Roundup: O’Toole emerges, with zero self-reflection

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It’s day one-hundred-and-seventeen of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and the standoff in Severodonestk continues amid worsening morale on both sides. There are reports that whole Russian units are refusing orders, between poor front-line conditions, poor equipment and lack of personnel. While president Voldymyr Zelenskyy visited cities in the south of the country, promising not to abandon them, NATO’s secretary general is warning members that this conflict could last for years at this pace.

Closer to home, Erin O’Toole has finally emerged from his basement podcast studio and ventured back to Ottawa, and he gave an interview to Chris Hall on CBC Radio late in the week, which was broadcast Saturday. I’m not sure what I should have been expecting, but it was about as self-serving as one might expect, and shows pretty much no self-reflection about his loss, or the fact that he has a problem telling the truth, which was just as evident in this interview as it’s been elsewhere. Sometimes people grow a conscience or a spine after a little time away from the office, but O’Toole certainly doesn’t seem to have done that.

To wit, he kept insisting that he was trying to find a “balance” when it came to the occupation, and that he wasn’t engaging with its leadership (debatable) but he wasn’t going to forbid his caucus from meeting with constituents (never mind that we could all see that their primary demand was to overturn democracy). He insisted that the party has never tried to politicise “personal health choices,” referring to vaccinations, but seriously? You have a significant portion of your caucus who opposes the personal health choices around abortion and who strongly politicise it, and you have others who are openly spreading conspiracy theories around vaccinations. He claimed that when people come up to him with WEF conspiracy theories or the likes that he tries to challenge them, which we know is bullshit because he has openly promulgated a variety of conspiracy theories as leader, and has been silent about his caucus promoting others. He is trying to blame China for the loss of several seats, crying disinformation over WeChat, but apparently irony died because he and his party have absolutely no qualms about disinformation on domestic issues when it suits them. As for his loss as either party leader or in the election, he offered no personal reflection or insight, aside from an admission he didn’t communicate well enough, but really? Nothing about realizing that you can’t try to play both sides out in the open, or that you shouldn’t be switching your positions on the daily, or that you utterly lacked convictions on anything? No, just that you didn’t communicate well enough. Okay, sure. Keep telling yourself that.

Good reads:

  • Anita Anand is expected to announce plans for NORAD modernisation today.
  • After consultations, it looks like the government is planning on taking a different approach to tackling online hate than they tried last year.
  • The government is so far saying nothing about the Chief Electoral Officer’s desire to make election disinformation illegal (because it may be impossible to do).
  • Jean Charest insists he can still win because he can be a unifier, while Patrick Brown says Poilievre is throwing accusations around as a distraction from the crypt crash.
  • Doug Ford marched in the York Region Pride Parade over the weekend.
  • Rachel Notley is promising an external body to look into her party’s internal bullying and harassment problem.
  • Heather Scoffield heads to the potash mines and crop labs of Saskatchewan to see what Canada is doing to head off a looming food crisis. (Still nothing about drought).
  • Chantal Hébert joins the chorus of those who see the past two weeks’ silly season exhaustion as proof that the Liberals are now running on autopilot.
  • Colby Cosh is (reasonably) concerned about the Chief Electoral Officer’s desire to have courts be able to de-register parties that people deem to be “hateful.”
  • Supriya Dwivedi calls out the government’s lack of willingness to communicate effectively, giving the opposition the ability to just say anything they want.
  • My weekend column relays what happened with the broadcasting bill and why there are consequences when you filibuster for weeks on end.

Odds and ends:

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