[Canada] Canadian Politics Redux

[viper37]

Only because the actual words "fake news' were not used.  The clear implication is that the election coverage will be biased because the media have been bought.

yes, totally silly to think the Globe&Mail and La Presse would offer 99.5% positive coverage of the Liberal Party...

[crazy canuck]

If you had meant to be sarcastic, your timing is a bit off 

[Malthus]

If you had meant to be sarcastic, your timing is a bit off 

The last couple of days must be the 0.5%.

[viper37]

If you had meant to be sarcastic, your timing is a bit off 

The last couple of days must be the 0.5%.

yes.

but the editorial lines of La Presse are still mostly on the defensive.  They criticize Liberal strategy and lament that Trudeau the younger does not have the political flair of Trudeau the elder.  But they haven't really slammed the Liberals for their possible stance on SNC or their lack of transparancy.

I don't know about the G&M lately, haven't read any editorials in the last few weeks.

[viper37]

and just last week-end, La Presse had an interesting story about JWR saying "unnamed liberal sources" said of her she wasn't a team player, she most likely leeked the story herself to the press...

If that ain't what I call giving aid&comfort to the ennemy - eerr, sorry, I mean, give a helping hand to the Liberal in times of need   I don't know what that is

Prehemptively get ahead of the story by character assassination.  Should journalists really report on rumours from "unnamed liberal sources" to distract us from the content of the story, that is, the very serious allegations and the refusal of the LPC to shed light on it?

[Barrister]

USeful link on all of the lobbying SNC Lavelin had to do in order to get DPAs written into the criminal Code.  It's deeply creepy that a major company would have enough influence to re-write the laws for its own benefit, but hey it was all legal!

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/snc-lavalin-trudeau-bribery-fraud-wilson-raybould-1.5020498

[crazy canuck]

It's deeply creepy that a major company would have enough influence to re-write the laws for its own benefit, but hey it was all legal!

Do companies tend to lobby to benefit interests other than their own?

[viper37]

It's deeply creepy that a major company would have enough influence to re-write the laws for its own benefit, but hey it was all legal!

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/snc-lavalin-trudeau-bribery-fraud-wilson-raybould-1.5020498

do you really think that all accross Canada, on Federal as well as provincial levels, only SNC Lavalin did something like that?
Do you think that the oil industry lobby had nothing to do with the Conservative Party leaving the Kyoto accord and not do anything to tackle our emission problem?
(note: I understand perfectly well the Liberal Party signed the accord and did nothing, pushing it in the hands of another govt so they wouldn't have to deal with the consequences.  Still, it was a bad move of not doing anything and quitting Kyoto).

[Monoriu]

It's deeply creepy that a major company would have enough influence to re-write the laws for its own benefit, but hey it was all legal!

Do companies tend to lobby to benefit interests other than their own?

Surprisingly sometimes they do.  There was a recent court case in Hong Kong about a lesbian banker.  She brought her partner from the UK or somewhere in the west.  Of course HK law doesn't recognise same sex marriages.  She sued the HK government for discrimination.  Just out of the blue, like a dozen international big banks sent lawyers to the court to try to make a case that the current laws don't make sense etc.  Court dismissed them all as they are not directly involved in the case.

[Admiral Yi]

Surprisingly sometimes they do.  There was a recent court case in Hong Kong about a lesbian banker.  She brought her partner from the UK or somewhere in the west.  Of course HK law doesn't recognise same sex marriages.  She sued the HK government for discrimination.  Just out of the blue, like a dozen international big banks sent lawyers to the court to try to make a case that the current laws don't make sense etc.  Court dismissed them all as they are not directly involved in the case.

Presumably they had an interest in their gay and lesbian employees receiving recognition as well.

[Barrister]

Trudeau's right hand man, principal secretary Gerald Butts, denies doing anything wrong on SNC Lavelin, but resigns anyways.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/gerald-butts-resigns-pmo-1.5023675

[viper37]

yes, just as convenient as the minister.
"These very fine people are no longer working for us, therefore, they will not answer any questions.  Please respect their privacy".

[viper37]

Interesting analysis from Macleans:
https://www.macleans.ca/opinion/are-these-the-answers-of-a-prime-minister-whos-done-nothing-wrong/

[crazy canuck]

I think Neil Macdonald nailed it

https://www.cbc.ca/news/opinion/gerald-butts-1.5023925

The power of this story, of this "narrative arc," to use a term Trudeau himself is fond of, is the snatching away of Trudeau's feminist/Indigenous advocate mantle by an Indigenous feminist — Trudeau being hoisted by his own moralizing petard.

It's actually a bit like those pious Christian conservative leaders and politicians in the U.S. who get caught soliciting gay sex in a bathroom or smoking meth with a prostitute. The irony is what makes journalists lick their chops.

Wilson-Raybould has handled it beautifully and methodically. She has taken her revenge without saying a public word about the Lavalin affair. Criticism of her leadership skills, however valid such criticism might be, is not on. Were it another minister, or a different prime minister, it would probably be a different calculation. But it's not.

Wilson-Raybould no doubt has an end game, and we'll see it eventually. Maybe she crosses the floor, maybe she decides to become the most influential Indigenous leader in Canadian history. Maybe she'll make history. She has options. And Butts is now roadkill.

Trudeau can't say why she was shuffled because he wants to keep portraying himself as all things to all people, including the great reconciliator and a feminist.   But if all of that is true, why shuffle out the minister which best embodied those goals?  That opens up the attack that the only reason is some shady dealings she would not put up with.

The former minister is destroying him without having to lift a finger.  Trudeau is self destructing before our eyes.  I am not sure who thought giving the reason for Butt's resignation was because he did nothing wrong was a good idea, but hopefully that bright bulb isn't also advising Trudeau on important policy matters.

To digress a bit, one of the things I took some comfort in last election is that Trudeau had some smart people around him to advise him and he appeared able to take that advice and implement it (so long as he had a good script).  But the underlying assumption about the nature the of the advice he is getting is starting the fray - to say the least.

[Barrister]

Indeed.  Trudeau and Co could hardly have handled this story worse if they tried.