Conservative

Wednesday May 5, 2021

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday May 5, 2021

Being Jason Kenney is the worst job in politics today

May 26, 2006

As former Alberta premier Ralph Klein used to say, the secret to being a successful politician is to figure out which way the parade is going and jump in front of it.

So spare some pity for current Premier Jason Kenney as he tries to straddle two marching bands of public opinion, which are on a nasty collision course over his handling of the pandemic.

In short, Kenney is failing spectacularly in every direction he’s turned – and the result has been the fastest infection surge anywhere in North America coupled with Canada’s loudest public revolt against overdue restrictions to curb the outbreak.

It’s a uniquely tricky business bordering on mission impossible to govern Alberta even in good times, where voters are happiest with the least amount of government in their lives.

As one rural MLA noted many years ago, “My folks think that painting a yellow stripe down the middle of the highway is too much government interference.”

But mix an oil industry meltdown with enterprise-killing lockdowns and hospitals near the breaking point and you create the perfect storm of angry opposition.

January 26, 2021

Closing down businesses, schools and rodeos has sparked outrage and defiance in rural areas, where COVID-19 is not spreading as quickly.

But by heeding the cries of the United Conservative Party’s rural base to go slow on restrictions, the Kenney government has infuriated cities where soaring third-wave infection rates are swamping intensive care units.

Kenney’s challenge has been complicated by an internal revolt of his own MLAs, some still smarting from the absorption of the Wild Rose Party to create the United Progress Conservatives, who have taken a very public stand against restrictions they deem excessive.

During a long news conference on Wednesday, a weary-eyed Kenney shrugged off the internal dissent as merely a welcome exercise in democratic debate.

Sorry, but attacking public health measures designed to save lives is not up for debate and Kenney really needs to send a no-nonsense signal this is not tolerated with a mutineer expulsion or two. (CTV) 

 

Tuesday April 27, 2021

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday April 27, 2021

Politicians behaving badly in the pandemic

What should be done when politicians act against public interest? There are plenty of recent examples, including those who get a kick out of downplaying and minimizing COVID-19 and the health measures employed to fight it.

July 11, 2019

On Saturday, in Peterborough, People’s Party of Canada Leader Maxime Bernier was ticketed after his speech to an illegal anti-lockdown rally. Also in attendance was independent MPP Randy Hillier, who got into a heated face-to-face debate with local police Chief Scott Gilbert. Hillier and Bernier were charged with breaching the stay-at-home order.

Conservative MP David Sweet went one better — or worse. He had to apologize after issuing a tweet on Friday falsely claiming there is “no evidence” that lockdowns work, and calling them “the single greatest breach” of civil liberties “since the Internment Camps during WW2.”

April 28, 2020

At first he wouldn’t back down. In a second tweet he said: “To be clear I am referring to Canadian internment camps of innocent immigrants during WW2,” he wrote. “Unjustly, because of their ethnic association had their civil liberties suspended even though they were landed immigrants or Canadians.”

McMaster University assistant dean in the department of biochemistry and biomedical sciences Dr. Matthew Miller nicely expressed the outrage felt by many, saying: “(Second World War) internment camps disproportionately affected a minority racialized community in Canada. And this pandemic, we know, is disproportionately affecting minority racialized communities, equity-seeking groups. And these lockdowns, frankly, protect those groups.”

After a Twitter outrage, Sweet sent a third tweet, claiming he didn’t intend to compare the two issues. Interesting, since his own wording in his own tweets shows that is exactly what he was doing. In any case he eventually apologized “to anyone offended.”

June 23, 2020

In case you don’t know, about 24,000 people, including 12,000 Japanese Canadians, were forced into internment camps during the Second World War. Men in the camps were often separated from their families and forced to do physical labour, according to the Canadian Museum for Human Rights. Many lost all their property and thousands were later exiled to Japan. 

One expert called Sweet’s claims “disgusting,” and that’s an appropriate description.

Let’s not forget now-ousted Conservative MP Derek Sloan and similarly booted former Ontario Conservative MPP Roman Baber, who also engaged in COVID-19 and lockdown denial, and paid a political price. 

And let’s not forget West Lincoln Mayor David Bylsma, who attended anti-lockdown rallies and has mocked public health advice and direction intended to keep his citizens safe. He has faced a storm of criticism from his regional council colleagues and also an integrity commission complaint. 

January 16, 2021

So here is the question: Where do elected officials elected in large part to act in the interest of public welfare and safety get off doing just the opposite? And who is holding them to account? Sweet has already said he is retiring and will not run again. But why isn’t he now out of Erin O’Toole’s caucus like Derek Sloan is? Baber and Hillier were ousted from Doug Ford’s Conservative caucus, but they continue to sit and spew their pandemic denial rhetoric. And Bylsma is still mayor in West Lincoln in spite of all the best attempts by his colleagues to shut him up.

Some will say yes, because they were all elected and serve at the will of citizens. There’s something to that. But there is also something to this: All have blatantly abandoned their duty to promote public safety. That is a cardinal sin and they should pay for it. (Hamilton Spectator) 

 

Saturday March 27, 2021

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday March 27, 2021

Week in Review: Stuck things

Crews are working to clear a traffic jam at Egypt’s Suez Canal, the world’s busiest trade route, after the massive container ship “Ever Given” ran aground. Global News explains what this could mean for oil prices. 

