Yesterday was not a good day for the constitutional order in this country, as the Ontario government launched a constitutional challenge of the federal carbon price backstop legislation, arguing that it’s “unfair” and “unconstitutional” – which it absolutely isn’t, but this is about throwing a public temper tantrum in the name of populist outrage – but as David Reevely also points out, it’s about dragging this out in the courts, both Ontario courts and the Supreme Court of Canada well past the next election. Ontario’s two ministers insisted that they had legal opinions that said they had a solid case, but that’s almost certainly false, but I guess we’ll have to wait and see what kind of novel argument they came up with that the courts will laugh out.

As if this big of constitutional buffoonery weren’t enough, NDP leader Jagmeet Singh also came out with a demand that the federal government immediately give cities the ability to ban handguns – which is constitutionally a non-starter, since cities are the creatures of provincial legislation, and criminal powers are federal. Delegating federal criminal powers to the municipalities is similarly a non-starter. (Singh is also a lawyer and should know this).

https://twitter.com/EmmMacfarlane/status/1025031516290613248

https://twitter.com/EmmMacfarlane/status/1025034441410797568

But to cap off the trifecta of constitutional idiocy comes courtesy of the Toronto Star, who asked Ontario Attorney General Caroline Mulroney if she was prepared to use the notwithstanding clause to opt out of the federal carbon tax – which is not something that the notwithstanding clause could actually deal with. Compounding this was that Mulroney’s answer was that they were going to examine all legal options, which made it sound like she was considering it, rather than simply saying “that wouldn’t apply here” and possibly adding “you moron” because it was not only a bad question, it was an irresponsible question and one that was either designed to make Mulroney look stupid (which she kind of did with the answer she gave) or to demonstrate that the reporter in question had no idea what they were talking about. So well done, Star. Slow clap for making all of us look bad in the process.

Here's the exchange: pic.twitter.com/VCp1aGkofi

— David Reevely (@davidreevely) August 2, 2018

https://twitter.com/coreyshefman/status/1025022811579006976

Good reads:

• Environment Canada officials said that there may be further tweaks to carbon pricing rules coming (because that’s how complex systems like these work).
• The government also sounds like they’re mulling other changes to help with competitiveness vis-à-vis the Americans after their tax cuts.
• Catherine McKenna’s plastic straw tweets have twice run afoul of local businesses, and yet she shrugs it off.
• US tariffs on Canadian newsprint have been lowered but not eliminated (yet).
• On the irregular border crosser file, the “triage” system may not be in place until September, the PBO has new figures, and CBSA worries about “anchor” relatives.
• The airline industry doesn’t yet have regulations related to legal cannabis (but seriously, you know it’s going to be zero tolerance).
• Here’s a bit of myth-busting and reality checking about Portugal’s drug decriminalization, and how it may not be the magic bullet people think it is.
• Here’s a look at how former US ambassador to Canada Bruce Heyman is still championing Canada in the States right now.
• Maxime Bernier has paid off his leadership debts, and now says he’s the only MP fighting for “truly free trade” with the US. (His fellow MPs aren’t impressed).
• Éric Grenier looks at the electoral trends and sees more Liberal-leaning shifts in Ottawa and Calgary, and more GTA-ridings leaning Conservative.
• Chris Selley notes how high the stakes are for the federal Liberals when it comes to the carbon tax file.
• Robert Hiltz notes that Ford’s obsession with Toronto politics now infects the whole province, and that will had detrimental effects.
• Colby Cosh offers some more perspective on the 3D-printed guns issue.

Programming note: I’m taking the full long weekend off from blogging. Enjoy yourselves, and I’ll see you Wednesday morning.

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