Justin Trudeau walked up the drive way of Rideau Hall yesterday, with his wife and a big umbrella, looking very calm and confident.
The Cons, the NDP, and the monkey media had been screaming that he was taking too much time to swear in his new cabinet.
But when Trudeau finally revealed who was in that team, it was clear that the wait was worth it.
For this is some cabinet.
Even the Maclean's writer Shannon Proudfoot had to admit it's packed with talent and brilliantly constructed.
In broad strokes, the moving cabinet pieces that came together through the swearing-in ceremony inside Rideau Hall looked an awful lot like putting serious people in charge of serious files to which they are well-suited.
There are more powerful women in powerful positions than ever before, including the mighty Anita Anand who is now tasked with getting the the good ol' boys in the military under control. As well as so many other first class choices.
It's a cabinet that not only has the intellectual weight to make a difference, but one that is younger, and better reflects the kind of country Canada has become thanks to the Trudeau Liberals...
But no appointment has caused more of an impact that the one making Steven Guilbeault the new of minister of the environment and climate change.
For there he is twenty years ago, being arrested for scaling the CN Tower to protest the lack of progress on climate change.
Which needless to say not only has the grotesque Jason Kenney quivering like a slab of jello.
Alberta Premier Jason Kenney says the federal government's choice for minister of environment and climate change Tuesday sends a "very problematic" message to the province.
Longtime environmental activist and former heritage minister Steven Guilbeault will take on the prominent role in cabinet as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's Liberals attempt to slash greenhouse gas emissions by 40 to 45 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030.
But also has some members of the Con media sounding like idiots.
It is absurd that at a time when Canada’s energy exports look set to top their all-time peak, Justin Trudeau has appointed as environment minister a man who opposes fossil fuel development in this country. How dangerous could Steven Guilbeault’s appointment be to Canada’s economic and political future? We are about to find out.
For can you believe that?
Lamenting that Trudeau should appoint a climate change activist at a time when the planet is burning, and urgent action is needed?
When in fact that's exactly the message the prime minister is trying to drive home to Kenney and all the others.
If there’s one message that emerges most clearly from this changing of the guard, it’s that the Trudeau government is preparing to press ahead on climate change.
After years of playing nicely with them, whether that involved building pipelines or paying billions of dollars to clean up abandoned oil and gas wells, it seems like the prime minister has decided to stop waiting for Alberta to get the memo on climate change. Now, it seems, he’ll be the one sending it.
Kenney and his oil pimps won't like that, and neither will the toxic Trudeau haters like the ghastly Disaffected Lib...
Who really hates Trudeau because of his support for the rights of women and LGBT Canadians, and was claiming the other day that he doesn't understand why anyone calls Trudeau a progressive, unlike HIMSELF.
But luckily he is sounding more bitter and senile by the day, and like Kenney and company is rapidly running out of time.
While Justin Trudeau seems to be preparing to take all the time he needs to make Canada a greener place.
After an election that ended in disappointment and another minority government for his party, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said today that he intends to stay on as Liberal Party leader into the next federal election.
"Yes," Trudeau said during a Tuesday news conference when asked if he intends to lead the Liberals into the next election.
And for those who didn't get that, let me play it for you again...
We have a prime minister who is on a mission to change this country beyond recognition.
We have a cabinet ideally suited to take up his challenge.
And the Cons can scream "But...but...but...Tofino????"
WAAAAAAAAH!!!!!
But in a sense the Trudeau era is just beginning...
25 comments:
I was so happy -- ecstatic even -- to hear that JT is staying on too. So happy I made a GIF of it.
https://i.postimg.cc/Y0j8yYYt/he-can-and-he-will.gif
As for Kenney, right now he might have even bigger worries than Guilbeault. UCP MLA Leela Aheer is calling for him to resign for mishandling a sexual harassment lawsuit. Leadership challenge coming soon? Good riddance to another clown from "The Resistance".
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/kenney-government-lawsuit-sexual-harassment-alberta-1.6225606
Now Jagmeet says he's going to tag along to COP26 to troll Guilbeault and lay out his "demands". Demands for what? Clean-energy photobombs? Who invited this irrelevant yutz from the fourth-place party? Narcissistic hanger-on can't stomach the fact that the most progressive Liberal government since... papa Trudeau has rendered the NDP obsolete. Twisting himself into a jurisdictional pretzel to avoid wearing the blame for Horgan's about-face, and always twirling, twirling, twirling towards freedom. Please god, give PMJT and the Liberals a majority next election so we never have to hear from Jagmeet ever again.
