CHINA'S TERRITORIAL WATERS REGULATIONS

China barely wasted any time after Biden's botched evacuation of Afghanistan to telegraph to the world that things will be a little different going forward: in a move that could have ramifications for the free passage of both military and commercial vessels in the South China Sea, Chinese authorities said on Sunday they will require a range of vessels “to report their information” when passing through what China sees as its “territorial waters”, starting from September 1.

Over $5 trillion trade passes through the South China Sea, and numerous US naval vessels cross through contested waters, much to China's anger. Beijing claims under a so-called “nine dash line” on its maps most of the South China Sea’s waters, which are disputed by several other countries, including the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Indonesia.

MEDIA ADDICTION TO COVID FEAR PORN

Over the past year and a half, hysterical media reporting on matters Covid-19 has reduced some people to a fearful state of unquestioning compliance – including a great number of otherwise critically-thinking journalists.
With screaming headlines in bold and large font such as, ”Will this nightmare ever end?” and “Mutant virus skyrockets…” and ”Fear grows across the country: VIRUS PANIC,” and ”Coronavirus horror: Social media footage shows infected Wuhan residents 'act like zombies’," it is no wonder many people are in a state of panic.

In times when many are suffering mentally and physically under unnecessary and prolonged lockdowns, the incessant fear porn is causing excessive anxiety, which in turn will affect the health & mental well-being of some, if not many.

SAYING ANYTHING TO GET VOTES

 The second week of the election campaign didn’t go well for Justin Trudeau and the Liberals. You can see that in the headlines, in the tightening polls and the way that Trudeau is campaigning at the beginning of Week 3.

The Liberal leader isn’t campaigning so much on what he will do or what he has done as much as against false wedge issues that he invents. First, it was trying to make Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole out to be an anti-vaxxer, then pro-abortion and then the man who would take away your health care.

None of that stuck and none of it is true but Trudeau repeats the claims over and over again. It fits with a recent poll that showed he’ll say anything to get votes.

BIDEN A FECKLESS, DEMENTIA-RIDDEN PIECE OF CRAP

A grieving Gold Star mom called into a SiriusXM radio show to condemn the current occupant of the White House as well as all those who voted for him for the death of her hero son in Afghanistan.

“The dementia-ridden piece of crap needs to be removed from office. It never would have happened under Trump,” she declared. “I can’t cry because I’m too mad to cry,” she admitted as she described Joe Biden as “treasonous” and a “disgusting human being.”

Caller Kathy from Colorado apparently turned out to be the mom of U.S. Marine and father-to-be Rylee McCollum who was tragically killed during the Kabul airport terrorist attack at the Kabul airport on Thursday.

TRUDEAU'S NOT-SO-EXCELLENT CAMPAIGN ADVENTURE

 California Governor Gavin Newsom may not be the only one dealing with increasing pit stains on the campaign trail. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has not exactly been feeling the love of voters on at least two whistle stops around the country. Hecklers have been showing up at his events. The voters have apparently had two words for Trudeau. And they are not “Let’s dance,” “Merry Christmas,” or “Happy birthday.

The PM caught some heat in British Columbia this week and took a little punishment in Ontario on Friday. You can view a whole series of videos of the receptions he has received. Be advised that while the content is amusing and definitely worth a watch, it is NSFW and probably not appropriate for younger ears. But by all means, enjoy.

The voters’ ire is understandable. As PJ Media’s Kevin Downey Jr. reported, Trudeau called a halt to Canada’s evacuations from Afghanistan, saying that his government may work with the Taliban to extract as many remaining Canadian citizens as possible. And then there is his move for snap elections on September 20 to maintain his grip on power. Canada’s draconian approach to COVID-19 prevention has not sat well with everyone, and on Friday in Ontario, Trudeau announced that he intended to spend $1 billion on vaccine passports.

ANOTHER PROTEST AT TRUDEAU CAMPAIGN STOP

KITCHENER -  Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau stopped in Cambridge, Ont. and was met with another crowd of protesters.

During the Sunday afternoon event, chants of “lock him up”, airhorn sirens and banging on garbage dumpsters could be heard over top of Trudeau’s announcement regarding reducing carbon emissions, which includes a $5,000 rebate on zero-emission vehicles.

UKRAINE'S TROOPS RESCUE CANADA-BOUND AFGHANS

A plane carrying Afghan translators, including one who worked for The Globe and Mail and another who served the Canadian military, as well as their families, has arrived in Kyiv following a daring operation by Ukrainian soldiers stationed at Kabul airport.

The rescue, which was co-ordinated by the Ukrainian military, the office of President Volodymyr Zelensky and The Globe, may pave the way for other Afghans fleeing the Taliban to make their way to Canada.

ALL COVID VACCINES ON HOLD IN GERMANY

 Germany halts all covid-19 vaccines, says they are unsafe and no longer recommended.  

There has been a 2 week pause so they can reflect on the damages being caused to their people, NO ONE CAN GET IT and the vaccine license has been put on pause!!

POLITICAL PRESSURE FOR A MAGIC-BULLET CURE

A takeaway lesson from the early polio vaccines is that haste makes waste. Back then, those vaccines were rushed out to the public without being adequately tested due to panic over the disease. One has to wonder if the same sort of thing isn't happening today with the COVID vaccines. There are similarities between what happened then and what's unfolding now, chief among them political pressure for a magic-bullet cure. Is it possible or even likely that political pressure has compromised the safety protocols and standard procedures at the FDA and Big Pharma which are there to ensure only safe vaccines are issued for public use? Time will tell.

ALBERTA FARMERS STRUGGLE WITH DROUGHT

A summer of heat waves and little rainfall has Alberta farmers struggling to make it through the season.

Crops aren’t making enough feed for some cattle farms and Shelby Blosky, owner of Double S Ranch Cattle Co., said farmers like herself are having to buy extra hay bales at steeper prices due to limited supply.

 “Typically, we pay around $50 for a round bale of hay and this year there’s prices out there upwards of $300 a bale,” said Blosky, whose farm is about 107 kilometres southwest of Edmonton near Breton. “There’s going to be a lot of farms that are just going to say they are done with it and that’s really heartbreaking to see.”

TRUDEAU THE FAKE FEMINIST

 Nobody in Canada cares more about women’s interests than Justin Trudeau. Just ask him. Especially when he’s on the campaign trail (“feminist budget,” “she-cession,” “she-covery”). His personal record of, ahem, he-haviour with certain actual women is another story, but never mind all that. It’s election time. The women’s vote is crucial. Unleash the ministerial sheepdogs to herd all those grazing Canadian ewes, away from the Conservative wolves, and into the safety of the Liberal corral.

