Roundup: A few notes on the state of the Brexit drama

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Given the state of the drama in Westminster right now, I thought I’d make a couple of points about why we’re here now. It’s pretty unprecedented for a government to lose a vote – badly – on a major foreign policy plank without automatically losing confidence, and yet, thanks to the Fixed Term Parliaments Act, that’s exactly the case. And because Theresa May squeaked out a confidence vote, that leaves her in something of a precarious situation about not really having a mandate to continue on the path she was on, while not being able to take anything to the people in a general election, as might ordinarily be the case under our share Westminster system. The FTPA has made Parliament untenable, and enables bad actors to game the system, which would ordinarily have been avoided by the sheer fact that they would have been keen to avoid shenanigans that the Queen would need to be involved in.

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It seems to me that if the Westminster parliament were functioning normally, then May could have taken the question of proceeding with Brexit to the people in an election, given that she lost the vote of confidence. Of course that would necessitate Labour to come up with a coherent position (and perhaps a more coherent leader, which their current bastardised leadership selection process also gave them). That would have given the winning government a popular mandate to overtake the referendum if need be, but again, that’s now off the table because of the way the FTPA has distorted the Westminster system. With the practice of Responsible Government being blunted by this statute, it’s clear that it must go.

Meanwhile, Chantal Hébert looks at the Brexit omnishambles and compares it to the plans for Quebec sovereignty back in the day, and how this seems to be dampening any sovereigntist sentiment in the province even further (while getting in a few jabs about Andrew Scheer’s Brexit boosterism along the way). Andrew Coyne likewise looks to the Brexit drama as an object lesson in how seccession from any union is far from painless.

Good reads:

  • Justin Trudeau’s town hall tour continued in St. Catharines on Tuesday.
  • Chrystia Freeland calls China’s recent behaviour a threat to all countries. China has rejected calls for clemency in the death penalty for that Canadian.
  • At a speech in Regina, Ralph Goodale called out right-wing white supremacists and Neo-Nazis as increasing national security threats.
  • Goodale also announced the creation of an external advisory board to assist with RCMP modernisation, in the hopes of ending its culture of harassment and bullying.
  • Advocates for assisted dying hope that David Lametti will be more open to things like advanced directives than Jody Wilson-Raybould was.
  • Somewhat unexpected, new rural economic development minister Bernadette Jordan’s “home ministry” will be Infrastructure Canada, with support from ISED.
  • CSE’s new risk management framework asks them to consider reputational damage to Canada if their operations are discovered.
  • A series of errors by CBSA and the department of immigration led to a person of “national security concern” getting permanent residency in Canada.
  • Michelle Rempel wants the Commons public safety committee to look into this incident and what can be done to prevent future occurrences.
  • The Indigenous groups looking to buy the Trans Mountain pipeline are being advised to hold off until the expansion is built first.
  • A Quebec business group is trying to pressure the government into reopening the National Shipbuilding Strategy to give more work to Davie shipyard.
  • Here’s a look at how wind power is becoming more competitive, and getting new contracts in Alberta and Saskatchewan.
  • General Vance is expected to take the stand in the Mark Norman trial later this month regarding his instructions to staff around talking to journalists.
  • Vance is also dealing with what looks like illegal attempts to shield other reports from access requests by members of the military.
  • Facebook is expected to roll out new protections around political advertising by the end of June, in time for the general election.
  • The Liberal candidate has resigned from the Burnaby South by-election race after the WeChat post that was deemed to be racist.
  • Kady O’Malley’s Process Nerd column deduces what is to be on the agenda at this week’s Cabinet retreat, given the diminishing number of sitting days.

Odds and ends:

A Kentucky canoe company has been using an image of Justin Trudeau and family in a canoe on their billboard.

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2 thoughts on “Roundup: A few notes on the state of the Brexit drama”

  1. In fairness, the changes made to Labour’s leadership selection process are not the reason why Corbyn is leader — it’s because MPs didn’t follow the rules of said selection process. Corbyn should never have been a candidate for leader — he couldn’t muster the required % of caucus support for his candidacy. It was only because some MPs, who didn’t want him as leader, “lent” him their support because they thought it would make the debates more interesting that he made it into the leadership race. Had they not done that, he would not have been a candidate, and Labour would not be in this mess. Maybe still in some sort of mess, but not this particular mess.

    • But they did run a second leadership contest after the mass resignations from shadow cabinet, and he stayed on because of the broken leadership system.

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