Analyzing the controversy at the national police service. Roe v. Wade is dead. Things will get bonkers now. The state of the CPC, and our institutions.
Jen/Matt, enjoyed you dispatch as always. With respect to your passionate discussion of stare decisis, we might want to have someone explain this concept to Chief Justice Wagner and the rest of the Supreme Court of Canada. They make things up all the time based on what their values and beliefs are, and then attempt to pass it off as simply enforcing "Canadian Values". I guess as long as you share their values and beliefs it is a bit of a nothing burger - until you don't share them. Really, if you are as concerned as you seem to be about this issue based on the dissent in the recent SCOTUS decision, you should really turn your attention to the SCC.
I seem to remember that first the provincial government and then the federal government fought tooth and nail against having a full public inquiry into the shootings. An inquiry only came after massive public outrage. Maybe we now know why.
Another "best $50 I've spent in a long time" moments. The planet is a mess, and the US is a devolving clusterfuck. What happens there usually comes here; bonkers may be an understatement.
November will be very interesting. Since the GOP is "all-in" on ending democracy, it will be fascinating to see if they're gerrymandered and redistricted enough that the votes don't matter. Have they awakened the giant of angry womanhood( because I couldn't think of a better word :) ) that will turn against the GOP in droves? What will come of the J6 committee in terms of indictments? Do Trump's people even care?
If the Democrats don't get a super majority in the Senate, I still think the country is lost. And the Dems themselves are doing more infighting than our conservatives, so chances of them getting on the same page on anything seems slim( assuming they cast Manchin and Sinema to the curb..as should have been done when they wouldn't support voting rights).
We'll know in just over 4 months. I'm not sure they have it in themselves to save themselves. They're already fighting the civil war again...the shooting just hasn't started....yet.
I trust neither Lucki, Trudeau or Blair. And l have also lost a great deal of faith in the abilities of the RCMP leadership to keep Nova Scotians safe in an emergency. They totally dropped the ball that night and following day which l believe led to lives being lost because of those decisions in communicating to the public.
You should have little confidence in Lucki but pray tell how the NS RCMP could have done better when they had neither the resources, manpower nor weapons to stop a madman with an illegal weapon smuggled up from the US? Incompetence at the top allows these unimaginable tragedies to occur. Many RCMP units are still desperately understaffed. THAT is despicable-thanks also to Lucki’s inability to do her job. Point your finger elsewhere , NS was a tragedy for ALL involved.
What planet are you resident of? The RCMP didn't sent out the emergency broadcast until after the a-hole was down and out. And don't try to dismiss that with a "but, but they tweeted", argument. The Watch Officer on up all the way through H-Div. failed the people here. 13 people might still be alive had they sent the broadcast to advise of an active shooter and to stay in their homes, before they finally did. THAT is what they could have done better.
We're smug and sit by glibly while the US is slowly falling apart, mass shootings become a regular occurrence and then get outraged when it happens here. When the political movement of this country embraces BLM and defund the police narratives, we have NO RIGHT to then scream outrage when tragedy like this happens in our country. Our Federal force is understaffed, under resourced, and struggles to keep afloat in the constant daily bashing it undertakes in the media, in Parliament, and in comment sections like this one. You want change? Make it happen, instead of sitting in the comfort of your home, expecting everyone to protect you when you do absolutely nothing to support them, when tragedy strikes. This is a wake up call. Deal with it.
It’s easy to cast stones when you are on the sidelines right? My point stands: our members right now - NONE of them have any support from the Feds nor their leadership. Easy for us to sit back in hindsight and cast blame where we see fit. It was a clusterfuck of magnitude proportions, leaving a madman to wreak havoc on an unsuspecting public with an under resourced staff to stop him. I suppose Mayerthorpe was their fault as well?
Everything went wrong. Stop playing the blame game on one specific thing.
