A Question Of Confidence And Competence

Today, I'll let Theo Moudakis speak for many of us:

And here is PP's political response to the threat of massive tariffs from the incoming American president:

Poilievre's response somehow leaves me with a paucity of confidence in his competence.

UPDATED: Vying For The Biggest Santa Hat

Tis the season to be jolly. The question is, who gets to wear the biggest Santa hat, Doug Ford or Justin Trudeau? Since I have already dealt with Doug Ford's attempt at securing the prized possession in a previous post, today I'll look at Justin Trudeau's efforts to reverse-engineer The Grinch and emerge victorious.

Tonda MacCharles writes about the Trudeau Liberals'

....GST two-month “holiday” on so-called essential goods plus a $250 cheque for anyone who earned under $150,000 last year...

 It borrows heavily from the Liberals’ rivals. The Conservatives campaigned on a December sales tax break like this in 2021. (The Liberals opposed it then.) The NDP pitched a similar cut last week. 

One thing is for sure, the 2024 Liberal version carries a hefty price tag of $6.28 billion — according to early calculations — at a time when Canada’s annual deficit, which Justin Trudeau’s government promised would clock in at around $40 billion, is certain to spike.

But after all, this is the season to give, isn't it? However, the Liberal largesse also comes with a big bill:

....the kiddies who get cheaper diapers or Christmas toys for the next two months will be the ones paying the tab plus interest, for years to come.

David Macdonalt, of the Canadian Centre for Policy alternatives, suggests the money could have been put to better use through 'targetted giving':

 Instead of sending $250 to “basically everybody,” Macdonald said the government could have sent $500 or $1,000 to the lowest-earning 30 per cent of workers, or the lower half of workers, and concentrated the help to those most in need of a boost right now.

“Presumably it’s the visibility is what’s important here, more so than necessarily substantially helping folks that are maybe turning to food banks because they can’t afford food.”

Will the Trudeau payout reap the obvious political dividends he is hoping for? Letters to the editor suggest otherwise:

Now the PM is attempting to buy votes

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is taking a page from Premier Doug Ford’s election playbook and attempting to buy votes. A GST tax holiday that will cost $1.6 billion and a working Canadian rebate, for those earning less than $150,000 that is estimated to cost $4.68 billion. Would it not be better to use this money to assist those who cannot afford to eat in restaurants or buy prepared foods and must rely on food banks, and those who are unemployed or retired and financially struggling who are not eligible for the rebate because they are not working Canadians?

Greg Sheehan, Mississauga

 

Debt of Christmas splurge will live on long after its recipients are gone

 The federal Liberal government was projected to incur a whopping $39.8 billion national financial deficit in 2024/25. This was before handing out a Christmas splurge of a $1.6 billion in GST alleviation, plus a $4.68 billion cash handout to most Canadians. To put this in the context of an individual, it is tantamount to someone with enormous credit card debt celebrating the taking out of a cash advance to increase their debt to enable them to go out on a holiday spending spree and whoop it up. There is one significant difference, however. The principle and interest on the credit card debt must be paid off in the near future by the errant borrower. With a national debt already at $1,453 billion our grandchildren will be paying for this largesse many years after we recipients are long gone.

Anthony Moscrop, Willowdale 

Santa is coming, kiddies. As a bonus, all of you get to ultimately decide who deserves to lay claim to his much-coveted head covering.

UPDATE: Seems apt.

H/t Moudakis

Political Leadership Void

In talking to my friend Gary today, I offered the opinion that even though he is the putative next prime minister, PP will not have what it takes to deal with the demented agenda that will in all likelihood be the 'crowning achievement'  of the ape the U.S. chose as their president. Perhaps PP would be well-advised to consider this advice from  Gord Wilson of Port Rowan:

Will Canada’s leadership find the courage to stand up to Trump?

Donald Trump cares little about maintaining good relationships with any country or international organization that opposes his agenda. To be sure, he and his choice of ambassador to Canada Pete Hoekstra will demand that Canada bow to his trade demands. Our political leadership should remember that their role is to put Canada first, and in response to such demands, advise Trump, for example, that unless he withdraws his trade demands, we will close the Welland Canal to U.S. traffic, cease the export of Quebec Hydro, cease the shipment of oil and gas, cease the shipping of vital Canadian mined minerals, and enforce our 200 mile limit on the East and West Coasts. Canadian water is another commodity that gives Canadian leadership “push back.” The coming months will tell all Canadians if our political leadership can find enough courage to stand up to an elected bully.

Racing To The Bottom

Mr. Trudeau apparently thinks that because if seems to work for Doug Ford, it might work for him -vote-buying, that is.

