I am taking a bit of a break from politics for the holidays but it was hard not to notice the Finance Minister of Ontario having to resign because he decided to go on a Caribbean vacation and an NDP Member of Parliament being stripped of her critic role because of a trip to Greece.
Was it hubris or stupidity that caused these two individuals to make these ill advised trips.
Perhaps they believed that they could take the trips and if they got caught they would get away with it because of their positions. That would be hubris.
Perhaps they believed that they could take the trips because they believed they would not get caught. That is stupidity.
My guess is it was a little of both and in the case of Mr. Phillips he made it worse by making fake tweets on his location. In his case, I would lean more towards stupidity.
Like I said I am not paying that much attention so I am not closely watching what impacts these two events might be having but I also noticed today some media speculation of the location of the Prime Minister. Some are asking whether he is still in the country because he has not been seen for awhile.
Since the PM has to use government transport to move around and the use of said transport is a matter of public record there is no way he could have traveled in or out of the country without being noticed. The media knows this so the fact some are asking a question for which they already know the answer might be an indication that the stupidity of Mr. Phillips and Ms. Ashton is having some negative impacts on their leaders and parties, particularly Mr. Ford and the PCPO. For a premier to lose a Finance Minister in that fashion has to hurt.
2 comments:
The Trudeau location truthers are pushing the hashtag because they're obsessed with the PM, and find a way make every news story about him one way or another. That and it seems to fit into their pet conspiracy theories such as how Poilievre and a Globe columnist were trying to deflect to the years-old Aga Khan story, and their respective social media cultists turned it into Trudeau paying a visit to Epstein's island. Rebel also has been stalking Bill Morneau even though he is a private citizen. It's worth noting that there was a not insignificant amount of QAnon activity surrounding the overblown WE issue. I would not hold it against Morneau one bit if he decided to relocate permanently to France to get away from future "sausage handlers" in the making.
The NDP are using the same Con talking points blaming Trudeau for not shutting down airports, proving themselves to be the flip side of a bad loonie. As though he held a gun to Ashton's head and made her visit Greece, or did nothing to stop her from doing so. Even though he said in at least two interviews that he wasn't even going to visit Margaret some 20 minutes away and it made him sad that he couldn't, despite her being in poor health too. Sophie's father is reported to have been in treatment for cancer and she cannot visit him either. Other people are stuck watching their elders rot away in LTC homes. No offense to Yaya, but Ashton has no excuse.
NDP of course doesn't believe in personal responsibility. Like good little Borg tankies, they shift everything to the "collective." So their particular brand of populist finger-pointing has taken the shape of "Trudeau won't let people visit families, but keeps the border open for capitalist commerce". This narrative that, amid the largest increase in crisis stimulus spending since WW2, the Liberals and Trudeau are some kind of Ebenezer Scrooge wannabes in disguise, may be landing with their fact-averse ideological Rose Twitter base that wishes to see everyone with more than twenty bucks in their wallet fed to a wood chipper (except their own party leader with his Rolex collection and bespoke suits), but doesn't seem to be benefiting them in the polls. Neither does trying to defend Ashton from supposed "sexism" from Trudeau and/or Singh. It's not sexism either that Michelle Rempel can't go visit her mother-in-law in Oklahoma. Pandemics don't discriminate.
On the surface that the MSM cover, the Cons and now NDP "just asking questions" ("JAQing off") about Trudeau's whereabouts is whataboutism as a political strategy. But the online underbelly, as usual, is a lot more deranged.
Wonderful post
awaiting moderation
i enjoyed this
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