For a Tuesday

In short order, the Liberals did not win last night's election:

Voters in New Brunswick have turned have their backs on the province's entrenched two-party system for the first time in a generation, electing enough third party candidates to leave the Liberals and Progressive Conservatives in a virtual dead heat in a minority legislature.

Four hours after the polls closed Monday, the Tories had won 22 seats, the incumbent Liberals had 21, the right-of-centre People's Alliance had three and the Greens three. The NDP was shut out of the race.

A total of 25 seats is needed for a majority in the 49-seat house, which means the third parties were poised to play a key role in deciding who governs the province: incumbent Liberal Brian Gallant, who is seeking a second term in office, or Progressive Conservative Blaine Higgs.

Nevertheless, the Liberals will rule until a no-confidence motion brings them down because elections are ridiculous in Canada.




Members of Parliament wouldn't have to cross the floor if a clueless frat boy wasn't handed his dad's job:

Whatever an MP owes his party, it is difficult to see why he should be so utterly subservient to his leader. Again, the reasoning is circular: elections, it is true, do turn on perceptions of the leader, beside whom individual MPs do indeed appear insignificant. But nothing says they must be so insignificant. They appear so because we have allowed their role to shrink so far, relative to the leader’s. Expand their role — for example, by removing the leader’s power to expel them — and the logic is reversed.

Justin behaved as his father did - as an arrogant narcissist who demanded unrealistic things from his inner circle.

Why these floor-crossings (whatever the motive) did not happen sooner beggars the imagination.




She wasn't brought on because she looked forward to performing any state function, rather like the frat boy running his dad's party:

Payette called senior officials within the government, sources said, upset over the expectation she rearrange her schedule to accommodate the ceremony and questioning whether she actually had to be there. Could a Supreme Court justice preside instead? Ultimately, sources told the Post, it took conversations with officials all the way up to Canada’s top civil servant, Clerk of the Privy Council Michael Wernick, to convince Payette to carry out one of her single biggest responsibilities. After considerable uncertainty, Payette signed Bill C-45 into law on the morning of June 21.

The panic over June’s royal assent ceremony is just one example of what sources have described as a year of extraordinary tension between the federal government, Rideau Hall and the organizations that work closely with it. ...

Many members of the tight-knit community that operates in and around Rideau Hall told the Post they have grown frustrated with a governor general who constantly challenges tradition and has substantially reduced the workload of her office. However, most believe the blame lies with the Prime Minister’s Office, for abandoning the advice of vice-regal experts and choosing a star candidate without ensuring she would be a good fit for the job.

(Sidebar: why does that sound familiar?)




It's just money:

If Canadian companies don't start investing more in the developing world, Chinese state-backed firms will see their influence grow, Canada's UN ambassador said ahead of speech by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to the UN General Assembly on Monday. 

(Sidebar: this speech. It puts the "laughter" at Trump in perspective. You're not getting that seat, Justin.)

**

So now we know, conclusively, that the 15-year Liberal government in Ontario, led by Kathleen Wynne and Dalton McGuinty, didn’t have a revenue problem.

It had a spending problem.

This was clearly explained in a report by auditors EY Canada, released by Treasury Board President Peter Bethlenfalvy on Tuesday, fulfilling Premier Doug Ford’s election promise to conduct a line-by-line audit of Liberal spending.

The audit’s key finding, explaining why Ontario after 15 years of Liberal rule “has the highest subnational debt of any jurisdiction in the world”, as the Progressive Conservatives described it, is this:

“Expressed in today’s dollars, total operating expenditures have risen 55% or $46.4 billion, at a compound annual rate of 3.0% … and over the 15 years examined, outpaced Ontario population growth by 1.9%.

“Had expenditures increased in line with population growth, 2017-18 expenditures would have been $31.9 billion less, and in total, would have been $331 billion lower over 15 years.

“Provincial debt over that same period almost doubled, increasing 87% or $158 billion (in today’s dollars) to $338 billion, and annual interest on debt charges grew $2.4 billion (in today’s dollars) to $12.6 billion per annum in 2017-18.  Interest on debt is Ontario’s 4th largest expenditure.”

Also:

China's state-run media outlets sounded a confident tone in Monday editorials and warned that U.S. trade pressure against the country would not only strain bilateral relations between the two nations but could negatively affect the American economy and wider global markets. ...

"China is doing what it should. China is honest and principled and a major trade power with intensive strengths. No one can take us down," it said.

