Category Archives: Political Roundup

What’s going on in Canadian politics

Immigration hand-wringing, unsigned editorial edition

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The Globe and Mail had an unsigned editorial yesterday morning, wringing their hands about the plan for those additional 200,000 permanent residents, and the usual lament about housing and so on. Nowhere did they mention that about a quarter of these temporary residents meant for permanent status are Hong Kongers and Ukrainians who are in the country. In their insistence on wailing and gnashing their death about the supposed shell game around the numbers, they falsely blame the Trudeau government for creating a “massive mess” in the system, and nowhere do they blame the premiers for a) demanding more immigration for labour shortages, and b) then doing fuck all about housing, healthcare, or education capacity to absorb anyone. And no, Trudeau didn’t make a mess. He responded to the signals (lest anyone forget conditions post-lockdowns), and other levels of government didn’t do their jobs.

The Globe and Mail editorial ignores that these 200,000 are largely Hong Kongers and Ukrainians and can't just go home, and that it's the provinces who have abdicated their responsibilities. Again.And of course, the usual suspects ignore the same things.www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/edit…

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2026-11-10T15:31:14.338Z

These people ignore reality and keep trying to turn this into an instance of "trust in the system" and "Trudeau bad" while absolutely ignoring the role of the premiers in all of this is—and let me repeat, they are responsible for housing, healthcare, education AND they *demanded* more newcomers.

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2026-11-10T15:31:14.339Z

I'm just so fucking tired of the fact that the premiers remain blameless in the messes that they create. We're a federal system. Why can't our national legacy media outlets actually do their fucking jobs? This shouldn't be that hard.

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2026-11-10T15:31:14.340Z

I absolutely loathe that this government uses Nigel Farage-esque "take back control" language in official immigration department releases. Meanwhile, these are the people that the Globe and Mail wring their hands about housing, and Mikal Skuterud thinks should just "outmigrate."

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2026-11-10T19:44:45.435Z

To say that I have lost all patience with legacy media’s refusal to look at the facts and hold the premiers to account is an understatement. They may not be responsible for immigration levels (though they do have some input), but they are absolutely responsible for housing, healthcare, and education, and they have steadfastly refused to properly resource their systems, or do the hard work of reforms that are necessary to build more houses (especially when it comes to building new and maintaining existing social housing stock). And nobody holds them to account for these abject and ongoing failures. Nobody. And because legacy media will only both-sides everything, the provinces will cry poor, the federal government won’t push back and simply mouth some pieties about “cooperative federalism,” and the provinces get away with it again. Once again, I feel like I’m taking crazy pills.

This brings me to the plan to eliminate homelessness in ten years in the budget. I can promise you right now what’s going to happen, which is that the provinces are going to half-ass their obligations, there will be a mixed response from municipalities regarding their own obligations (such as a city like Ottawa doing as little as possible because the votes don’t come from downtown residents), and when it doesn’t work because the people responsible for the supports didn’t do their jobs, it will collapse in failure and everyone will throw up their hands and blame the federal government. We watched this play out with drug decriminalisation in BC. And when it does happen, absolutely nobody will hold the provinces to account for not doing their jobs, and I will once again be feeling like I’m taking crazy pills.

— Effin' Birds (@effinbirds.com) 2026-11-10T20:08:02.250Z

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Stabilizing levels + 200,000 additional permanent residents

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One of the sub-plots from the federal budget release last week was the release of the immigration numbers therein, and the fact that they are planning to hold them “steady” for the next couple of years in order to achieve “stability”when they have a lot of problems with the system internally (not the least of which is their totally-not-digital-asbestos determination software that is screwing up constantly). In there, however, was an additional pledge to turn 200,000 existing temporary residents into permanent residents, many of them Hong Kongers and Ukrainians who are already in the country under special programmes related to their situations. They’re also extending the work permits for temporary foreign workers from one to two years, while still insisting that Canadians get first priority when the reality is always more complicated than that.