I really like the new cabinet, and again I was so happy to hear PMJT put those asinine media-concocted rumours of his early retirement to rest. The Liberals really are the only adults in the room and this team is proof of it. It's really a shame that the media doesn't give them more credit.
Its called democracy Jason. You may be in favour of Queens rule but in a democracy when your oppentes get elected you bend to the will of the people, not start a gas lighting campaign that will further heat the country up.
Well well, the thot plickens. Now we know why Chrétien came out this weekend, railing about the old men yelling at clouds being more pissed off than usual about their exile at the behest of the young whippersnapper (a real spring chicken of 50). Broken cuckoo clock being what it is and all, maybe Lilley was onto something when he mentioned that Trudeau does in fact want to run again, just to spite that embittered Kinsella wing of the party that's pushing for him to quit.
https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/canada/john-ivison-blue-liberals-are-seeing-red-over-new-trudeau-cabinet/ar-AAQ1Tgi?ocid=st
“This is Canada’s first NDP prime minister,” said one, noting the irony that when real New Democrats have been elected provincially, they have been forced to abandon their “eat the rich” dogma.
Someone should inform Jagmeet on both accounts. Still radio silence from that poseur on how much of a Che Guevara cosplayer Hulk Horgan turned out to be. He's got his list of "demands" for COP26... um, anything in there about Fairy Creek? Anyone? Bueller? Trudeau, meanwhile, has made the FedNDP so obsolete that the only way they can differentiate themselves is by faulting him for premiers' bad behaviour and embracing the Internet shitposter cosplay communism of the juvenile "Squad" in the USA.
Not that it makes a difference to Ivison and the stale pale males of the "business community" (the Joe Manchin wing of the Liberals), who still think he's Castro in the flesh. Funny that, wasn't a similar antipathy expressed towards Pierre? Verbatim in fact? The "old guard" accusing him of being a Dipper in Grit clothing?
Here we go again, NEP outrage 2.0. Their problem is climate is a lot more salient of an issue than it was in 1979; that Dumbfuck O'Toole is no Joe Clark; and that Carney espouses all the same policies but a fraction of JT's charisma. He'd make a good FM, senator, or some other formal policy advisor, but Trudeau is the one with the flair.
A number of Liberals reached out to express their concerns at the appointment of former activist Steven Guilbeault as the new environment minister and the removal of other more centrist voices like Marc Garneau and Jim Carr.
Garneau is 72 years old. Jim Carr is also up in years and he has a very serious form of blood cancer. They weren't removed for being "centrists." They were removed for being old and/or sick. What a callous SOB Ivison is. Simon, if you get to Glasgow could you make it a point to petition the SNP to ban this utter disgrace to his homeland? They 86ed Johnny Mac and I think they're working on some kind of censure for Trump, so it's high time Ivison got shitcanned from the bonny Highlands too. Put a MacGyver statue in JM's place.
Saw this on the twitters in reaction to the pissed-off "business community" getting annoyed about Trudeau's diverse, green cabinet posing a risk to their sacrosanct, oil-heavy stock portfolios and melanin-bereft penile supremacist psychology:
"Then go vote Tory and don't cry when floods destroy your cottages in Muskoka."
In other words, the advice to Trudeau is he should let the Blue Grit bastards freeze in the dark.
Yesterday morning I kept hearing these vague noises that sounded like distant explosions followed by one big bang.
Now I know what they were. They were Jason Kenney's, Erin O'Toole's and oil industry barons heads exploding when it was announced that an honest-to-God hard core environmental activist was named Environment Minister. You could imagine their consternation when a guy they used to sick the dogs on suddenly became a minister of the crown. The worst part about it is this guy cannot be intimidated by the usual tactics. What was done to him as a civilian was ten times worse than anything they can do to him now that he is a cabinet minister.
So they have Mr. Guibeault as the Environment Minister, a very capable Finance Minister who is very open to paying for the Liberals' green agenda, a PM, who does not seem to know fear, to back them up and Mark Carney on the outside to provide the business and intellectual heft to increase that green agenda credibility. After all, he decided not to run for office so he is not a politician who would be constrained by that fact.
As for that big bang it was loud and it came about from the collective heads of Conservatives in Ottawa, the provinces and our national media exploding when Mr. Trudeau said he would stick around to the next election. I swear that explosion made the noise made by the explosion of Mount Krakatoa sound like a pin drop.
