So it seems as if the PMO brainiacs have attempted to move GropeGate off the political radar by introducing an Attack Ford Gov strategy. The initial shot was fired by Trudeau when after he first met with Premier Doug Ford, explained to media how he had to spend “a little time explaining how the asylum-seeking system works and how our system is supposed to operate.” Oh and apparently Justin got it wrong.
Trudeau’s condescending attitude towards Ford was bad enough, but things really soured during the recent meeting between federal Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen and some of his provincial counterparts. This time we had a man (Minister Hussen) apparently taking offense to Ontario Minister of Children, Community and Social Services Lisa MacLeod’s “false language“ and refusal to sign the official communique by labeling her actions as “not Canadian” among other nasty phrases.
This provoked quite a Twitter backlash with the optics favouring Ms. MacLeod as Hussen was accused of bullying and mansplaining which are both no-nos in today’s current social environment. And by the way a recent poll appears to back up MacLeod’s concerns as to how the feds are handling the border issues.
However GropeGate did seem to disappear for a few days until Brian Lilley came up with this beauty which ties it all together: Justin Trudeau’s Liberals continue their fake feminist ways.
And so when Liberal male political types (including Butts) aggressively go after female opposition members both federally and provincially, they have to be called out for their hypocrisy as so-call feminists. Sure let’s debate the issues in a respectful manner but bashing and disrespecting women for political gain just isn’t going to cut it these days. And female Liberal MPs who either stay silent or openly support their male colleagues’ aggressive behaviours are just as guilty.
Update
This could get interesting. ‘The situation is going to get worse’: Liberals pushed to come up with answers on asylum issue – National Post:
“The motion calls on Hussen to testify, for the committee to meet at least twice more this summer and that the study be concluded before Aug. 3. Rempel also wants provincial ministers to either testify or provide written submissions to the committee.
MacLeod said she’d happily oblige.”
And another great Brian Lilley column here: Trudeau’s Liberals worry about words, not the illegal border crossers.
Blue Like You2 
Yes, this is what happens when everything is identity politics. They can’t sort out all the conflicting identities.
Off topic, sitting on the deck at our cottage, a rare visit by a humming bird, which came within 2 feet of me and hovered for 5 seconds before whizzing away. Never had that happen before.
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Very cool about the hummingbird! They are amazing creatures.
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The Liberals are getting desperate, their incompetence and hypocrisy is coming to the fore. We can expect them to target Ford mercilessly and Trump as a comparison will be used as well to fight the next election. Ford has them running scared. The election of both Trump in the US and Ford in Ontario is proof the media no longer has power to sway the vote.
Conservatives have plenty of ammunition already, Trudeau and Butts are not going to be able to fool the people this time around. The party has the likes of Goodale who stayed too long at the fair,nodding and bobbing doesn’t cut it in defense of the indefensible and outright stupidity.
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There are rumours of a cabinet shuffle coming soon. If they’re just shuffling cards around in the the same hand I doubt it will improve their luck.
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Not sure he has many choices to shuffle that will improve matters, not a lot there I’m afraid.
Climate Barbie was billed as one of their brightest and look how that has turned out.
Bobble Head Ralph and Climate Barbie are said to be remaining in their posts.
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Yeah I’m not hopeful. They really don’t have a very strong team.
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Will be interesting. Usually it takes more than four years for people to tire of a government, but with all the stupid things Trudeau has been doing he just might be a one term wonder. I unfortunately think unless there is a Blue wave in Quebec he will stay on as PM since even if the Tories win the most seats, unless they get a majority (They need both Ontario and Quebec for this), NDP and Liberals will much like Peterson and Rae in 1985 and what we have in BC now gang up to the Tories out. Hopefully if they try to do this there is a big backlash like there was in 2008. The reason there wasn’t a big backlash in BC is they were replacing a 16 year government who had all its warts and same with Ontario in 1985 when replacing a 42 year government. Trying to keep a government in power over this is a different story.
As for the future, who knows. It seems we are becoming more polarized with the left becoming more left wing and right more right wing but which way those swing voters will fall is anyone’s guess. Recent elections suggest they dislike both sides and tend to shift back and forth. There is also the turnout issue on who is more able to motivate their side to show up. I think by 2015, conservatives weren’t as enthusiastic as they were earlier so turnout stayed flat or went down, whereas I see a lot of anger amongst conservatives and I think motivation to show up is very strong. For progressives, Trudeau got many out primarily due to bringing out many younger voters who normally don’t vote, but whether those will show up again or not is hard to say. Had those voters not shown up in 2015, it would have been a nail biter minority, not a Liberal majority. In fact my Mom said when voting she saw a whole bunch of young people who didn’t know what to do suggesting despite being in their late 20s or early 30s, had never voted before. So we shall see if they show up again, but I get the feeling Trudeau hasn’t been what they were hoping for so I suspect some won’t show up.
In closing another thing worth remembering is Trudeau started with very high approval ratings while Ford’s are fairly low, so its quite easy for Ford to meet or exceed expectations, for Trudeau expectations were way too high and impossible to meet this why he has fallen so far so fast.
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Remember how Trump played Trudeau for so long telling the press Trudeau was doing a great job and how much he liked him? Remember how the press gloated that Trudeau was the Trump whisperer, that he could handle Trump like no one else could? And then the hammer dropped over NAFTA. Now the Trump whispering has been reduced to a whimper. You don’t suppose Trump is employing the same tactic with Putin but at a different level, do you? Trump has had to have a ruthless streak to get to this point. I don’t see him easing up on an adversary any time soon.
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Anne, who really knows what’s going on? But with Trudeau I suspect he has given up on getting a good deal on NAFTA and is going to try to use Trump as a foil against whom to score political points. Or at least that will likely be GB’s strategy. 😉
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I think we need to assume Trump has a game plan to deal with his adversaries.
He is now playing it out with Putin, the media and the Democratic crazies just fall all over it, then he changes his mind. He has them in a tizzy. If we were back to an old time newspaper room there would be reams of paper on the floor.
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So does today’s cabinet shuffle give you any clues as to what Trudeau’s strategy is going into the next elections? I think so. I also think that he’s doing what Liberals do – grow government and waste money. I see he’s essentially made life easier for Ralphy Goodale, and wisely demoted Melanie Joli.
My take is that the Trudeau government is very much still beatable.
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Seat wise I absolutely think he is beatable, but my fear is unless the Tories get a majority, the Liberals and NDP will gang up to keep Scheer from becoming PM, sort of like what you have in BC and had in Ontario in 1985. That being said Scheer’s efforts in Quebec make a lot of sense since if the regions of Quebec flip to the Tories, then a majority suddenly becomes possible. Harper got a majority without Quebec by winning 2/3 of the seats in English Canada, but I don’t think that is very realistic. We can probably avoid a shut out in Atlantic Canada, but doubt we will get 14 seats Harper won in 2011. In Ontario, we had perfect splits and the Tories got close to their ceiling of 45% so I think we can win a majority of seats in Ontario, but 2/3 like 2011 is probably a bit too much, in particular it seems some of the smaller cities like central Kitchener, London, and inner suburbs of Ottawa are now out of reach if provincial results are anything to go on. Not to mention Liberal vote is more efficient than the NDP one so we have to beat Ford’s popular vote to win the same number of seats due to efficiency of Liberal vote as Liberals are competitive in suburbs, but NDP is a bridge too far for most suburban voters. Likewise in BC, we seem to be at least in the coastal areas swinging leftward so we can win a majority of seats in BC but it really comes down to splits. Only good news is Greens are strong here so strong NDP/Liberal split and Greens 8-10% in BC and we can then pick up a lot of seats even only in mid 30s or high 30s at best. So in sum much like we did in Chicoutimi-Le Fjord when need to expand beyond the Quebec City area into the other regions of Quebec. We won’t win on the island of Montreal, but don’t need to either. It seems throughout the West, large urban centres are becoming left wing islands so we just have to win everywhere else like Ford did.
