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Decision 2021 | Post Mortem, Part 2 | NDP | Despicable, Disingenuous, Unconscionable

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(Left to right) | The Right Honourable Lester B. Pearson, 14th Prime Minister of Canada; the Right Honourable John Diefenbaker, 13th Prime Minister of Canada;  Paul Hellyer, Canada’s Minister of National Defence; and the Honourable Tommy Douglas, Leader of the New Democratic Party of Canada from 1961 until 1971. (From: The Shaw Family collection of photographs.). Circa 1962.

On Thursday, August 3rd 1961, Tommy Douglas resigned as Premier of the province of Saskatchewan to become the first leader of the federal New Democratic Party (NDP), a formal alliance between the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) and organized labour. As the left’s most eloquent spokesman, Tommy Douglas was able to inspire and motivate both the members of his nascent federal political party and the working women and men he sought to represent in the halls of power in Ottawa, and in Parliament.

Tommy Douglas, as the architect of Canada’s cherished medicare health care system, is considered by many to be a Canadian hero.

From Thursday, June 15th, 1944 — when, as leader of the CCF, he won 47 of 52 seats in the Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan, forming our nation’s first social democratic government — Tommy Douglas set about to …

  • Create the only publicly owned electrical power corporation, providing inexpensive power to all regions of his province;
  • Create Canada’s first publicly owned automotive insurance service;
  • Create a large number of crown corporations, replacing private sector interests;
  • Legislate the unionization of the public service;
  • Create a programme to offer taxpayer-funded hospital care to all citizens — the first in North America;
  • Introduce medical insurance reform in his first term, gradually moving the province towards universal medicare, which was adopted in Saskatchewan in 1960, and enacted into law by his successor, Woodrow Lloyd in 1962;
  • Pass a Saskatchewan Bill of Rights, protecting fundamental freedoms and equality, preceding the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the United Nations by 18 months.

Upon becoming leader of the federal New Democratic Party, Mr. Douglas was congratulated by then Conservative Prime Minister of Canada John Diefenbaker — a fellow, lifelong resident of Saskatchewan — and the Leader of the Opposition, the head of the Liberal Party since January 16, 1958, Lester B. Pearson, a 1957 recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize for his role in resolving the Suez Crisis in 1956.

Over the years, John Diefenbaker had opposed each and and every initiative introduced and passed into law by the CCF government of Tommy Douglas. Tommy Douglas accepted the leadership of the NDP, stating, “What I would wish for one, I would wish for all — and, for me, that means the adoption of a national health care programme for all Canadians” — which is what Mr. Douglas set about to achieve.

Working collaboratively with Lester Pearson, when Mr. Pearson became Canada’s 14th Prime Minister on April 8th, 1963, Tommy Douglas worked closely with the new Prime Minister to bring about a pan-Canadian Medicare system, resulting in 1966 with the passage into law of a publicly-funded and administered, comprehensive, accessible hospital and medical services health insurance plan covering all Canadians, from coast to coast to coast, from that day to this.

Working collaboratively and co-operatively with NDP leader Tommy Douglas, during his tenure as Prime Minister, Mr. Pearson launched not just progressive policies such as universal health care, but as well, the Canada Student Loan Programme, and a universal social programme particularly close to Tommy Douglas’ heart, the Canada Pension Plan, introduced and passed into law in 1965.

There is much to be achieved when progressive parties work closely together, in the spirit of forwarding and promoting the social and economic interests of Canadian women, men and children — working to achieve a just Canada for all.


New Democratic Party leader David Lewis & Liberal Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau, circa 1972

On Saturday, April 24, 1971 David Lewis became the 2nd leader of the federal New Democratic Party of Canada, following Tommy Douglas’ resignation as NDP leader.

On September 2nd, 1972, Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau called an election, and on Election Day, October 30, 1972, failed to secure a majority, losing 38 seats in Parliament, requiring the support of David Lewis and the New Democratic Party — which had increased its seat count from 25 to 31 — in order to govern.

