Roundup: Trudeau taking on populism?

Posted on by

On Monday, prime minister Justin Trudeau was on Vox’s “Today, Explained” podcast, and one of the topics was how he is fighting populism in Canada. While you have to wade through a bunch of sales pitches about the budget in there, you get to the part where Trudeau does talk about trying to counter populism by doing the work rather than just complaining (the “everything is broken,”) and while I take his point, there are plenty of examples in this very budget where they aren’t doing the work (like the Canada Disability Benefit), or where they are promising things years down the road.

“Democracies don’t happen by accident, but need work,” is something Trudeau did say during the interview, and it’s great that he recognises that, but at the same time, his track record is littered with broken promises around accountability and transparency, and it’s pretty hard for a government to engender trust when they are allergic to candour and keep trying to feed happy-clappy pabulum lines to people in lieu of honest conversation, which doesn’t help. If democracies need work, then try to be a little more frank and honest with people, rather than whatever the bullshit comms strategy has been for years now.

Meanwhile, Pierre Poilievre stopped off at the New Brunswick/Nova Scotia border where a bunch of so-called “sovereign citizen” nutbars have been camping out for weeks, and glad-handed with them, and went on to recite his “axe the tax” nonsense, demonstrating a complete ineptitude, either in understanding just who this group is and what they represent, or that he doesn’t understand extremism and how to handle it. Quite the warning sign.

Ukraine Dispatch:

A Russian drone attack on Odesa injured nine, some of them children. The head of Ukraine’s national guard says that they are expecting Russians to try and attack unexpected parts of the front line in the coming summer offensive. Ukraine is also suspending consular services for military-aged men abroad, saying that they have an obligation to return home and help defend their homeland.

https://twitter.com/ukraine_world/status/1782678144538829206

Good reads:

  • Justin Trudeau says that people in Saskatchewan will get their full carbon rebates because they shouldn’t be punished for Scott Moe’s law-breaking.
  • Trudeau also will only keep repeating “intergenerational fairness” when asked about the capital gains tax changes.
  • Chrystia Freeland says the $5 billion Indigenous loan guarantee programme is just a start, and she hopes it becomes oversubscribed so more can be added to it.
  • Opening the plastic pollution talks in Ottawa, Steven Guilbeault says that production limits are probably going to be part of any ambitious action.
  • Canada Post says they don’t want to be part of the upcoming gun buy-back programme, out of concern for their workers’ safety.
  • The Canadian Forces will build a “secret” facility in Uplands around Ottawa that will be the centre of drone operations around the country.
  • The Competition Bureau has serious concerns about a proposed deal for Bunge to acquire Viterra, cornering grain and canola markets.
  • Doctors’ groups are concerned about the capital gains changes, but nobody wants to talk about how maybe we need to rethink how provinces are paying them.
  • The Umar Zameer case is a good example of why politicians shouldn’t talk about bail decisions in public—not that it will stop them because populist outrage sells.
  • Equifax is looking into how to make rental data part of credit scores.
  • Conservative MP Gary Vidal isn’t running again because of riding re-distribution and the fact that the party won’t hold an open nomination in the new riding.
  • Here is a look into why Blaine Higgs’ so-called “big picture” of using LNG to lower global emissions is nothing more than a pipe dream.
  • Danielle Smith appointed another COVID-sceptic doctor to lead a “data review” from the pandemic (because of course she did).
  • My column looks at the latest attempt to update the rules in the Senate, and why so much of it is self-indulgent renaming of positions.

Odds and Ends:

For National Magazine, I take a deeper look into Friday’s Supreme Court of Canada decision into lower-level managers unionizing and standards of review.

My Loonie Politics Quick Take wonders if the federal government can spell these capital gains changes better than Morneau did with previous tax changes.

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

One thought on “Roundup: Trudeau taking on populism?”

  1. The Canadian Forces will build a “secret” facility in Uplands around Ottawa that will be the centre of drone operations around the country.

    Shades of tho old Diefenbunker where locals used to help visiting Ottawa-types find the secret facility.

Comments are closed.