Tag Archives: General Tom Lawson

Roundup: Taking Moe a little too seriously

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As Saskatchewan’s little LARP into lawlessness continues, a number of credulous columnists in this country continue to take it seriously that the province thinks they know that they’re doing, or that they have found legal loopholes around said lawlessness. They haven’t, and they should stop pretending that Scott Moe or his minister, Dustin Duncan, are some kind of evil geniuses sticking it to Trudeau. They’re not, and it’s a little embarrassing how easily some columnists can let themselves get played like this.

Ukraine Dispatch:

Two people were killed in Russian shelling of Kherson in the south, and another killed in an air attack on Kharkiv in the northeast.

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Roundup: Good questions about Trudeau’s proposals

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There have been a few good responses to Trudeau’s big announcement on Tuesday, including by Emmett Macfarlane and to an extent Andrew Coyne (though I have some respectful disagreements on points he’s made). But two of the best came in the form of Twitter essays, so I’m just going to post them here for your benefit, because they were that good.

https://twitter.com/jandrewpotter/status/611170331756138497

https://twitter.com/jandrewpotter/status/611170765392642048

https://twitter.com/jandrewpotter/status/611171120985706496

https://twitter.com/jandrewpotter/status/611171784683991041

https://twitter.com/jandrewpotter/status/611172117275521025

https://twitter.com/jandrewpotter/status/611172270812205056

https://twitter.com/jandrewpotter/status/611172430577471489

https://twitter.com/jandrewpotter/status/611172648702193664

https://twitter.com/jandrewpotter/status/611172838297329665

https://twitter.com/jandrewpotter/status/611173239570608128

https://twitter.com/jandrewpotter/status/611173399008706560

https://twitter.com/jandrewpotter/status/611173665888010240

https://twitter.com/EmmMacfarlane/status/611187983883083776

https://twitter.com/EmmMacfarlane/status/611188306441842689

https://twitter.com/EmmMacfarlane/status/611188371168305152

https://twitter.com/EmmMacfarlane/status/611193729186156544

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Roundup: Some laudable goals, and a lead balloon

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The writs might as well have been dropped for the kinds of campaigning that was going on yesterday – Trudeau in Ottawa, and Mulcair in Toronto. While Mulcair largely reheated past statements about support for the manufacturing sector (not that he spelled out what that support means) or lowering small business taxes (of the kind that could actually help out whose wealthy Canadians who incorporated themselves for tax reasons), it was Trudeau’s package of announcements that got the big play. The package included 32 measures for “real change” to bring more openness and transparency to government – a familiar song and dance, but there were some pretty laudable concrete proposals in there, around things like Access to Information, improving service standards at CRA, or repealing this government’s “fair” election laws. The part that got everyone talking – and my head exploding repeatedly – was Trudeau signing onto the electoral reform bandwagon. While Trudeau was talking about consultations and then legislation within eighteen months, the fact that he’s buying into the completely and demonstrably false notion that votes don’t count under our current system (in fact, they not only count but all count equally) is disheartening – particularly after he spent his leadership campaign talking about how he didn’t believe in PR systems (as opposed to Joyce Murray, where that was a central plank for her). Without turning this post into a denunciation of electoral reform, let me simply say that it’s false to say that votes don’t count now, and that changing the system will simply replace one set of problems – or perceived problems – for a whole new set of problems. There were so many other laudable proposals in his platform, one or two duds excepting, that it’s too bad that this one particularly bad one sucked the air out of the rest of it all. If he want’s “evidence based policy,” then perhaps he should reconsider this particular promise. Paul Wells writes about the earnestness of it all, with some historical perspective for good measure.

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Roundup: Camembert and clutched pearls

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In the media feeding frenzy yesterday morning, appetites whetted by unconfirmed reports by CTV that some 40 senators got additional letters from the Auditor General looking for further clarifications on expenses audited, one particular senator got swarmed while waiting at an elevator. Senator Nancy Ruth, who is a character who shoots from the hip and a pretty deadpan sense of humour, expressed her concerns about the Auditor General not understanding the role that a senator plays – in her case, as a feminist activist who brings a gender analysis lens to the work she does in the Upper Chamber – and then noted that the auditors were getting really picky to the point of being weird, like asking why her assistant expensed a breakfast when she should have eaten on the plane on her flight from Toronto to Ottawa. Nancy Ruth, deadpan, said that airplane food was awful, with “ice cold camembert and broken crackers.” But immediately We The Media clutched our pearls that she made such a quip. Camembert? That sounds awfully fancy! Why, normal Canadians would only eat blocks of Kraft cheese, thank you very much. And suddenly it became held up as a symbol of the Senate’s problems, and its members’ “entitlements.” There is this terrible strain of petty cheapness in our media – we’re aghast that things cost money (look at the renovations to Parliament Hill, much of which had been allowed to deteriorate because of the optics of spending money), and if someone puts up a dollar figure without context, it’s all the more fodder. If someone makes a legitimate expense, well, “ordinary Canadians” don’t get these expenses (err, except they do), so we try and shame them for claiming things that are within the rules. The moral panic around taxpayer dollars can be terribly provincial because it tends to be so very petty, this enviousness that some people are rewarded for doing long and difficult work – and make no mistake, the life of a senator is far less glamorous than people like to make it seem, particularly if you have a gruelling travel schedule to a lonely city like Ottawa and back. And it is a lot of work, both on Senate files and the kinds of projects that Senators take on because they have a position and a platform by which to champion them. But rather than acknowledge it, we begrudge it and we try to make everyone resent it too. Is it any wonder there is such cynicism about politics in this country? We stoke it at every opportunity. Maybe the problem is us, and our inability to roll with a quip or a joke, too busy clutching at our pearls instead.

