The Erosion Of Local Democracy

The dog days of summer often offer opportunities for unscrupulous governments to slip something by the people. With the focus more on partying than politics, unpopular measures can be enacted with minimal consequences, at least that was likely the thought of Doug Ford and his cronies here in Ontario.

After his retreat from the Greenbelt incursions he had promised to his developer friends, the premier has to find ways to atone for his betrayal. One part of his penance is to remove impediments to their schemes.

A provincial law change that curtailed third-party groups’ ability to appeal development decisions has left environmental and ratepayer groups saying they’ve been silenced in a move that puts developer interests ahead of citizen concerns.

Ontario residents can no longer appeal development decisions at the Ontario Land Tribunal — a quasi-judicial body designed to adjudicate planning and other land disputes — after the Doug Ford government introduced legislation that removes the ability of third-parties such as ratepayer groups or environmental groups to do so.

The province says the changes to the third-party appeal rights in the Cutting Red Tape to Build More Homes Act (Bill 185), which passed in June, will “help communities get quicker planning approvals for housing projects.”

But this arrack on citizens' rights, contrary to the plan, has not gone unnoticed, as evidenced by these letters from concerned residents of this province. 

With my community, I was part of an Ontario Joint Board hearing (now known as the Ontario Land Tribunal) that successfully protected source water and endangered species from a gravel mining proposal on Mount Nemo in Burlington, Ont. We hired independent experts to make our case, and the evidence we presented was instrumental in the board’s decision to deny the quarry. As citizens, we had real stake in the outcome. Our well water, air quality and surrounding environment were at risk. Removing a community’s right to participate threatens to remove decision maker’s access to the on-the-ground knowledge and concerns of locals. Developers have the right to appeal local government decisions to the OLT. Taking away citizen’s equal rights encourages poorer planning and riskier development. The Cutting Red Tape to Build More Homes Act (Bill 185) bolsters corporate dominance, and renders the democratic voice of the people mute.

Sarah Harmer, Burlington

Reporter Noor Javed’s excellent article about new rules barring OLT third party appeals illustrates how our democratic rights are being trampled. The anger is growing daily in this region about Premier Doug Ford’s hypocritical statements about “governing for the people” as precious farmland and natural spaces are being squandered and lost. Our community of Ball’s Bridge and Little Lakes Road in southwestern Ontario has invested years of time and thousands of dollars to try to protect a natural area well loved by the public. We have been abandoned by our local council and have now been abandoned by the provincial government.

Rebecca Garrett, Goderich, Ont.

Bill 185 denies citizens groups from speaking up to protect our precious places. Is this this fair? Is this democratic? Absolutely not. We must fight for our right to be heard!

Wendy Hoernig, Goderich, Ont.

Since the enactment of Bill 185, the right of citizen groups to influence, challenge or contest planning decisions pushed by developers has been stripped away. This egregious action continues to erode our civil society and our democratic process. This seems to be the unspoken Tory agenda. We are “Open for Business” but only for those who are developers. This is hardly “a government for the people.” The worst kind of hypocrisy is to claim citizens are holding up development through appeals when the data shows that many of the appeals recorded over the past decade are by the developers themselves. Shame on the Ontario Conservatives for the their attack on democracy. Shame on MPP Jill Dunlop for supporting this. Bill 185 must be repealed.

David Jeffery, Tiny, Ont.

A somnolent citizenry is something that governments who are "for the people" in name only count on. One hopes that those who refuse to sleep are able to get some much needed traction here.

 

The Optics Of Optimism

While I realize that the U.S. is not our country, I am nothing less than rivetted by its current politics. Obviously, whatever happens in that country has an outsized effect on the rest of the world. It is therefore so refreshing and hopeful that the Democrats seem to have found a winning combination in Kamala Harrris and Tim Walz. 

While it would be unforgivably naive to  place an unconditional bet on their unqualified virtue, they at least have the advantage of being a new combination, one that stands in sharp contrast to the mad meanderings of Don Trump and the viciousness of J.D. Vance. And the latest polling seems to suggest that there is a huge appetite both for change and optimism.

