PONDERABLES
Who is the more incompetent cabinet minister, Bardish Chagger or Seamus O’Regan?
Have we seen the last of Peter MacKay?
Does Ken Jennings being hired as a “production consultant” by Jeopardy mean that he’s being groomed to be Alex Trebek’s successor?
THINGS I FIRMLY BELIEVE
As helpful as spell check can be, it can also be very annoying.
AS YOGI WOULD SAY
It ain’t over ’til it’s over. That the Kielburgers have run for the hills, Trudeau has shut down committee investigations, and his staff have bought all the black markers in Ottawa to redact documents released to those committees, doesn’t mean that the WE scandal will go away. Actually those actions confirm that there’s a lot more to it than we already know, and we already know a lot. MPs Charlie Angus and Pierre Poilievre will make sure we know more.
TRUDEAU AND PAYETTE
Justin Trudeau’s characterization of embattled Governor General Julie Payette as “an excellent governor general” is a manifestation of two of his greatest faults: he has lousy judgement and is incapable of acknowledging his mistakes. Payette should actually be worried about the endorsement. Less than two weeks after Trudeau said he had “every confidence” in finance minister Bill Morneau, Morneau was gone.
LIBERAL POLLING COSTS
The National Post has reported that during the two fiscal years ending March 31, 2019, and March 31, 2020, the Liberal government spent almost $27 million on hundreds of public polls conducted by a number of outside polling organizations. No doubt many of the projects were legitimate efforts to align government policies with public concerns. But when they spend $86,321 on a poll titled “Online Qualitative Testing of Draft Health Warnings for Cigars, Pipe Tobacco, Smokeless Tobacco and Toxic Statements for Smokeless Product Packaging,” people could be forgiven for wondering just how much of the millions was actually wasted. Was not the “quality” of the warnings carefully considered when first drafted? After all, how many different ways can it be effectively said that these products can kill you?
O’TOOLE’S SHADOW CABINET
Newly-minted Conservative leader Erin O’Toole got off to a good start with the selection of his shadow cabinet. I’m going to deal with just seven key slots, not all forty-two MPs.
Pierre Poilievere remains as finance critic and Candace Bergen as house leader; she also becomes deputy leader of the party. Former leader Andrew Scheer takes over infrastructure (perhaps more a nice gesture by O’Toole than a key appointment). Michelle Remple Garner is the health critic; Rob Moore, justice; Michael Chong, foreign affairs; and Shannon Stubbs, public safety.
There are two striking elements of O’Toole’s shadow group; one is its effective gender, geographic, and age balance. But the most important one is that, with the possible exceptions of finance and infrastructure, this group will chew up Trudeau’s counterparts and spit them out. And even then, in the finance match-up, Poilievre can hold his own against Christia Freeland, and although Scheer may not be a match for Catherine McKenna when it comes to spewing rhetoric, her preachy bitchiness has hurt her credibility in the past, so the mild-mannered Scheer may also hold his own. I’ve said before that Trudeau’s cabinet is probably the weakest in Canadian history, and if he had strength waiting in the wings we certainly would have seen it before now.
This next comment should probably be under the Things I Firmly Believe heading, but it has context here. The distinctions between Trudeau’s cabinet ministers and O’Toole’s shadow cabinet reflect a major difference between the two men, a difference that will become more obvious when parliament resumes: O’Toole is a leader; Trudeau is a dictator.
BUT THEN A MISSTEP
But then O’Toole made a misstep in adopting the phrase through adversity to the stars as his party’s mission statement. This is an English translation of the Latin phrase per ardua ad astra, which until 1968 was the motto of the RCAF. (O’Toole, of course, served in the RCAF).
The problem with the phrase is that it’s vague and ambiguous to the point of being meaningless. Far better to have chosen something like through adversity to posterity.
A BASEBALL ODDITY
The record-setting twenty-nine runs scored by the Atlanta Braves in their 29-9 victory over the Miami Marlins on Wednesday night wasn’t the most interesting aspect of the game. That honour goes to the fact that Braves pitcher Bryse Wilson, by pitching the last four innings, was credited with a save in a massive blowout.