B.C. Ferries Political Kerfuffle

B.C. Ferries put out a tender for new vessels to be built

B.C. Ferries was in a lot of hot water for its vessels breaking down, causing not only delays but cancellations of sailings, leaving passengers stranded or waiting for hours... and hours... and hours.

It finally got a loan from the federal government to purchase new ferries and put out a tender to build four of them.

Earlier this month B.C. Ferries announced China Merchants Industry Weihai Shipyards had won the contract to build the four vessels, overseen by B.C. Ferries staff, while the sensitive IT equipment will be procured from Canada and installed by B.C. Ferries' personnel. 

Freeland asks why China is building the ferries

No Canadian companies bid for the job.

But that didn't stop politicians from loudly complaining.

First up was BC Transport Minister Mike Farnsworth, then his boss Premier David Eby, and then federal transport minister Chrystia Freeland weighed in as well, wondering why a Chinese company -- state-owned no less -- was building these ferries considering China has imposed "unjustified tariffs" on Canada.

She wrote a letter to Farnsworth expressing her "great consternation and disappointment" with the ferry operator.

"I am dismayed that B.C. Ferries would select a Chinese state-owned shipyard to build new ferries in the current geopolitical context," Freeland wrote.

"I am surprised that B.C. Ferries does not appear to have been mandated to require an appropriate level of Canadian content in the procurement or the involvement of the Canadian marine industry."

B.C. Ferries says no Canadian firms put in a bid

May we remind the politicians that there were no Canadian shipbuilding companies that put in a bid. None. Nada. Zip. 

And if B.C. Ferries had looked to Europe, it would have cost many times more.

B.C. Ferries defended its choice. 

Jeff Groot, executive director of communications with B.C. Ferries, said Weihai Shipyards was chosen following a rigorous and transparent procurement process.

"It was the strongest bid by a significant margin," he said in a statement.

He added Canadian companies have acquired around 100 vessels built at Chinese shipyards over the last decade.

Touche.

"Globally, only a few shipyards have the capacity to deliver complex passenger ferries on the timelines and budgets required."

With the tight budget B.C. Ferries has and the fact that it desperately needs new vessels as soon as possible, this is the best solution. In the meantime, by all means build up the Canadian shipbuilding industry, but really, it's hard to compete with China when it comes to price.

Freeland the Target of Online Attacks Allegedly from China

Freeland was target of online attacks apparently from China

It appears China does not like Liberal leadership candidate Chrystia Freeland, following the monitoring of several posts on WeChat seen by over 3 million people.

The Security and Intelligence Threats to Elections Task Force (SITE) said an information operation directed at Freeland was traced to WeChat's "most popular news account", apparently an anonymous blog that experts have linked to the People's Republic of China.

SITE, which is made up of senior Canadian intelligence and security officials, said in a statement Friday that over 30 WeChat news accounts took part in the campaign from January 29 to February 3.

She is in the running to replace Trudeau

"The campaign received very high levels of engagement and views, with WeChat news articles disparaging Ms. Freeland netting over 140,000 interactions," it said.

The task force estimates between 2 million to 3 million users globally saw the posts, without elaborating on what the "derogatory" content was.

In reaction to the news, Freeland, who was formerly the finance and deputy minister in the Trudeau administration until December, was undeterred.

"I will not be intimidated by Chinese foreign interference," she wrote in a social media post. "Having spent years confronting authoritarian regimes, I know firsthand the importance of defending our freedoms."

Interestingly this development comes on the heels of the public inquiry into foreign election interference that recently wrapped up, calling misinformation and disinformation an "existential threat."

Hogue warned of "existential threat" in report

"Misinformation and disinformation have the ability to distort our discourse, change our views and shape our society," Commissioner Marie-Josee Hogue wrote in her final report.

"In my view it is no exaggeration to say that at this juncture, information manipulation (whether foreign or not) poses the single biggest risk to our democracy."

How will Beijing react? Either defiant denial or gaslighting?

Liberal Leadership Race is On

Carney, Freeland and Gould are the frontrunners in the race

There are seven people running to replace Justin Trudeau as the leader of the Liberal Party of Canada. They submitted their nominations with along with signatures of 300 card-carrying Liberals and C$50,000 deposit by Thursday 5pm EST.

Out in front is Mark Carney, a former Bank of Canada governor who has the support of several Liberal ministers like Melanie Joly and Francois-Philippe Champagne. Carney has no political experience, but knows how to handle the economy.

