Speaking of the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Ontario election …
Among my favourite book titles is “How Not To Play Chess.” As one of my favourite author names is “Eugene A. Znosko-Borovsky.” But I digress. The point is that the world is full of advice on how to be incredibly great and it’s nice work if you can get it. However what most of us actually need, in most areas, is clear explanations of common basic blunders.
Consider “How Not To Play Golf.” If you ever saw me try you might rush forward, book contract in hand. But the simple, vital fact is that if I understood what I was doing wrong, I might have struggled out of the slough of triple-bogey to the sunlit fairway of mediocrity. I never did.
Yes, mediocrity. In school they say you can be anything you want, along with much other nonsense and the occasional genuine nugget like SOHCAHTOA. But you can’t. So forget the rah-rah seminars. Nothing I could ever have done would have let me win a Stanley Cup with the Maple Leafs. Or any other team, I hasten to add, since the Leafs present special problems. But I might not kill all the leaves in my garden.
The Leafs present special problems
Likewise, young people probably gravitate to blog posts on how to have the greatest marriage and best sex ever. But “10 Ways to Get Divorced Within 5 Years” would be more useful, along with “10 Good Ways to Get Fired.” Still, I mentioned the Leafs so let’s dry our eyes and discuss them.
Elsewhere in Canada there’s apparently this “Battle of Alberta.” But in the centre of the universe, while we’re not exactly bitter about the dreaded Buds not winning a playoff series since 2004, never mind a cup, it is intriguing. Sure, the other guys get paid too. It’s still a remarkable achievement.
No, really. If you could explain it, I’d buy “How Not To Play Hockey” and read it. There isn’t one player left today from 2005. Management has seen massive turnover. Yet there’s this amazing continuity of predictable futility.
A Google search “Why are the Yankees so good” brought 57.6 million hits in 0.51 seconds. But face it. You’re not Mickey Mantle and neither am I. Whereas if anyone could persuasively list ways an organization can sustain a culture of failure over decades, you’d arise each day clad in the armour of avoidance. Which brings me to the Ontario election.
If you were wondering when, as a pundit, I’d say something oracular about the leaders’ debates between Doug Ford, Andrea Horwath and Steven Del Duca, I flip through my well-worn “How Not To Be Oracular” and make a vulgar noise. Then I retort that “leaders’ debates between Doug Ford, Andrea Horwath and Steven Del Duca” is an oxymoron. I know we play the game “ELECTION PANEL: Who won the Ontario debate?” where a NDP strategist hails Horwath, a Liberal Del Duca and a Tory Ford. But one important reason we have such lousy politicians is we pretend otherwise. (See also “How Not To Retain Readers.”)
Aha! A key to failure hidden in plain sight. Just as a key to the Leafs’ long run of incompetence is sellout arena crowds, and to endless health-care waiting lists re-electing people who call our system world-class, so Ford coasting to victory by being so vague it stifles discussion happens because we reward it. As we reward world-beating school lockdowns and avoiding intelligent debate there too.
A key to failure hidden in plain sight
Actually there are two keys here. Though to avoid “How Not To Use Metaphors” let’s substitute “two numbers in the combination” to unlock durable world-class inadequacy. Namely complacency and self-deception. Because it’s hard to be smug if you’re also honest with yourself about yourself. And with others.
For instance, I confess that I didn’t watch the pundit-obligatory debates because the intellectual sloth, rhetorical sludge and appalling self-satisfaction of participants and commentators alike make me physically ill. Sure, it’s “How Not To Get Along With Colleagues.” But I will not pretend I have not seen this. It’s trivial compared to the Holodomor that prompted that inspiring resolve in Malcolm Muggeridge. But one legitimate key to success is practising on easy things before tackling hard ones.
Like king and pawn endings. All I can really tell you about golf is I’m unfit for burial in a bunker. But I could show you what not to do in chess because there I’m exceptionally mediocre.
As for coaching the Leafs, possibly my hockey ignorance would produce better results than we’ve seen since Paul Martin was prime minister … or Lester Pearson. But on politics, I can state firmly that if they’re telling lies so boring you can’t get mad, and you vote for them anyway, you’re ready to write “How Not To Be A Citizen” and sell a million copies. Even if you don’t have a cool name.
