tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-351171302024-03-18T20:18:17.337-04:00Northern Reflections"There is no greatness where simplicity, goodness and truth
are absent."
Leo TolstoyOwen Grayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06464860078574618579noreply@blogger.comBlogger4518125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35117130.post-38532402965863775892024-03-18T09:01:00.003-04:002024-03-18T09:07:33.971-04:00No Bosom Buddies<p><br /></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipu_Q5KiPHkbTsq1tW-1i8xQj8K-YM3QxhCiCGn0AcUVhLuDG04Ar4qoeASwmmTHslwUVpK6iJFXF9bXZHgAEboCin5cEKY78imQMLFBgYKHfebg3r3OjWAumNSliz-s3MIPgIDBcW2fOFbEygTz1ZwxO1H-q61AHUZmUKWXexA92DCKNrOKd4Ww/s259/Poilievre-Ford.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="194" data-original-width="259" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipu_Q5KiPHkbTsq1tW-1i8xQj8K-YM3QxhCiCGn0AcUVhLuDG04Ar4qoeASwmmTHslwUVpK6iJFXF9bXZHgAEboCin5cEKY78imQMLFBgYKHfebg3r3OjWAumNSliz-s3MIPgIDBcW2fOFbEygTz1ZwxO1H-q61AHUZmUKWXexA92DCKNrOKd4Ww/w400-h300/Poilievre-Ford.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />You might think that, if Pierre Poilievre becomes prime minister, Doug Ford would be ecstatic. Martin Regg Cohn <a href="https://www.thestar.com/politics/prime-minister-pierre-poilievre-thats-bad-news-for-doug-ford/article_51ab69f4-e308-11ee-9f65-efac827294b2.html">writes </a>that such is not the case:<p></p><p></p><blockquote>By rights, these two right-wingers should be soul mates.</blockquote><p></p><p></p><blockquote>Yet they are anything but.</blockquote><p></p><p></p><blockquote>Premier Doug Ford and federal Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre barely know each other. Nor are they in a hurry to get better acquainted.</blockquote><p></p><p></p><blockquote>They have no private conversations to speak of. Nor any public interactions to take stock of.</blockquote><p></p><p></p><blockquote>Helming the Progressive Conservative government at Queen’s Park, Ford is Canada’s most powerful Tory. As leader of the federal Conservatives, Poilievre is putatively Canada’s prime minister in waiting.</blockquote><p></p><p></p><blockquote>By tradition, these two top Tories should be as one. Yet it is hard to fathom two fellow travellers moving in such different directions — keeping their political distance when in close proximity.</blockquote><p></p><p>What evidence is there that Poilievre and Ford are not bosom buddies?</p><p></p><blockquote>The best evidence of that avoidance came last weekend, when Poilievre convened a mass political rally in Ford’s home riding of Etobicoke North. Poilievre’s call went out to all true believers to stand together against the federal carbon tax, but Ford sent word out to caucus that he'd sit it out.</blockquote><p></p><p></p><blockquote>Despite their shared antipathy to taxes and hostility to government meddling, they clearly feel no mutual felicity. In truth, they have no time for each other, never having attempted a meeting of minds in the 18 months since Poilievre became federal party leader and the six years since Ford took over the provincial Tories.</blockquote><p></p><p></p><blockquote>What’s keeping these two conservatives so far apart? Why can’t they be friends and allies, if not comrades-in-arms?</blockquote><p></p><p></p><blockquote>From talking to those in the know, it’s apparent that the differences are as much personal as political, more stylistic than substantive.</blockquote><p></p><p></p><blockquote>Poilievre is a lifetime politician who never went to charm school. Ford had a life before politics, capable of turning on the charm to make a sale for the family business.</blockquote><p></p><p></p><blockquote>Where Poilievre is constantly chippy, Ford is alternately chipper to get his way. Where the federal leader is cantankerous, the premier can be gregarious when the mood moves him.</blockquote><p></p><p></p><blockquote>While Poilievre disdains Ottawa, he embodies the bubble of the federal capital — right down to the riding he represents. By contrast, Ford projects an everyman persona, cultivating the salty language of working folks while downplaying his privileged upbringing.</blockquote><p></p><p>But there is a bigger divide:</p><p></p><blockquote>Canada’s Conservatives are anchored in Western regional alienation, oblivious to the instinct for accommodation in Ontario. As premier, Ford is more mindful of the province’s propensity for centrism and compromise, no matter his initial impulse for conflict and upheaval.</blockquote><p></p><p></p><blockquote>Paradoxically, the premier sees his true counterpart as Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. While the two leaders are far from soul mates, they are at least simpatico — breezily cutting cheques and cutting ribbons for new factories or shared programs.</blockquote><p></p><p>We'll see what the future holds.</p><p>Image: Toronto Sun</p>Owen Grayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06464860078574618579noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35117130.post-74082148888265126102024-03-14T09:09:00.002-04:002024-03-14T09:42:23.842-04:00The Bond Is Breaking<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMryqPDKScqprGo43udnRacUliQprzCSPo59aOCguNNrdB4nAedvN65Q3gN9dNe8SGuSkWY5tQ1exA6Ef4d0R4Y8P32AdKAZGkiWvgE_vMX0Yp1P-_E5Osd32JZ3YYAtuHBSTeHXgoEByPhQmm5w6LyIQX9pnRrnqg-h0Y0lBZIFeMBnUzdlW4dg/s300/Biden-Netanyahu.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="168" data-original-width="300" height="224" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMryqPDKScqprGo43udnRacUliQprzCSPo59aOCguNNrdB4nAedvN65Q3gN9dNe8SGuSkWY5tQ1exA6Ef4d0R4Y8P32AdKAZGkiWvgE_vMX0Yp1P-_E5Osd32JZ3YYAtuHBSTeHXgoEByPhQmm5w6LyIQX9pnRrnqg-h0Y0lBZIFeMBnUzdlW4dg/w400-h224/Biden-Netanyahu.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p><br /></p><p>David Ignatius <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/03/13/ignatius-biden-netanyahu-divide-gaza-war-rafah/">writes</a> that the relationship between Joe Biden and Benjamin Netanyahu is pretty tense:</p><p></p><blockquote>As the war in Gaza grinds on, President Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are locked in a public quarrel about military strategy, political leadership and even casualty numbers. Like past disputes in the relationship, this one will probably be resolved short of an open break — but it’s a tense moment.</blockquote><p></p><p></p><blockquote>The most visible disagreement has been about Netanyahu’s plan to attack Hamas’s remaining stronghold in Rafah along Gaza’s southern border with Egypt. Netanyahu and a broad range of other Israeli officials believe that destroying the four Hamas battalions there, with about 3,000 fighters, is essential to break its military control in the territory.</blockquote><p></p><p></p><blockquote>Biden said in an interview with MSNBC this past weekend that Rafah was a “red line,” but it wasn’t clear just what that meant. Last month, Biden said Israel shouldn’t attack Rafah until it had a “credible and executable plan for ensuring the safety” of more than 1 million Palestinian refugees who have been driven there by the fighting, according to a White House summary of the conversation. Administration officials say they still haven’t seen such a plan.</blockquote><p></p><p></p><blockquote>“We’ll go there,” Netanyahu shot back on Sunday, adding: “You know, I have a red line. You know what the red line is? That October 7 doesn’t happen again. Never happens again.” A senior Israeli official underlined that position in an interview on Wednesday. “If the administration says, ‘Never do Rafah,’ that won’t work. … You can’t do 80 percent of the job.”</blockquote><p></p><p>But it will happen again. That's the history of the Israel and Palestine. And, now, the Netanyahu coalition is falling apart:</p><p></p><blockquote>A deeper disagreement is about whether Netanyahu and his right-wing government really have united the country behind a clear endgame for the conflict. U.S. intelligence analysts were openly skeptical of Netanyahu’s leadership prospects in their annual threat assessment, delivered to Congress this week.</blockquote><p></p><p></p><blockquote>“Netanyahu’s viability as a leader as well as his governing coalition of far-right and ultraorthodox parties that pursued hardline policies on Palestinian and security issues may be in jeopardy,” the threat assessment noted. “Distrust of Netanyahu’s ability to rule has deepened and broadened. … A different, more moderate government is a possibility.”</blockquote><p></p><p></p><blockquote>That’s unusually blunt language for a public intelligence report, and Israeli officials protested what they saw as an effort to meddle in Israeli internal politics by, in effect, “weaponizing” the intelligence reporting. Netanyahu’s team was already peeved about what it saw as an attempt by Vice President Harris to drive a wedge into Israeli politics when she said on CBS News on Sunday: “It’s important to distinguish and to not conflate the Israeli government with the Israeli people.”</blockquote><p></p><p>An important distinction to keep in mind.</p><p>Image: The NewArab</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Owen Grayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06464860078574618579noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35117130.post-87844983927544785452024-03-11T08:49:00.000-04:002024-03-11T08:49:31.693-04:00The War In Gaza<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiV1dvFuickLkdiHKEmRKEx3D5V7-jToCuJ5ALy8wqLHr9r6eaToc7vfLf7C9lskW4MLUUJN6Q7rP4NQ2uQWkzDa4ZUUwq3CoN5MQ14mxWjOxTpiuhLGpeVIeOhsVd6O-lvAnmXJ0fN3HpfDlDVYUY-yofWuZ9gPsuqwTk2X4PM5ce-bzVSC6mlew/s288/Netanyahu-1.webp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="216" data-original-width="288" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiV1dvFuickLkdiHKEmRKEx3D5V7-jToCuJ5ALy8wqLHr9r6eaToc7vfLf7C9lskW4MLUUJN6Q7rP4NQ2uQWkzDa4ZUUwq3CoN5MQ14mxWjOxTpiuhLGpeVIeOhsVd6O-lvAnmXJ0fN3HpfDlDVYUY-yofWuZ9gPsuqwTk2X4PM5ce-bzVSC6mlew/w400-h300/Netanyahu-1.webp" width="400" /></a></div><p><br /></p><p>Protests against the war in Gaza are growing. Michael Harris <a href="https://www.hilltimes.com/story/2024/03/11/tackling-humanitarian-disaster-takes-guts-not-words/414168/">writes</a>:</p><p></p><blockquote>Political leaders who can no longer hear the people are usually on their way to defeat.</blockquote><p></p><p></p><blockquote>That is one of the takeaways from the recently cancelled event featuring Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and visiting Italian Prime Minister Georgia Meloni in Toronto. </blockquote><p></p><p></p><blockquote>A crowd of 400 protesters against the Gaza War—passionate and fractious—blocked the entrances to the Ontario Art Gallery. The prime minister was called “Genocide Justin” and a “liar.” Attendees were stopped from entering the building. </blockquote><p></p><p></p><blockquote>Trudeau cabinet minister Ahmed Hussen hoofed it for two blocks trying to find an unblocked entrance to the venue. He could have saved the shoe leather. Even though the police said they could provide secure access to the art gallery, the prime minister’s staff decided not to proceed. </blockquote><p></p><p></p><blockquote>Liberal MP Marco Mendicino expressed his view of the protesters in no uncertain terms: “You break the law, you should be arrested, charged, and prosecuted. … These thugs think they scored a victory last night, but all they did was lose public support, and embarrass themselves. Time for the madness to stop.”