Roundup: Private islands and tall poppies

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Another day, another excuse found for the Twitter-verse to light their hair on fire over something Justin Trudeau did. In this case, it was the fact that it was disclosed that he spent his holidays in the Bahamas at the private island of the Aga Khan, citing that he is a long-time personal family friend and yes, he repaid the costs of flying the Challenger to Nassau. And boom, they were off. The fact that successive governments have funded initiatives from the Aga Khan Foundation is suddenly “proof” that this is some kind of conflict of interest, and of course at least one Conservative leadership candidate is citing this as some kind of proof of broken rules and violated ethics, other Conservatives going one step further to crying that this is some kind of slap in the face to all of those out of work Albertans.

Are you serious?

While you have some columnists like Chris Selley going “See! See! This is why we need to know where the PM goes on holiday!” I’m still not seeing where the actual conflict of interest is here. The Aga Khan does not get money from the government – his Foundation does, and that’s not the same thing. Assuming he were to lobby Trudeau while he was there, what would the result be? Some more money for a maternal and child health programme? Some more school books for Syrian refugee children? Wait, let me clutch my pearls over that. The only thing that did pique my curiosity in the slightest was that this was not run by the Ethics Commissioner, as seems to be the thing to do these days, but again, not actually seeing where there’s a real conflict here.

Part of what I suspect is at work here, particularly around comments like Rempel’s, is the reflexive pettiness that Canadian journalism stokes around any kind of conscious display of wealth or privilege by our political class. Yes, Trudeau has a foot in the world of the global jet set, owing in part to his upbringing and father’s international celebrity (which he has since adopted), and it’s been a long time since we’ve had a PM like that. The last guy was so hell-bent on curating this image of being a boring minivan-driving hockey dad (despite the fact that he never drove a minivan, always worked a job that was either in politics or political advocacy and as far as I can tell, his kids never actually played hockey), and was part of a political crew who thought that doing more than serving Ritz crackers and ginger ale for a diplomatic reception was some kind of affront, that it’s seeped into our political discourse to ill effect. Couple that with this ethos in the journalism community that has tried to preserve this somewhat faux blue-collar anti-elitist aesthetic that they jump to participating in this kind of tearing down, pretty much proving the rule of tall poppy syndrome that exists in this country, and add in a dose of the lazy drive to push cheap outrage stories, and we get more of this tiresome concern trolling. Once again, the details of this story are fairly academic, but I’m not seeing either the smoke or the fire. Except for where they’ve set their own hair ablaze yet again, of course.

Good reads:

  • Trudeau has decided not to go to the World Economic Forum in Davos this year (sending cabinet ministers instead), nor will he be at the Trump inauguration.
  • Trudeau, meanwhile, will be on a coffee shop and church basement tour around the country to “reconnect” with people.
  • There was really good economic news, including more signs of the massive growth in our services sector (where the high-paying jobs are).
  • Here’s a look at how the approval for the Kinder Morgan pipeline came to be.
  • Trudeau’s people have met with Trump’s people, not that it should be a surprise.
  • Here’s the tale of how federal scientists became “unmuzzled” under the new government.
  • Here’s a look at how Trump’s feud with the intelligence community can affect allies including Canada.
  • The PQ wants to “counter” in the Canada 150 celebrations, trying to “put holes” in the narrative, because of course they do.
  • Michael Chong is taking aim at Kellie Leitch for her comments about the Canadian healthcare system, as it is generally regarded as a “Canadian value.”
  • John Ibbitson contrasts the various Conservative leadership candidates’ positions on immigration.
  • Colby Cosh offers yet more perspective on the importance of the debt-to-GDP ratio in that “fiscal doom” report.
  • Paul Wells wonders about a small cabinet shuffle with Chrystia Freeland moving over to foreign affairs.
  • Susan Delacourt muses about the ways in which Twitter seems to be finding its relevance once again.
  • Robert Hiltz makes some (mostly) tongue-in-cheek predictions for 2017, including on party leaderships.

Odds and ends:

Here’s a look at the massive damage that road salt causes in Canada every year.

https://twitter.com/kevinmilligan/status/817469707791921152

https://twitter.com/kevinmilligan/status/817471816088350720