voluble

At this rate, it won't be long before Poilievre is speaking in full limerick. What an idiot.

The unspoken subtext in Trudeau's comment is of course "they're playing silly games while I'm running the country". Trudeau's only available response to the end of the supply and confidence agreement is to downplay its significance, while avoiding looking like a bitter jackass. Ironically, his comment is itself exactly the kind of 'politics' he's accusing the other party leaders of practicing. It's image management, that's it.

I disagree. And also I don't understand how your comment is relevant to the conversation. Making a non sequitur like this isn't constructive. So, nice try but, you will not divide us!

Poilievre is making a string of very strange political gambles. Doing the rhyming nickname thing, trying to look like a cool badass, going on a string of unusual, foolish-looking, public attacks against rivals.

If the Conservatives don't do as well as expected in the federal election, I wonder what's next for them, from a leadership, attitude, and policy standpoint.

This will be Gen Z's first real federal election to participate in. I'm very interested to see their impact. Convention is to assume that the young won't vote, but, life and livelihood for the youth in Canada has never been worse, at least in my lifetime.

Fair. Though it's hard to say much about the extent and effect of interference in the 2021 federal election, because much of it is still not known by the public, and there is no plan for disclosure. O'Toole was briefed on matters that concerned him. All the public has gotten are vague claims that the interference "didn't change the outcome of the election". The notion that any citizen should find that reassuring is a chilling thought.

And from a cynic's point of view, it's arguable that Poilievre's willful blindness and mealymouthed stance on national security isn't simply a lucky outcome for foreign powers that seek to influence Canadian politics - it's a stance that could serve to materially benefit him and his party in a federal election where interference is expected.

And more generally, when choosing a leader, are Conservatives now primed to prefer weak Poilievre-type foreign policy, instead of stronger O'Toole-type foreign policy? Probably. That's a downstream effect and success of interference. It's bad news all around, and I don't think enough is made of the issue.

It seems unlikely to me that their public statements about their situation are a full and accurate reflection of their feelings. I mean, what else are they going to say? "Fuck Boeing, fuck this failed mission, we're pilots with families and it's less than ideal that we'll be stranded up here for 8 months doing busywork while our bone density gets nuked"?

If my employer sent me to a remote island without any of my personal effects, on a vehicle that couldn't safely return me home, I'd look at any list of tasks they sent me with some measure of bitterness. Even if it was my favourite remote island. Being trapped there would change the colour of things. Working is probably the only thing they can do to keep from going insane.

TFW your election campaign was provably targeted by hostile foreign powers because your foreign policy positions are contrary to their aims and goals.

From a policy standpoint, disengagement is the worst possible strategy. Worse than engagement, and far worse than developing proactive foreign policy in the face of constant foreign interference.

Canada needs to create a foreign agent registry, and establish more sophisticated systems to combat and sanction foreign interference in our political and cultural spaces. For fuck sake, we know for a fact that right now, we have a sitting Member of Parliament (Han Dong) who has their seat as a result of Chinese state influence into their candidacy. The fact that we lack the mechanisms, or the political will, or both, to do something about this, is insanity.

I think the polarization about the issue of what to do about drug addiction is partially a symptom of the fact that different communities have different needs. The approach needs to be different in Gunn than in downtown Edmonton. But, we're in a position where the political interests of the citizens in those places don't overlap very much, so no matter what, we're going to end up with solutions that nobody is fully happy with.

Speaking as a person with absolutely no love for the UCP, and with dissimilar views about how to address the problem of addiction, I don't hate the fact that they're actually trying something that might help people. Maybe this program won't work, but at least it's an attempt. It's better than hand waving about abstinence and law and order which takes no effort at all.

If only a federal political party with electoral victory within their reach had promised a meaningful reform to the first past the post system. Around 2015. That would have really been timely, and materially improved the Canadian political space.

Liberals breaking a promise that wasn't rooted in a sincere vision of what this country should look like, and instead was made to secure votes from a specific demographic group :shocked pikachu:

Very cool concept.

Always wanted to go to Def Con. Good luck & have fun!