From the very beginning of the pandemic Justin Trudeau has somehow managed to keep his cool, and not go after his political opponents, as they go after him.
Although the Cons, and their shabby bought media try to smear and demonize him all the time, Trudeau never responds in kind, never loses his temper, just keeps trying to steer the country through the pandemic.
So I'm glad to see that Michael Harris, one of Trudeau's sternest critics, now believes that despite his refusal to attack his enemies, the prime minister is winning the political game.
Thanks in large part to the cheap and ugly politics of his opponents.
The coronavirus has undergone another mutation, this time political. In addition to all its other miseries, the virus has morphed into the Great Canadian Blame Game. Sadly, this sorry spectacle will go on until an election is finally called.
Like the Con loser Erin O'Toole, who can't seem to think of anything else but destroying Trudeau.
The Conservative leader would do better to put his shoulder to the wheel of fighting the third wave, and worry about the court-martial of those responsible later. Poking a stick in the spokes while the battle rages is smallminded, unhelpful and transparently opportunistic.
Harris also has harsh words for Doug Ford and Jason Kenney for playing the blame game to try to deflect attention away from their murderous records...
And comes to an obvious conclusion:
There may be a public inquiry one day. I hope there is for everyone’s sake. But before that process runs its course, Canadians will get to say whether they would rather have the Erin O’Tooles, the Doug Fords or the Jason Kenneys running the show when the chips are down. Or Justin Trudeau.
So far, it’s no contest.
And look, according to this latest poll most Canadians seem to agree:
You know, we live in a dangerous time, in a country full of dirty old toxic Trudeau haters like this one prancing around at an anti-mask protest in Toronto yesterday...
I mean look at him, isn't he disgusting? What country does that freaky Con think he is living in?
And there are so many of them just like him.
But the good news is that the Cons are only behaving that way because they are desperate.
They must surely sense that the decent Canadian they hate so much will sooner or later destroy them.
And won't that be a wonderful day?
24 comments:
Saw the Ontario PC's attack ad on Youtube blaming Trudeau.
All it did was make me laugh in a cynical way. The ad just reminded me of Ford's many many many many many failures/mistakes/blunder and the fact he spent more on ads than actually protecting the schools the ads touted.
I had my doubts about Trudeau's high road plans. Can't argue with his team's choices. All the Tories (and the NDP) have shown is they act like vicious gossips instead of actual critics/opposition party.
While I agree with this analysis, I think it's a bit OTT to be accusing the media of being bought... after all, it's usually the cons who claim that this is the case...🤔
No JSB; your horrible example here is Tubby Black. He started the Last Post admitting he wanted political power through journalism. Make no mistake, the writers fell right into goosestep for their paycheques.
I was doing an antiques show at the Royal Winter Fair when Tub's little vanity rag was new. They sent a woman, young, presentable, little black dress, stillettoes ( PR department hard at work
) to hand out free copies. I took one and couldn't believe how bad the writing and editing was. By the end of the week she had no takers at all.
JSB, expanding on what Rumleyfips said, the media in Canada is definitely bought: it's a right-wing oligopoly. An oligopoly is a de facto monopoly held by oligarchs, who predominantly comprise the right-wing of the political spectrum and push their viewpoints accordingly.
Compostmedia's RepubliQan rot is well-known. Tubby Black is a crony of Trump's and even the whole WE vendetta goes back to him. But did you know for instance that the "ToryStar" as I now call it, was bought by two bitcoin entrepreneurs (Elon Musk type libertarian techbros) who were CPC donors, one of them to Max Bernier? They just brought on the former editor of the Nazi Post and hired CP24's Stephanie Levitz who has been a relentless (and unnecessarily snarky IMHO) critic of the Liberals. The Globe's editor was a protege of Murdoch's who is now using A.I. to juice subscription drives. CTV is the television arm of the G&M, both owned by the billionaire Thomson family. Global comes from CanWest aka ConWest, ostensibly Liberal but big backers of Bibi's Likudniks and the BC Libs which are cons. CBC's quality has gone downhill ever since Harper stacked the board of directors with sycophants; reportedly, their contracts have since expired, but the stench of their hiring practices and editorial slant remains. And this isn't even getting into provincial PR firms like TVA/Quebecor and New Brunswick's Irving Media.
