Roundup: Justin Trudeau and the division of powers

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From the sounds of it, Justin Trudeau is apparently setting back the cause of federalism in Canada, as he is getting blamed for an increasing number of provincial woes. It’s been happening for a few weeks with some federal Conservatives like Parm Gill, who are agitating against the provincial Liberals’ new sex ed curriculum, but because Gill and others just refer to the programme as the Liberals’ – not specifying that it’s Kathleen Wynne’s government in Ontario – the implication is that they’re one and the same as Gill shills for federal votes on a provincial issue (that is being torqued by provincial Progressive Conservatives and others, one might add). Moving out east, Trudeau is being blamed for complicity in the provincial Liberals in Nova Scotia proposing to reform film and television tax credits in their provincial budget – apparently Trudeau not saying anything about that change, and a number of other provincial budgetary items, makes him complicit in the whole affair. (During his visit to Halifax yesterday, Trudeau did say he was supportive of arts and culture, but reminded them that he’s a Quebec MP and respects provincial jurisdictions). Yesterday took the cake, as the federal NDP put out a press release blasting Trudeau because the provincial Liberals in PEI remain, well, a little backward on the whole issue of funding abortions in that province. This isn’t the first time that the federal NDP have been trying to ride the provincial parties for their benefit, as they keep hauling out this study that shows that provincial NDP governments have better fiscal records than provincial Liberal or Conservative parties in order to somehow prove they’d be great economic managers – never mind that the various provincial parties are largely divorced from the federal ones (with a couple of minor exceptions in a couple of provinces) and that in many cases the only thing they share is a name, though the NDP like to claim that they’re all one party, federally and provincially. It also means that if you stretch that logic, that Thomas Mulcair is responsible for raising the HST in Manitoba, that province’s appalling state of child welfare cases, and the myriad of problems that the provincial NDP in Nova Scotia left behind when they were defeated (prompting the provincial Liberals to table the budget they just did). It’s actually pretty alarming that people don’t seem to understand the division of powers between the provinces and the federal government – particularly when it’s political parties fuelling this nonsense, and they really need to stop.

Good reads:

Not much new in the Duffy trial yesterday – Senate Administration making exceptions, and hey, the judge admits the trial is probably going long. Nicholas Köhler paints the scene of the witness on the stand this week.

The Supreme Court of Canada has ruled unanimously that religious neutrality demands that municipal councils (particularly in Quebec) can’t begin meetings with prayers.

With Indian Prime Minister Modi’s visit, Stephen Harper announced a uranium deal for that country, progress on the trade file, and returned a stolen 900-year-old sandstone sculpture to the Indians after it was seized here.

Erin O’Toole is trying to insist that the New Veterans Charter is just misunderstood. Really!

The government sold controlling interest in the former Canadian Wheat Board to an American-Saudi Arabian company. There remain bad feelings and court cases over the essential seizing of collective assets from those farmers for the sale.

Andrew Leach lays the blame on Harper for the lack of oilsands emissions regulations.

Odds and ends:

The National Research Council’s Network Time Protocol service has been hit by cyber-attacks who don’t want people to synchronise their clocks, apparently.

If you’re keeping score, Justin Trudeau reminds us that he is actually “unequivocably opposed” to a coalition with the NDP.