Intrigue in the Canadian Parliament

[Amor de Cosmos]

I doubt it. It's hard for them to get consensus on anything beyond beating the Liberals. The Maritime and Ontario Tories are a quite different breed of cat to the Western ones. A transferable vote would show that up big time.

[ursus arctos]

I didn't think so either.

It is a striking trend, though.

[WOM]

It's also fundamentally hard for them to find candidates that don't have a strong thread of 'smiling nastiness' running through their core. Harper had it in spades, Scheer for sure, and O'Toole's was fortunately caught on tape at the institution formally known as Ryerson. ('Owning the libs' sounded like it was yanked from the Trumpist playbook.)

It also wouldn't hurt them to come to the table with a few ideas, instead of just 'less this' and 'no that'.

[Amor de Cosmos]

It's also fundamentally hard for them to find candidates that don't have a strong thread of 'smiling nastiness' running through their core. Harper had it in spades, Scheer for sure, and O'Toole's was fortunately caught on tape at the institution formally known as Ryerson. ('Owning the libs' sounded like it was yanked from the Trumpist playbook.)

True. I think Joe Clark was the last Conservative leader to generate any positive feelings for me. And sympathy was the strongest of those.

[WOM]

Two Canadian political hostages released from a China jail hours (minutes?) after Meng Wanzhou released. They didn't even pretend it was otherwise.

[Amor de Cosmos]

Well they kinda did, but with all the conviction and authenticity of a Stalinist show trial.

[Amor de Cosmos]

Now the smoke has cleared from the least meaningful election in Canadian history, the knives are out for the three leaders. Erin O'Toole likely faces a leadership review because he didn't win. More importantly the Conservatives are even more of a rural party than they were before the election, O'Toole was supposed to win over urbanites and didn't. Jagmeet Singh, probably won't face a leadership review, in spite of failing to move the NDP's share of the vote forward from the last election. His predecessor, Tom Mulcair, got 47% percent more votes but was turfed out anyway. People like Jagmeet though, he's patently a nice guy and doesn't ruffle anyone's feathers. Kinda like someone else we know. Justin's safe, for the moment at least. The Liberals don't normally air their soiled washing — and there's plenty of it — in public, so visible leadership reviews don't happen either. But it's probable he'll be "asked to step aside" before the next election. Krystia Freeland is the most obvious successor. As Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister she already does most of the real government work. The shadowy party decision makers are almost certainly equipped with penises however, so the idea of a female leader might not be easy for some of them to comprehend.

[Discordant Resonance]

Fits with the Liberal tradition of alternating a francophone leader with an anglophone one, even if Trudeau would hardly describe himself as such.

[Amor de Cosmos]

She was also born in Alberta, which would seen as a plus (by non-Albertans at any rate.)

[DCI Harry Batt]

There's some law, apparently, in Canada, which interferes in the decisions of political parties about who leads them. I can't find the reference to it now, sadly, but I wanted to mention it on here before I forget again.

[ursus arctos]

Are you thinking of the "entrance fee" to the leadership contest?

The eligibility and nomination requirements always struck me as pretty standard

[DCI Harry Batt]

The Reform Act, that's what it's called.

[ursus arctos]

The Reform Act, that's what it's called.

Still not sure of its relevance, soz

http://www.revparlcan.ca/en/assessin...one-step-back/

[Amor de Cosmos]

Yes, the more significant part of that Act however, at least so far as it's been applied to date, enables the expulsion and readmission of a caucus member, leadership reviews, and the election of interim leaders.

The election part just says that chief agent of every party is to report, in writing, to the Chief Electoral Officer, the names of the person authorized by the party to endorse prospective candidates.

[Amor de Cosmos]

The province’s ICU system is still keeping pace with incoming admissions,but only because existing patients are freeing up beds by dying.Officials have conceded that patients are receiving substandard care.

Only in Alberta would outrage at incompetent leadership result in it being replaced by something far worse:

UCP MLA Angela Pitt, Deputy Speaker of the Legislature, said at a Tuesday news conference that she has no confidence in Mr. Kenney. “I don’t think that my constituents do, either,” she continued.

At the same news conference, Ms. Pitt, along with backbencher Jason Stephan, endorsed a proposal for the province to declare itself a “sovereign” jurisdiction. The “Free Alberta” strategy, developed by the Alberta Institute, an organization that has been advocating for the province to have more control over its affairs, calls upon the government to assert autonomy and ignore federal laws and court rulings.

Yup. That'll go smoothly.

[Lang Spoon]

Blockade the roads. See if they can eat oil.

