There are fewer tedious stories than those about electronic petitions to the House of Commons, but the Globe and Mail decided that there wasn’t enough serious news to write about, so they wrote about particularly nonsense petition about de-funding Stornoway as residence of the leader of the opposition. It’s stupid, it’s petty, and it’s cheap, and above all, mean, but why should that stop anyone? The notion that this is about “cost-savings” is just more of the kinds of hairshirt parsimony that creates more problems than it solves for Canada and Canadians, but since when has that stopped legacy media from lighting their hair on fire about it?
“Oh, but no other similar democracy has an official residence for their leader of the opposition!” So what? It was a senator who kicked off the drive to acquire such a residence back in 1946, and the thing about Stornoway is that it has a particularly proud history in that it was where the Dutch royal family stayed when they were in exile in Canada. That it was purchased as an official residence after that means that its heritage as that home in exile is able to be preserved, while it also highlights that in a Westminster democracy, the leader of the opposition is an important position and a modest official residence (and all things considered, Stornoway is pretty modest), is not a huge extravagance. It’s also worth pointing out once again that it’s not fit for a prime minister because it can’t be properly secured. The only reason it’s in as good of shape as it is was because in the mid-to-late nineties, Preston Manning refused to move in there as opposition leader, so it gave the NCC time to do necessary renovations and upgrades, but it’s showing its age once again. So let’s not be petty and cheap, and no matter how much you might dislike the current occupant, there isn’t any justification to defund it as an official residence.
My Latest:
My column points out that there’s no “silver bullet” to placating Alberta’s grievances, because they’re fictional and they just keep inventing new reasons to be angry.
Ukraine Dispatch:
Russia attacked Kyiv with missiles and rocket-powered drones again, killing at least three. Another four were killed in an attack on the port city of Odesa.
Noteworthy:
- Here are the takeaways about Mark Carney from that Wall Street Journal story on Europe’s pivot away from the US.
- Paul Wells considers the narratives coming from the NATO summit, particularly about building a post-Trump alliance, but at what cost?
WOW — Danish reporter *goes there* with Rutte"You sit next to Trump when he talks about conquering Greenland, lashes out at allies like Spain — things it doesn't seem like the old Mark Rutte would approve of. Does this have any affect on your self-respect when you sit there and say nothing?"
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