Has Justin Trudeau changed at all since his embarrassing 'Canada is back' declaration in 2015? That is, hasn't he always believed that words = actions.
I think it's a fools game to try to get up to 2 percent for the military. It's just not possible to spend money with no recruits unless standards and organizational readiness are compromised. But that's for the Russian meat grinders...right?
Do you two think it would be better to tell the Americans that we will invest in high end ventures such as a joint submarine force for the Arctic as well as rebuilding our reputation for direct line toughness and competency?
Even in the late 2000's we were known as high end combat soldiers. We routinely hold the sniper records.
We cannot defend our borders in any effective way, we do not inspect any trains crossing the border & inspect only 5% of the trucks going across at Detroit/Windsor crossing - it takes “the Donald” to tell us to take ourselves seriously! Finland has a more effective military than Canada does because they have “experience” - 2% is a minimum!
I don't see it as a fool's game. I see fixing the recruiting system and the procurement system as necessary conditions to achieving the 2% GDP spending target. Fixing these problems mostly requires leadership: somebody comes in and asks "OK - why does it take 18 months to induct a new recruit?" "OK - this is the bottleneck. Why does it exist? Do we need it? What does it take to fix it?" The current leadership is inadequate, and has just been geared towards making the system run as-is.
I could only listen to the first 30 minutes or so, so apologies if you discussed this after: assuming it is true that Freeland was asked/told/etc that she was being demoted to minister without portfolio. Agreed that it would be a demotion, but how much should we actually care about that? Doesn't that mean this political crisis is over Freeland's bruised ego? How much should ego come into play when it comes to governing. Can we expect someone like Freeland to suck it up for the good of the country (assuming of course it would be for the good of the country! which I believe Trudeau believes). If we cannot expect it, should we expect it?
I do mean this more as a devil's advocate question - I believe Trudeau is past his best before day, we need an election, I have generally liked Freeland over the years, so this isn't meant to be a personal attack.
I'll also take this opportunity to say that this format is fantastic for this sort of event, and I really do appreciate how different things feel today with media more decentralized. The Line itself is doing really great things, keep it up.
Not to steal any thunder from the wonderful Jen and Matt. But this gofundme just came out courtesy of a gentleman in North Vancouver. The fundraiser description is worth a read! https://gofund.me/3712aa8a
Spoiler alert - it’s a 2.3M fundraiser for Jagmeet’s pension.
Trudeau has much to be modest about - other than inheriting a name from his father & the ability to wear a suit well, he has never had any qualifications to be PM of a G7 country. Canadians standard of living has dropped precipitously since 2015 compared to America, we are indebted as a country and no plan to deal with the Trumpet who refers to him as “Governor of Canada”! He should stay as PM and call an election - triggered by the NDP had any cojones - and ride the Liberal Party into the dustbin of history, the sooner the better!
Canada's problem is Justin Trudeau's overweening self importance and arrogant conviction of his own indispensability. He's not going to quit - he's going to have to be forced out. Having relentlessly culled anybody with a hint of ambition or independence from his caucus over a decade, there's little chance the Liberals will do the job. They're also hopelessly out of touch with reality. I heard one MP on CBC Radio this morning who's still convinced that the Liberal collapse is primarily a communications problem, which he laid on the PMO!
The NDP is fronted by probably the most feckless and incompetent leader in their history, and that's saying something after the mediocrities who ran the party into the ground before Jack Layton. I honestly can't tell whether Jagmeet Singh is an idiot, a grifter, or some combination of the two. However, I'm kind of leaning towards an assumption that he's an inept grifter: he's got possibly the best political job he'll ever have, and it's tied to remaining in office as long as possible. I'm sure he'd love to be opposition leader or even PM, but utterly lacks the skills to advance the interests of the NDP or even raise enough money to fight an election.
So, we're probably going to re-validate Paul Wells' first law of Canadian politics: everything trends towards the least interesting possible outcome. We're going to watch this Liberal government decompose into stinking ooze before our eyes, and Justin Trudeau will call an election at the last possible moment and eke out just enough votes to prevent the Liberals from going extinct.
Bummed I missed this live, but I enjoyed seeing Jen crack up at the end of Paul's stream today. (Chaos is ascendant this week!) :)
If JT "was put on this planet to [fight and win]", I wonder if he cares whether it's against PP or his own part revolt. Maybe internal foes are just are as noble an adversary as external ones as far as his holy crusade is concerned.
A correction for our esteemed editors. Jagmeet Singh was first elected from a by-election in February 2019, along with Rachel Bendayan. The others that were added in 2019 were in October, so they won’t qualify unless we suffer through to the fixed election date.
Presumably, when Trudeau told CF that she was out he had someone ready to fill her slot. So who was that person and why aren't they Finance Minister? Or was he counting on Mark Carney not being able to resist diving into the hole he'd made?
He's finished. Whether he's smart enough to pull the plug in the next 48 hours, or waits until the next confidence vote, it's over. Enough of his own MPs went public saying he must resign. They may well vote against the government if Trudeau is running the show.
Politics is cruel. He's taking body blows from all sides, and can still fake a speech in front of the clan. I give him credit for that.
But an election is essential because no one has faith in this government now.
Liberal diehards are hanging on to the belief that Pierre or some backbencher make a fundamental error and Canadians come running back to the Natural Governing Party.
So... is there any chance, ANY chance, the Conservatives can still fuck this up?
Has Justin Trudeau changed at all since his embarrassing 'Canada is back' declaration in 2015? That is, hasn't he always believed that words = actions.
