After watching seven decades of Canadian government I no longer care about who leads and everything about how they will lead. Campaign after campaign has promised that all proposed legislation, policy and projects will be presented to the public with a detailed budget, the specifics on the source of funding and a clearly articulated measurement of success once implemented. Of course once elected, parliament and the public are presented with endless smoke and mirrors. Every party is guilty. No party in power provides honest, straightforward answers and the MSM act like deer in the headlights when questions go unanswered. And then the MSM write endless articles wondering why the citizens have lost faith in Canadian government. Bah, humbug.
Too often, the media have no idea of the subject matter....kind of like cabinet ministers who are marginally better informed. You have to have some knowledge of the subject to ask good questions. We aren't getting that.
As much as I hate to admit it I am beginning to see New Blue as a contender. I am Conservative, did not vote for Doug as leader and wont vote Liberal after the McGuinty bait and switch. (See also Trudeau/Carney; thank you Gerry Butts. We see you).
I hope you'll take a close look at what New Blue stands for, their ideas during COVID, and their ideas about community. McGuinty was the worst leader Ontario had...until Doug.
Perhaps other than their vague statement on "sanctity of human life" I see nothing objectionable in their platform. Real conservative values and badly needed common sense reforms. If they run a candidate in my riding that's probably the way I will go next election.
I’m not sure the cell phone issue or the jet moved things all that much - it was more fodder for the partisans. I think the Doug polls are part of a much larger phenomenon. The media, and larger segments of the population, are starting to catch on that leadership in this country has been all talk and very little action over the past 1.5 years despite running on the epic change that is supposed to be Trump (Carney, Ford, Eby were the main players on this). For example, the amount of bad press over the deficit spending at the federal level has surprised me given that this has been the modus operandi for the past decade at all levels of government. What exactly changed now?
I think leaders need to realize that they are on notice now. The voters expect decisions and delivery. The ones that do, will be rewarded.
Just an addon comment, that very large portion of the chicken wing chicken shit bullshit voters who at the election time took Carney's poisoned bait, replaced their brains with shit-for-brains and voted in the "Liberals" yet again with Carney as PM ? Now, these easily duped half-wits are going to expect decisions and delivery from the serial creator of multiple Ponzi schemes ? Hhhhhmmm.....
He already made the decisions well before the elections, and what he will deliver is a crashed Canadian economy and a looted state treasury. And this will not take him that long.
Pierre is the author of his own misfortune. He picked bad advisors and yes men. He attacked the very people (the press) he needed to get his message out to swing voters. That’s on him.
I say that about half the time you are very poor a reading the room, landscape and tracks. Your first comment is very good, your second comment is way off mark.
MSM, the press, and a good portion of the public has had it as a national sport to dump on PP for years, for spurious reasons. It is on MSM that they are so blatantly, openly, and long-term biased against anyone who is not a "Liberal" or a leftist. To the point where they openly lie into camera and are caught right there.
To people who are old and/or know history, the behaviour of canadian MSM for a number of years have been the same as the old bolshevik/communist propagandist schweinerei. So there is that. Bye.
The bias is obvious and it's fair game to point this out. That said, conservatives do need to figure out a way to either lessen that bias somehow, or win in spite of it.
If I were them I would start by approaching the mainstream outlets and privately reassure them that their subsidies are safe under a CPC government despite any rhetoric to the contrary. That there would be reforms to the CBC but not catastrophic defunding. You can't have every journalist in the country thinking that you winning would mean they lose their job.
I very seldom disagree with your posts, but I think for this one I must make an exception.
There is no common ground between a political party that seeks to erase teat-sucking, rent-seeking, and business as usual, and an industry that works for government subsidies.
If Conservatives merely wanted to win, they should have voted for Jean Charest.
Nothing in Canada would change, mind you, nothing would be repaired, and we would still be the same constipated, paralyzed, and insufferable Country that we have become.
No economic ascendancy, no cultural harmony, and the only difference being the cheques would be of the colour blue, instead of red.
