Dynasty, s3: Canadian Politics 2018

Finally read that and, wow, that's infuriating.

So apparently we're in a diplomatic battle and trade war with Saudi Arabia over Freeland's criticisms of their punishment of political activisits, which was itself somewhat half-assed but at least a step in the direction. Funniest consequence so far: https://newrepublic.com/minutes/150408/saudi-arabia-threatens-support-quebecs-secession-canada . They might need to take some trolling tips from the Russians.

SA threatening to do 9/11 Pt. 2 to Canada is the funniest thing to happen in a long time.

This is actually kind of nuts: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-saudi-arabia-to-withdraw-all-saudi-students-studying-at-canadian/

I liked the explanation for this whole thing here https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-saudi-arabias-bold-move-has-nothing-to-do-with-canada/

The timing of the Saudi announcement is also meant to deflect public and regional criticism from another of the Crown Prince’s foreign policy blunders: Jerusalem and the so-called Kushner peace plan. A few weeks ago, the Saudis signalled that they might support Donald Trump’s son in-law Jared Kushner’s so-called Israeli-Palestinian peace plan, which included recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Reportedly, Mr. Kushner and the Crown Prince have an amicable relationship, and the Saudis were using their economic and political muscle in the region to push the proposal through with reluctant Arab governments, particularly that of Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas. While the Crown Prince has had a long leash from his father, King Salman, the regional and public heat was apparently too much for the older monarch, and in an unexpected move, the King overturned his son’s foreign policy proposal and reaffirmed the long-standing Saudi position on the matter.

For a leader who is used to the nationalist support of his young and energized followers, it was time for Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to get the Saudi people riled up again. Enter Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland – a woman, no less. Ms. Freeland’s tweet was easy fodder for the macho Saudi Twittersphere. The resulting poke to the eye of the feminist Trudeau government is a perceived win in the Saudi foreign policy community and a helpful distraction from a few weeks of domestic embarrassment for the Crown Prince over his father’s rebuke.

This is basically the same kind of thing as Trump distracting the media by making a big deal out of the NFL players taking a knee during the national anthem.

disrupting your students' educations to own the libs

They might need to take some trolling tips from the Russians.

Looks like they have, at least if we assume that the Russian and 4chan schools of trolling are one and the same: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/aug/07/saudi-arabia-canada-toronto-cn-tower-9-11-photo-apology

Spent 1-2 hours in the car today, and it was buck-a-beer, buck-a-beer all over 680. Utterly ridiculous.

Lol

It looks like a lot of breweries are basically saying take a hike, son.

https://www.nationalobserver.com/2018/08/08/analysis/kinder-morgan-just-told-its-shareholders-how-it-persuaded-trudeau-government-pay

A lawyer for one of the directly affected nations, the Tsleil-Waututh, has said it could use evidence uncovered by National Observer that the government had made a decision to approve the project before concluding its consultations with First Nations as grounds for an appeal to the Supreme Court, as part of its case to terminate the project. The case is currently under review at the Federal Court of Appeal, which rejected the news articles as "hearsay."

so kinder morgan gave us an ultimatum and we took the bait

oh and there's also this

https://www.wsj.com/articles/canada-comes-under-fire-for-money-laundering-lapses-1533729600

if you're blocked: https://pastebin.com/Ar7XdGud

god I hate this dumbass country

Eh, I just moved to the UK for work after spending some time in France and Romania and there's nothing I want more right now than to find a job back in Montreal so I can properly settle there. Not that it's going to happen given the vicissitudes of the academic job market but really, in terms of overall dumbfuckery there's far worse out there.

I do share your exasperation regarding this particular piece of news though.

Four dead in a shooting in Fredericton, NB

https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2018/08/10/fredericton-shooting_a_23499817

To hell with guns, Trudeau can partly win me back if he passes stronger regulations.

I don't passionately care about the sex-ed issue for reasons I won't get into here, but I of course think Ford's being ridiculous and meddlesome. Just got an e-mail saying that ETFO's basically telling us to pay no mind.

"ETFO strongly denounces the government's decision and advises members to continue to exercise their professional judgement when it comes to teaching all sections of the 2015 curriculum...ETFO will vigorously defend members who continue to follow the 2015 Health Curriculum."

Pretty sure teachers will also ignore him when it comes to the social studies curriculum. Love it--take a hike, son.

Quebec's election season starts on August 23rd.

https://www.macleans.ca/opinion/canada-is-one-of-the-most-socially-mobile-countries-in-the-world-heres-why/

It says more about the 34 other countries than Canada.

That's interesting. I didn't expect that, to be honest, but it's good to know. Hope this Premier isn't able to foul that up too badly. I'm looking forward to reading more of the OECD study.

I'm not surprised. Let's check in again after the next global recession - the one we don't dodge.

who is going to win the quebec election? god we are so fucked

http://blog.qc125.com/ for polls might be one of your best sources Sym.

And it sounds like it's going to be abhorrent CAQ. But the Liberals are very very good at elections.

took me an embarrassingly long time to parse the Liberal logo as an L

But the Liberals are very very good at elections.

literally the only thing

Well they just might be the only party with 5+ seats that gives a damn about immigrants.

