151 Comments

Thank you for pointing out the revisionist history he spouted today regarding his attempt to implement electoral reform. Has he been in his own bubble so long that he believes his own lies? Breathtaking lack of integrity.

Unfortunately he’s still PM, and will continue to be PM for many more weeks. Indeed, we are playing with an empty net.

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MT net... MT head :)

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I expect this was bait for Singh’s support in the future.

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Yes to all.

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Speaking of Trudeau taking credit for the Canada Child Benefit, I just noticed that there's a gaping chasm between the child poverty reductions the government claims followed the benefit and the reductions that actually occurred according to Statistics Canada.

https://substack.com/@davidclinton/note/c-84565907

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I seem to recall that "family allowance cheques" were being sent out way back when, 50 or 60 years ago. This type of program has existed in some way, shape or form, for a long time, so I give them no credit whatsoever. They may have increased the amount, but that was the easy part and spending other peoples money is something they have always been good at.

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I challenged their claims with one of the Liberal MPs. I was told it was their best estimate

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I appreciate your followup. I'm not unsympathetic to the response because data does come out fairly slowly. Nevertheless, I believe that enough data was already available by April 2024 (or even by October 2023: https://web.archive.org/web/20231017203717/https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/cv.action?pid=1110013501) that it was obvious the reductions were far less than 50% and already moving in the wrong direction. A budget document should be built on the best available sources.

Thanks!

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As you've pointed out many times, there's been a shameful lack of outcome evaluations for so many of these programs, especially the ones spurred by the feel-good "issue of the day".

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I spent much of today toying with the idea of joining the Liberal Party, so as to have a vote in this upcoming bun fight.

Here are the requirements: "To be eligible for Registration in the Party, a person must:(a) be at least fourteen (14) years of age;(b) support the purposes of the Party;(c) ordinarily live in Canada or, for Canadians living abroad, be qualified as an elector who may vote in accordance with part 11 of the Canada Elections Act;(d) not be a member of any other federal political party in Canada; and (e) while Registered as a Liberal, not have publicly declared an intention to be a candidate forelection to the House of Commons other than as a candidate of the Party."

I thought I was cleared for takeoff: I'm well past 14, don't belong to any other party, and not only do I live in Canada but I live here legally, which somehow is not a requirement.

I figured that the "purposes of the Party" would be, you know, peace, order, and good government.

But alas it's really all about getting the Liberals elected:"The purpose of the Party is to participate in the public affairs of Canada by endorsing and supporting Registered Liberals as candidates of the Party for election to the House of Commons, advocating and supporting Liberal values and philosophies, principles and policies, providing a forum for Registered Liberals to provide input into the policies of the Party, and raising money in support of these purposes."

Well, I cannot in good faith sign onto any of that, so I must forego my adventure in grass-roots democracy. Pity.

Sources:Eligibility:  https://liberal.ca/wp-content/uploads/sites/292/2020/09/by-law-4-2.pdf

Purposes: https://www.liberal.ca/legacy-uploads/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/constitution-en.pdf

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When Lucien Bouchard left as Bloc leader, I seriously considered launching a joke campaign to replace him. My campaign pitch would have been: "The Bloc already gets the votes of francophone nationalists. It's time to broaden the tent!" You were my editor at the time, and I suspect you'll be relieved I gave it a pass.

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And this is why they will hopefully be lost in the abyss for generations to come. It's all about them, never about Canada and Canadians. Rather, they conflate the two. They truly don't see the difference.

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Well, I joined and it took less than a minute. The party of which I now am a member doesn't know me from Adam.

I'm qualified (and ready) to "provide input into the policies of the Party" for sure.

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Huh. Out of curiosity, I wonder what the other parties' requirements are?

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I just checked out the "Who can join the Conservative Party of Canada?" question on CCP website. The answer: "To become a member of the Conservative Party of Canada one must be a Canadian citizen or permanent resident, support our Party’s founding principles, pay the required fee from their own personal funds, and not hold membership in another Canadian federal political party. Additionally, to join the Party one must be 14 years of age on the day they are purchasing a membership."

