Roundup: Credulously repeating the 20-year line

Posted on by

The big story that everyone was credulously repeating yesterday was the Parliamentary Budget Officer’s report on the Stellantis-LG Energy Solutions electric vehicle battery plant, and what he termed to be the “break-even” for the subsidies provided by the federal government and Ontario. To hear the two governments tell the tale, it would have earned back the subsidies within about five years, provided you factor in all of the indirect benefits from it. The PBO says that break-even would take twenty-years, but that didn’t take into account indirect benefits, just the revenues from the plant’s output. While I don’t trust the government’s five-year figure because it’s based on a lot of optimism and fuzzy math, I also don’t trust the PBO’s figures, because he and his office have a demonstrated history of just pulling methodologies out of their collective asses, and calling it a day, no matter how puzzling the results or the presentation.

Legacy media, however, takes the PBO at face-value, every time. “Oh, but he’s politically neutral so he’s credible!” is usually the cry, even though credible economists will tell you that his numbers don’t make sense much of the time (to say nothing of the fact that many of his reports are well outside of his legislated mandate). And if you look at the reporting, The Canadian Press, The Star, and the National Post all just quote from the report in full credulity, with some quotes from MPs or the minister in reaction. Not one of them appeared to try to get a second opinion. The CBC, however, decided to take things one step further and engage in actual journalistic malpractice by getting a quote from Ian Lee—a business studies professor with no expertise or credibility other than the fact that he answers his phone and provides bullshit answers about every topic under the sun—and the gods damned Canadian Taxpayers Federation, an Astroturf organization that exists solely to provide outraged quotes to the media. That’s what passes for getting a second opinion at the national public broadcaster.

Officers of Parliament are not infallible, and this PBO is especially a problem. In fact, one economist I was chatting with yesterday referred to him as the “Ian Lee of PBOs,” which pretty much says it all. It would be great if legacy media would actually take his utterances with a grain of salt, but they won’t, because nobody dares to challenge Officers of Parliament, and that is a problem that has a corrosive effect on our democratic institutions.

Ukraine Dispatch:

No news on the wires about any Russian strikes or the progress of the counter-offensive, but there was talk of Sweden considering donating some of its Gripen fighters to Ukraine. As well, Ukraine’s Antonov, which primarily has been in the business of building cargo planes, has been shifting their focus to building drones as the war carries on.

Good reads:

  • The PM’s plane has been repaired and departed from India without need of one of the back-up planes.
  • Health Canada has approved the latest COVID vaccines for the XBB.1.5 variants.
  • One of the military’s transport plans rolled into a French plane on an airfield in Guam in July because it was only partially secured, damaging both planes.
  • Here is a look at some of the dynamics at play in the upcoming AFN election for the new national chief, which should take place in December.
  • The Federal Court has ruled that Steven Guilbeault has to unblock Ezra Levant on Twitter (which is absurd).
  • The Liberal caucus is meeting in London, Ontario, and they’re hearing about the frustrations of people in the face of slumping poll numbers.
  • Michael Chong testified before a US Congressional committee about his experiences with foreign interference by China.
  • Health inspectors found critical violations in the shared kitchen used by day care facilities that have now led to 264 lab-confirmed E. coli cases.
  • My column points out that the Liberals are guaranteed to trip all over themselves in the face of Poilievre’s deceptive “common sense” messaging.

Odds and ends:

My Loonie Politics Quick Take talks about how the party leaders have become increasingly divorced from the policy resolutions of their grassroots members.

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