John Chuckman

COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE IN CBC NEWS

 

“Former Quebec premier Jean Charest considering run for Conservative leadership”

 

This is encouraging. Very encouraging.

An active intelligence, a good personality, not at all identified as an ideologue, and some appeal in Quebec.

As well, he is a man who has demonstrated, at his own political risk, dedication to the idea of Canada.

Jean Charest has many appealing qualities and possess a storehouse of hard political experience.

He might well represent the best chance the Conservatives have for getting rid of Trudeau’s government, a government which for me, with its many failings and embarrassments – and I am not a Conservative – simply leaves a bad taste in the mouth.

John Chuckman

COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE IN SOUTH FRONT

 

“BRAND TRUDEAU WINS A SECOND TERM”

 

Trudeau’s party actually ended up receiving significantly fewer votes (33.1 % of total) than the opposition Conservatives under Andrew Scheer (34.4 %).

It’s an unhappy, anti-democratic outcome of the voting system used for Parliament.

Just as is the fact that a government can rule with an unshakable “majority” of seats in Parliament with the kind of the numbers Trudeau attracted in 2015 (39.5% of total popular vote).

Similar results prevail for Britain’s parliament. A “majority” government there typically represents well under 40% of the total votes cast.

And, of course, in the United States, with its antiquated Electoral College system on top of still other important issues, minority presidents are not an unusual election outcome. Trump is one of them (46.1% of votes cast versus 48.2% for Hillary Clinton).

Such are the glorious results of “Western democracy” so often glibly praised by press and politicians.

The irony is Trudeau had campaigned strongly four years ago in support of election reform, of getting rid of our “first past the post” vote counting and using instead something yielding proportionate representation.

But, as in so many things, Trudeau completely failed to make good on his promise. It was a serious disappointment, but for this 2019 election his failure kept him in power.

Trudeau has failed in a number of extremely important national matters, and he is, additionally, someone known for a number of embarrassing personal follies and scandals.

It genuinely is disheartening to see him back on the job.

Lack of significant voter choice in candidates is the immediate explanation for the election result, something which is sadly all too common in our “Western democracies.”

The other parties – especially the ones with some chance of gaining power, the Conservatives and the New Democratic Party – simply did not offer candidates strong and appealing enough to vote Trudeau out under the existing voting system.

Lack of attractive alternatives can reflect, as I think is the case here, poorly functioning political party organizations. But, in some “Western democracies,” as in the United States, it represents a mechanism by the official parties (only two of them and each equally dominated by establishment interests) to limit voter choice by design.

Good God, look at the two candidates America offered its voters in 2016. Frightening, each of them in his or her own way. Simply an unbelievable choice offered.

 

https://chuckmanwordsincomments.wordpress.com/2018/07/22/john-chuckman-comment-how-american-politics-really-work-why-there-are-terrible-candidates-and-constant-wars-and-peoples-problems-are-ignored-why-heroes-like-julian-assange-are-persecuted-and-r/

 

John Chuckman

COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE IN RINF

 

The unpleasant Stephen Harper was definitely headed in this direction, with perhaps even more anti-freedom measures added, as criminalizing criticism of Israel.

We’re hoping our fine new Prime minister can resist this kind of genuinely Stalinist law promoted only by special interests.

But, in any event, all of the ugly laws Israel is promoting abroad and Israel’s tireless building of walls simply scream desperation.

If Israel wasn’t threatened by the weakness of its own founding’s logic, it would require none of this.

Just as the Soviet Union was built with a faulty foundation – flaws in logic and basic understanding of economic and social principles – so Israel, an unimaginably inefficient state kept afloat on the world’s greatest flow of subsidies.

Israel is, just like the Soviet Union was, a garrison state where the military/security/police forces are completely out of any sensible balance for a healthy society.

And it holds millions of people as prisoners.

Sooner or later, the crunch is coming, and for all these reasons.

 

 

 

 

 

 

JOHN CHUCKMAN

POSTED RESPONSE TO A COLUMN IN THE TORONTO STAR

Nice to know that the PMO spends time and resources on rubbish like sending out compilations of photostats about Justin Trudeau’s past, paid speaking engagements for charities to local newspapers in hopes of generating some bad press.

I genuinely believe Harper is the worst bully we have ever had in high office -indeed, he’s the only one, truly in a class by himself.

Harper’s repeated low-life attack ads didn’t work against the attractive Trudeau, so he tried another avenue of attack, that of sending out press kits to local newspapers about a matter which doesn’t even qualify as a tempest in a teapot.