Like I said, there are two ways to do this. The party can be completely honest and up-front about removing all the media subsidies and CBC funding, explicitly run on this, and somehow win despite the hurricane of massively biased media coverage generated by every mainstream journalist in the country realizing that a Conservative election win means the end of their career. It's possible to win under that circumstance, as it looked like in 2024. But that took a situation that was so bad both substantively and optically that no amount of media spin could make Justin Trudeau popular again. They simply had nothing to work with. But consider the 2025 election. The reason that nothing like that polling reversal has ever happened in the western world as far as I know is that nowhere has this kind of media environment. If it seemed like all of the mainstream press was a LPC advertising machine, it's because they were. As soon as the Canadian media have any kind of narrative to grasp onto, they will scream it from the rooftops to try to torpedo Conservatives, because from their perspective they have to.
And there's the second way. Don't be upfront about this plan. In fact, convince the mainstream media that Conservatives have dropped the issue altogether. Would they be convinced by this, I am not sure, but defending their careers with every molecule in their being might not be quite so front of mind. And I think Poilievre's most enduring political mistake was being so open about his plans to remove media funding. He is fighting a party that will do anything, say anything, spend anything, in order to win. He doesn't need to be so damn honest all the time. Once in power, pull the plug. There's no need to fight clean anymore, if there ever was.
I'm honestly surprised to see so much negative coverage of the "sovereign wealth fund"; even the Star can't find much good to say. Hopefully we are speed running the "gleam coming off" of this federal government as they predictably fail to deliver anything other than borrowing and hot air, and "not destroying things as quickly or as deliberately as Trudeau" stops being an impressive metric anymore.
It's been obvious for a long time that Ford does absolutely nothing and Ontario is basically running on autopilot. He benefits from the fact that public imagination (accurately) predicts that a Liberal government would be the same thing but with a lot of woke nonsense and double the spending without significantly better results. The more time passes though, the more people forget this. An Ontario NDP win would be an apocalypse level event wiping out several entire industries and probably causing many high income earners to leave.
Re. Doug Ford. My take on him is different from the Line's. (And that's OK). He has been a serious liability when it comes to urban planning, cultural institutions, and especially nature preservation. From the shuttering of the Science Centre to the gutting of provincial wetland protection to his self-exemption from the Freedom of Information Act, he has actually done a lot; and I would rather wish he'd done some more caving in under pressure.
If we want Canada to be more serious, and be more than a real estate investment scheme, institutions like the Science Centre matter: architecturally, historically, and educationally. Allowing Ontario to fall prey to an investor-driven real-estate bubble has left us poorer, uglier, and less sustainable. We are looking mighty shabby, and our ecosystems are heading in the same direction.
Ford has done some things well: he was quite supportive during COVID and did not get involved with the convoy (his regular meetings with the press and avuncular manner provided welcome moral support), and I don't dismiss his role as a trade pit bull in the current US situation.
On the whole though, he has coasted through on the sheer disarray and lassitude of the opposition parties, and I keep wishing we could do better. My wish for something like a coalition between The Line and the Green Party remains a pious fantasy, I'm afraid.
I agree completely except he was a disaster during COVID, ignoring his experts, and delaying new variant lockdowns, causing them to last longer. He also used federal COVID dollars to make his books look better.
The jet was an ignorant, out-of-touch, utterly arrogant idea. The FOI legislation confirms that this is the most graft-ridden government in Ontario's history.
Brilliant work, Jen, on jumpstarting Alberta. Great to hear it is having benefits.
I've said it many times. The US is done. Trump is a symptom. The GOP is the cancer. Should the country somehow survive, it will take decades to undo the damage done in the last 15 months. The trust should take even longer to restore. Yes, we will have to trade with them for geographical reasons. There is no reason to trust them again.
Most importantly, the Centurion situation demonstrates that the separatist movement is not able to run an organization that is able to cope with the basics of running a government. Maybe other parts of the separatist movement that are better, and might be the leaders, but apparently not. Surely the Centurion project could have operated under one of the separatist Political parties if anyone was thinking things through.
