Really? Toronto Raptors not going to go to The White House because they want to boycott President Trump who has done more for the African/American community than Obama did? Really? Take a knee. We need more diversity in the NBA. Unfair.
Mike Pence is now linking 9/11 to Qasem Soleimani. As if you weren't yet convinced that nothing means anything anymore in modern conservatism, the US vice president just suggested that Soleimani helped al-Qaeda, one of Iran's greatest enemies. Total dumbshits will believe this.
If you've noticed this winter pretty much nobody is wearing Team Canada mittens despite it being an Olympic year, that's due to the new partnership with Lululemon. The Hudson's Bay Red Mittens were $15. The Lulu price: $68. Result: a very predictable drop in brand awareness.
I didn’t want to tweet this in the middle of the vigil, but Doug Ford telling Muslims he has their back while actively employing Nick Kouvalis — who once proudly ran a xenophobic campaign for political gain — was a bit much.
Per latest polling, two thirds of Canadians support Trudeau invoking the Emergencies Act against the astroturf protests, and over 8 in 10 feel they've gone on too long. The Canadian public is decidedly and ruthlessly against the so-called convoy.
Let's take a minute to appreciate how in the space of a week, a sophisticated, mysteriously-funded, right wing operation to destabilize Canada fell apart because most Canadians were like, "nah."
Trudeau: "Mr. Bernier, your role on this stage is to say publicly, what Mr. Scheer thinks privately."
This was brilliant. It's entirely true.
#cdnpoli
#elxn43
#leadersdebate2019
Rob Schneider cancelled his trip to Canada due to “tyranny.” Trudeau has really done it this time. We’re on the verge of losing other A-list celebs like Scott Baio, Kevin Sorbo, and the Shamwow guy.
Per what the prime minister just said, Ontario is getting nothing today that they couldn't have gotten months ago on childcare. So, Doug Ford wasted months, costing families thousands, so he could have a talking point for his re-election campaign.
#onpoli
If there's a strike on Friday, send your kids to the constituency office of your local
@OntarioPCParty
MPP. They seem to think public education is a glorified babysitting service anyway, so let them be the sitters.
If your standard for Canada's "international reputation" is what Russell Brand, Piers Morgan and Fox News thinks about a law that definitely did not affect Briane from Chilliwack, you need higher standards.
Ten years ago this week The Globe published the story of Ford family illegal drug trafficking among other activities, including a kidnapping charge. Doug Ford threatened to sue, of course he never did. Remember this when
@fordnation
talks about crime and locking people up.
I could be off by one or two, but I think that's 22 Conservative MPPs out of 76 that came to office with Doug Ford as Premier, who are not running again under his banner. This is not normal after one term.
#onpoli
Let's see, Trudeau's Emergencies Act was:
-A temporary measure.
-Voted on by Parliament.
-Revoked when no longer needed.
-A public inquiry will be made on the use of EA.
Yup, just like a dictatorship.
This entire "protest" in Ottawa and elsewhere came down to this: they thought people would join them, but the vast majority of our population took one look and said "nope," and everything else since then has been incessant victimhood and whining because nobody likes them.
.
@JoshMatlow
on stage now, congratulates Olivia Chow and says the “Rob Ford/Doug Ford/John Tory” era is over, and yes, “if we want to fix the city we’re going to have to pay for it.”
On brand to the end. Love this guy.
#TorontoMayor
Harassing people at work, parking on a war memorial, and now putting an upside down flag and an anti-mandate sign on a Terry Fox statue. These protesters may be bankrolled by deep pockets, but maybe their wealthy anonymous benefactors should've chipped in for a PR session.
Nobody would’ve spent $80 million on land without knowing the legislation was changing. The corruption in Ontario right now under
@fordnation
is shamelessly blatant.
Talk about timing. In September, prominent developer Michael Rice paid $80M for land that’s been protected for almost two decades.
Weeks later, Doug Ford announced changes to the Greenbelt. Rice’s land was suddenly set to open up for housing.
A real person who was part of a firm that appears to have lobbied Doug Ford's government to take lands out of the Greenbelt, without legally registering as lobbyists.
Doug Ford has been largely missing from public questions for weeks. He had no real plan for school reopening, no meaningful support for small businesses, hospitals are overwhelmed, and his LTC minister just quit. But a media photo-op on snow day? Yes please!
#onpoli
#onstorm
Please don't get legal advice from a former psych professor who became famous for saying Canada would put him in jail for not using gender pronouns. He might not have a strong grasp of the law.
In business, if a vendor pays for your lunch and then wins a contract from you, it's called a bribe.
In Doug Ford's "open for business" Ontario, you can attend the premier's daughter's party, give her $1000, get favourable legislation from her dad, and it's not called a bribe.
