Support NeoGAF

[matthewwhatever]

Cabinet shuffle incoming today, with Seamus O'Regan going to Veterans Affairs. Does that mean Hehr is out?

 

[matthewwhatever]

Full changes:

O'Regan to Veterans Affairs
Kent Hehr (formerly Veterans) to Sport and Persons with Disabilities
Carla Qualtrough (formerly Sport) to Public Services and Procurement (which means she gets to handle the whole Phoenix mess)
Jane Philpott (formerly Health) to Indigenous Services
Carolyn Bennett (formerly Indigenous and Northern Affairs) gets Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs
Ginette Pettipas-Taylor gets Health

I'm curious as to how the Indigenous split works. I guess Philpott handles service delivery for indigenous communities (since the federal government, not the provincial, handles education, health, etc. for them), and Bennett gets treaties?

 

[Stumpokapow]

I think Seamus O'Regan is not a great cabinet choice, even granted that he enjoys a good personal relationship with Trudeau going back to their Katimavik days, and going through rehab is the kind of comeback story that feels good. Given that the PM wants to give Newfoundland one cabinet seat and exactly one, Yvonne Jones is the obvious choice. Scott Simms would be a good choice too. And Jones had already been the Parliamentary Secretary to Indigenous Affairs, so she'd also be an obvious candidate for one of the two new positions that opened up. I don't think O'Regan has been a notable parliamentarian, and the basis of his campaign was his background as a public-facing TV presenter. I think that's a fine background for an MP--certainly we have enough lawyers and """entrepreneurs""" in public life, but it does little to establish either domain-specific policy experience or general appetite for policy.

Happy to see that Trudeau's commitment to the indigenous issue is deeper than the symbolic politics he's been very good at the last few years and it is truly unusual to see a colonial government refer to themselves as such, so I think that's a move that will be well received among the most strident voices of opposition.

(Disclaimer: While I lived in Ottawa, my wife worked for the incumbent NDP MP O'Regan defeated. I'd like to say my assessment is not based on this but I can't preclude it subconsciously.)

 

[Sean C]

I'm curious as to how the Indigenous split works. I guess Philpott handles service delivery for indigenous communities (since the federal government, not the provincial, handles education, health, etc. for them), and Bennett gets treaties?

Per the G&M:

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is promising a new nation-to-nation relationship with Canada’s Indigenous people by shaking up and dissolving the “colonial structures” of the department of Indigenous and Northern Affairs with the aim of scrapping the 1876 Indian Act.

In a significant cabinet shuffle on Monday, Mr. Trudeau split the sprawling Indigenous Affairs portfolio into two separate departments to signal the Liberal government’s intention to better the lives of Indigenous peoples, including the issue of self-governance.

“We are demonstrating with this change today that we are serious about taking the right steps to move beyond the Indian Act but doing it in partnership and collaboration with Indigenous peoples,” Mr. Trudeau told a news conference after the cabinet swearing-in. “We are moving forward on a true nation-to-nation relationship.”

Jane Philpott, the former health minister who distinguished herself in negotiating a new federal-provincial health accord, is the new Minister of Indigenous Services. Her mandate is to oversee health care, clean drinking water, poor housing and other well-being issues affecting Indigenous peoples such as the suicide crisis on many reserves.

Carolyn Bennett, who had been in charge of the whole department, is now responsible for the long-term goal of killing the 1876 Indian Act, which allows the federal government to control most aspects of aboriginal life including land, band administration, resources, education and health.

Ms. Bennett’s duties will allow her to focus solely on negotiating treaty rights and land claims as Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations. She had at times struggled in the massive portfolio, including the turmoil over the inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women.

Jane Philpott had a pretty solid tenure at Health, and recently wrapped up negotiations for all the provincial funding formulas for the next decade, so she's got the sort of experience needed for the department.

Ginette Petitpas Taylor has certainly enjoyed a consistent rise in esteem. She went from Deputy Whip to Parliamentary Secretary to the Finance Minister (I guess we'll be hearing about new parliamentary secretaries in short order) to now a fairly senior cabinet post.