Hi Jackie...As Godzilla is my witness, I never thought Justin Trudeau was going to retire anytime soon. I think he would like to be remembered as someone who helped drag Canada into the 21st Century, and out of the deathly grip of the ghastly good ol' boys who would drag us back to the days when they were the masters of the universe. Fate has given him a chance to set Canada on a new course, so why would he bow out when his best days are ahead of him? Also, it looks like I'm not going to be able to go to Glasgow because of a death in the family, so Jagmeet who takes the low road will get there before me.
But I want it clear that John Ivison was born in England not Scotland, and has always been a right-wing asshole who doesn't reflect the values of Scotland or this country.
And that the louder the Con oil pimps squeal, the louder I laugh...
Hi Steve....It seems that Jason Kenney just keeps digging himself in deeper. One moment he's Alberta's Frankenstein, the next moment he's Nero, fiddling while Alberta burns. If his ugly rednecks cause any trouble, he will deserve to be arrested...
Hi Ottlib...I too have been astounded by the reaction of the so-called blue Liberals and assorted oil pimps to Steven Guilbeault's appointment as minister of th environment. I can't believe how blatant and how reactionary they are, and it doesn't help when our grotesque media tries to portray Guilbeault as some kind of dangerous radical who is threatening our national security. When in fact his arrival is long overdue, and I can only hope that we seize this opportunity to move our country towards a greener future. Fortunately, Kenney is the one bad mouthing him the most, and he has zero credibility. I also hope Albertans can also seize this moment and push for a transition to a greener economy, for in the end they are the ones who stand to gain the most....
Why do we keep pretending that we have to give a sh!t about what Jason Kenney has to say? His province is a disaster and he's the one steering the ship.
The Liberal old boy's club never turns the page. When we were there the liberals had the huge success of losing three elections in a row. Now that Justin's in charge we have suffered the ignominy of three straight wins : without me. These guys are all over Progressive Bloggers in what surely must be seen as a false advertising campaign.
Joining them was the petit gar in a show of really bad timing.
It's an impressive cabinet indeed, Simon. As expected, the Cons and their media have to poopoo all over it like a bunch of crybabies. Boohoohoo:( Suck it up buttercups, we won and you lost, again. Gawd, I never tire of saying that:)
I propose that all the Cons and their hack "journalists" who are losing their shit over Guilbault's appointment, band together and climb the CN Tower in protest. Then watch the shit fly. Splat!!!! Let me know when Jason reaches 10ft. He's so greasy it could take a while.
JD
Hi anon@7:41AM…..I share your contempt for Jason Kenney, everything about him disgusts me.And I have made that clear from the beginning of my blogging career. But we can’t ignore him because he is a very dangerous man. Not only is he largely responsible for the Covid horror, he is constantly trying to stir up the separatist rabble and threatening the unity of our country for crass political reasons. I live for the day his sordid career goes down in flames, and then we can all ignore him…
Hi Rumleyfips….I have been appalled by the way the Liberal old boy’s club has been reacting. It’s like they resent that Justin Trudeau has been so successful without them, and are trying to divide the party, and help the Cons. Although I should say that I feel that Chrétien was manipulated by the CBC into sounding more upset than he really was. But as for Progressive Bloggers I can’t believe what it has become. Between Kinsella and the Disaffected Lib they seem to have trying to take over the site to spew hatred at Trudeau. They are both so disgusting they have ruined Progressive Bloggers for me, I have no idea what they are doing there, and wish they would leave…
Hi JD….I have to admit that the new cabinet is even better than even I had hoped it would be. The academic credentials, the gender balance, it’s truly a cabinet for this time in history. Justin Trudeau can be proud of his choices, so it’s no wonder the Cons are so bitter. They couldn’t even hope to come up with a cabinet that good. But please don’t suggest that Jason Kenney take a flying leap off the CN tower, because I live so close to the tower I could be collateral damage. And wouldn’t that be the way to go…😉
CTV: Skippy and Barrett cry wolf to ethics commissioner to witch-hunt Hunter Biden -- I mean Margaret Trudeau.
I fucking hate politics. They won't quit until this poor woman lands in the mental hospital again and her son is forced out.
I was really hopeful after the cabinet swearing-in but now I'm on the fence as to whether he should even bother anymore. Why take this abuse.
Hi Simon, That would be irony at its cruelest wouldn't it. However, fear not. We know pigs can't fly and this little piggy couldn't flatten a curve let alone an innocent Torontonian.