Except ...

Speaking of India:

Alberta’s NDP caucus has asked the ethics commissioner to look into opposition Leader Jason Kenney’s trip last week to India.

During the trip, Kenney, his energy critic Prasad Panda, and trade critic Devin Dreeshen toured the massive Jamnagar oil refinery on India’s west coast.

Kenney has since talked about the refinery, owned by Reliance Industries, and the owner company’s interest in doing business with Canada.

 
Good. It will still be less than what Justin spent and would prove more productive.




Well, duh:

A veteran NDP MP used the most unparliamentary language to blast the Liberal government's push to complete the Trans Mountain expansion project despite concerns from many Indigenous groups.

"Why doesn't the prime minister just say the truth and tell Indigenous Peoples that he doesn't give a fuck about their rights?" Romeo Saganash asked in question period Tuesday, stunning the House of Commons.

** 

The Trudeau government has said more than once it's committed to respecting First Nations' interests in the push to get the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion built — but that doesn't mean saying yes to every request from Indigenous communities, says Fisheries and Oceans Minister Jonathan Wilkinson.

Isn't this Justin's job?:

Ralph Goodale toured the Ontario community of Dunrobin, west of Ottawa, where locals are still reeling after a powerful tornado ripped through the town. He said some of the modern homes hit hardest in the area looked like they had gone "through a grinder."

Environment Canada says six tornadoes swept across the Ottawa area and through the neighbouring Quebec region on Friday — levelling homes and knocking out power grids along their way.

Conrad Sauve, the president of the Canadian Red Cross, said Tuesday that more than 1,500 people in Quebec and Ontario had registered with the organization. He said the Red Cross had provided shelter to over 600 residents, primarily in the Quebec city of Gatineau.

Goodale said the federal government has not provided financial assistance because the first portion of response and recovery costs are covered by the provinces. But Ottawa will step up if the price tag reaches a certain level, he said.

You can say that again:

After a massive backlash, the Trudeau government announced that they would no longer allow Veterans Affairs to cover the medical treatments of Veteran’s family members who never served if those individuals are in prison.

And yet, that decision outrageously won’t apply to the the case of Christopher Garnier, who killed a police officer, never served in the military – and got his PTSD treatment covered by Veterans Affairs.

On Twitter, Michelle Rempel ripped the government for refusing to rescind the payments to Garnier:

“You’ve known about this for weeks, Seamus. What you should have done is immediately ask your officials to revoke his benefits, and change the policy (which is in your purview as Minister) so that this never happens again. There, was that so hard? Give your head a shake.”

Virtue-signalling doesn't need proof:

As economist E. Frank Stephenson writes in a book chapter published this year by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, plastic bags consume far less energy, generate far less solid waste, and produce much less atmospheric emissions than paper grocery bags, a likely alternative.

Banning disposable plastic bags would also mean more people buying the thicker, heavier plastic garbage bags, which are worse for the environment because they use more plastic. Cloth bags and reusable plastic tote sacks must be used many times before they are more carbon efficient than the plastic grocery bags.

Also - but ... but ... the environment!:

Nets like his are widely considered a magic bullet against malaria — one of the cheapest and most effective ways to stop a disease that kills at least half a million Africans each year. But Mr. Ndefi and countless others are not using their mosquito nets as global health experts have intended.

Nobody in his hut, including his seven children, sleeps under a net at night. Instead, Mr. Ndefi has taken his family’s supply of anti-malaria nets and sewn them together into a gigantic sieve that he uses to drag the bottom of the swamp ponds, sweeping up all sorts of life: baby catfish, banded tilapia, tiny mouthbrooders, orange fish eggs, water bugs and the occasional green frog.

(SEE ALSO: virtue-signalling, proof)

 
Well, that solves a few problems:

Confusion over the number of irregular migrants that have been removed from Canada led to an apology Monday from Border Security Minister Bill Blair — and attracted fresh calls from Opposition MPs for more action to address ongoing border woes.

Over the weekend, Blair created a hornet's nest of criticism when he told Global News in an interview that the "overwhelming majority" of asylum seekers who have crossed irregularly into Canada over the last 21 months have left the country.

But the government's own numbers tell a different story.

Newly released figures show Canadian officials have removed only a handful of the hundreds of irregular migrants who arrived in Canada while they were already facing deportation orders from the United States.