Good luck to Qualtrough. She must have impressed somebody in her junior ministry, to be handed that tough assignment (or else, she pissed somebody off).

British Columbia and the Atlantic region get the boost out of this cabinet shuffle; BC has the same number of ministers, but Qualtrough is now way more important, and the Atlantic now has five ministers, all holding major portfolios.

 

[SRG01]

Per the G&M:

Jane Philpott had a pretty solid tenure at Health, and recently wrapped up negotiations for all the provincial funding formulas for the next decade, so she's got the sort of experience needed for the department.

Ginette Petitpas Taylor has certainly enjoyed a consistent rise in esteem. She went from Deputy Whip to Parliamentary Secretary to the Finance Minister (I guess we'll be hearing about new parliamentary secretaries in short order) to now a fairly senior cabinet post.

Good luck to Qualtrough. She must have impressed somebody in her junior ministry, to be handed that tough assignment (or else, she pissed somebody off).

British Columbia and the Atlantic region get the boost out of this cabinet shuffle; BC has the same number of ministers, but Qualtrough is now way more important, and the Atlantic now has five ministers, all holding major portfolios.

Holy shit, I never thought a government would be willing to bring down the Indian Act within my lifetime. I may have to vote Liberal next election...

 

[Sean C]

The Indian Act is one of those things where it's been decades since anybody has had any intellectual defence of it, but nobody has any idea how to get rid of it because it's so deeply entrenched in how the country runs.

 

[Mr.Mike]

They couldn't even rename it until now?

 

[maharg]

I mean, renaming bills is kind of pointless. If you modify a bill you're just passing a new bill that says the modifications. The old bill still exists everywhere, it's just new references that will change. But if they're changing the substance of it I'm sure they'd name the new act something better.

I wonder about the legality of changing the act in a fundamental way though. It's tied in at least somewhat with the constitutional order of things. Seems like they'd need to tread pretty carefully.

 

[CazTGG]

I mean, renaming bills is kind of pointless. If you modify a bill you're just passing a new bill that says the modifications. The old bill still exists everywhere, it's just new references that will change. But if they're changing the substance of it I'm sure they'd name the new act something better.

I wonder about the legality of changing the act in a fundamental way though. It's tied in at least somewhat with the constitutional order of things. Seems like they'd need to tread pretty carefully.

In this case, it's a symbolic gesture to rename it: The "Indian" in the Indian Act has always been rooted in a racist belief about the indigenous people that spans a significant amount of time, to say nothing of how the Crown would treat all indigenous tribes as one group. Changing the name shows that they're looking to change their current handling of the relationship between the federal government and indigenous groups, and it's about time, frankly.

 

[maharg]

I'm aware of the history thanks.

Just renaming it for a symbolic gesture would be about as empty and pointless as nearly every other 'effort' made by the federal government pretty much ever, though. I'm hoping this is something a lot more substantial than a name change, and if it is then great, they should change the name too.

 

[firehawk12]

We can't even settle whether or not John A Macdonald's name should be on everything now.

Although I guess I'm glad we're finally confronting our past in a meaningful way. It feels like American anti-racism is spreading up here.

 

[yanipheonu]

We can't even settle whether or not John A Macdonald's name should be on everything now.

Although I guess I'm glad we're finally confronting our past in a meaningful way. It feels like American anti-racism is spreading up here.

No matter what ends up happening with the names and statues, it's at least good the conversation is happening. I had little idea about the more racist aspects of MacDonald's past.

 

[SRG01]

Wasn't MacDonald also incredibly corrupt with regards to the CP rail line or something?

 

[firehawk12]

No matter what ends up happening with the names and statues, it's at least good the conversation is happening. I had little idea about the more racist aspects of MacDonald's past.

It's interesting because students at Ryerson and pointing out the fact that the school's namesake was responsible for cultural genocide by being an architect of the residential school system, so some of them want the name to change.

I feel like, if nothing else, it makes us confront symbols that we take for granted and never think about, much like the Confederate statues that people probably didn't think much about until now.