FORD TO INTRODUCE VACCINE PASSPORTS

 Ontario Premier Doug Ford will announce next week that his government will introduce a COVID-19 vaccine passport system, a senior Progressive Conservative source says.

The document would provide proof of vaccination status where needed to access non-essential businesses and public spaces.

Although Ford has said in the past that a vaccine passport is not necessary — the province already offers a printout confirming inoculation — the idea is extremely popular with business groups, the medical community and the public, the source said Friday.

“We don’t want to close the economy,” a source said when asked why the province was changing its position.

TRUDEAU'S BROKEN PROMISE TO AFGHANISTAN

Tuesday, after he had had a virtual summit with the other G7 leaders, Trudeau promised Canada would stay past the Aug. 31 deadline that the Taliban have said is a “red line” for Western troops to leave Afghanistan.

“We’re going to continue to work every single day … to save as many people as possible,” Trudeau pledged. “Our commitment to Afghanistan doesn’t end when this current phase, this current deadline comes. We will continue to put pressure on the Taliban to allow people to leave the country.

 And then, just over a day after his buttery assurance, Canada was gone.

Global Affairs Canada and National Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan yanked our remaining soldiers and diplomats. In the middle of the night, the last Canadian rescue flight took off from Kabul.

TRUDEAU CAMPAIGN RALLY CANCELLED

 Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau is vowing to meet "anger with compassion" after a campaign rally was cancelled amid protests.

Trudeau was expected to address supporters Friday evening in Bolton, Ont., but the event was cancelled over security concerns.

Dozens of angry protesters, who outnumbered Liberal supporters, gathered near the Bolton rally and began chanting obscenities before Trudeau could make his address.

After a nearly two-hour delay, a man took to the loud speaker to announce that the event was cancelled, to which the crowd reacted with more shouting.

MONTREAL'S GUN PROBLEMS GET POLITICAL

Luckily no one was hurt or killed on Wednesday, which is too often the tragic outcome when shots are fired. This time all police found on Notre-Dame St. in the Sud-Ouest borough was a door riddled with bullets

.But in light of the dramatic events of the previous day — and rising political tensions around the issue of gun violence in Montreal — no shooting escapes notice.

In the wee hours of Tuesday, two police officers leaving the McGill University Health Centre were caught in a hail of bullets near St-Jacques St. and Décarie Blvd. One was slightly wounded in the arm despite taking cover behind a patrol car. The hospital went into preventive lockdown for several hours.

Adding to the intrigue, however, was the reaction of Montreal police Chief Sylvain Caron many hours later. At a late-evening news conference, a visibly upset Caron decried the “gratuitous” act and claimed the two officers were targeted.

AUSTRALIA AT BREAKING POINT

Protesters shot with rubber bullets. Teenagers chased off beaches by police helicopters. Rescue dogs shot dead.

This is how Australia, once branded as a model for tackling Covid, is behaving 18 months into the pandemic. Covid panic has turned normal people into monsters and neighbours into spies.

The world is starting to take notice. International media outlets spent most of 2020 filming bustling Australian streets. We had beaten Covid, they said. Now, they film those exact same streets again, but they are either deserted or filled with protesters battling police

TRUDEAU's PRIORITIES

 QUEBEC CITY — The immediate crisis in Afghanistan may well have passed by the time Canadians go to the polls next month but the general election will give voters the chance to choose the leader they think is best suited to handle tricky situations like the end of mass evacuations from Kabul.

That judgment is unlikely to be kind on Justin Trudeau. As reports of explosions and mass Western casualties in the Afghan capital began to circulate, the Liberal leader was campaigning in Quebec City, promising an extra $42 a month for seniors receiving the Guaranteed Income Supplement. The penny-ante nature of the announcement was in stark contrast to the consequential events happening half a world away, where thousands of applicants to leave Afghanistan for Canada remain trapped.

NO RATIONAL BASIS FOR MANDATORY VACCINATION

New Democratic Party Leader Jagmeet Singh was quoted last week with the suggestion that public servants who refuse the COVID-19 vaccine could be disciplined and ultimately fired using existing collective agreement clauses.

The leader of Canada’s most labour-friendly party recommends these worker dismissals in order to “protect the health and safety of Canadians.” This logic is so blatantly flawed that it calls Singh’s leadership, and that of other Canadian politicians supporting this view, into question.

 The trials conducted by the vaccine manufacturers have only recorded whether vaccinated people were less likely to get symptomatic COVID than the unvaccinated. The trials did not check for a reduction in “cases” as measured by positive SARS-CoV-2 tests without symptoms, nor in COVID-19 hospitalizations or deaths.

LIBERAL IQs CHASING THEIR POLL NUMBERS DOWNWARD

   Robson:  In Halifax Trudeau just outlined a highly original Chernenko-style plan to dump billions more borrowed dollars into the existing crumbling system, to hire family doctors, and said “This announcement today, doubles down on the Liberal party’s commitment to public, universal health care at the same time as we’ve seen Erin O’Toole double down on his belief in a two-tiered, private, for-profit system.”

Does this witling not know Canadian doctors are for-profit entrepreneurs? That Quebec offers private knee and hip surgery and family doctors? Or that the rich travel for treatment? Or does he simply assume voters don’t, so his nasty lies will bring partisan gain? Generally I consider him a dunce; his unscripted comments on, say, monetary policy do not reveal a gift for successful scheming. But a fool can also be a rogue. And arrogant.

TALIBAN ARE NOT OUR BROTHERS MS MONSEF

 Maryam Monsef, one of the more disappointing of Justin Trudeau’s cabinet appointments — and that’s saying a lot — draped herself in further glory on Wednesday, when, in an appeal to the Taliban for restraint during the ongoing evacuation flights from Kabul, she referred to them as “brothers.”

“I want to take this opportunity to speak with our brothers, the Taliban. We call on you to ensure the safe and secure passage of any individual in Afghanistan out of the country. We call on you to immediately stop the violence, the genocide, the femicide, the destruction of infrastructure, including heritage buildings.

Well, that oughta take care of that. A statement, in English, from a junior minister in a minority government from a marginally competent (at best) middle-power can’t help but be heard in the corridors of power around the world and especially in Kabul, where the Taliban is now consolidating its rule. Monsef’s remarks are Canadian soft power at its finest. Are we back or what?!