I agree that the new legislation does not support the civil service's lack of action on the electoral list situation. IMO the civil service might be trying to prove something, failed to take their legislated responsibility, or some other issue, none of which relate to the legislation itself.
I am a little surprised you guys fell for the PMO talking point which claims Canada is the first non-European country to attend an EPC meeting that is being hosted in an Asian country.
I'm starting to see Trump's tenure as President as the equivalent of suffering a heart attack. Provided it doesn't kill you outright you can do one of two things - thank your lucky stars you survived and continue doing all the same things you did previously, OR, change your diet, start exercising, and do everything you can to reduce your susceptibility to another one in the future.
Ford may be slipping in popularity and quite possibly deservedly but as long as the alternative is the Liberals his position is safe. It's a pity that our only choice is between bad government and really bad government.
As for Europe, it should have been back on its feet militarily within 20 years after the end of WWII (or eleven if you're AOC). Instead, it still relies on the US for its defence to this day. If Trump has finally convinced the EU to start pulling its weight then better late than never.
The official opposition in Ontario is the provincial NDP.
I am somewhat mystified that Ontarians still seem unable to consider them as the province's "government-in-waiting" and opt instead to throw their support over to a party, the provincial Liberals, that doesn't really have a leader or a clearly understood platform.
Carney's Liberals expect the Republicans to support Canada for no other reason than our leader's government resume. Canada does not have the cards to win what the Central Canadian seniors who elected Carney are expecting. But those shallow voters are impressed by international travel, hence the photo ops as Carney goes anywhere other than Canada.
The Dems are not better than Trump. Recall that Biden cut Keystone either on a whim or to placate some group; Obama ditched the Arab Spring; legions of Americans arrived in Canada to support Liberal sunny ways that failed us economically. I shudder to think what the Liberals might agree to if people talk nicely to them, no doubt a very vulnerable, subservient role fro Canada.
It's time for Carney to get things done with reduced interference with Alberta and the west. Like approve a pipeline from Alberta that will enrich Canada and allow Liberal spending to continue.
The Dems are better because they at least have decorum and some impulse control but I think Canadians are fooling themselves if they think supply management isn’t irritating them too.
That is not an excuse for that kind of deliberate vicious destruction and for setting the society back decades. The normal people were asleep at the wheel, and when they woke up they shat their pants with fear. Bye.
Decorum and impulse control might be useful negotiating tools, or not. There is no certainty that decorum and impulse control are not carefully calculated mechanisms to hide using, abusing, lying, unethical behaviours. We all know people who use decorum and impulse control to hide their otherwise nefarious actions.
Thank you for this latest weekly round up of the issues you saw as most salient to your readers.
I certainly agreed with your assessment that the official opposition in Ottawa is barking up the wrong tree WRT the lack of progress with the renegotiation of the tripartite North American trade and investment pact.
Trump is against foreign trade, unless it is all "one way" (the world buys American, and America buys nothing from the world unless it gets it for free, is essentially his policy).
Clearly we can afford to wait until the dumpster fire burning under the derrieres of the Americans starts to do real damage. That seems like a destructive way to restore some semblance of sanity to US politics, but that's what we have at present.
Of course, a rethink might be in order to revoke the Supreme Court ruling of 2010 ("Citizens United") that enabled the corruption that gives the very rich carte blanche to buy access to the political system, while screwing every one else.
I think some in the United States understand the need for change. However, I see little hope of serious and long-term improvement until American citizens get off their duffs and start realizing that allowing single-issue extremists to control their political parties is the wrong way to go.
Oh. Wait... don't we have a little bit of that problem as well? (*the Tories in particular*).
After reading this article I suggest people read your article from the Halifax Security conference .
I would love to be fly on the wall at next years conference
After watching seven decades of Canadian government I no longer care about who leads and everything about how they will lead. Campaign after campaign has promised that all proposed legislation, policy and projects will be presented to the public with a detailed budget, the specifics on the source of funding and a clearly articulated measurement of success once implemented. Of course once elected, parliament and the public are presented with endless smoke and mirrors. Every party is guilty. No party in power provides honest, straightforward answers and the MSM act like deer in the headlights when questions go unanswered. And then the MSM write endless articles wondering why the citizens have lost faith in Canadian government. Bah, humbug.