And stop trying to deflect. Btw, l once was a peace officer, so l have a little understanding of what the guys/gals on the street are facing. And I'm not criticizing them. My ire is directed at those in the decision making levels that night, those people who dithered and didn't warn citizens until too bloody late. If you don't like my criticism of the leadership, that's just too damn bad.
great that you ONCE were a peace officer; I have family that still ARE peace officers and i can damn well assure you that things aren't as they once were. There is zero support for those on the job currently, with their great boss chastising and criticizing the entire force without nary taking any part of the blame. You think someone who was once in charge of depot should leapfrog all the way to the top of the Federal police force and be fully qualified to run the entire force? How many more qualified individuals were passed over simply because she was a woman and it made people feel good to say that the RCMP is now better cuz a woman's in charge? Nobody "dithered" here. You have no idea how under staffed and under equipped these detachments are. Get mad all you want, but stop pointing fingers to those trying to fulfil their duties on shoestrings and out of date equipment. Yes, management is to blame. But not at the local or even regional level. Keep looking upwards, because that's where the issues are. Morale is already on an alltime historical low. You want to help? Stop screaming, and start acting.
Yup, I'm not current. Yup, things have changed. Yup, Lucki is a political appointee as are all those people at her level (RCMP, CAF, CBSA, CSC, CCG etc, etc). I'm sure she bypassed more qualified, better suited people, it happens all the time. And, again I'm not criticizing those members who responded, you seem to be missing that point. I'm criticizing leadership and those whose decisions were poor that night. If your family members are within that very select group, then yes I'm criticizing their actions that night as are many other Nova Scotians and some of the victim's family members. Don't like it? Tough. We're done.
Our institutions are garbage, top to bottom. They should be dissolved and rebuilt from scratch. We would still have intelligent people, buildings, and equipment. The organizational capital of the institutions themselves is negative.
Could you give us a list of all the institutions you have deemed garbage? Just the top 10 to give us a feel for what you think should be rebuilt from scratch.
Elementary and secondary schools, universities, medical regulating bodies, provincial health care systems, the courts, municipal governments, police, the CBC in particular and the media in general, for starters. Every one of these groups has, by and large, thrown reason and arithmetic out the window during the last two and a half years, and adopted or supported widespread censorship and suppression of dissent.
We actually need most of the things they are supposed to be providing, which makes a complete rebuild very tricky. But most of them are beyond saving any other way. You'll see.
Maybe I exaggerated a bit and the public libraries, fire departments, and service clubs like Rotary and the Lions aren't garbage.
I wonder when you last stepped into a classroom, at any level.
OK, let's start with schools, pre through uni. Let's lock the doors, turn off Zoom and cancel summer school (yay!) and get them all realigned by, oh, October. Time's a-wasting. Who are you going to have administer your sweeping changes? Education is a provincial thing. New hires all around to start; teachers, profs, the ever-nimble school secretaries, and all the myriads of people that keep our public school systems rolling. Will you rewrite everyone's curriculum to follow your opinion on arithmetic and reason?
Will you introduce lessons on identifying censorship and hands-on, in-person exercises on dissent? Classes in reasoning and id'ing censorship would maybe be a good place to introduce the CBC and other media in general? I would suggest core classes in "social media" (such a misnomer). Of course, you will reintroduce the 3 Rs, yes? I almost forgot—teachers are unionized. But that can be negotiated. You'll see.
A surprising number of people felt that shutting down schools for a year and a half for zero benefit was NBD. For a completely rebuilt system, including complete destruction of the unions, it would be worth it.. A charter school only system would need neither unions nor curriculum. The education ministry is an institution too.
Is any journalist going to mention that it was the local NS RCMP that had everybody howling for their heads, the last few weeks, over incompetence that basically came down to withholding too much information from the public, costing 13 more lives - and that this bit of 'whistleblowing' changed the conversation? I really think the 22 dead are what "vaporized their reputation"...
When I heard that they hadn't released the gun information to the public, my first thought was "why"? How does it serve the investigation? Crime-TV watchers know two reasons: you withhold exact crime details so you can tell a fake confession from a real one (not applicable) and if you're closing in on the gun-smugglers, you don't let them know you're coming, which a make/model would somehow do (never claimed, and sounds farfetched).
