Roundup: Making hay of Venezuela

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The situation in Venezuela has been getting political play in Canada, though perhaps not unsurprisingly from the NDP. Much of the party has long had a fascination with “socialist” regimes, both the Chavez regime in Venezuela, as well as Cuba (I was once at a house party with an NDP staffer who expressed shock that the Revolutionary Museum in Havana would have the audacity to subject her to propaganda when she was there to be inspired). It was perhaps least surprising that it would be Niki Ashton who put out the condemnation over Twitter for the Canadian government’s declaration to support the declared interim president of Venezuela in the bid to try and get a new round of free and fair elections up and running. This was echoed by one of the party’s by-election candidates, as well as newly nominated candidate Svend Robinson, who decried that the Canadian government was somehow following the lead of Donald Trump – patently absurd as we have not followed along with their Trump’s musing about military intervention, and the fact that we have recognised the last democratically elected leader in the country who has a constitutional case for the interim presidential declaration. And Jagmeet Singh? He offered a pabulum talking point that said absolutely nothing of substance, but did repeat the false notion that Canada is somehow following the Americans’ lead on this. All the while, Conservative and Liberal MPs started calling on Singh to denounce the Maduro regime in the country, which he hasn’t done, leaving the badmouthing to anonymous staffers.

Meanwhile, Canada is planning to host the other countries of the Lima Group next month in order to plan how to steer Venezuela back toward democracy, which totally sounds like us following the Americans and their musing about military intervention, right? Oh, wait.

Good reads:

  • John McCallum walked back on his comments about the Meng Wanzhou extradition, saying he “misspoke.”
  • Trudeau has repeatedly shrugged off calls for McCallum’s dismissal.
  • Unsurprisingly, there have been backchannel conversations with the Americans about securing the release of the two Canadians if Meng is freed for a trade deal.
  • Navdeep Bains is expected to announce $40 million in 5G research contracts for Nokia, who is conspicuously not Huawei.
  • Amarjeet Sohi continues to refuse to give a timeline on the Trans Mountain pipeline because he wants to ensure they’re not cutting corners again.
  • Ahmed Hussen unveiled a plan to attract and retain immigrants to rural areas. (Funny, his plan doesn’t seem to deal with the xenophobia of small communities).
  • Jane Philpott acknowledges that there seem to be barriers for Black civil servants who aren’t getting promoted to top positions.
  • The federal government’s delays in implementing firearms sales tracking regulations could be related to its firearms bill in the Senate.
  • Davie Shipyard has declined to bid on a contract to repair a Coast Guard science vessel, citing it’s beyond repair, which raises more procurement issues.
  • Liberal MP Jennifer O’Connell has asked the Board of Internal Economy to look into the questions surrounding Jason Kenney’s expenses when he was an MP.
  • People are openly questioning as to whether Thomas Mulcair is trying to publicly undermine Jagmeet Singh with his recent punditry.
  • Svend Robinson says he’s concerned about the state of the NDP (and doesn’t rule out future leadership ambitions of his own).
  • Éric Grenier looks at Andrew Scheer’s strategy of recruiting local mayors as candidates as part of his Quebec strategy.
  • Chantal Hébert gives her own thoughts on the McCallum situation (post-walk back).
  • John Geddes takes politicians to task for their mischaracterising the extradition process as being largely judicial when it is inherently political.
  • Robert Hiltz looks over Scheer’s Quebec plans and the rhetoric that he’s espousing, and finds them wanting.

Odds and ends:

Maclean’s look at political polarisation continues with asking the left what’s wrong with the left, and asking the right what’s wrong with the right.

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