BRINGING EICHMANN TO JUSTICE

 The photo that helped bring Nazi mass-murderer Adolf Eichmann to justice has been revealed for the first time, alongside the identity of the man who turned him in.

That snap - taken in the early 1950s - shows Eichmann, who is circled in red, standing next to Gerhard Klammer, a German geologist who worked alongside the infamous Nazi at an Argentinian construction firm. 

Klammer's involvement in bringing Eichmann to justice was only revealed last week, 32 years after his death, with his family's blessing.

CATHOLIC CHURCH'S LATEST SCANDAL

A series of reports from the conservative Catholic blog "The Pillar" show priests at various levels of the Catholic hierarchy in the US and the Vatican are using the gay dating app Grindr.

Extensive location-based hookup or dating app usage is evident within the walls of Vatican City, in restricted areas of St. Peter's Basilica, inside Vatican City government and Holy See's administration buildings including those used by the Vatican's diplomatic staff, in residential buildings, and in the Vatican Gardens, both during daytime hours and overnight.

TRUDEAU'S RESET A MASS POWER GRAB

 “This pandemic has provided an opportunity for a reset,” Trudeau said last November. “This is our chance to accelerate our pre-pandemic efforts to reimagine economic systems that actually address global challenges like extreme poverty, inequality and climate change.”

Yikes. That’s straight for the horse’s mouth.

You’ll forgive us for taking issue with Trudeau’s remarks, but we don’t think the pandemic is an opportunity at all. We think it’s a tragedy that we wish never happened in the first place.

And what’s with this idea that we need to “reimagine economic systems”? Thanks, but no thanks.

TRUDEAU'S 6 YEARS OF FAILED PROMISES

Reporters are grumpy because the story is already out but that turns out to be the least of Trudeau’s worries. As he launches into his sales pitch for his new housing plan, he is heckled aggressively by a young man in a red t-shirt. “You had six years to do something. You’ve done nothing,” the protester bellowed, knocking the Liberal leader off-stride with his boisterousness. “These houses are worth $1.5 million. Are you going to help us pay $1.5 million? Are you, buddy?”

 The man was surrounded by Liberal supporters and eventually persuaded to leave by the cops, his point made and that of the press conference forgotten momentarily.

The incident was noteworthy from several angles.

It’s all well and good for Trudeau to say that the housing market has been afflicted by instability and uncertainty, and that “it’s time for things to change”. But the statute of limitations on blaming the Harper Conservatives for soaring house prices when you have been running the country for the past six years appears to be running out. Demand has exceeded supply for years, with very little response from Ottawa.

INDIGENOUS RIGHTS PROTESTERS BLOCK PM'S BUS

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had his bus blocked by indigenous rights protesters on Vancouver Island. After blocking his bus for about 35 minutes, the PM was evacuated from the bus by security.

COLLAPSE IN LUMBER PRICES

 North American lumber companies may have added too much production, too quickly, as demand cools and prices for the construction material plunge. After more than quadrupling in 12 months to record highs, lumber has sunk about 70 per cent since May. The crunch is particularly acute in Western Canada because of higher costs.

HUNGRY FOR APPLAUSE, BESET BY INTELLECTUAL IDLENESS

  Rex Murphy:  When you waste your time with foolishness, irrational fads and pseudo-causes, when you continually diagnose your own country as a cauldron of racism and colonialism, tear down the statues of heroes and founders, virtue-signal at volume ten over your feminism, deride blue collar workers, hail your greatest industry as a “planet destroyer,” it comes as no surprise that you pile on just one more silly, vain pretense, i.e., that suddenly everyone in Canada wants an election called in mid-August. During the very period, no less, when every citizen in the country has a stockpile of mouth-and-nose guards and are standing six-feet apart every time they go out to buy a loaf of bread and toilet tissue.

TWITTER CATCHES THE LIBERAL LIARS

 Once again, the Liberals have trotted out the old scare tactic of claiming the Conservatives will privatize health care if elected.

The difference is, this time they got caught — and got called out by Twitter for using “manipulated media.”

Essentially, Trudeau and his team have been called liars and spreaders of misinformation by the social media giant.

Still, while campaigning in Halifax on Monday, Trudeau doubled down on his false claim.

BEIJING'S CONTINUING CONTROL OVER DATA

 On Friday, Chinese tech stocks swooned for the n^th time, sending the Hang Seng index into bear market territory, after Beijing approved a new privacy law to prevent data collection by domestic technology companies. As we reported then, China's most powerful legislative body, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, passed the Personal Information Protection Law that will go into effect on Nov.1.  The move sent tech stocks plunging and leaving investors bewildered over the intensity of Beijing's regulatory crackdown that has slammed countless sectors. 

It turns out that when it comes to control over data, Beijing is nowhere near done and late on Friday Reuters reported that as part of Beijing's unprecedented scrutiny of private sector firms, Chinese regulators are considering pressing data-rich companies "to hand over management and supervision of their data to third-party firms" if they want to list in the U.S.

TRUDEAU'S CAMPAIGN GAFFES

When it comes to gaffes, Trudeau also faced a mini repeat of his famous “peoplekind” fiasco. During statements to the media this past week, he talked about the need for a “she-covery” to combat a “she-cession.” He was referring to the fact that the pandemic has reportedly hit women harder in an economic sense than men. Fair enough. But the corny language struck a lot of women as condescending.

There are only so many years that a man can think that repeatedly claiming he is a feminist should allow him to take support for women for granted and Trudeau may have finally hit that wall. This isn’t 2015 anymore.

The other big Trudeau gaffe of the week was also on economic issues. When asked about whether the Bank of Canada should have a higher tolerance for inflation, Trudeau tried to skip giving a substantial answer by saying: “you’ll forgive me if I don’t think about monetary policy. You’ll understand that I think about families.”

 Economists reacted with surprise to the remark. David Dodge, a former governor of the Bank of Canada, took to television to say Trudeau was wrong to be dismissive of the issue and even called on the Liberal leader to retract the remark.

POLLS SHOW LIBERALS LOSING GROUND

 MIRAMICHI, N.B. — When Justin Trudeau called the federal election, he probably envisaged selling Liberal policies in Conservative-held ridings. A week later, he finds himself attacking Conservative policies in Liberal ridings that may flip to his political opponents if his fortunes don’t improve.

