These are valuable columns for the inadvertent look they give at political thinking. When you chase the links, 55% of Texans want the same, or reduced, restrictions on abortion. 75% of Canadians are 'satisfied' at the current level, which is, well, reduced restrictions compared to Texas, pre-new-law. That 20% gap is "the moon" to a political consultant, though it wouldn't strike you as sharply different, in daily life, if you moved from one community to another. You'd still find a majority of abortion-supporters.
Indeed, the "hey, calm down, this is Canada" message is undercut by the data, which shows that you can lose abortion access even if you have a clear majority in favour of the same or more access.
But the big political insight is Mr. Boessenkool's theory that the Trudeau campaign is not helpless to prevent a crowd from meeting within earshot of his speeches, but are cultivating the background noise as a strawman. Nobody else is thinking that, but he might be right.
If so, it's very sharp: why run against the CPC when you can run against crazed, violent anti-vaxxers with the popularity of skunks?
He's even doing his job in government, at the same time: it strikes me as a legitimate function of goverment itself to make anti-vaxxers look stupid, offensive, and criminal just now. And, sweetly, you can do that by just ensuring that a prime-ministerial coverage camera is pointed at them while they indict themselves for all three things.
This guy is brilliant! Thanks for pointing it out, Ken!
These are valuable columns for the inadvertent look they give at political thinking. When you chase the links, 55% of Texans want the same, or reduced, restrictions on abortion. 75% of Canadians are 'satisfied' at the current level, which is, well, reduced restrictions compared to Texas, pre-new-law. That 20% gap is "the moon" to a political consultant, though it wouldn't strike you as sharply different, in daily life, if you moved from one community to another. You'd still find a majority of abortion-supporters.
Indeed, the "hey, calm down, this is Canada" message is undercut by the data, which shows that you can lose abortion access even if you have a clear majority in favour of the same or more access.
But the big political insight is Mr. Boessenkool's theory that the Trudeau campaign is not helpless to prevent a crowd from meeting within earshot of his speeches, but are cultivating the background noise as a strawman. Nobody else is thinking that, but he might be right.
If so, it's very sharp: why run against the CPC when you can run against crazed, violent anti-vaxxers with the popularity of skunks?
He's even doing his job in government, at the same time: it strikes me as a legitimate function of goverment itself to make anti-vaxxers look stupid, offensive, and criminal just now. And, sweetly, you can do that by just ensuring that a prime-ministerial coverage camera is pointed at them while they indict themselves for all three things.
This guy is brilliant! Thanks for pointing it out, Ken!