The guns confiscated at Coutts were on TV later that same day, though I believe some were illegal, and hardly enough time had passed to be certain where they came from.
And not one journalist has asked about that, or about he larger issue: should police, like military, be able to classify anything they want, or, as they prefer, classify *everything* they are not forced to reveal? Should they have to check with Justice, or with a court, before withholding information that might assist the public with their safety?
You can bet that if the dispute were one level down, between the Superindendent and one of his staff, every detail of it would be completely unavailable, "for HR reasons".
I can get down with "Lucki must go" as long as the top two levels of the NS RCMP go first. There's nothing more "wildly inappropriate" for a police force, than blundering around in the woods for half a day while 13 more people die that might have protected themselves - with more information.
There is certainly more than one head that should roll. The RCMP screwed this up from before the shooting ever started. But, as I've said before, the PMO will have no problem tossing Lucki under the bus (she deserves sacking) and hope that she's a good trooper and not implicate Blair and Trudeau. How is this any different from JWR? Same old shit. No minister will fall this time though.
- she is a pro-gay rights, pro-choice moderate who has become increasingly vocal about the Conservative party's turn toward the conspiratorial
This is where I sit in the party too, I am not sure the CPC will survive unless it gets it's head out of it's butt and starts thinking about real issues.
We know though that if men could get pregnant abortion would be free, federally funded, have no limits, and no penalties. If men could get pregnant the pregnancy, labour, and childcare would immediately be deemed work and compensated at full pay. If men could get pregnant baby formula would be free. If men could get pregnant sales of the little blue pill would be minuscule.
"If men could get pregnant abortion would be a sacrement", Gloria Steinem.
Another possible aspect of the Roe v. Wade situation: About 20 yrs. ago the book Freakonomics posited that the reduced crime rate that lagged Roe v. Wade was due to the decrease in unwanted babies.
"The best thing we can do to lower the overall societal temperature is demand governments simply provide reasonably effective and efficient service, with minimal inflammatory, self-serving rhetoric, to as many people as possible." One hundred percent. The first politician and political party that grasps this will get my vote and I suspect a lot of votes.
The only way we will manage through the various crisis is if we -- citizens -- start creating incentives for leaders and the bureaucracy to do better. That means less partisanship. It means not jumping on this week's outrage. And -- especially -- it means focusing on shared persistent issues more and shorter-term annoyances less. In short we need to stop collectively acting like spoiled teenagers and start acting like mature adults. I wish I knew how we get there ...
If the government would deliver on the mundane, I would tolerate the quixotic rhetoric. Unfortunately the government can't execute on the easy stuff so doubles down on the impossible.
Dan, I agree with you but I have to note that - in my ever so humble opinion, of course - a tremendous portion of the problem is that governments have intruded in so much of life that it is responsible for, if not everything, doggoned close to it. At least in their mind.
And, if you are responsible for "everything" then is it not possible that you are truly responsible for nothing?
So, my prescription is that governments pull back from a lot of what they are trying to do and doing so very poorly. The feds may (shades of the Chretien-Martin years) drop certain programs that the provinces might pick up, where appropriate; the provinces may drop programs that the municipalities might pick up, . Some programs may be dropped entirely. Before I am accused of being a right wing nut, I then add that all those programs should be properly funded by taxes to allow them to be properly delivered. My point is that trying to do "everything" means that we do not have enough money for anything, really.
I agree that there are no priorities in this government, well, except virtue signaling and praise for good hair, etc.
I further agree that the federal government is useless. In truth, when I look at the various parties I see no one who represents me. As near as I can tell, each and everyone of the "major" parties [quotation marks used to indicate my scorn] have been attacking Alberta to a greater or lesser extent but all of them have for some time had policies oriented to absolutely disadvantaging Alberta. I can accept the warming argument but not the outright hostility to us by all the parties and the theft of our wealth. Therefore, I no longer vote federally.
