Dispatch: A week out, lots still to come
At least you aren't foraging for food yet. But! The government has some thoughts on that, just in case you were thinking about it.
Hey everyone. We hope you all had a wonderful Easter Sunday and/or end of Passover. Or even just a nice long weekend. If you haven’t had a chance yet, check out our latest episode of The Line Podcast — this week, totally free of emotional breakdowns. Some of what we’re talking about might cause you to have an emotional breakdown, but your hosts came through this episode without a scratch.
Also! Check out the latest On The Line. Also a very uplifting edition, we promise. (That is a lie. It is very glum.)
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Also, check out our election special features. Starting with the Bullshit Bulletin!
And now, on with the dispatch.
A very quick note: The Line has not stopped monitoring progress — is that even possible, we’re seeing progress?! — on tearing down internal trade barriers. The government of Nova Scotia has been praised by us for their having taken an early lead; Nova Scotia announced last week that it is moving forward with agreements with Ontario and Prince Edward Island. New Brunswick has also announced similar plans.
Good! That’s our only real comment. We promised to throw Nova Scotia a party and they are doing their part. The Line is basically wiped out right now with election coverage, but we have been watching this story, with genuine pleasure. Once things settle down in a few weeks we’re going to circle back on this. It’s been great to see.
The Line is not a particularly spiritual place, but it would be remiss of us to start this dispatch without noting the passing of His Holiness Pope Francis, who died Monday, aged 88. The pope had been struggling with pneumonia for months, but had seemed to rally in recent weeks. Over the weekend, he made a brief appearance at Easter services (but did not lead them) and also met briefly with the visiting U.S. vice president, J.D. Vance. Only a few hours later, the pope was dead.
We will leave any deep commentary and reflection on the pope’s life and legacy to those better placed to comment. We will simply make this observation, which we do feel is within our wheelhouse as political and cultural observers: this pope was notable, and at times controversial, for being very progressive. Progressive for a pope, of course, and we understand that many will quibble that that is not particularly progressive at all. But still. Francis was progressive enough to have caused some unease among more traditionally minded Catholics.
Which makes the timing of his passing particularly interesting. The Line has observed many times before that we think “peak woke” was the summer of 2020. It’s a vague, almost sloppy term, we acknowledge, but we’ve yet to come up with a better way of putting it. Somewhere around the George Floyd riots, a real cultural moment passed — and a swing back to the cultural, social and political right wing began.
We think it continues — we haven’t seen the end of the swing, though Canada’s upcoming election may prove an outlier. We bring this up simply to wonder what direction the Catholic Church will go in. The world is already seeing an exit of progressive leaders, usually at the ballot box, and many of these are being replaced by more conservative successors. We will watch the upcoming process to choose a successor to Pope Francis with interest.
For now, we’d like to offer our condolences to any of our readers who are personally saddened by the passing of the pope. As our Jewish friends say, may his memory be a blessing.