Canadian Politics

[bustamente]

[Tracker]

17 minutes ago, bustamente said:

Are you saying that the PCs are not easily embarrassed?

[Noeller]

it takes some real effort to have a lower approval than Jason Kenney, my stars....

[WildPath]

10 hours ago, Noeller said:

it takes some real effort to have a lower approval than Jason Kenney, my stars....

Talk about your privileged son's private school hockey championship when asked about the death of an indigenous woman basically at the hands of your government's incompetence and that might hit your approval rating. She also inherited a party that was incredibly unpopular and didn't do herself any favours out of the starting gates.

Kenney was at least chosen by his constituents and they should have known what they were getting.

[Tracker]

On 2022-05-20 at 1:18 AM, Fatty Liver said:

I hope they follow through with this investigation and identify the credit card holders, and don't just drop it now that Kenney has resigned.  I think he knew he couldn't win by cheating again this time, as too many eyes were watching him for any sleight of hand.

The UCP has every reason to squelch any investigation into their internal workings. They have a lot of excrement on their faces from all of the disastrous Kenny administration actions which looked an awful lot like they were setting policy by reading goat entrails. I'm not sure how much lower they can sink in the polls and in the eyes of Albertans, but they seem determined to find out.

[FrostyWinnipeg]

Quebec adopts Bill 96 French language reforms amid concerns for anglophone, Indigenous rights

[SpeedFlex27]

4 hours ago, FrostyWinnipeg said:

Quebec adopts Bill 96 French language reforms amid concerns for anglophone, Indigenous rights

Imagine if Alberta brought in a law to strengthen the English language in our province at the expense of French language rights. We'd be pillorized & labelled as racist rednecks. Trudeau would threaten bloody hell. Yet, there he is sheepishly saying, "We'll defend English rights, sort of... We  think". Worrying more about votes in Quebec then English language rights. The saddest & most racist government  in this country is Quebec, Alberta has nothing over those guys. Sadly, this has been proven time & time again in the past.

[JCon]

7 hours ago, SpeedFlex27 said:

Imagine if Alberta brought in a law to strengthen the English language in our province at the expense of French language rights. We'd be pillorized & labelled as racist rednecks. Trudeau would threaten bloody hell. Yet, there he is sheepishly saying, "We'll defend English rights, sort of... We  think". Worrying more about votes in Quebec then English language rights. The saddest & most racist government  in this country is Quebec, Alberta has nothing over those guys. Sadly, this has been proven time & time again in the past.

Alberta does crazy stuff all the time and Ottawa ignores it. Quebec and Alberta are brother's in arms in terms of racist gov'ts. 

[FrostyWinnipeg]

On 2022-05-25 at 2:02 AM, SpeedFlex27 said:

Imagine if Alberta brought in a law to strengthen the English language in our province at the expense of French language rights. We'd be pillorized & labelled as racist rednecks. Trudeau would threaten bloody hell. Yet, there he is sheepishly saying, "We'll defend English rights, sort of... We  think". Worrying more about votes in Quebec then English language rights. The saddest & most racist government  in this country is Quebec, Alberta has nothing over those guys. Sadly, this has been proven time & time again in the past.

That's what happens when you invoke the Notwithstanding Clause put forth powers that be way back when. 81/82?

It's the constitutional Get Out of Jail Free card.

Edited June 3, 2022 by FrostyWinnipeg

[Tracker]

Canadian National Security Begins Preparations for the Threat of American Instability

Conservative commentator George Will once said that Canada is internationally known for its “exceptional” common sense. So it should be no surprise that at the same time many of us are nervously looking around at each other, sensing an increasingly hostile and volatile country, Canada is beginning to plan ahead to protect itself… from us, or – more accurately, the threats that arise out of our situation.

A brief summary from CBC News:

“The United States is and will remain our closest ally, but it could also become a source of threat and instability,” says a newly published report written by a task force of former national security advisers, former Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) directors, ex-deputy ministers, former ambassadors and academics. Members of the group have advised both Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and former prime minister Stephen Harper.

