Down With the Sickness: Canadian Politics 2022

Haha I sometimes have that block with conspiracy theories. The first time I heard about the Illuminati plan to establish a global atheist socialist New World Order, I wondered "this would be bad because...?"

Sometimes I think the worst part is that opposing the tin foil hat stuff positions a person who wants balance, to uphold things that actually are not that perfect. I think there are lots of legitimate conversations to be had about the official response in the past few years, but they are next to impossible to have.

(That first time was when a couple of guys gave their final presentation in my OAC World Issues class, where they explained every one of the global problems we had covered that year with the NWO conspiracy, seemingly completely sincerely. By the end of the presentation, most of the class seemed convinced; even the teacher defended the merits of their argument, although he may have just been trying to be supportive. I suppose it shouldn't really be a surprise that these ideas become more widespread when Facebook is easier to access than the Globe and Mail.)

I know, Kim. It's frustrating to end up having to defend the mainstream media, government, and even big business sometimes.

Ontario provincial voting intentions from Léger / Postmedia:

🔵PCPO 39%
🔴OLP 27%
🟠ONDP 27%
🟢GPO 3%

-> https://t.co/cIuGNkaxNo

[Léger, Feb. 25-27, 2022, n=1,001]#onpoli pic.twitter.com/5OAcRo5mK5

— Philippe J. Fournier (@338Canada) March 4, 2022

Btw my point was actually that Rempel-Garner has an extra-strong responsibility to proclaim this more publicly, even if it means having to leave a party that she herself acknowledges is encouraging this damaging conspiracy theory.

any chance ontario moves to proportional representation in the next couple months?

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-leaders-of-truck-convoy-protests-sought-overthrow-of-government/

Statement from Trudeau's national security adviser justifying the Emergencies Act

no mask mandates in BC, announced yesterday and started today...feels weird!

Being inside in public without a mask feels like getting away with something.

Re the Rempel-Garner piece, the frontrunner in the leadership for her party, less than a year ago:

The globalist World Economic Forum—which Trudeau, Freeland & Carney so adore says, "You'll Own Nothing. And You'll Be Happy."

Maybe that's why government is inflating home prices. pic.twitter.com/bDOe0AXxbx

— Pierre Poilievre (@PierrePoilievre) July 17, 2021

A bit lol to see his supporters being outraged by this piece cautioning against trolling and conspiracy theories, even though Poilievre isn't named, nor any other candidate: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-a-message-to-conservatives-smarten-up-serious-times-need-serious/

Haha is that Rempel Garner in the background of that clip?

Cautious good news (337K new jobs in February, pushing unemployment rate down to 5.5%, below pre-pandemic number): https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/canada-jobs-february-1.6381234

mark mckinney on kids in the hall could have done a great polievre

Lol yes

Bruce McCulloch (aka Gavin) would be the better fit

pic.twitter.com/jDQtGm0Qpo

— Richard Whittall (@RWhittall) March 13, 2022

one hour after my post, wth

Haha

This piece suggests a plan to further privatize health care in Ontario: https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/2022/03/15/doug-fords-government-is-quietly-privatizing-health-care.html

And it's overtly on the table in QC: https://www.journaldemontreal.com/2022/03/12/la-caq-proposera-que-le-prive-prenne-plus-de-place-en-sante

Who the fuck looks at the US health care system and says “yup, that’s what we need more of here”?

More pertinently, what do Conservatives see when they look at the US health care system? What tint of spectacle makes that pile of shit look like a rose to them?

Federal - Reportedly, the Liberals and New Democrats have reached a tentative agreement that would keep the government in place until 2025, for exchange on NDP policy priorities.

— Polling Canada (@CanadianPolling) March 22, 2022

The agreement would see the NDP back the Liberals in confidence votes. In return, the Liberals will follow through on some elements of national pharmacare and dental care programs — programs that have long been promoted by the NDP.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trudeu-jagmeet-singh-working-together-1.6392756

That sounds great tbh.

wow I love this

my hope for the last two federal elections was Liberals needing support from Jagmeet to stay in power, and the math never quite worked out. Wish the NDP held out for proportional representation of course

Plus ca change plus c’est la meme chose pic.twitter.com/V776bqWNtx

— James Cameron (@lumin8) March 26, 2022

"Third party", geez

Randy Hillier facing nine charges: https://ottawa.ctvnews.ca/mpp-randy-hillier-surrenders-to-ottawa-police-to-face-freedom-convoy-related-charges-1.5837294

Liberal-NDP deal: By 2 to 1 margin, the public thinks it will be good rather bad for Canada.

Plus the latest vote intention, gov't approval, and leader impressions

More here: https://t.co/IFcxa09c1v pic.twitter.com/S7hrfwpib1

— David Coletto 🇺🇦 (@DavidColetto) March 28, 2022

I thought about posting this to the "shit that looks like the Onion" thread but decided it was too niche & unamusing. Still this is utterly deranged reporting: https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/hungary-ukraine-refugees-1.6403263

Hungary faced criticism for anti-immigrant policy. But it's opening its doors to Ukrainian refugees

what do you mean?