Why would the leader of the Conservative Party say she's "saddened" by authorities finally making some progress in Ottawa? Unless, Conservatives want to keep using the misguided, misinformed people on the ground for their own purposes, while sacrificing the residents of Ottawa.
Doug Ford is going to use the notwithstanding clause to override our Charter and the courts, all so he can shut down dissenting voices during an election campaign. This is the most anti-democratic, and anti-Canadian thing done by an Ontario premier in my lifetime.
#onpoli
Doug Ford sends 175,000 free rapid tests to private schools in September, while flatly turning down public school requests at the same time.
Remind me who the "elitists" are again?
The politicians who backed a foreign funded "protest" on Canadian soil to divide and destabilize our cities, are now asking for "unity" - do I have that right
@CandiceBergenMP
?
Doug Ford's "BlackBerry" story must be understood in wider context. It's not that he's frugal, he has a stack of refurbished ones, it's that he's unwilling to embrace new things, even if it's better for him and others. This is the evergreen problem with Ford & the Conservatives.
Corruption at a level I haven't seen or heard before in Canadian politics. Connected billionaires buy protected, unusable land, then magically that land becomes profitable overnight. Any support of
@fordnation
&
@SteveClarkPC
's corrupt housing bill gives permission to this.
So the De Gasperis family decided to pay $21 million a year to borrow $100 million for a piece of Greenbelt land that wasn’t supposed to be developed? Why would anyone do that unless they had a crystal ball or some other way to know that they could develop the land in the future?
Doug Ford goes back into hiding just as the FAO report comes out showing Ontario did not pull anywhere close to its own weight on Covid-19 spending. The federal government saved Ontario from Doug Ford.
#cdnpoli
#onpoli
Only 15% of Conservative candidates say they're fully vaccinated, according to the Globe. The number may be higher, but they won't say. An astonishing figure from people seeking to form government. This gives cover to vaccine hesitancy and helps prolong the pandemic.
#Elxn44
At approximately the same time on Sunday night, these were the competing communications priorities of Canada’s two largest governments.
#cdnpoli
#onpoli
Entirety of Doug Ford’s reign has been a pay-to-play system for real estate developers, for-profit long-term care and healthcare operators. He passes legislation for those who grease his wheels (housing Bill 23 is a prime example), corrupt is all he knows.
I’m not here for a single ‘Doug Ford is emotional ‘cause he wants to be liked’ take. Ford cut Toronto city council in half, cancelled the most important piece of our transit plan, and overruled city planning out of a combination of spite and corruption. Ford shouldn’t be liked.
Maybe don't interact with Jamie Sale and Theo Fleury's content, and let them mire in their own hellish algorithm instead of bringing their content to yours?
This is a request.
"I never thought the leopards would eat my face," and so on.
Brian Lilley (and the entire Postmedia roster) has for years empowered the very people attacking him.
Covid vaccines administered per 100 people in the world's 30 largest countries + Canada: we are third.
People who insist Canada's procurement was poor for the sake of striking a political balance between Trudeau and Ford, need to explain why we're so high on this list.
That Pierre Poilievre can lie without hesitation to say he was minister of housing and use dubious, context-free stats to claim housing was cheap when he was (not) minister, should make people think how shamelessly untrustworthy he is and will be again if let back in government.
Doug Ford was asked what changed overnight that he suddenly went from January 4 for 18+ boosters to December 20. He gives a non-answer.
The real answer: Doug Ford saw his political life flash before his eyes.
#onpoli
Barbecues, bouncy castles, saunas, and giving away as many free goods as anyone will have 'em. What's happening in Ottawa and now Toronto are not protests, this is a well-funded campaign to advance a political cause. Same formula used by fake populist politicians (ex: Ford Fest).
To recap the day: Andrew Scheer attacked Justin Trudeau based on a blatant falsehood by Warren Kinsella, on which Faith Goldy doubled down using an unfounded claim, all of which Ezra Levant then turned into celebrity gossip.
This is the Conservative Party.
#cdnpoli
#elxn43
Once a week, the premier of Canada's biggest province goes on TV to blame other people for him not listening to the Science Table in February, leading to a Third Wave.
#onpoli
Erin O'Toole says it was "un-Canadian" to call an election. I don't know what that means, but he was ready with a state-of-the-art studio within hours of the election call, so was it "un-Canadian" for the Conservatives to raise millions and be ready for an election?
#Elxn44
Now
@fordnation
is saying we didn’t have enough vaccines. Neither did the vast majority of the world, yet they didn’t all have Ontario’s third wave breakout, did they? If Ford doesn’t have any plans to mitigate and just looks to the feds to keep providing, why is he the premier?