I think it's a fools game to try to get up to 2 percent for the military. It's just not possible to spend money with no recruits unless standards and organizational readiness are compromised. But that's for the Russian meat grinders...right?
Do you two think it would be better to tell the Americans that we will invest in high end ventures such as a joint submarine force for the Arctic as well as rebuilding our reputation for direct line toughness and competency?
Even in the late 2000's we were known as high end combat soldiers. We routinely hold the sniper records.
We cannot defend our borders in any effective way, we do not inspect any trains crossing the border & inspect only 5% of the trucks going across at Detroit/Windsor crossing - it takes “the Donald” to tell us to take ourselves seriously! Finland has a more effective military than Canada does because they have “experience” - 2% is a minimum!
I don't see it as a fool's game. I see fixing the recruiting system and the procurement system as necessary conditions to achieving the 2% GDP spending target. Fixing these problems mostly requires leadership: somebody comes in and asks "OK - why does it take 18 months to induct a new recruit?" "OK - this is the bottleneck. Why does it exist? Do we need it? What does it take to fix it?" The current leadership is inadequate, and has just been geared towards making the system run as-is.
I could only listen to the first 30 minutes or so, so apologies if you discussed this after: assuming it is true that Freeland was asked/told/etc that she was being demoted to minister without portfolio. Agreed that it would be a demotion, but how much should we actually care about that? Doesn't that mean this political crisis is over Freeland's bruised ego? How much should ego come into play when it comes to governing. Can we expect someone like Freeland to suck it up for the good of the country (assuming of course it would be for the good of the country! which I believe Trudeau believes). If we cannot expect it, should we expect it?
I do mean this more as a devil's advocate question - I believe Trudeau is past his best before day, we need an election, I have generally liked Freeland over the years, so this isn't meant to be a personal attack.
I'll also take this opportunity to say that this format is fantastic for this sort of event, and I really do appreciate how different things feel today with media more decentralized. The Line itself is doing really great things, keep it up.
Not to steal any thunder from the wonderful Jen and Matt. But this gofundme just came out courtesy of a gentleman in North Vancouver. The fundraiser description is worth a read! https://gofund.me/3712aa8a
Spoiler alert - it’s a 2.3M fundraiser for Jagmeet’s pension.
Any chance you can rip the audio and place it on the podcast RSD feed?
TiA
Trudeau has much to be modest about - other than inheriting a name from his father & the ability to wear a suit well, he has never had any qualifications to be PM of a G7 country. Canadians standard of living has dropped precipitously since 2015 compared to America, we are indebted as a country and no plan to deal with the Trumpet who refers to him as “Governor of Canada”! He should stay as PM and call an election - triggered by the NDP had any cojones - and ride the Liberal Party into the dustbin of history, the sooner the better!
Can you upload this to the podcast feed? It’s easier to listen to than YouTube
This was a great live stream ! I am glad you made the effort to make it happen. Was glued to it every second start to end.
Canada's problem is Justin Trudeau's overweening self importance and arrogant conviction of his own indispensability. He's not going to quit - he's going to have to be forced out. Having relentlessly culled anybody with a hint of ambition or independence from his caucus over a decade, there's little chance the Liberals will do the job. They're also hopelessly out of touch with reality. I heard one MP on CBC Radio this morning who's still convinced that the Liberal collapse is primarily a communications problem, which he laid on the PMO!
The NDP is fronted by probably the most feckless and incompetent leader in their history, and that's saying something after the mediocrities who ran the party into the ground before Jack Layton. I honestly can't tell whether Jagmeet Singh is an idiot, a grifter, or some combination of the two. However, I'm kind of leaning towards an assumption that he's an inept grifter: he's got possibly the best political job he'll ever have, and it's tied to remaining in office as long as possible. I'm sure he'd love to be opposition leader or even PM, but utterly lacks the skills to advance the interests of the NDP or even raise enough money to fight an election.
So, we're probably going to re-validate Paul Wells' first law of Canadian politics: everything trends towards the least interesting possible outcome. We're going to watch this Liberal government decompose into stinking ooze before our eyes, and Justin Trudeau will call an election at the last possible moment and eke out just enough votes to prevent the Liberals from going extinct.
Bummed I missed this live, but I enjoyed seeing Jen crack up at the end of Paul's stream today. (Chaos is ascendant this week!) :)
If JT "was put on this planet to [fight and win]", I wonder if he cares whether it's against PP or his own part revolt. Maybe internal foes are just are as noble an adversary as external ones as far as his holy crusade is concerned.
A correction for our esteemed editors. Jagmeet Singh was first elected from a by-election in February 2019, along with Rachel Bendayan. The others that were added in 2019 were in October, so they won’t qualify unless we suffer through to the fixed election date.
Presumably, when Trudeau told CF that she was out he had someone ready to fill her slot. So who was that person and why aren't they Finance Minister? Or was he counting on Mark Carney not being able to resist diving into the hole he'd made?
Perhaps Sean Fraser, who himself pulled the rug out from under the PM?
Thanks. 899 now.
Thanks Matt & Jen 😎
He's finished. Whether he's smart enough to pull the plug in the next 48 hours, or waits until the next confidence vote, it's over. Enough of his own MPs went public saying he must resign. They may well vote against the government if Trudeau is running the show.
Politics is cruel. He's taking body blows from all sides, and can still fake a speech in front of the clan. I give him credit for that.
But an election is essential because no one has faith in this government now.
Liberal diehards are hanging on to the belief that Pierre or some backbencher make a fundamental error and Canadians come running back to the Natural Governing Party.
So... is there any chance, ANY chance, the Conservatives can still fuck this up?
Thanks for taking my question, Phil!