{"id":199,"date":"2021-10-18T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-10-18T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mindofthelost.ca\/?p=199"},"modified":"2021-10-17T19:03:59","modified_gmt":"2021-10-17T19:03:59","slug":"canadian-federal-election-series-part-2-2021-federal-leaders-english-debate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mindofthelost.ca\/?p=199","title":{"rendered":"Canadian Federal Election Series Part 2: 2021 federal leader’s English debate"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Okay, so going into the 2019 federal leaders’ debate, I wanted to make sure I knew what the last one looked like. Coinciding with American politics, I feel like the federal leaders were not the winners of this year\u2019s debate. What I\u2019m referring to is something I\u2019ve seen written by a number of articles, but the top of my mind is an article by the Guardian titled \u201cThe \u2018obvious\u2019 winner of the final debate: Moderator Kristen Welker,\u201d which is referring to the final debate of the American Federal Election, which I didn\u2019t watch this time around (I didn\u2019t read that particular article, just the title). I did watch the Clinton \u2013 Trump gong show, which going into the Canadian leader\u2019s debate that was going on shortly after that, I thought \u201cWell, at least it\u2019s not that<\/em> bad.\u201d This year I didn\u2019t have that frame of reference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This time, I went in looking for two things that I think are the key indicators of where we are in this process of reconciliation (we won\u2019t get into the truth this time around, because we all know politicians are crafty folk): Can these people work together and how do they conceive Indigenous sovereignty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This is a Facebook post by the Downie-Wenjack Fund’s Facebook page on October 17, 2020, shared with me by one of my surrogate grandmothers. Another surrogate family member started a discussion regarding reconciliation. Her concern was that reconciliation is often posed as a thing non-Indigenous people need to do.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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I have not received the person’s permissions to share their words or their identity outside of Facebook, so I only share what I have said.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Before diving into the leaders’ debate, let me explain why those two things are important to me here in terms of politics:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve probably spent more time pondering reconciliation than the average person and it is often on my mind. I was in a bookstore recently, and just looking through the table of contents of Indigenous authors: \u201cReconciliation is Dead\u201d was one of the chapter titles, and this makes me immensely sad, partially because I don\u2019t know what they mean by that, and I don\u2019t have the chance to read more into it much. What I do know is I fundamentally cannot believe that reconciliation is dead, in any way, shape, or form. Why? Because reconciliation is the reconvening of relationships. Overcoming old boundaries to come together to form a new relationship. This means acknowledging that we are not the end-all be-all, that we need others\u2019 strengths to overcome our shortcomings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can our federal leaders do that? This is the third federal election in a row, in which the principal tactic I witnessed for debate was: \u201cCanada election: rivals force Justin Trudeau on to defensive in leaders\u2019 debate\u201d \u2013 The Guardian<\/a>. Well to be fair, the first election that I\u2019m referring to, the campaign between Justin Trudeau (Liberal challenger); Steven Harper (Conservative incumbent); and Thomas Mulcair (NDP opposition leader). That campaign was interesting because it was at a height of NDP power, the entire party being brought up by Jack Layton in the previous campaigns. Thomas Mulcair, to me, was my favorite candidate at the time, but he had one problem: He had an answer to everything. Even when he didn\u2019t know what he was talking about, he insisted he knew what was right.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Justin Trudeau, admitted on the outset (if my memory serves me correctly), that he is working with a brilliant team of expert advisors (and now ministers). Mulcair, if I recall correctly, used this to highlight Trudeau\u2019s inexperience, but in the end, Trudeau won, and here we are for a third election campaign with Trudeau. Why I thought Trudeau won that 2015 election, (partially because nobody wanted another term of Harper but that too is a different story) was because he was willing to collaborate and work with others to lead this country<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Post auto narrative preamble<\/strong>: I watched the whole 2021 debate and the press conference period that followed, and I\u2019m disappointed. The trouble is partisan lines cannot be crossed. Party discipline in Canada is out-fucking-rageous. In the last election, we at least had Elizabeth May to be some sort of voice of reason, this year we had the moderator and the media representatives. There was an exchange near the end between NDP Leader, Jagmeet Singh and Green Leader, Annamie Paul, in which Singh insisted that his party was the only party with an eco-social plan that doesn\u2019t take benefits away, which Paul objected saying something along the lines of \u201cUnless you ghosted me, We\u2019ve got the same plan.\u201d Singh conceded and it was one of the few times I saw the leaders agree on something<\/strong> that wasn\u2019t \u201cTrudeau shouldn\u2019t have called this election\u201d or a more easily summed up sentiment that \u201cTrudeau sucks.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m not here to defend Trudeau, but I\u2019m here to say, I do not recall hearing one leader say one good thing about Trudeau\u2019s government. Not a single thing. In our current political calculus (how to achieve power) the ultimate goal is to get a majority government.<\/strong> To do that, you need to take seats from those in power, so that your party, or a coalition, outnumbers the party in power. So, the goal then becomes to attack and destabilize the support of Trudeau and send swing votes anywhere but Liberal. <\/strong>In that event, the next largest party wins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So long as our political system orients around this goal, we will not see inter-party collaboration, which is essential to testing the waters for reconciliation.<\/strong> If our leaders cannot work together, how the hell are they going to work with Indigenous communities, who do not function on a party level, and expect them to collaborate on an inter<\/strong>-national level (nation to nation).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So that\u2019s that question: Can our federal leaders work together?<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