 

[gutter_trash]

replace all John A. Macdonald monuments with Richard and Maurice McDonald's monuments instead

 

[Sean C]

I wonder about the legality of changing the act in a fundamental way though. It's tied in at least somewhat with the constitutional order of things. Seems like they'd need to tread pretty carefully.

On a policy level, I don't think the courts would block changes to the Indian Act on those grounds, unless there was overwhelming native opposition, just because the courts are generally liberal and pro-FN rights and if they made changes to the Act subject to the amending formula, the Act would never change.

 

[Morrigan Stark]

replace all John A. Macdonald monuments with Richard and Maurice McDonald's monuments instead

I read that as "replace all John A. Macdonald monuments with Maurice Richard monuments instead" and I was like, yeah that's awesomely Canadian all right

 

[SRG01]

I read that as "replace all John A. Macdonald monumens with Maurice Richard monuments instead" and I was like, yeah that's awesomely Canadian all right

We should totally do this.

Haha Leafs

 

[CazTGG]

It's interesting because students at Ryerson and pointing out the fact that the school's namesake was responsible for cultural genocide by being an architect of the residential school system, so some of them want the name to change.

I feel like, if nothing else, it makes us confront symbols that we take for granted and never think about, much like the Confederate statues that people probably didn't think much about until now.

Eh, it's not 1:1 since those Confederate statues were specifically put up to intimidate African Americans whereas the schools named after Macdonald and Ryerson were, so far as I know, not done to intentionally intimidate indigenous people from going to school and/or be actively engaged in politics to further their civil rights so much as it was that people decided to name their educational facilities after two complicated, if well-known, figures in Canadian history and instill them with a sense of importance. That doesn't mean the choice to name the schools after them aren't significant in them being a reminder of Canada's continuous colonial shadow being cast over indigenous groups so much as people not being informed on what these two men represent beyond "the drunk father of Canada" and "that guy Ryerson named its university after". The closest equivalent would be if someone put up a statue of Georges Schoeters or another member of the FLQ and people defended it parce que "Quebec solidaire, Quebec rappele l'héritage!".

I think most Canadians are pretty comfortable with the past, while acknowledging its many warts.

That's the problem.

 

[Mr.Mike]

Leave John alone

 

[Pancake Mix]

I think most Canadians are pretty comfortable with the past, while acknowledging its many warts.

That's the problem.

I strongly disagree. Canadians not regularly having what escalate to demonstrations and potentially violent confrontations between groups over statues and flags is a very good thing.

 

[gutter_trash]

Canadians don't know shit when it comes to history

 

[CazTGG]

I strongly disagree. Canadians not regularly having what escalate to demonstrations and potentially violent confrontations between groups over statues and flags is a very good thing.

We literally had a rally between fascists and not fascists in Quebec that turned antagonistic days after the Charlottesville riot! Get out of here with this "we don't have systemic racism that needs to be addressed" garbage.

Canadians don't know shit when it comes to history

I wouldn't say that so much as people will either ignore or try to whitewash the more horrendous events in our history i.e. the Sixties Scoop, Macdonald's involvement in residential schools, the Chinese Head Tax, etc. or brush it off with a "it was just how people were back then" remark.

 

[Pancake Mix]

Edit: Not worth it...

 

[firehawk12]

Eh, it's not 1:1 since those Confederate statues were specifically put up to intimidate African Americans whereas the schools named after Macdonald and Ryerson were, so far as I know, not done to intentionally intimidate indigenous people from going to school and/or be actively engaged in politics to further their civil rights so much as it was that people decided to name their educational facilities after two complicated, if well-known, figures in Canadian history and instill them with a sense of importance. That doesn't mean the choice to name the schools after them aren't significant in them being a reminder of Canada's continuous colonial shadow being cast over indigenous groups so much as people not being informed on what these two men represent beyond "the drunk father of Canada" and "that guy Ryerson named its university after". The closest equivalent would be if someone put up a statue of Georges Schoeters or another member of the FLQ and people defended it parce que "Quebec solidaire, Quebec rappele l'héritage!".

