Roundup: The ricochet into Canada

Posted on by

I had idly wondered how long the Trump victory in the United States would take to start showing ricochets in Canada, and apparently it was minutes, as in the middle of the night, Kellie Leitch’s campaign was already putting out fundraising emails drawing comparisons, particularly around their mutual bashing of “elites.” Because Leitch, you see, apparently isn’t an elite, never mind the fact that she’s a paediatric orthopaedic surgeon in Muskoka, a university professor, and former cabinet minister whose was the protégé of the finance minister. No sir, nothing elite about that, because she had to compete with the “biggest old boys’ club” out there, being surgeons, so there. Um, okay. (Incidentally, Leitch previously didn’t want to be compared to Trump, which she kept vacillating over during last night’s leadership debate). And that elite-bashing was quickly picked up by bother other leadership candidates, and others in the party like Tony Clement (who apparently also doesn’t think he’s an elite, despite all evidence to the contrary).

Michael Chong, however, rejected Leitch’s move as being antithetical to the “big tent” Conservative movement that the party is trying to become. Chris Alexander also sounded a cautious note, for what it’s worth, but Lisa Raitt’s tone is less decisive.

Michelle Rempel, however, seems cognisant enough about the trap of demagoguery when it comes to dealing with difficult issues and cautions against importing that ethos to Canada. Rempel also relayed some of her experiences of what she saw during her recent visit to the States, and the alarming levels of discontent among the populace.

Meanwhile, here’s Justin Trudeau’s statement on working together with a Trump presidency. Thomas Mulcair, on the other hand, wants Trudeau to call out Trump. And over in the UK, Jeremy Corbyn is taking on that message of public anger about the “governing elite” and trying to make hay of it, so no, this kind of rhetoric is not endemic to the right.

In terms of fallout, we hear from prominent Canadian women like Kim Campbell, Elizabeth May and Michelle Rempel. Shannon Proudfoot writes about how brutally appropriate the end of the campaign ended up being. Bob Fife notes how the Trudeau PMO has had to scramble to adjust to this new reality. Robyn Urback looks at how the Democrats bungled the election, while the Guardian features a column about how liberals helped Trump’s victory. Anne Kingston writes about Trump winning his war against the media. Paul Wells writes about next steps for Trudeau, while Chantal Hébert wonders how much of Trudeau’s agenda is affected by this change, particularly in areas like climate change, or foreign policy (per John Geddes). Both Paul McLeod and Susan Delacourt saw similarities in the way Trump and Trudeau ran their campaigns. Here’s a look at how pundits and pollsters got things wrong, and Andrew Coyne writes a particularly poignant piece about how Trump’s ability to throw out the rules has vindicated some of the worst elements and impulses, and worries what this signals going forward.

Good reads:

  • The first Conservative leadership debate was last night, and it was stilted, scripted, full of buzzwords and a few policy differences.
  • Our ambassador to the US is letting the incoming Trump administration know that we might be willing to come to the table on changes to NAFTA.
  • Opposition MPs are concerned that changes to the Estimates process to align them with the budget will leave them insufficient time to scrutinize them.
  • The PBO is worried that the power to cost party platforms will politicise his office. I mean, more than it already is.
  • The president of Kinder Morgan has backed off of climate change scepticism, as the Trans Mountain pipeline could soon get approval.
  • Order paper questions on how much the PM has spent on portraits of himself has turned out to be very little. So much for that narrative.
  • The government is considering a “mining ombudsman” to look at the activities of Canadian companies abroad as the current CSR counsellor is toothless.

Odds and ends:

And that worker from the Royal Canadian Mint has been found guilty of smuggling gold out via his rectum. So there’s that.

One thought on “Roundup: The ricochet into Canada”

  1. The Trump presidency is a revolt against the elites. Yes, well, um… It turns out that the average household income of Trump voters is around $72,000/year, and only 14% of his vote came from households earning less than $50,000. Rather than being a revolt against the “elites,” it was more of a vote for white privilege.

Comments are closed.