Roundup: Fair Vote Canada’s shambolic release

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It’s not everyday that you get a completely unhinged press release in your inbox, but holy cow did Fair Vote Canada come out with a doozy yesterday. It’s hard to know where to start with such a work of “shambolic genius,” as Colby Cosh put it.

You see, according to the geniuses at Fair Vote Canada, they have cleverly parsed that when Trudeau pledged to “make every vote count” (a boneheaded statement because every vote already counts), he was referring to their slogan, and therefore he must really advocate for Proportional Representation, and because Trudeau has said he has no pre-conceived ideas about what the outcome of the consultations on electoral reform would be, he must really mean that he’s just trying to figure out which proportional representation system to use, because that’s what he’s signalled by using their slogan. Genius, I tell you. Genius!

But Wait… There’s More!™

While referring to Parliament as “the law factory” (Seriously? Seriously?!), they started invoking the Charter to claim that “equal treatment and equal benefit under the law” must mean that Canadian citizens are entitled to having their votes represented in direct proportion to the votes cast. Which is insane and ridiculous because that’s not how our system works at all, and is completely wrong when it comes to jurisprudence. You see, the Supreme Court of Canada has already rejected this line of reasoning, both in terms of the deviation of voting power (i.e. unequal riding sizes) for the purposes of better governance, but also with attempted challenges to the First-Past-The-Post system in the Quebec courts, which were roundly rejected and which the Supreme Court of Canada refused to grant leave to appeal. That means that as far as they’re concerned, the law is settled, and for Fair Vote Canada to try and advance this line of argument is futile and wrong. Because the law is settled. But considering that the whole basis for their advocacy of PR is rooted in sore loserism at the ballot box, it makes complete sense that they are also sore losers when it comes to the judicial system as well.

Moral of the story: Fair Vote Canada has long used falsehoods and logical fallacies to advance their case. This ridiculous and completely specious release is just one more in a dishonest string of arguments they’ve made and will continue to make as this debate heats up in the coming months.

Good reads:

  • As the NDP convention gets underway, the party is not only figuring out whether to keep Thomas Mulcair, but also how far left they want their policies to move.
  • Rachel Notley tries to put more distance between herself and Mulcair after his musing about the Leap Manifesto and leaving oil in the ground.
  • Bill Morneau says they’re being transparent and will work with the PBO, and one suspects they don’t have all of the costing information for the full five years.
  • The law firm where the justice minister had that fundraiser had a lobbyist in their ranks…but doesn’t any longer. (Is the moral panic over yet?)
  • A briefing note prepared for Joe Oliver warns that the TPP jeopardizes our place in the American marketplace – but staying out of it is even worse.
  • Suddenly the Conservatives support basic science research at the National Research Council, after they changed its focus to assisting industry.
  • A Liberal private member’s bill would see those who get federal infrastructure funding need to prove social as well as economic benefits to projects.
  • Catherine McKenna says climate policy can’t happen overnight without risking a national unity crisis.
  • Harjit Sajjan says that the defence review can help the Forces specialise in niche areas rather than be all things to all people.
  • John McCallum is sending more visa officers to Jordan and Lebanon to speed up the processing of those Syrian refugees who have private sponsors lined up.
  • Maxime Bernier’s leadership bid is now official, while here’s more on Kellie Leitch’s “sort of” campaign.
  • Colby Cosh takes on the notion of postal banking, which has had a resurgence among the political left.

Odds and ends:

Senator Jacques Demers suffered a stroke, and is in hospital.

Stéphane Dion met with Aung San Suu Kyi in Myanmar.