This didn’t stop the Conservatives from having a meltdown about it, Pierre Poilievre releasing a video to call it “insane,” and to blame “corporate power brokers.” The thing that gets me, however, is the fact that you have legacy media just going along with it when the Conservatives are outwardly concern trolling, claiming it’s about not having housing or healthcare capacity and not just pandering to white nationalists in their voter base, while absolutely nobody will say a gods damned thing about the fact that not a single premier is living up to their own responsibilities when it comes to those particular issues, and this becomes an issue of federal levels and blame. It’s just so tiresome, but this is where the discourse is at in Canada.

Things got a little heated during Mike Le Couteur's interview with Michelle Rempel Garner on last night's Power Play.

— Scott Robertson (@sarobertson.bsky.social) 2026-11-07T15:32:38.484Z

— Effin' Birds (@effinbirds.com) 2026-11-09T14:08:03.673Z

My Latest:

For National Magazine, I delve into what’s in the budget for courts and the justice system, and while there are a few promising glimmers, most of it is not nearly enough.

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Budget Day 2026

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It was Budget Day, and of course, because it’s 1995 and will always be 1995, the headlines are always about the deficit. (Budget document here). It turns out that the deficit for the current fiscal year is about half of the earlier projection, thanks to increased revenues (in large part because of high oil prices), and it’s being kept steady for the next few years while the government once again took up the increased revenue to fund a bunch of things, most especially their Mega Deduction.

Budget 2026 in one graph

— Trevor Tombe (@trevortombe.bsky.social) 2026-11-05T22:18:11.388246+00:00

Budget 2026 sees federal debt dropping to 19% of GDP by 2060; I get ~48%. #cdnecon #cdnpoliTwo key differences: net debt doesn’t subtract non-financial assets (capital), and I assume we meet the new NATO target. Long-term fiscal challenges may be bigger than budget implies.

— Trevor Tombe (@trevortombe.bsky.social) 2026-11-06T00:55:34.329048+00:00

ok, here's what underlies the whole document. This is a HUGE windfall relative to the Spring Economic Update. Add up the extra and it is $186B. That's how they piled on so much extra spending AND lowered the deficit forecast.Easy to do with +$186B in your pocket!

— Kevin Milligan (@kevinmilligan.bsky.social) 2026-11-06T00:56:50.939Z

Some highlights of the coverage:

  • $52 billion to double electrical capacity by 2050—and considering this a climate plan
  • Plans to extend the open banking framework to other sectors, while still delaying the actual open banking implementation.
  • More tax breaks for tech CEOs, because “innovation.” Also, EDC and BDC are merging.
  • $400 million more for military drones, plus more funding for space launch capacity.
  • A few more details on the “Canada Strong” sovereign wealth fund.
  • New laws to “streamline” expropriations for the Alto high speed rail project.
  • The hope is for the tax breaks and incentives to create an “investment super-cycle”
  • There is $5 billion for culture, including CBC and journalism.
  • There is a promise of $6 billion for CSIS, possibly the largest increase in funding ever.
  • The budget aims to work with provinces to end homelessness in ten years. 
  • There is also $50 billion over ten years for Indigenous programmes and services.
  • The budget doesn’t give any clues as to the future of health transfers.
  • Immigration levels are to be kept largely the same, with plans to convert 200,000 temporary residents to permanent residents. 
  • There remain unanswered questions about the path to meeting NATO targets.

Reaction from the opposition has been pretty much as expected—Pierre Poilievre is howling that the deficits will fuel inflation (which is not what is happening with inflation), while Avi Lewis demands a wealth tax (that won’t generate the revenue he claims) and for it to be spent on “lowering the cost of groceries” (no, subsidizing a “public option” is not actually lowering the cost) and building more housing (for unrealistic amounts of money). 

https://twitter.com/coreyhoganyyc/status/2118466518858277166

Budget commentary includes:

  • Justin Ling delves into the promises for drone production.
  • Kevin Carmichael points to the signals the budget sends to the bond markets.
  • Susan Delacourt sees the government taking the cue about affordability.