As the first public opinion poll showing the Conservatives overtaking the Liberals appeared, so Trudeau’s assault on Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole became more furious.

 In a baking parking lot bordering the Miramichi River, in front of a couple of hundred broiling New Brunswickers, Trudeau’s stump speech assailed O’Toole for his position on pandemic relief, mandatory vaccination, childcare and private health care. “Shame on you in a pandemic,” he said, with the mock fury that only a politician whose prospects are heading in the same direction as his polling numbers can summon up. “His instincts and values are not aligned with helping vulnerable Canadians.”

TRUDEAU DOES NOT DESERVE TO GOVERN

 “A singularly consistent investigation you have made, my dear Watson,” Sherlock Holmes once said to his friend, who had just bungled an inquiry. “I cannot at the moment recall any possible blunder which you have omitted.” Holmes’s remonstration with Dr. Watson came to mind as I watched Justin Trudeau announce next month’s election. Trudeau hopes to gain a majority government. He certainly does not deserve one, or even to keep his minority mandate. Over the past six years, the Liberals have been singularly consistent in making economic errors, and I cannot at the moment recall any possible blunder which they have omitted.

LOST LIBERALS & THEIR LOFTY IDEALS

 Rex Murphy:  Here we are, not six days into this garden party of an election, whose only issue is the vanity of he who called it, and yet early as it is, the sleek tacticians in the Liberal war room are lighting candles in front of St. Jude, saint of unexpected miseries and lost causes.

Some big name Liberals have left the sloop. Catherine McKenna, the Mater Dolorosa of apocalyptic global warming, a Johanna the Baptist for the gloom-sodden Greta Thunberg, has abandoned the team.

An overheated and moribund Mother Earth has thereby lost a great ally, and the Liberal party itself has lost its greatest advocate for meatless hamburgers, government regulation of household thermostats (it was coming) and prison terms for planet-haters who drive pickup trucks.

OPPOSITION TO CANADIAN OIL & GAS FUELED BY HYPOCRISY

Hypocrisy fuels much of the opposition to Canadian oil and gas.

Canada's world class energy sector has become a frequent target for virtue signaling corporations and governments.

   There’s no shortage of hypocrisy surrounding the oil and gas industry, both in Canada and around the globe.

Whether it’s corporations looking for a convenient foil to draw attention from other activities, politicians looking to score easy points, or even international agencies tasked with outlining global energy policy sending mixed messages, it’s often difficult to see the forest for the trees.

AMERICA LOST. ALL THE REST IS DETAILS

   Mark Steyn: Even so, even in Kabul, why would the Taliban be giving cordial interviews to non-burqaed babes? Why aren't they getting back helter-skelter to the good old days of head-chopping and child sex-slaves and crushing homosexuals under walls constructed specifically for that purpose?

Short answer: They're not as stupid as we are.

What's the big takeaway from Sunday? That a bunch of psycho decapitators are back in the saddle in Hoogivsastan? Or that "a pitiful, helpless giant" (in Nixon's famous phrase) is on its back having lost a war even more stupidly than it lost all the other wars?

GOV'T REGULATION, HIGH TAXES, & RUNAWAY SPENDING

Political parties are trying their best to convince Canadians they can make life more affordable. But if politicians want us to believe them, they need to look in the mirror. That’s because really making life more affordable means tackling the damage government does through regulation, high taxes, and run-away spending.

Even during the pandemic, the average Canadian family saw 36 per cent of its budget go to taxes, according to the Fraser Institute. That’s more than the typical family spends on food, housing, and clothing combined.

COVERING THE COST OF BURIAL

Burial costs will now be covered by Ottawa for individuals killed by federally approved vaccines.

 According to Blacklock’s Reporter, the department of health will pick up the tab and says the new program “addresses a longstanding gap in Canada’s national immunization programming by providing a timely, no-fault financial support mechanism for all people in Canada, in rare instances where they are seriously and permanently injured performing a public good, being immunized.”

The department has budgeted $75 million for all claims but said it was unclear how many submissions there could be. Management of the program is contracted to RCGT Consulting.

LIBERAL CANDIDATE SEES THE LIGHT

 A couple of old posts from a Liberal candidate in Calgary Nose Hill have caused some headaches for Justin Trudeau and his team. As Trudeau showed up in Calgary for a rally Thursday night, the Conservatives were only happy to point to the past ramblings of Jessica Dale-Walker.

“I chose to allow the entitled to flock for the vaccine like they demanded to be the guinea pigs, that way should there be problems those with brains were left behind,” Dale-Walker said in a now deleted tweet from November 2020.

Her comments were part of a longer Twitter conversation casting doubt on the safety and efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines. Dale-Walker had to walk back those comments through a statement issued by the Liberal Party.

COST OF QUEBEC'S GOODWILL TOWARDS TRUDEAU

 If you like the horse-race side of election campaigns, then the situation in Quebec might appeal to you.

The Liberals, according to many election observers, need to pick up between five and 10 seats in the province in order to turn their minority into a majority.

Their main opposition in this quest will come from the Bloc Québécois. The other federal parties have fallen behind in recent polling out of the province.

The Liberals find themselves in this enviable position thanks, in part, to an informal bargain that leader Justin Trudeau arrived at with Premier François Legault in the months leading up to the election.

TRUDEAU'S USELESS CAMPAIGN PLEDGE

Trudeau knows that his “mandatory” pledge is unenforceable. He insists there would be “consequences” for any civil servant resisting a double jab, but even under questioning from reporters, Trudeau couldn’t say what those consequences would be.

Surely he knows that legal experts, including some within his own Justice department, have said a 100-per-cent, ironclad mandate would be unconstitutional.

It is possible to object on religious or conscience grounds. It might even be legally defensible to object on privacy grounds – your employer cannot compel you to prove you have taken basic medical actions you choose not to take.

TRUDEAU DOES NOT UNDERSTAND INFLATION

 When asked his thoughts on allowing inflation to grow, Trudeau responded by saying he doesn’t think about monetary policy.

“When I think about the biggest, most important economic policy this government, if re-elected, would move forward, you’ll forgive me if I don’t think about monetary policy,” Trudeau said.

“You’ll understand that I think about families.”

TRUDEAU BUYNG THE SENIORS' VOTES

 Go ahead and add another $1.7 billion to millennials’ and Gen Z’s massive debt tab. Once again, Canada’s youngest and most economically disadvantaged generations will pay to indulge the Liberals’ coddling (a less kind interpretation may say bribing) of seniors.

