Dispatch from the Front Lines: Hey, Liberals? Stop the disinformation
Also: Carney's China problem. Poilievre's woman problem. Canada's building-stuff problem. And more.
Well, now. This is starting to feel like an election. After a very quiet start of the race, have we finally entered the real campaign? We’ve got a lot to discuss on a few fronts on that score, but first, check out the latest episode of The Line Podcast — and we admit it’s an unusual one. Jen blew off some long-simmering steam, and Matt let her do it. You get to decide who to blame.
Also! Check out the latest On The Line. It ended up being alarmingly topical this week!
We make our usual requests of you! Please like, subscribe and share widely. That means here at the main site, of course, but also on our distribution channels: Apple, Spotify, YouTube, and all the others. A nice review helps, too!
Also, check out our election special features. Starting with the Bullshit Bulletin!
And now, on with the dispatch.
We start with a short note about a developing story. The CBC has reported that buttons found at the Canada Strong and Free conference, an annual gathering of Canadian conservatives, were planted by the Liberals. The buttons, photos of which circulated on social media, were overtly “Trumpy” in tone and even style. The Liberal staffers who planted the buttons, the CBC reports, apparently went out to celebrate their own genius at a bar, where they were overheard by both a CBC reporter and a Conservative operative.
Good work, guys.
A few points.
First, technically The Line kinda scooped this once. In Saturday’s Anti-Panel (link above), Jamie Carroll, our Liberal panelist, said that he knew it was Liberals who’d done the deed. So, hey. First!
Second, The Line understands that pranks are part of politics — even nasty, malicious ones. We aren’t pearl-clutchers. But this isn’t taking all the W keys off the keyboards. This was clearly intended to, in another example we’re borrowing from U.S. politics, “rat fuck” the Conservatives. Are we going to rend our garments? No. But we also don’t have any hesitation saying that this is bad. This crossed the line from prank into sabotage. It’s unacceptable and the Liberals should own this. We don’t know if they will, but they should.
Remember the quote by Chris Selley, oft-repeated by Matt Gurney on The Line Podcast: “The Liberals genuinely believe they are the kind of people who’d never do the thing they are currently doing.” Because planting these buttons is, by any reasonable standard, disinformation. Pranks are one thing — this was an organized and deliberate attempt to mislead the Canadian public during an election.
Maybe it was two rogue staffers. But tickets to the conference aren’t cheap. Who paid for them? Who ordered the buttons? Where were they delivered? These are questions the Canadian public deserves to have answered.
Third and final: Liberal friends, your support is broad but shallow. Your best chance is running a smooth, clean campaign and hoping to get to the election without any major issues derailing your play-it-safe campaign — a campaign that is, apparently, working. So forgive us for asking this, but we’d really like to know:
