It has not been the Liberals’ weekend for communications strategies, it seems. After days of enduring the hectoring over “Ladies Night” and the facetious comments that Justin Trudeau made about China, along came the Liberal veterans affairs critic, Jim Karygiannis, where he went on Power & Politics and quoted the director of Wounded Warriors Canada in saying that giving wounded soldiers lump sum disability payments was like “waving a case of beer in front of a drunk,” as many will spend it on houses, fast cars, or their addictions, and he cited examples of these kinds of things happening where he met the individuals involved. And cue the outrage. Said director of the organisation immediately distanced himself from the comments over Twitter, and a few hours later, Karygiannis apologised – sort of. Suffice to say, it didn’t help the perception that the Liberals have their a-game on when it comes to media messaging.
As we continue to bemoan the things that Justin Trudeau said about China, et al, Terry Milewski reminds us about the things that Stephen Harper has said about China which could be seen to be just as admiring, if they were placed in the context of an attack ad. Susan Delacourt examines Trudeau’s missteps on that fateful Thursday, and sees that there are still issues with his team and their handling of the media. (Note: This likely won’t be advice accepted by Karygiannis, as he has often felt himself to be a superior comms strategist). Andrew Coyne suggests that Trudeau’s mounting number of gaffes is a sign that he’s trying – and failing – to sound provocative and profound.
Emmett Macfarlane previews the Supreme Court hearings that start today on the Senate reference. You can read the various facta submitted by the provinces and other intervenors here. And as much scorn as everyone heaps on the Upper Chamber, the various provincial facta do suggest that they feel it’s an important enough federal institution that it shouldn’t be changed willy-nilly, but only in consultation with them. It was a deal-breaker for Confederation, after all.
Conservative Senator Don Plett talks about the need for better rules in the Senate, in order to prevent other Senators from falling into the “grey areas” that Wallin, Duffy, Brazeau and Harb did. Over the period of scrutiny, a number of Senators appear to have cut back their spending, to the tune of $1 million – though most will dispute that this was done consciously, and for many, it was switching to using Air Canada flight passes where they hadn’t previously as they are more difficult to account for.
Parks Canada says that the Environment Commissioner is oversimplifying things when he rapped them for being behind on their wildfire prevention programme, in particular with controlled burns in natural parks in order to ensure nutrient recycling and keeping fuel (mostly dead trees) levels low.
While some people think that the government is shrinking the deficit faster than expected by some $7 billion this year, economist Stephen Gordon disputes the optimism, pointing out that even $7 billion would be treading water at this point and there is likely a structural deficit in place.
Energy economist Andrew Leach crunches the numbers on the NDP’s demand that bitumen upgrading be done in Alberta, and finds that it’s the net loser, both in profit and jobs, than if you simply focus on extraction.
Susan Delacourt looks at how the Rob Ford saga is distracting from the Toronto Centre by-election.
It looks like the Royal Canadian Legion is making hopeful sounds that the government may be taking the issue of the Last Post burial fund seriously, if the meetings they’ve been having with senior ministers are any indication.
And here is a look at the final Remembrance Day that our troops will be marking while over in Afghanistan.