One day after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced a snap election, a one-time payment of $500 to older seniors began to leave government coffers, destined for the bank accounts of the country’s wealthiest demographic.

This is the policy equivalent of taking hard-earned money from the pockets of Huey, Dewey, and Louie to add another stack of cash to their great-uncle Scrooge McDuck’s money pool. Meanwhile, Huey is still paying off student loans, Dewey just got laid off by Scrooge’s government-subsidized telecom monopoly, and Louie pays $2,000 a month to live in a basement apartment where he’ll remain until the day he dies, surrounded by aspirational real estate listings and collection notices.

THE PERILS OF INVADING AFGHANISTAN

The Afghans succeed in destroying the British Army which invaded in 1839 and causing the British Empire no end of trouble until we decided to finally leave it alone. They succeeded in defeating the Soviet Union after the invasion of 1979 and have now defeated the coalition led by the Americans. After defeating three of the greatest empires in history and the three powers most responsible for winning the Second World War, it is now time to create an historical rule. Don’t invade Afghanistan. No good can come of it.

LESSONS FROM THE PAST

At that time, drugs could go to market only sixty days after a manufacturer had filed an application with the FDA. If no decision was reached by then, the drug was automatically approved. At the time, drug manufacturers also had “open door” access to the FDA officers assessing their applications, which allowed for coercion and pressure.

By the time the application for thalidomide hit Kelsey’s desk, it was already being prescribed to pregnant women in Europe and Canada as a miracle cure for morning sickness and insomnia. Intended to be marketed as Kevadon in the United States, its selling point was that it was a safe alternative to barbiturates.

But Kelsey, along with two other FDA officers held out their approval, citing a lack of clinical data to support the claims that the drug was safe and effective.

“It was just too positive; this couldn’t be the perfect drug with no risk,” she once said.

WHO WILL BE HARMED BY VACCINE PASSPORTS?

What Donolo is roughly describing here is what political scientists call a “tyranny of the majority.” He seems to believe that 80% of Canadian adults who are vaccinated will happily run roughshod on the 20% of the population who are hesitant to get vaccinated.

 A national vaccine passport would be an institutionalized policy of discrimination against those who have not been vaccinated. And while many Liberals seem giddy about this idea, it may put them on the wrong side of history.

That’s because it appears that vaccine passports and forced vaccination schemes may prove to disproportionately harm black and Indigenous Canadians.

NOVA SCOTIA ELECTS CONSERVATIVE GOV'T

 The Progressive Conservatives will form a majority government in Nova Scotia as Tim Houston led his party Tuesday night to a resounding win over the Liberals, which have led the province since 2013.

Speaking to a jubilant crowd gathered in his home area of Pictou County, Houston referred to polls in the spring that suggested the Liberals would cruise to victory.

"They were writing us off. Well, I wonder what they're writing right now," said the 51-year-old career accountant.

VACCINATED TRAVELERS CATCH COVID ON CRUISE SHIP

MEXICO CITY -- A Carnival cruise on which 27 people tested positive for COVID-19 just before the ship made a stop in Belize City this week was headed back to Galveston, Texas Friday after stopping in Mexico.

The positive cases were among 26 crew members and one passenger on the Carnival Vista, which is carrying over 1,400 crew and nearly 3,000 passengers, the Belize Tourism Board said in a statement. The ship arrived Wednesday in Belize City.

All 27 were vaccinated, had mild or no symptoms, and were in isolation, according to the statement. The tourism board said 99.98% of the ship's crew was vaccinated, as well as 96.5% of its passengers.

TRUDEAU FIDDLES AS AFGHANISTAN BURNS

  Rex Murphy: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s opportunistic election call during a still-raging pandemic was shameful enough. Calling a needless election at almost the exact moment when Afghanistan’s nearly 40 million people succumbed to the Taliban’s vengeance pushes cynicism to atmospheric heights it has never before penetrated.

Up until Sunday, the election was going to hinge on pandemic politics. Throwing all other issues — the elephantine deficits, bypassing Parliament, hobbling committees, a total misread of the COVID crisis in the early months, the serial scandals, sexual and financial, the WE obscenity, Western discontent — all were to be reduced to a spurious and contrived debate about “mandatory” vaccinations.

Sunday turned that cold and careless strategy to dust. It’s about honour now — the honour of Canada.

TRUDEAU LYING ABOUT HIS VACCINE POLICY

 Justin Trudeau is not only playing politics with vaccinations, something we had mostly avoided in this country, he’s lying about his government’s position.

Trudeau spent the first two days of the election trying to contrast his “mandatory” vaccination position as the responsible option while portraying O’Toole as somebody who isn’t looking out for the health and safety of Canadians.

The Conservative leader is encouraging everyone to get vaccinated but says he won’t force it on workers — instead saying rapid tests, masking and screening can be used.

FEDERAL ELECTION SEPTEMBER 20TH

 OTTAWA -- Justin Trudeau has set in motion an early federal election, sending voters to the polls on Sept. 20 and setting up his re-election bid as a chance for Canadians to have their voices heard about who they want to lead the country at this pivotal moment in the pandemic.

The prime minister and Liberal leader visited Gov. Gen. Mary Simon at Rideau Hall Sunday morning where she accepted his request to dissolve the 43rd Parliament and draw up the 338 writs, triggering a summer election.

With voting day scheduled for Sept. 20, the campaign will be 36 days, the shortest possible election period under federal law.

SILENCING CONTRARY INFORMATION ON COVID

   Is there anyone on the planet who does not know that the media and Big Tech have sought to control the COVID narrative from the outset? 

Probably.  Just as there are most likely people who do not know that volumes of contrary information about COVID has been suppressed, which includes valuable information about available therapeutics such as ivermectin and HCQ.

Dr. Fauci knew of the efficacy of those drugs years ago but was determined to ensure that the public was deprived of that knowledge.  Any mention of these prophylactic treatments has been quashed by the mainstream media, Google, Instagram, Twitter, etc.  Anyone posting information in contradiction to the Biden administration's pandemic porn has likely been banned or canceled.  But while one may have to go searching for pertinent information from doctors and scientists other than Fauci, there are plenty of them out there, and they have been sounding various alarms for eighteen months.

POLITICAL CALCULATIONS OF THE PM

 Rex Murphy: So, odd as it may sound, some people are asking why we’re having an election so soon. But those who ask that question are so admirably innocent as to be an endangered species.