Boil water advisories? Yup. Top priority. Not. New socks are a greater priority than removing boil water advisories.
On the other hand, you say, "... this will never be fixed as long as natives are living on remote reserves with no economy ..." I agree; BUT. You cannot simply tell people that they must move to the city; you need to allow them to see that it is to their advantage to do so and, truthfully, I don't know how to do that. As best as I can see the non-native community cannot solve that issue; it has to be solved by the natives themselves. What the non-natives CAN do is to work with the natives to find solutions. But the solution is NOT endless money. So, how can this be "fixed" [again, with the quotation marks, this time to indicate skepticism, not scorn]? I don't know but as I say, only the natives can find those answers.
The global energy system .... did I mention my scorn for federal politicians and my conviction that they are at war with Alberta? The feds have no answers other than posturing and attacking Alberta while continuing to steal our wealth. Transitioning? It is to laugh. These clowns that we have as federal politicians simply are unable to realize that they are lying. Truly dismaying when they don't even understand that they are lying when they say they have solutions. Incredibly naive and stupid.
When I read in the comments section that our “institutions should be dissolved” I think of countries where that has actually happened -Cultural Revolution in China under Mao. Years of chaos, fear and violence. Is that really what some people are hoping for?
Calls to reform a system are very different than calls to tear it down. I would say both the far right and left are guilty of using language that reflects extremism. I believe extremism is dangerous - no matter where it comes from. Inevitably it results in acts of destruction.
No Pat, not because the radical left "shot it down. Mississippi's Republican-controlled legislature banned abortions after 15 weeks (some exceptions but not rape or incest). This law was a direct attack on Roe v Wade (and Casey) and on Friday we witnessed the final ruling on that. SCOTUS is no longer an independent judicial body but a political arm of the GOP.
Pretty bloody radical right-wing if you ask me.
There will always be abortion. There will be a lot more unsafe abortions.
I’m genuinely curious about the plans Matt and Jen are making to “try and muddle through as individuals or families or small cliques” in the upcoming chaos. I used to laugh at my husband’s (mild) prepper mentality. Now I’m spending time and money stocking up on emergency supplies and strategizing on how I can obtain extra prescriptions for pets and ourselves if medical care isn’t available in an emergency. At the same time, I can’t stop thinking about this being the “last good summer” as predicted in a recent podcast by The Line, and tell myself I should be out there having fun while I can!
I appreciate the mapping out of the contours of where the 'possible' RCMP interference scandal might exist. I would note, however, as have others, that it appears still to be early even though, not surprisingly, the political partisans are torquing hard out of the gate with the simplest narrative that suits their respective agendas.
What strikes me as most remarkable at this point is the dynamic of conflicts all around, involving the victims' families and their lawyers, the RCMP (regional and federal), the MCC and the Justice ministry. Now add to that PMO and Public Safety, and the swirl of media sharks looking for headlines, and political partisans looking to score political points.
Insofar as the narrative focus is a single meeting, and in particular a single moment captured by one party to that meeting in contemporaneous notes, a meeting which appears to have been very tense, highly conflicted and very emotional, it should not surprise if there will be no easy consensus about how to interpret the 'facts' of the meeting. In fact, it sounds like all the players mentioned above have agendas to drive their conflicting versions. So we should expect a tug-of-war over interpretations. Food for partisans, as Canucks head off to their summer respites.
Which is why openness and transparency are important. When things are hidden or lost, or misplaced, or waiting for "approval" it is sometimes construed as evidence of guilt. The mounties didn;t do their job and mistakes were numerous. Let's discuss them honestly so this can't happen again. And if there was interference Lucki should be honest -- she is the top cop after all.
Jen/Matt, enjoyed you dispatch as always. With respect to your passionate discussion of stare decisis, we might want to have someone explain this concept to Chief Justice Wagner and the rest of the Supreme Court of Canada. They make things up all the time based on what their values and beliefs are, and then attempt to pass it off as simply enforcing "Canadian Values". I guess as long as you share their values and beliefs it is a bit of a nothing burger - until you don't share them. Really, if you are as concerned as you seem to be about this issue based on the dissent in the recent SCOTUS decision, you should really turn your attention to the SCC.
