Roundup: The gloves are off in the leadership

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It is now day twenty of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and Kyiv remains largely intact, while Russian bombardment continues of other cities, particularly Mariupol. Peace talks continue, but there is some speculation that because Russia cannot capture Kyiv that the shelling of other cities is an attempt to force some kinds of concessions from the Ukrainians to end the conflict. There is also news that Russians bombed a military base near the border of Poland, which some are interpreting as an act to warn NATO about providing aid to Ukraine. At the same time, we are hearing that China turned down Russia’s request for military aid as well as financial aid to weather the economic sanctions, though both countries deny this (not that they should be believed), so that is a very interesting development indeed. Elsewhere, the World Bank has approved another $200 million in financial aid for Ukraine to help it weather the invasion.

Later today, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy will address the Canadian parliament, and here is a list of previous leaders who have done so. Meanwhile, two Canadian MPs—one Liberal, one Conservative—are in Poland to offer assistance where they can to Ukrainian refugees, and showing that this is a non-partisan effort to help where Canada is able to. Both expect Zelenskyy to demand more from Canada, and they have been hearing about needs in Poland to assist with the influx of refugees.

Conservative leadership

The gloves are off, and Pierre Poilievre and Patrick Brown are at each other’s throats over the 2015 “niqab ban” policy of the former Harper-led government. Brown is trying to paint Poilievre as complicit in it, as he was in Cabinet at the time, while Poilievre is calling Brown a liar (which is rich considering that Poilievre is an avowed lying liar who lies all the gods damned time), and says there was never a niqab ban—erm, except there was, Harper doubled down on it, members of Poilievre’s own campaign team have said there was and apologised for not standing against it. But again, Poilievre is a lying liar who lies what are you going to do? Oh, and Poilievre is also making a bogus promise about coercing provinces to accept foreign credentials for doctors and engineers. Good luck with that, Pierre, because if that’s all it would take, it would have been done by now (particularly when Poilievre was the federal minister of employment and social development). Cripes.

Good reads:

  • Sean Fraser says there will be highly-skilled immigrants needed to fill jobs, but that they simply needed to switch tactics during the pandemic.
  • Senior Sources™ say the next budget will be “back to basics” without the need for more pandemic supports, and given the uncertainty because of Russia and Ukraine.
  • The federal government is appealing a Quebec Court of Appeal ruling that declared portions of the government’s First Nations child welfare legislation unconstitutional.
  • Electric vehicle registries in Canada are up significantly, but we are still lagging behind Europe when it comes to adoption.
  • A day after Unifor president Jerry Dias announced his immediate retirement, it turns out that he is under investigation for violating the union’s constitution.
  • Maclean’s interviews Canadian Ambassador to the US Kirsten Hillman.
  • Leslyn Lewis calls Quebec’s Law 21 “explicit religious discrimination,” while Pierre Poilievre has also come out against it.
  • Jean Charest has tested positive for COVID, and will campaign from home.
  • Heather Scoffield suspects the Liberals will chose a pragmatic over a purist approach to emissions reductions, which could mean fossil fuel exports to Europe.

Odds and ends:

My Loonie Politics Quick Take looks over the rules of the Conservative leadership race and how that may affect how it takes place.

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