Close behind is former deputy leader and finance minister Chrystia Freeland who is trying to position herself as an outsider as she resigned abruptly last month, but she was under Trudeau for so long that people won't forget that.

An unfamiliar face is Karina Gould, the former House leader, but doesn't have much name recognition.

And then there are others who are outsiders:

Jaime Battiste is the first Indigenous candidate to run for the Liberal leadership. He is currently an MP representing a riding in Nova Scotia.

The others are Chandra Arya, Frank Baylis, and Ruby Dahlla, who is a former Liberal MP.

They don't have long to make a name for themselves, which makes it much easier for the frontrunners.

However the risk is that whoever becomes the leader will be the shortest sitting prime minister as the Conservatives and the New Democrats have promised a vote of no confidence in the Liberals, which would result in a general election... 

Canada on Edge as Trump Becomes President

The cold weather forced the inauguration to move inside

In less than 12 hours, Donald Trump will be sworn in as the President of the United States in the Rotunda in Capitol Hill, and across the border Canadians are on edge, wondering if he will go ahead with his threat of imposing a 25 percent tariff on all goods coming into the US.

It doesn't help when the Canadian Prime Minister has resigned, leaving the Liberal Party in disarray. There are a few people who have thrown their hats into the ring -- former Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney and former deputy PM Chrystia Freeland are the front runners, and tagging far behind is Government House Leader Karina Gold.

Trump is threatening tariffs on Canadian goods

Who is the best person to first of all, stand up to Trump, and then second, win the next federal election?

Meanwhile the premiers of Canada's provinces and territories are scrambling for a united response. They gathered in Ottawa to discuss this with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, but Alberta's Premier Danielle Smith refused to sign the joint statement on a plan to respond to Trump's tariff threats.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford was disappointed Smith was not taking the "Team Canada" approach of having a united response, and instead only concerned about her province.

"That is her choice. But I have a little different theory that when protecting jurisdiction, the country comes first. Canada is the priority... When the tariffs come, it's going to affect Albertans, it's going to affect people from BC, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Ontario, all the way down the road. No one's exempt from that," said Ford.

"[Donald Trump] is sitting there with a big smile on his face thinking, 'Wow, I'm going to divide and conquer.' Remember one thing: united we stand, divided we fall."

Indeed he is right. Trump probably is grinning and rubbing his hands together, pleased at how he has made his northern neighbour terrified and scrambling to come up with a plan, but not everyone is on board. He loves making people squirm.

We can only wait in the next few hours to see what Trump says in his inauguration speech. 

Brace yourselves for a wild four years with a convicted felon in the White House.

Trudeau Finally Resigns

Trudeau giving his speech to reporters this morning in Ottawa

Finally this morning Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced he would step down. 

There was a flurry of excitement on CBC Radio, where a network special would start at 7am Pacific -- no -- at 7.30am Pacific. 

They cut into the morning show to bring Trudeau live from outside his Rideau Cottage, still decked in holiday decorations.

He looked hurt (and maybe cold?) when he explained "internal battles" had made it impossible for him to lead the Liberals in the next election, while also blaming the polarisation in the legislature for not being able to get bills passed.

Just having turned 53 on Christmas Day, Trudeau probably wanted a better celebration, but there was too much pressure mounting on all sides. Inside the Liberal Party there were already calls for Trudeau to resign, but he seemed to ignore the writing on the wall until his deputy and finance minister Chrystia Freeland abruptly quit last month, citing she did not agree with the direction he was taking the country.

Trudeau has also been facing a lot of heat from Conservative opposition leader Pierre Poilievre, who constantly chided him with snarky soundbites, and then New Democrat Jagmeet Singh finally said his party was no longer propping up the Liberals anymore -- the Liberals were on their own.

There was also pressure from across the border from US President-elect Donald Trump, calling Trudeau the "governor" of the "51st state", despite the Canadian leader paying at least two visits to Mar-a-Lago to see if there was any chance of talking down Trump from the 25 percent tariffs.

So yes, Trudeau was dealing with a lot of heat on all sides.

"Removing me from the equation as the leader who will fight the next election for the Liberal Party should also decrease the level of polarisation that we're seeing right now in the House and in Canadian politics," he said, "and allow people to actually focus on serving Canadians in this House and with their work, the way Canadians deserve," he said at one point in his speech.

