Roundup: A couple of reality checks

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As we head into the final week of the Commons’ sitting for 2017, there have been a couple of recurring themes in the past few weeks that could each use some good dose of Stephanie Carvin. The first issue remains that of returning foreign fighters, and the way in which the Conservatives keep repeating in Question Period that the Liberal strategy is apparently “poetry and podcasts,” which a) nobody has seriously suggested, and b) deliberately confuses preventative deradicalization programmes with those geared toward rehabilitating those who have returned from foreign warzones who may not have been active combatants (most of whom are dead by this point).

And then there is the Prime Minister’s trip to China, where a free trade deal wasn’t secured, which Carvin is an acknowledged China sceptic about from a national security standpoint, particularly because China doesn’t like to play fair, and will use tactics that include imprisonment and de facto hostage-taking in order to try and get their way in trade disputes.

https://twitter.com/StephanieCarvin/status/939481246840836102

Let’s hope that the opposition has a chance to listen to some of what Carvin has to say before they ask some more…dubious questions this week.

Good reads:

  • While meeting with his provincial counterparts, Bill Morneau plans to press them on harmonizing legislation to make private corporation ownership more transparent.
  • Thus far, Morneau has had to defend federal regulatory costs around marijuana to the provinces, as well as talking CPP and equalization tweaks.
  • Morneau has also said that he still has no plans to tax Netflix after Mélanie Joly insisted that it’s his call, not hers.
  • The number of veterans in limbo waiting for disability benefits has been growing dramatically over the past year.
  • When meeting with American counterparts, Canadian officials have been inserting mention of the new Gordie Howe bridge whenever they can.
  • The former Chief of Defence Staff says that the acquisition of Australian jets as our stopgap is probably better than the Super Hornets from a logistics perspective.
  • Here is another look at the question of who the incoming new Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada will be.
  • While the Australian parliament is tearing itself apart over the issue of dual citizens, here’s a look at the roles that dual citizens play in our own parliament.

Odds and ends:

Here is a look at the identity crisis facing the Saskatchewan Party as it carries on with its current leadership contest. This seems like a familiar refrain in 2017.