Vice President Kamala Harris leads former President Donald J. Trump in three crucial battleground states, according to new surveys by The New York Times and Siena College, the latest indication of a dramatic reversal in standing for Democrats after President Biden’s departure from the presidential race remade it.

Ms. Harris is ahead of Mr. Trump by four percentage points in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan, 50 percent to 46 percent among likely voters in each state. The surveys were conducted from Aug. 5 to 9.

The polls, some of the first high-quality surveys in those states since Mr. Biden announced he would no longer run for re-election, come after nearly a year of surveys that showed either a tied contest or a slight lead for Mr. Trump over Mr. Biden.

While policy is an important, even vital, component of any platform, there is something else at work here as well: presentation. In her speech to UAW members, Harris clearly delineates, with a quiet passion, the stark differences between her orientation and that of the increasingly desperate and deranged Trump. I. would suggest that you start at about the 2:18 mark to get a flavour of her message.

A message of unity, hope and concern for the collective well-being of people is much needed in the fractured America that exists today. Let's hope its citizens heed that message.

Which Angel Will It Be?

I awoke from a dream this morning in which it seemed I was being registered in a concentration camp, filled with forms and regulations that had to be filled out and followed. As unpleasant as it was, the dream was mercifully short.

With the dream in mind, I began thinking about how easy it is to debase and dehumanize people. History and contemporary events readily bear that out. But what about the opposite? How difficult is it to ennoble people, raise their hopes for a better day, and, in general, appeal to the better angels of their nature?

At times it seems easy. I recall a day in 2015 where I felt inspiration and hope after the long dark night of Stephen Harper's rule. It was the day that Trudeau and his team walked to Rideau Hall to be sworn in with the promise of different and better things ahead.. But subsequent events, beginning with the Prime Minister breaking his vow on electoral reform and the reappearance of traditional Liberal arrogance, frayed those strands of hope over subsequent years.

Americans, it seems to me, are now at a similar juncture. After years of relentless denigration, debasement and violent incitements engineered by Don Trump, they now have an opportunity to embrace a new path which, one hopes, will prove less illusionary than the Trudeau one. That path is the one being laid out by Kamala Harris and Tim Walz.

And judging by reports, there is a real hunger for their message.

Kamala Harris and her running mate, Minnesota’s governor, Tim Walz, continued their swing-state tour with rallies in rural Wisconsin and Detroit, Michigan, on Wednesday, that the campaign said brought out more than 10,000 people each.

 In Eau Claire, a north-western Wisconsin city less than two hours from Minneapolis and St Paul, Minnesota, the rally drew attendees from both states – and 12,000 people in total, the campaign said. The Detroit rally on Wednesday night drew 15,000 supporters in another crucial swing state, the Harris campaign told reporters. Walz called it “the largest rally of the campaign” so far.

The big Detroit crowd repeatedly chanted: “We’re not going back,” Democrats’ counter to Trump’s anti-abortion politics and “make America great again” slogan.

 Attendees in Wisconsin said they were enthusiastic about seeing a Harris and Walz ticket. “I’m elated,” said Lori Schlecht, a teacher from Minnesota who said she was excited about Walz given his background in public education – Walz was a public school teacher before he was elected to the US House of Representatives in 2006. “Minnesota is blessed to have him, and I’m glad to see him at the national level. He is authentic and real – he’ll get shit done.”

When given the opportunity, I think people crave authenticity, not the faux kind peddled by Trump and his people who rely, not on inspiring people, but provoking the worst angels of their nature. And judging by letters to the editor, Canadians are feeling the same hope:

In a plot twist worthy of a political thriller, Americans have just been given a chance to save themselves by choosing to do what’s right and no longer defaulting to the lesser evil. For the first time in a long time, American democracy appears to be working. Presidential candidate Kamala Harris has chosen Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a previous social studies teacher, as her Democratic running mate. Consider the symbolism: a woman of colour and a teacher teaming up to challenge the re-election of Donald Trump, the reigning champion of insurrectionist chaos.

