If vetting federal political candidates was as strict in 2004 as it needs to be today, would Pierre Poilievre have made the cut as a candidate? I wonder.
Since candidate vetting by national political parties is as rigorous as it is in this age of social media, where any injudicious thing we say is likely to live online forever, is the quality of the candidates we’re getting better or worse?
I’m not confident I know the answer to either question, but they’re both worth asking.
I do know that if you’ve ever expressed a controversial opinion on social media or, God help you, in a TikTok video or equivalent, you probably shouldn’t be thinking about running for Parliament. The parties won’t want you, with good reason, even if they happen to quietly agree with you. This is because your opinion is bound to show up in The National Post or some other news organization with a political agenda – which nowadays is just about all of them.
This is especially good advice, by the way, if you’ve already got a job that you won’t necessarily get back if you quit to run for office, as Rod Loyola discovered to his dismay last week after he’d resigned his seat as the NDP MLA for Edmonton-Ellerslie to run for the Liberals in the new Edmonton Gateway federal riding.
That was before Mr. Loyola was outed by the Post for having said nice things about Hezbollah and Hamas 16 years ago when he was performing as a rapper at a “Say NO to NATO” rally.
The Post must be losing its touch. They didn’t wait until it was too late for the Liberals to get Mr. Loyola’s name off the ballot before they leaked the news, which up until his resignation from the provincial Assembly someone had presumably been keeping in reserve for the next Alberta election.
Thanks to the Post, then, the NDP has probably dodged that bullet, although as the past few days have shown, such revelations from history preserved on social media is a problem that can bedevil any political party.
“I did not think that an intro at a hip-hop segment 16 years later would get me ‘cancelled’ after close to a decade of serving as an elected representative at the Legislative Assembly of Alberta, but here we are,” Mr. Loyola told the CBC.
He now says he will run as an independent, but in any federal election, let alone one like this, that is a plan that will end in tears for the candidate, and maybe for a majority of voters too. He’d be wiser just to pack it in and look for a new gig.
As the past few days show, federal parties are skidding candidates with surprising frequency and then bragging about the rigour of their vetting – which is fair enough under the circumstances, as when Mr. Poilievre boasted about some of his Conservative Party’s cashiered candidates, even if that was about all he could say in the circumstances.
If I haven’t missed anybody – it’s starting to get hard to keep up – the Conservatives are down four since Monday:
- Mark McKenzie, Con candidate in Windsor-Tecumseh-Lakeshore, out for endorsing public hangings. (I admit it’s something of a relief to know Mr. Poilievre isn’t touting the view we should Hang the Gang!)
- Stefan Marquis, CPC candidate in Laurier-Sainte-Marie, no reason given, but by the sound of it failing to hew to the national consensus on Ukraine.
- Lourence Singh in New Westminster-Burnaby-Maillardville, no explanation at all for that one.
- Don Patel, the CPC candidate in Etobicoke-North, for endorsing a social media comment suggesting Canadians critical of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi should be shipped to India.
Next on the list? Who knows? Maybe Andrew Lawton, the party’s candidate in Elgin-St. Thomas-London South, who Press Progress reported Friday “was a member of a secret group chat used by Freedom Convoy leaders and their lawyers to coordinate messages on social media with right-wing alternative media personalities and far-right social media influencers.”
Apparently it won’t be Aaron Gunn, though, the Conservative candidate for North Island-Powell River on the West Coast. Yesterday, Mr. Poilievre drew the line at dumping a candidate for making statements on social media denying that Canada’s historic treatment of Indigenous peoples amounts to genocide despite an open letter from 26 municipal and Indigenous leaders condemning Mr. Gunn’s statement.
Meanwhile, the Liberals are down two, including Mr. Loyola, both in Alberta.
First to go was Thomas Keeper, the party’s candidate in Calgary Confederation, who the CBC reported had failed to tell the party about a 20-year-old domestic assault charge that was stayed six weeks after it was laid.