Well the American founding fathers are also problematic as well - even the "good" ones. It's just interesting to finally be at a tipping point in history where you can talk about these issues and the white men writing for the Post and the Mail defending Macdonald can't immediately be dismissive of the issue. The fact that these people complaining about snowflake cucks (well, in the language of the educated big-L liberal college educated elite at least) look like out of touch people is a big change from where we were before.
Look at how long it took for us as a nation to admit that we committed an act of cultural genocide in the first place. This is a natural evolution of that apology.

(It's also interesting to me that Aboriginal groups in Australia are fighting Australia Day, much the same way that Indigenous groups didn't celebrate Canada 150, because of the colonialist nature of that holiday).

I wouldn't say that so much as people will either ignore or try to whitewash the more horrendous events in our history i.e. the Sixties Scoop, Macdonald's involvement in residential schools, the Chinese Head Tax, etc. or brush it off with a "it was just how people were back then" remark.

And Africville, Japanese Internment, the Metis, etc etc.

I kind of wonder what high school history classes are like now and whether they still need to essentially venerate the Canadian nation project or if they are allowed to be explicitly critical.

Like Chinese-Canadians were not allowed to volunteer in the Canadian army because politicians were afraid that they would demand enfranchisement after serving in the military. Eventually they were forced to take these volunteers and pne of these soldiers would wind up being the very first Chinese-Canadian MP (he ran for the Conservatives because he saw the Liberals as the party responsible for the anti-Chinese policies of the 40s). But I mean that's not as romantic a story as Canadians landing at Juno beach or the tragic/heroic retreat of Dieppe so... shrug?

 

[AuthenticM]

I read that as "replace all John A. Macdonald monumens with Maurice Richard monuments instead" and I was like, yeah that's awesomely Canadian all right

yes

 

[Simon Belmont]

We literally had a rally between fascists and not fascists in Quebec that turned antagonistic days after the Charlottesville riot! Get out of here with this "we don't have systemic racism that needs to be addressed" garbage

Ugh. There was one in London on the weekend. Thankfully the fascists were outnumbered 10 to 1, but it's really disturbing to see that in your city.

 

[matthewwhatever]

Jane Philpott had a pretty solid tenure at Health, and recently wrapped up negotiations for all the provincial funding formulas for the next decade, so she's got the sort of experience needed for the department.

...

Good luck to Qualtrough. She must have impressed somebody in her junior ministry, to be handed that tough assignment (or else, she pissed somebody off).

I know quite a few people who work at Health Canada, and they're all really sad to see Philpott go. She was committed to the file and she understood the issues, which probably seemed like a breath of fresh air coming after Ambrose (who went to war with her own department over pot), Aglukkag (who was thoroughly inept), and Clement (the running theme of his very long career, apart from being a perennial leadership contest loser, is that he fights with his own bureaucracy). Trudeau clearly trusts her, to basically give her an entire department to run.

I'm surprised Qualtrough is moving, since they'd been positioning her to lead our first-ever federal disabilities legislation. It would've been a nice story for her, whereas now she gets to deal with arguably the most persistent issue facing the government.

I'm aware of the history thanks.

Just renaming it for a symbolic gesture would be about as empty and pointless as nearly every other 'effort' made by the federal government pretty much ever, though. I'm hoping this is something a lot more substantial than a name change, and if it is then great, they should change the name too.

Apparently they're centralizing all indigenous services under one department. At the very least, they'll have coordinated service delivery, rather than keeping them all siloed in different places. I assume they'll need to put legislation in place that creates a new ministry, since this seems like more than just a cosmetic change (like, it's not just renaming Foreign Affairs Global Affairs), and I think it'll be something they want to fast-track, so we should get a good sense of how it'll all look shortly after the House returns in three weeks.

Canadians don't know shit when it comes to history

Yep. It feels like most people don't even have an idealized version of our history. There are no founding myths that need to be overcome or anything, which is both good and bad.

Personally, I liked Wynne's response to the Sir John A. issue:

 

[maharg]

Personally, I liked Wynne's response to the Sir John A. issue:

To me this reads like unsubstantial fluff or a strange echo of the arguments used to defend confederate statues: That stopping veneration of problematic historical figures is tantamount to forgetting them.