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Federally there really isn’t an effective NDP Miles. Trudeau still manages to eat their lunch quite nicely, they’re done in Quebec while Scheer is making gains in Quebec….AND soon, turning things to the Tories favour in Atlantic Canada.
That Trudeau has set his sites on doing battle with Ford in Ontario is very clear in this cabinet shuffle. There is no love lost between Bill Blair and Doug Ford.
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Choosing Blair will come back to bite Trudeau and Company. It’s obvious why he chose him. Doug Ford will eat his lunch, Blair wasn’t /isn’t that popular.
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Hard to say although I believe wasn’t it under Blair that the Toronto police were rampant in carding? Might hurt the Liberals amongst some minority communities as I don’t think he is very well liked in the Black community for example.
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I’d almost forgotten about what a lousy job Bill Blair did as Chief of Police at the G20 where protesters were kettled. Wasn’t there something about a law he cited that didn’t exist or something like that? He wore that for a while in the press.
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Agree the NDP is done in Quebec, but the Tories haven’t done well there since Brian Mulroney and Quebec is a tough nut to crack. Not saying Scheer cannot, just saying far more Tories have failed there than not. I think we will win some seats in Atlantic Canada, but the fear the Tories will make it tougher to get pogey seems to be the biggest barrier to a breakthrough. Whether Liberals in 1997 or Tories in 2015, it seems any party that touches EI (even though eligibility rules absolutely should be tightened) gets severely punished in that region. The one thing that may help the Tories in Atlantic Canada is the carbon tax as that is likely to hit that region harder than others.
As for Bill Blair vs. Doug Ford who knows. Doug Ford has a strong base and a strong amount of haters so it’s anyone’s guess which side will come out stronger or more likely my thinking is many of those in the middle will just tune out altogether. In terms of the NDP, they are doing well in Ontario although still in third due to probably some confusion from the last provincial election, but I suspect by 2019 they will be back in the high teens instead of mid 20s where they are now, although it is actually in our interest they stay around 25% in Ontario, just don’t rise any further so we get the splits. BC, I suspect will be a three way race as BC more so than other provinces has always had a strong militant leftist element (a minority to be sure, but much larger minority than in other provinces). It’s partly why the NDP has won BC provincially multiple times whereas other provinces are either one offs (Alberta, Ontario, and Nova Scotia), or they are more moderate (Manitoba and Saskatchewan). It’s also another reason why in BC, you have federal Liberals and federal Tories working together in one party (BC Liberals), which you don’t see elsewhere because the NDP is so strong and too ideological, Liberals and Tories are able to put aside their differences and unite to keep the NDP out, it’s one of the quirks with our politics west of the Rockies.
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Their strategy? It’s born of desperation and a touch of panic. I think calling Lisa MacLeod unCanadian was the clincher in seeing Hussen removed from the border crossing fiasco. He handled it so badly and the blowback was swift and merciless. Add to that the fact they put in Bill Blair, a unilingual anglophone, to handle a file that affects Quebec so deeply is a testament to their realization this ongoing predicament will affect their election chances. I believe keeping Melanie Joly in cabinet shows their lack of female talent in the francophone gender equivalent sweepstakes. She should have been gone long ago.
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Horwath is barking on about Correction services minister being racist because he wore a bullet proof west in Jane and Finch area. This is silly as Jane and Finch is one of the most violent parts of Toronto and has nothing to do with race. Here in Vancouver, the area to avoid is the Downtown Eastside which is actually predominately white. I abhor racism and unlike others here despite Trump with a passion, but if you keep on screaming racism all the time even when it’s more imagined than real, eventually people tune out and that allows a real racist to win. Sort of like the boy who cried wolf and how that ended. I don’t think the left realizes on identity politics, if they cry wolf too many times, it won’t work when they really do need to cry wolf.
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Miles, you have made it very clear that you hate Trump with unreserved passion BUT there were only two choices. I cannot possibly believe that you of all people, as reasonable and logical as you appear to be, would have voted for Hillary. That would be stretching credulity. That woman is as vile and conniving as they come. Benghazi is but one glaring example. She doesn’t know when to sit down and shut up.
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No fan of Hillary Clinton and John Kasich was my ultimate preference, but there are certain red lines I have for all politicians and Trump crossed far too many of them, by contrast Hillary Clinton had her issues but she never crossed any of my red lines so yes I would have reluctantly voted for her. She was definitely a better choice than Bernie Sanders whose policies would be economically disastrous. Also I am more of a Red Tory so I think you would find Conservatives in Canada split equally on Trump, those on the right wing of the party like him, those on the more centrist wing or slightly right of centre not so much.
Also the United States is a lot more conservative than Canada so being a conservative in Canada and Democrat in the US is not that big a stretch. On the political spectrum, the Democrats are to the right of both the Liberals and NDP although left of the Tories while GOP is to the right of any political party in Canada both past and present. I would however be a Conservative in the UK, but a Liberal/National in Australia (Liberal in Australia is really conservative, Labor is the left wing party there), and National Party in New Zealand so conservative in 4 of the 5 Anglosphere countries.
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Hillary is actually being called out today for criticizing Trump for lack of support for an ambassador. ‘What difference at this point does it make’. That women has a lot of gall.
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Howath is the typical fake friendly radical socialist that just assumes racism at every opportunity, she is a disgrace, but like most leftists she simply gets a pass from the usual media hucksters; she is the type of crackpot that if one said “I think that the crisis of illegal border crossings should be dealt with in an orderly, logical and proficient manner”, would automatically consider that person on the same level as the Aryan Brotherhood; They do this because identity politics isn’t something the left uses, it’s at the very core of their twisted ideology and I think these people cried wolf one too many times a long time ago
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Also turns out Howarth is making a lot of noise about standard practice. Tibillo was not just walking through the Jane and Finch area with a bullet proof vest, he was riding in a police car with the police and when you are doing that, you are required to wear a bullet proof vest so he didn’t have a choice and that applies no matter what part of the province you are in. Howarth would have to wear one too if she was riding around with the police, although with the comments some of her candidates made about the police, not sure many would want to have her come with them.
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I have to say that for Doug never having experienced Question Period before he’s not doing a bad job. I like how I’ve heard his remind Horwath that thanks to her backing Wynne and folding like a cheap suit, she is as responsible for the mess of the last four years as was the Wynne government.
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This article on Trudeau’s hypocrisy is interesting because of the author, another Liberal, former Ontario Liberal at that. https://www.nationalnewswatch.com/2018/07/18/why-are-we-surprised-by-a-prime-ministerial-double-standard/#.W0-x37gnapd
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Catherine McKenna said something stranger than usual during an interview today. I can’t remember the exact quote so if anyone can remember I’d appreciate it. It was in response to ON environment minister Rod Phillips who had informed her Ontario would not put a carbon tax in place. She said that meant Ontario had no plans for the province’s economy. That’s one for Ripley’s Believe It or Not.
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Yes I saw that too! Unbelievable.
