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Roundup: Concern trolling over tax loopholes

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There’s been a great deal of concern trolling going on over the past few days when it comes to the planned changes to self-incorporation to close the tax loopholes found therein. Conservative leader Andrew Scheer tweeted out another of his disingenuous messages yesterday, talking about “hiking taxes” on doctors – who are leading the concern trolling charge against this closure of self-incorporation loopholes – which is not surprising, but nevertheless not exactly the truth about what is going on.

Meanwhile, economist Kevin Milligan has been dismantling the concern trolling arguments with aplomb, so I’ll let him take it from here:

Good reads:

  • Chrystia Freeland gave more details about meetings with North Korea, around freeing that Canadian pastor, and “other issues of regional concern.”
  • Statistics Canada admits that they made a mistake calculating English-speakers in Quebec, so maybe everyone there can stand down about new language laws.
  • The government has begun consultations on a Pacific Alliance trade deal.
  • A sexual harassment investigation has been opened against Liberal MP Darshan Kang, one of the party’s few Alberta MPs.
  • The attempt to get intellectual property rights to new warship designs has at least one of our allies in a huff.
  • The government is forcing ships in the Gulf of St. Lawrence to slow down to avoid more whale deaths.
  • The government aims to have their homeless veterans strategy unveiled for the fall.
  • Here’s a conversation with the former Canadian ambassador to Venezeula about the situation there and what Canada can do to help.
  • Brad Wall hints that a “Sixties Scoop” apology could come before his retirement.
  • Jagmeet Singh says that if he won the leadership that he wouldn’t run for a seat until the 2019 election. Does that mean keeping Thomas Mulcair in place until then?
  • The National Post has a good longread about the return of the strongman in global politics, which is exacerbated by electoral populism.
  • Chris Selley swipes at the PQ (and by extension) BQ freaking out that use of French is actually up in Quebec.
  • Susan Delacourt embraces the notion that we should have “executive exchanges,” particularly in politics, to help combat the tendency to silo in echo chambers.

Odds and ends:

The Senate is considering a proposal to ditch the Phoenix pay system for its employees.


Roundup: More tax change caterwauling

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Another day, and more moaning about the proposed small business tax changes, which have now been equated to “class warfare”! Yes, a pair of tax lawyers wrote in the Financial Post yesterday about how the ability for small business owners to split their income with stay-at-home spouses was great policy because it was first proposed back in 1966. I kid you not. Fortunately, economist Kevin Milligan is back after a few days offline, and can help sort some of this out.

And then there’s this kind of silly thinking:

Government is not a business. It cannot be run like one, no matter how many times people like to chant it as a slogan. It fundamentally does not operate in the same way, nor can it ever run in even approximately the same way. The absolute fundamental principles do not translate because government has no bottom line. The sooner people grasp this, the sooner we may have more rational discussions on how to better operate government in a sane and rational manner.

Meanwhile, Andrew Coyne is unconvinced by all of the caterwauling about the proposed changes, not seeing the moral advantage that small businesspeople are apparently owed, and suggests instead that the incentives to incorporate be reduced by bringing the topline personal income tax rate and the small business rate closer together.

Good reads:

  • The PMO has confirmed that one Canadian was killed and four were injured in the Barcelona van attack.
  • The Quebec Court of Appeal has relented and given Parliament until December 22nd to pass Bill S-3 on eliminating gender discrimination in the Indian Act.
  • While many of Trump’s advisory councils are desert him, the Canada-United States Council for Advancement of Women Entrepreneurs and Business Leaders isn’t.
  • While historians say that removing statues of problematic historical people may not be the only answer, here’s a look at some of the Canadian controversies.
  • Here’s a look at StatsCan’s big error on language data last week, what happened, and how they had to go about fixing it.
  • That’s not StatsCan’s only problem – a leaky air conditioner turned into a major IT outage compounded by Shared Services Canada’s general incompetence.
  • The Pierre Elliot Trudeau Foundation has had a spike in Access to Information requests, no doubt thanks to media reports and associated conspiracy theories.
  • Here’s a long read about the history of Ezra Levant and Rebel Media, and a look at why it’s unlikely to wither despite its current woes.
  • After the events of the past week and all of the white nationalists in both countries, Andrew Scheer seems to be re-evaluating his “free speech on campus” policy.
  • Andrew MacDougall hopes that the Charlottesville events will turn the Conservatives away from the alt-right.
  • Susan Delacourt writes on the political “friendships” of necessity, such as Gerald Butts and Steve Bannon (before his ouster).

Odds and ends:

Here’s a look at the history of the KKK in Canada.

Roundup: Not headed for a debt bomb

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In light of the fall economic update, and the myriad of concerns about the level of the deficit and lack of a plan to get to balance in the near term, economist Kevin Milligan took us all to school over Twitter yesterday. The main message – that it’s not 1995, and we can’t keep talking about the deficit as though it were.

Later on, Milligan took exception to the notion that the government has backtracked on their tax reform promises and made the situation worse. Not so, he tells us.

So there you have it. Armchair punditry on deficits or tax changes (even from some economists) doesn’t necessarily stack up.

Good reads:

  • While Bill Morneau says he’ll donate any profits his shares made since he was elected, but he insists he didn’t do anything wrong (and he’s probably right).
  • American officials are saying that they’re not offering anything to go along with their NAFTA demands, and Chrystia Freeland is (politely) having none of it.
  • The government settled with three Canadian men tortured in Syria for a total of $31.5 million, but can’t say how it was divided up between them.
  • The government also quietly settled a lawsuit involving the daughter of a victim of a CIA brainwashing experiment conducted in Canada.
  • A shortage of qualified procurement personnel at DND could be the undoing of the government’s military recapitalization plans.
  • Bob Rae has some (pretty justified) concerns about the Supreme Court nomination process (and Emmett Macfarlane notes this should apply to the Senate process).
  • Of the 1200 ISIS survivors the government has planned to resettle, about 800 have arrived, 80 percent of them Yazidis.
  • An Alberta court ruled that the Elections Canada requirement of a $1000 deposit to run in a federal election is unconstitutional.
  • Government officials are worried about major infrastructure hacks – but less than they were a few years ago, since cyber-security is now being taken seriously.
  • The government has announced plans to work with public sector unions on providing other contraceptives to employees than just the pill.
  • The NEB says that 2019 will likely be peak fossil-fuel use in Canada, and we’ll be more energy-efficient going forward. This doesn’t mean peak oil production.
  • Ottawa is running a pilot project of giving addicts pharmaceutical-grade drugs to prevent opioid contamination, but it’s an expensive programme to run.
  • In the wake of the fiscal update, here’s a look at the gap of people who aren’t accessing the benefits that they’re entitled to.
  • Digging into the StatsCan releases this week, here is a look at the immigrant wage gap, and the growth in Métis self-identification in Eastern Canada.
  • Here’s a profile of Jagmeet Singh’s brother, Gurratan, who serves as his “reality check.”
  • Kady O’Malley walks us through the privilege fight in the Senate over the open letter to Andrew Scheer to convince his senators to let the anthem bill go to a vote.
  • Robert Hiltz notes the government’s propensity to step on their own proposals because they can’t get off of their message tracks.