— Effin' Birds (@effinbirds.com) 2026-11-05T20:08:02.591Z

My Latest:

My column looks at all of Mark Carney’s talk about “values” in foreign policy and wonders when we might actually see some—other than “making money.”

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A starting line, not a finish line

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Amidst all of the jubilation over the midterm results, I feel the need to be something of a dark cloud for the silver linings, because I think that there is a lot of over-reading what happened (to say nothing of confirming one’s priors). I have seen clips floating around social media where people are declaring this to be the “effective end of the Trump era,” and oh sweet summer child, no. Not even close.

Congressional leaders are already trotting out lines like they don’t want to “get even, but get things done,” which is part of America’s problem—not excusing past misdeeds because the “pendulum swung back,” they don’t want the same to happen to them once they’re out of power, and they are allergic to holding the rich and powerful to account, because they all believe that they are temporarily displaced billionaires who don’t want to be held to any higher standard once their ship comes in. And frankly, the “getting things done” is going to be a problem is they want to focus on affordability because there’s not a lot that Congress can do about it, and it could be a trap for themselves if they allow it to become their fault by over-promising and being unable to deliver.

"The American people don't want us to get even; they want us to get things done on their behalf."House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who is now poised to become the next House Speaker, says that Democrats will focus on affordability concerns and not retribution after their midterm wins.

— MS NOW (@ms.now) 2026-11-04T13:01:08.240Z

https://bsky.app/profile/emmettmacfarlane.com/post/3mzih62wjvs2r

https://bsky.app/profile/emmettmacfarlane.com/post/3mziha5jegk2r

https://bsky.app/profile/smsaideman.bsky.social/post/3mzifcgwzk2sc

This notion that American democracy was not restored is extremely important, because too many people are taking a victory lap right now. This is just the beginning of the fight, as Anne Applebaum lays out in this video. America is structurally broken. And frankly, nobody trusts that your next election cycle, you won’t go back to MAGA because all the Democrats stayed home because their candidates didn’t pass their purity tests sufficiently. You know, like what happened in 2024. 

What was at stake – and what is at stake now www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofOn…

— Anne Applebaum (@anneapplebaum.wsocial.eu) 2026-11-04T11:18:49.443Z

Lots of Americans mistaking the starting line for a finish line today.

— Daniel Munro (@dkmunro.bsky.social) 2026-11-04T20:09:17.238Z

Are the kids out of cages?Have deportees been welcomed back?Are the people murdered in the Pacific resurrected?Is Venezuela’s oil returned?Is Russia’s diesel rejected?Is global aid restored?No? Put the party favours away and get back to work.

— Daniel Munro (@dkmunro.bsky.social) 2026-11-04T20:04:47.064Z

And then there are the voices in Canada, particularly conservative ones, who think that Carney’s whole Davos conception has now fallen apart, which is…frankly risible. Pierre Poilievre had a press conference where he essentially said that we just have to appeal to Americans’ better nature because they proved they hate tariffs, but that’s also nonsense because, well, they may say they hate tariffs, but they never seem to remove any. (He also doesn’t seem to understand that to Americans in this election, we were a punchline. That’s it). We’re not out of the woods yet. Not even close.

https://bsky.app/profile/stephaniecarvin.bsky.social/post/3mzism76t4s2j

Nor are the Democrats coming to save usEven in Progressive America, there is a fundamental underestimation of the damage done and global perception of the US. The world is way past ‘common ground’ solutions

— Lauren Dobson-Hughes (@ldobsonhughes.bsky.social) 2026-11-04T11:27:19.496Z

— Effin' Birds (@effinbirds.com) 2026-11-04T20:08:03.758Z

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Asking less and offering more?

