other than they're keeping their powder dry for something else down the line while letting the Cons hang themselves with their own rope after facing pushback from epidemiologists and industry leaders. As for Chuckles, he may have forged a temporary truce with the Tru Grits after agreeing to exempt Maggie and Sacha from the axis of evil's Hunter Biden inquisition, but can expect to face another protracted battle over his asinine "accountability study" that is no different from the Cons' save for a few minor Orwellian wording tweaks. There may be more than one way to skin a cat, as Charlie the Tuna so sadistically opined, but there's also plenty of ways for that cornered cat to fight back.

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I do hope the Liberals read the fine print, because Rempelthinskin's inquisition leaves the door open for the health committee (why? why the fuck not) to demand production of files pertaining to the WeGhazi smear campaign that's become the axis of evil's Captain Ahab obsession. In fact, it's right there in the intro:

That the Standing Committee on Health be instructed to undertake a study on the emergency situation facing Canadians in light of the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, and that this study evaluate, review and examine any issues relevant to this situation, such as, but not limited to:

...a bunch of COVID-related stuff (mostly blaming the feds for provincial matters and/or hinting at Trumpian conspiracy theories about Ghina and the World Health Organization), but when you open it with language so broad as to encompass a wide-ranging umbrella like that, it becomes clear that this... what shall we call it? Covidghazi? panel still offers the opportunity to investigate other things that the Cons et. al. are trying desperately to turn into a "scandal."

What has happened here thus far is that the Cons et. al. seem to realize the likelihood of the Liberals running out the clock to the point where WeGhazi doesn't matter to voters anymore, and will likely be judged at the next election on their COVID response. So their only hope is to try and undermine that with a scorched-earth approach that, of course, lets the provinces off the hook and splashes all the blood on Justin Trudeau's hands and even the public health agencies and industry leaders themselves.

And why not. Cons don't care if people die as long as their own insiders can make a buck and they get to indulge their perverse hatred of all things Liberal and Trudeau. The Bloc don't care as long as Quebec gonna Quebec. The NDP not only have an equivalent hatred of all things Liberal and Trudeau, but have a seeming ideological bent that anything involving the private sector is prone to "corruption," therefore the Liberals should have nationalized everything in a matter of weeks and, uh, put the largest mass mobilization of industry since WW2 to the work of, I guess, "civil servants." Da comrades, vodka factory make for good hand scrub. Job creation bad because no one is get profit from capitalist running dog. None of us are free until all of us work for free. NDP stands for Nationalize Domestic Production, because tankies gonna tankie, amirite?

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If the Liberals must endure this show trial then I suspect they will try to turn it against the Cons and their enablers by bringing those same epidemiologists and industry leaders as witnesses sympathetic to the government's position. Which will, of course, only serve to confirm the opposition's tinfoil bias that if you don't hate the Liberals you're a crony insider to the Liberals. But hey, if the NDP want to continue bandwagoning with the Cons and their de facto Quebec caucus by attacking doctors in the same manner as Jason goddamn Kenney, by all means let them enjoy their complete and utter slide into irrelevance as the useless and incoherent purity trolls they are. Personally, I hope they face lawsuits from the K-brothers and others that bankrupt them for good and wipe them off the map once and for all.

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Chantal Hébert and a couple of pollsters are reading the tea leaves that the Liberals have reached a point (or are nearing it) where the NDP has gotten sufficiently pissed off and can't expect to support the government in perpetuity in exchange for diminishing returns. Good, because this minority clusterfuck has been a disaster and it's clear that the Liberals need a majority to manage the pandemic (and recovery) with stability without continued sabotage. From her piece in this weekend's Star, this looks promising:

If ... pressure on Singh to part ways with the government becomes irresistible, the rest of the life of this Parliament will be counted in months, not years.

That may suit the Liberals just fine. It is possible — as the opposition believes and most observers suspect — that Trudeau’s real end game is to provoke an election while the polls show the Liberals to be in a position of relative strength.