National Post
MONTEBELLO, Que. – The Bloc Québécois is ready to wheel and deal with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government in exchange for support during confidence votes now that the Liberal government’s confidence and supply agreement with the NDP has ended.
That support won’t come cheap, the Quebec-based Bloc said, and the sovereigntist party led by Yves-François Blanchet has already drawn up a list of demands.
In an interview ahead of the opening of Monday’s party caucus retreat in the Outaouais region, Bloc House Leader Alain Therrien said his party is happy to regain its balance of power.
“Our objectives remain the same, but the means to get there will be much easier,” Therrien said. “We will negotiate and seek gains for Quebec … our balance of power has improved, that’s for sure.”
He called the situation a “window of opportunity” now that the Liberals are truly a minority government after New Democratic Party Leader Jagmeet Singh tore up the confidence and supply deal between the two parties last week, leaving the Bloc with an opening.
While Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives have promised multiple confidence votes in the hope of triggering a general election, the Bloc’s strategy is not to rush to the polls and instead use their new-found standing to make what they consider to be gains for Quebec.
A Bloc strategist who was granted anonymity by The Canadian Press because he was not authorized to speak publicly stated bluntly that the NDP had officially handed the balance of power back to the Bloc. The Bloc is taking for granted that when a federal election is held in about a year or less, it will be a majority Conservative government led by Poilievre, whose party has surged in the polls for over a year and has been ahead in the rest of Canada for over a year.
Quebec won’t factor so much in that win, the source added, where the Bloc will be hoping to grab seats from the Liberals and where the Conservatives hope to gain from the Bloc.
“It’s going to happen with or without Quebec,” the source said. “They (the Conservatives) are 20 points ahead everywhere in Canada, with the exception of Quebec, and that won’t change … their (Conservative) vote is firm.”
It is not surprising that the Bloc sees excellent news in the tearing up of the agreement that allowed the Liberals to govern without listening to their demands, said University of Ottawa political scientist Geneviève Tellier.
“The Bloc only has influence if the government, no matter which one, is a minority,” she explained. “In the case of a majority government, the Bloc’s relevance becomes more difficult to justify because, like the other parties, it can oppose, it can hold the government to account, but it cannot influence the government’s policies.”
On the Bloc’s priority list is gaining royal recommendation for Bill C-319, which aims to bring pensions for seniors aged 65 to 74 to the same level as that paid to those aged 75 and over.
A bill with budgetary implications that comes from a member of Parliament, as is the case here, must necessarily obtain royal recommendation before third reading, failing which the rules provide that the Speaker of the House will end the proceedings and rule it inadmissible.
The Bloc also wants Quebec to obtain more powers in immigration matters, particularly in the area of temporary foreign workers, and recoup money it says is owed to the province.
The demands concerning seniors’ pensions and immigration powers are “easy, feasible and clear,” Therrien said.
“It’s clear that it will be on the table. I can tell you: I’m the one who will negotiate,” he added.
The Bloc also wants to see cuts to money for oil companies, more health-care funds for provinces as demanded by premiers and stemming or eliminating Ottawa’s encroachment of provincial jurisdictions.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 8, 2024.
The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
FREDERICTON – New Brunswick‘s Liberals got a jump on the province’s coming fall election today with the official launch of their party’s campaign.
The kickoff, which took place in the Fredericton riding where Liberal Leader Susan Holt plans to run this time, came before the official start of the general election set for Oct. 21.
The Liberal platform contains promises to open at least 30 community care clinics over the next four years at a cost of $115.2 million, and roll out a $27.4 million-a-year program to offer free or low-cost food at all schools starting next September.
The governing Progressive Conservatives, led by BlaineHiggs, have so far pledged to lower the Harmonized Sales Tax from 15 per cent to 13 per cent if re-elected.
Political observers say the issues most affecting people in New Brunswick are affordability, health care, housing and education.