Odds and ends:

This look at “success” in QP from an opposition standpoint highlights just how much clips on MPs social media dominate the reasons for why things run the way they do.

Here’s a look at the news stories around the 1937 statistics releases.

Roundup: A shambolic process delivering Ford

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It was a shambolic affair from start to finish, from the court challenge around the deadlines, the problems with the voting itself, and in the end, thousands of misallocated ballots and a result where Christine Elliott won more votes in more ridings, but Doug Ford managed to get more of the allocated points and won the leadership on a narrow victory. Elliott did not concede for the better part of a day later, and the feeling is that this all could very well be Kathleen Wynne’s “lifeline,” though one probably shouldn’t count Ford out the way that people counted Donald Trump out.

And lo, we will be inundated with Ford/Trump comparisons for the coming weeks, and analyses of whether these comparisons are fair or not.

Chris Selley notes the big risk that the Ontario PC party takes with Ford, while Paul Wells notes how Ontario conservatism is a bigger tent and stranger coalition than most people may take for granted.

I’m hoping that out of this, we finally start having a real conversation about how leadership contests are run, because it’s ridiculous. Sure, the partisans will close ranks around this, and we’ll get the voices that insist that this is the best way to grow the party, but it just perpetuates the same cycle. You’re not actually growing the party – you’re creating a number used for shock and awe purposes, and giving an even bigger “democratic mandate” to a leader who will then abuse it to consolidate power. It happens time and again, and we need to have a real conversation about restoring accountability to our politics. Maybe Ford will be the last straw, but I find myself pessimistic that it will change much.

Good reads:

  • Chrystia Freeland says that while the Trumpocalypse is trying to tie tariffs to NAFTA negotiations, they are operating on separate tracks and won’t pressure the talks.
  • Freeland also says that when she met her Indian counterpart, she explained that Jaspal Atwal’s invitation to that reception was an honest mistake.
  • The government reversed a decision not to fund the production of books in an accessible format for the blind hours after they were called out on it.
  • The current theory is that the charge of breach of trust against VADM Mark Norman goes beyond leaks and into sensitive procurement politics.
  • Here is a look at privacy breaches made by StatsCan with some incidents in how they collected census data, and how they lost forms in other cases.
  • With Karina Gould having given birth, here is yet another story on MPs bringing infants into the Chamber.
  • Brad Trost has lost his nomination challenge for the 2019 election.

Odds and ends:

iPolitics has a profile of Celina Caesar-Chavannes.

Roundup: On lying with statistics

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Over the weekend, Andrew Scheer tweeted that there was “devastating” job news released on Friday, with “zero total jobs created” in April, and that 41,400 jobs had been lost so far this year. Investment is apparently being driven away from the country. It’s all doom and ruins. Except that it’s all complete bullshit. It’s lying with statistics.

What do the actual figures show? For starters, unemployment has been at a 40-year low for the past several months at 5.8 percent. This while the participation rate and employment rate have remained relatively steady throughout. Those “devastating” numbers in April were a net loss of 1,100 jobs, but that net showed a loss of 30,000 part-time jobs and an increase of 28,800 full-time jobs, and industry-wise, the losses were mostly in either construction or retail and wholesale trade. Wages have been increasing over 3 percent year-over-year for several months now. And yes, there was a brief correction in job numbers in January, but it was after a spike in November and December, while the trend cycle remains upward. And if you ask any credible economist, they’ll tell you the underlying numbers indicate that the economy is strong, which puts a lie to Scheer’s tweets.

Of course, I tweeted that Scheer was wrong over the weekend, and I was bombarded with apologists insisting that we should really be looking at the US unemployment rate, which is 3.9 percent. Err, except the Americans use a different measure, and if we used that same measure, our rate would be 4.9 percent. I was also told that all of these new jobs were part-time (not true – as explained above, they’re mostly full-time jobs displacing part-time ones, and have been for several months now), or that this is all because people have run out of EI and have stopped looking for work (please see: participation rate). Oh, and then there were the anecdotes being thrown my way as “proof” that those figures are wrong. Because anecdotes trump statistical data, as we all know. The data are all there. Scheer’s particular cherry-picking is ludicrous on its face, but he’s counting on the low-information voter not having enough know-how to look up the figures at StatsCan, or to read some actual economic analysis about how yes, the economy is doing quite well right now and we can expect interest rates to start going up as a result. It seems to me that if they were in government and an opposition party was doing the same thing he was doing, they would be howling about how awful it was that the opposition was talking down our economy. Funny how that is.

Good reads:

  • Justin Trudeau called the by-election in Chicoutimi–Le Fjord shortly after announcing a $60 million investment in the aluminium smelter in the riding.
  • The government is stepping up on-site inspections of businesses that employ temporary foreign workers after the AG complained of a lack of oversight.
  • Shared Services Canada just signed the largest sole-source contract in government history with IBM, for the delivery of 16 new mainframes.
  • Jaspal Atwal of the eponymous Atwal Affair™ has been charged with uttering threats.
  • Following hearings, a federal judge has approved an $875 million settlement for Sixties Scoop survivors.
  • While the Conservatives are railing about the voter identification parts of the new election bill, here is a reminder that rumours of voter fraud are never substantiated.
  • The former Chief Electoral Officer says that bill may still not be passed in time to make all of the changes in advance of the next election.
  • Andrew Scheer says he talked to Ted Falk about his anti-abortion outburst…but won’t say just what they discussed. (Does that not invite speculation?)
  • A former Bloc leader says he’s no longer a Separatist and is now a Conservative (but won’t run for them in the next election). Scheer hopes to convert more Bloc voters.
  • NDP MP Christine Moore denies the allegations of sexual misconduct and plans to sue both Glen Kirkland and the columnists who wrote about it.
  • Meanwhile, there are questions as to why the NDP is struggling to get any traction during the last parliamentary session. (Maybe because their leader is absent?)
  • Amarnath Amarasingam and Stephanie Carvin discuss the definition of terrorism in light of various incidents and why they may not fit the definition.
  • My weekend column looked at how Senator Peter Harder is more concerned with Senate modernization than he is with the very full Order Paper in front of him.

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QP: Lies versus pabulum, part eleventy-seven

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While Justin Trudeau was not present today, just off of a plane from France, Singapore and Papua New Guinea. That said, Andrew Scheer was not present today either, for whatever reason. Alain Rayes led off, worried that the budget would not balance in 2019. Bill Morneau responded with a question of his own — where are we now? He went on to extol the low unemployment rates and the investments to grow the economy. Rayes repeated the question, and Morneau responded that the Conservatives only wanted to make cuts while the Liberal approach was working for growth. Rayes concerned trolled that the budget was “collapsing” under the weight of deficits, but Morneau retorted with the Conservative record of debts and low growth, while they have turned the growth rate around. Candice Bergen took over to ask again in English, railing that the Liberals were irresponsible, to which Morneau repeated his pabulum points in English about low unemployment and high growth. Bergen tried one last time, and Morneau noted the reduction in small business taxes and the lowest level of debt-to-GDP in the G7. Guy Caron was up next for the NDP, and he worried about the pressure to cut corporate taxes to follow the US example. Morneau said that it was necessary to strike a balance to ensure tax fairness and competitiveness, and that was the approach they were taking. Caron worried about corporate “dead money,” and Morneau reiterated his points about striking the right balance. Peter Julian worried about record levels of personal debt and demanded that they end “corporate giveaways,” to which Morneau assured him that they were investing in Canadians by means like the Canada Child Benefit. Julian demanded investments in pharmacare, to which Ginette Petitpas Taylor recited the implementation on the consultations that would produce a report in the spring.

