Chrystia Freeland

Tuesday December 14, 2021

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday December 14, 2021

Canada threatens U.S. with tariffs, partial suspension of CUSMA over electric vehicle tax credit

November 18, 2021

Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland has written to top U.S. senators threatening to suspend parts of the CUSMA trade agreement and impose tariffs on American goods unless U.S. officials back away from a proposed tax credit for American-built electric vehicles.

“We are deeply concerned that certain provisions of the electric vehicle tax credits as proposed in the Build Back Better Act violate the United States’ obligations under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement,” Freeland and International Trade Minister Mary Ng say in the letter.

“The proposal is equivalent to a 34 per cent tariff on Canadian-assembled electric vehicles,” the letter says. “The proposal is a significant threat to the Canadian automotive industry and is a de facto abrogation of the USMCA.”

November 19, 2019

The Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) is known as the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) in the United States.

Congress is proposing sizeable tax credits worth up to $12,500 US to buyers of new electric vehicles — as long as those cars are manufactured by union workers in the U.S.

Experts agree the tax measure would deal a major blow to the Canadian automotive sector, which is trying to attract new investment as the industry transitions away from internal combustion engines.

Freeland and Ng also say in the letter that they will “consider the possible suspension of USMCA concessions of importance to the U.S.” They specifically mention the possible suspension of “USMCA dairy tariff-rate quotas” and the possibility of delaying implementation of CUSMA copyright changes.

December 11, 2019

“To be clear, we do not wish to go down a path of confrontation,” the letter says. “That has not been the history of the relationship between our two countries – nor should it be the future.

“There is an opportunity to work together to resolve this issue by ensuring Canadian-assembled vehicles and batteries are eligible for the same credit as U.S.-assembled vehicles and batteries.”

Ng said the letter is Canada’s way of indicating that it’s prepared to play hardball on the trade file, although she would prefer to come to a compromise that avoids trade actions. (CBC) 

 

Tuesday October 26, 2021

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday October 26, 2021

Freeland positioning herself to take over as Liberal leader

August 24, 2021

A breathless account of Chrystia Freeland’s heroics in Ukraine published over the weekend must’ve put a smile on the face of our Deputy Prime Minister.

According to the American university professor who wrote the glowing article, she was so darn good at what she did that she had the grudging admiration of the KGB, that couldn’t keep up with her! The stuff of real-life Marvel heroes…

Let’s face it, Chrystia Freeland is positioning herself to take over as Leader of the Liberal Party of Canada and this type of publicity is tailor-made to help her achieve that ambition.

April 21, 2021

Much like Michael Ignatieff, Chrystia Freeland became almost famous south of the border with her writings and media savvy.

Unlike Ignatieff, she’s actually got some experience in government having ably run key ministries and, most admirably, outfoxed Donald Trump during the renegotiation of NAFTA.

If she succeeds, she’ll be taking over from one of the world’s major media figures, Justin Trudeau. A little bit of profile doesn’t hurt.

November 3, 2015

Trudeau’s inexplicable decision to disappear for a vacation on the very day he’d set aside to commemorate truth and reconciliation was more than just a heartless move. It was so hurtful to his brand that many are wondering if it isn’t also a sign that he’s had the biscuit.

We’ll no doubt have an avalanche of “progressive” promises as Trudeau swears in his new Cabinet and hands out mandate letters to the chosen few. It won’t really matter. Canadians have seen and heard enough.

From purchasing a pipeline, to continuing to subsidize oil and gas companies, to skipping out of town on a new national holiday, to complacency with sexual misconduct in the military, the lecturing and moralizing tone of Trudeau simply doesn’t carry much weight anymore. Key progressive issues such as climate change, reconciliation and women’s rights will need a new champion, one without the credibility issues that Trudeau now drags with him.

July 7, 2021

In fact, it’s Freeland’s presence during the worst of Trudeau, like the sacking of Jody Wilson-Raybould, that risks holding her back. She wasn’t content to just back Trudeau. When Wilson-Raybould resisted PMO interference in the prosecution of SNC Lavalin, Freeland attacked her for not being a team player

Freeland won’t get the top job without an examination of her role as Trudeau’s proxy and without a fight. There will be other contenders. (CTV) 

 

Tuesday August 24, 2021

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday August 24, 2021

Canada doesn’t need more social media trickery

The last thing this election campaign needs is a drift toward American style social media political manipulation and disinformation.

April 21, 2021

We saw an example of that over the weekend, and the offender is someone we would have hoped was above it — Chrystia Freeland. 

It starts with an online question-and-answer session made in 2020 during the Conservative leadership race. In a tweeted video of the session, which was retweeted by Freeland, O’Toole is questioned about privatized health care. Asked if he would advocate private, “for-profit” health care in Canada, his clear response was “yes.”

The only problem is, the video was edited to manipulate the message. In the same segment, the original video shows O’Toole also noted that universal access to health services is of paramount importance. The condensed clip used in Freeland’s tweet did not include that statement.

