Ep. #66: Leadership races, municipal elections and Canada's attachment to the Crown
Ep. #66: Leadership races, municipal elections and Canada's attachment to the Crown
Aaron Wherry joins me to discuss some live issues in Canadian politics.
Appears in this episode
Is the way we choose our party leaders broken? With Danielle Smith becoming Alberta’s premier without the backing of caucus (or voters) and the B.C. NDP disqualifying Anjali Appadurai from its leadership race, thereby giving the contest to caucus favourite David Eby by default, there’s reason to think that it might be.
Ballots were cast in municipal elections in Ontario and Manitoba this week, but could these campaigns have been better served with political parties? Big cities like Vancouver and Montreal have them while voters in most of the rest of the country do not. Do these voters need a little help making their choices?
Meanwhile in Ottawa, the inquiry into Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s invoking of the Emergencies Act continues and the Bloc Québécois raises the thorny issue of Canada’s attachment to the monarchy.
Joining me to discuss all of this on this week’s episode of The Writ Podcast is Aaron Wherry, senior writer with the CBC.
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Ep. #66: Leadership races, municipal elections and Canada's attachment to the Crown
I know this is a podcast about where politics is at, but I'm flabbergasted that the conversation did not think the Commission is a big deal. Yes, it's hard for Canadians to understand the theory of what happened vs the events. But as knowledgeable politicos, it should not be lost on you that our rights were completely suspended even though the government impacted a very few with such suspension (though the freezing of accounts for political purposes still needs to be reckoned with). There's no doubt government overstepped the purpose of the Act. But rather than have an uproar among the opinion makers of this country, too many obfuscate and claim it isn't a big deal for voters. For shame! I told me student this and I'll write it here: if you do not stand up for your rights, someone, somewhere will take them away. They were taken away by the Liberals and the Commission must speak to the future and make clear that political uses and unnecessary uses of the Emergencies Act will never be tolerated.
I tend agree with Silvius the Mad's comment on the You Tube channel: There is no role for government on how political parties choose their leaders.
If we do let government in, we will wind up going the other way: American-style primaries. Not because it fits in parliamentary democracy but because we like borrowing American political ideas (four-year fixed terms, attack ads, etc.).