I imagine what I’m feeling now about the rise of the extremist, pseudo-Christian right (aka the Talibangelists, aka Christofascists) in the USA, Canada, and in other democracies is what my English father must have felt watching the events in Germany from 1934 on. He would have seen photographs and newsreels
Continue readingTag: Canadian Politics
Alberta Politics: A thought on how Sundre can start to put the embarrassment of the racist jackassery in its rodeo parade behind it
Surely there must’ve been a few folks in the Central Alberta town of Sundre who, when they noticed the racist jackassery of the now notorious “the Liberal” manure-spreader parade float on Saturday morning, thought, “Oh no! Please, God, make them stop!” Someone was looking for a tractor to pull the
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Protecting free speech on campus? Forget about it, Pierre Poilievre is just dog-whistling
Federal Conservative leadership candidate Pierre Poilievre seems to have generated a lot of publicity for himself lately with a much re-tweeted pledge to force Canadian universities to “protect free speech” by withholding federal research grants and other funds from post-secondary institutions that won’t knuckle under to his demands. Former U.S.
Continue readingAlberta Politics: As predicted, Canadian Conservatives want you to shut up about U.S. Supreme Court’s repugnant Roe v. Wade ruling
In the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling stripping half the United States’ 330 million people of their constitutional right to abortion, Canadian conservatives were busy trying to deny the intention of many in their political movement to do the exactly same thing here, as soon as possible. Peace
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Portraying Alberta and federal Conservative parties as hot messes, Calgary MP Michelle Rempel Garner says she won’t join UCP leadership race
Calgary MP Michelle Rempel Garner has declared herself out of the race to lead the United Conservative Party in a scathing, 2,800-plus Substack article that dissects the in-fights and extremism bedevilling Alberta’s governing party and casts considerable shade on the federal Conservatives as well for many of the same sins.
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Parliament’s budget watchdog concludes TMX is almost certainly a loser – no matter what Ottawa does
The soaring cost of the Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion has pushed the still-uncompleted megaproject Ottawa bought for Alberta further into the red, says a report released yesterday by the Parliamentary Budget Officer says. Parliamentary Budget Officer Yves Giroux (Photo: Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer). This quickly earned the project
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Ontario election post-mortem: Strategy shift needed for the progressive left?
On paper, one could argue there were winning odds stacked for the progressive electoral left in Ontario ahead of the 2022 provincial election. Doug Ford as premier of Ontario mishandled each wave of the pandemic, helping privatized long-term care providers profit after suffering no consequences from their catastrophic failures to
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Ontario election: Where did 825,000 swing voters go?
On June 2, after four turbulent and often chaotic years, Ontario voters handed Doug Ford and his Progressive Conservative party a second majority government. Every single PC cabinet minister was re-elected. Only one PC Member of Provincial Parliament was defeated, and then only barely. As Canadian elections go, it was
Continue readingScott's Diatribes: Ontario Provincial Election Musings
Regarding the Ontario Election: I will not repeat everything verbatim that I said on Twitter, but I will say this to the Ontario Liberal Party. Get some serious policy rethink going before you pick a leader; specifically 1 member, 1 vote and allow all members to vote. Do away with
Continue readingScripturient: Ontario, I Am Ashamed and Embarrassed
This morning, Ontario, I am ashamed of you. Ontario, you had an opportunity to do the right thing, and chose — deliberately chose — not to. I am ashamed and embarrassed by your choice. And that includes your choice not to vote. At stake was the future of this province;
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: The hopeless malaise of the Ontario election
Progressive Conservative Party leader Doug Ford. Photo courtesy QP Briefing. Doug Ford and his Progressive Conservatives spent the election in Ontario hiding from protestors, the press, and the public. Ahead of the leaders’ debate, nurses were pushed around. PC candidates opted out of local debates and dodged the press. There
Continue readingScripturient: Right v. Left in Modern Politics
There’s a lot of palaver on social media about right v. left (or left v. right if you are so inclined), with webs of comments about the differences between these opposing political wings. And, at least among the comments I’ve read from Americans, there’s also a lot of misinformation and
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Kenney Government’s persistent habit of advocating U.S.-style gun laws bears repeating, and remembering
On May 17, just three days after the racial-hate-motivated massacre at Tops Friendly Market in Buffalo, N.Y., the Kenney Government was publicly complaining about new federal regulations intended to ensure that the increasingly frequent mass shootings in the United States stay south of the world’s longest undefended border. Alberta Premier
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Jason Kenney, through a glass darkly
Jason Kenney has long maintained an address in fantasyland. Back in 2016 he somehow came to the now clearly erroneous conclusion that only he could fashion a robust and longstanding political dynasty out of two fractious conservative movements. Instead he resigned as United Conservative Party leader on May 18 after
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Putting the performance back in petroleum politics, Mr. Kenney goes to Washington
Everybody in the room yesterday at the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources hearing in Washington, D.C., knew perfectly well the United States is never going to stop buying Saudi Arabian “dictator oil,” and why. Three amigos: Democrat in Name Only Joe Manchin, at left, cuddles up with his
Continue readingAlberta Politics: The Conservative leadership debate: Not as funny as The Debaters! Not as informative, either
Hey! I watched The Debaters on the CBC last night! Frontrunner Pierre Poilievre at the exact moment he tried to think of the title of a book he’s read and came up with 12 Rules by Jordan Peterson (Photo: Screenshot). That new host wasn’t as funny as Steve Patterson, though,
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Alberta premier prematurely celebrates court’s view Ottawa’s environmental assessment law is unconstitutional
Jason Kenney and his allies in the United Conservative Party are noisily celebrating the Alberta Court of Appeal’s opinion yesterday that the federal government’s environmental assessment law is unconstitutional, and who can blame them? Alberta Premier Jason Kenney (Photo: Alberta Newsroom/Flickr). The 4-1 opinion in the Alberta government’s reference case
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Canadian Conservatives, heavily influenced by Republican ideology, are keen to squelch debate about U.S. Supreme Court’s planned abortion ruling
Canada’s conservative political parties are desperately trying to declare discussion of the leaked United States Supreme Court draft ruling on abortion a political no-fly zone. The young Jason Kenney, now Premier of Alberta (Photo: Screenshot of YouTube video). The powerful and extensive influence of radical social conservative opponents of women’s
Continue readingScripturient: Debunking Poilievre’s Tweets, Part 2
This is a continuation of my debunking of a small sample of Pierre Poilievre’s (aka Skippy’s) 2022 tweets. His tweets are presented in italics; my responses follow in roman text. See if you can spot in his words 1) His lack of knowledge about the subject; 2) Blatant lies; 3)
Continue readingScripturient: Debunking Poilievre’s Tweets Part 1
Pierre Poilievre — aka Skippy — tweets a lot. A lot. Not quite in the Donald-Trump-tweeting-on-the-toilet range, but close. And he often repeat-tweets his angry, bumper-sticker slogans that are little more than libertarian micro rages. They are big on emotion but empty on substance. no details, facts, or anything even
Continue reading