The prelude to Canada’s federal election campaign has brought several parties’ views of human rights and government responsibilities under scrutiny. Maxime Bernier has only exacerbated Stephen Harper’s past anti-minority messages, building his PPC campaign largely on criticism of immigration generally. Andrew Scheer has apparently recognized at least a political problem
Continue readingTag: Maxime Bernier
Alberta Politics: ‘Inauthentic activity’ on social media, abuse of progressive women in politics … is there a common thread here?
Is there a common thread running between reports Friday that a spike in “inauthentic activity” on social media just before the Alberta provincial election came from unidentified backers of the United Conservative Party and news stories Saturday about harassment of federal Environment and Climate Change Minister Catherine McKenna? It would
Continue readingMontreal Simon: Maxime Bernier’s Crazed Assault On Greta Thunberg
Over the years Mad Max Bernier has always liked to portray himself as a dashing hero setting out to destroy political correctness and the dairy lobby, not necessarily in that order.And although he could be extremely irritating, he was mostly harmless.But now that his People's Party is still staggering around in
Continue readingMontreal Simon: Andrew Scheer and Maxime Bernier’s Con Bigot Contest
It's not easy to get back to the sweltering heat of the city after spending two days sailing through the coolest part of Lake Ontario, far from the madding crowds, and our increasingly grubby political scene.But if I have to get back into the political arena, and I do because my holiday
Continue readingWarren Kinsella: Bernier and his infamous neo-Nazi friend
Paul Fromm is perhaps the leading Canadian far Right leader. Fromm has decades of involvement with the Canadian organized hate movement, from the Edmund Burke Society to the Western Guard to the Heritage Front to a myriad number of white supremacist and neo-Nazi groups. The Southern Poverty Law Centre tells
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Bollocks to Bernier.
When a politician takes a stand that he knows is counter to a majority of voters, he must have a reason. This is the question we need to ask ourselves when we hear that Maxime Bernier and his new peoples’ party promoting a policy to drastically reduce Canada’s immigration and
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Happy Canada Day! In a troubled world, Canada stands out as a genuine triumph of bureaucracy
Happy Canada Day! One way or another, our Canada always seems to end up on every list of the world’s Top Ten economies. Granted, we are almost inevitably No. 10 of 10, which may leave the intensely competitive dissatisfied. But, realistically, this also means we’re No. 10 of 193, if
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Ignoring Bernier is bad advice.
It amuses me that people are telling Andrew ‘Chuckles’ Scheer that former conservative MP Maxime Bernier is not a problem. That is bad advice. First of all, you have to ignore the pollsters who are having trouble measuring Bernier’s support. And then you have to understand the people who would
Continue readingAlberta Politics: It takes all kinds to make a cabinet, not necessarily good news when Jason Kenney’s making the picks
Premier Jason Kenney’s United Conservative Party cabinet contains a guy who once went down south to campaign for Donald Trump, a woman who opposes school gay-straight alliances and wrote a university president attacking a professor’s critical commentary on Catholic education, a man who fired a single mom he employed after
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – James Murray highlights what climate protests have accomplished so far, while emphasizing the need to turn activism into policy change over the objections of the Very Serious People determined to dismiss climate action as impractical. And Kate Aronoff, Alyssa Battistoni, Daniel Aldana
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: A Window Into the Hateful Minds of Canada’s Far Right
The Globe & Mail has got its hands on what they were never supposed to see – 150,000 chat room messages exchanged among Canadian rightwing extremists. They come from all walks of life: tradesmen, soldiers, a student teacher, a financial analyst, an aspiring lawyer, among others. And they are in
Continue readingAlberta Politics: What would Green Party of Canada Leader Elizabeth May do in Rachel Notley’s shoes? Not the same thing as Alberta’s premier
What would have Elizabeth May have done in Rachel Notley’s shoes? The leader of the Green Party of Canada says she would have summoned up the memory of Peter Lougheed, founder of Alberta’s 44-year Progressive Conservative Dynasty, but not the way the province’s first NDP premier has. “I think that
Continue readingMontreal Simon: Andrew Scheer’s Very Bad By-Election Night
They tried to make Andrew Scheer look like a winner, by posing with the Con candidate Scot Davidson who retained a safe seat in the York-Simcoe by-election. And giving us all a big thumbs up.But that's the only result he got to celebrate last night, for the other two by-elections
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Has a UCP candidate voiced what her party really thinks, its leader’s pledge notwithstanding, about two-tier health care?
If you wonder what the United Conservative Party really thinks about how health care ought to be run in Alberta, perhaps you should ask if Miranda Rosin instead of Jason Kenney, he of the Coroplast Pledge. Ms. Rosin is the UCP’s candidate in the new Banff-Kananaskis riding. Mr. Kenney is
Continue readingMontreal Simon: Andrew Scheer and the Real Scandal the Cons Cannot Escape
It's a double blow for Andrew Scheer. The fake scandal is fading to black, but the other real scandal isn't going anywhere.The scandal where he revealed his true colours, by addressing a gathering on Parliament Hill riddled with racists, far-right extremists, and white nationalists like Faith Goldy, Scheer's old Rebel
Continue readingAlberta Politics: The stars of the NDP firmament are aligning today for someone in Burnaby South – it remains to be seen if it’s Jagmeet Singh
Even if all the New Democrats vote Liberal and all the Liberals vote NDP in the Burnaby South by-election today, the outcome could be a very close one. It’s rude of me to mention this just now, of course, but you have to admit something like this could very well
Continue readingWarren Kinsella: We get letters: Max’s Mannschaften write in
My column on the racism and anti-Semitism that permeates Maxime Bernier’s “People’s Party” – I use flying quotes because it is neither: it’s a personality cult, not a party, and the only people it seemingly favours are white, straight and male – caused dyspepsia amongst his winged monkeys. Which concerns
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The snake to the right.
There are times when we have compared politics to the game of Snakes and Ladders. The political edition is deadlier than the children’s game you remember. Just ask former liberal justice minister Jody Wilson-Raybould about the ride when you slide down one of those snakes? But right now, we are
Continue readingMontreal Simon: Andrew Scheer and the Mad Max Nightmare
You can see the fear in Andrew Scheer's eyes. His creepy smile has gone, and with every passing day he seems more and more desperate.And while his regular porno propaganda is as disgusting as ever.Now it's more like what you might expect from an alt-right extremist.Read more »
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