The numbers, tabled recently in the House of Commons, show nearly 900 irregular migrants intercepted by the Mounties in Canada since April 2017 were already under removal orders issued by American authorities.

As of late June, only six of these people had been removed from Canada.

Remember - Justin and his Liberal friends refused to call what was happening to the Yazidis genocide:

A Rohingya refugee living in an overcrowded camp in Bangladesh is heaping "heartfelt thanks" on Canada for declaring the Myanmar military's actions against his people a genocide.

That's the Canadian legal system for you:

A horrifying refresher — fair warning — for those who need it: April 8, 2009, was the first day eight-year-old Tori Stafford was allowed to walk home by herself from Oliver Stephens School in Woodstock, Ont. She never made it. McClintic, then 18, struck up a conversation as school let out, then lured her into her 28-year-old boyfriend Michael Rafferty’s car with the promise of seeing a puppy.

There was no puppy, needless to say. McClintic tried to keep Tori calm while the couple bought drugs, then garbage bags and a claw hammer. “I said I’d make sure she got home, that I wouldn’t let anything happen to her,” McClintic said at Rafferty’s trial in 2012.

Instead she stood by in a field while Rafferty raped Tori, guarding her during a break in the horror while she relieved herself — McClintic told the court she saw “blood in the snow.” Then she beat, kicked and claw-hammered Tori to death. Tori’s body wasn’t found for more than two months.

McClintic pleaded guilty to first degree murder in 2010, making her ineligible for parole for 25 years. 

Rafferty was found guilty two years later and sentenced to the same.

In the eight years since, McClintic has earned no rewards for good behaviour. In 2012 she pleaded guilty to assaulting fellow inmate Aimee McIntyre, with whom she had requested to work in a peer-support program.

“Trying to get some shots through her arms, finally I brought my foot up tried stompin’ on her face a couple times,” McClintic wrote to a friend, describing the assault. (She affixed a smiley face to the aforementioned sentence.) “Point made, statement just not as loud as I would have liked it to be.” McClintic lamented she could have done more damage to McIntyre in a larger room.

“The focal point (of Okimaw Ohci) is the spiritual lodge where teachings, ceremonies and workshops with elders take place,” the Correctional Service Canada website reads. “The women learn how to live independently by cooking, doing laundry, cleaning and doing outdoor maintenance chores.”

Aboriginal people, how would you feel if some heartless b!#ch murdered your children and was then placed in a resort who philosophy is entirely based on fiction?




The terminally clueless have no quarter to give:

More than two dozen Queen's University students and their supporters gathered Monday evening to protest against a professor they say has been inviting speakers who promote discriminatory views.

The rally took place outside the Queen's Law building to draw attention to Lindsay Shepherd, a graduate student and former teaching assistant at Wilfrid Laurier University, who was speaking at an event inside the building with Queen's law professor Bruce Pardy.

Shepherd made headlines last year when she was reprimanded by Laurier faculty members after playing video clips of Jordan Peterson, that showed a debate over gender pronouns in class.

Shepherd recorded her conversation with Laurier officials, and that recording was made public. The incident ignited a debate around freedom of speech and whether university educators should be limited in what controversial subject material they introduce into their classrooms. ...

In response to the protesters at Queen's, Shepherd told Global News she was confused about the subject of the protest, since she was invited to Queen's to talk about other subjects.

"This was about free speech, and the Laurier situation, no white supremacy was involved in that," said Shepherd. "I guess they're talking about how I'm white. I kind of looked at it just like a comedic event."

I'll say.

Lindsay Shepherd could stroll on Queen's grounds for a cinnamon roll at the cafeteria and the perpetually clueless about why they're angry would still have a sign ready.

They are caricatures of themselves.





A deal with the Devil only benefits him:

The Vatican announced Saturday it had reached an historic accord with China on the appointment of bishops in the Communist country which has so far named its own officials to a sole Beijing-recognised Catholic church.

On the tail-end of Chuseok, the Cambodian festival of the dead:

Cambodians threw rice on the ground on Tuesday to mark the 'Festival of the Dead' or Pchum Ben and feed the spirits of the dead.

Cambodians visit pagodas across the country during the 15-day festival that takes place annually to offer prayers and food to the spirits of their deceased relatives, who they believe only emerge to eat the food during this period.

At Tuol Tumpoung pagoda in the capital Phnom Penh, hundreds of people crowded the temple complex to offer food and money to Buddhist monks to the backdrop of chanting.