Erin O’Toole made his official entry into the leadership race yesterday by way of a video that takes swipes at “cancel culture” and celebrity activists – the kinds of keyboard warrior buzzwords that are pretty much the domains of O’Toole’s new campaign staffer, Jeff Ballingall, of those “Canada Proud” etc. sites.

I'd love to hear O'Toole articulate what his role is in fighting cancel culture. Stopping cities from taking down statutes of John A MacDonald? Defending people accused of sexual harassment? Sticking up for people with racist tweets? What are we talking about, here?

— Justin Ling (Has Left) (@Justin_Ling) January 27, 2020

It occurs to me that Erin O'Toole, the first CPC leadership candidate to go after "cancel culture," has working for him Jeff Balingall of Canada Proud, the only organization I'm aware of to have called for Omar Khadr's appearance at Dalhousie to be cancelled.

— Chris Selley (@cselley) January 28, 2020

At a rally in Calgary later in the evening, O’Toole said that Peter MacKay would turn the party into Liberal-lite, which I have yet to see any actual evidence of (MacKay is not really a Red Tory, guys – he’s not. Stop pretending he is). It also struck me that he kept reiterating the kinds of comforting lies that the party likes to tell itself about issues like the plight of the energy sector, where the woes are blamed on the Trudeau government and not changing market forces (seriously, the shale revolution in the US is a pretty big driver of these changes). He did say that he would march in a Pride parade, and justified it with his military background, which is a bit funny given that he hasn’t marched in one to date, which makes his sudden conviction around it mighty suspect. His opposition to carbon pricing continues to dig the party into its current environmental rut, and his talk of deficits remains completely economically illiterate – all doubling down on the party’s current positions, because that’s apparently what will make him a “true blue” Conservative. I’m not sure how this grows the party’s base, but what do I know?

This is not a Thing. There is no constitutional magic wand. https://t.co/dnekcDOXyg

— Dale Smith (@journo_dale) January 28, 2020

Good reads:

• Venezuelan interim president Juan Guaidó visited Justin Trudeau and François-Philippe Champagne as part of his tour to gain support for democracy in his country.
• There is officially one confirmed case of coronavirus, one suspected case, and 19 others under observation.
• The federal government is weighing options for evacuating Canadians who are in the coronavirus quarantined area in China.
• Marc Garneau is calling on Iran to explain why it didn’t ground all aircraft following the missile attack on Iraq, which led to the downing of PS752.
• Garneau is also considering expanding the electric vehicle rebate plan after it has used up half of its three-year budget in the first eight months.
• Cabinet minister Dominic LeBlanc is back on the job after cancer treatment.
• Alleged RCMP spy Cameron Ortis is facing three new charges as the investigation into his conduct continues.
• What’s that? There has been political opportunism by opposition parties on the Canada-China Relations special committee? You don’t say!
• Apparently there is organizational chaos in the Conservative Party, with bad blood between the party executive and the Conservative Fund.
• Here’s a look at the attempt to define – or redefine – what it means to be a Red Tory.
• Former NDP MP Nathan Cullen has been appointed as a provincial liaison to deal with the Indigenous protests around the Coastal Gas Link pipeline.
• Kady O’Malley’s Process Nerd column looks at the procedural ways by which the government could speed through passage of the New NAFTA bill.
• Stephen Maher makes note of the fact that Peter MacKay’s lack of ability in French – after years of opportunities to improve it – and what that says of his candidacy.

Odds and ends:

Over in the CBA’s National Magazine, I look at the new CBSA oversight bill and why it’s not actually independent oversight (which is a problem).

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