Roundup: Giorno joins the brigade

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Proponents of proportional representation are getting a bit of a boost across party lines as former Harper advisor Guy Giorno is adding his name to the so-called “Every Voter Counts Alliance” to push the government to adopt such a measure. (Note that the name of this group is hugely problematic because every vote already counts, and suggesting otherwise is tantamount to voter suppression). Giorno says the Conservatives shouldn’t be afraid that changing the system will mean that they will be permanently shut out of power (as is one of the arguments that proponents tout as a feature of the change), before launching into the usual talking points of “fairer” and “more democratic” which are a) complete bunk, and b) at a direct cost to the system of accountability that the existing First-Past-The-Post system is really good at achieving. Also, it’s a bit rich to hear the hyper-partisan Giorno talk about how wonderful it would be for PR-elected legislatures to require more co-operation, collegiality, working together” – all of which is ridiculous, since it simply changes the power calculus in order to keep coalitions cobbled together and giving smaller and more radical parties outsized influence to keep those coalitions together, while parties at the centre of governments can go for decades without being tossed out as they shuffle coalition partners around instead (again, a feature of our current system being the ability to throw the bums out, which PR does not do very well). Suffice to say, Giorno’s voice in the debate doesn’t actually change that the arguments are based on emotion and logical fallacies, and while he has different partisan credentials, it’s still a system that that nobody should be rushing into on the basis of emotion. Meanwhile, here’s Colby Cosh to demolish some of the arguments.

Good reads:

  • The joint committee report on doctor-assisted dying is due in days, and it sounds like there will be a dissenting report as part of it.
  • In the lead-up to the budget, the government is sending out signals regarding its support for innovation.
  • A Federal Court judge has said that medical marijuana users should be able to continue to grow their own plants.
  • Bill Blair says current marijuana laws should continue to be upheld until legalisation comes into play, though there are calls for a moratorium on possession charges.
  • The arbitration report on Senate expenses is due to be released in the next few days.
  • Intrigue as Catherine McKenna is no longer chairing the secret procurement committee – if she ever was chairing it.
  • A former Canadian commander in Afghanistan says that we should have left the Taliban alone and just hunted al-Qaeda. He doesn’t have a lot of fans.
  • The government planning to stay in the Joint Strike Fighter Programme, despite not planning on buying any F-35s, makes sense because of the industrial benefits.
  • Jen Gerson makes the case for nationalizing Bombardier.
  • Paul Wells writes about how Trudeau is treating and indeed transforming federalism.
  • Chris Selley points to the Conservatives’ need to refresh their ideology in advance of their leadership contest.
  • Andrew Coyne says the real problem the government needs to tackle is productivity, which means not insulating our companies from competition like we do.

Odds and ends:

Liberal MP Nathaniel Erskine-Smith explains why he voted against the BDS motion on Monday.