Round two, and Gérard Deltell and Pierre Poilievre returned to the demands for a balanced budget date (Morneau: It’s important to continue with our approach; Let’s consider what we actually inherited, including higher unemployment and low growth). Romeo Saganash and Rachel Blaney asked about the forced sterilisation of Indigenous women (Philpott: This is a clear violation of rights, we abhor the practice and are working with provinces to ensure this does not happen). Peter Kent worried about reports the government may bail out the media, calling it a “buy off” (Rodriguez: Journalism is important and we invested in CBC, and will have more to say in the future), and Shannon Stubbs demanded Bill C-69 be withdrawn (Sohi: We are working with provinces to get oil to tidewater and what we’re seeing today is a failure of the previous decade). François Choquette and Charlie Angus worried about Franco-Ontarien rights (Joly: We will stand up for Franco-Ontariens and the Conservatives should denounce Doug Ford’s actions).

Round three saw questions on Statistics Canada (Bains: The project will only go ahead when privacy concerns have been dealt with), Canada Post (Hajdu: We believe in the collective bargaining process, but this has had an impact on our economy so we encourage both parties to get a deal), Supply Management (MacAulay: We saved Supply Management, and we continue to support the sector), the lack of documents to prove a fighter jet capability gap (Lauzon: We have commitments to meet and those Australian aircraft will help meet our needs until an replacement can be procured), deficits (Morneau: Our plan is working), Davie shipyard (Qualtrough: We don’t need a second interim supply ship), closing night services at a local airport (Garneau: NavCan is taking a second look at this issue), healthcare transfers (Petitpas Taylor: We will work with provinces to ensure the system works well), federal competition rules vis-à-vis an oil production cut (Sohi: We need to ensure we are expanding our pipeline capacity). 

Overall, the impending fiscal update means a return to continuous questions about the deficit and a date for the balanced budget, which would be fair game were in not for the fact that the Conservatives are spinning a fantasy version of the books that they left the Liberals during the election. Pierre Poilievre was particularly egregious in terms of the absolute disingenuous version of events regarding the fiscal situation, but of course, because it’s Bill Morneau answering these questions, we’re left with a lot of pabulum that doesn’t really rebut the false narratives being put on the record. It wasn’t until the third question from Poilievre (and his fourteenth response of the day) that Morneau finally stated that what was being posited was false, which is the way this government continues to roll along. The other big issue of the day was a federal response to the situation in Ontario, where the Ford government cancelled a planned Francophone university and cut the commissioner of the french language’s office. The NDP and Liberals were making big hay over this, while the Conservatives were opting for a more muted response, pushing back against the NDP and backbench questions on the subject, and after QP, offering a motion that expressed concern but also that demanded provincial jurisdiction be respected, which led to much uproar in the Chamber. I would expect a lot of politics to be played over this in the coming days.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Will Amos for a tailored navy three-piece suit with a light blue shirt, medium blue tie and white pocket square, and to Karina Gould for a blue collarless jacket with a black dress. Style citations go out to Judy Sgro for a cream and floral top with a bright orange jacket, and to Colin Carrie for a black jacket with tan slacks, with an eggplant shirt with a mustard-and-burgundy tie and a mustard pocket square.

Roundup: Not an election issue to fight over

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The leader of the Independent Senators Group seems to have inserted himself into the political discussion by demanding to know where parties stand on the issue of Senate appointments in advance of the next election. Senator Woo’s concerns seem to be that he doesn’t want people to “unwittingly” vote for a party that doesn’t conform to their views on the Senate. I’m going to go ahead and say that this was probably a mistake because it’s very easy to construe that he’s looking to shill for the Liberals since they are the only ones to are half-arsing the issue of Senate modernization, at least in this particular bastardized vision of a completely “independent” Chamber that is more likely to be problematic than anything.

In case you were wondering, the Conservatives say they don’t have a firm position yet, but their democratic institutions critic says she prefers the Harper system of appointing candidates voted on in “consultative elections” – you know, the ones that the Supreme Court of Canada said were unconstitutional because they were attempting to do through the backdoor what they couldn’t to through the front door. Oh, and they support a partisan Senate because they have a “very strong Senate group.” And the NDP, well, they’re still insisting that they want to abolish the Senate, never mind that they will never, ever, get the unanimous support of the provinces to do so. That leaves Senator Woo holding the bag for the Liberals by default, which isn’t a good look if he wants to keep insisting that he’s independent from the Liberals.

And those of us who think that maybe the Senate is better off with Liberals, Conservatives and a group of crossbenchers in roughly equal numbers? Who are we supposed to vote for? I suspect we’re SOL, unless the Liberals decide to change their tune after their “experiment” in a totally independent Senate starts to blow up in their faces and they can’t get bills passed (in part because their Government Leader – err “representative” – doesn’t want to do his job), but yeah. I’m not sure this is an election issue to fight over because nobody knows what they’re doing and we’re going to find ourselves cleaning up the mess made in this institution for a generation to come.

Good reads:

  • Navdeep Bains told a committee that the Chief Statistician didn’t alert him about their plans for acquiring bank data, but still says the Chief has his confidence.
  • Apparently DND can’t produce any documents to back up the government’s assertion that there’s a “capability gap” with the current CF-18 fleet.
  • The Auditor General will be looking at fighter jet procurement as part of his latest report, due out today.
  • Here’s a look at some of the potential fallout of Tony Clement’s sexting problems and whether that will break the trust between the NSICOP and intelligence agencies.
  • The Veterans Affairs emergency fund for veterans in need isn’t getting much uptake as caseworkers keep referring veterans to outside agencies instead.
  • CRA’s new client service call centre is delayed and may not be doing enough to fix the problems the Auditor General identified.
  • Here’s a look at the Pence-Xi spat that derailed the APEC summit, and how that is causing uncertainty in advance of the upcoming G20 summit.
  • Liberal MP Robert-Falcon Ouellette wants more attention paid to a looming meth addiction crisis.
  • Andrew Scheer is planning on unveiling his policies today around solving gun violence that doesn’t involve a handgun plan.
  • It seems that the Conservatives’ biggest worries are not just Maxime Bernier, but also the weakness of the NDP.
  • Rachel Notley appointed three “envoys” to find a solution to the province’s oil price differential. Good luck with that.
  • Kady O’Malley’s Process Nerd column looks at what procedural shenanigans may be in store during the push to get bills passed before the Christmas break.
  • Éric Grenier crunches the polling data to show why immigration may not be a good issue for parties to fight an election over.
  • Colby Cosh digs into this year’s homicide figures and how susceptible they are to chance.
  • Chantal Hébert looks at Andrew Scheer’s struggling messaging that isn’t gaining any traction with voters.
  • Martin Patriquin says the botched legal cannabis rollout has been a boon to the black market (though one assumes that’s for a limited time period).
  • Chris Selley points to the singular outrage of Ontario cutting its independent child advocate given the magnitude of the problems it was responsible for.
  • Paul Wells reflects on the Halifax International Security Forum, and the change in tone from participants from years past.