It is perfectly normal for people with big names to speak for fees – it happens thousands of times a year. Tony Blair and his wife have cleared millions that way. So has Bill Clinton.

And did anyone notice Harper’s shabby bullying behavior at the G-8? All but calling Putin, the only real statesman in the bunch, names? That’s what bullies do when they don’t get their way.

I suggest our public schools put together a new curriculum on bullying, one that features Stephan Harper as an example of how not to behave.

JOHN CHUCKMAN

POSTED RESPONSE TO A COLUMN IN TORONTO’S GLOBE AND MAIL

Propaganda – and this kind of attack-advertising is just a form of propaganda – generally is effective when there is an accepted truth incorporated in the muck.

Thus, America blubbered about the plight of women while attacking Afghanistan (killing thousands of them along the way, too). Thus, past attacks on Ignatieff only said something we all believed already about that ineffective and disingenuous man.

These new ads cannot work against Trudeau because most Canadians rightly perceive him as a decent, earnest young man. And Trudeau is doing exactly the right thing in quietly explaining the ads’ dishonesty.

The ads will serve to confirm Harper as the most hateful person ever to have been prime minister.

 

 

 

JOHN CHUCKMAN

POSTED RESPONSE TO A COLUMN BY JEFFREY SIMPSON IN TORONTO’S GLOBE AND MAIL

Well said, indeed.

You’ve captured many aspects of the person and the situation perfectly.

The words about Harper being an actor who understands his own limiting persona are brilliantly discerning.

I’m quite concerned about the charming and attractive Justin going for the leadership.

First, his presence in the race may well intimidate other, possibly more talented and suitable candidates.

He does very much appear to lack the fierce intelligence of his father, his personality traits being more like those of his mother, albeit without her excesses.

But even a Pierre Trudeau might well not succeed today, our interests and attitudes having changed a great deal.

There is a huge burden on the shoulders of the next Liberal leader: Harper’s thugs are changing almost everything we have understood Canada as representing, and our international reputation has plummeted as we are seen as a complete servant of American-Israeli interests. Another majority would be hideous.

We desperately need a strong, effective leader of the Liberal Party, someone who can at least prevent a majority, and someone with shrewd political judgment. The NDP certainly has selected the right kind of leader for the times with Mulcair.

Another amateur-hour Ignatieff, a man with no support from people and no expertise and a man with weak personality traits, would be disaster.

The Liberal Party’s insiders are responsible for the entire Harper Era.

First, there was the infighting against a very popular and competent Prime Minister.

Then there was the nasty work inside the Party against Chretien supporters.

Then there was the poor handling of what was in many ways an understandable scandal whose roots were in serious concern with the country’s future, not just graft.

Then there was the failure to select Bob Rae, one of the most polished politicians of our day.

The less able but likable Dion was given no chance and inadequate support.

The pompous and surprisingly thinly talented Ignatieff was stuffed into the leadership with no democratic support, just as the insiders had intended when they recruited him in the United States.

His judgment proved a disaster.

The Party insiders have failed us entirely, and one hopes their role with Trudeau is not similar.

 

 

 

JOHN CHUCKMAN

POSTED RESPONSES TO A COLUMN BY LAWRENCE MARTIN IN TORONTO’S GLOBE AND MAIL

First, a great deal of time has passed with considerable change of circumstances since Pierre Trudeau was prime minister, changes which might well render Pierre himself not electable in the contemporary world.

But regardless of what Pierre’s political standing would be today, Justin is not Pierre, not even close.

Justin is a handsome and charming young man, but he received more of his mother’s genes than his father’s.

The steely will and fierce intelligence are simply not there.

I would say Thomas Mulcair more closely resembles some of what we saw in Pierre Trudeau, but that is not good news for the Liberal Party.

I suppose it’s worth a try, running Justin, but it would be a desperate measure for a desperate party whose fall is only the responsibility of its own coterie of insiders and in-fighters.
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“Those in Hog Town and kebec will love it though

“A great way to divide a country”

He was voted as the greatest Prime Minister in a public poll.

He did have qualities of toughness most people admire in a leader regardless of some policies with which you might disagree.

He also had a strong ethical bent we see utterly missing today.

Your “kebec” is stupid speech and plays to the trailer park crowd.

Talk about dividing the country, stupid speech will do it every time.
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“This is an informercial by a Grit hack.”

No, it’s a genuine matter of interest to millions.

Justin is a very popular figure.