Tag Archives: China

QP: Theatrical accusations of breaking Canada

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With the PM still in Bali, his deputy was present, though it was unlikely that she was going to take on the usual proto-PMQ practice of the PM taking every Wednesday question. Pierre Poilievre led off in French, and he wondered why children in other countries could get access to pain medications but not Canada, and accused the government of inaction when there were warning signs in April. Freeland said that as a mother she understood the stress that families were going through, which was why the government announced a supply of additional medications from abroad. Poilievre repeated the question in English, with the added question of what date the Cabinet was aware of the shortages, but Freeland repeated her same response in her slow and deliberate style as she read the script in front of her. Poilievre turns back to French, somewhat unusually, and raised the inflation numbers that were released earlier, and blamed it on the so-called “triple, triple, triple” carbon price, which is of course not accurate. Freeland started off in English, saying that the only thing that has tripled was our Aaa credit rating, before switching to French to note how inflation stabilised. Poilievre was back in English to be dismissive, noted that heating oil costs were up over 70 percent in Newfoundland and Labrador, and gave his usual demands. Freeland noted that the people who are broke are those who followed Poilievre’s advice about crypto. Poilievre spouted a bunch of nonsense about the threat of deflation (which was real, which could have spiralled into a depression), and made some jibes about Disney+. Freeland responded that Poilievre lives in a nineteen-room mansion with a chef and a driver, and that while this is fine for the leader of the opposition, he was irresponsible in advising people to invest in crypto. 

Alain Therrien led for the Bloc, raised the federal debt position relative to the provinces, and demanded higher transfers to provinces. Freeland noted that transfers had increased by 4.8 this year, and that any other increased funding must come with accountability. Therrien insisted that people were suffering and blamed the federal government for under-funding the system, and Freeland agreed that there were real challenges in the system, and that Quebec got $10.1 billion this year, which was the 4.8 percent increase.

Peter Julian rose for the NDP in French, and denounced grocery CEOs and the Bank of Canada while demanding those grocery chains pay more taxes. Freeland read the approved lines about increasing corporate taxes, the recovery dividend, and luxury taxes. Daniel Blaikie took over in English to demand government intervention in the way of windfall taxes, and Freeland repeated the same points in English.

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Roundup: Auditor General day passes with little notice

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The Auditor General released a series of reports yesterday, but you almost wouldn’t know it from the dearth of coverage. Yes, The Canadian Press did cover them, and CBC did somewhat, but most of those stories were not headline news, and barely made a splash. The reports didn’t come up in QP save for two NDP questions near the back third of the exercise, and Power & Politics gave it seconds worth of mention in their “five things” segment (while they also spent three blocks on their Power Panel, a block on their ridiculous “Quote of the Day,” and ran the segment on Donald Trump’s pending announcement twice). Power Play did slightly better by actually having the Auditor General on to discuss the reports, but gave her a mere 3 minutes and 42 seconds of airtime, and only a couple of the items actually got mention.

The reports:

  • We don’t know if the federal government’s plan to reduce chronic homeless by 50 percent by 2028 is working because they don’t have enough actual data.
  • Indigenous Services’ handling disasters like fires and floods remains reactive rather than proactive, even though this has been highlighted for a decade now.
  • Federal departments need to do more to ensure secure storage on cloud servers given the rising threat of cyberattacks (which is pretty alarming, really).
  • Our aging aircraft and icebreakers mean we can’t effectively monitor Arctic waters, and there are no plans to replace RADARSAT capabilities by 2026.

Is any of this earth-shattering? Maybe not, but it’s still important and a big part of the way we’re supposed to be holding the government to account, which should be important. There was once upon a time, not that long ago, when Auditor General Day was a big deal in the spring and the fall, and it was a media circus. And now? It barely makes a dent in the news cycle. It’s a pretty sad indictment of where we’re at in terms of our national political media, and how little we’re paying attention to the things that are supposed to matter.

Ukraine Dispatch, Day 266:

Russia fired a large number of cruise missiles at civilian infrastructure throughout Ukraine, and throughout this, a pair of missiles appear to have crossed into Poland and struck a farm near the border, killing two people. While everything is being verified that these were in fact Russian missiles (and not, for example, Ukrainian missiles that missed intercepting the Russian missiles), NATO leaders are thus far keeping cool and trying to keep the situation cool, but this is almost entirely unlikely to trigger Article 5. Instead, it’s likely to trigger Article 4, and ramping up their investment into giving more equipment to Ukraine faster, including the plan from Poland to deliver its old MiG fighters to Ukraine.

https://twitter.com/ZelenskyyUa/status/1592647150504407042

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QP: Is it federal hostage-taking, or provincial?