Odds and ends:

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QP: Ignoring the Auditor General

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While the prime minister was present today, no doubt still jet-lagged from his international summits, Andrew Scheer was off in Vancouver to make a policy announcement for the election that is still nearly a year way. Lisa Raitt led off, demanding to know the the date the budget will be balanced. Justin Trudeau picked up a script to read about how great their policies including the Canada Child Benefit was, while unemployment was at its lowest rate in 40 years. Raitt said that Canadians’ choice was to keep deficits to $10 billion for year, and this time Trudeau eschewed a script to decry the last years of the Harper government, which nickel-and-dimed veterans and made cuts while his government invested in Canadians. Raitt listed tax credits that were cancelled, and Trudeau noted that those non-refundable tax credits weren’t available to low-income Canadians whereas the CCB was better off for those Canadians. Alain Rayes took over, asked the same again, and Trudeau reiterated this points about low unemployment and enhanced growth in French. Rayes reiterated the demand for a date, and Trudeau reminded him how much debt Harper left as a legacy. Guy Caron was up next for the NDP, raising the Auditor General’s report on CRA not going after rich corporations. Trudeau took up a script to praise the report and said that CRA would examine their internal processes to ensure fairness and uniformity. Caron asked again in English, and Trudeau read a list of investments made in the CRA to ensure more off-shore audits were completed. Alexandre Boulerice raised a report that said Canada’s climate policies would rise global temperatures (somewhat out of context), and Trudeau read a script to say that things were not fine and listed actions that the government was taking. Boulerice switched to French to demand more action, and Trudeau, sans script, insisted that they were taking action to fight climate change.

Round two, and Luc Berthold and Pierre Poilievre demanded a balanced budget (Lightbound: When we took over, the country was moving into recession, while we now have the strongest growth in the G7; You keep quoting a Fraser Institute study that doesn’t take the CCB into account; We are growing our economy). Sheila Malcolmson demanded universal childcare (Vaughan: We have invested $7.5 million in childcare including an Indigenous childcare policy), and Brigitte Sansoucy demanded more social programmes to solve child poverty (Vaughan: Your platform wasn’t ambitious, nor is it ambitious to only spend provincial and territorial money). Joël Godin and Dan Albas worried the Chief Statistician didn’t notify the minister about the bank data programme (Bains: We take privacy seriously, no data has been shared). Charlie Angus denounced Doug Ford’s “attack” on Franco-Ontariens (Joly: We’re still waiting for the Conservatives to denounce this attack, and we will work with communities to defend their rights), and Linda Duncan wanted funding for Alberta’s francophone university (Joly: We have decided to increase funding for linguistic minority groups and we will continue to support them).

Round three saw questions on Bill C-69 (Sohi: The challenges in the sector are real but we are working with the province, but this is the result of the previous government’s inaction), ending the Mali mission before a replacement is in place (Sajjan: Our support for the UN is for more than this mission), Saudi Arabia bombing the port receiving humanitarian assistance for Yemen (Freeland: We condemn the death of Jamal Khashoggi and have called for a ceasefire in Yemen, and we are actively considering other measures including Magnitsky laws and no new export permits will be granted), the AG’s report on fighter procurement (Sajjan: We didn’t create this problem but we are working to get new jets), conspiracy theories about media working for the government (Rodriguez: This is a conspiracy theory, and journalism is an important part of our democracy), Nicola Di Iorio’s status (Speaker: This isn’t government business), health transfers (Petitpas Taylor: A two-tiered system won’t solve the problems), and a Canadian held in Cuba (Goldsmith-Jones: Consular officials are in contact with local authorities).

Overall, while it was the release of an Auditor General’s report, it was virtually ignored once again, as is becoming routine in this parliament, which is unfortunate because it’s what opposition MPs should be asking questions about. Yes, the NDP did lead with it, but it was essentially reiterating their same questions on CRA that they’ve had for years, but just with an added prefix of the AG report. As for the very relevant questions on the fighter jet procurement debacle, not only did the questions come virtually at the end of QP, but they were also couched in the language that the pilot shortage was a result of the minister’s mismanagement rather than hey, there’s a global pilot shortage and what are you doing to address it? Chrystia Freeland also broke a bit of news in her (prepared) response that didn’t really answer the question being posed, but nevertheless got her points across that they have frozen all future export permits of LAVs to Saudi Arabia, and few people seemed to have picked up on that fact. QP is also now becoming a haven for conspiracy theories, both with the mendacious framing of the StatsCan data collection issue, and with the notion that the government is trying to buy off journalists because the head fo the union that represents many of them has been vocal about opposing the Conservatives. There are legitimate policy points that can be raised without delving into tinfoil hattery, guys.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Linda Lapointe for a light grey suit and skirt with a pink collared shirt, and to James Bezan for a dark grey suit with a lavender shirt and a purple tie and pocket square. Style citations go out to Guy Lauzon for a dark taupe suit with a butterscotch shirt and a black and brown tie, and to Cathy McLeod for a black turtleneck and slacks with a beige and black sweater.


QP: Concern trolling about the media

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While the PM was off to Calgary to sell his fiscal update, Andrew Scheer was absent yet again. Alain Rayes led off, proclaiming that the government was racking up “record” deficits (not sure that’s correct), and demanded a plan for a balanced budget. Bill Morneau insisted that they did have a plan for growth and investment, and that the level of debt was the best in the G7. Rayes tried a second time, and got the same answer. Pierre Poilievre got up next, and said that the Morneau was trying to rewrite history from his deficit promises. Morneau got up and said that Poilievre was repeating buzz-words from first-year economic textbooks, while his government was getting results with growth. Poilievre then concern trolled that the government was buying off the press, to which Morneau said that journalism was vital democracy and they were trying to help the sector in a manner that was independent. Poilievre stated that the government thinks that journalists should shower then with praise, to which Morneau replied that it was insulting to think that journalists could be bought off. Guy Caron was up next for the NDP, decrying the tablet of back to work legislation for Canada Post, to which Morneau said that they tried to get a deal but the economy was starting to suffer. Caron railed that this was a gift not only to Canada Post but also EBay and Amazon, and Morneau responded with some pabulum about supporting small businesses. Karine Trudel and Irene Mathyssen further denounced the move on back-to-work legalisation, to which Patty Hajdu listed the ways they tried to get to a deal, and that the legislation may still give room for bargaining while getting the workers back to work.

