Roundup: Bracing for election night

Posted on by

With voting day just days away, we’re starting to see a few “reminder” stories about how our system works, so that we can have some reasonable expectations about what the outcomes might look like on Monday, and why it will mean things like the current government staying in place and having the first chance to test the confidence of the new Chamber once it’s been summoned. There is an interview with Emmett Macfarlane here about how any decision will unfold on Monday night and why Trudeau will remain prime minister until he chooses to resign, which is good. There is also a piece from the Canadian Press which maps out different scenarios about how the evening may play out and what these scenarios might mean.

The problem, of course, is that television news in this country is abysmal, and we’ll spend the night listening to inane banter that pretends that there is no sitting government (exacerbated by the fact that they are currently observing a convention that refers to the prime minister as the “Liberal leader” in order to have an exaggerated sense of “fairness” around his incumbent status), and they will throw around terms like “prime minister-elect” even though we don’t elect prime minister (it’s an appointed position) and the fact that if it is the incumbent – which it’s likely to be – he’s already the prime minister and won’t require an “-elect” or “-designate” title to go along with it. We’ll also no doubt hear talk about him getting a “mandate” even though that kind of thing is utterly incompatible with our system of government. And no matter how much people like me will call it out over social media, nobody will care, and they will continue to completely misinform people about our basic civics without any care in the world, because that’s the state of media in this country right now.

On the campaign trail:

  • Justin Trudeau was in Montreal to tout their ability to deliver on Quebec’s priorities.
  • Erin O’Toole was in Saint John, New Brunswick, to talk about support for seniors, and avoid answering any question about Jason Kenney and his failures.
  • Jagmeet Singh in Toronto to repeat his housing pitch yet again, while fending off environmental activists concerned about logging at Fairy Creek.
  • Here is the recap of Annamie Paul’s Face to Face interview on CBC.
  • Veterans issues have fallen to the wayside in this election cycle.
  • Former US president Barack Obama tweeted his endorsement of Trudeau for the second election in a row, for however much that endorsement is worth.
  • The Liberals are asking their candidate in a relatively safe Toronto riding to “pause” his campaign after a former dropped sexual assault charge was revealed.
  • Political scientists suspect that Jason Kenney’s meltdown in Alberta could cause the Conservatives there to bleed votes to both the left and further right.
    Andrew Leach explains why the Liberals have the only viable climate plan.
  • Dr. Jennifer Winter pans the Green party’s climate plan as unrealistic.
  • Althia Raj notes O’Toole’s attempt to position himself as a bridge-builder as he refuses to answer questions on vaccinations and Jason Kenney.

Good reads:

  • Dr. Theresa Tam says that other provinces need to treat Alberta and Saskatchewan as an object lesson in what not to do to avoid disastrous outcomes with COVID.
  • The COVID vaccines received new brand names as part of their Health Canada authorization process, meaning they are now fully approved.
  • General Jonathan Vance is a 99% DNA match for one of the children he claims he didn’t father. (The other was not a match).
  • Manitoba’s next premier will be a woman, as there are only two women in the running to replace him.
  • Former foreign service officer Renée Filiatrault reflects on the lessons that Canada should have learned in Afghanistan, and apparently didn’t.
  • Nam Kiwanuka takes that terrible John Ibbitson column to task, and asks why it’s acceptable for certain people to be angry and get attention, but not minorities.
  • Jen Gerson lays out all the reasons for why Jason Kenney is now doomed, laying in the bed that he made.
  • Robert Hiltz reads the tea leaves and sees the signs that it’s no longer a crazy notion that the Liberals could get their majority on Monday.

Odds and ends:

Want more Routine Proceedings? Become a patron and get exclusive new content.

One thought on “Roundup: Bracing for election night”

  1. As a Saskatchewanian, I am embarrassed to be considered an “object lesson” for the rest of Canada, and a subject of advice from Alabama, for gods sake. But I don’t know if people who live in Eastern Canada can understand how profoundly angry Alberta is now.
    For longer than my life – and I’m 72! – Alberta has considered itself to be some kind of Prairie golden child – rich, successful, happy, didn’t need a provincial sales tax! – and when it comes to their health care system, they thought themselves to be second-to-none across the whole country. Now to have Trudeau – TRUDEAU! – sending ventilators and offering to get the army to help. To have even their children being denied necessary surgeries. To have their ballsy, strutting Premier actually sort-of apologize for mismanagement. It is destroying their own image of themselves as the natural-born leaders of the West.
    The CPC vote in both Alberta and Saskatchewan will collapse on Monday – I don’t know how much of it will go PPC, or to the well-organized NDP, or to the Liberals, or maybe thousands just won’t vote at all. But the impact this will have on both the Alberta and Saskatchewan seats will, I think, be pretty significant.

Comments are closed.