Roundup: Dissent without disloyalty

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Yesterday on Power & Politics, we saw something that is far too rare in Canadian politics, but should be the norm. In response to the government signing on the US’ recent initiative at the UN to basically renew the “war on drugs,” Liberal MP Nathaniel Erskine-Smith went on the show to publicly disagree with his party and the government that his party forms, and more to the point, we didn’t see anyone clutching their pearls about this, or higher-ups in the party make threats. Shocking, I know.

The civics refresher here is that all MPs are supposed to hold government to account, whether they’re in the opposition or in the government’s backbench. Holding the government to account is the very raison d’etre of Parliament, but you wouldn’t know it given how many government backbenchers think it’s their job to be cheerleaders, to give unquestioning support, and possibly to suck up in the hopes of a Cabinet posting or parliamentary secretary position. I also know that this isn’t quite as true behind the caucus room door, but we see very little dissent in public. We see even less dissent in other parties – the NDP enforce solidarity and uniformity in all positions, and have been known to punish MPs who step out of line, while we’ve seen the amount of tolerance that the Conservatives have for dissenting opinions with Maxime Bernier’s post-leadership experiences (though I will grant you, there is still some diversity of thought in there, but it’s rarely expressed publicly). And while I don’t praise Justin Trudeau for many things, I will say his openness to dissenting voices is unquestioningly a good thing in Parliament.

And this brings me back to Leona Alleslev’s defection to the Conservatives last week, and the statements she made about how she didn’t think she could openly criticize the government and not be perceived as disloyal. This is one of those statements of hers that I called bullshit on at the time, and I will call bullshit on it doubly today given this latest incident where Erskine-Smith broke ranks and nobody is calling him disloyal for it. He’s doing the job he’s supposed to do, and which not enough MPs take seriously (and this is also because the lack of proper civics education and training for MPs when they’re elected). I’d like to see him setting an example that others will hopefully follow.

Good reads:

  • Chrystia Freeland is apparently working hard to finalise NAFTA talks, while the US-Mexico text is released at some point this weekend.
  • Justin Trudeau had a call with Mexico’s incoming president, who agreed to give Canada leverage and ensure that the deal remains trilateral.
  • Given the attacks on Chrystia Freeland, John Geddes looks into her history as compared to Robert Lighthizer, and their opposing worldviews.
  • Patty Hajdu is getting into a spat with her counterpart in Jamaica over that country’s policy of withholding 25 percent of earnings by migrant workers in Canada.
  • The Conservatives are agitating against the electoral reform bill as they are especially sore about the provisions against pre-writ advertising.
  • A Court Martial Appeals Court decision might blow up the military justice system, saying it can’t handle serious criminal matters in a Charter-compliant manner.
  • The Privacy Commissioner wants telecom companies to plug SS7 vulnerabilities in Canadian mobile networks.
  • Latvian officials say we can Russia-proof our elections by educating voters. So…we might as well give up now. We had a good run, Canada.
  • Liberal MP Nicola Di Iorio was expected to have resigned over the summer for “family reasons,” but now says he’s re-evaluating his political future.
  • Andrew Scheer plans to use a Supply Day to force a vote on Tori Stafford’s killer, while more documents shows that the government’s options are limited.
  • Ruh-roh! New revelations about money laundering and possible falsified documents at a BC casino where Senator Larry Campbell is supposed to oversee compliance.
  • Trevor Tombe digs into the PBO report that Alberta’s debt-to-GDP ratio is set to climb to unsustainable levels.
  • Andrew Coyne digs further into the PBO’s figures on provincial debt, and what needs to be done to reverse course.
  • Philippe Lagassé explains the mechanisms as to why a first minister remains so after an election even when they didn’t win the most seats.
  • Martin Patriquin looks at the coming reckoning for the Parti Québécois, and how that might have an effect on federalism in general.
  • Colby Cosh muses about deep learning tools being used in immigration screening, and why we are concerned about that but not other automated processes.

Odds and ends:

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