Wondering what our posters, especially our Canadian posters think about what is going with the accusations - pro-or anti Trudeau? I admit I am a bit surprised and disappointed he is involved in anything improper - I like/d him. .

https://www.npr.org/2019/03/04/70026181 ... 87FT0F6_xg

Neither pro nor anti at this point.
I'll wait until the Justice Committee hearings are over.
Edit: So far it appears to be a tempest in a teapot.

One observation, though. The social experiment in gender parity for cabinet posts has turned into a huge flop. Competence is what counts, not genitalia.

I don't think either of the two women who quit could be considered incompetent.

I'm a bit disappointed in Trudeau, more for the way he's handled this thing than what he actually did. The timing is especially bad considering all this "rule of law" stuff he's be handing out to the Chinese while he's kowtowing to the orange oaf in Washington. Kind of makes him look like a fool.

I think the only way he would be able to keep his job this fall is if people are able to realize Scheer is just another Harper and that the Conservatives haven't really changed that much. I know that's the only reason I will be voting Liberal. If there was a feasible alternative I'd be there in a heartbeat. Trudeau's been a real loser in my mind and he's probably given the country back to the Cons.

Thank you both for your comments and giving me some insight to this situation.

Have to admit that when Justin came onto the scene I figured he was nothing more than a pretty face (with nice hair) who was riding on his father's name.

I wasn't particularly surprised when the Liberals won - all you had to do was look at who the competition was.

And, until now, I've been reasonably impressed with what he's done. But I agree with jim on this one - he's totally mishandled the situation. Haven't made up my mind if what he did is really "bad" or just the sort of "stupid" thing a relatively novice politician would do.

Of course, every time I have a negative thought about Trudeau I just think about what's happening in Ontario and conclude that Junior isn't so bad after all.

Shift wrote: "Of course, every time I have a negative thought about Trudeau I just think about what's happening in Ontario and conclude that Junior isn't so bad after all."

Shift, not sure what you are referring to in Ontario. Did a quick search and could not find anything in reference to your comment. I am curious - what is happening in Ontario?

Doug ford is happening in Ontario. He's the new (relatively) extremely conservative Premier and, in a lot of ways, he the mirror image of Grabem except he's stupider and even more blatantly corrupt. The previous Liberal government was completely incompetent so they more or less deserved to get kicked out of power and Ford was the only realistic alternative. However, Ontario didn't expect or deserve what they got and his popularity is dropping like a stone when he should be in his "honeymoon" period following his election about 9 months ago.

Thanks jim, lets hope they realize frying pan into the fire is not the course to follow. I swear is there something in the water in parts of the world that is making people think less clearly. . .

You noticed? I thought he was hiding it so well.


No question there.


And he has it in for Toronto. He did serve on Toronto City Council but was defeated when he ran for Mayor. So it's payback time.

By the way, for those of you who don't recall, Ford's brother was the Toronto mayor who made headlines all over the world for his deranged antics. Amazingly, Doug Ford is the saner one of the two.

The Trudeau "scandal" smacks more of an internal pissing match, so far.

His brother turned out to be an alcoholic drug addict. And those were his good points.

Starting to look as if Jody Wilson-Raybould was unfit for the job.

Wrongfully convicted Halifax man's case sat on Wilson-Raybould's desk for months

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-sco ... -1.5074732

Edit: Wilson-Raybould claims to have "many" wrongful conviction cases to review. However, according to Wikipedia there have been 15 over
a 60 year period. The current case makes 16.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overturne ... _in_Canada

There seems to be an epidemic of incompetents in positions of authority worldwide these days ~ serious question: how/where do we-the-people even begin to combat this plague? ~

Sooz

There's various kinds of incompetents. Grabem, of course, is a vicious, self-entitled incompetent, May is just a hopeless incompetent and it's fast appearing Justin Trudeau is just a plain incompetent whose wife buys him cute socks so he can have fun playing with his toes - a sort of idiot-savant of incompetence.

And the CONservatives still manage to do worse.

Definitely stupider. He did manage to graduate from high school but dropped out of Humber College after two months.

