Roundup: A barometer we should pay attention to

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It is now day one hundred-and-one of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and Ukraine says that they have reclaimed a large chuck of Severodonetsk, foiling Russia’s attempt to move further into the city. There are concerns that Russia is trying to dig in and stay in those eastern cities for the long haul.

For that one hundredth day of the war, here’s a look back at Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s nightly video addresses, and what they have done for his people. Here is a timeline of the events of the invasion, as well as an attempted accounting of some of costs that this war has taken on the people of Ukraine. As well, a museum in Kyiv is collecting materials left behind by Russian forces and making art out of it.

Closer to home, the wailing and gnashing of teeth over the extremely low turnout from the Ontario election continues, and that has Turnout Nerds and Proportional Representation fanboys out in force, to little avail. Most corrosive were the rounds of people who insisted that because the turnout was so low, that Ford had formed a majority government with something like 20 percent of eligible voters and that this was somehow illegitimate and that they should petition the lieutenant governor to deny him the ability to form government (erm, except that he is already in government, and simply has a new legislature). While you have some people trying to explain this low turnout as frustration and disengagement, where people were told time and again by media polls what the outcome was going to be so they never bothered, I do think there is something to be said about this being a measure of where we’re at, and it’s not good—and that mandatory voting would simply paper over that indicator. Of course, what this should do is prompt parties to get their acts in gear and present something that can actually excite voters and get them out to the polls, but we’re seeing cynical moves by parties who capitalise on low turnout (Ford’s Progressive Conservatives), or who try to game their so-called “vote efficiency” to have just enough turnout (federal Liberals). It’s not healthy, and we should do more about it, but the parties didn’t seem interested this time around.

https://twitter.com/Honickman/status/1532847527975915521

Good reads:

  • Justin Trudeau will be headed to NORAD headquarters next week, followed by the Summit of the Americas meeting in California.
  • We’re now at 77 confirmed cases of monkeypox, and Dr. Theresa Tam says we all need to up our game when it comes to dealing with infectious diseases.
  • The military has been trying to turn over sexual assault cases to civilian police, and half of them were rejected and sent back, so that’s helpful.
  • It was the three-year anniversary of the MMIW report, and progress is still haltingly slow from governments (because this also involves provinces, not just federal).
  • Library and Archives Canada is in a contest of wills with the Information Commissioner over requests for hundreds of thousands of RCMP documents.
  • Conservative MP Cathay Wagantall was asked to leave the Parliamentary precinct because she refuses to disclose her vaccination status.
  • Jean Charest claims he’s signed up enough new members to win the leadership campaign, but won’t say what that number actually is.
  • The Conservative Party is claiming that they will set a new membership record now that they’ve reached the sale cut-off to vote in the leadership contest.
  • The Line has a lengthy look at the Ontario Election which they mostly got right.
  • Chantal Hébert tries to divine some lessons for federal Conservatives out of Ford’s victory (but falls apart at the end on lazy “divided left” nonsense).
  • Similarly, Susan Delacourt notices the policy overlaps between Ford and Justin Trudeau, and that it complicates the narratives about both.
  • Robert Hiltz gives a stinging condemnation of the opposition parties in the Ontario election, and (rightly) says that they deserve no thanks for their service.
  • My weekend column also lays blame at Horwath and Del Duca for running the beigest campaigns imaginable, handing Ford his victory on a platter.

Odds and ends:

Justin Ling traces the rise of conspiracy theorist David Icke and his belief in lizard people.

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