Right now
@PierrePoilievre
is signalling to Canada that he’s not prime minister material. India is led by an autocratic Narendra Modi with decades of sectarian blood on his hands, and Poilievre would rather take his word than Canada’s own intelligence services. Unfit.
Toronto is a city of three million people, in a metropolis of six million. It's by far the biggest city and metro area in Canada. If there was some spontaneous, country-wide movement against mandates, how is it that our protest routes lay completely empty today?
Swastikas, confederate flags, and Trump symbols are common at just about any rally promoted by hard right, anti-gov't elements in North America, they have been since 2015. How did the Conservatives not see that coming and openly associate themselves with this?
Andrew Scheer promises to spend money *and* cut taxes *and* balance the budget. Doug Ford promised the same.
Neither Scheer nor Ford released an election platform.
#cdnpoli
#elxn43
#leadersdebate2019
I suspect there are many people today who can't publicly say what they really, truly want to say about the Doug Ford government. Today's announcement that tells Ontarians they're basically on their own unless hospital bound, combined with an absent premier was something.
#onpoli
Canada was the second country to approve Moderna, and third to approve Pfizer-BioNTech. There is no holdup at the federal government. This is pure political theatre from
@Sflecce
to distract from his lack of school plans as the third wave slams into Ontario.
Canada should lead the world —
#1
not
#50
— when it comes to vaccine delivery.
We are asking for a plan from the federal government to do just that for our youth as we look ahead to the next school year.
Two huge lies from Conservatives in the last 24 hours:
-The prime minister met privately with Yaroslav Hunka
-Hunka was vetted by Parliament security
Neither of these things happened. Hunka didn't get a private audience, and it's on the Speaker to vet Hunka, not security.
"We're the founding party of this country." -Erin O'Toole.
I don't know how to break this to him, but the Conservative Party of Canada was founded 18 years ago. Canada is slightly older.
#Elxn44
Back when police weren’t some of the best paid people in Ontario, one of the arguments used was if they were better paid there’d be less incentive to be corrupt. It’s not the pay, it was never the pay, it’s the culture of near total impunity that incentivizes their corruption.
If a government purposely held back public money in order to fund private initiatives - which Ontario did - then no amount of "well, actually" obfuscation from the usuals will change the fact that Doug Ford had his eyes on privatization from the start, and he's succeeding.
Destruction of public education followed by privatization was *always* the plan. This whole lot of Ford Conservatives are pure scum, including their propagandists like
@brianlilley
. They should never, ever be treated with anything other than scorn and distrust. Awful people.
Ezra Levant tagged Bianca Andreescu on this post tonight, and his followers are now shaming her.
This is fucking pathetic, and Conservatives who participated in this are all complicit. You are the worst people on Canadian internet today (most days, really).
#cdnpoli
#elxn43
Erin O’Toole’s strategist laments Canada will miss Prime Day, blames Justin Trudeau.
This callously ignores how Covid-19 hit Amazon warehouses hard for months in Doug Ford’s Ontario, and workforce spread under Ford is the big reason for 2nd & 3rd waves. This tweet is quite bad.
There'll be lots of people at the Ottawa rally on Saturday, and they'll make noise and show photos of large, seemingly miles long convoys, etc. That however, will not change the minds of majority of Canadians who support strong public health measures, including certain mandates.
Doug Ford: We didn't hesitate to put measures in place to protect Ontarians.
Ok, so let's recap:
July 15: We'll never do vaccine certificates here.
July 30: *disappears from public eye*
Sep 1: Finally re-emerges, announces vaccine certificate.
No hesitation at all!
#onpoli
Today's recap: In Ontario, a Conservative senator has hijacked Bianca Andreescu's hometown celebration to create a fake scandal without ever speaking to her. In BC, a Conservative candidate attributed a fake quote to Rick Mercer.
This is the Conservative Party.
#cdnpoli
#elxn43
Hecklers showing up at Justin Trudeau's announcements, and he's letting it roll off like a pro on live TV. Meanwhile, Erin O'Toole holds his events inside a protected bubble that looks like a borrowed set from The Church Lady sketches on SNL.
#Elxn44
Each time you see expensive Doug Ford ads during playoff hockey, remember he's using the notwithstanding clause to deny that same voice to others. It sets a horrible precedence. Who else could Doug Ford use the notwithstanding clause against to silence or deny rights?
#onpoli
Hypothetically speaking, if I was embroiled in a major land deal scandal, and had also appointed my rumoured mistress to oversee development of a public park for private interests, I'd probably ask her to stop. Again, this is strictly hypothetical, in no way a real situation.