You mention polls a lot. Polling is a psy-op embedded within that same corrupt media. The media runs negative coverage and then sends out their contracted number crunchers into the field to see if it's sticking. The few independent pollsters like Innovative, EKOS and Mainstreet are the redheaded stepchildren of the industry who get demeaned as "biased" or illegitimate by the high school clique of the Ottawa bubble in-crowd. I'm not saying the others cook the books. But online push polls are easy to manipulate, pollsters can get too cushy in their role as public "pundits," and they're part of a whole ecosystem geared at skewing public opinion a certain way. Kouvalis in particular should be blacklisted altogether.
Yet even considering those headwinds of the corrupt propaganda apparatus that is Canadian con media, Trudeau is doing surprisingly well considering the circumstances. I do think the campaign will give us a clearer picture. If the media actually was fair, he'd probably be doing a whole lot better. I still wish he hadn't spared a dime for their garbage rags and trash TV, though. What is refreshing is that at least for now, he's proving that the Michelle Obama philosophy of "when they go low we go high" still works in some corners of an increasingly dark world. Sunny ways still has some life in it, while Toolio, Dug and Klanney seemingly have no recourse but to stick their incessant Liberal-bashing where the sunny ways don't shine.
Trudeau makes me think common sense might return as a big determent of value.
Other than the foamy mouthed Cons who's purpose in life is to rage against JT, a large percentage of Canadians want, need and are getting the positivity and optimism required to get through this pandemic by the Liberals. Everything else is just noise. Some are better at ignoring it than others and better yet, some are quite adept at exposing the perverse toxicity of the Cons. Anyone I've spoken to are absolutely fed up and disgusted with the opposition antics and they will not forget it come election time. At least Harris is able to point out that Justin's approach to dealing with the noise has its benefits even though JT was still able to slide in some timely, classic zingers at his usual barkers in the HoC. Ali would have been impressed. "Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee." When all is said and done, we'll have a super majority.
JD
So before JSB comes back to panic about the latest Abacus poll, I want to remind him about the topline vs. regionals.
The Liberals still lead everywhere the seats matter. Even Fournier says that the CPC "jump" is primarily due to racking up North Korea levels of support out West yet again. (Well, he didn't say that verbatim but that's the overall takeaway.)
They're still very much ahead in Atlantic Canada, even though Abacus is known for being wonky with Maritime samples. B.C. is always a wild card to poll. According to this poll they're leading in QC (Leger always oversamples the Bloc) and naturally ahead in DoFo's Ontario.
There's nothing really "controversial" that would have explained this supposed "drop." The Liberals still have high approval marks with women in spite of the CAF smear campaign. This is probably a dip due to pandemic fatigue. The summer should wash things out.
So to our resident poll panicker, I would yet again say relax and wait until at least September when an actual campaign will make things clearer.
Well I looked at it... it's basically the same result as they had in 2019...so basically not much, if any, change from the last election...so why the liberals would want an election now is not clear to me...
Like I said, of they were smart and real progressives, then they would simply change the voting system, with the other progressive parties, to be more representative (preferably MMP)... with that, the cons would not be able to win a majority🤔
Hi Dan....I still can’t believe that Ford and his Con thugs are running attack ads in the middle of a pandemic that they helped make even more catastrophic. But he’s now being managed by Kory Teneyke and Nick Kouvalis. So we better brace ourselves because it’s going to get much much worse. I don’t think most people realize how closely the Ford and O’Toole people are working together. But they are working together to bring down Trudeau, and with the support of some very large groups also working to privatize large parts of our Medicare system. If Canadians don’t wake up they will find out too late that ignorance kills...
Hi Jsb....I will let Rumleyfips and Jackie answer your comment, I’m too beat to do that right now. But let me just say that I have heard several stories claiming that right-wing groups have been propping up our failing media in return for “favours.” I have not been able to confirm any of those reports, but I have no problem using the word “bought” because it’s also another word for biased. And they are biased. The idea of the Cons claiming that their stooge media are biased against them is absolute nonsense...
Hi rumleyfips....Thanks for reminding our wistful friend of Lord Tubby’s contribution to corrupting our media. I would also remind him that not long ago the National Disgrace got a new editor-in-chief who declared that it wasn’t right-wing enough. And that Adrienne Batra the editor-in-chief of the Sun wrote in a leaked memo a few years ago the Sun wouldn’t just cover news with a right wing bias, it would actually manufacture it....
