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On Tuesday, as the inflation debate that consumed question period this spring ground on for another day, interim Conservative leader Candice Bergen and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland got into an argument overwhich of them was "out of touch."

Brandishing a new survey that suggests a quarter of Canadians have been eating less because of the cost of food, Bergen asked whether the Liberal government was ready to agree with the Conservative Party's suggestions for easing some of the increased costs currently facingCanadians.

In response, Freeland pointed to the ways in which the spring budget enhanced support for Canadians: an expansion of the Canada Worker Benefit, an increase in Old Age Security and a one-time increase of $500 in the Canada Housing Benefit.

Bergendismissed such measures as "a few piddly cheques" that "might dribble in through the mail."

"The Liberals are so massively out of touch that they do not understand gas prices, they do not understand high food prices and they do not understand long lineups," Bergen said. "They understand nothing about what Canadians are dealing with and they do not care."

Bergen had overplayed her hand.Freeland made sure everyone noticed.

"Mr. Speaker, what is out of touch is for someone who lives in government accommodation to suggest that a cheque for $2,300 for a family of three working at minimum wage is 'piddly'," Freeland said, referring to the workers' benefit.

That was a rare opportunity for the Liberals to play offence in a spring sitting during which they have faced and have largely resisted incessant calls to do something in direct response to inflation and the increased cost of living.

With just two weeks left before the House of Commons is set to adjourn for the summer, it is exceedingly unlikely the Liberals will respondto those calls before the fall.

But if inflation is still running hotwhen the House of Commons returns, the Liberals might be compelled to do something more. That could look like another cheque, "piddly" or otherwise.

The Liberals have argued not unreasonably that recent inflation is a global phenomenon, driven largely by the pandemic and Russia's attack on Ukraine. In responseto concerns about the cost of living, they have pointed to long-term actions like expanded access to cheaper child care and new plans for subsidized daycare.

Of course, theBank of Canada is also taking stepsto tamp down inflation, largely through higher interest rates.

But knowing that COVID-19 and Vladimir Putin are to blame mightnot make it much easier for voters toaccept higher gas prices and it is on that very tangibleissue that the Conservatives have focused their efforts.

A motionthe Conservatives put before the House on Tuesday called on the government to suspend the application of the GST on gas and diesel sales and to suspend the carbon tax. A few provinces including Alberta and Ontario have moved already to cut their gas taxes.

The political purposeof those tax cuts is obvious. Their practical utility is debatable.Higher-income households tend to consume more fuel, so a cut in the taxes on gas is likely to disproportionately benefit people who are already in a better position to deal with rising costs.

Calls to suspend or cancel the carbon tax tend to sidestep the fact that almost all of the revenue from the levy is returned to households. Middle and lower-income households tendto receive more in carbon tax rebates than they pay out in direct costs. (Areport by the Parliamentary Budget Officer in March that included larger economic costs offered a slightly different picture, though that analysis has been challenged).

And curtailing action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in order to address inflation would only trade one problem for another.

Surprising no one, the Conservative motion was defeated on Tuesday night, with Liberals, New Democrats and Bloc Qubcois MPs voting against.

Touting the same survey that Bergen citedon Tuesday, NDPLeader Jagmeet Singh reminded Freeland that New Democrats have suggestedimposingan "excess profits tax" on oil and gas companies and using that money to double the GST rebate and increase the Canada Child Benefit by $500.

Here is where the Liberals could find something they can workwith if they decide that more needs to be done.

"If I were thinking about relief ... Iwould focus on families who are struggling to make ends meet, which would not be a price solution, it would be an income solution, which would be, potentially, some targeted income transfers ... to help people who are struggling to literally put food on the table," said Kevin Milligan, an economist at the University of British Columbia. (Milligan was seconded to the federal Privy Council Office from June 2020 to April 2021.)

Liberals will note that both the Canada Child Benefit (CCB)and the GST rebate are indexed to inflation already.

But unlike a broad tax cut, doubling the GST rebate would be "much more targeted and provide a much stronger impact for people that are hit hardest because they spend more of their income buying things and therefore the impact of inflation is larger on them," said David Macdonald, an economist at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.

Milligan said that a large and widespread boost in income support could be counterproductive if it served to fuelinflation, but the GST rebate and the CCB are targetednarrowly enough to avoid that kind of larger economic effect.

In a series of tweets on Tuesday evening, hours before the Conservative motion was formally defeated, Freeland listed various ways that existing federal policy can help "mitigate" the impact of inflation.

There might be an argument for waiting to see whether further action on inflationis strictly necessary. Governments are not obliged to jump every time an opposition party demands it. Doing something just to be able to say you did something is not always the wisest course.

