If you want to, you can track down the whole thing on your own - I don’t want to support either of these men with more clicks and more ad revenue, especially when some of those ads are from pro-life organizations.
On another topic: I’ve noticed since the postal shutdown ended that I’m getting a lot less junk mail. Usually there’s a drift of it under my door mail slot almost every day, but now, I’d say 80% of the mail I’m getting is actual mail, addressed to me.
There is a statement from Elizabeth May on her Facebook feed. All I can say is that this is a very classy way to say farewell to a colleague. I’ve left the quotation in full, mostly because I don’t know how to do a spoiler box anymore -
" Please read my statement following the Prime Minister’s announcement today:
This morning, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau finally admitted the inescapable conclusion that he had to step aside to make room for new leadership. The fact that the announcement could surprise no one is to admit the obvious—over the last year, but particularly the last few weeks since December 16, the decline in his support has been painful to watch, like a slow-motion train wreck.
But the partisan and political moment should not distract from the basic human things that should be said. Justin Trudeau was never groomed to fill his father’s shoes. As a young man, he did not seek out a future in politics—he decided to be a teacher. As the Liberal Party was knocked so far back following the 2011 election, the MP for Papineau was assigned the far rear corner of the chamber of Centre Block, sitting with me, the first Green MP, and the then-small remnants of the Bloc, with four MPs.
I know how he struggled with the decision of whether to run for Liberal leader, weighing how it might impact his personal life. He was being recruited as someone who could rescue the Liberals. A majority win was not a likelihood. If anyone knew what it would mean for his children if he were to become PM—as the child of a PM—Justin Trudeau knew. I have observed for many years how he has consistently prioritized his family’s time and his children.
To say public service is a sacrifice is to state the obvious. For that, and especially at a time when basic civility has eroded to where he could be attacked verbally and rudely in front of his youngest on a Christmas holiday, underscores how hard that public service has become.
So no matter how Liberal broken promises variously sadden me and make me very angry indeed, those are better made in the 2025 election. Today, I want to thank Justin Trudeau for his service to his country and wish him and his family much happiness and peace in the years ahead."
I have. No supermarket or Canadian Tire/Walmart/liquor store/etc. flyers, no realtors’ advertising, nothing. Just real mail, addressed to me. Kind of nice, but I’m sure that it will start again soon.
I pity whoever is chosen leader. I see it as Kim Campbell, Act II. I think the Libs will win more than 2 seats (including my own district where Anthony Housefeather will win in a walk), but maybe not many more.
As for mail, I am still getting some real mail, but missing a month’s worth of New Yorkers. Last week I did get new health cards and driver’s licence both of which expire on my birthday in 2 1/2 weeks.
Here’s the trick for the Liberals - chose a leader who is strong enough to attract as much support as possible to the party (so that they can be some kind of effective opposition to Pierre Poilievre and his Conservative team, hopefully holding the Cons to a minority so they can influence policy and threaten non-confidence), while at the same time being someone who can step aside when they lose, so that they can nominate a really big gun candidate for leader around whom the party can rebuild in time for the next election.
Here’s my fantasy that will never come true…The NDP, Liberal, and Green parties merge in time for the next election, so that in each riding there are only two mainstream candidates - Conservative and Centrist Alliance (add the Bloc for Québec - they’re too toxic to be in on the Centrist Alliance, and I can’t see them stepping aside, even if it would reduce the Conservative party’s numbers.) Poilievre’s Conservatives would still very likely win, but they’d be less likely to win a majority.
Then the Centrist Alliance party breaks up as soon as the Poilievre Conservatives are no longer a threat.
If Trudeau had instituted ranked choice, or even approval voting, your fantasy wouldn’t even be necessary. I would vote for Libs first, NDP second and Green third and an awful lot of people would vote some combination of that. Trudeau had promised something like and could easily have delivered. Why didn’t he. This FPTP voting is absurd.
I think they are screwed no matter who they choose. It is just too easy of an angle of attack for the Conservatives to be able to say that the next Liberal leader is Trudeau 2.0 except worse. I think Freeland is going to have the same problem Kamala Harris had in the US - too close to the unpopular leader to be judged on her own merits. I’d be very surprised if any significant percentage of Canadians are once again happy with the Liberal party once Trudeau is out. The Liberal “walk in the woods” is going to end up looking more like one of those “starlight tours” that are famous in Saskatchewan.
Justin reminds me of his dad – Pierre was happy to be PM until the going got tough when the Liberals lost the 1979 election, so he announced his intention to quit. Then when the minority Conservative government fell in just a few months and the Liberals went on to win a majority, Pierre was happy again.
In fairness, it couldn’t be easy for Justin to face so much criticism including from his own party, but I’m sure that the prospect of dealing with Trump must have figured into the decision. When it comes to Trump, making him someone else’s problem is always a great choice, if not a particularly courageous one.
Not really. They’re often unanimous in rejecting a bad product or business idea, but it’s usually only a few who make investment offers, and O’Leary tended to be the least likely to do it and most likely to insultingly disparage the presenter. Even when everyone agrees that the presenter has a good product idea, O’Leary will usually be the one cynically whining “maybe it’s a good idea, but how will it make me money?”. I remember one occasion when several Dragons were making competing offers, and O’Leary was interrupting the proceedings by telling them they were fools wasting their money.
Funny story. There was only one occasion I know of when O’Leary failed to insult a bad product pitch. A couple from Burlington was looking to launch a futures trading advisory service. The pitch began with the wife singing a ridiculous jingle promoting the service. Then, asked about their experience with the futures market, the husband replied that they had experience, having lost quite a bit of money trading futures. “So you thought this would be a good basis for starting a business?”, asked one of the Dragons.
They were so pathetic that the Dragons were relatively gentle with them, and declined more politely than usual. This would have been a perfect opportunity for O’Leary and you could tell he wanted to unleash his usual vitriol, but he was so convulsed with laughter he couldn’t speak. At one point he managed to blurt out, “I can’t … I just can’t”, wiping tears from his eyes. Yes, Dragons Den could be quite entertaining, especially back in those days!
If he hadn’t resigned, he would have lost a confidence vote the moment Parliament opened, immediately followed by an election he would have lost badly. It’s not so much quitting when the going gets tough as jumping out of the airplane as it nosedives towards the ground.
Seems like a good basis to me. The advice a futures trading advisory service ought to be giving is “Don’t trade in futures,” and having lost one’s shirt trading in futures would add weight to the advice. Though I would agree with questioning whether there’s a profitable business model there.
Probably all true, but Justin could have tried his father’s “low bridge” strategy, wherein you try to get the public to forget who the party leader is:
[Pierre] Trudeau and the Liberals engaged in a new strategy for the February 1980 election: facetiously called the “low bridge”, it involved dramatically underplaying Trudeau’s role and avoiding media appearances, to the point of refusing a televised debate. Pierre Trudeau - Wikipedia
In cases where some make investment offers, the others are rarely negative about the core business idea, and often don’t make an offer because they’re just not the right person to help.
You will very rarely see them entirely disagree on whether the business is worth anything; that’s actually a rare event. Most pitches on those shows are either preposterous nonsense or the exact opposite and there’s not much room to differ greatly. Edge cases are honestly kinda rare. O’Leary has his dumb little persona he runs, but his offer percentage is pretty comparable to other long time “Dragons” or “sharks.”
Yes, Dragons Den could be quite entertaining, especially back in those days!