Round two, and Gérard Deltell returned to demanding a balanced budget (Morneau: Same pabulum), Tom Kmeic denounced help for the media instead of helping energy workers (Fillmore: Investments will be handled by an independent panel), Phil McColeman decried the media investments instead of new supports for veterans (Fillmore: This conspiracy theory is insulting to the intelligence of Canadians), Dean Allison posited the issue of media vs steel and aluminium tariffs (Lametti: We have the backs of the sector), Luc Berthold posited the issue of media versus Supply Management (Fillmore: Same response), and Michelle Rempel said the government was buying off Jerry Dias, whose union represents journalists (Fillmore: Your government supported the Canadian Periodical Fund). Pierre Nantel railed that not taxing web giants was the real problem hurting media (Fillmore: The Minister consulted with stakeholders to design the programme), and Peter Julian decried the fiscal update as handing gifts to CEOs (Morneau: Our approach has made an enormous difference to Canadians). Stephanie Kusie accused the government of trying to rig the next election (Gould: Our bill will ensure more Canadians can vote and puts safeguards against foreign interference), and Peter Kent and Jacques Gourde concerns trolled about the Statistics Canada data collection project (Lametti: The project will not move ahead until privacy concerns have been addressed). Marjolaine Boutin-Sweet and Sheri Benson decried inadequate help for Indigenous housing (Vaughan: We have acted swiftly, and thousands of Canadians now have housing).

Round three saw questions on fighter jet procurement (Sajjan: We will not neglect our NATO and NORAD obligations ), Cabinet confidences (Goodale: That question is exactly the reason why this House has rules around matters that are sub judice), coerced sterilisation of Indigenous women (Philpott:It’s incomprehensible that this could happen, and we are working with stakeholders across the country to ensure this message gets through), Inuit housing conditions (Vaughan: The signed significant agreements with the Territorial governments), a Quebec environmentalist being given a government position (McKenna: We need to tackle climate change and you have no plan), drug shortages (Petitpas Taylor: Drug shortages are a complex global problem and we are working with partners to get a result), CRA’s unequal treatment (Lebouthillier: We are investing in a tax system that is fair), investments for Quebec (Morneau: We are focusing on jobs across the country, and it’s important to invest in Canada and Quebec), and a question about GHG emissions (McKenna: We have a serious plan to tackle climate change after a decade of inaction).

Overall, while it was nice to see Morneau be a bit sharper in some of his replies than just simply mouthing pabulum, but while there is plenty that he could say to defend his fiscal update that was of substance, he sticks to platitudes, which is part of this government’s perpetual problem. Meanwhile, the Conservative tactic of the day was to frame everything in contrast to the tax credits the government was extending to media, which they characterized as the government “buying off” the media in an election year. The most insulting part was they would say this, then look up to the press gallery for our reaction, and one particular MP made eye contact, shrugged, then stood up to read another of those attacks. So yeah. That was fun. And while sure, the responses from the government would denounce these as conspiracy theories and to suggest that it’s insulting to the media to suggest that they can be bought off, this kind of barking to the base is hard for anyone to counter because no matter your response or lack of response, you’ll be accused of being bought off, so thanks for that. You’re real peaches.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Bill Morneau for a tailored dark grey suit with a crisp white shirt and a purple tie, and to Stephanie Kusie for a black jacket and top with black leather pants. Style citations go out to Bardish Chagger for a black dress with orange and yellow florals, and to Ahmed Hussen for a black suit with a faded cranberry shirt and a red tie. Dishonourable mention goes out to Kevin Waugh for a black suit with a yellow shirt and a brown and yellow tie.

Roundup: Ginning up the Grewal resignation

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As the stories on Raj Grewal’s gambling debts and intended resignation continue to trickle through, a number of them have taken on a vaguely conspiratorial tone. A lot of facts that shouldn’t be out of the ordinary are treated as suspicious for absolutely no reason at all. For example, people keep wondering why he was reassigned from the finance committee in September “with no warning.” Gee, what else happened in September that would have affected committee memberships? Could it have been the fact that the parliamentary secretaries all got shuffled, so committee assignments need to be rejigged? Maybe? And whoa, he asked questions on catching money launderers to law officials and FINTRAC agents during a study on – wait for it – “Confronting Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing: Moving Canada Forward.” Such an amazing coincidence that is totally suspicious. And the latest “revelation” is that Senator Jean-Guy Dagenais says that a retired Mountie told him a year ago that he heard Raj Grewal was under investigation, and he therefore thinks PMO should have known then. Erm, except that neither the OPP nor the RCMP tell the PMO what they’re investigating because they operate at arm’s length, and more to the fact, Grewal was a backbench MP, which I cannot stress enough.

To that end, Kady O’Malley’s Process Nerd column looks at the issue of parties policing MPs’ off-hours, considering the Clement and Grewal situations, while Susan Delacourt cites those same two cases, and wonders if we need to do a better job of screening backbenchers. And I’m pretty dubious because backbenchers are not ministers. They don’t have access to secret materials (Clement, I remind you, is a former minister and thus a member of the Privy Council, and his activities on NSICOP are outside of the usual activities of a backbencher), nor are they public office holders. Their job is to hold government to account – they are not part of the government, and it doesn’t matter what committees they’re on. Treating them as the same thing is not only a gross overreach, but frankly it will give MPs a wrongheaded sense of their place in the system, which is already suffering because of civic illiteracy.

Are Grewal’s debts concerning? Yup. Is it a crisis that he was mentioned in passing as part of an investigation into other suspicious characters? Maybe, but we don’t know enough to say whether it is or not, and the baseless speculation and ginned up allegations aren’t helping. Should Trudeau and the PMO have been more candid from the start about the reasons Grewal was resigning? Probably, and given this government’s inability to communicate their way out of a wet paper bag, their approach once again blew up in their faces. But treating this affair with clickbait headlines and spinning random facts out of context in order to make them seem sinister is bad reporting.

Good reads:

  • Justin Trudeau will be signing the New NAFTA with Donald Trump and Enrique Peña Nieto today in Argentina.
  • Chrystia Freeland announced Magnitsky Act sanctions against 17 Saudis for their roles in the murder of Jamal Khashoggi.
  • Statistics Canada says that police-reported hate crimes rose dramatically in Canada last year. (I’m not sure if this is just more reporting, as with sexual assaults).
  • The Parliamentary Budget Officer says that irregular border crossers cost the federal government about $14,000 each (but his future projections are speculation).
  • There is some consternation on the figure being used when it comes to the number of homeless veterans in Canada.
  • The government allocated $8 million for the RCMP External Review Committee’s backlog a year ago, but that backlog has barely shifted.
  • The unclassified version of the NSICOP report on the prime minister’s India trip is set to be released on Monday.
  • Here is a look at our allies’ warnings about Huawei, and how it may be too late in Canada to cut them out of our 5G network entirely.
  • Here’s a very good read about the tendency to be competitive about which region’s economic woes are worse, particularly between Ontario and Alberta.
  • Doug Ford released his climate plan, which involves a carbon price – just one that pays into a trust that industry can access in the hopes of future technology.
  • Rachel Notley plans to buy some 7000 rail cars and several locomotives as her plan to move oil in lieu of pipelines.
  • Ontario MPP Amanda Simard quit PC caucus to sit as an independent. Ford said they voted to expel her, backtracked, and claims they tried to call her are disputed.
  • New Brunswick is joining Saskatchewan’s court challenge against the federal carbon price backstop. (Good luck with that).
  • The Canadian PressBaloney Meter™ tests Jagmeet Singh’s assertion that the Canada Post back-to-work legislation was “the worst, most draconian legislation.”
  • Michael Petrou says that a unified European army would mean Canada would lose influence in NATO and other alliances.
  • Robert Hiltz throws some shade at Andrew Scheer over his reaction to the Oshawa plant closure, and how his solution to everything betrays a lack of depth.

