Roundup: No, a foreign power can’t install a prime minister

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One of the unfortunate things about certain people I follow on the Twitter Machine constantly retweeting sludge is that sometimes I see something that is so outrageous that it sets me off. This, from former Global journalist Sam Cooper, is just such an egregious thing.

Setting aside the torqued use of Michael Chong’s testimony, this has all of the credibility of those racist emails that used to circulate, usually at the hands of someone’s relatives, where people worried that the changing Canadian demographics could mean that we might *gasp!* have a Muslim prime minister! As is unsurprising in racist emails like those, the internal logic was deeply flawed and the understanding of our system was non-existent, and was likely repurposed from American racist content worrying about a Muslim president, but that aside, this worry from Cooper is about the same quality.

To wit: If a party held a leadership contest while during a prime minister’s term, the fear expressed here is that, somehow, a foreign government would be able to swamp party memberships (either sales or sign-ups, depending on the party) and install a preferred candidate, who would then become prime minister without an election (which, I should not need to remind anyone, is perfectly legitimate in a parliamentary system). The hole in this logic is that pretty much every party has a weighted point system as part of these elections, so that highly populated regions of the country don’t swamp the more sparely-populated ones. In order for a foreign government to therefore take over a leadership contest, they would need a critical mass of voters in the majority of ridings in the country, particularly ones like small rural ridings in Quebec or Atlantic Canada. That’s simply not a possibility for any foreign government to engineer. The fact that Cooper doesn’t have a clue how these things work should be (another) warning sign about his judgment. Cripes.

Ukraine Dispatch:

Russian drone attacks on Kharkiv struck residential buildings and cut power supplies. A Ukrainian uncrewed aerial vehicle (larger than a drone) was used to strike deep inside Russian territory, striking an industrial site.

https://twitter.com/ukraine_world/status/1775913487300002262

Good reads:

  • Justin Trudeau was in Winnipeg for the pre-budget announcement of a $1.5 billion acquisition fund for affordable rental properties, to help non-profits keep them.
  • Trudeau pointed out that premiers who want different climate plans than the federal carbon price still need a price in them (to avoid undermining everyone else).
  • Trudeau also called out Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s comments about the airstrike on the aid convoy, saying they don’t “just happen.”
  • Mélanie Joly is in Brussels for the 75th anniversary of NATO.
  • The federal government has reached a $7 million settlement with a BC First Nations over a lumber grievance that dates back to 1942.
  • CSE, CSIS and the RCMP testified at the Foreign Interference inquiry, and there was talk of fund transferred from China as possible influence attempts.
  • There has also been some bickering between CSE and CSIS on some of the intelligence, and CSIS backtracked on one of their interference assessments.
  • The RCMP are joining 45 other countries in providing policing and intelligence support to the Paris Olympics this summer.
  • The Canadian Council of Refugees is calling for a national asylum plan that includes reception centres that can triage claimants and connect them with social services.
  • A recent report shows that Canadians are waiting longer for surgeries compared to 2019, which is no surprise given how premiers allowed the system to collapse.
  • NDP MPs Charlie Angus, Rachel Blaney and Carol Hughes all said they’re not running again, and with previous announcements, it’s nearly a quarter of the caucus.
  • It turns out that Saskatchewan’s draft pronoun policies in schools allowed for more discretion before the government stomped on it to be even more draconian.

Odds and Ends:

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