Too often, the media have no idea of the subject matter....kind of like cabinet ministers who are marginally better informed. You have to have some knowledge of the subject to ask good questions. We aren't getting that.
Very polite, and true.
As much as I hate to admit it I am beginning to see New Blue as a contender. I am Conservative, did not vote for Doug as leader and wont vote Liberal after the McGuinty bait and switch. (See also Trudeau/Carney; thank you Gerry Butts. We see you).
I hope you'll take a close look at what New Blue stands for, their ideas during COVID, and their ideas about community. McGuinty was the worst leader Ontario had...until Doug.
Perhaps other than their vague statement on "sanctity of human life" I see nothing objectionable in their platform. Real conservative values and badly needed common sense reforms. If they run a candidate in my riding that's probably the way I will go next election.
I’m not sure the cell phone issue or the jet moved things all that much - it was more fodder for the partisans. I think the Doug polls are part of a much larger phenomenon. The media, and larger segments of the population, are starting to catch on that leadership in this country has been all talk and very little action over the past 1.5 years despite running on the epic change that is supposed to be Trump (Carney, Ford, Eby were the main players on this). For example, the amount of bad press over the deficit spending at the federal level has surprised me given that this has been the modus operandi for the past decade at all levels of government. What exactly changed now?
I think leaders need to realize that they are on notice now. The voters expect decisions and delivery. The ones that do, will be rewarded.
Just an addon comment, that very large portion of the chicken wing chicken shit bullshit voters who at the election time took Carney's poisoned bait, replaced their brains with shit-for-brains and voted in the "Liberals" yet again with Carney as PM ? Now, these easily duped half-wits are going to expect decisions and delivery from the serial creator of multiple Ponzi schemes ? Hhhhhmmm.....
He already made the decisions well before the elections, and what he will deliver is a crashed Canadian economy and a looted state treasury. And this will not take him that long.
Pierre is the author of his own misfortune. He picked bad advisors and yes men. He attacked the very people (the press) he needed to get his message out to swing voters. That’s on him.
I say that about half the time you are very poor a reading the room, landscape and tracks. Your first comment is very good, your second comment is way off mark.
MSM, the press, and a good portion of the public has had it as a national sport to dump on PP for years, for spurious reasons. It is on MSM that they are so blatantly, openly, and long-term biased against anyone who is not a "Liberal" or a leftist. To the point where they openly lie into camera and are caught right there.
To people who are old and/or know history, the behaviour of canadian MSM for a number of years have been the same as the old bolshevik/communist propagandist schweinerei. So there is that. Bye.
The bias is obvious and it's fair game to point this out. That said, conservatives do need to figure out a way to either lessen that bias somehow, or win in spite of it.
If I were them I would start by approaching the mainstream outlets and privately reassure them that their subsidies are safe under a CPC government despite any rhetoric to the contrary. That there would be reforms to the CBC but not catastrophic defunding. You can't have every journalist in the country thinking that you winning would mean they lose their job.
Whether I would uphold that deal I don't know...
I very seldom disagree with your posts, but I think for this one I must make an exception.
There is no common ground between a political party that seeks to erase teat-sucking, rent-seeking, and business as usual, and an industry that works for government subsidies.
If Conservatives merely wanted to win, they should have voted for Jean Charest.
Nothing in Canada would change, mind you, nothing would be repaired, and we would still be the same constipated, paralyzed, and insufferable Country that we have become.
No economic ascendancy, no cultural harmony, and the only difference being the cheques would be of the colour blue, instead of red.
Maybe I left the last line too ambiguous.
