Stand on Guard?

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The formerly petulant, provocative, partisan, populist Pierre Poilievre is back, and the leopard hasn’t changed its spots. Ridden on a rail out of Ottawa for his support of the insurrectionist Truckers’s Convoy and its occupation of the Capital, Mr. Poilievre was banished by Ottawa voters.

Enter the good ultra Conservatives from Alberta, who gave up a justly won seat by Damien Kurek, a well respected member of the Battle River-Crowfoot community, so that Poilievre could win a by-election. Yep, not even the Long Ballot could stop the shamed Poilievre from winning a seat in rural south eastern Alberta. He has now earned the moniker Parachute Pierre.

In the U.S.A. they would call him a carpetbagger, and it didn’t take him long to revert to the same populist Republican playbook that cost the Conservatives the last election. Sloganeering, innuendo insults, the blame game, the staged photo ops – nothing has changed. Prime Minister Mark Carney could have held off the by-election much longer, but he acted with integrity. Poilievre has responded by thanking him with populist slogans like “Axe the Carbon Tax 2.0”  and “Jail not bail”

Parachute Pierre used to blame all of Canada’s ills on Justin Trudeau. With Prime Minister Carney in charge, Poilievre now simply targets “The Liberals” as the source of all evil. At a recent photo op in Brampton, close to the riding of Brampton North-Caledon Liberal MP Ruby Sahota (the actual Secretary of State for Combating Crime) Mr. Poilievre announced his “Stand on Guard” law.

While gaslighting a Brampton family as his backdrop, Poilievre announced “After ten years of Liberals, the system treats victims like criminals and criminals like victims.” Nonsense. This all relates to a home invasion where the perpetrator, the criminal, was incapacitated by the homeowner, the victim, who was subsequently charged with assault. Note, None of the details of the assault were released, which leads one to wonder why Parachute Pierre leapt to the defense of the homeowner.

The police made the assault charge, indicating that they thought the amount of force used to stop the intruder was unreasonable. Mr. Poilievre finds this offensive. Under Canadian law we are allowed to stop any intruder/attacker with reasonable force. That means that once the attacker/intruder has been neutralized either through a de-escalation talk or by a physical response, that you stop applying force. But Parachute Pierre wants no limits to the force you apply to stopping an intruder. “The use  of force, including lethal force is presumed to be reasonable against an individual who unlawfully enters a house and poses a threat to anyone inside.” This is a close copy of Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law that allows you to shoot and possibly kill anyone “invading” your property.

Think of Rodney King. Think of Dudley George. Think of the death of Sammy Yatim by police officer James Forcillo – way beyond excessive force. Now think of the North York van attack by Alek Venassian, who wanted “death by cop” but was calmed down by Officer Kenny Lam. There are choices.

Caledon MP Kyle Seeback appears to be echoing the same sentiments when he recently claimed, “Soft on crime Liberal laws are having Canadians living in fear.” Whoa, slow down there, Mr. Seeback. My family is not living in fear, except for the truck traffic in Caledon. You seem to forget that the “soft on crime” bail system in Canada is a partnership between the federal and provincial governments. Bail rights are protected by the Canadian  Constitution. I am not living in fear, YOU are creating a crisis.

In the press statement from your website, you added that “Under Mark Carney’s Liberal Government, repeat violent offenders are being released onto our streets, families are paying the price while the system keeps giving second third and even fifth chances to dangerous criminals'”  I think you need to slow down a little Mr. Seeback and first talk with fellow Conservative, the Honourable Zee Hamid, Ontario MPP on bail reform, as well as your your colleague in Ottawa, neighbour Ruby Sahota, our “Crime and Punishment” mentor.

You are right about one thing – Canadians do need to feel safe in their homes and secure in the knowledge that the reasonable use of force to defend one’s self and family from uninvited intruders, will remain protected by our Constitution,

Sadly Kyle, based on your ten years of blame game chatter, and Mr. Poilievre’s lifetime spouting of prickly propaganda, I doubt if the Conservatives will be much help.

The way I see it.

 

The Morning After the Night Before

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Dawn rose on a new Canada this morning. Instead of the Conservative majority predicted by pollsters at the start of the campaign, Prime Minister Mark Carney wins his seat and the government of Canada will be Liberal. One of the greatest reversals of fortune in Canadian political history. To add insult to injury, Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre loses his seat and a place in the House of Commons. Didn’t see that one coming.

New Democrats lose their Party Status, and Jagmeet Singh also loses his seat and graciously gives up his leadership as soon as a successor can be chosen. Elizabeth May, so-leader of the Green Party wins her seat and a place at the table. While votes in close races are still being tabulated it appears at this point that we have a Liberal minority that will need every vote from the few NDP, Green, and Bloc seats to advance their agenda.

