Roundup: Morneau has a few legitimate gripes

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There is a lot of media attention around Bill Morneau’s upcoming book, and he’s started to do the interview circuits, and lo, he did one with CTV at the end of last week that aired over the weekend. In what he describes around his time in office, some of it has to do with some of the frustrations he felt, and I will say that some of them are very legitimate. Things like how he could never have a private meeting with Justin Trudeau, and that there was always someone from his staff there—that’s very legitimate! And it’s something that I’ve heard from a lot of different sources, including the fact that this extends to the caucus room, where it’s supposed to just be MPs in attendance, and was under previous leaders. (There would also have been senators under previous leaders, but that’s a topic for another day).

But some of what Morneau describes also points out that after several years on the job, he’s still something of a political naïf who hasn’t quite grasped that Parliament Hill is not Bay Street (and that is a big reason why he got caught up in an ethics breach over the WE Charity issue). What may be the best policy in his opinion may not be politically saleable, and I don’t think he has ever really grasped that notion. I think some of his thoughts on the pandemic benefits packages are a little too clouded in hindsight bias, and the fact that he was overridden on the wage subsidy had a lot to do with the original proposal was not being seen to be up to the task at hand. I saw in another excerpt from the book that he complained that some ministers were being placated with amounts of money that he didn’t like, but I am curious what some of that programme spending was. In any case, I don’t think this will make too big of a wave, or that there is anything too explosive in all of the write-ups I’ve seen, and it’s likely to make too much of a splash, beyond him trying to rehabilitate his reputation before he goes back to Bay Street in a more visible way.

Ukraine Dispatch, Day 320:

The “ceasefire” is passed, and Russian forces have been shelling in the Donbas region, as well as Zaporizhzhia. During the Orthodox Christmas celebrations in Ukraine, president Volodymyr Zelenskyy praised the incoming new package of military aid from the US. There was a prisoner swap on Sunday where both sides released 50 prisoners.

Good reads:

  • The prime minister and several Cabinet ministers attended a private ceremony for the commemoration of the third anniversary of the downing of Flight PS752.
  • Trudeau departs this morning for the “Three Amigos” summit in Mexico City.
  • The government will be making an announcement related to the F-35 fighter procurement today.
  • Here is a preview of some of the likely items on the agenda of the upcoming visit by the prime minister of Japan.
  • Critics say the upcoming review of federal whistle-blower protections is unnecessary, and they should just properly implement the system.
  • Here is a look at the attempt to turn the RCMP’s Heritage Centre at their Depot training facility into a national museum, and how the pandemic hampered that.
  • The Star has a longread about the future of the RCMP and the conflicting views as to whether or not it should be dismantled.
  • Alberta wants to pick a fight over the term “just transition,” while Jonathan Wilkinson says he now prefers the term “sustainable jobs.”

Odds and ends:

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