Roundup: O’Toole continues to sit on the vaccine fence with caucus

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Erin O’Toole continues to try and have his cake and eat it too when it comes to ensuring his MPs and senators are fully vaccinated in order to attend Parliamentary sittings. But in his desire to sit on the fence and play both sides, he may have inadvertently shown his hand. After the party’s big caucus meeting in Ottawa yesterday, O’Toole announced that caucus “agreed to respect and abide new rules which require Parliamentarians attending in the House of Commons and Senate to be vaccinated.” But he still planned to raise the point of privilege about the Board of Internal Economy decision, because of course.

But.

It seems that he tripped himself up in French, and spelled out that the plan was for those who “participate in person,” which is a pretty big loophole for the holdouts in the caucus. And yet, O’Toole and his caucus continue to oppose hybrid sittings (as well they should), so anyone who doesn’t show up shouldn’t be allowed to participate virtually either – unless this is yet another case of having his cake and eating it too. “They can’t show up, but they have the option of hybrid, so I guess we’ll allow them to participate that way!” with a show of feigned helplessness to the situation. And we still don’t know how many MPs or senators this affects (though the Senate has not yet issued its own vaccine mandate yet), so it could be three or four, or it could be twelve or fifteen, especially as there appear to be vaccinated MPs who refuse to disclose the fact because they don’t want to appear to their anti-vax constituents like they sold out. So this is where O’Toole finds himself. It’s still a losing battle because any privilege complaint will be voted down by everyone else in the Chamber, even if they try to drag it out until the New Year. And all the while, O’Toole continues to look like he’s pandering to the party’s worst elements rather than standing up to them and demonstrating actual leadership.

Good reads:

  • The Bank of Canada says that because the recovery is taking hold, they are ending quantitative easing, and rates may start to rise earlier than expected.
  • The Pope was indicated a willingness to come to Canada regarding reconciliation with Indigenous people – but no idea of when, or if it includes an apology.
  • Talk of a “Great Resignation” prompted by COVID doesn’t seem to be playing out in Canada as the narratives may suggest elsewhere.
  • Some 40 percent of Canadians believe in some kind of conspiracy theory, which is utterly dismaying (but hey, they also have trust in our institutions, so yay?)
  • We get some of the usual grumbling about who didn’t make it into Cabinet, and it’s apparently “unconscionable” that Greg Fergus was not included.
  • Jagmeet Singh wants hybrid sittings to continue to “encourage more people to get involved in politics.” Because who cares about interpreters suffering injuries?
  • A dispute over money means that Annamie Paul still hasn’t formally resigned a month after she announced she would, so now the party may push her out for real.
  • A former staffer in Jason Kenney’s office has launched a lawsuit about the sexual harassment from other members of staff, and the abuse hurled by certain ministers.
  • The Line takes notes about the change in Chrystia Freeland’s tone in how she is talking about the transition away from pandemic supports.
  • Kevin Carmichael parses the Bank of Canada’s Monetary Policy Report and its changing forward guidance in the face of more persistent inflation.
  • Heather Scoffield similarly looks to what the Bank of Canada said about winding down its quantitative easing, and why that’s not the problem with inflation.
  • Susan Delacourt sees the shuffled Cabinet as a move from more of a one-man show to an ensemble cast, citing Ted Lasso (but I’m not entirely convinced).

Odds and ends:

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2 thoughts on “Roundup: O’Toole continues to sit on the vaccine fence with caucus”

  1. The Vatican will not apologize, they will have a nicely worded statement of regret. Look at the history of the church, it never apologizes for anything. Even Galileo some 500 yrs later did not get an apology, the Vatican merely stated that it was all a misunderstanding. The media should look at past behaviour over 1600 years of church history.

  2. How convenient and predictable that after days of bad press for being fence-sitters on a public health issue and alienating the vast majority of Canadians, the Cons resort to their usual lowlife GOP smear tactics of crying wolf to the ethics commissioner. Apparently they’ve decided that abusing Margaret Trudeau is their only hope of blackmailing her son into an early resignation, lest he and his family be subjected to endless witch-hunt investigations a la Hunter Biden. Anything to derail his ambitious policy agenda while refusing to confront the fact that they have no credible policies of their own.

    It really is no wonder why decent people don’t bother running for office, or that the brightest stars are made to burn out more quickly. Just like there are penalties for fake 911 calls, Barrett and Poilievre should face sanctions of their own for repeated crank calls to Mario Dion. I expect to see Angus jump aboard the bandwagon, as it’s yet another repeat of the nonsense WeGhazi brouhaha that just so happens to involve his own favourite target of abuse. I expect the media to swallow the Kool-Aid too, as they love fake “scandals” instead of positive success stories, and have made poor Maggie their favourite punching bag since before their current favourite punching bag was even born.

    One hopes that Dion has a better nose by now for politically-motivated hit jobs that don’t pass a basic smell test. Probably a false hope considering just how poorly he grasps the scope of his mandate. Sadly, now another good-faith charity is slated for the chopping block, a lamb to be sacrificed to the bonfire of DipperCon inanities. Pathetic.

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