Jason Kenney

Tuesday April 28, 2020

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday April 28, 2020

Conservatives are struggling to make their mark in the midst of a crisis

It’s been a rough six or seven weeks for most Canadians. Politically, it’s been especially tough time for the Conservative Party and its outgoing leader, Andrew Scheer.

Andrew Scheer Gallery

While the House of Commons has been shuttered for weeks due to the pandemic, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has been holding daily press conferences, as have some of his most important cabinet ministers. While the House has resumed reduced operations — a once-weekly in-person sitting and two virtual sittings — the stage is not nearly as large as it was before.

That hasn’t kept Scheer from taking to the airwaves. Unlike most provincial opposition leaders across the country (Alberta’s Rachel Notley being one notable exception), the Conservative leader has been holding regular press conferences of his own.

While Scheer has tried to use that platform to lay out his criticisms of the government’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, he has at times been knocked off-message — for example, by questions about comments made by Derek Sloan, a Conservative MP and candidate for the leadership of the party, regarding the loyalty of Dr. Theresa Tam, the country’s chief public health officer.

Most provincial opposition leaders have kept relatively low profiles, with adjourned legislatures limiting them to press releases, email and social media to get their messages out.

Those efforts are unlikely to boost their popularity — particularly in the face of polling that suggests provincial governments have widespread support for their efforts to contain the spread of COVID-19.

But it doesn’t seem that Scheer’s more active approach is doing him or his party any favours, either. (CBC) 

March 27, 2020

Meanwhile, Ontario Premier Doug Ford called anti-lockdown protesters at Queen’s Park on Saturday “a bunch of yahoos” and said they were being “selfish” and “irresponsible” for demonstrating against provincial emergency orders in place to slow the spread of COVID-19.

Scores of people gathered on the Ontario legislative grounds on Saturday afternoon to call for an end to the shutdown of many services, businesses, activities and public spaces across the province amid the pandemic. At its peak, the protest drew about 200 people.

Ontario has been under a state of emergency for 40 days and much is closed as the number of COVID-19 deaths, hospitalizations and cases continues to rise. 

Ford, when asked by a reporter at a news conference about the protesters, blasted their actions. 

“These people that are absolutely irresponsible, it’s reckless to do what they’re doing. Personally, I think it’s selfish,” Ford said. (CBC) 

Meanwhile, Conservative MP Pierre Poilievre took aim at the Liberals’ coronavirus stimulus programs on Sunday, saying that while his party supports compensating Canadians amid the pandemic, the measures are not working as intended.

“These massive programs will be like a gigantic experiment in freakonomics because in many cases they are having the opposite of their intended effect,” he told reporters. (Global) https://globalnews.ca/news/6870332/coronavirus-freakonomics-conservative/

April 23, 2020

Meanwhile, President Trump’s public statements about using disinfectants to potentially treat the coronavirus have put him in the company of pseudoscientists and purveyors of phony elixirs who promote and sell industrial bleach as a “miracle cure” for autism, malaria and a long list of medical conditions.

The president’s comments, at a White House briefing last week, have already prompted widespread incredulity, warnings from health experts and a spike in calls to poison control centers around the country. The makers of Clorox and Lysol urged Americans not to inject or ingest their products. (New York Times) 

 

Tuesday December 10, 2019

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday December 10, 2019

SNL spoofs Justin Trudeau’s candid comments about Donald Trump

December 4, 2019

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s recent candid comments about U.S. President Donald Trump received the Saturday Night Live treatment, with some big-name comedians dropping in to portray Trudeau and other world leaders as cool kids teasing a clueless Trump.

Jimmy Fallon as Trudeau, Paul Rudd as French President Emmanuel Macron, and James Corden as British Prime Minister Boris Johnson won’t let Trump sit at their table in the skit and put a sign on his back saying, “Impeach me!!!”

Nearly one week ago, Trudeau was seen standing in a huddle with Macron, Johnson, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and Princess Anne, daughter of Queen Elizabeth, at a Buckingham Palace reception for leaders at the NATO summit, joking about Trump’s long, impromptu press conferences.

“Some dismissed it as petty high school gossip,” the SNL intro begins, “but you should have seen what happened in the NATO cafeteria.”