Hi Jackie....Thank you for helping Jsb to hopefully see the light in your usual brilliant manner. I have been encouraged to see that more and more Canadians are starting to become aware of the bias of the Con media. I only wish more of them were also aware of the damage Con bias has done to the media in the UK, and how it has corrupted that country’s democracy. As I keep telling people these days, it’s time to learn about what the Cons have in mind for us, or it will be too late. As for the latest Abacus poll, I’m not really worried either. Not when the regional numbers are so favourable. I might write something about it, but I am feeling so lazy these days, I might just go to the beach...😎
Hi Jsb...I do have time for this. (1) The only ones claims the Liberals want an election are O’Toole and his Cons, and they lie like thieves. And (2) nobody except for some NDP losers wants proportional representation. We have had votes on it and it has always gone down in flames. It may or may not be a good idea, but if most Canadians don’t want it, forcing it upon them is just a monumental waste of time and money....
Short Michael Harris, the Liberals have figured out that you cannot play politics as usual during a once in a lifetime global pandemic. If you do you will lose. Mr. O'Toole is experiencing that and Mr. Ford and Mr. Kenney should be cruising during their first terms but they are not. No government has been perfect in the last 14 months but the Federal Liberal government at least has been up front when they make mistakes and people are willing to give them the benefit of the doubt because, well, you know, we are all living through a once in a lifetime global pandemic.
I know that Abacus is highly regarded in polling circles but I have always found their polls suspect, and that is saying something coming from me who does not trust public polls as a matter of course. Public opinion does not move quickly. In fact is is glacial. This time last year the liberals were flying high, in the mid-40 range in most public polls but is took them 10 to 12 weeks to get there. It took them the same amount of time to sink back to the mid to high 30 range last fall. So when Abacus shows one or more party jumping 3-4 points in weekly polls, and showing a 10 point spread being reduced to 2 points in one week they are highly suspect. Those kinds of swings are more likely the result of the polling methodology as opposed to an actual reflection of public opinion. If this were to happen only once in awhile it would not be so bad but this happens regularly with Abacus polls and that raises a big red flag for me.
Anybody who says the current Federal Government is not a progressive one is out to lunch. In actual fact, it is the most progressive federal government we have seen since Trudeau the Senior. "Oh, but they bought a pipeline" they cry. Well governing is hard and sometimes you need to make tough decisions that may offend the ideological purists but are still necessary.
Proportional Representation would not prevent the Conservatives from ever forming government. If it came down to the Conservatives, Liberals and NDP winning 36%, 30% and 17% the NDP would jump at joining the Conservatives in a coalition if it meant they would finally have access to some levers of power. Sure they would be the junior partner but the prospect of having some of their members around the Cabinet Table and creating government policy instead of just bitching about it would take away any hesitancy in working with the Conservatives.
https://twitter.com/deAdderCanada/status/1394251015554314242?s=20
So you are suggesting that the NDP would become part of a coalition with the conservatives? That sounds reaaaly far-fetched ...it just seems that many of you liberal partisans here are concerned a bit too much about them not having a majority...
Also, under MMP, the greens might get a higher percentage of the vote ...so the liberals and the greens could have a coalition?
JSB, they already ganged up on the Liberals in 2006. They killed childcare and blame the Liberals for not delivering. Fact is they're petty and irrelevant and just don't want the Liberals to get the credit. "Things fall apart and the centre cannot hold" is a famous Yeats poem and it describes the horseshoe theory of politics. The NDP is bitter about being the perpetual bronze-medal bridesmaid, when they came ever so close to getting the brass ring (never mind the fact that their best results have always been Con majorities).
They can't get anywhere unless the Liberals are completely in the tank, which is rare. They were so sure that they would get the polarized extreme they've always been looking for, where the anti-Con vote by default coalesces around the NDP like it does for Labour in Britain and the LibDems are a nonentity. That Canadians would experience misery under Harper and "realize the error of their ways" and unite around the NDP. The hard left did the same thing in Germany: "nach Hitler, uns" (After Hitler, Us) except for the NDP it was "nach Harper, uns". They wear blame for Harper's reign of error.
https://thewalrus.ca/fake-left-go-right/
Rather than admit Layton's role as a self-serving useful idiot for Harper and that Trudeau simply ran a better campaign than angry Tom, they've been bashing Trudeau ever since and fighting the wrong enemy. There are plenty of orange-blue voters who could credibly be called the "Bernie bros" of Canada. They form a pincer movement against the Liberals under an "enemy of my enemy" philosophy the way Bernie and Trump did Hillary. Ask yourself how obsessing about her emails the way both MAGA and the Sanderistas did got the U.S. any closer to Bernie's stated policy goals? How did Charlie pursuing conspiracy theories about Margaret Trudeau get Canada any closer to pharmacare?
