A Post, For Now

Quite a bit going on ...




It wasn't out of quiet resignation that Andrew Scheer removed himself from the party leader position of the Tories but that he tried out-scumming PM Blackface Groper Chinese Money:

After rejecting calls for his resignation from within his party for weeks, Scheer said he will step down as soon as his party chooses a successor. His caucus agreed in an emergency meeting at the end of the day.

"Serving as the leader of the party that I love so much has been the opportunity and the challenge of a lifetime," he said in the House of Commons, "and this was not a decision I came to lightly."

Or at all. Your hand was forced, Andy. 

Possible replacements for this fire sale federal party (if anyone cares).

Meanwhile, Justin and his worthless band of living sleaze carry on being the worst people on this planet:

Liberal backbenchers declined Wednesday to give themselves the power to turf their leader, Justin Trudeau.

They also passed up the chance to control who gets expelled from — or re-admitted to — the ranks of the governing party’s caucus.

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The vote on the special committee that followed does not inspire confidence in Trudeau’s ability to navigate the rocky shoals of minority government. The Liberals were apparently ruffled by the clause in the motion that said the prime minister, the minister of global affairs and Canada’s ambassador to China could “be ordered” to appear before the committee from time to time.

(Sidebar: if they have a pension and are not held criminally liable for anything then they don't care.)

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All this backchat is making the Liberals nervous. The senate motion calling for sanctions on Chinese officials has already run up against the objections of the Liberal senate appointee Murray Sinclair. In a note almost certainly composed at the behest of the Prime Minister’s Office, Sinclair told the motion’s sponsors, Conservative senators Leo Housakos and Thanh Ngo, that a successful sanctions motion would “likely jeopardize the safety” of Kovrig and Spavor. Says Housakos: “You can never appease a tyranny and expect it to improve its behaviour.” Calls to Sinclair’s office went unreturned Tuesday. It appears almost certain that the sanctions motion will be put over until after the Christmas break.

(Sidebar: bullsh--. Leaving them in China without lawyers exposes them to danger. And, again -why trade with a country that kills its dissidents?) 

It's just an economy:

In a fiscal update to be presented before Christmas, Finance Minister Bill Morneau will likely bring in the Liberals’ promised tax cut, to be phased in over four years, which will spur consumer demand but do little to encourage work effort. A $3,000-a-year increase in the personal exemption might encourage some low-income workers to join the workforce but will result in higher marginal tax rates to claw back the increase for high-income workers. This redistributive policy will not address Canada’s weak productivity performance (as I discussed in these pages on Aug. 22).

(Sidebar: oh, that's why Canadians don't have jobs. It's not opportunity but exemptions. Of course!)

 

Given the U.S. unemployment rate is now 3.5 per cent, it is hard to believe that so many new jobs can be created — after all, where do employers find the people to work? The answer is that many Americans who once left the work force are now returning, allowing employment growth to continue. The main beneficiaries have been lower-income workers with faster accelerating wages.

The U.S. economy prospects were boosted in January 2017 when Donald Trump and Congress introduced deregulation and 2018 tax reform, accompanied by large federal deficits. Trumpian tariff policies have undermined these growth-enhancing gains resulting in a slower growth in 2019.

Canada’s approach to growth has been different, with rising deficits (but not anywhere as bad as the United States) and higher federal government spending on infrastructure and social programs.

If only there was some way to safely transport oil, like in long tubes or something:

The Canadian Pacific Railway train that derailed in rural Saskatchewan earlier this week leaked more than six times the amount of oil spilled during the 2016 Husky Energy pipeline disaster in the same province.  

An estimated 1.5 million litres of crude leaked from the train, the Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) said Wednesday evening in its first major update on the derailment just after midnight on Monday.

By comparison, 225,000 litres of oil leaked into the North Saskatchewan River from a Husky line near Maidstone in July 2016.

The emergency brakes on the CP train in Monday's derailment were applied near Guernsey, about 100 kilometres southeast of Saskatoon, after one of the lead cars jumped the tracks while the train was going about 72 km/h — the speed limit on the line.

Also:

The Alberta government formally launched its energy war room Wednesday, tasking the now operational Canadian Energy Centre with pushing back against what Premier Jason Kenney called a “campaign of lies” targeting the province’s oil and gas industry.

The Calgary-based centre, with its $30-million annual budget, was one of the UCP’s key campaign promises. At its launch event at SAIT, Kenney said the centre is needed because Alberta’s energy sector has been targeted by a “highly co-ordinated and largely foreign funded” campaign to landlock its resources.