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Quite a difference.

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It wasn't Trump and his crew that brought Trudeau down, it was his own pathetic incompetence and ego. Instead of making excuses for having to leave, he should be apologizing to Canadians for being the worst PM this country has every had. It's going to take a long, long time to clean up the mess.

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I think the point is that Mr Trump et al shortened Trudeau’s long goodbye.

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The best thing about today, reflected in this column, is that finally we can (and must) talk about something other than Justin Trudeau. He seemed entirely indifferent about the truckload of troubles barreling towards us, and every day he hung around further deranged an already unstable segment of Canadian society. We’re probably cooked, in a variety of ways, but at least now we can start to do something about it. “Enough of this guy,” indeed.

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Stephen Harper was responsbile for the rebirth of the "family allowance" over the intense opposition of Trudeau, the Liberals, and the NDP.

It turned out to be so popular, that Trudeau changed progressive opposition to it, expanded it, and restructured it into a better form.

The credit for the rebirth of the "family allowance" or Canada Child Benefit goes to Stephen Harper, with an assist from Justin Trudeau.

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…and if you saw the Rob Oliphant interview on CBC this afternoon, the party and its members haven’t a clue or a sense of what is truly bothering and frustrating Canadians. The Liberal party is over. As you concluded, “Next!”.

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It was nauseating 🤢

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I can not believe the hubris and hypocrisy of Trudeau..... claims to have his main purpose in serving Canada, which he loves so dearly..... and then to prorogue parliament for another eleven weeks, thus crippling anything that our sane people running for the next parliament could get to work on NOW and not have to wait. SAD...

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He simply does not get it. Living in his little bubble of self-adulation.

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Thanks for posting so fast. I guess the years of training to write to deadlines pays off in spades.

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In the very early days of my career, Johnny Carson went back to writing his own monologue during a Hollywood writers’ strike. On the first night he finished his monologue at 11:45 and I had until midnight to file a review. God I miss those days.

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I thought I’d read you from the get-go… did you used to do TV reviews? Or just anything cultural? Would this have been from your time in Montreal?

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I did an internship at the London Free Press entertainment department before my last year as an undergraduate.

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Fifteen minutes to file a review. Them were the days alright.

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great to read your analysis. Cbc talking heads are just so tiresome. I recall him walking back his thoughts on electoral reform. The sequence today was 1. Parliament is frozen so I’m hitting reset. 2. The others won’t play with me so I’m taking my ball home. Kind of pathetic and narcissistic blaming of others. I’ve voted liberal in the past but in my opinion he should be deflated. He can’t look back at any tombstone accomplishment other than dragging the party down.

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And why is Parliament frozen?

Maybe something about Trudeau government not providing documents requested by Parliament…. He skipped over that part.

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Thank you. With all the jabber about the last weeks of Parliament and the finger pointing at Conservatives filibustering, I haven’t heard or read any of the talking heads mention the documents the Liberals were ordered to but refuse to provide to Parliament. All of them skip over this fact as though it doesn’t exist and that those evil Conservatives are just “playing games” (famous Lib/Dip deflection)

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"CBC talking heads are so tiresome". My god, yes.

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Rosie nearly in tears , who is she going to blame for all this.

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Anyone and everyone but Trudeau. She’ll likely start with Pierre.

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No way. It is definitely Harper.

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My mistake!

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With the exception of Trudeau, we all make one in our life.

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The "Justin" party is now a complete mess. It will take a miracle to reverse the effects of this rebellious happening too long to take place. Chaos is well established and the leader blames his minions for his failure to govern. Proof of a weak man with a big ego..

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Thanks Paul. One possibility that comes to mind for me, is that Jagmeet S will flip again with the line that "Trudeau is gone, so the new leader deserves a chance to see if he/she/? can do better" and thus continue to support the Liberal train wreck until October. What do you think?

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I think this is highly likely.

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One part of me agrees with you,but the other side says jagmeet gets his 6 yrs of service pension plan, so he’ll not stop the upcoming nonconfidence.

