Roundup: O’Toole’s farewell hypocrisy

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Former Conservative leader Erin O’Toole gave his farewell speech to the House of Commons yesterday, and it’s been a while since I’ve heard something as grossly hypocritical as that. Using his sombre voice (which has the benefit of completely beguiling the pundit class), he decried “performance politics,” where they chase social media algorithms, using the Chamber to generate clips, and fuelling polarisation, and replacing discussion with “virtue signalling”—which is his way of whataboutery to insist that the Liberals and NDP are just as bad. He also decried the use of conspiracy theories around things like the United Nations.

The problem? He hired a professional shitposter, Jeff Ballingall, to chase those very social media algorithms he is decrying. He fully used the Chamber to generate clips, he fully endorsed a number of conspiracy theories, whether it was about the firing of the scientists at the Winnipeg Lab, or around the United Nations when he was pretending to be a “true blue conservative” during the leadership. And while this has been seen by some as a rebuke of Poilievre, there was absolutely no contrition about any of what he did, from the serial lying, to his autocratic power games at the end of his leadership. The most he said was “too many members on all sides of this Chamber, and from time to time I have been guilty of it myself, are becoming followers of our followers when we should be leaders.” That was it. That was his contrition to how much he has done all of the things he is decrying as he exits, the bravery of someone who no longer has to live with the consequences of his actions.

https://twitter.com/dwjudson/status/1668484357089099777

It amazes me that the pundit classes, who have been falling all over O’Toole’s speech, keep memory-holing the entire tenure of his leadership and what an absolute lying, tyrannical disaster that he was throughout. Ignoring who he proved himself to be in favour of the image that pundits so desperately want him to be is a choice. And as he heads off to spend more time in his basement podcast studio, it would be great if we could be clear-eyed about just who O’Toole is, instead of just falling for his sombre-voice trick.

Ukraine Dispatch:

Ukraine says it has liberated seven villages in Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia provinces, as the counter-offensive gets underway. Russians, meanwhile, have been shelling Kharkiv, as well as nine towns and villages in Donetsk. They also launched an overnight attack against the central city of Kryvyi Rih, and there are reports of dead and wounded.

https://twitter.com/defenceu/status/1668246754540630017

Good reads:

  • Dominic LeBlanc insists he’s not giving the opposition a blank cheque in demanding they come up with names and terms of reference for an inquiry.
  • Incidentally, opposition leaders have not yet met about determining what their demands will be for said possible inquiry.
  • Any move to permanently resettle displaced Ukrainians could be politically fraught, especially as the country hopes they will return to rebuild their economy post-war.
  • The Canadian government seizing a Russian cargo plane with the intention of selling it and giving the proceeds to Ukraine is being seen as an international test case.
  • Canada and the Netherlands are taking Syria to the International Court of Justice over its use of torture, and other human rights violations.
  • Correctional Services says they have begun their review of Paul Bernarndo’s transfer, and it will be completed in a few weeks.
  • Supreme Court of Canada Justice Russell Brown abruptly retired, hoping that a new appointment will get a full complement on the court faster than his exoneration.
  • Senators are mulling whether to further amend the aid bill that would allow groups to operate in Afghanistan, given the requests to speed passage from aid groups.
  • Morris Rosenberg appeared before committee again to try and put the Trudeau Foundation conspiracy theories about the Chinese donation to rest.
  • MP Frank Caputo says that David Lametti threatened him because he cheered on a swipe at Justice Iacobucci. (Lametti claims this was about Italians, not lawyers).
  • It turns out that Blaine Higgs has been using a social media manager who was part of a campaign to defeat all Liberals in western Canada in the 2019 election.
  • New Brunswick’s child and youth advocate is again denouncing the changes to the LGBTQ+ school policy, pointing out how shoddy and inconsistent they are.

Odds and ends:

For Xtra, I delve deeper into how the government’s emergency funding for Prides will work, and where the money comes from.

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2 thoughts on “Roundup: O’Toole’s farewell hypocrisy”

  1. That’s nice. Are they including the USA ? Syria was just a sub-contractor in the Mehr Arar case.

  2. Great — and wholly deserved and apt — excoriation of EOT. Nevertheless, the ‘followers of our followers when we should be leaders’ should live on when critiquing Canadian political parties.

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