Dispatch from the Front Lines: Oh yeah? Well, we SIGNED UP for Disney+.
POEC! Doug Ford is fine (sorta), but also, a chickenshit. A delightful humiliation for Putin. And what did we try to tell you about Freeland?
Hello! Sorry it got quiet here. Line editor Gurney was off at the end of the week for an assignment and editor Gerson was felled by the latest biological weapon to leak out of her daughter’s daycare. We had to skip the podcast and video but hope to have a bonus episode for you early next week, plus the usual return to the Friday schedule after that.
But we can still be brilliant in writing! So let’s get to it.
The Line continues watching the proceedings of the Public Order Emergency Commission in Ottawa. We reiterate once more: we will offer our full thoughts, including a review of our own coverage, after the report is filed, but we do continue to offer weekly updates on the state of things, and there were two issues that struck us this week. Conveniently, they are ones where The Line is strong: they’re in Ontario and Alberta.
Ontario’s role in the crisis — that is, of the provincial government — is important. We are frustrated but not surprised that Doug Ford is refusing to testify. It’s a chickenshit move. Some friends of the premier have been quietly coming to his defence in private appeals to us (Line editor Gurney has not been quiet in his views on the premier’s chickenshittiness). The friends of the premier have been assuring us that Ford’s avoidance of the POEC is good politics and tactically sound.
Well of course it is. That’s the point. He’s avoiding the risk of testifying. That’s literally why it’s chickenshit. This is like a textbook example of chickenshittery, guys. Stop explaining why it’s brilliant. It might be. It’s also chickenshit. Boc boc, premier.