The News Rundown
- As the Parliamentary session reopened for the fall on Monday last week, something extraordinary happened that caught everyone off guard. In a bombshell move, Leona Alleslev, the MP for Aurora-Oak Ridges-Richmond Hill in Ontario, stood on a matter of privilege and made it clear she was not a happy Liberal.
- A former captain in the Royal Canadian Air Force, she said she swore an oath to serve and defend Canada. Now she said she was deeply concerned about the future of the country, as large amounts of capital investment fled. “This is not a strong economy,” she said. Shortly after, the rising star among the Trudeau Liberals crossed the House of Commons floor to join the Conservatives of Andrew Scheer, but not before delivering a scathing indictment of a government she accuses of failing the country.
- Alleslev read a speech that echoed a lot of people's thoughts around the country, is the government doing enough to help ordinary Canadians and to manage all the major issues effectively that have cropped up over the past 3 years?
- Here is a part of her speech: "I am deeply concerned for the future of our country. After 3 years of hope and hard work, I find myself asking:
- “Am I doing everything I can to serve my country and work for real change for Canadians?”
- Canadians expect — and deserve — nothing less. The citizens of my riding, and all Canadians, need a government that delivers foundational change for the things that matter.
- The world has changed dramatically in the last three years. We find ourselves in a time of unprecedented global instability. We are seeing fundamental shifts in the global economy, while trade relationships, international agreements, and defence structures are under threat. Canada faces a perfect storm of serious challenges at home and abroad."
- Alleslev's criticism of the Trudeau Liberals did not end there however,
- "Here at home, we see large amounts of capital investment leaving Canada while tax structures, federal infrastructure problems and politics prevent us from getting goods to market, deter companies from expanding and undermine our competitiveness. For the first time in many years, Canadians don’t believe that tomorrow will be better than today and that their children’s future will be than theirs.
- This is not a strong economy.
- Beyond our borders, our position remains vastly diminished. Our foreign policy is disconnected from our trade relationships and our ability to deliver on our defence commitments is undermined by politics.
- And on the world stage Canada has yet to rise to the occasion. The world has changed, and Canada must change with it. We don’t have the luxury of time.
- We must recognize that foreign policy, trade, defence, and our economy all depend on each other and can’t be viewed separately."
- It’s unusual for anyone to quit the ruling party to join an opposition that lacks all its perks and powers and spends most of its time wishing it was the one in the driver’s seat. In one of her post-crossing interviews Alleslev was asked, if she couldn’t achieve her goals within the government, what made her think she could bring about change from the benches of the powerless.
- She replied, in essence, that she felt Conservative leader Andrew Scheer was more in tune with her concerns than the Liberals had been, and showed more interest in hearing her thoughts. “My attempts to raise my concerns with this government were met with silence,” she charged. It was an interesting complaint given the prime minister’s oft-professed views on feminism and the respect due to women.
- Given the circumstances, no one can dismiss the former Air Force officer as overambitious or power-hungry, as Trudeau is in a far better position to satisfy any career aspirations than the Tories could be. The usual approach to floor-crossers is to denounce their perfidy, but Alleslev is one of the more accomplished female members of the Liberal caucus, with a resume that’s easily more impressive than Trudeau’s own pre-politics record, and whose main complaint is that she’d rather work for someone more effective. And she’s putting a lot on the line for her beliefs: Alleslev could very well be risking her political career should her constituents make clear at the next election that they disapprove of her switch.
- The World According to Liberals 2015 was all about good fellowship and bright prospects, fairness, prosperity and a friend in the White House. No one seriously anticipated Donald Trump and endless grinding trade talks, with thousands of jobs at stake. The Liberals were to revive pride in Canada’s “peacekeeping” role — a particular interest to Alleslev. Instead she sees it dickering over used aircraft to serve as a stop-gap while an ageing fleet gets even older, and recruiters struggle with a shortage of 275 pilots plus mechanics, sensor operators and other personnel.
- Speaking to reporters in the foyer of Commons, Scheer said he was "extremely proud" to welcome Alleslev into the Conservative fold. He said that, like many Canadians who voted for Trudeau in the last election, Alleslev now realizes Trudeau is not equipped to deal with the "challenges of our time."
- "If, like Leona, you supported Justin Trudeau and the Liberals in the last election and you're frustrated or even angry with the ineffective leadership, know this: you are both welcome and needed in the Conservative Party of Canada. We're going to keep adding to our team," he said.
- Scheer said Alleslev will be appointed the party's critic for global security.