[Hot Pepsi]

Now the smoke has cleared from the least meaningful election in Canadian history, the knives are out for the three leaders. Erin O'Toole likely faces a leadership review because he didn't win. More importantly the Conservatives are even more of a rural party than they were before the election, O'Toole was supposed to win over urbanites and didn't. Jagmeet Singh, probably won't face a leadership review, in spite of failing to move the NDP's share of the vote forward from the last election. His predecessor, Tom Mulcair, got 47% percent more votes but was turfed out anyway. People like Jagmeet though, he's patently a nice guy and doesn't ruffle anyone's feathers. Kinda like someone else we know. Justin's safe, for the moment at least. The Liberals don't normally air their soiled washing — and there's plenty of it — in public, so visible leadership reviews don't happen either. But it's probable he'll be "asked to step aside" before the next election. Krystia Freeland is the most obvious successor. As Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister she already does most of the real government work. The shadowy party decision makers are almost certainly equipped with penises however, so the idea of a female leader might not be easy for some of them to comprehend.

Trudeau reminds me of a hockey team that never gets past the second round. It’s fine for a while, but eventually changes must be made.

The prospect of a major leader named Krystia reminds me of what I was saying on the Germany thread about how there are no more adults coming to save us. Our generation is running things now and we don’t have much more of a clue than they did. I mean, we understand things they didn’t, but we have new problems we can’t sort out.

[Amor de Cosmos]

Actually it's Chrystia (my mistake.) She was christened Christina. I don't know why she changed it but likely it's because of her Slavonic background on her mother's side. She has Harvard BA in Russian history and literature, and an Oxford degree in Slavonic studies. She was also a journalist in Ukraine and Russia, writing for The Economist, Washington Post and Financial Times. Eventually becoming Moscow bureau head for the latter. Later she headed Reuters News. She's an impressive woman.

It's unusual for a PM in Canada to get more than three terms in office. Justin's Dad got four, but there was Joe Clark's Conservative government between the third and fourth. Prior to that you have to back to Sir Wilfrid Laurier's fourth in 1908.

[WOM]

I can't imagine Trudeau leaving office before he's voted out. Chretien was loathe to leave, even for the good of the party, pretty much ensuring he disadvantaged Martin. Wynne wouldn't turn over the reins in Ontario, despite the polls saying she would be soundly defeated. And now we have Doug Ford.

Trudeau will limp along indefinitely in minority Parliaments for a good while, and then someone more charismatic than O'Toole will finally defeat him.

For a replacement, Freeland or Mark Carney for me.

[ursus arctos]

Either would be an excellent choice

Two fun facts about Freeland.

She was born in Peace River, Alberta, which is a heck of a home town for a diplomat.

Her mother was born in a Displaced Persons camp in Bavaria that was part of the same small network as the one that my mother helped run.

Her mother was Ukrainian. Slavonic is primarily a language group (with Old Church Slavonic being the first Slavic literary language and its modern version still being the liturgical language of several Orthodox churches) though sometimes used as a synonym for Slavic.

[Amor de Cosmos]

I can't imagine Trudeau leaving office before he's voted out.

I'm not so sure. He's never particularly cared for the the cut and thrust of poitics. He's no ideologue either, basically he's where he is because he was born into the Liberal Party and had the Royal Jelly. It's possible the 'two year election call' will be followed by him handing over the reigns to his successor in another two or three years. Which would be a classic Party way of doing things.

[WOM]

He'll tell himself some lie about regaining the nation's trust for another majority and then 'going out on top' or something. What else is he going to do? It's not like he's going to join a Bay Street law firm like...you know....absolutely every other ex PM. I dunno....my money is on him hanging on until defeat.

[Amor de Cosmos]

He'll tell himself some lie about regaining the nation's trust for another majority and then 'going out on top' or something. What else is he going to do? It's not like he's going to join a Bay Street law firm like...you know....absolutely every other ex PM. I dunno....my money is on him hanging on until defeat.

He'll head a large NGO or something on those lines. Possibly become Chancellor of McGill? That's more his bag I think.

For a replacement, Freeland or Mark Carney for me

Carney's brilliant, and in the traditional Liberal leader mold for sure. But the "optics" of choosing him over Freeland would be dreadful. One of the few concrete things Trudeau has done is maintain 50/50 gender parity in his cabinets with, as noted above, Freeland doing most of the non-public Prime Ministerial work. Parachuting a man, however competent, over her head would be a mistake of massive proportions. Not only would it create divisions in the caucus that wouldn't go away, it would send a signal to every woman in Canada that it doesn't matter how hard you've worked, and how competent you are, a man will always be found to replace you at the top.

[WOM]

He'll head a large NGO or something on those lines. Possibly become Chancellor of McGill? That's more his bag I think.

Yeah, you're right. Something in NGO or education. He's a teacher. Maybe a roving lecturer.

WE would have been good, if it hadn't imploded with his assistance. <tugs collar>

[Amor de Cosmos]

Maybe a roving lecturer.

That seems to be working for his predecessor.