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Catherine McKenna comes across as quite arrogant. It’s not so much her opinions I have a problem with as more her dismissive attitude towards those that don’t share her opinions. In a democracy one of the key tenants is being respectful and listening to those who you don’t agree with. Regardless of opinions, I have little time for politicians who think their opinion is the only acceptable one and mock anyone who doesn’t share it. That being said she comes from Ottawa Centre which just elected a hardcore socialists Joel Harden. He was the favourite whipping boy of NDP candidates and no doubt cost the party seats in the suburbs where many found him too extreme so I get the feeling many in urban cores live in a progressive bubble and don’t understand how people outside of it think. If they ventured outside of their progressive bubble, Trump’s win, Ford’s win, and Brexit wouldn’t have been as big a shock even if they strongly disagree with them. But because everyone around them thinks the same, they are shocked when they find out many don’t think like them.
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Yeah McKenna comes under the heading “Hubris”. Her way or the steel straw highway.
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Why on earth he left her with the environment portfolio when she garners so much ridicule is beyond me. There are already two steadfast premiers refusing to impose a carbon tax with the possibility of two more after the Quebec and Alberta provincial elections. PEI is a possible fifth. Any credibility McKenna may have had evaporated long ago. Trudeau must be awfully low on talent if he can’t find somebody with substance to replace such a dud. But then again there’s that gender thingy, isn’t there?
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PEI under a Liberal regime no less has said they will now oppose the carbon tax. The PCs in all four Atlantic provinces have said they will oppose it if elected and both New Brunswick and Newfoundland have elections before the next federal where things are quite competitive. Ironically in PEI the Green Party is doing quite well so perhaps the Liberals opposing it there is tactical to make a two way race between them and the Greens and push down the PCs or as a way to trip up the Greens. Quebec may swing rightward this October, but my understanding is in Quebec and BC, all parties support either a carbon tax or cap and trade so won’t be any push back from those two, but Quebec could be a problem for Trudeau on the immigration file as Legault promises to take a much harder line while in BC he has problems on the pipeline file. Manitoba also is implementing a carbon tax, but only raising it to $25/tonne, no the required $50/tonne so in 2020 onwards expect them to jump on board if the Liberals are still in office.
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Trudeau/Butts shuffle proves just how slim the pickings are among the lot of them.
McKenna has an attitude problem, she’s full of herself and doesn’t have time for the peons, they ask too many questions she can’t answer sensibly, she hasn’t got it, it’s show boat all the way. It’s “Climate Barbie” in over her head, that moniker fits, it has stuck with her , she’s no doll however, much too arrogant.
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Ivison has a great column out. I just linked to it on Twitter. https://twitter.com/JoanneBLY/status/1019925606832599040
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I believe her husband writes for McLeans or something. Wouldn’t want to lose that free propaganda.
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This tweet wins the internet today! Enjoy –
Pepe E. Trudeau
@PierreETrudeau2
Justin Trudeau is to feminism as Milli Vanilli is to music
Except he’s lip-synched by @gmbutts
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Oh that’s a good one!!
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Guessing any mention of the groping episode is now concluded, no more to see there. Shiny has no memory of it and has apologized. It was a different experience for the gropee than the groper, or something like that there!
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Yes indeed. Apparently men and women experience these things differently or something.
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I don’t think it’s over for Trudeau on the grope file. Not at all. It’s still simmering below the surface and now EVERY time he starts in on his feminism schtick it will bring it back all over again. There’s every reason to believe that the Conservatives will want to keep this strategic ball in the air, and they should.
http://angusreid.org/groping-allegation-trudeau/
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To Greg at 2:32 pm – This story explains in a nutshell exactly who Scott Gilmore is. Briefly, he is a disruptive force (a self-described conservative) who hosts dinners in an attempt to form a new conservative party. https://www.macleans.ca/politics/changing-the-future-for-canadas-conservatives-one-dinner-at-a-time/ There are lots more where that came from. https://www.google.com/search?q=Scott+Gilmore+new+conservative+party&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8
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He seems like a Joe Clark sort of Red Tory so while might not fit well in today’s conservative party, certainly not a left of centre liberal like his wife is. To be fair actually there really isn’t any party that represents Red Tories and Blue Liberals, at least not federally or in Ontario. I guess the BC Liberals, Quebec Liberals, and Atlantic PC parties perhaps but that is about it. Mind you I think we have a much more polarized public than we did say 30 years ago when most were closer to the centre and that seems to be the trend in most countries so we are not alone either. That being said husband and wives can differ, my parents almost never vote the same way. In the US you have James Carville who works for the Democrats while his wife Mary Maitland is a Republican strategist so while not too common you do sometimes have spouses who support different parties. After all there was a large gender gap in voting patterns. According to a few exit polls I saw, Ford got around 50% of the male vote but only 1/3 of the female vote while NDP was around 38% of the female vote but only 30% of the male vote mind you the gap was largest amongst millennials smallest amongst seniors so perhaps a lot of that was amongst those not married, but point being if the exit polls are right it would suggest in some households the spouses voted differently.
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If you recall we discussed this very topic during the CPC leadership campaign. There was some question about Gilmore’s conservative credentials because no one could recall him ever playing a part. We are told he has variously voted conservative, green and liberal. He is said to have voted liberal in 2015, the year his wife became an MP, which does leave his motives suspect. To raise the issue of splitting the party at such a critical juncture was troubling to many. Add to all that the fact that Macleans, the publication for which he writes, had stated that they would be responsible for some of the costs of these dinners. It was not specified which portion of the costs or the amount they would front. Gilmore specified that he would purchase the first round of drinks at each of several planned dinners.
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Could we trust Gilmore to be a true blue Conservative? I’d imagine pillow talk would be interesting between him and “the wife”, could be anywhere from informative to non-existent.
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Hard to say. Maybe they just respectfully disagree or maybe like James Carville and Mary Maitland they just never discuss politics, I don’t know.
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In 2015, his wife was running so generally if a family member is running it is common to vote for them. Also I think he is more a former Progressive Conservative who doesn’t support the current Conservatives. Otherwise I think a real interesting question is if Patrick Brown were still Ontario PC leader and Michael Chong were federal leader, would he then support the Conservatives. If answer yes, then I think its a legitimate debate about whether our party needs to do more to bring back the Red Tories who feel we’ve drifted too far to the right or not, while if not then proves he is a fake one. I am not suggesting we return to the Bill Davis or Joe Clark era, but I do think if we want to win on a regular basis rather than just one offs when people get really tired we do need to make the tent big enough for the likes of those while at the same time also for those more to the right. In the first past the post system, any party wishing to win an election needs to be a big tent one and incorporate a wide degree of views.
If we end up switching to proportional representation, which I hope we don’t ever, then it would make sense for the right to split again as under FTFP when right is split the two parties may get more votes combined then they would as a merged one (Anytime you merge two entities you will always have some unhappy), it will get substantially less seats due to vote splitting. Under PR it is the combined total that matters and it would in the end mean if winning working together anyways just as a governing coalition rather than single party.
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I think Stephen Harper is bang-on in his thinking here. https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/harper-pm-resisting-new-nafta-deal-to-score-partisan-advantage-1.4020749
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Certainly all the virtue signalling probably should be taken out. That might work when trying to cut a deal with the European Union and I am sure Britain post Brexit wanting a deal with their former commonwealth partners probably will go along as well, but whether the US or Asian countries, they aren’t interested in this and not a hill worth dying over. That being said we shouldn’t cave in, a deal should be fair not slanted towards the US and I fear Trump not just with Canada, but pretty much every country wants one sided deals slanted towards his country and we definitely should not take that. Otherwise we can and should negotiate, but like all negotiations we should have our red lines and if we can get a deal without crossing those, if we cannot we shouldn’t capitulate. Lets remember congress is still mostly pro free trade even if Trump is not and so are most governors so I think if we cannot deal an unacceptable deal with Trump, we should work with congress and state legislatures to put pressure on him to either accept NAFTA as is or modify his stance.