And,  of course, the Canadians didn’t feel any need to “both sides” this despite the fact that Canada itself has a relatively small far-right movement itself, pointing fingers directly at Trump, Fox News, and the lack of faith in democratic institutions. Indeed, cooperation between Canada’s small but increasingly hostile far-Right and the more established, mature, and powerful American movement is one of the very top concerns. If the far-Right (which is increasingly just “the Right”) begins organizing violent campaigns in the U.S., the Canadian report believes there will be spillover to Canada.
The Canadian security experts pointed at the trucker convoy as a tangible example of a foreign threat, though non-traditional in that it didn’t spring from government action: “This may not have represented foreign interference in the conventional sense, since it was not the result of actions of a foreign government. But it did represent, arguably, a greater threat to Canadian democracy than the actions of any state other than the United States,” the report says.

“It will be a significant challenge for our national security and intelligence agencies to monitor this threat, since it emanates from the same country that is by far our greatest source of intelligence.”

Their report also notes that it is damned hard to coordinate with the U.S. government when the United States’ polarization is so strong that the American security official on the other end of the line may be sympathetic to the Right’s campaign. Additionally, given that the two countries share a lot of infrastructure (electric grids, water systems, etc.) there are worries that a purely American attack will necessarily spill over, impacting Canada.

Notably absent from the report?  What to do if the border becomes flooded with Americans seeking refuge start crossing the border, legally or illegally.

How can we know it’s a concern if it’s not in the report? Because many of us with dual citizenship already have our plans set for the first time we run into a giant intersection taken over by vigilante neighborhood “security patrols,” we’re taking our loved ones and rushing back to a relatively sane and sustainable democracy. And plenty of Americans will remember a vacation or business done in Canada and the different social environment. If we’ve thought about it, they’ve thought about it. But, they’re damn sure not going to lay out any hint as to what they’re planning or even acknowledge they’re planning for a potential crisis to an international public that may be the very people they’ll need to sort out, people returning home versus people wanting to join forces.

They are, after all, internationally renowned for common sense.

[GCn20]

On 2022-05-21 at 9:59 AM, Noeller said:

it takes some real effort to have a lower approval than Jason Kenney, my stars....

In fairness, she didn't exactly come on board as premier at the party's highpoint. Kenney was very popular and tanked all on his own. Stefanson started with people POed at her party already. She shot herself in the foot a few times as well, but most of her unpopularity can be attributed to Pallister's handling of the pandemic.

[rebusrankin]

47 minutes ago, GCn20 said:

In fairness, she didn't exactly come on board as premier at the party's highpoint. Kenney was very popular and tanked all on his own. Stefanson started with people POed at her party already. She shot herself in the foot a few times as well, but most of her unpopularity can be attributed to Pallister's handling of the pandemic.

In June of 2021, Pallister's approval rating was 33% according to Angus Reid. Heather is at 25%. Can't blame it on Pallister. Comments like "Shoulda, Woulda, Coulda", heartless talking about your son's hockey team winning a championship when asked about a woman dying that happened during your tenure as Health Minister, multiple ethics violations likely contributed to it.

[Mark F]

2 hours ago, Tracker said:

Notably absent from the report?  What to do if the border becomes flooded with Americans seeking refuge start crossing the border, legally or illegally.

And some of them armed.

Think lake of the woods. 
 

at least the government is thinking about this.

crazy times.

 

[Sard]

20 minutes ago, rebusrankin said:

In June of 2021, Pallister's approval rating was 33% according to Angus Reid. Heather is at 25%. Can't blame it on Pallister. Comments like "Shoulda, Woulda, Coulda", heartless talking about your son's hockey team winning a championship when asked about a woman dying that happened during your tenure as Health Minister, multiple ethics violations likely contributed to it.

Not to mention never actually giving a straight answer to any question in the press briefings during her early days.

[Tracker]

3 minutes ago, Mark F said:

And some of them armed.    Think lake of the woods.  at least the government is thinking about this.

crazy times.

 

The survivalists will probably be the ones who will ride out the looming crisis the best, and that, if you think about it, is very very frightening.

[GCn20]

30 minutes ago, rebusrankin said:

In June of 2021, Pallister's approval rating was 33% according to Angus Reid. Heather is at 25%. Can't blame it on Pallister. Comments like "Shoulda, Woulda, Coulda", heartless talking about your son's hockey team winning a championship when asked about a woman dying that happened during your tenure as Health Minister, multiple ethics violations likely contributed to it.