There is but one reason, and one reason only, why we will have an election called this Sunday.

Because it suits the mood and aligns with the political calculations of the prime minister.

LIBERALS' RIGHTEOUS AUTHORITY TO RULE

So why is Justin Trudeau calling an election, expected to be announced Sunday?

The only reason is the Liberals think there is a good chance they could grasp even more power with a majority and be even less accountable to Parliament and Canadians.

 But that Liberal arrogance, that overarching belief in their own righteous authority to rule, is their one weak link.

LIBERALS' BROKEN PROMISES

 Political parties make promises in order to get votes but often don’t follow through.

As Justin Trudeau and the Liberals ask voters to back them once more, here are some of the broken promises that should make people think twice about trusting them again.

PROBLEM: CHANGING A BATTERY IN AN ELECTRIC VEHICLE

Electric vehicles are seeing a meteoric rise in the Canadian market. In B.C., in particular, with zero emission vehicles now making up eight per cent of vehicle sales, the province’s vehicle fleet is rapidly becoming the most electrified in the world. As many of those vehicles now approach the end of their warranty periods, many owners are set to join Brander in learning that their vehicle’s most critical component — the battery pack — is often difficult to replace. As the electric vehicle revolution hits Canadian roads in earnest, many of those cars might end up hitting the junkyard far sooner than buyers suspect.

 The National Post conducted an informal survey of Western Canadian Nissan dealerships to ask the cost of replacing a battery pack on a 2013 Nissan Leaf. Estimates ranged from $8,000 to an eyewatering $30,953.28 plus $1,200 in labour.

Virtually every dealer contacted said they had never once performed a non-warranty battery replacement, and that ordering a full stack replacement is a complex process unlike any other Nissan component. “It’s not a normal process,” said one Vancouver Island dealer.

LIBERALS' SPECTRUM EXTORTION RACKET

The deadline is today — Friday the 13th — for Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED) bureaucrats to receive part of one of Ottawa’s easiest and sneakiest tax grabs. Figuratively, more than a dozen telco service minivans have been up at ISED headquarters this week bearing $1.8 billion in banknotes. Big Three logos led the delivery brigade — Rogers unloaded $660 million; Bell $415 million; and Telus $390 million. Oh — look who came next: Videotron with $168 million.

The money drop, $1.8 billion from more than a dozen firms, represents the 20 per cent deposit on $8.9 billion the companies bid at an auction for vital government-controlled 3500 MHz spectrum for the coming 5G wireless revolution. The $7-billion cash balance will be paid by the companies on Oct. 4, money that Ottawa will then spend on such election promises such as daycare, housing subsidies and other electioneering gimmicks.

 As he shovels the cash into the Trudeau government’s fiscal furnace, no mention will be made by ISED Minister François-Philippe Champagne about where the money is really coming from, which is mainly the pockets of Canada’s 30 million wireless users. Nor will he dwell on the controversies surrounding the latest auction process.

DOCTORS FOR COVID ETHICS

 Over two days in July, Doctors for Covid Ethics and UK Column held a symposium in which experts in science, medicine, finance, media, the law and more came together to share knowledge, experience and evidence, unconstrained by political agenda, personal gain or spin. Participants were free to speak as scientists, doctors and experts should – honestly.

LIBERALS FREEZE OUT PRO-DEVELOPMENT FIRST NATIONS

 Canada has adopted one-sided consultation processes that favour First Nations that oppose resource extraction at the expense of those that support such projects. That was the finding of a judge recently in a rebuke to the federal government for its treatment of the Ermineskin Cree Nation.

Their case makes explicit what many of us have observed over the years: Indigenous people who support resource development do not fall comfortably into mainstream Canada’s idealized version of what Indigenous people should and shouldn’t do, and they are therefore ignored.

This particular claim saw the Ermineskin Cree, one of the four Nations of Maskwacis in western Alberta, contest a designation order that the federal Minister of the Environment, Jonathan Wilkinson, had placed on the Phase II expansion of Vista coal mine in July 2020. This subjected the mine to a full federal impact assessment — something the Impact Assessment Agency itself recommended against — which had the practical effect of stopping the activity.

IF COVID JABS WORK, WHY NEED A PASSPORT?

 I’m starting to think that some people don’t think their vaccinations actually work, or that much of the population wants to live in fear.

How else to explain the non-stop demands for the government to enforce a vaccine passport or certificate and limit what people can do based on their vaccination status?

Dr. Kieran Moore, the province’s chief medical officer, has repeatedly said that vaccine passports are not needed for going shopping or going to a restaurant and the Ontario Science Table has maintained there is no evidence to back up the idea.

JUSTIN'S DREAMS OF A MAJORITY

 It’s clear that Justin Trudeau believes the time is right to try to regain his parliamentary majority. But it’s not apparent how he plans to convince voters they should share his enthusiasm.

The mood in the House of Commons was fractious before the summer break. But it will be hard for the prime minister to make the case to Canadians that the opposition parties are blocking his recovery agenda, given the House passed a budget implementation bill that contained $143 billion in new spending.

The Liberals’ core electoral proposition appears to be that “We were brilliant at running the country in a minority but we’d be even more brilliant if we had a majority.” There are echoes of Lester B. Pearson’s pitch in the 1965 election. Pearson won a minority two years earlier and urged voters to give his Liberal Party a majority for “five more years of prosperity.” He didn’t get it.

WE CHARITY STENCH IS BACK

 The WE Charity operation, headed by the Kielburger brothers (buddies of the Trudeau family), returned to Canadian politics yesterday.

Federal Procurement Ombudsman Alexander Jeglic released the results of his year-long investigation into contracts that WE received from the federal government before the pandemic. That means contracts given to WE before the youth volunteer project proposed last year that would have been worth more than $43 million to WE and would have cost taxpayers upwards of $900 million.

Jeglic found several contracts, none of them large, but with a disturbing pattern of apparent favouritism towards WE.

ADM. MCDONALD RETURNS TO WORK

 OTTAWA — Admiral Art McDonald is planning to return to his position as commander of the Canadian Armed Forces after military police opted not to charge him last week following an investigation into his conduct.

McDonald stepped down in February as chief of the defence staff as a result of a Canadian Forces National Investigation Service investigation into an allegation of misconduct.

But in a statement released Wednesday, McDonald’s legal team said the naval officer would be returning to the position after the nearly six-month investigation “exonerated” him.

