The lies Brad Bradford told about snow removal from bike lanes shows you can’t trust him on anything...

The lies Brad Bradford told about snow removal from bike lanes shows you can’t trust him on anything... by Matthew Guerin

Bradford just wants to spread misinformation and divide Toronto residents so he can win more political power for himself at City Hall...

Read on Substack

Republican Senator Eric Schmitt humiliates himself attempting failed “gotcha” moment against former special counsel Jack Smith during Senate hearings....

 

 

This is the height of Republican intelligence and research under Donald Trump’s tenure, let’s face it.

Oh my word! This shameful and hilarious episode in today’s Senate Judiciary hearings is making me smile so much this evening!

These sycophants who tolerate insurrection and incompetence in their dear leader aren’t the sharpest knives in the drawer.

This segment from MS Now’s Jen Psaki sums up the whole incident beautifully in which Missouri Republican senator Eric Schmitt tried to get his “gotcha” moment against former special counsel Jack Smith during his testimony.

It’s worth the watch - posted on my Substack! 

Useless Chris Moise needs to go, I’m voting for Curran Stikuts in Toronto Centre municipal election

Useless Chris Moise needs to go, I’m voting for Curran Stikuts in Toronto Centre municipal election by Matthew Guerin

Moise clearly doesn’t care about building community, not sure why he’s in the politics business at all, frankly!

Read on Substack

  

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Today’s hard truth: “Canada’s conservatives have a problem with reality,” says Richard Warnica

Today’s hard truth: “Canada’s conservatives have a problem with reality,” says Richard Warnica

“But on a more fundamental level, the B.C.’s leader foibles are a sign of a much deeper malaise on the Canadian right. Put simply, Canada’s conservatives are suffering from a reality crisis.”

Read on Substack

Today’s tonic: “It’s time Canada logged out of tech platforms owned by Donald Trump toadies,” by Justin Ling

Today’s tonic: “It’s time Canada logged out of tech platforms owned by Donald Trump toadies,” by Justin Ling

“As we plunge into full-scale trade war with the Trump administration, it’s time we quit the channels owned by its most powerful allies. Twitter and Facebook would be great places to start.”

Read on Substack

Whiplash: Vik Handa enters and exits the Ontario Liberal leadership race, clearing the path for the awesome Navdeep Bains! ;-)

Whiplash: Vik Handa enters and exits the Ontario Liberal leadership race, clearing the path for the awesome Navdeep Bains! ;-) by Matthew Guerin

Read below to find out why I am now supporting Navdeep Bains

Read on Substack

New Liberal leadership candidate promotes rent freeze, free GO Transit

New Liberal leadership candidate Vik Handa promotes rent freeze, free GO Transit.  

Finally, a consistently progressive candidate with decent experience joins the race

Check out my Substack post here.

Today's tonic: "Lindsey knew better. He chose worse."

The headline for this Steve Schmidt Substack piece sums it up perfectly: "Lindsey knew better. He chose worse." 

As a closeted Republican, Lindsey Graham's life is an example of how not to live your life.  Rest In Peace, sir, the kind of which you ensured millions of your fellow human beings never lived.  

"Lindsey Graham was a lonely and unprincipled man who betrayed his country for power and his decency for attention.

"He was a simple man to understand and a tragic one. He lacked a moral core and any sense of right and wrong. The great empty spaces of his life were filled with an insatiable need for “relevance.” He found it as a cast member in the most malignant reality show ever made." 

Nate Erskine-Smith confirms he's not running for the Ontario Liberal leadership, leaving gaping hole in that party's race....

Nate Erskine-Smith (NES) confirmed last week that he won't be a candidate in the Ontario Liberal Party (OLP) leadership race this year, nor run provincially anytime soon (although he hasn't ruled out running municipally in his local ward.)

This is very sad for me because I thought NES represented the best hope for a reformed OLP dedicated squarely to integrity, fixing the corrupt mistakes of the past, and committing to real fixes for the issues afflicting the province.  

But unfortunately, the powers-that-be in the OLP who don't see any reasons to change, even after suffering loss of party status and almost a decade in the political wilderness, weren't interested in Nate even having a chance.  

