For the past week-and-a-half, it has been nothing but handwringing over the Toronto—St. Paul’s by-election results, and the demands that Justin Trudeau either step aside, or to at least meet with his caucus. I took a full week for Trudeau to finally take questions from the media and said that he’s “committed” to staying on the job. And in response to the demands for an in-person caucus meeting now and not in September, Trudeau said he’s having one-on-one conversations with members of the caucus, and some of them are saying he needs to change “key players.”
And then comes along Liberal caucus chair Brenda Shanahan, who insists that it’s “logistically impossible” to have an in-person caucus meeting before September, to which I call bullshit. MPs can all get on a plane to Ottawa at any point, even if it means they have to cancel a barbeque appearance at some point. It’s not impossible, it’s a choice, and that choice is to not respect the members of the caucus, because frankly the leader doesn’t feel the need to be afraid of caucus because we have trained MPs to believe the falsehood that they are powerless and that the leader can push them around. That’s not actually true, and the caucus collectively has the power to vote non-confidence in the leader if they actually had the intestinal fortitude to do so. But therein lies the problem.
I’m also going to point out that all of the breathless reporting on Thursday about Chrystia Freeland saying that the Cabinet is fully behind Trudeau—of course they’re fully behind him. If they weren’t, they’d be out of a job. This isn’t rocket science, guys.
If Cabinet didn’t support him they would be out of a job. This should not be rocket science. https://t.co/JGnj6TjxTi
— Dale Smith (@journo_dale) July 4, 2024
— Dale Smith (@journo_dale) July 4, 2024
In case you missed them:
- My weekend column where I talked to the author of the book Theatre of Lies about the situation we find ourselves in Canadian politics and what to do about it.
- My column points out that one of the problems the Liberals face is how they choose their leaders, and that a proper Westminster system would have solved this by now.
- My Loonie Politics Quick Take wonders just what Danielle Smith thinks she wants to “opt out” of around dental care.
Ukraine Dispatch
Ukrainian forces shot down 21 out of 22 Russian drones overnight Thursday. Ukrainian troops were forced to retreat from one neighbourhood in Chasiv Yar after their defensive positions were destroyed, risking further casualties. A Russian missile strike in Odesa killed a woman, while a guided bomb in Kharkiv region killed a man. Russians have started targeting Ukrainian air bases in advance of the delivery of F-16 fighter jets. Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán went to Kyiv for a frosty meeting as Hungary assumes the rotating presidency of the EU. Orbán then headed to Moscow, no doubt to get fresh orders from Putin.
Happy Canada Day to Prime Minister @JustinTrudeau and all of our Canadian friends!
We greatly value Canada’s leadership in supporting Ukraine, which started back in 1991, when Canada was one of the first countries to recognize Ukraine's independence.
Today, Canada continues to…
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) July 1, 2024
This week alone, Russia has used more than 800 guided aerial bombs against Ukraine. Against our cities and communities, against our people, against everything that makes life normal.
Ukraine needs the necessary means to destroy the carriers of these bombs, including Russian… pic.twitter.com/c4pYjSUJZ7
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) June 30, 2024