Defenestrate Them All: Canadian Politics 2021

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/white-nationalist-donation-derek-sloan-1.5878070

sloan claims he had no idea who the guy was and is returning the money, but no denunciation of white supremacism in his statements either. there's a long history of denouncing and returning embarrassing political donations, and I agree politicians probably can't vet everything. O'Toole is just taking the opportunity to get rid of a headache.

It’s not that he accepted the donation. It’s that his specific policies attracted it.

definitely o’toole using a good opportunity. agreed it’s overblown, but part of the reason is that it’s the kind of thing that goes with the rest of what sloan represents. this is the guy who said he’d designate antifa as a terrorist group, after all.

the best part is that it’ll damage cpc as well, and deservingly so. they had many opportunities to get rid of sloan before.

in any case, i’ll celebrate derek finally getting what he deserved. too bad he blocked me on fb/twitter.

sloan is so disingenuous about the shit he propagates, justifying his antivax petition with the "any constituent can write a petition" defence. he's done and said a ton of things that merit getting the boot.

Oh I see, so the donation was given through the party but meant for Sloan's leadership campaign per se and, even while the party did take a cut, the issue is that Sloan attracted that element in the first place?

seems like you can give up to $1500 directly to a leadership contestant (but yeah the conservatives took a 10% cut). and you can give to electoral district associations or party-endorsed candidates, not just to parties.

https://www.elections.ca/content.aspx?section=res&dir=ces&document=part6&lang=e

Reportedly a glitch in the reporting, but cases do seem to be coming down. In London, their 5-day average is down ~35%.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/covid-19-ontario-january-19-2021-vaccine-update-1.5878789

lol, why do Canadians do this?

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EsMp0HAXMAE0EwX?format=png&name=240x240

Annoying, but I accept it. Vague moral superiority is pretty gentle as far as nationalism goes. If we don’t have social cohesion, we lose our social programs.

Oh hey,

Not sure this should have been the event that triggered it, but Sloan is booted. Well deserved.

https://www.thestar.com/politics/federal/2021/01/20/conservatives-mps-eject-derek-sloan-in-a-secret-ballot-vote.html

I'm not really up on this guy, so yes, you guessed it, first reaction: "Huh? Far from great, but a couple of songs weren't bad."

it's nice to see o'toole jumping on this so quickly and decisively - harper would've likely doubled down in a similar scenario,
but i have a feeling this will be seen as a weakness by his caucus.

Yeah I'm underwhelmed by how O'Toole demanded that his caucus had to "coax me" into ejecting Sloan

poorly formed joeks aside, I thought this Andrew Coyne article was excellent:

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-the-conservatives-have-a-hypocrisy-problem-that-goes-beyond-derek/

"Derek Sloan is right. It is hypocritical for the Conservative Party to kick him out of caucus for unwittingly accepting a donation from the notorious neo-Nazi – and party member – Paul Fromm, when the party had done the same. Like Mr. Sloan, the party failed to screen out either Mr. Fromm’s donation or membership application – forgivably, perhaps, as he gave his name as Frederick P. Fromm. But only Mr. Sloan is paying the price for it.

Not that he deserves any better. There are worse things than hypocrisy, and one of them is the party’s willingness to tolerate Mr. Sloan’s presence in caucus as long as it has. If Mr. Sloan is being scapegoated in the present case, he had already earned his ticket out of caucus several times over: for suggesting homosexuality was a choice, for insinuating that Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer, Theresa Tam, was in the pay of the Chinese government, for other public statements that were at best reckless and at worst outright bigoted."

From that article (which was very good indeed):

Is it any wonder that more than 40 per cent of Conservative voters, according to a Leger poll, would have voted for Donald Trump in the recent election? Or that a similar number believe he actually won?

Err, really? That's worse than I thought.

I guess it's only 40% of 30% of all Canadian voters, if you want to look at the glass as being 12% full

this is a minor thing but i'm curious: i wonder what happens to sloan's blue check twitter account now, since it's got "cpc" in the name.
does he lose the right to use it?

Sloan is paying the price for everything he's done wrong, obv.

