Roundup: New villain, same as the old villain

Posted on by

The loss of a focus for public anger is apparently a disconcerting experience, as Canadian Studies professors plan to hold a conference to discuss what to do in the post-Harper era with no one to focus their critical edge on. It’s mind-boggling how intellectually lazy the idea is, and how apparently they need to meet and discuss how to keep up their “critical edge” without someone to blame all of their woes on, as they continue to enumerate them. Seriously? You need to have a figure to blame rather than looking at individual issues, or the ways in which the system has been exploited by ignorance and civic illiteracy? Come on.

Which is why this commentary by Elizabeth May over the weekend is just as dismaying, because she attributes the fact that civil servants gave their (conditional) approval to the Pacific NW LNG project as a result of “contamination” by the culture of a decade of Conservative governments. Really? Now, I get that there remains work to do to undo some of the damage of the previous government (and one only needs to look at some of the boondoggles the current government is trying to clean up, like the Phoenix pay system or Shared Services Canada as prime examples), but simply blaming every decision you don’t agree with as a hangover of the Harper era sounds a lot like trying to keep the public anger on your chosen Great Satan for as long as possible. It’s reflexive and it remains intellectually lazy. Stephen Harper was not a Bond villain or a Sith Lord. He was not a dictator who illegally seized power. He did not put up a fight surrendering it when he lost, and no, he is not still lurking. Can we please stop staying in this ridiculous mind set and move on?

Good reads:

  • The royal tour is now over, but here’s more about the visit to Haida Gwaii, and about the way the visit highlighted the long and complex relationship with First Nations.
  • The visit also highlighted that it’s no longer just the Will & Kate show, but that their children are also grabbing the spotlight.
  • Federal and provincial environment ministers are meeting to try and find a solution to the carbon pricing issue.
  • As the deadline for a softwood lumber agreement ticks down, the US trade ambassador meets with Canadian lumber executives. I’m not holding my breath.
  • CBSA, home of many an IT boondoggle of its own, sounds the alarm about the gong show known as Shared Services Canada. It’s just too much.
  • What’s that? Military bases are falling apart from lack of funding? You don’t say!
  • The government is signalling a change in tone in how it engages Russia over issues related to the Arctic.
  • The PM gets letters…over the changes to the lyrics to O Canada.
  • Almost half of all candidates from the last election, including the PM, failed to get all of their Elections Canada paperwork in on time.
  • Brad Trost is certainly looking to reopen the debates on abortion, same-sex marriage, and assisted dying.
  • Aaron Wherry writes about the unspoken price on carbon that most people aren’t paying, and what the cost is of not taking action.

Odds and ends:

Rona Ambrose is off to the UK Conservative conference in Birmingham to talk about common causes and to get ideas from their perspective.

The Mohawks of Akwesasne have set up their own justice system with a focus on restorative justice, and are now in early negotiations with the federal government.