Trudeau's announcement garnered a lot of interest from friends and relatives from San Francisco to Singapore, wondering what my take was on him resigning.

In 2015 we visited Halifax and we bumped into someone was campaigning for him. They hoped he would beat then Prime Minister Stephen Harper and I said, "I sure hope so!"

And he did, but then his majority kept shrinking with each election.

I knew Trudeau would be a lightweight, but he managed to hold his own for almost 10 years. However, he wasn't able to handle curveballs well, like the Meng Wanzhou case that was intertwined with the two Michaels. Trudeau later tried to stand up to Xi Jinping but instead was ridiculed in Chinese state media. 

There were later revelations of Chinese interference in the Canadian elections, and the strange case of Chinese police stations in the country that raised a lot of eyebrows. Not much has happened since the revelations, while other countries have kicked out these police stations.

Hopefully the next leader will take the opportunity to really clean house and get rid of any potential interference by Chinese and Indian state actors. Canada does not need these influences in politics or society.

Another misstep was immigration; the Trudeau government had announced there would be up to 500,000 immigrants let into the country annually which left Canadians flabbergasted -- how could so many be invited to come when they themselves didn't have jobs or places to live. 

The government later backtracked on its numbers, but it was too late -- anti-immigrant sentiment had already set in, not just by native-born Canadians, but also first and second generation immigrants who had benefited from Trudeau's father's immigration policies.

Despite Freeland's ambitions to become the next Liberal leader, her chances are slim because of her long association with Trudeau. While no one has officially thrown their hat into the ring, former Bank fo Canada governor Mark Carney has expressed interest, and same with former BC Premier Christy Clark.

Whoever is chosen by March 24 will have a tough road ahead dealing with not only Trump, but also the possibility of Canadian opposition parties calling a non-confidence vote in the House that could precipitate into an election.

The best case scenario would be a Conservative minority government to keep Poilievre in check. We don't want the CBC defunded, but we do want the budget managed... Trudeau's frivolous spending days are over.

 

Trudeau's Days are Numbered

Trudeau doesn't have much time to ponder his future

The federal Liberals are in complete disarray after the shock resignation of finance minster and deputy leader Chrystia Freeland this morning.

This evening Prime Minister Justin Trudeau held a caucus meeting in Ottawa where 15 MPs spoke up and many of them advised him to resign.

He said he would consider their concerns and reflect on them in the next few days.

Freeland quit before the economic statement

But Trudeau may not have days as the calls for him to step down are getting louder and louder.

Freeland announced she was quitting this morning in a public letter to Trudeau that she posted on X, formerly known as Twitter.

At that time reporters were about to go into a lock-up to read over her much anticipated economic statement when they found out she had resigned.

No one in the party knew who was the next finance minister and for hours radio and TV shows were scrambling to find any information they could about this political bombshell that exploded in Trudeau's face.

He did this to himself -- according to Freeland's letter, Trudeau had told her she would be shuffled out of the finance minister position, but could you present the economic statement anyway?

She also claimed that she disagreed with his "political gimmicks", such as scrapping the GST for two months on certain items, and C$250 rebate cheques for specific income groups. 

Trudeau in the closed caucus meeting tonight

There's also the fact that the economic statement revealed Canada is C$61.9 billion in the hole, not the C$40 billion she had promised before.

Nevertheless, Freeland has still left the door open to jump into a leadership race because she is still sitting as an MP.

Political pundits think that while Freeland is trying to distance herself from Trudeau, she has been in his cabinet for so long that she will still have to take the blame for what happened, and she doesn't have much integrity left.

Some felt she didn't communicate policies well, while others thought she was very hard working and personable.

Regardless, the main question now is when Trudeau is going to step down and let the Liberal Party choose its next leader. He thinks he performs better when his back is against the wall, but voters are tired of having a prime minister who is out of touch with people and want someone else to take the reins.

However, the alternatives aren't that appealing either, though the Conservatives under Pierre Poilieve are poised to win the next election which could be called soon.

Already President-elect Donald Trump has weighed in on today's flurry of events.

On his social media platform he wrote: "The Great State of Canada is stunned as the Finance Minister resigns, or was fired, from her position by Governor Justin Trudeau. Her behavior was totally toxic, and not at all conducive to making deals which are good for the very unhappy citizens of Canada. She will not be missed!!!"