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Except the NDP coffers are empty with no cash for election campaigning …. And of course after this being the case for last few years, it will all turnaround in next 6 months or so. Jagmeet should really be held more accountable for his incompetence at fundraising.

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We hear this about this NDP pretty much every election, yet they always find a way through. This is truly the moment of truth for them - allowing the new Liberal leader six more months to find their footing (and steal left leaning voters back) would be crazy. They will vote non confidence on the week of March 24.

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I was avidly waiting for your take on our now gone/almost prime minister. I thought his speech this morning to again claim that the government is falling because other mean people were stopping him. How dare he say that the reason for all this happening is because the workings of parliament were held up by others - yes the Conservative filibuster to get the financial documents relating to the green slush fund was not his fault. Of course, there had to be something there for the Liberals to so clearly refusing to comply. Decorum has been lost under Trudeau.

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I'm uncertain how to react to Trudeau's resignation - except it isn't a resignation until the to be organised Liberal leadership race is finished. Presumably by mid-March - which, I note, is very much sooner than the Liberal 'constitution'. So, either the constitution is just a suggestion or there will have to be a very rapid rewrite of same. (As an aside, normal Westminster parliaments typically see the parliamentary party select a leader - bingo a new PM - done within a week. But no, we have to allow the ponderous and clumsy Liberal system work its wonders to perform. I am boiling over this - waste of emotion no doubt.)

Meanwhile we get two and a half months of interregnum. Sure hope everything is quiet and peaceful so we can roar back into action in late March, early April.

And, of course, the leadership race period is so short that I am uncertain as to how any 'non-politician', including Carney, can meaningfully participate. This implies to at least me that the next leader and PM, assuming Trudeau actually does resign after the leadership race, will be a current MP, which means they own the policies and missteps of the past several years. Presumably this will also lead to electoral oblivion and the painful rebuilding process after yet another leadership race (?). Painful times for the Liberals and likely Canada as well. Ugh...

Why am I tentative about Trudeau's retirement? Because it would not stun me for a 'crisis' to be manufactured or present itself that requires more Trudeau 'leadership' and 'support' from a 'concerned' NDP to get us through these dreadful times. An election would be untimely in such circumstances and so painful duty requires Trudeau to take up the burden on behalf of us all....

Not happy.

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Jamie Carroll, a former Liberal Party national director, has thoughts on a leadership contest. This makes him refreshingly different from any current sitting member of the party's national board of directors, none of whom has a thing to say. https://www.hilltimes.com/story/2025/01/06/liberal-leadership-normally-a-three-to-six-month-race-but-under-party-constitutions-political-circumstances-it-absolutely-could-be-contested-to-30-45-days/446555/

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Thanks - this is good to know.

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Granted, I didn't listen to the whole announcement, but I'm in the dark about the project timeline. If prorogation was to enable a leadership change, will it be done by March 24? i.e. did he meet with party president to set date? Or will leadership race occur while he is PM, as in Mulroney and Chretien? in which case prorogation was to avoid/stop the green slush fund controversy?

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See Paul's note - it appears the constitution has work arounds.

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We really have perverted the Westminster system, eh? Is there anything better in our version vs the original (UK) one?

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I'm angry and disgusted, but I've been that way for several years now, so today is just more of the same. I think at one time, way back, there were good people who really wanted to try. Trudeau thwarted them, and Canadians, at every opportunity. The grateful lapdogs (er, caucus) let him wander down the merry path of destruction for 9 years. Now the Liberal party no longer has any good people. I don't feel this is an exaggeration. They have people who only want to get elected, not people who want to serve. That's their only "try." Try to get elected, try to make the bad people lose, something about equality, something about giving out more money. Whatever. Go away.

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Now they are all saying the party has to move to the centre, rethink caps on emission, etc. a few weeks ago they were all bobbleheads providing a background for Trudeau. No backbones anywhere in this crowd. Even Freeland only left she saw the bus coming.

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Had he had a smidgen of the honour we expect in a PM we'd be voting in about two weeks.

He leaves his party to choose a short term captain for the Titanic and sets them up for a decade in purgatory if they survive at all.

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