David Lewis and Pierre Trudeau sat down in the days and weeks following the 1972 federal election, negotiating the implementation of two programmes that would prove critical to the interests of working people, to Canada’s youth, to families, and for the creative classes across Canada …

1. An affordable housing programme, which became “a made in Canada solution to the provision of affordable housing”, a co-operative housing programme that provided affordable housing to more than 130,000 Canadian families in its first decade, and …

2. A federal jobs programme mainly geared towards youth, a multi-faceted jobs programme geared to serve the interests of a lost generation of seemingly unemployable Canadian youth — which became the Local Initiative Programme (LIP), the Local Employment Assistance Programme (LEAP), and the Youth Employment Programme (YEP) — the three programmes providing billions of dollars in funding for jobs programmes for youth to initiate “entrepreneurial” projects, ranging from the creation of food, farm and wholesale import food co-operatives, child care centres, community-based furniture / automotive / and recycling programmes, as well as the creation of innovative theatre companies across Canada, providing funding to actors and support theatre staff, directors and subsidy funding for the creation of arts centres, such as the Vancouver East Cultural Centre (“The Cultch”).

New Democratic Party leader David Lewis and Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau worked closely together between 1972 and 1974, when Mr. Trudeau called a federal election on May 8, 1974, re-gaining a majority government two months later, on July 8, 1974, when his government won 32 additional seats. Between October 30, 1972 and May 8, 1974, David Lewis and Mr. Trudeau worked collaboratively and co-operatively together in the interests of the Canadian people, setting aside partisan concerns, developing an enduring respect and admiration for one another — as had been the case with their predecessors, Tommy Douglas and Lester B. Pearson. Although Mr. Lewis was leader of the fourth Opposition Party in Parliament — as is the case with Jagmeet Singh and the NDP today — and while Mr. Lewis held Mr. Trudeau to account in the House of Commons, not once did Mr. Lewis ever allow his criticism of the Liberal government to devolve (as Jagmeet Singh has) into personal attacks full of invective against the Liberal Party leader.

During their terms as leaders of the federal New Democratic Party of Canada, both Tommy Douglas and David Lewis — great Canadian leaders, both — achieved much good for the people of Canada, as they set aside corrosive, soul destroying and ruinous partisanship and the damaging and annihilating politics of personal destruction, in favour of co-operation and collaboration to bring about a more just and economically fair Canada that might serve the interests of all Canadians.

And now we come to the NDP ‘attack’ era of Jagmeet Singh, in the year 2021.

Now, let’s take on the points raised in the NDP ad above.

Seniors care. On August 19, 2021, Prime Minister Trudeau made what was called an historic announcement …

“Today we heard a detailed commitment from Justin Trudeau that would lift-up working women and bring PSWs greater economic security with a $25 minimum wage,” said Sharleen Stewart, president of SEIU Healthcare. “Leadership at the federal level directly in support of our healthcare heroes is nothing short of historic for working women in the elder care economy.”

“We cannot allow Canadian seniors to go without dignified care. That is why introducing and passing the Safe Long-Term Care Act is so essential to ensuring higher quality care standards for our most elderly moms and dads,” added Stewart.

In addition, the Trudeau government brought in programmes to support seniors by passing legislation establishing new national standards in seniors care, while also legislating programmes that will act to ensure seniors can remain in their homes longer, with new, universal support programmes. Rather than doing nothing, as the ad above suggests, the Trudeau government enacted legislation that …

  • Raised wages for personal support workers, including a guaranteed minimum wage of at least $25 per hour;
  • Will train up to 50,000 new personal support workers;
  • Doubled the Home Accessibility Tax Credit, which will provide up to an additional $1,500 to help seniors stay in their homes longer by making them more accessible;
  • Improved the quality and availability of long-term care home beds;
  • Continued to implement strict infection prevention and control measures, including through more provincial and territorial facility inspections for long-term care homes;
  • Developed a Safe Long Term Care Act collaboratively with the provinces and home care providers to ensure that seniors are guaranteed the care they deserve, no matter where they live.

