Roundup: One great backbencher

Posted on by

Following his unsuccessful run to lead the Ontario Liberal Party, Liberal backbencher Nathaniel Erskine-Smith has confirmed he’s not running in the next election, which is a very big shame. Erskine-Smith has been the kind of backbencher that we need a lot more of in this country, which is to say someone who’s not afraid to rock the boat a little, and to vote against his own party from time to time on matters of principle. That’s exceedingly rare in Canadian politics, and mostly happens only among the Liberals in recent parliaments—Conservatives have a desire to show they’re in lockstep, and the NDP will quietly punish MPs who don’t show continued “solidarity” (and you’d better believe they have an internal bullying culture).

This being said, I’m was not sure that Erskine-Smith would have made a great party leader provincially. While he brought great ideas to the campaign, my concern would be whether someone like that, who wasn’t afraid of rocking the boat from a backbench position, could maintain that energy sustainably in a leadership role, particularly because of the number of compromises that leadership in politics entails. It makes it harder to maintain the kinds of principled positions that he has been able to take, particularly on areas where sitting governments can find themselves getting uncomfortable.

Maybe I’m wrong. Perhaps he could have made it work in leadership and brought a fresh energy to provincial politics the way he’s managed to make a particularly necessary contribution federally. Regardless, I hope he has inspired other backbenchers to take more changes and go against the party line from time to time, because we desperately need it.

Ukraine Dispatch:

Ukrainian forces shot down 22 out of 33 Russian drones launched overnight Thursday, which hit residential neighbourhoods in the southern city of Kherson, and the nearby community of Beryslav. Ukrainian forces also claim to have hit targets in St. Petersburg, which travelled 1250 km to get there. Russian forces claim to have taken over a settlement called Vesele in Ukraine’s east. Meanwhile, six settlements are being rebuilt under the rubric that economies win wars, but they are only building essentials like housing and hospitals, and not libraries or museums.

Good reads:

  • Justin Trudeau was in Iqaluit to sign a devolution agreement with the territory around control over natural resources and watersheds.
  • Trudeau also pushed back against Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s statement that there is no place for a Palestinian state.
  • At the World Economic Forum, Chrystia Freeland was touting green investment, while Mark Carney warned about persistent global supply shocks.
  • The government is preparing for a possible influx of tens of thousands of Ukrainians as the deadline for the special visas approaches.
  • There hasn’t been an appreciable uptick in applications for heat pump grants since those grants were increased, while most of the interest is coming from PEI.
  • FINTRAC reports that online gambling sites have been laundering illicit cash.
  • Here is a deeper dive into the problem of deepfakes in an election, and why Canada isn’t prepared at all for it.
  • The Star talks to some backbench Liberals, some of them anonymously, about their mood amidst sinking poll numbers.
  • Pierre Poilievre called the mayors of Montreal and Quebec City “incompetent” because of housing start declines (and scoring points in rural Quebec).
  • François Legault sent a letter to Trudeau claiming that the province is at the “breaking point” with asylum seekers and wants Trudeau to do something about it.
  • Ontario is spending $2 million to help communities in southwestern Ontario prevent abandoned oil and gas wells from exploding. (No, seriously).
  • Saskatchewan has the highest HIV rate in the country, but are planning to make it worse by banning pipe kits and restricting needle exchanges.
  • My Xtra column shows why Poilievre’s supposed concern for free speech is really about his dystopian world-building, and why that’s dangerous for LGBTQ+ people.

Odds and Ends:

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