</blockquote><p></p><p></p><blockquote>Indeed. What the MP totally missed is that’s why the protesters were there in the first place: to stop the madness. It is not madness to protest the mass slaughter of 30,000 Palestinians in a war of misguided retribution. And there is the prospect of even greater casualties to come if a ceasefire and hostage agreement can’t be worked out before Ramadan. </blockquote><p></p><p>Trudeau's -- and the world's -- problem is how to deal with Benjamin Netanyahu:</p><p></p><blockquote>In that case, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has already committed to an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) invasion of Rafah. The fate of a million and a half civilians sheltering there in dreadful conditions hangs in the balance. </blockquote><p></p><p></p><blockquote>The overwhelming majority of those killed were not Hamas fighters. U.S. Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin was asked during congressional hearings how many women and children have been killed in the conflict. “It is over 25,000,” he replied. The Pentagon disputed that number, saying they could not confirm it. </blockquote><p></p><p></p><blockquote>So far, the Trudeau government has played the moral lightweight in this ongoing humanitarian catastrophe. The prime minister did belatedly call for a ceasefire, and for that he deserves some credit. </blockquote><p></p><p></p><blockquote>But there has been no follow through from Trudeau, no public pressure on Netanyahu to call off the dogs of war. Once again, Trudeau practising the uninspiring art of political gesturing. </blockquote><p></p><p></p><blockquote>And that is what has enraged ordinary people around the world: the lackadaisical approach by so many governments to a humanitarian disaster so dire that it requires deeds—not words—to stop the wanton death and destruction. </blockquote><p></p><p>Until Trudeau -- and other world leaders -- get deadly serious with Netanyahu, the war will continue.</p><p>Image: The National Post</p>Owen Grayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06464860078574618579noreply@blogger.com26tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35117130.post-13841310938748002812024-03-08T08:57:00.000-05:002024-03-08T08:57:02.957-05:00Caveat Emptor<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiymCGJE8VHgsCYI2GeltKoN3HA8ev0adCwICJM8yW5OcMLlQ4KUncHMremlNe8NOtbPRDR5iRvgtBsaevfMrLOvxcGbU_uVUyp3cc6LXZth8v-CEgPUzPSzATGizTEb7FahALoJdr79je-p0g5gLmkjS7qrk4gj6-8jrnWu0iAX1iJVflU2Z5ZDQ/s912/Fake%20Images.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="513" data-original-width="912" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiymCGJE8VHgsCYI2GeltKoN3HA8ev0adCwICJM8yW5OcMLlQ4KUncHMremlNe8NOtbPRDR5iRvgtBsaevfMrLOvxcGbU_uVUyp3cc6LXZth8v-CEgPUzPSzATGizTEb7FahALoJdr79je-p0g5gLmkjS7qrk4gj6-8jrnWu0iAX1iJVflU2Z5ZDQ/w400-h225/Fake%20Images.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p>Groucho Marx used to quip, "Who you gonna believe -- me or your own eyes?" These days, believing what you see with your own eyes can be problematic. Consider this story from The Associated Press:</p><p></p><blockquote>WASHINGTON (AP) — At first glance, images circulating online showing former President Donald Trump surrounded by groups of Black people smiling and laughing seem nothing out of the ordinary, but a look closer is telling.</blockquote><p></p><p></p><blockquote>Odd lighting and too−perfect details provide clues to the fact they were all generated using artificial intelligence. The photos, which have not been linked to the Trump campaign, emerged as Trump seeks to win over Black voters who polls show remain loyal to President Joe Biden.</blockquote><p></p><p></p><blockquote>The fabricated images, highlighted in a recent BBC investigation, provide further evidence to support warnings that the use of AI−generated imagery will only increase as the November general election approaches. Experts said they highlight the danger that any group — Latinos, women, older male voters — could be targeted with lifelike images meant to mislead and confuse as well as demonstrate the need for regulation around the technology.</blockquote><p></p><p></p><blockquote>In a report published this week, researchers at the nonprofit Center for Countering Digital Hate used several popular AI programs to show how easy it is to create realistic deepfakes that can fool voters. The researchers were able to generate images of Trump meeting with Russian operatives, Biden stuffing a ballot box and armed militia members at polling places, even though many of these AI programs say they have rules to prohibit this kind of content.</blockquote><p></p><p></p><blockquote>The center analyzed some of the recent deepfakes of Trump and Black voters and determined that at least one was originally created as satire but was now being shared by Trump supporters as evidence of his support among Blacks.</blockquote><p></p><p>Another reminder of something that has always been true: What really matters is the <i>sources</i> we choose for our information.</p><p>Image: The Daily Beast</p>Owen Grayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06464860078574618579noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35117130.post-57683758031261544022024-03-05T08:44:00.010-05:002024-03-05T08:52:11.179-05:00Easy Marks<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi08S_6KyzdPpAJg6keLiT5F4rGlj8U4jBy3gvF7tnw_gp4fDm71bmvVkQAhNV6RUE_1zLghC-5ApLsvGoS0rcg4bEXlCQp8-8ODKYXhNy3CuT7UCNORmR7maz6W0yWP8hXWHCLV8nRY5W6uLknPLgdvFsAHXpmFP9z8ImCqkK12CDo4wtBAy1iNQ/s2000/understanding-the-housing-policy-landscape-header.webp" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="2000" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi08S_6KyzdPpAJg6keLiT5F4rGlj8U4jBy3gvF7tnw_gp4fDm71bmvVkQAhNV6RUE_1zLghC-5ApLsvGoS0rcg4bEXlCQp8-8ODKYXhNy3CuT7UCNORmR7maz6W0yWP8hXWHCLV8nRY5W6uLknPLgdvFsAHXpmFP9z8ImCqkK12CDo4wtBAy1iNQ/w400-h240/understanding-the-housing-policy-landscape-header.webp" width="400" /></a></div><p>Millennials, we're told, are shifting their votes to Pierre Poilievre. Max Fawcett <a href="https://www.nationalobserver.com/2024/03/04/opinion/earth-millennials-pierre-poilievre-playing-you-housing">writes</a> that Poilievre is playing them for fools:</p><p></p><blockquote>Credit where it’s due: Pierre Poilievre has talked a good game about housing ever since he was elected leader of the Conservative Party of Canada. Sure, he keeps fibbing about being the Harper government’s housing minister (no such role existed) and continues to pretend the problem magically started when the Trudeau Liberals were elected, but he’s effectively drawn attention to an issue that’s been overlooked for too long. The huge surge in Conservative support among millennial voters, who now outnumber baby boomers, helps explain why his party is so far ahead in recent polls.</blockquote><p></p><p></p><blockquote>Housing-hungry millennials might want to look a little more closely at what he’s actually saying about the issue, though. Yes, Poilievre has been very good at feeling their pain and harnessing it to his own political ambitions. But if anyone’s expecting him to heal it as prime minister, his recent behaviour suggests they’re setting themselves up for some pretty major disappointment.</blockquote><p></p><p>It's wise to concentrate on what Poilievre does and not on what he says:</p><p></p><blockquote>He has, for example, decided to make an enemy out of NDP Premier David Eby, who he recently suggested has “probably the worst housing record of any politician on Earth.” Eby, of course, has been premier of British Columbia for just over a year now. In that time, he’s transformed the housing market in his province, implementing a raft of hugely ambitious and aggressive reforms that target everything from short-term rentals and restrictive local zoning bylaws to design-oriented regulations that can unlock more supply. Leo Spalteholz, a pro-supply housing activist in B.C., described the changes as “transformational.”</blockquote><p></p><p></p><blockquote>Poilievre is apparently counting on Canadians to ignore that progress or the context in which it’s taken place. “Look at the prices,” he said in a video that was clipped and shared by Canada Proud. “Vancouver is now the third most expensive housing market in the world, comparing median income to median house prices. Check it on Demographia.ca for yourself.”</blockquote><p></p><p></p><blockquote>Well, I did. Despite the dead link Poilievre tried to direct people to — it’s demographia.com — the data doesn’t tell the story he might like to pretend. Back in 2015, for example, Demographia’s annual study of housing affordability revealed that Vancouver was the second most expensive city in the world on those same criteria. Maybe, just maybe, it’s about something other than Justin Trudeau and Eby.</blockquote><p></p><p></p><blockquote>Curiously, while Poilievre is happy to blame Eby for the high housing prices that long predate his entry into provincial politics, he’s conspicuously silent about Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s track record. Prices and rents there have soared since his Progressive Conservatives took power in 2018, and most of his government’s legislative efforts on this file have revolved around trying to enrich Ford-friendly developers and exacerbate the province’s existing problems with sprawl. The Ontario PCs have repeatedly ignored the recommendations of their own Housing Affordability Task Force and in some cases, actively opposed them.</blockquote><p></p><p></p><blockquote>As a result, while housing starts were up 11 per cent in Eby’s B.C. in 2023, they dropped 36 per cent in Ford’s Ontario. As The Hub’s Steve Lafleur noted, federal Housing Minister Sean Fraser has been leading the charge for better housing policies in Ontario. “He’s getting municipal governments to make tough reforms the premier hasn’t thus far been willing to impose. Indeed, many of these reforms are straight out of the Housing Affordability Task Force report. The premier doesn’t have to drive the bus, but he really shouldn’t stand in front of it.”</blockquote><p></p><p>As a New York City official once said of Donald Trump, "I wouldn't believe a word he says -- even if his tongue were notarized."</p><p>Image: DiJones</p><p><br /></p>Owen Grayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06464860078574618579noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35117130.post-46918520443823498582024-03-02T09:42:00.001-05:002024-03-02T09:42:33.374-05:00Brian Mulroney<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4DngqGI6QJbaD_vfQg4cdbVise3jYz97kFBXLUymdT1rfhmNJ02ErTYP3soFLSF-mdjIUonO5yD8t0uvk9Y4D_49-XHxH-QzjEiD8sMNzOubyLu1anuZjkGEwqHGza0kIEuBffT7ydJJ8W21JEjPz6LIv5MNJzix0PjDUghnFqyrXi0JWZ7o8jw/s275/Mulroney.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="183" data-original-width="275" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4DngqGI6QJbaD_vfQg4cdbVise3jYz97kFBXLUymdT1rfhmNJ02ErTYP3soFLSF-mdjIUonO5yD8t0uvk9Y4D_49-XHxH-QzjEiD8sMNzOubyLu1anuZjkGEwqHGza0kIEuBffT7ydJJ8W21JEjPz6LIv5MNJzix0PjDUghnFqyrXi0JWZ7o8jw/w400-h266/Mulroney.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p>I never voted for Brian Mulroney. The Neo-Conservative Era -- which he ushered in with Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan -- to me always seemed wrong-headed. I agreed with John Kenneth Galbraith. "Trickle Down," he said, "is what comes out of the back end of a cow." </p><p>That said, Mulroney accomplished some remarkable things. He helped end Apartheid in South Africa. The Montreal Protocol, which put an end to acid rain, was a world-changing agreement. And he had the eminent good sense to appoint Stephen Lewis as Canada's ambassador to the U.N.