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I’ve given up expecting any reasonable responses from Trudeau. His answers are canned – all the same thing with the words and phrasing simply rearranged yet he offers nothing specific, ever. And people applaud this codswallop.
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Yes it seems to be working for him. However I have been hearing a tiny bit of frustration from the media on that score. Hopefully that outrage will increase.
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I think we’ll see more media types becoming frustrated with Trudeau’s talking points. The same ones he used in Question Period this whole last session.
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Justin’s got another HUGE problem coming out of the Premiers’ meeting in N.B. Here’s the link to Andrienne Batra’s sharing of a communique in which ALL Premier’s agree that the feds need to pay for all the costs of incurred by the “increased number of individuals crossing the boarder outside of points of entry.” https://twitter.com/AdrienneBatra/status/1020376031415463936/photo/1
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Ha-ha! What’s Justin going to do now? Label them all alt-right?
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Didn’t realize all provinces signed on, but I know Manitoba, Ontario, and Quebec signed on and virtually all are going to those three provinces. Interestingly enough Quebec has a Liberal government too, although a more centre-right as opposed to centre-left one. It is possible although not the most likely outcome that come October 21, 2019, only Nova Scotia and Yukon will have Liberal governments. I think Notley is likely toast next year, Quebec is leaning CAQ (I actually like Philippe Couillard as he seems fairly fiscally conservative so I won’t be upset if he is re-elected unlike I would have been for Wynne or will be if Trudeau wins again), while polling is too far and few in the Atlantic provinces so it’s anyone’s guess which way those will go, but think PCs have a reasonable shot in New Brunswick and Newfoundland & Labrador although those could go either way. PEI seems to be a three way race with some polls suggesting the Greens are leading (God help us if they win as that will just encourage parties elsewhere in the country to adopt PR which we don’t need).
On the Carbon tax, the status now is Saskatchewan and Ontario are against. Manitoba is for but only up to $25/tonne, no higher. Alberta is for, but if Kenney wins it will join Saskatchewan and Ontario in fighting it. Atlantic provinces are wavering, but all PC Parties in all four promise to oppose it if elected. Only BC and Quebec are all major parties on board with either carbon tax or cap and trade. To be fair those provinces tend to be a lot greener than others. BC due to its natural environment, Quebec because they are more European in their attitudes on many issues (that is also why they are more conservative on immigration than elsewhere in Canada).
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Just a little heads-up that I plan to take a break from social media for a few days next week. Not sure what I’ll do about comments here. May possibly temporarily shut down the comment form. If I decide to do that I will let you know. It truly is good to get away from politics once in a while.
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Agreed, never hurts to take a break from it. Not sure how many trolls you get trying to comment but get blocked, however it would be nice to keep it open, but understood if you don’t want to. I certainly think all of us here would ignore any provocateurs or trolls although agree it is annoying when they post.
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Well the benefit would be to completely take a break but I think the filters are working well (finally!). I’ll see how things go.
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Just a warning, Joanne, some of us (me) just might climb walls during that break but it’s one way to get exercise (lol). Enjoy your well-deserved break. We’ll still be here when you get back. We proved it after the post-2015 election hiatus, didn’t we? Now go do something fun.
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lol! Thanks Anne. That’s very kind.
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Enjoy a break Joanne, Summer is galloping to Fall all too fast.
Only one proviso, if Mr Butts and company call a snap election you will return pronto.
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Haha! Well Liz, PM Butts would be insane to call a snap summer election this year. But next year who knows?
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Seems the media don’t like Harper’s take on what most of us believe re the Butts/Trudeau script for their campaign…the flipping nerve of him! They were really upset with him going to the US, he got them all discombobulated. He is out of Office, he can go wherever he is invited and he is invited to other places around the globe.
I’m thinking PM Harper is enjoying this one, it’s a bit of payback and more will be coming if they set themselves up for it.
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Wasn’t this last session in the HofC Question Period absolute proof of exactly what Mr. Harper claims? Wasn’t it all about decrying “Scheer’s smile but Harper’s party”? Weren’t conservatives denigrated at every opportunity for being associated with the ‘evil’ Harper? Now the LPC strategy is being called out and they deny it existed. Their sycophantic operatives must be awfully busy tracking his whereabouts. Does anybody detect a strong reek of election fear emanating from this government?
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Off course the Liberals will try and use Harper as a foil and claim voting Tory is Harper redux. If they were doing a good job they wouldn’t need to bring it up, they could run on their own record. Mind you all parties do this, that is how you win. You can bet the Ontario PCs will mention Wynne and McGuinty and tie the next Liberal leader to them in 2022 and likewise if the NDP is our next opponent they will try to tie the NDP to Rae although probably like this time more attack on their radical ideas as the Rae government was so far back and you have a whole generation of voters now who don’t remember it. Here in BC, for 16 years, the BC Liberals won by reminding people of the NDP in the 90s and likewise in Ontario, the Liberals always tried to tie the PCs to Mike Harris. So this is par for the course. Now whether it works or not is a whole different issue. Obviously as much as many of us may not like it, people clearly had tired of Harper thus why he lost, but he still got 32% of the popular vote and wasn’t wiped off the map like Wynne was so the Tory base is quite strong, its really a matter of can they reconnect with the swing voters they lost. Based on the provincial election results since 2015, I would say yes as it appears in the provincial elections since, many of those who voted Harper in 2011 and Trudeau in 2015 voted for conservative parties provincially. Now will they or not? It will come down to the campaign. I doubt either the Liberals or Tories will have an insurmountable lead heading into the 2019 campaign meaning it’s quite possible the party in second place will end up being victorious in the end.
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The only problem for the LPC now is the fact that it was Mr. Harper, himself, who called them out for it which renders that tactic useless for them from here on. They wanted their secret recordings, hoping to do damage, but they got more than they bargained for. Now the CPC have the upper hand IMO.
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That’s my contention Anne,they are running scared, Ford winning in Ontario really upset them. I hope Mr Harper keeps them roiled, he knows what they’re up to, even though they made it obvious,he reads them very well.
They had Trudeau out to deny it all too quickly. The more they deny the more we know it to be true. It will be all about Ford and Trump, they have little else.
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Popcorn sales are going to go through the roof, Liz. I can hardly wait to see what comes next. Gropegate is not gone yet. Check out Norman Spector’s timeline.
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Check out this tweeted video at https://twitter.com/Bluehart007/status/1020467003042062337 if you need a good laugh. It is simply brilliant!
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Ha-ha!! Well done indeed.
