Governor-General facts
GG facts: • since 1931, GG has been chosen solely by the PM• Queen only “appoints” GG after PM makes his/her choice• GG’s schedule, travel, hiring and budget is overseen…
January 2021
What You Need to Know: A #CdnPolicast – The Return of Parliament
Yesterday I was happy to record the latest episode of Bluesky Strategy Group’s “What You Need to Know: A #CdnPolicast” with my colleagues Susan Smith, Tim Barber and Neil Brodie.…
Payette is Trudeau’s mistake.
It was ten years ago when I made the argument with Justin Trudeau that the governor general was an anachronism that we no longer needed. It was like he brought…
Another Albertan’s reaction to President Biden’s climate announcements
When I read about U.S. President Biden’s first steps down the climate change path he intends to follow, I was delighted, primarily because of his stated intention to rejoin the…
Musical interlude
snarls – Walk in the Woods
Even The Proud Boys Are Abandoning Trump
They liked to think of themselves as Donald Trump's hairy militia, his darling Proud Boys. The ones who called him Emperor Trump, and were counting on him to lead them…
Alberta Premier Jason Kenney tells Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to make the U.S. pay off his gambling debts
Alberta Premier Jason Kenney wants the United States government to pay off his gambling debts! I kid you not. In a letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau sent yesterday and…
Freedom Is Fundamental
There is a great deal of noise and commotion, fighting and fussing, conflict and division, in many areas and many regards, over how people should live. Valuing freedom, in practice…
Friday Afternoon Links
Assorted content to end your week. – David Brancaccio and Rose Conlon write about the tendency for people involved in deliberately-rigged contests to believe their success is the result of…
Payette’s Parting Gift – $150 Large for Life
Disgraced former Governor-General, Julie Payette, will leave Ottawa with a ridiculously generous parting package. Julie Payette submitted her resignation as Governor General on Thursday, but despite leaving early due to…
The Bloom Is Off the Rose, the Wild Rose That Is.
For some time Alberta has been a provincial Ponzi-scheme, robbing the future to pay dividends today. Tens of thousands of orphan wells, dangerously contaminated groundwater and those Tar Sands tailing…
QAnon and America’s political moment
A QAnon flag waves at a Second Amendment rally in Virginia, January 2020. Photo by Anthony Crider/Flickr. According to QAnon supporters, most of whom live in the United States, the…
The Other Shoe Drops, New Covid Variant More Lethal
Wouldn’t it be great if Canada still had a world-class laboratory manufacturing vaccines? We did but we don’t, not any more. Word coming out of the UK that the more…
Ah, the Fragrant Scent of Pines
Remember the days of “no drama Obama”? Despite the still unresolved disasters of the past four years, those days of relative tranquility seem to be coming back. It’s sort of…
It’s Utterly Electrifying. EVs Arrive at Critical Mass.
It’s a terrible week to add to Jason Kenney’s woes but the days of internal combustion are growing shorter with each passing year. Six years ago the Swiss bank, UBS,…
The Con Clown Jason Kenney Is Humiliated. Again
Jason Kenney wanted to be known as the father of the new Alberta, or Albertonia. The Tarry Daddy of Big Oil. But it's all gone horribly wrong. His mismanagement of…
Hunting for Bad Legislation
Having worked on Parliament Hill for close to a decade, I have to admit that there are certain things that always seem to pique my interest in our political world.…
Quebec racism is no surprise.
When people grow up with incipient racism, it is no surprise that they slip into it occasionally. This happened the other week when a news release from Bloc Québécois leader…
Julie, Julie, Julie
Julie Payette has resigned. The warning signs were there from the beginning. Susan Delacourt writes: It took very few days after Payette’s announced appointment for some big red flags to…
#Petrostate of the Province
You know you live in a #petrostate when local city council exec votes to restrict fossil fuel sponsorship and 1) the Premier threatens the City’s budget and 2) the official…