They unleashed scruple-free insider and longtime NES critic Milton Chan to hand out ballots to anyone he wanted at the recent local Scarborough Southwest Liberal nomination meeting which turned into a circus, including people allegedly voting multiple times and taking pictures of their ballots as likely proof of payment for their votes.  The chaos eventually saw London, Ontario-based pizza franchiser Ahsanul Hafiz eke out a 19-vote victory over NES, 718 to 699.  The party immediately rubber-stamped the result, despite the discrepancy of 34 extra votes counted from the voting boxes versus the number of people the party itself detailed had been given ballots.   

Nate's appeal of the results fell on deaf ears as the three-member arbitration panel decided blind deference to the powers-that-be was their only mandate and brushed aside all of the shenanigans as just fine.  

This is the culture of the Ontario Liberal Party.  A culture that has let me down time and time again over the years.  There are some decent, progressive people in the party with principles they aren't willing to simply abandon at any time for convenience.  But those decent people remain far outnumbered by those who seem happy to merely fill rooms, applaud unconditionally, and smile beside those they perceive to already have power no matter what they stand for.   

It's true that NES wasn't the be all and end all.  He still had a ways to go to prove he could win beyond his downtown stronghold of Beaches-East York.   His hasty decision to run in the Scarborough Southwest OLP nomination race opened himself up to this sabotage, and as we saw his haters were more than happy to do anything to stop him, knowing full well the party would have their sleazy backs.   

Alas, I'm getting very tired of this story.  

If this is how the Ontario Liberal Party wants to operate, that is their choice.  I'll make my future choices about political participation accordingly.   But I can tell you I won't be supporting Hafiz in Scarborough Southwest who was happy to commit all kinds of fraud to win his nomination, with the blessing of his party's bigwigs.   

I still hate Doug Ford and what his PCs have done or not done to Ontario.  It may be that even the OLP, with all of its wishy washy amoralism and inadequate policies, would be preferable to them.  

The remaining OLP leadership candidates all bring some good qualities to their candidacies, but fail to inspire me much.  

Navdeep Bains is an overly safe insider probably few Ontarians have ever heard of.  Despite being in elected federal politics from 2004 to 2011, and from 2015 to 2021 when he served as Industry Minister in Justin Trudeau's cabinet, can many remember anything he's ever said, any speech he's ever given that illustrates his essential leadership qualities?  I only remember his evasive and frankly laughable answers in rare committee meetings federally when he was defending against conflicts of interest allegations, or other subdued, milquetoast comments. 

His OLP leadership campaign this year personifies that overly safe approach.  He's fighting to "renew the Ontario promise," and to promote "prosperity and opportunity" for all Ontarians.  In short, he's fighting for a whole lot of nothing.  This is probably music to the ears of many OLP folks who don't care much about policy specifics, just where the camera is located so they can stand behind a "winner" and look important.  

Bains' caution and general conservatism may be what centrist Ontarians, particularly in the Greater Toronto Area where the OLP needs to win a whole bunch of seats to contend for government, are looking for.  His strategy seems to be to wait out Doug Ford, hoping scandals and the sad state of Ontario's economy and social sectors will simply force Ontarians to seek an alternative in 2029.  Offering a vague promise about "renewing Ontario's promise" may represent the full ambition of his leadership.  In government, I can picture him doing not much of anything to fix these problems, but fixing problems isn't really on his agenda.  It's winning and then occupying the seat of power.   Would he be better than Doug Ford?  I honestly can't say that I have any idea.  

Superficially, is it appealing to think that a Sikh man who wears a turban and is generally inoffensive on a surface level, could become premier of Ontario?  Sure, that symbolic breakthrough would have its appeal for a brief time.  But after that, what kind of government would he run?  I have no doubt that Bains is hoping to keep those questions unanswered as long as possible.    

The other OLP leadership candidates aren't any better. 

