Roundup: Dragging in the GG

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The performative outrage against Trudeau’s Castro comments reached a new low yesterday with the announcement that the Governor General would be attending the commemoration in Havana as the Canadian representative. Despite not being a leadership candidate (thus far), Conservative MP Michelle Rempel took to Twitter to perform some more outrage, and dropped these particular gems.

It wasn’t so much that my head exploded. More like a piece of my soul died in utter exasperation because I know for a fact that she knows better. Misrepresenting the role of the Governor General is a particularly terrible thing to do, particularly giving the impression that you can write to him (or worse, the Queen) and he’ll somehow override the Prime Minister and the government of the day for your own partisan benefit. No, it doesn’t work that way, and its antithetical to the entire foundation of our system of government. And giving your follows completely the wrong impression about how Responsible Government works for the sake of some temporary passing performative outrage for the issue of the day is particularly heinous because it poisons the well. And this is what trying to stir up populist outrage does – it poisons the well for all of politics, particularly when you misrepresent things for temporary advantage. I get that there is political theatre, and that in the age of social media you need to be performative to a degree, but for the love of all the gods on Olympus stop undermining the whole system. When you stir up this hornet’s nest, it will come and bite you just as much as it does the government of the day, and we will all be left with a giant mess like we’re seeing south of the border. This is not something we want to import or emulate, no matter how many points you think it will win you temporarily. Only madness lies along this path, and the damage is insidious and incalculable, particularly when it comes from people who actually know better. It’s not a game. Stop treating it like it is.

Good reads:

  • It looks like today is the day to hear about those pipeline project approvals.
  • A CF-18 crashed near Cold Lake, killing the pilot. This will no doubt affect the replacement conversation, which has been marked by talk of changing policy.
  • Some of those changing calculations are explained a bit more from this Stephen Saideman post, as much as he was able to understand them.
  • The Canadian Forces also released their sexual assault survey results and it was dismaying, but they hope it will help to give them a roadmap to solving the problem.
  • The federal government has reached some equivalency agreements with Saskatchewan regarding their coal-fired power plants.
  • The Chief Electoral Officer is warning that there may not be enough time or logistics to do a ranked ballot for an electoral reform referendum – just a yes/no.
  • Under testimony at a Senate committee, CSIS admitted that they may have spied on Canadian journalists.
  • Here are 10 Shared Services Canada projects that are in danger of going completely off-track.
  • Senator Peter Harder has found another defender amongst the independents while he outlined an ambitious agenda for the next three weeks.
  • Apparently after Donald Trump’s in in the US, Trudeau held a conference call with his caucus to reassure them and to advise them not to publicly criticise Trump.
  • While the government still hasn’t re-established relations with Iran, a Liberal backbencher has been meeting with Iranian parliamentarians.
  • The NDP are moving a motion to have the Electoral Reform committee reconstituted in its present form to study any legislation that comes forward on the issue.
  • CBC is looking for an additional $400 million to go ad-free, after private sector outlets complain that advertising on CBC is hurting their own bottom lines.
  • Unlike his leadership rivals, Michael Chong is not looking to gut the CBC.
  • Andrew Coyne offers cautious praise for the Infrastructure Bank plans.

Odds and ends:

Here’s a look at how much the Crown costs us every year, and it’s hugely economical.

Iconic journalist Tom Clark has announced his retirement for January 1st.