Justin Trudeau later retweeted the video, and Twitter marked Freeland’s tweet as “manipulated media.” Conservative lawyers sent a complaint to Elections Canada demanding an investigation and disclosure of who was involved in making the video. Conservative manager of media relations Mathew Clancy said: “It’s disappointing to see the Liberals resort to American-style divisive politics.”

March 1, 2012

That’s rich, considering the Conservatives had their own social media mud slinging event just a week ago, distributing a video mocking Trudeau by placing his face on a character from the movie “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.” It was so offensive even some sitting Conservatives called the tweet juvenile, amateur and a bad idea during an election campaign.

April 10, 2019

Fair enough. The Conservatives are hypocritical and too precious by half, but that doesn’t excuse what the Liberals did. Their campaign social media gurus manipulated a piece of content to change the message from the original. And the Conservatives did the same thing by adding Trudeau’s face to a fake partisan message. 

Both these things are wrong. We should not be concerned about the feelings or reputations of the politicians and parties involved, but Canadians certainly deserve an apology.

This sort of social media distortion is a toxic import from our friends down south. It has become big business and high art in American politics to manufacture social media demonizing the opposition. The Trump Republican leadership and presidential campaign used literally hundreds of operatives to generate false and misleading storylines about their opponents. Many pundits argue that had an impact on Trump’s successful campaigns.

June 26, 2019

Granted, it was probably naive to hope this twisted tactic would not eventually migrate north, and in fact there have been previous examples. But things are getting worse, and that is not something Canadians should sit quietly and tolerate. 

Much as we have been critical of social media giants for accepting and even encouraging this sort of behaviour, Twitter is to be congratulated for its practice of clearly labelling manipulated content. Other social media platforms have taken their own measures, but Twitter’s is among the most clear and identifiable, and that should sufficient incentive for political parties to lay off the disreputable tactic. 

It cheapens already damaged election discourse. It disrespects our democratic process and ideals. Everyone knows election campaigns have their share of spin and partisan fakery. But outright manipulation is a line parties should not to cross. Parties need to understand that, and the best way to ensure that is by public reaction to this sort of unethical behaviour. We don’t need this garbage in our election. (Hamilton Spectator Editorial) 

 

Friday May 7, 2021

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday May 7, 2021

The Political Blame Game

February 6, 2021

For months now, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has blamed everyone for Canada’s trickle of COVID-19 vaccines but himself.

Trudeau and his ministers have gone so far as to blame former Progressive Conservative prime minister Brian Mulroney — who was prime minister from 1984 to 1993 — for the privatization, or “the selling off“, of Connaught Laboratories. What he fails to mention is that Connaught Labs didn’t go anywhere. It’s now part of Sanofi Pasteur, the world’s largest manufacturer of vaccines. The Connaught Campus in Toronto accounts for one-fifth of the company’s global vaccine sales.

Experts in Canada’s innovative pharmaceutical industry — as opposed to the generic pharmaceutical industry — say Trudeau’s attempt to pin the blame on Mulroney or a more recent Conservative prime minister, Stephen Harper, is ironic, because were it not for Mulroney, the innovative industry likely wouldn’t exist here at all.

March 9, 2016

Paul Lucas, who was president and CEO of GlaxoSmithKline Canada from 1994 to 2012, started speaking out and wrote an opinion piece in the Financial Post after he heard federal Liberal Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs Dominic LeBlanc being interviewed on CTV’s Power Play with Evan Solomon, saying that GlaxoSmithKline had closed its manufacturing facility for vaccines during Harper’s Conservative government, which is false.

“This facility didn’t close, it’s still producing most of the flu vaccine for Canada on an annual basis,” Lucas said during a recent telephone interview.

“I’ve been very concerned and frankly upset about the lies that are coming from the federal government about this whole (COVID vaccine) file,” says Lucas, who was integral to the production and distribution of the Canadian vaccine for the H1N1 pandemic in 2009. All of the vaccine for that outbreak was produced in the GSK factory in Quebec City.

“Trudeau has badly botched Canada’s COVID-19 vaccine procurement,” states Lucas.

“First, he blamed Harper for his own failings. Then he blamed Mulroney and then he blamed the provinces. Then he actually turned on his own vaccine task force. He blamed them for about a day or two. Then he blamed the companies — Pfizer for delaying the delivery of its vaccines in January,” explains Lucas. (Calgary Herald) 

November 19, 2020

Meanwhile, Ontario Minister of Long-term Care Merrilee Fullerton faced a call from the Opposition to resign her cabinet post on Tuesday, in the wake of two reports that reviewed her ministry’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

In recent days, Fullerton has been pressed to explicitly acknowledge whether she feels she shares any responsibility for the more than 3,700 deaths of long-term care residents with COVID-19 in Ontario.

During question period Tuesday, NDP Leader Andrea Horwath asked when Fullerton was made aware that some residents had died of dehydration or basic neglect, which led a tense exchange between the two.