So, if I’ve got this right – and the story could be changing as I write this – the Conservatives are beating the Liberals 4 to 2 in fired candidates, even if they’re not ahead in the polls.
It would be tied 4-4 if you counted Edmonton Centre Liberal and former Trudeau Government cabinet minister Randy Boissonnault, and Markham-Unionville MP Paul Chiang, both of whom Prime Minister Mark Carney allowed to walk the plank as candidates without an obvious shove – Mr. Boissonnault for his controversial claims about Indigenous ancestry and troubling allegations about his business activities and Mr. Chiang for his opinion that an opponent should be turned over to Chinese authorities for the bounty.
The NDP hasn’t lost anyone yet – except maybe Mr. Loyola, sort of.
The parties only have until tomorrow to find replacements.
As for the second question – is the quality of the candidates we’re getting better or worse? – the answer is probably better, but not necessarily more interesting or inspiring.
Young careerists found in all political parties will already have figured out that they’d better zip their lips and not share their annoying opinions in their undergraduate political science classes, because someone’s sure to have a phone discreetly recording them for future reference.
But Canada has certainly had excellent Parliamentarians who would never be allowed to run for Parliament today.
Consider Frank Howard, CCF member of the British Columbia Legislature and NDP MP for the old Skeena riding, who served two years in the pen for armed robbery before becoming a union leader and then embarking on a long political career.
As an MP, he played a major role in winning the right for First Nations citizens to vote in Canadian elections. He fought for prison and divorce law reform, earning a reputation “as compassionate and caring,” reporter Jennifer Lang wrote in the Cloverdale Reporter after Mr. Howard’s death in 2011.
“I came to this conclusion many years ago,” Ms. Lang quoted him saying in a 2004 interview, “don’t blame anybody else for your difficulties. I got to the point where I hated the police. I hated the social workers. I hated foster homes. I suppose I hated myself, too. But I still had to come to the conclusion that it was my doing.”
When someone tried to blackmail MP Howard with a threat to reveal his criminal record, he set up an interview at the local TV station in Terrace and told all on the air. First elected as an MLA by 13 votes in 1953, the northwest B.C. voters came to love him, returning him to office 10 times over 27 years, 17 of them spent as an MP in Ottawa.
Is there anyone like that in Ottawa now? I doubt it. Could there be? Not a chance.
NOTE: This story has been amended to include Markham-Unionville MP Paul Chiang, who deserved mention in dispatches as well.
Considering Mr. Poilievre’s own statement that “we” need to “engender the values of hard work and independence and self-reliance” because Canada apparently wasn’t getting “value for all this money” in compensating survivors of residential schools, his reluctance to remove Mr. Gunn is hardly surprising. Odd how few media outlets are making reference to that 2008 statement, for which Mr. Poilievre had to apologize, in this election.
Because a large portion of our media supports the neos these days. This site is a surprising honest provider. So glad I found it.
I suspect the quality of candidates is getting worse because many smart ambitious people have concluded the don’t want all this hassle to have a happy and succesful life.
We probably should start by agreeing most of what was said or done decades ago is really not that important and just leave it to the voters to decide if it is. This has become like a political arms race in which each party digs further into the past to try find dirt on their opponents. In the end, no one comes out of this looking good.
Of course social media makes this easier now and so it seems there are plenty of casualties on all sides currently. In the end we may end up only having the most bland candidates who have never said, thought or done anything provocative.
For her last birthday, my wife received a card with drawings of dinosaurs on the front, and on the inside the inscription “Happy birthday to someone old enough to have done all of her stupid things before the age of social media”. Count me as someone whose actions in his twenties would definitely disqualify himself from elected office.
A more frustrating scenario is when the rules change. We are seeing that very vividly right now with people who bought Teslas a year ago, thinking it was a progressive thing to do, and helping the environment. You really have to sympathize with them now that they look like supporters of Donald Trump.
To my way of thinking, we saw the same phenomenon with Justin Trudeau’s wearing of black face. Today I totally understand how a white person blacking their face and playing the role of a black person is offensive because of the vulgar comedy that was popular a long time ago in which white people parodied uneducated blacks. In the 2001, when Trudeau wore black face, however, I was not aware of the vulgar comedy connection, and probably would have done the same thing if I were in a play that required a black character.
