Friday, May 26, 2023

Some comments on the passing scene


Saw some good comments today on various things - here they are: 

 First, this is absolutely true: The Trudeau government may be the Rodney Dangerfield of governments - they don't get no respect! - but they keep on keeping on. And people appreciate it, too: The National Post writes:
Trudeau has a 40 per cent approval rating against 55 per cent who disapprove. The pollster noted in a recent analysis that this is slightly better than his predecessor Stephen Harper, who hit his own eight-year mark at an approval to disapproval rate of 36 to 58.
And it’s way better than Brian Mulroney, whose political career was on the edge of collapse after eight years; he had a near-universal disapproval rating of 83 per cent.
Trudeau is even polling better than his father. In 1976, on the eighth anniversary of Pierre Trudeau’s swearing-in, Angus Reid Institute numbers show that nearly twice as many Canadians disliked him as liked him; approval was 32 per cent against a disapproval rate of 57.
...In the winter of 2001, an incredible 54 per cent of Canadians approved of Chrétien’s job as prime minister, against 42 per cent who didn’t.
Hmmm....I wonder what was going on in the winter of 2001? Oh, yeah...Canada went to war, which is a time when people always rally round the flag. The Post grudginly reminds us:
At the time, Chrétien was overseeing the entry of Canadian troops into Afghanistan in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. His government had also just finished bringing Canada back from the brink of sovereign debt collapse.
So, actually, that National Post story could have read: "Trudeau is the most popular prime minister for the last half=century, except for when the country went to war". Here are the net approval figures:
People may be starting to notice that there may be something hinky about Poilievre's continued refusal to seek a security clearance. Even with the clearance, he isn't going to be forced to look at confidential docs like those on which the Johnston report is based -- PP can do whatever he likes. But its really very odd that he apparently just refuses to take the routine steps that any Opposition Leader would take to get the level of security clearance that any Opposition Leader needs:
Overseas, our PM does us proud: Moving on -- this was some great news and I'm proud to be a Canadian today: Moving to American politics: Here is some terrific news:

1 comment:

Cap said...

From the Daily Scrum link above: "One prevailing theory is that if Poilievre is given access to factual information that debunks his many false narratives, it would severely hurt his misinformation campaign aimed at the Canadian people and put him in line with the government."

I don't buy it. PP's never let the truth limit his lying. Remember that complete fabrication about meeting "Mustafa from Calgary" at the Ottawa airport? No, i suspect that PP won't submit to the top-secret vetting process because there's a good chance he'd fail. Here's the thing though, PP was vetted as a cabinet minister, but that was when he was single. There's a reason he suddenly dropped out of the Con leadership race last time citing family commitments. But none of the media outlets are willing ask him about it, let alone dig into his wife's background. They'd be crucified by Cons shrieking that wives are off limits. But a potential PM who won't submit to security screening is a huge red flag that the corporate media should be reporting, but isn't. This is journalistic malpractice.