- Historically, about two-thirds of MPs who cross the floor and seek re-election under a new party's banner have been successful, bringing a boost in support for their new party in the vast majority of cases.
- With the Conservatives wanting to do much better in suburban Ontario than in 2015, this is certainly a good first step for them.
- Supplementals:
- ‘This is fundamentally, fundamentally about affording people the right to live in the city without fear’ — Councillor Sarah Hamilton
- The policy would allow undocumented immigrants to gain access to municipal services and programs.
- The policy does this to aid those with “precarious immigration statuses” who may be reluctant to obtain services such as transit, recreation passes, or interact with bylaw officers for fear of deportation.
- Councillors Jon Dziadyk, Mike Nickel, and Tony Caterina voted against the policy. The policy passed 10–3 vote.
- Dziadyk sees the policy as subverting federal laws and wants to move people to a point where they can have a legal status in Canada and that they can participate legally, safely, and without fear.
- Sarah Hamilton says that this can also benefit Edmonton’s homeless population. She said she has worked with undocumented people which gave her a good sense of the struggle they face, whether it involves access to health care, employment or education.
- Sanctuary city: root and origins, what it means for Canada.
- Mayor Don Iveson: “Sanctuary city in the U.S. has to do with instructions to police forces on how they comply with immigration authorities, our city council has left that for the police to determine what’s the right thing to do.”
- It has been said but not confirmed by immigration Canada that most of the undocumented immigrants in Edmonton are temporary foreign workers whose work visa has expired and was not renewed.
- Solving the root of the problem.
- Supplemental:
- While I'd absolutely love to talk about the upcoming electoral reform referendum in BC, there has been absolutely no news on it in quite some time. Despite taking place just a month from today, the media has been absolutely silent on it, which is almost a story in itself. That being said, I'm going to switch to a different topic for the time being.
- This summer while on vacation, I had the privilege of being able to drive around our province quite a bit, including to northern parts of BC, and one thing I was impressed about while on my travels was just how good quality the roads were, even in far flung rural parts of the province. Sure, there were some gravel patches here and there, but that's to be expected.
- The great thing about driving in BC is that even though there are less highways than in easier traversable provinces like Alberta and Saskatchewan, there are always alternate routes to get you where you need to go. Lots of these alternate routes were in place not so long ago when certain portions of highways were closed due to being under imminent threat from wildfires. It's imperative that these alternate routes exist, in case of emergency.
- A problem that has existed for years on southern Vancouver Island, is that if you want to travel between Victoria and the rest of the island, there's really only one major route you can take, the Trans Canada Highway north through a steep and mountainous region known as the Malahat. On good days, to get from Victoria to Duncan, the next major town north, it is only a short drive of roughly 45 minutes.
- However, despite the actual easiness of the road to drive, there are often accidents that occur. Just this past summer, there have been several major accidents that have closed the road for anywhere up to 12 hours at a time. For the roughly 25,000 people that commute on that stretch of the highway, it's always a big question mark if there will be an accident on any given day, and if they'll be able to get home again. Between 2011 and 2016, the Malahat was closed an average of 12 times per year, according to the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure. I know people that due to the insane housing costs in Victoria have to live up island and commute to work (and that's a topic for another show). If an accident occurs where the highway has to close, the only alternate routes are a small 20 car ferry service across the Saanich Inlet (a small body of water almost bisecting Victoria from the rest of the island), or a circular logging road detour that takes 4 hours to complete.
- However, there is a stretch of the Saanich Inlet that is only 2km long, and people have been clamouring for a bridge to be built. Their argument is, if Nova Scotia can get one to Cape Breton, and PEI can be connected to the mainland by one, why can't we have one?
- Recently the problem of the Malahat has come up in the news, and BC government, while acknowledging the problem has no answers.
- The do-something entreaties are directed to New Democrats, especially Finance Minister and Victoria MLA Carole James and her boss, Premier John Horgan whose riding includes the southern half of the Malahat.
- Also on the receiving end are the Greens. The northern Malahat and communities beyond are represented in the legislature by Green MLA Sonia Furstenau. Her colleagues, party leader Andrew Weaver and MLA Adam Olsen, represent ridings in the capital region and get their share of lobbying as well. Together the New Democrats and Greens agree that something must be done. But precisely what — and at what price — is the challenge.
- The previous B.C. Liberal government treated the Malahat as a road safety issue and spent millions straightening the worst sections, installing median barriers and four-laning the route where possible.
- Following the shutdown in May, Premier Horgan directed Transportation Minister Claire Trevena to revisit a comprehensive review of the options to the Malahat prepared for the Liberals back in 2007.