Pallister's popularity was plummeting though, as was his party's. Never reached rock bottom at 33%. Stefanson did little to help herself for sure, but unlike Kenney she never took over a party with any kind of popularity to speak of. Kenney took a very popular party and tanked it. He is far more unpopular than Stefanson. Stefanson's party is more unpopular than Kenney's. 

[Sard]

2 minutes ago, GCn20 said:

Pallister's popularity was plummeting though, as was his party's. Never reached rock bottom at 33%. Stefanson did little to help herself for sure, but unlike Kenney she never took over a party with any kind of popularity to speak of. Kenney took a very popular party and tanked it. He is far more unpopular than Stefanson. Stefanson's party is more unpopular than Kenney's. 

She had an easy opportunity to raise her and her party's popularity and she failed at it spectacularly.  She gave in to the right wingnuts and that's why her popularity is so low.  I don't disagree that the unpopularity of her party isn't helping her, but she's not doing herself any favours either.

[rebusrankin]

37 minutes ago, GCn20 said:

Pallister's popularity was plummeting though, as was his party's. Never reached rock bottom at 33%. Stefanson did little to help herself for sure, but unlike Kenney she never took over a party with any kind of popularity to speak of. Kenney took a very popular party and tanked it. He is far more unpopular than Stefanson. Stefanson's party is more unpopular than Kenney's. 

You put the blame on Pallister but she took over a party that was unpopular and managed to get a level of approval that was lower despite the fact that new leaders generally get a popularity bump. She has been an absolute failure.

[WildPath]

I'm guessing the decrease in popularity was also some of her own turning on her. The PC leadership was contentious, even with allegations of impropriety and unfair elections from within, and it recently emerged that she broke an election finance rule in her bid for leader. There was a pretty big Glover camp that was inflated by anti-vaxxers. I'm sure they don't feel all that positive towards Stefanson now, especially with all her missteps.

Premier Heather Stefanson breached election finance rule in bid for PC leadership: commissioner | CBC News

Another "oops" financial oversight moment.

[the watcher]

Palister was a ****. We knew it, his own party knew it. But sometimes people will overlook someone  being a **** if they feel they need to. At least for a while. Stefanson is completely incompetent.  She is in miles over her head and abilities. People don't and won't overlook  that.

[GCn20]

20 hours ago, Sard said:

She had an easy opportunity to raise her and her party's popularity and she failed at it spectacularly.  She gave in to the right wingnuts and that's why her popularity is so low.  I don't disagree that the unpopularity of her party isn't helping her, but she's not doing herself any favours either.

Totally agree. Just pointing out that when she took over it was to a collective groan. Kenney was immensely popular in the polls when he became leader of the UCP....and then he just plummeted. It takes a special kind of bad to have Alberta hating a right of centre premier.

[Wideleft]

58 minutes ago, GCn20 said:

Totally agree. Just pointing out that when she took over it was to a collective groan. Kenney was immensely popular in the polls when he became leader of the UCP....and then he just plummeted. It takes a special kind of bad to have Alberta hating a right of centre premier.

If Kenney was so popular, why did he have to cheat to win the UCP leadership?  What he has in common with Stefanson is that they've both shown themselves to be uncaring, incompetent and out of touch.

Edited May 27, 2022 by Wideleft

[WildPath]

So it looks like Obby Khan has shut down Good Local.

Timeline

- Obby considers running in provincial politics, but unsure of what party

- PC party gives his business $500,000 (More than all other businesses received from the program combined)

- Obby declares he will run for PC party to replace Pallister

- Obby wins election

- Obby shuts down Good Local

Would love to know how that money was spent. There have also been reports that Obby was using Good Local staff for his campaign in Fort Whyte.

[JCon]

3 minutes ago, WildPath said:

So it looks like Obby Khan has shut down Good Local.

Timeline

- Obby considers running in provincial politics, but unsure of what party

- PC party gives his business $500,000 (More than all other businesses received from the program combined)

- Obby declares he will run for PC party to replace Pallister

- Obby wins election

- Obby shuts down Good Local

Would love to know how that money was spent. There have also been reports that Obby was using Good Local staff for his campaign in Fort Whyte.

I thought they were revamping it? They just had a manager position posted for $13 an hour.

Good Local cleaned out the pool of funds intended to help small businesses. 

Edited May 30, 2022 by JCon

[rebusrankin]

A manager for $13/hr? Cheap SOB.