</p><p>For those of us who have Irish blood in our veins, the blarney was easy to spot. And for those of us who grew up in the Two Solitudes, Mulroney's attempt to bridge the gulf between the two was easy to support. Meech Lake failed. Bridging those differences remains Canada's essential problem.</p><p>Mulroney -- like all of us -- was a flawed human being. But history will be kind to him. May he rest in peace.</p><p>Image: Times Colonist</p>Owen Grayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06464860078574618579noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35117130.post-48515750572982677192024-02-29T08:58:00.000-05:002024-02-29T08:58:25.463-05:00The Question<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWDpA8Cb_9UN2ygwX-BopCuxmN5JQdj8EsGYEpHydR0uY9L6R42ruz7xRGY_oS_o6150oDNGMUZX3Wv8Fxv0TWnPEFUxv974DRTMHZoUuHuQe5M6R-mB7sE9bQuwVVLEd3qNzXvtiQ_0iYVbU17HTBEpvbd27Prxaak_qIl13VTP5SqfFOlpTF0w/s275/US%20Supreme%20Court.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="183" data-original-width="275" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWDpA8Cb_9UN2ygwX-BopCuxmN5JQdj8EsGYEpHydR0uY9L6R42ruz7xRGY_oS_o6150oDNGMUZX3Wv8Fxv0TWnPEFUxv974DRTMHZoUuHuQe5M6R-mB7sE9bQuwVVLEd3qNzXvtiQ_0iYVbU17HTBEpvbd27Prxaak_qIl13VTP5SqfFOlpTF0w/w400-h266/US%20Supreme%20Court.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p>The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear Donald Trump's claim for complete immunity. What's important, Jennifer Rubin<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/02/29/supreme-court-trump-immunity-jan6/"> writes</a>, is how the court has framed the question:</p><p></p><blockquote>The court determined that the only question to be addressed is whether a former president enjoys absolute “immunity from criminal prosecution for conduct alleged to involve official acts during his tenure in office.” The language is telling in a number of respects.</blockquote><p></p><p></p><blockquote>Had the court entertained the possibility the answer would be yes (e.g., yes, he can order Seal Team Six to kill his enemies; yes, he can exile his opponent in his reelection bid), it would have had to address subsidiary questions such as “Was the president engaged in an official act?” or “What is the ambit of an official Furthermore, if the court’s order is limited to considering official acts, then special counsel Jack Smith almost certainly could effectively argue that Trump’s attempt to overthrow an election for which he has no constitutional role must be deemed “unofficial” at the tact?” Only if the answer is “no” — that is, affirming Judge Tanya S. Chutkan and the D.C. Circuit’s unanimous ruling — would there be no need for further inquiry. The presence of the single question tells us where the court is heading.</blockquote><p></p><p></p><blockquote>Furthermore, if the court’s order is limited to considering official acts, then special counsel Jack Smith almost certainly could effectively argue that Trump’s attempt to overthrow an election for which he has no constitutional role must be deemed “unofficial” at the trial court level. That would allow Smith to proceed to trial. In other words, if the Supreme Court wanted to spare Trump, it simply would have asked, “Is a president immune from criminal prosecution?”</blockquote><p></p><p>The problem is with the court's timing:</p><p>Whether a trial could begin and finish before Election Day, we most certainly will have a decision addressing what is essentially his only defense: “I cannot be punished for official acts. Interfering with my own election was an official act. Therefore, I go free!” At the very least, if my analysis is correct, heading into an election, voters will know that this cannot possibly be the law. Voting for him would amount to allowing someone going to trial (or already on trial) for serious crimes to waltz into the White House.</p><p>Let's hope American voters can see that distinction. H.L. Menken would tell you that they can't.</p><p>Image: Supreme Court</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><p></p>Owen Grayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06464860078574618579noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35117130.post-51878171270808891532024-02-26T08:45:00.001-05:002024-02-26T08:45:38.681-05:00Time For A Walk In The Snow?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyOw1pC0a5Dfw4-cfZSM2MthGzLfqoCv1atpQjkQmhXbVlA2-ol4rRpEMfDL4ch7iI5sgkQkVUqEZQQnadGBFXhiWIOYnTvWtq5MHpgzqkFxK-UtTKhuPHfl3ZcTwPHpP8y_ZzMRNv7GT4ozp8PNLVoDiqPgEqBan6u72QLLNXwr5Vke7apFDi2Q/s1000/PierrePoilievreFist.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="750" data-original-width="1000" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyOw1pC0a5Dfw4-cfZSM2MthGzLfqoCv1atpQjkQmhXbVlA2-ol4rRpEMfDL4ch7iI5sgkQkVUqEZQQnadGBFXhiWIOYnTvWtq5MHpgzqkFxK-UtTKhuPHfl3ZcTwPHpP8y_ZzMRNv7GT4ozp8PNLVoDiqPgEqBan6u72QLLNXwr5Vke7apFDi2Q/w400-h300/PierrePoilievreFist.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p>Michael Harris has supported Justin Trudeau pretty consistently. Now, he <a href="https://thetyee.ca/Analysis/2024/01/29/Get-Ready-Prime-Minister-Pierre-Poilievre/">writes</a>, it's time for Trudeau to go:</p><p></p><blockquote>Nothing is clearer in Canadian politics than that the next federal election is Pierre Poilievre’s to lose.</blockquote><p></p><p></p><blockquote>According to the latest Nanos poll, the Conservative Party of Canada has a 13-point lead over the governing Liberals. Poilievre has a 10-point lead over Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as the choice for PM, though according to the polls, neither man is the rage.</blockquote><p></p><p></p><blockquote>There is no mystery about why Canadians are unhappy with the current government. Times are undeniably tough. Canadians still have a COVID hangover, feel angry about affordability issues on everything from homes to groceries and worry about the stalling economy.</blockquote><p></p><p></p><blockquote>A lot have also developed a visceral dislike of Trudeau. There are a variety of reasons for that, from deficits stretching out to a distant fiscal horizon, to his occasional lapses of personal judgment. You don’t feast on caviar when a lot of your fellow citizens are staring into stone soup.</blockquote><p></p><p>So what about the alternative? He's big on grievance but short on details:</p><p></p><blockquote>Poilievre is currently mopping the floor with his political opponents. And he will keep doing that until they come up with a better approach to dealing with his relentless and consequential attacks.</blockquote><p></p><p></p><blockquote>The Conservative leader has a daunting list of grievances. And they resonate profoundly with Canadians. But he remains decidedly thin on solutions.</blockquote><p></p><p></p><blockquote>Poilievre’s greatest vulnerability is on how, or even if, he would fight climate change. He might rage against carbon pricing, but he has so far declined to flesh out the Conservatives’ policy, promising to release details later.</blockquote><p></p><p></p><blockquote>That is textbook opposition politics. The longer you delay revealing your policies, the less time your opponents have to pick them apart.</blockquote><p></p><p>What the Liberals need is change. And Harris suggests that change should start at the top with a leader who can pick Poilievre apart.</p><p>Image: Sean Kilpatrick, the Canadian Press.</p>Owen Grayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06464860078574618579noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35117130.post-88125793603077533132024-02-22T08:51:00.006-05:002024-02-22T08:54:09.543-05:00A Fraud<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJpkoLHOh8rFdM0LkFHHq-WX_jkatj7JBjakx-aJLEmYOsn4QtSW5H71c46Bf3JUzvsFJcdLEmM7-fWKUXei4aZdHNwG3RDza2KUajv-tqarOjmHaQTPgCfGgbizS_3EeepwotCUf75Z2YoZOEysLzC14iNAnwx8liQT3qCSRoVP0AxB4Q1krzog/s1476/Poilievre%203.webp" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="984" data-original-width="1476" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJpkoLHOh8rFdM0LkFHHq-WX_jkatj7JBjakx-aJLEmYOsn4QtSW5H71c46Bf3JUzvsFJcdLEmM7-fWKUXei4aZdHNwG3RDza2KUajv-tqarOjmHaQTPgCfGgbizS_3EeepwotCUf75Z2YoZOEysLzC14iNAnwx8liQT3qCSRoVP0AxB4Q1krzog/s320/Poilievre%203.webp" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p>Pierre Poilievre is a piece of work. Linda McQuaig <a href="https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/pierre-poilievre-wants-to-look-tough-but-bows-to-donald-trump/article_5d52ebe2-d043-11ee-82ac-f3afa2220f1c.html">writes</a>:</p><p></p><blockquote>So let me get this straight. Pierre Poilievre is going to make life more affordable for Canadians. Yet he’s going to ramp up our military spending wildly, as demanded by Donald Trump.</blockquote><p></p><p></p><blockquote>Trump isn’t even yet the Republican nominee (and still faces 91 criminal charges) but already our putative future prime minister is bending to his will.</blockquote><p></p><p></p><blockquote>Last week, Poilievre indicated support for boosting Canada’s military spending to 2 per cent of GDP, right after Trump told a rally he’d encourage Russia to “do whatever the hell they want” to any NATO country that doesn’t meet NATO’s 2 per cent target.</blockquote><p></p><p></p><blockquote>Of course, bowing and scraping to the MAGA boss-man isn’t the image Poilievre wants to project to Canadians. He wants us to see him as a scrappy tough guy who fights to make our lives more affordable.</blockquote><p></p><p></p><blockquote>The problem is he doesn’t come up with any ideas that would actually make our lives more affordable. Sure, he talks about “axing the tax” (very scrappy) but always leaves out the kicker: eliminating the carbon tax would also mean eliminating the rebate that leaves most Canadians better off (not so scrappy).</blockquote><p></p><p>Consider the nonsense he's peddling:</p><p></p><blockquote>Axing the tax certainly appeals to Big Oil boosters who want to keep us hooked on fossil fuels, but it won’t help with affordability.</blockquote><p></p><p></p><blockquote>Meanwhile, raising our military spending to 2 per cent of GDP — from its current level of 1.39 per cent — would cost us an extra $25 billion a year, according to Canada’s Parliamentary Budget Office. That would please Trump (at least for a moment). But such a massive spending hike would inevitably result in spending cuts to things we really need — like health care, transit, housing — making our lives worse and less affordable.</blockquote><p></p><p>Poilievre takes his cues from the Magnetic Moron to the South. Americans may re-elect that moron. We should steer clear of our own frauds.</p><p>Image: The Toronto Star</p>Owen Grayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06464860078574618579noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35117130.post-36300533449999153382024-02-19T09:16:00.000-05:002024-02-19T09:16:11.508-05:00More Damage<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBIzHVs8Je_FAcQKiHFU74pXtv9-ZlCb5XsmiFDHwbei57epB8Lk6cmt9jH7BQ3BZtstRB8_ydIxw-cQzI947OHAzOm4dElqr3kZOi-5xAh6UXBHSKgVo39UAgY6oUR5DJmSTLdOgluDBvcUPVjM49jcpVC-31lMMURX3y5RM4hb7OXnXdSxHnWQ/s850/things-fall-apart-the-center-cannot-hold-.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="850" height="189" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBIzHVs8Je_FAcQKiHFU74pXtv9-ZlCb5XsmiFDHwbei57epB8Lk6cmt9jH7BQ3BZtstRB8_ydIxw-cQzI947OHAzOm4dElqr3kZOi-5xAh6UXBHSKgVo39UAgY6oUR5DJmSTLdOgluDBvcUPVjM49jcpVC-31lMMURX3y5RM4hb7OXnXdSxHnWQ/w400-h189/things-fall-apart-the-center-cannot-hold-.