June 27, 2016

The sketch pokes fun at Johnson’s inclusion in the caught-on-video chat, given the British prime minister’s generally closer relationship with Trump.

Rudd’s Macron tells Baldwin’s Trump that an empty seat had been promised to a friend, to which the Trump character replies that he is Johnson’s friend.

“Don’t make this harder than it already is,” Corden says, looking away. “I’m hanging out with these guys now.”

The sketch has the Trudeau character mocking Trump’s appearance and intelligence, while the Macron character tells the others to wave to Trump at the other table, “so he thinks we like him.”

“Those are my best friends,” the Trump character says. “We run this place.”

The Johnson character also makes a joke about Macron’s wife being older, and the Trump character says, “That’s good. I like when it’s mean, but not about me.”

December 20, 2016

The real Trump has seemed to shrug off the recording, calling Trudeau “two-faced,” but also overall a good guy.

Later in the show, during the Weekend Update segment, the SNL cast took one more dig at Trudeau, playing off of Trump’s “two-faced” comment.

“It’s true, I’ve definitely seen Trudeau with at least one other face,” says host Colin Jost, while displaying a 2001 picture of Trudeau wearing brownface as part of an Aladdin costume in a photo that emerged during the fall election. (CBC) 

 

Thursday November 21, 2019

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday November 21, 2019

Why Chrystia Freeland is the indispensable Trudeau cabinet minister

Justin Trudeau and Chrystia Freeland have been very good for each other. Not for the first time, the future of the Liberal government — and a lot else — seem to be riding on the two of them finding success together.

August 28, 2018

“She is someone with whom I worked very, very closely, and with great success, on renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement, with the challenges of the American administration,” Trudeau said Wednesday afternoon, using the most delicate language possible to describe the experience of dealing with Donald Trump’s White House.

“We know that as we move forward on issues that matter across the country, like energy and the environment and other large issues, we will have to engage in a strong and positive way with different orders of government.”

During a phone call with Trudeau in the summer of 2018, at perhaps the most contentious moment of the prolonged struggle over NAFTA, Trump described Freeland as a “nasty woman.” In some circles, that’s a badge of honour in its own right.

But Freeland came away from that prolonged drama with a claim to having played a pivotal role in preserving this country’s most important trading relationship at a moment of unprecedented instability.

May 16, 2019

Her reward is the title of “deputy prime minister” and responsibility for helping to hold together the world’s largest democratic federation at a time of profound change and uncertainty.

It’s the culmination of a political career that began six years ago when Trudeau and his top advisers recruited Freeland to run in a by-election in Toronto Centre. Trudeau had become Liberal leader just six months earlier and Freeland became his first star candidate — the first evidence that Trudeau could attract smart and accomplished people to serve alongside him.

Freeland was something like the platonic ideal of a Liberal candidate: a Harvard-educated Rhodes scholar who had become an internationally recognized journalist and author in New York. And while the Conservatives were scoffing that Trudeau wasn’t ready to lead, Freeland was ready to line up behind him.

From Trudeau’s perspective, not all of his star recruits worked out for the best (Jody Wilson-Raybould, most notably) but Freeland became central and integral to his government.

A year before she joined the Liberals, Freeland published her second book, Plutocrats: The Rise of the New Global Super-Rich and the Fall of Everyone Else. Once in the fold, she was an important voice in shaping a political agenda focused on increasing taxes on the wealthiest and building supports for the middle class.

October 20, 2016

In Trudeau’s first cabinet, she was made international trade minister. There, she dragged a free trade deal with Europe to completion — famously displaying “visible emotion” during the final push. She was not a natural politician but she slowly got better at it. (CBC) 

 

Friday October 25, 2019

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday October 25, 2019

Wexit and Brexit

Justin Trudeau’s Liberal Party was re-elected Monday night and that has some Alberta residents calling for separation.

October 23, 2019

The Liberals were elected as a minority government but did not win a single seat in Alberta or Saskatchewan and lost the popular vote 34 to 33 per cent to the Conservative Party.

Alberta proved once again to be a Conservative stronghold with all but one of the province’s ridings going blue — NDP candidate Heather McPherson won in Edmonton-Strathcona — and the party capturing 70 per cent of the vote.

As it became evident on Monday evening the Liberals would be re-elected, #Wexit and “separation” began trending on Twitter.