JD
Hi Jackie....Yes, I see that the Cons are trying to get the Ethics Commissioner to go after Margaret Trudeau again. I denounced the original story by Roy McGregor, and for that I was blocked by him on Twitter. What a scurvy coward. But the good news is it will only make the Cons look bad, and will have no effect on Justin Trudeau. He is much stronger than many people imagine, and with his polls climbing again, and a magnificent cabinet to back him up, he's laughing at them and so am I....
Hi JD....Well you never know with porkers like O'Toole. I was once in a play at school called the Lion in Winter, and the character of King Henry had a great line, where he said "if pigs could fly there would be pork in the trees." I expect the Cons to look like that soon, and just the thought is making me hungry... ;}
Trudeau meeting with Dutch premier Rutte this morning before COP26. Rutte congratulated him on being so quick to form a cabinet. Trudeau "for all the folks at home, please note he congratulated me on being so quick to form a cabinet". (Narrator: They did not note that or congratulate him for being so quick to form a cabinet.)
The NDP hates this. The reason Rutte is in government limbo right now is because their proportional rep system has left negotiations on forming a coalition in gridlock for nearly a year. He'd be aghast if he knew all the flak Trudeau caught for an "early election" -- the NDP won't admit it, but PropRep governments take months and months to form only to fall a short while later, sometimes multiple elections in a year!
Nothing will budge them from their religious devotion to PropRep. Not even the knowledge that Max would have as many seats as they do right now. That's an acceptable trade-off because they supposedly would have sixty, and be the permanent "natural governing partner." Ask them what about a Con government entering into coalition with Max and you get "well, that's democracy". Then they bitch and moan that Trudeau called out the left for enabling fascists. Idjits.
What's kind of bittersweet too is all the positive attention JT gets in other countries, which for the most part are mature enough to talk about policy. He comes home to Canada, where he is "polarizing" and supposedly "nearing his shelf life," and gets personal attacks flung at him about: his mom spoke on mental health, he hugged Marci Ien (or Marci Ien hugged him), he had a quiet family holiday at a spot that's sentimental to him because of his brother... elbows, socks, and Castro, oh my.
Ursula van der Leyen sent an exuberant tweet on election night when he won, saying "You will always have friends in Brussels." I don't doubt that's true or that it's a lot more than he has in Ottawa. But I really don't know why this irks so many people, who can't seem to decide whether he's a failure on the world stage or that he doesn't belong in Canada because he's more popular on the world stage. All I can say is that when you look at the kind of numpties we have for "leadership" here in the Untied States, if this man ran for president we'd call a Mulligan on the whole George III thing and worship him as divine philosopher king. And no, that of course doesn't create an opening for Ted Cruz. Alberta wants to be the 51st state anyway.
Why is Canadian politics so petty and small-minded? It must be at least partially our fault due to the proximity and the media ownership, but is the other part just a "jealousy of Trudeau" thing to come about as of late? Is it because CTV and the like are too stupid to actually understand policy (and deep down, hate to admit that the "drama teacher" actually is an intelligent and tech-savvy policy wonk) and so go for cheap tabloid entertainment chasing the "movie star" with nonsense "scandals"? Or is it because they want their audience to be that dumb and assume they already are?
Canadian politics is so petty and small minded because Canada is not a big player on the international stage. Canada rarely has an impact on the direction of the world. As a result, our politics is very inward looking leading to a great deal of navel gazing by our political class. It also results in a great lack of ambition by them. Remember Stephen Harper and Jean Chretien were considered good PMs because of their lack of ambition and the lack of that whole "vision" thing. If a government steps out and shows any vision or ambition they immediately frighten the rest of the political class in this country and they react accordingly. The current PM and PM Mulroney are examples of that.
Of course the fact that most of our media is owned by Americans, who do not have any interest in Canada or Canadians and only own media companies to try and fail to make money does not help.
Since there are only 10 provinces and three territories in our federal system they have a great impact on our politics. As well, since the provincial governments are even more inward looking than the Federal government that leads to even more small mindedness and NIMBY politics.
Most of our best potential political talent, whether it be business leaders, journalists, academics, etc. usually wind up going abroad never to return. However, if they do decide to return they are usually greeted with suspicion by the political class, being accused of "just visiting" or some other such stupidity.
Related to that, our political class is extremely incestuous. They usually are in other countries but the small size our the Canadian one, in relation to other countries, just increases and magnifies that incestuous nature. Outside ideas and people frighten them and they react as you would expect frightened people to react.
Oh yes, Canada is saddled with a business class that is extremely risk averse. They have managed to get rich and stay rich by building a branch plant economy for the US and by extracting and selling resources. (Selling them as raw material to somewhere else only to buy back finished products at a markup.)
