Sunny ways

Saturday September 16, 2023

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday September 16, 2023

Sunny Days for Poilievre as Liberal Fortunes Dim in Polls

September 12, 2023

Pierre Poilievre, the leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, finds himself in an ironic situation as the Liberals face a decline in the polls. Over the summer, the political landscape has shifted dramatically. The Conservatives, under Poilievre’s leadership, have steadily gained support and now stand at a commanding 41 percent in Abacus Data’s latest national survey. In contrast, the Liberal Party has seen a decline in support, now down to 26 percent.

Opinion: Nice try, Prime Minister Trudeau. But it’s too little, too late  

August 22, 2023

This shift can be attributed to several factors. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is experiencing near-unprecedented rates of disapproval, especially among younger voters who were instrumental in his 2015 election victory. Millennials are now showing strong support for the Conservatives, and even Generation Z is favouring them over the Liberals. Trudeau’s approval rating has plummeted to just 33 percent, with a disapproval rating of 63 percent.

The primary reason for this shift in public sentiment is the economic challenges facing Canadians. Rising housing costs and the increasing cost of living have eroded trust in the Liberal government’s ability to address these issues effectively. According to the Abacus Data poll, the “rising cost of living” is the top concern for Canadians under 40.

Furthermore, environmental and climate change issues, once a significant focus for the Liberals, have taken a backseat in voters’ minds. Only 23 percent of Millennials now consider climate change one of their top three political concerns.

Liberal Party: The “Sunny Way”  

August 5, 2022

Pierre Poilievre, despite initial skepticism from non-Conservatives, has steadily risen in popularity over the past year and is now the preferred choice for prime minister among a significant portion of Canadians. A survey by the Angus Reid Institute shows Poilievre with 32 percent support for prime minister, compared to Trudeau’s 17 percent.

The shift in priorities and the decline in Liberal support have led to a significant change in the political landscape. The Conservatives have made breakthroughs in support in Ontario and Atlantic Canada over the summer, making a Conservative majority government the most likely outcome in any future election. According to projections, the Tories could win a majority of 179 seats, with the Liberals and NDP lagging behind with 103 and 21 seats, respectively. (AI.) Editorial cartoon published in the Hamilton Spectator, and the Toronto Star.

 

Friday August 5, 2022

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday August 5, 2022

Out-of-office reply: Prime Minister Trudeau, family on holiday in Costa Rica

March 14, 2019

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is heading to Costa Rica for a two-week vacation with his family.

The Prime Minister’s Office says the family is returning to the same place where they stayed over the Christmas holiday in 2019 and that they are paying for their own accommodations.

The prime minister must fly on a Royal Canadian Air Force plane for security reasons — even for personal travel — and the family’s flights on the last trip to and from Costa Rica cost the government about $57,000, with thousands more spent on flight crews’ stay in San Jose.

The PMO also says it consulted with the office of the federal ethics commissioner about the coming holiday.

In 2017, Trudeau was found to have violated conflict of interest rules related to a 2016 vacation he took to Aga Khan’s private island in the Bahamas.

The PMO says Trudeau will get regular briefings while he is away. (The National Post) 

 

Thursday February 6, 2020

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday February 6, 2020

One step forward, another one back: What the Trans Mountain ruling means for Trudeau

In sports, you win some and you lose some. In politics, it’s possible to win and lose at the same time.

Pipeline cartoons

Take, for example, yesterday’s Federal Court of Appeal ruling on the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project.

The court ruled unanimously that the federal government had fulfilled its duty to consult meaningfully with a handful of First Nations opposed to the project, clearing a major hurdle in the drawn-out battle to build a second line to carry bitumen from Alberta’s oilsands to Burnaby on the B.C. coast.

The federal and Alberta governments immediately claimed victory, putting Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Premier Jason Kenney on the same side for once.

“This project is in the public interest,” federal Natural Resources Minister Seamus O’Regan told reporters shortly after the decision was released.

“We also know that this is a project that can deliver significant economic benefit to Alberta, to Canadians across the country,” added Finance Minister Bill Morneau. “And more importantly, we are going to put that economic benefit back into the environment.”

Their sense of relief was palpable. Ottawa spent around $4.5 billion in 2018 to buy TMX — a last-ditch effort to ensure the pipeline would be built after its owner, Kinder Morgan, announced plans to step away.

