Roundup: Lower-tier leadership candidates

Posted on by

It is now on or about day fifty-five of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and it looks like the fighting in the eastern part of the country, around the Donbas region, has intensified as has been signalled for a couple of weeks now. At the same time, more missile attacks have hit western cities in the country like Lviv, which has mostly been out of the fighting, so that is keeping everyone on edge, particularly given that Lviv is hosting a lot of the people who have fled from other parts of the country.

Other news from Ukraine over the long weekend:

  • Thus far, the invasion has damaged about 30 percent of the country’s infrastructure, at a cost of about $100 billion.
  • There were further attacks on Kyiv over the weekend, possibly in retaliation for the sinking of the Moskva
  • Ukrainian fighters in Mariupol are defying Russia’s surrender-or-die orders
  • Here is a look at the situation LGBTQ+ Ukrainians find themselves in during the war.

Closer to home, Power & Politics interviewed Conservative leadership candidate Roman Baber yesterday, and it was…painful. He is not a serious person. At all. He kept speaking in facile talking points about “restoring democracy,” as though we didn’t just have free and fair elections, based on his nonsense reading of public health restrictions and what happened during the Ottawa occupation, with a dose of facile catch-phrases about “cancel culture.” And, bless her, Vassy Kapelos did gently try to push back against some of what he said, but wow. I would be very surprised if he manages to get his $300,000 in fundraising and all of his signatures to become a verified contestant because he offers nothing original, and even if this about trying to rebuild his profile after being booted from the caucus provincially, it’s a very difficult way to go about it, with not much in the way of reward.

Good reads:

  • Steven Guilbeault is warning Quebec that if they don’t get their caribou protection plan in place by April 20th, he will do it for them using a federal emergency order.
  • The federal budget contains a provision that tells provinces if they don’t spend allocated infrastructure dollars by March 31, 2023, it will be re-prioritised.
  • Documents show that the cyber-breach at Rideau Hall was a “sophisticated intrusion,” but won’t give any details on just what was accessed.
  • More poultry farms are confirmed to be infected with the H5N1 avian flu.
  • The Official Languages Commissioner says that any live events the prime minister hosts on Facebook must be bilingual—but there is no technology to do so.
  • Surprising absolutely no one, the RCMP’s review of past sexual assault reports found “consistent deficiencies” in how they were handled, and 242 cases were re-opened.
  • A Canadian F-35 test pilot says Canada did the right thing by delaying buying the planes as we avoided the “growing pains” (though critical deficiencies still remain).
  • Here’s a look at how Conservative leadership candidates are all using the term “freedom” as part of their pitches to the membership.
  • Patrick Brown’s tactic to win the leadership is to make promises to specific ethno-cultural communities and hope they sign up to grow the party membership.
  • Doug Ford has revised down his government’s climate goals, which both coasts on federal initiatives, and places more reduction burden on Alberta and Saskatchewan.
  • Colby Cosh notes that the final victory of the Charter may in fact be its embrace by right wing populists, and the denizens of the occupation in Ottawa.
  • My weekend column looks at how the Bank of Canada’s job is being made even tougher by being the subject of a disinformation campaign by Conservatives.

Odds and ends:

Want more Routine Proceedings? Become a patron and get exclusive new content.

One thought on “Roundup: Lower-tier leadership candidates”

  1. Re the F-35 purchace.

    So far, the F-35 reminds me of that North American built car back in the 1980’s or early 90’s that was such a lemon that when owners organized a protest on Parliament Hill, it arrived late as one or two cars burst into flames somewhere between the Gatineau marshaling spot and the Hill.

    What was the Gov’t thinking?

Comments are closed.