This Week in Canadian Politics 2018-05-20
Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen
Publication (Outlet/Website): Canadian Atheist
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2018/05/20
“How easy would it be for the Russians to interfere in Canadian elections? It would be very easy. All they’d have to do is follow the path well-heeled United States interests have used to land-lock Alberta’s oil.
Vivian Krause has been following the money trail to understand how the environmental groups behind the 2008 “Tarsands Campaign” received their money. Canadian-based environmental groups like to claim that the lion’s share of their funding comes from Canadian sources.
Why does it matter where the money comes from? Well, it gives the impression that hard-working, concerned local residents are cutting cheques for $20 at a time because they believe so fervently in a local community cause. While there are some of those well-meaning citizens, it is not where the bulk of the $500 million and counting has come from to demonize Alberta’s oilsands.
Now, we are beginning to understand how the racket really works.
In a recent blog, Krause traces the pathway of dollars and exposes a network of shell charities set up seemingly for no other purpose than to move money around to various environmental causes.”
Source: https://globalnews.ca/news/4215964/danielle-smith-foreign-interests-canadian-charities/.
“OTTAWA—Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government faces a critical few weeks when major initiatives — free trade, the Trans Mountain pipeline and the legalization of marijuana — hang in the balance.
At the same time, key legislative initiatives including reforms to elections laws, government accountability reforms, and an overhaul of Canada’s national security apparatus remain stuck in Parliament.
MPs and senators return to Ottawa Tuesday after a week in their constituencies. It will be the start of a four- to six-week sprint towards Parliament’s summer break.
There’s a lot to get done, and not a lot of time to do it. And it comes at a time when the Liberals have seen their fortunes sag in the polls, said Frank Graves, president of EKOS Research Associates.”
“WASHINGTON — The United States declared the NAFTA countries were nowhere close to a deal in a statement Thursday designed to douse expectations that an agreement might be just a few minor adjustments away.
It rebuffed an effort from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland, and several high-ranking staffers who were in the U.S. on Thursday urging a quick deal.
U.S. trade czar Robert Lighthizer rejected the idea that an agreement was within imminent reach. He cited big differences on intellectual property, agriculture, online purchases, energy, labour, rules of origin, and other issues.”
“These are strange days, indeed.
Our federal government, which has signed on to the Paris Agreement, has also come out swinging in support of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion. And we continue to be told that increasing oil and gas production and meeting emissions reduction targets are mutually compatible goals.
This thinking is also reflected in Alberta’s ‘climate leadership plan,’ which allows oil sands emissions to grow by 40 per cent and places no restrictions on oil and gas production outside of the oil sands.
Even with that cap in place, National Energy Board oil and gas production projections show that upstream emission will increase enough that a 49 per-cent reduction in emissions from the rest of Canada’s economy will be required to meet our Paris targets.
Notwithstanding the difficulty in making such radical reductions in a short timeframe, Justin Trudeau and Rachel Notley have both dug in on the “need” to build the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion, going so far as to threaten that a failure to build the pipeline could result in Alberta’s extremely modest ‘climate leadership plan’ being cancelled.”
“Ian Campbell’s run to become a candidate for mayor of Vancouver could result in him becoming the first Indigenous person or person of colour to hold the position since the city was incorporated in 1886.
The Squamish Nation councillor announced Monday that he is seeking nomination to run for mayor under the Vancouver Vision banner — and that’s sparked a lot of discussion about Indigenous representation in city politics.
Vision Vancouver Coun. Andrea Reimer — who recently found about about her own Indigenous identity — says having a non-white person in such an influential role would transform conversations in the city.
“We’ve never had a non-white male mayor,” Reimer said.
“It’s for the Chinese community, for South Asians and Indo-Canadians, for people of all genders to see that it’s possible to make room for a much broader discussion,” she said.”
“OTTAWA – Canadians will not know the cost of the federal government’s proposed financial backing of the Kinder Morgan pipeline until after talks conclude, says Infrastructure Minister Amarjeet Sohi.
On Wednesday Finance Minister Bill Morneau announced that the government is willing and prepared to indemnify the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion, whether or not Kinder Morgan is the company that ends up building it.
Throughout the week, federal ministers have cited the ongoing talks and desire to not negotiate in public as to why they could not wade into how much the offer of financial security for the cross-provincial project could cost taxpayers.”
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