Roundup: Pride vs St. Patrick’s Day

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Andrew Scheer’s new deputy leader, Leona Alleslev, started off her new role with a bang this weekend by doing the media rounds, and when asked about Scheer’s continued refusal to attend Pride parades, Alleslev responded with “Have we asked anybody if they marched in a St. Patrick’s Day parade?”

Oh no she better don’t!

Alleslev apologised several hours later, but by then you had a lot of Conservatives completely outraged that this was the kind of thing that was going to lose them the next election (and renewing the calls for Scheer’s resignation). While the point was made that she shouldn’t have needed to apologise because it was Scheer’s lines she was parroting, it’s difficult to imagine how anyone would have even for a second thought that there was an equivalence to the two. And Scheer’s own campaign communications director started a lengthy tweet thread to show all the various ways in which Scheer paid lip service to every religious and cultural event out there – except Pride, which is something that speaks volumes.

Alleslev also went on to insinuate that those who raised questions about Scheer’s leadership – and the numbers are growing, as are the profile of raising those questions – are somehow being “disloyal” to the party. And this irritates me, because this notion that parties are supposed to be personality cults for leaders is toxic and antithetical to how our system operates. The leader is not the party. The party is more than the person who leads it at any one moment, and it would be great if everyone could get on the same page about this because it’s kind of embarrassing for everyone who is carrying on otherwise.

Good reads:

  • In advance of the Council of the Federation Meeting, premiers Ford, Moe and Higgs announced plans to invest in small modular nuclear reactor technology.
  • Said Council of the Federation will talk a lot about the Fiscal Stabilization Programme, as well as carbon prices and Kenney and Moe’s gripes about C-69.
  • François-Philippe Champagne says that Canada needs to develop a new diplomatic and trade framework to deal with China.
  • The Canadian portion of the Enbridge Line 3 pipeline is now moving oil, which is a partial alleviation of the oil transport constraints from Alberta.
  • In the four months that the new pardon law for past marijuana possession convictions came into force, only 118 applications have been made.
  • Here’s the harrowing tale of a Canadian Forces soldier who was drugged, raped by his superior officer, and treated as a “snitch” for his 18-year career afterward.
  • In case you were wondering, Prince Andrew remains Colonel-in-Chief of three Canadian regiments, and those aren’t patronages that can be rescinded easily.
  • Jagmeet Singh visited Iqaluit with new MP Mumilaaq Qaqqaq.
  • Jason Kenney’s party held their AGM over the weekend, where he tried to paint himself as the second coming of Ralph Klein (as though that were a good thing).
  • Chantal Hébert gives her reading of the first few days of the new parliament.

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4 thoughts on “Roundup: Pride vs St. Patrick’s Day”

  1. The rot goes beyond these two nincompoops, and anyone getting their Irish up now to pin the Deform Party’s bigotry and ignorance solely on Scheer is paying lip service themselves. M-103; C-16; barbaric cultural practices; Rebel/Sun/TrueNorth/Proud/Postmedia etc. RW propaganda press; yellow vests; cross-border jaunts to Fox News and Breitbart; ceaseless trolling, insults and threats aimed at the prime minister, the Trudeau family and LPC MPs; Harper letting his fascist freak flag fly over at the I.D.U. — Scheer and his deputy ding-dong are symptoms of a broader disease rather than the cause. There’s no pot of decency anywhere near the Log Cabin Tories’ rainbow.

  2. As somebody not familiar with world oil market, I am confused by Alberta First-types like Jen Gerson or Lorrie Goldstein saying they want the Canadian government to up its public bashing of China since it’s the point of the transmountain expansion to sell more oil to China?

  3. Is it possible Harper is thinking of getting back in the game? The recent poll (Abacus??) of Conservative party members had him as the desired leader over every other name on the list. To me, it looks like he’s twiddling his thumbs out there, waiting to jump back in. I know, I know, he’s a “consultant” but, like, who isn’t??

    LP

    • This article from “Western Standard Online” offers Harper as a possibility

      https://outline.com/4wSeqe

      Where I disagree is the author saying it’d be bad news for Trudeau. Harper was — and still is — reviled outside the base, and would get demolished in a rematch no matter how many screwups Trudeau could make.

      Personally I’m wondering if it’s Ford, who curiously wasn’t offered as an option in the Abacus survey. I mean why else would he be play-acting as the national unity savior and asking Trudeau to teach him French???

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