But the Liberals are very very good at elections.

What I still thought going into the lasr ON election

*last

Ontario liberals don't have the weaponized referendum boogeyman.

Well they just might be the only party with 5+ seats that gives a damn about immigrants.

iirc the # of immigrants we take in is pretty minor compared to many other countries? (not disputing that the Tories are worse on this)

VHS's comment still seems fair in the context of Quebec Liberals vs other Quebec provincial parties.

Yes.

21% of Canadian population is foreign-born + the second generations of immigrants like me that straddle the lines between home culture + Canadian culture, so you are looking at a pretty substantial % of the population being potentially targeted by xenophobia like Bernier's, the CAQ's or the PQ's. On top of that you have ethnic groups that are bound to be considered like 'foreign' by these racists no matter how many decades their family have been Canadian citizens, which **sigh**. If we want to talk about how many immigrants Canada is taking, by 2015 we did better when compared to most other western nations, in both percentage and straight numbers. Stats here: https://www.un.org/en/development/desa/population/migration/data/estimates2/estimates15.shtml

Now I haven't checked how many of those immigrants live in the province of Quebec vs the other provinces but sadly the # of immigrants we take in is irrelevant at this point? What matters is how much noise the Le Pen-inspired nationalists/Quebecor media consortium is making about the 'non-quebecois' population and how it will impact their lives on a daily basis. The PLQ has been explicitly protecting their cause vis a vis of the nationalist who have been slowly and steadily escalating their rhetorics against 'foreign culture' and playing footsies with straight racist organized groups like la Meute. The famous PLQ face veil ban from a year ago is an obvious punt to the courts they did not care about and did little to calm the xenophobic anxieties. Couillard knew and knows it can't be legislated, that it can't survive the legal challenges it faces. So he did the strict minimum to make it die a slow death and make everyone look xenophobic as shit. Problem is the Journal de Montreal columnist and many nationalists don't give a shit about looking xenophobic anymore. And let's not paint the PLQ as champions either, they just happen to realize that the 'ethnic vote' is a vote nonetheless and that it was up for grabs since that odious term first entered the mainstream on that 1995 night.They mostly been in power since 2003 and systemic racism is still the MO and they did little to change that, even if it is unquestionable they remain the better option for anyone feeling excluded from the Pure Laine nation.

Lots of it is circumstantial but the Quebec economy is doing better than ever, and the famous welfare state that is the envy of the other provinces is still largely the same. Taxes have been reduced, the debt has been reduced, new hospitals have been built, rent is manageable, none of that is perfect but this is simply not a line of attack the opposition can use: 1. the CAQ promises the same kind of soft austerity that will work for as long as Canada GDP is growing by 3% and the Canadian dollar is not staged for Alberta only, 2. the PQ is still remembered as the great debt creator/have a raison d'être that has little to do with the economy and financial well being of the citizens, 3. sadly Quebec Solidaire has a hard time convincing the most-taxed population in North America... to pay more taxes. So basically this election cycle will be mostly about cultural stuff and the main cultural debate shifted from for and against sovereignty to for and against immigration.

Basically what that means is that we might be stuck between a Montreal-centred PLQ that is insanely corrupt and balances between hard and soft austerity for the pleasure of Power Corp, Bombardier and Couche-Tard and a rural/suburban oriented CAQ that think Islam can't exist in a democracy and balances between... hard and soft austerity for the pleasure of Power Corp, Bombardier and Couche-Tard.

I look at Notley and Horwath with great envy.

Also my go to vote in this fuckin provincial mess was the weed legalization dudes but obviously that isn't an option anymore.

Merci Justin.

thanks VHS, booming post. Quebec politics are hard to get my head around

thanks Sym, ILX might be my outlet for these things up until October 1st.

For anyone interested, there will be an english debate for the Quebec provincial elections (for the first time ever).

If anyone feel like I've hijacked the thread I'll make a specific one for the prov. elections.

this thread is pretty hijackable imo

well quebec is part of canada and this thread is hardly so busy as to require splintering threads to keep it on topic or something so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

yeah keep it here so we don't feel bad using this thread to bitch about bc and vancouver politix

lol sounds good

co-sign on keeping it all in here

a separate thread for quebec?

http://104.236.16.159/wp-content/uploads/2006/09/Referendum.jpg

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-ontario-government-says-it-will-discipline-teachers-who-dont-follow/

What's extra good about this is he's making it anonymous. Because it's not like a grade 7 or 8 student who's angry at a teacher for some reason would ever abuse it.

Ugh and wow

Heh, for a second I thought you were referring to this unsurprising piece of 'breaking' news, Sund4r (maybe you secretly were):

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-maxime-bernier-to-make-announcement-ahead-of-conservative-convention/

fits both! justin's going to be PM for the next 50 years

i'm ambivalent.

on the one hand: vote splitting on the right, potentially nullifies them as a political force under first past the post.

on the other hand: there is a good chance this results in a mainstream far-right federal political party with parliamentary representation