From FB

Here’s the list thus far [thru late January]. Thanks to Debra Gallant, Antonia Zerbisias and Kev Holman for it’s beginnings. This is what Doug Ford has done in six months. I’ll keep adding to it.

1. Killed Cap & Trade resulting in $3-$4B in lost revenue (not including lawsuits). *edited
2. Fired Privatization Officer
3. Fired Chief scientist
4. Fired Investment Officer
5. Refused assistance to asylum seekers
6. Killed legislation to reduce scalping prices
7. Killed Bill 175 updating the police service act (police oversight legislation)
8. Delayed Immunization reporting rules
9. Ends electric & hydrogen vehicle incentive program
10. Cut the budget for school repairs
11. Cut 700+ green projects ($100M to shut down 1 wind farm alone)
12. Rolled sex ed back to 1998
13. Cancelled TRC school curriculum after it had already been researched, paid for and was ready to put in place.
14. Cuts Toronto City council in half.
15. Cut promised 3% increase for OW & ODSP & will change definition of disability, leading to further poverty.
16. Basic Income pilot project stopped
17. Considers no more minimum wage increase (considering rolling back implemented wage increase in 2020)
18. Reduced Pharmacare availability
19. Cuts funding for guide dogs for visually impaired
20. Cuts advanced age allowance for elderly
21. Common law changes deleted
22. Cuts to funds to repair social housing
23. Cancellation of opening new overdose prevention sites
24. Buck a beer at taxpayer expense.
25. Launches “Ontario News Now”, a third world style propaganda news site payed for by taxpayers.
26. Reneges on $500,000 for after school music program for kids at risk
27. Muzzles civil servants from using words “climate change” in any social media release
28. Removal of For Profit Maximum Threshold - big box day care coming
29. Fired Howard Sapers - Correctional Reform
30. Fired Frank Iacobucci re: ring of fire consultations
31. Dismissed - high speed board
32. Sued by and lost to Tesla
33. Sued by teachers re: Sex ed
34. Sued by City of Toronto re: Bill 5 / 31
35. Streamlining rules to allow for faster passage of Bills (less debated etc.)
36. Governance deficiency results in downgrade of Hydro One credit rating (interest on debt rises)
37. Invokes s33 of the Charter for the 1st time in Ontario
38. Back to work legislation for CUPE 3903
39. Regulations re: vaping put on hold
40. Mental health funding cut by $1.34B over four years* Udpated
41. Snitch line to complain about teachers introduced
42. Indigenous and ESL language training for schools cut
43. Stops the ban on back end payment mutual funds (cheap up front a mess at the end)
44. Proposed safe injection sites put on hold (google Naloxone)
45. 2 of 4 credit rating agencies downgrade Ontario from stable to negative.
46. Disbanded Anti-Racism Directorate and all sub-committees
47. Stopped WSIB UFL 10 years ahead of recommendation of the Auditor General
48. Considers govt takeover of TTC
49. Cut WSIB payments to injured workers by 30%
50. Kills Bill C-148 which gave p/t workers the same pay as f/t, guaranteed 10 days off (2 paid) & other benefits (reducing bereavement days to TWO days)
51. Ends the Drive Clean program.
52. Paused the parents reaching out program - funding for parent councils for schools including breakfast programs and assisting with tutoring.
53. Cancels or postpones 33% increase to shelters
54. $35M to fight the federal carbon tax
55. Cuts French Language Commissioner
56. Cancels plans for French Language University
57. Promise not kept - allows pot dispensaries within 150m of schools (oppose Libs 450 m rule)
58. Shuts down College of Trades (who had a 20M reserve fund i.e. operating at a surplus)*edited
59. Removes rent control. No rent control for new units (not previously rented)
60. Reduces oversight on the Environment
61. Will not implement tax increase on 1% ($275M in lost revenue) *edited
62. Appoints OPP Commissioner of questionable qualifications (& lied about pulling strings to put said buddy in charge of the OPP)
63. Pulled the plug on expert panel to end violence against women. * edited Feb16
64. Overruling Hydro One Board’s selection for CEO (see #87)
65. Ontario Chief Comptroller (accountant) resigns because she won’t sign off on the lie that there was a $15B deficit