You can read the full details here.

Meanwhile, Theo Moudakis encapsulates this silly season nicely:

UPDATED: See No Evil

I have lived long enough to think I have seen the worst things that humanity has to offer. I shan't enumerate examples here, since they are legion. But not all evil deeds are acts of commission. Many deep moral stains originate in omissions, failures to act. The West's complicity in the Israeli-led Gaza genocide falls under both rubrics, of course.

In its passion to avoid any accusation of anti-semitism (anti-semitism and criticism of Israel having been susscessfully conflated), the West is clearly complicit in the genocide. Indeed, even a modest support for Palestinians provokes rebuke and condemnation. In Ontario, for example, Hamilton Centre MPP Sarah Jama was censured for wearing the keffiyeh, rendering her persona non grata in the legislature and resulting in her ouster from the provincial NDP.

But such reprovals are not limited to the provinces. Indeed, Heather McPherson, an Alberta NDP MP, is now being singled out for rebuke.

A New Democrat MP was warned Monday that her decision to don a watermelon pin — a symbol of the Palestinian cause — could be construed as a political “prop” that has no place in the House of Commons. 

During question period, Edmonton-Strathcona MP Heather McPherson took to the floor of the lower chamber to castigate Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government for its response to the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

“Entire families have been decimated. Children are starving to death. When will the Liberals live up to their obligations?” McPherson said, calling for sanctions on the Israeli government and the implementation of an “actual arms embargo.”

That attempt to stir the conscience of the government was met with a stern warning from House Speaker Greg Fergus., suggesting her pin was a prop, supposedly forbidden in the House.

In a heated exchange over what is and is not permitted to be worn in the Commons, McPherson rose on a point of order to question Fergus’s suggestion.

“I have to tell you that I stand here proudly wearing the pin that stands in solidarity to Palestinian people, but people within this place are wearing pins for a various number of reasons,” McPherson said.

She referred to a moose hide pin that a number of MPs wear in the Commons, which was born from an Indigenous-led movement to end violence toward women and children. 

Then, for some sensitive' souls in the House, she went too far:

The NDP MP’s reference to poppies also being worn in the chamber for Remembrance Day, however, was met with outrage from the opposition benches, with Conservative MPs expressing disbelief on social media over the comparison. 

She also reminded members that she, along with others, wear a number of other pins, including a Ukrainian one, to mark a thousand days since Putin invaded Ukraine.

Funny thing about freedom of expression, isn't it? It is apparently only permitted when the state declares who is an acceptable target for denunciation. In the corrupted currents of this world, it would seem that Israel gets a free pass, no matter what crimes against humanity it perpetrates.

UPDATE: Predictably, the U.S. vetoed a UN resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza:

The United States on Wednesday vetoed a U.N. resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire in the war in Gaza because it is not linked to an immediate release of hostages taken captive by Hamas in Israel in October 2023.

The U.N. Security Council voted 14-1 in favor of the resolution sponsored by the 10 elected members on the 15-member council, but it was not adopted because of the U.S. veto.

The resolution that was put to a vote “demands an immediate, unconditional and permanent cease-fire to be respected by all parties, and further reiterates its demand for the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages.”

Hmm. Sounds to me that the resolution did call for the immediate release of the hostages, but I guess Israel's perennial, unconditional friend just can't bring itself to do anything other than perpetuate the carnage in Gaza.

Alan Lichtman's Predictive Failure

While I have resolved to give as little space in my head as possible to the guy who won the American presidential race. I remain fascinated by the dynamics that returned him to power. A recent Guardian piece on Alan Lichtman perhaps sheds some light.

Lichtman is storied for his prognostications of American presidential elections.

Allan Lichtman had correctly forecast the result of nine of the past 10 US presidential elections (and even the one he didn’t, in 2000, he insists was stolen from Al Gore). His predictive model of “13 keys” to the White House was emulated around the world and seemed all but indestructible.

This time, he forecast a defeat of Don Trump.  So what went wrong? Why did the 13 keys to the White House this university professor developed with a Russian expert on earthquakes fail this time? One of the key reasons, he says, is irrationality.

“The keys are premised on the proposition that a rational, pragmatic electorate [my emphasis] decides whether the White House party has governed well enough to get another four years,” he explains. “Just as this kind of hate and violence is new, there are precedent-shattering elements now to our political system, most notably disinformation.

And there is do doubt that disinformation played a major role in the election, especially that which was disseminated by Elon Musk.