It seems pretty obvious to me that naming institutions after people is not some neutral acknowledgement of history. It is almost always a positive expression of support for them that inevitably lacks nuance. It's entirely appropriate to re-evaluate who we choose to honour in our past as our values change.

 

[AuthenticM]

To me this reads like unsubstantial fluff or a strange echo of the arguments used to defend confederate statues: That stopping veneration of problematic historical figures is tantamount to forgetting them.

It seems pretty obvious to me that naming institutions after people is not some neutral acknowledgement of history. It is almost always a positive expression of support for them that inevitably lacks nuance. It's entirely appropriate to re-evaluate who we choose to honour in our past as our values change.

totally

MacDonald doesn't get a pass because he's the father of our country. Take his name off public institutions. And while we're at it, take his dumb face off my 10$ bill. We can do all of these while teaching people about him. The two aren't mutually exclusive.

 

[Mr.Mike]

In local news, Windsor (and my basement) are flooded.

Drenched! Rainfall and thunderstorms continue for saturated Windsor-Essex

In good local news.

Moroun lawsuit to stop Howe bridge thrown out by Michigan court

Moroun is the billionaire who owns the current bridge from Windsor to Detroit.

 

[CazTGG]

In local news, Windsor (and my basement) are flooded.

Drenched! Rainfall and thunderstorms continue for saturated Windsor-Essex

In good local news.

Moroun lawsuit to stop Howe bridge thrown out by Michigan court

Moroun is the billionaire who owns the current bridge from Windsor to Detroit.

That's awful, hope you and everyone living with you are safe. I remember when my town flooded in the summer and thus my bedroom ended up being destroyed.

EDIT: NO NO NO NO NO! http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/doug-ford-political-move-1.4267422

 

[killer rin]

In local news, Windsor (and my basement) are flooded.

Drenched! Rainfall and thunderstorms continue for saturated Windsor-Essex

Oh my god, traffic was terrible on the way home. I work downtown and while traffic is usually always terribly at around 4:30 when everyone gets off; it was a million times worse given that every single artery in the city was offline and I had to get out of the city and into the county. I swear, nobody knows how to drive in terrible conditions. I had people not knowing how to act at an offline light and other people running stop signs. Took an hour and a half to get out of the city and only a little longer to get home. :S

In good local news.

Moroun lawsuit to stop Howe bridge thrown out by Michigan court

WOOHOO! Moroun can take that and shove it where the sun don't shine. Can't wait for the new bridge to start construction.

 

[Mr.Mike]

https://twitter.com/CBCWindsor

Apparently there's another 50mm forecasted. But for now the skies seem to be clearing up. My basement only had two and a half inches we were able to pump out the water with an extra pump. A friends house also flooded for the first time ever, but only an inch or two. Other places had it far worse.

Met campus of the Windsor Regional Hospital is flooded.

People on social media are taking this as an opportunity to complain about the council's recent vote to spend 3 million dollars on a Christmas light display, saying it should be spent on infrastructure instead.

https://www.facebook.com/CBCWindsor/

EDIT:

 

[matthewwhatever]

Final NDP membership numbers are out: 124,000, or apparently only 4k less than they had during their last leadership contest. (For comparison, the CPC had 259k eligible members

They didn't do a great job of growing their party outside of their usual base of BC/Toronto:

(And it's safe to say that the Orange Wave in Quebec is dead.)

I've heard some people on Singh's campaign claim that he signed up more than 40,000 members. If that's true and if he can get them all to vote, that would guarantee him a victory, since historically, leadership vote turnout seems to be around 50-55%.

Though if I remember correctly, Kevin O'Leary and Kellie Leitch both claimed they signed up more than 30,000 members each in the CPC leadership race, and we saw how that turned out for them.

EDIT: NO NO NO NO NO! http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/doug-ford-political-move-1.4267422

Somewhere Patrick Brown is desperately hoping that Ford decides to run for mayor.

EDIT:

Yikes. Stay safe!