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As Trudeau was at the G20 summit in Bali, his deputy was present for QP once again. Pierre Poilievre led off in French, as he usually does, and he decried the crisis of families trying to pay for home heating, citing that Acadians on the East Coast and Franco-Ontarians in Northern Ontario use diesel (because he wanted to address francophones not in Quebec as Quebec has a cap-and-trade system), which are being impacted by the so-called “triple, triple, triple” carbon price (which isn’t not until 2030). Chrystia Freeland insisted that her economic plan was responsible and caring at the same time, such as doubling the GST credit and the rental support for low-income people. Poilievre switched to English to denounce that Freeland boasted about not needing a car because she lives in downtown Toronto, and denounced the supposed tripling of the carbon price. Freeland responded that she has probably driven more pick-up trucks than Poilievre has, and began laying into his advice about investing in crypto, and demanded he apologies to Canadians. Poilievre decried $3/litre diesel, and what that will cost people who need it for heating, and demanded the carbon price be cancelled. Freeland insisted that the Conservatives only want to eviscerate EI, pensions, making polluting free, and to claw back climate incentive cheques, or depriving low-income people of rental supports or dental care. Poilievre retorted “false, false, false, false,” and then misquoted the PBO’s report on carbon prices, and repeated his demand to cancel the price. Freeland took the opportunity to read a script about what the Conservatives are “blocking” in the budget implementation bill. Poilievre insisted that they have a majority with the NDP, so they can do what they like, then blamed them for rising house prices before repeating his “triple” ear worm. Freeland slowly recited that they have a plan that is compassionate and fiscally responsible, citing items like ending interest on student loans and the changes to the Canada Worker Benefit.

Alain Therrien led for the Bloc, and accused the government of encouraging the anglicisation of Quebec through their official languages bill. Freeland said that while she is an anglophone, the government considers French a priority, supporting them to keep speaking French on an English continent. Therrien railed that companies like Air Canada and VIA Rail continue to flout their obligations and are trying to avoid Quebec’s language laws, and Freeland insisted that they do understand how hard it is to protect the French language but they support doing so.

Jagmeet Singh rose for the NDP, and in French, he raised the crisis in emergency rooms, and accuse the federal government of inaction, as though it was their jurisdiction to do so. Freeland insisted that she was sure that every member in the Chamber understand how precious children are, and insisted that they are a priority, and that as for healthcare, they have are increasing transfers by eight percent. Singh repeated the question in English and got the same answer.

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Roundup: Counting votes is not a measure of the Senate’s health

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The National Post did an analysis of the “new, independent” Senate to see just what has changed since the prime minister Justin Trudeau began his bid to reform the Upper Chamber through the appointment process, and lo, the analysis misses the whole gods damned point. You don’t judge the effectiveness of the Senate by counting votes. It has never operated in such a way, and (quantitative) political scientists and journalists can’t get that through their heads. The Senate is not going to vote down government legislation unless it’s a dire circumstance, and usually they will only insist on an amendment once before they will let a bill pass. How many times they vote against the government is not a measure of independence either, because the objective of most senators is to let a bill get to committee where the real work happens, and they will try to amend any flaws (and even then, we’ve had a problem of this particular government needing to sponsor amendments to fix their flaws that they bullied through the Commons, until the more recent and destructive trend of telling them to pass it anyway and that they would fix the flaw in a future piece of legislation).

There are plenty of other measures by which we could talk about why the “new” Senate isn’t working from the fact that they can barely organise a picnic anymore because most of the Independent senators can’t stick to agreements on procedural matters, or the fact that the pandemic has gutted their ability to be useful aside from adding a few speeches to the record because legislation is being bullied through without time for scrutiny, or the fact that they no longer have the interpretation capacity to run many of their committees like they used to thanks to hybrid sittings burning out the interpreters. Those are all very real problems that are hurting the Senate, but it requires journalists (and academics) who know the place and what is going on, and what questions to ask, and those are almost non-existent. But hey, we counted votes, so that means something, right? Nope.