“There’s always been disinformation but it has exploded to a degree we’ve never seen before. It’s not just Fox News and the rightwing media. It’s also rightwing podcasters and we have a brand new player, the $300bn guy, Elon Musk, whose wealth exceeds that of most countries in the world and has heavily put his thumb on disinformation.

“It’s been reported that the disinformation that [Musk] disseminates has been viewed billion of times. 

That includes disinformation about inflation, jobs, employment, the stock market, growth, hurricane aid, the Ukraine war and undocumented immigrants, falsely portrayed as dangerous killers when in fact they commit crimes at far lower rate than native-born Americans.

“We’re seeing something new in our politics, which affected the prediction and could affect future predictions but has a much bigger message for the future of our democracy. George Orwell was 40 years too soon. He made it clear that dictatorships don’t just arise from brutality and suppression. They arise from control of information: doublethink. Famine is plenty, war is peace. We’re in the doublethink era and maybe we can get out of it, maybe not.”

Another factor, he says, is the fecklessness of Merrick Garland, the Attorney General and head of the Department of Justice, who he describes as spineless, keeping with a Democratic propensity:

 He diddled for almost two years before appointing a special counsel [to investigate Trump’s role in the January 6 2021 insurrection].

“We all knew on January 7 what Trump had done. Certainly we knew it by the time Merrick Garland was appointed in early 2021. If he had acted as he should have right away, everything would have been different. I believe Trump would have been convicted of serious federal crimes and either be in jail or be on probation and the whole political system would have been different.”

Lichtman adds: “He epitomises the spineless Democrats. ‘Oh, I don’t want to do this because I might seem political and Republicans might criticise me.’

Some would say predicting people's behaviour is a mug's game. With the massive loss of rationality we bear witness to today, I would tend to agree with that assessment. 

 

 

Bread And Circuses

"Bread and circuses" is a phrase that refers to a government's attempt to distract the public from real issues by providing them with things that make their lives more enjoyable. The phrase is often used in political contexts. 

The Romans certainly had a way of dealing with the masses, and their strategy succeeded for a long time. Nothing works as effectively as diverting people from real problems, especially those either created or and aided and abetted by government. Such diversion can be especially effective at concealing an absence of political leadership.

This is certainly the zeitgeist at work in Ontario, where we have a government led by Doug Ford whose version of bread and circuses consists of 'initiatives' like buying the people with their own money (eg., the recently announced bribe rebates of $200 per adult and child "to make life more affordable", the ending of licence plate fees, the proposed and very expensive ripping up of bike lanes, an ongoing gas tax reduction, etc., etc.)

Unfortunately, there is little to stop Ford and his gimmickry. We have, for example, a feckless Ontario Liberal Party, led by the unelected Bonnie Crombie, that proposes to do more of the same. 

The party's proposal would see Ontario's personal income tax rate for those making between $51,446 and $75,000 reduced by two per cent, from the current 9.15 per cent to 7.15 per cent. 

A party spokesperson said those earning just more than that would also benefit from the plan. Someone earning $85,000 in taxable income, for example, would pay the lower rate on their income between $51,446 and $75,000, and the 9.15 per cent rate on their earnings beyond that.

They estimate this would save the average family about $950 a year. 

Ontario Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie said Tuesday they also promise to slash the provincial component of HST on residential heating and hydro bills, which could save households about $200 a year. 

In language that rivals our current provincial demagogue, Crombie goes on to declare:

"That is real and ongoing relief for you and your family, ...."

"It's real money back in your pocket to help you afford groceries, to buy your child a new winter coat or pay for overdue repairs to your home or to your car." 

What is there not to like about these promises, you may ask? How about the real cost - the cost to essential social services, healthcare, and education, to name but three. Starving the treasury is never a good idea, except when you are pandering to the public in an attempt to gain political capital.

This pathetic ply, Crombie's version of bread and circuses, conceals a raft of problems that, to my knowledge, neither she nor NDP leader Marit Stiles have ever addressed: the disproportionate burden that provincial downloading has placed on the shoulders of homeowners, who face ever-rising rates of property taxes to deal with costs that should be the purview of the province, including social services and housing, ambulance services, local roads and bridge maintenance and construction etc.

Addressing such burdens would require fearless leadership, and that in itself would by no means guarantee political success. After all, far too many are dazzled by baubles, the promise of immediate cash in hand, the prospect of being able to buy beer at Costco, (despite the quarter-billion dollars that one cost), etc. In other words, politicos know and exploit the ignorance of people, readily offering up their particular versions of bread and circuses to divert the masses. 

Unless someone with real integrity emerges, expect the status quo to continue unabated.