Make no mistake that the 3:30 Doug Ford announcement is only happening so the big news heading into the weekend isn't his botched rapid test rollout today, but whatever he announces late on a Friday afternoon. Conservatives are managing the news cycle, not the pandemic.
#onpoli
Jordan Peterson accidentally doxxing his accusers while insisting he doesn't need social media training is about as perfect as it gets. This man is a 24/7/365 walking liability.
Last night
@jordanbpeterson
posted to his 3.6 million followers a document containing the full names and detailed personal information of people who filed complaints against him to the Ontario College of Psychologists, regarding his use of social media. 1/3
UK: Conservatives warn public will revolt if a no-deal Brexit is blocked.
US: Trump and similar conservatives warn of civil war if he's removed from office.
Canada: Conservatives warn of regional unrest if they don't win the election.
Anyone notice a trend?
#cdnpoli
#elxn43
.
@fordnation
doesn’t know how people of colour are affected by carding, because he doesn’t experience it. It’s how he approaches all policy. Bad on housing, because he’s never been in need. Bad on transit, because he doesn’t ride it. If he isn’t touched by it, he doesn’t get it.
Pierre Poilievre is on the side of the nutbars randomly shouting “groomer” at everyone, all while he calls others divisive. This isn’t a drill. Choose Poilievre and this is going to be the new normal in Canada. You really won’t like it after you’ve sleepwalked into it.
Canadian news stays on Google, they'll pay $100 million to news orgs. This is positive, may serve as a model elsewhere in the world where Meta & Google are having same discussions. Trudeau Liberals were the grown-ups here. Social/digital destroyed news, this is a small clawback.
The 4/10 of you who voted Conservative in 2018, you elected an Ontario government that didn’t have enough respect for voters to even draw up an election platform. You didn’t really expect them to have a plan for a global pandemic did you?
#onpoli
Reminder: Toronto has been doing exactly this for 13 years. It’s why you’re waiting longer for TTC, there are potholes everywhere, no affordable housing getting built, and limited spaces in city programs for kids, adults & seniors. This is austerity, the destruction of city life.
If anyone believes the Carey Price situation has been blown out of proportion, they should point the finger at him. He posed with a gun that’s not being banned, calling the nonexistent banning of it unjust. He blew it out of proportion to support a shitty gun nut organization.
To suburban and rural Ontarians asking “why is Doug Ford making us all pay for Toronto’s Covid-19 numbers?” I say, you probably shouldn’t have elected a party led by an embarrassing one-term councillor vindictively obsessed with our city, incapable of thinking beyond it.
#onpoli
In Ontario, if you're in the "red zone" you're doing better than the "grey zone." You know, this kind of communication could only make sense to a government that couldn't produce licence plates that could be read at night.
#onpoli
After cutting off Ontario's electric vehicle market, Doug Ford now playing captain EV. Without incentivizing the transition to electric it's not going to take off, and Doug Ford does't get that. EV sales in Ontario fell 55% in the first half of 2019 when Doug Ford cut incentives.
CTV News and/or Bell Media has a comms department, right? Pretty shocking they didn’t expressly tell their new anchor to go quiet today on social media.
I know it's obvious, but let's say it one more time. Imagine the fake outrage from Conservative supporters if a non-Conservative government had denied a holiday for the Queen's funeral *and* adjourned Parliament for six weeks - which Doug Ford just did.
You're going to read a lot about the US Supreme Court effectively allowing a Texas anti-abortion law to stand today. If you don't think that can happen in Canada, or that much of the Conservative base (and half its caucus) wants a similar outcome here, you are wrong.
#Elxn44
Already seen a "this could've been done three years ago" tweet, so I'm going to go off Twitter before I lose my mind due to those who just became foreign policy experts seven minutes ago.
#Cdnpoli
If I’m getting this right, the leader of the Conservative Party who last year wanted to be prime minister saying he would renounce his US citizenship and still hasn’t, spent the last several days accusing regular Canadians of fraud.
#cdnpoli
Sure, you got shot in the face, lived, didn’t back down, and worked to press a generation of vulnerable girls and boys in a war zone to embrace education instead of violence, but Quebec’s arbitrary wardrobe rules will defeat you where the Taliban couldn’t, madame.
What you're seeing on CP24 and on streams is I believe
@StevenDelDuca
's eighth event today, on top of countless interviews starting from sunrise. I think he went to more events today and did more interviews than Doug Ford has all week.
#onpoli
Ontario's climate change devolution:
-Doug Ford takes office
-Cancels all green plans
-Costs municipalities millions in green funding
-Sues feds over carbon pricing (and loses)
-Now says highways are a climate change solution
It continually gets worse with Doug Ford.
#onpoli