Meanwhile, the Prime Minister has stated that his government will introduce legislation this next term that will raise the corporate taxes paid by Canada’s “largest and most profitable” financial services firms, raising the corporate income tax rate by three percentage points — from 15 per cent to 18 per cent — on all bank and insurance earnings over $1 billion. Mr. Trudeau has stated repeatedly that his government will not tolerate “sophisticated tax planning or profit-sharing” by companies looking to dodge the new measures, promising the introduction of legislation that would “target anti-avoidance rules” to ensure the companies “pay their fair share.”  Working with the provinces, the federal government will set about to strengthen and enhance the powers of the federal Financial Consumer Agency of Canada to protect the financial — and house purchasing — interests of Canadians.

Justin Trudeau has stated that enacting universal, single-payer public pharmacare is not off the table for his government. Prior to introduction of such legislation, in their most recent term of office, the government introduced and passed drug pricing measures, explicitly designed to tamp down Canada’s rising pharmaceutical costs, and expanded the mandate of the independent Patented Medicine Prices Review Board — to “protect consumers by ensuring that the prices of patented medicines are not excessive.” At the explicit instruction of the Trudeau government, the Board has removed the United States as a comparator, instead relying on seven comparator countries, including Germany, France, Italy, the United Kingdom, Sweden and Switzerland, where drug prices are much cheaper.

One is left to wonder, if the three ads the New Democratic Party ran in this most recent election are so misleading, what else are the NDP lying to Canadians about?

As stated previously, Jagmeet Singh and the NDP focused their ads and their ire exclusively on Justin Trudeau and the Liberal Party, without ever making reference to the Conservative Party’s record of homo-and-transphobia, their anti-vaxx rhetoric, their egregious position on rescinding the ban on assault weapons, the Tories’ proposed re-introduction of the Northern Gateway pipeline which, apart from blowing Canada’s climate action goals out of the water, would see tanker traffic carrying raw bitumen from the Alberta oil sands down B.C.’s west coast, not to mention, the Conservatives’ truculent position on women’s reproductive rights!

Meanwhile, by seeming to offer support and succour to Erin O’Toole and the Conservatives in the 2021 election, the New Democratic Party expressed no concern whatsoever on the Tories proposed rescinding of the national child care programme the Trudeau government had negotiated with 8 provinces and territories, or the elimination of the Canada Child Benefit in favour of a tax credit that would benefit only the wealthy. The NDP were also mum on the re-introduction of a ban on conversion therapy covering all LGBTQ2+ Canadians, as an early priority for a Liberal minority government were it to be re-elected.

The NDP spent a record $25.8 million over the course of the past five weeks trying to convince Canadians to vote for them — raising their seat count in Parliament by one. $25.8 million dollars for one additional seat, and achieving a mere 17.7% share of the vote, while Jagmeet Singh blatted on about “When, on September 20th, the NDP form government” … what a ludicrous idea, and how demeaning a message to Canadians, who the NDP clearly thought to be fools, if they believed for one moment that the NDP had a hope in hell of forming government.

On Tuesday, Jagmeet Singh faced questions about his leadership over the party’s one-seat gain, despite being in a much stronger financial position for this campaign than the one in 2019.

Asked by the Toronto Star’s Alex Ballingall if Mr. Singh felt secure in his leadership that produced only one additional seat, the NDP leader projected confidence with a wide smile and unambiguous, “Yes.”

Reporters in a scrum with Jagmeet Singh also noted that the NDP targeted Justin Trudeau with negative attacks throughout the campaign and up until the final day, undermining trust in the Prime Minister. In response, Jagmeet Singh doubled down on his — clearly unproductive and wildly ineffectual — campaign approach, which included calling Mr. Trudeau an “abject failure” and “bad for Canada.”

The New Democratic Party federal leader, Jagmeet Singh, told reporters …

“My words, the NDP attack ads, and what some have called the vicious, personal nature of the NDP campaign towards Mr. Trudeau won’t cause any damage to a future negotiation strategy with the re-elected Prime Minister. Everything I said was true. I’m going to stand behind it 100%,” said Mr. Singh. “But when, or if, I meet with the Prime Minister, let me be clear: I’m going to tell him, ‘You messed up’. Even given my relentless attack on Mr. Trudeau and his Liberal team, I believe that together we can get things done for Canadians.”