The irony of David’s column is that, in my mind, the most egregious act of all the CPC candidates, and one that takes the CPC entirely out of the running in my mind, was Pierre Poilievre bringing coffee to the Freedom Convoy participants.
Bob– check out the Beaverton on why PP should be dropped, quite amusing. Lol
One other interesting tidbit about Aaron Gunn, was he was going to run for the Liberal party*, but got dropped for his views, then along comes Skippy and voila….
*Times Colonist- Oct 22 2021
Aaron Gunn tossed from BC Liberal leadership race……
The list is not just on his indigenous peoples views. Imho it reads like an application for Skippy’s new Con party, and he did not disappoint. Just ask John Rustad.
Someone naively said…”well if you don’t agree with him, then just don’t vote for him. ”
Wait, what??
Do we want someone with that kind of a bio anywhere near the HoC….I sure don’t. And if you listen to his responses, it’s never an actual acknowledgment that he said anything wrong.
Another Skippy/ Con answer but not to the question that was asked. But then when Skippy is asking Sir John A Macdonald’s bust questions, I’m not sure if he was getting answers or not.
When asked by reporters about him saying he was going to bring the statue back in Kingston, Skippy answered by asking if Sir John’s crowd sizes were as big as his own.
Garoooan!!
But give him time, I’m sure that is going to be mis-information by the news as well, just like the letter sent by the FNLC to drop Aaron.
‘Controversial claims about Indigenous ancestry’. Wasn’t there a tweet claiming the very same thing from a current provincial premier just days before a 2022 party leadership vote?
Jimmy: You are correct. I would suggest that what this really indicates is that certain kinds of unethical behavior are entirely acceptable in one party and not acceptable at all in another. This certainly influences my voting decisions although apparently not those of others. DJC
Wasn’t the year of immigration to Canada of the same person’s grandfather variable, the latter date purportedly a response to the Russian revolution of 1917?
“My Ukrainian great-grandfather, Philipis Kolodnycky, fled communism and immigrated to Canada after WW1, where he changed his name to Smith. … My political beliefs are largely born out of a complete distrust of the socialism from which my great-grandfather fled.” Mr. Kolodnycky appears to have arrived in Canada in 1915. The Russian Revolution began in 1917. It was almost 1918 by the time of the October Revolution, bringing the Bolsheviks to power, on Nov. 7 in our calendar. World War I ended on Nov. 11, 1918. So the kindest thing we can say is that Ms. Smith was confused. Well, it was a confusing couple of weeks. As Lenin famously said, ““There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen.” DJC
Thank you for the clarification.
So, having a nuanced view of the Middle East, quipping, sarcasm or in generally saying anything less insipid than “Good Morning” and posting cat memes on social media has lost people jobs, chances at political aspirations and their futures. Apparently, nobody ever changes their opinions after high school or has an off day, ranting to their friends while other people listen in.
I’ve always said that “the internet is a bar full of drunks”. It might go well–then again it could wind up in a shouting match.
There’s some things people say that are the basis of who they *are* and other times they say things that are who they are, *in that moment* and those are two entirely different situations. Nobody is allowed to change their opinion? Be swayed by a good argument? Grow up?
I knew a politician who was once a homeless teenager and she did illegal things to survive. This was brought up in the House of Commons and Doggess bless her–she lambasted the accuser at full voice by ‘fessing up (it was public knowledge anyway, she never denied it) then asking, “So, nobody is supposed to have a hard life and better their circumstances?” (or words to that effect) and thus, publicly humiliated the Conservative who brought it up so he was soundly jeered.
Any passionate person will be out on their ear at the first vetting. Not sure that’s going to improve the political climate or our futures.
Soon, the only people left in politics will be the ones that can pay tens of thousands to have every inch of their presence scrubbed from the internet before they run. Say goodbye to any working class person entering politics, forever.