Walz brings to the table an educated notion that co-operation, not competition, is humanity’s evolutionary secret. This represents the clash of real humanistic values versus the phoney, weird MAGA values of Trumpist populists. This isn’t just a choice between red and blue. It’s a choice between reality and reality TV.  Let the “first Walz” for re-establishing credibility and decency in American democracy begin.

Tony D’Andrea, Toronto 

... In Walz, Harris has found a real mensch, a man who is as easy to work with as Donald Trump is the opposite. Walz can out-folksy the populism types, and he’s the real deal when it comes to wanting to make life better for working-class and poor families. 

Ron Charach, Toronto

We all await with bated breath which version of human nature the American people will choose. 

Just Keep Talking - Part Two

As I said in a previous post,  all the Republicans need to do is keep on talking to ensure that Democrats have the greatest chance to retain the White House. Below is a prime example of what I am taking about:

@RonFilipkowski

Jon Voight says Obama is committing a “war crime” by controlling “cackling hyena” Harris, the Left wants to steal your children & make them all trans, Trump is the messiah, & everyone who votes for Harris will commit the worst crime in human history and God will punish us. Weird.

As the saying goes, a mind is a terrible thing to waste.

We Give Value To The Worthless

I am currently reading a book by Michael Lewis called Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of A New Tycoon. A story about Samuel Bankman Fried and his FTX crypto-exchange, it is a fascinating tale of how we humans give value to things that are essentially worthless, while turning our backs on the things that should matter to all of humanity. As you probably know, it does not end well for Bankman-Fried and his too-trusting investors, just as it is not ending well for the rest of us as the world collapses around us.

What is the connection between crypto and climate collapse? The fact is that mining bitcoins (I really can't explain it beyond this) requires tremendous amounts of energy, and as we know, energy-production in most of the world is carbon-intensive. But what is a little terra degradation compared to the possibility of massive profits, eh?

Fortunately, it does matter.to some. The Globe and Mail's editorial board writes about

a power-hungry source with little discernible societal value: so-calling mining for cryptocurrencies.

Provinces such as Quebec, Manitoba and New Brunswick have limited or flat-out said no to crypto. British Columbia has joined them. In late 2022, B.C. paused new grid connections for crypto, facing power requests of greater than two Site C dams (a $16-billion, 1,100-megawatt project). This spring, B.C. passed legislation that allows the government to prohibit such connections.

However, that massive power requirement is only part of something even larger:

Crypto sucks up a lot of power – but so do data centres (think of Netflix and all your pictures in the cloud). Now, think of AI. Data centres and AI make a lot more sense as broadly worthwhile for the economy, but the reality is their power demands are dizzying. At extremes, such as in Ireland, data centres in 2022 consumed almost one-fifth of the country’s power. That’s in part because of companies such as Google. AI will only intensify this. The investment bank Goldman Sachs in May predicted data centres and AI could account for 3.5 per cent of worldwide power usage by 2030, up from about 1.5 per cent today. 

 The list of demands goes on. Turn attention to green hydrogen, a clean fuel, yet its potential power needs are extreme. A proposed $2-billion project in B.C. would require almost all of the Site C dam’s output. This puts the choices governments will have to make in sharp relief. In this case, it seems to make little sense, given competing demands.

Liquefied natural gas is another challenge. B.C. wants to slash emissions from LNG, and the upstart Cedar LNG project will be electrified, requiring power equivalent to about one-sixth of Site C’s output. That’s modest compared with Royal Dutch Shell’s LNG Canada near Kitimat, B.C., whose potential expansion would double the project’s export volume but would also suck up well more than half the power of Site C, along with $3-billion of new transmission.

As Canadians and as citizens of the world, we all have a responsibility for this ever-warming planet, and while there are solutions (solar and wind power are now cheaper than fossil fuels), we seem reluctant to make the expenditures necessary to wean ourselves off traditional sources of power.

That's human nature in a nutshell: shortsighted and self-centred, we care only about the immediate future, not the long-term consequences of our folly.

 

Nix The Fix

I have written previously about Pierre Poilievre's fondness for aphorisms, phrases that encapsulate a simplistic solution to complex problems. While reading this morning's paper, I came upon his 'solution' to our opioid crisis: forced rehabilitation- another aphoristic fix that, at least in Ontario, has its doubters.