They do not make things up all the time and call it Canadian Values.
Sour grapes because yet another respected institution doesn't swing your way.
Are judicial Canadian values different from other Canadian values?
Sometimes. Not all Canadian values are limited to those living in the Canadian shield.
What?
I seem to remember that first the provincial government and then the federal government fought tooth and nail against having a full public inquiry into the shootings. An inquiry only came after massive public outrage. Maybe we now know why.
Another "best $50 I've spent in a long time" moments. The planet is a mess, and the US is a devolving clusterfuck. What happens there usually comes here; bonkers may be an understatement.
November will be very interesting. Since the GOP is "all-in" on ending democracy, it will be fascinating to see if they're gerrymandered and redistricted enough that the votes don't matter. Have they awakened the giant of angry womanhood( because I couldn't think of a better word :) ) that will turn against the GOP in droves? What will come of the J6 committee in terms of indictments? Do Trump's people even care?
If the Democrats don't get a super majority in the Senate, I still think the country is lost. And the Dems themselves are doing more infighting than our conservatives, so chances of them getting on the same page on anything seems slim( assuming they cast Manchin and Sinema to the curb..as should have been done when they wouldn't support voting rights).
We'll know in just over 4 months. I'm not sure they have it in themselves to save themselves. They're already fighting the civil war again...the shooting just hasn't started....yet.
I trust neither Lucki, Trudeau or Blair. And l have also lost a great deal of faith in the abilities of the RCMP leadership to keep Nova Scotians safe in an emergency. They totally dropped the ball that night and following day which l believe led to lives being lost because of those decisions in communicating to the public.
You should have little confidence in Lucki but pray tell how the NS RCMP could have done better when they had neither the resources, manpower nor weapons to stop a madman with an illegal weapon smuggled up from the US? Incompetence at the top allows these unimaginable tragedies to occur. Many RCMP units are still desperately understaffed. THAT is despicable-thanks also to Lucki’s inability to do her job. Point your finger elsewhere , NS was a tragedy for ALL involved.
What planet are you resident of? The RCMP didn't sent out the emergency broadcast until after the a-hole was down and out. And don't try to dismiss that with a "but, but they tweeted", argument. The Watch Officer on up all the way through H-Div. failed the people here. 13 people might still be alive had they sent the broadcast to advise of an active shooter and to stay in their homes, before they finally did. THAT is what they could have done better.
We're smug and sit by glibly while the US is slowly falling apart, mass shootings become a regular occurrence and then get outraged when it happens here. When the political movement of this country embraces BLM and defund the police narratives, we have NO RIGHT to then scream outrage when tragedy like this happens in our country. Our Federal force is understaffed, under resourced, and struggles to keep afloat in the constant daily bashing it undertakes in the media, in Parliament, and in comment sections like this one. You want change? Make it happen, instead of sitting in the comfort of your home, expecting everyone to protect you when you do absolutely nothing to support them, when tragedy strikes. This is a wake up call. Deal with it.
It’s easy to cast stones when you are on the sidelines right? My point stands: our members right now - NONE of them have any support from the Feds nor their leadership. Easy for us to sit back in hindsight and cast blame where we see fit. It was a clusterfuck of magnitude proportions, leaving a madman to wreak havoc on an unsuspecting public with an under resourced staff to stop him. I suppose Mayerthorpe was their fault as well?
Everything went wrong. Stop playing the blame game on one specific thing.
