PONDERABLES
Can Justin Trudeau really believe the answer to all our country’s economic ills is $10 a day child care?
Does the Rogers conglomerate indicating it would like to realize a large portion of the value of the Blue Jays baseball team and their stadium in order to pay down debt mean a sale to Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment?
ERIN O’TOOLE’S OWN PONDERABLES SECTION
Doesn’t he realize that his party’s refusal to divulge their MPs vaccination status is possibly the most perplexing political posturing in the history of Canadian politics?
As snapping and snarling don’t come naturally to him, why doesn’t he leave such tactics to the party’s three highly effective attack dogs: Pierre Poilievre, Candice Bergen and Michelle Rempel Garner?
Because there are few things as troublesome and debilitating as uncertainty, why doesn’t he clear the air once and for all by having a secret ballot in caucus regarding his leadership?
THINGS I FIRMLY BELIEVE
Given that it’s the sole purpose of Question Period, Justin Trudeau’s assertion last Wednesday that Conservative MPs were “trying to score political points” may well be the most inane comment ever recorded in Hansard.
Blue Jay pitcher Jose Berrios and his agent left a bundle of money on the table when they agreed to a contract extension before finding out whether Robbie Ray was going to elect for free agency.
THE SPEECH FROM THE THRONE
The speech from the throne was truly Shakespearean: Much Ado About Nothing.
A VERY REVEALING PRESS CONFERENCE
Newly appointed Health Minister, Jean-Yves Duclos, and Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer, Dr. Theresa Tam, probably received calls from someone in the PMO office after their November 19th press conference. The purpose of the press conference was to announce the government’s relaxation of border COVID-19 testing requirements scheduled to take place on November 30th. Instead, their performance revealed that when it comes to Canadian border rules, Justin Trudeau continues to fly by the seat of his pants.
A reporter asked Duclos what medical science justified the decision to treat fully vaccinated Canadians returning from brief trips to the US more favourably than other fully vaccinated people coming into the country. He clumsily evaded the question by asking Dr. Tam to outline “the evidence based on health and science.” As quoted in the National Post, Dr. Tam said, “So, I think, um, it is not as much the science as it is the operational consideration, as I understand it.” The term “operational consideration” can be nothing other than a euphemism for “politics.”
This press conference provided bald-faced evidence of what most Canadians have suspected from the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic: That Justin Trudeau’s bewildering, and often illogical, border policies were based on political considerations, not medical science.
Although it was heartening to see the quick and appropriate action the government took yesterday in response to the emergence of the COVID-19 Omicron variant, it should be noted that there was no political downside whatsoever in doing so.
QUESTIONS QUESTIONS ARISING FROM THE KYLE RITTENHOUSE VERDICT
Even though videos of the event suggest it’s perfectly reasonable to assume that Kyle Rittenhouse genuinely feared for his life, how can a self-styled teenage vigilante, armed with an assault rifle, journey to another state, join in a riot, shoot and kill two people, wound another, and not be guilty of something? Although the law in the state of Wisconsin provides that defending your property and yourself are legitimate self-defences, why should it apply when Rittenhouse, himself, provoked the whole situation, and the property he claimed to be protecting wasn’t his own. The answer seems to be a combination of a bad law, a flawed justice system and a biased judge.