Proportional rep is a fustercluck, and the fact is the Liberals need a majority so they can get good policy through without the obstructionism and sabotage that the NDP has been all too happy to participate in with the Cons, just to "get back" at their sworn enemy Trudeau. There's a crucial election security bill collecting dust at the PROC committee because an NDP MP still wants to excoriate Trudeau over WeGhazi. And push his own motion on a citizen's assembly for, what else, electoral reform. In a pandemic this is what the NDP are focused on: nursing old grudges and pursuing tinfoil crap.
Jagmeet got sore right after the election when Trudeau rebuffed his call for a formal coalition. It's the only way they can sit at the VIP table (cabinet) and they felt that this was their only chance -- why they worked so hard to encourage voters to "force" a minority government. He listens to the most delusional of his Twitter followers. TruAnon nothing, orange Twitter hates Trudeau like the antichrist and Freeland too, because they were convinced that Jagmeet was going to become PM by "deposing" Trudeau if only Jagmeet had forced him to appoint him deputy PM. No one ever said that was even in the realm of possibility. They're like Rose Twitter spewing venom at Neera Tanden. The NDP have fallen down the rabbit hole of American left populism and no longer make logical or constitutional sense.
In the end all they did was fall back on the same old Con behaviour of booing Trudeau from the virtual nosebleed seats, even blaming him for Ford and Kenney's FUBAR response, all because he wouldn't invite Jaggy to prom. Fat lot of good this minority parliament has been. A proportional government would mean that in perpetuity. No thanks.
I always love hearing reactions from the Proportional Representation crowd when you present them with scenarios that go against what they believe will unfold under the system. They firmly believe that the outcomes from such elections will always be a Liberal/NDP and maybe Green coalition and the Conservatives will never govern again. And of course under such a system Canadian voters will no longer be afraid of the NDP in government so they would become the senior partner in these coalitions.
Pure fantasy.
At some point the Conservatives will receive the highest number of votes in a PR election and the standard practice of PR systems is the party that wins the highest number of votes gets the first shot at attempting to form a government.
At which point if anybody really believes that the NDP, or any other party, will turn down an opportunity to become part of the governing coalition and have REAL POWER you are dreaming. The alternative is to be on the opposition benches and have NO POWER.
So yes, if given the choice of having power or not having power the NDP would be like every other political party in the democratic world and choose the option that gives it power. If that means joining the Conservatives in coalition government they would that so quickly it would make your head spin.
‘Except for NDP losers?’ Care to revisit your own words on the subject?
Ok... I think it's more realistic that the liberals would join a coalition with the conservatives then the NDP... similar to what happened in Germany with the SPD joining the CDU. Or are you suggesting that the NDP is more right-wing than the liberals now? ... generally speaking, parties will probably go into a coalition with parties with which they cluster ideologically... sure you could imagine a "horseshoe" querfront, but I doubt that the communist party and the PPC would have enough seats for that...
I find it rather interesting that so many people in Canada think that MMP would necessarily lead to unstable government, or that it would be a much worse system than Fptp, even though countries such as Germany, Sweden, and NZ have implemented it...🤔
Well it seems that you're deep in your Yank echo chamber, where there are only two parties, and there can only be the democrats (liberals) as the only option for progressive voters... seriously idk, but your arguments are purely partisan... yeah I realize the NDP isn't perfect, neither are the liberals, but it sounds you would prefer a conservative government then?🤔
Btw it was the liberals who propped up the conservatives in 2009, not the NDP...https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008%E2%80%932009_Canadian_parliamentary_dispute
Oh Jsb, your political naiveté is quaint.
I can guarantee you that if the Conservative Party were to win the first opportunity to form a government, after a PR election, and they were to offer some choice cabinet posts and a chance to hold power to the NDP the NDP would jump at the chance, ideological differences notwithstanding.
The NDP is like any other political party in the democratic world. It is in the game to gain power. To think otherwise is idealistic nonsense.
So the liberals are too?🤔😃
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