Roundup: Angry over an invented grievance

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Two new Senate appointments were made over the weekend, both from Alberta, which naturally resulted in a mountain of utter bullshit, because neither were from the so-called “senators in waiting” that Alberta periodically “elects” as a stunt in order to invent a grievance against the federal government. There was also more of this nonsense hand-wringing that one of the two is a habitual Liberal donor and held roles as an organiser in the party in the past, but hasn’t for well over a decade. Nevertheless, clueless journalists and bad faith opposition members decry this as “partisan,” even though there is no actual Liberal caucus in the Senate for them to sit with, nor any Liberal whip to direct their votes (even though that has only ever really been illusory in the Senate).

The whole “Senate consultative elections” schtick in Alberta has only ever been a stunt—even when Stephen Harper appointed those who won them, because he was trying to make a point about reforming the Senate through the backdoor without actually doing constitutional changes. The logic of how they’re “just consultations” and that they are still appointed and don’t have any additional legitimacy within the Senate was laid bare during the Supreme Court hearings when Justice Cromwell asked the person making the argument “So why isn’t a consultative auction just as legitimate?” and they didn’t have an answer. But really, the whole thing was just to invent one more reason to make people mad at the federal government, at a time when there was a political impetus to stoke such regional divisions and resentments because that always helped them score political points, and lo, it’s still working for them decades later as they continue to get angry about something they just invented for the sole purpose of making them angry. It’s predictable, and it’s childish, and we should expect provincial governments like Alberta’s to behave like adults (but good luck with that these days).

Of course, where would we be without the conservative columnists in this country, making pronouncements about this without actually understanding a gods damned thing about it. “Not representative of Albertan thinking”? What exactly is “Albertan thinking?” If the insinuation is that their appointment is somehow illegitimate because they’re not conservatives, then I have news for you because the Senate is often a place where political outliers in a province can gain representation, such as Liberals in Alberta, particularly during the “bad old partisan days” where they may be shut out of the province electorally but could still have representation in the Senate and be present in caucus to provide that representation. That doesn’t happen anymore thanks to Trudeau’s short-sighted decision to boot all of the senators from his caucus, which is also why Ivison’s comments about Trudeau “renouncing” his reforms are such utter nonsense, because if Trudeau had renounced them, he would invite senators back into his caucus. He won’t (even though he should), but hey, Ivison needs to think of something from his perch in Costa Rica, and reinforcing a bullshit narrative is about the best it’s going to be.

Ukraine Dispatch

It was a bloody day in Ukraine as Russian missiles struck a military academy and a hospital, killing over fifty people and wounding more than 200. In the hours since, Russia has since launched missiles and drones against Kyiv and Lviv. This as children are returning to school, and in Kharkiv, those schools are now underground because of constant bombardment. Meanwhile, president Zelenskyy continues to call on Western countries who haven’t yet allowed their weapons to be used for long-range strikes inside Russia to not only allow them, but to supply further weapons so that Ukraine can make crucial hits. It also looks like a major government shake-up is on the way after a wave of resignations.

Good reads:

  • Surprising absolutely nobody, China is threatening an “anti-dumping investigation” into Canadian canola in retaliation for the tariffs on Chinese-made EVs.
  • Staff at the Government Operations Centre are facing burnout because of a lack of capacity or funds to modernize and digitize their workflow.
  • Border officials are turning away more travellers and refusing more visas, likely as a result of the government’s move to limit temporary residents.
  • There were delays in getting Canada’s order for air defence systems for Ukraine in the queue, but it’s not clear whether this was preventable.
  • The Canadian government appears to be dragging its feet when it comes to sanctioning four Chinese surveillance tech companies for treatment of Uyghurs.
  • A study of health transfers going back to 2004 proves that federal transfers grew faster than provincial spending, and premiers have lied about those transfers.
  • Civil society groups are calling on the government to move swiftly on the regulations for the gun control bill passed late last year.
  • The relocation of the Supreme Court of Canada for renovations is now about three years behind schedule (which is not a huge surprise).
  • The Public Accounts committee wants the Auditor General to do another audit of SDTC, because they’re no longer a committee of grown-ups but unruly children.
  • Lawrence MacAulay won’t confirm if he’s running again in the next election.
  • Liberal MP Andy Fillmore has resigned his seat to run for the mayor of Halifax.
  • NDP loudmouth Matthew Green is talking tough about the future of the supply and confidence agreement.
  • Doug Ford is ruling out an election this year, but not one early next year.
  • Alberta is moving to table legislation to make sex education in schools opt-in rather than opt-out (which is such a great move for a province that has huge syphilis rates).
  • Anne Applebaum calls on Western countries to strengthen their anti-money laundering laws if we want to get a handle on global kleptocracy.
  • My long weekend column points to how Poilievre is dog-whistling to the worst kinds of people in how he discusses immigration targets.
  • My column looks at ways that Canada needs to better detect money-laundering and enforce laws, in light of how global kleptocrats use countries like ours.

Odds and ends:

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One thought on “Roundup: Angry over an invented grievance”

  1. About that Poltava strike, speculation is rampant that Swedish military instructors were killed. The hit was on the Military Institute of Communications where radio and radar operators were trained. Recently Sweden announced that it was giving Ukraine two AWACS planes and it’s likely the Swedes were training Ukrainians to operate those planes.

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