Roundup: Figures without context for outrage

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You may have noticed that the Conservative Party’s Twitter feed recently is trying to make “100 days of Trudeau fails” a Thing – because their overriding narrative has been to put “Trudeau” and “fail” in the same sentence for the past two years now, but it still feels a lot like trying to make “fetch” happen. But as they essentially regurgitate old headlines as part of this campaign, you will find that most of the posts are missing key context, which ensures that it’s often a big figure with nothing to support it. Given that We The Media have trained Canadians with our fixation on cheap outrage stories, I’m sure this is a tactic that they feel is a slam dunk, but in any case, here are a few examples from the past few days. In other words, don’t take anything at face value, but remember that there is context (that is easily Googled) to what they are posting, and most of it makes them look pretty petty – particularly the repairs and upgrades to the official residence at Harrington Lake, given that Trudeau has been entertaining foreign leaders there as they can’t do it at 24 Sussex.

Good reads:

  • At a speech to Liberal candidates undergoing “campaign boot camp” yesterday, Justin Trudeau used Doug Ford as his bogeyman. (That may have limited appeal).
  • Trudeau is off to Iqaluit today to make a marine protected area announcement.
  • Ralph Goodale says that our Five Eyes allies have agreed to better collect and preserve battlefield evidence in order to prosecute returning foreign fighters.
  • Apparently  someone at the National Microbiology Lab sent pathogen samples to China without proper protocols or intellectual property protections.
  • The government has concerns over allegations of nepotism and harassment at UNRWA, which deals with Palestinian refugees (but has no funding pending).
  • In mid-June, a Canadian commodore became the first woman to command a standing NATO naval fleet; recently she dealt with Russians shadowing their fleet.
  • The proposed date for the English language leaders’ debate will be October 7th, and October 10thfor French, according to the new debate commission.
  • The CRTC unveiled a new Internet code of conduct to help consumers avoid overage charge shock by telecom companies.
  • The US government is contemplating making it legal to get prescription drugs from Canada – with no consultation – which could create drug shortages here.
  • Outgoing US Ambassador to Canada, Kelly Craft, was confirmed as their new UN Ambassador, leaving the post in Canada vacant yet again.
  • It sounds like the attempt to put the Supreme Court under Shared Services Canada may have triggered the independence accord with the government.
  • The Supreme Court of Canada ruled on another case involving asking about a complainant’s sexual history in an assault trial, but with more nuance this time.
  • The Conservatives raised the most money last quarter, but the Liberals had their most ever donors, and the Greens beat the NDP.
  • Economist Trevor Tombe explains why Albertans earnings have stagnated over the past couple of years (never mind that they’re still the highest in the country).
  • John Ivison excerpts from his new book on Trudeau, and this section is about optics and the India trip.

Odds and ends:

Colby Cosh savages the Edmonton public library fiasco.

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One thought on “Roundup: Figures without context for outrage”

  1. The conservatives have failed to counter the Trudeau with cogent policy. They are bereft of policy. They rely on personal attacks, fear mongering, lies and deflection. They are the same losers the were under Harper and the Koch brothers. They will lose in October because Canadians can see what they don’t stand for and see how dangerous the evangelical white right are for our country.

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