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The federal budget is usually delivered before the start of the new fiscal year on April 1.

This year might be an exception. No date has been announced and the uncertainty created by the coronavirus means it might be a good idea if Bill Morneau saves his breath to cool his porridge.

Former finance minister John Manley said on CTV Power Play that he would be inclined to delay the budget until we have a better sense of how severe the impact of the virus is going to be.

When it comes, it may bear little resemblance to the spending plan Morneau thought he was going to deliver. The first emergency rate cut by the U.S. Federal Reserve since the financial crisis is a stark reminder of the risks the virus poses to economic activity.

But unless Morneau needs to act to avert a meltdown, the expectation is that the budget will be more transitional than transformative.

The finance minister does not have much fiscal room, given the deficit is already forecast to come in at $26.6 billion this year.

Veteran Liberal MP Wayne Easter said that the budget recommendations made by members of the finance committee he chairs were conscious of Morneaus spending constraints. Everybody well, most tried to avoid big ticket items, he said.

The finance committees pre-budget report, tabled last week, is generally a good barometer of government thinking, even in a minority parliament.

It was telling that the first piece of advice the committee gave to the finance minister was that he adopt the recommendations of the expert panel on sustainable finance, which delivered a report that landed on cats paws last summer and has scarcely been mentioned since.

However, it sounds as if the report has been lifted off the dusty shelves in the Department of Finance and will form the narrative backbone for a budget that talks about the co-operation between government and financial institutions to fight climate change.

The Liberals asked former senior deputy governor of the Bank of Canada, Tiff Macklem, Royal Bank director, Andy Chisholm, Caisse de dpot et placement du Qubec executive vice-president, Kim Thomassin, and Ontario Teachers Pension Plan chief risk and strategy officer, Barbara Zvan, to make suggestions on policies that might encourage the financing of innovation, clean electricity, building retro-fits and climate-resistant infrastructure.

Many recommendations were perfect for Morneau green initiatives that sound modern and transitional but dont have major spending implications

It will be a major surprise if Morneau does not follow up on a number of their suggestions.

The thrust of the report is that the climate change debate should be presented as an opportunity, rather than a burden.

The government should provide more clarity about the capital investments that are needed to meet Canadas 2030 emissions targets and the role it sees for the private sector, the authors said. The report cited the U.K.s offshore wind market as an example of a government articulating a long-term policy framework and working with industry to achieve its goals. The British government identified a market and targeted barriers to offshore development, established institutions to foster the technology and designed a capacity auction for the power generated. The result is that the U.K. now hosts 40 per cent of globally installed capacity.

Another report recommendation urged government to create financial incentives to encourage Canadians to invest in climate conscious financial products through registered savings plans and defined contribution pension plans.

There were a suite of technical recommendations, such as the call to clarify the scope of fiduciary duty in terms of climate change governments and corporations have been sued for having taken insufficient action to mitigate or adapt to climate incidents.

Many of the recommendations were perfect for Morneau green initiatives that sound modern and transitional but dont have major spending implications.

But the report was less inspiring when it came to suggestions to transform the oil and gas sector into a low-emissions industry.

Its footprint puts high-intensity segments at heightened risk of market displacement in sustainability-conscious markets, the authors said.

That has become apparent, as the drive towards sustainable finance that the reports authors are cheerleading has seen some of the worlds largest financial institutions pull out of oil production in Alberta.

As the panel pointed out, the trend toward capital flight has been exacerbated by perceptions of regulatory uncertainty, high compliance costs and long lead times, with the result capital spending in the oilsands in 2018 was only one third the investment level of 2014.

The report might perhaps have made some recommendations to address the political factors at play but instead it focused on variations of clean technology solutions that are already being attempted such as the Clean Resources Innovation Network, a group of resource industry professionals and academics trying to accelerate commercialization of low-carbon technology.

It all sounds like so much lip-service.

Not that Morneau will be worried unduly. This government wants to be seen to be supporting the oil and natural gas sector but were market-displacement to take place, then no great mischief.

For the government of a country that may be on the brink of recession to shrug its shoulders at the demise of its largest export industry more than twice the value of auto shipments and three times that of base metals does not suggest stellar leadership, particularly when the integrity of the country itself may be at stake.

Email: jivison@postmedia.com | Twitter:

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John Ivison: With Canada facing possible recession, Liberals can't afford to shrug off the oilsands - National Post

Todays liberals offer the security of socialism to young Americans, but there isnt enough money on the planet to deliver what they promise, the chairman of theAmerican Conservative Union said Thursday before a huge gathering of conservative activists.

Maybe it was fuzzy math, but the intention was that well hold onto these resources to give you something when you need it, Matt Schlapp said at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference, referring to Democrats New Deal programs instituted in the 1930s.

What theyre talking about today is Nobody pays anything, except the rich, Schlapp said. By the way, the rich are all of you. Anyone with a job is rich. The rich will take care of providing freebies for everyone.

Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, joined Schlapp for a discussion covering socialism, the modern Democratic Party, and the state of Donald Trumps presidency to open CPAC, which Schlapps organization puts together each year.

Brian Kilmeade, co-host of Fox News Channels Fox & Friends, acted as moderator for the segment called E Pluribus Out of Many, What?

Nowhere in the Constitution, Lee said, is the federal government empowered to give everything to the nations citizens, much less illegal immigrants.

The problem with that is a government that promises to provide everything for you can take everything away from you, Lee said.

Lee said he was skeptical at first that Trump is a true conservative, noting that he was one of the latest on the Trump train.

His doubt went away as soon as Trump took office in January 2017, Lee said, as the presidents economic, social, and foreign policies demonstrated his commitment to conservatism.

Lee said Trumps greatest achievements include moving the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem; fighting to repeal Obamacare; cutting taxes and delivering meaningful tax relief to middle-class workers; slashing government regulations to revive business; restoring the separation of powers; and seating almost 200 new federal judges, including Supreme Court Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh.

This conservative approach is vastly different than the large-scale changes that todays liberals and socialists aim to make, Schlapp said.

What Bernie Sanders and the rest of these people including Barack Obama, lets not let Barack Obama off the listsay is they want to transform America, Schlapp said. They didnt say they want to improve America. They didnt say they wanted to clean America up a little bit. They said they want to fundamentally change America.

Besides existing entitlement programs such as Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security, he said, liberals advocate free government programs such as preschool and tax credits for the energy industry, as if the money didnt come from taxpayers.

The Democratic Party increasingly has unmasked itself as socialist, Lee said. Democrats used to avoid the moniker like the plague, he said, but many now embrace what they really are.

I think that brings heat to the moment, he said.

CPAC, the largest annual national gathering of conservative activists, runs Thursday through Saturday at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland, just outside Washington.

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Conservatives Skewer the Socialist Policies of Today's Liberals - Daily Signal

Israel held its third election in a year yesterday and once again the right wing is on top. Netanyahu won a large plurality though he is indicted and about to go on trial on corruption charges. The new left bloc of three parties including Labor and Meretz got all of seven seats.

There is now just one address for liberal and leftwing politics in Israel: the Joint List of Palestinian parties, the third largest vote getter with a whopping 15 seats, up from 10 last April. It is said that the Palestinian parties drew Jewish voters. That is something the Joint List wanted: Joint List for a Joint future!

There is no real resistance to policies of annexation and apartheid except from the Joint List. Netanyahus chief rival, Benny Gantz, hurt himself among Jewish voters by suggesting and then withdrawing the possibility that he could form a government with the help of the Palestinian parties (Oren Kessler said on i24 News just now). While Trumps peace plan, which cements apartheid, was supported by Gantzs party and Netanyahus: so an overwhelming percentage of Jewish parliamentarians over 90 by my count back the destruction of plans to divide the land and measures to annex portions of Judea and Samaria.

Lets be clear about what we see in Israel. This is a Jewish democracy, the advancement Israels supporters in the U.S. are constantly crowing about. It is a country where the worst fears of Arabs are stoked by politicians, even as the government ethnically cleanses Palestinians. It is a country where any Jewish politician who says he is going to work with Palestinians is quickly marginalized.

Likud ad shows Benny Gantz sitting with Palestinian politicians Ayman Odeh and Ahmad Tibi. March 2020. From Netanyahus twitter feed. That image was followed by the one below.

Likud ad shows an Israeli voter reacting to the possibility of Benny Gantz making a political coalition with Palestinian politicians Ayman Odeh and Ahmad Tibi. March 2020. From Netanyahus twitter feed.

