THINGS I FIRMLY BELIEVE
Erin O’Toole made a big mistake by not immediately kicking Derek Sloan out of caucus.
If Justin Trudeau spent even half as much time governing as he does grandstanding, virtue signalling, and evading questions, we might not have all the uncertainty about our vaccine situation.
SO THIS IS HOW THE PMO WORKS
The Globe and Mail reported last week that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s office issued a press release stating that the prime minister, during a telephone conversation with opposition leader Erin O’Toole, “had raised concerns about Conservative MPs spreading COVID-19 misinformation.” There’s nothing surprising about that. What is surprising, though, is that the press release was issued by the PMO about an hour before the telephone call was scheduled to take place.
FREELAND’S “ECONOMIC” STATEMENT
The quotation marks in the heading are there because it wasn’t really an economic statement, it was Act I of a three-act political play. Act II will be the spring budget and Act III will be an election shortly thereafter. For example, Freeland has earmarked $100 million to boost the economy “when the pandemic is over,” but with no details whatsoever as to how this money will be spent, likely because the details will be vote-getting goodies in the spring budget. If the statement had contained as much detail as it did unsubstantiated optimism it would be a lot easier to judge. An example of this is Freeland’s pollyannish position that we shouldn’t worry about the burgeoning debt because interest rates are historically low, but she failed to explain what the government plans to do when interest rates rise, which they inevitably will. There was also the common political fallacy that the government would create one million jobs as part of the post-pandemic recovery. The only time any level of government of any stripe creates a job is when it hires another civil servant. What governments can do, though, is create an economic environment in which the private sector creates jobs. Even if that’s what she meant, again there were no details. And, no doubt because of Justin Trudeau’s obsession with the term, she had to emphasize that these would be “middle class” jobs (again without an accompanying definition). Trudeau’s obsession with the “middle class” is difficult to understand because he has spent his entire life in the privileged upper class. On second thought, maybe that is the reason.
Perhaps the most telling assessment of the Trudeau/Freeland version of an economic statement was the resignation of Deputy Finance Minister Paul Rochon immediately after its release. Rochon was the highest-ranking, and most respected bureaucrat, in the federal government. He served both Liberal and Conservative governments with distinction for over thirty years. Coupled with former finance minister Bill Morneau’s mid-August resignation, it’s obvious that storm clouds are gathering around Trudeau’s fanciful “sunny ways,” at least when it comes to his extravagant spending.
Finally, the statement was incredibly difficult to read, lacking structure and chronology, and rife with meaningless terms such as “guardrails’ and “anchors.” As a former journalist, Christia Freeland should have realized that the bulk of her 237-page document met neither the standards of an economic statement nor the criteria of publishable writing.
GOOD RIDDANCE TO BAD RUBBISH
It’s been announced that discussions are under way among stakeholders to take a wrecking ball to Toronto’s SkyDome (a.k.a The Rogers Center) and replace it with a baseball-only stadium, some condos, and public space. The stakeholders are, at a minimum, Rogers Communication Inc, (the stadium and Blue Jays owner), giant developer Brookfield, the federal government (the landowner), the City of Toronto (who would have to approve everything) and presumably the Ontario Municipal Board. So this is all well down the road.
The 31-year-old Dome (which it always will be to most Torontonians) with its retractable roof, was designed to accommodate baseball, football, and concerts, but it turned out to be less than ideal for any of them. As stadium concerts are largely passé, baseball fans and players alike hate the Dome, and the NFL has already deemed the Dome an unsuitable venue, there aren’t many mourning the announcement, even if they’ve had some memorable moments in the concrete monstrosity.
The plan is to build a new baseball-only stadium on part of the existing property or nearby, which raises the possibility of the Blue Jays, for a season or more, again playing home games in Buffalo, or alternatively, and because of weather considerations (the new stadium apparently will be open), most likely at their spring training facility in Dunedin, Florida.