Roundup: Can you “reflect” without a sense of self-awareness?

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If there’s a theme in the fallout from Chrystia Freeland’s resignation, it’s a complete lack of self-awareness as to what is going on. While Justin Trudeau apparently spent the day “reflecting,” he gave a speech at the big Liberal Christmas party that…was basically his usual stump speech, prefaced with the line “Like most families, sometimes we have fights around the holidays. But of course, like most families, we find our way through it.” It’s completely tone-deaf for what just happened, and pretends that he didn’t reward his deputy with betrayal and telling her that he was going to replace her with Mark Carney when that apparently wasn’t even fully lined up (which would have been incredibly unworkable as Carney doesn’t have a seat, and would be waaaaaay too busy as finance minister at this particular moment to run in a by-election, particularly given that the Liberals no longer have safe seats). Trudeau is bad with contrition, but this is next level. Oh, and then he cancelled all of his year-end interviews with news outlets, so he doesn’t want to face any questions for everything that went down either, whether that’s because he wants to convince himself that everything is still fine, or he knows it’s not and doesn’t want to he reminded of it. Either way, it’s just one more sign of how the wheels have come off, and it’s time to go.

Meanwhile, there are MPs and former party operatives who think that Freeland should be the leader, because she is an intellectual heavyweight, and while I don’t disagree that she has the brains, she has proven to be a charisma black hole, and lacks the retail politics instinct that leadership requires. (And for the record, I don’t think that Mark Carney possesses the retail politics qualities either, or the patience to lead the party through the wilderness of opposition years and rebuilding).

And it wasn’t just Trudeau and the Liberals who are without any self-awareness. Poilievre held a press conference in Mississauga, and gave the line “if you hire clowns, you get a circus.” I mean, has he looked at, or listened to himself or his caucus? Ever? We are so screwed as a country.

Refers to pretty much everyone right now in #cdnpoli.

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2024-12-17T15:50:37.076Z

Ukraine Dispatch

Russia has been intensifying their attacks both in the parts of Kursk region that Ukraine occupies, and along Ukraine’s Donetsk region. Ukrainian intelligence apparently killed a Russian general responsible for the use of chemical weapons in a “special operation.” Ukraine also says they uncovered twelve agents working for Russia trying to determine the locations of their F-16 fighters and other air defences. And NATO is taking over coordination of military aid for Ukraine from the US, before Donald Trump comes to power.

Good reads:

  • In the wake of Freeland’s resignation, Donald Trump trolled her on his social media, which most people are taking as a sign that she was doing the right thing.
  • The Canadian Press assembled some thoughts on Trudeau’s options going forward.
  • The Fiscal Update proposes changes that will ensure Disability Benefits payments are not taxed, and that increase penalties for money laundering oversight failures.
  • Dominic LeBlanc outlined some of the proposed measures in the “Joint Strike Force” that they are putting together to patrol the border with American agencies.
  • The clean electricity regulations were announced, which push the net zero goals to 2050 instead of 2035 (while they insist 2035 was only the date for plans).
  • Former Conservative MP Tamara Jansen won the Cloverdale—Langley City by-election, and you might remember her for homophobic remarks she made in debate.
  • Conservatives tried to push for committee hearings on the Trump tariff threats, but we all know this was about getting fresh social media clips over the holidays.
  • Matt Gurney posits that Trudeau is now in a Kobayashi Maru scenario, where he has no good options left for how to leave with his dignity intact.
  • Paul Wells writes down a few thoughts about where things are at in the Trudeau/Freeland fiasco, and makes some very trenchant observations.
  • My column lays out why it is now untenable for Trudeau to remain Liberal leader any longer, and why he needs to resign before his party is decimated.

Odds and ends:

Possibly unpopular opinion: every time something unfortunate happens to a woman, it’s not necessarily “but feminism!” Reflexively saying that it is strikes me as pretty patronizing and reductive.

— Shannon Proudfoot (@sproudfoot.bsky.social) 2024-12-17T13:43:55.016Z

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