I think this debate showed that to be a ‘No.’<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Although a debate is fundamentally confrontational, and time is limited, these leaders showed a lack of tact and moral character that is necessary to answer real questions. The moderators and the media reporters all<\/strong> commented on how the leaders did not answer any <\/em><\/strong>question posed to them unless pressed or effectively pinned into a corner. One of the most telling moments of this happening was a reporter asking Singh about his policy plans, in concrete terms, what he will do for Canadians to create jobs. It took a short monologue and an interruption before Singh said the same thing he was repeating through the whole debate (Electric transportation, Housing retrofits, and something else that I don’t recall).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Indigenous Sovereignty? This year is a bit easier of a discussion because it\u2019s better. Better than last time, still not where it needs to be. I commend the young man from (I believe) Sault Ste. Marie, who stood up and asked his question to the federal leaders. In the end, the moderator asked him (the only citizen given the opportunity to ask a question that she asked a question to) \u201cDid they answer your question?\u201d He nodded and responded \u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His question? I cannot recall it perfectly, but effectively \u201cHow are you going to rebuild the trust with Indigenous People?<\/strong>\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was Francois-Yves Blanchett who was the one to say that the right thing to do is to start negotiations with each nation individually<\/strong>. Considering what he was saying in the last election, it surprised me. In the last election, he refused to even acknowledge Indigenous rights alongside Quebec rights. But Blanchett is fundamentally a Quebec separatist, and all of his policy is oriented towards that goal. In the press conference period afterward, a young (I believe Indigenous, but I am only going off what I saw) reporter asked about his answer to the APTN host\u2019s question, and his only response was, \u201cAsk the Premier.\u201d There is surely more context or subtext that I wish I understood better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did they answer his question? No. But then my partner, who I roped into watching this with me said: \u201cWell they did answer the question: they aren\u2019t going to do it<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These politicians are not committed to working with one another, they are not committed to representing their communities (with perhaps the exception of Blanchett), and they are not committed to the interests of Indigenous peoples. The issue is that all these politicians don\u2019t represent people, they represent a party. They represent an ideology of rhetoric or ideas,<\/strong> but what any leaders offered that is unique from one another is still a bit of a mystery. One of the problems that Singh and Paul were contending with and had to acknowledge repeatedly was: The two primary choices were O\u2019Toole and Trudeau: \u201cYou can make another choice Canada, it doesn\u2019t have to be Mr. Trudeau or Mr. O\u2019Toole, we\u2019re ready. We have the political will for real change in this country.\u201d There\u2019s a winner takes all motif in these elections; nobody must work together.<\/strong> Part of Green\u2019s platform is an inter-party cabinet. Trying to disrupt that one-party take-all mentality and start subverting our Canadian political calculus.<\/strong> Will it work? We have seen how fluid cabinets can be, with Jody Wilson Raybould\u2019s experience still fresh in the memories of most Indigenous Canadians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is sad to see how divisive politics are. Politics is the unfortunate necessity of human society. In one way or another, we must come to an agreement on how we relate to one another, and most of us are born into agreements we did not make but were defined to us by the society in which we were born into. Thus, politics becomes necessary to translate needs into societal agreements. <\/strong>We might call them laws, legislation, or legal codes, but politics isn\u2019t about what happens on top. It\u2019s about what happens in your community, and there is a massive disconnect between what happens on the top and what is happening at the community level.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

My concerns, community concerns, and Indigenous concerns are not even on the Federal radar. Their primary concern is economic recovery for all Canadians, whether they see themselves as Canadians or not.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A few side notes I want to make:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

O\u2019Toole\u2019s Pin:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I made the \u201cTool\u201d joke a couple of times, but beyond that, I am moderately upset about the Canadian flag he wears on his lapel. It\u2019s an American thing (although looking at conservative leaders in the past they too liked to wear a pin), wearing the flag on your lapel. It\u2019s a post-911 signal of patriotism, in which nationality supersedes common sense. During his campaign and time in office, Obama<\/a> was lambasted<\/a> (Peter Gabel, some fellah writing in an academic journal, describes him as an \u201cAmerican Hero\u201d for not wearing the pin) for it when he originally refused to wear the American flag pin. It was considered political suicide to which he eventually gave in to the pressure. I hesitate to think that Conservative leaders don’t <\/em>do this intentionally to nod to American-style politics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Blanchett, French:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After watching Blanchett\u2019s conference, it made me wish I knew French better because he sounds like an asshole in French more than he does in English. The way he used body language to communicate his disdain for some of the questions and discussions, made me wish I understood the cultural implications of how he uses his own language. Although he speaks superbly in English, I found it striking how many times he didn\u2019t know the translation for several terms and phrases, which at one point for social housing, several other leaders offered up the translation almost immediately. Although I do want to acknowledge, that Federal Leaders entirely<\/strong> ignored <\/strong>his question about Acadians and Quebecois concerns in Canada. Which I think is a fair question, in a federal leader’s debate. Although, I thought then why do we not talk more about the M\u00e9tis?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Okay, so going into the 2019 federal leaders’ debate, I wanted to make sure I knew what the last one looked like. Coinciding with American politics, I feel like the federal leaders were not the winners of this year\u2019s debate. What I\u2019m referring to is something I\u2019ve seen written by a number of articles, but […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[97,13,49,48,98,50],"tags":[86,29,88,85,76,87,79,77,84,81],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mindofthelost.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mindofthelost.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mindofthelost.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mindofthelost.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mindofthelost.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=199"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mindofthelost.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":240,"href":"https:\/\/mindofthelost.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199\/revisions\/240"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mindofthelost.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mindofthelost.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mindofthelost.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}