It’s not like you can get rid of it without paying, either. I once got stalked by a client because they found my address by googling, me. Google had picked up that I had signed a petition *in Japan* to house a bunch of people who had no housing and thus, were living in a park. I contacted google who told me “there’s nothing we can do about it because our scrapers will just pick it up tomorrow if we delete it, today”–and that was back when you could actually contact a real person on the phone.
Dunno about everyone else but I look at people and their positions and who they are *as a whole today* and not the drunk tweets they made to an ex when they were 17.
It’s not just about *what* someone said…it’s *how* they said it and *when* they said it.
Otherwise, all that’s left is those who can pay to win.
I’ll take Bonnie and Clyde over Pierre and Anaida.
And I’d previously thought that Mr. Loyola was just another squishy centrist, easily oozing between the AB NDP and the fed Libs. Turns out that he actually had the gumption to say something unorthodox!
My opinion is revised upward.
Similar standards apparently don’t apply to rascist comments made by sitting MPs of the conservative variety.
Dave: The MP you mentioned has already sent the publisher of one of my posts a threatening demand letter, which their lawyer laughed off. Such threats are nevertheless a major problem and additional expense to the publisher of an independent blog like this, and in this case the allegations of a third party would be difficult to prove in court, so, alas, your comment must be edited to delete the undoubtedly guilty party’s name. DJC
DJC… even if the comments were made in the HoC , and are available to all and sundry via public records?
(All that’s required is patience and time, right?)
Poilièvre and the Conservatives have been clamouring for a “carbon tax election” for more than two years, and have had plenty of time to vet their candidates. I suggest to you and your readers that until January, when they started to tank in the polls, they thought they had this election sewn up and were on track for almost 240 seats. They were so confident of an easy romp to victory, they thought these edgelord candidates would be elected anyway, and even those that weren’t wouldn’t diminish the magnitude of their victory. Now that they’re actually in a contest, they’re belatedly rethinking who should carry their banner in this election.
As for the Liberals, they have had to scramble to get candidates nominated. They were woefully unprepared for this election, having nominated even fewer candidates than the NDP, which was also unprepared. Up until Mr Trudeau announced his departure, their electoral prospects were in “save the furniture” mode, and sitting MPs were departing like rodents disembarking from a foundering vessel. After their position in the polls began its dizzying ascent beginning in mid-January, some of those who had announced they were quitting swam back to the ship and climbed aboard again, and they suddenly had to fill multiple vacant nomination slots in a matter of a few weeks. So nobody should be surprised that a few duds slipped through the hasty vetting process.
As for Mr Loyala, he has clearly been caught up in the seemingly intractable, endless, zero-sum binary Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah are not merely freedom fighters trying to free the Palestinian from Israeli occupation — which would be a laudable goal if that were their only objective — they want to eradicate the Jewish State altogether. But Israel has also allowed itself to morph from being an entirely reasonable response to the post-Shoah “never again” sentiments of the world’s Jewish community — open to a two-state solution if it guaranteed both sides the ability to live in peace within secure mutually-recognized borders — to becoming a brutal occupier and expansionist aggressor state.
There is no middle ground to be found in this dispute. If you support the Palestinian cause, you’re labelled anti-Semitic; if you support the Israeli cause, you’re Islamophobic.
jerrymacgp wrote: “Israel has also allowed itself to morph from being an entirely reasonable response to the post-Shoah ‘never again’ sentiments of the world’s Jewish community — open to a two-state solution if it guaranteed both sides the ability to live in peace within secure mutually-recognized borders — to becoming a brutal occupier and expansionist aggressor state.”
Historical revisionism.
Zionism is predicated — and Israel is founded — on the displacement and dispossession of Palestinians.
If the Palestinians choose not to meekly comply and surrender, violence is inevitably the result.
Since the Palestinians choose to resist, as any other people would, including Zionists and New Yorkers, such displacement and dispossession leads to violence. The logical consequence of the foundational crime is a state of permanent hostilities.
