Roundup: Harper gives his predictable endorsement

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It’s day one-hundred-and-fifty-three of Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine, and Russia’s foreign minister openly admits that they want to topple president Volodymyr Zelenskyy because they consider his government “unacceptable” or some such nonsense. Russian forces continue to shell Ukrainan cities in the east and south of the country, as well as in the Kharkiv region. This while a lot of people who initially fled from the Donetsk region have returned home after either feeling alienated further west in Ukraine as Russian speakers, or because they ran out of money, only to be killed by Russian shelling once they’re back. Meanwhile, the push to prosecute Russian war crimes continues in Kyiv even while the fighting rages on, while Slovakia is considering giving Ukraine their fleet of Soviet-era MiG warplanes.

Closer to home, Stephen Harper came out with his endorsement of Pierre Poilievre yesterday, and no, this is not a sign that he’s worried about Charest. Quite the opposite—it’s a sign of his absolute enmity for Charest. Harper has bad blood with Charest, dating back to when Charest was Quebec premier. He had sold Harper on the fantastical notion that Quebec was suffering from some kind of “fiscal imbalance” with Ottawa, which was all bullshit, but it made a good talking point for Charest, and lo, Harper decided to be different from Jean Chrétien and buy peace with Quebec, so he gave Charest the money he was demanding to fix said fictional “fiscal imbalance.” And lo, Charest immediately turned around and turned that payment into a tax cut in the province, and Harper was furious. I mean, it shouldn’t be a surprise, and it’s exhibit eleventy-six for instances of provinces taking federal dollars and not doing what they’re supposed to with it (which is why Justin Trudeau is so insistent upon strings being attached to future healthcare transfers), but Harper has nursed a grudge ever since. His endorsement of Poilievre is just more of him nursing said grudge—he’s not actually worried about Charest winning.

And while we’re here, no, Harper is not still pulling all of the strings in the party. He’s a micro-manager. If he were, they wouldn’t be in as much disarray as they are now. Also, the IDU is not some kind of fascist plot—it’s a gods damned social club that Harper is the convener of. Yes, it’s comprised of small-c conservative parties (including Angela Merkel and her party), and yes, Harper has made some very, very questionable statements from it, but it’s a social club. It has no power, and it’s not pulling any strings. He’s not a Bond villain. He was a mediocre prime minister who now spends his time swanning around the globe pretending he used to be important. That’s it. Stop giving him any more credit than that.

Good reads:

  • At Maskwacis, the Pope offered a somewhat qualified apology for residential schools, but didn’t implicate the Catholic Church as an institution.
  • Here is more of the scene at Maskwacis, and some of the reaction to the Pope.
  • Steven Guilbeault insists that Canada will meet its 2030 emissions reduction targets, even if the oil and gas sector needs more time to achieve theirs.
  • Jean-Yves Duclos is asking the dental industry for input as part of the design phase of the propose dental care plan.
  • Some CRTC observers worry that the kind of person the government is looking to head up the CRTC may not even exist given the tasks at hand.
  • RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki and minister Bill Blair appeared at public safety committee, and both denied any allegations of political interference in Nova Scotia.
  • Rogers executives were at industry committee to answer about the major outage, and insisted with a straight face that the Shaw merger is still a good idea. (Oof).
  • Jason Markusoff looks at Danielle Smith’s increasing pandering to fringe pseudoscience to attack medicine, particularly around things like cancer treatment.
  • Heather Scoffield boils down yesterday’s committee hearings to questions about trust, both in government and institutions we rely on.
  • Paul Wells skewers Poilievre’s choice to debate his phone rather than the other candidates, and moves into a meditation on political leadership in Canada.

Odds and ends:

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