And stop trying to deflect. Btw, l once was a peace officer, so l have a little understanding of what the guys/gals on the street are facing. And I'm not criticizing them. My ire is directed at those in the decision making levels that night, those people who dithered and didn't warn citizens until too bloody late. If you don't like my criticism of the leadership, that's just too damn bad.
great that you ONCE were a peace officer; I have family that still ARE peace officers and i can damn well assure you that things aren't as they once were. There is zero support for those on the job currently, with their great boss chastising and criticizing the entire force without nary taking any part of the blame. You think someone who was once in charge of depot should leapfrog all the way to the top of the Federal police force and be fully qualified to run the entire force? How many more qualified individuals were passed over simply because she was a woman and it made people feel good to say that the RCMP is now better cuz a woman's in charge? Nobody "dithered" here. You have no idea how under staffed and under equipped these detachments are. Get mad all you want, but stop pointing fingers to those trying to fulfil their duties on shoestrings and out of date equipment. Yes, management is to blame. But not at the local or even regional level. Keep looking upwards, because that's where the issues are. Morale is already on an alltime historical low. You want to help? Stop screaming, and start acting.
Yup, I'm not current. Yup, things have changed. Yup, Lucki is a political appointee as are all those people at her level (RCMP, CAF, CBSA, CSC, CCG etc, etc). I'm sure she bypassed more qualified, better suited people, it happens all the time. And, again I'm not criticizing those members who responded, you seem to be missing that point. I'm criticizing leadership and those whose decisions were poor that night. If your family members are within that very select group, then yes I'm criticizing their actions that night as are many other Nova Scotians and some of the victim's family members. Don't like it? Tough. We're done.
So lucid and compelling. I don't know how you two manage to write so much, so quickly, so well.
Our institutions are garbage, top to bottom. They should be dissolved and rebuilt from scratch. We would still have intelligent people, buildings, and equipment. The organizational capital of the institutions themselves is negative.
Could you give us a list of all the institutions you have deemed garbage? Just the top 10 to give us a feel for what you think should be rebuilt from scratch.
Elementary and secondary schools, universities, medical regulating bodies, provincial health care systems, the courts, municipal governments, police, the CBC in particular and the media in general, for starters. Every one of these groups has, by and large, thrown reason and arithmetic out the window during the last two and a half years, and adopted or supported widespread censorship and suppression of dissent.
We actually need most of the things they are supposed to be providing, which makes a complete rebuild very tricky. But most of them are beyond saving any other way. You'll see.
Maybe I exaggerated a bit and the public libraries, fire departments, and service clubs like Rotary and the Lions aren't garbage.
I wonder when you last stepped into a classroom, at any level.
OK, let's start with schools, pre through uni. Let's lock the doors, turn off Zoom and cancel summer school (yay!) and get them all realigned by, oh, October. Time's a-wasting. Who are you going to have administer your sweeping changes? Education is a provincial thing. New hires all around to start; teachers, profs, the ever-nimble school secretaries, and all the myriads of people that keep our public school systems rolling. Will you rewrite everyone's curriculum to follow your opinion on arithmetic and reason?
Will you introduce lessons on identifying censorship and hands-on, in-person exercises on dissent? Classes in reasoning and id'ing censorship would maybe be a good place to introduce the CBC and other media in general? I would suggest core classes in "social media" (such a misnomer). Of course, you will reintroduce the 3 Rs, yes? I almost forgot—teachers are unionized. But that can be negotiated. You'll see.
Lions and Rotary! LOL! How about your local CoC?
A surprising number of people felt that shutting down schools for a year and a half for zero benefit was NBD. For a completely rebuilt system, including complete destruction of the unions, it would be worth it.. A charter school only system would need neither unions nor curriculum. The education ministry is an institution too.
Is any journalist going to mention that it was the local NS RCMP that had everybody howling for their heads, the last few weeks, over incompetence that basically came down to withholding too much information from the public, costing 13 more lives - and that this bit of 'whistleblowing' changed the conversation? I really think the 22 dead are what "vaporized their reputation"...
When I heard that they hadn't released the gun information to the public, my first thought was "why"? How does it serve the investigation? Crime-TV watchers know two reasons: you withhold exact crime details so you can tell a fake confession from a real one (not applicable) and if you're closing in on the gun-smugglers, you don't let them know you're coming, which a make/model would somehow do (never claimed, and sounds farfetched).