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p>The damage from the ArriveCan debacle is spreading. Once again, the Trudeau government is paying the price. Michael Harris <a href="https://www.hilltimes.com/story/2024/02/19/obvious-loser-in-arrivecan-scandal-is-trudeau-government/411939/">writes</a>:</p><p></p><blockquote>Apart from the Canadian public, the obvious loser in the ArriveCan scandal is the Trudeau government. </blockquote><p></p><p></p><blockquote>After all, it takes a special kind of incompetence to turn an $80,000 project into a $60-million boondoggle of epic proportions. </blockquote><p></p><p></p><blockquote>Thanking the Auditor General for writing what could be your political epitaph isn’t fooling anyone. Neither is the promise to accept her recommendations. Or protestations that you are committed to handling taxpayers’ money responsibly. In the light of the AG’s findings, that is all nonsense.</blockquote><p></p><p>But the Liberals are not the only ones paying a price:</p><p></p><blockquote>There is a second victim in this hot mess: NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh. Singh placed a high-stakes bet that his supply-and-confidence agreement with the Liberals, which would allow the Liberals to remain in place until 2025, would benefit the NDP in the long run.</blockquote><p></p><p></p><blockquote>In return for keeping the government in power, the Liberals pledged to give special attention to the NDP’s policy priorities. And in the case of a public dental care program—or at least the baby steps towards one—that is what happened. </blockquote><p></p><p></p><blockquote>Pharmacare is another matter. The Liberals have already missed one deadline in doing something about this NDP priority. </blockquote><p></p><p></p><blockquote>The new deadline is now March. But the government has already made clear that whatever it might come up with, it will be far short of a single payer, universal program. That, government ministers have said, is far too expensive. </blockquote><p></p><p></p><blockquote>Parsing that response, the Liberals will try to substitute a “framework” for pharmacare, rather than legislation that would actually create it. </blockquote><p></p><p>Things are falling apart. Governments defeat themselves.</p><p>Image: AZ Quotes</p>Owen Grayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06464860078574618579noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35117130.post-83086116468162986682024-02-15T08:52:00.003-05:002024-02-17T11:25:51.959-05:00Misinformed<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisWNoDVhtrgZdlGabwlsQDc5IFp80r-LzkKHvWap_NPkGXx3lICpQksXE7kpnH-EsECCL7nRnAOtX7Pl8Co6FmvD2qFZcdlK9kCX-gBk20xz5qKvAKFLGppwG2JDYeno1v5N9kemk5VNRtZivqL2rHqvUqDs02u40f6u65ix0owHk9BmvwDpQAfg/s780/smith-20240205%20(1).jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="439" data-original-width="780" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisWNoDVhtrgZdlGabwlsQDc5IFp80r-LzkKHvWap_NPkGXx3lICpQksXE7kpnH-EsECCL7nRnAOtX7Pl8Co6FmvD2qFZcdlK9kCX-gBk20xz5qKvAKFLGppwG2JDYeno1v5N9kemk5VNRtZivqL2rHqvUqDs02u40f6u65ix0owHk9BmvwDpQAfg/w400-h225/smith-20240205%20(1).jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p>Danielle Smith believes that the future is in oil. Max Fawcett <a href="https://www.nationalobserver.com/2024/02/15/opinion/danielle-smith-still-dreaming-when-it-comes-oils-future">writes</a> that she is misinformed: </p><p></p><blockquote>Alberta’s UCP government may like to pretend it sees the world differently than Saudi Arabia but when it comes to their biggest industry, they speak the same language. Both have said the International Energy Agency’s predictions about the imminent arrival of peak oil demand are massively overblown and that consumption will remain strong for decades to come. That’s why the kingdom’s recent announcement to abandon plans to increase its maximum sustained production capacity should have gotten Danielle Smith’s attention. The explanation that Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman offered at a recent industry conference, meanwhile, should have stopped her cold.</blockquote><p></p><p></p><blockquote>“I think we postponed the investment simply because … we’re transitioning,” bin Salman said. “And transitioning means that even our oil company, which used to be an oil company, became a hydrocarbon company. Now it’s becoming an energy company.” They might not ring a bell at the top of a market, as the saying goes, but his statement is about as close as it’s going to get for fossil fuels.</blockquote><p></p><p></p><blockquote>So far, Smith has refused to reckon with this reality. In a world where global demand for oil is in the process of starting to roll over, she actually seems to think Alberta can double its production by 2050. As she told Tucker Carlson (during his brief stopover in Alberta en route to his date with Vladimir Putin in Moscow), “I think we should just double down and decide we’re going to double our oil and gas production because truly, where else does America want to get its oil from?”</blockquote><p></p><p>And she's selling that idea to the Americans:</p><p></p><blockquote>She tried to play this card again during her recent visit to the United States, where she met with some of the most notoriously retrograde Republican senators in an apparent attempt to drum up business for Alberta. “Serious question for America,” she posed on Twitter. “Would you rather get your energy from Iran and Venezuela or your friends in Canada?” Here’s one serious answer: America currently imports almost no oil from Venezuela and has only registered imports from Iran in six months over the last 32 years. There is, in other words, almost nothing for Canada to replace here.</blockquote><p></p><p></p><blockquote>This wasn’t the only aspect of America’s energy system she doesn’t seem to understand. In a video posted to social media, Smith suggests the United States is actually behind Canada when it comes to climate policy, and we should avoid getting too far ahead. “I know that there are often proposals for what decarbonizing might look like on a number of fronts,” she said, “but I’m not seeing that America is moving as quick as Canada. That’s one thing I’m hoping we can bring in sync.”</blockquote><p></p><p>She's not the sharpest tool in the shed. But, like the guy to the South, ignorance does not slow her down.</p><p>Image: CBC</p>Owen Grayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06464860078574618579noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35117130.post-43000957939787913792024-02-12T08:30:00.000-05:002024-02-12T08:30:07.858-05:00They're Shafting Ukraine<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAmkixtOTD3TJJE-dGvyEezXl0Fw0K0X_KUHuG_TJvjepIdHr2u2hahEZANyUk_bysJVFa1Oeob2CenBS7gpDzOSubCRnIpDUNkRGKRfsvS-WNE7ehMCz4twbQk5_CD1XAcD85HUgu7bOSMgRgsvQnSG0c__KlW99bt36Y_we9SQSNgOvIHPwuow/s318/Trump-Poilievre.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="159" data-original-width="318" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAmkixtOTD3TJJE-dGvyEezXl0Fw0K0X_KUHuG_TJvjepIdHr2u2hahEZANyUk_bysJVFa1Oeob2CenBS7gpDzOSubCRnIpDUNkRGKRfsvS-WNE7ehMCz4twbQk5_CD1XAcD85HUgu7bOSMgRgsvQnSG0c__KlW99bt36Y_we9SQSNgOvIHPwuow/w400-h200/Trump-Poilievre.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p>American Republicans and Canadian Conservatives are shafting Ukraine. Michael Harris <a href="https://www.hilltimes.com/story/2024/02/12/u-s-republicans-canadian-federal-conservatives-give-zelenskyy-the-shaft-and-thats-a-crying-shame/410963/">writes</a>:</p><p></p><blockquote>The politicians whom the Ukrainian president trusted to have his back in his country’s existential struggle against Russian invaders have betrayed him. </blockquote><p></p><p></p><blockquote>While European countries have ponied up 54-billion euros for beleaguered Ukraine, the dysfunctional United States Congress is withholding $60-billion. </blockquote><p></p><p></p><blockquote>In what should be an all-hands-on-deck moment in the West, the Republicans are instead wallowing in a twisted version of domestic politics. While Vladimir Putin pounds Ukrainian cities, killing civilians and destroying the country’s infrastructure, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives is complaining about border security. </blockquote><p></p><p></p><blockquote>The Republicans’ bottom line? No border security, no money for Ukraine. The consequence? No money for Ukraine, no Ukraine—at least not as a democracy, rather than a vassal state.</blockquote><p></p><p></p><blockquote>It’s worse than it looks. </blockquote><p></p><p>The Conservatives are no better:</p><p></p><blockquote>Here in Canada, though Prime Minister Justin Trudeau remains steadfast in his support of Ukraine, not everyone agrees. The Conservatives recently voted against the refurbished free-trade deal with Ukraine. </blockquote><p></p><p></p><blockquote>Far more troubling is the recent Angus Reid poll that shows that amongst Conservative voters, support has plummeted for supporting Ukraine two years into the invasion. </blockquote><p></p><p></p><blockquote>Those Conservatives are not only losing interest in the conflict, but they also believe that Canada is doing “too much” to assist Ukraine. Coincidentally, similar polling results are showing up in the America. Republican voters are also showing attention fatigue with the Ukraine War.</blockquote><p></p><p>They're paper tigers -- full of hot air and nothing more.</p><p>Image: The Hill Times</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><p></p>Owen Grayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06464860078574618579noreply@blogger.com24tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35117130.post-74568313595494488152024-02-09T08:53:00.000-05:002024-02-09T08:53:28.010-05:00Proportional Representation Now<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqIH_8BFlZM3WT_OnkweZo8UpushZ0TbWxgNkSGMEjoIICl-6ldZpIN92p_meaiVF7dvxkOzI4rNQd_g77ATngXDkMivuMKqrgL8Roo9wwIbuqbFXJkgL7p3yI9tPtMaAldtnC3Vn3-Q3zf3tDUNCtbPBW0umd9RYJftV24lh20ZkZrENxBVTPqg/s310/PR.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="163" data-original-width="310" height="210" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqIH_8BFlZM3WT_OnkweZo8UpushZ0TbWxgNkSGMEjoIICl-6ldZpIN92p_meaiVF7dvxkOzI4rNQd_g77ATngXDkMivuMKqrgL8Roo9wwIbuqbFXJkgL7p3yI9tPtMaAldtnC3Vn3-Q3zf3tDUNCtbPBW0umd9RYJftV24lh20ZkZrENxBVTPqg/w400-h210/PR.png" width="400" /></a></div><p><br /></p><p>This week, the House voted down a resolution to establish a citizens' council to study proportional representation. Max Fawcett <a href="https://www.nationalobserver.com/2024/02/08/opinion/its-not-too-late-electoral-reform">writes</a>:</p><p></p><blockquote>On Wednesday, the House of Commons voted against a motion calling for the federal government to establish a citizens' assembly to “determine if electoral reform is recommended for Canada and, if so, recommend specific measures that would foster a healthier democracy.” Those voting against the motion included a majority of Liberal MPs and most of the Trudeau government’s cabinet. But that doesn’t mean electoral reform is dead — or that it couldn’t still happen before the next election.</blockquote><p></p><p></p><blockquote>After all, a citizens' assembly would have taken time we probably don’t have. With Donald Trump poised to win the next U.S. presidential election despite trying to overturn the results of the last one, we no longer have the luxury of pretending democracy is somehow invulnerable or unassailable. There are even those in Canada who very much wish to assail it, albeit by less crude and crass means than Trump.