Roundup: Taking Poilievre’s troll bait

Posted on by

I suspect we’re going to get a bunch of wailing and gnashing of teeth today because Twitter slapped the “government-funded media” label on the CBC account, at the behest of Pierre Poilievre. And frankly, we shouldn’t give Poilievre the satisfaction. This is clearly just him being a troll. He wants to spend his time being a shitposting edgelord on Twitter, as do Andrew Scheer and a bunch of other members of their caucus, because that’s who they are.

Of course, if things were really being fair and scrupulous, then the entire Postmedia chain, along with the Toronto Star and Globe and Mail would get the “government-funded” label as well, because they absolutely get it. (Television broadcasters CTV and Global technically don’t get government subsidies, but that’s only a technical point, because the simultaneous substitution rules that they live by are absolutely a kind of subsidy programme that they pretend isn’t one as they complain about the CBC’s stipend). But nobody actually wants to have a meaningful discussion here. Instead, it’s about beating up on the CBC under the rubric of their supposedly being either controlled by the Liberal government or by Liberal partisans, which isn’t true (CBC News is some of the most scrupulously egregious both-sidesers in the business). This is just culture war bullshit, where facts and logic don’t actually matter. This will be used as another fundraising appeal by Poilievre, and on and on it will go. Nobody should take this bait.

Ukraine Dispatch:

In spite of it being Orthodox Easter, Russians continued to shell areas of Ukraine including Zaporizhzhia, though a prisoner exchange was had over the weekend because of the holiday.

https://twitter.com/kyivindependent/status/1647166252669079552

Good reads:

  • Here is a look at the series of town hall discussions that Justin Trudeau has been holding over the past couple of weeks in order to sell his budget.
  • The G7 environment ministers’ meeting concluded without agreeing to Canada’s push for a timeline on phasing out coal.
  • G7 foreign ministers also met, and discussed China and North Korea’s increasingly aggressive postures.
  • Pascal St-Onge has restored Hockey Canada’s funding, citing that they have met the conditions laid out for them, but insists it’s “not a blank cheque.”
  • The Department of Fisheries and Oceans as shut down an elver fishery in the Maritimes because of increased poaching and violence.
  • The federal government is settling land claims from five BC First Nations that have been in dispute since 1899.
  • The RCMP are sending five Musical Ride members to King Charles III’s coronation.
  • The Canadian Press got historical RCMP documents around the decision to provide protection to Pierre Trudeau when he left office because a changed environment.
  • Here are five bills that will take much of the attention in the next few weeks.
  • Liberal MP Chandra Arya is sponsoring a petition to reassess the plans for a foreign agent registry, citing concerns about potential harassment and intimidation.
  • The Ontario Liberal Party set out the rules and timelines for their leadership race.
  • Nunavut’s health minister acknowledges that COVID stalled progress on eliminating tuberculosis among Inuit communities.
  • Heather Scoffield notes how many mixed signals are in the economic data that make it hard to read the trajectory we’re on.
  • Chantal Hébert looks at where Justin Trudeau is at ten years into his leadership of the party and wonders if it’s time for new blood ahead of the next election.

Odds and ends:

Want more Routine Proceedings? Become a patron and get exclusive new content.

2 thoughts on “Roundup: Taking Poilievre’s troll bait”

  1. Are you sure it’s the MP for Carleton who did this? Could be Jordan Petersen?

  2. Mr. Poilievre was the hack CPC member on CBC News panels for years seemingly on-air every other day and Jordan Petersen was “discovered” by TVO’s The Agenda. Also weird to lament bias while also promote “press outlets” like Rebel Media, True North, Post Millennial who are hardly known for being neutral, let alone accurate. And Tesla didn’t run a profit for a decade and got billions in government funding and Musk’s worry is that other automakers will get some of the same benefits he got.

Comments are closed.