But waiting to act also carries risk. Becauseif the Liberals do boosttheCCBor theGSTrebate this fall, the first question from opposition parties and perhaps some voters will be why they didn'tdo it sooner.

View original post here:
The Liberals could do more to tackle inflation but that's now a question for the fall - CBC News

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Its easy to imagine the main reason Liberal leadership doesnt want to back off is they dont want to be seen agreeing with those proto-human Conservatives

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Ask a Canadian politics-watcher what question period is for as a novice very well might, confused at the simian behaviour and total absence of answers and youll hear that its really just a way to get politicians on the record, riled up and passionate about the issues of the day, for the evenings newscasts.

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Some days that holds water. Some days, not so much. Thursday, for example.

Mr. Speaker, the EU and U.S. have dropped their (vaccine) mandates, while Canadian travellers still have to provide proof of vaccination, wear masks and be subject to random testing, Calgary Conservative MP Stephanie Kusie rose in the House of Commons and observed. Canadians want to travel again, but the backlogs created by these now unnecessary restrictions have become so extensive that Air Canada had to cancel 360 flights in one week at Torontos Pearson airport.

When, asked Kusie, will the government finally focus on economic recovery and lift these out-of-date, punitive travel mandates?

As question period questions go, it was relatively to the point, un-snarky and well-crafted. There is no denying the chaos afflicting Torontos Pearson Airport these days, and while thats not unique in the world the situation in Britain seems to be considerably worse and crippling more airports the extra business that Canadian border officers have to deal with nowadays is.

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Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester and other British airports endless queues and cancelled flights are being blamed almost entirely on staff shortages. Here, the entire airline and airport industry, as well as Canada Border Services, agrees the Canadian travel mandates are gumming up the gears: What used to take 30 to 60 seconds now takes two to three minutes. Those delays add up, and they cascade through the system.

I would be lying if I said I understood why these rules have to be such a time-waster. The ArriveCAN app signals in the blink of an eye whether or not your proof of vaccination has been accepted. If border officials are spending precious minutes informing foreign tourists of local public-health rules, such as what to do if they test positive, that must be of questionable utility: I live in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and I dont even know what my various governments rules say nowadays. Whatever they say, they clearly are not enforced.

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As for that random on-arrival testing, which Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Theresa Tam defended Friday as a way to detect new variants theres no reason that should delay even for a second anyone who isnt selected for it.

But in any event, the problem exists. The federal government admits it. (Only three per cent of all passengers at Pearson and Vancouver International Airport are now waiting more than 30 minutes in line, Transport Canadaclaimed in a press releasethis week, which may be true, but is transparent statistical tomfoolery: Why combine Vancouver, which has escaped this problem relatively unscathed, with Pearson, which is Chaos Central, except to downplay the chaos?)

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Surely by now we all understand that were not going to stop COVID at the border. And using mandates as a shove to get people vaccinated, which was defensible in my view, has surely run its course: Daily second-dose delivery nationwide averaged out at just under 500,000 in June last year. As of Thursday, the number was just 1,100.

Punitive, the word Kusie used, seems very apropos and not just to travellers, but to a struggling industry. I might well already have booked a flight to London this summer were it not for the horror stories in the British press of people being told not to arrive more than three hours before their flights, only to find five-hour queues on arrival. No thank you. Others may well be thinking the same about Toronto and Canada in general.

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Adam van Koeverden, parliamentary secretary to Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos, rose to answer Kusies questions. Or rather, not.

Mr. Speaker, let me first start by thanking our health-care workers who have sacrificed so much over the last couple of years, he began. Vaccines remain an important tool in stopping the spread of COVID-19 and variants, he added later. At no point before grinning, adjusting his bow tie and taking his seat with a distinct air of triumph did he come anywhere near answering the question.

Clip that for the nightly news and non-partisan Canadians with a wanderlust are likely to see a government thats simply contemptuous of their concerns. Indeed, there arereportsthat a huge number of Liberal MPs are getting tired of this situation, and would prefer to see Ottawa back off on these restrictions, like most of our peer nations. So unserious is this government that its easy to imagine the main reason party leadership doesnt want to back off is that they dont want to be seen agreeing with those proto-human Conservatives.

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Luckily, as a fallback, they can turn on their heel just before a summer weekend. News broke Friday afternoon that the feds would temporarily suspend random on-arrival testing which Tam had soberly defended as essential just that morning until it could be re-established off-site. It is a direct admission that their critics are right: Liberal policies are clogging up Canadas biggest airport for an inessential reason.

Such is the glorious life of a Liberal: You can make as big a scene as you want defending the indefensible until the exact moment that you change your mind, and never have to answer for it. Why people would vote for a party with such a bloody terrible attitude toward Canadas hoi polloi is a question scientists and public health officials have not yet been able to answer.

