Roundup: Using the invasion of Ukraine for crass domestic gain

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We are now on day seven of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and Kyiv still stands, in spite of the convoy of Russian vehicles headed in its direction. Russians bombed Kyiv’s main television tower, as well as a Holocaust cemetery, which really bolster’s Putin’s claim that he is trying to “de-Nazify” the country. In fact, Russia is bombing more cities and inflicting more damage, and killing more civilians, which led to a response by the International Criminal Court to indict Putin for war crimes. Oh, and to compound the humanitarian crisis, some of Ukraine’s neighbours aren’t accepting non-white refugees who were in Ukraine, which is a big problem.

Here in Canada, yet more incremental sanctions were announced, along with more aid and supplies being sent, and new measures include ships that are of Russian origin or registry being denied entry into Canadian waters. Chrystia Freeland is warning that more severe sanctions will hurt Canadians as well, which people keep forgetting is a reason why sanctions can be so tough to implement, but here we are.

The Conservatives, meanwhile, are making a number of demands which are not necessarily reasonable, such as their continued insistence that the Russian Ambassador be expelled, and the recall of our Ambassador in Moscow. Expelling ambassadors should be the absolute last case situation, because we need channels to talk, especially when the going gets tough. It was more justified with the Iranians because they were running an intimidation ring from their embassy, which does not appear to be the case with the Russians. The fundamental problem is that the Conservatives have adopted this mindset where they treat diplomacy as a cookie you get for good behaviour, which is not the point of diplomacy. That’s why we have diplomacy—to do the hard stuff, and you can’t do that if you keep kicking out opposing ambassadors every time you get in a huff about something. It’s poor practice, and is frankly a specious understanding of how the world works. Even more to the point, their continued insistence that this crisis is a good idea to push their “ethical oil” nonsense and to make the case for “drill, baby, drill,” no matter that it is a literal impossibility to meet Europe’s energy needs any time before the end of the decade, by which point we should be into rapid decarbonisation. But they have narratives that they are wedded to, no matter how crass or inappropriate, and they’re going to stick with them.

Good reads:

  • Pierre Poilievre calls Europe’s response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine to be “weak,” because that’s the mature voice of someone who wants to lead a country.
  • Jason Kenney is planning to ban municipalities from making their own public health measures, such as mask mandates, because he’s that afraid of his right flank.
  • Kady O’Malley’s Process Nerd column looks through some of the private members’ bills coming up for debate in the House of Commons.
  • Stephen Saideman plays out a conversation between a general and the defence minister on enforcing a No-Fly Zone over Ukraine (and why it won’t happen).
  • Adnan Khan explores what the coming insurgency in Ukraine will look like, and why it will be very bad for Russia.
  • Kevin Carmichael explains why the better-than-expected GDP data will almost certainly mean a Bank of Canada rate hike.
  • Carmichael also notes that the sanctions on Russia are pretty much putting a stake in the G20, and walks through the effect of the central bank sanctions.
  • Althia Raj wonders if the Conservatives will take the path of Poilievre and further right-wing populism, or find a more moderate path with someone yet undeclared.
  • My column takes issue with the Basic Income and Proportional Representation goons trying to wedge the occupations as problems for their solutions.

Odds and ends:

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