The (Right) News Rundown
- Back in BC, the expected and inevitable has happened.
- B.C.’s New Democrats will return to power at the legislature for the first time in 16 years, after toppling Premier Christy Clark’s Liberals on a vote of confidence Thursday and after NDP Leader John Horgan was summoned to Government House by Lt.-Gov. Judith Guichon and asked by the vice-regal representative to become the province’s 36th premier.
- “As lieutenant-governor of British Columbia, and as the representative of Her Majesty the Queen of Canada, I have met with Premier Clark and will accept her resignation,” said Guichon in a statement. “I have asked Mr. Horgan to form a government, he having assured me that he can form a government which will have the confidence of the legislative assembly.”
- Horgan’s meeting with Guichon was brief and came after Clark spent more than an hour inside Government House in which, she later confirmed, she asked Guichon for dissolution of the house and a new election. That advice was rejected by Guichon, who then called Horgan.
- “She wanted to make sure in speaking to the premier and to me that the continuity of government was going to be there, and the systems of structures we hold so dear here were going to be in good hands,” Horgan said of his conversation with Guichon. “And I assured her I would do my level best … there is an enormous amount of work to do. I look forward to working harder than I’ve ever worked before,” said Horgan, who is premier-designate until his official swearing-in, probably in two to three weeks.
- Clark confirmed that during her lengthy meeting with Guichon she advised her to dissolve the house and call a new election. Guichon rejected that advice and accepted Clark’s resignation. “She made it very clear I only had two choices,” Clark said of Guichon. “I did ask for dissolution. She hasn’t granted that request. She has chosen another path. I suppose she’ll be able to to talk to you about why she made that decision. I don’t know why. But she did. And I certainly accept the result.”
- Before her government fell earlier Thursday, Clark made one final speech as premier in which she defended her throne speech that reversed or changed more than two dozen policies that were not in their election campaign. And she took one final swipe at the NDP and Greens for refusing to consider backing her government’s reforms.
- “It is more obvious now than it ever was that the opposition never had any intention to make this house work,” said Clark. “Their only intention was to get the Greens on the dotted line and then tell us just to wait and see how they could contrive to bend the rules of our democracy so that they could hang on to power.”
- On June 24th a group had its inaugural meeting in Red Deer. "Alberta Together" had its first meeting and their goal is to create a centrist alternative in Alberta in time for the next election.
- The meeting yielded the result that Alberta Together will rally around the Alberta Party. The Alberta Party currently has 1 MLA, Greg Clark. Their goal is to create a sensible alternative that avoids the "polarization" that they feel is present with the Alberta NDP and hypothetical United Conservative Party.
- Alberta Together is headed by former Alberta PC party president Katherine O'Neill. O'Neill ran in the 2015 election as a PC and was defeated by an NDP candidate. Alberta Together also attracts individuals such as former Edmonton Mayor and Health Minister Stephen Mandel and former PC leadership candidate Stephen Khan.
- While no new political party will be created this group has a number of huge hurdles to overcome if they want to be competitive. They first and foremost need to convince the Alberta Liberals to get on board. In a poll taken back in April it found the Wildrose on the brink of forming government on their own while the PCs were in second with 29% support. The Alberta Party? 5% The Alberta Liberals? 5% This group must first work with the Alberta Liberals to ensure that the centre vote will not be split. Secondly they must figure out exactly how many "Progressive" Conservatives are open to their message. The same poll found the NDP in third at 24%.
- 2019 is a long time away but the work must start now if this group wants to see success in 2019.
- The media has not reported on Alberta Together to the degree that they have reported on the United Conservative Party as they probably feel that targeting the United Conservative Party will allow them to cover any potential slip ups or "bozo eruptions" as called by Brian Jean.
- What the media should have reported on after last Saturday is that Greg Clark and the Alberta Party openly advocates for a PST.
- Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that he is "jealous" of immigrants to Canada. His rationale is fine and it is the following, “Because I think being able to choose it, rather than being Canadian by default, is an amazing statement of attachment to Canada.”
