In two weeks, our son from China -- his wife and four month old son -- and our two sons from Victoria, B.C. will all be here. It will probably be the last time we will all be together.
My wife and I are really looking forward to this event. Family is one of God's true gifts.
In two months, Carol Anne and I will celebrate our 46th anniversary. In those 46 years, we've raised three sons and lived in three provinces.
As I've gotten older, I've stiffened up and now use a walker. Carol Anne -- who's a physiotherapist -- has been beside me every step of the way.
I love her dearly.
I wish to write a few words about my family. Carol Anne -- my wife -- and Michael, Christopher and Thomas -- our sons -- and Christopher's wife Pan Pan and his son Raphael -- are the best things in my life. It's that simple and that profound.
It's been awhile since I published anything. I'm still around and I've been watching. I'm not happy that Donald Trump is president again. We are in for a rough four years. And I don't expect Trump will leave when the four years are over.
Still, I'm grateful for the time I've been given. And I continue to be optimistic -- in the long run.
Four days ago, I wrote that Jaqmeet Singh engineered his own demise when he tore up his agreement with Justin Trudeau's Liberals. Michael Harris believes Singh had no choice. He writes:
The timing of Singh’s campaign-style announcement is telling. It comes just a week before the return of Parliament, as well as two important byelections in which the NDP is competitive.
The prime minister’s reaction to Singh’s decision was defensive, if not dismissive. Making clear that he hopes it won’t lead to an election before the fixed date of October 2025, Trudeau had this to say on CTV:
“I’m not focused on politics. I’ll let other parties focus on politics. I’m focused on actually delivering things that Canadians told me this summer they need.”
By comparison to Trudeau’s hike up the high road, Pierre Poilievre waded into the NDP’s news with political elbows high. Calling Singh’s decision to abandon the deal with the Liberals a “stunt,” Poilievre said at a press conference in Nanaimo.
“My message to sellout Singh is this: If you’re serious about ending your costly carbon tax coalition with Trudeau, then commit today to voting for a carbon tax election at the earliest confidence vote in the House of Commons.”
Poilievre's reaction was predictable. Like Donald Trump, he believes you can score political points by name-calling. Singh's problem was that the agreement gave him no political boost:
The deal was a flop at the political box office for the NDP. Instead of getting credit for pushing the Trudeau government on key, progressive issues, the party saw its popularity decline.
Some pollsters have projected that the NDP will win fewer seats at the next election than they did in 2021. The lesson seems to be this: Trudeau and the Liberals are so deeply unpopular with Canadians in almost every region in the country, that anyone seen as propping them up damages their own brand — no matter how noble their reason for doing so.
Pollster and data-scientist Nik Nanos said that the NDP have not benefited from the deal, noting that the party ranks lower in the polls than the embattled Liberals.
“Maybe it’s a moral victory from a policy perspective, but it sure isn’t a political victory in terms of gains in ballot support for the New Democrats,” he told CTV.
Unfortunately, that's been the story of the NDP. Canada's most progressive policies started out in the NDP brain trust. But it's been the Liberals who implemented them.
Image: Facebook
Jagmeet Singh has done it. Yesterday he cancelled his agreement with the Liberals. Max Fawcett writes:
After months of speculation about the fate of the confidence and supply agreement that bound his party to the federal Liberal government and a few days of being taunted as a “sellout” by Pierre Poilievre, NDP leader Jagmeet Singh pulled the plug on the deal Wednesday.
“The Liberals have let people down,” Singh said in a video. “They don’t deserve another chance from Canadians.” In the process, though, Singh showed why he probably doesn’t deserve another one either.
That doesn't mean there'll be an election tomorrow. The New Democrats simply don't have the resources they need to go into an election:
For all the bravado and bluster about how he “ripped up” the deal, it’s not like he actually intends to bring down the government any time soon. The NDP’s provincial wings in British Columbia and Saskatchewn are in the midst of election campaigns of their own, and there simply isn’t enough volunteer labour to support a federal campaign right now. There’s also the non-insignificant matter of the NDP’s underwhelming bankroll, which has been dedicated to paying off the $22 million debt it racked up in the last election. If he tries to bluff Trudeau on a potential confidence vote, he should expect it to be called immediately.
The party should be riding a wave. It's got a lot of what it wanted. And the Liberals have tanked:
With a tired and increasingly error-prone Liberal government, a Conservative leader who loves nothing more than getting high on his own supply, and a political environment that’s elevating issues like the cost of living and housing, the NDP should be poised to make major gains. Instead, they might be lucky to keep the seats they have if Singh remains leader — especially if they can’t establish themselves as the prevailing progressive alternative.
That’s still on the table, by the way. A recent Abacus Data poll showed the NDP has both a larger potential vote universe than the Liberals and more opportunity to consolidate the progressive vote under its banner. “If it became clear that the NDP had the best chance of stopping the Conservatives from winning the election,” its analysis said, “we find that 11 per cent of committed voters or 35 per cent of Liberal, Green, and BC supporters would probably vote NDP, while 6 per cent of the committed electorate or 20 per cent of Liberal, Green, and BC supporters would definitely vote NDP.” If the two groups are combined, the NDP’s vote share rises to 35 per cent — just seven points behind the CPC.
But that won't happen with an NDP leader who can't stand up to Poilievre who -- let's face it -- is the snotty-nosed bully on Parliament Hill.
Image: Obert Madondo / Flickr.
Pierre Poilievre wants an election. He sent a letter to Jagmeet Singh this week, suggesting he should bring the Trudeau government down. Susan Delacourt suggests that Singh may be worried about Doug Ford:
Pierre Poilievre and Doug Ford don’t have a lot in common, except maybe their desire to hold elections early.
Yes, they are conservatives and chances are that the many Ontarians who have voted for Ford are likely leaning toward voting for the federal Conservatives when the next election comes.
Both leaders in their own ways would call themselves populists, too.
But that’s where Ford and Poilievre have very different approaches. Ford is what many would call a happy populist — a guy who just wants everyone to vote for him, whether that requires giving out his phone number or shovelling someone’s vehicle out of a snowbank.
Delacourt suggests that Poilievre is worried about an election in Ontario:
As my colleagues at Queen’s Park have been reporting for months now, there’s a very good chance Ontarians will be voting in a provincial election before then.
"Sources say Ford is worried that if, as polls suggest, Pierre Poilievre wins an election expected in October 2025, there would be reduced transfer payments to the provinces, a scrapping of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s electric-vehicle strategy that is a cornerstone of Ontario economic policy and other slashed spending that would hurt the Progressive Conservatives,” Queen’s Park Bureau Chief Robert Benzie wrote in May.
Poilievre hasn’t said publicly how he feels about an Ontario vote possibly upstaging the Conservatives’ much-anticipated romp to victory. The fact that Ford sees a Poilievre victory as not great for Ontario, however, is fascinating and further underlines that there are serious tensions between the Ford and Poilievre brands of conservatism.
What remains to be seen is whether an early Ontario election could harm Poilievre’s chances. For instance, what if Ontarians use a provincial election as their chance to vent at Trudeau and get some of the anti-Liberal sentiment we keep hearing about? What if Ontarians decide that as long as Ford remains premier, they might as well have a prime minister with whom he has a good working relationship?
Maybe that’s one of the reasons Poilievre was out there this week, agitating for Canada to go to the polls this fall, not next fall.
It's not all sweetness and light among Conservatives.
Image: reddit
