Roundup: Trying to draw in the Supreme Court

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If this election could get any stupider, it did yesterday. Justin Trudeau started the day off in Sudbury, and after arriving by canoe, he promised not only to further expand the areas of land and waters that are protected areas as part of ongoing roll-out of green policies in advance of today’s “climate strike” rally, Trudeau also promised an expansion of the “learn to camp” programme, including bursaries of up to $2000 for low-income families. As someone who hates camping, this is borderline offensive – but it’s also one of the whitest of white people policies in the book. (Seriously – ask a person of colour how they feel about camping). I get that the idea is that it promotes connecting people with nature and the importance of conservation, but this was probably one of the dumbest campaign promises to date.

Andrew Scheer was not much better. From Trudeau’s riding of Papineau in Montréal, Scheer tapped into the Trumpian “Lock Her Up!” mentality by promising not only a judicial inquiry into the Double-Hyphen Affair, but also to pass a cartoonishly named No More Cover-Ups Act, which would empower the RCMP to go directly to the Supreme Court of Canada for access to Cabinet documents – all of it predicated on the lie that the RCMP are investigating the PMO (they’re not) and that they can’t get access to documents (because the Clerk of the Privy Council said no to a fishing expedition). It’s all very gross and unseemly. Not only do we not demand that the police investigate our political rivals (this isn’t a banana republic, and if the Liberals lose, then they will have faced political consequences for the Affair), but politicising judicial inquiries is a Very Bad Thing. Dragging the Supreme Court into one’s political vendettas is even worse (and I have a column on that very topic coming out later today about that very issue).

As for Jagmeet Singh, he was in Campbell River, BC to reiterate his promise to build half a million housing units, but to also flesh out his promise for income supports of up to $5000 per year for low-income renters. But again, this is provincial jurisdiction so the rental income supports will have to be a carefully designed policy, while he has yet to explain how he’ll rapidly build all of this social housing when the cities where it’s most needed are very tight labour markets, which means there likely aren’t enough construction workers to do the job, and that will drive up the costs of building these units by a lot. (Singh also completely mischaracterised the output-based system on carbon pricing as part of his trying to downplay the current government’s record, because he’s doing politics differently).

Other election stories:

  • Ontario’s Financial Accountability Officer says the province will lose 10,000 teachers over the next five years, which became Liberal campaign fodder.
  • Justin Trudeau is promising to distinctions-based Indigenous health policy, co-developed with the various Indigenous communities.
  • The Liberals still have to nominate a couple more candidates before the Monday deadline (which is outrageous).
  • The Liberal candidate in Calgary Shepard is apologising for leaflets containing false information about the Conservative incumbent, Tom Kmiec.
  • Kent Hehr says the Liberals have spent double on Calgary than the Conservatives did as part of his bid for re-election.
  • Amarjeet Sohi’s challenger, former MP Tim Uppal, refuses to apologise for saying he’ll continue to live in Ottawa and not move back to the riding.
  • An energy thinktank is calling out the Conservatives for misrepresenting their carbon price research in their ads. (Scheer? Lying again? Perish the thought!).
  • Elizabeth May says she wouldn’t prop up any government that will carry on with the Trans Mountain pipeline. (She knows that means more oil by rail, right?)

Good reads:

  • Canadians grossly overestimate the number of immigrants and refugees coming into the country, and that has an effect on their perceptions.
  • The number of doctors in Canada has been growing at twice the rate of the population, but there are still shortages of people getting a family doctor.
  • Former Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin talks about how the death of her first husband to cancer affected her view on assisted dying.
  • Robert Hiltz is in high dudgeon about the state of the Liberal campaign and the repetition of mistakes their same staffers made in Ontario.

Odds and ends:

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4 thoughts on “Roundup: Trying to draw in the Supreme Court”

  1. I hate camping too, so I haven’t had the chance to survey the skin colour of campers, but I somehow doubt that every one of them is lily-white. Recent immigrants might find the whole idea absurd, but their children might not. And even I think it’s actually a good idea for people to experience the incredible beauty of this country, and camping is a relatively inexpensive way to do it.

  2. What do you call an immigrant from South Africa….Doctor.
    There are many doctors from that country in Canada. They recertify quickly, they have no language problems. Thankyou SA doctors.

  4. It’s an expansion of a program, which suggests it’s popular. I don’t think it’s so crazy, it’s a good way to make sure people with less means get a chance to experience the outdoors. Not everyone hates camping, but it’s nice to let people find out for themselves. Otherwise, it’s just a hobby for people with disposable income. That’s how protecting wilderness turns into an elitist cause. It’s an interesting idea in that respect.

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