Kellie Leitch endorsed by white supremacist group

The Council of European Canadians has endorsed Conservative Party leadership candidate Kellie Leitch.

They’ve done that because Leitch is channeling Donald Trump.  She, along with that misogynistic creep Brad Trost, is fully the candidate of the extreme Right – and, in her case, the racist Right.

I say that because the far-Right Council of European Canadians is a racist group: as the National Post has reported, its preoccupation is keeping Canada white.  They are regulars over on the top neo-Nazi online gathering place, Stormfront, and the stuff they say is racist. To wit: “We believe that mass immigration is destroying the Anglo/French/European character of Canada, and thus in the name of our cultural right to preserve our heritage we oppose mass immigration.” And: “We are not interested in playing the current game of open borders, “diversity is our strength”, “we are all immigrants”, “immigrants are the source of Canada’s prosperity”, “we are all human beings”.”

So there you go: Kellie’s latest endorsement comes from a group that claims immigrants are destroying white Canada, and who don’t think non-white immigrants are actually “human.”

Kellie eventually disavowed the support of the Council of European Canadians, as Donald Trump eventually disavowed the support of the Ku Klux Klan.

But by your words, and by your friends, we know you.

We know you well.

 


Brad Trost is dumb as a post 

What an asshole this guy is. I know he’ll claim he’s happy a Liberal is saying that – but one thing I also know: if Harper was still boss, this woman-hating moron would be kicked out of caucus. 

These guys aren’t forming government anytime soon. 


This week’s column: the Trudeau honeymoon isn’t over. Not by a long shot. Here’s why.

Do journalistic conventions rewire our brains?

It’s a serious question. In the fun new sci-fi movie ‘Arrival,’ the plot posits the theory that language changes the way we think, and not the other way around. The aliens keep telling everyone what they think – kind of like a racist and sexist Donald Trump did, over and over – and everyone on Earth keeps trying to find some other more-obscure meaning, instead of the one right in front of their eyes (ie., that he really is that racist and sexist).

The movie is about aliens, but it could be about politics. People are always looking for a meaning that isn’t the one in plain view.

A Twitter acquaintance, Toronto Star columnist Judith Timson, reminded me of this last week. I had retweeted a windy, stentorian Maclean’s editorial about how Justin Trudeau’s honeymoon was finally at an end. The honeymoon “is truly over,” insisted Maclean’s, sounding like they wanted to convince themselves as much as the rest of us.

Timson’s pithy response: “For the 45th time. Hey here’s an idea: maybe the ‘honeymoon’ metaphor in political journalism is over.”

Well put, and true enough, Ms. Timson. It’s a hackneyed cliché, that “political honeymoon” nonsense, and it’s yet another example of people letting language do their thinking for them.

Politics is a stew in which the ingredients are opportunism, timing and good luck. Justin Trudeau came along when folks were sick of the Tories, when he looked shiny and new, and when the fortunes were smiling upon him. Same with Donald Trump: he oozed out of a fetid, primordial reality TV swamp precisely at the moment that angry white Americans were in the mood to vote against their economic and social self-interest. That’s a victory more attributable to luck than skill.

So, Justin Trudeau has indeed been lucky. And, yes, as Maclean’s sniffed, a video of Trudeau got booed by some drunks at the Grey Cup. Yes, the “cash for access scandal” – they called it a “scandal,” they really did, when no normal person thinks that it is – has been attracting some unhelpful headlines. And, yes, some much-delayed pipeline decisions were causing some headaches in BC, mostly among people who would never vote Liberal anyway.

So what, we say. Getting introduced at sports events is always a really bad idea, per the political muse (cf., Tip ‘Neill). Fundraising isn’t ever pretty, either – but until the media offers political parties ad space for free, it needs to be done. And pipelines? They’re a Hell of a lot safer than the alternative (cf., Lac Megantic).

The fact is this: the punditocracy is bored. Justin Trudeau has been atop the polls for more than a year, and it’s kind of dull. The Tories (who have too many leadership candidates) and the NDP (who have none) aren’t being an effective Opposition, particularly.  They aren’t keeping the Liberal leader up at night.  So, as always, some media have assigned themselves the role of Her Majesty’s Official Opposition. Gentlemen, per the timeless Val Sears quip, we have a government to defeat.

But Trudeau won’t be defeated, anytime soon. And his honeymoon – whether you call it that or not – isn’t ending, either.   It’s barely started. And you can thank Donald Trump for that.

Until Donald Trump is indicted at the State level by an ambitious Democratic Attorney General – or until a Republican Congress tires of his madness and his wars, and commences impeachment proceedings in the House – the U.S. President-to-be is going to remain the biggest story on Earth.  He is going to be the prism through which all political news is viewed, pretty much.