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I don’t have much in the way of commentary to offer about the U.S. midterms because ultimately I don’t think it will change much for Canada. Democrats are still protectionist, there are unions in the States calling for tariffs to be maintained, and Trump still has veto power and tariffs he’s been using fall under executive powers thanks to the interpretations of his corrupt Supreme Court. Maybe I’m cynical, but Americans are still Americans, and one election does not undo the mess they made, nor can we trust that this will hold in any significant manner. We also cannot trust that Americans will ensure there are any consequences for the last two years, because most of the power brokers and players will want to “move on” and “find common ground.” 

https://bsky.app/profile/smsaideman.bsky.social/post/3mzhjtrg3wk5e

This having been said, there is chatter about renewed trade talks with the U.S., even though there is no realistic possibility of a deal to be had because as we’ve established, they don’t live up to any of their own deals. Prime minister Mark Carney told media at his Commonwealth meeting presser that the Americans have budged on some red lines, and are “asking less and offering more,” but unless anything is better than what we have under the existing New NAFTA agreement, why should we sign onto something that is demonstrably worse, which he won’t honour anyway?

Report: Canada still isn't taking you back

— The Beaverton (@thebeaverton.com) 2026-11-04T05:04:28.536Z

This of course makes the Conservatives’ current play—that the government needs to sign a deal right away, and that we cannot afford to hold out for another two-and-a-half years until the Trump regime has ended (maybe) to be curious. It’s apparently their assertion that we have no resilience, and that we should fold at the slightest bit of discomfort rather than doing something to help those who are suffering as a result of these illegal and unjustified actions against us. Of course, they also believe that tax cuts will “restore affordability” and that trickle-down economics will create “powerful paycheques,” so we should interrogate these beliefs as often as we can.

https://twitter.com/acoyne/status/2117842885970117030

— Effin' Birds (@effinbirds.com) 2026-11-03T14:08:04.484Z

My Latest:

My (overdue weekend) column looks at how Danielle Smith is leaning hard on culture war bullshit to save her own hide. (Site issues prevented this being posted earlier).

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The Alberta gerrymandering has begun

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The Alberta boundaries report has been tabled in the legislature, and as pretty much everyone expected, it’s a fairly textbook example of gerrymandering in the UCP’s favour. As expected, they are resurrecting a number or rurban/“hybrid” ridings which take a slice of urban electorate and then swamp them with outlying rural voters, in order to dilute more progressive urban votes. And they have monkeyed with the weighting, so that rural ridings have fewer voters and thus more electoral weight than urban ridings, again all in service of privileging the rural, conservative voters over urban, progressive voters in order to guarantee that the UCP will have a structural advantage moving forward.

Oh hey Alberta's latest (and highly controversial) electoral boundary report is out: www.assembly.ab.ca/docs/default…And it's got a bunch of "hybrid" ridings that blend urban and rural areas into one.For example, here's the proposed new "Calgary-North West-Bearspaw" riding:

— Robson Fletcher (@robsonfletcher.com) 2026-11-02T22:25:08.983Z

And here's "Calgary-Bow-Springbank":

— Robson Fletcher (@robsonfletcher.com) 2026-11-02T22:26:44.348Z

And here's "Calgary-West-Springbank":

— Robson Fletcher (@robsonfletcher.com) 2026-11-02T22:27:53.278Z

And here's Lethbridge, which is currently two ridings (Lethbridge East and Lethbridge West).The city is now proposed to be split into four ridings, three of which spread into surrounding areas:"Lethbridge""Lethbridge-Little Bow""Lethbridge-Taber-Warner""Lethbridge-Cardston"

— Robson Fletcher (@robsonfletcher.com) 2026-11-02T22:36:14.844Z

https://bsky.app/profile/blakeshaffer.bsky.social/post/3mzeht5n2u22t

Elections Alberta had already asked the government to push back their “fixed” election date because of this redistribution effort, and the Cabinet gave a pissy “How very dare you,” because of course they did. And we’ll see if this gets challenged in the courts, because this kind of gerrymandering is blatantly unconstitutional, but Danielle Smith is going to try, because her only interest is in holding onto power. 