 

[Expansion Pack]

Proud to be one of those 4907!

 

[Tiktaalik]

To me this reads like unsubstantial fluff or a strange echo of the arguments used to defend confederate statues: That stopping veneration of problematic historical figures is tantamount to forgetting them.

It seems pretty obvious to me that naming institutions after people is not some neutral acknowledgement of history. It is almost always a positive expression of support for them that inevitably lacks nuance. It's entirely appropriate to re-evaluate who we choose to honour in our past as our values change.

I agree that there's a problem with naming schools after persons in that there's limited opportunity for nuance and explanation. It does feel like an implicit honouring act to me.

I wouldn't be in favour of tearing down statues of Sir John A. MacDonald or anything, as he was obviously has an important role in the history of this country, but his complex history certainly warrants revisiting some of the plaques and creating a more balanced story.

John A. Macdonald's white-supremacist views were shocking, even by the standards of his time

In 1885, Canada’s first prime minister, John A. Macdonald, told the House of Commons that, if the Chinese were not excluded from Canada, “the Aryan character of the future of British America should be destroyed.” This was the precise moment in the histories of Canada and the British dominions when Macdonald personally introduced race as a defining legal principle of the state. He did this not just in any piece of legislation, but in the Electoral Franchise Act, an act that defined the federal polity of adult male property holders and that he called “my greatest achievement.”

Macdonald’s comments came as he justified an amendment taking the vote away from anyone “of Mongolian or Chinese race.” He warned that, if the Chinese (who had been in British Columbia as long as Europeans) were allowed to vote, “they might control the vote of that whole province” and their “Chinese representatives” would foist “Asiatic principles,” “immoralities,” and “eccentricities” on the House “which are abhorrent to the Aryan race and Aryan principles.” He further claimed that “the Aryan races will not wholesomely amalgamate with the Africans or the Asiatics” and that “the cross of those races, like the cross of the dog and the fox, is not successful; it cannot be, and never will be.”

For Macdonald, Canada was to be the country that restored a pure Aryan race to its past glory, and the Chinese threatened this purity. Lest it be thought that Macdonald was merely expressing the prejudices of the age, it should be noted that his were among the most extreme views of his era. He was the only politician in the parliamentary debates to refer to Canada as “Aryan” and to justify legalized racism on the basis not of alleged cultural practices but on the grounds that “Chinese” and “Aryans” were separate species. Even B.C. representatives who had been calling for Chinese exclusion for years objected to the supposed cultural practices of the Chinese, not to their biology.

In contrast, the second prime minister of Canada, Alexander Mackenzie, had earlier refused discriminatory proposals on the grounds that they involved invidious distinctions that were “dangerous and contrary to the law of nations and the policy which controlled Canada.”

Even members of Macdonald’s own government would have been disturbed by his comments. His secretary of state and Quebec lieutenant, Joseph-Adolphe Chapleau, had been a member of the Royal Commission on Chinese Immigration that debunked common anti-Chinese prejudices.

A careful reading of the Commons debates suggests that Macdonald’s comments actually shocked members of the House. Indignation over the introduction of race as a defining characteristic of Canadianness was strong in the Senate. So strong that senators, including many Macdonald appointees, debated whether they could get away with voting the legislation down, even though it had taken Macdonald two years to get it through the House of Commons. The Senate ultimately did defeat further anti-Chinese measures in 1886 and 1887.

...

 

[matthewwhatever]

I agree that there's a problem with naming schools after persons in that there's limited opportunity for nuance and explanation. It does feel like an implicit honouring act to me.

I wouldn't be in favour of tearing down statues of Sir John A. MacDonald or anything, as he was obviously has an important role in the history of this country, but his complex history certainly warrants revisiting some of the plaques and creating a more balanced story.

I'd like to see a solution like this:

I feel like it balances the different perspectives -- it recognizes people who played an important role in the "official" history of the country, while also elevating and giving space to marginalized groups. I don't think it should be an either/or thing.

 

[Tiktaalik]

They've added back in traditional indigenous place names alongside the current ones in Squamish, North of Vancouver too. That sort of resurfacing of perspectives, and broadening of the Canadian story is something I support.

