If I read this correctly, it seems that the Prime Minister has just signalled his intention that he really doesn’t want the summer EI “working group” to really work after all. Why? Because he’s just appointed Pierre Poilievre – his pet attack dog – to the group in the final Conservative spot. Opposite Liberal Marlene Jennings, who former whip Karen Redman once remarked sometimes needs “adult supervision” as she is known to heckle. And then some!
Basically, we’ll have Poilievre and Jennings sniping at one another for three months, and little work will get accomplished. No doubt Poilievre will say that something is a Liberal “tar baby,” which will set Jennings off, and that’ll be it. No work will be accomplished. Maybe I’m being pessimistic, but Poilievre doesn’t have a gracious or respectful bone in his body – let alone a constructive one – and Jennings is going to pounce on everything he does. Harper has just added gasoline with a lit match in the room. Does this mean I should set the election doomsday clock forward a minute forward once again?
On the topic of the election doomsday clock, the Liberals have had a very successful couple of fundraising quarters, which means they’ll be far less timid on forcing an election – or possibly even launching political ads in a pre-writ period. The NDP, meanwhile, reported in the Hill Times a couple of weeks ago that their own fundraising has been slow this year because of all the provincial elections, and they were still some $3 to 4 million in debt from the last election – though still able to get financing should a new one be called. A far less timid Liberal party could be setting that clock forward another minute before we know it.
When that election comes, it appears that one of the most hotly contested voter blocs will be the Jewish vote in Canada. The Conservatives have been campaigning pretty hard for it, and they made some inroads in the last election based largely on their unconditional support for Israel. But what wasn’t really mentioned in this particular Canadian Press article were the deep roots the present-day Conservative party has with Christian Zionists in this country, who basically want to have Israel help them bring about the Second Coming. It’s not just that they’re trying to attract these ethno-cultural votes, it’s that the push for the Jewish vote is coming with some pretty scary religious strings attached – and we should all be worried about that.
And finally, because I just had to pass this along, Maclean’s satirist Scott Feschuk takes on Senator Mike Duffy’s newfound revelations since he came to the Upper Chamber – like how every piece of Parliamentary legislation has to pass through the Senate, and how the Senate has some pretty long sitting days. Wow! Which makes me wonder just how exactly spent all those many years he spent in the Press Gallery if it wasn’t learning how our Parliamentary system works.
Why you can trust Xtra