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Not content in agreeing to take up to 250 of the beleaguered White Helmet volunteers Canada’s Chrystia Freeland continues to virtue signal, stating, “Canada has been a key partner of the White Helmets and is proud to have provided funding to support their emergency training and to increase the number of women White Helmets.” Gotta push that feminist agenda even now, even with lives at stake. https://www.canada.ca/en/global-affairs/news/2018/07/canada-supports-the-white-helmets.html
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Freeland is supposedly one of the stars of Trudeau’s command team (I know the bar is very low) but what exactly has she accomplished? Other than a trade deal mostly negotiated by the Harper group, where she had a hissy fit when things didn’t go her way she has actually accomplished very little; thus far her NAFTA work has been an abysmal failure despite the “were making progress” sound bites and the media running interference for her lack of “progress”. It may be a hardball negotiation but it’s her job to get it done somehow and it seems she is being as obstinate as the US side. If she can’t make something happen then Trudeau needs to find someone who can; not likely though, his obsession with gender nonsense probably means Freeland is immune, regardless of how ineffective she actually is
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While I guess the bar is low, if you compare her to Catherine McKenna, Melanie Joly, Maryam Monsef, Bill Morneau and some of the others she looks quite impressive, but again the above three shouldn’t even be in cabinet at all let alone the roles they got On the issue of NAFTA, I think dealing with Trump is incredibly tough. I don’t know of any Western leader who has managed to get a good deal with him, not even the UK which is probably the most friendly towards him, so I put the blame more on Trump. The reality is if the GOP choose a traditional type like John Kasich we wouldn’t be having this discussion as the GOP has traditionally been very pro free trade. When we got NAFTA we had strong capable leaders on both sides. Brian Mulroney certainly was thus why he succeeded but also both Ronald Reagan and George HW Bush were rational and predictable unlike Trump. The problem with Trump is he is so unpredictable so its tough to strategize and make any plans whereas with most presidents like or dislike them, you could strategize. In the case of Putin, maybe he is a better negotiator than others, but I have a hunch, could be wrong though, that he holds some very damaging evidence on Trump and Trump knows this so doesn’t want to do anything to annoy him enough to release it.
That being said agree Trudeau’s cabinet is quite weak mind you when as a party you go from third place to first, you are going to have to rely mostly on rookie MPs rather than those with experience. Harper by contrast already had a caucus with years of experience in parliament when he came to power and of the newbies many had served in provincial governments such as Baird or Flaherty. Probably explains a lot why Doug Ford’s cabinet was overwhelmingly returning MPPs despite the majority of his caucus being rookies as he wants to avoid the mistakes Trudeau has made. Rachel Notley faced the same problem although with her it’s pretty much been a one woman show with cabinet playing a much lower profile than Trudeau’s. In fact when polls showed her party pulling ahead, she was actually a bit worried at that point as she realized she would have to put together a cabinet of many who never expected to win their seats let alone form government.
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Well I think I’ll just leave things open here and will catch up in a few days. I’ve already been through a worst case scenario with the previous blog so I won’t worry. lol!
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Sounds fair. And besides it’s mostly just regulars who come here. I think if any trolls show up, most of us will just ignore them. While I cannot speak for others, I actually enjoy debating with people regardless of political perspective as long as it is respectful and avoids insults. I actually think having conversations and debates where one disagrees is quite healthy and an important part of living in a free and democratic country where we have different viewpoints. But I agree the discourse sadly today has become quite nasty and some do insult those with different viewpoints thus understand reason to want to keep some off which is unfortunate, but totally true.
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You are exactly right. You have encapsulated the very reasons why I refuse to sign up for Twitter. As it stands now I can read the twitter feeds of those who make them public if and when I choose to do so. I don’t have to subject myself to abuse of any kind. That’s why I love Joanne’s site. She makes sure everyone remains civil whether we agree or disagree on subjects raised. It’s easier to express a viewpoint when you’re not limited to a certain number of characters, too.
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Agree character limit doesn’t help, but also I find the worst people on twitter are those who are anonymous. Some feel they can say stuff they would not feel comfortable saying to others in person. Also the proliferation of fake accounts and bots is unhelpful. Still I use it, but agree it can be quite abusive at times. Perhaps the best way is if it is not something you would feel comfortable saying to a person face to face, then don’t say it anywhere even if online and behind anonymity.
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Wonder how the various disciplines will be dealing with the carnage experienced in Toronto? What can be done? What can be said in this politically correct climate we live in? Is this the face of diversity? Will mental illness be again used to defend the murderous rampage?
We hear people say this is not Canada, this is not who we are, but it is happening. Any time any innocent people are killed going about their lives we have to step things up across the board.
Is there a common thread and will we ever know?
We await the investigation but will there be any answers?
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The immediate response from many sides of the political spectrum is to ban guns. But what do we ban when there are van, truck, bomb, knife and, in the UK, acid attacks? The mental health issue is another conundrum that has no ready answers. Professional treatment can only go so far. Therapy, both psychiatric and pharmaceutical, can be recommended and attempted but results can never be guaranteed. Sloganeering, flowers and candles send a signal that participants want to be part of a solution but they end up being forgotten when something else comes along to distract us. What do we try next?
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Certainly I don’t think you can blame religion, after all the van attack back in April was an incel not Muslim who was upset he was still a virgin at 25 and wanted to get revenge at the Chads and Staceys as the Incel community refers to them as. We will have to see what caused this. Mental health is a big part of it, but sadly all societies are going to have people that will do bad things so the goal is to minimize such attacks, you can not eliminate them. On guns, I am unlike a lot of conservatives generally for strict gun laws and certainly anything we can do to tighten rules to prevent guns ending up in the wrong hands as well as better storage rules to reduce the risk of guns being stolen.
On hand guns, my personal viewpoint is they should be banned outright except for competitive target shooters. Those who wish to target shoot would still be able to, but guns would have to remain at the range. Collectors would have to make their guns inoperable. I am not suggesting banning all firearms, I am fine with hunting rifles, but pretty tough to conceal a rifle in a large city in Toronto so if walking down the street with one people would notice. By contrast easy to hide a hide gun. I also think with rifles there needs to be magazine limits which thankfully they are so we can avoid mass shootings like the US has all too often. So I do support tougher gun laws, but that alone isn’t necessarily going to prevent this. I don’t think there is an easy solution, its a mix of many things and altogether they will simply reduce murder rates, not eliminate them entirely.
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We’ve been getting conflicting reports about the shooter including he was known to police.Maybe we need to give more powers to the police so they can perhaps take action that would prevent such murderous rampages. It’s not helpful to blame mental illness either, especially when we have come through an era where there was stigma attached to it.
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An interesting discussion between radio talk show host Leslie Roberts and criminal defence lawyer Ari Goldkind on this question: given the statement of condolences by the alleged murderer’s family about his mental illness, can the perpetrator be considered a victim too?
http://www.iheartradio.ca/cjad/shows/the-leslie-roberts-show-1.2220633 under the heading “Is the frontman for Hedley being used to set an example for others in the industry?”
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It is beginning to appear that the official statement from the family was produced entirely by a professional muslim advocate named Mohammed Hashim. This individuals role is to spin stories that might otherwise be negative to muslims. It is not apparent anyone in the family had anything to do with the statement other than perhaps approving it. Especially since his father is ill, his brother in a coma, and his sister is dead. This does not mean the killer was not mentally ill, but does raise questions. In any case it does not explain the murderers trips to Afghanistan, his professed allegiance to ISIS, or how he obtained a pistol. It is very hard to get a permit for buying a pistol, even if you are not ‘mentally ill’.
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I don’t know how many of us are familiar with an Australian by the name of Imam Tawhidi, @Imamofpeace. He is a Muslim reformist along the lines of Tarek Fatah and Raheel Raza. He posted a link to a troubling video he claims shows the shooter to be something other than a mentally ill individual. Check out his feed for that link. If it’s true then the fact it exists needs to be known by all Canadians.
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How about getting it to our government and security people as well?
I often wonder if they listen to all the stuff that comes out pertaining to an individual who commits such a murderous rampage and check it all out? I think there’s a tendency to dampen down information in some cases depending on certain elements of the case.
