I got a lot of comments over Bluesky yesterday after my post about Avi Lewis, so I thought I would make a couple of things clear. First of all, when I was talking about “big money” in Canadian elections, I was referring specifically to nomination contests (because Lewis was speaking about primaries) and elections. I am fully aware that big monied interests lobby the government and try to influence policy. That’s not the same thing as using money to influence election outcomes. You may think they’re the same thing because of the American framing and context, but it’s really not.
Secondly, the fact that he “needs” to be excited about “democratic socialists” making gains in the US is exactly what I was referring to about pandering to the extremely online crowd. He doesn’t need to be excited, because it has nothing to do with Canada. Nothing. The NDP, as supposed democratic socialists or social democrats (depending on which member of the party you ask) already exists here as a separate party from the Liberals. There is absolutely nothing to be gained in Canada by latching onto these supposed gains, which may very well be for naught. (These extremely online NDP voices were also really excited about the “gains” made by Bernie Sanders and Jeremy Corbyn in the UK, and neither of them achieved any power, and the latter broke his own party and set his successor up for failure). In addition, the “democratic socialists” in the States are promising things that are the norm in Canada, like single-payer healthcare, or social programs that we already have. Being excited because they are trying to do things we already have is weird.
I get that there are people who are excited about Zohran Mamdani, but again, there is no possible application that this can have for Canada, particularly at the federal level, because again, we don’t have an intra-party struggle for ideological dominance happening. The NDP and the Liberals are separate parties. In addition, all of that “excitement” about Mamdani has led NDP leaders in different provinces and federally to take the wrong lessons. Mamdani’s success was as much about a campaign about fixing everyday things for ordinary people as it was about leftwing ideological purity. As a mayor, he can fix things that affect ordinary people, and that’s much, much harder to do at the federal level. Instead, we get Marit Stiles trying to emulate his video style, and Avi Lewis talking about government-run grocery stores with absurd levels of subsidies that don’t make any logical sense. This is just trying to ride on coat-tails for the extremely online crowd, but social media is not real life. I’m not sure that anyone with any authority in the NDP federally or in Ontario understands that, which again, is why I make the observations that I do.
My Latest:
My column notes that with provincial RCMP contracts up for renewal in 2032, this is the perfect opportunity to end those contracts and dismantle the broken, toxic force.
Ukraine Dispatch:
Russian strikes on Balakliia and Sumy have killed six. The Russian drone “safari” is also taking place in Zaporizhzhia. Ukraine struck an oil refinery in Russia’s Yaroslavl region.
Noteworthy:
- The federal government has walked back some of their cuts to refugee health coverage, possibly because it would have been more costly to deny coverage.
- Canada is shutting down another of its remaining peacekeeping missions, ceding the field even more to China once again.
- Matt Gurney tells an American audience that they are authors of their own decline of international leadership.
He says he's going back to being a Crown prosecutor, but given how he's pretty much been disregarding the Charter for years in his role as justice critic, I would have questions if I were in the Crown's office.
— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2026-08-07T01:53:41.460Z
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