Mickey Amery has responded to Elections Alberta's Friday letter that said it wouldn't be possible to pull off an election with new boundaries in the time allotted…By basically saying "You'll do what we want and you'll like it".#abpoli #ableg #cdnpoli

— The Breakdown AB (@thebreakdownab.bsky.social) 2026-11-01T23:06:26.858Z

https://bsky.app/profile/emmettmacfarlane.com/post/3mzenovcq6k2w

Meanwhile, there was a whole other sub-drama happening at the end of the week, where Smith announced that she had kicked separatist leader Jeff Rath out of the party. Recall that at the last party convention, he fired up the audience more than Smith did, and demonstrated that he had a hold on the membership base. This also happened after Rath leaked texts from Danielle Smith about her colluding with them about the petitions for the referendum questions. It’s a little suspicious for Smith to dump the allies who got her to where she is now that they’re no longer convenient for her, but again, everything that is happening here is in service of Smith holding onto power for as long as she possibly can.

WOW!Jeff Rath posted text messages that he alleges are from Danielle Smith!These texts seem to show her coordinating with the separatists to launch their original question, though Rath claims he took them as her coordinating with @lukaszukab.bsky.social !What do you think?

— The Breakdown AB (@thebreakdownab.bsky.social) 2026-10-27T20:57:50.057Z

WOW!The Rath texts are real. Smith colluded with the separatists.Confirmed by Dani in the legislature today. And while she tried to spin them as just answering questions, she also makes it clear the texts weren't meant for Lukaszuk.#abpoli #ableg #cdnpoli

— The Breakdown AB (@thebreakdownab.bsky.social) 2026-10-28T20:04:18.326Z

— Effin' Birds (@effinbirds.com) 2026-11-02T14:08:34.159Z

My Latest:

For National Magazine, I delve into Friday’s Supreme Court of Canada decision on inattention and dangerous driving, and what signals the Court might be sending.

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Poor oversight and vague outlines

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It was Auditor General Day yesterday, and there were a bunch of reports released, including three from the Environment Commissioner, who is in her office. And so, this is what they found:

  • The CBSA’s new digital management software, CARM, is still glitchy two years later and they spend a lot of time on manual workarounds.
  • FINTRAC continues to be plagued by reporting backlogs that aren’t going to be cleared until next year at least.
  • National Defence didn’t manage their ammunition inventory effectively.
  • Ways to improve the dental care programme after it exceeded its budget.
  • The government still won’t outline their plan to meet their 2030 emissions targets.
  • The procurement process for new call centre technology has been a mess.
  • Health Canada isn’t following up on high-risk pesticides identified with monitoring.
  • PHAC has not effectively managed their emergency stockpiles.
  • The government stopped work on banning thermal coal exports without saying so.

There is a common theme about a lack of oversight in many of these reports, and while a lot of these issues are from the Trudeau era, I have observed that there was an issue with a lack of proper management of government departments, where the attitude seemed to be that these civil servants were left to manage their own affairs, which they didn’t necessarily do effectively. Whether that’s because ministers didn’t feel they were qualified to because they were constantly reporting to the Centre (meaning the chief of staff) was a possibility, or perhaps it was because they didn’t realise that it was their responsibility to do so. I wonder if it will get worse under Carney, however, as ministers are preoccupied with trying to use digital asbestos to “find efficiencies,” or because major projects and decisions are being shunted off to Crown corporations to manage them instead, which are more arm’s-length, and as a result get less scrutiny. We’ll have to see, but the trend is not encouraging.

The government also released their first National Security Strategy in twenty years, and it was a slim, high-level document that had very few details, but outlined five broad themes, including a focus on economic security. There is also concern outlined about “frontier” digital asbestos being a major threat. Philippe Lagassé considers the defence-related items, while Stephanie Carvin has her initial thoughts here.

Carney says we are "forging new partnerships with allies that are anchored in our common values."What are our "common values" with China, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Türkiye, and Modi's India? If the common value is making money, then he should just come out and say so.

