Justin Trudeau

Saturday June 22, 2019

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday June 22, 2019

Trudeau and Trump meet and U.S. president says he will press China to release detained Canadians 

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s third official visit to meet with U.S. President Donald Trump got off to a better start than his last disastrous G7 meeting with the unpredictable president.

May 24, 2019

Trump welcomed Trudeau to the Oval Office, calling him a “friend” and saying they would have a “positive day” and in a photo opportunity, Trump told reporters he would take up Canada’s cause with Chinese president Xi Jinping to release the detained Canadians “at Justin’s request.”

“I will represent him well, we have a meeting set up with President Xi and it’s obviously on the big transaction that we’re talking about and negotiating…but anything that I can do to help Canada I will be doing.”

Trump also said Trudeau’s going up to Capitol Hill to speak to members of Congress about ratifying the new NAFTA is “a good thing.”

Trump wavered for a moment on the ratification of the new NAFTA however, after a reporter asked about a promise of no more tariffs when the deal is ratified.

November 30, 2018

“I have to get the Democrats to approve it, so I like your positive thinking. But if — and the if is really subject to the Democrats, let’s see what happens — but I really believe that Nancy Pelosi and the House will approve it, I think the senate will approve it rapidly. It’s going to be very bipartisan.”

Trump did not rule out any further tariffs against Canada and Mexico, saying “they have to do what they have to do.”

He said if there are any “tremendous shipments of certain products” into U.S. markets, he might revive them.

“We were very pleased the steel and aluminum tariffs were lifted,” said Trudeau.

Trump replied: “There won’t be hopefully transshipping. If there’s transshipping, I’ll call Justin and he’ll take care of it, I’ll probably call him a second time and if he does it again, we’ll have to talk.” (Hamilton Spectator)

 

Friday June 28, 2019

June 28, 2019

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday June 28, 2019

Canada has ‘broad international coalition’ of support on China file, Freeland says

Canada is fortunate to have assembled a “broad international coalition” of countries who support Canada and believe arbitrary detentions are harmful, Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland said Friday at the G20 summit in Osaka.

August 10, 2018

Freeland, who spoke to reporters alongside her cabinet colleague Finance Minister Bill Morneau, said China has been hearing about the detention of two Canadians from a range of countries, adding that efforts continue here at the summit.

The Prime Minister’s Office said Trudeau had “brief, constructive interactions” with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the first day of meetings at the gathering of major economies.

Video footage from a working lunch on Friday showed the two leaders sitting beside each other but not interacting for several minutes while cameras were positioned on them. Trudeau could be seen making an effort to interact with Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, located on his other side.

Trudeau and Xi greeted each other prior to the interaction in the footage, government officials said.

December 5, 2017

Canada has been open for a long time to having conversations with China in addition to discussions unfolding at some diplomatic levels, Freeland said Friday, adding it remains “very, very open” to having conversations at the summit at higher level.

At present, communication has proved to be difficult because the Chinese have indicated they have no interest in speaking with senior officials including Freeland or Trudeau.

To try and get through to China, Canada is now relying heavily on the influence of U.S. President Donald Trump to raise the issue in his own bilateral meeting with the Chinese president on Saturday. The president committed to doing so following a meeting last week with Trudeau in Washington.

Freeland wouldn’t speak to whether there was a specific ask of Trump going into the meeting, adding it is never prudent or appropriate to detail private meetings with partners.

June 22, 2019

In addition to having the backing of the U.S., the prime minister has been trying to establish heightened support as part of a strategy to encourage China to release two Canadians detained in China and to put an end to diplomatic tensions between the two countries.

The arrests of the detained Canadians is largely viewed as retaliation for the December arrest of Chinese high tech executive Meng Wanzhou.

Meng remains under house arrest in Vancouver, where she awaits extradition to the U.S. to face allegations of fraud in violating Iran sanctions.