Recent polls suggest Higgs, whose leadership style has drawn critiques from within his caucus and whose policies on pronoun use in schools have stirred considerable controversy within the province, may face an uphill battle with voters this fall.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 8, 2024.
The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
OTTAWA – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will face a fretful and strained caucus in British Columbia Monday, with MPs looking for him to finally reveal his plan to address the political purgatory the party has endured for months.
Several Liberal MPs privately and publicly demanded they meet as a team after the devastating byelection loss of a longtime political stronghold in Toronto last June, but the prime minister refused to convene his caucus before the fall.
Their political fortunes did not improve over the summer, and this week the Liberals took two more significant blows: the abrupt departure of the NDP from the political pact that prevented an early election, and the resignation of the Liberals’ national campaign director.
Now, with two more byelections looming on Sept. 16 and a general election sometime in the next year, several caucus members who are still not comfortable speaking publicly told The Canadian Press they’re anxiously awaiting a game plan from the prime minister and his advisers that will help them save their seats.
The Liberals have floundered in the polls for more than a year now as Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives have capitalized on countrywide concerns about inflation, the cost of living and lack of available housing.
Though Trudeau hasn’t yet addressed all of his MPs en masse, he has spoken with them in groups throughout June and July and stopped in on several regional caucus meetings ahead of the Nanaimo retreat.
“We’re focused on delivering for Canadians,” Trudeau said at a Quebec Liberal caucus meeting Thursday.
He listed several programs in the works, including a national school food program and $10-a-day childcare, as well as national coverage for insulin and contraceptives, which the Liberals developed in partnership with the NDP.
“These are things that matter for Canadians,” he said, before he accused the NDP of focusing on politics while the Liberals are “focused on Canadians.”
Wayne Long, a Liberal MP representing a New Brunswick riding, says the problem is that Canadians appear to have tuned the prime minister out.
Long was the only Liberal member to publicly call for Trudeau’s resignation in the aftermath of the Toronto-St. Paul’s byelection loss, though several other MPs expressed the same sentiment privately at the time.
Long shared his views with the prime minister again at the Atlantic caucus retreat ahead of Monday’s meeting.
“I’m really worried the old ‘stay calm and carry on,’ which effectively is where we are, is not going to put us on a road to victory in the next election,” said Long, who does not plan to run again.
“If we’re going to mount a campaign that can beat Pierre Poilievre, in my opinion that campaign cannot be led by Justin Trudeau.”
Long fears a Trudeau campaign could lead to a Poilievre government that dismantles the prime minister’s nine-year legacy, piece by piece.
Long is one of several Liberal MPs who confirmed to The Canadian Press they do not plan to go the meeting in Nanaimo. But Mark Carney, the Bank of Canada governor whose name is routinely dropped around Ottawa as a possible successor to Trudeau as Liberal leader, will be in attendance.
He’s expected to address MPs about the economy and a plan for growth.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh’s decision to back out of the supply and confidence deal certainly complicates any calls for the prime minister to step aside and allow a new leader to face off against Pierre Poilievre in the next election, since that election could now come at any time.
“It makes a much more precarious situation, because Singh probably holds the keys to when that election could be,” said Andrew Perez, a longtime Liberal with Perez Strategies, who also called for Trudeau’s resignation earlier this summer.
“Maybe it presents an argument for the pro-Trudeau side to say that we need to stick with Trudeau, because there’s no time.”
But while some caucus members describe feeling frustrated by the political tribulation, Long insists that those who are running again aren’t yet feeling defeated.
Speaking about those in the Atlantic caucus, he said “to a person, they’re ready to fight. They’re they’re ready to go.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 8, 2024.
Zeneara
You Can Minimize the Odds of Being Ghosted
Police union calls for ‘fulsome public safety plan’ in B.C. ahead of provincial vote
BC United sources leak ‘extremism’ file on B.C. Conservatives’ executive Isidorou
Protesters get 6 1/2-year sentences for roles in Coutts border blockade
Mark Carney to lead Liberal economic task force ahead of next election
The 14-Day Digestive Health Reboot
The Doctors We Need: Imagining a New Path for Physician Recruitment, Training & Support By Dr. Anthony Sanfilippo
