It’s official – Theresa May is now the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom thanks to being selected by her party caucus, and thanks to her rival dropping out (after a spectacular media implosion) and she was left with no rival to take to the party membership. (See her first speech here). But that has already started the general nonsense about her being “unelected” or not having a “mandate,” all of which is complete and utter nonsense, as though anyone making those claims doesn’t understand how the Westminster system works – and yes, I’m looking at you, CBC, who used the term in your reporting on her being appointed by the Queen yesterday to the job.

Not like the democratic systems in which a boss chosen 40 months or so ago just runs stuff however he likes until the hourglass dribbles out

— Colby Cosh (@colbycosh) July 13, 2016

One of the most incomprehensible piece on the subject so far was published in the Guardian, written by Tim Farron, leader of the Liberal Democrats, who seems to be utterly mystified with the way that governments are formed in our shared system of government, or the fact that we don’t elect prime ministers. (He also advocated a bunch of proportional representation nonsense, which didn’t help his arguments any either). Now, while it’s likely that the whole piece was simply his attempt at trolling for the government to call a general election (somehow bypassing the Fixed Term Parliaments Act as though it were no big deal), hoping to reverse their devastating losses from the previous election while running on a pro-Remain ticket, it’s nevertheless shocking just how civically illiterate the leader of a major political party is in print.

There was a great rebuttal to Farron’s nonsense by Robert Hazell, which offers some clarity on the way that Westminster parliaments work, but he makes the very salient point that all of this talk about needing a democratic mandate “has a corrosive effect on public understanding of our parliamentary system, and on legitimacy and trust in government.” And he’s absolutely right, which is why I am especially outraged that media outlets like the CBC are repeating this bilge rather than reporting on our shared system of government as it exists and how it’s supposed to work. Civic literacy should not be a high bar to clear when it comes to reporting on politics, and yet here we are.

Good reads:

• At the AFN General Assembly, some chiefs want assurances that the two percent funding cap is gone, as an MOU was signed with the minister regarding funding.
• Also at the AFN, Catherine McKenna said that Indigenous knowledge is essential for gauging environmental impacts of projects.
• Canada is apparently no longer providing satellite data to Ukraine, but no one is quite sure why.
• The government is looking into peacekeeping missions in Africa, in places like Mali, for future deployments of our troops.
• The government’s plan to address violence against women will apparently include cyber-violence.
• RCMP statistics show that one fifth of sexual assault complaints are unfounded, when the number should be closer to four percent.
• The big banks say that there’s no need for postal banking, in case you were wondering.
• While Peter MacKay decides whether to run or be the Frank McKenna of the Conservative Party, Kevin O’Leary is talking about targeting Millennials.
• Oh noes! Jim Carr spent nearly $1800 to take his US and Mexican counterparts to a hockey game in Winnipeg. Cheap outrage, everyone!
• The Crown dropped the fraud charges against Patrick Brazeau, but he seems to confuse “done nothing wrong” with “no reasonable chance of conviction.”
• Andrew Coyne muses about the spectacle of the Republicans in the US and Labour in the UK essentially self-destructing.

Odds and ends:

Apparently the legislation around the pay for five ministers still hasn’t been updated to turn them into full ministers instead of ministers of state.

CSE was all excited that they got mentioned on an episode of The Good Wife. No, seriously.