It's called extortion:

Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations Chief Bobby Cameron says he'll help Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe fight the carbon tax — if Moe helps him on other issues.

Go and save him yourselves:

The family of a Canadian man who has been arbitrarily detained in Egypt for nearly a year is pleading with Foreign Affairs Minister François-Philippe Champagne to bring him home.

As if anyone needed further proof that this guy is a sleaze:

For six months in 2008, Pete Buttigieg says he spent 14-hour days hunkered down in a suburban Toronto office park, crunching data for Loblaws as a McKinsey and Company management consultant.

He says his task was figuring out how the Canadian supermarket chain could strategically lower prices as a way to increase profits and “subtly change” shoppers’ perceptions of Loblaws. The analysis became so complex, he needed an upgraded computer that colleagues nicknamed Bertha.

It was part of the Indiana mayor’s three-year stint with McKinsey and in his memoir, Buttigieg says the work initially seemed “against all my expectations … fascinating.” ...

His six-month stint as a 26-year-old grocery consultant adds a mild Canadian flavour to his sleeper candidacy, but also this week triggered questions about whether he was involved in a very different supermarket affair here: the Canadian bread price-fixing scandal.

China is helping its Asian vassal state:

China’s U.N. Ambassador Zhang Jun said it is “imperative” that the United Nations Security Council ease sanctions on North Korea in a bid to support talks between Pyongyang and the United States and “head off a dramatic reversal” of the situation. 

This North Korea:

North Korea’s maternal mortality rate is 1,200 deaths per 100,000 births, 15 times higher than what had been reported in UN data and nearly five times above the global average, according to the Database Center for North Korean Human Rights, a Seoul-based non-governmental organisation.

 “Women don’t die right after they give birth. They go home because there are no conditions for postnatal care [in the hospital],” said a doctor who fled North Korea in 2016. “There are cases in which they start bleeding walking home, and after continuously bleeding for two to three days at home they die.”

Interviews with defectors also uncovered anecdotal evidence of barbaric treatment of infants born with disabilities and deformities. “Many women have their pregnancies terminated midterm, and those who don’t have money keep the baby and give birth. If the babies have a disability, they are either not given food until they die or are put face down to suffocate,” the doctor said. “It was like they never existed.” 

The NKDB report, seen by the Financial Times, shines a light on the struggles of ordinary North Koreans just as international attention is trained on efforts by Donald Trump to convince North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un to give up his nuclear weapons. The US president and Moon Jae-in, his South Korean counterpart, have been criticised for ignoring Mr Kim’s human rights abuses.

Don't bugger this up, Donald:

A high-level defector from Kim Jong-un’s regime has sent a letter to President Trump warning that he has been “tricked” into believing the North Korean leader will ever denuclearize and that Washington should instead ramp up a “psychological warfare campaign” aimed at inspiring North Korea’s elites to replace the young dictator from within.
 
The U.S. should simultaneously impose “all-out sanctions” against Pyongyang and be prepared to carry out a “preemptive strike” against Mr. Kim’s nuclear sites, according to the letter, a copy of which was obtained by The Washington Times.

The warning comes as the White House seeks fresh momentum for Mr. Trump’s historic personal diplomatic outreach to Mr. Kim in the face of a slew of provocative military moves, rhetorical outbursts and more than a dozen ballistic missile tests by Pyongyang in recent months.

Never deal with a communist.

(Kamsahamnida)

Did the dogs give them sounds political advice?:

Britain’s general election was going to the dogs Thursday as voters took their pooches to polling stations up and down the country.

Where are all the good people in this world?

Right here:

Special Ed Teacher Asks Entire Class To Be In Her Wedding Party

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Adam Armstrong, 35, showed up at his former home, Harris Gardens Apartments, to give back to his community with a truck carrying US$12,000 worth of toys.

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Street vendor Gorgui Lamine Sow was walking the streets of the coastal city of Denia on Friday when he heard screams coming from nearby.

He rushed over to a crowd watching black smoke pouring out of a second floor window. “They told me there was a man trapped inside the apartment,” the 20-year-old told Reuters. “I didn’t think about it. I just dropped my things and started climbing.”

He scaled the balcony, entering the burning apartment as smoke filled the street. Once inside he hoisted the resident over his shoulders and carried him down a ladder set up by a neighbour.