On policy bubbles

While Justin Trudeau is putting any economic planning in the hands of somebody with a vested interest in privatizing profits, it's also worth noting how his government is deliberately avoiding any of the type of consultation needed to make a minority Parliament work at a time when cooperation should be more important than ever:

The source said a minority government has to be ready for the moment when there may be no compromising “and, quite frankly maybe it is time for the Canadian people to weigh in a post-pandemic environment.”

Another senior official said only that when it comes to working with the other parties, “we’re not at that stage yet.”

It would seem obvious enough that for a minority government wanting to get anything accomplished through the current Parliament, there should never be a stage where working with other parties is off the table. And that goes doubly when discussing the path to recovery and renewal in the face of an ongoing pandemic.

But Trudeau appears to have decided to model his own plans after Stephen Harper's perpetual games of Parliamentary chicken: no meaningful consultation, no compromise, and no interest in considering what's good for anybody besides his corporate backers and cronies. And if being reduced to a minority hasn't been enough to convince Trudeau that voters expect leaders who listen rather than running roughshod over the country, then the electorate will need to deliver a far stronger message when it has the opportunity.