It will be interesting to see how much effort the government puts in securing opposition support in general and NDP support in particular for a fiscal update expected next month.

Looking at that update and the confidence vote that will likely follow, it is far from certain that a replay of this week’s hardball Liberal tactics would result in the same outcome.

Nik Nanos (decent pollster, horrible pundit) and Frank Graves (adequate pollster, much better pundit) also proffer in a Reuters piece that Trudeau could (or should, at least) force the NDP's hand within the next three months or so — either before Christmas, or shortly after Parliament returns and (as looks likely) a new government is returned to Washington and the peak of the second wave starts to abate:

“(Liberals) are starting to see a window that’s open today and that they know will be open 60-90 days at the very least. Why try to extend the mandate when they can have a smash and grab majority?” Nanos said.

Frank Graves, president of polling company EKOS Research, sees risks of a snap election this fall during the worsening second wave of the pandemic.

“The dominant issue is the pandemic and we’ve reached a crisis stage. That factor could weigh heavily on how voters make their decisions,” Graves said. “If you do (an election) in the spring ... the worst is behind us, and I think Trudeau would be in a strong position to win.”

That piece also quoted anonymous PMO types who are still playing coy, but also hinting that they are fed up with the opposition's continued shit-disturbing:

Another government source said it is now up to the Liberals to illustrate they want to work with opposition parties, but if the parties want to “derail (the government’s work), then we need a new mandate.”

And if the NDP are still too chickenshit because their polling and funds are in the toilet, Trudeau may have no choice but to just up and call a vote himself. He'd get a lot more flak than Higgs, Horgan and Moe for it, but as Hébert said on At Issue this past week, he has every reason to beat the Cons at their own game by cribbing from Harper's playbook and calling for a "strong, stable (Liberal) majority government."

Let's hope he does get one sooner rather than later, one way or another.

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Speaking of the DipperCons, I'd just like to deliver some backhanded congratulations to Eric O'Foole for again one-upping Peter "Get to the Choppa" MacKay (whose name fits really well into the Airwolf theme song, by the way). Pete destroyed the Progressive Conservatives by enabling Adolf Harper and the Imperial Alliance to swallow them whole. It looks like Eric has managed to outdo that by not only bringing the Quebec nationalists back into the big blue tent, but he's even vacuumed up the NDP. Wow, that Jupiter-sized bald head of his carries a helluva gravitational orbit. Wait a minute, that's no moon...

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I'm kind of sad I didn't get to audition my Peter MacKay song in tribute to Jan-Michael Vincent and Ernest Borgnine. Oh, well, it wasn't much, and I guess now's as good a time as any.

Peter MacKay, Peter MacKay, Peter MacKay, Peter MacKay,
In a chopper, across the Seven Seas
Peter MacKay, Peter MacKay, Peter MacKay, Peter MacKay,
In a chopper to get some groceries
Peter MacKay, Peter MacKay, Peter MacKay, Peter MacKay,
In a chopper with a razor wing
Peter MacKay, Peter MacKay, Peter MacKay, have it your way
At the drive-thru at the Burger King
Peter MacKay, Peter MacKay, Peter MacKay...

Y'all so-cons even missed out on the B-side I was going to do for our Quebec listeners, where I fit "helicoptère" into the earworm theme song from Téléfrançais. Oh well, your loss, c'est la vie, je ne regrette rien. Guess you'll never get the reference to a chopper pilot who lived in an ananas down by the sea.

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Social media inside baseball: I got a month-long temp-ban at a Reddit sub for calling Michelle Rempel a "child" (based on her immature pouting and eyerolls towards a Liberal MP on the health committee during a CTV interview), a comment which the mods thought of as sexist. I'm not going to gripe about it much, but that's... some seriously P.C. stringency that even PMJT would think of as an overreach. People-kind seem to forget that his "people-kind" comment was mocking overzealous SJWs, whose overzealousness ends up playing into Cons' hands by embracing the very same stereotypes of the insufferably "woke" that intelligent progressives try to push back on. Once again, I need to start seriously following my own advice: Don't expect substantive political discussion on Reddit.