There is nothing “reasonable” about taking over somebody else’s land and properties. It’s called theft and ethnic cleansing, leading ultimately to genocide.
As it turns out, “Never again!” meant “Never again to us!” Hardly a moral position.
Israel’s proposals for a two-state solution have never been just.
The partition proposed in 1947 was not remotely fair.
57% of Palestine for Israel. 43% for Palestinians, much of which was unfit for agriculture.
The UN 1947 partition plan gave the majority of the land (57%) to the Jews, who legally owned only 7% of it, and were a minority.
The best lands for agriculture and industry went to Israel.
The lands for Palestinians were non-contiguous (i.e., not connected).
The area under Jewish control contained 45% of the Palestinian population.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Partition_Plan_for_Palestine
If the positions were reversed, no Israeli or American would accept the terms of submission and dispossession imposed upon the Palestinians. Glaring double standard.
“Decolonize Palestine
“Myth: Had Palestinians accepted the 1947 partition plan, they would have had a state by now
“… Why, then, were Palestinians expected to agree to give away most of their land to a minority of recently arrived settlers? Why is the rejection of such a ridiculously unjust proposal framed as irrational or hateful?
“… What was being asked of Palestinians was nothing short of rubber-stamping their own colonization with approval. Nobody should be expected to agree to that.
“While addressing the Zionist Executive, Ben Gurion reemphasized that any acceptance of partition would be tactical and temporary:
“‘After the formation of a large army in the wake of the establishment of the state, we will abolish partition and expand to the whole of Palestine.’
“This was not a one-time occurrence, and neither was it only espoused by Ben Gurion. Internal debates and letters illustrate this time and time again. Even in letters to his family, Ben Gurion wrote that ‘A Jewish state is not the end but the beginning’ detailing that settling the rest of Palestine depended on creating an ‘elite army’. As a matter of fact, he was quite explicit:
“‘I don’t regard a state in part of Palestine as the final aim of Zionism, but as a mean toward that aim.’
“Chaim Weizmann expected that:
“‘partition might be only a temporary arrangement for the next twenty to twenty-five years’.
“So even ignoring the moral question of requiring the natives to formally green-light their own colonization, had the Palestinians agreed to partition they most likely still would not have had an independent state today. Despite what was announced in public, internal Zionist discussions make it abundantly clear that this would have never been allowed.”
https://decolonizepalestine.com/myth/had-palestinians-accepted-the-1947-partition-plan-they-would-have-had-a-state-by-now/
“Myth: The two-state solution is the only way forward
“Israeli table scraps
“This [two-state solution] approach … automatically means that Palestinians must relinquish any rights or hopes for their millions of refugees, and it also means that Palestinians must relinquish their rights to live in over 80% of the land they were ethnically cleansed from. It also means that resource distribution, from water to fertile land, will be heavily stacked in Israel’s favor.”
https://decolonizepalestine.com/myth/the-two-state-solution-is-the-only-way-forward/
jerrymacgp is correct about one thing: There is no middle ground to be found when someone invades your home and pushes you out the door at gunpoint.
One more thing. The Zionist project predates the Shoah by decades. Ahistorical to attribute Zionist aspirations to the Holocaust. Auschwitz cannot justify a colonial enterprise that started far earlier.
The first wave of Jewish immigration from Europe to Palestine took place in the 1880s.
After WWI, Palestine’s Jewish community numbered only 60,000. Immigration increased after WWI. Several hundred thousand Jews immigrated in the 30s and 40s.
“the Conservatives are beating the Liberals 4 to 2 in fired candidates”
Aren’t you forgetting Paul Chiang and the Chinese bounty issue, or is he not included because he “stepped away” on his own volition (although that is a somewhat dubious conclusion)?
Anon: Good point. I have amended the story to include Mr. Chiang . DJC
So white bread with the crusts cut off and no discernible filling on an appropriately 3R colored plate.
There is no room for redemption or redemption stories in this election.
