Don't Fire Erin O'Toole

 

Dear Conservative Party, please don't fire Erin O'Toole as your leader. 

Truth is, the election did not go as well as possible for the Conservatives, but it didn't go well for the Liberals, NDP or Greens. About the only party it went well for was People's Party of Canada - albeit with no seats to show given our outdated first past the post system of electing governments. That's the hard core truth. It was more of a statement to the old guard, the back room boys, the establishment. The message went something like this: "we no longer trust any of you.

If the Conservative Party wants to fire some folks, the very first person that should be fired is the one who told O'Toole to constantly hold his hands in a prayer position during the English language debate. Each time O'Toole brought his hands in this position it was as if he was pleading, or even praying, or simply being patronizing. In my humble opinion, the body language O'Toole used (which no doubt he was trained to use or failed to listen to advice not to use) throughout the debate made him look, well, weak. Wishy-washy. Somewhat disingenuous. This is where the house cleaning needs to start. 

Secondly, the campaign strategists ought to be fired. The failure to secure well-known and popular candidates in the Toronto area was disastrous. No disrespect intended, but people in Toronto and area seem to want candidates of national, or at least provincial prominence. A strong Toronto caucus they are sure would not be swept away for the regional interests of Quebec, the West or even the Atlantic provinces. The Liberals are famous for this recruiting. People like Ken Dryden or even most recently Adam van Koeverden. It's no secret to the rest of the country that Ontario, and especially Toronto, see themselves as the centre of the universe within Canada - they want representative that fulfil their egos accordingly. 

Thirdly, fire the strategists who believe campaigning as Liberals is better than campaigning as Conservatives. When Conservatives campaign as Liberals the electorate vote in the real Liberals every time - even if they are getting wiser and not giving them majorities. Conservative strategists were given the mother load of ammunition to use against Trudeau while still being able to represent their base faithfully. For example, Trudeau's father (the recent Trudeau junior was selected as Liberal leader and PM) helped craft and institutionalize the Charter of Rights and Freedoms which championed the rights of the individual over those of the the majority. It has become a part of who we are. The covid panic has helped throw those rights on the ash heap of history until the Supreme Court of Canada rules on them. What an opportunity the Conservatives had to take the mantle of "Defenders of the Charter". The Liberals, especially the "Trudeau Liberals", would be without their moral high ground. That would then be the Conservatives high ground - for a long time. 

Speaking of the Supreme Court, why did strategists not go after Trudeau in the debate with the following question: " Given the federal government has immediate access to the Supreme Court for constitutional references, why didn't the Liberals request a reference by the Supreme Court on the constitutionality of coerced vaccinations and "vaccine passports" before they endorsed and attacked people for not using them?" In order to gain the high ground you have to trap your enemy in the high questions. It paints them. It stains them. The perception lasts. In politics perception is reality. 

The sad truth for the Conservative Party is it is not thinking and acting like a machine with a purpose. It is not capturing the high ground, or setting the ground for battle, because it seems frozen in fear that it might somehow alienate this group or that. You should not be arrogant about your beliefs, but you can be firm in them - and people respect that more than wishy-washy pandering. People become sickened by this type of "tell them anything" approach, which is why Trudeau has had two consecutive minorities. He lied the first time around about changing the first past-the-post system, amongst other things, and now people view him as wishy-washy too. However, he is cutting big cheques to a lot of groups, as we saw just before the election, and those groups want to see the cash continuing to flow. They aren't with Trudeau on any high ground, and the Conservatives failed to grab any high ground, so there was no need to change the status quo - and they didn't. 

Looking ahead. Firstly, the Conservative Party needs to wrap its arms around Erin O'Toole and his family and give them the love. Rarely, if ever, have I witnessed a leader so genuinely disappointed in an election result as O'Toole displayed in his concession speech. Secondly, the party needs to realize that the Liberals have a lame duck leader now, and that in order to get rid of him the Liberals will have to firstly convince him to resign and hold a leadership race. That can be very destabilizing in a short period like the life of a minority government. It also opens up all kinds of potential negativity - internal or externally injected... Secondly, the Green Party will also be having a divisive leadership race, and to say their leader will go quietly into the night would be politically foolish. The NDP may also have some leadership challenges of their own. The Peoples Party, well, that appears to be completely reliant on Mr. Bernier's leadership. If the Conservative Party can restrain itself from an undisciplined assault on its leader, rally around the flag, and strategically prepare, it will be the party of order in the midst of instability.