Maybe former broadcaster Tamara Stanners has the right idea …

Decision 2021 | Canada | Post Mortem, Part 1 | It’s Déjà Vu All Over Again

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On Monday evening, Canadians returned a stable and responsible Liberal minority government, led by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau,  to the halls of power in Ottawa and to Parliament, in an election that would appear on the surface not to change much. Only time will tell, of course, if the 2nd, 3rd and 4th parties will find themselves able to work with the Liberals in the interest of all Canadians, or whether they’ll return to their destructive and unproductive orientation of morbid  partisan politics that defined their conduct prior to the calling of the August 15th election.

For VanRamblings, here are a few takeaways from the election …

1. Shachi Kurl cost Canadians and the Liberal Party a majority government. Going into the English Leaders’ debate, the Bloc Québécois had lost their footing, with all polls showing them unable to retain more than 10 seats in Parliament, for a loss of 22 seats. The support of Québeckers had moved to Justin Trudeau and the Liberal party — which looked to pick up most of the lost Bloc seats, propelling them to a majority government. Then Ms. Kurl asked a damnedly poorly phrased question concerning Québec Bill 21 — banning Québec citizens from wearing religious symbols, and mandating that one’s face be uncovered to give or receive specific public services — the contentious nature of her question propelling the Bloc into a stratospherically high, and unforgiving, seat count;

2. The NDP. In an entirely wrong-headed collusionary campaign with Erin O’Toole’s Conservative campaign team — that, it should be noted, won the NDP only one additional seat in Parliament — the NDP relentlessly joined the Conservatives in attacking the Prime Minister, yet never saying an unkind word about one another. Had it not been for Jason Kenney’s announcement of a vaccine passport for Albertans last week — which all but destroyed Erin O’Toole’s chance at winning government —  the Tories would have won government, and thanks to the NDP, Canadians would not have realized the Liberal national child care plan, the continued ban on assault weapons, and the re-introduction of a bill banning  conversion therapy, among a myriad of other progressive Liberal policies.

Annamie Paul is finished as the Green Party leader, and should have resigned on Monday night — but didn’t. Ms. Paul came in a distant fourth place in her home riding of Toronto Centre, securing only 9% of the vote for herself and the Green Party.

In Conservative Party leader Erin O’Toole’s re-tread of former Tory leader Andrew Scheer’s 2019 concession speech, Mr. O’Toole talked about working together with his Tory colleagues to win the next election. Sad for Mr. O’Toole, most members of his party are far to the right of the leader, and want him gone. The knives are already out for Mr.  O’Toole — who is hanging onto his leadership with a hare’s breadth. Mr. O’Toole will resign his leadership within months of his status quo loss.

In happier Election Night stories: federal New Democratic Party candidate Bonita Zarrillo (above) — in the riding of Port Moody-Coquitlam — decisively won her second go-round at the polls, defeating near invisible Conservative Party parachute candidate Nelly Chin by a healthy 1,607 vote count.


Vancouver Granville NDP candidate Anjali Appadurai awaiting count of all polls, and mail-in ballots

At this writing, Vancouver Granville NDP candidate Anjali Appadurai finds herself in a near dead heat with Liberal Taleeb Noormohamed — behind by 230 votes — with 1 poll and the mail-in ballots yet to be counted.

In Richmond Centre Liberal Wilson Miao handily defeated Conservative imcumbent Alice Wong, while in Steveston-Richmond East Liberal candidate Parm Bains absolutely thrashed the Conservative incumbent, Kenny Chiu.

In Burnaby North-Seymour Liberal Terry Beech handily won a third term in office, with VanRamblings favourite, Fleetwood Port Kells Liberal incumbent, Ken Hardie, performing the same feat. Liberals’ Joyce Murray in Vancouver Quadra and Hedy Fry in Vancouver Centre were also gratefully victorious on election night.


Defeated candidates, the NDP’s Ruth Ellen Brosseau & recent Liberal Cabinet Minister, Maryam Monsef

In sad news: in Québec, Berthier—Maskinongé’s Ruth Ellen Brosseau lost her bid to return to Parliament, as did Ontario’s recent Liberal Minister for Women and Gender Equality and Minister of Rural Economic Development, Maryam Monsef.

