In the wake of his announced departure, it sounds like Justin Trudeau made calls to Jagmeet Singh and Yves-François Blanchet to try and secure votes on the Supplementary Estimates in order to extend the life of this parliament a little further, and both of them told him no. What is particularly curious here however is that Trudeau pointed out to Singh that more time would give them time to extend the dental care programme beyond seniors and children, and give them time enough to get the nascent pharmacare up and running (as so far, there is only cooperation from one or two provinces). Per the CBC, “An NDP source with knowledge of the conversation said the government already has all the powers it needs.”

*sighs, pinches bridge of nose*

It’s not a question of not having power, it’s a question of time. Implementation takes time to do properly, and with dental care, they went slowly on the groups eligible to ensure that everything was going to work before they rolled it out to the majority of the population, and they haven’t felt that they worked out all of the kinks yet. They want time enough to so. And the nascent pharmacare plan needs cooperation with the provinces, which takes time to negotiate, but also requires some assurance for those provinces that if the government does fall, that they have some guarantees for funding for a set period of time so that they’re not left holding the bag. Singh and the NDP should know this, but, well, they don’t actually know how government works because they’ve never formed it. They have now guaranteed that the premiers won’t bother to sign a deal because Poilievre will just kill the programme as soon as he’s in power, so why set up expectations?

What is most ironic in this is that by refusing to give the government more time so that he can look tough, Singh has doomed the very programmes that he was so insistent that the government set up as part of their agreement with the Liberals (which I will remind you, the Liberals fulfilled in good faith only for Singh to tear up the agreement for the sake of optics). And because the NDP insisted that dental care be a fully federal insurance programme rather than a cost-shared programme with provinces, they have guaranteed that it will be an easy kill for Poilievre, because they’re actually incapable of long-term or strategic thinking. I am reminded of how Jack Layton extracted all kinds of concessions from Paul Martin’s budget, but then brought him down before the budget implementation bill could be passed, and they spent years patting themselves on the back for a hollow victory that didn’t achieve anything they said they did. It’s looking an awful lot like there’s going to be a repeat of that particular folly.

Ukraine Dispatch

Russia attacked Ukraine with 72 drones overnight, and five struck buildings in Chernihiv in the north, another fell on a building in Kyiv.

https://twitter.com/ukraine_world/status/1877669181153304715

Ukraine struck a Russian drone warehouse in Rostov Oblast using a domestically-made Neptune missile; Ukrainian forces struck a Russian army command post in Svitlodarsk in Russian-occupied Donetsk Oblast; and more. https://t.co/70JkKK1IId

— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) January 10, 2025

Good reads:

• Justin Trudeau told American media that the topic of annexation did come up at his dinner at Mar-a-Lago, and he countered with trading for California and Vermont.
• Canada’s first G7 statement as chair was to denounce the crackdown on democracy in Venezuela.
• Mélanie Joly will head to Washington next week to fight the tariff threats.
• Mark Holland says new Canada Health Act rules will see nurse practitioners and pharmacists bill the public system, closing a loophole that allowed private fees.
• The federal government is ending its funding for COVID vaccines, meaning the provinces will be responsible for them (as is their jobs, if they bothered to do them).
• Quebec and BC are sending more firefighters and equipment to Los Angeles.
• Mélanie Joly has bowed out of the Liberal leadership race (at least this time around), while Mark Carney is expected to announce next week.
• Christy Clark claimed she never joined the Conservatives and didn’t get a leadership ballot, and then the Conservatives produced receipts. Oops.
• Justin Ling thinks we need new political parties to re-invigorate our democracy. I am very, very dubious (because it doesn’t fix the actual problems).

Odds and ends:

Joly, with what reads like a ‘it’s not no, it’s just not right now’ statement about her leadership aspirations.

Says she’s “ready to become the first woman to lead” her party, but she’s choosing to focus right now on Trump’s “unjustified” tariff threat. https://t.co/QBYihWsbMR

— Rachel Aiello (@rachaiello) January 10, 2025

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