Too much copium is bad for you
I see the Poilievre bunch is back at work.
This is the email I got from the Conservative Party Saturday morning. I may have been guilty of enjoying my life Friday night, but I confess I have no fucking clue what they’re talking about. What federal board ruled on SirJAM?
Fortunately, there’s Postmedia with the context I needed!
“The Board recommended that Sir John A. Macdonald be commemorated by means of information to be made available on the Parks Canada website and that no plaque be erected,” read minutes of a Dec. 12, 2023 meeting of Parks Canada’s Historic Sites and Monuments Board, obtained by Blacklock’s via an access to information request.
The board reviewed and revised Macdonald’s designation as a National Historic Person in 2024, which according to a statement on a Parks Canada website on Macdonald’s legacy aligns with Call to Action no. 79 of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission — calling on the federal government to “develop a reconciliation framework for Canadian heritage and commemoration.”
Wow. Minutes from a 2023 meeting! Way to break the news.
Also, wouldn’t that be the SirJAM who said, when he instituted residential schools for Indigenous children, that the goal was to “kill the Indian in the child”? Which, I think we can all agree, isn’t especially enlightened even for the 19th century? That’s doesn’t mean he should be erased from history. He very much is part of history. And he already has a bunch of plaques and statues and monuments and stuff named after him. Maybe we use new plaques and statues and monuments for other people now? I don’t think there’s a huge constituency out there for freaking out about this but what do I know.
Evidently, this is the weekend the Poilievre team chose for a comeback to the methods that got them second place last election. For the first time since his leadership win in 2022, Poilievre gave a one-on-one interview to CBC. He knew this would make the news and he used the network to plant one hell of a weird idea.
You may have seen the headlines: He blamed his (former) constituents for having voted against him for being honest about his plan to slash the public service. I’m not a public servant or a Carleton voter and I don’t want to presume to speak for either group, but isn’t that line a little bit insulting?
As you know, I spent quite a bit of time since 2023 working with Bruce Fanjoy in Carleton to take this seat away from Poilievre (buy the book!) and I can tell you that Poilievre’s support of the 2022 occupation of Ottawa played a much larger role in his electoral demise than potential cuts to the public service.
You know what this flurry of weekend activity says to me? That the Poilievre gang learned nothing from April 28 and that they are worried he won’t do all that well in the August by-election in Battle River-Crowfoot.
If you’re thinking, nah, there’s no way he can lose that safe Conservative seat I’ll remind you that it’s what most people said about Carleton, too.
Enjoy the rest of your weekend!