Doug Ford in ten tweets

— 03.11.2018 09:55 AM

I hate Twitter threads, but I got started and kept going. Here it is.


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I got tired of waiting for PCPO leadership results

— 03.10.2018 04:18 PM

So I tweeted stuff.

Pro tips, PC friends:

  • If voters see that you can’t run your own house, they won’t let you run the province
  • If you need media coverage, and all opposition parties do, messing up your leadership convention’s media coverage is a really bad idea
  • If you think the networks won’t pull the plug on you, you are dreaming in Technicolour

Comments (19)

The new conservatives and values

— 03.10.2018 03:30 PM

From a few years back:

…as I argue in my book Fight The Right, the political brain is an emotional organ, not a rational one. On voting day, passion generally defeats reason. Values, as simplistic as they may seem to progressives, rule.

Values – that is, hopes, dreams, fears, the ineffable stuff of life – are deeply held, deeply emotional notions. Mountains of data make clear that conservatives are very good at values-based debates, and progressives usually are not.

Conservatives have achieved supremacy in the European Union, Canada and the United States – jurisdictions where the majority of voters identify themselves as progressive – by expertly dominating the values debate, whether the subject matter is class resentments or fighting terror. Progressives, meanwhile, too often become tongue tied when talking about values. They’re not good at it.

As a result, voters (even progressive ones) drift towards conservative politicians and parties because they equate urban, university-educated progressives’ (a) reluctance to talk about values with (b) having no values at all.


Comments (2)

In which I praise Trudeau and Trump

— 03.09.2018 07:28 AM

Cartoon by the amazing de Adder.

Historic.

I have been critical of Justin Trudeau for (a) sucking up to Donald Trump and (b) getting nothing in return.

But credit where credit’s due: yesterday, Trudeau got a temporary exemption from Trump’s insane steel and aluminum tariffs.

But.

The key word there is “temporary.” As I say to my pal Charles in our weekly chat, below, it looks very much like Trump did what he did to wring concessions from Canada and Mexico at the NAFTA tables.  He did it to get the U.S. what it wants at the NAFTA tables – which is something, but it ain’t free trade anymore.  It’s giving America all the marbles.

Anyway, here’s me and Charles.  These days, Justin Trudeau needed a win – any win.  Donald Trump, of all people, gave him one.



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All this talk of delaying the PC leadership vote reminds me of something

— 03.08.2018 01:32 PM

Oh, wait.  I know what it is.

Arguing that computer errors have disenfranchised huge numbers of Conservatives, Belinda Stronach’s campaign chief said Wednesday that the party’s leadership vote should be postponed until the membership list mess is sorted out.

“These list problems will deprive up to tens of thousands of members of their votes for the first leader of our new party,” said John Laschinger, Ms. Stronach’s national campaign director.

The leadership vote is scheduled for March 20, but on Wednesday Mr. Laschinger urged the executive director of the Conservative Party to delay the vote until it can be assured that all legitimate members have the chance to vote.

“It is clear that the number of disenfranchised members reaches into the tens of thousands,” he writes. “We have no option but to ask that voting be delayed until these list problems are resolved. It is undemocratic to continue with an unfair process in which so many legitimate, paid-up members are denied their democratic rights.”

Oh, and Laschinger lost that one, too, of course. He’s good at losing.


Comments (3)