Odds and ends:

Here is the transcript of Paul Wells’ conversation with Rachel Notley on Wednesday.

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QP: Taking allegations outside

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While the PM took a personal day after his return from the G20, Andrew Scheer was off in Winnipeg to talk guns and gangs. Pierre Poilievre led off concerned about the PM’s supposed “celebrity lifestyle” that referred to the pre-planned tweet around funds for women and girls’ education, before he suddenly pivoted to Bill C-69, demanding it be scrapped. Amarjeet Sohi reminded him that the system the Conservatives put into place that wasn’t working, so they were working to get a one project-one-review process. Poilievre railed that the PM was at the G20 talking about how there were negative consequences when male construction workers went to rural communities,  before returning to the demand to scrap C-69. Sohi reiterate his response, and when Poilievre went for another, more boisterous round of the same, he got much the same answer. Alain Rayes took over to ask about the report in the National Post about a potential investigation on a land deal that might involve Navdeep Bains and Raj Grewal, to which Bains told him the allegations were false and invited him to repeat them outside of the Chamber. Rayes tried to insist on Liberal connections to the situation, to which Bardish Chagger read a statement that functionally repeated Bains’ response. Guy Caron was up next for the NDP, railing about high-protein milk under Supply Management, to which Lawrence MacAulay deployed his usual lines about defending the system. Caron then turned to the Oshawa closure and demanded action by the government, to which Bains read that the sector was strong, that they had the auto innovation fund if GM wanted to use it. Tracey Ramsey demanded action on Oshawa, to which Bains reiterated his previous response. Ramsey then railed that steel and aluminium tariffs were still in place, to which Mélanie Joly read that the NDP celebrated the deal behind closed doors.

Round two, and Peter Kent and Jacques Gourde returned to the allegations around Bains and Grewal in the land deal and the connection to the India trip (Chagger: If you can make the allegations here while you’re protected, repeat it outside; We can’t comment on a report that hasn’t been tabled in this House yet), and Mark Strahl railed about Grewal’s possible investigations (Chagger: He’s no longer part of the Liberal caucus, but we hope he gets the help he needs). Nathan Cullen also raised Grewal’s actions (Chagger: The RCMP operates independently of government), and Charlie Angus returned to the land deal (Bains: Any innuendo or allegations are false). Luc Berthold deployed the false numbers around the irregular border crossers (LeBlanc: We are working hard to take care of the situation and the number is going down), and Michelle Rempel concern trolled about the UN global compact on migration as “border erasure” (Hussen: This is about best practices and recognising Canada’s success with orderly migration). Linda Duncan and Alexandre Boulerice took exception to the government’s record on keeping international promises (Fraser: We are putting a price on carbon and taking measures to fighting climate change).

Round three saw questions on the GM plant closure (Bains: GM supports a price on pollution and we are fighting to remove the tariffs), steel and aluminium tariffs (Leslie: Under the side-letter under the New NAFTA our supply chains have been protected), Bill C-69 (Sohi: The previous government’s failed process didn’t get any pipelines to new markets), Canada Post’s labour practices (MacKinnon: There is a process under the back-to-work legislation for continue bargaining), the Statistics Canada data-gathering project (Bains: The Chief Statistician has stated they will only proceed when they get privacy protections right), Davie shipyard by way of the Mark Norman case (Goodale: We should leave this matter to the courts), failed medical devices (Oliver: We are deeply concerned by these reports, and are coming up with an action plan), looking for federal commitment to a French university in Ontario (Joly: We will always stand up for Franco-Ontariens), VIA Rail not preferring Bombardier for their new fleet (Garneau: VIA is arm’s length, and under trade agreements, we can’t prefer or insist on minimum Canadian content), consumer protection legislation vis-à-vis banks in Quebec (O’Connell: We ensure that our legislation is complementary and doesn’t supersede Quebec’s legislation), and the UN migration compact (Hussen: This is Rebel Media conspiracy theories).

Overall, it was a bit of an odd day, where Pierre Poilievre really wanted to make a spectacle about the foreign aid tweet and Justin Trudeau’s discussion about legitimate concerns about the impacts of so-called “man camps” in rural and remote communities, but kept wedging them into questions about Bill C-69, which was transparent showboating. As well, the questions about that Brampton land deal directed at Navdeep Bains saw some pretty forceful language about repeating the allegations outside of the House, where they wouldn’t be protected by parliamentary privilege, was also interesting and you don’t often see that kind of strong language. On top of that, it’s a bit alarming that the Conservatives are going full tinfoil hat on the UN compact on global migration, describing it as “border erasure,” which is the kind of language used by paranoiacs and conspiracy theorists rather than members of parliament, which is yet more of their apparent attempts to use just enough extremist language to try and score points by making people angry, as though it wouldn’t also trigger the actual extremists in the audience – a tactic that should alarm people.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Alexandra Mendès for a black dress with white cuffs a white scarf, and to Will Amos for a tailored three-piece suit with a blue and white checked shirt and a burgundy tie. Style citations go out to Guy Lauzon for a dark brown corduroy suit with a butterscotch shirt and a black and brown tie, and to Jane Philpott for a black dress with pink florals.

Roundup: Sorry for the service interruption

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Hey everyone – sorry for the service interruption! Malware sucks. Fortunately, it’s been taken care of and I have new preventative measures to ensure that it won’t happen again in the future, but that also costs me a lot more money to run this site than it used to, so if you can, please consider becoming a patron (and you get some exclusive content to go along with your support). Thanks again for your patience with this.

Good reads:

  • This week’s first ministers’ meeting is expected to get testy, and lo, the oil and gas sector is not explicitly on the agenda (to which Trudeau insists it’ll get discussed).
  • Oh, look! Data on rural work camps and violence against women! It’s something that does happen, despite the Conservatives deriding the association made.
  • Dairy producers are the beneficiaries of import quotas under TPP rules (and lo, I wrote about this being likely two months ago based on the CETA experience).
  • Federal lawyers are objecting to the UCP trying to join the Saskatchewan court challenge on carbon taxes. (It is unusual for opposition parties to be party to a case).
  • A lot of doubt is being raised as to whether the government will actually end arms sales to Saudi Arabia.
  • Apparently Canada’s “feminist” foreign aid policy is too unfocused and spread too thin to have a meaningful effect (not to mention is underfunded).
  • The Commons foreign affairs committee was supposed to have an in-camera meeting with Chinese officials, but that has been cancelled.
  • The Privacy Commissioner is calling for tougher digital privacy laws.
  • Environment Canada is an outlier in that it generally doesn’t track the e-waste of its weather balloons (in part because it’s too costly as we’re a vast country).
  • The CFO of Hwawei was arrested in Vancouver for extradition to the United States, and that could trigger backlash from China.
  • Raj Grewal’s lawyer says that all of Grewal’s gambling loans were from friends and family, and are entirely traceable.
  • Ontario’s chief controller resigned after she refused to sign the Ford government’s attempt to sell the “true” size of the deficit as $15 billion.
  • The New Brunswick premier wants Energy East to be revived, but TransCanada isn’t interested. It’s like there are economics at play!
  • Kevin Carmichael looks at the Bank of Canada’s sudden caution on raising interest rates, in large part because of the oil price shock.
  • Colby Cosh looks into Statistics Canada’s programme of testing municipal wastewater for signs of cannabis consumption.
  • Chantal Hébert looks at the federal-provincial  battles over pipelines, that will play out well after the next election.
  • Chris Selley disputes that there’s a crisis around the French language in Ontario.
  • Andrew Coyne looks at how far Andrew Scheer is willing to go to get the far right vote on the immigration issue as he rails against the UN global migration compact.