It is important to see whether Trump does indeed raise the issue of the detentions, how he does that, and whether it has any impact, said Thomas Bernes, a fellow with the Centre for International Governance Innovation, a research think-tank. (CBC News) 

 

Thursday June 20, 2019

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday June 20, 2019

Scheer’s climate pledge is nonsense, just like Trudeau’s

Conservative leader Andrew Scheer’s long-awaited climate change plan means the Tories will now join Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the Liberals in lying through their teeth leading up to the Oct. 21 election.

May 2, 2019

Scheer’s 60-page plan released Wednesday, which does not include a carbon tax, says the greenhouse gas reduction targets agreed to by Trudeau under the Paris climate accord in 2015, “are Conservative targets and our plan will give Canada the best chance at reaching them.”

Scheer has to say that because Trudeau’s targets used to be Stephen Harper’s targets and Scheer previously said he supports the Paris accord.

But in the real world Scheer’s plan, containing 50 initiatives, has as much chance of hitting the Paris targets as Trudeau’s, meaning somewhere between slim and none and slim just left town.

This as evidenced by the fact Scheer’s plan contains no timeline or deadlines for actually achieving the Paris target of reducing our emissions to 30% below 2005 levels by 2030.

That means Trudeau and Environment Minister Catherine McKenna will spend the election denouncing Scheer for not having a plan to meet the Paris targets.

Of course, they will ignore the fact the federal environment commissioner, nine of 10 provincial auditors general, the United Nations, the federal government’s own studies and the Parliamentary Budget Officer, say the same thing about Trudeau’s plan. (Toronto Sun)

April 11, 2018

Meanwhile, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is an icon of progressive politics who has promised to “put a price on pollution”. Last week, to much applause, he proposed a ban on single-use plastics. On Monday night, his government declared a national “climate emergency.”

He is also now the public face of a Canadian plan to expand a pipeline that would triple the amount of crude oil that moves from the Alberta tar sands to the Pacific Coast for shipment around the world.

Such is his dilemma — and Canada’s.

Trudeau’s Liberal government announced Tuesday it will push ahead with the stalled Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion, $5.5 billion project that has long pitted the country’s energy sector against the concerns of environmental and some indigenous groups.

December 1, 2016

Trudeau, announcing the decision at a news conference in Ottawa, pledged that every dollar earned from the pipeline will be used to fund projects to power Canada’s transition to clean energy.

“We need to create wealth today so we can invest in the future,” he said. “We need resources to invest in Canadians so they can take advantage of the opportunities generated by a rapidly changing economy, here at home and around the world.”

The move will be welcomed by the country’s struggling oil sector and the many Canadians whose fortunes are tied to it. Landlocked Alberta produces four-fifths of Canadian crude but struggles to get it abroad, and so must settle for selling at steep discounts against global benchmarks — hitting the province hard.

But many Canadians have protested the expansion proposal out of concern for oil spills and the continuing promotion of climate-changing fossil fuels. They question whether this is the moment to increase Canadian shipments of oil.

Trudeau has been left to walk a tightrope between the two sides, taking heat from both as he limps toward a federal election this fall. (Washington Post) 

 

Tuesday June 18, 2019

June 18, 2019

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday June 18, 2019

Does Justin Trudeau apologise too much?

(Article from March 2018) Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has so far issued four formal apologies for historic injustice since his government’s election in 2015, beating all his predecessors in government mea culpas. Why is Trudeau Canada’s most apologetic leader?

Pez Prime Minister

Just over six months after his election, Justin Trudeau stood in Canada’s Parliament to say sorry.

His apology was made before descendents of passengers of the Komagata Maru, who were present for the statement.

The Japanese vessel was carrying 376 Sikh, Muslim, and Hindu passengers who were denied entry into Canada in 1914 under immigration laws at the time.

Trudeau called the incident “a stain on Canada’s past”.

It was the first in a series of formal apologies made by Trudeau’s Liberal government to acknowledge historic injustices in the country’s past.