Meanwhile, has anyone seen their local candidate yet? In Alberta, they’re planning to coast to victory like they always have, it seems. Blue fence posts take voters for granted. Heck, one of them even lives in Oklahoma. If you think that should be cause for expulsion, you’d be wrong.
-Three looney right-wing candidates dominated the ballot in my federal Alberta riding (which is par for the course, of course) until the quixotic Kaitlyn Staines presented herself as the Liberal on April 1st.. So I turn to your page as a sanctuary from the madness which abounds in the U.S., Alberta, and by contagion, Saskatchewan now. Since 1970 I have campaigned along the bumpy, and dusty backwoods of both provinces for the NDP when there was still an air of Tommy Douglas’s social justice and Presto’s papa’s comic elixir of “social credit”. Saskatchewan was inspiring back then, Alberta not so much. Social media ghosts did not haunt any candidates; no talk of killing someone while driving drunk, for example! I prefer to be informed rather than remaining perpetual hillbilly about the perils of contrails, vaxing, masking, and miracle cures big pharma conspire to keep from us like Ivermectin. So onward. Sadly, Smith’s threats of succession (no matter how ridiculous) like the tractors hitting the fields about now, is finding traction. How do you argue with a sugar beet? At this point in my life, I must confess I have no choice but to remain in Alberta’s stifling (silly) sociopolitical environment, with the one bright spot being that AHS will likely put me out of my misery sooner rather than later if I should fall into their “care”. At least you spared us all any mention of PP today, so I was able to keep my breakfast down. A sunny Sunday in Alberta. Drill baby drill.
Just gonna put this here for future reference.
There’s a *reason* that Americans and others were anti-vaxx/vaxx-hesitant and it *never* gets talked about.
Just previous to the Corona virus outbreak… the Sackler family deliberately hooked millions on opiates, knowing full well what they were doing causing an opioid epidemic across the lower classes. The FDA overlooked the truth or were complicit in this scheme (as many of them go on to work for gigantic salaries for Big Pharma) Then, when the Sacklers were caught and sued, full throttle, they bought out their own sued company for pennies on the dollar, changed the name and dodged most of the payments.
Thus, the stage was set for many in the public to disbelieve a single word coming out of the mouths of the FDA and Big Pharma corporations.
Many in the USA died as a result, not just from vaccine hesitancy but from the for-profit healthcare systems. I suspect if they’d had universal healthcare–half as many or so, would not have died during the pandemic.
We all like to ignore that the Nordic countries and Israel had very low death rates, very low vaccination rates but superior health care systems.
Add in that when Trump brought out vaxxs that the DNC proudly proclaimed that they wouldn’t trust it…only to proclaim the opposite when they took office. Throw in general anxiety about the FDA’s efficacy in testing (which has been abysmal for years now) and the much touted lie that it “stopped the spread” that Pharma spread when they were fully aware they’d never even tested that theory.
It makes a perfect storm of circumstances that some ignore in the debate and others use to prove that Big Pharma and the FDA are untrustworthy and you see the measles outbreak we have today.
Canadians were less hesitant because our regulatory system isn’t corporate-captured. Thus, we had more reason to believe that we were told the truth, as officials saw it.
I don’t advocate for or against. I’m simply for personal choice for any vaccination that cannot be proved to *stop the spread* of a given disease. I’m for full disclosure of the benefits and drawbacks and the discussion between doctor and patient to decide what the best outcome is likely to be.
This is lame attempt at sane-washing bog-standard anti-vaxx poison. Vaccines do not have to be 100% effective in “stopping the spread” at the level of individuals. Effectiveness is measured at the population level. That’s what puts the “public” in public health. The whole entire point is that it’s not about your personal preferences.
This is disappointing because they are supposed to have a variety of views on some issues yet they can’t allow for this dissent? Thomas Mulcair did this too when he was the leader of the NDP.
Not for nothin’ this is why some of us birds fly anonymously
I must admit that this will be the most interesting federal election in recent memory.
DJC….Conservatives drop Quebec candidate for accusing Polytechnique….CBC April 5 2025 and..