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I am so impressed with Lisa MacLeod as she testifies at the immigration hearing today. She’s not taking crap from anybody and, in my opinion, giving back twice as good as she’s getting. She refuses to be sidetracked on the issue of terminology and insists on coming back to the topic at hand to make her point. She’s a great one to tackle this tricky file.
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I’ve found on twitter a lot get really angry when anyone uses the term illegal immigration. The fact is crossing other than a port of entry is illegal. Yes entering illegally does not preclude one from claiming asylum but that doesn’t change the fact it is still illegal to enter other than a port of entry. Also the UN convention allows this more due to those escaping war zones or fleeing dictatorships that won’t let them leave legally (i.e. someone tunnelling under the Berlin Wall back in the day, rafts from Cuba, or North Koreans swimming across the Yalu River into China) it was not meant so you could jump the border from a safe country when there is a port of entry down the road. I think a lot on the left get too hung up on the technicality and need to realize your average voter doesn’t care about it, lawyers maybe do or some politicians who are big on detail but average voter doesn’t. Likewise the law can be changed and as for UN requiring this, UN law is not worth a piece of paper as UN has no enforcement mechanism, its simply more a gentleman’s agreement but its not enforceable say like EU law where an EU member can be fine for violating EU law and forced to change.
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What has to happen in this country for our so-called prime minister to realize that leadership is not all about taking vacations? This is personal day #5 in BC for this slacker.
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But on the other hand … not seeing him smirk & not having to listen to him hemming & hawing as he makes inane announcements is a good thing.
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Actually I wish he would go on permanent vacation and let the adults run things. There are a few Liberal cabinet ministers (not many though) who could probably do a better job even if not fully to our liking. The good news is it seems provincially the tide is turning to the right so win or lose in 2019, the progressive dominance of all levels of government seems to be coming to the end, at least in most provinces.
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Permanent vacation? Good idea, but only if he takes Gerald Butts, his ideas guru, with him. Dean @bcbluecon posted an article a few days ago that indicated Trudeau would not be welcome in Tofino. https://globalnews.ca/news/4348303/not-welcome-here-environmental-groups-urges-boycott-of-trudeau-if-he-vacations-in-tofino
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based on Trudeau’s own feminist rhetoric, he should actually step down and let a female have a turn, maybe McKenna, since he thinks she’s doing such a bang up job; then he can put himself into some newly created semi-regal position with little real responsibility but lots of ceremonial duties; seems as if that’s what he really wants anyway
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Our dramatic Prime Minister has such a great people in supporting roles he doesn’t need to always be on stage. He could use some better lines when he is, he might want ot think about hiring better script writers.
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What makes Goodale and company so sure at this stage the Toronto murderer had no connection to ISIS as claimed by that terrorist murderous Islamic sect?
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Why? Because ISIS connections are not part of the mental illness narrative. But now there’s a new wrinkle to be worked out with the planned gun grab – the semi-automatic weapon used by the suspect was illegally (or should that be irregularly?) ‘sourced’ from ——–wait for it———- the US.
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I’ll just leave this here. Tweeted by Senator Linda Frum
@LindaFrum The celebrity chef who was flown to India at a taxpayer cost of 17k to cook a meal for PM — is also a member of the PM’s “Independent” advisory board for “Independent” Senate appointments. Gosh this is tiresome.
https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/minister-gould-announces-appointments-to-independent-advisory-board-for-senate-appointments-689118491.html
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Nice work if you can get it!
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So is Trudeau’s version of carrying out the duties of prime minister of our grieving country. Today is his 6th personal day in a row. Isn’t that what working people call a vacation? All we’ve heard from him in those days are two tweets concerning the deaths and mayhem perpetrated in Toronto. His attitude can only be described as flippant, disinterested and disengaged.
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Paul Wells has an interesting article on the poor treatment Lisa MacLeod received when she testified https://www.macleans.ca/politics/ottawa/what-are-we-debating-when-we-debate-border-crossers/ . It seems the Liberals and I’ve noticed the Ontario NDP in question period really want to jump on the SJW bangwagon. I think their rhetoric sells well in urban cores, but is a turnoff in suburbs and rural areas and Liberals need to hold the suburban areas and NDP needs to gain in one of the two if they want to form government. Also John Ibbitson has a good article on the risks for both parties as I think most Canadians on illegal immigration are middle of the road. Tories have to be careful not to come across as anti-immigrant or intolerant, but Liberals equally have to show they are respectful to those who have concerns not demonize and call anyone who disagrees with them racist. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-liberals-and-conservatives-must-find-delicate-political-balance-with/
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O.K. I’m back! Looks like things went well here and I have a lot of catching up to do!!
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Breaking news in Ford is making big changes for municipal elections. Regional elections in York, Peel, Niagara, and Muskoka for chair cancelled (note they didn’t have these ever before, only changed by OLP in 2016) while Toronto city council cut from 47 to 25 to match provincial and federal boundaries. For regional chairs, I think they should be either elected or abolished as I am never really a fan of less democracy. But on reducing city council to 25, fully support that as it will be more efficient and cost less to taxpayers. But with the municipal election on October 22, 2018, it is too close to them to be doing this so I think the changes should take effect for the 2022 municipal elections, not 2018 so they have time to adjust. I hope caucus and cabinet got a heads up since if they find out on the news like us this won’t be good although its early in the mandate so lots of time to recover from any mistakes thankfully.
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Ford also has first hand knowledge of how dysfunctional the large mob of councilors is now.
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Fully agree and if an election weren’t so soon I would say this is a good idea. Tory has promised a referendum, so probably just let that go ahead. If the majority of Toronto residents like the current set up so be it although I think there is a good chance the referendum would pass and at least that way it avoids having this as a negative issue against him.
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I think I heard recently that Mel Lastman’s son (Neal?) is going to run against Tory.
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Nope. Blaine Lastman made a statement this week nixing that idea.
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I read Faith Goldy is in for the Mayoralty race….how legit is that?
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Liz J – Faith Goldy is running, but doubt she will get that many votes. Outside of your hardcore regular Rebel media readers, don’t think she is a household name and with no parties, name recognition is a huge one. Also her views are pretty far to the right too. My guess is she will at most get 2%. I think John Tory will win in a landslide while Keesmaat will come in a distant second and all others will be irrelevant.
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Tory may have promised a referendum but hasn’t acted on it or put thing is motion. No matter when Ford would have announced this he’d come under exactly the same fire from exactly the same suspects. Regional chairs just add to the level of bureaucracy where their wasn’t one before.
Also, it appears that Patrick Brown is now a candidate for Mayor of Brampton.
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Here’s a little blast from the past on the dysfunctional Toronto Council by none other than the Toronto Star.
https://www.thestar.com/opinion/commentary/2014/11/19/torontos_dysfunctional_city_hall_needs_reform.html
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You say to-may-to, I say to-mah-to. Here’a the perfect example of hypocrisy exemplified by the left-leaning state broadcaster tweeted by @SpencerFernando: “CBC HYPOCRISY: State Broadcaster Calls Illegal Crossings Into Canada “Irregular,” While Saying “Illegal” For People Breaking Into The US From Canada.”https://www.spencerfernando.com/2018/07/26/cbc-hypocrisy-state-broadcaster-calls-illegal-crossings-into-canada-irregular-while-saying-illegal-for-people-breaking-into-the-us-from-canada/
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Oops! I obviously forgot to leave a space before the link.
