Down With the Sickness: Canadian Politics 2022

also, I ofc get what you mean clemenza, but I know a few people who would vehemently disagree that this isn't really politics!

Definitely political from a monopoly standpoint, isn't it? This really shouldn't be allowed to happen. (Says the guy whose internet/phone/TV is provided by Rogers.)

Quadro is pretty common where I live, so there are least three places in town where I'll have Wi-Fi access until this is resolved, including, I discovered today for the first time since I moved here, a park at the end of my street.

Heard on the radio that the communications minister (or whatever--might have even been an opposition critic) is calling for refunds. "Dream on" is my first reaction. Businesses should definitely get some compensation--the local restaurant I went to for dinner had closed down for the day. (Not really sure why they couldn't deal in cash; everywhere else seems to be open on a cash basis.)

Yeah we lost all Internet and mobile service on Friday. Seems ludicrous that so much of the country, including essential public services, depends on this shitty private company. Why are telecommunications and media so monopolistic/oligopolistic in this country? We're switching our mobile service away (to a different corporate oligarch).

Why are telecommunications and media so monopolistic/oligopolistic in this country?

usual answer is big country + low population requires large fixed costs for poor unit economics so it's only worth it for a few large firms to enter

but it does seem like things could be significantly less shitty with the given constraints

Yeah, or at least, if that's the case, that there should be a public utility in the market as well. This is the case in Saskatchewan, where it seems to work OK. Are the US companies prohibited by law from entering the market or does it not seem worth it to them? Seems like that would shift the unit economics if we're talking about a US/Canada market, as opposed to just Canada.

I found myself reading about both Anne Frank white privilege discourse and the KHive this morning and realized I probably need another Internet outage already.

As far as politics goes, has anyone seen any movement on anything the Liberal-NDP accord promised?

solidarity with this brave bee:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/doug-ford-swallows-bee-1.6549613

yeesh

Yeah, at least we have three more years before a general election. Poilievre's acceptance speech was dishearteningly effective imo, striking all the right notes for his audience: starting off with a couple of minutes on the Queen (who, paraphrasing, was the "most powerful woman in the world, though she might have recoiled from the title") culminating in a "God save the King"; hammering home how his victory is a victory for YOU and your ability to hold on to YOUR paycheque vs "Liberal inflation" and the dishonest claim that Trudeau has doubled the debt, adding more than every previous government combined; and, in French, saying that Quebec should be a model for the rest of the country in how it "stands up to wokism" and unapologetically fights to preserve its heritage and culture (at a time when Legault has been talking about restricting immigration in order to protect Quebec's culture from "violence and extremism").

I thought this, from a couple of weeks ago, was pretty thorough on some of the issues with the looseness of Canada's euthanasia/MAiD laws, with a number of disturbing examples: https://apnews.com/article/covid-science-health-toronto-7c631558a457188d2bd2b5cfd360a867

— Unlike Belgium and the Netherlands, where euthanasia has been legal for two decades, Canada doesn’t have monthly commissions to review potentially troubling cases, although it does publish yearly reports of euthanasia trends.

— Canada is the only country that allows nurse practitioners, not just doctors, to end patients’ lives. Medical authorities in its two largest provinces, Ontario and Quebec, explicitly instruct doctors not to indicate on death certificates if people died from euthanasia.

— Belgian doctors are advised to avoid mentioning euthanasia to patients since it could be misinterpreted as medical advice. The Australian state of Victoria forbids doctors from raising euthanasia with patients. There are no such restrictions in Canada. The association of Canadian health professionals who provide euthanasia tells physicians and nurses to inform patients if they might qualify to be killed, as one of their possible “clinical care options.”

— Canadian patients are not required to have exhausted all treatment alternatives before seeking euthanasia, as is the case in Belgium and the Netherlands.

La déprime.

Yeah what I gathered of the CAQ campaign this time was despicable anti-immigrant scapegoating. That it's paying off so well is depressing, as you say. I'm a bit shocked they're even leading in Hull.

Jmm, have you been following the Ottawa municipal campaign? Catherine McKenney, my leftist nonbinary councillor who has been v good at hammering Watson's crowd for their terrible handling of the convoy occupation and the transit fiasco, actually has a pretty solid lead in the polls for the mayoral race but the many undecided voters could shift things:

Our newest polling in the Ottawa mayoral race has McKenney sitting 14-points ahead of Sutcliffe

But a quarter of voters are still undecided!https://t.co/bu9mXmKEMC

— Mainstreet Research (@MainStResearch) September 15, 2022

Greg 'Jreg' Guevara, a Youtube comedian I already enjoyed, has been running a hilarious satirical campaign to separate from Canada, build a wall around the city and declare Frenglish the national language. It still manages to be less of a shitpost than the actual governance of the city has been for the last four years. Really enjoying his debate contributions.

Yesterday's Quebec election result was expected but nevertheless depressing.

It's also crazy that we now have five different parties with 13% or more of the vote. I would have thought this was maybe the PQs last election, but they somehow managed to get the most charismatic party leader I've seen in a long time and somehow ran a nearly flawless campaign and all of a sudden they are back in the mix. I could totally see them winning the next election in 4 years with this guy once everyone is tired of the CAQ/François Legault.

so this notwithstanding business is some bullshit.
i would expect the province run by cons to fuck with the union and daring them to strike etc. i don't like it – but expected.
but busting out section 33 at the drop of a hat is fucking insane. i am worried too many parents will start blaming teachers and believing the dishonest bs making the rounds.
but my naive hope is these really shitty, heavy handed measures will have more blowback for that piece shit ford and his clowns than they anticipated

I wish there were a better name for it than the notwithstanding clause.

