, 03.03.2023 10:17 AM

My latest: are we a serious country?

The facts of the election interference are well known, by now.

A hostile foreign power, acting on the direct orders of its leader, conspired with sympathizers — and traitors, frankly — to undermine a Western democracy’s general election. Their objective was simple: Get one political party elected. The one that was more sympathetic to their interests.

The hostile foreign power’s campaign to destabilize the election was secret, subtle and successful: Their favoured candidate, their chosen party, ultimately won.

The clandestine criminal campaign had many moving parts. There were multiple contacts with various political players, many of whom were paid thousands of dollars for their complicity. There were fake Internet accounts, developed to stoke division and suppress dissenting voices. There were files stolen, and leaks to various websites. There was intimidation and threats and cash in envelopes. And it all worked.

The response of the winning party, the victorious leader, when details started to leak out in the media — and out of alarmed intelligence agencies? They called it a hoax, and refused to investigate it.

By now, you may have wondered where the aforementioned election interference took place. Canada, right?

Well, yes. That is indeed what China’s regime did in Canada during our last two federal elections, in 2019 and 2021. But it is also what happened in the United States of America in 2016, in their federal election. Then, the hostile foreign power was Russia, not China.

That’s one key difference. The other: In the United States, there was a proper investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election — which saw Russia’s candidate, Donald J. Trump, elected president.

In Canada, there has been no such investigation by a truly independent body into Chinese interference in the 2019 and 2021 federal elections. Instead, there has been stonewalling by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau — the guy the Chinese wanted to win, and whose family’s foundation directly benefitted from Chinese graft.

And there has been a shameful campaign of disinformation and misinformation by his Liberal Party as it desperately attempts to prevent any arm’s-length probe into two election results that may have been actually altered by Chinese meddling.

Because that, truly, is the disturbing reality: In Canada, both of those elections resulted in minority governments. And, if the results in just 20 or so ridings were altered by the Chinese regime, the general election’s outcome was upended.

Twenty ridings, each time. That’s all it took. If 20 or so seats had not been diverted away from Andrew Scheer or Erin O’Toole, Justin Trudeau would have lost. He’d be writing his memoirs by now.

We don’t know, of course, if that happened — because the Trudeau government has adamantly refused to do what the Americans did when confronted with the same problem. They’ve refused to look into it.

In the U.S., a special counsel was appointed by Donald Trump’s own Department of Justice. That special counsel, Robert Mueller, investigated the Russian election interference for two years. He had a team of 19 lawyers, 40 FBI agents, plus an army of forensic accountants and professionals. He issued nearly 3,000 subpoenas, interviewed 500 witnesses, and prompted nearly 40 indictments.

Mueller’s report was 448 pages, two volumes, and it found that Russia conducted “disinformation and social media operations in the United States designed to sow social discord, eventually with the aim of interfering with the election.” He also concluded that the Russian campaign was “designed to gather and disseminate information to influence the election.”

“Interfering with the election. Influence the election.”

The Americans — even an America led by Donald Trump — did it the right way. They saw how serious the allegations were. They knew their democracy could be placed in peril — perhaps even destroyed — if Russia was allowed to get away with it. So they investigated: Thoroughly, completely, exhaustively.

In Canada, after China’s serial efforts to interfere with not one, but two elections? Crickets.

The eyes of the world are watching us, folks. If we do not do what the Americans did, we will have ceased to be a serious country.

We will be a joke.

Warren Kinsella was Special Assistant to Jean Chretien, and chairman of the winning 1993 and 2000 federal Liberal election campaigns.

42 Comments

  1. Martin Dixon says:

    I don’t think we have been a serious country since we re-elected JT in 2019 despite gropegate, blackface, SNC-Lavalin, etc. You can forgive the electorate for falling for his schtick once but he showed his true colours so quickly(think his temper tantrum in the HOC), that the mind boggles any thinking person continued to support him. Vote NDP or Green or stay home like all the leftie members of my family did post 2015. The problem was pretty well summed up by an indigenous writer in the NP today:

    “Every person I have had a conversation with over the past couple years anywhere outside of the GREATER TORONTO AREA is beyond frustrated.”

    https://nationalpost.com/opinion/trudeau-came-to-power-on-a-message-of-unity-but-instead-divided-the-nation

    As I keep saying, that would be these types:

    https://www.squareyards.ca/blog/richest-neighborhoods-in-toronto-regart/

    They and the Chinese are running the country.

    Will this give us a chance to redeem ourselves? Who knows.

    • The Doctor says:

      I’m not a Trudeau or Liberal supporter — far from it — but I think they still have significant support in many areas outside of the GTA. For example the greater Vancouver area. No doubt that support has softened because of some recent developments including this one. But at election time, many of these areas outside of the GTA as well as the GTA itself reliably come home to the Liberals (Atlantic Canada is another example).