He won’t be President Trump.  He will be President Troll, firing off insults via his Twitter account in the middle of the night, raging as he stalks the marbled halls at Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue.  And the media – as they have always done – will be a-twitter about his Twitter.  They can’t stop paying attention to him, as much as they loathe him.

Up here in Canuckistan, Justin Trudeau can only benefit from that. When the (likely) next Conservative Party leader is doing her utmost to ape Trump, Trudeau will look pretty darn good to most Canadian voters, who deeply despise Trump.  And if Angela Merkel fails in winning a fourth term in Germany – and if the far-Right’s François Fillon or the neo-Nazi National Front achieve power in France next year – then Trudeau will be among the last progressives standing.

He may be imperfect, but compared to the alternatives to the South and the East, Trudeau’s popularity can only grow. Call it a honeymoon or not, but one thing is for certain: in the dark, dark days that lie ahead, Justin Trudeau will shine bright.

And you don’t need to subscribe to journalistic conventions to know that.


Survey says: someone was paid a quarter of a million dollars to do this 

Look, this “democratic reform” file has been a fiasco from the start.  From four vague lines in the Liberal Party platform (promising bold change but not saying what the bold change would be), to now, when the whole thing has spiralled downward into Twitter hashtag farce (there some really good ones, too): it’s been a disaster, full stop.

I’m against all of the parties on this thing.  I oppose the “referendum solves everything” approach – favoured by Conservatives and separatists – because I still don’t know what the question would be.  (And, irony of ironies, what kind of referendum would it be? Fifty per cent plus one? Two-thirds? Ranked ballot style? And so on.)

I’m against the New Democrat approach, which is proportional representation by stealth.  They want that system because it guarantees them seats, even when they run a shitty election campaign, which is something they do with great regularity.  For Dippers, proportional representation is like an electoral pension plan without end.

And I’m against the Liberal approach, which is to tinker with democracy for no apparent reason whatsoever.  It may be imperfect, per Churchill, but our system of electing and governing is a Hell of a lot better than all of the alternatives, isn’t it?  Besides, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.  To wit: before now, was anyone standing around the water coolers of the nation, saying: “God almighty, I didn’t sleep again last night because our elected representatives are insufficiently informed about the Gallagher Index!”

Enough time has been wasted on this horseshit, politicians.  Donald Trump is bringing the world towards the brink of some sort of a war with China, and this is all you have to worry about?

Get a life.  It’s our democracy, not yours, you solipsistic, self-interested bastards.

 


Fourteen reasons

…why we still need effective gun safety laws.

27 years ago. 

  1. Geneviève Bergeron (born 1968), civil engineering student
  2. Hélène Colgan (born 1966), mechanical engineering student
  3. Nathalie Croteau (born 1966), mechanical engineering student
  4. Barbara Daigneault (born 1967), mechanical engineering student
  5. Anne-Marie Edward (born 1968), chemical engineering student
  6. Maud Haviernick (born 1960), materials engineering student
  7. Maryse Laganière (born 1964), budget clerk in the École Polytechnique’s finance department
  8. Maryse Leclair (born 1966), materials engineering student
  9. Anne-Marie Lemay (born 1967), mechanical engineering student
  10. Sonia Pelletier (born 1961), mechanical engineering student
  11. Michèle Richard (born 1968), materials engineering student
  12. Annie St-Arneault (born 1966), mechanical engineering student
  13. Annie Turcotte (born 1969), materials engineering student
  14. Barbara Klucznik-Widajewicz (born 1958), nursing student

We get letters: another Trump troll picks up a crayon and writes in

From “weasel,” using weasel@huha.com at 24.36.21.45.  American spelling. Anyone care to find him?

You are simply a weasel who barks “fascist” and “racist” at your political enemies because you got nothing. You’re a bribe-taking politician wannabe FFS. As punk as Hillary’s pantsuits. Pathetic to the core. Please do the world a favor and kill yourself.


Conservatives want to throw a woman in a cage

We know Donald Trump did. It’s why he’s a fascist. Throwing an opponent in a democracy in jail – simply because they disagree with you – is fascism.

And now we know a lot of Canadian Conservatives feel the same way. They want to throw Rachel Notley in a cage because they hate her – because she disagrees with them. Because she’s a woman, perhaps. Because she’s not doing what they want her to do, almost certainly.


 

It was around the 40-second mark. Did you see that unctuous, servile weasel Chris Alexander? Grinning when the crowd starts chanting “lock her up” about Rachel Notley? Not telling them to stop?

These people aren’t conservatives. Real conservatives value true speech, I believe, and they defend democracy.  They value debate.

Fascists don’t.