I don’t really want to engage in a pile-on, but the fact that the new Minister of Middle Class™ Prosperity® was doing the media rounds and imploding on trying to offer a definition of just what is Middle Class™ was not a good start to her ministerial career – not to mention an indictment of the comms geniuses in the PMO who sent her out there unprepared. You would think that actually having a working definition of what is “middle class” would be an important thing to equip a minister with when you give her the portfolio – particularly when you wrap up an otherwise sober role of Associate Minister of Finance with this ridiculous title. And there are a couple of very serious points to make here – if you can’t actually define what “middle class” means, then you have no actual way of measuring your success in dealing with the perceived issues of income disparity – which this government has been using Middle Class™ as a code for without trying to sound like they’re engaging in class warfare. But as a branding exercise, when you rely on the fact that everyone thinks they’re “middle class” or about to be – particularly people who are well over what is actually middle class in this country – it’s one of those things that tends to flatter people, but becomes meaningless – essentially that Middle Class™ is a state of mind. Mona Fortier did, over the course of the day, transition from “it involves your kids being in hockey” to “there’s no one definition” because of regional variations and disparities, but it was a bit of a trial by fire, and hopefully a lesson that she – and the comms geniuses in PMO – will take to heart.

"We can't have a one-size fits all approach," says newly named Middle Class Prosperity Minister Mona Fortier on the goals of the new role, which will use a regional lens to create policies that will aid middle-income earners. #ctvpp #cdnpoli

More at https://t.co/uCQmGSHoEL pic.twitter.com/dU8owQbhvn

— CTV Power Play (@CTV_PowerPlay) November 22, 2019

Hockey is expensive: https://t.co/QZxbhCIptT

People with median incomes have to squeeze themselves dry to pay for a kid in hockey; it's a sport for the upper-middle-class. 2/

— Stephen Gordon (@stephenfgordon) November 23, 2019

This is getting past a joke. 4/4

— Stephen Gordon (@stephenfgordon) November 23, 2019

While the Minister is correct that there is no consensus definition, she could put down some markers. We can be pretty sure that the lower bound for the middle class is somewhere above the LICO, and most would agree it should exclude the 10% of incomes by economic family group?

— Andrew Leach (@andrew_leach) November 23, 2019

All of this talk of being Middle Class™ does bring me back to this scene from the early noughties UK sitcom Gimme Gimme Gimme, where being Middle Class was a Thing.

“I can’t. I’m Middle Class. I used to have ponies.”
My mind flashes back to this scene every time this government deploys their Middle Class™ talking points. https://t.co/P2nvnNlnwP

— Dale Smith (@journo_dale) November 23, 2019

Meanwhile, Chris Selley makes the very salient point that this government has moved the needle on poverty in this country, but the problems we’re facing aren’t with the Middle Class™, and perhaps they should put a focus on those areas instead.

Good reads:

• In his meeting with Justin Trudeau, Doug Ford played nice (because he wants money from the federal government).
• New natural resources minister Seamus O’Regan went to Calgary to meet the Alberta energy minister, who said she was “encouraged” by the discussion.
• Marc Garneau continues to advocate a negotiated settlement in the CN Rail strike, while the House leader says there’s no chance Parliament will be summoned early.
• Canada is one of the voices encouraging the US to make appointments to the WTO’s appellate board before the organization descends into chaos.
• CSIS’ watchdog flagged the threat of malicious inside actors years before the Cameron Ortis file came to light, and now agencies need to review their security.
• China’s new ambassador to Canada told reporters that Canada needs to stay out of the Hong Kong protests – and release Meng Wanzhou from detention.
• New Brunswick’s government has pre-emptively invoked the Notwithstanding Clause to protect their mandatory vaccination legislation from court challenges.
• Here’s a fact-check on the propane shortage in Quebec as a result of the CN rail strike (which Jason Kenney is trying to leverage into support for more pipelines).
• Here’s a look at some of the (very big) risks of Alberta going it alone with their own pension plan.
• Amidst the “Western Separatism” talk is the reality of the treaties with First Nations in the area, which would affect any plans the province may have.
• Kevin Carmichael talks to the head of the CMHC about housing affordability and the market distortions of schemes that help builders and brokers over buyers.
• Stephen Maher puts a human face to both equalization and the labour mobility that Alberta relies on, and gives a great visual about equalization not being a piggy bank.
• Chris Selley delves into the spanking the Ford government got in Ontario court for making student fees optional, and the culture of impunity around Ford and Kenney.
• My weekend column wonders if this government’s attempts to make lasting, transformational change will be blunted in this new hung parliament.

Odds and ends:

Over at the CBA’s National Magazine, I write about the forthcoming Supreme Court of Canada decision on their administrative law trilogy.

Also at the CBA’s National Magazine, I look at how a recent US federal court ruling on searching devices at the border impacts lawyers who travel with files.

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