Open for Business: Canadian Politics 2019

Depressing to see Tory blue federal lawn signs all over the west end suburbs whenever I'm there.

(That was re: Ottawa, not MB)

Sad as it is to say, I still tend to assume that the Prairies are unredeemable.

The NDP governed MB from 1999-2016!

What did they achieve in the way of social policies? Genuinely curious.

Doer gov was a pretty meat and potatoes balanced budget type of thing, not scaring the small c conservatives too much. His replacement,who's name I cant remember,went against a promise not to increase provincial sales tax and that was the end of that

Cut tuition; tuition rates are about half of Ontario's. Some of the highest levels of health care and education spending in the country. Modest but consistent environmental reforms: phasing out of coal factories, shifting towards renewable energy. Immigration agreement with the Philippines. Ahead of the curve on same-sex adoption rights. Definitely not radical but achieved some progressive changes while maintaining a balanced budget and healthy economy.

Not bad at all.

xp. ah yeah, my 5.40am gloss was a little minimal and not positive enough.

doer gov a really good example of a provincial ndp gov not being shitty

im not looking forward to this election

Huh, our NDP candidate is a podcaster. http://www.michaelspratt.com/poadcast-legal-matters

Ha, I'll look into Taman's record but I'm leaning Green at this point. Ottawa Centre is a Lib-NDP contest and I have no strong preference between them rn.

My animosity towards Catherine McKenna over TransMountain is almost balanced out by wanting to stick it to the misogynists who are giving her crap.

i live in what used to be the safest ndp riding in canada, and which even after last election, where there was a huge swing to the liberals, the ndp candidate still won by 20 points.

makes me slightly disinclined to campaign but i guess you shouldn't be too complacent and i could also volunteer in one of the currently liberal ridings in the burbs.

well now we might pay attention to the elections!

Uh oh... a Vancouver businessman has had a sudden and conveniently timed crisis of conscience over something he saw in an old year book.

Ugh. Just ugh to all of it.

God, what a story.

https://magiciconsigli.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/winkies-2.jpg

great headline from yesterday:
https://election.ctvnews.ca/some-voters-question-whether-canada-is-ready-for-a-pm-with-a-turban-1.4598227

What this is all about if you don't live in Canada and can't be bothered looking up details:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trudeau-brownface-arabian-nights-1.5289165

If you look at that picture, there may be--may be; I don't know any details--a second issue: he's a teacher, and that may be a student he's kind of friendly with there.

I hope the media will heavily report that the NCCM has accepted his apology. Already tired of white people being offended in lieu of POCs.

andrew scheer always sounds do nervous when he talks

this is kind of weird to say, but i agree with ed the sock?

xpost

don't think the NCCM actually has the power to absolve Trudeau on behalf of all Muslims. And there is no way that they'd accept an apology that quickly from a Conservative (or even someone from another party) who did the same thing

how did conservative oppo research miss this, harper must be rolling in his grave

Fantastic assumption man.

The NCCM doesn't have the power to absolve Trudeau on behalf of all Muslims because no institution holds that kind of power and it ain't the point of the NCCM, so duh. That's not the point. The point is that politically-minded jerks will use the photo's offensiveness to rip into Trudeau while ignoring what the leading body of Canadian muslims has to say about it and I find it to be excruciating and hypocritical. If a consensus of Canadian muslims come up with a clear rebuke of the NCCM decision I will rescind that.

yeah, fair enough

what really gets me about that photo is how utterly unsurprising it is

If you look at that picture, there may be--may be; I don't know any details--a second issue: he's a teacher, and that may be a student he's kind of friendly with there.

I don't think that's a teenager?

Honestly, I doubt this will move the needle very much.

Yeah same.

I just wish there was more outrage for Bill 21, rather than an obvious mistake made 18 years ago.

And there is no way that they'd accept an apology that quickly from a Conservative (or even someone from another party) who did the same thing

I mean, if this is true, is it because the NCCM has some partisan loyalty to the Liberals? Or is it because Liberal policy has been better for Muslims than they think Tory policy would be?

Ya, I would think it’s been earned at little more than with, at least, the cpc.

yeah I mean it's totally just an assumption...and yeah CPC/PPC/CAQ all implicitly and explicitly condone some form of Islamophobia, so maybe JT has earned the benefit of the doubt

just tired of the monstrosity of the alternative being used to excuse Trudeau for lying about first past the post, for SNC Lavalin, for buying a pipeline, etc etc etc

This is like an alternate universe - yeah his opposition are fucking horrific on every level, but how is this acceptable? Even if you’re leaning heavily on youthful mistake (at 29?), he’s the son of an ex-PM and grew up used to public scrutiny. Come the fuck on, it’s horrendous judgement at best.

Insofar as it's impossible to conceive of an NDP (centre-left) victory at this point in time (or any other, really) because ours is a two-party system in all but name and Canadians currently appear to be more interested in letting the world know they're on the same nationalist bandwagon as everyone else (see: results of the latest provincial elections), this is the pathetic alternative we're left with.

'Fuck everything about this' is likely to be my refrain throughout.

overheard conversation between a couple of dumbasses in my office talking about the photo today, flawless logic on display: "how can that be racist - aladdin's not even real! who is it racist against, cartoon characters?"

Yeah same.

I just wish there was more outrage for Bill 21, rather than an obvious mistake made 18 years ago.

pretty much. As terrible as this is, it isn't going to change anybody's opinion of him that much (see Aga Khan, trip to India for other instances of terrible judgement). I don't think anybody's going to actually start thinking Trudeau is racist because of this.

No. But I think the usual view of political scandals is that they hurt most when they confirm general perceptions that are already out there*--in this case that Trudeau is privileged, clueless, and a hypocrite.

*with the standard caveat that normal rules do not apply to Trump

wtf, another? How have none of these surfaced before now?

https://globalnews.ca/news/5922861/justin-trudeau-brownface-video

'Fuck everything about this' is likely to be my refrain throughout.

― pomenitul, Thursday, September 19, 2019 7:53 AM (five hours ago)

Trudeau has has negative momentum for a while now and most liberals know it. If there was some other star candidate waiting in the wings, I’d almost wonder if this was a Patrick Brown style hit job to pull a last minute leadership switcheroo. But yeah, fuck everything about this sums it up nicely.

Also I’d like to remind anyone who thinks blackfaces were consensually understood as bad in 2001, that they are still not really understood as bad in Quebec. The context is different and I think it matters.

they are still not really understood as bad in Quebec

Correct.

What about in BC, though?

the Arabian Nights teacher party was in Vancouver though

is there any context yet on this new little video of him in blackface throwing his hands up?

fuck him. what a complete distraction. Put a new leader in. I don't care if it is an internal hit.

so we went from zero to three in less than a day? it doesn't reflect well on Trudeau at all – but i find it more than a little gross this is only coming to light now because of political opportunism and not any kind of sense of right and wrong. it's obvious someone was sitting on these until the election – and whether it was the conservatives or greens (Kinsella), no one comes out looking good on this. i always felt Trudeau was a entitled rich kid and he’s definitely lost some respect from me over this. however he did a better job than i expected as PM and has welcomed refugees & very publicly denounced Islamophobia. So this is all kind of a giant, gross, unwelcome wash in my books.

Yeah, blackface was something you would semi-regularly see on Québecois TV as late as the 90s. That doesn't make it right but I can excuse a teenage Trudeau for not realizing there's anything wrong with it.

Brownface in Vancouver in 2001 at age 29 is certainly worse. He should have known better by then, I would think.