Tories * drop candidate who said Quebec massacre survivor plays ‘victim card’s….Global news April 5 2025
* and what’s with the Tories name being used again– besides them not liking being called– imo appropriately- the Cons…
The various parties seem to have dropped more than the usual number of candidates That was fun. It would be a good idea if the constituencies did a little back ground checking prior to nominees being voted on. It leaves you wondering how dumb are the constituencies.
Now having written that, some of what the candidates are being removed for, has happened in the past and it may not reflect their current views. The name of the game is winning and Provincial and National organizations know what needs to happen to be able to win.
Looking back over the past 60 yrs of politics can’t say there has been an improvement. I’ve been reading politics in B.C. and nationally for probably closer to 65 years. There aren’t a whole lot of interesting people running any more. Some elections I look at the candidates and they’re what I refer to as about to be career politicians if they can win. Don’t see a lot of people getting into politics because they want to change something which will help their community or make a change which will help some one or a group of some ones. In other times I looked at candidates and even if I didn’t like their politics or parties you could understand why they were running. They knew what they wanted to accomplish. Remember Grace McCarthy. didn’t like her politics or the party she ran for but she had a vision and worked towards it. She had a work ethic, she was charming, well turned out, she was a role model even if you didn’t agree with her politics.
Then B.C., had Christy Clark and Alberta got Daniel Smith. Seeing Christy Clark was so keen to get back into politics and enjoy the finer things in life she might want to move to Alberta and run there. B.C.. also has DeJong who the Conservatives and Liberals didn’t want. Now he is running as an Independent????? Even civic politicians aren’t that interesting any more. Vancouver had some very entertaining ones over the decades, along with some of the provincial and federal ones. Jim Green, Harry Rankin, Libby Davis, Bruce Erikson, Flying Phil Galardi, Bob Williams, Dave Barrett. WAC Bennett, Times have changed, but government is so boring and there doesn’t seem to be people who have new and innovative ideas or just are plain entertaining and know how to get people to do things. Mind you the voters haven’t improved either. They’re lazy. They want the politicians to take care of everything and get it perfect the first time, oh and no raises in taxes either. There are days I can’t stop laughing. Every body wants something but oh the deficiets, the credit rating is going down. Like really, get over it. No one seems interested in paying more taxes, especially the millionaire/billionaire class and no one wants to reduce services except those that negatively impact children, the sick and the poor. Never understood why some politicians and a lot of voters didn’t want to spend more money on children, their education, the health, their diets, etc. That isn’t creating a deficiet, its planning for the future of the country ensuring the next generation has a better chance than the last.
Always be nice to children. They maybe deciding what nursing home you go to and they will certainly be deciding how pensions will work.
Politicians might want to remember you reap what you sow.
While Poilievre brags about how he will make it so criminals get tougher sentences this is the fool who praised the criminals in the Convoy Truckers fiasco proving how stupid he is. While he maybe proving how stupid Canadians are, especially the ones on the Prairies it’s been fun watching him make a fool of himself, hasn’t it been? I haven’t forgotten the words of the 86 year German I met in 2003 , a former University Professor, who taught me that all populations, anywhere in the world, are made up of two- thirds of really stupid people and that’s how dictators become so strong . If the guy can figure out how to convince them that he’s the right guy to be their hero you can’t stop them from electing him. Poilievre appears to be making friends with some the dumbest Canadians which is scary.
Much has been said about the lack of vetting due to this being a “snap” election. Really? We all know that an election has to take place this year, but just about six months earlier.
On an unrelated note, what’s wrong with saying that people who agree with Modi should be shipped to India anyway? Would it be wrong to say anyone agreeing with Putin should be shipped to Russia, or, anyone who agree with Donald Trump should be shipped to the US?
TC: As I understand it the suggestion was that people who disagreed with Mr. Modi should be shipped to India. This is what I said in the story. I assume, although it was not said in the news report on which I based this mention, that there was a racist implication that this should apply only to Modi critics of Indian origin, although who really knows? DJC
Frank Howard. I remember Frank back in Terrace 1979.
I must be getting old.