Dispatch from The Front Lines: Trump's Iran strategy goes full Leslie Nielsen
We miss Leslie Nielsen too, but, like, come on. Also: a new premier in Quebec, and who owns B.C.? It would be nice to know.
Hello, Line readers! Your Alberta-based editor has wrapped up her trip to Montreal, where she attended the Liberal convention. You’ll see her dispatches from there coming out over the next few days. This dispatch will cover all the other stuff we’re looking at this weekend. We hope you enjoy it. And we invite you to keep reading. We have a challenge for you.
But first, to get you in the right mood for the challenge, we encourage you to check out the latest episode of The Line Podcast. The second segment in particular.
And don’t miss last week’s episode of On The Line, where Matt Gurney had a very candid and personal chat with Lt. Gen. (ret.) Mark Hertling, United States Army — a man who commanded the U.S. Army in Europe. They discuss geopolitics, America’s global reputation, and how long it will take for the U.S. to recover. They also discuss families, what lessons they’d leave, and what made them the men they are. It’s a shorter episode than normal, but a great one. Check it out.
Alright! Now that you’ve seen those amazing podcast episodes, and hopefully you’ve also read Matt Gurney’s recent column about how political accountability in this country has collapsed, your Line editors are calling for help! Or, if you prefer, challenging our readers. The task is simple: please email us examples of times, in your communities, where you remember there being a swift consequence for failure. A job was lost, someone was demoted, something like that. Not a statement of regret or judgment. Not someone getting reassigned to a different job at fully salary. Someone actually paid a price for a failure.
Three conditions and one rule. Conditions: the example has to be within the last decade, has to be in the public-sector (creatures of the government, like Crown corporations and government agencies, are acceptable) and has to be open public knowledge (a link to a news story would be ideal). Your personal inside knowledge isn’t enough. And the rule: one submission per reader, please. If you’ve got more than one, pick the most recent.
We’d like to put together a little package of stories of accountability. Just to remind ourselves that it can be done! Deadline is this coming Friday, noon eastern. Send them to info@readtheline.ca with the subject line Real Accountability.