Roundup: Some laudable goals, and a lead balloon

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The writs might as well have been dropped for the kinds of campaigning that was going on yesterday – Trudeau in Ottawa, and Mulcair in Toronto. While Mulcair largely reheated past statements about support for the manufacturing sector (not that he spelled out what that support means) or lowering small business taxes (of the kind that could actually help out whose wealthy Canadians who incorporated themselves for tax reasons), it was Trudeau’s package of announcements that got the big play. The package included 32 measures for “real change” to bring more openness and transparency to government – a familiar song and dance, but there were some pretty laudable concrete proposals in there, around things like Access to Information, improving service standards at CRA, or repealing this government’s “fair” election laws. The part that got everyone talking – and my head exploding repeatedly – was Trudeau signing onto the electoral reform bandwagon. While Trudeau was talking about consultations and then legislation within eighteen months, the fact that he’s buying into the completely and demonstrably false notion that votes don’t count under our current system (in fact, they not only count but all count equally) is disheartening – particularly after he spent his leadership campaign talking about how he didn’t believe in PR systems (as opposed to Joyce Murray, where that was a central plank for her). Without turning this post into a denunciation of electoral reform, let me simply say that it’s false to say that votes don’t count now, and that changing the system will simply replace one set of problems – or perceived problems – for a whole new set of problems. There were so many other laudable proposals in his platform, one or two duds excepting, that it’s too bad that this one particularly bad one sucked the air out of the rest of it all. If he want’s “evidence based policy,” then perhaps he should reconsider this particular promise. Paul Wells writes about the earnestness of it all, with some historical perspective for good measure.

Good reads:

  • In the Duffy trial, the court heard from a forensic accountant who looked at Duffy’s books and found more leaving than going in, while his lawyer wants it all tossed.
  • Here’s a look at some of Duffy’s friends who are still turning up at the courthouse to support him.
  • Stephen Harper pretty much admitted that his government pressured the RCMP to quickly – and possibly illegally – destroy gun registry data.
  • In an interview with CBC, General Tom Lawson tried to explain the culture of sexual harassment in the military as “biological wiring.” He immediately apologised.
  • There’s a question about what safeguards are in place for Canadians trainers headed to Ukraine as American trainers there snubbed a unit with neo-Nazi links.
  • Another day, another Potemkin bill, this time on drunk driving, while MacKay continues to drag his feet on consultations around assisted dying legislation.
  • I have a column about the mess the government made on the genetic privacy file, which they insisted they were going to do something about.

Odds and ends:

While the NDP have their fun with senators’ expenses, Megan Leslie was found taking a flight six times more expensive than those of her colleagues.

Alheli Picazo documents being thrown out of Ezra Levant’s public meeting in Calgary last weekend.