Ukraine Dispatch, Day 265:

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited the recently liberated city of Kherson to declare it the beginning of the end of Russia’s invasion, but also notes that the city is laced with boobytraps and mines, and that they have a significant challenge ahead in repairing critical infrastructure so that people can get electricity and water.

https://twitter.com/ZelenskyyUa/status/1592179845311635463

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QP: Disney+ versus crypto outrage

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While the PM had landed in Bali for the G20 meeting, his deputy was present for Question Period back in Ottawa. Pierre Poilievre led off in French, and he worried about children not getting medication, and the report that only Canada is lacking these medications out of 19 countries that one company distributes to. Jean-Yves Duclos noted that the supply has increased, and that hours ago, they announced that they signed a deal with a company to import several months’ supply of children analgesics. Poilievre repeated the question in English, and Duclos repeated his answer in English. Poilievre then misquoted the governor of the Bank of Canada on the supposed “domestic” source of inflation (which is not what he said—the inflationary pressures are largely domestic now because they have metastasised through the economy, not because they were caused by local factors) and then wholly made up him saying that they need to cut wages and increase unemployment (which is entirely false), and demanded to know if the government agrees. Chrystia Freeland praised their “compassionate” and “fiscally responsible” plan, and quoted the Globe and Mail to bolster her cause. Poilievre raised the cost of diesel and blamed that on food-price inflation (it’s not the cause), and decried that families in “oil-heated communities” couldn’t cut their subscriptions to Disney+ to heat their homes, again raising the fake outrage that dominated the country last week, before demanding they cut the carbon price. Freeland noted that everyone in this Chamber is privileged, and that she recognises how privileged her family is, which is why they focused the government’s finite resources on those who need it. Poilievre demanded that the Liberals end their plan to “triple, triple, triple” their carbon price, and this time Fraser got up to take exception to the line about oil-heated communities because his province has seen the cost of climate inaction and worse is yet to come, and after the Speaker had to quiet the Chamber down, Fraser said that perhaps they should turn on the microphones of the backbenches to showcase their climate denialism.

Alain Therrien led for the Bloc, and he decried the notion that the conversation on health transfers was futile as provinces we “rolling in money,” and demanded they talk to emergency room doctors. Duclos insisted that they should be discussing actions that should be taken. Therrien decried that the “pontificators” in government were unable to do things like get passports out, so how could they manage healthcare (which no one is asking). Pablo Rodriguez got up and chirped about the Bloc’s recent convention and how their only priority was independence and not helping people. 

Peter Julian rose for the NDP, and in French, decried the overloaded emergency rooms and demanded that the federal do something about it, as though it were their jurisdiction. Duclos listed the stressors on the system and called on people to mask and vaccinate. Don Davies took over in English, raised drug shortages and demanded a plan, to which Duclos reminded him that they did announce an emergency importation of analgesics as domestic production ramps up. 

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Roundup: No, it’s not a mini-midterm

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Because this is sometimes a media criticism blog, I am taking the opportunity to call out some of the absolute worst practices in Canadian political journalism, one of which was on display this weekend courtesy of CBC, where a preview of the forthcoming byelection in Mississauga-Lakeshore was termed a “miniature midterm election,” and my eyes rolled back so far in my head I almost did a full-body flip.

No. Stop that.

It is nothing like an American midterm election, which is a general election for the entire House of Representatives and a third of their Senate. Even Americans have special elections equivalent to byelections, so in every single way the comparison is flawed, and no, you can’t excuse it by trying to claim you’re piggybacking on an American story to tell a Canadian one, because it just perpetuates the false notion that our systems are at all equivalent, and that their politics are more interesting or exciting than ours are (which they are not—theirs are simply more insane, and we should not be looking to mimic or envy that in any way whatsoever). Furthermore, the story goes into the history of the riding and of certain byelections in order to try and carry on the tortured framing device to try and use it as a way of trying to divine messages about the current government, but with a boatload of caveats to say that it might not mean anything at all, in which case, what was the point of this whole exercise? It could have been a profile of the riding, the candidates, the fact that the Liberals once again ignored their own promise of open nominations to appoint a provincial has-been, or about the ground-game the different parties have in the riding as compared to the messages their parties are putting out. There is so much more you could do with this piece that would be useful political journalism than try to put this into some bastardised American context. Honestly, what is the gods damned point otherwise?

