Context matters. The accusations against Miller were at least somewhat corroborated; these are not. The accusations against Miller actually involved a disciplinary hearing, albeit sealed; these have never been brought publicly. And they came on the heels of a documented criminal assault charge; these do not.
As with Keillor, his employer decided to cut him loose because of a pattern of behavior they felt was unsuitable.
Are you presenting an argument that the citizens of Canada should do the same here? Because you’ll need to bring more than this.
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Very interesting indeed. If this anecdote from 20 year old past article was being brought up by Canadian rivals why didn’t they try to make it a headline during the election, or wait until the next one?
A while back there was a governmental scandal with the left in Canadian politics which lead to the conservatives winning.
I’m just somewhat too familiar with Canadian politics. They have a minority type of government parliamentary type of system. Their four major parties are:
Liberal = Tredeau ( perhaps a Me too ) type of politician.
Conservative - Harper
New Democrat - Not sure how they differ from Liberal
Quebec Bloc - Party who fuels separation from Canada. Used to be a spoiler.
I will say Canadian leftists seem to have less tolerance for bad behavior of their own, compared to American Leftists.
The whole thing about him being fired over just one incident? That was 100% Keillor’s spin on his firing. And he was lying.
That’s a list of 71 names, with scant details about the accusations against them, or the evidence that supported their firing. Maybe pick a few that you think demonstrate unfair treatment, and explain why?
Again, what on that page are you referring to? There’s over 200 descriptions of people being fired for sexual assault or harassment on that Wiki page. Which one is the “single, 16-year-old accusation,” that you want to discuss?
The formerly anonymous reporter has spoken out. We now know it was Rose Knight, a former reporter for the Creston Valley Advance, the publication that carried the original editorial.
So does this change things much? Does this give the story legs, or increase its importance? Does this give us leave to assume the worst about his behavior at that event 18 years ago?
Some salient points from NPR’s reporting:
The editorial accused Trudeau of groping and inappropriate handling of the woman reporter. I haven’t seen any statement by Ms Knight about what actually happened.
Ms Knight says she had avoided issuing a statement out of privacy concerns, for herself and her family.
Trudeau says he apologized “in the moment” because he “perceived that she had experienced it in a different way than I acted or I experienced it.” In that apology he reportedly described his behavior as “forward,” although he has not confirmed using that expression.
My conclusion is that we can’t come to a definite conclusion about what happened. The current attention seems at least as unwelcome to Ms Knight as it probably is to Trudeau, which may mean that she has now been a victim twice. If this truly was something dug up by 45’s minions to discredit Trudeau, they have a lot to answer for.
Well, except in the last election, when Tom whassisname tacked the NDP to the centre, heady with dreams of power, and Good-Hair-Boy tacked farther left and actually won power.
Personally, I think that was just a quirk of the 2015 election. The NDP dumped Tom and has been going back leftwards.
The generic term “the left” doesn’t really work in Canada, given the multiplicity of our parties. I think you’re referring to the sponsorship scandal, which brought down the Liberal government of PM Martin. As RickJay says, the Liberals are traditionally a centrist party, tacking now leftwards, now rightwards, according to their read of the mood of the Canadian public.
No, we have a parliamentary system which normally results in majority governments, like the British system and unlike the continental European parliamentary systems. PM Trudeau has a majority government, as did his immediate predecessor, PM Harper, from 2011 to 2015.
There’s also the Green Party, which has one member in the Commons, and the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF), which also has one MP, due to a “Me too” moment involving an NDP MP who was kicked out of caucus.
As well, the Bloc québécois went through a schism earlier this year. The Bloc now has five MPs in the Commons, and Québec débout, composed of Bloquistes who left, also has five MPs.
Plus two independent MPs.
Oh, and Harper is no longer the Conservative leader. He resigned after being defeated in the 2015 Élection. The current Conservative leader is a guy named Andrew Scheer from Saskatchewan.
I would just add that Trudeau is not very good at handling personal attacks on him. The incident in the Commons, the Aga Khan holiday, this one; he responds with a whiny “why are you picking on me?” tone.
He lacks his dad’s ability to say “Yeah, I did it. So fuddle-duddle.”
In terms of personality, Trudeau père was an arrogant prick, but with two fundamental principles he worked for throughout his career:
Federalism works and Canada is worth fighting for;
Patriate the Constitution and entrench fundamental rights.
Trudeau fils doesn’t appear to have the prickishness bit; can be arrogant, but whiny arrogant, which is less appealing than Trudeau père’s variant. Fils always gives me the impression he wants to be liked; père would just shrug his shoulders and not care if you hated him.
Justin’s key principles seem to be different from his dad’s, probably reflecting the different times. His classic statement was when he was asked why his Cabinet was 50% women, and he said “Because it’s 2015.” That played very well with any female-type person I chatted to.
He’s also very committed to a form of liberalism that seems in retreat in a lot of western countries. The Economist did an article on him entitled “The Last Liberal?” Emphasises openness to immigrants, for example. When Canada took in a large contingent of Syrian refugees, he was at the Toronto Airport, welcoming them and handing out parkas (it was the middle of winter). When Trump implemented his entry-ban, Trudeau tweeted right away that Canada believed in welcoming immigrants.
If you’d asked me half a year ago, I would have said that I wasn’t sure if he had the spine that père had. My take on that changed after the G7 and tariff issue. I would say he’s got the spine, but he displays it in a more temperate way than père, which is probably a good way to go at the moment.
(When Trudeau père heard that Nixon had called him an asshole, his reaction was to shrug and say “I’ve been called worse things by better people,” which was a cutting comment on Nixon’s unimaginative vocabulary and moral failings, all in one epigram. But, didn’t contribute to good relations with the White House.)
When Justin was sworn-in, there was some comment about the different imagery between him and his dad, comparing what they looked like as they walked up the drive of Rideau Hall to meet the Gov-Gen.