One final note: in perhaps the best news of the evening, now former Cloverdale-Langley City incumbent Tory MP, renowned climate change denier, and rampant homophobe and transphobe, not to mention activist anti-choice campaigner, Tamara Jansen, was unceremoniously unelected … yippee !!!

Post Election columns from The Globe and Mail (click on the links directly below)

Tory Leader Erin O’Toole’s ideology shift not enough to surpass Liberals

Jagmeet Singh still holds balance of power but NDP doesn’t make major seat gains

After failing to secure majority, Trudeau will face questions within his caucus

Plus these reflections on Election Night 2021 (click on the links directly below)

CBC | Canadians have re-elected a Liberal minority government

Maclean’s |  A win’s a win | Paul Wells

Vancouver Sun | Liberals hold onto battleground Metro Vancouver ridings

New York Times | Trudeau Projected to Remain PM, Falls Short of a Majority

Washington Post | Liberals win re-election, will lead minority government again

Decision 2021 | Day 24 | Justin Trudeau | Canadian National Hero

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There he stood, morning in, morning out for a year. A whole year. Reassuring the nation that all would be fine. Standing in front of his Rideau Cottage home, his beard growing longer with each passing day, his wife herself, initially, a victim of COVID-19, leaving him to care for his children alone while his wife Sophie self-isolated, a father to his three children and Canada’s father in a time of despair.

On March 11, 2020, the World Heath Organization declared that the world was in the grip of a once-in-a-century pandemic that would kill millions, no vaccines yet existed to fight off this killer, and to protect us, lockdowns would be required that would keep us inside our homes for weeks and months on end.

Businesses across Canada were shuttered, no one went outside without wearing a mask — once a week shopping for necessities would be approved, but little else.

In addition to the health crisis that jeopardized our collective health, nations across the globe faced an economic crisis the likes of which we’d never  known.  On March 18, 2020, on the orders of British Columbia’s Public Health Officer, Dr. Bonnie Henry, the province declared a State of Emergency.

On March 16th, 2020, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that until further notice, Canadian borders would be closed to foreign nationals — urging Canadians abroad to return home as soon as possible, given the ever-tighter travel restrictions countries around the world – including Canada – were imposing to curb the spread of the new coronavirus, stating that before the end of the month, the federal government would disallow the opportunity given Canadians to return home.

Canada was in a crisis, as the COVID-19 pandemic led to a dramatic loss of human life worldwide, presenting an unprecedented challenge to public health, food systems and the world of work, causing economic and social disruption, devastating the lives of millions of Canadians at risk of falling into poverty.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announces $82 billion rescue plan | March 18, 2020

The Liberal government and Justin Trudeau — working in concert with Health Minister Patti Hajdu and Minister of Public Services and Procurement, Anita Anand, among other Ministers — mounted a massive and efficacious response to the pandemic, quarterbacking an unprecedented campaign against the threat of the virus and lockdowns that had shaken the economy, legislating a blitz of new and necessary programmes designed to keep Canadians safe, and economically whole.

March 15, 2020. Ottawa commits $2 billion to buy supplies, purchasing tens of millions of masks, and thousands of testing kits and ventilators from Canadian-based manufacturers, who shifted production to make the badly needed equipment and supplies.

March 16, 2020. Canada announces plans to close the border to international travel. The Canada-U.S. border closes to non-essential travel, with exceptions for truckers and a few other groups. A mandatory self-quarantine for travelers. Anyone returning to Canada legally required to self-quarantine for 14 days.

March 18, 2020. Government announces an aid package providing economic benefits for Canadians affected by COVID-19, the programme fleshed out in subsequent days & benefits increased.

March 25, 2020. The Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) announced, providing $500 per week in financial support to employed and self-employed Canadians affected by COVID-19. Minimum Employment Insurance benefit increased to $500 weekly. Canada Recovery Sickness Benefit of $500 per week for workers who’d contracted COVID-19. Canada Recovery Caregiving Benefit of $500 per week to support families with children six years of age, or younger, and to support low-income workers and families. Mortgage Deferral Payment provided to homeowners facing financial hardship. Old Age Security pensioners receive one-time $500 tax-free benefit.