There's not going to be a one size fits all rule to this sort of issue. There may be Canadian figures out there that should be best removed from view and rendered more into the history books.

For example I recall being quite surprised to learn of the French Canadian view on John Colborne.

He was a British General and Lieutenant Governor and you see his name pop up all over the place in Ontario in statues, town names, street names, school names etc.

As it happens during the Lower Canada Rebellion he committed quite a number of what we would probably now consider war crimes, such as burning entire villages that had nothing to do with the rebellion. In Quebec he was called "Vieux Brûlot" or The Old Firebrand.

 

[firehawk12]

In the academic world, people have started off conferences/lectures by acknowledging that the program is taking place on traditional indigenous lands which is good gesture.

 

[yanipheonu]

In the academic world, people have started off conferences/lectures by acknowledging that the program is taking place on traditional indigenous lands which is good gesture.

Can confirm this. My university started putting these acknowledgements in syllabuses, and even at my graduation, they had a line acknowledging the original native status of the land the convocation was taking place on.

Same grad had a native family literally beating a drum when their kid went to get their diploma. It was pretty cool actually.

 

[Simon Belmont]

I don't think it's right to make fun of people for the size of their 'bump', however:

Andrew Scheer's leadership bump the smallest of any new party leader in 14 years

 

[matthewwhatever]

I don't think it's right to make fun of people for the size of their 'bump', however:

Andrew Scheer's leadership bump the smallest of any new party leader in 14 years

It wouldn't surprise me if, going forward, CPC vote totals are relatively fixed. Their success seems to be related to turnout -- they can count on roughly the same number of votes every time, which means they're helped by lower turnout, and hurt by higher turnout. The whole concept of a bump becomes meaningless when your support (and opposition) is so locked-in.

In the academic world, people have started off conferences/lectures by acknowledging that the program is taking place on traditional indigenous lands which is good gesture.

It's getting common in politics, too, at least under the Liberals.

Speaking of academics: does anyone here have experience with Master's-level Canadian poli-sci? I need to put together a reading list for a directed studies course, and I have no idea where to start.

 

[gabbo]

I don't think it's right to make fun of people for the size of their 'bump', however:

Andrew Scheer's leadership bump the smallest of any new party leader in 14 years

Well, having the personality of a social conservative department store mannequin with just as fake a smile doesn't really encourage huge praise. That being said, he hasn't really had time to try and counter the government on anything, so he can't get traction from nothing.

 

[CazTGG]

I don't think it's right to make fun of people for the size of their 'bump', however:

Andrew Scheer's leadership bump the smallest of any new party leader in 14 years

Well you know what they say about a man with a small bump...

 

[KernelPanic]

Well, having the personality of a social conservative department store mannequin with just as fake a smile doesn't really encourage huge praise. That being said, he hasn't really had time to try and counter the government on anything, so he can't get traction from nothing.

How much of an upgrade is he really when we endured years of this:

 

[mlclmtckr]

Speaking of academics: does anyone here have experience with Master's-level Canadian poli-sci? I need to put together a reading list for a directed studies course, and I have no idea where to start.

Taiaiake Alfred: Peace, Power, Righteousness

 

[CazTGG]

How much of an upgrade is he really when we endured years of this:

He's a downgrade if his shadow cabinet is any indication: https://www.pressprogress.ca/andrew...ive_mp_as_new_status_of_women_shadow_minister

 

[gabbo]

How much of an upgrade is he really when we endured years of this:

They both seem to wear fake smiles all too easily. He is slightly more relatable as a human being than Harper, but you're not setting the bar very high on that. I've seen fresh laundry more relatable on a human level than Harper

 

[Dr Campino]

In local news, Windsor (and my basement) are flooded.

Drenched! Rainfall and thunderstorms continue for saturated Windsor-Essex

In good local news.

Moroun lawsuit to stop Howe bridge thrown out by Michigan court

Moroun is the billionaire who owns the current bridge from Windsor to Detroit.

But hey, Christmas lights!