Tag Archives: Paul Calandra

Roundup: The desperate flailing of provincial governments

Posted on by

We are at a stage of the pandemic when we are seeing a number of provincial governments reach the stage of just flailing. Saskatchewan is a basket case where the premier, who has COVID (and found this out after giving a maskless press conference) refuses to institute lockdown measures so that businesses forced to close because their staff are all sick can’t access federal benefits. In Quebec, that’s François Legault spit-balling major policy with no clue about implementation, and trying to distract from the fact that his polling numbers are plummeting as a result of the latest round of curfews that have been ineffective at curbing spread, as the province’s death rate continues to be the highest in the country (in part because of the horrific first wave continues to skew numbers)—and it’s an election year. It’s also an election year in Ontario, much sooner than in Quebec, and lo, we’ve seen a spate of resignations, many of the MPPs not even bothering to wait for the spring election. Case in point was Doug Ford’s long-term care minister, who resigned abruptly, and plans to resign his seat next month. And because Ford is flailing (on top of being an incompetent murderclown), the portfolio has been handed to Paul Calandra. No, seriously. Paul gods damned Calandra, who was the clownish apologist for Stephen Harper’s government, whose job was to stand up and obfuscate. And he’s now in charge of reforming Ontario’s long-term care system.

Meanwhile, Ford has sent his MPPs to use misleading charts to “prove” that Ontario is doing pretty well, which it’s not. But lying to cover up their incompetence is how his government operates, and they’re only going to get worse, the more desperate they get as the election looms ever closer.

https://twitter.com/HNHughson/status/1482041262639353859

https://twitter.com/HNHughson/status/1482053619700666370

Continue reading →

Roundup: Seized with the Iraq debate

Posted on by

The Commons will be seized today with debating the Iraq combat deployment, which will culminate in a confidence vote (which has been phrased in such a way that it’s confidence in the government after they have made the decision, as opposed to a vote to authorize deployment, which would make for fuzzy lines of accountability going forward – and yes, there is a big difference). The issue of civilian casualties being a likelihood given the air strikes is likely to come up, as it is in the States. Rob Nicholson is also refusing to say whether or not there will be an extension, which is all well and good from the point of nobody being able to tell the future, but given that ISIS is already adapting to the threat of air strikes means that our ability to contribute will likely soon be a fairly moot point. Also, the piece led to this interesting exchange.

Continue reading →

Roundup: Calandra’s tearful apology

Posted on by

It was rather stunning, and certainly unexpected, when Paul Calandra got up after Question Period and choked back tears as he apologised for his behaviour on Tuesday, and offered direct apologies to both Mulcair and the House as a whole. He also insisted that the answers were his, and not the “kids in short pants” – even though he later said that he was given the information on that former NDP staffer by a member of the PMO. That said, the fact that he also equivocated, refused to promise to never do it again, and tried to rationalize it as being angry by that NDP fundraiser’s Facebook rant, really took away from the sincerity of the tears and the moment itself. It certainly does raise the question about what changed between now and Tuesday – especially after he doubled down on Wednesday (which led to the Paul Dewar facepalm meme that hit the Internet all day Thursday). I will say that it’s an awfully big coincidence that he suddenly got tearful and apologised on the very same morning that Stephen Harper got back to town after being away since the initial incident happened. Sure, Calandra was pilloried and publicly shamed by the media and the pundit class, but it’s not for the first time either. Paul Wells gives his take on the dynamics at play, while Andrew Coyne takes particular issue with Calandra’s equivocating during the apology, and how it continues to make a mockery of parliament.