His government is expected to issue at least one more mea culpa, having hinted at recognition of a 1939 incident where Canada turned away Jews seeking asylum from Nazi persecution.

Acting on a recommendation from Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, last year Trudeau also asked Pope Francis to apologise for the Catholic Church’s role in the residential school system, where indigenous children were abused for decades.

February 25, 2010

His government is expected to issue at least one more mea culpa, having hinted at recognition of a 1939 incident where Canada turned away Jews seeking asylum from Nazi persecution.

Acting on a recommendation from Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, last year Trudeau also asked Pope Francis to apologise for the Catholic Church’s role in the residential school system, where indigenous children were abused for decades.

The elder Trudeau rejected the idea that a government’s purpose could be to right the past.

“It is our purpose to be just in our time,” he told the House of Commons.

Historian Jordan Stanger-Ross of the University of Victoria says there can be “a fair amount of skepticism” around formal political apologies.

Be it an attempt to close the book on the past wrongs or the political considerations of key constituencies, “government always has clearly mixed motives in apologising,” he says.

The events Trudeau has chosen to apologise for fall squarely in line with the Liberal government’s contemporary policies.

The party campaigned on the idea that “diversity is a source of strength” – a stance he referenced in his Komagata Maru speech. (BBC) 

 

LETTERS to the EDITOR, Hamilton Spectator, June 27, 2019

RE: June 18 editorial cartoon

I know many people, like your cartoonist, like to make fun of our prime minister’s numerous apologies. But the most recent one, which your cartoonist scoffed at, was to Italian-Canadians who were interred during Second World War. This particular apology is no laughing matter and long overdue.

Your cartoonist insulted the memory of my Italian ancestors. And for good measure he made fun of Trudeau’s speech defect. Is that what you call a good day’s work?

Deanna Campagnolo, Burlington

Trudeau’s empty apologies

RE: Justin Trudeau

Isn’t it just lovely that Justin Trudeau can say sorry for anything and everything that he had no hand in or wasn’t alive for but he can’t do the same for his own foibles. That tells more about the man than anything else he has to say.

Rob Montgomery, Hannon

 


 

Friday June 14, 2019

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday June 14, 2019

Time for Moe, Kenney to cool their jets on national unity talk

Is this where politics is taking our nation?

This is not to suggest Bill C-49 and C-69 isn’t a problem for western oil.

December 7, 2018

Nor is it to suggest for a moment that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his government haven’t been oblivious to western concerns or that there isn’t legitimate frustration over idiotic notions like Quebec Premier Francois Legault suggesting western oil is no longer socially acceptable. Why there would be different rules for oil tankers on the East Coast than on the West Coast needs to challenged.

And if Trudeau is condemned this October to the inglorious fate of a one-term prime minister, it will be difficult to argue it was undeserved. A government fuelled by the frivolous image politics of its leader is now running on fumes. Its engine is clogged with SNC-Lavalin debris.

But none of this justifies the bizarre and divisive hysteria we are now hearing. Premiers and others are inflating into a national unity crisis pieces of federal legislation addressing changes to the National Energy Board and Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency and changes to how major infrastructure projects are reviewed and approved.

October 12, 2016

Remember when a national unity crisis was actually about a national unity crisis, like when a quarter of the country was voting to separate?

Let’s be clear: This not the 1980 or 1995 Quebec referendum. It’s not even the National Energy Program of the elder Trudeau of the late 1970s, although, for partisan political reasons, one suspects certain politicians would love to see Bill C-69 raised to that level.

This is 2019 and we’re still just talking about a bill affecting pipelines. How much effect it will have is a subject of legitimate debate, but consider two pertinent questions: What happens to the notion that Bill C-69 stops all pipeline development, if the Trudeau government goes ahead with approval of Trans-Mountain pipeline as early as next week? While we surely need and should have more pipelines, shouldn’t we do our utmost to ensure there aren’t future spills like the Husky spill of three years ago? (Leader-Post)