Ukraine Dispatch, Day 264:

Much of the news remains the liberation of Kherson, with police officers returning, along with things like television, though the city remains largely without power or water, and Ukrainian forces are trying to stabilise the situation there, which some are calling a humanitarian catastrophe. As well, some seventy percent of that province remains in Russian control, so there is still work to do. Some 2000 explosives have been removed from Kherson and the surrounding region in the past few days, and to the east, Russian forces continue their grinding offensive at Bakhmut.

https://twitter.com/maksymeristavi/status/1591525567698194432

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Roundup: Protecting nominations is corrosive to democracy

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Remember back when Justin Trudeau promised that the Liberals were going to be the party of “open nominations,” because this was good for democracy and all of that? Well, it seems like once again, his party is firming up their rules to protect incumbents from nominations, which is not open nominations, and is very bad for democracy. Very, very bad. Nomination races are one of the only tools that grassroots party members have to hold incumbents to account without voting against the party in a general election. It’s how the party is supposed to hold its own to account, and if they can fundraise enough and keep their memberships above a certain level, they’re being given a free pass rather than the accountability the system is supposed to provide. This is a very bad thing for our democratic system. It’s bad enough that under Trudeau, the Liberals tore up their party constitution and centralized power in his office. Now they are short-circuiting one more accountability measure and keeping tight control over the nomination process, which focuses even more power on the leader (for whom the party constitution states doesn’t have to face a leadership review unless they lose an election). This is not how a party is supposed to be run.

The practice of democracy in this country is backsliding, as much as our parties like to pat themselves on the back. They have been undermining the rules at every turn, and have hollowed out the safeguards and the grassroots participation. And yes, I know that sitting MPs insist that they need protected nominations because they’re not in the riding to fend off any nomination challenges, but a) you’re in the riding an awful lot, because the number of sitting days has been in decline, and b) you have incumbency advantage already, and if you keep up the door-knocking and activities that you’re required to for these protections, you might as well do it for real stakes. Because yes, grassroots democracy matters, and we desperately need to rebuild it in this country before it’s too late. Protecting nominations just corrodes the system even more than it already has been, and the Liberals cannot pat themselves on the back and talk about how good they are for democracy if they can’t even be bothered with the fundamental basics.

Ukraine Dispatch, Day 260:

Russian Forces made a big song and dance about pulling out of Kherson, saying they can’t supply it, but Ukraine is sceptical because it looks like Russia is setting a trap, because they tend to do the opposite of what they say they’re going to. And indeed, they say that they haven’t actually seen signs that Russians are completely leaving the city. Meanwhile, here’s a look at the task ahead of rebuilding Kharkiv after Russian occupation.

https://twitter.com/StratCom_AFU/status/1589649656338067464

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Roundup: The federal walkout in the face of the premiers’ games

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The federal-provincial health ministers’ meeting broke down with federal ministers Jean-Yves Duclos and Carolyn Bennett walking out after a communiqué from the premiers was leaked, decrying a failure of the talks, drafted five days ago, indicating that there was no intent to listen to the federal government’s position on tying increased funding to accountability measures like outcomes and pan-Canadian data. Duclos said in his press scrum after walking out that just increasing the transfer to provinces is not a plan, which is one hundred percent correct, because we know that provinces have a demonstrated history of spending additional federal dollars on other things that are not healthcare. (Duclos’ statement here). The provincial spokes-minister, Adrian Dix, carried on with his disingenuous talking points about not being able to fix the system without more money, or demanding a first ministers’ meeting about this, the only purpose of which would be for the premiers to gang up on the prime minister for the cameras. Dix also painted this false picture of lamenting that the federal government couldn’t come together with them like they did over COVID, completely ignoring that the federal government sent billions of additional dollars to provinces for COVID and most of those provinces simply put that money directly onto their bottom lines to end their fiscal year with a surplus, which is not the point of sending money to them for healthcare.