Hungary's explicitly, unmistakably racist double standard wrt to refugee admission being reported primarily as a feelgood story about how welcoming they're being strikes me as bizarre and repulsive. Yes it does quote a few dissenting voices, but the headline captures the overall tone aptly imo. What is the purpose of this story?

Maybe it's just another banal example of how "objective" both-sides reporting can be dangerous, but it reads like PR for Hungarian fascism

Oh I see, for some reason I thought you were criticizing the article for the exact opposite thing.

it feels like someone wanted to write about both individual Hungarians' acts of generosity and Orban's double standard and mashed it into one article. this paragraph isn't great!

"I saw these children flooding from Ukraine with their mothers … and I really felt I had to do something," said Eszter Zombory-Balogh, 38, who is currently hosting eight Ukrainian refugees in a vacant apartment owned by her father.

"Hungary is not internationally seen as a refugee welcoming country because of our government. But this case is, I think, is different because …they are like us."

ah ok, phew, for a second I worried I'd read it in some uncaffeinated haze and misconstrued things. And yeah that part was where I hit the "wtf am I reading?" point

yeah I'm pretty uncaffeinated here too! my take is the writer didn't mean to write a defence of hungary's racist attitude to refugees, but as you say the human interest details make the point of view incoherent at best

Can the National Capital Region just get its own jurisdiction already now that even Ford doesn't recognize Ottawa as part of Ontario?

I am honoured to welcome Her Excellency the Right Honourable Mary Simon on her first official visit to our province.@GGCanada #GGSimon is a role model to so many people across Canada & I look forward to seeing her important work continue during this vital time for our country. pic.twitter.com/BSgDmjUnxB

— Doug Ford (@fordnation) March 31, 2022

Ha, OK, it seems odd that you can say how someone who already lives in a province is "visiting" that same province, whether 'official' or otherwise, but it does look like she used the same language herself so I guess I just didn't know the political terminology: https://www.gg.ca/en/media/news/2022/governor-general-undertake-official-visit-ontario

Last night I had a triple generation encounter with my least-favourite family: while walking by Douglas B. F*** Park in Etobicoke, I received a phone call from Premier Doug F*** asking me to put a sign for Michael F*** on my lawn. The PCs regularly come third in my riding, I hope splitting between the NDP and Liberals doesn't let this guy win.

https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/woman-with-disabilities-nears-medically-assisted-death-after-futile-bid-for-affordable-housing-1.5882202

A 31-year-old Toronto woman who uses a wheelchair is nearing final approval for a medically assisted death request after a fruitless bid to secure an affordable apartment that doesn't worsen her chronic illnesses.

The looming approval for death surprisingly, makes her grateful. "Relieved and elated," Denise said in an interview with CTV News. "I was scared that they weren't going to say ‘yes’," she said...

...Her story is disturbingly similar to one reported by CTV earlier in April. Sophia also suffered from Multiple Chemical Sensitivities. She received a medically assisted death in February, after fruitless attempts to get an apartment away from smoke and chemicals in her building. Denise said she started the paperwork on her request for MAiD in the summer of 2021, long before Sophia's story went public...

The larger issue of the purpose of medically assisted death in Canada also comes into play, say disability rights advocates. Initially approved by the Senate as a way of alleviating the suffering of those near death, it was expanded in March 2021 to those with chronic illnesses and disabilities.

"We've now gone on to basically solving the deficiencies in our social safety net through this horrific backdoor, not that anybody meant it that way, but that's what it's turned into," said David Lepofsky, disability advocate and Visiting Professor of Disability Rights at the Osgoode Hall Law School.

"With the right support, I have no doubt people with disabilities can live well in society. We all want people with disabilities to know that their lives have value," said Kobluk.

Voted

Yup.

Harden was good during the protest, imo. Felt like an easy vote.

Didn't realize there was a Nate Silver-type site that tracks this:

https://338canada.com/ontario/

God, not even close.

Yeah, we’re fucked.

Fuck

My wife is working at a poll tonight on behalf of the NDP, who are the incumbents here.

I usually think of Eric Grenier as the Canadian Nate Silver: https://newsinteractives.cbc.ca/elections/poll-tracker/ontario/

PCs are probably cruising to a win provincially but Harden is also going to win this riding easily. We've been volunteering with his campaign as he actually got results for our own concerns during the pandemic and I agree he was great during the occupation. More effective in Opposition than a lot of MP/Ps are in government (including Naqvi federally). Horwath herself a major disappointment, though.

And why are the Liberals running on bringing back Grade 13?? Every other province and state functions fine without it.

I expected a Tory win. I didn't expect them to gain seats. As the little local victories go, Harden won by a wide margin and the NDP flipped the suburban riding of Ottawa West-Nepean, which had been held by a Tory and which is the kind of seat they need to start winning if they're going to have a chance at winning an election. Grits still don't have official party status.