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2026-10-30T00:54:22.514Z

— Effin' Birds (@effinbirds.com) 2026-10-29T19:08:01.843Z

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Scoring points off the interest rate decision

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The Bank of Canada raised their policy rate 25 basis points yesterday to 2.5 percent, and as you might expect, the political reaction was bordering on unhinged. The Bank governor’s reasoning was pretty clear—global oil prices are pushing headline inflation up, and while core inflation is on target (meaning the measures that strip out the most volatile components), there is concern that businesses that are currently absorbing the increased fuel costs are going to start passing those costs on through the economy. The rate hike is more of a signal than anything—it can’t do anything about the Strait of Hormuz, but it can send a signal to the economy that the Bank isn’t going to take risings costs lying down, and they’re going to do their part to rein them in. That’s the thing about monetary policy—it’s as  much about sending signals to the market and being willing to back them up with its levers than anything.

For the opposition parties, however, reading apparently isn’t their strong suit. The Conservatives insisted that this was all about the government’s “out of control” spending and deficits, and that’s what is fuelling inflation, all of which is absolute hokum. Tiff Macklem was quite clear in the statement that what’s driving the inflation are global factors, meaning oil prices. The NDP, however, insisted that “This is a clear result of the Liberal government’s failure to get inflation under control.” First of all, managing inflation is the Bank’s job, not the government’s. And second of all, core inflation is on target. Inflation is under control. The spike in the headline number is entirely gasoline prices, which we do not control. And then they took a gratuitous shot about Carney’s initial support for the war in Iran. The cherry on top is that the government is refusing to actually dispute any of the absolutely false things the opposition is saying, and are instead patting themselves on the back for the Bank’s growth projections, because that’ll combat disinformation!

The releases from the Conservatives and NDP are both written from fantasylands that didn't read anything the Bank wrote. The Bank said nothing about deficits or government spending. They did say the source of inflation was global oil prices. Both parties ignored those facts.

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2026-10-28T20:26:21.043Z

I'm forced to conclude that either our opposition finance critics are illiterate, or they simply lie in order to fit their narratives—likely the latter. Meanwhile, the prime minister is a former central banker but didn't bother to cite the Bank's language in QP today.We are so absolutely boned.

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2026-10-28T20:26:21.044Z

It is frankly distressing to see just how absolutely economically illiterate the “finance critics” of our opposition parties are. I know that you have narratives that you want to push, but you don’t have to lie to the public to try and make your point. You can be concerned about the size of the deficit without lying that it is driving inflation (when core inflation is on target!) and that it forced the interest rate hike. You can express concerns about the war in Iran pushing up prices without saying that the government didn’t get inflation under control (when again, core inflation is on target! FFS!) This should not be rocket science, and yet, here we are. We don’t have to keep making this the dumbest timeline. These kinds of statements are a choice.

— Effin' Birds (@effinbirds.com) 2026-10-28T13:08:06.166Z

My Latest:

My column explores the notion that the BC election is a sign that it’s time for “normie” conservatives to be in ascendance, and why that is not necessarily the case.

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The culture war distraction

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In the wake of her referendum flame-out, and one of her MLAs abruptly quitting, Alberta premier Danielle Smith is not wasting any time in ramping up American culture war bullshit as the legislature returns in the province. First up was new rules for flags at schools which are a convoluted mess that are essentially an overly bureaucratic way of banning Pride flags without coming out to just call it a Pride flag ban. Now the first bill her government has tabled is an effective ban on “DEI hiring” in the government or other public institutions, which is any kind of affirmative action to ensure that there are diverse hiring practices in favour of “merit,” even though we know that so-called “merit-based” hiring practices are overwhelmingly discriminatory in practice. And we’re not stupid—this, along with her anti-immigrant referendum questions are all about catering to the white nationalists in her party base, and they’re being pretty open about it. The fact that they wrap it up in culture war language and rationalization doesn’t change the fact that this is about appeasing white nationalists, end of story.