https://twitter.com/jordanowens/status/583346556625154048

https://twitter.com/jandrewpotter/status/583450918303232000

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Roundup: Kenney’s fading credibility

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It was no surprised that the motion to support the Iraq mission passed, but what was perhaps unexpected was the bit of verbal sparring between Jason Kenney and Justin Trudeau, and the issue of Kenney’s credibility came up. It has come up several times, having been called out repeatedly by journalists for posting misleading photos on his Twitter account, or his statements that were not true about things like Russian planes buzzing our frigate in the Black Sea, but this weekend, things got even more escalated when the Chief of Defence Staff had to come out and make a statement to both back up and correct the record with regards to Kenney’s statements about how Canada and the US were the only countries engaged in Syria and Iraq using precision bombs. That’s blatantly not true, and General Lawson had to use some careful language to not embarrass his minister but at the same time correct the record, and Kenney treated it as though Lawson backed up his statement – which he didn’t. And Trudeau used that during the question-and-answer portion of his speech on the Iraq motion, that the minister doesn’t have the credibility behind his words when it comes to the motion to extend the mission and the Liberals can’t trust him as a result. Will that be enough political cover for Trudeau given the disgruntled members of his own party who would see us join the mission? I guess we’ll wait and see. Meanwhile, the government’s fudging on the reality of our combat operations is a sign that Canadians really don’t have the stomach for another war.

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Roundup: Mulcair sees a conspiracy

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After allegations were made that the Supreme Court of Canada somehow intervened during the patriation of the Constitution, the Court’s investigation has turned up no documents to suggest that this is the case. Not that there was anything that they could really be expected to find – phone records from 1982? And every justice on the bench at that time is now deceased, so it’s not like they could ask any of them. This, however, is not good enough for either the PQ government in Quebec, nor Thomas Mulcair, who seems to think that the Supreme Court is somehow covering something up. No, really, though one is left to wonder how much of this is yet another attempt to pander to nationalists in Quebec. And thus we can add another institution that Mulcair has “respect” for – the Senate, the Crown and now the Supreme Court. So much respect…

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Roundup: Flaherty wants to stay put

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Newsflash: Jim Flaherty says he wants to keep his job as Finance Minister until the budget is balanced, which likely means spring of 2015, in advance of a new election. While it’s unlikely that Harper will shuffle him out before he does his promised major re-shuffle a little closer to the next election, there have been some questions as to how long Flaherty will be sticking around as he’s been looking pretty tired and acting downright cranky the past couple of months.

Peter Kent is patting himself on the back for cancelling a proposed shallow gas infill project in Alberta, despite the fact that this was a decision that took seven years. Even more laughably, Kent is claiming the Orwellian-named “Responsible Resource Development” legislation from earlier this year as the reason for the cancellation – despite, as we mentioned, the fact that this has been a seven-year process.

As the government and the military continue to back away from the F-35s, General Tom Lawson now says the term “Fifth-generation” is unhelpful. Or should I say Fifth Generation™, since it’s a trademarked marketing term and not an actual description of capabilities.

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Roundup: Back to the Ethics Commissioner

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It’s Friday, and Stephen Harper is jetting off to Labrador to announce a loan guarantee for the Muskrat Falls hydro project – a project that embattled minister Peter Penashue has family ties with, which means he’s back to the Ethics and Conflict of Interest Commissioner’s office.

When Omnibus Budget Bill 2: The Revenge returns to the Commons, it’ll face between 26 and 47 votes on amendments put forward by the Greens. Kady O’Malley explains why the Speaker’s hands were tied when Scott Brison tried to point out the improper procedure employed in order to get some of his amendments back.

Over at the Natural Resources Committee, the Conservatives managed to work through the Liberal filibustering and have summoned David McGuinty and Justin Trudeau to appear before the committee to explain their “anti-Alberta” comments – not that McGuinty’s comments were anti-Alberta, and despite the fact that it offers both a platform to publicly denounce the job the government is doing in a public forum. But hey, it’s not like the committee has anything better to do than engage in a partisan witch-hunt.

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Roundup: Not a lot of fat to cut

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His first day on the job, and the new Chief of Defence Staff says there’s not a lot of fat to cut at National Defence, and that they will likely have to go on the low end of planned procurements. Yeah, this could be an interesting four years.

Petronas has agreed to give the government another 30 days to deliberate on their takeover offer of Progress Energy, where I’m sure a tweak or two will be added. But really, it means another month of listening to concerns about foreign takeover rules that still remain unclear.

Falling commodity prices, lower than expected inflation, and lower than expected government revenues? No problem – the government’s deficit reduction plans remain on track, Flaherty says.

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Roundup: Blocking the Auditor General

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The House of Commons (as its own entity rather than its occupants) is taking the Auditor General to Federal Court to block an Access to Information request around his correspondence for his committee appearances. The House says this is about parliamentary privilege, and the AG says that privilege doesn’t extend to his office. Kady O’Malley delves further into this, but it does seem unlikely that the Courts could even weigh in on this, and there is also that wee little fact that Parliament is a court in and of itself. Both the PMO and the Liberals say that they’re willing to waive privilege in this case. It was later revealed that the NDP were the originators of said ATIP request, which just makes this all the more curious.

Iran has responded to our embassy closures, and calls it “unwise, uncivilised, and hostile.” Brian Stewart looks at some of the possible intelligence that may have prompted the pullout, and wonders if it wasn’t threats on Canadian soil that they were more concerned with. The ousted Iranian charé d’affairs insists that they did nothing wrong. Meanwhile, Thomas Mulcair seems to be distancing himself from some of Paul Dewar’s comments regarding the embassy closures.

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