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Chris Selley: It's possible the Liberals are now just punishing air travellers out of spite - National Post

Nupur Sharmas comments against Prophet Mohammed brought condemnation from many Islamic countries, forcing the BJP to suspend its national spokesperson

Nupur Sharmas comments against Prophet Mohammed brought condemnation from many Islamic countries, forcing the BJP to suspend its national spokesperson

BJP MP and former cricketer Gautam Gambhir on Sunday extended support to suspended party leader Nupur Sharma against threats to her following her insulting remarks against Prophet Mohammad, and hit out at "secular liberals" for their "silence".

He tweeted, "Silence of so called 'secular liberals' on the sickening display of hatred & death threats throughout the country against a woman who has apologised is surely deafening."

People belonging to Muslim community, holding placards, stage a protest over the controversial remarks by two now-suspended BJP leaders against Prophet Mohammad, after the Friday prayers at Jama Masjid, in New Delhion June 10, 2022.| Photo Credit: PTI

Ms. Sharma's remarks made in a TV debate last month had drawn condemnation from many Islamic countries and sparked protests from Muslims in different parts of India.

The BJP had suspended her in its bid to defuse the row which, however, continues to simmer, with some extremists issuing death threats to her. An AIMIM MP, Imtiaz Jaleel, recently demanded that she be hanged.

Continued here:
Gautam Gambhir targets 'secular liberals' for silence on threats to Nupur Sharma - The Hindu

The WA Liberal Party has pledged to change in the wake of the party's disastrous federal poll results that followed years of poor performance at the state level.

Among the changes announced was reform to the preselection process for candidates, which comes after a leaked review of the party's membership records in WAthat revealed apparent branch stacking and manipulation.

The report identified multiple party memberships being paid for using a single credit card as a widespread issue, with 29 credit cards on file funding more than 10 memberships each.

In one instance, a single card was used for 66 transactions.

WA Liberal Party president Richard Wilson said the proposed changes would help address the issues raised in the review by putting the control in the hands of many instead of just a few.

"The reforms we discussedwere a broad range of constitutional and rule changes that will ensure that the rules can be updated to enfranchise every member of the Liberal Party having a vote in their local preselection," he said.

The pledge to change came after a closed door State Council meeting, the party's first since the federal election that saw significant swings away from the Liberals in what had traditionally been blue-ribbon heartland.

And it is no better at a state level in fact, it is much worse with the Liberals barely existing.

The party held on to just two lower house seats in the 2021 election, forcing them to hand leadership of the opposition to the Nationals.

Given these poor performances at the polls at both the state and federal level, the Liberals appearmotivated to demonstrate change was possible.

"We need to demonstrate to the Australian public that we are a party that is modern and that we can reform ourselves and make ourselves more electable in the future," federal shadow defence minister Andrew Hastie said following the meeting on Saturday.

WA Liberal Party leader David Honey said he hoped the reforms would not only send a message to members, but to all West Australians.

"We have to have the affairs of the party in good order and the community has to see that the party is managing itself well," Dr Honey said.

It understood the party's state executive also indicated theirintention to raise a complaint about Perth property developer, Nigel Satterley.

The Liberal member has been a vocal critic of the party's direction and the perceived influence of religious conservatives.

In a tweet posted last month, Mr Satterley was scathing of the party's recent poor performances, again pointing towards issues with 'The Clan'an informal group of conservatives, including former federal finance minister and WA MP Matthias Cormann, upper house MPs Peter Collier and Nick Goiran, and Ian Goodenough, who narrowly retained his seat of Moore.

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In his Tweet, Mr Satterley said, "If the party decides to expel me I will wear it as a badge of honour for someone who, like other well respected liberal members, believes in the core ideals and values of the Liberals that we believe are no longer being represented by powerful interests unwilling to face the current negative trajectory they have created for the party."

WA Premier Mark McGowan condemned the discord within the Liberals.

"They're so heavily factionalised, so outside the mainstream now, they're not really fit for government," he said.

The proposed reforms are set to be debated at the Liberal party's state conference next month.

PostedYesterday at 12:16amSun 12 Jun 2022 at 12:16am, updatedYesterday at 1:19amSun 12 Jun 2022 at 1:19am

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WA Liberals pledge change including a shake-up of the preselection process after election wipe-out - ABC News

Sussan Ley, deputy leader of the Liberal Party and shadow minister for women, has been given a difficult task: bring women voters back to the Liberal Party. This will be no mean feat, given widespread acknowledgement they played a significant role in the Morrison governments defeat.

Ley has assured women that we hear you. She has also promised to travel widely throughout Australia to listen to women.