I'd say he lost California but he was actually a student union president down there. Hunh.

lol sund4r

lol

It’s not real until he does his time

And it's official: https://www.ctvnews.ca/business/biden-revokes-keystone-xl-permit-in-blow-to-canada-s-oil-sector-1.5275343

kenney big mad

Kenney says if the U.S. administration refuses to discuss Keystone, the Canadian government must impose trade and economic sanctions, he says. "Not doing so would create a dangerous precedent," Kenney says. #ableg

— Janet French (@Jantafrench) January 20, 2021

hard to see any downsides to that plan

Tough guy

Not sure I completely understand this: https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/mobile/man-freezes-to-death-steps-from-montreal-shelter-after-public-health-makes-beds-off-limits-1.5271305

Why does a curfew mean that homeless shelters need to close? If anything, wouldn't it keep people from being out and violating the curfew if they could be inside a shelter at night?

Watch your back, pom. You've got some real polyglot competition now:

No matter what language you speak — or in my case try to — all of us need to stay home.

Stay home. Stay safe. Save lives. pic.twitter.com/zy3qeqUA43

— Doug Ford (@fordnation) January 21, 2021

I had to listen back to the Tamil one a couple of times to work out what words he was even trying to say.

Hahaha, that's genuinely amazing. No Romanian, though – tsk, tsk.

I know it's all PR, but it saddens me to think that Legault would never so much as consider doing such a video.

Oh wow, haha

Damn, that was quick:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/governor-general-payette-step-down-1.5882675

At the beginning of her mandate, sources said, Payette also put staff on the spot by quizzing them about outer space — asking them to name all the planets in the solar system, for example, or to state the distance between the sun and the moon.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/rideau-hall-governor-general-payette-1.5861952

she sounds like a real scumbag

The outer space pop quizzes cracked me up ("what? This is how we build morale at CSA!") but, yeah, sounds nasty otherwise.

That’s a lot like what our 5th grader thinks is good conversation.

Heh. Guess Payette never outgrew the little kid who wanted to become an astronaut.

How many people lost their jobs because of Pluto?

xps Not quick as the same anecdotes were reported in July: https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/julie-payette-governor-general-harassment-allegations-1.5657397

Then they decided to do this formal look at it and she resigns the day it's published... it's wild of her to say "Tensions have arisen at Rideau Hall over the past few months and for that, I am sorry."

Wonder if we can get any traction on getting rid of this job. Let's write the queen and inquire?

when prince charles comes in it's time to pull the plug imo

There doesnt seem to be any appetite for republicanism. Charles will be a relatively short reign follower by the popular William

Payette's statement is almost incredibly unapologetic: https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/julie-payette-full-statement-governor-general-resignation-rideau-hall-1.5882916

Mario Dumont made the point that Payette was basically acting like a queen: https://www.journaldemontreal.com/2021/01/22/julie-payette-cetait-pire-quon-pensait
which made me recall something Elizabeth Bruenig said about how no one, including avowed monarchists, wants an actual monarchy anymore.

Someone should point that out to those goofs down below, who were, as a friend said, chanting “1776!” while trying to install a king.

Wait, was an election declared??

I got into politics to make a difference and to build a stronger, cleaner and more inclusive future for our kids and grandkids.

I'm excited to be running again to represent the residents of #OttawaCentre. We have an amazing community and there is a lot more we can do together! pic.twitter.com/w725jJEDnS

— Catherine McKenna (@cathmckenna) January 23, 2021

Under 2,000 cases in Ontario today, only the second time since Dec. 28.

(On the other hand, sitting in a coffee shop, looking up at the TV, and being alarmed that we were headed for 500 cases in a day doesn't seem all that long ago.)

Further to sund4r’s post about possible election drop oops there - just saw what was basically an election attack ad on tv from this organization (whoever they are) https://mobile.twitter.com/worsttimeotoole

https://www.cp24.com/news/ontario-reports-fewest-number-of-new-covid-19-cases-in-two-months-1.5284075

Under 1,700 today. I don't know if the rate of decline is commensurate with the lockdown/stay-at-home measures--maybe they expected to be lower by now--but encouraging nonetheless.

I missed that but the Proud Boys are now listed as a terrorist group in Canada!