Ontario Health Minister Sylvia Jones is taking issue with federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre’s talk of forcing people with drug addictions into treatment as the country grapples with a deadly opioid crisis.

In another sign of tensions between the provincial and federal Tories, with polls suggesting Poilievre is poised to become Canada’s next prime minister, Jones said mandatory rehab is the wrong path.

“I have concerns that involuntary treatment would not lead to the outcomes that we want,” Jones said Wednesday at Mount Sinai Hospital. 

“But having said that, when we see the opportunity and the need for intervention, and people are willing to take on those treatments to make a difference, that’s when we can show them our government is committed.”

Already worried enough about a Poilievre victory in the next federal election that would mean nothing good for the provinces (reduced transfer payments, ending the Trudeau strategy on EV production, etc.), Doug Ford is said to be contemplating an early Ontario election to get ahead of the fiscal bloodshed that will ensue with a Poilievre victory. It is therefore crucial for him to distinguish his government from the federal one-in-waiting, without alienating his right-wing supporters.

Jones said the province, where Premier Doug Ford has expressed reservations about safe consumption sites, has a new addictions plan coming in which “treatment is a very large portion.”

No further details were made available, but it is clear Ford sees the danger in too close an alignment with the kinds of draconian measures being proposed by Poilievre. But he will also have to face the fact that even more than his own government, Poilievre is very good at dumbing down important public policy issues to mere soundbites. Indeed, I would not be surprised if, along with his other facile pronouncements like axe the tax,  spike the hike, jail, not bail and hard time for hard crime, PP's braintrust comes up with something like nix the fix!

Has a bit of a ring, doncha think?

Just Keep Talking

While there is much discussion in the media as to whether Kamala Harris can sustain her momentum after the "honeymoon phase" is over, one element that will undoubtedly help is for unhinged Republicans to keep up their ridiculous rhetoric. The more 'trash' they talk, the more obvious will be their unfitness to govern, something that should have been obvious years ago. 

Here is just one example of what I am talking about. I double-checked that this video was not part of an elaborate satire, and it is not. Apparently there is a show on Fox called The Five, hosted by Jesse Watters, who offers a weird view of those who would vote for Harris.

Eugenics 101

 While this is shocking, it is somehow not surprising:

Trump's nephew Fred Trump III alleges that when his disabled son's medical fund was running low Donald Trump said to him:

“Your son doesn't recognize you. Let him die and move to Florida....But that is what he has become. It's sad.”

Feels So Fine

H/t de Adder

The NYT correctly observes that Kamala Harris's rise in popularity is the honeymoon phase of her pending nomination as the Democratic candidate for president, The challenge will be to ensure the momentum continues, and I have a feeling that will not be hard to do.

First, thanks to a link sent to me by Trailblazer, there is this:

What is remarkable about this is that it is a poll of swing states conducted by Fox News, something sure to inflame the crazed right wing.

Fox released a swing state poll that showed Harris' favorability ratings ahead of Trump's in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, and Michigan.

The poll states that it included registered voters, and took place July 22-24.

Trump critics were quick to react online.

@acnewsitics simply said, "Uh oh."

@kinsellawarren said, "Better than the numbers is the fact that this is a Fox News poll."

Trump supporter @GioBruno1600 asked, "Do you believe this FOX NEWS poll?"

@joled16 said, "Without having had a convention yet! OMG! I just realized this is a FOX NEWS poll! Trump must be furious with FOX."

@TheNewsTrending wrote, "A new Fox News poll shows that Trump's significant lead over Biden in battleground states has disappeared when compared with Vice President Harris."

Former White House aide Keith Boykin had this to say:

"The ketchup is going to hit the wall in Mar-a-Lago after this new Fox News poll."

While favourability and voting intentions are not necessarily synonymous, this is encouraging news. And the fact is, what do the Republicans have to counter other than the same bile that they always spew? There really is nothing else in their political toolbox.