- In the interview that was aired on CTV this past Friday, he continued to say, “I always sort of laugh when you see people who are – not many of them, but – intolerant or who think, ‘Go back to your own country.’ No! You chose this country. This is your country more than it is for others because we take it for granted.”
- This is ludicrous. Canada is no more a new immigrant's country than it is someone who has been settled here for generations. This is the exact opposite of the very criticism Trudeau made of the Conservatives in the 2015 election when the issue of "old stock Canadians" came up. Trudeau took issue with the term "old stock Canadians" and their taking pride with having a lineage in Canada. Rather than "old stock Canadians" Trudeau is championing new immigrants and giving them a higher value and higher precedence than the rest of us who reside in Canada.
- If it is not appropriate to champion "old stock Canadians" and their proud lineage it shouldn't be appropriate to say that Canada belongs more to an immigrant than to anyone else!
- The article in question also goes on to mention that hate crime targeting Muslims more than tripled between 2012 and 2015. While these numbers are concerning there's a hidden fact that the media never tells you about these numbers, the most targeted group in Canada of hate crimes are Jews. When broken down by race, Blacks unfortunately receive the largest number of hate crimes.
The Firing Line
- The prime minister said his government's $23 billion deficit is at least in part because the Conservatives left a $18-billion hole in the budget.
- Trudeau said Tuesday that the Liberals spent about $10 billion in 2016-17, their first full year in office, precisely as promised in the 2015 election platform. But he insisted the Liberals had to deal with a baseline budget deficit of $18 billion after they came to power, even though their Conservative predecessors had predicted a balanced budget.
- “We just went from a floor where the budget was balanced, because supposedly the Conservatives had balanced the budget, to what was the reality of our budget of being at about $18 billion in deficit at the end of that first year,” Trudeau told a news conference.
- The Tories have long disputed Liberal claims that they left the country in the red following their election defeat, which came part way through the 2015-16 fiscal year. After the Liberals took over, Ottawa ended up posting a deficit of $1 billion for 2015-16. The Harper government had projected a $1.4-billion surplus for that year.
- Trudeau appeared to be referring to the 2016-17 fiscal year, his government’s first full year in office, in claiming the Conservatives left with an $18 billion deficit.
- The Tories blame the eventual shortfall on fresh spending by the Liberals. They point to a report last October by the parliamentary budget officer, which said Ottawa was likely on track to run a surplus in 2015-16 had it not been for new spending.
- The Trudeau government has been criticized for a budgetary outlook that projects several years of deficits, including a shortfall of $23 billion for 2016-17. This year, the government is predicting a deficit of $28.5 billion, including a $3-billion accounting adjustment for risk.
- Trudeau maintained Tuesday that he’s focused on making investments to lift the economy and vowed to remain fiscally responsible when it comes to spending.
- The prime minister refused once again, however, to say when the books would be balanced.
- “We made the decision … in the last election that instead of focusing on balancing the books arbitrarily, and at all costs, we would focus on the investments needed to grow the economy,” he said, referring to the Liberal plan to run deficits in order to invest billions in areas like infrastructure.
- The Liberals won the election with a pledge to run annual shortfalls of no more than $10 billion over the first three years of their mandate and to eliminate the deficit by 2019-20.
- The latest federal budget does not project when the deficit will be eliminated and forecasts shortfalls across its outlook, which only extends until 2021-22.
- A federal report, published on the Finance Department website in December, predicted that, barring any policy changes, Ottawa could be on a path filled with annual deficits until at least 2050-51.
Word of the Week
confidence |ˈkänfədəns|
noun
the feeling or belief that one can rely on someone or something; firm trust: we had every confidence in the staff | he had gained the young man's confidence.
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Show Data
Episode Title: Confidence of Canada Day
Teaser: The BC NDP comes to power, a movement for centrists in Alberta, Trudeau makes controversial statements about immigrants and Canada Day, and the federal government still has no plan to balance the budget.
Recorded Date: July 1, 2017
Release Date: July 1, 2017
Duration: 38:48
Edit Notes: Show note mishap @ Canada Day