Like I said, there are two ways to do this. The party can be completely honest and up-front about removing all the media subsidies and CBC funding, explicitly run on this, and somehow win despite the hurricane of massively biased media coverage generated by every mainstream journalist in the country realizing that a Conservative election win means the end of their career. It's possible to win under that circumstance, as it looked like in 2024. But that took a situation that was so bad both substantively and optically that no amount of media spin could make Justin Trudeau popular again. They simply had nothing to work with. But consider the 2025 election. The reason that nothing like that polling reversal has ever happened in the western world as far as I know is that nowhere has this kind of media environment. If it seemed like all of the mainstream press was a LPC advertising machine, it's because they were. As soon as the Canadian media have any kind of narrative to grasp onto, they will scream it from the rooftops to try to torpedo Conservatives, because from their perspective they have to.
And there's the second way. Don't be upfront about this plan. In fact, convince the mainstream media that Conservatives have dropped the issue altogether. Would they be convinced by this, I am not sure, but defending their careers with every molecule in their being might not be quite so front of mind. And I think Poilievre's most enduring political mistake was being so open about his plans to remove media funding. He is fighting a party that will do anything, say anything, spend anything, in order to win. He doesn't need to be so damn honest all the time. Once in power, pull the plug. There's no need to fight clean anymore, if there ever was.
Love the rant!!
Yes, he is well known his way.
Who says our Prime Minister has accomplished nothing in his first year?
I'm honestly surprised to see so much negative coverage of the "sovereign wealth fund"; even the Star can't find much good to say. Hopefully we are speed running the "gleam coming off" of this federal government as they predictably fail to deliver anything other than borrowing and hot air, and "not destroying things as quickly or as deliberately as Trudeau" stops being an impressive metric anymore.
It's been obvious for a long time that Ford does absolutely nothing and Ontario is basically running on autopilot. He benefits from the fact that public imagination (accurately) predicts that a Liberal government would be the same thing but with a lot of woke nonsense and double the spending without significantly better results. The more time passes though, the more people forget this. An Ontario NDP win would be an apocalypse level event wiping out several entire industries and probably causing many high income earners to leave.
You make a good point with your comments on Doug Ford, and Ontario benefitting from benign neglect.
Re. Doug Ford. My take on him is different from the Line's. (And that's OK). He has been a serious liability when it comes to urban planning, cultural institutions, and especially nature preservation. From the shuttering of the Science Centre to the gutting of provincial wetland protection to his self-exemption from the Freedom of Information Act, he has actually done a lot; and I would rather wish he'd done some more caving in under pressure.
If we want Canada to be more serious, and be more than a real estate investment scheme, institutions like the Science Centre matter: architecturally, historically, and educationally. Allowing Ontario to fall prey to an investor-driven real-estate bubble has left us poorer, uglier, and less sustainable. We are looking mighty shabby, and our ecosystems are heading in the same direction.
Ford has done some things well: he was quite supportive during COVID and did not get involved with the convoy (his regular meetings with the press and avuncular manner provided welcome moral support), and I don't dismiss his role as a trade pit bull in the current US situation.
On the whole though, he has coasted through on the sheer disarray and lassitude of the opposition parties, and I keep wishing we could do better. My wish for something like a coalition between The Line and the Green Party remains a pious fantasy, I'm afraid.
I agree completely except he was a disaster during COVID, ignoring his experts, and delaying new variant lockdowns, causing them to last longer. He also used federal COVID dollars to make his books look better.
Well, given Canada's expertise on "assault-style weapons", I'm certain we won't have any trouble figuring out "Tomahawk-style missiles"
The jet was an ignorant, out-of-touch, utterly arrogant idea. The FOI legislation confirms that this is the most graft-ridden government in Ontario's history.
Brilliant work, Jen, on jumpstarting Alberta. Great to hear it is having benefits.
I've said it many times. The US is done. Trump is a symptom. The GOP is the cancer. Should the country somehow survive, it will take decades to undo the damage done in the last 15 months. The trust should take even longer to restore. Yes, we will have to trade with them for geographical reasons. There is no reason to trust them again.
Most importantly, the Centurion situation demonstrates that the separatist movement is not able to run an organization that is able to cope with the basics of running a government. Maybe other parts of the separatist movement that are better, and might be the leaders, but apparently not. Surely the Centurion project could have operated under one of the separatist Political parties if anyone was thinking things through.