March 23, 2021

Meanwhile, Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole is sticking with his long-standing view that a federal carbon price is not the way to tackle the growing threat of climate change across the country, following a decision by the Supreme Court of Canada authorizing its constitutionality.

In an interview on CTV News Channel’s Power Play on Thursday, O’Toole said his approach would focus instead on partnering with provinces and bolstering the economy to get emissions down, though he didn’t provide exact details about how doing so would achieve his stated goal.

“The court said what we all know — that climate change is real and it’s important for us to have a serious approach,” he said.

May 14, 2019

“I want to have a plan that Canada can meet its targets. I’ve also said I’d like to see a net-zero approach plan, a made-in-Canada net-zero approach plan over the longer term, which is the 2050 timeline, but to do it without taxing people. As I said the carbon tax impacts our competitiveness and it hurts people in the margins the most. I think it’s backwards to be honest.”

In a 6-3 decision, the top court decided on Thursday that a price on pollution is entirely constitutional and that Ottawa has a right to set minimum pricing standards for greenhouse gas emissions in the provinces.

May 27, 2017

“The undisputed existence of a threat to the future of humanity cannot be ignored,” wrote Chief Justice Richard Wagner.

The case brings a legal end to a years-long battle between Ottawa and many provinces over the carbon price, and prompted Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe to start looking at a homegrown carbon-pricing mechanism and Alberta Premier Jason Kenney to nudge open the door to doing so too.

Saskatchewan, Ontario and Alberta challenged the Liberal government’s 2018 Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act in court, arguing it was a federal overreach into provincial jurisdiction over everything from taxes and the environment to natural-resource development.

O’Toole said his party would target large emitters of greenhouse gas emissions and respect the individual carbon reducing frameworks already in place in some provinces.

During the party’s policy convention over the weekend, delegates notably voted against a resolution that would have included the line “climate change is real” in the party’s official policy document.

Environment Minister Jonathan Wilkinson said the Supreme Court’s decision on carbon pricing is a “good day for Canada.”

“Read the academic literature, go talk to an economist. They will tell you it’s the most efficient and effective way to reduce emissions and to incentivize innovation,” he told Power Play. (CTV)

“That cargo ship wedged in the Suez Canal may be a disaster for international trade, but it’s been a boon for political cartoonists. And it being an international incident, lots of people get to chip in, like Canadian Graeme Mackay, who likens it to the Conservative Party’s environmental stance”

Tuesday March 23, 2021

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday March 23, 2021

O’Toole’s pitch to get Conservatives to embrace ‘change’ may be off to a shaky start

Erin O’Toole told Conservatives this weekend that their party must change — because if it doesn’t, he said, it won’t be able to win the votes necessary to defeat Justin Trudeau’s Liberals in the next election.

May 2, 2019

And if the Liberals do win, he added, they’ll be able to implement their own changes — changes that O’Toole cast as frightening and potentially ruinous.

But O’Toole didn’t tell Conservatives exactly how they need to change. And then delegates delivered a potentially damaging vote on climate change policy that suggests his party base might not be ready to move very far.

O’Toole is on solid ground when he says the Conservative Party needs to try something different. His own polling numbers make that obvious. But so did the last federal election.

In 2019, Andrew Scheer’s Conservatives ran on an implicit promise to return to the policy agenda of Stephen Harper’s government. Scheer promised to smile more than his predecessor did but stopped short of offering a new approach — particularly on climate change.

June 23, 2020

The Conservatives won 34 per cent of the popular vote in that election. That was two points better than the party’s performance under Harper in 2015, but its national result in 2019 was inflated by the massive Conservative turnout in Alberta and Saskatchewan. In Ontario and Quebec — where 199 of the country’s 338 ridings are located — the Conservatives actually lost ground under Scheer.

A year and a half later, O’Toole’s Conservatives are sitting at 30 per cent nationally. And O’Toole’s personal approval rating might be even more of a problem.

August 25, 2020

According to survey results released by Abacus Data last week, 23 per cent of Canadians are committed to voting Conservative in the next election and another 23 per cent would consider voting Conservative.

But as the Abacus numbers point out, the differences between those two groups are substantial. Compared to those who have decided already to vote for O’Toole’s party, those potential Conservative voters are younger, more diverse, much more concerned about climate change and much less angry about Justin Trudeau.

September 1, 2020

O’Toole said his party must have a “serious” and “comprehensive” plan for climate change. But he doubled down on his criticism of the current federal carbon price and fell back on a framing that casts “the environment” as a discrete issue — as opposed to a broader view that sees climate policy as intertwined with almost all other areas of public policy.

“As important as climate change is, getting our economy back on track is more important,” he said.

In his prepared remarks, he said he wanted to defeat the “lie” that the Conservative Party is a party of “climate change deniers.” On Friday night and then again during a question-and-answer session with party members on Saturday afternoon, O’Toole declared that the “debate” over climate change is over.

But in between those two pronouncements came the news that Conservative delegates had rejected a resolution that would have declared that “climate change is real” and “the Conservative party is willing to act” — while committing the party to targeting high emitters and supporting innovation.

The headlines generated by that vote might be a serious setback to O’Toole’s goal of rebranding his party. Liberals will no doubt be happy to remind him of that vote at every opportunity in the weeks and months ahead. (CBC)

Sketch of being pulled back from the big kids’ pool