66. Cut protections for water, food, childcare safety and opened up the greenbelt to development (Greenbelt development currently on hold) *edited
67. Cut all funding for the College of Midwives (retroactively)
68. Cut funding for Indigenous Cultural Fund
69. Slashed funding for Friendship Centres
70. $5m slashed from Ontario Arts Council (retroactively)
71. Limits grant for post secondary education, reduces tuition by placing cost on universities and colleges
72. Ends the gap time for repayment of student loans
73. Dissolving LHINs (Local Health Integration Networks) & replacing with no more than 5 oversight bodies) *
74. Pander to Hunters with odd reduction in permits and proposed Double Crested Cormorant cull.
75. Appoints friends to Boards with exceptional salaries
76. Bill 66 - allows municipalities to ignore environmental, heath and safety regulations
77. Consideration of ending regulations to protect endangered species to allow for development
78. Looking for additional $1B to cuts in education
79. Offered $150K to 97 year-old Hazel McCallion as advisor- who pressured Wynn for years to open the Greenbelt to development. McCallion turned position down. *edited
80. Removes electric vehicle chargers from GO station parking lots.
81. Considers removing caps on kindergarten, primary class sizes. Will not guarantee full day kindergarten in 2019. *
82. Removed “red tape” for farmers. (Details TBA) (backed down in section 10)
83. “Streamlines” Landlord Tenant Board. (more to follow)
85. Decision made to appeal the Robinson Huron Treaty claim, after feds agreed not to.
86. Promoted white supremacy and paid zero political price for it.
87. Costs HydroOne $136M in termination fees to Avista and $49M in commissions as a direct result of govt meddling in a $4.4B merger. Hydro One posted a $227M profit in it’s most recent quarter. Growth strategy now toast. see #64.
88. The “keep it off the books” (and paid for by the OPP) personalized camper van request.
89. Backed out of gender identity debate.
90. Refuses to honour funding for sexual assault centres.
91. Fired children's advocate, and closed Ontario Child Advocate’s Office. Elman found out through the media his office had been closed.
92. Scrapped funding for three satellite University campuses citing deficit (see #65)
93. Scrapped the Social Impact bonds issued by the previous government to help pay for social programs.
94. Increased their own monthly housing allowance over 20% (retroactive to July 2018) to combat inflated costs. (see #59)
95. $8M first year loss at OCS (Ontario Cannabis Store)
96. Strips protections for apprentices (1:1 ratio apprentices to skilled tradesmen) therefore placing ALL workers under risk. See injury rates in B.C.
97. Cuts in pay for family doctors working in new primary care models in Ontario (introduced to counter the shortage of docs in 2000)
99. Took credit for CAMH expansion (on Bell Help Day)
100. Docs uncovered by the minority NDP party of a total revamp of the healthcare system with a two-tier privatization system for Ontario residents (done behind closed doors). Records indicate it is already a DONE DEAL.
101. Ford calls on the OPP to investigate #100
102. OPS employee who leaked health docs is fired.
103. Calls on Fed Govt to end all tariffs on steel and aluminum.
104. As part of the OSAP changes, announced a provision making compulsory, non-academic fees optional (hurting much-needed support services to students, and more to the point student unions) *Edited Feb 16
105. Pushes to privatize Ontario place.
106. As per #83 cuts eviction notice time to 6 days, allow private bailiffs to remove renters.
107. Illegally cancelled the Task Force (which made reconciliation possible) that resulted from the OPSEU College Faculty strike in Fall 2017. Sued by task force.
108. Announces plan to upload TTC subways to province spring of 2019, and increase fares. (see #48)
109. Huge cuts and changes announced to Autism funding and entire program with no clear path forward.
110. ONTABA threatened by MacLeod to provide a quote of support for the govt’s new (vaguely revealed) program. ONTABA not consulted in new program after requesting numerous times to meet with MacLeod since last fall.

