Your Monday Post

Isn't it time you did something for you?


What leadership?

The House of Commons is debating whether Canada should send CF-18’s to to join the U.S.-led coalition battling ISIS in Iraq, and to date, Trudeau’s performance on this file doesn’t instill much confidence. 

The biggest problem has been the flip-flops. Over the past several weeks — as clearly illustrated by the NDP here — the Liberals haven’t had a clear message about their position on airstrikes. 

Last week they said they couldn’t support a combat mission without a fulsome debate in the House of Commons. But then on Friday, Trudeau said outright that the Grits would not support airstrikes, three days before Monday's debate even began.

Trudeau is also facing criticism for an off-the-cuff and off-colour remark during a Q-and-A last week, when he said that Canada can do better than “trying to whip out our CF-18s” and showing the international community “how big they are.”

"Clearly meant to poke fun at the Harper government, Trudeau’s apparent gaffe showed that he is still not skilled at navigating the tricky waters of international issues," political consultant Marcel Wieder told Yahoo Canada News. 

"Mulcair on the other hand offered a reasoned approach that contrasts with the Conservative position."

Others were much harsher than Wieder. 

"Is this how an adult, a possible PM, talks? With its mixture of puerile condescension, its smug assurance that any vulgar reference to the Conservatives will 'go over' with everyone, it’s an obiter dictum for the ages," Rex Murphy wrote for the National Post. 

"We should expect more — both in class and thought — from a national leader, especially when he is speaking in the context of the miseries that have been inflicted by one of the most sadistic collection of terrorists the planet has ever offered."

Trudeau has a chance to redeem himself throughout the ongoing ISIS debate, but it won't be easy, as Canada appears to be rallying behind the Conservatives and their message that we can’t sit back and watch others do the heavy lifting.

The most recent poll numbers suggest that the vast majority of Canadians support participation in airstrikes. So, for the first time since becoming leader, Trudeau will have to defend a party policy that is seemingly unpopular with the broad public.

 
Oh, you mean this leadership:

According to CTV News, about 60 people showed up on Sunday for the event, only to hear Dhalla announce that she wouldn’t be running in the next federal election.

"As she spoke, Dhalla was surrounded by posters which had the Liberal Party name blacked out," noted the CTV report.

"When Dhalla finished speaking, the event emcee took the microphone and said: ‘That’s not the announcement we were expecting.’"

Dr. Dhalla was a Liberal MP in Brampton, Ont. from 2004 to 2011. For some time, it was rumoured that the chiropractor, former actress and Miss India Canada runner-up was eyeing a return to politics. 
But now, her decision to organize an event to say she’s not running has elicited suggestions that the Liberal Party took eleventh-hour steps to block her candidacy.

The Liberals – who have already been accused of interfering in other nomination races – deny it. And now, so does Dhalla.

Sure, Ruby.

It wouldn't be the first time Trudeau played the "bully leader" card or went all pouty and non-responsive whenever someone pointed out very ugly and true things about his parents, nor would it be the first time he acted childishly in an arena reserved for a much graver tenor than which he is capable. He didn't show up for a meeting on Iraq he called. He courts Islamists. His only purpose it seems is to oppose Harper at every turn even if it makes the Liberal Party out to be even further left than the NDP whose position has at least been more consistent than that of Trudeau's.

And that is not leadership and no amount of hair-admiring voters will make it so.


The real laugh would that if an all-aboriginal jury not only found the defendant guilty but wanted him hanged. What the defendant should want is a baker's dozen of self-loathing white liberals who have never met an actual aboriginal let alone been to a reservation. He would get off scot-free:

A case before the Supreme Court of Canada on Monday will determine how far Ontario must go to include First Nations people in the province's jury rolls. 

Ontario is appealing a decision from its top court that quashed a manslaughter conviction for a First Nations man because of under-representation of aboriginal people in its jury process.

Affirmative action: it's still apartheid.


Here we go again:

A South Korean naval ship fired warning shots on Tuesday after a North Korean patrol boat crossed a disputed sea border off the peninsula's west coast and fired shots back before retreating, a South Korean defense official said.

I'm sure those in charge will handle this new crisis promptly, efficiently and with great care:

In the first known transmission of the current outbreak of Ebola outside West Africa, a Spanish nurse who treated a missionary for the disease at a Madrid hospital has tested positive for the virus, Spain's health minister said Monday.

The female nurse was part of the medical team that treated a 69-year-old Spanish priest who died in a hospital last month after being flown back from Sierra Leone, where he was posted, Health Minister Ana Mato said. The nurse is believed to have contracted the virus from that priest.

Whatever we do, let's not restrict flights, ban entry of infected persons, quarantine patients and areas where they have been or stress how filoviruses like Ebola are spread person-to-person and have no effective treatment.


And now, pumpkin desserts just in time for Thanksgiving. Enjoy.