</blockquote><p></p><p></p><blockquote>The merits of a more proportional system of representation are no secret at this point and require no further study or debate. British Columbia formed a Citizens’ Assembly on Electoral Reform more than two decades ago and its conclusions were clear: "Election results will be fairer, reflecting a balance between votes and seats, voters will have more choice and candidates will work harder to earn their support," the assembly’s final report argued.</blockquote><p></p><p>So is electoral reform dead? Of course not. The Liberals and NDP could make it happen. But they would get no support from the Conservatives:</p><p></p><blockquote>Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives would come out swinging against any attempt to change the electoral system, even if it would actually benefit them in a bunch of different ways. By electing a more geographically diverse slate of MPs, they wouldn’t necessarily be so beholden to their Prairie base. And in the last two elections, a more proportional system would have given them more seats — maybe even more than the Liberals. But with polls now showing the Conservatives poised to benefit disproportionately from first-past-the-post’s math — some projections have them winning 65 per cent of the seats with less than 45 per cent of the vote — they’re not likely to listen to these sorts of arguments.</blockquote><p></p><p>And the Liberals also have reasons for turning the idea down:</p><p></p><blockquote>Some Liberals might not want to hear them either, since implementing a more proportional system would almost certainly mean they’d never form another majority government. But they need to ask themselves what matters most: some potential future government or the next one that Canadians will elect. That one, after all, could easily unwind some of their most important achievements, from climate policy to childcare. It could even throw the door more widely open to the sorts of culture war nonsense that has so thoroughly infected American politics. And with conservative provincial governments in seven provinces, most notably Ontario and Quebec, it could even take a run at the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.</blockquote><p></p><p>But proportional representation is an idea whose time has come. The only people who don't want to see that are our politicians.</p><p>Image: Fair Vote Canada</p>Owen Grayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06464860078574618579noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35117130.post-30831177546567524722024-02-06T09:30:00.001-05:002024-02-06T09:30:22.674-05:00They're In Trouble<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdweHKDKGVG9mROOWlyi_ajzulC7s6BKYolYga9vlcCtkdq5MSaidYjTkt8g7sh56A5uj6nELwByW81hzLhR1UGuK9HDXwSFuxZVkCiDhTQNeuJxX5-68ZMsWAfAERNaxd9YtnhpQ8C3B3viuFIdFCJRFb7CprGPeMLDhMWsqfx3rS1JOrIOnfSA/s900/Supreme-Court.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="607" data-original-width="900" height="270" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdweHKDKGVG9mROOWlyi_ajzulC7s6BKYolYga9vlcCtkdq5MSaidYjTkt8g7sh56A5uj6nELwByW81hzLhR1UGuK9HDXwSFuxZVkCiDhTQNeuJxX5-68ZMsWAfAERNaxd9YtnhpQ8C3B3viuFIdFCJRFb7CprGPeMLDhMWsqfx3rS1JOrIOnfSA/w400-h270/Supreme-Court.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p>This week, the American Supreme Court will decide if Donald Trump can be kicked off the primary ballot in some states. Nathan Vanderklippe <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/world/article-benedict-arnold-and-the-colorado-republicans-how-the-battle-to-get/">writes</a>:</p><p></p><blockquote>On Thursday, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear an appeal of the Colorado decision, which has been stayed pending the higher court’s ruling. Lawyers for Mr. Trump have warned that, if the decision stands, it could disenfranchise tens of millions of voters and “unleash chaos and bedlam if other state courts and state officials follow Colorado’s lead and exclude the likely Republican presidential nominee from their ballots.”</blockquote><p></p><p></p><blockquote>The efforts to erase Mr. Trump from the ballot are part of a much broader erosion in support for the partisan power structures that underlie American democracy. It’s not simply that some conservative voters want nothing to do with the former president. Their legal action against him comes at a moment of widening disaffection with Republicans and Democrats alike.</blockquote><p></p><p></p><blockquote>The American electorate is now marked by “disgust with both parties,” said Norma Anderson, a former member of Colorado’s state legislature who is another of the petitioners. “Parties don’t work anymore, in my opinion.”</blockquote><p></p><p>One party has become the plaything of one man -- and the whole country is in deep trouble:</p><p></p><blockquote>For some, the Colorado lawsuit marks an attempt to stake out ground for those who continue to reject the extremes. If Republicans are defeated in the coming election, “it will be essential to have a rebirth, and in a more responsible, ethical way,” said Claudine Schneider, another petitioner, who served in the U.S. Congress as a Republican representative from 1981 to 1991. She said she felt a moral obligation to oppose Mr. Trump. She also hopes to “have some voice, perhaps not today in the Republican party – but definitely tomorrow.”</blockquote><p></p><p></p><blockquote>But the current party leadership shows no sign of listening. A county wing of the party formally censured several of the lawsuit petitioners. The party has added [Republicans who brought the lawsuit] to a RINO – “Republican in Name Only” – hall of shame.</blockquote><p></p><p>One of those Republicans is Norma Anderson:</p><p></p><blockquote>Ms. Anderson [is] one of the state’s most accomplished Republicans, who spent nearly two decades in the Colorado legislature. Her living room is decorated with a framed flag that was flown over the U.S.Capitol in honour of her service. She regularly thumbs through a paper copy of the Constitution.</blockquote><p></p><p></p><blockquote>And she was sitting in front of her television on Jan. 6, watching events that she is convinced amounted to an insurrection in which Mr. Trump played a role. “I just couldn’t believe what was happening,” she said.</blockquote><p></p><p>Will the Supreme Court support Trump's insanity? The smart money says yes.</p><p>Image: The Globe and Mail</p>Owen Grayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06464860078574618579noreply@blogger.com22tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35117130.post-33110811646061027302024-02-03T09:34:00.001-05:002024-02-03T09:34:22.113-05:00The Irony Behind Conservatism<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEio-8i2XECF41SR86_RpjXAv8Xv9fNRgjKtbaDgbxyjQFgB89gDVNhQ0gR9WEWP-0dWv5q5twq_MsQCiSv9tdrcGyplAKxlHQmuTgNxGhhivOAY5GCvPmSU-hgvdfWcLgEuDH6I5w3BgPY3E_gKB1Z_PkPsxw5t10rqwX6hJvcJW2owNARWXh-8Cg/s2048/Smith%20And%20Ford.webp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1233" data-original-width="2048" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEio-8i2XECF41SR86_RpjXAv8Xv9fNRgjKtbaDgbxyjQFgB89gDVNhQ0gR9WEWP-0dWv5q5twq_MsQCiSv9tdrcGyplAKxlHQmuTgNxGhhivOAY5GCvPmSU-hgvdfWcLgEuDH6I5w3BgPY3E_gKB1Z_PkPsxw5t10rqwX6hJvcJW2owNARWXh-8Cg/w400-h241/Smith%20And%20Ford.webp" width="400" /></a></div><p>Modern Conservatives don't <i>conserve</i> anything. Max Fawcett <a href="https://www.nationalobserver.com/2024/02/01/opinion/provinces-are-trying-break-canada">writes</a>:</p><p></p><blockquote>Of all Pierre Poilievre’s familiar slogans, there’s one that stands above the rest: Canada is broken. There’s no shortage of irony there, not least because what little we know of his proposed plans and policies revolve almost exclusively around breaking things, whether it’s the CBC or Canada’s climate change policies. But the most ironic thing of all is that while Poilievre pretends Justin Trudeau’s Liberals are breaking the country, its conservative premiers are busy doing exactly that.</blockquote><p></p><p>Consider what Conservative premiers are doing:</p><p></p><blockquote>Take the federal government’s childcare agreement, one that provinces like Ontario and Alberta seem determined to undermine with deliberate mismanagement of the money they’ve been given. While Ottawa will send $3.8 billion to the Alberta government over five years to support its childcare ambitions, the provincial government hasn’t put in a single additional dollar of its own.</blockquote><p></p><p></p><blockquote>That's not all. According to Krystal Churcher, the chair of the Association of Alberta Childcare Entrepreneurs, the Alberta government is effectively asking childcare providers to lend it money every month. “Asking operators to carry 85 per cent of their revenue and wait 40 to 45 days to get it back is putting them in the position where they can’t pay rent on Feb. 1,” she told the CBC’s Matt Galloway. If you wanted to deliberately undermine the federal government’s goals here, this would be a pretty good way to do it.</blockquote><p></p><p></p><blockquote>There’s also health care, where the Ford government has been consistently underfunding Ontario’s system, which appears to be ever more precariously perched on the brink of total collapse. That might suit the Ford government just fine, given its obvious interest in bringing more private-sector activity into the system. Other conservative governments across the country, from Alberta and Saskatchewan to the Maritimes, appear to be following similar playbooks.</blockquote><p></p><p></p><blockquote>On housing, the provinces (outside of British Columbia) keep adding fuel to a fire the federal government is desperately trying to extinguish. In 2023, Ontario saw 85,770 housing starts, a seven per cent decrease from the previous year and just 78 per cent of its stated goal of 110,000 new homes. That’s because, according to a number of Ontario municipal leaders, the province has effectively set them up to fail by not supporting the infrastructure needed to actually enable growth and new construction.</blockquote><p></p><p></p><blockquote>They’re not helping on the demand side of the equation either. By admitting an ever-increasing volume of international students — 240,000 in each of the last two years in Ontario alone — they’re adding another source of demand for housing, one that’s putting even more strain on rental markets that can’t handle much more of it.</blockquote><p></p><p>So the next time Pierre Poilievre tells you that Canada is broken, remember that he and his brethern in the provinces want to accelerate that process.</p><p>Image: The National Observer</p>Owen Grayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06464860078574618579noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35117130.post-58565905419378880232024-01-31T09:05:00.001-05:002024-02-01T16:42:39.994-05:00Trump And The World<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEqD8lU7qK1InygU_lQirYJV3NLIgr-FShSnRFnJ978vEJ6hfIa8K4y-yKSMWe73VUocG5ZQvUY-_5UgNTbTX1kwc3E-ZjxVlHh1ZThW_VQQ7MGO4-OP5uFHRRxnZAbD1TwkUD0ilzezrCUKv_e0Zp3GaPHWoH_Jd7jG_3ZHhJiHQLNS-GUkqn9w/s300/Trump%20and%20World%20Leaders.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="168" data-original-width="300" height="224" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEqD8lU7qK1InygU_lQirYJV3NLIgr-FShSnRFnJ978vEJ6hfIa8K4y-yKSMWe73VUocG5ZQvUY-_5UgNTbTX1kwc3E-ZjxVlHh1ZThW_VQQ7MGO4-OP5uFHRRxnZAbD1TwkUD0ilzezrCUKv_e0Zp3GaPHWoH_Jd7jG_3ZHhJiHQLNS-GUkqn9w/w400-h224/Trump%20and%20World%20Leaders.