We are going to need a united front to deal with the Trumpian threats from the south, yet it appears unlikely that a bitterly disappointed Conservative Party will be anything but the obfuscaters and obstructionists they have been for the last ten years. If you look closely enough you may see that the “lost decade” as Mr. Poilievre calls it, really had nothing to do with ten years of Liberal governance. There were global financial crises, global health pandemics, and the rise of far right politics that gave the stamp of approval to nasty, divisive behaviour.

The Conservatives frequently liked to state that because of Liberal policies, Canada was ranked last of the G7 countries in terms of GDP. True, but what they didn’t clarify was that Canada also has the smallest population of the G7 countries. When you look at the rankings, each country’s place in the list corresponds exactly with its population.

So, when we calculate how Canada is doing using GDP per capita as our guide, lo and behold, Canada comes out in #1 spot at $38,000 per person. The USA and UK are next at $35,000, Germany at $34,000, Japan at $33,000, France at $31,000. and Italy at $29,000. Gee whiz, Conservative Reform Alliance Party, you’ve been lying to us for the last ten years! Shame. Canada is actually #1 in the G7. Not last, NUMBER ONE.

And you never told us that the real reason that house prices and inflation went out of control was caused by a global financial crisis, and greedy developers, land speculators and real estate agents who all got richer while most us us got quite a bit poorer. Very little to do with our government. Dear Conservative Party, please tell all those young Gen Z people who flocked to the size of your rallies, your seductive sloganeering, and your rabble-rousing rhetoric that you’ve been pulling the proverbial wool over their eyes.

When the forces from the South come looking to plunder the richness of our lands, and when the next election comes, we are all going to need to see very clearly.

The way I see it.

Weaponizing Research by Pierre Poilievre

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This article is NOT by Pierre Poilievre. It is about how Poilievre took a Government of Canada research paper on predictions of possible changes in the course of our lives over the next few decades and turned it into a “create a crisis” moment, His weaponization of the Policy Horizons Canada Report proved once again why he is unfit to lead this country.

You may have seen the usual media suspects trumpet Poilievre’s panic about a “dystopian society” report released by the Liberal Government that proved everything little PP warned us about would be coming true by the year 2040. Unless, of course, we elect a Conservative Reform Alliance Party government in four days. “It’s the countdown to Armageddon,” squawked Chicken Little.

Except it isn’t. First, the Horizons Canada  Report is issued by the Canadian Government which is composed of Bloc, NDP, Conservative, and Liberal MPs. It is not a report issued by any particular political party. Secondly, The Report, Parts 1 and 2, is titled Future Lives: Exploring Life Course Transformations.

It clearly states in the preamble: “Policy Horizons Canada does not represent the views of the Government of Canada …. readers are encouraged to use this report to test their assumptions about the future.” Pierre, please read the report as an intellectual exercise in futures possibilities for your life course. And make sure your brain is informed before putting your mouth in gear.

The researchers who write the report use nine Forces of Change intersecting with six Life Course components and make a futures projection to the year 2040. The nine Forces of Change include categories like longer lifespans, data and AI systems influence, economic insecurity for most but economic security for few, and rising anxiety due to existential threats like accelerated climate change. They get meshed with Life Course components like education, living arrangements, reproduction and labour to create a possible future.

I’ll bet Pierre Poilievre didn’t see Donald Trump’s terrible tariffs attack derailing his Life Course plans, or the ascendancy of Mark Carney taking away his favourite Liberal target. When the Conservative Party recently replaced Poilievre in their commercials with former leader Stephen Harper, did Pierre suddenly see his own dystopian future unfolding?

 

Let’s hope that Canadians can see that their decisions in the upcoming federal election will transform everyone’s Life Course plans. We are living in interesting times. If we choose wisely on April 28, 2025, we could still be living in Canada the next day.

The way I see it.                                                             

 

Welcome Back

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Dear Readers,

After taking a break for two years to focus on health and family, I have decided to come out of hibernation. From the annexation of Crimea to the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, from the attacks of Hamas to the extermination of Palestine by Israel, from the humanitarian crises from Sudan to Syria, Gaza, Ukraine, Congo, Afghanistan, Yemen, Ethiopia, South Sudan,  and Chad, we are witnessing koyaanisqatsi – a Hopi term signifying life out of balance.

Now we have the chaos south of our previously comfortable borders seeping into our mythologically polite Canadian lives. Truskland, as I have renamed the political real estate to our south (Google has not agreed, yet) is now a perfect example of what happens when you let the idiotes (check the original Greek) take over mission control. This new gargantuan political pandemic may turn out to be more dangerous than our recent battle with a tiny virus.

Canada faces a critical decision in the coming weeks. We can either elect the person who would be the next Prime Minister of Canada, or we can elect the person who would be the Governor of the 51st State.

My first official return blog will be published on April 13, two weeks before the election. It is titled: Beware the Pierre, the Man Who Would be Governor. And I quote: “Trump’s invitation to become the 51st State is like a blow to the head from a metal pipe is an invitation to nap.”  Thank you, CBC Debaters.

Elbows up. Canada Strong. The way I see it.