Reflecting upon how events in the political world can quickly change, Jamie Watts writes:

Clearly, the tide was coming in and the Republicans only needed to ride it.

And then, the axiom “whoever speaks first loses” reared its ugly head and “events” quickly illustrated Vance’s selection was a grave, potentially fatal, mistake.

I’ll leave it to other pundits to divine his eclectic, ideologically elastic biography. My point is much more straightforward. Simply put, he is the wrong tool for the job, the proverbial knife for what is now a gunfight.

This rather feeble performance illustrates Watts' point. 

Vance, suffice it to say, might well run-up the score in red states, but he will do next to nothing to turn the Trump-curious into Trump voters. People who support Vance already support Trump. His candidacy is not a growth proposition, it is a consolidation effort. Moreover, it’s worth noting that two white males at the top of the GOP ticket are woefully unsuited to take on a woman of colour.

Of course, anything can happen between now and election day. However, given the early signs, I think people on both sides of the border have reason for hope.

Time To Stock Up

I'm kind of busy lately and don't have time today for a lengthy post. However, one quick observation, and then a suggestion for the Republicans.

First, it is refreshing to see the Democrats in the United States taking the initiative by seizing a narrative that puts their opponents on the defensive. By defining the race in terms many can relate to, they offer a clear choice for the November elections. 

Here is that narrative:

Then there is this feeble, empty and predictable screed from Trump that should frighten no one:

My suggestion to those Republicans who have taken to wearing diapers is a simple one: stock up - I have a feeling you're going to need them.

Outmatched

H/t Moudakis

I'll readily admit that upon first learning that Kamala Harris would likely replace Joe Biden in this year's presidential race, I was somewhat dismayed. The history of vice-presidents going for the highest office in the U.S. after their presidents decided not to run for a second term is inauspicious. Adlai Stevenson, Harry Truman's VP, lost  to Dwight Eisenhower, and Hubert Humphrey, Lyndon Johnson's VP, lost to Richard Nixon.

However, I had a quick change of heart based on two things: the strength and confidence evident in Harriss's appearances as her party's presidential candidate, and the fact that the man and the party she is running against can be counted on to drive people away from their cause. They just won't be able to help themselves.

If you watched the short video I posted yesterday, you will see a woman projecting strength, a strength leavened by an almost impish quality as she talks about knowing Don Trump's type from her years as a prosecutor. It was a performance, in my view, designed to cut him down to the small size he really is. And, of course, there are few things that Don can stand less than being laughed at and ridiculed. Combined with all the facts she will have at her disposal, Harriss will make a very formidable opponent.

Which leads me to my second point: Neither Trump nor his many enablers and Kool-Aid drinkers will be able to remain calm and rational in the threat she poses for them. First of all, she is a woman, and we know that misogyny is bred in the bone when it comes to Don and many of his disciples. Secondly, she is a woman of colour, a fact that has already unleashed a torrent of racist abuse from those who occupy the darker corners of the internet.

Heidi Beirich, an expert on American far-right extremism and a co-founder of Gpahe, said: “Female politicians have been targeted with misogynistic language for years, and usually they are the recipients of far more hate and sexism than male candidates face.”

“Attacks on Harris for her racial background are skyrocketing online,” added Beirich, who gave testimony to the House select committee to investigate the January 6 attack on the US Capitol. “As bad as the racism targeting her is, the misogyny seems worse.

“She’s being attacked for supposedly sleeping her way to the top and with horrible sexist slurs. Sadly, this is how it goes nowadays, with racism and hate so prevalent online.”

Heather Mallick ponders the situation, quoting J.D Vance, Don's running mate:

“We are effectively run in this country … by a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they’ve made, and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable, too. And it’s just a basic fact if you look at Kamala Harris, Pete Buttigieg, AOC — the entire future of the Democrats is controlled by people without children.” 

The above represents just a small sampling of the kind of desperate nonsense being spewed, and obviously, the attacks will sharpen and increase as the campaign progresses. But as I said earlier, the Republicans just can't help themselves, and while such attacks may strengthen the resolve of their base, they will do nothing to bring new voters into the Republican fold. Indeed, they will inevitably drive away those voters who are undecided, sending them right into Kamala's camp, including  people without children and childless cat ladies. As well, both those attacks and the candidacy of an intelligent and biracial woman will see far less Democrats sitting out this election and an increase in new voter registrations.