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p>Where Donald Trump goes, chaos follows. With that in mind, Max Boot <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/01/31/isolationism-trump-president-second-term/">speculates </a>what foreign policy would be like in a second Trump term:</p><p></p><blockquote>Every president but one since Franklin D. Roosevelt has believed that the United States should exercise preeminent international influence for its own good and that of the world. Trump is the lone exception. He is committed to an “America First” agenda — the same label embraced by the Nazi sympathizers and isolationists of the pre-Pearl Harbor period. He has nothing but scorn for the twin pillars of postwar U.S. foreign policy: free-trade pacts and security alliances.</blockquote><p></p><p></p><blockquote>In Trump’s first term, he did not manage to overturn more than 70 years of American global leadership, but he certainly undermined it. He pulled out of the Paris Climate Accords, the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Iran nuclear accord. He tried to pull all U.S. forces out of Syria and about a third of them out of Germany. He temporarily blocked arms deliveries to Ukraine to coerce President Volodymyr Zelensky into helping him politically. He launched a pointless trade war with China that inflicted considerable costs on the U.S. economy.</blockquote><p></p><p></p><blockquote>It’s a safe bet Trump will not be appointing any moderates next time. He has vowed to purge apolitical civil servants — a.k.a. “Communists, Marxists, Racists, and Radical Left Thugs.” The Heritage Foundation is compiling long lists of MAGA loyalists to staff a Trump administration.</blockquote><p></p><p></p><blockquote>Thus, there would be little — aside from his own mental fog — to stop Trump from carrying out his isolationist agenda. According to Thierry Breton, a senior European Union official, Trump in 2020 told E.U. leaders “that if Europe is under attack we will never come to help you and to support you” and “NATO is dead, and we will leave, we will quit NATO.” Congress recently passed legislation to prevent a president from exiting NATO without congressional approval, but Trump could still make the alliance a dead letter by refusing to honor the Article 5 obligation to defend members under attack.</blockquote><p></p><p></p><blockquote>Trump would almost certainly cut off U.S. aid to Ukraine — as his followers in Congress are already attempting to do, at his behest. He says he would end the Ukraine war “in one day” by telling Zelensky that Ukraine would have “to make a deal.” Such a deal would presumably turn over at least 20 percent of Ukraine’s territory to Russian occupation while dictator Vladimir Putin readied his forces to take the rest. Zelensky called Trump’s talk “very dangerous,” but Trump is far more interested in courting Putin than Zelensky. (“I was the apple of his eye,” Trump recently boasted about his Kremlin pal.)</blockquote><p></p><p></p><blockquote>The leaders of some countries — e.g., Russia, North Korea, Hungary, Saudi Arabia — might be enthused about Trump returning to power, but it’s a safe bet that Mexico, America’s top trade partner, won’t be one of them. Trump has vowed to “carry out the largest domestic deportation operation in American history,” with most of those migrants presumably being sent south of the border over the opposition of the Mexican government. Trump, who talked in office about firing missiles at drug labs in Mexico, is also developing plans to unilaterally use military force against Mexican drug cartels — a move that no sovereign nation could tolerate.</blockquote><p></p><p>Most elections are about domestic policy. Let's hope that American voters are interested in foreign policy. Under Trump, the world will not be a better place.</p><p>Image: Quartz</p>Owen Grayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06464860078574618579noreply@blogger.com20tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35117130.post-69907115911135038152024-01-28T09:36:00.003-05:002024-01-28T09:43:41.158-05:00Lies And Damned Lies<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8DupfaQIWLp0-jdl8L7XiKrULyZ7oY4kAtjiAhyphenhyphenrikJ4CmYISMurSY4vViqCx_UWyNs1qH0Gosd3bKS20LcC4btzn5Q0fR3uEgBgtLlhnZdo-ui_Znnbmy9H-RwcBU0lz412wOC3ZD3Z7lPzwBrzAWkNBh5Oo3LJVFIoGK5WZZgTasx8cZhL_Cw/s1200/Caufield_TuckerCarlson.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="1200" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8DupfaQIWLp0-jdl8L7XiKrULyZ7oY4kAtjiAhyphenhyphenrikJ4CmYISMurSY4vViqCx_UWyNs1qH0Gosd3bKS20LcC4btzn5Q0fR3uEgBgtLlhnZdo-ui_Znnbmy9H-RwcBU0lz412wOC3ZD3Z7lPzwBrzAWkNBh5Oo3LJVFIoGK5WZZgTasx8cZhL_Cw/w400-h266/Caufield_TuckerCarlson.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div><p>Tucker Carlson came to Alberta because, he says, he wants to liberate us. Timothy Caulfield <a href="https://thewalrus.ca/tucker-carlson-alberta/">writes</a>:</p><p></p><blockquote>RIGHT BEFORE he was fired from Fox News last spring, the prime-time host Tucker Carlson was set to release a documentary called O, Canada! The trailer seemed to unironically suggest that the country needs to be liberated (read: invaded by the United States) to save it from the authoritarian rule of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. This move would, Tucker implied, accord with the US “official policy” of opposing oppressive dictatorships. The marketing for the documentary included Soviet-style graphics of Trudeau. “What if tyranny arrived right next door?” Tucker asked in the trailer. “And what would our government do in response?”</blockquote><p></p><p></p><blockquote>It wouldn’t have taken Tucker, or his team, much digging to uncover the fact that Trudeau is the leader of a politically centrist minority government within a parliamentary system. For all his many faults and political missteps, Trudeau isn’t a communist dictator worthy of a ground offensive by the US military. (And, by the way, Canada fares better than the US on human and economic freedom scales in rankings by think tanks like the Freedom House and the conservative-leaning Cato and Fraser institutes. The US doesn’t even crack the top twenty! Hmmm, should Canada do the liberating?)</blockquote><p></p><p></p><blockquote>Yesterday, Tucker decided to invade Canada himself, an assault that primarily involved two Alberta speaking events: the one in Calgary headlined a discussion with Premier Danielle Smith in front of an audience of more than 4,000 people, and an Edmonton event, which reportedly had twice as many people. The second show, which I attended, had Premier Smith provide a glowing introduction of Tucker. The premier started with a few anti–renewable energy jokes (which got a big laugh from the nearly full stadium) and rants about the evils of cancel culture (big cheers) and woke politics (big cheers). Shortly after, enter Tucker (standing ovation).</blockquote><p></p><p></p><blockquote>His speech, which was followed by a discussion with Conrad Black and Jordan Peterson, was little more than a string of Trudeau jokes, misleading assertions about Canada’s medical assistance in dying policy, and attacks on trans identity as a movement to “ritually humiliate you.” Throughout the event, there were frequent references to the importance of truth: “These are the stakes, this is the truth, I’m going to stand on the truth.” Coming from a person who has built a career on twisting reality, it felt like satire.</blockquote><p></p><p>Truth. That's what Carlson said was at stake. The truth is that Carlson is telling what Mark Twain called "damn'd lies." These are manufactured for fools. What is surprising is how many fools there are -- particularly the number who know exactly what they are doing.</p><p>Image: Brian Cahn / ZUMA Press Wire / Alamy</p>Owen Grayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06464860078574618579noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35117130.post-9762914761240784542024-01-25T09:02:00.000-05:002024-01-25T09:02:23.025-05:00The Perfect Storm<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVy6b1ypEkmSrYDbl7Ljy6WjStDDcc4f4RZuc0ZD6s82-OJNQTlnt-4aYU9eFvLtZe9t_nMOiDVIbUY0_vAeSwLX32tVUM0DTzpUw0zuOitoERwg0JcqZ-FUWdA_8_D5bOSClEwAXr8hBKV6lH5sKczmSlQjZhJVZP1ArjCQpRLlpXIpvcSvJdKg/s275/truckers%20protest.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="183" data-original-width="275" height="183" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVy6b1ypEkmSrYDbl7Ljy6WjStDDcc4f4RZuc0ZD6s82-OJNQTlnt-4aYU9eFvLtZe9t_nMOiDVIbUY0_vAeSwLX32tVUM0DTzpUw0zuOitoERwg0JcqZ-FUWdA_8_D5bOSClEwAXr8hBKV6lH5sKczmSlQjZhJVZP1ArjCQpRLlpXIpvcSvJdKg/s1600/truckers%20protest.jpg" width="275" /></a></div><p>We now have a perfect political storm. Susan Delacourt <a href="https://www.thestar.com/politics/political-opinion/freedom-convoy-supporters-and-haters-now-have-fresh-ammunition/article_5791b9e2-baf7-11ee-b851-8358490b3b0d.html">writes</a>:</p><p></p><blockquote>Two sharply divergent views of those convoy protests, two opposite rulings from judges. Not surprisingly, each side will now be able to claim vindication, as well as grievance.</blockquote><p></p><p></p><blockquote>That was evident in the immediate aftermath of the ruling by Federal Court Judge Richard Mosley on Tuesday, with Conservatives and convoy supporters claiming victory, while Trudeau’s government wasted no time in announcing it will appeal the decision all the way up to the Supreme Court of Canada if it must.</blockquote><p></p><p></p><blockquote>In short, those extraordinary weeks in early 2022, which so divided the country, continue to pitch politics into two, polar-opposite camps.</blockquote><p></p><p>And The Right is having a field day:</p><p></p><blockquote>No question, it is looking like a good week for the anti-Trudeau right, what with convoy supporters getting to run a victory lap, Conservatives getting to rail against Trudeau “breaking the law” and, in a bonus of timing, former Fox News darling Tucker Carlson arriving in Alberta to appear at a bash-the-Liberals event with Premier Danielle Smith.</blockquote><p></p><p></p><blockquote>“I’m going to go liberate Canada,” Carlson said in an interview with Politico as he was getting ready to board his plane.</blockquote><p></p><p></p><blockquote>Smith believes the Federal Court has handed her another way to bludgeon Trudeau’s Liberals in her mind-your-own-business crusade against Ottawa. In a post on X on Tuesday, Smith said: “Whether it’s today’s court decision, or their defeat on plastics or the Impact Assessment Act, it is clear the Trudeau Liberal government simply does not understand or respect the Constitution of Canada.”</blockquote><p></p><p>But things are not that simple:</p><p></p><blockquote>Convoy supporters, for instance — and all of those people who said this was just a spirited party with bouncy castles and hot tubs on Wellington Street, should take note of this blunt statement from Mosley: “I considered the events that occurred in Ottawa and other locations in January and February 2022 went beyond legitimate protest and reflected an unacceptable breakdown of public order.”</blockquote><p></p><p></p><blockquote>Mosley goes on to say that he might have made the same decision himself to invoke the emergency legislation. But he has two fundamental problems with how the government used the emergency law: one with the argument for using it, the other with the scope of it.</blockquote><p></p><p></p><blockquote>In politics, where everyone wants to choose their own opinions — and facts — these days, the only certain outcome of the Federal Court decision is new life into a two-year-old fight over those convoy protests. There is a middle to be found between the two judges’ rulings, between Rouleau and Mosley — but don’t expect to hear too much of that in the polarized political arena.</blockquote><p></p><p>If the Ottawa police had acted earlier, things might have been different.