[Canada] Canadian Politics Redux

[Jacob]

How? What I'm seeing is that Ford found a bigger bully and blinked first.

Apparently he's going to the White House on Thursday to discuss.

Probably he got bullied, but maybe he's optimistic.

[Bauer]

The bc conservatives are still defining themselves so let's see in 4 years.  The whole bc liberal name change turned into folding was a bizarre sequence.

The NDP having a more realistic costed platform in the last election was certainly     not what I expect...

This is your first post in about ~15 years

It was a test to see if you would notice 

But in all seriousness in recent years with Ukraine invasion etc I was peeking on this place but lost my login until bothering to sort it out now.

[crazy canuck]

How? What I'm seeing is that Ford found a bigger bully and blinked first.

The Americans reached out to him first.

[Grey Fox]

That's a good argument.

[grumbler]

GF is proposing a way to troll Albertan conservatives.

For a somewhat more serious answer however, there are no « middle names » in Quebec - certainly not in the way Americans and English Canadians use the notion. You can have between one and four first names, but only one « usual first name », which is the one that your various official IDs will have. Tradition, for a long time, has meant that you either get a Saint (Marie or Joseph, usually) and your godparent's name - none of which is commonly used.

It also means you can't really switch without going through some bureaucratic formality.  You have to write a letter to the Directeur de l'état civil, asking to swap your usual first name for one of the others.

When I went to the US, they randomly picked one of my other names for my « middle initial » for my green card, even though my Canadian passport does not show any other name. Created endless annoyances.

I'm late responding, but thanks for the education.

[HVC]

O'Leary was on fox laughing along to 51st state jokes. At what point can we arrest him for treason? Asking for a friend.

[The Minsky Moment]

O'Leary was on fox laughing along to 51st state jokes. At what point can we arrest him for treason? Asking for a friend.

I saw that fool on CNN.  He was explaining that what Trump isn't really trying to annex Canada, he just wants to encourage a policy of economic integration.  But we had that policy - it was called NAFTA.  Trump was against it; insisted on scrapping it, then signed virtually the same thing under a different name.  Now he is scrapping it again.  You don't integrate by imposing massive tariffs every other day.

[Grey Fox]

Finally, on the attack.

[crazy canuck]

Yep, pretty easy to show PP was playing footsie with fascists.

[viper37]

Carney has invited Zelensky to the next G7 meeting.

Quite a "subtle" message here.

[HVC]

Soon it'll be the G6

[Sheilbh]

Yeah - good politics domestically.

I'm not sure it's helpful for Ukraine to put Zelensky and Trump together again - I think the French, British, Polish and Ukrainians coordinating and working together has been impressive and about as effective as you could hope for. It feels like best case scenario is Trump doesn't attend, worst case is there's another staged attack on Zelensky - neither, I think, is helpful.

[crazy canuck]

Not sure we should be making policy based on what the Trump might think about it or how Trump himself might react.

[Sheilbh]

I agree, it's why I think the focus should not be on sending a (subtle) message to Trump or any other comms, but what helps Ukraine at this point and I really can't see an upside here. What's the best outcome for Ukraine from this? I can't think of one that's positive.

Edit: I mean maybe the most positive spin is demonstrating Trump's isolation. That seems to basically undermine the work of two other G7 members (with Ukraine) for the last month - and ultimately does nothing to change the underlying problem of power.  As I say I can't think of a way this is helpful.

[crazy canuck]

I think it is very helpful to isolate Trump.  The worst thing we can do is pretend all this is normal.