Roundup: Aborted merger talks?

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I will be the first to admit that I don’t follow BC politics too closely, but I cannot help by roll my eyes at some of the narratives starting to leak out across the border around a supposed attempt to “unite the right” in that province. It sounds like it’s all talk, as the rumours that a particular mayor is being touted as a possible candidate lead a merged party, but the leader of the BC Conservative Party is throwing cold water over the whole thing, not unexpectedly.

As a quick refresher, the province used to have a single centre-right party, the BC Liberals, which was not the same as the federal Liberals, but a merger between the “free enterprise” Liberal and Conservative parties in the province to counter the NDP, and that was successful for a number of years, but they were insufficiently conservative for some, especially because they were relatively socially progressive and were environmentally conscious—they were the first jurisdiction in the country to bring in a carbon tax (and it’s an actual tax that largely offsets income taxes). And so the BC Conservatives were born, and the BC Liberals changed their name to BC United (sounding like a European football team), and they have largely tanked since.

This talk of mergers is usually what starts to happen when people start huffing poll numbers (hello the recurring “Why don’t the federal Liberals and NDP merge?” bullshit), but who don’t think about anything underlying, such as policies, beliefs, or underlying culture, because that stuff does matter. A lot. Case in point was Alberta, where Jason Kenney decided to ride in with his blue pick-up truck to “unite the right” in that province without doing any of the soul-searching about what any of it actually means, and what they would have to offer. No, it was just important to them to have a banner with “conservative” in it that could oppose the NDP, and sure, the “united” party did beat the NDP, but it has been nothing but internal chaos, who turned on Kenney at the first opportunity because he brought in the ungovernable, swivel-eyed loons into the fold to give him the numbers he felt he needed. As I’ve said before, he invited the face-eating leopards into the house and made them a nice warm bed, with the intention of turning them on his enemies, but they quickly realised that his face was right there and so they ate it instead. I can pretty much promise you that the exact same thing would happen in BC if they attempted such a merger, which would end up serving nobody.

Ukraine Dispatch:

Russian forces have taken control of two more villages in the Kharkiv region, and possibly another one in the Zaporizhzhia region in the south, as their offensive pushes forward. There have also been injuries from Russian air strikes on the southern cities of Mykolaiv and Kherson. In light of the deteriorating situation, president Volodymyr Zelenskyy is postponing all foreign travel, starting with his planned trips to Spain and Portugal, because of the situation on the front lines.

https://twitter.com/ukraine_world/status/1790735262978326589

Good reads:

  • Justin Trudeau was in Quebec City to announce the takeover of a bridge across the St. Lawrence River that has been the subject of jurisdictional disputes for decades.
  • Statistics Canada pointed out that extreme weather is causing billions in damage, causing insurance premiums to rise along with it.
  • The summit on Indigenous identity theft passed resolutions singling out the Métis Nation of Ontario and the NunatuKavut Community Council as being perpetrators.
  • Tourism companies in Canada are struggling with the perception that the whole country is on fire thanks to the wildfires.
  • The Conservatives have been the beneficiary of using a “loophole” in travel rules by scheduling caucus meetings (allowed) with party conventions (not allowed).
  • Ontario is changing how it compensates migrant farm workers injured on the job, but critics say it’s not being applied to all streams or equitably enough.
  • Rural municipalities in Alberta are worried that three pieces of provincial legislation are going to undermine their autonomy going forward.
  • BC has come to an agreement with social media companies about providing “direct escalation channels” to report non-consensual intimate images.
  • Kevin Carmichael recalls a speech Stephen Poloz gave about changing some mortgage rules in Canada as a possible way to spur more investment in Canada.
  • Paul Wells looks to the south for a reflection on organising election debates, and the choices around whether or not to attend said debates.
  • Susan Delacourt hears from a constitutional expert about Poilievre’s plans for the Notwithstanding Clause, and the danger of his importing Trumpian norm-breaking.

Odds and ends:

https://youtu.be/iNI0LdtVsac 

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