Roundup: Kenney’s fading credibility

Posted on by

It was no surprised that the motion to support the Iraq mission passed, but what was perhaps unexpected was the bit of verbal sparring between Jason Kenney and Justin Trudeau, and the issue of Kenney’s credibility came up. It has come up several times, having been called out repeatedly by journalists for posting misleading photos on his Twitter account, or his statements that were not true about things like Russian planes buzzing our frigate in the Black Sea, but this weekend, things got even more escalated when the Chief of Defence Staff had to come out and make a statement to both back up and correct the record with regards to Kenney’s statements about how Canada and the US were the only countries engaged in Syria and Iraq using precision bombs. That’s blatantly not true, and General Lawson had to use some careful language to not embarrass his minister but at the same time correct the record, and Kenney treated it as though Lawson backed up his statement – which he didn’t. And Trudeau used that during the question-and-answer portion of his speech on the Iraq motion, that the minister doesn’t have the credibility behind his words when it comes to the motion to extend the mission and the Liberals can’t trust him as a result. Will that be enough political cover for Trudeau given the disgruntled members of his own party who would see us join the mission? I guess we’ll wait and see. Meanwhile, the government’s fudging on the reality of our combat operations is a sign that Canadians really don’t have the stomach for another war.

Good reads:

  • The NDP are under fire for using constituency offices as staging grounds for partisan riding blitzes, which doesn’t lend much credence to their insistence that those satellite offices weren’t being used for partisan activities.
  • Bill C-51 began pre-study in the Senate yesterday, and Stephen Blaney and Peter MacKay had changed their tone, talking about welcoming amendments. We’ll see.
  • It looks like there may be a disagreement between the Senate Speaker and the Auditor General about what constitutes the role of a senator – and that could have consequences.
  • What? The federal government is behind in developing its greenhouse gas reduction targets before an international summit? You don’t say!
  • John Baird says that the Ethics Commissioner cleared his new corporate board jobs, even though he had contact with Barrick Gold during his time as a minister.
  • Paul Wells writes about the mentality behind the new Conservative Voice PAC.
  • An Alberta judge tossed an attempted injunction against calling an early election because it was a complete no-brainer. (Hint: Crown prerogatives are a Thing).

Odds and ends:

Here are five things about new Wildrose leader Brian Jean.

One of those former provincial judges in BC running for the NDP opens up about his past problems with alcohol.

The Hill Times has plenty of new artwork from the Parliament Hill renovations.