      • Martin Dixon says:

        Sure they do but even Ottawa isn’t 100% Liberal. And neither is BC or the Atlantic. And both areas have a few other ridings that are in play. Not so much in Toronto. We all now have to be subjected to national news coverage today because they got a bit of snow yesterday. Yawn. Go make yourself a snow angel.

  2. PJH says:

    Fortunately, Elections Canada does. I suspect the PMO and the Liberal brain trust are sweating bullets right about now.

  3. Warren,

    The TRUDEAU Liberals won’t cave for principally two reasons: they know once it’s all out, they lose power for at least a generation. And then there’s the rather big elephant in the room: who and how many TRUDEAU Liberals end up in the big house. My sense, likely far more than a handful.

    • Derek Pearce says:

      Calm down Ronald. Lose power? Yes, for a couple of elections. Sent to the big house? Mayyyyybeeee one or two backbenchers IF it can be proven they KNEW they were benefiting from this scheme. No wholesale wipeout.

  4. Sean says:

    Is this what they meant by Electoral Reform?

  5. Sean says:

    The story isn’t about JT. It’s about the 150+ Liberal MPs who daily refuse to take their job seriously…just sit on their hands…and attempt to normalize all of this behavior.

    That’s not Liberalism. That’s bullshit.

    • Sean,

      But for the Chong thing, I could say that most MPs are genetically programmed to be both the leader’s bootlickers and ass-kissers. Like I said, but for the Chong thing. Otherwise, you could say that about every single MP.

      • Martin Dixon says:

        Ronald-At least the Tories voted themselves the power and used it. Because they are a serious party.

        • Sean says:

          Why does anyone think MPs got new powers from the Chong bill? I genuinely don’t understand that. MP’s have always been able to oust their leader without notice at any time without any debate or process. All they have to do is tell the speaker / GG that their party has a new leader. As far as I can tell, the Chong bill only created mechanisms to get from point A to point B, but those mechanisms are meaningless bafflegab.

          • Sean,

            Sure, that’s right but how many times has it taken place in our HOC? Personally, I don’t remember any leader being given the heave-ho by his or her MPs other than O’Toole.

        • Martin,

          But what was Pierre’s position on the Reform Act then and more importantly, what is it now? Has it actually changed between then and now or does it remain the same? Interesting. I already know the answer but I want to know what fellow Conservatives think.

  6. Peter Williams says:

    The NDP will tweet a lot about Trudeau and public inquiries, etc. but in committees they show their true colours: supporting Trudeau red.

    • Peter,

      The country has finally, finally, finally, had enough. Period. So we will win at least a minority next time. A plurality of people will vote for change. Liberals will stay home in significant percentages rather than vote for us and some will vote NDP. But the NDP will basically go nowhere in seats. They will pay dearly for being Trudeau’s enthusiastic lapdogs.

      • western view says:

        At least some of the electoral success of the Trudeau 2.0 reign of horrors has been the deliberate swing left to actually out hustle the NDP on their left flank. Deficit spending, electoral reform, gender/race fascination etc. The NDP seat count has nosedived ever since the 2015 election campaign.
        The big question: How much of that swing vote is fed up to the pharmacares with the Liberals and ready to coalesce around Jagmeet Singh?

      • Curious V says:

        Or, NDP, and liberals will react to a potential PP win and vote Liberal

        • Curious V,

          Not likely. This Prime Minister has far too much baggage for Liberals to count on that scenario. As Clouseau would say: not anymore.

          P.S. Didn’t work with Harper for three elections. Wonder why? Sponsorship drag. That Mulroney-Chrétien gift absolutely pulverized the Liberals for almost ten years.

  7. Martin Dixon says:

    More evidence we are not a serious country in the funny papers today. The cocaine story. JT’s denial of any knowledge reminded me of this:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjbPi00k_ME

  8. Douglas W says:

    Survival first.
    Hold on to what you’ve got.
    Live to see another day.

    As long as folks are keeping their head above water, they shrug about foreign interference.

    • Jeff says:

      But people are barely keeping their heads above water…they are taxed to death!
      Maybe they shrug in the GTA but everywhere else they care about interference!

  9. Ray says:

    And our taxpayer-funded national broadcaster has all but purged this story from its pages.
    The country is broken beyond repair.

    • The Doctor says:

      That’s not true at all. I’ve been watching The National and CBC News Channel this week, and this story has gotten very prominent play. It’s consumed their At Issue panel for the better part of this week. They also ran live coverage of the committee hearings on this.

