It was quite a day in Manitoba yesterday as Heather Stefanson was sworn-in as the province’s first female premier, but the leadership drama isn’t over. Her challenger, former federal Cabinet minister Shelly Glover has not conceded defeat, and plans to challenge the leadership election in court, citing irregularities and reports that Stefanson’s scrutineers looked defeated at one point of the counting and then something allegedly mysterious happened to a ballot box…or something. I’m having a hard time keeping track of it. Regardless, Glover insists that she’s really the premier, not Stefanson.

Just spoke to Shelly Glover, who says “I am the premier. I am the premier, not her.”

— Bartley Kives (@bkives) November 2, 2021

One could be very pedantic here and note that Stefanson has been sworn in, so she’s premier regardless. Her immediate predecessor, Kelvin Goertzen, was not chosen in a leadership election by caucus as interim leader, and he was fully and legitimately premier, even if it was only for a few weeks (and yes, he’s going to get a portrait in the legislature to reflect that status). So no, Glover is not premier, and even if by some miracle she were declared party leader (which won’t happen – the courts won’t get involved in the inner workings of a political party), Stefanson is still premier and will be until she resigns or is dismissed.

https://twitter.com/StephanieCarvin/status/1455671852647559168

But on a broader point, Glover has always been a very problematic politician, stridently repeating talking points in the face of logic and evidence, and getting combative when challenged on her bullshit, particularly as she seemed to lack the critical reasoning skills to think through her positions. And this attempted court challenge is her combativeness and willingness to believe illogical or contrary things playing out in the very way she demonstrated during her nine years in federal politics (two of which were as a minister). And Glover had her own run-ins with Elections Canada, and at one point Elections Canada asked the Speaker to suspend her because of financial irregularities during an election (which were later resolved with revised filings that Elections Canada accepted, Glover terming them an “honest mistake.”) One has to question her fitness to lead given her history and temperament, but I’m not a member of the party.

Good reads:

• For his final day at COP26, Justin Trudeau endorsed a global minimum carbon price, with the hopes that it would cover 60 percent of emissions by 2030.
• Trudeau also says he is confident that a solution to lowered flags can be reached with Indigenous leaders in advance of Remembrance Day.
• A group of veterans says that they need $5 million by Friday in order to keep safe houses in Kabul open to help those interpreters who helped them.
• Eight more airports in Canada are re-opening to international travel.
• The US Senate has finally confirmed the nomination of David Cohen as ambassador to Canada – because we haven’t had an ambassador in almost three years.
• Annamie Paul says she was “blindsided” by the party’s plans to hold a leadership review vote as her interminable resignation negotiations continue.
• Quebec’s agriculture minister has helped to spearhead a change in grocery chains in the country after two major chains started bilking suppliers.
• Doug Ford has agreed to belatedly raise the minimum wage in Ontario to $15/hour, but more importantly to equalise the rate for servers and bar staff.
• Jason Kenney is whinging that he wasn’t consulted on Trudeau’s COP26 commitments – erm, except they were campaign pledges, so he wasn’t unaware.
• Heather Scoffield recounts the chatter around Justin Trudeau’s talk of a global carbon price at COP26.
• Colby Cosh parses what is happening with those abortion laws in Texas, and why the US Supreme Court is actually looking askance at the logic behind them.
• My column looks at the amateur-hour antics of the Manitoba PC leadership race, and why it’s a sign that our leadership selection processes are irreparably broken.

Odds and ends:

https://twitter.com/EmmMacfarlane/status/1455615133313536009

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