Gerald Butts Profile picture
Feb 20 9 tweets 3 min read
Having a healthy disagreement about whether the government was correct to invoke the #EmergenciesAct is good in a democracy. A few points from my perspective fwiw. 1/
First, the foreign coverage is lame. The @FT @nytimes and @TheEconomist editorials read like they were written about a generic protest in a country they don’t pay much attention to, and a law they’ve clearly never read. It was sophomoric stuff from usually careful outlets.
Second, I’m betting the finance powers are the key to an effective response. This insurrection was all about the money and the money should be exposed to blinding daylight. Could the feds created those powers another way? Probably. But… 2/x
Aren’t the extraordinary review requirements embedded in the EA — bravo @PerrinBeatty — the best way to deal with the critics’ justified worries about oversight creep? There’s no doubt that only the feds have these powers. The province(s) can’t follow the money in the same way.
Third, speaking of provinces, there’s also no doubt that Queen’s Park hit the snooze button until the Ambassador Bridge got blockaded. Had they organized the sweep that cleared Ottawa’s streets this weekend earlier, I doubt the EA would have been needed to do it.
Fourth, we have a minority Parliament. If the government can’t convince the House of Commons these powers are required they won’t continue. Full stop. That’s immediate cross partisan democratic accountability.
It was a tough call, The government took a long time to make it. But I do believe it was the right one. You can’t have your capital city shut down by a mob. Protests should be welcome in democracies, but insurrections designed to overthrow the will of the people should not.
Those are my thoughts fwiw. I’m a supporter of the government, but I was also Principal Secretary to both the Prime Minister and the Premier of Ontario, and have seen a lot in both jobs. These are not easy or uncomplicated issues.
Again, these debates are healthy in a democracy. The law had never been used and it grants extraordinary — if time limited — powers. For once there really are good people on both sides. Let’s have a serious debate about the law and its application.

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More from @gmbutts

Feb 3
This is the latest MAGA north conspiracy. They think the Trudeau Foundation is the Clinton Foundation or something. I know you’re new around here, but the Trudeau Foundation commemorates the PM’s father, Pierre Trudeau. He was PM too. It was created after he died. 1/x
It was created by the will of Parliament. All parties supported it at the time — which goes to show you how far we’ve come in 20 years — as an apt commemoration for one of our most significant PMs. Look it up in Hansard. Everyone gave lovely speeches. 2/x
It has had Board Members from across the country and political spectrum. Look that up too. 3/x
Read 5 tweets
Feb 1
The next leader of the CPC will be its 5th since Justin Trudeau was elected leader of the Liberal Party in 2013.
Harper faced 7 Liberal leaders in a little over a decade. He beat 5 of them.
Chrétien faced, what, 6 *conservative* leaders but 0 leaders of a united Conservative party.
Read 5 tweets
Sep 21, 2021
Vote efficiency isn’t accidental. All three Trudeau Liberal campaigns were among the most efficient in 🇨🇦 history. The unsung team of super geniuses put together and led by @tompitfield at Data Sciences deserves a lot more credit than they’ve ever received. #Elxn44 (43 and 42)
Campaigns are a ruthless optimization exercise: where will your incremental investment drive the maximum return in real time, especially at the end. Elexns 42 and 43 were amazing. But the more I look at last night’s returns the more I’m awestruck. #Elxn44
My buddy David tweeted this funny observation last night, but it makes a serious point. You probably couldn’t do this in 2006 because Tom, Sean, Megan and John hadn’t invented it yet.
Read 5 tweets
Sep 20, 2021
Off to Toronto this morning for @CBCNews #Elxn44 coverage. Send snacks. It’s going to be a long night — probably a long week. Why? 👇👇👇1/
The latest @ElectionsCan_E update is that just over 777k voting kits have been returned by people voting by mail in their home riding. Another 125k have been returned by people who are in Canada, but currently out of their home riding. 2/ #Elxn44

elections.ca/content2.aspx?…
Mail-in ballot counting probably takes a few days because they can’t be counted until after the polls close tonight. Why? Because @ElectionsCan_E has to make sure people who mail ballots didn’t also vote in person. Vote early, not often! Rules here. 👇👇 elections.ca/content2.aspx?…
Read 7 tweets
Sep 13, 2021
Just spent a few hours looking at public data from a variety of sources and talking to people whose wisdom I trust. Right now, this is the closest election I’ve ever seen in Canada. Closer than 2019. Hardest working team wins. #Elxn44
My read is there are enough votes for either the LPC or CPC to form a government. It depends on which team better IDs them and turns them out. #Elxn44
All this can change quickly, but man is it tight right now. I bet all campaigns are looking at overnights like… #Elxn44
Read 4 tweets
Sep 2, 2021
It’s truly amazing to me that someone can cover politics for 30+ years and understand so little about how politics works.
For example, “The Tories” don’t exist anymore. The conservative movement that replaced them is a very different beast.
It is a network of orgs that espouse common values and work to achieve common ends. Heck, this columnist worked for one of them. PM Harper wrote in its 20th anniversary edition that Conservatives "need the National Post" for a reason. nationalpost.com/opinion/stephe…
Read 7 tweets

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