The Jewish democracy demonstrates just what liberals and lefties always warned you about nationalism. It is intolerant and racist and paranoid and blindered and fascistic, it builds a security state armed to the teeth against multiple enemies. And three elections inside a year in Israel offer indelible proof that This is what Jewish nationalists want. A society governed by an authoritarian leader, no matter how corrupt. Just so long as there are no Arabs anywhere near power.

Saeb Erekat, the Palestinian leader, said the election was a victory for annexation and apartheid, and Yossi Alpher at Americans for Peace Now says thats the sad math of the Israeli electorate:

Gantz stumbled. He knew a large majority of Israeli Jews were enthusiastic about Trump and his policies. A dove at heart, Gantz tried to persuade voters that he, like Netanyahu, would annex territories, but only after consultation with the international community. Too many potential Gantz supporters got the message: when the smoke clears, he wont really annex because the international community and the Arab world have made it clear that they vigorously oppose annexation.

By the same token, Netanyahu repeatedly hammered away with the argument that without the Joint Arab List, Gantz would have no coalition and that the Arab MKs are a traitorous fifth column. Gantz denied unconvincingly that he would need the support of Arab MKs. Yet he could never point to alternative support Anti-Arab voters did the math.

This political trendline has been in place for 50 years now, since the 1967 war at least: The secular social democrats who founded the state (Labor Zionists) have lost out to the right wing of Revisionist Zionists. Even Meretz cast its Palestinian Knesset member overboard to run this time, in that three-way left coalition that included a rightleaning leader.

The definition of insanity is said to be ignoring the same result when it happens again and again, and we must ask all liberal Zionists: What is your vision of a Jewish democracy? How will it come about?

For years now liberal Zionist organizations have been working against Netanyahu, to their credit; and what do they have to show for it? As a panel at AIPACs policy conference said yesterday, Israeli voters dont care what American Jews have to say about their elections. No, because in the end those American Jews have been completely docile, supporting the Jewish democracy no matter how xenophobic, murderous, and discriminatory. Even liberal Zionist organizations have embraced extravagant aid to Israel and bipartisan political support for Israel and condemned the nonviolent boycott movement as antisemitic. With that sort of acceptance, why would Israelis ever care about some mild demurrals?

Last nights election is yet another wakeup call to American progressives There is only one way forward for a true left/liberal democrat. To recognize that the only hopeful signs in Israeli society come from the Palestinian politicians. They are the leaders who envision a pluralistic society and who hate Jim Crow. They head the third largest party and who knows what they could become if only non-Jews were allowed to vote in territories where Israel is sovereign?

There is a small price to pay for such a political alliance. To stick the idea of Jewish democracy in the dustbin of history.

H/t Scott Roth and James North.

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Two words that strike terror into a liberals heart: Jewish democracy - Mondoweiss

RO Socialists narrow the gap on the Liberals after bringing down the Govt.

Romanias National Liberal Party (PNL), which still operates the acting Government and will seek confirmation from lawmakers for another cabinet, has lost ground in the latest electoral poll conducted by polling agency IMAS at the request of Europa FM radio station.

PNL had a score of 40.7% in February, down from 47.4% in January, according to the Europa FM Barometer compiled by IMAS.

After having constantly strengthened its voters support over the past year, the party that came to rule in November to be overthrown three months later is now experiencing a decline that takes it to exactly the level it was before settling in Victoria Palace in November, Europa FM comments.

In contrast, the former ruling party - the Social Democratic Party (PSD) saw its score increase from 20.6% to 25.8%.

The developments are likely related to the dismissal of the Liberal cabinet led by Ludovic Orban following a no-confidence motion filed by PSD, at the beginning of February.

Save Romania Union (USR), the third-largest party in terms of voters' preferences, plunged to only 10% from 12.4% in January and a maximum of over 21% in July 2019.

If parliamentary elections were to take place next Sunday, none of the other parties would pass the electoral threshold of 5%.

Pro Romania, the party of former PM Victor Ponta is at 4.6%, UDMR has a score of 4.4%, ALDE - 4.3%, Plus (USRs alliance partner) - 3.5%.

One in five voters remains undecided while 4.4% of those surveyed said they would not go to vote.

