Roundup: Gould takes the French debate

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It was the French debate for the Liberal leadership last night, and it was a fairly smoothly run affair, with an aggressive moderator, and very few instances of candidates talking over one another. While you can read a recap here, and the Canadian Press liveblog, I watched it in French to get a sense of how well the candidates were actually performing. The biggest blunder of the evening was Mark Carney slipping up and saying that he agrees with Hamas, which the Conservatives pounced on in bad faith, and Freeland quickly caught his error and corrected him, but it certainly coloured the online reaction.

Meanwhile, my thoughts:

  • Karina Gould was the best performer of the night. Her French was the strongest, and she was articulate in her positions, she had something of substance to say in most of the responses, and in her closing remarks, made the very salient point that they won’t win by being Conservative Lite™.
  • Chrystia Freeland’s French was very deliberate and didactic in tone, but that’s not much different from her speaking style in English. She had a bit of a mixed bag in terms of policy discussions, and could identify things the government has done or is doing, because she was there for the discussions and implementation.
  • Mark Carney had the shakiest French, but as he has throughout his entire leadership campaign, he mostly stuck to platitudes and clichés, and gave very few answers or specifics, even when pressed to do so by the moderator. It was not a shining moment for him.
  • Frank Baylis’s French was fine, being as he’s from Montreal, but he pretty much made himself irrelevant the whole evening, by constantly reminding everyone that he’s a businessman, as though that gave him any special abilities or insights, particularly when dealing with Trump, and he had some absolutely bizarre ideas associated with fiscal discipline.

The English debate is tonight, so we’ll see how different the candidates are with the language they are more comfortable in.

Ukraine Dispatch

Russia’s overnight air attacks injured one woman in the outskirts of Kyiv, and Poland scrambled their aircraft because the attacks were targeting western Ukraine, close to their borders. G7 foreign ministers, led by Canada, are still working on a joint statement about the anniversary of the war, because the American position has now shifted into Russia’s favour. At the United Nations, the US voted against Ukraine’s resolution to condemn Russia for their invasion, and joined the ranks of Russia, Belarus, and North Korea.

Good reads:

  • Here is a recap of Trudeau’s trip to Kyiv, with an announcement of a new tranche of aid for Ukraine, and said that a peace deal could include Canadian troops.
  • Trump says the tariffs are still coming next month, because it was really all about getting us to do more about the border. (Yeah, right).
  • Mark Holland says the first province to sign onto national pharmacare will be announced soon.
  • Here is a look at the ongoing fallout of the hack of FINTRAC’s systems last year.
  • Here is an examination of how Musk and his “DOGE” incels are a direct sequel to “Gamergate,” complete with credulous media (and I just died a little inside).
  • Jagmeet Singh insists he’s still relevant. Really!
  • Nova Scotia has backed down on their odious bill to reduce the independence of the province’s Auditor General.
  • Here’s an interview with Quebec’s outgoing regional chief, Ghislain Picard.
  • Danielle Smith wants to spend $180 million to build two privately-run “involuntary treatment centres” (while people can’t get voluntary treatment of supports).
  • Anne Applebaum reflects on three years of war in Ukraine, and how Putin can only win by getting Ukraine’s allies to abandon them, as Trump is now doing.
  • Althia Raj warns Carney that his Achilles Heel may be whether he can tread the line between confidence and arrogance.

Odds and ends:

My Loonie Politics Quick Take wonders if Poilievre’s endgame in proposing closer ties with the US is to become Trump’s Lukashenko.

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One thought on “Roundup: Gould takes the French debate”

  1. Karina Gould was really good in the interview afterwards, talking about the provinces. But her proposal to cut the GST is something I can’t vote for.

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