March 27, 2020. For businesses in Canada: The Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy provided to employers, to keep employees on payroll during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Canada Emergency Rent Subsidy to provide rent / mortgage subsidy to qualifying businesses, including charities and non-profits. Relief measures for Indigenous businesses, providing $306.8 million to small and medium-sized Indigenous businesses, and to support Aboriginal Financial Institutions that offer financing to these important businesses.

August 31, 2020. Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government signs contracts with Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna to procure more than 100 million doses of their experimental COVID‑19 vaccines, signing contracts with Johnson & Johnson (Janssen), Novavax and AstraZenica/Covashield for 80 million more doses. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also announces funding to establish a new biomanufacturing facility at the Human Health Therapeutics Research Centre in Montréal, and two other biomanufacturing facilities, in western Canada and Ontario, approved by the National Research Council of Canada to increase vaccine manufacturing of up to four million doses per month, to ensure Canada’s ability to produce sufficient vaccine doses to meet our country’s need.

The federal programmes and actions above barely scratch the surface of the response by Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government — which set out to provide health, social and economic support for every Canadian, and support for every sector of the economy. The critically important programmes enacted by the Justin Trudeau-led Liberal government were and are unprecedented anywhere across the globe.

Little wonder, then, that going into this election, Justin Trudeau’s personal approval rating was in the high 80s, and support for his government at 45%.

The rhetoric you’re likely to hear from an Erin O’Toole Conservative government

Ask yourself: given the chaos Canadians have witnessed in the anti-science Conservative government-led provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario, what is the potential that an Erin O’Toole-led government would have responded to this once-in-a-century pandemic any better than we’ve witnessed in those four anti-science Conservative provinces — where each of their leaders have record low approval ratings — or we saw in Donald Trump’s COVID denialism (and we witness in today’s federal Conservative party Trump acoloyte caucus)?

“It’ll just disappear one day. It’ll go away like all things go away,” Trump said. “I feel about vaccines like I feel about tests. COVID will go away without a vaccine, just go away, and we’re not going to see it again. It’ll be gone, like it was never here. You have my word on it.”

The 44th Canadian general election is the most volatile election in our nation’s history. Both Conservative Party leader Erin O’Toole, and New Democratic Party leader Jagmeet Singh have together employed American, Republican-style politicking, unprecedented in Canadian history that a right wing and (allegedly) left wing party would collude on their campaign messaging to “gain power” …

“Justin Trudeau is a liar,” say O’Toole and Singh. “He’s not done a damn thing for you. He’s a smarmy, self-righteous, virtue signalling fraud who trots out the same — still unfulfilled — campaign promises he did in 2015 and 2019. He can’t be trusted, he’s not on your side. Vote for me. I’ve got your back. Throw that Justin Trudeau onto the scrap heap of history. He’s done. It’s time for a new day.”

Don’t you believe any of the malarkey above that’s being spewed out by Erin O’Toole and Jagmeet Singh. You know better. You’ve witnessed Justin Trudeau advocate for us, and over the course of these past 19 months, Mr. Trudeau — and his incredibly competent and hard-working, principled Ministers of the Crown — have sacrificed for us, and provided for us each and every day, keeping us all safe.

Please don’t allow Erin O’Toole’s and Jagmeet Singh’s cynical politics of personal destruction cause Canadians to indulge a sense of collective amnesia, and not recognize that, indeed, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is a Canadian national hero. We would not have pulled through the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic were any other Canadian leader in place. Justin Trudeau as Canadian Prime Minister remains critical to our national health, our ability to prevail in this pandemic, and to our national identity as Canadians working in common cause for the benefit of all.

Quite simply — and you know it’s true — there is no other Canadian political leader (and certainly not Erin O’Toole or Jagmeet Singh) capable of returning each one of us to the lives we led prior to the pandemic, ever more emboldened that we found the strength and the wherewithall to make it through this tragedy, and come out the other end all the better, more fulfilled personally and economically, with a greater wealth of spirit, and a sense of joy to inform all of our days yet to come.