Finally, Mr. O'Toole must change some things as well. He must drop the vision of the Conservative party. To say the Conservative Party was no longer the "party of your father" was foolish in the extreme. It was a direct insult to the majority of its base. Whoever gave him that line should be fired immediately, and sent directly to the Liberals. If it was him, well, change it or apply the same to himself. To gauge the damage of this tact simply refer back to the comments made by former Saskatchewan premier Brad Wall on election night, wherein he not so subtly let the federal Conservative Party know that leaving traditional conservative values would more likely than not result in the base bolting to a new "Reform Party - like" scenario, and the subsequent death of the federal party - aka 2 seats after Mr. Mulroney's departure. I believe this analysis is spot on, and needs to be deeply understood by those that think they are smarter than every one else within the Party.

Trudeau is Inciting Hatred

Perhaps you were looking forward to the debate last week. Likely you were looking to measure the leaders up against each other during the debate. If you were like me, the one thing you were not expecting is for the Prime Minister of Canada to follow up the debate with vicious public attacks against identifiable groups in Canada. Canadian citizens. Your fellow Canadians. 

Trudeau, in a voice coated in contempt, publicly incited hatred, and potentially violence, against Canadians who oppose his agenda on vaccines, gun control, and abortion. He flippantly referred to the large crowds that haunted him through the campaign as "anti-vaxxer hoards". He has no basis for this characterization. First of all they aren't hoards. They're protesters and they are protesting him. A hoard will have torches and burn him at the stake. Obviously that was not their intent, so his use of the term "hoard" was clearly an attempt to smear these protesters and marginalize their criticisms of him and his government. As though they were somehow beneath him - not an unusual attitude with him. 

Secondly, what is an "anti-vaxxer"? Is that a person who won't get a covid shot, or is that a person who does not believe in any vaccinations? Or does that really matter. You see, in Canada we as citizens have the right to criticize and protest, yeas even in front of hospitals, as long as they are peaceful. That is guaranteed in the Charter his father helped create. Oh, and on that front, his father also helped to create Canada's hate speech laws.

In 1965, then Liberal Prime Minister Pearson, struck a special committee of seven individuals known as the Special Committee on Hate and Propaganda in Canada, commonly called the "Cohen Committee" after its chairman. Pierre Trudeau, then a professor at the University of Montreal, was a member of the committee. In 1966, the Committee filed its report to Parliament, which recommended legislation to combat hate speech. As a result, three new offences were added to the Canadian Criminal Code: advocating genocide; publicly inciting hatred in a way likely to lead to a breach of the peace; and willfully promoting hatred.

Fast forward to 2021, and Pierre Trudeau's son is directing hatred, ridicule and contempt toward Canadians who oppose his policies. He has poisoned the water much deeper than it was prior to his words. He is fanning the flames of hatred in a way that would make his father spin in his grave. Trudeau has resorted to the gutter of American divisionism. He is targeting Canadians for their beliefs and willfully inciting citizens against other citizens. Does the criminal code cover this kind of incitement to hatred? I'm not a lawyer, so I don't know. However, what we can be sure of is Trudeau's vicious marginalization of a section of our Canadian population will result in a deep, dark, and permanent stain - not just on him, but the true value of Canada in general.

After all, we cannot smugly sit on the sidelines anymore and thank God we are not in a country like the one below us, while our Prime Minister does the exact same practices that Donald Trump and Joe Biden (and their minions) did. Trudeau has thrown nitro on the fire for the sake of his pitiful self, and his agenda. In my 56 years of life as a Canadian, and observer of politics here for some 24 years, I can honestly say, with the exception of some local yocal halfwits in Newfoundland, that I have never witnessed such acts of hatred and deceit by a Canadian Prime Minister - or any Canadian politician for that matter. 

