As the United States continues to be subjected to demagoguery in their electoral gong show, Bill Morneau is warning about “canary in the coal mine” that Trumpism is representing, which can be echoed in other places with the Brexit vote or the rise of Bernie Sanders on the left in the US. Morneau attributes it to anxiety and resentment over the belief that globalisation is not benefitting the majority of citizens (never mind that $400 flat panel televisions are totally not the benefit of global trade, but just a coincidence. Oh, wait…) Morneau pegs his solutions in terms of what his government is doing with their “inclusive growth” agenda, and mentions their higher taxes on the one percent in order to pay for the enhanced child benefit payments and their plans to overhaul the CPP, along with infrastructure spending, but it seems to me that it’s only half the battle, and that we need some greater financial economic amongst the general public to see just what the benefits of global trade are, and that they’re not just benefitting the super-rich.

We need talk about things like the “Iowa car crop” to educate people about how trade benefits them in ways that they don’t think about – like hey, food prices are at something approaching an all-time low thanks to trade, and cars and electronics continue to fall in price and we have devices nowadays that would be considered magical just a few decades ago, at price points that are unimaginable for their complexity. But none of this fits into the narratives of resentment that people stoke for political benefit, and that’s a problem. It’s also a problem with that narrative is used to fuel anti-establishment sentiments that only serve to poison the well against the way governments function, and that’s going to start biting back in a very big way before too long in the States, as people demanding wholesale dismantling of the state start reaping what they’ve sown – particularly as it comes wrapped in Trump’s message and his attempts to delegitimise the results of the election before they’ve happened already. It’s a dangerous game that they’re playing, and it needs to be stopped, but anyone who does is “biased” and “protecting the status quo,” and where do you go from there? I wish I knew.

Good reads:

• Navdeep Bains says that we need more immigration to create jobs, but is facing pushback from some Canadians and members of cabinet.
• The staying of a first-degree murder charge over excessive court delays is renewing the calls for the government to fill judicial vacancies.
• Maclean’s has explainers on the differences between carbon taxes and cap-and-trade on emissions reductions, and on Canada going it alone on climate policy.
• Here’s a good explainer about problems with trying to find a softwood lumber agreement in the current political and economic climate.
• After saying they were going to apologise and redress historical homophobic behaviour, the government has stalled on the file.
• The NDP’s self-selected poll analysis shows that Canadians apparently want the same proportional representation system that they do. What a coincidence!
• The Supreme Court of Canada is weighing whether police opinion counts as “expert evidence” in drug-impaired driving cases.
• Here’s the tale of another former Mountie suing over harassment who is not part of the settlement process.
• Apparently the choice of a new Canadian warship was pushed back over disagreements over the amount of “Canadian content” in the competition.
• Here’s a look at how changes to housing rules by the federal government could start having a big impact on the ground.
• The Public Accounts committee went to have a “team photo” taken by ended up scrapping it when the parliamentary secretary wanted to be included.
• Tony Clement has dropped out of the leadership race, but Chris Alexander is committed to carrying forward with immigration and defence policy!
• Kady O’Malley looks at how the trans rights bill could play out in the Conservative leadership race.
• Robert Hiltz suggests that the government allowed a “birther” movement to flourish around Maryam Monsef by being silent on hers and similar cases.

Odds and ends:

Senator Chantal Petitclerc talks about her goals now that she is in the Senate.

Here’s an attempt to decipher any messages that Navdeep Bains sends with his colourful turban/tie combinations (other than he’s stylish).