The Fuck Your Rights and Freedoms Clause maybe.

^d'accord

might be my Toronto bubble speaking but from what i see, most parents see it for what it is (Ford and Lecce's fault)

I drove past the picket lines in Sarnia yesterday and it seemed most everyone was honking in support. Pretty sure everyone knows it’s Ford (not that things like this ever stop him getting re-elected)

i am worried too many parents will start blaming teachers

Started under Mike Harris, and I don't know that it's ever stopped. I always say that parents like their own school and their child's teacher, but broadly speaking, most say (or vote like) they don't like teachers. Just my impression.

Afaik this strike doesn't have anything to do with teachers? At least locally, it's support staff, such as custodians, who are striking. Kids still have some online classes.

OK yep:

Many schools are closed as a result of the job action by the union, which represents custodians, administrative staff, education assistants, bus drivers and librarians.

d'accord

While I strongly dislike Quebec's use of the notwithstanding clause to override Charter rights, I can recognize that they do it on issues of principle, such as secularism or protecting the French language, that are important to those leaders and their constituents and that extend beyond a current dispute. Ford's use of this for, essentially, the sake of convenience in steamrolling over contract negotiations is both incredible and vmic for a leader who has demonstrated few principles other than expediency. Coyne suggested a fairly radical solution for the feds that I am tempted to agree with in this case: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-what-ottawa-should-say-to-the-provinces-see-your-notwithstanding/

Nothing to do with teachers, no. But I've heard people on call-in shows say that the teachers are using this showdown for their own nefarious ends later in the year.

Strange, but the board I supply for now, none of the support staff is CUPE. So we're not affected at all. The boards that have brought back online, that really puts those teachers in an awkward spot; they're essentially undermining all the support staff by teaching online. I know they don't want to, but they have to.

Well, that was quick. I honestly think Ford would nationalize the banks and convert all schools to kibbutzim if the polls and his donors appeared to favour it. (Now if only we can get the public and donors to mobilize for health care and home care...)

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/cupe-strike-labour-board-ruling-expected-1.6642824

https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/2022/11/07/an-enormous-embarrassment-for-stephen-lecce-and-doug-ford.html

i'm not going to call this a "victory" until there's a fair deal in place

Last-minute deal: surprised.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ontario-education-worker-negotiations-1.6658097

Amazing!

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/toronto-mayor-john-tory-statement-1.6745144

(No posts in two months? Was Canada shut down?)

"Tory will also be remembered as a mayor on the move." lol.

The scandal no one could have predicted.

Except for maybe the Beaverton; who fucking slayed me with this headline:
“John Tory’s career inevitably cut short by his raw, unstoppable sexual magnetism”

I hope our next sober, asexual mayor gives an ounce of a shit about the unhoused

Couldn't believe the picture they had of Tory on the front page of the Star today. He looked like he'd aged 40 years--he looked like a corpse.

Is there any reason to believe that this clears the way for a more progressive mayor? I wouldn't be surprised if we get another Ford (maybe literally).

read a few rumours this weekend that Doug is stepping down as premier to run for mayor (unlikely) and that Michael is running (more likely)

Ford must be reveling in this. Tory, on his radio show, was (correctly, I'd say) really hard on both Fords when the crack story broke. Whatever public front they've put up the past few years, pretty sure they despise each other.

about time that michael york was suitably honoured

https://i.imgur.com/BPWIn7D.jpg

any other Torontonians paying attention to the mayoral by-election? are there even any Torontonians here other than Simon (does he count if he doesn't post anymore) and I?

anyway I'm volunteering for the Josh Matlow campaign though I can't wait until all of this is over

what do people in the city think of Chow?

can't speak for anyone else but she seems to be doing well in the polls (which lol are like a thousand or less respondents each, fuck polling seriously) so she's coasting by on name recognition basically since she's put out like two policy positions while Matlow's put out like 10+ costed, detailed positions

it's a bit annoying

at any other time, ofc I'd be voting Chow and she'd still be better than the last how many years of conservative mayors but still, it's a bit depressing that Matlow's not doing better in the whatever polls are being made public (even though it's still early)

and yes, I know Matlow "plagiarized" his platform (i.e. his policy writer came from last year's Penalosa campaign and basically reused it) who fucking cares except a few people on Twitter who ended up being used by Nick Kouvalis and Ana Bailao good job y'all

Matlow and Chow both seem fine and clearly several orders of magnitude better than my councillor, Bradford. Rest of the field seem like they’ll just roll over for Dougie. Or worse.

oh god, Bradford Bradford (that's his actual name, look it up), what a fucking clown, never seen a guy so transparently craven

Saunders might be worse than Rob Ford and Tory combined, truly nightmare scenario mayor

until tonight (when I just saw a video of Danielle Smith comparing the vaccinated to those following Hitler's orders), the video Saunders posted about naloxone might have been the most evil video I've seen in Canadian politics

sorry, so many thoughts about Toronto politics

Vancouver mayors are pretty crap, but they'd be a lot worse if the entire Lower Mainland voted

Alberta election day is tomorrow; please send us sane vibes.

As someone who moved out of AB years ago and who still has family and friends there, wishing you all the best but honestly expecting the worst from years of conditioning (living in AB)

it's just so great that it can get worse than Jason Kenney.

sending good vibes from BC