CURIOUS EVENTS AT CORD BLOOD BANK

 A Toronto company that was paid to store potentially life-saving stem cells from the children of roughly 3,000 clients across Canada removed the samples from storage before providing Health Canada access to its lab during a surprise inspection last week, according to the federal department.

In a strongly worded public statement issued Monday, Health Canada stated it wanted to "set the record straight" about "false" claims made on the Cord Blood Bank of Canada's (CBBC) website by owner Bernartka Ellison. 

Ellison — who uses they/them pronouns and previously went by another name — updated the company's website last Thursday with a letter to clients stating that Health Canada gave them "no other option" but to remove all the cord blood samples from storage on Aug. 4 and as a result, the samples are being disposed of "in accordance with all applicable rules and regulations."

RESISTING INSTITUTIONAL FRAUD

 A lengthy Twitter post by comedian and political commentor Konstantin Kisin and cited by J.D. Rucker in The Liberty Daily details in 2,300 words the outright lies, intentional disinformation, and flagrant slanders that have become the stock-in-trade of government, scientism, and media over the last few years. It explains why vaccine hesitancy may be understandable and even commendable. As Rucker comments, “the content found in it is a masterclass on explaining the lack of trust tens of millions of people in the U.S. and U.K. currently have towards the Covid-19 injections both governments are pushing so hard.” 

REPLACE RCMP WITH ALBERTA POLICE FORCE

   Corbella:  The recent home invasion in Penhold — that led to a resident being severely beaten with a baseball bat and an intruder being shot and killed — has reopened the debate about Alberta establishing a provincial police service to replace the unresponsive, unaccountable RCMP.

It can’t come soon enough.

 As we now know, an unidentified man was shot and killed inside the house of a family returning home from camping on Monday, Aug. 2. What has only become evident lately is that this same man tried to break into the rural home on C and E Trail on Friday, July 30 and then again in the early morning hours of Saturday, July 31. RCMP from the Red Deer area arrested the man on both occasions but, according to the Alberta Crown Prosecution Service, no charges were ever laid.

ICEBREAKER PRICE TAG CLOSING IN ON $1BILLION

 OTTAWA — The cost of three second-hand icebreakers that the federal Liberal government is buying from Quebec shipyard Chantier Davie is inching closer to the $1-billion mark as Ottawa keeps quietly adding money to the controversial deal.

The most recent cash infusion came last week as the government handed Davie another $68.9 million to continue converting and upgrading the icebreakers, bringing the total cost for the three vessels to more than $912 million.

That represents a significant increase over the original $610-million price tag announced by the Liberals when they agreed to purchase the three Norwegian-built civilian icebreakers for the Canadian Coast Guard in August 2018.

GOV. CUOMO RESIGNS

 NEW YORK (AP) — Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced his resignation Tuesday over a barrage of sexual harassment allegations in a fall from grace a year after he was widely hailed nationally for his detailed daily briefings and leadership during some of the darkest days of the COVID-19 pandemic.

By turns defiant and chastened, the 63-year-old Democrat emphatically denied intentionally mistreating women and called the pressure for his ouster politically motivated. But he said that fighting back in this “too hot” political climate would subject the state to months of turmoil.

The third-term governor's resignation, which will take effect in two weeks, was announced as momentum built in the Legislature to remove him by impeachment and after nearly the entire Democratic establishment had turned against him, with President Joe Biden joining those calling on him to resign.

COVID -19 AUTOPSY REPORT

Pathologist reports at White Coat Summit.

EXPLAINING HIGH SHIPPING RATES

 There is no COVID-era surge in global cargo demand. There’s a lengthy albeit temporary spike in congestion compounded by a localized, stimulus-and-savings-driven demand boom in America.

Consultant Lars Jensen, CEO of Vespucci Maritime, told American Shipper, “Global demand for the first part of the year is up around 4% compared to 2019. We did not have a capacity problem in 2019. We had enough ships, we had enough containers, ports were fine, and trucks and rail were fine, at least from a global perspective.

“With 4% global demand growth since then, we should not have a problem now. You have some skewing because of the demand boom in North America, but none of this is down to a global demand boom — because that doesn’t exist. The problem right now is predominantly one of capacity.”

LIBERALS SUCK & BLOW SIMULTANEOUSLY

 The minister responsible for Canada's role in fighting climate change is defending his government's purchase of the Trans Mountain pipeline after a landmark UN report said the continued use of fossil fuels is pushing the climate toward catastrophe.

Minister of Environment and Climate Change Jonathan Wilkinson said today that revenue generated by the project will help Canada achieve its long-term climate objectives.

Wilkinson reaffirmed Canada's commitment to phasing out fossil fuels and achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2050, but said achieving that target will require money generated by fossil fuels.

FORCED VACCINATION AGAINST PARENTS' WISHES

For months, we’ve been warning people that Covid-19 “vaccine” totalitarianism would eventually lead to government taking our kids if we don’t let them get the jab. Well, it’s happening.

Dr. Robert Malone, the inventor of the very mRNA technology used in Pfizer and Moderna injections, was on with Steve Bannon on War Room today to explain the situation that’s unfolding in Boston, MA.

A 14-year-old child who wants to be vaccinated could not get her parents’ permission, so the court has stepped in and revoked custody in order for her to get vaccinated without their consent.

CALLING BS ON COVID JABS AND LOCKDOWNS

 Physician calls out CDC and NIH information regarding covid-19.

OTTAWA'S BORROWING & SPENDING

 During the pandemic, government budget deficits have grown substantially across Canada—at a time when interest costs are at historical lows. If interest costs return to the slightly higher levels of 2019, deficits would increase by billions for governments across the country.

And yet, several governments (including the Trudeau government) show little concern over their high levels of borrowing and instead simply point to current low interest rates. But this is a flawed and short-sighted approach.

Consider this. For the federal and nine provincial governments (except New Brunswick), if interest costs—that is, the total amount of interest paid relative to the amount of gross debt outstanding—returned to 2019-20 levels, combined interest payments in 2021-22 would rise from the current projection of $53.6 billion to $70.6 billion, an increase of $17.0 billion (or 32 per cent).

NOT-SO-GREEN RESULTS OF GREEN ALTERNATIVES

Whatever one thinks of the climate change/global warming theory (and I don’t think much of it), the practical problem of converting developing countries to low-carbon (or net-zero) economies is far more daunting than eco-obsessed politicians such as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will admit, even to themselves.

