On what was supposed to have been the date of the Munk debate, Andrew Scheer was in Toronto to have a big press conference about his foreign policy plans, which were conveniently leaked to the Globe and Mail Monday night so that they could dominate the news cycle first thing in the morning – much to the ire of everyone on the campaign bus who pay for the privilege of being there. Scheer’s big headline was his plan to slash foreign aid spending – a blatant pander to the nativist sentiment that falsely has people claiming we should take care of our own before sending “so much money” abroad. After a lengthy diatribe that distorted, misconstrued and outright lied about the Liberal record on foreign policy, Scheer then laid out his four priorities – the slashing of legal aid (allegedly to focus on children in war-torn and poor countries while using more of the money to spend on their other domestic programmes); strengthening our alliances with our “traditional allies” (I’m guessing that means the UK, Australia, and New Zealand) and sending more military aid to Ukraine; targeting regimes like Iran with Magnitsky legislation; and “depoliticizing” military procurement. (Oh, and securing a UN Security Council seat isn’t going to be a priority for him either). But as it turns out, Scheer’s figures about what we are spending on foreign aid right now was one giant lie (and more context in this thread), and one notable example where Scheer couldn’t get a handle on his facts was that money that was sent to Italy was for relief after an earthquake there. His whole part about “depoliticizing” military procurement was just a wholly fictional accounting of the Mark Norman affair and the procurement at the heart of that situation (which was initially a highly political sole-source contract that was designed to save Steven Blaney’s seat). And to top it off, it was clear from this press conference that Scheer has an adolescent’s understanding of foreign aid – and foreign policy in general. But it should be alarming to everyone that someone who is running on “trust” went to the microphones and lied his way through an entire press conference on a policy platform that is in itself a house of lies. This election is getting worse with every passing day.

In Richmond Hill, Justin Trudeau met with some suburban mayors in the GTA to talk about gun control, but just reiterated their existing platform promises around banning assault rifles and finding a way to let cities further restrict handguns (even though these very same mayors all wanted a national handgun ban – so, own-goal there, Liberals).

Asked the GTA Mayors for a show of hands if they would support a national handgun ban. Trudeau is promising to allow municipalities to ban handguns, these mayors support a national ban pic.twitter.com/u6it2YmYJ5

— Katie Simpson (@Katie___Simpson) October 1, 2019

Jagmeet Singh, meanwhile, remained in Vancouver to talk childcare some more, and this time pledged to let new parents retain full benefits if they take less time for parental leave than is usually allotted.

It’s the TVA debate tonight, so expect a quiet day on the campaign trail in advace of that.

Other election stories:

• Scheer’s foreign policy “announcement” aside, most of the parties are not talking much about defence and security policies.
• Here’s a look at where all of the four major leaders have visited on their tours.
• Here is more about the Liberal platform promise to eliminate fees for Canadian citizenship.
• The Liberals are hinting that infrastructure funds could be used for a fixed-link transportation tunnel between Newfoundland and Labrador.
• Saskatchewan’s insurance brokers’ association says that Scheer only completed one of the four required courses to get a broker’s licence in that province.
• Elizabeth May says that Scheer “damaged” the Office of the Speaker by becoming party leader, which is somewhat bizarre (as most Speakers retire afterward).

Good reads:

• Apparently there is still grousing and confusion over what constitutes election advertising on issues like climate change.
• At the Supreme Court of Canada last week, three Atlantic provinces argued that their tight budgets should allow them to violate Charter rights around school languages.
• Supreme Court of Canada Chief Justice Richard Wagner said he would like to take the Court to other cities after the Winnipeg experience.
• Here’s an examination of how the Ethics Commissioner completely misinterpreted the infamous Jody Wilson-Raybould recorded call in his report.
• Supriya Dwivedi is unconvinced that there’s such thing as an “ethnic vote.”
• Susan Delacourt thinks that Canada needs a Cabinet Manual to deal with a hung parliament (which is ridiculous). Philippe Lagassé essentially has one here.
• Chris Selley says that this election is so awful that he wants a “None of the Above” option on the ballot. (My response is that’s a cop out that serves no one).
• My column looks at the Liberal platform promises on Parliamentary reform, and why most of them are really bad news.

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