Roundup: Kenney announces his next big distraction

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By now you’ve heard that Jason Kenney has announced the referendum questions that Alberta will be voting on in October as part of Kenney’s mass distraction plans. It’s unheard of to have multiple referendum questions – in this case, daylight savings and removing equalisation from the Constitution – on top of an unconstitutional sideshow of Senate “nominee elections,” and yet Kenney is putting these all together with the upcoming municipal elections. This has the bonus for Kenney of muddying the waters of those elections, where more progressive candidates tend to do better, particularly in the cities, and he gets to claim that he saves money by holding them at the same time, but this is a lie. Municipal elections are run by the municipalities themselves, while these referenda and bogus “nominee elections” are held by Elections Alberta, and just because they happen at the same time and can co-locate spaces doesn’t change the fact that it going to cost more.

The thing is, the referendum on equalization won’t actually do anything because even if they sent a message to the rest of Canada and brought everyone to the table to negotiate, the only thing that’s in the Constitution is the principle of equalization – the formula itself is federal legislation, because the programme is paid out of federal general revenues. But Kenney is content to keep lying to the public and pretending that Alberta signs a cheque every year that Quebec cashes and pays for its child care system with (which it doesn’t – they pay for that out of their own taxes, and they reap the direct economic benefits from it as well). As well, the myth that Quebec killed Energy East is being invoked (Quebec had nothing to do with it – the proponent couldn’t fill both Energy East and Keystone XL with their contracts, so Energy East was abandoned as Keystone XL looked like the more likely to reach completion – not to mention that it wouldn’t have actually served the Eastern Canadian market), which is again about stoking a faux sense of grievance. The fact that Kenney is stoking this anti-Quebec sentiment because he thinks it’ll win him points (and hopefully distract the angry mob that is gathering outside his own door) is not lost on Quebeckers when it comes to Kenney’s good friend, Erin O’Toole, looking for votes in the federal election.

But as economist Trevor Tombe keeps saying, Alberta doesn’t need equalization in the same way that Bill Gates doesn’t need social assistance – Alberta is still making way more money than any other province, even with their harder times economically. The province’s deficit is not a result of equalization or money supposedly being siphoned east (again, equalization comes out of federal taxes) – it’s a result of a province that refuses to implement sales taxes or other stable revenue generation, and expecting everyone else to subsidize that choice (while also cutting corporate taxes under the illusion that it would create jobs, but didn’t). This is just Kenney handwaving and shouting “look over there!” because he knows he’s in trouble, and he needs to keep everyone focused on a different enemy. He shouldn’t be rewarded by people falling for it.

Good reads:

  • The federal government is working with other countries to recognize people who received mixed doses of vaccines as being fully vaccinated.
  • Marco Mendicino unveiled a new refugee stream for human rights activists and journalists being persecuted in their home countries.
  • The decision to send the charges against General Jonathan Vance to civilian court are rooted in the findings of the report from Justice Fish.
  • The CSE is warning that an upcoming election will likely be targeted by foreign actors trying to influence or interfere with the right to vote.
  • There is turmoil in the cord-operated window blind industry given regulations designed to prevent children from strangling themselves with them.
  • The Supreme Court of Canada ruled that $30 million was not enough compensation for a First Nation who had land expropriated and flooded for a hydro reservoir.
  • New Brunswick Senator Judith Keating passed away at age 64.
  • Elizabeth May has been conspicuously silent about the infighting in the Green Party.
  • Navaid Aziz and Stephanie Carvin believe a public reckoning is needed of CSIS’ tactics in tackling violent extremism as part of a “lessons learned” exercise.
  • Adnan Khan meditates on Canada coming to terms with its national shame, and the nature of mass graves and their attempt at erasure, here and abroad.
  • My weekend column looks at the recent economic data and how it’s being spun, and why that bodes ill for the coming election.

Odds and ends:

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