Shift - wondering with so much on the list- is he still popular with his base, and if they are a large group? Also, if you think he would be elected again?

This is 2 months ago. Probably worse now.

https://dailyhive.com/toronto/poll-onta ... -ford-2019

From what I can find, Ford's star seems to be dimming but at a much slower rate than I would have expected. Now that may have changed over the past few months since the latest polls I could find were for January, 2019 and he's piled a few more rancid policies on Ontarians since then. His latest is to cut the number of teachers which will drive the average class size, in some districts, into the high thirties. That's not going to sit well with a lot of families. But then, with Cons, as long as they have their "buck a beer" they figure everything is rosy.

One thing to remember is Ford is still in his honeymoon period. While a drop of five percent in the polls is significant, it's almost unheard of in the first six or seven months of a new Premier's term. Under our multi-party "first past the post" system it could still be enough to get him re-elected although there's still up to four years to go before he has to call an election.

With Trudeau it's fast becoming apparent it's time for him to fall on his sword. When you have openly racist Scheer and the Conservative Party again polling ahead of the Liberals and a federal election looming six months from now there's a real problem. People haven't forgotten Harper, but, right now, Trudeau is viewed as somewhat crooked (what he did wasn't a whole lot different than Grabem trying to get Comey to drop his investigation) as well as incompetent. Scheer is the only real alternative. The NDP are just spoilers in elections.

The only good news for the Liberals is that public disgust seems to be directed strictly at Trudeau and a few of his unelected cronies. Because the former Attorney General and Treasury Board head Jane Philpott, the two cabinet ministers who resigned over Trudeau's behaviour, are (or were) both also Liberals the Party itself is faring okay. If they could dump Trudeau and bring in a new leader they would probably sill be in the running for a majority government.

The strange thing is Scheer and his horde, who are making such hay out of this SNC scandal, would have done exactly the same thing as Trudeau had they been in power. No party is going to risk losing a company the size of SNC Lavalin, with it's 10,000 head office employees for doing what any company wanting work in Libya had to do.

Jim wrote: The strange thing is Scheer and his horde, who are making such hay out of this SNC scandal, would have done exactly the same thing as Trudeau had they been in power. No party is going to risk losing a company the size of SNC Lavalin, with it's 10,000 head office employees for doing what any company wanting work in Libya had to do.

Seems like he was between a rock and a hard place - could he have done anything different to not make it such a negative political issue?

Well folks, the gloves are off. Trudeau is going after Scheer in a legal way… very "legal" and it ain't no negotiation giving Scheer the opportunity to hedge his statements.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trudea ... -1.5088175

I don't think Trudeau and the Prime Minister's Office can be faulted for trying to protect SNC Lavalin. It's sort of like one our "too big to fail" companies. It's not that it is so important to our economy in general but if it was bankrupted or moved as a result of this case thousands of innocent employees would be hurt. Some of the fault for what happened lay with Wilson-Raybould and her obstinate decision to proceed with the criminal charges. But the decision was hers to make and it wasn't right of the Prime Minister's Office to pressure her and especially for Trudeau to demote her as punishment. (He says she was moved for other reasons and, at first, she seemed to agree but, has since gone along with the demotion idea. Some Indian bands have also jumped on the bandwagon to claim the demotion was racist, ignoring, of course that Trudeau also promoted her to Attorney General.)

Anyway, what Trudeau has done wrong is flash all over the place with his excuses and reasons. He's never taken a strong stand. In fact he's not particularly strong period. He's also a victim of his own white knight, enlightened man personae. That he's got feet of sand has been disappointing for a lot of people and has given Scheer loads of ammunition to attack Trudeau. It's got bad enough that I saw a poll today that said he was even less popular now than Grabem.

That's why I think he needs to go if we want to avoid another Harper style government under Scheer. Christia Freeland, our Foreign Affairs Minister, is a pretty smart, tough cookie. She would do a great job in my opinion. A bonus point for her is Grabem hates her. She kicked his ass during the NAFTA revision talks.

Interesting, jim. Freeland was my first choice for party leader.

Edit: And I'm not a feminist.