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John Ibbitson has an interesting take on this https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-doug-ford-follows-the-mike-harris-playbook-with-fast-and-furious/ . I think he nails it, you have three streams in Ontario, which are rural voters (at least Southern Ontario where most live, rural Northern Ontario went NDP, but not a lot of ridings there) generally PC no matter what, urban areas always vote for parties on the left and its which side the suburbs side with that determines the winner. They sided with rural areas this time, but in 2014 with urban. Goldy Hyder also had another interesting one https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-to-stop-the-rise-of-the-extreme-right-trudeau-must-rein-in-the/ which seems to suggest the right becoming more right wing is a product of the left moving further to the left. I think that is true as it is a cascading effect as when one side goes too far, the other side reacts quite negatively and thus moves further, pushing the other side further and this keeps repeating itself. I certainly don’t want us to become like the US where it’s almost like they are two Americas living in parallel universes and that is not good IMHO. I think if the left would tone down their SJW and more ideological elements the might see the right be a little less right wing like in the past, otherwise I think the backlash against them is why the right is more ideological than in the past as when people don’t like things often they go to the opposite extreme rather than the middle point.
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Interesting thoughts, Miles. I personally would have advocated for an incremental approach since Wynne’s extreme leftwing policies left plenty of room in the middle for correction.
However I guess that Doug Ford feels he needs to advocate for those who supported him. I just hope he also listens to experienced members in his Cabinet who are well acquainted with the political process.
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That is my thoughts too and certainly Harper followed the incrementalism approach. My guess is maybe Doug Ford is focusing on all the controversial and unpopular stuff now since it is early in the mandate and do the popular stuff more towards the end as when people go the polls often what happened in the last six months as opposed to last four years play a bigger role in how people vote so idea of doing unpopular stuff early in the mandate and popular towards the end does make some sense. Still I don’t think he should push too far as we can ill afford to have an NDP government or left wing Liberal government and considering how badly defeated the Liberals were and no Justin Trudeau waiting in the wings, I think in 2022 it will either be a PC re-election or an NDP win and we all want the former not the latter. I do think the Liberals will someday return to power in Ontario, but it will take more than one term most likely, otherwise I am not one who thinks the party is dead and as awful as Wynne was I would not wish the Liberals to disappear, just think they need a good long spell in opposition before returning to office and also should only do so once we have a Conservative party in power in Ottawa too.
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I certainly hope the Ontario Liberals don’t disappear either. I wonder what will happen federally next year though? That election could be very interesting.
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Roy Green and Dan McTeague discussed that very topic yesterday. There are more than a few MP’s who are very disillusioned with our shiny PM and his dictatorial party control.
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Dan McTeague isn’t the only one. John Manley has been very critical of Trudeau’s economic policies. Garth Turner if you read his blog is no fan either of Trudeau so wonder if he returned to the Tories, although he is now an investment advisor and out of politics as I don’t think either party really wants him. Paul Szabo voted for Doug Ford so would be interesting where he stands federally. Jim Karygiannis if you read his tweets his been largely positive about Ford but not sure where he stands either. Stephen LeDrew former Liberal party president is also quite critical of Trudeau and reasonably positive about Ford. I think a lot of those who came from the right of the party are disillusioned with its direction. Even when Trudeau Sr., was PM the party had a strong right flank despite his father being even further to the left whereas now it seems like the Blue Liberals are largely gone asides from a few left such as Scott Brison, but none of the prominent cabinet members are in that group, in fact most of the cabinet very much come from the progressive wing of the party. By contrast both Doug Ford with his cabinet and Andrew Scheer with his shadow cabinet have included many Red Tories and people from the PC side of the merger federally, it’s not all those on the right wing of the party and from the Reform/Alliance side.
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Thinking of conservatism in Canada, at the beginning of the year, 2/3 of Canadians lived in provinces with Liberal governments, a quarter in NDP ones, while only 6% in conservative ones. Now it is 45% Conservative provinces, 30% Liberal, and 25% NDP. With Quebec and Alberta likely to swing rightward and possibly New Brunswick and Newfoundland and maybe albeit unlikely PEI, it’s possible by next election BC, Nova Scotia, and perhaps PEI will be the only provinces left with progressive ones. While I want Trudeau gone, at least with mostly right of centre provincial governments that provides some counter-balance as we discussed earlier (Unfortunately in BC it seems unlike Ontario usually we have governments leaning in the same direction, not opposites).
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That’s a very uplifting thought, Miles! At least the majority of provinces will be providing some balance and pushback against Trudeau.
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With Trudeau still on vacation in BC and Butts holidaying in NS who does that leave in charge in Ottawa?
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Not to worry, fellow citizens, His Shininess will be back at work tomorrow. His itinerary indicates that at “12:30 p.m. The Prime Minister will lay flowers at the fountain at the Alexander the Great Parkette.” Phew! All is well in the world.
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A day late and a dollar short.
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I would like to see both take a permanent vacation. No government in charge is better than a bad government. When Belgium took 583 days to form a government and Spain took a year, they had some of the best economic growth this past decade and that was the best time for the stock market. Otherwise a do nothing government is better than a bad one.
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Just a reminder that Ontario’s Legislative Question Period is at 10:30am each morning on the Ontario Legislative Channel – for those who get cable. It’s worth a watch. I’m a fan of watching both Federal and Provincial QP’s as I like to see things firsthand rather than be left at the mercy of the spin and trust of media.
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Forgot to mention that it’s also LiveStreamed.
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Oh good to know Cara. Thanks. I love seeing the PC party on the Government side. 🙂
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One thing is quite noticeable right out of the gate is that Ford is much quicker on his feet with responses than the NDP opposition leader – who had a gallery of protesters with her today. Actually, Ford is much better even than Justin Trudeau.
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Also available on YouTube where I have watched it. Yes it’s been a while since the PCs are on the government side so good to see. Noticed Ted Arnott is a good speaker and seems quite fair and impartial. Likewise interesting that half the questions come from other PC members so a lot of softball ones, but I guess if you have two opposition parties with official party status like you do federally and did before the election, then it is mostly the opposition parties asking questions whereas if only one with official party status, then you get more on the government side.
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Here’s the scoop on Doug Ford and the PC government by Campaign Research so far. https://www.campaignresearch.ca/single-post/2018/07/12/Majority-of-Ontario-residents-are-in-support-of-Doug-Ford%E2%80%99s-first-actions-as-Premier
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If Trudeau is headed back to his vacation in Tofino why is it not being reported by the MSM? Tweeted by Dean Skoreyko @bcbluecon
“Not a word from the media that Trudeau was away on vacay and that he then flew back to it immediately after today’s funeral.” https://www.albernivalleynews.com/news/prime-minister-justin-trudeau-stops-in-at-alberni-valley-airport/#pq=mZIv0f
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I’ve just tuned in to the Ont. Legislative channel only to learn that the gov’t is refusing to answer questions from the official opposition because of some kind of insult for which the NDP is being asked to apologize. Does anybody know what was said?
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I’m just catching up on this now. It seems that the PC’s are accusing Gilles Bisson of mimicking the accent of another MPP. NDP denies this.
This is going to be a crazy four years.
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That happened yesterday as well Joanne. Horwath and her NDP opposition were warned a number of times yesterday about using bad language. Good thing they have it on tape.
Here’s a really good article from the Star no less on Ford’s move to cut council numbers.
When the Star starts weighing in FOR it, it’s we can deduce that more are FOR it in Toronto than against. https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/thebigdebate/2018/07/31/should-doug-ford-cut-city-council-in-half-right-now-yes.html
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Thanks for the link, Cara. I’ll check it out.
What I found really funny is when Horwath tried to defend Bisson in a scrum. She said he sits right beside her so she hears everything he says. Then she said he heckles a lot and she often tells him to shush but she didn’t hear that particular item. So why don’t the honourable members just stop heckling each other altogether?