Ley is a very appropriate choice for the task. She was shadow minister for women in 2007-8. She was also the responsible minister for women in the House of Representatives in the last government, given that the minister for women, Marise Payne, was in the Senate.

Ley identifies as a feminist. She has long argued the Liberals should seriously consider candidate quotas for women a position that Liberal leader Peter Dutton opposes.

Read more: Quotas are not pretty but they work Liberal women should insist on them

Ley is not a conventional Liberal woman politician. Born in Nigeria, she lived part of her early life in the Middle East, where her father worked for British intelligence. After the family migrated to Australia, she embraced punk culture in her youth. Ley also added an extra s to her first name after dabbling in numerology.

She went on to work as an air traffic controller, aerial stock musterer, shearers cook, farmer and for the Australian Tax Office. She holds a bachelor of economics, master of taxation law and master of accounting. She also holds a commercial pilot licence.

Ley has argued her unconventional childhood not only facilitated her diverse career choices but also

helped me accept a lot of differences in people and cultures, and I think its also helped me become less stressed than I might otherwise be about things when theyre completely outside the square.

She may well need that capacity and flexibility when it comes to understanding the nature of the woman problem the Liberals face.

There are parts of the Liberals woman problem that Ley will understand. Unlike Scott Morrison, she would not need Jenny Morrisons advice on how to respond to a woman who alleged they had been raped in Parliament House. Unlike Morrison, she is not influenced by the US religious rights anti-transgender strategies that underlay his electorally disastrous endorsement of Warringah candidate Katherine Deves.

However, unfortunately for Ley, the Liberals woman problem has deeper roots than those more obvious manifestations. It also has roots in the contemporary Liberals economic ideology, particularly their embrace of free markets and reluctance for governments to intervene in the economy.

As I demonstrated in an academic article published earlier this year, the partys woman problem is not due to the Liberals being hostile to gender equality. Recent Coalition governments have introduced some worthwhile gender equality measures, including in the area of domestic violence. The problem is in economic frameworks that limited their gender equality policy.

Read more: Politics with Michelle Grattan: Sussan Ley on being a woman in politics

Liberals tend to believe the market is gender-neutral and could be relied on to improve womens equality. Making the case that gender equality was good for business was seen as the key to ensuring better pay and conditions for women workers.

Consequently, the Morrison government rejected more interventionist equal pay measures such as those introduced by the previous Labor government. Policies targeted at key female-dominated industries were not introduced in the governments pandemic budget measures because of beliefs the market would soon ensure womens employment recovered.

Similarly, the large number of women in precarious work wasnt addressed because this wasnt seen as a result of structural disadvantage in the labour market. Rather, it was argued many women choose to work in casual jobs. Implementing the Respect at Work report recommendation that employers have a positive duty to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment was seen as an unnecessary intervention by government in the private sector.

No wonder many feminists criticised the government for having inadequate policies in regard to women.

Ley was among those who failed to understand the basis of criticisms being made. For example, Labor politicians complained the Morrison government hadnt adequately supported female workers during the pandemic, including those in the childcare industry. Ley replied:

What you hear from the opposition is this long, ongoing, bleak, dreary narrative about entrenched disadvantage. And, you know, its just so last century.

She went on to highlight the opportunities for women in the modern world and the increased choices they would have.

Leys dismissal of the entrenched disadvantage of many women less fortunate than herself is definitely premature. The Australian governments own Workplace Gender Equality Agency provides copious statistics on womens continued unequal position.

Importantly, it wasnt just Labor or the Greens that argued the Morrison governments policies were inadequate in regard to women so did the teal independents who defeated prominent Liberal politicians.

For example, Monique Ryan, who defeated Treasurer Josh Frydenberg, supported implementing all the Respect at Work recommendations. So did Zoe Daniel, who defeated Tim Wilson, and Allegra Spender, who defeated Dave Sharma. All three emphasised the importance of ensuring equal pay for women.

Ryan supported reforming the Fair Work Act to include an equal remuneration objective and stronger gender pay gap reporting provisions. The Liberals had opposed both measures.

The teals support for such measures owes more to social liberalism than neoliberalism. Social liberalism allows for a more active ethical role for government in furthering equal opportunity, while still supporting a strong private sector. Neoliberalism advocates restricting government intervention, particularly in the economy.

Social liberalism played an important role historically in the development of the Liberal Party. However, its influence has been sidelined as the party has become more conservative. So the teals held great appeal for moderate former Liberals who felt the party had lost its way.

Ley seems genuinely puzzled as to why so many women considered the Morrisons governments gender equality policies to be insufficient. The question is whether she can think sufficiently outside of the neoliberal square to hear what they are saying.

More:
Sussan Ley says she is listening to women who rejected the Liberals. But will she hear what they are saying? - The Conversation