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Roundup: Unfulfilled drama

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After days of building expectation that there was going to be drama at the First Ministers’ meeting, virtually none was had. Doug Ford was going to storm out, and then he didn’t, and his people started recanting the threats. And, well, other stories started emerging as well. And some other premiers claimed progress on their files, like François Legault saying he got closer to his demands for $300 million in repayment for irregular border crossers and dairy compensation; Rachel Notley could claim some progress on getting Ottawa to consider helping pay for her plan to buy more rail cars. That sort of thing. 

Where there was some minor drama was Doug Ford and Scott Moe coming out at the end, complaining that the federal government was trying to “move the goal posts” on them when it comes to their climate action – which was immediately denounced by other premiers’ officials, and which also demonstrates that they don’t actually know what they’re talking about when it comes to the federal climate framework – in particular that Ford was walking back on some of the province’s earlier commitments to the tune of a 30-megatonne reduction in GHGs, which was not going to fly with anyone else. (Oh, and the federal government says that Ontario won’t get the $420 million promised as part of the Low Carbon Economy Fund after they pulled out of cap-and-trade).

Meanwhile, Andrew Coyne questions the point of these meetings, even from the standpoint of political theatre, while Chantal Hébert calls out Doug Ford’s marked inexperience and partisan petulance, and that he made threats with no reason to back them up. Paul Wells takes the opportunity to explore what these kinds of meetings mean for Trudeau’s style and his vision of federalism – before throwing some well-deserved shade at the final communiqué.

Good reads:

  • In case you missed it, Statistics Canada reported record job numbers and the lowest unemployment rate since the current tracking began in 1976.
  • Here’s a look into the arrest of Huawei’s CFO, and the extradition process that she will now be subject to. She didn’t get bail; our ambassador in China is on the case.
  • The Canadian Institute of Health Research is doing away with virtual meetings citing lack of preparedness and distraction, but the trade-offs are travel costs.
  • Some BC First Nations are looking to renegotiate their benefit agreements with Trans Mountain on the pipeline expansion.
  • Crown attorneys will stop prosecuting some HIV non-disclosure cases as new prosecutorial guidelines come into effect.
  • Here’s a good look at how Doug Ford and Jason Kenney are sowing distrust with the media for their own ends.
  • Murray Brewster delves into the Crown’s filings on Mark Norman as part of their court case alleging he leaked shipyard information.
  • Kevin Carmichael looks into the darker undersides of the good job numbers that came out yesterday.
  • My weekend column calls out Andrew Scheer’s use of conspiracy theories as part of his war on truth that he hopes will give him an edge, but only feeds Russian trolls.

Odds and ends:

It looks like we’re seeing a renewed bout of really dumb takes on “Alberta separatism,” which seems to forget some pretty basic facts about their exports.

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Roundup: Closer examinations of Canadian populism

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The topic of populism has been coming up a lot lately, in a variety of contexts, and there were a couple of interesting discussions around it in the Canadian context over the past couple of days. One is an examination by Frank Graves and Michael Valpy that looks at some of the demographic factors in Canadian populist sentiment, and digs out some interesting things like broader support among male millennials, and even some immigrant communities (though I would note that it’s not that difficult to get immigrant communities to turn against other newcomers – particularly asylum seekers – a technique that Jason Kenney tried very hard to exploit when he was federal immigration minister. The piece is worth digging into, and I had to read it a good two or three times before I started to appreciate a lot of what was contained within.

Another interesting piece was a look at the construction of Alberta conservatism, which goes beyond fiscal and social conservatism – indeed, when polled on values, much of the province actually skews toward fairly centrist values – and yet they disproportionately gravitate toward conservative parties out of a sense of brand identity, which is particularly curious, though one should note that political parties have been losing their ideological bases in favour of left-and-right flavoured populism over the past number of years. And populism is very much a factor in the Alberta voting populace, as the examination shows, which includes the distinction of populism as something that appeals to the “pure” homogeneity of a “people.”

To that end, here’s a good thread that digs into what sets populism apart from democracy, and why it’s something we need to pay attention to as this becomes an increasingly important part of the Canadian discourse.

https://twitter.com/QueenMab87/status/1072670871234461700

https://twitter.com/QueenMab87/status/1072670887697108992

https://twitter.com/QueenMab87/status/1072670900640759811

Good reads:

  • Chrystia Freeland gave a press conference yesterday full of very careful language around the situation with the arrested Huawei CFO and retaliation by China.
  • Said Huawei CFO, Meng Wanzhou, ordered pizza for reporters camped out on her lawn in Vancouver. Bless.
  • Dominic LeBlanc is taking shots at new premier Blaine Higgs for cutting projects that leave federal dollars on the table.
  • Transport Canada released new fatigue management rules for airline pilots, and said pilots are calling the new rules “substandard.”
  • Two years after the Panama Papers were leaked, the CRA has yet to charge anyone named from Canada (but say they continue to investigate).
  • The Commons ethics committee is recommending greater government oversight of web giants like Google and Facebook after privacy scandals.
  • In the Mark Norman case, the defence is accusing the government of being slow to produce documents, and of overproducing creating data dumps.
  • The prime minister appointed four new senators yesterday, which brings the chamber back up to full strength for the first time since 2010.
  • One of those new appointees, Dr. Kutcher, has a more problematic history around drug trials but threatened lawsuits that had reporting scrubbed from the Internet.
  • It being Christmas party season, the Liberals circulated a memo to MPs and staff about their zero tolerance to any behaviour that could be harassment.
  • A former CTV anchor is seeking the Liberal nomination in Vancouver–Kingsway.
  • There are questions as to why it’s taking so long for new two Conservative members to be appointed to NSCIOP.
  • The premier of the Northwest Territories says they are having difficulty developing resources in the North, but he is reluctantly accepting a carbon tax plan.
  • A study shows that people who consume news through social media tend to prefer opinion over objectivity. Gosh, you think?
  • If you want a better understanding of Statistics Canada’s job numbers, this piece will give you some good context.
  • While the Commons is sitting again today, Kady O’Malley’s Process Nerd column looks at the signs to watch for when it comes to MPs rising early for the season.
  • Andrew Coyne pokes into the discontent and nonsense rhetoric around equalisation.
  • Chantal Hébert enumerates the challenges of the three main party leaders heading into 2019.
  • Susan Delacourt reflects on the closure of Centre Block.

