I’ve been telecommuting for decades, so for me sheltering in place isn’t remotely the burden it is for a lot of Americans. But it does make the job of following politics more difficult for two reasons.
First, to a certain degree, politics are on lockdown, too. To the extent that the Democratic primaries are in the news, it’s mostly as a public-health story, thanks to Wisconsin’s debate over whether to carry on with in-person voting and questions of how to conduct a convention while social distancing.
Bernie Sanders — who is still running — wants to debate presumptive nominee Joe Biden again, but few in the party are interested in that. Biden himself is running a pandemic version of a front-porch campaign via teleconference from his home office.
Second: Nobody has any clue what post-pandemic politics will look like.
On the left, some fantasize about somehow replacing Biden with New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, which makes a lot of sense given Cuomo’s impressive performance of late, except for the near impossibility of orchestrating such a handoff.
Meanwhile, progressive groups, still licking their wounds over the almost instantaneous marginalization of Sanders, are suddenly seeing their massive grassroots organizations starved of money and the ability to organize.
The situation on the right is even more opaque. For good or ill, the pandemic has made President Trump an even more central figure in our politics, thanks to the role the White House plays in a national emergency and his nightly, often rambling, news conferences.
That’s not all to the GOP’s advantage. Trump’s refusal to admit any error in how he’s handled the crisis has had the unintended effect of starving Republicans of some useful talking points.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell tried to float the idea that the Democrats’ impeachment fixation distracted Trump from following through after the travel ban with a more robust response to the pandemic when it would have made a difference, but Trump himself threw cold water on that.
Regardless, as the right gears up for either a Trump win or a lame-duck presidency amid a hard period of recovery, it’s possible to glean some contours of post-pandemic Republican politics.
Trump was always going to be the nominee, but his set of issues has been reshuffled entirely. He was all set to run on a roaring economy, pitting himself against “socialism” — even though his preferred foil, Bernie Sanders, was sidelined on Super Tuesday.
Now, the economy has headed south, and our anti-socialist president is ordering businesses to do the government’s bidding and handing out direct payments to millions of Americans.
Trump’s vacillation between the need to clamp down on the virus and his desire to open up the economy is somewhat symbolic of the broader divides on the right. Longtime MAGA consigliere Steve Bannon tells The New York Times that the GOP’s commitment to “limited government” is gone forever.
Others in the Trumpist orbit, such as Donald Trump Jr., have pushed the idea that the corona-hype is overblown and just part of an effort to take down his dad.
Somewhere in the middle, conservative politicians and intellectuals are trying to find a less Trumpcentric path.
Long before the coronavirus emerged in China, Sen. Marco Rubio and a coterie of eggheads were firing salvos at “unfettered capitalism.” Meanwhile, Nikki Haley, Trump’s former UN ambassador (for whom my wife worked), resigned from the board of Boeing last month in protest over its request for a federal bailout. It was a principled stand, but it’s anyone’s guess whether corporate bailouts will be as unpopular on the right as they were before the pandemic.
While it’s hard to know whether crony capitalism will remain out of favor, count on China to stay in the doghouse for years to come.
That’s good news for one politician worth watching: Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas. Long a China hawk, Cotton is credited with persuading Trump to implement the China travel ban (though Trump didn’t go as far as Cotton wanted). He deserves credit for spotting the threat and speaking out early on.
If the GOP ultimately sours on Trump’s handling of the crisis, Cotton would be ideally situated to highlight his prescience. But that’s a long way off, and for now it’s worth noting that Cotton is running ads supporting the president’s response to the pandemic.
OTTAWA – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the NDP is caving to political pressure from Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre when it comes to their stance on the consumer carbon price.
Trudeau says he believes Jagmeet Singh and the NDP care about the environment, but it’s “increasingly obvious” that they have “no idea” what to do about climate change.
On Thursday, Singh said the NDP is working on a plan that wouldn’t put the burden of fighting climate change on the backs of workers, but wouldn’t say if that plan would include a consumer carbon price.
Singh’s noncommittal position comes as the NDP tries to frame itself as a credible alternative to the Conservatives in the next federal election.
Poilievre responded to that by releasing a video, pointing out that the NDP has voted time and again in favour of the Liberals’ carbon price.
British Columbia Premier David Eby also changed his tune on Thursday, promising that a re-elected NDP government would scrap the long-standing carbon tax and shift the burden to “big polluters,” if the federal government dropped its requirements.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
Simon Jolin-Barrette, minister responsible for consumer protection, has tabled a bill to force merchants to calculate tips based on the price before tax.
That means on a restaurant bill of $100, suggested tips would be calculated based on $100, not on $114.98 after provincial and federal sales taxes are added.
The bill would also increase the rebate offered to consumers when the price of an item at the cash register is higher than the shelf price, to $15 from $10.
And it would force grocery stores offering a discounted price for several items to clearly list the unit price as well.
Businesses would also have to indicate whether taxes will be added to the price of food products.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
Quebec legislature member Youri Chassin has announced he’s leaving the Coalition Avenir Québec government to sit as an Independent.
He announced the decision shortly after writing an open letter criticizing Premier François Legault’s government for abandoning its principles of smaller government.
In the letter published in Le Journal de Montréal and Le Journal de Québec, Chassin accused the party of falling back on what he called the old formula of throwing money at problems instead of looking to do things differently.
Chassin says public services are more fragile than ever, despite rising spending that pushed the province to a record $11-billion deficit projected in the last budget.
He is the second CAQ member to leave the party in a little more than one week, after economy and energy minister Pierre Fitzgibbon announced Sept. 4 he would leave because he lost motivation to do his job.
Chassin says he has no intention of joining another party and will instead sit as an Independent until the end of his term.
He has represented the Saint-Jérôme riding since the CAQ rose to power in 2018, but has not served in cabinet.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
