Roundup: The campaign leaders testify

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Yesterday was the big day when top campaign officials from the Liberals and Conservatives appeared at the Procedure and House Affairs committee to talk about foreign interference allegations in the previous two elections, and we learned a couple of things. One of which is that Fred DeLorey, the Conservative campaign director, is eminently reasonable and acknowledges they don’t know if there was any actual interference in those ridings they lost, or if it was the result of other factors, like their hard-line rhetoric on China, or gun-control measures (as the Liberal campaign insists). Another thing we learned is that the reporting on the CSIS “warnings” about MP Han Dong were not described accurately, and that they didn’t insist the party drop him as a candidate—which never did make sense if you listened to the actual intelligence experts who said at the time that that didn’t sound right.

There was also talk about how it takes an incredibly high threshold for a party to be able to drop a candidate, so if intelligence agencies had concerns, they would need to come up with something pretty tangible for the parties to exercise that kind of power (and don’t forget that their spending caps are determined by how many candidates they’re running, so if they need to drop one after the cut-off point to replace a name on the ballot, that creates even more headaches). There was also talk about how there needs to be more ongoing dialogue between national security agencies and parties, particularly between election cycles, because these agencies didn’t seem to understand how parties operated, which makes it hard for them to be making determinations about how any interference might be happening (and again, considering that the reported leaks had a bunch of details that didn’t make any sense, this could be the reason why).

Suffice to say, these were the people who should have been testifying the whole time rather than the dog and pony show we had with Katie Telford, which was just a waste of time and resources.

Ukraine Dispatch:

A Russian missile struck a museum in Kupiansk, in the Kharkiv region, killing one civilian and wounding ten others. As well, a woman died from shelling in nearby Dvorichna, and two others in the eastern Donetsk region. Elsewhere, Ukrainian forces staged raids on the east side of the Dnipro river in order to degrade Russian capacity, particularly in their shelling of Kherson, in a sign that the counter-offensive is near. Ukraine is planning on a “complete transformation” of six war-torn cities that were badly damaged in the invasion, to be rebuilt under an experimental programme according to “new principles.”

https://twitter.com/zelenskyyua/status/1650769182286331905

Good reads:

  • Striking civil servants are trying to block ports in Vancouver, Montreal and St. John’s, while the government is ensuring contingency plans are in place.
  • Justin Trudeau says Canada is moving to provide some airlift capacity for citizens in Sudan, and that two ships are being stationed nearby.
  • Mélanie Joly is “deeply concerned” about Azerbaijan exacerbating a conflict with Armenia over a breakaway province.
  • Marco Mendicino says the government is working on a definition of military-style assault rifle that they can legislate, but there remain a lot of questions.
  • CSIS gave briefings to MPs and senators ahead of the last election, providing basic information about avoiding foreign influence or attempts to elicit information.
  • The Bank of Canada released their disclosure of climate-related risks, and it’s an interesting look at institutional considerations about combatting climate change.
  • The four Artemis II astronauts were doing the media rounds in Ottawa, touting how their mission can work toward solutions for food insecurity and climate adaptation.
  • Politico talks to Canada’s former trade negotiator Steve Verheul about his career, the deals he negotiated, and where trade policy is headed.
  • Her Excellency Mary May Simon began an official visit to Yellowknife and the Northwest Territories ahead of the German President’s planned visit.
  • Conservative senators challenged the Government Leader in the Senate’s use of time allocation in the attempt to get Bill C-11 past the finish line.
  • A group of MPs from all parties denounced plans to invest further in nuclear power.
  • Doug Ford wants to eliminate post-secondary requirements for police officers in Ontario, and it’s just so stupid that I cannot even.
  • Althia Raj sees a path for the government to get some political capital by holding firm with the current civil service strike.
  • My column looks at what the government has offered for its Canadian coronation plans and notes the pettiness of just how much they have minimalised it.

Odds and ends:

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2 thoughts on “Roundup: The campaign leaders testify”

  1. Doug Ford wants to eliminate post-secondary requirements for police officers in Ontario, and it’s just so stupid that I cannot even.

    It really is astoundingly stupid—well it is Doug Ford— as there is no such requirement. I think that most or all Ontario police forces informally require post-secondary qualifications but it is not a legal requirement.

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