Roundup: The ugliness is home-grown

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There was a fairly terrifying incident over the past couple of days where Liberal incumbent Marc Serré was assaulted in his campaign headquarters by a woman, who was later charged, but this seems to be yet another escalation of the kinds of ugliness we’ve seen in this campaign, whether it’s with the rise in graffiti, to the mob protests with signs advocating lynching, to the gravel being thrown.

Amidst this, we get John Ibbitson at the Globe and Mail actually advocating that the People’s Party “deserves” representation in Parliament, for some unfathomable reason. I mean seriously – this is a party that fight-right and white nationalist groups are advocating people join, and Ibbitson thinks that they deserve seats?

https://twitter.com/MikePMoffatt/status/1437866596987514885

https://twitter.com/cmathen/status/1437873572706492422

https://twitter.com/kateheartfield/status/1437882514350252043

https://twitter.com/kateheartfield/status/1437883654169051141

With this in mind, Supriya Dwivedi cautions against saying that this is all just imported American divisiveness and rhetoric, pointing out that this is as home-grown as it gets. I largely agree, but we can’t ignore that the purveyors of this rhetoric in Canada have been inspired by the right-wing populist ecosystem in the US and have imported parts of it here, thinking that they can control the beast. They can’t. And while they may have found the inspiration, it found fertile soil here, and now we’re paying the price.

On the campaign trail:

  • Justin Trudeau was in was in Richmond, BC, to reiterate his climate plan.
  • Here is the recap of Trudeau’s Face to Face interview on CBC.
  • Erin O’Toole was in Russell, Ontario, to pitch his child care tax credit, and defended the letter he sent to François Legault about “negotiating” that $6 billion.
  • O’Toole met with the Toronto Star editorial board, and talked some vague nonsense about carbon pricing without offering details on his “carbon accounts.”
  • O’Toole also won’t talk about his immigration targets, while he makes French-only videos about being tougher on irregular border-crossing asylum seekers.
  • Jagmeet Singh was in Toronto to promise lower mobile phone bills by bigfooting the CRTC (which I’m not sure is feasible policy-wise).
  • Singh is also apologising for missing a meeting of the BC Assembly of First Nations, and is being lambasted for simply paying lip service to Indigenous issues.
  • Conservative incumbent Ted Falk was spreading misinformation about vaccines, and is now apologising but facing no consequences for doing so.
  • Elections Canada says that a record 5.8 million Canadians voted in advanced polls.
  • Maclean’s talks to Gerald Butts about the debates and how the campaign is now in the motivation phase, getting people to the polls.
  • Climate scientist Katharine Kayhoe rates the parties’ environmental platforms, and lo, the Liberals have come out on top yet again.
  • Stewart Elgie from the Institute of the Environment at the University of Ottawa calls out those who claim that the Liberals did nothing on the environment in six years.
  • Heather Scoffield is unconvinced by O’Toole’s claims of fiscal credibility, and enumerates the incoherent points throughout his platform.
  • Chantal Hébert worries that if there’s another hung parliament that more action on files like climate change will be pushed off because of fighting.

Good reads:

  • There are apparently 1300 people with ties to Canada still in Afghanistan.
  • Alberta’s Chief Medical Officer of Health is admitting that the “open for summer” plan was premature, as was dismantling contact tracing – and yet she won’t resign.
  • Colby Cosh has questions about the decision-making process about when to restore flags on federal buildings to full-mast.
  • My column points out that willpower or “unlimited zeal” are not implementation plans, and that they alone can’t succeed.

Odds and ends:

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One thought on “Roundup: The ugliness is home-grown”

  1. Because human life spans are about 85 years on average the now generations have little knowledge of what went on after WW1. Therefore it is not surprising that many Canadians are appalled to see and hear extreme rightwing politicians and their sycophants spouting fascist rhetoric and doing stupid things. In my early days in Alberta I witnessed farmers walking around wearing white robes and peaked masks. I knew that there were clan meetings in remote fields where hatred was preached. There were beatings at these events and politicians found themselves ensnared whether the liked it or not. My father never attended and was ostracized. Others in our small farming community succumbed either by belief or fear or both. This is nothing new in Canada. It is easier now. Social media has eliminated the need for sheets and pointy hats. Political movements and parties can shout their hate virtually unimpeded. Privately there are no bounds. Publicly, language is couched. Buzz words are well understood. So to be amazed today at the rise of these groups, whether right or left is naïve. It is possible that society will never rid itself from this scourge. Check with me in another 85 years, we can compare notes

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