voluble

Sorry, thank you for the correction on the number of petitioners. I didn't read the article carefully enough. From the article:

The total number of petitioners submitted to the Town of Barrhead landed at 851, with the total accepted petitioners coming out to 712.

For the record I don't like what the UCP are doing in Alberta right now either, and I don't think their approach represents acceptable governance.

You didn't infer this, but I want to say for the record that it would be incorrect to infer, that just because the UCP received 54-ish% of the popular vote in the last provincial general election, it doesn't follow that 54% of the population of Alberta is anti-trans. The UCP as a political entity takes aggressive stances on a bundle of issues that rationally-minded conservative voters would (and do) find unappealing. The fact that a Conservative stronghold like Barrhead could only get ~~10%~~ (correction, 16%) of its citizens behind this petition goes to show that the exclusionary thinking at the core of the petition is overwhelmingly not the norm here among the citizens.

The town of Barrhead has a population of 4320 people. Only ~~10%~~ (correction, 16%) of the town petitioned for this as-yet-unpassed bylaw. Those individuals don't even represent the town of Barrhead, much less the entire province.

I don't mean this personally - I'm surprised that someone who is as vocal about proportional representation as you are would be insensitive to the demographic facts of this matter.

If were going to have a public health system, people should be required to take care of themselves

On the face of it, this sounds sensible. But, thinking more deeply, who should decide the required amount of care a person ought to take? Ideas about what it means to 'take care of yourself' are varied. And consider that some citizens of this country are simply unable to take the same personal health decisions that others have the privilege to take without a second thought.

What you're talking about here isn't a public system. A healthcare system that only serves certain chosen people is not public in any meaningful sense.

A public healthcare system is imperfect on the whole, but on average, when funded and administered properly, is structured to apportion care based on need, instead of the profit motive. I think that's worthwhile, and the right thing for a society to do from a moral standpoint.

At this rate, it won't be long before Poilievre is speaking in full limerick. What an idiot.

The unspoken subtext in Trudeau's comment is of course "they're playing silly games while I'm running the country". Trudeau's only available response to the end of the supply and confidence agreement is to downplay its significance, while avoiding looking like a bitter jackass. Ironically, his comment is itself exactly the kind of 'politics' he's accusing the other party leaders of practicing. It's image management, that's it.

I disagree. And also I don't understand how your comment is relevant to the conversation. Making a non sequitur like this isn't constructive. So, nice try but, you will not divide us!

Poilievre is making a string of very strange political gambles. Doing the rhyming nickname thing, trying to look like a cool badass, going on a string of unusual, foolish-looking, public attacks against rivals.

If the Conservatives don't do as well as expected in the federal election, I wonder what's next for them, from a leadership, attitude, and policy standpoint.

This will be Gen Z's first real federal election to participate in. I'm very interested to see their impact. Convention is to assume that the young won't vote, but, life and livelihood for the youth in Canada has never been worse, at least in my lifetime.

Fair. Though it's hard to say much about the extent and effect of interference in the 2021 federal election, because much of it is still not known by the public, and there is no plan for disclosure. O'Toole was briefed on matters that concerned him. All the public has gotten are vague claims that the interference "didn't change the outcome of the election". The notion that any citizen should find that reassuring is a chilling thought.

And from a cynic's point of view, it's arguable that Poilievre's willful blindness and mealymouthed stance on national security isn't simply a lucky outcome for foreign powers that seek to influence Canadian politics - it's a stance that could serve to materially benefit him and his party in a federal election where interference is expected.

And more generally, when choosing a leader, are Conservatives now primed to prefer weak Poilievre-type foreign policy, instead of stronger O'Toole-type foreign policy? Probably. That's a downstream effect and success of interference. It's bad news all around, and I don't think enough is made of the issue.

It seems unlikely to me that their public statements about their situation are a full and accurate reflection of their feelings. I mean, what else are they going to say? "Fuck Boeing, fuck this failed mission, we're pilots with families and it's less than ideal that we'll be stranded up here for 8 months doing busywork while our bone density gets nuked"?

If my employer sent me to a remote island without any of my personal effects, on a vehicle that couldn't safely return me home, I'd look at any list of tasks they sent me with some measure of bitterness. Even if it was my favourite remote island. Being trapped there would change the colour of things. Working is probably the only thing they can do to keep from going insane.

TFW your election campaign was provably targeted by hostile foreign powers because your foreign policy positions are contrary to their aims and goals.

From a policy standpoint, disengagement is the worst possible strategy. Worse than engagement, and far worse than developing proactive foreign policy in the face of constant foreign interference.

Canada needs to create a foreign agent registry, and establish more sophisticated systems to combat and sanction foreign interference in our political and cultural spaces. For fuck sake, we know for a fact that right now, we have a sitting Member of Parliament (Han Dong) who has their seat as a result of Chinese state influence into their candidacy. The fact that we lack the mechanisms, or the political will, or both, to do something about this, is insanity.