It’s becoming a tale as old as time, where NDP leader Jagmeet Singh calls a late-afternoon press conference to declare that he has achieved a great victory of pushing on an open door and getting nothing new that the Liberals weren’t already going to do, to be followed by his supporters taking to social media to crow about it. And thus, late Friday afternoon, Singh held a press conference to say that he had struck a deal with the Liberals about paid sick leave, and that this, along with their previous decision to keep EI and the recovery benefit at CERB levels, meant that he was likely to vote confidence in the government, thus avoiding the election that was never going to happen anyway.
But let’s review – you can be assured that the Liberals didn’t decide to boost the EI and recovery benefit levels from $400 to $500/week because of Singh’s pressure, but rather because they can see the COVID case counts climbing like the rest of us, and with the second wave here earlier than anticipated. That’s likely going to mean more shutdowns, even if they’re not as bad as the initial one in March, and their commitment to having Canadians’ backs means that it was easier to keep the benefit levels the same. On top of that, they had already committed to paying for the sick leave benefit that the provinces would implement, based on negotiations that happened at the behest of BC premier John Horgan (as Trudeau assiduously assigned him the credit and not Singh). When Trudeau got this assurance from the premiers, Singh declared victory and his supporters crowed that it was all him that did this when it clearly wasn’t. And now, Singh is again taking credit for this benefit, even though nothing has actually changed.
Well… this tweet didn't age well.
I imagine there were countless Dales yelling about provincial jurisdiction when Tommy Douglas was negotiating for universal healthcare.
Paid sick leave is happening thanks to Jagmeet Singh! https://t.co/g7hxEJZBBX
— Laurel Collins (@Laurel_BC) September 26, 2020
And then we get supposed dunks like this one. Nothing changed. Nothing the federal government does will unilaterally change provincial labour laws that will actually implement this sick benefit, especially on the permanent basis that Singh wants it to be. Sure, the federal government says they’ll pay for those two weeks of sick leave, but does that mean that the person’s job is going to be protected? Nope. There are provinces, like Nova Scotia, who were reluctant about it because they felt it was up to collective bargaining between employers and labour to come to an agreement on this leave. Does this agreement that Singh got change that? Nope. Nothing has changed, and yet he’s suddenly the new Tommy Douglas. Girl, please.
Tell me where provincial labour codes were unilaterally changed. I'll wait. https://t.co/y3o1ERoyXd
— Dale Smith (@journo_dale) September 26, 2020
Good reads:
- In a pre-recorded message to the UN General Assembly, Justin Trudeau warned of the impending “climate reckoning” and the need to reform international institutions.
- Trudeau also announced that Canada has contracted for yet another possible vaccine candidate, while Health Canada wants “real world” results on rapid tests.
- The Canadian Forces took possession of the first of a new fleet of fixed-wing search-and-rescue aircraft yesterday, proving that maybe they can procure things.
- Small business advocates want the government to retool the business loan programme to help with rent costs, and Chrystia Freeland seems to be listening.
- In Canada Angle™ stories, here is an interview with former SCC Justice Clair L’Heureux-Dubé on her friendship with Ruth Bader Ginsberg.
- The Liberal Party has postponed its policy convention until next April.
- The Conservatives tried to move a motion to have the Commons sit on Sunday to pass the relief benefit bill at Committee of the Whole, but the Bloc denied consent.
- Erin O’Toole and Yves-François Blanchet were travelling for meetings before their COVID diagnoses, proving my point that MPs need to stay in Ottawa and bubble.
- Peter Armstrong explains why the stock market has been doing so well at a time when the rest of the economy is in recession.
- Max Fawcett lambastes Jason Kenney’s parochial insistence that India will continue to buy Alberta’s oil and gas as though progress were a linear progression.
- Kevin Carmichael regards the need for the Bank of Canada’s mandate to be reviewed, and possibly revised, given the current economic circumstances.
- Colby Cosh looks askance at a BC “Fair Voter” group who is trying to declare our electoral system to be unconstitutional.
- My weekend column looks at the lessons we should draw from that video of Theresa May excoriating her own government from the Commons in Westminster.
Want more Routine Proceedings? Become a patron and get exclusive new content.
Damn the media and their conservative, anti-Trudeau bias. Giving Singh his undeserved 15 minutes to split the progressive vote. Demonstrating (valid) concern for the unhinged creep who stalked him on Wellington Street, while turning a blind eye to the litany of assassination threats aimed at Trudeau, including one *just this summer* from the “friendly sausage maker”. No mention at all that this same guy has been trying for months to “citizen’s arrest” Trudeau or that he’s been posting violent anti-Trudeau rhetoric on his social media accounts. Where’s the apology to Michael Wernick or acknowledgment from any pundits that they were wrong and he was right? Oh wait, that guy wanted to arrest Trudeau (if not worse) for supposed “corruption” pertaining to the SNC brouhaha. Which the media themselves pushed for months as Watergate 2.0. No wonder they won’t admit their complicity. They won *awards* for that one-sided, self-serving bullsh!t.