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A week is a long time in politics, so I'll probably have something else to write about before this one is up. Suffice it to say, however, that the next week in Canadian politics... is going to be entirely dominated by American politics. (And that Justin Trudeau's eventual post-political memoir is going to be a brick due to the Trump chapter alone.) The week after? Hey, look at that, Parliament is on break again, this time for Remembrance Day. Fiscal update the week after that, maybe? With just five weeks remaining for this year's sitting calendar not counting this one and the next, plus the fact that they've already kept up the momentum for a month already, maybe there's a chance they'll get to run out the clock on the committee circuit after all? January election please?

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CBC has cancelled Sunday Scrum in favour of giving Rosie Barton a second unearned pundit panel. Which is a real shame, because Sunday Scrum was one of the few CBC pundit panels that actually provided useful perspectives from underrated and underutilized sources like Susan Riley, Courtney Skye, and Vicky Mochama, rather than the same bubble insiders who've appeared on the likes of At Issue and Power & Politics for years, never really contributing anything new or of note. Andrew Coyne sucks and has a "conflict of interest" of his own with the Trudeau family. Also, why cancel Sunday Scrum for a whole lotta Rosie? Why not just fire Vichy Kapelos and give Rosie back P&P? Or just fire Vichy and replace her with Catherine Cullen and/or David Cochrane, who are much fairer in their line of questioning rather than playing softball with Cons the way CBC's resident Fox News wannabe always does? Slow clap for the national broadcaster, committing a slow suicide in their race to the bottom to make Evan "Hannity North" Solomon and David "The Semi-Serious Ezra Levant" Akin look like Canada's equivalents to Walter Cronkite and David Brinkley. Canadian "journalism" is utter shit.

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Speaking of Canadian "journalism": Good Christ, just fire everybody and give the entire fourth estate over to Dale Smith. His critiques of O'Toole and the pathetic decline into Trumpist insanity of the once honourable (and no longer progressive) Conservative party are searing and (lest anyone deride him as a "partisan") he even critiques PMJT and the Liberals when deserved (but only when deserved, not hair-on-fire shrieking over every damn thing like the Cons do or bogus false equivalencies that rely on constitutional gaslighting and Chapo-leftist polemicism like the NDP). His latest gets my vote for hot take of the year that is, actually, a bonfire: "The only material changes between Scheer and O'Toole these days are that O'Toole's shitposts have better Photoshop." Just not ready... nice, er, no hair though.

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And last but not least, I really, really miss Justin Trudeau's trick-or-treat outings with his kids. The Aladdingate non-scandal ruined the fun last year; this year he's not going out because of COVID, and assuming (hoping) he's still in office in 2021 (and beyond), the kids are probably too old now, even little Didi who'll be in grade 2 by then. Although I'm not gonna lie: I'm sorta getting used to the prolonged Disney cosplay he's been doing as the Beast after being Prince Eric for the first mandate. Mark Critch doesn't like it at all (and if I had to pick, I'd still prefer a clean-shaven man), but I still love my stylish prime minister and his innate ability to draw the camera with every time he changes up his look. And, I mean, who knows... his birthday is December 25, after all, so... maybe he's gearing up for a job at the U.N. spearheading activities at their North Pole Division? 🇨🇦 🎅

Dearest Justin: Fortune Favours the Bold

 

Late-entry Dearest Justin for this week after a stand-off at the O'Toole Corral. Things are about to get very, very tense in the weeks ahead and I just want to write a little love note of support.

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Dear Prime Minister Trudeau:

Congratulations on your hard-fought victory against the Conservatives and their sidekicks in fighting hard against their vicious witch hunt against your family and your government. I realize that this was only one major battle in what looks to be a protracted war, but from what I've read and seen lately I'm sure you've got the chutzpah to fight it.