They fear and hate governments that might make them take risks and since they are a big part of the ruling class they have a great influence on our politics.
Sorry, but I really disagree what you have to write about proportional representation... it's not a problem in most countries, and usually the governments are quite stable...of course, if Canada has a different political culture, and they think they can't change because of "reasons" then of course it won't work... but PR (MMP) works fine in New Zealand, Germany or Austria...
Ah yes, Germany where the AfD are in the same position the NDP are now. Where once upon a time, the "coalition" didn't do a whole hell of a lot of good keeping a certain other "populist" reined in.
Austria, where the Greens formed a coalition with the now-disgraced IDU wunderkind.
New Zealand, which is an irreproducible unicorn.
Ranked balloting or bust. Yes, Australia uses it, and it seemingly benefits the Liberals, but their Liberals aren't actually liberals any more than the BC Libs are Trudeau's. If it benefit parties that ride the moderate centre, all the better to forge stability and compromise rather than keep giving oxygen to the fringe.
It might very well end up benefiting the NDP, if they can banish their toxic tankies and Jagmeet's Jacobin jocks and stop fostering civic ignorance. They'd have to be a serious adult party like Horgan's or Notley's, instead of a juvenile meme factory that stans for the Squad and whose economic platform is limited to "eat the rich" and "money printer go brr". Heck it might even force the Conservatives to become Progressive again or die out. They'd have to jettison the Jesus freaks, in much the same way as the NDP would either have to banish the cosplay communists or tell them to grow up.
The Liberals would win by default, simply by virtue of everyone becoming various flavours of Liberals. Thatcher was horrid but she used to say her greatest victory was Tony Blair. Who was a craven coward when it came to simping for Bush, but who also knew how to win elections, unlike British Bernie or his feckless replacement.
The parties themselves use ranked ballots to select their leaders. Save for a few headscratchers, the Liberals seem to have the formula down pat, and that's why they win. That the same formula also selected the pathetic likes of Scheer, O'Toole, and Singh isn't necessarily an indictment of the model as it is of the caliber of candidates those parties attract.
But maybe if the overall voting system were streamlined such that the gravitational pull moves to the centre, the parties themselves would improve and with it their candidate/leader selections, because they wouldn't have to pander to the reality-averse hardcore base. PropRep just gives them an even broader license to let their freak flag fly.
On the subject of coalitions: The following Maclean's article hinting at rumours of backroom dialogue between the NDP and Liberals had me raising an eyebrow. On the one hand I don't trust Singh any further than I could throw him, and shake my head at Erskine-Smith's naïveté in thinking that the NDP actually give a damn about policy more than adopting the con agenda of "Trudeau bad." Charlie Dingus' actions say otherwise. On the other, if such a "deal" would leave the NDP in a similar situation as the UK LibDems and improve Trudeau's lot, all the better. I hesitate because I'm not sure if it would.
https://www.macleans.ca/politics/ottawa/liberal-and-ndp-officials-mull-over-a-potential-deal/
My gut tells me that Singh is Lucy van Pelt with the football, and won't behave himself or rein in his caucus when it comes to jumping on the bandwagon of phony Con scandal-mongering or bad-faith criticism that lies through omission. Yet a small voice from my small intestine also tells me that he's actually not too bright, and he'd be the one in the role of Charlie Brown the hapless sap, once Trudeau finds a way to pull the rug out from under him. Time will tell.
Hi Jackie…Good question: Why is Canadian politics so petty and small minded? I mostly blame the Con media for its absolute mediocrity. They don’t have the talent to look examine issues, so they settle for trying to cook up one little fake scandal after the other. the Cons know that and play to it, with the latest Margaret Trudeau “scandal” being the latest example. It’s pathetic and it makes us look like a Banana Republic. As for proportional representation my position is that Canadians have voted against it time and time again, so to keep on beating that hollow drum is anti-democratic. Period….
Hi Ottlib…Yes, the fact that so much of our media is foreign owned makes it petty and profit oriented. The bosses are only interested in paying less taxes, and want the Liberals defeated so the CBC can be killed and their advertising money can go to propping up their financially wobbly media outlets. I believe that’s the main reason, these foreign bosses are ideologically opposed to the very existence of the CBC, and all the money they would get from killing it must make them slobber. As I told Jackie it’s pathetic, and it makes this big country look like a very small one…
Well, the afd definitely is not in a position like the NDP in Canada... not sure what you are talking about?
As for Austria, well, most people there vote for right o centre parties, so leftists should be happy about the greens in the coalition... please inform yourself what political science has to say about voting systems...
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