Continue reading →

Roundup: Live from New York…

Posted on by

Stephen Harper is in New York to attend the UN, so of course that means he’ll speak to American media and reveal things he wouldn’t here at home. So we learned that President Obama has asked for more support in Iraq than we have committed at present, but he won’t say anything more than that, other than “we haven’t out” anything as to what we might send. He also started waxing about something that sounded awfully close to the need to find the “root causes” of radicalizing youth. Harper even said that our deficit figures are smaller than expected, though his Wall Street Journal interviewer did challenge the methodology on some of his claims about just how great our economy is performing. He even made some claims about immigrant voters, which can be disputed once you drill down into the numbers. Suffice to say, it’s more than you get here at home, which remains a problem.

Continue reading →

Roundup: Contempt, tempers, and losing the plot

Posted on by

Thomas Mulcair’s snide exchange with the Speaker during yesterday’s QP continues to resonate around Ottawa, with reminders that Scheer doesn’t currently have the powers to police the content of answers (MPs would have to agree to give him those powers), and musings about this kind of contempt of parliament and remonstrations about how this is what makes people cynical. And the worst part? That even over the Twitter Machine, Paul Calandra continues to play the part. It has also been noted, and I fully agree, that by losing his temper and going after the Speaker, Mulcair made the story about himself rather than Calandra and his utter nonsense.

Continue reading →

Roundup: Different lessons before the by-election

Posted on by

Not that Parliament has risen for the summer, the leaders can begin their summer tours in earnest, without having to take those inconvenient breaks to show up for the odd Question Period or a vote here or there. Because you know, they’re meeting with “real Canadians” as opposed to doing their actual jobs. And with by-elections happening a week away, both Trudeau and Mulcair are in Toronto today to campaign there, both of them drawing different lessons from the Ontario election, while the people who study these sorts of things aren’t necessarily sure that voters are committed to the same parties provincially and federally, and that they may be making a different calculation electorally.

Continue reading →

Roundup: Mayrand’s concerns laid out

Posted on by

After a bout of procedural shenanigans and two separate time allocation votes in the Commons, Chief Electoral Officer Marc Mayrand spoke to the Commons Procedure and House Affairs committee, giving his assessment of the Fair Elections Act. He has a couple of major concerns – the lack of powers to compel testimony, the loss of the vouching system and the likelihood that it will disenfranchise voters, and inadequate paperwork filed by candidates who get their refunds nevertheless. He spoke about the privacy concerns over turning over the lists of who actually voted over to the parties, who have zero legislated privacy safeguards, and said that the fears of voter information cards to commit fraud is a lot of sound and fury over nothing as most of the errors recorded were procedural and not substantive. In case you couldn’t guess, Pierre Poilieve shrugged off most of the whole appearance, and tried to claim that Mayrand made a number of factual errors.

Continue reading →

Roundup: Being seen to do something about cyberbullying

Posted on by

The government is launching a new cyberbullying awareness campaign, which includes TV commercials. You know, for the “cyberbullying” law that a) has little to do with cyberbullying and more to do with lawful access, and b) still hasn’t passed. One has to wonder, however, how effective it’ll be since many teenagers don’t see it as “bullying” but just “drama,” and may not relate to it in the way that the government intends. Let’s also not forget that this is the same government that put out some of the lamest and most ineffective anti-drug ads aimed at families, so we’ll see just how effective these cyberbullying ads will be. Michael Den Tandt says that the Conservatives need to address the bullying culture and lack of decorum in their own ranks first.

Continue reading →

Roundup: A sizeable delegation

Posted on by

Former Prime Ministers Brian Mulroney, Kim Campbell and Jean Chrétien are joining Stephen Harper at Nelson Mandela’s funeral in Johannesburg. Also joining them will be former Governor Generals Adrienne Clarkson and Michaëlle Jean, premiers Stephen McNeil, Alison Redford, Bob McLeod and Darrell Pasloski. Thomas Mulcair will be joining, as will MPs Deepak Obhrai, Irwin Cotler, Peter Braid, Joe Daniel, Roxanne James, and retired Senator Don Oliver, plus AFN National Chief Shawn Atleo. Joe Clark will be leading a delegation from the National Democratic Institute.

Continue reading →