Roundup: Theatre of the absurd, housing motion edition

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The closer the House of Commons gets to rising for the winter break, the more absurd theatre we see. Yesterday was case in point, with the Conservatives’ second and final Supply Day of the calendar year. The topic was housing, but their motion was a complete dog’s breakfast of nonsense, contradiction and outright unconstitutional demands. Because of course it was.

The point was made that the inclusion of the outright lie about capital gains taxes was a ploy for the Conservatives to say that the Liberals were not ruling it out when this motion as inevitably defeated (as indeed it was). But Liberal Mark Gerretsen though he was being crafty and tried to move a motion after QP to head off those talking points, trying to call for unanimous consent to reaffirm that they wouldn’t tax capital gains. But the motion didn’t pass, so Gerretsen tried to spin that too, and it’s just utterly stupid that I can’t even.

Good reads:

  • Justin Trudeau addressed a virtual meeting of AFN leaders, and reassured them that work is underway to end all remaining boil-water advisories.
  • At the Finance committee, Chrystia Freeland raised the spectre of the omicron variant to urge MPs to quickly pass Bill C-2 on new pandemic supports.
  • New Brunswick has now signed onto the $10/day child care programme, leaving Ontario as the lone province holding out.
  • The manufacturer is helping to devise a fix for the cracked tails in our RCAF Cyclone helicopters.
  • Two of our frigates lost electronic storage devices containing classified information, and come on, guys. It’s not like you haven’t had a spy scandal already. Oh, wait…
  • The Auditor General released new reports on COVID measures, including border measure enforcement, and inadequate migrant worker protections.
  • The federal Privacy Commissioner’s annual report warns of the ongoing dangers related to surveillance capitalism.
  • Consultations on the proposed Miscarriages of Justice Commission say the new body must be proactive and not just wait for people to apply to it.
  • The Senate’s bill to change the Parliament of Canada Act to “legalise” the changes they’ve been making has been found out of order by the Commons’ Speaker.
  • The Commons’ Speaker has ruled that the order to produce Winnipeg Lab documents died with the previous parliament (which we already knew).
  • The removal of a Quebec teacher for wearing a hijab has Conservatives criticising the move, but Erin O’Toole says he won’t challenge provincial jurisdiction.
  • Saskatchewan says it plans to reduce its surgical backlog by privatising certain procedures, and will reassess keeping it going then. (Sure, Jan).
  • Matt Gurney tries to procure some rapid tests, and puts a lie to what Doug Ford and his government have been saying about them.
  • Heather Scoffield states the obvious in that raising interest rates to tackle inflation won’t do anything about rising food costs, because the causes are different.
  • Althia Raj tries to make sense of Erin O’Toole’s weak position on Bill 21 in Quebec, particularly as he likes to denounce religious persecution abroad.

Odds and ends:

Tristin Hopper offers a reminder about the importance of the Statute of Westminster to Canada’s history.

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3 thoughts on “Roundup: Theatre of the absurd, housing motion edition”

  1. The removal of a Quebec teacher for wearing a hijab has Conservatives criticising the move, but Erin O’Toole says he won’t challenge provincial jurisdiction.

    I had not realized that O’Toole had realised that there were Federal and Provincial jurisdictions. With any luck, Jagmeet Singh will soon master this difficult concept.

    Still, I guess we cannot expect lawyers to understand these things. /sarc

    • Thank you for your post. The lack of awareness of jurisdiction in Canada especially by Federal politicians is chronic but this “ignorance” is a useful ploy by them to obfuscate issues and take advantage of the populace that is generally ignorant of what levels of government can and cannot do. Hence the popular saying…”it’s all Trudeau’s fault.”

    • Jagmeet won’t acknowledge that concept for as long as Horgan is big man on campus in B.C. Half his caucus is from there. Omertá is the only governing principle in the *other* opposition party that stands for No Damn Principles. Orange conservatives.

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