Roundup: The dumb impulse to make hay of Jenni Byrne

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Over the course of the week, Liberals feel that they found some kind of a clever wedge against the Conservatives in the “revelation” that Pierre Poilievre’s advisor Jenni Byrne’s firm is registered in Ontario to lobby the provincial government on behalf of Loblaws. Byrne herself has not lobbied, and the firm’s work has only done work around trying to get beer and wine into those stores, but those facts haven’t deterred the Liberals. Instead, it’s come up in Question Period and prime minister Justin Trudeau brought it up unbidden at a press conference because he wants the media to talk about it. This while their MPs start tweeting stupid things like “Conservatives have a vested interest in keeping food prices high.”

This is just sad, and it’s a sign that the party is flailing. There is no smoking gun here, and trying to insinuate that there is looks desperate. If anything, it certainly makes it look like the Liberals are going to start stooping to the kinds of dishonest lines that the Conservatives like to trot out in order to try and score points, which you would think the Liberals generally feel they are above, and if they too start going full-bore on fundamentally dishonest talking points to try and get ahead in the polls, then we’re going to be in serious trouble as a country if every party abandons any semblance of honest discourse. It also fundamentally undermines the actual message that the major cause of food price inflation is climate change, which you do not want to do. In other words, knock it off and grow up.

There is the added danger that this starts a contagion around other lobbyists and strategists that the parties rely on. Ottawa is a pretty small pool, and if you go after one party’s operatives who have lobbied, then it becomes fair game, and this escalates into a pretty scorched earth. Bringing up Byrne was a cute quip once in QP, and it should have been left at that. Trying to keep banging on this drum is going to have all kinds of collateral damage that nobody wants.

Ukraine Dispatch:

Knowledgeable Sources™ say that Ukraine has briefed the White House about plans to fire the country’s top military commander, while the defence minister has suspended a senior official in order to investigate suspected corruption. Russia continues to refuse to turn over any of the alleged bodies of alleged POWs from the plane they say Ukraine downed (because it totally isn’t a psy-op).

https://twitter.com/defenceu/status/1753430572150792628

Good reads:

  • While in Waterloo, Justin Trudeau denounced Danielle Smith’s “parental rights” policy, and said that the government is considering sanctions on Israeli settlers.
  • Chrystia Freeland and a whole lot of Toronto area MPs were in Toronto to announce $143 million going to the city for assisting with asylum seekers.
  • Mélanie Joly was in Kyiv to help launch a global initiative to pressure Russia into returning children kidnapped from Ukraine.
  • Dominic LeBlanc says government will share classified information with the foreign interference inquiry, and how he was struck by how much we import intelligence.
  • Seamus O’Regan launched a new pay transparency web tool to track disparities for women and minorities in federally regulated sectors.
  • The manufacturer of the Cyclone helicopters used by the military found defects in the main rotor blades, meaning more frequent inspections until replacement.
  • The National Capital Commission says that making Rideau Cottage the permanent home of the prime minister would come with added costs for new infrastructure.
  • A declassified report shows how then-Attorney General Pierre Trudeau argued against deporting a Latvian immigrant accused of Nazi war crimes.
  • Industry analysts suggest trying to bring a new grocery player into the market may not be effective because of existing supply chain issues (which killed Target).
  • CBC president Catherine Tate told a group of industry insiders that CBC’s funding model needs to be renewed, not its mandate, which is…a choice.
  • The Federal Court has overturned a refugee determination granted to an American transwoman whose life had been threatened and police did nothing about it.
  • The Supreme Court of Canada ruled that Ontario’s Access to Information legislation can’t force Doug Ford to release his mandate letters to his ministers.
  • Conservatives demanded Canada send its old rockets slated for decommissioning to Ukraine, except most of them don’t have warheads or other parts.
  • Jagmeet Singh shared a few reflections with the Star.
  • Doctors in Alberta are denouncing Danielle Smith’s “parental rights” policies and pointing to the falsehoods she is leaning on to support it.
  • My weekend column notes that if the federal government doesn’t invoice premiers for use of the Canadian Forces, they won’t step up on emergency management.

Odds and Ends:

https://twitter.com/RobSilver/status/1753588384147075131

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One thought on “Roundup: The dumb impulse to make hay of Jenni Byrne”

  1. I don’t like the focus on Jenni Byrne’s firm much, but I am a little bewildered that the response is that she’s not handling that business herself. The business has her name. Presumably because that would be a draw for clients.

    I hope the Liberals drop it. But I can understand the temptation.

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