Justin Trudeau, earlier in the day, was already calling the premiers out on this bullshit by pointing out that they are crying poor while they are offering tax breaks for their wealthier citizens, which is not a sign that their budgets are hurting for federal dollars. And this is exactly the point—premiers have largely decided to make this the federal government’s problem, because they can get away with this particular lie. Legacy media will continue to take the line that so long as a single federal dollar is involved, this becomes a federal responsibility, which is not how this works. The crumbling healthcare system is not the federal government’s problem. They have done nothing but increase funding year over year. The provinces have created this mess, and in all likelihood exacerbated it deliberately in order to force the federal government’s hand in giving them a lot more money with no strings attached, but the federal government isn’t blinking, and is finally starting to call bullshit. Let’s see if legacy media actually catches on (but I have serious doubts they will).

Ukraine Dispatch, Day 259:

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says he’s willing to negotiate peace—on his terms, and not Russia’s, but forestalled criticism Russia was levelling against him. Otherwise, there was more shelling in Bakhmut, and two civilians were seriously wounded by unexploded mines around Kharkiv.

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Roundup: Pretending the promise of money was new

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Provincial health ministers met in Vancouver yesterday in advance of their federal counterpart joining them, and boy did the bullshit ever flow, particularly in their characterisation of what has transpired. The federal minister, Jean-Yves Duclos, put out a statement before the provincial minsters had a press conference that basically reiterated what the federal government has been saying for months now—that yes, they are willing to spend more money, but they want outcomes attached. What was different was specific language about common metrics for health data, cooperation on health workforces, and that the federal government was willing to also engaged in specially tailored one-off agreements with provinces on specific investments.

To hear BC’s health minister, Adrian Dix, tell the tale, the federal government has been “radio silent” for over a year, which is not true, or that this is the first time they’ve raised money issues, which is again, not true, and the message has been consistent. But some of his counterparts are already rejecting the federal strings, and insisting that this is some kind of centralization or micromanaging (it’s not). Dix also pretended that the progress he has made around some reforms in BC are being done elsewhere around the country (they’re not) as “proof” that the provinces are getting their acts together on healthcare, which is, again, not true, and nobody wants to call out the provinces for letting things get to a crisis through chronic underfunding, in large part because they spent federal dollars on other things, and because certain premiers appear to be wilfully breaking their systems in order to try and privatise as much as they can without penalty under the Canada Health Act. If the starting point for these negotiations is the truth, well, that appears to be in short supply, which could be a big problem for everyone going forward.

Ukraine Dispatch, Day 258:

Ukrainian officials are accusing Russian forces of looting empty homes in Kherson after they ordered civilians out of the city (likely a forced deportation, which is a war crime) in advance of the Ukrainian advance on the city, and then the Russians cut the power to the city and blamed Ukrainian “sabotage.” The epicentre of the fighting remains Bakhmut and Avdiivka in the Donetsk region, where Ukrainians say that hundreds of Russians are being killed every day.

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Roundup: A thinnish Fiscal Update

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It was the Fall Economic Statement yesterday, which did not have a lot of new measures within it, highlighting the upcoming economic uncertainty and possibility of a short recession, though its optimistic scenario is for a simple economic slowdown that will help to tame inflation. The deficit is also slated to be lower than predicted in Budget 2022, and there is a path to balance within a couple of years. What it did offer was fairly targeted—eliminating interest on student loans, providing advances to the Canada Worker Benefit (but done in a really problematic way that will likely create future headaches because they didn’t listen to advice), a promise to do something about credit card fees for small businesses, and a tax on share buybacks by 2024 (which could create a run on them before it kicks in, because of course). The$15-billion Canada Growth Fund will be willing to accept lower returns or increase its loss exposure in order to stimulate institutional investment in riskier green projects,  A few more of the smaller measures in the document can be found here and also here.

In the meantime, check out the threads from Lindsay Tedds and Jennifer Robson.

https://twitter.com/LindsayTedds/status/1588264168037449729

https://twitter.com/LindsayTedds/status/1588264815319207936

https://twitter.com/LindsayTedds/status/1588266088739274752

https://twitter.com/LindsayTedds/status/1588268099312418819

Ukraine Dispatch, Day 254:

Unsurprisingly, International Atomic Energy Agency has found no evidence that Ukraine is building “dirty bombs,” contradicting Russian claims. More shelling near the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant means that it has been cut off from the power grid again and is running on emergency generators to cool the reactors. Here is a look inside Russia’s “cleansing” campaign in the town of Bucha, where one of the mass graves was found, as well as the Kyiv suburb of Andriivka, where more civilians were killed.

https://twitter.com/UNICEF_UA/status/1587883993940123648

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