Open for Business: Canadian Politics 2019

Wow @ that video

I had meant the video posted by the man that came with the CBC article but this actually applies to both videos.

fuuuuuck

BIG shakeup at Postmedia as its new CEO takes Canada's largest newspaper chain on a sharp turn to the right. Ezra Levant's old editor is now in charge of ALL political coverage. Jordan Peterson given a permanent office. FOX News North? @sdbcraig has it: https://t.co/lOjXpxCSbO

— Jesse Brown (@JesseBrown) August 12, 2019

Ugh.

Many employees fear current plans to double down on what management calls “reliable conservative voices” will eradicate the local perspectives and political independence of some of Canada’s oldest and most important newspapers. These include the Citizen, Journal, Montreal Gazette, Vancouver Sun, Windsor Star, Saskatoon StarPhoenix, and Calgary Herald. In some large Canadian cities, Postmedia runs the only local daily newspaper (or in the case of Montreal, the only English-language daily).

Justification for such concerns has already emerged, according to several sources.

Since Libin’s appointment was announced, one editor-in-chief was removed from his newspaper and reassigned to a newly created corporate role, after he raised objections that the company was not respecting the editorial independence of his newsroom and after he published an editorial board endorsement of carbon pricing, which upset management.

Responsibility for the National Post’s political bureau in Ottawa was taken away from the paper’s head of news, who also had to be informed by one of his own writers that he was no longer in charge of them.

Meanwhile, reporters and editors across the chain are perplexed by the seemingly opaque nature of Libin’s powers, which has left them uncertain about what kinds of stories they will or won’t control going forward.

And in a separate development stemming from Postmedia’s interest in shoring up a conservative audience base, Jordan Peterson — the prominent psychologist and University of Toronto professor who has become a global celebrity for his critiques of left-wing politics — has been working on a secret project out of the fifth floor of Postmedia’s offices.

Not good.

Actually kind of terrifying tbh.

If this is true, it is indeed creepy and terrible, although the grip of Postmedia on English-language Canadian news was always somewhat oppressive. I guess we'd still have the Toronto Star and French news? (I have no idea what one is meant to do with CBC these days.)

how much of a reach do you think any of these papers have? I don't get the sense that the Sun and the Province set the agenda in Vancouver or BC nearly as much as they did in the 90s. Nobody reads them anymore!

National Post always mixed some interesting heterodox opinion columnists with virulent unadulterated Islamophobia

the free Star Metro paper here strikes me as left of centre if anything

how much of a reach do you think any of these papers have?

my extremely gut-feeling answer is "more than you might think, especially among the over-55s"

Ha, I just reviewed the thread and found zero links to any local Postmedia paper and one Postmedia link period (to the NP). Definitely different from the days when the whole family read the Citizen every day.

Best Prime Minister:
https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/pm-trudeau-sought-to-influence-wilson-raybould-in-many-ways-ethics-czar-1.4549332

Definitely feels more and more probable that we are heading for a conservative government this fall. I'm hoping that they at least don't get a majority.

Fuck everything about this.

yeah, we're screwed

Fucking awesome: Legault in Quebec, Ford in Ontario, Kenney in Alberta, etc., and Scheer for the whole country.

and we'll still be thinking we're better than america

Not a high bar tbf.

What are the Grits' chances if Trudeau resigns, someone else (Freeland?) takes over?

Also, how depressing is it to be hoping for a federal Liberal government to survive after a corruption scandal? There just seems to be zero hope for a leftist alternative at this point.

uh, i think the only way you can think up such a thing happening would be some accelarationist fantasizing. tories get in and the economy finally goes tits up and jagmeet storms in and leads us to glorious social democracy? so far-fetched i can't even imagine it

:(

i'm starting to fear that Jagmeet will never become PM

SNC is very bad and corrupt imo but I don't think Lib voters care. And there's a definite ceiling on Scheer's support. My gut feeling is still that we are stuck with Justin, probably forever.

