Roundup: Boissonnault out (for now?)

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Just before Question Period yesterday, a very brief press release was issued that prime minister Justin Trudeau and Randy Boissonnault “agreed” that Boissonnault would step away from Cabinet in order for Boissonnault to clear the allegations against him. The wording was a little curious, but at this point it was probably inevitable given the sheer volume of stories coming out, never mind that most of them involved coincidences, or unproven allegations about his former business partner and not him.

I’m not going to remark much about any of the allegations, including those of “race-shifting” because Boissonnault has been issuing corrections to media outlets for more than five years that he didn’t say he was Indigenous even if the party said he was (which seems to never get mentioned in these stories), and the Ethics Commissioner keeps looking at each new allegation and saying there’s nothing to investigate. However, what I will note is that we are back to the situation where there is no longer anyone around the Cabinet table from Alberta or Saskatchewan. Now, Freeland did grow up in Alberta and can claim some credibility there, and Jonathan Wilkinson used to work for the Saskatchewan government, so he has some credibility there too, but Trudeau doesn’t have many options when it comes to replacing an Alberta seat because his only other alternative is George Chahal, who pretty much burned his future prospects when he got caught removing a rivals flyers during the campaign, and he has recently been vocal about looking to see Trudeau resign as leader.

I will also note that it remains particularly curious that for as much as media outlets and the National Post most especially have been pouring time and resources into these Boissonnault allegations, and every time they call up another Indigenous leader to denounce Boissonnault and call for his resignation, there is a particular silence around Danielle Smith and previously claims she has made about Indigenous ancestry, which have definitively been proven false. If the Conservatives are so offended by claims Boissonnault may or may not have made, or have been made about him, I have yet to see a single Conservative or pundit in this country call Smith a “fake” or a “fraud,” or a “phoney,” and demand that she resigns for the very same offences they are accusing Boissonnault of having made, when Smith’s has been plainly on the record for a couple of years now. As far as I can determine, the Post ran a single story about it, and not three weeks of constant, breathless reporting about it. It’s incredibly funny how that happens, no?

Ukraine Dispatch

Ukraine has now fired UK-provided cruise missiles into Russian territory, striking targets in Kursk. Ukraine also says it successfully struck a command post in the Belgorod region, likely in a drone attack. Here is a look at the Russian attacks on Ukraine’s energy system.

Good reads:

  • Justin Trudeau and Chrystia Freeland are expected to announce an “affordability package” that is said to include a temporary GST cut on a number of items. (Sigh)
  • Commissioner of Competition Matthew Boswell talks about what he worries about when it comes to AI affecting the competition space.
  • Donald Trump has named former Michigan congressman Pete Hoekstra to be his next ambassador to Canada (but did say nice things about the New NAFTA).
  • There is speculation that Trump may weaponize Canada’s Digital Services Tax against us once he is in office.
  • Doug Ford claimed that all of the premiers were onboard a push to cut Mexico out of NAFTA—but other premiers said the agreement was only if the current deal fails.
  • The Canadian and US embassies were closed to the public in Kyiv because of the potential for a “significant air attack” on the city.
  • Some Conservatives are grumbling to media about how restrictive their caucus discipline is, going so far as to prevent them from fraternizing with other MPs.
  • Jagmeet Singh has asked the premiers to support his (economically illiterate) GST cut plan, accidentally acknowledging that they’re a legitimate level of government.
  • Danielle Smith has just appointed Stephen Harper to chair the board of the province’s public pension fund, who says he’ll do the job pro bono.
  • Alberta’s privacy commissioner is concerned about proposed changes to the province’s Freedom of Information laws creating loopholes.

Odds and ends:

Need a copy of my book “The Unbroken Machine,” or “Royal Progress,” which I contributed to? Want to give a copy as a gift? Dundurn Press is having a 25% off site wide sale!

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2024-11-18T23:53:05.945Z

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