I understand that some columnists, analysts and "pundits" have proffered the notion that you and the Liberals really did want an election to put the opposition adversaries in their place once and for all. I have no idea if that's true or not, but if so, I'm sorry that you didn't get that opportunity because the NDP got in the way. They have not been living up to their self-declared moniker as the "conscience of parliament" with their own support of the relentless pursuit of your mother's private life. I am, however, heartened to see that your team won a victory on that front against the arguably obsessive and sadistic Charlie Angus, who has been just as vicious in his campaign as the Conservatives and should probably cross the floor.

While I was glad to find that one of the committee inquisitions had dropped its demand for your mother and brother's personal financial effects, I also hope that they will continue pushing back against continued attempts to revitalize the contrived smear campaign involving the Canada Student Services Grant. As I'm sure you are aware, MP Angus has introduced his own motion that is distressingly similar to the inflammatorily-named "anti-corruption" commission of the Conservatives, dressing it up in the bland Newspeak title of "COVID Accountability Study," but designing its scope to be well beyond COVID-related lines of questioning and well into the realm of conspiracy theories that the Conservatives have made their M.O. The NDP have tag-teamed with the Conservatives (and Bloc) against your government to accuse you of dropping the ball on the COVID pandemic response and using the cover of a health emergency to funnel public monies to well-connected cronies. Such accusations are completely preposterous and nowhere in the realm of reality and I hope you and your team are able to continue pushing back and stonewalling their efforts at persecution.

I am not at all fond of the "health committee" study that Michelle Rempel Garner wishes to establish, and do wish your government had designated her motion as a confidence measure as well. It concerns me that the Liberals are faced with a massively coordinated, reactionary Conservative impetus to gang up on the government and gaslight the public about whose "responsibility" are the public health outcomes, while promulgating dangerous and even racist conspiracy theories attacking bedrock institutions such as the World Health Organization. The federal Conservatives are clearly running interference for their provincial acolytes, who have failed abysmally (perhaps by design) and "work the refs" of the Conservative-sympathetic media to point fingers solely at the federal Liberals and you in particular. That being said, I am mildly heartened to see that there has already been pushback from the manufacturing sector and numerous Canadian business leaders. The Conservatives, for once, need to be held accountable for their hypocrisy and sabotage. It appears Erin O'Toole simply cannot stand that a Trudeau beat him to the punch at putting "Canada first"!

Speaking of that same media, I found it mildly amusing to see a chorus of pearl-clutching opinion columnists expressing righteous indignation that you have chosen to use "muscle" in some way to fight back against the opposition's destructive impulses. Where once they might have praised Stephen Harper for "talking tough," or adopting "shrewd politicking," now they chide you for supposed "abuses of power" and not "respecting Parliamentary democracy." What partisan piffle! It seems more like this cadre of self-aggrandizing would-be opinion shapers can't stand the fact that the Liberals are beating the Conservatives at their own game. No one ever said that "sunny ways" meant you had to be docile in the face of victimization. But truth be told, what really gives me pause is how personal their frustrations have gotten: faced with an impending inquisition into your mother's personal life, you have adopted the stance of your father: just watch me — and these "pundits" are miffed that they got outmatched by not one, not two, but three Trudeaus in one!

I hope you can find a way to ride out this storm for the remainder of this year, and "smash and grab" a majority election very early in the next. These feckless saboteurs deserve to be sent packing to the nosebleed section of the House of Commons. There is a good chance that the U.S. will be rid of Donald Trump's administration by then, at which point a little bit of "sunny ways" will peek through the clouds for the first time in four years. I hope it proves to be a sign of light at the end of the dark tunnel for you as well.

Job well done, Prime Minister. Battle fought to a draw, leaning towards a slight victory. Onward to the next, and as always, may the Force be with you.

The Final Countdown?