Odds and ends:

A London, Ontario, teen got to be “prime minister for a day” thanks to the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

Here is Liberal MP Rodger Cuzner’s annual Christmas poem:

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Roundup: Foreign policy complacency

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There has been some musing of late about Canada’s place in the world, and a couple of things jumped out at me. First is Paul Wells’ most recent column, which responds to a Globe and Mailop-ed from a former trade negotiator that wrings its hands at the way the current government is handling China. As Wells points out, said former negotiator is all over the map in terms of contradictory advice, but most gallingly, suggests that we break our extradition treaty with our largest and closest ally in order to appease China. And Wells quite properly boggles at this suggestion we break our treaty, while at the same time taking a moment to reflect on how there is a different way in which Ottawa seems to operate when it comes to these matters, particularly in an era where major corporations with investments in China are no longer calling the shots by way of political financing.

At the same time, Stephanie Carvin makes some particularly poignant observations about Canada’s foreign policy complacency in this era of the Americans retreating from their obligations on the world stage (never mind the Brexit-mired UK). We talk a good game, but have no follow-through, and in the past, she has quite rightly pointed to the fact that we won’t invest in the kinds of things we talk about the importance of globally (most especially “feminist” foreign aid). The government’s actions in Mali are another decent example – putting on a big song and dance about how important it is we go there, spend a few months there doing low-risk medevac, and then refuse to extend the mission for a few extra months so that our replacements can get properly established, meaning there will be a gap in services there.

I do have to wonder about some of the crossover between what Wells and Carvin are talking about – that Wells points to the rise of crowd-pleasing populism freeing governments from the go-along-to-get-along complacency, but Carvin points to the fact that we are not actually free of that complacency, though perhaps there are different sorts of complacency that we are grappling with when it comes to our place on the world stage. Something to think about in any case.

Good reads:

  • A delegation of MPs and senators are going ahead with a planned trip to China despite the current tensions and detentions.
  • Meanwhile, the Chinese government says it’s “not convenient” to discuss the charges of the two most prominent Canadians being detained.
  • The government is scaling back on underused post-arrival services for new immigrants, and scaling up funding for pre-arrival services.
  • Tech companies say that the government’s programmes to help start-ups scale-up aren’t working for them.
  • Just before the Christmas break, three expert reports on expanding the right-to-die to include advance directives, mental illness and mature minors were tabled.
  • The RCMP could be facing a major change in its structure to include civilian oversight and external process to deal with harassment.
  • CSIS is looking to hire hackers and data scientists, but some worry that this means an escalation in the cyber-arms race.
  • The deal to acquire 25 Australian F-18s has been finalised and the first of them could be flying here by this summer.
  • Access to Information requests for internal Privy Council Office polling data shows that carbon pricing may not be as unpopular as Andrew Scheer suggests.
  • StatsCan says that the partial US-government shutdown could affect the quality of trade data it relies upon.
  • Rising interest rates are showing signs of a housing correction in Canada.
  • Organisers of a wannabe-Yellow Vest truck convoy to Ottawa to demand pipelines are concerned their message might confused. Gosh, you think?
  • MPs are tinkering with the e-petition system to make it more responsive.
  • New political fundraising rules are now in place in advance of the next election.
  • Here’s a profile of the new Liberal candidate in Burnaby South, who will run against Jagmeet Singh. (The Conservatives declined to comment).
  • Here’s a look at why campaigning on anger makes for a poor governing strategy, and how Jason Kenney should avoid Doug Ford’s mistakes with it.
  • Colby Cosh goes through the arguments of the federal government in the Saskatchewan carbon tax challenge, and finds they short-changed the winning one.
  • Chris Selley walks us through the problems with Canada’s butter market, dominated by Supply Management that produces a mediocre, indistinguishable product.

Odds and ends:

Here’s a look at the Lake of the Woods issue, with a sliver of land that should belong to Manitoba belonging to the Americans because of a survey error.

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Roundup: Objections to the waiver

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At first it seemed like today was going to be the big day. Jody Wilson-Raybould had agreed to meet the justice committee to tell “her truth.” On his way into Cabinet, Justin Trudeau said he was “pleased” that she would be able to appear at committee. The committee agreed to give her the thirty minutes she requested off the top instead of the usual five or ten for an opening statement. Some MPs wanted to try and get the hearing moved from after QP to beforehand (never mind that it’s when all of the parties hold their caucus meetings) in order to be able to ask the PM any questions that might arise from the testimony. And then, surprising probably nobody who paid attention, Wilson-Raybould sent another letter to committee, expressing her “concerns” that the Order in Council that waived solicitor-client privilege wasn’t enough for her to tell the full story.

At this point, it’s starting to feel like a game – that Wilson-Raybould’s attempt to keep controlling the narrative is running out of runway, given that Michael Wernick called her out and Justin Trudeau went and waived solicitor-client privilege (unnecessarily, if you listen to some of the legal commentary out there), and now she’s trying to sow doubt that she’s still not completely free to speak, in order to keep up the narrative that she’s the victim or the hero, distracting from her poor record as justice minister. And it’s starting to feel like the more song and dance that she keeps putting up in order to keep from speaking, the less there is to what she has to say. But maybe I’m getting cynical after a decade on the Hill.

Meanwhile, former litigator Andrew Roman takes a deeper look into the portents of doom for SNC-Lavalin if they were subject to prosecution and even a ten-year ban from federal contracts, and finds them to be less dire than advertised, which makes any alleged wrongdoing by the government to protect them all the more baffling.

Good reads:

  • New figures from StatsCan shows that child poverty reduced by a third between 2015 and 2017 – in large part because of the Canada Child Benefit.
  • Industry groups tell the Senate that they want the government to replace Bill C-48’s West Coast tanker ban with stringent international regulations instead.
  • A new report on the state of combatting sexual misconduct in the military shows frustratingly slow progress (which is probably not a surprise).
  • Next month, a judge will decide whether Omar Khadr can consider his eight-year sentence to have expired.
  • A Somali man with a criminal history who crossed the border irregularly has had his refugee claim denied.
  • The Conservatives have served notice that they plan to move a Supply Day motion around the production of documents for the VADM Mark Norman case.
  • Andrew Scheer defended his speaking to the “yellow vester” crowd last week, and shrugged off Senator Tkachuk’s suggestions that they “roll over” the Liberals.
  • Jagmeet Singh says that now that he has a seat in Parliament, he’ll get action on affordable housing. As leader of the third party? Really? How, exactly?
  • Here’s a look at the takeaway for Maxime Bernier from Monday’s by-election results.
  • A Quebec court has struck down the province’s plan to legislate away their 18,000-case immigration backlog, saying they need to keep processing them.
  • Jason Kenney wants to abolish desk-thumping in the Alberta legislature (which I find better than the obnoxious ovations that happen in Ottawa, for the record).
  • Chantal Hébert goes through the by-election results to find the lessons for each of the parties and their leaders.
  • Likewise, Éric Grenier crunches the results for his own reading of the by-election narratives.
  • Andrew Coyne declares that it’s time we start talking about the fact that poverty is falling, and that we are measuring it better these days.
  • My column looks at Samara Canada’s latest report on civic literacy, and finds a big hole in their findings, if we want to improve the state of civics in this country.

Odds and ends:

It’s the 100thanniversary of the wedding of Princess Patricia of Connaught, who was not only the first “modern” princess but had strong ties to Canada.

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