Court Painter in a recent portrait sitting with China’s President Xi Jinping ; CP rattled off some quick questions to the president about recent dust ups in the Canadian parliament , stemming from his country’s interference in Canadian electoral affairs.
When asked , President Xi Jinping spontaneously responded by clapping to each query while Court Painter rapidly captured his spontaneity in glowing colour!
President Xi seemed quite pleased with the antics of the Great Dominion’s lower house of the Parliament of Canada …anticipating more…
What did you think of Prime Minister’s Trudeau’s appointment of Donald Johnston as special rapporteur
What did you think of the Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre’s demeaning of Mr. Johnson and his ungoing fasehoods about PM Trudeau’s allegience to the ways of Beijing
What did you think of the opposition parties unanimous call for Johnston’s removal and call for a federal inquiry
What did you think of Mr. Johnson’s rather ignominious resignation
What do you think of Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc announcement on Saturday, asking opposition parties to create their own public inquiry
Media Excerpt
Toronto Star article: Sat., June 10, 2023 : Trudeau’s government wants opposition parties to create their own public inquiry? Good luck with that By Susan Delacourt National Columnist
‘The same political forces that shredded David Johnston — forcing the former governor general’s abrupt resignation on Friday — are being challenged to find a new person to restore Canadians’ faith in their electoral system.
Well, good luck with that.
Basically, Justin Trudeau’s government is borrowing one the cardinal rules of retail to get out of the political mess that has dominated Parliament Hill for months, telling the fractious opposition parties: you broke it, you bought it.
In the coming days, Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc announced on Saturday, opposition parties will be asked to create their own public inquiry into foreign interference in Canada’s democracy, including coming up with names of people to replace Johnston.
“We’re now giving the opposition parties something they’ve asked for … a chance to have input directly into that process, and not simply stand up in question period and demand a public inquiry and not offer any constructive suggestions as to how that might operate,” LeBlanc said.
Of course, there’s another problem here too, one voiced by LeBlanc at his news conference on Saturday.
“Many eminent Canadians will understandably hesitate to step forward to undertake this kind of work when they see what the opposition parties did to the Right Honourable David Johnston,” LeBlanc said. That is probably true.
One of the least satisfactory outcomes of the break-it-you-buy-it-rule is that all the customer ends up with a lighter wallet and a broken piece of merchandise. The buyers’ only real choice is to buy the broken object, as well as another, functional intact one to replace it.
That’s a little bit how this whole foreign interference issue feels after weeks and weeks of high dudgeon, random accusations of disloyalty and a healthy dose of character assassination within the halls of our democracy.
The Johnston process got broken and the only option at this point, it seems, is to invest in another one — and to be a little more careful, a little less reckless with its replacement.