Roundup: A “positive vision” full of falsehoods

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Andrew Scheer gave his first major speech to the party faithful at the Conservative convention in Halifax on Friday, and it was, in a word, meh. After telling the tale of his grandparents and parents struggling to get by, and establishing his “regular guy” credentials (despite the fact that his career suggests he’s been anything but), but from there, it was his usual litany of lies and nonsense talking points. “Conservatives would never leave a credit card bill to our children and grandchildren,” says the party that racked up hundreds of billions in debt during their term; vague assurances about the environment that would actually do nothing to address emissions while also maligning carbon taxes while claiming to understand them and yet demonstrating he doesn’t – or that if he does, he’ll simply lie about them. He went on a whole tangent about Sir John A Macdonald, and this whole bit about how activists were only targeting him because he’s a Conservative and not Liberal prime ministers who arguably did worse (and another lie was about how they weren’t going after Mackenzie King on the $50 banknote – he is being phased out in the next series, as Viola Desmond on the $10 banknote pushes the established prime ministers to higher denominations). He claimed he got to work with UK prime minister Theresa May on a post-Brexit trade deal – something that Trudeau actually did, given that he has no standing to do anything, and claimed that he would be the “adult in the room” in his planned trip to India (which, again, he has no diplomatic standing to do anything on, and that there is no “damage” for him to “repair.”) And his “positive vision” for Conservatives? That he won’t look back at history with shame, and he would have space for debate with viewpoints he disagreed with (this after being astonished that Trudeau would call an avowed racist a racist, characterizing it as a “smear.”) So…yeah. If your positive vision is to simply keep lying about issues, I’m having a hard time squaring that circle.

https://twitter.com/EmmMacfarlane/status/1033106952245731328

https://twitter.com/EmmMacfarlane/status/1033110282405588993

Also at the convention, the party will send the resolution around abortion regulation to the full membership, while they voted down the attempt to make repealing gender identity legislation part of the policy book. Not debated was the resolution around ending supply management, which infuriated a number of delegates – some saying they felt that the debate was deliberately stifled, others that it’s emblematic of a party that doesn’t actually care about free market conservative ideas – and that this may drive them to Bernier’s camp.

Meanwhile, the Bernier fallout continues apace at the convention. While he appears to have zero caucus support, there is talk that he can theoretically get the bare minimum he needs to register a party with Elections Canada, and good news, Kevin O’Leary is thinking of supporting him, and he’s got an ally in Stephen Fletcher, whose nomination Scheer blocked. So there’s that. In the interim, Conservatives at the convention continue to mean girl him (to which Bernier says that’s typical of losers), and the anonymous sources with the behind-the-scenes drama have started spilling the tea, for what it’s worth.

In yet more reaction to events, Andrew Coyne notes that while Bernier’s criticism of the Conservative Party under Scheer rings true, Bernier’s planned party nevertheless still smacks of a vanity project. Colby Cosh notes that Bernier’s lack of intellectual hygiene in his veering into talk of diversity and immigration has corrupted his chance to attract concerned with economic issues to his nascent party. Chantal Hébert looks at the history of the Reform Party and it doesn’t compare favourably to Bernier’s record. Former Reform MP Monte Solberg has been there and done that, and he evaluates Bernier’s behaviour and performance in light of it. Terry Glavin thinks that Bernier did Scheer a favour, assuming he takes some of the swivel-eyed loons with him away from the Conservatives. Also, I was on Canada 2020’s /Thread podcast, talking Bernier and his ability to pull it off.

Good reads:

  • In a letter to the Canadian Bar Association, Ahmed Hussen admits that the current refugee determination system is failing, but hasn’t specified how they’ll overhaul it.
  • Seamus O’Regan is asking the courts to dismiss a defamation suit filed against him.
  • Maintenance contracts for the Sea Kings are still being extended as the replacement Cyclones take their time filling out the ranks.
  • Senator Peter Harder has invoked his parliamentary privilege as a senator to avoid testifying for Abousfian Abdelrazik’s lawsuit against the government.
  • The Federal Court of Appeal will decide on another Trans Mountain-related case on Thursday.
  • Declassified CSIS documents show that they now consider online-inspired extremists to be the country’s most serious terror threat.
  • Susan Delacourt notes the absurdity of the discourse of white politicians debating other white politicians about diversity.
  • Kevin Carmichael casts some serious shade at the Conservatives’ inability to act like they have any real alternatives to offer versus the Liberals’ plans.
  • My weekend column wonders if Maxime Bernier really has the wherewithal to pull off putting together a political party in time for 2019.

Odds and ends:

Here’s how Alberta became the only rat-free jurisdiction in the world.

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One thought on “Roundup: A “positive vision” full of falsehoods”

  1. Again, and even more pointedly so, you have summed up the speciousness of the Canadian conservatives who are policy fatigued and unable to stand up to criticism without ad hominem attacks even on those who share their misshapen ideas.
    I look forward to the inevitable dual factions ripping themselves apart in the next 18 months. It maybe that self professed poor boy made good Scheer will not survive.

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