Roundup: Poking at polarization

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The new issue of Maclean’s is focused on political polarisation in Canada, with whole suite of stories and op-eds about the issue, starting with what is perceived to be the problems with the “left” (although this piece is more about the Liberals than the “left”) and the “right” in Canada, though I’m not sure how much relevance those particular classifications have any longer, as they’ve been so bastardised with a focus on populism that is either left or right flavoured (and lo, Anne Kingston makes that point here). And with polling showing that one in four hate their political opponents, and Trudeau especially, they made a point of trying to explore the divide.

Delving in further on the right, Andrew MacDougall looks at the Conservatives’ use of snark and shitposts to try and throw red meat to a base that stayed home in the last election, while Jen Gerson tries to equate the attempts made by Conservatives to tap into the current populist uptick as trying to tap a relief well to prevent a worse explosion – but they are playing a risky game that could infect their politics for a generation. On the other side, Andray Domise points to the “woke Olympics” and shifting social rules that alienate newcomers on the left, while Terry Glavin looks to the yellow vest protests in France (as opposed to Canada) as a sign that populism on the left is becoming indistinguishable from populism on the right.

But amidst this talk of polarisation, Paul Wells offers the piece that is probably most necessary – a reality-check as to the history of polarisation in this county, and how it’s always been there, in very blatant ways, and how we seem to be a country that is constantly battling amnesia as we clutch our pearls about losing our innocence. Not to say that some things haven’t changed, but it’s not like we’re wilting flowers being exposed to some new terrible new vitriol. (It’s like in Question Period, it’s the most behaved MPs have been in decades, possibly ever, and we’re still wringing our hands over it). That said, I think this was a good and timely package from Maclean’s, seeing as we’re entering into an election year and the nonsense on all sides is going to ratchet up to eleven really fast. Being clear-headed about where our politics are going is always a good thing.

Good reads:

  • Justin Trudeau says that China isn’t respecting diplomatic immunity with the arrest of Michael Kovrig (never mind he was on leave to work with an NGO at the time).
  • Canada has granted asylum to that young Saudi woman who is fleeing her family.
  • The federal victims of crime ombudsman has criticisms for the four-year-old legislative regime.
  • Health Canada has opted to keep products with glyphosate on the market after vigorous testing and regulatory reviews.
  • Here’s an examination of the accounting errors that created a $165 million problem at Veterans Affairs.
  • Lawyers point to more unconstitutional consequences of the new impaired driving laws that could have bizarre effects.
  • The Supreme Court of Canada ruled that the old laws that limited expat voting rights to a five-year cut-off was unconstitutional (full ruling here).
  • In the wake of the negative stories about Her Excellency Julie Payette’s first year in office, there have been some changes in how things are running at Rideau Hall.
  • Brad Trost claims the $50,000 fine the party has slapped him with because of a leaked membership list is just retaliation for how well he did in the leadership.
  • Kevin Carmichael digs further into the Bank of Canada data on wages that show that it’s the oil-producing regions dragging down the national figures.
  • Martin Patriquin offers some (faint) praise for Trudeau standing up for liberalism and immigration in the face of unhinged conspiracy theories run amok.
  • Andrew Coyne plumbs the conspiracy theory that Maxime Bernier is promulgating around Trudeau’s alleged plans for a world parliament.
  • Susan Delacourt looks at the political “Master Class” offered online by Karl Rove and David Axelrod, and tries to draw lessons from it.
  • Delacourt also looks at Trudeau calling up some Canadians who’ve sent letters to him, and the reactions of some of the people he spoke with.
  • Colby Cosh recaps the new book that recalls the inadvertent Canadian contribution to Taiwan’s attempt to get nuclear weapons.
  • My weekend column looks at Trudeau’s “town hall” tour and how much it resembles his Dollarama-knockoff of PMQs, and what that says about why he does it.

Odds and ends:

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