Canadian Politics

The publication ban on several details of the Fredericton shooting has been lifted. A lot of it covers the details of how the police intervention went down.

An analysis of the Canadian-Saudi tensions.

CBC aired this headline with Trudeau being criticized for accusing a heckler in Quebec of being a racist. She basically asked IIRC on where the money for caring for the refugees are heading to.

Said woman was a member of a far-right organization called the Storm Alliance; she isn't worth defending but people like Scheer and Ford will do it anyway.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trudeau-defends-racism-comments-1.4792040

Why am I not surprised...

Some of the comments I've read online mentioned that Trudeau could've chosen a better way to confront the woman aside from being... rude...

Edited by Ominae on Aug 22nd 2018 at 5:58:54 AM

Calling a racist a racist is rude now?

From the CBC YT video I watched? Yeah... I'm not joking.

They probably didn't know that she's with SF.

This just reminds me of when Gordon Brown (UK prime minister at the time) met a women who kept asking him “where are all these Eastern Europeans coming from?” and after talking with her and getting into his car was heard (due to still having a mic on him) to say “what a bigoted women”.

Trudeau's entirely in the right here. Standing up against Trumpism and bigotry means calling out racism and xenophobia for what it is.

It's better than the Gordon Brown situation because Trudeau said it openly in public, as a deliberate response to her bigoted rhetoric. Thr Gordon Brown thing was a "forgot I left my mic on" moment.

Edited by Galadriel on Aug 22nd 2018 at 4:10:21 AM

Quebec Electoral campaign begins today.

CAQ is in the lead in most polls. Preparing myself for a depressing few months.

Maxime Bernier skipped a conservative caucus meeting today. At a later presspoint he announced he's leaving the Conservatives to form his own new party.

Man thinks that he can be the next Preston Manning, eh? Now we'll see what his grassroots support is worth.

And I just thought he was aiming to hijack the CPC, not go full on Start My Own.

Edited by Rationalinsanity on Aug 23rd 2018 at 2:32:16 PM

It's pretty clear he was going nowhere with the PCC, and since he seemed uninterested with potentially waiting for Scheer to fail (And polls show it's not sure Scheer would fail at all at this point).

That said it could be crushing news for the Conservatives. Even if Bernier's party never takes off and stands a chance, leeching a few votes from the conservative can make a difference in many riding. Ask the old Conservatives and the Reform Party how that goes.

Edited by Ghilz on Aug 23rd 2018 at 1:35:15 PM

One of Mad Max's reasons for leaving the CPC's support for counter-tariffs against the US. In other words; he's all for bending over for Trump (apologizes for that image).

Clearly a winning start to a future governing party.

He's internally consistent at least. He's against the quotas on dairy and egg.

Trump hates those too. So obviously he agrees with Trump.

Saudi Medical Trainees will be allowed to stay in Canada to finish their studies "Until further arrangements can be made" according to an email from the Saudi Ministry of Education. No such exemptions for other Saudi students (yet).

Edited by Ghilz on Aug 27th 2018 at 12:41:14 PM

Chrystia Freeland has cut short her trip to Europe to go to the USA following the annoucement of a Deal between Mexico and the USA monday. Trump's pushing hard for Canada to sign on the deal by the end of the week, still threatening to abolish NAFTA.

Trump is probably bluffing, he can't abolish or replace NAFTA, not without Congressional approval. And since thee midterms are picking up, he needs to get a final deal to them ASAP. If everyone involved is lucky...this is just a slightly rebranded NAFTA without anything particularly damning. If there are any poison pills in there (tariffs, supply management, dispute mechanisms, sunset clauses), we need to call his bluff. He can't cripple NAFTA outright, and his tariffs are painful but temporary, while a bad deal damns us for decades.

True that.

Currently he's waving the threat of tarrifs on cars built in Canada.

Cars that are partially assembled and purchased in the US and Mexico. Its his main stick, but if he uses it the thing will snap back and hit him in the face.

The question is: do those involved have more to lose from standing their ground or surrendering?

I'm hoping Canada stands its ground, honestly. If they give in, it'll just prove that gunboat diplomacy like that works. Though having said that, Trump is likely to try and screw Canada as hard as he can if they don't give him what he wants.

Better to suffer in the short term than be saddled with a bad deal for decades. A sunset clause would gut investment up here, if we disband supply management than subsidized and substandard US imports will crush local agriculture, and if we lose the dispute mechanisms there goes our only reliable recourse for when the US inevitably reneges on parts of the deal like they always do.

But Trump cannot repeal NAFTA (let alone the old Canada-US FTA) without Congressional approval, he needs to give 6 months notice to all parties even if he wanted to try, and Congress needs months to review any possible amendments.

Who wants to bet he's completely unaware of this and will try it anyway?

I'd be feeling way more optimistic too if Trudeau's foreign relations record wasn't so... shit. Including dealing with the madman south. Between the India thing, the Saudi thing, and how the G7 went, my hopes aren't super high.