Sometimes the way the media cycle operates in weird ways in this city, and yesterday was no exception. On Wednesday, Senator Percy Downe wrote an op-ed that said that the Liberal Party should be having discussions as to whether they think Justin Trudeau should lead them into the next election, and a few people started frothing about it, but a day later, it got particular traction because Pierre Poilievre was using it in Question Period to attack Trudeau, as though Downe was a big name or had a network that was significant.

And that’s the part that mystifies me. Once upon a time, Downe was a chief of staff to Jean Chrétien, but senators haven’t been part of the Liberal caucus since 2014, when Trudeau famously expelled them as pre-emptive damage control in advance of the Auditor General’s (massively flawed) report on the Senate’s expenses, and claimed it was to give them more independence. Furthermore, Downe jumped ship to the fledgeling Canadian Senators Group right after he helped the Senate Liberals transform their caucus into the Progressives, which alienated him from the remaining Liberals in the Senate (who no longer call themselves such in the current environment). I fail to see how he has any kind of sway or influence at all. And when Trudeau was asked about Downe’s comments on his way into Question Period yesterday, he gave a classic “I wish him well” response and laughed it off.

Meanwhile, the attempt to make Mark Carney happen aren’t stopping either, as the Globe and Mail cornered him a climate summit in town this week to demand to know his leadership ambitions and *gasp!* he didn’t say no! Let’s gossip about this more! Never mind that Carney would likely mean the second coming of Michael Ignatieff for the party, if you ignore that he has no political machinery around him that could even support a bid (which he should avoid at all costs because it damages the Bank of Canada and its current governor, whether he likes to believe it or not). But seriously, this whole thing is ridiculous, and I cannot believe how much air time and digital space has been used up on it.

Ukraine Dispatch:

Russian drones have hit civilian targets in Kharkiv region, but no reports of casualties as of when I’m writing this. Ukrainian forces repelled a new Russian assault on Vuhledar in the east.

⚡️Mayor: Russian forces hit Kharkiv.

Explosions were heard in the city of Kharkiv overnight on Nov. 3.

Mayor Ihor Terekhov said that a civilian site was hit in the attack and caught fire.

There is no information on casualties at the time of the publication.

— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) November 2, 2023

Good reads:

• Mark Miller intervened to halt the deportation of an Egyptian man facing the death penalty in his home country.
• Miller has also stated that he hopes that Afghans in Pakistan waiting for their clearance to come to Canada will start arriving in a few weeks.
• The Logic has an interview with François-Philippe Champagne about this week’s AI safety summit in the UK.
• The Public Health Agency of Canada lost $150 million on an unfilled contract that they say they can’t talk about because of confidentiality agreements.
• Here is the CBC’s write-up of the screening of the video of atrocities that Hamas perpetrated against Israelis on October 7th.
• The PBO says that the F-35s will cost as much as $74 billion over their life-cycle, but as usual, his methodology raises more questions.
• The Correctional Investigator says that the over-incarceration of Indigenous people has become worse, not better, over the past ten years.
• The public inquiry into foreign interference will begin its public hearings in the New Year (because she still thinks she can make the end-of-February deadline).
• The closure of Roxham Road didn’t stop the flow of “irregular” asylum claimants? I am shocked! Shocked! Whoever could have foreseen that outcome?
• There are six candidates for national chief of the Assembly of First Nations.
• Incoming Supreme Court of Canada justice Mary Moreau appeared before an ad-hoc joint committee to do a glorified meet-and-greet with MPs and senators.
• The Senate human rights committee tabled its report on Islamophobia in Canada, and called for new criminal offenses and better education to counter stereotypes.
• CBC president Catherine Tait was at heritage committee to push back against the Conservatives’ attacks, and said that defunding them would hurt rural Canadians.
• The Commons finance committee is calling on the finance minister to block RBC’s bid to take over HSBC.
• Conservatives are filibustering the clean transition and offshore energy bills from getting committee study, because they want to rage-farm.
• The NDP plan to support the Conservative’s Supply Day motion on “pausing” the carbon price on all home heating until the next election (subsidizing fossil fuels!)

Odds and ends:

You can't analyze one without the other, unless you want to turn the rebates into an unfunded transfer payment. The fundamental math is that, all else equal, higher-income people heat larger homes and have higher emissions in general.

— Andrew Leach (@andrew_leach) November 3, 2023

The federal NDP is, yet again, the useful idiot on carbon pricing. Their priorities, as I understand it, are 1) increase fossil fuel subsidies 2) regressive change to carbon pricing 3) progressive climate policy. They proposed #1, and have now pledged to vote for #2.

— Andrew Leach (@andrew_leach) November 3, 2023

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