- “Pull that report off the shelf, update it as quickly as we can,” said Horgan, “and let’s talk to the public from the lower Island about what’s the best way to go around.”
- The Greens promote the need for improved bus service or development of commuter rail along the mothballed-since-2011 E&N rail line. But in the event of an accident, the buses would be trapped in traffic along with the trucks and cars. And commuter rail would not get nearly enough people out of their cars to reduce traffic or provide an alternative.
- Those two realizations have Furstenau expressing an un-Green-like preference for alternatives like another highway. In the interim, she makes a point of coming to the capital the night before legislature sittings to avoid the possibility of being stranded on the highway and missing a vote.
- Trevena also represents a riding north of the Malahat, so she travels the highway and risks the periodic service interruptions as well. She’s well into the directed-by-the-premier review of the options, including bypassing the Malahat by bridge, increasing ferry service, widening the existing highway through the two-lane choke point in Goldstream Park, or building an all-new route.
- She provided a sobering overview of the prospects during a recent interview on CFAX radio in the provincial capital. “A bridge? Billions of dollars,” she told host Al Ferraby. “Extra ferries? Hundreds of millions of dollars. And it would have to be extra ferries (plural) to deal with the volume of cars.”
- With the high amount of spending that the BC NDP has done, it's likely there isn't any money left in Trevena's budget to fix this very real problem. It appears that even now that Vancouver Island MLAs are back in government, the Island gets ignored once again.
- Supplementals:
The Firing Line
- “Payette is perfectly suited to be an astronaut, but much less so for a job defined by strict adherence to convention, and which comes with constant public scrutiny”
- In June the government wanted to sign its marijuana legislation into law, according to the National Post, Julie Payette didn’t want to preside over the ceremony.
- Royal Assent
- Payette knew she had to sign the Bill, she just didn’t appreciate having her scheduled altered to fit the signing ceremony in on such short notice.
- According to the National Post, senior sources familiar with the matter said it was asked if a Supreme Court justice could preside instead and that it took conversations all the way up the chain of command to the Clerk of the Privy Council to get Payette to agree to the signing on the specified day.
- When asked about these points Rideau Hall spokeswoman Marie Ève Létourneau said, “We would like to point out that your assertions are either inaccurate or based on incomplete information.”
- Another senior government source said, It’s not unusual for a governor general to test the limits, but there’s clearly more than testing going on.”
- Public event participation has dwindled. Relationships with long standing non-profit organizations have come under review. And event organizers for Rideau Hall have been cautioned not to take Payette’s appearance as guaranteed.
- Sources also say she has pushed back on the idea that she should be a rubber stamp for the government’s decisions and that she has blurred the line between advocating the study of science and trying to affect science policy. She has reportedly attempted to discuss science policy with Science Minister Kirsty Duncan.
- It’s been said that in May 2018 she attended a full day meeting of the advisory council that chooses recipients of the Order of Canada, one of the highest civilian honours in the country. By convention normally the governor general does not take part in the deliberations.
- Anonymous sources
- RE: Muzzling scientists and anonymous Trump admin. sources
- This all comes back to the government and Prime Minister who appointed Payette. Most of the sources spoken to believe the blame lies with the Prime Minister’s Office for abandoning advice of vice-regal experts who were appointed by the previous government to aid a government in selecting a Governor General and instead choosing a star candidate.
- It was also said that “someone interesting” was looking for an ambassadorship to Europe. Payette’s name was then added to the Governor General candidate list. This happened about a month before the Privy Council’s Office was looking at a handful of candidates including some indigenous candidates for the job. They were then told there was no need by the government.
- The constitutional question: minority government in 2019 or the 2008 minority government financial crisis, or the King-Byng affair in 1926 when the Governor General of the Day, Byng, refused Mackenzie King’s request for a new election when some months before King refused to resign after the Conservatives won more seats but King was able to run a minority government with the help of the Progressive Party. Governor General Byng appointed Arthur Meighen of the Conservatives as Prime Minister.
Word of the Week
Regal - of, resembling, or fit for a monarch, especially in being magnificent or dignified
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Show Data
Episode Title: The Legality of Regality
Teaser: Liberal MP Leona Alleslev crosses the floor to Andrew Scheer’s Conservatives, Edmonton council wants the city to become a sanctuary city, and we look at a major BC transportation bottleneck. Also, we examine Julie Payette’s role as Governor General.
Recorded Date: September 22, 2018
Release Date: September 23, 2018
Duration: 51:43
Edit Notes: Word of the week
Podcast Summary Notes
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Duration: XX:XX