The survey was conducted by IMAS between February 11 and 28, on a sample of 1,010 people and has a margin for error of 3.1%.

(Photo: Pixabay)

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RO Socialists narrow the gap on the Liberals after bringing down the Govt. - Romania-Insider.com

Perhaps Canadas soon-to-be-former leader of the opposition shouldnt have waited so long to unleash his inner Scheer.

For much of his term as Conservative leader, Andrew Scheer struggled to establish an identity. For a time he seemed just too chipper to take seriously. People appreciate good manners, but Scheers chipmunk grin didnt exactly reek of gravitas. Once the election drew near he shifted to attack mode, veering at times into insult. The change did little to help decide what to make of the Tory leader.

Maybe the knowledge that his remaining time is limited has set Scheer free. As the Liberals twist and turn in Parliament in the face of cascading dilemmas, Scheer has enthusiastically unloaded on the government with a mix of invective and scorn. Justin Trudeaus verbal response to Indigenous blockades was weak, weak, weak, weak, he said, a word salad that pandered to a small group of radical activists.

Maybe the knowledge that his remaining time is limited has set Scheer free

Dialogue is not going to pay the bills for people who are facing layoffs because of people breaking the law who have no connection to the Wetsuweten First Nation, he charged, so upsetting the prime minister that he refused to let him attend a meeting with other opposition leaders.

If that bothered Scheer, it didnt slow him down. He drew protests in his hometown of Regina for suggesting protesters check their privilege and let other people do their jobs. He blamed Teck Resources decision to cancel a mega-project squarely on Trudeau, issuing a statement claiming the prime minister was afraid of his own caucus.

The prime ministers weakness over the last few weeks has sent a signal to businesses across Canada that the rule of law will not be upheld, court injunctions will not be enforced and major projects cannot get built, it said.

He even took a swipe at the CBC for posting an article criticizing a kids TV program for being insufficiently anti-capitalist. Why is the CBC acting like capitalism is a bad thing? he tweeted. Kooky college professors are nothing new, he said, but the CBC should leave the left-wing bias out of its coverage.

Is this a man who, after spending an entire campaign refusing to clarify his views on abortion and same-sex marriage, finally feels able to drop his guard and express himself? The timing may be bad for his career, but good for his party: a Nanos poll shows Conservatives have passed Liberals in popular support, widening the gap that saw the Tories win the popular vote while losing the October election.

Of course, its not all about Scheer. The growth of discontent results mainly from the prolonged confrontation with Indigenous groups over rail blockades, and the perception of a government flailing about forlornly for answers on a number of fronts. Though Teck abandoned its project before the Liberals had to render judgment on it, divisions within the government were obvious. While other countries managed to evacuate citizens from China over the Wuhan virus, Canada couldnt seem to find anyone willing to let it land a plane. And after defending his actions in the SNC-Lavalin scandal by decrying the danger of foreign ownership, the prime minister seemed notably unvexed when Bombardier, another supposed Quebec industrial gem, sold off its rail operations to a French firm.

In any event, its rich pickings for opponents, and Erin OToole, for one, seems intent on embracing Scheers approach as he beats the bushes for support in the race to succeed him. OToole has been all fire and brimstone in the conflict over blockades. Intimidation and physically preventing people from going about their lives is different (from peaceful protest), he asserted. It is a form of common law assault and should, in the appropriate situations, be treated as such.

An OToole government would identify major railways, ports, highways and bridges as critical national infrastructure and introduce a Freedom of Movement Act making it a criminal offence to block a railway, airport, port, or major road, or to block the entrance to a business or household in a way that prevents people from lawfully entering or leaving.

OTooles main rival, Peter MacKay, has been more circumspect, seemingly following the dictum that its never wise to interrupt an opponent, in this case Trudeau, when hes in the middle of making a mistake. Given the extent of the governments troubles, both men, and others in the contest, should be champing at the bit to get the leadership question settled and turn their attention to a government that fumbled away its majority and now seems intent on botching its minority as well. After the October election there were suggestions Trudeau would have a year or two before once again facing voters, but this is a wounded government that would be eminently vulnerable to a competent opposition. The challenge for the Tories will be to prove theyre up to it, and soon. The Liberals may not go on defeating themselves forever.

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Kelly McParland: Hurry up, Tories. The Liberals won't keep defeating themselves forever - National Post