Mount Royal University political scientist Duane Bratt said he expects Alberta’s separation movement to heat up.

May 3, 2019

“You have this large cohort of Conservative MPs. How does the government function? How does the Trudeau government function? What is (Alberta Premier Jason) Kenney’s response?” Bratt said. “I think this is a real danger to national unity.”

On Oct. 20, the Facebook group VoteWexit.com had just over 2,000 members. By Tuesday evening, the group’s membership had skyrocketed to more than 165,000 members. According to Storyful, the group’s membership grew over 8,000 per cent in a 36-hour period.

The group is calling for the separation of western Canada from the rest of the country.

“We’re going to be free from the blood-sucking, parasitic relationship we have with eastern Canada right now,” Wexit Alberta founder Peter Downing said. (Global News) 

Meanwhile, Under normal circumstances, Boris Johnson would be celebrating. But nothing is normal in Brexit Britain.

July 24, 2019

Despite not having a parliamentary majority, his brand new legislative agenda has just been approved by the House of Commons. Instead of popping open the champagne and getting ready to crack on with governing, Johnson is gearing up for an early general election.

On Thursday afternoon, the Prime Minister said that he would give lawmakers more time to scrutinize his Brexit deal, but only if they agreed to an election on December 12. “If they genuinely want more time to study this excellent deal they can have it — but they have to agree to a general election on December 12,” he said in an interview with the BBC.

A formal motion requesting the vote will be placed before Parliament on Monday. It will be Johnson’s third request for an election, and it stands considerably more chance of being granted than the previous two. 

Much has happened in Brexitland of late. Having failed to get his deal approved by Parliament on Saturday, Johnson was forced to ask the EU for an extension to the Brexit process beyond October 31, to avoid the UK leaving without a formal deal. (CNN) 

 

Friday October 4, 2019

October 4, 2019

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday October 4, 2019

Here’s how often Trudeau has called out Harper, Ford instead of Scheer

It’s no secret to those following the federal election campaign that Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau seems to be going after former prime minister Stephen Harper as much, if not more, than Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer.

September 26, 2019

But just how much more?

Roughly 33 per cent.

Global News has been tracking how many times at official events and media availabilities each of the two front runners reference the other — or others entirely.

That does not include photo ops, whistlestops or unscheduled remarks.

Those records show Trudeau has referenced Harper (in English) at speeches and campaign stops a total of 62 times so far over the last 21 days.

Scheer, on the other hand, has mentioned Trudeau 326 times so far in the campaign.

May 30, 2017

That’s equal to roughly seven times the amount that Trudeau mentioned him.

Global News reached out to both parties asking about their attacks but didn’t receive clear answers to the question of why they were focusing on the attacks seen so far: a Conservative spokesperson accused Trudeau of being afraid to run on his record and whipping up fear, while a Liberal said the choice for voters is whether to return to the same kinds of policies seen under the Harper and Ford governments.

A source working with Ford’s government also echoed the federal party remarks when asked about the number of times Trudeau has brought up Ford, accusing Trudeau of “banking on the fact that he can make Ontarians afraid.”

October 28, 2016

“The reason that Scheer is pounding on Trudeau is because the entire Liberal brand is Trudeau. So if you’re going to rough up the Liberals, it starts with their leader and he also knows Trudeau is a controversial figure in Canada now,” said Darrell Bricker, president of Ipsos.

“For the people who don’t like him, he is a hot button so every time he [Scheer] gets a chance to push it, he does.”

Bricker said the same isn’t true for Scheer, who polls suggest remains an undefined brand in the minds of voters.

April 17, 2019

“He’s not the Conservative brand the same way Trudeau is the Liberal brand,” Bricker said. “So what the Liberals are trying to do on the other side, because he is a bit of a blank slate, they’ve got their chalk out and they’re trying to colour him in.”

The way they’re trying to do that, Bricker said, is by making direct links in voters’ minds to two other highly controversial figures: Ford and Harper.

According to a poll by Angus Reid last week, half of Ontario voters say their opinions of Ford and his government will sway their vote on Oct. 21, with 85 per cent of those saying Ford’s government will make them less likely to support Scheer and the federal Conservatives. (Global)

Putting a lid on problems from r/canadapoliticshumour