For the most part, the technology doesn’t yet exist to keep the lights on, the heat heating, and goods and people moving using mostly “green” energy. It’s a matter of engineering, not of too few subsidies.

 Perhaps no government in the world is better than the Trudeau Liberals at virtue-signalling environmental measures (like plastics bans, carbon taxes and stopping pipelines) that cause tens of billions of dollars in self-inflected economic damage, while achieving few environmental benefits.

RCMP NEEDS LESSONS IN ACCOUNTABILITY

 After years of headlines about toxic behaviour and sexual harassment in the ranks, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police is reporting it's falling far behind on hiring women and visible minorities.

The police service says it needs to hire more than 5,100 women to the regular ranks to make up for a 27 per cent shortfall.

When it comes to hiring visible minorities, the Mounties are reporting a shortfall of around 1,140 regular members, or 6 per cent of the total.

"Until there's some major changes ... they're going to be hard-pressed to recruit new people," said Janet Merlo, a former RCMP constable who quit in 2010 and became one of the lead plaintiffs in a multi-million dollar sexual harassment class-action lawsuit.

5 COVID JABS MAY BE NECESSARY

    Numerous European countries are planning a 3rd round of COVID “booster shots” in September, and the FDA also indicated that vaccinated individuals will be given another shot in the fall.

    After receiving the second dose, the immune response slowly subsides. Within a year, many may have lost their protection. We do not know yet, but if you get a third dose, it will be activated again,” Karolinska Institute Professor Matti Sällberg said. “Biology says that a fading immune response is not unlikely. Then it’s time for a third, fourth, maybe fifth dose”.

One wonders whether Sällberg holds a conflict of interest given that he is also chairman of the board at vaccine company SVF.

Meanwhile, in Israel, a doctor warned that “the effectiveness of the vaccine is waning/fading out” and that “85-90% of the hospitalizations are in fully vaccinated people.”

CONSEQUENCES OF CATCH & RELEASE JUSTICE SYSTEM

 PENHOLD — Canada’s flawed catch-and-release justice system had fatal consequences Monday in this central Alberta town 16 kilometres south of Red Deer that has left a family of four “permanently traumatized” and left a repeat home invader dead.

The unidentified man who was shot and killed inside a rural home on C & E Trail had broken into the home two times previously just days earlier, traumatizing the family who lived in the rental home on a large acreage in this normally bucolic community of 3,200 people.

“If he had been arrested and held instead of released twice, he would be alive and I wouldn’t look like this,” said the resident, whose shattered right arm was in a cast and who had numerous visible scabs and stitches on his head and ears after he was bludgeoned repeatedly with a wooden baseball bat by the intruder.

CDC DIRECTOR: VACCINE PASSPORTS ARE FUTILE

The Director of the CDC made an important admission during an interview today on CNN. CDC Director Rochelle Walensky stated the vaccine does not prevent COVID-19 infection, nor does it stop the vaccinated person from transmitting the infection or the delta variant. According to Director Walensky, the only benefit from the vaccine now is presumably that it reduces the severity of symptoms.

If a vaccinated and non-vaccinated person have the same capacity to carry, shed and transmit the virus – with or without symptoms – then what difference does a vaccination passport or vaccination ID make?

According to the CDC TODAY, both the vaxxed and non-vaxxed person walking into a restaurant, store, group, venue or workplace present the exact same risk to other people there, so how does the presentation of proof of vaccine make any difference?

POLITICAL AMBITIONS OF SOME ONTARIO DOCTORS

 Dr. Nathan Stall, a Toronto based geriatric specialist has announced he’s running for the Ontario Liberals in the next election.

Stall is doing this after spending months courting media attention on a range of topics well outside of his specialization but where he dutifully repeated Liberal talking points and attacked PC Premier Doug Ford without revealing his partisan ties.

The case of Stall is even worse because he’s also a member of Ontario’s Science Table, even acting as “assistant scientific director” for the body. Close observers of politics will know that the Ontario Science Table is a self-appointed, and self-important, body of doctors and researchers who pushed themselves into the discussion of how to handle COVID in Ontario.

TRUDEAU'S CRASS FAVOURITISM TOWARDS QUEBEC

 A grinning Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that his government is transferring about $6 billion to Quebec over five years in connection with its national child-care program, with no strings attached — Quebec’s government can spend those billions any way it wants.

It’s a real slap in the face to Albertans to watch Trudeau throw tax dollars around with abandon in his push toward an unnecessary early election in his bid to win a majority government, but without any sense of parity or fairness.

Quebec Premier Francois Legault, standing next to Trudeau, crowed about the arrangement, calling it a “beautiful victory for Quebec families” and described the deal as “asymmetric,” meaning that while the feds imposed conditions on the money it gave to other provinces for child care, Quebec has none.

UPDATING PFIZER COVID JAB RARE SIDE EFFECT

 Health Canada has added the facial paralysis condition known as Bell’s Palsy as a potentially rare side-effect after getting the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.

The condition is a usually temporary period of facial muscle weakness or paralysis with symptoms that can include loss of feeling in the face, headaches, drooling and the inability to close one eye.

Health Canada says 311 patients in Canada reported a case of Bell’s Palsy after getting a COVID-19 shot though that does not specifically mean the condition was caused by the vaccine.

CONSERVATIVES' SPLASH-PAD P!SSING CONTEST

 Whatever you think of Trudeau now or thought of him then, the party that chose him did not disqualify itself from governing based on that decision alone. On another competence question, Trudeau and his team dispensed in 2015 with the “if you can’t run a campaign, you can’t run a country” test. In 2019, the fact that he hadn’t excavated and addressed the blackface scandal himself before his second election may have caused as much harm as the justified outrage over the images themselves.

But Trudeau was also running against Andrew Scheer. While Scheer possessed none of the blithe ruthlessness of his predecessor, he also may have been an over-correction as the most benign successor to Harper available. When the Conservative party chose Erin O’Toole over Peter MacKay to succeed Scheer last August, it seemed to be telling Canadians, “We see your unfathomability complaint and raise you a face-palm and a WTF.”

Because O’Toole, like Scheer, seems like the kind of guy you’d be perfectly happy to have as a neighbour but whose leadership qualities have proven to be equally unfathomable to Canadians, he is currently experiencing what was once known as Tory Syndrome and is now known as a splash-pad pissing contest-free-for-all. “Erin O’Toole approaches an election with a party so fractured that some Conservatives want him to lose,” read the headline in last Sunday’s Toronto Star.