</p><p>Oliver Wendall Holmes famously said that freedom of speech does not mean that you have the right to yell fire in a crowded theatre. These days, the wisdom of that position is forgotten. For that reason, I still side with the government.</p><p>Image: NBC News</p>Owen Grayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06464860078574618579noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35117130.post-46884531603076512982024-01-22T08:53:00.000-05:002024-01-22T08:53:07.404-05:00It's Ugly<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEia3brILHPXrUxGisYsJI5kboxjjTuEze8uS_AWU6XvV_jahy0d1662HOQe5AImB_PjCK0_lTOngTZGEECBeUi7Y2RF4Co3YFsMH3hCku3G7DZHJLMNEhOytdIrmblGp3lOi8ua1xRKIdJQ-Qu4L7anQAO-icAtMNzUH42SXL6GITRo5BIhQQEuAw/s620/Trump%20Canadians.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="349" data-original-width="620" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEia3brILHPXrUxGisYsJI5kboxjjTuEze8uS_AWU6XvV_jahy0d1662HOQe5AImB_PjCK0_lTOngTZGEECBeUi7Y2RF4Co3YFsMH3hCku3G7DZHJLMNEhOytdIrmblGp3lOi8ua1xRKIdJQ-Qu4L7anQAO-icAtMNzUH42SXL6GITRo5BIhQQEuAw/w400-h225/Trump%20Canadians.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p>Politics has changed. Michael Harris <a href="https://www.hilltimes.com/story/2024/01/22/trudeau-should-proactively-release-all-information-he-submitted-to-ethics-commissioner-before-getting-approval-for-jamaica-trip/408455/">writes</a>:</p><p></p><blockquote>Politics used to be a contest of ideas between parties with different visions of the country. At election time, that produced a winner and a good loser.</blockquote><p></p><p></p><blockquote>Now it is a Texas death-match of ideologies. The other side is no longer just an opponent, but an enemy, a traitor, or worse. No victor is legitimate, and there are no good losers.</blockquote><p></p><p></p><blockquote>Our public spaces are now battlefields where anything goes: kicking, biting, eye-gouging, and, of course, industrial-scale lying.</blockquote><p></p><p></p><blockquote>The first casualty of barroom brawl politics is any meaningful discussion of policy. In a way, cerebral politics is dead, as the Democrats are slowly coming to realize in the United States.</blockquote><p></p><p></p><blockquote>The King of Sting, Donald Trump, is largely responsible for this sea-change in the national political discourse.</blockquote><p></p><p></p><blockquote>Trump is supported by followers whose idea of advocacy is an ever more vulgar partisanship; the “Fuck Biden” crowd.</blockquote><p></p><p></p><blockquote>Like it or lump it, a convicted fraudster and also a rapist—according to one judge—is now drawing comparisons from his followers with Jesus.</blockquote><p></p><p>Canada has also become the home of barroom politics:</p><p></p><blockquote>The prime minister has personally borne the brunt of MAGA-style politics here in Canada.</blockquote><p></p><p></p><blockquote>Several of his public appearances have featured verbal assaults that sounded like Trump supporters berating Biden or Nancy Pelosi.</blockquote><p></p><p></p><blockquote>“Fuck Trudeau” signs now routinely appear at Trudeau’s events, and the PM was accused at one of them of being a “pedophile” by a low-life jackass shouting in his face. Another dud threw gravel at him.</blockquote><p></p><p></p><blockquote>The Conservative Party of Canada has adroitly mimicked in this country Trump’s “everything is broken” message. It is not accidental that Pierre Poilievre is the champion of simple and draconian policies.</blockquote><p></p><p></p><blockquote>High interest rates? Fire the head of the Bank of Canada. How to cut spending? Defund the CBC, and put thousands of Canadian journalists out of work. Media giving you a hard time? Vilify and lecture them. Inflation getting you down? Try crypto currency.</blockquote><p></p><p></p><blockquote>Remember, the Orange One is the champion of firing big wigs, defunding public institutions, and attacking the press as enemies of the people. Poilievre received his message loud and clear.</blockquote><p></p><p>Idiocy has become a social disease.</p><p>Image: CP 24</p>Owen Grayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06464860078574618579noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35117130.post-66545187048457269872024-01-18T08:40:00.000-05:002024-01-18T08:40:05.122-05:00Trudeau And Trump<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh43KQSZNG6mNJfzxaQWsoTDd7gGQvLGSrKHG4dgX7ZvtrF00qK6fz7w0Jp6OoD7Cz37Aw9Pn60TbKT_vlIkeDhD0Faj_DGMV32vssuYjIk4bjDWor6dphQ116x7OxdAdnGt2u01ltGWvXxFqL4WECReowHfNEoSoHq7F8Sva6hgL04KMrjhHK8EQ/s1476/Trump-Trudeau.webp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1014" data-original-width="1476" height="275" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh43KQSZNG6mNJfzxaQWsoTDd7gGQvLGSrKHG4dgX7ZvtrF00qK6fz7w0Jp6OoD7Cz37Aw9Pn60TbKT_vlIkeDhD0Faj_DGMV32vssuYjIk4bjDWor6dphQ116x7OxdAdnGt2u01ltGWvXxFqL4WECReowHfNEoSoHq7F8Sva6hgL04KMrjhHK8EQ/w400-h275/Trump-Trudeau.webp" width="400" /></a></div><p>Justin Trudeau has made his feelings about a second Trump presidency pretty clear. Susan Delcourt <a href="https://www.thestar.com/politics/political-opinion/heres-what-justin-trudeau-thinks-about-the-coming-u-s-election/article_4ce54532-b4a2-11ee-98d5-f7d63cdb543a.html">writes</a>:</p><p></p><blockquote>On the one hand, it isn’t surprising that Trudeau would be open about his views on Trump, who came to office determined to tear up the North American Free Trade Agreement and make Canada a casualty of his fierce, America-first protectionist policies. Personally, Trump appeared to hold Trudeau in low regard, famously slamming him as “dishonest and weak” during a 2018 Twitter tantrum. Similarly, Trudeau’s tolerance of Trump seemed stretched at times; notably, he was caught on camera in late 2019 laughing at the president with other world leaders at a Buckingham Palace reception. </blockquote><p></p><p></p><blockquote>As one of the longest-serving progressive leaders now on the world stage, Trudeau is one of the few who bears the battle scars of dealing with Trump, and he has spoken before of how he has had to explain to Biden how much America’s reputation changed during the stormy Trump years.</blockquote><p></p><p>Trudeau also sees a domestic advantage to running against Trump:</p><p></p><blockquote>However, a new poll from Abacus Data shows that Canadians are more ambivalent about Trump than they were eight years ago — and while not as polarized as Americans, more divided on party lines than they once were.</blockquote><p></p><p></p><blockquote>Abacus CEO David Coletto reports that in his latest survey of opinions about the U.S. election, not all Canadians — especially Conservatives — share Trudeau’s view that a Trump victory would be bad news.</blockquote><p></p><p></p><blockquote>Coletto writes that “66 per cent of Canadians favour Biden over Trump, with a notable divide among Conservative supporters — 57 per cent favouring Trump and 43 per cent Biden. On the other hand, overwhelming majorities of Liberals and NDP supporters prefer Biden. Strikingly, younger Canadians, particularly those under 30, show a higher inclination towards Trump compared to those over 60.”</blockquote><p></p><p>The Trump lie has spread across the border.</p><p>Image: Evan Vucci/The Associated Press file photo</p><p><br /></p>Owen Grayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06464860078574618579noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35117130.post-14240765058709397732024-01-15T09:02:00.000-05:002024-01-15T09:02:05.664-05:00Ed Broadbent<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvPNJytDXv6UfoG7vKmYLlY1kyemA7sLTdze9pE9GfuOVYr7oipOMHpqSs_txJ9b0qhSuT1cKJGB6Jdxge2Bqt34uo4e50ypJ_J1cB0bvm8Pv9CmCb4dP8NHNVG36q_y4UOZa-7khThjIXWJYfhjd80YTj7bYXs7BH7UgY72O3fzZpXBuL6zre5w/s1448/Broadbent.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="662" data-original-width="1448" height="183" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvPNJytDXv6UfoG7vKmYLlY1kyemA7sLTdze9pE9GfuOVYr7oipOMHpqSs_txJ9b0qhSuT1cKJGB6Jdxge2Bqt34uo4e50ypJ_J1cB0bvm8Pv9CmCb4dP8NHNVG36q_y4UOZa-7khThjIXWJYfhjd80YTj7bYXs7BH7UgY72O3fzZpXBuL6zre5w/w400-h183/Broadbent.png" width="400" /></a></div><p>Ed Broadbent died last week, Robin Sears <a href="https://www.policymagazine.ca/working-class-hero-international-statesman-ed-broadbent-1936-2024/">writes</a>:</p><p></p><blockquote>That an unassuming working-class boy from Oshawa grew into a pivotal figure in Canadian life and an international statesman is a testament to Ed Broadbent’s skill and determination, but also to Canada. Ed was an unlikely, beloved Canadian political leader. Trained as an academic, he was recruited as a New Democratic Party candidate in 1968.</blockquote><p></p><p></p><blockquote>Broadbent’s great strength was that he straddled the two worlds of his blue-collar, auto-assembly home town of Oshawa — a.k.a. the Detroit of Canada — and his academic life in nearby Toronto, partly because he believed that if he could inhabit them both, they were not really divided. Not everyone agreed – he made his political champions in the United Auto Workers wince when, at his nomination meeting, he quoted C.W. Mills, a leading American sociologist, at length.</blockquote><p></p><p></p><blockquote>But that juxtaposition of political theory and its practical application — Broadbent’s intellectual residency in the Venn overlap between abstract principles and implementation — was what defined him as a politician. He didn’t care about winning for its own sake, he cared about winning for everyone else’s.</blockquote><p></p><p>He was a politician much different than those who practice that art today:</p><p></p><blockquote>Broadbent was a passionate man beneath his softer, smiling public demeanour. He cared deeply about the abuse of those not able to defend themselves on Canadian reserves, on Canadian streets, and internationally. He was an addicted cigar smoker until he had to quit; loved a glass of good wine and an evening of spirited discussion with friends. He loved jazz and fine art and travel. His private life was marked by deep loss, not once but twice he lost beloved partners. Married three times in total, with two children, he always picked himself up and moved on. Even in these last years of his life, he had found a new partner who brought him joy.</blockquote><p></p><p>Broadbent cared less about winning and more about doing the right thing. His ilk is hard to find these days.</p><p>Image: Policy Magazine</p>Owen Grayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06464860078574618579noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35117130.post-56179107534218769602024-01-11T08:53:00.003-05:002024-01-11T08:54:33.585-05:00Champion Of The Press?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgr3f0cvN-SmcqwA_dzh9RtG5SR6tfhLx8aoNvRLSkg3ZF5kvJk8sZUCpMhJnvs_wFXKaPuuMgobmxd8BasVTmrpU-xfNcK7PFL7Ad8ZWDNerBwSOamH54J5VE6RRoUbISIMYrjE85dCEjTowZ4QmPkwnHsUuPeR4TCuZpPB124VuuATfMXbvHTA/s1000/PierrePoilievrePointing.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="668" data-original-width="1000" height="268" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgr3f0cvN-SmcqwA_dzh9RtG5SR6tfhLx8aoNvRLSkg3ZF5kvJk8sZUCpMhJnvs_wFXKaPuuMgobmxd8BasVTmrpU-xfNcK7PFL7Ad8ZWDNerBwSOamH54J5VE6RRoUbISIMYrjE85dCEjTowZ4QmPkwnHsUuPeR4TCuZpPB124VuuATfMXbvHTA/w400-h268/PierrePoilievrePointing.