Roundup: Theorizing about Kenney’s slow-motion demise

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It is now on or about day eighty-six of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and Russia claims that some 1700 Ukrainian troops have surrendered from the steel plant in Mariupol, which Kyiv won’t confirm. Kyiv is also hoping to negotiate prisoner exchanges, but Russia sounds like they want to prosecute this troops as part of their “de-nazification,” which is complicated by the fact that this particular battalion does contain some of the far-right troops fighters that have blackened the reputation of Ukrainian forces. It also remains to be seen if Russia will respect their obligations around prisoners of war, and given how much they have broken international law so far in this invasion, that is a very fraught question indeed. Speaking of trials, the Russian soldier who pleaded guilty to killing a civilian is asking the widow for forgiveness. (She said she wants a life sentence, unless he’s part of a prisoner swap for the Ukrainians captured from Mariupol).

Closer to home, it has been decided that Jason Kenney will stay on as premier and party leader on a caretaker-ish basis, until the party choses a new leader (which, apparently, he has not ruled out running in again, either out of arrogance or self-delusion). Either way, he’s not going away anytime soon, and despite his insistence that this is about “uniting” the party, I am left with the recollection of what a bitter Thomas Mulcair did to the NDP once he was pushed out, but stayed on as a caretaker leader while their leadership process took an interminable length of time.

This has nevertheless had some conservatives, federally and provincially, doing a bit of soul-searching as to what it means that Kenney got things wrong. While my own thoughts about this will be in my weekend column, Ontario conservatives are insisting that it’s because Kenney embraced his right flank while Doug Ford kicked his out and is still surviving. (Ford also didn’t need his to the same extent Kenney does). Some federal Conservatives are warning against panicking, while others are warning against polarised politics, and still others see a movement afoot in the party that caters to siege mentality, fuelled by American right-wing media, that causes them to see everything in oppositional terms.

Good reads:

  • After over three years of promising to do so, the federal government finally announced that they were banning Huawei and ZTE from the 5G network.
  • Jean-Yves Duclos is vowing to rouse support to rebuild Ukraine’s healthcare system.
  • Harjit Sajjan spoke about Russians mining Ukrainian farms to prevent planting and harvesting, and that this serves their ability to extend their influence in Africa.
  • Marco Mendicino re-tabled the government’s flawed plan to put CBSA under the RCMP’s civilian review and complaints commission.
  • Three public sector unions are challenging the ongoing vaccine mandates for civil servants as being “punitive” and “unjustified.” (Way to protect your workers, guys).
  • Google is being accused of telling the government one thing and media industry partners another when it comes to the online news bill.
  • China has lifted their ban on Canadian canola, which is probably a sign of what food price inflation is doing to their ability to hold grudges.
  • Ed Fast says he asked to be released from his critic duties after caucus was “livid” that he criticised Poilievre’s attacks on the Bank of Canada.
  • Leslyn Lewis is openly spinning a conspiracy theory about the WHO stealing Canadian sovereignty, and the CBC frames it in a bunch of both-sidesing. Cripes.
  • A Manitoba judge ruled that the province’s clawing back of federal payments for Indigenous children violated their Charter equality rights.
  • Susan Delacourt gauges the federal Conservative reaction to Jason Kenney’s political demise, and tries to divine any lessons that can be drawn from it.
  • Colby Cosh lists a series of good points about Kenney’s inevitable demise, and why it won’t help the party in the long run.

Odds and ends:

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