“The premise of your question is bordering on obscene,” Fullerton said. “And the reason why is because all of the ministry, public health, medical officers of health, thousands of people have been working to shore up these homes and they were no match for COVID-19.”

Fullerton said that some long-term care homes became “warzones” within days of the first confirmed cases among residents and staff. 

“What we were doing 24 hours a day was trying to get support to those homes, with an unknown virus that wasn’t fully understood and a shortage of supplies globally,” she added.

May 4, 2021

Fullerton then said the NDP had failed to pressure the previous Liberal government into fixing Ontario’s beleaguered long-term care sector.

“Look at your failure. I was left to pick up the pieces from a devastating 15 years of neglect,” she said. “I will not be spoken to that way by the leader of the opposition that neglected this sector.” 

Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk and the Ontario Long-term Care COVID-19 Commission both released their respective reports last week. While the probes examined different aspects of COVID-19’s impact on the long-term care sector, they reached similar conclusions: the ministry was not prepared for a pandemic, in part due to years of inaction to prevent a crisis. (CBC) 

 

Wednesday April 21, 2021

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday April 21, 2021

Will Doug Ford meet the same fate as Mike Harris?

Conservative politicians are sometimes suspicious of advice coming from experts for good reason: The experts just want them to not be conservatives.

But sometimes, their suspicions cause them to ignore good advice. This may have led Ontario Premier Doug Ford to take actions that could doom his government. If so, it won’t be the first time.

July 4, 2001

Former premier Mike Harris’s determination to keep cutting regulations, despite the warnings of experts, contributed to the deaths of seven people in the town of Walkerton, and to the Progressive Conservatives’s defeat at the next election. Mr. Ford may face the same fate, and for the same reason.

In May, 2000, Walkerton’s municipal water supply was contaminated by E. coli bacteria. Along with the deaths, more than 2,300 fell ill, some severely.

A public inquiry led by Justice Dennis O’Connor concluded that the public utilities manager, Stan Koebel, caused the contamination through his own incompetence, and then tried to cover up his misdeeds when people started getting sick. He was eventually sentenced to a year in jail.

The inquiry also concluded that the Harris government had contributed to the disaster. The ministry of the environment was no longer able to properly monitor municipal water supplies because of cuts to its budget and changes in regulations.

“If the MOE had adequately fulfilled its regulatory and oversight role, the tragedy in Walkerton would have been prevented … or at least significantly reduced in scope,” Justice O’Connor concluded.

Common Sense Revolution, 1995

The public had broadly supported the Harris government’s Common Sense Revolution, which slashed taxes, spending and red tape, while balancing the budget.

But people expect government to protect public health. Experts warned that spending cuts, deregulation and privatization had gone too far, endangering public safety, and Walkerton proved the experts right. In 2002, Mr. Harris stepped down as leader; his successor, Ernie Eves, led the PCs to defeat. The Tories remained in the wilderness for 15 years.

January 17, 2019

Since the pandemic began more than a year ago, Mr. Ford has sought to balance the needs of workers and businesses alongside the recommendations of public health and medical officials, an approach that until recently earned strong public approval.

But in the winter, the government appeared to lose that balance. A number of public-health officials and medical specialists warned that a third wave of COVID-19 infections, fuelled by more infectious variants of the virus, could slam into the province unless the government kept tight restrictions in place. Seeking to preserve jobs and personal freedom, the government instead relaxed restrictions. Now, we’re in the thick of it.

September 5, 2020

Last week, with the case counts rising and ICUs approaching capacity, the Ford government appeared to panic. The Premier on Friday announced a series of unpopular and seemingly counterproductive measures, such as banning outdoor gatherings, where risk of transmission is known to be lower, while permitting some indoor workplaces to remain open, where risk is higher. All of this was accompanied by draconian warnings that police could stop and fine people who ventured outside their home without sufficient cause.

Reaction was so intense – even strong Progressive Conservative supporters were appalled by what appeared to be arbitrary and perverse regulations – that the government was forced to back down on some measures within a day. Now, critics are calling for Mr. Ford’s resignation.

Conservative governments often arrive in power with a mandate from voters to root out vested and wasteful interests, both within and outside of government.

The hard part comes with the transition from the reform phase to the steady-government phase. Some conservative politicians manage that transition: Stephen Harper, federally; Brad Wall in Saskatchewan; Gordon Campbell (a Liberal who was really a conservative) in British Columbia.

Young Doug Ford: The Series

Other conservative politicians fail to mediate the conflicts between rural and urban members of caucus. They cut past the fat, into muscle and bone; their skepticism of elites blinds them to advice they should be taking.

The Ford government’s problems are not unique: Outside Atlantic Canada, infection rates have been rising across the country. Vaccination levels are rising, too, and may eventually beat back this third wave. The next election is more than a year away. The Premier and his government may get through this.

Or Doug Ford may meet the same fate as Mike Harris. If so, the third wave will be his Walkerton. (Globe & Mail)