Then you have Kenney, the former *immigration minister* who in so many words and for all intents and purposes demeans people from India as street sh!tters, but only Trudeau got piled on for “offending” them with “Hindi cosplay” (even though they were showing off the clothing of a designer who had immigrated to Canada from India). Nothing but complete radio silence that the Conservative party and the Conservative movement in Canada is the gathering hub for racists, aided and abetted by the Conservative media.
Bergen is back on Rebel Media, whose “reporter” is stalking McKenna, while Poilievre is giving interviews to the “Buffalo Tribune,” formerly Buffalo Chronicle, a fake news outlet that popped up last election and made their name publishing libelous trash about Trudeau’s sex life. CPC supporters keep wishing death upon the prime minister, including that he “meet the same good fortune as his brother”. No one presses them on this. No one asks them to condemn it. “It’s just Twitter”. The more they ignore this, the more I’m convinced they *do* want their own Donald Trump in government. Along comes Erin O’Trump with Lewis in tow to say “there’s my African American” and gets a free pass. When she’s really more like a Black version of Amy Coney Barrett, or a female Ben Carson. But abortion is just a Liberal strawman! Nothing to see here folks, move along!
To be clear, I don’t want any harm to come to Singh. I just want the same attention paid to the massively greater sphere of anti-Trudeau/anti-Liberal hatred as to this particular incident involving the NDP leader. How about, instead of scandal-mongering for clicks, the media does an in-depth exposé on the “government in waiting” and its provincial acolytes being a white Christian supremacist hate group pretending to be “Her Majesty’s loyal opposition”? Why hasn’t the I.D.U. gotten one tenth of the coverage that the WE Charity did? Why won’t the media do the obvious math and connect the Wellington Street stalker *and others* to the ideological radicalization coming from the CPC?
Excellent comment, JB. I agree that the virulent anti-Trudeau attacks from CPC and rabid white supremacists seem to be taken for granted by the media as just part of our “Canadian scene” these days – even to the point where some media give the impression that Trudeau “deserves it” because he’s just a politician.
The media pussyfooting around the sausage maker is a case in point. This incident also raises legitimate questions about white supremacy in our armed forces too, and these haven’t been covered particularly well. But I also got the impression in this case that the RCMP seemed to be trying to downplay the incident because they may have dropped the ball too on a slow reaction to the break-in.
This is all leading to a gradual poisoning of the public atmosphere in this country, as has happened in the United States.
This Politico piece is shocking — Facebook admits right-wing populism is “more emotionally engaging” and therefore just a testament to the success of conservative messaging when it comes to profitability. The guy literally said it’s “just like the 1930s” but shrugged about it because it’s just the price of doing business and the left can’t meme.
politico .com/news/2020/09/26/facebook-conservatives-2020-421146
That’s what Ballingall, Levant and their ilk and the Post, Globe, even the CBC to some extent which is committing a slow suicide by parroting whatever the right-wing press picks up, that’s their mindset. No big deal because it’s just lulz and good for the bottom line. Global Radio has disappeared Ryan Jespersen for ticking off Kenney and CAPP, and Charles Adler has been AWOL ever since he condemned Erin O’Toole for doing nothing about the Soros haters in his ranks. Something is rotten in the state of Canada.
But not so deep down I think there’s more to it than the profit motive. I think the media and whoever is backing them are true believers. They may say “pretty words” concern trolling about Singh, but never admit their complicity or call for action to address it. When it comes to Trudeau, however, it’s personal. I have said for some time now that he is the male version of Hillary Clinton. Manufactured corruption scandals (Emailghazi) pushed in MSM to make him look vaguely “bad” in a palatable sense to persuadables and the Ottawa bubble, while under the surface online is a dark undercurrent of far, far worse allegations and conspiracy theories throwing red meat to the base. The MSM complicitly turn a blind eye, both to the actual corruption among those of their own political bent, and to the steady stream of virulent rhetoric online contributing to radicalization.
I used to think that the media would love to have a “JFK moment” or Jo Cox moment in Canada because it’d be great for ratings. Now I’m convinced that they’d ignore it even despite the advertising blitz, because it would allow them to quietly sweep their political adversaries under the rug. John Turner died of natural causes and the rags sneered at him. If an Oswald were successful against this PMJT, they’d smirk, shrug, blame him for his demise, then devote an entire week’s worth of papers to the Ford family cheesecake recipes before going back to their usual habit of complaining about the poor plight of Alberta.
I’m usually one to be a bit harsher on you with your demand that MPs not do their jobs in their home ridings since you believe the consistency service and meet and greet stuff isn’t the priority the MPs and voters make it, but I think you are fair to point to the Blanchet and O’Toole spreading stories to make a case that they can’t do their normal job anyhow of meeting and greeting some folks.
There is something kind of Donald Trump-like about Jagmeet Singh in that they kind of buy their own hype way too much. He’ll end the nuclear weapons treats from North Korea with a photo-op summit and the other will create programs by a press release stating he has. They are both uncurious people who despite years in public service still don’t seem to have learned the issues and their positions on them and they have this deep self-belief and just boasting about something makes it true. Maybe that’s too harsh or maybe not harsh enough.