[Canada] Canadian Politics Redux

[Barrister]

So Canada announced that we're buying F-35s.

The same F-35s that Trudeau cancelled an order for back in 2015, that were ordered by Harper in 2010.

The difference now of course is we won't have a functioning squadron until 2029.

[HVC]

So Canada announced that we're buying F-35s.

The same F-35s that Trudeau cancelled an order for back in 2015, that were ordered by Harper in 2010.

The difference now of course is we won't have a functioning squadron until 2029.

You're assuming the next conservative government wont cancel them

[Barrister]

So Canada announced that we're buying F-35s.

The same F-35s that Trudeau cancelled an order for back in 2015, that were ordered by Harper in 2010.

The difference now of course is we won't have a functioning squadron until 2029.

You're assuming the next conservative government wont cancel them

Nah.  That's not how it usually goes.

Conservatives will probably delay and slow-walk the procurement, but it's usually the Liberals who cancel big programs outright.

[crazy canuck]

I will believe it when I see it.  Big flashy announcement, just in time for the meeting with Biden.  My bet is nothing will actually happen.

[Barrister]

I will believe it when I see it.  Big flashy announcement, just in time for the meeting with Biden.  My bet is nothing will actually happen.

I disagree.  Take a look at this news report.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canada-f35-fighter-jet-deal-1.6707769

This wasn't at all a "big, flashy announcement".  It wasn't made by Trudeau, but rather the defence minister, and in an online press conference (aka a Zoom call).  That's because this is embarrassing for Trudeau since he ran on cancelling the F-35 purchase back in 2015.

I wouldn't be shocked if the numbers are trimmed, but given the Ukraine war and the age of our existing planes they HAVE to purchase new jets.

[Grey Fox]

Harper had semi cancelled them because back in 2012 no one trusted those planes.

Also, unlike at any moment in the previous decade, we actually need new planes now. We can't delay any longer.

[grumbler]

So Canada announced that we're buying F-35s.

The same F-35s that Trudeau cancelled an order for back in 2015, that were ordered by Harper in 2010.

The difference now of course is we won't have a functioning squadron until 2029.

Canada saved quite a few shekels by waiting.  Flyaway cost of the F-35 has dropped by something like 60% in the last two years.

[viper37]

We had to buy used aircrafts from Australia to maintain our capacity since some of the CF-18 were getting too old to fly.  It's not really a saving.

[crazy canuck]

Two lawyers from the JCCF have now been charged in relation to allegations they caused the surveillance of the judge hearing a case the organization was arguing regarding COVID restrictions.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/jccf-charges-calgary-lawyer-winnipeg-police-joyal-surveillance-1.6712049?__vfz=medium%3Dsharebar

[Barrister]

Two lawyers from the JCCF have now been charged in relation to allegations they caused the surveillance of the judge hearing a case the organization was arguing regarding COVID restrictions.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/jccf-charges-calgary-lawyer-winnipeg-police-joyal-surveillance-1.6712049?__vfz=medium%3Dsharebar

So, I have a passing familiarity with John Carpay, for what it's worth.  I doubt he'd remember me, and I wasn't really a fan.

Let me start with saying I have no idea what the fuck they were thinking in surveilling the MB Justice.  What exactly did they think they were going to accomplish?  It's just bizarre.

But that being said - bizarre isn't criminal.  It's not against the law to follow someone.  I really don't know if that's going to be enough to establish intimidation of a justice system participant, at least based on the reporting I've seen.

[crazy canuck]

I seem to recall that there has already been an admission that they were trying to accomplish potentially embarrassing the court by finding evidence the presiding judge was not complying with the COVID restrictions.  No idea whether that forms the basis for the charge. But I think it is clear that there was more going on than simply following someone around.

It will also be interesting to see what the Law Society does with the professionalism aspects of at was done.

[Barrister]

I seem to recall that there has already been an admission that they were trying to accomplish potentially embarrassing the court by finding evidence the presiding judge was not complying with the COVID restrictions.  No idea whether that forms the basis for the charge. But I think it is clear that there was more going on than simply following someone around.

It will also be interesting to see what the Law Society does with the professionalism aspects of at was done.

Yes - that's what they said they were trying to find - evidence the justice wasn't complying with Covid restrictions.  But so what?  Lets say they found evidence the justice was speeding, or breaking some other non-criminal law.

Law Society sounds like it might be more promising than criminal charges.

[Barrister]

https://edmontonjournal.com/news/politics/preston-manning-to-chair-albertas-covid-19-committee

So Alberta's new Premiere came to power on an anti-Covid-restriction backlash, at least within the governing United Conservative Party.  As I have stated I am a UCP member, but did not rank Danielle Smith on my ballot.

She announced the creation of a Covid-19 review panel.  I think this is probably a sensible idea.  While I generally thought that governments of all political stripes were doing the best they could in an uncertain and fast moving public health emergency in hindsight there is definite room for improvement for the next such emergency.

Danielle Smith announces Preston Manning as the chairman of this review panel.  I think this sounds like a pretty decent choice.  For those that don't know him Preston Manning was the founder of the Reform Party back in the 1980s, which went on to become Canada's official opposition, then merged with the PC Party to form the Conservative Party of Canada and eventually won power under Manning's former protégé Stephen Harper.  While there is an argument that someone politically neutral would be a better choice, Manning has been out of active partisan politics for 20 years and has been well-respected for his work with the Manning Centre.

As the kids would say I am a major Preston Manning stan - I got to meet him back in the earlier days of the Reform Party, of which I was a member.

But I haven't been keeping up with him recently.  He's now 80s years old.  And I just found out he's a covid-truther now.

Which is to say it's not that he thinks Covid was a hoax, but rather that the government response was vastly overblown, that masks don't work, governments should have looked more closely at therapies like ivermectin, and oh yeah the "trucker" protests were just a bunch of noble freedom-fighters.

And he's even already written such a report.  Released May 2022, it's titled a "fictional" report dated June 5, 2023 about a report on the government's response to Covid.

https://fcpp.org/wp-content/uploads/ReportCovidCommission_MA1122_F1.pdf

Dude - you can't head up a government inquiry when you've already literally pre-written your conclusions.


And also perhaps I shouldn't be surprised.  A book from the mid-90s that I thought was written by Manning himself, but I find was actually written by political scientist (and former Manning advisor) Tom Flanagan, called Waiting for the Wave, made the argument that Manning's politics were always far more driven by populism rather than conservative political principles - and well the populist action of the day is all about anti-Covid right now.

[Grey Fox]

So, she's going to throw J. Kenney under the bus, again?

Seems a lot of trouble to go thru again after already having won the leadership.

[Barrister]

So, she's going to throw J. Kenney under the bus, again?

Seems a lot of trouble to go thru again after already having won the leadership.

I think Smith's political instincts are terrible.  She's facing a provincial election in 4 months.  She needs to win over suburban voters, in particular in Calgary, in order to win the next election.  But she keeps circling back to this Covid stuff.

And yes - she has no problem throwing Jason Kenney under the bus.

Apparently there's deep unhappiness within caucus, so rumbles about Smith being removed as leader, but I don't put much stock in that.