Yesterday marked the one-year point before the next fixed election date, which is one of those things that I find terribly annoying because in a confidence-based system like ours, fixed election dates are anathema to how our system should work. And instead of providing some illusory “stability” for opposition parties to plan for an election when a government could theoretically call for a “snap” election at any point, all a fixed-election date has managed to do is shift the incentives for governments to back-load their programmes and has made the pre-writ period a year-long campaign (at least), much as the election calendar south of the border has done. So yay for that.

https://twitter.com/PhilippeLagasse/status/1054109748310601728

To mark the occasion, Andrew Scheer held a campaign rally to fire up his troops for said year-long campaign, and with it, he predicted it was going to “get nasty,” and repeated the usual canards that “The Media” and the pundits were on the Liberals’ side (which is both ridiculous and factually untrue, and hey, remember how all of those editorial boards endorsed the Conservatives last election? No?). Of course, it should also be remarked that Scheer has a propensity for untruth that is unparalleled in recent memory in Canadian politics, so his lying about the media should come as no surprise, while he spent the day shitposting disingenuous bullshit about the carbon price framework. But remember, it’s the other guys who will be “nasty.”

The other grating thing about the year-long election campaign is that the obsessive interest in polls will only get worse, as the analyses of polls have already begun, never mind that a year is a very long time in politics, and campaigns matter. And yet, that’s where we are and will continue to be until We The Media start covering actual issues instead of polls in our usual flawed way (followed by the usual lamentation about how the polls didn’t predict the outcome and wondering what happened). Wash, rinse, repeat. It’s going to be a slog of a year.

Good reads:

• Chrystia Freeland says that the “non-market countries” clause in NAFTA doesn’t impinge on our sovereignty, and was part of the Americans’ negotiations.
• Dominic LeBlanc says he too is frustrated with the attempts to reform Nutrition North, and is looking at alternate ways to get cheaper food to the North.
• Here’s a longer look at the issues of the steel tariffs Canada is introducing to prevent dumping, and how that’s affecting Canadian industry.
• In the wake of the confirmation that Jamal Khashoggi was murdered, our former ambassador to Saudi Arabia says sanctions would be difficult to be effective.
• Assuming that Canada Post and its union haven’t come to an agreement, rotating strikes are due to begin in Victoria, Edmonton, Windsor, and Halifax today.
• New reporting requirements for medical assistance in dying may make those doctors providing the service even more reluctant to do so.
• Despites some waffling about whether the Conservatives may opt to re-criminalise cannabis, here’s a look at why that would be nearly impossible.
• Former NDP MP Kennedy Stewart has been elected mayor of Vancouver, while the mayor of Burnaby, who has been opposing TMX, was defeated.
• Here’s the full pedant, footnoted examination of the current situation in New Brunswick from James Bowden and Lyle Skinner.
• Peter Shawn Taylor looks to the writings of philosopher Karl Popper to find more warnings about proportional representation and how it keeps bad governments in.
• My weekend column looked at the situation in New Brunswick, and how it threatens to have a corrosive effect on Responsible Government across the country.

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