It can be no surprise that racist and misogynistic impulses amongst the mentally, morally and intellectually unfit will continue and grow. The question for the rest of America to ask themselves, however, is whether they want to be part of that increasingly sorry and desperate lot.

Who Does It Better?

The battle for the future of America looks like it is down to two people. The following requires little comment from me, as Donald Trump and Kamala Harris stake out their sides. 

With his usual 'elan', the aggrieved Trump had this to say about Kamala Harris from his Truth Social perch:

“Lyin’ Kamala Harris destroys everything she touches!”

“The Democrats lied and misled the public about Crooked Joe Biden, and now we find he is a complete and total Cognitive and Physical ‘MESS,’” Trump said. “They also mislead [sic] the Republican Party, causing it to waste a great deal of time and money” 

And this is what Ms. Harris had to say about Trump:

Who portrays a more accurate picture, and does it with real verve, insouciance and style?

You decide.

A House Divided

That America has become a house divided is so obvious it hardly needs stating. That Don Trump has played a major role in cultivating and growing that division should also be obvious to minds able to rise above the contamination that is rampant in America. With Joe Biden having now bowed to the inevitable, it is past time for everyone to see the bilge Trump spews for what it is - hate mongering, intolerance, overt prejudice, resentment - name a negative sentiment and you will see Trump fanning the flames. 

The cult of personality is never a pretty thing, but the one propagated by Trump is especially repugnant to anyone who can see past their own pettiness and grievances. The injuries he does to the spirit are profound and deep; his country must now reckon with that fact before November if it is to have any chance at continuing as a democracy. 

Another wakeup call emerged with the announcement of Biden's decision to step down from the re-election race. While he was lauded almost worldwide for the contributions he made during his ong political career, there was one notable exception. 

This is what Trump wrote on his Truth Social account:

Crooked Joe Biden was not fit to run for President, and is certainly not fit to serve - And never was! He only attained the position of President by lies, Fake News, and not leaving his Basement. All those around him, including his Doctor and the Media, knew that he wasn’t capable of being President, and he wasn’t - And now, look what he’s done to our Country, with millions of people coming across our Border, totally unchecked and unvetted, many from prisons, mental institutions, and record numbers of terrorists. We will suffer greatly because of his presidency, but we will remedy the damage he has done very quickly. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!

If people cannot or will not see the absolute absence of grace in the above statement, if they cannot see that this is Trump showing his most unclean and utterly debased face, then yes, he is definitely their man in November, and if they prevail, America and its people are lost causes.

This Epidemic Is Widespread And Growing

On this blog I have never made a secret of my disdain for those who are willfully ignorant and mindlessly led. To allow someone else to do our thinking for us is unforgivably lazy and a complete dereliction of the responsibilities of citizenship. Yet in both the United States and Canada, that dereliction seems widespread and growing.

Consider the circus (a.k.a, the Republican National Convention) that so recently concluded in Milwaukee, site of Don Trump's presidential nomination and the quasi-apotheosis of J.D. Vance as his running mate. The embrace of cheap emotions, distortions and lies there was widespread. Witness this distasteful scene, which earned a rousing ovation:

Our movement is about single moms like mine .... Really? Past performance suggests something quite different, and apparently saying that your mom is now 10 years clean and sober is not cheaply voyeuristic and exploitive but inspiring. It is, if nothing else, certainly soap-opera worthy.

That Vance and Trump can get away with such nonsense did not escape the notice of Andrew Philips, as he notes this from Vance's speech:

“America’s ruling class wrote the checks [sic]. Communities like mine paid the price.”

“America’s ruling class?” A Democrat who used that kind of language would be scorched for waging “class war,” for promoting division and turning his back on the American dream of everyone rising together. Democrats are gun-shy about that. Even now, when under Joe Biden they’ve done more to create good working-class jobs than Trump ever did, they soft-pedal their message.