https://twitter.com/andrew_leach/status/2115243800482505190

Meanwhile, in her attempt to look tough on the separatists in her ranks, Smith is also directing anyone planning on running for a board position within the UCP to sign a declaration that they’ll abide by the referendum result and not pursue independence. And all of the separatists are saying sure, I’ll sign it, but it doesn’t mean anything—particularly because they are still organising internally within the party to control the entire organisational mechanism so that they can oust Smith and put an avowed separatist in the leadership and take over the party from the inside (thanks again to Jason Kenney setting up the party so that it’s easy for them to do so). The fact that she thinks this would stop or solve anything is a weird move by Smith, but also just a first salvo in the party’s coming civil war as Smith tries to desperately hang onto power. Things could be getting messy from here.

— Effin' Birds (@effinbirds.com) 2026-10-27T19:08:02.936Z

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Life came at David Eby fast

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So, the BC election was quite something. On one level, David Eby will replace David Peterson as the cautionary tale for calling an election too early and being punished at the ballot box for it. And it looks a lot like the this was not so much the strength of the BC Conservatives’ vote, but rather that the NDP stayed home because they were mad or discouraged with Eby, so this was their way of punishing him. Also? There has been a lot of media nonsense abotu how this was the first BC Conservative win in over a century. No. It may have been the first time the brand has one in a century, but the anti-NDP forces in the province keep changing their name and their voter coalition fragments and coalesces, but these are for the most part the same people who governed as the BC Liberals just a few years ago. Let’s be real about this.

https://bsky.app/profile/jmcelroy.bsky.social/post/3myqd4zmaws2u

In British Columbia there is the NDP and the anti-NDP. The latter change their name every few decades. These guys haven't been out of power a decade.

— Alex Usher (@alexusherhesa.bsky.social) 2026-10-25T07:36:16.825Z

Meanwhile, the BC Conservatives’ future is going to be interesting, considering how much of a Frankenstein’s monster the party is. I am not confident that the caucus is built to last, because as I have said in many places before, this is not a party that has a coherent ideology or policy book other than “We’re not the NDP,” and that causes problems. And sometimes, power can be disciplining—it worked for Stephen Harper for many years, until it didn’t. But sometimes power also means that people in the party want to lead, and will do anything to get that leaders. (See: Alberta’s PC Party post-Ralph Klein). We’ll see what wins out, and whether a moderate like Lorne Doerkson can have enough force of personality to hold the party together. On a side note, maybe the fact that Doerkson was a caucus-selected leader who didn’t implode the party and won an election is a sign that maybe, just maybe, we might see the light and return to caucus-selected leaders in this country? (Yeah, I know, I’m dreaming. But still).

As for what is coming, there are some warning signs ahead, particularly when it comes to First Nations in BC, because so much of what the BC Conservatives ran on was the repeal of what they call DRIPA (being the legislation to enact UNDRIP) becuase of a moral panic from a bad misreading of the Cowichan decision and the false belief that it spells the end of property rights in the province. It doesn’t, that’s not what the decision said, and this has been a racist attempt to undo the work of reconciliation in the province. There are some other concerns about queer and trans rights, given that there is a contingent of the Conservatives that were about repealing “SOGI” in schools (sexual orientation/gender identity), even though they weren’t quite as extreme about it as the far-right OneBC party was. Plus, the party had to dump one candidate for Hitler statements, so I’m not all that confident about their candidate vetting. Lots is still up in the air, but we’ll see how things start to shake out.

David Eby Is Just Wondering Why British Columbia Is Mad At Him youtu.be/WeSd4Vvrqx8

— Clare Blackwood (@clareblackwood.bsky.social) 2026-10-25T22:10:20.754Z

— Effin' Birds (@effinbirds.com) 2026-10-26T19:08:05.260Z

My Latest:

My weekend column points to how the Conservatives are trying to be “clever” in how they are framing their anti-immigration stances, and trying to blame it on the Liberals.

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