Lee Fairclough seems like a decent, hard-working woman.  I admire the dedication and tenacity she showed in running for and winning her seat in Doug Ford’s backyard in Etobicoke (although like NES, winning one riding personally doesn’t necessarily mean strong appeal outside of that riding base).  Her leadership campaign so far has also been heavy on platitudes and very milquetoast.  What does she bring specifically that no one else can bring to the job?  What is her brand?  It's not yet clear.  I also think her brief time in elected politics has left her retail and political skills under-cooked.  Her plodding speaking style has improved a bit since last year and she has potential.  If she put more substance or personality in her speeches, really fleshing out the "Lee Fairclough" promise, she might present a more appealing option.  As things are going, if it's merely a choice based on surface characteristics, I have a sense that Bains will win this easily.

Rob Cerjanec is a mildly good-looking man who is clearly not ready for provincial leadership just yet.  I'm glad he eked out a victory over the PCs in Ajax last year, thanks no doubt to some quick and decent organizing and a lot of luck.  That doesn't make him qualified to be leader this year.  And like the other major candidates, his platform is platitudes, platitudes, platitudes.  

I need to listen more to Dylan Marando, another candidate, who used to be a senior policy adviser to the former OLP government at Queen's Park.  He seems to be running a decent campaign so far, although it's unclear if he's truly in contention to win this.  I would certainly consider him, but still need to listen more to what he has to say.   

Housing advocate Eric Lombardi has made a bit of a splash so far in this race too.  Some of his ideas are truly revolutionary for his party.  I do admire his willingness to take bold stands on issues including housing and electoral reform.  However, I'm starting to worry a bit about some of his fans, including right-wing bro types who most Liberals and liberals would find offensive.  The endorsement from yellow journalist Adam Zivo, who's always been willing to ignore facts about the effectiveness of safe drug supplies in order to continually back up his ideological crusade against poor people, not to mention some other scary tech bros, makes me wonder what's really going on with Lombardi's candidacy.  

I have met Lombardi personally once or twice.  He's not anywhere close to being ready for the party leadership.  I'm quite hot and cold about his candidacy.  I have a lot more thinking and research to do.     

So these are the choices Liberals are left with, now that the party establishment has kiboshed NES.  

Not much choice, if you ask me.  

Today's corruption: "As a Ford government staffer, he helped get through permits for a controversial gold mine. Now he works for the company as a lobbyist"

Premier Drug Fraud and his buddies at work

Stories like this are now a dime a dozen. 

It's clear Doug Ford's Progressive Conservative government is corrupt, with a revolving door of staffers making their way into the private sector, selling their insider knowledge and connections made while working as "public servants" in ministers' offices.  Now putting that insider knowledge and those connections to work for private corporations who only have their own profits to care about, certainly not the public interest. Matters are now worse since the PCs changed Access to Information laws in Ontario this year, ensuring any ministerial office activities are completely beyond scrutiny of the public.

No wonder Ontario is a broken mess right now.  Ontario voters need to wake up from their complacency and realize their provincial government is no longer on their side and hasn't been for years, Doug Ford's claims to be a "man of the people" notwithstanding.  It's a demonstrable, objective truth that public education, public health, public transportation, and public services have collapsed in quality under his rule.   

Today's tonic: "Scott Pelley on His Firing and the ‘Massacre’ at ‘60 Minutes’ | The Interview"

Please take some time to watch some or all of this if you care about truth and are concerned about the lies and gas lighting we're collectively experiencing these days.   

 

Today's tonic: "Who’s behind the massive lobbying campaign to expand the island airport? What I discovered should worry us all"

Opinion writer Richard Warnica digs into the rich, powerful Americans who are pushing to destroy Toronto's waterfront just to make themselves more rich in this great piece of required reading, "Who’s behind the massive lobbying campaign to expand the island airport? What I discovered should worry us all."  

Dear Mark Carney - If you allow these sleazy JP Morgan profiteers who own the Billy Bishop Airport who care nothing about Toronto's people, Toronto's economy, Toronto's neighbourhoods, Toronto's quality of life, and who only care about their own profit maximization, to win the day on this debate on jets ruining Toronto's waterfront, I will never stop trying to politically destroy you and your useless Liberal Party!   I know a lot of Torontonians who think the same way.    

We know Doug Ford is a corrupt politician who is selling out Toronto and the rest of Ontario to his buddies - he's clearly bought the JP Morgan lobbying line hook line and sinker.    I plead that the same level of corruption doesn't currently infect the federal Liberal government and the Toronto MPs who represent this city in Ottawa.