But Vance gets away with it. My favourite part of his convention speech was when he slammed Biden for supporting the “disastrous invasion of Iraq” and sending working-class kids off to fight and die in far-off deserts.

That is truly chutzpah on a grand scale. I seem to recall it was a Republican president, George W. Bush, who ordered that disastrous invasion and the even more disastrous attempt to pacify Iraq and the region that followed.

After recalling Vance's rank hypocrisy and opportunism (which I discussed in my previous post, Philips asks a pertinent question:

[H]asn’t Vance, a successful venture capitalist among other things, joined that same ruling class he now rails against? Isn’t the Trump-Vance project now backed by a coterie of billionaires like Elon Musk and Peter Thiel? Isn’t all the class-war talk just a smokescreen for traditional Republican policies that leave Vance’s hillbilly relatives scrambling for crumbs?

Maybe. But if you’re the kind of person who’s devouring articles in the New Yorker and the New York Times detailing all this, you’re already a lost cause from the Trump-Vance POV. And the evidence is those kind of attacks aren’t landing. It’s like going at Pierre Poilievre for targeting “gatekeepers” while spending his entire adult life as the ultimate gatekeeper — a career politician. True, but frankly so what?

A comparison with Canada's mentality is inevitable, along with the fact that the hard right has stolen from the Democrats and the Liberals/NDP the mantle of working/middle class champions.

The arrival of Vance is another big step in the Republicans’ campaign to displace Democrats as champions of the American working-class. Poilievre and, in his own way, Doug Ford, are managing the same trick in Canada, stealing that space from the Liberals/NDP. It’s astonishing, and disappointing, that progressives on both sides of the border have allowed conservatives to pull that off.

I'm not sure progressives could have done much about it. It is not often in their natures to rant, chant, hector, exploit and grossly manipulate those whose issues they advocate for. To lie wantonly and shamelessly would require a breadth of unscrupulousness that would make them no different from those they fight.

To conclude, while playing from some sort of reasonable playbook may now seem out of date, the alternative is far worse.

For The Sake Of My Sanity

I have been avoiding most American news these days, given how the media are fixated both on the  attempt against Trump's life and his coronation via the Republican National Convention. 

However, Trump's VP running mate, J.D. Vance, merits closer scrutiny. The Independent offers the perspective of one of his former roommates at Yale law school, and it is hardly complimentary.

Ohio junior senator and vice-presidential nominee JD Vance is a “hypocrite” who “sold his soul” and will unquestioningly help advance twice-impeached former president Donald Trump’s hard-right agenda if the pair manage to take the White House in November.

That’s according to attorney Josh McLaurin, who spoke to The Independent about his former Yale Law School roommate, now vying for the number two spot in American politics.

It only took a few years for the 39-year-old Vance to go from a so-called Never Trumper to be “not just a cheerleader for Trump, but to be arguably the nation’s biggest cheerleader for Trump,” McLaurin said on Wednesday. “There aren’t even really words.”

“I believe that he has adopted the MAGA mindset wholesale,” McLaurin said. “I think that he personally wants to see a lot more destruction of institutions and norms than your average elected Republican does. And I think that he’s allowing his deep-seated anger—and who cares where that anger is from—to motivate him to make this complete ideological conversion.”

As a student, McLaurin initially found  Vance to be a companionable roommate, but that quickly changed as

he found Vance becoming more and more contemptuous of their privileged peers. Still, Vance knew “it didn’t pay, professionally, to unleash” those feelings openly, McLaurin continued.

“Trump has changed that,” said McLaurin. “He’s created a permission structure for politicians, and for everyday Americans… to be bullies. To try out contempt [and] see how it works. And I think it has really worked for JD.”

That Vance could go from holding deep contempt for Trump, at one time comparing him to Hitler, to fawning admiration for the demagogue suggests a man with no moral centre.

 As McLaurin “progressively watched [Vance] get Trumpier over the years,” he found himself feeling “dismayed,” then “utterly disappointed” upon Trump’s endorsement of Vance for U.S. Senate in 2022. He had saved the text conversation he’d had with Vance about Trump’s similarities to Hitler, and struggled with the notion of exposing the exchange.

