A Conservative fundraising email suggests the Liberals are somehow trying to tip the scales on the election results with the upcoming judicial recounts on close election races, so that they can get a majority, and I am both unsurprised, but also shocked and appalled. Anyone in this country with a handful of functioning brain cells should recognise that casting doubt on Elections Canada and its processes is nothing short of democratic poison, because we are already at a point where people believe conspiracy theories at the drop of a hat, or are too willing to make up conspiracies to fit their priors.

One also has to ask if the Conservatives are capable of learning a single gods damned lesson from the current moment, where they have a cohort of voters who are itching to swallow MAGA lines whole, and who cannot wait to start applying Big Lie ideology to this country’s elections, and try and claim that the Liberals have somehow “stolen” the election. To couple with that, we have accusations that Poilievre lost his seat in Carleton because the Liberals had gerrymandered the riding to include more urban dwellers, which is the opposite of what happened—to say nothing of the fact that redistribution efforts are led by judicial panels, not political actors. It’s the exact opposite of what happens in the US, but when you consume so much American media, you recreate the world in their image. (I will grant that some of the demographics in the riding may have shifted over the past election cycle, but it was not what re-distribution did in the riding, but rather ongoing housing issues in this province).

Suffice to say, it’s a Problem that someone thought this kind of fundraising appeal was a good idea, and they should get spanked for it, preferably by Elections Canada. This kind of democratic poison should never be used, regardless of your partisan stripes, because undermining trust in the system when you’re being a crybaby is never, ever acceptable.

Ukraine Dispatch

Ukraine says that Russia has violated their own “ceasefire” 734 times between midnight and midday Thursday, proving the whole thing to be a farce. Russia claims that Ukraine made two attempts to cross into Kursk region during the “ceasefire.”

https://twitter.com/ZelenskyyUa/status/1920358258268639512

Good reads:

• Mark Carney has blocked off time to attend the new Pope’s installation, but isn’t yet sure if he’ll be able to attend given his packed parliamentary schedule.
• Trump was supposed to sign a “trade deal” with the UK, but it was actually an MOU, and it would still have tariffs, and is really managed and not free trade.
• Indigenous Services has signed a $514 million-over-ten-year agreement to boost Indigenous entrepreneurship.
• The rise in measles cases is putting Canada’s status as having “eliminated” it in jeopardy (so thanks for that, anti-vaxxer sympathetic premiers!)
• The NDP only got enough votes to get campaign reimbursements in 46 out of 342 ridings, which is going to put them at a big fiscal disadvantage.
• The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission has signed off on Ontario’s plan to build four small modular reactors at the Darlington nuclear site.
• Danielle Smith says a referendum is an “outlet” that would avoid creating a permanent separatist party in the province, which is the worst reason possible.
• A law professor, treaty advisor, and lawyer explain the basic principle that Alberta cannot secede because of the treaties between First Nations and the Crown.
• Dan Gardner reflects on the 80th anniversary of VE Day, and how Trump is moving America back toward the kind of world pre-war isolationists wanted.
• Jen Gerson works through her feelings about Danielle Smith’s threats of separatism, and how that starts to clarify her thinking about confederation.
• My Xtra column surveys the landscape and camps of the conservative factions vying for a shot at Poilievre’s job, and why we need to beware all of them.

Odds and ends:

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