Roundup: Explain, but don’t explain

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Because everything is so stupid, we’re seeing pushback about Justin Trudeau’s explainer video about the changes to the capital gains inclusion rate, and the thrust is that “If you’re explaining, you’re losing,” so therefore Trudeau shouldn’t need three minutes to explain the policy. I mean, he could probably just say “The current tax rules allow people to engage in tax arbitrage and we think that we should close those loopholes,” but he has a “narrative” about these changes.

Nevertheless, I cannot abide this bullshit about “explaining/losing” because it means that this government never explains, and that’s one of the reasons why the Conservatives have such an easy time lying about everything this government does under the sun—if they don’t explain, they hope the media will do it for them, but legacy media almost never does, because they would rather just both-sides what each party says and leave it at that, which lets disinformation just lie there in the open unchallenged. This is terrible for democracy, but this is where we are, apparently.

Meanwhile, new Conservative MP Jamil Jivani went on a rant about people with PhDs in his railing about the carbon levy, but dude has a law degree from Yale. It’s his whole life story, about how he went from being illiterate and pulling himself up by his bootstraps to attending one of the most elite schools in the US. Oh, and while he was there, he was seeking out the expert opinion of PhDs for his research. Funny how he’s now dismissing them because Poilievre wants to playact being a common, working man. It’s amazing how people swallow this nonsense.

Ukraine Dispatch:

Russian forces continue to press their attack against the Kharkiv region, as Ukrainian police are helping to evacuate civilians from the area. Ukrainian security forces say they have thwarted attempted bombings in both Kyiv and Lviv. Because of the damage to power infrastructure, Ukraine is being forced to import record amounts of electricity.

Good reads:

  • Justin Trudeau was making a child care funding reannouncement, while Ontario continues to under-fund their portion of the programme in that province.
  • Mélanie Joly is off to the Middle East and Mediterranean to meet with counterparts on issues of peacekeeping and aid.
  • Bill Blair was in Washington, DC, to meet his American counterpart and assured people that Canada is still working toward its NATO spending targets.
  • Pascale St-Onge has named a panel of seven media experts to help guide the process of reforming the CBC’s mandate in advance of the next election.
  • The federal government has come to an agreement with BC about expanding the heat pump rebate programme to that province.
  • The federal dental care programme has already processed some 46,000 claims in the first few weeks, and some of the problems seen have been severe.
  • A two-day summit is happening in Winnipeg with First Nations, Inuit and Red River Métis leadership to discuss the issue of Indigenous identity fraud.
  • The Commons’ human resources committee tabled a report calling on the federal government to do more to address the impact of AI on workers’ rights.
  • The PC party in New Brunswick is tearing itself apart over Blaine Higgs’ disastrous leadership and decision to turn the party over to Christian nationalists.
  • Wildfire evacuations are taking place in northwest Manitoba.
  • Regina Pride is barring Saskatchewan Party MLAs from attending the parade or festival because of their anti-trans legislation.
  • BC plans to change the law to prevent certain offenders from legally changing their names (though it looks like it will include those not criminally responsible).

Odds and ends:

https://twitter.com/LindsayTedds/status/1790166091945431050

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One thought on “Roundup: Explain, but don’t explain”

  1. A simple explanation works as long as you don’t need to explain what you said. Does everyone knows what “tax arbitrage” is? Not something that leaps to mind.

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