For your edification, here are four disparate but related thoughts:
1) Everyone on Parliament Hill seems to be in a state of nervous agitation, as an inevitable confidence vote looms that might take the country to another election.
Jagmeet Singh has been a happy campaigner for most of his political career, but it looked as if it might seriously kick-off when he confronted a right-wing heckler who called him a “corrupted bastard” while walking on the Hill.
The NDP said after the confrontation went public that Singh does not condone violence but, in that moment, it looked as if the heckler might soon be trying to eat corn on the cob with no teeth.
Keyboard warriors suggested Singh was emboldened by the presence of Hill security officers, but it didn’t look that way to me — or to the craven heckler, who denied making the comment, despite the overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
It seems unlikely the incident was contrived but like any politician worth his salt, Singh tried to make it work to his advantage. He said on X that bullies in Ottawa have been spewing hate and harassing Canadians who don’t agree with them. “That’s the country Pierre Poilievre wants,” he wrote.
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That prompted Poilievre’s wife, Ana, to put out her own post, in which she said if Singh wants to talk about the country her husband wants, he should listen to his policies and watch the man he is.
“I’m tired of you and your friend portraying my husband as someone he is not. He married a proud Latino woman and fully embraces my culture… He supports, celebrates and promotes strong women around him. He is a loving father of two and is incredibly protective of our young, vulnerable daughter. He loves to read books to bebé Cruz. Just tonight he was reading ‘Le Petit Prince’ to him,” she wrote.
Ana has proven herself time and again to be a great asset to her husband, humanizing him in a way no spin-doctor could.
Yet, her intervention speaks to the political tension.
The only time I can recall when nerves were being jagged quite so obviously was in the spring of 2005, when Stephen Harper was pushing for an election on a budget vote, despite being behind in the polls.
At the time, the Gomery Commission testimony on the sponsorship scandal had soured public opinion on the Liberals and the Bloc was also keen on an election. The NDP supported Paul Martin’s government and the vote hinged on three independent MPs.
Behaviour on the Hill descended into cynicism, contrivance and hyperbole. Conservatives accused the Liberals of offering their members ambassadorships in order to quit. The late Ed Broadbent, in his retirement speech, said he wouldn’t let high school students watch question period, if he were a teacher.
Then, just like that, the pressure was released when the Liberals won the confidence vote on the budget, with then Speaker of the House Peter Miliken breaking the tie in the government’s favour. It wasn’t until later in the year that the NDP decided it was in favour of an election and backed a vote of no-confidence that sparked the 2006 election.
I predict next week’s confidence motion, if it comes, will similarly act as a safety valve, emotions will cool and the Parliament will limp on for another six months or so.
2) Speaking of question period, Tuesday’s line of attack by Conservative deputy leader Melissa Lantsman seemed particularly ill-advised. She raised the issue of the country’s first female finance minister, Chrystia Freeland, being “publicly humiliated” by the appointment of Mark Carney as the chair of an economic advisory committee to the prime minister. “Why will the finance minister not talk to her boss about ending the personal attack on her own credibility?” she asked.
But questioning Freeland’s feminist credentials proved to be an under-arm lob that the finance minister took great delight in batting out of the park.
She reeled off the government’s many gender-related initiatives, from childcare to free contraception, and then used the opportunity to attack the Conservatives on a subject they’d rather not talk about, given the large pro-life contingent in the caucus — abortion.
“A feminist government ensures that every single woman in Canada has full control over her body. Until the Conservatives stand up for that, they have no right to talk about feminism,” she said, smugly.
It was a rare exchange where Lantsman did not emerge in the ascendancy.
The finance minister may be accused of many things — being more profligate than Elton John, for example — but being a false feminist is not one of them.
3) There was an interesting column in Wednesday’s Montreal Gazette by former NDP leader Tom Mulcair, in which he said Jagmeet Singh’s campaign team “squandered” the party’s chances in Monday’s byelection in Montreal by playing the anti-Israel card.
He said an election pamphlet containing anti-Israel rhetoric and a Palestinian flag was a “political blunder of epic proportions. Neither Jack Layton nor I would have ever tolerated it, much less promoted it,” he said.
That is certainly true of Mulcair’s time as leader — his wife is Jewish and her parents Holocaust survivors.
The track record under Layton is less clear-cut, but it’s undeniable that he tried to foster a more balanced approach as part of his efforts to make the NDP electable.
The New Democrats always had a healthy number of Prairie blue-collar MPs like Pat Martin and Judy Waslycia-Leis who would push back against the activists proposing motions like the one in 2006 that called Hezbollah a “recognized political party,” rather than a designated terrorist organization. Layton always had to juggle those MPs with others like former deputy leader Libby Davies, who called the 2006 motion, “a fine resolution.”
That balance has been abandoned under Singh, as was made clear by the NDP motion to unilaterally recognize a Palestinian state last spring. The problem for the NDP is that most Canadians have a more moderate take than they do — with a majority agreeing that Israel has a right to exist, while also agreeing on the need for a future Palestinian state.
4) If you have reached this far, and are despairing about our political class, I offer this palate cleanser.
After question period on Tuesday, MPs from all parties paid tribute to the late Chuck Strahl, a Conservative cabinet minister in the Harper government and father of current MP Mark Strahl.
In his own eulogy, Mark expressed a sentiment that had MPs nodding on all sides of the House: “If you didn’t like Chuck Strahl, you didn’t know Chuck Strahl.”
As his friend, another former Harper minister, Monte Solberg, said in his own acclamation, Chuck’s booming laugh would ring out at the preposterousness of Parliament, at how inefficient government could be, at the pretensions of politicians and at the ridiculousness of many of the issues.
“He was fair. He had a sense of proportion and good humour that is missing from today’s politics,” said Solberg.
Through 18 years, six elections and as a minister of three departments, Strahl the elder was recognized as a man of principle and integrity.
What may restore the faith of anyone who watches the clip are the words of Liberal Agriculture Minister Lawrence MacAulay, who spoke of his respect and admiration for Strahl.
He said both men appreciated that all MPs want what is best for their constituents, even if they disagree on delivery.
He addressed his closing comments to Mark. “I have served with you and Chuck and I can assure you, my honourable colleague, that Chuck was so deeply proud of you being his successor (as MP for Chillliwack-Hope). What a great honour you have brought to your father,” he said, bringing many in the House to tears.
It was a timely reminder that even in these tense times, in the words of Robert Burns, a man’s a man for a’ that, even if he is a politician.
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