The guns confiscated at Coutts were on TV later that same day, though I believe some were illegal, and hardly enough time had passed to be certain where they came from.
And not one journalist has asked about that, or about he larger issue: should police, like military, be able to classify anything they want, or, as they prefer, classify *everything* they are not forced to reveal? Should they have to check with Justice, or with a court, before withholding information that might assist the public with their safety?
You can bet that if the dispute were one level down, between the Superindendent and one of his staff, every detail of it would be completely unavailable, "for HR reasons".
I can get down with "Lucki must go" as long as the top two levels of the NS RCMP go first. There's nothing more "wildly inappropriate" for a police force, than blundering around in the woods for half a day while 13 more people die that might have protected themselves - with more information.
There is certainly more than one head that should roll. The RCMP screwed this up from before the shooting ever started. But, as I've said before, the PMO will have no problem tossing Lucki under the bus (she deserves sacking) and hope that she's a good trooper and not implicate Blair and Trudeau. How is this any different from JWR? Same old shit. No minister will fall this time though.
- she is a pro-gay rights, pro-choice moderate who has become increasingly vocal about the Conservative party's turn toward the conspiratorial
This is where I sit in the party too, I am not sure the CPC will survive unless it gets it's head out of it's butt and starts thinking about real issues.
I think we can rest assured Commissioner Lucki is on her way out because Trudeau expressed his “confidence” in her.
Crazy idea: an amendment that enshrines bodily autonomy.
We know though that if men could get pregnant abortion would be free, federally funded, have no limits, and no penalties. If men could get pregnant the pregnancy, labour, and childcare would immediately be deemed work and compensated at full pay. If men could get pregnant baby formula would be free. If men could get pregnant sales of the little blue pill would be minuscule.
"If men could get pregnant abortion would be a sacrement", Gloria Steinem.
Another possible aspect of the Roe v. Wade situation: About 20 yrs. ago the book Freakonomics posited that the reduced crime rate that lagged Roe v. Wade was due to the decrease in unwanted babies.
I read that too. Also read later that theory was debunked.
"The best thing we can do to lower the overall societal temperature is demand governments simply provide reasonably effective and efficient service, with minimal inflammatory, self-serving rhetoric, to as many people as possible." One hundred percent. The first politician and political party that grasps this will get my vote and I suspect a lot of votes.
The only way we will manage through the various crisis is if we -- citizens -- start creating incentives for leaders and the bureaucracy to do better. That means less partisanship. It means not jumping on this week's outrage. And -- especially -- it means focusing on shared persistent issues more and shorter-term annoyances less. In short we need to stop collectively acting like spoiled teenagers and start acting like mature adults. I wish I knew how we get there ...
If the government would deliver on the mundane, I would tolerate the quixotic rhetoric. Unfortunately the government can't execute on the easy stuff so doubles down on the impossible.
Dan, I agree with you but I have to note that - in my ever so humble opinion, of course - a tremendous portion of the problem is that governments have intruded in so much of life that it is responsible for, if not everything, doggoned close to it. At least in their mind.
And, if you are responsible for "everything" then is it not possible that you are truly responsible for nothing?
So, my prescription is that governments pull back from a lot of what they are trying to do and doing so very poorly. The feds may (shades of the Chretien-Martin years) drop certain programs that the provinces might pick up, where appropriate; the provinces may drop programs that the municipalities might pick up, . Some programs may be dropped entirely. Before I am accused of being a right wing nut, I then add that all those programs should be properly funded by taxes to allow them to be properly delivered. My point is that trying to do "everything" means that we do not have enough money for anything, really.
Last part should read "we do not have enough money to do anything properly". IMHO
Pat, you touch on a number of issues.
I agree that there are no priorities in this government, well, except virtue signaling and praise for good hair, etc.
