Monday, August 17, 2020
What Remains For the Trudeau Liberals?
Bill Morneau was not the problem but a symptom of a greater failure known as the Trudeau government. With his finance minister out, resigning both his cabinet post and his seat in the House of Commons, Justin Trudeau is looking weak, wounded, vulnerable.
He's got Mark Carney waiting in the wings but it's hard to imagine Justin Trudeau wanting to invite comparisons between Carney and himself. Of the two, Carney is the most progressive on everything from the economy, inequality, fossil fuels and climate breakdown. In his successful terms as governor of the Bank of England, Carney championed all of those causes even as this prime minister dithered, uttering empty promises one atop the next.
It begs the question how Mr. Trudeau managed to lose the popular vote to a chump such as Andrew Scheer. That's the sort of thing that sets off alarm bells and flashing lights in the reactor room.
Is it possible that the minority Liberals could fall to the Tories given the Conservatives' dog eared leadership prospects? Elmer MacKay's progeny, Peter? Peter "Quisling" MacKay, is that the best they've got? It would be laughable if the gaffe-prone Trudeau Liberals weren't so weak.
What have the Liberals got? Chrystia, the Ice Queen, friend to Ukrainian fascists and Israel's Bibi to boot? She's got the charm of a skinning knife. Speaking of knives, there's Marc Garneau. I know a couple of RCN destroyer drivers who went through Royal Military College with Garneau and told me there wasn't anyone he wouldn't stab in the back for a shot at advancement. Of course that was decades ago. Maybe he's mellowed out since then. Joyce Murray, my choice, is too Left Coast for today's Conservative-Lite Liberals.
What really sticks in my craw is timing. Canada is adrift, rudderless at the very moment of our greatest peril. Our people are concerned, afraid and for good reason. The people they're supposed to be able to look to for vision and answers are empty vessels.
Trudeau has an easy task; giving out tax monies with no limitation or question.
ReplyDeleteAs much as I dislike the man! he is a product of our times, shallow and unaccomplished, devoid of originality.
As with his western counterparts he turns to the old ways and means for salvation , salvation which is unlikely to happen.
Yes trudeau is rudderless but so are his counterparts and no one ,anywhere has provided a suitable solutions.
TB
The minority government isn't going to fall because the NDP has the Liberals where they want them, desperate enough to make alot of deals with the NDP. The NDP has leverage enough to get concessions out of the Liberals, potentially alot of concessions.
ReplyDeleteThese are very dangerous times.
ReplyDelete"What have the Liberals got? Chrystia, the Ice Queen"
ReplyDeletebut the media has anointed her as the chosen one.
Who are WE .... to argue?
Like her or not Chrystia Freeland looks to be the most competent in this parliament. There is nobody in any of the parties who can match her abilities.
ReplyDeleteAs to her policies, I don't like them. She lock-steps with the US in order to keep trade going. Personally, I'd take Canada down a different path.
I was struck at how Morneau fell all over himself to insist that he wasn't forced out, he wasn't fired, he quit. Then, in the next breath, he let slip that he wants to run to lead the OECD. I guess being fired, mid-stream, during a major recession might not look too great on that resume.
ReplyDeleteSo, Chrystia it is. She does have impressive academic credentials but can she tame this volatile economy? WE shall see - eventually.
Well, Chrystia has shuffled into Morneau's shoes. In the middle of a pandemic/economic emergency I hope she's up to the job.
ReplyDeleteIf this were E. Arbour I think you would have a different opinion Mound.
ReplyDeleteI suspect you're referring to Louise Arbour, Anon, and, yes, I thought she would have been an ideal person to lead the Liberal Party. A former justice of the Supreme Court of Canada, a war crimes prosecutor at the ICJ who stood her ground against interference from the powerful, including the United States, head of the International Crisis Group - accomplished, tough, determined, capable, I think she would have been awesome.
ReplyDeleteRemember when being appointed Finance Minister was the political kiss of death?
ReplyDeleteI would think WE has AGW as a lobby and is stuck with Jonovision issues beyond that; it is meant to be a humourous file. Meant to be not too surprising the WE individuals didn't understand you can't make a real estate Empire in Canada on the public dime.
ReplyDeleteNASA seems at a crossroads.
I think solar sails can slow down using their same propulsion lasers if you refract a laser through a metamaterial: (fig 2): https://arxiv.org/pdf/1710.02837.pdf
A disaster could be a program running away to space with enough on board to come back strong. If you can slow down solar sails from source, you can use them to send sensors, comms, and defensive lasers from GEO.
Picture a ribbon looped into a circle. Send it like a bike wheel ahead of the laser, yaw it 25 degrees in space. When the laser shines on the outer sail surface, it pushes it forward. But if the laser hits the inner exposed ribbon, it lossily eventually brings the delta v back towards Earth. This could be a design failsafe as well as a strategy to build up a thoughtful space (military) economy. We might send an inert probe to a star rather quickly if we can advance this beyond where the Halifax Navy have advanced this. IN the same way our capital cities have vaccine attempts, we could also fund stuff like this that has rational implications (Musk maybe suspects a disease will wipe out Earth and is using his real estate Empire to hazard a Planet B).
Yes, Toby, that was the usual result.
ReplyDeletePhillip, you lost me.
ReplyDelete