I half-wondered whether there's a way this might actually help him in Quebec, to be seen to have fought so hard to save a homegrown giant and all those jobs.

The accelerationist in me hopes for a poor NDP showing so they can finally get a decent leader for a change

l'etat, c'est SNC Lavalin

I feel pretty confident that the NDP will be getting a new leader after 2019, possibly barring Jagmeet becoming the junior partner in a minority coalition. But do they have any decent possibilities? I liked Nathan Cullen, vaguely, but he just retired...

Ashton?

She'd be my pick obv

I half-wondered whether there's a way this might actually help him in Quebec, to be seen to have fought so hard to save a homegrown giant and all those jobs.

That's already the way it's being spun here and I think there's a decent chance it might work. It doesn't seem like people here like Scheer or Singh much so might just end up voting Liberal by default. Unless they decide to go back to voting Bloc? It's not a very predictable electorate

What about Mad Max? Is he still in the race?

Unless they decide to go back to voting Bloc?

This would probably guarantee a Tory government if it happened.

What about Mad Max? Is he still in the race?

I think he has a shot of winning his own seat (which would mean, per current rules, that he would be at the debate for the election following this one)

This would probably guarantee a Tory government if it happened.

Agreed. I hope it doesn't happen.

The Liberal position on the whole SNC Lavalin thing is basically the same one as the provincial government here (i.e. even though they are corrupt, it is important that they be allowed to continue to do business with the government because of jobs) so possibly this will have no effect on Liberals vote turnout at all in Quebec.

Lol, just checked what the editorial board of Le Devoir had to say and yep, they're just throwing these questions out there: https://www.ledevoir.com/opinion/editoriaux/560653/affaire-snc-lavalin-dans-quel-interet

Haha, seems about right. Le Devoir gonna (do its) devoir.

Hottest take of the year goes to: https://business.financialpost.com/opinion/joe-oliver-heres-a-truth-few-dare-to-utter-canada-will-benefit-from-climate-change?fbclid=IwAR25zQwxGqUkM7ahFc74sqARbgqf3UrGVCsDwQSZSymwlLqPiwd38dmQ0II#comments-area

extreme weather bad, climate change good

Insofar as conservatism is just tribalism, that sweltering take is probably more widespread than we think.

Oh, I used to participate in a Canadian politics forum with plenty of small- and large-C conservatives on it and you definitely came across this viewpoint. A former cabinet minister writing this in a major newspaper is ... something, though.

The cynicism is just breathtaking. Fuck that article.

I kept waiting for him to baldly suggest that we accelerate the process.

Naturally, no mention that Canada has among the highest per capita emissions.

Ah, there he is:

https://www.ledevoir.com/politique/canada/560699/les-candidats-de-maxime-bernier-et-l-avortement

Because curbing late-term abortions should be our top priority.

Tbh, I had no idea he was running candidates outside of Quebec.

Non-paywalled site for a Toronto Star story about more brilliant work by Ford's govt: https://www.niagarafallsreview.ca/news-story/9553856-ford-government-s-streamlining-delays-funding-for-agencies-that-help-the-disabled/ . Seriously worried about what's going on here; we have a very good support system in the province now.

This seems really confused. An identical message can be legal for a non-third-party-registered charity in one election and not in another, depending on what the worst party happens to be advocating?

Because of that, Elections Canada is warning that any third party that promotes information about carbon dioxide as a pollutant or climate change as an emergency could be considered to be indirectly advocating against Mr. Bernier and his party. Activities can be considered partisan by Elections Canada even if they don’t mention a candidate or party by name, the agency’s rules say.

An Elections Canada spokesman confirmed “such a recommendation would be something we would give.”

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-environment-groups-warned-saying-climate-is-real-could-be-seen-as/

Wtf? Can we block every bank from advertising since they probably oppose the stance of the Communist Party? Oil industry ads might be indirectly opposing the Green Party?

Oh, I guess it only affects charity tax status. Still weird. That is not a partisan message.

Exactly. This is a case of the very 'feels over reals' that the right routinely ascribes to its opponents.