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If the NDP are trying to show themselves to be a responsible Opposition they better stop acting like the riffraff of politics.
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No kidding Liz J. Lorrie G’s column in the Sun today gives us many reasons why Horwath is a hypocrite https://torontosun.com/opinion/columnists/goldstein-andrea-horwath-calling-ford-a-dictator-a-farce
Today’s QP should be interesting. I actually think that Ford and his government are keeping the opposition nicely off-balance and IMO are pushing more of the NDP’s buttons than vice-versa.
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Well I’m just watching now and the Speaker gave everyone a stern talking-to. lol!
Everyone seems to be trying hard to act properly now. 😉
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Kids will be kids, they don’t like attending school in summer!
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Trudeau needs a little time off to recover from the GropeGate thingy. It couldn’t have meant anything to him when he had no memory of it, it’s a matter of a difference in perspective as to how the other person interpreted it. Wonder if he was trying to say it’s a male female thing and vive la difference. He really should know being an avowed feminist.
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At a time when we really should be up to speed on border security and security in general it appears Bill Blair isn’t up to speed on the file. His background in police work should give him at least a leg up and he’d be able to answer a few basic questions. Guess he needs a few more strums on the Liberal banjo to be tuned in.
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but in Blair’s defence, when your leader is a self-righteous, fake gender-equality obsessed, incompetent, there isn’t too much pressure to perform; if Blair can make it through five minutes keeping the uh’s under two dozen, then he’s outperformed his boss; I don’t have much respect for Blair but it must be difficult for someone with his obvious experience and know how, to work with such a snivelling little weasel like Trudeau
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It’s my understanding Blair wasn’t too popular among either the Left or the right of the political spectrum. He chose to run under incompetent leadership.
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For those wanting see some even more rowdy question periods from elsewhere, here are some. I have two of Dennis Skinner from the UK who is a Labour Party member and has been kicked out of the house commons more times than anyone else. So our question period hasn’t gone this far so far. Ted Arnott has though asked a number of members on both sides to withdraw and in all cases they did, unlike Skinner here.
and some really unparliamentary language
and then this which I hope we don’t see
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That being said both prime minister Trudeau’s have used swear words in parliament, Pierre with fuddle duddle and Justin back in 2011 when he called Peter Kent a piece of s***. If Ford called any NDP or Liberal member that, it would be a major scandal and front page news everywhere.
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Haha! Can you imagine? Even if a PC backbencher said that it would be front page news! But Trudeau gets the royal pass.
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Mainstreet is now out with a poll from each of the ten provinces. Conservative parties have a double digit lead from the Rockies to the Ottawa River. Narrowly ahead in Quebec and New Brunswick, while centre-right BC Liberals tied with NDP in BC, three way race in PEI, and PCs just slightly behind in Nova Scotia. Only in Newfoundland is the deficit a full 10 percent so at least at the provincial level looking pretty good for centre-right parties. Mind you only New Brunswick, Quebec, and Alberta have elections within a year from now. Federally Liberals are unfortunately a little ahead but not by a huge margin. Interestingly enough in Abacus, debt and deficit was the number reason for dissatisfaction with Liberals, and 57% wanted a change in government. In both Abacus and Nanos, over 50% were open to voting Tory (We won’t get that, but at last election only 40% were open to voting Tory so a wider available pool which is important) and the number open to voting Liberal is only one point higher than the Tories whereas it was 25 points higher in 2015.
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I no longer respect the findings of most pollsters. I count Abacus, Campaign Research and Angus Reid the only three I really pay attention to because their methodology is sound, AND they are more impartial than the rest out there. Here’s Angus Reid’s latest, but a reminder that Campaign Research was more accurate a measure than any of them since their arrival on the scene.
Here’s Angus Reid’s latest, http://angusreid.org/safe-third-country-asylum-seekers/
Federally the CPC and Scheer are exactly where we want them to be. Remember all of those left-leaning types who cautioned Scheer that he just wasn’t getting through to the people and how he should do things differently? Well, good thing he didn’t listen to them.
Provincially, I think that behind Ford we have a really, really strong bench. Even our back bench stand hands above any one on the NDP side. They prove themselves shrill and manic compared to the intelligence and confidence on our side.
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I had more faith in Abacus Data between 2010 and 2013 before its founder, David Coletto, took on Bruce Anderson as Chairman. There is no pollster I respect less than Anderson whose daughter, Kate Purchase, works in Trudeau’s PMO. His bias toward the current Liberal government is unparalleled. Just my opinion, of course.
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I actually don’t think political leanings of the pollster matter a lot, for the simple reason as political polling is a loss leader so it is simply done as a way to get more clients if they are the closest in elections. Pollsters make their money off market research for companies that hire them, not political polling. Agree Bruce Anderson is totally a liberal partisan, but not sure his views influence polling that much. Frank Graves is quite left wing and obviously despises Ford, yet his firm was one of the closer ones to the actual results and he did correctly predict a PC majority.
Federally I follow Nanos as they have the best track record since 2004 they’ve nailed almost every election, mind you their polls in between are sometimes a bit weird as well as are a four week rolling average so may be out of date. Nonetheless their weekly poll this week is interesting in that Tories are at 37% which the highest they’ve shown them at since 2012 and when it comes to the question of vote consider, only 50% would consider voting Liberal while 53% would consider voting Conservative (It was 39% at the 2015 election for comparison) so the fact more are open to voting Conservative than Liberal is definitely interesting as we haven’t seen that in a while.
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Personally I don’t have a lot of faith in any pollsters but Abacus tends to take a survey of other pollsters so it gives you a snapshot. But they all have a certain amount of personal bias. Some demonstrate it more than others.
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I generally view pollsters the following way below.
Abacus – Good if Liberal/Tory fights but tend to oversample millennials so often overestimate NDP.
Ipsos – Tend to overestimate NDP as well, seems a common problem with online polls.
Angus-Reid – I like their premier’s approval rating ones and generally fairly good but obviously the 2013 BC election was a black eye for them.
Mainstreet Research – Quite detailed and save Calgary municipal, very good track record, but I find they tend to be slower than other pollsters to pick up on trends. They were one of the last pollsters to pick up on the NDP surge last Ontario election.
Forum Research – If two days before the election, track record quite good so pay attention, but if more than that, have lots of ridiculous polls so I ignore them. Remember the one with the NDP 47 to 33 PC or one earlier showing federal Tories at 46%. They tend to be quite sloppy I find asides from the final numbers, but good for picking up trends, but tend to exaggerate them.
Nanos – They are the gold standard and the one I follow most although I’ve found in between elections tend to have Liberals a bit higher. They are one of the few that still uses live agents and doesn’t prompt respondents.
Innovative – Good at understanding the breakdowns of which groups supporting a given party, but pretty lousy for final numbers.
Ekos – Reasonably good, but tend to always put the Greens higher than others do. Also in the last Ontario election, their rolling polls were good, but day to day ones had some weird numbers like one day NDP up by 10, next day tied.
Leger – Good for Quebec, but for other provinces and nationally less so, so I tend to pay attention to theirs for Quebec numbers, but less so for rest of Canada.
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Well thanks for that Miles. A good lens through which to view polling results.
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Has anybody told our vacationing PM that Saudi Arabia has expelled our ambassador? More importantly, has anybody told our de facto guy in charge, Gerry Butts? There’s been nothing reported so far to indicate whether either of them is paying attention. What the heck are they playing at?
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Yes that story is all over twitter but hardly anything from any government source.
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