I further agree that the federal government is useless. In truth, when I look at the various parties I see no one who represents me. As near as I can tell, each and everyone of the "major" parties [quotation marks used to indicate my scorn] have been attacking Alberta to a greater or lesser extent but all of them have for some time had policies oriented to absolutely disadvantaging Alberta. I can accept the warming argument but not the outright hostility to us by all the parties and the theft of our wealth. Therefore, I no longer vote federally.
Boil water advisories? Yup. Top priority. Not. New socks are a greater priority than removing boil water advisories.
On the other hand, you say, "... this will never be fixed as long as natives are living on remote reserves with no economy ..." I agree; BUT. You cannot simply tell people that they must move to the city; you need to allow them to see that it is to their advantage to do so and, truthfully, I don't know how to do that. As best as I can see the non-native community cannot solve that issue; it has to be solved by the natives themselves. What the non-natives CAN do is to work with the natives to find solutions. But the solution is NOT endless money. So, how can this be "fixed" [again, with the quotation marks, this time to indicate skepticism, not scorn]? I don't know but as I say, only the natives can find those answers.
The global energy system .... did I mention my scorn for federal politicians and my conviction that they are at war with Alberta? The feds have no answers other than posturing and attacking Alberta while continuing to steal our wealth. Transitioning? It is to laugh. These clowns that we have as federal politicians simply are unable to realize that they are lying. Truly dismaying when they don't even understand that they are lying when they say they have solutions. Incredibly naive and stupid.
When I read in the comments section that our “institutions should be dissolved” I think of countries where that has actually happened -Cultural Revolution in China under Mao. Years of chaos, fear and violence. Is that really what some people are hoping for?
Calls to reform a system are very different than calls to tear it down. I would say both the far right and left are guilty of using language that reflects extremism. I believe extremism is dangerous - no matter where it comes from. Inevitably it results in acts of destruction.
No Pat, not because the radical left "shot it down. Mississippi's Republican-controlled legislature banned abortions after 15 weeks (some exceptions but not rape or incest). This law was a direct attack on Roe v Wade (and Casey) and on Friday we witnessed the final ruling on that. SCOTUS is no longer an independent judicial body but a political arm of the GOP.
Pretty bloody radical right-wing if you ask me.
There will always be abortion. There will be a lot more unsafe abortions.
The specific comment Stella referenced was made by Mark Ch. Interesting that you see him as one of “the Woke”
I’m genuinely curious about the plans Matt and Jen are making to “try and muddle through as individuals or families or small cliques” in the upcoming chaos. I used to laugh at my husband’s (mild) prepper mentality. Now I’m spending time and money stocking up on emergency supplies and strategizing on how I can obtain extra prescriptions for pets and ourselves if medical care isn’t available in an emergency. At the same time, I can’t stop thinking about this being the “last good summer” as predicted in a recent podcast by The Line, and tell myself I should be out there having fun while I can!
I appreciate the mapping out of the contours of where the 'possible' RCMP interference scandal might exist. I would note, however, as have others, that it appears still to be early even though, not surprisingly, the political partisans are torquing hard out of the gate with the simplest narrative that suits their respective agendas.
What strikes me as most remarkable at this point is the dynamic of conflicts all around, involving the victims' families and their lawyers, the RCMP (regional and federal), the MCC and the Justice ministry. Now add to that PMO and Public Safety, and the swirl of media sharks looking for headlines, and political partisans looking to score political points.
Insofar as the narrative focus is a single meeting, and in particular a single moment captured by one party to that meeting in contemporaneous notes, a meeting which appears to have been very tense, highly conflicted and very emotional, it should not surprise if there will be no easy consensus about how to interpret the 'facts' of the meeting. In fact, it sounds like all the players mentioned above have agendas to drive their conflicting versions. So we should expect a tug-of-war over interpretations. Food for partisans, as Canucks head off to their summer respites.
Which is why openness and transparency are important. When things are hidden or lost, or misplaced, or waiting for "approval" it is sometimes construed as evidence of guilt. The mounties didn;t do their job and mistakes were numerous. Let's discuss them honestly so this can't happen again. And if there was interference Lucki should be honest -- she is the top cop after all.