 

So unfortunately, no eagerly anticipated election-triggering confidence vote over Drunk Rempel's farcical health committee motion meant to sabotage the government's response to COVID-19.

I have mixed feelings about this. On one hand I'd love to see the garbage axis of evil get wiped out sooner rather than later. Alternatively, I can see some possible reasons why Trudeau kept his powder dry for now.

For one thing, it's possible that the Liberals can still filibuster the finance and ethics committees for awhile longer, and the media cycle gets eaten up by this COVID circus instead. Moreover, that it reveals Rempel and her chicken caucus to be conspiracy theorists, China-obsessed xenophobes, and saboteurs undermining public health. As for the other committees, as this piece from iPolitics points out, not only are the Liberals continuing to outmaneuver their enemies at the committee table, but (while it's still too early to tell until we see more polling), most Canadians may not care:

Angus, who gave notice of his motion to be tabled in ethics, told iPolitics that Conservative and Bloc MPs on the committee “should” support his motion, because it lays out issues that were supposed to be dealt with in the special committee. He said he did not, however, send his opposition colleagues his motion in advance.

Angus also said the Liberal government must be asked how long its members will continue to filibuster House committees.

“How long can they credibly obstruct the work of parliamentary committees?” he asked.

But [former NDP director Karl] Bélanger said Angus’s motion won’t pass if he didn’t first consult with his Conservative and Bloc colleagues. Each party is trying to “one up each other” by bringing forward the best motion, and “you can’t just spring it on them,” he said.

As for Canadians, they don’t give a second’s thought to filibusters, Bélanger said.

It’s an “inside story” that opposition parties need to figure out, he said, and “as long as they are playing alone in their own sandbox,” the Liberals will win.

Fingers crossed that stonewalling continues, and Canadians tune it out, giving the Liberals enough time to run out the calendar until (at least) the holidays, as I posited in an earlier post.

The other beat-the-clock game, and one that one columnist said started this week with the Liberals' shot across the bow over the abusive "anti-corruption" committee the Cons were proposing, is the election timing game itself. If per chance the Liberals don't have an election in 2020 with Justin Trudeau calling one on his own, their next best bet would be as early as possible in 2021, before the (predictably overreaching) ethics report comes down and before the great post-COVID economic reckoning is to occur:

This wasn’t the end of snap-election dramas. It was the beginning.

We have just entered the period of minority-Parliament power games that can end in an election campaign. That means the odds are that there will be a federal vote in months, rather than years.

We now know that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is willing to risk an election. More than that: If Mr. Trudeau thinks the window is open for him to win an election, he will worry it won’t be open for long. The opposition parties know that, too.

Tick tock. The countdown to the next federal election has begun.

Mr. Trudeau is up for an election now. In a few months, he might just call it himself.

Theoretically speaking, the Liberals may see the next best option to having a fall election being to have some legislative accomplishments under their belt before the end of the year, before going in the spring: big ones, and ones that also have the effect of putting Eric O'Foole in a bind with his extremist caucus. A ban on conversion therapy, revisions to the medical assistance in dying law, and the landmark ratification of the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples — the latter of which in particular is a bad look for him to remain so vehemently opposed to, in light of recent events in Nova Scotia.

According to Susan Delacourt, there's also a window for "at least" one more confidence vote coming up very soon, with the "mini budget" or fiscal update presented by Chrystia Freeland. The government may fall on this or it may not. Elections Canada says they're ready whenever the MPs are, even in a pandemic.

But Justin Trudeau isn't going to wait for very much longer to put this nightmare year to bed. If the opposition won't play ball in good faith, he has every right and every reason to request a dissolution of Parliament on his own, on grounds that it has become dysfunctional and paralyzed and he can no longer respond adequately to the pressing needs of Canadians in the COVID (and/or post-COVID) era. There is constructive opposition and there is being dangerously and abusively obstructionist. The CPC and their enablers are being very much the latter.

Start the clock. He's as mad as hell and he's not going to take this anymore.