Ultimately, McLaurin explained, Vance’s glowing acceptance of the endorsement from Trump was what prompted him to release the texts. 

By accepting a key role “in the Trump moment,” according to McLaurin, Vance “has chosen a very destructive path.”

“Just because he’s capable of insight and thoughtfulness doesn’t mean that he can be trusted to exercise it,” McLaurin said. “... What good are your thoughtfulness and your principles if you’ve created enough of a monster through your rhetoric that those principles don’t matter anymore?”

The issues raised by McLaurin are ones the American public would do well to consider before casting their vote in November. Given the appalling history of that country, however, I expect his warning to have very little impact on the electorate.

Connecting The Dots

Were we abundantly blessed with critical-thinking skills, we would have no problem asking some serious questions about the direction in which Ontario is headed with Doug Ford at the helm. As well, we would be able to discern a pattern that suggests the premier is leading us nowhere good.

I am hardly the first to note that this Progressive Conservative government has been progressively and relentlessly paring down the revenues we need to fund our healthcare, our education system, our infrastructure and our social safety net; to be fair, this process long predates Ford's ascension. But since the time of Mike Harris and his Common Sense Revolution, it has only gotten worse.

• In the guise of helping 'the little guy',  Ford has kept extending a popular gas-tax cut that, while saving the average household about $130 per year, has thus far cost the treasury, since its inception in 2022, a total of  $3.2 billion. 
• Then, of course, there is the ending of licence plate renewal fees, again costing the treasure about $1.1 billion per year.
• Additionally, as I pointed out in a recent blog post, there is the war against the LCBO, a public institution that on average contributes about $2.5 billion to the provincial coffers.
• And on the expenditure side, it has been estimated that the early cancellation of the Beer Store agreement in order to get more product into private hands could cost upwards of $1 billion.

So where does all of this lead? To an impoverished public purse and a turn to the private sector to fill the void. 

Jordan Roberts writes of the move to put more alcohol into stores, now that the way has been paved for beer and premixed cocktails:

Having won this major battle for beer and wine revenue, Ontario’s big box stores and grocery stores will put additional energy into lobbying to sell spirits like gin, vodka and whiskey. “Hard liquor” is currently only sold at the LCBO or LCBO-licensed outlets. The inclusion of ready-to-drink products (like hard seltzer) in the announcement will help support industry’s argument that they should be allowed to sell all kinds of alcohol, because they are already selling products which include spirits.

The chains have also been lobbying for the right to be wholesalers and distributors of alcohol, taking advantage of their own integrated distribution systems and subsidiaries. Currently, only the LCBO and the Beer Store can run alcohol distribution in the province.

The fate of the LCBO becomes increasingly precarious, as the prospects of grocery and big-box store  profits soar, especially if one considers  the following:

Claudia Hepburn, who was appointed to the board of the LCBO in 2021, is Galen Weston’s first cousin. Galen Weston, of course, is the chairman of Loblaws’, and stands to benefit enormously from these changes. 

The there is the chair of the LCBO, Carmine Nigro,

a developer (CEO of Craft Development) who was hosted at the premier’s table at Kayla Ford’s wedding reception. Nigro’s company benefited from a number of MZOs (or Ministerial Zoning Orders, which are fast tracked zoning approvals) from Ford’s government. Prior to MZOs being issued to his company, Nigro was also vice president of the PC Ontario Fund, a fundraising arm of the Ontario PC party. Nigro is also part of the controversial scheme at Ontario Place, as chair of the Ontario Place Corporation. 

Thanks to available public sources, all of these facts are fairly accessible to the public. But it is up to all of us to connect the dots to see the larger picture, one that Jordan Roberts concludes is pretty grim:

Within this strategy, a key tactic is making sure government coffers are empty, so that government cannot provide services to its constituents, ensuring the only options for services are private ones. In that regard, the Ford government’s moves on alcohol sales are not only a gift to friends and donors in the private sector, and a way to reduce the influence of labour unions, but another nail in the coffin for Ontario’s government revenues.