      There are lots of things you can complain about in connection with this (not least Trudeau’s behaviour), but lack of coverage by CBC is not one of them if you’re operating in the reality-based world.

      • Doc,

        We must be the only two Conservatives who actually LIKE watching The Mother Corp. LOL.

        • Martin Dixon says:

          Ronald, I watch the CBC 30 minutes in the morning to get a Toronto weather report and put on my hair shirt to watch P and P at night to see what the Laurentian Elite are saying.

      • Ray says:

        Maybe have a look at CBC.ca.
        They’re more concerned with your pet’s DNA and how to avoid online scams.
        Again, broken.

  10. Martin Dixon says:

    John Ivison was touting the latest Liberal saviour in the NP today. Carney. He is smug and arrogant(more than normal for a politician) and he is a hypocrite on the oil and gas industry in Canada given his job. Do as I say, not as I do. Unless I miss my guess, he will be another overrated guy like Iggy or Morneau(massive disappointment) and will flame out. Then there is this:

    “That would have been fine, but Mr. Carney was asked whether that was a “no, or a never?” His response: “It’s both, it’s both. How’s that?”
    Asked yet again whether “It’s never,” Mr. Carney said: “Yes.”
    Not that being a liar is a barrier to job entry(far from it), but he will need to get much better at it:

    https://www.theglobeandmail.com/amp/report-on-business/top-business-stories/canadian-dollar-dips-on-bank-of-canada-mark-carneys-walk-in-the-light-snow/article5662568/

    And PP vs Carney in the HOC would be worth the price of admission. Finance Committee hearings where PP was regularly making Morneau look like a fool were likely one of the reasons he left.

    50 seconds in-comedy gold. “Thank you so much”. Mic drop.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPY_SxyNB5M

    • Martin,

      His clique has floated Carney so many times — this is at least the third time — that it makes him look personally desperate for further fame and ego-stroking. After our doofus as PM, there’s no way that the Liberals will go with a recycled Carney. Unless, no one else in their right mind actually wants it.
      Surely, the Liberals are in better shape than that? He seems to have definitively closed the door but hey, he is a Liberal after all.

  11. Peter Williams says:

    When asked which nation’s administration he most admired, Justin Trudeau said he admires China’s basic dictatorship.

    Perhaps we should believe him!

    Other Trudeauisms:
    I don’t think about monetary policy.
    The budget will balance itself.

    Trudeau is an actor. He likes to play dress up.
    He says he always tells the truth, but that appears to be when he’s not acting. Reading your lines in the Prime Ministeral play, is acting to Justin, so they’re lines, not lies.

  12. EasterHazyWasALoser says:

    The “Russiagate” allegations turned out mostly to be false. And before anybody gets on their high horse, the good old US of A has been meddling in other countries elections for a good number of years. America’s motto seems to be “do as I say, not as I do”. So why wouldn’t Putin try and throw a monkey wrench into the works? I don’t care for Putin, and his brand of politics, but let us not be holier than thou, eh. Why would the PM call an inquiry? He doesn’t need the majority of Canadians to elect him, just little more than a third. There is no longer any sense of honour or duty in politics; it is just simply self-aggrandizement and ensuring that post politics, you have a cushy sinecure somewhere (just my humble opinion for what it is worth). After the whole disgraceful two Michaels affair, nobody should be willing to give the CCP the benefit of the doubt in any matter. The CCP and their minions seem to have a lot of influence (and cash) in this country. Maybe there are too many skeletons in certain closets for anybody to start looking too closely. From an outside view though, it is disgraceful, and will hurt our international reputation. Again, just my two cents, and I’m sure nobody cares.

    • Martin Dixon says:

      Yes-Russiagate was mostly false and the media both here and there rode it long and hard. The exact reverse is true up here so not quite sure what your point is.

    • EHWAL,

      Your comments strikes me as coming from a realist. That’s a lot more than I can say about so many people in Ottawa.

  13. Gilbert says:

    Canadians have had enough of JT. He may be popular in Toronto and Montreal, but the rest of the country no longer wants a clown in charge

  14. Pedant says:

    Since the governance of Canada is a joint venture between the Liberal Party of Canada and the Chinese Communist Party (with the latter being the senior party), maybe Canada can get some of that ghost-city development money? The housing supply would be welcome.

    • Pedant,

      Be careful what you wish for given the fact that this recession, which we’re already entering, is based on mortgage-backed securities (subprime mortgages), the commercial real estate slump and delinquent auto loans. All of the above are sinking us fast and furiously.

  15. Derek Pearce says:

    Calm down Ronald. Lose power? Yes, for a couple of elections. Sent to the big house? Mayyyyybeeee one or two backbenchers IF it can be proven they KNEW they were benefiting from this scheme. No wholesale wipeout.

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