Occasionally a politician will say something so blindingly wrong and stupid that it makes me incandescent with rage, and yesterday the honour went to PEI’s new premier, Dennis King, who believes that because he’s in a hung parliament that he’s “not the government,” but that “we’re all the government.”

And then my head exploded.

pic.twitter.com/INgSbEBeFL

— Dale Smith (@journo_dale) June 28, 2019

King is the premier, which means he’s the government. And for him to try and abrogate his responsibilities in the face of questions from the opposition is a sickening lack of civic literacy and frankly spine. Trying to shame the opposition into “collaborative government” is frankly trying to avoid accountability. After all, when everyone is accountable, then no one is accountable, and that’s not how our system works. He’s the premier. He is responsible to the legislature for the decisions that the government makes, and while he’s trying to launder them through the opposition in the name of “collaboration,” that’s not how the system works. It doesn’t matter if it’s a hung parliament – that only means that he needs to work harder to secure the support of the opposition, not that they are in government with him. And yes, I’m enraged by this because he and everybody else should know better.

Alberta extremism

On another topic, this story out of Edmonton about extremist billboards calling for civil war against the rest of Canada, and promoting conspiracy theorism and outright lies about Justin Trudeau is extremely concerning because this is how illiberal populism happens. And Jason Kenney has a direct hand of responsibility in this, both by selling lies about the province’s situation and about what Trudeau is and is not doing, and by selling them snake oil in a bid to keep them angry because that’s how he gets votes. But as the anger won’t dissipate now that he’s in charge, he’s forced to try and keep the anger going in one way or another and hope that it doesn’t blow up in his face – hence why he’s inventing new grievances by things like his sham Senate “elections” – because unless he keeps trying to point that anger to new enemies, it will turn on him. I really don’t think he appreciates the monster he’s created, and these billboards are a warning sign that needs to be heeded.

Good reads:

• Justin Trudeau is now at the G20 meeting in Osaka, Japan, looking to rally Canada’s allies in our trade dispute with China.
• Adding to the ongoing China tensions for Trudeau to address was the fact that Chinese jets buzzed our ships travelling in the East China Sea.
• Jim Carr suggested that Canada’s reputation for safe pork may be why our exports were targeted by smugglers who forged Canadian certification.
• Catherine McKenna says the provinces have come up with an action plan to harmonize recycling rules and reduce plastic use.
• Harjit Sajjan won’t talk about the details of the Mark Norman settlement, which should be no surprise because that’s how settlements work.
• The government is also looking to change up some of its strategies to help with rural broadband to respond to feedback on their programme in the budget.
• The federal government signed self-government agreements with the Métis groups in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Ontario yesterday. (Ongoing land claims are separate).
• The definition of anti-Semitism that the government adopted as part of its anti-racism strategy is raising familiar concerns about free speech.
• The CRA has paid out its first cash awards to people who inform on tax cheaters.
• The costs to renovate one of the historic homes of Sir John A. Macdonald will wind up being double what was originally thought.
• The Competition Bureau has fined Ticketmaster with a $4 million penalty, plus $500,000 in costs, for their deceptive pricing practices.
• Those who donated to the Mark Norman GoFundMe campaign for his legal fees will have their money refunded, now that the government has paid those fees for him.
• Andrew Scheer now says they’ll keep cannabis legal and not revoke the pardons.
• The four western premiers (and three territorial leaders) had their meeting yesterday and were all smiles despite disagreements on pipelines.
• Robert Hiltz savages the empty rhetoric that is Andrew Scheer’s climate “plan.”

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