I agree that the new legislation does not support the civil service's lack of action on the electoral list situation. IMO the civil service might be trying to prove something, failed to take their legislated responsibility, or some other issue, none of which relate to the legislation itself.
I am a little surprised you guys fell for the PMO talking point which claims Canada is the first non-European country to attend an EPC meeting that is being hosted in an Asian country.
I'm starting to see Trump's tenure as President as the equivalent of suffering a heart attack. Provided it doesn't kill you outright you can do one of two things - thank your lucky stars you survived and continue doing all the same things you did previously, OR, change your diet, start exercising, and do everything you can to reduce your susceptibility to another one in the future.
Ford may be slipping in popularity and quite possibly deservedly but as long as the alternative is the Liberals his position is safe. It's a pity that our only choice is between bad government and really bad government.
As for Europe, it should have been back on its feet militarily within 20 years after the end of WWII (or eleven if you're AOC). Instead, it still relies on the US for its defence to this day. If Trump has finally convinced the EU to start pulling its weight then better late than never.
The official opposition in Ontario is the provincial NDP.
I am somewhat mystified that Ontarians still seem unable to consider them as the province's "government-in-waiting" and opt instead to throw their support over to a party, the provincial Liberals, that doesn't really have a leader or a clearly understood platform.
The NDP is not a serious contender in Ontario which isn't to say they'd be any worse than the Liberals.
Carney's Liberals expect the Republicans to support Canada for no other reason than our leader's government resume. Canada does not have the cards to win what the Central Canadian seniors who elected Carney are expecting. But those shallow voters are impressed by international travel, hence the photo ops as Carney goes anywhere other than Canada.
The Dems are not better than Trump. Recall that Biden cut Keystone either on a whim or to placate some group; Obama ditched the Arab Spring; legions of Americans arrived in Canada to support Liberal sunny ways that failed us economically. I shudder to think what the Liberals might agree to if people talk nicely to them, no doubt a very vulnerable, subservient role fro Canada.
It's time for Carney to get things done with reduced interference with Alberta and the west. Like approve a pipeline from Alberta that will enrich Canada and allow Liberal spending to continue.
The Dems are better because they at least have decorum and some impulse control but I think Canadians are fooling themselves if they think supply management isn’t irritating them too.
Most Dems do not have impulse control. If they did, they would not have exploded DEI= DISCRIMINATION, INTOLERANCE, EXCLUSION into every corner.
That happened everywhere.
That is not an excuse for that kind of deliberate vicious destruction and for setting the society back decades. The normal people were asleep at the wheel, and when they woke up they shat their pants with fear. Bye.
Decorum and impulse control might be useful negotiating tools, or not. There is no certainty that decorum and impulse control are not carefully calculated mechanisms to hide using, abusing, lying, unethical behaviours. We all know people who use decorum and impulse control to hide their otherwise nefarious actions.
Doug Ford is what happens when you give scientists the green light to hybridize Peter Griffin and a windsock.
Thank you for this latest weekly round up of the issues you saw as most salient to your readers.
I certainly agreed with your assessment that the official opposition in Ottawa is barking up the wrong tree WRT the lack of progress with the renegotiation of the tripartite North American trade and investment pact.
Trump is against foreign trade, unless it is all "one way" (the world buys American, and America buys nothing from the world unless it gets it for free, is essentially his policy).
Clearly we can afford to wait until the dumpster fire burning under the derrieres of the Americans starts to do real damage. That seems like a destructive way to restore some semblance of sanity to US politics, but that's what we have at present.
Of course, a rethink might be in order to revoke the Supreme Court ruling of 2010 ("Citizens United") that enabled the corruption that gives the very rich carte blanche to buy access to the political system, while screwing every one else.
I think some in the United States understand the need for change. However, I see little hope of serious and long-term improvement until American citizens get off their duffs and start realizing that allowing single-issue extremists to control their political parties is the wrong way to go.
Oh. Wait... don't we have a little bit of that problem as well? (*the Tories in particular*).
Hm.