Academic working on defence affairs, executive power, and the Westminster system.
Jun 9 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Take aways from the Cdn defence announcement:
Carney govt is seizing opportunities that should have been seized years ago, such as salary increases and topping up projects that were under funded (yay trucks!)
Some unknows that may come out later:
Will the modernized digital
infrastructre include a real DND/CAF cloud? Do they have a supplier in mind?
What are the new aircraft mentioned?
May 3 • 9 tweets • 2 min read
Why invite the King to open the Canadian Parliament? A few thoughts.
1) We keep talking about the importance of our institutions, and strengthening trust and understanding of them.
The Crown is a core institution within the Canadian constitution.
We can change and criticize our institutions, of course.
But I've always found it strange that we would be selective about which ones we recognize and make visible.
Mar 1 • 9 tweets • 2 min read
People, the King and the Palace aren’t going to comment unless the Canadian government pushes it with big-A advice.
And you can be sure the British government will be pushing back hard on the Canadian government diplomatically.
The UK would basically tell Canada: dont you dare.
We have a shared monarch and the King is the UK’s king first and foremost.
Knowing Charles III, he personally would want to comment. But we’ve collectively spent decades telling him that he needs to shut up once he wore the Crown.
Jan 12 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
A few rules of thumb:
-A GG/LG should/will wait for another institution, such as the legislature or the courts, to address an issue before they think about doing anything controversial.
-When in doubt, GGs/LGs will be advised to do the least dramatic thing possible.
-GGs/LGs work to avoid getting involved in the political fray, and we shouldn't want them near it.
-The PM is the PM until they're not, and the GG acts on the PM's advice or request in almost all instances. The main exception is a PM who has *formally* lost confidence.
Jan 10 • 13 tweets • 2 min read
What makes Canada Canada?
1) We temper liberal democracy with a strong defence of minority rights (see linguistic groups, Indigenous rights in the constitution.)
2) We were part of world defining wars when they break out (in WWI in 1914, WWII 1939. US? 1917, 1941.)
3) Balancing regions and groups is baked into our legal and political constitutions.
4) We have a vested interest in an ordered international system, though we free ride in the defence of it often.
Apr 24, 2024 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
A few thoughts on the ONCA ruling in Alford, which upholds the limitation of parliamentary privilege found in the NSICOP Act:
