Welcome, one and all, to the first in a series of summaries of the week's Election 2019 headlines. With Canada's 43rd federal election shaping up to be much more interesting than anticipated in a Russian dashcam accident sort of way there's simply no time to focus on any one headline. Instead, I'm taking the more fun approach and reacting to five of them, one for each of the main party leaders. It's only fair, right?
- Stop! Your petard can only hoist so much!
Admittedly, when I imagined all the ways Prime Minister Justin Trudeau could torpedo his own reputation as a guardian of inoffensive suburban white woeness, actual blackface was not one of them. Multipleacts of actual blackface, though? When he could have pulled off another Disney prince costume so well?
By the standards set for backbench candidates, Trudeau should have had his nomination for MP for Papineau withdrawn on Wednesday night. However, he is not a backbench candidate. For the Liberals to pull off a win despite this sordid affair is still within the realm of possibility, but they will not risk a change of leadership midstream. In the meantime, unless the party can prove that Conservative leader Andrew Scheer keeps a sex dungeon full of endangered animals in his Regina home, it's safe to consider their oppo guns effectively silenced.
- Scheer gets taxes right . . . and then wrong
The press release announcing a 1.25 percentage point cut to the lowest marginal federal income tax rate pitched the cut as both universal and targeted. That should be your first clue that the Conservative Party media office doesn't understand tax policy very well. For a moment, though, it seemed as though Scheer himself was starting to reach a point of understanding: that broad-based relief is better from a policy design perspective than the boutique tax credits the Tories love. The next day, of course, he announced more of those.
Leaving aside Scheer's irrepressible bias for voters who share elements of his own lifestyle, there are more obvious reasons not to bring back these credits: They complicate the tax code even further, to little of their intended effect. But as long as it sounds like it's increasing affordability for Real Canadiansâ„¢, you can count on the Tories to propose it.
- If only anyone was listening
In a previous column, I referred to NDP leader Jagmeet Singh as a "slacker" for failing to visit entire provinces or assemble a full slate of candidates. For all his shortcomings as a ground campaigner and back-room manager, he does have an undeniable raw talent as a speaker, most recently displayed at a speech in Sudbury when he addressed his father's struggle with alcoholism. If he can bring this skill to Question Period every day, he could drastically improve his own recognizability. But it's not wise to phone in an entire federal election just because it's his first. The time to start rebuilding the party is the day you're chosen to lead it.
- It's not the size of your slate…
On the other hand, Singh might not make blunders as obvious as Green Party leader Elizabeth May when it comes to relations with the candidates already in place. After contradicting Longueuil—Saint-Hubert candidate Pierre Nantel about what is in his own head, she went on to Vancouver to appear with ex-Liberals Jody Wilson-Raybould and Jane Philpott, who are running as Independents in ridings that have Green candidates. The event was called "A Night for Independent Voices," which makes May's presence confusing given her own doubletalk on in-caucus independence to say nothing of the fact that she is a party leader herself, who wished to have both Wilson-Raybould and Philpott under her whip. I do hope the Greens rack up more seats this cycle, because I'm eager to see that whip in action.
- Maximum entertainment
Does People's Party leader Maxime Bernier deserve to participate in the two official leaders' debates next month? Yes. Because it'll be hilarious. That is all.
I do have one question, though: How will Scheer handle this? He can't attack Bernier too hard without sounding like Trudeau and alienating more right-wing sections of his base. He can't go too easy on him, either, without raising the eyebrows of soft supporters. And he does have a history of struggling with clarity which can only add to the hilarity already fated to ensue.
Photo Credit: The Guardian
Written by Jess Morgan