That price, hefty as it is, doesn’t include construction costs or any overruns the project has incurred because of the various stop-work orders that have put construction well behind schedule.

But with the victory comes a major setback in relations with those Indigenous groups who continue to oppose the $7.4-billion project, and will no doubt seek to appeal the decision to the Supreme Court of Canada.

“Reconciliation stopped today,” said Rueben George, of the Tsleil-Waututh, his voice cracking with emotion.

The band was one of four Indigenous groups behind the court challenge. It argued that the second, court-ordered round of consultations also failed to respond adequately to their concerns about the impact the project would have on marine life.

“This government is incapable of making sound decisions for our future generations,” George said. “So we will — even for their children — we will take those steps to make sure Canada stays the way it is.” (CBC)

 

 

Thursday April 4, 2019

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday April 4, 2019

Let the Justin Trudeau scandal be a lesson: seemingly pristine leaders will always let us down

Must our politicians disappoint? That is the question that is keeping some of us on the liberal left up at night.

April 2, 2019

The latest let down is Justin Trudeau. He of the bilingual social media, refugee welcoming press stunts and (somewhat performative) feminism. While Trudeau was never as left wing as many of us economically, his leadership style on social issues did seem like a breath of fresh air. He appeared to be willing to take action that went against the narrative of the day, making genuinely tough decisions on issues like immigration where the easy option would have been to turn people away.

Trudeau had transformed his party from within rebuilding it in his younger, cooler image. Now, he stands accused by two female former cabinet colleagues of corruption. His response? To throw these whistle-blowers out of the Liberal Party. The disappointment is profound.

So Trudeau is human after all. His once fleet feet are made of clay. Yes another hero falls from their perch.

March 4, 2016

We expect a lot from our political leaders. So much so that they are bound to disappoint. But should we expect a kind of perfection from them we could never deliver ourselves? Is there a refugee whose life has been changed by Trudeau’s policies that would exchange that for this scandal not happening? Should Labour disown the minimum wage because it was introduced by a leader that let them down so badly elsewhere?

We do need to be clear about what our red lines are. We shouldn’t forgive Blair for the bloodshed of the Iraq War nor of the chaos and loss of trust in politics that followed it just because we think he’s right over Europe. Trudeau’s imperious treatment of his whistle-blowing colleagues should not be glossed over as if it meant nothing just because we like the way he stands up to Trump.

For public service to be the unalloyed good the liberal left believe it should be, we have to learn to be more grown up about those that deliver it. Both the hero worship and the demonisation come from a desire to believe that politicians are different from the rest of us. But we don’t just get the politicians we deserve, we get the politicians we are: weak, strong, courageous, stupid, clever and human. (Continued: The Independent) 

 

Saturday September 1, 2018

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday September 1, 2018

Pipeline ruling comes at bad time for Trudeau Liberals

April 11, 2018

For Justin Trudeau’s governing Liberals, the timing couldn’t have been worse. On Thursday, as Canadian negotiators in Washington were struggling to salvage whatever they could from the floundering NAFTA talks, the Federal Court of Appeal ruled against the government’s signature Trans Mountain Pipeline project.

Both the North American Free Trade Agreement fiasco and the pipeline decision strike at the heart of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s economic strategy. That strategy relies on free trade deals and oil exports to keep the economy humming while the government concentrates on its ambitious social policy agenda, such as bettering the lot of Indigenous Canadians.

Of the trade deals, the NAFTA pact tying together Canada, the U.S. and Mexico was the most crucial. Similarly, of the pipeline projects, none was more important to the federal government than the $7.4-billion Trans Mountain expansion. It would bring heavy oil from the Alberta tarsands to British Columbia’s Pacific coast, where it could be loaded into oceangoing tankers.

Indeed, the Trudeau government deemed the Trans Mountain Pipeline so important that it agreed to buy it for $4.5 billion from its U.S. owner and pay all the costs of expanding it. This no longer seems like such a good deal.

The Federal Court of Appeal ruled that the government’s National Energy Board failed to take into account the effect of increased tanker traffic on B.C. coastal communities. It also ruled that the government failed to adequately consult Indigenous communities affected by the pipeline. It said construction cannot continue until these two defects are remedied. (Continued: Toronto Star)