{"id":109164,"date":"2020-11-10T17:43:46","date_gmt":"2020-11-10T14:43:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/justin-trudeau-joe-biden-and-a-kitchen-sink-agenda\/"},"modified":"2020-11-10T17:43:46","modified_gmt":"2020-11-10T14:43:46","slug":"justin-trudeau-joe-biden-and-a-kitchen-sink-agenda","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/justin-trudeau-joe-biden-and-a-kitchen-sink-agenda\/","title":{"rendered":"#Justin Trudeau, Joe Biden and a kitchen sink agenda"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Justin Trudeau, Joe Biden and a kitchen sink agenda<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

\n Politics Insider for Nov. 10: The PM calls the president-elect, a promising vaccine sounds even more promising, and the Bank of Canada has a shortlist of $5 faces\n <\/div>\n
\n Welcome to a sneak peek of the\u00a0<\/em>Maclean\u2019s\u00a0Politics Insider\u00a0news<\/a>letter.\u00a0Sign up to get it delivered\u00a0straight to your inbox.<\/em><\/p>\n

Sometimes, it\u2019s nice to hear good news, even if that news is wrapp<\/a>ed in caution and caveats. Yesterday, Pfizer<\/strong> announced preliminary data shows its third-phase COVID-19 vaccine<\/strong>\u00a0might<\/em> be 90 per cent effective. Stock markets soared. The anxious hordes relaxed, even if only a little. Prime Minister\u00a0Justin Trudeau<\/strong> allowed a little optimism. \u201cWe see the light at the end of the tunnel,\u201d he said. That was the carrot. Then came the stick. \u201cWe need to stay strong and hang in there a few more months, maybe more than that, but we can see it coming.\u201d Canada has secured at least\u00a020 million doses<\/strong><\/a> of Pfizer\u2019s vaccine (and is still negotiating).<\/p>\n

Biden his time:<\/strong> It didn\u2019t take long for the PM to get Joe Biden<\/strong> on the phone. Trudeau, one of the first world leaders to recognize the president-elect\u2019s new gig at the White House, spoke with Biden about a full bilateral summit\u2019s worth of issues<\/a>, including \u201cclimate change and COVID-19,\u201d as well as \u201ctrade, energy, NATO, anti-Black racism<\/strong>, and China\u2019s arbitrary detention of Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor.\u201d For now, the pair\u00a0\u201cagreed to keep in touch and work closely together.\u201d On energy in particular, a transcript of the call likely included mention of a certain Keystone XL pipeline<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Trudeau\u2019s major announcement of the day<\/a> committed $1.75 billion<\/strong><\/a> to \u201chelp connect Canadians to high-speed Internet across the country, grow businesses, and create jobs.\u201d The government claims the spending will connect 98 per cent of Canadians<\/strong> to high-speed Internet by 2026\u2014and everyone else by 2030. This, of course, wasn\u2019t the first time such a commitment was uttered aloud. Jim Flaherty\u2019s 2014 budget<\/a> spent \u201c$305\u00a0million over five years\u201d for \u201can additional 280,000 Canadian\u00a0households.\u201d Five years earlier, Flaherty had pledged<\/a> \u201c$225\u00a0million over three years\u201d to \u201cdevelop and implement a strategy on extending broadband coverage to unserved communities.\u201d In 2016, the Liberals promised<\/a> \u201c$500 million over five years\u201d for broadband in \u201crural and remote communities.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Liberals have lost a backbench MP to the independent ranks.\u00a0Yasmin Ratansi<\/strong>, a five-time winner who lost only once in 2011, is leaving the caucus<\/a>. CBC News reports that Ratansi employed her sister<\/strong> for several years, a violation of federal ethics rules. Sources said they were asked to help conceal her identity, even calling her by a different name.<\/p>\n

An election won\u2019t be easy for the Liberals:<\/strong> Five years out from his last election, former NDP leader Tom Mulcair<\/strong> writes in Maclean\u2019s<\/em> that\u00a0Liberals can\u2019t so easily manipulate the electorate\u2014and their own party platform\u2014the next time \u2019round. Justin Trudeau<\/strong> will have to run on his record, against a disciplined Tory foe in Erin O\u2019Toole<\/strong> and a new challenger who replaces the longtime leader of the smallest party in the Commons:<\/p>\n

Normally, the Red playbook says, pivot to the NDP and Green base and say: sorry, but you have to vote for us this time otherwise those horrible Conservatives will get back in. It has often worked. This time, it\u2019ll be a lot harder for Trudeau to pull that off. For one thing, progressives are fed up with his broken promises on key environmental and social<\/a> issues. For another, the Greens have a new leader<\/strong> who appears, so far, to be able to reassure and inspire.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Let\u2019s dump social media and cable news:<\/strong>\u00a0Put your hand up if you spent the last week glued to your cable news and social networks of choice, watching and scrolling and watching and scrolling, perking up at excitement and\/or indignation whenever and wherever they were offered. Andrew MacDougall<\/strong>, writing in\u00a0Maclean\u2019s<\/em>, thinks we should collectively back away from the talking heads and Twitter threads that now dominate our lives:<\/p>\n

Pulling news content off social media would be a risk, yes, but it\u2019s less of a risk than hoping the current information environment will improve. The news can either die on its terms or someone else\u2019s, and right now social media companies and cable news programmers are incentivized to virality and outrage<\/strong>, not analysis or introspection. More importantly, their current output is cheap, unlike quality journalism. They do not, as presently constructed, serve a civic good. We wouldn\u2019t miss them<\/strong> when they\u2019re gone.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The fiver\u2019s new face:<\/strong> When the feds decided to put a new face on the $5 banknote, the Bank of Canada threw the doors wide open for nominations. The people submitted more than 600 names<\/strong>, many of which are classic picks for Heritage Moments<\/strong>. The criteria were simple. Nominees must be real people, Canadian and deceased since at least March 11, 1995. The bank released a short list of eight, including the beloved Terry Fox<\/strong>. But finalists also include the first female French-Canadian journalist, the most highly-decorated Indigenous soldier, and the first known Chinese-Canadian born in Canada. Check out the full list<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

The acronym saw this coming<\/strong>: The\u00a0Globe and Mail<\/em> reports on a flailing commercial rent subsidy that\u2019s caught in parliamentary limbo. The program\u2019s enabling legislation made it seem like businesses would have to pre-pay their rent to qualify for the subsidy\u2014a paradoxical ask. When the government tried to amend the bill, the deputy speaker ruled the amendment out of order because it could involve new spending. Now the Senate will take a look. If the upper chamber amends the bill and the Commons agrees on the change, the program might not be\u00a0truly CERS\u2019d<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

A fitting tribute:<\/strong> Yesterday, the dominion carillonneur on Parliament Hill rang out the notes of the\u00a0Jeopardy!<\/em> theme song on the occasion of\u00a0Alex Trebek<\/strong>\u2018s passing. CTV\u2019s Michel Boyer caught the moment on camera<\/strong><\/a>.
\n<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n