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p>Pierre Poilievre is suggesting that Justin Trudeau is an enemy of the press. Max Fawcett <a href="https://www.nationalobserver.com/2024/01/11/opinion/pierre-poilievre-doesnt-care-about-freedom-press">writes</a>:</p><p></p><blockquote>Poilievre’s attempt to gaslight an entire country into believing he actually cares about things like journalistic integrity and free speech is about three bridges too far, given the obvious joy he has taken in smacking down organizations like The Canadian Press, the CBC, and other professional media outlets in the past. As freelance journalist Dale Smith noted, “This guy’s wannabe goons tried to have me removed from the press gallery for making a joke about how terrible one of his MP’s questions was, so I really don’t think he’s all that concerned about the free press.” Former Global News reporter Rachel Gilmore had a similar bone to pick. “You released an entire press release attacking me, a journalist, for asking you questions you didn’t like,” she tweeted.</blockquote><p></p><p></p><blockquote>Ironically, Poilievre’s own party had Menzies arrested on two separate occasions, once at a 2019 event when Andrew Scheer was leader and once when he tried to ask Melissa Lantsman — Poilievre’s current deputy leader — some loaded questions about her sexual orientation at a July 25, 2021 event. As Menzies said in his video of the incident, “What kind of political party has a reporter arrested and then steals their notebook and takes pictures of it? You think Justin Trudeau’s media party is bad? These are the guys who want to form the next government.”</blockquote><p></p><p>And, indeed, the polls suggest that they will be the next government. They are raising money on that lie:</p><p></p><blockquote>It should surprise exactly nobody that there’s already a fundraiser underway over at the Rebel. This is what they do. But it should be a little more alarming to see the Conservative Party of Canada doing essentially the same thing. “Freedom of the press is being buried by the Trudeau government and state-controlled media,” their email says. “Trudeau has divided the media into two camps: those he has bought off with bailouts and those he has censored and arrested. This is a dangerous trend.”</blockquote><p></p><p>As I have suggested before, these days there is a bull market in lies.</p><p>Image: The Tyee</p>Owen Grayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06464860078574618579noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35117130.post-91486318164831586402024-01-08T09:29:00.000-05:002024-01-08T09:29:50.813-05:00A Wider War<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj338YqdQElYvHpfCRN6aLFbIQwj2W3V8Zq3iDPSHGt0rzhtbms715Db9aR1NVgdFP4ROEStCe-8KHJfuDXc4mkrK1nrzcXDV77KOjg4ZOW4Qvv-avD9x7Xhj2E04jt2IPXLpP03K-Q-gVLQ5gKrF7a95iGtlfADYCrUKfnI4a3E__pF5PiMl64TA/s760/israel-palestinians-gaza.webp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="507" data-original-width="760" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj338YqdQElYvHpfCRN6aLFbIQwj2W3V8Zq3iDPSHGt0rzhtbms715Db9aR1NVgdFP4ROEStCe-8KHJfuDXc4mkrK1nrzcXDV77KOjg4ZOW4Qvv-avD9x7Xhj2E04jt2IPXLpP03K-Q-gVLQ5gKrF7a95iGtlfADYCrUKfnI4a3E__pF5PiMl64TA/w400-h266/israel-palestinians-gaza.webp" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p>Things are spinning out of control in the Middle East. Michael Harris <a href="https://www.hilltimes.com/story/2024/01/08/biden-should-stop-financing-an-unconscionable-war/407213/">writes</a>:</p><p></p><blockquote>Events unfolding in the Middle East are showing just how right Canada was to call for a ceasefire in the atrocious Gaza War.</blockquote><p></p><p></p><blockquote>The nightmare scenario—an all-out regional conflict involving Yemen, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and potentially Iran on one side, with Israel and the United States on the other—is no longer a long shot. </blockquote><p></p><p></p><blockquote>After the recent assassination of a senior Hamas member in Beirut, the leader of Hezbollah, Hasan Nazralla, has called for vengeance against Israel. </blockquote><p></p><p></p><blockquote>Nazralla said his group is not afraid of war, and there would be no ceiling to the fighting if it begins. Israel did not give the U.S. advance notice before carrying out the assassination of Saleh Arouri. </blockquote><p></p><p></p><blockquote>Meanwhile in Iran, a car-bomb killed at least 84 people in the city of Kerman, which is the burial site of slain Iranian military commander Qasem Soleimani. </blockquote><p></p><p></p><blockquote>Iran’s leader said Israel will face “harsh punishment” for the bombing and deaths, the worst in the country since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. The Israeli Defense Forces told CNN: “No comment.”</blockquote><p></p><p></p><blockquote>The war will continue as long as the United States supports Israel. And is real will keep fighting until the Israelis toss out Netanyahu.</blockquote><p></p><p>All this will take time. In the meanwhile, a pause in the fighting is the only way to bring a little sanity to this nightmare.</p><p>Image: NBC News</p>Owen Grayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06464860078574618579noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35117130.post-31951955653841899002024-01-05T08:53:00.000-05:002024-01-05T08:53:18.426-05:00He's Here<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjl2XmOXf35bViIfDWgDq4wAi9PQKArSwZTj2Hzkdnor57iYZjM9TOascq_D7T7bv1dkwFdcRTfryrEPzjGk3AGsVsvlaglfxI3JxuofrSv3hOZxH0HsgcHfn2o7mG5fY6HkQPCwL2UM9DS_ay2YNISQWT6EmEeLmljYJ2Cv2gmqL7LMDvPUWHSMQ/s1080/Trump-Poilievre.webp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="696" data-original-width="1080" height="258" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjl2XmOXf35bViIfDWgDq4wAi9PQKArSwZTj2Hzkdnor57iYZjM9TOascq_D7T7bv1dkwFdcRTfryrEPzjGk3AGsVsvlaglfxI3JxuofrSv3hOZxH0HsgcHfn2o7mG5fY6HkQPCwL2UM9DS_ay2YNISQWT6EmEeLmljYJ2Cv2gmqL7LMDvPUWHSMQ/w400-h258/Trump-Poilievre.webp" width="400" /></a></div><p>Everything that develops in the United states eventually crosses our border. So it is that we now have our own version of Donald Trump. Max Fawcett <a href="https://www.nationalobserver.com/2024/01/03/opinion/pierre-poilievre-donald-trump-common">writes</a>:</p><p></p><blockquote>It’s not surprising then, that nearly a decade after Donald Trump’s entry into public life, we now have a Canadian Conservative leader who trades in the same trademark combination of bombast, belligerence, and bullshit. No, Pierre Poilievre isn’t the second coming of Donald Trump, but he keeps hitting some unmistakably Trumpy notes.</blockquote><p></p><p></p><blockquote>His contempt for the mainstream media, of course, is entirely in keeping with Trump’s. So too is his obvious disdain for expertise and the well-educated. And the rallies where he praises the virtues of the “common people”, and talks about all the ways in which they’re getting screwed over by elites? Textbook Trumpism.</blockquote><p></p><p></p><blockquote>Like the former and potential next American president, he’s also turning the party he leads into a projection of his own ego. Case in point: it recently asked members to help pick the new design of its membership cards. Their choices? Three different images of Poilievre. As someone on Twitter said, “if I wanted to be part of a cult of personality, I’d still be a Liberal.”</blockquote><p></p><p></p><blockquote>But perhaps the most striking similarity between Poilievre and Trump is their ability to bend long standing members of their party to their will — and away from their own apparent ideas and ideals. Take Michael Chong, the Member of Parliament for Wellington-Halton Hills and a longtime darling of Canada’s dwindling community of red Tories. First elected to Parliament in his early 30s, Chong stood out from his peers almost immediately both for his decency and keen mind for foreign policy. He served as Stephen Harper’s Minister of Intergovernmental affairs and Minister of Sport. Even after the CPC defeat in 2015 he seemed poised for much bigger things down the road.</blockquote><p></p><p>But there are some differences between Poilievre and Trump:</p><p></p><blockquote>While Trump doesn’t seem to consistently believe in anything other than his own right to profit and pleasure, Poilievre has the rigidly defined worldview of a lifelong conservative operative. Nowhere is that more obvious, or more telling, than in Poilievre’s approach to the Trudeau government’s signature policy. Skepticism towards carbon pricing has long been an article of partisan faith among Conservatives, but Poilievre has elevated it to a commandment that appears to override all others.</blockquote><p></p><p></p><blockquote>Take the CPC’s bizarre position on the modernization of a free trade deal with Ukraine, it opposed repeatedly on the basis that it contained language promoting carbon pricing. Never mind that Ukraine already has a modest price on carbon, or that it’s one it will need to significantly strengthen as it prepares to join the European Union. As an official spokesperson for the Ukrainian embassy noted in a statement, the deal “does not include any specific instruments on decreasing carbon footprint, including specific taxation instruments.”</blockquote><p></p><p>Still, Poilievre's rise is deeply troubling. According to the polls, he'll be our next prime minister. God help us!</p><p>Image: The National Observer</p><p><br /></p>Owen Grayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06464860078574618579noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35117130.post-46618052558526644952024-01-02T09:43:00.001-05:002024-01-02T09:43:25.408-05:00Did They Get The Memo?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1rQqaNFa1qWyxv6utnSsSACwuN9lz_eNDOPHS47wsfGmVUpT0cr1nqRjzEiXItCAMoQJakx16D4V7ZV-9KViZundC7w1hgXXqqmPPbvQo3AAVZY5aDswe7U1rxYG6_TX60r63zbKx0Ae3pybXnrUraI2M8IYKKVMC638Tw5DAzhBW_wXUNdjBOg/s273/Twain%20On%20Lies.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="185" data-original-width="273" height="271" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1rQqaNFa1qWyxv6utnSsSACwuN9lz_eNDOPHS47wsfGmVUpT0cr1nqRjzEiXItCAMoQJakx16D4V7ZV-9KViZundC7w1hgXXqqmPPbvQo3AAVZY5aDswe7U1rxYG6_TX60r63zbKx0Ae3pybXnrUraI2M8IYKKVMC638Tw5DAzhBW_wXUNdjBOg/w400-h271/Twain%20On%20Lies.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p>Paul Krugman <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/01/opinion/economy-crime-presidential-election.html">writes</a> that the news is remarkably good:</p><p></p><blockquote>You may have heard about the good economic news. Labor force participation — the share of adults in today’s work force — is actually slightly higher than the Congressional Budget Office predicted before the pandemic. Measures of underlying inflation have fallen more or less back to the Federal Reserve’s 2 percent target even though unemployment is near a 50-year low. Adjusted for inflation, most workers’ wages have gone up.</blockquote><p></p><p></p><blockquote>For some reason I’ve heard less about the crime news, but it’s also remarkably good. F.B.I. data shows that violent crime has subsided: It’s already back to 2019 levels and appears to be falling further. Homicides probably aren’t quite back to 2019 levels, but they’re plummeting.</blockquote><p></p><p></p><blockquote>Overall both our economy and our society are in far better shape at this point than most people would have predicted in the early days of the pandemic — or than most Americans are willing to admit.</blockquote><p></p><p></p><blockquote>For if America’s resilience in the face of the pandemic shock has been remarkable, so has the pessimism of the public.</blockquote><p></p><p>So why hasn't the public got the memo?</p><p>As Mark Twain wrote, "A little lie can travel half way 'round the world while Truth is still lacing up her boots."</p><p>These days there is a bull market in lies.</p><p>Image: X.com</p><p><br /></p>Owen Grayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06464860078574618579noreply@blogger.com12