No matter the result of this election, this incitement of hatred must cease immediately, and Mr. Trudeau must atone for his actions with the loss of his job. I am a Conservative, and as such I'm obviously pulling for Erin O'Toole, and therefore could be considered bias on the topic. However, I am not. There is a blog here that calls out Mr. O'Toole for sounding too much like Donald Trump during his battle for the Conservative Party leadership. Thankfully he moderated that tone after his victory. The bottom-line is that yesterday Erin O'Toole attacked Justin Trudeau personally, which he intended to reflect on Trudeau's governance. He did not attack Canadians. He attacked Trudeau. Trudeau didn't attack O'Toole. Trudeau attacked Canadians who disagree with him. 

Whether you believe Trudeau committed hate crimes by attacking protesters with statements that were meant to attract hatred and contempt toward them or not, is academic in a sense. Trudeau has shown his true face for all to see. It should shock Canadians, but the Liberals have been busy marginalizing those who disagree with them for some time, so perhaps people have become numb to civility and rights. They do so at their own peril. 

Fire Veterans Affairs Minister Kent Hehr

I'll be the first to admit it - I liked Erin O'Toole, the Veterans Minister under the Conservatives. He came in like a breath of fresh air into a dump. Before he arrived Veterans Affairs was a nightmare to deal with. He didn't have time to clean up all the trash, but he certainly made as big a dent as he could. There was no question who he was minister of. He was a retired air force officer looking after veterans - his troops if you will. He was minister full-time, all the time,  sincerely, and unapologetically so. I miss Erin O'Toole.

Trudeau gave us Kent Hehr. Why I wondered when I quickly noted the guy had zero military experience. Trudeau did have several veterans in his cabinet he could have chosen, but no, he gave us a Calgary lawyer. It seems that Hehr's real qualification may come from the fact that he's disabled (in a wheel chair) and the thinking was he would understand what veteran's are going through. Bit of a misnomer there though. For starters, not all vets are disabled in any way. In fact, the vast majority are not. So, unless they're now lawyers, he has nothing in common with them. Those of us that are disabled due to our service could theoretically relate to a minister in a wheel chair and visa versa. That's only in theory though.

As time has marched on since Hehr became minister I've grown more and more disillusioned by his performance. In the very beginning he seemed to be quite interested in veterans, but now he refuses to converse with them on social media. Instead, he goes to the odd dinner here or there with the Royal order of this, that or the other thing and shakes hands. Mostly, though, he likes to take selfies with himself and just about everyone - other than veterans. I follow him on Twitter, and he followed me back. We exchanged a few private messages. I gave him some ideas on how to better help injured veterans. He thought the ideas were good and promised to have his staff contact me to follow up. That was nearly five months ago. Never heard from his staff, and he no longer answers on social media. He's entered the Ottawa bubble. As I follow him on Twitter, I'm amazed at just how much he tweets about that has nothing to do with veterans affairs. In fact, if you didn't know better, you wouldn't know he was minister at all.

I became so agitated by his lack of a veteran presence I decided to count his Twitter broadcasts (Tweets). Not so shockingly I discovered of the 772 tweets he's made since January 1, 2016, only 159 have been military related in some way - that's a measly 21% of his social media activity. Most of his public presence is apparently consumed with meeting movers and shakers, and doing absolutely nothing for veterans. Here's an example of a recent tweet - many are similar in nature:

FYI, this one is from the Junos.

Apart what I'm going through as an injured veteran, another incident recently highlighted my concern with Hehr. Robin Brentnall, former airbourne soldier and severely disabled veteran has just been forced to undertake a hunger strike in Gander, Newfoundland. Why? Well, Veterans Affairs Canada refuses to qualify him for a $70,000 payout that he's qualified for under the new critical injury program. In fact, Robin has even had a stroke. He is severely disabled, although he does keep his fighting spirit. But here it is, the man is on a hunger strike because Veterans' Affairs are up to their old tricks - delay, deny, die. Minister Hehr was notified of the situation and his office sent a standard reply letter saying there was nothing the Minister could do as the Appeal Board had made their decision. That's simply a lie. In fact, the Minister has the power to make any award at his discretion according to the Act. When Hehr's office found out that Robin was going on a hunger strike they sent him a letter requesting he not do it as it could make his health worse... like they care. More like, "don't do it, we don't want the bad publicity - especially if you die". Disgusting.

Here's Robin with a chest full

In my opinion, Kent Hehr doesn't have the right to shine Robin's boots. He's a hand shaking, baby kissing, elbow rubbing, selfie taking,  do-nothing politician - who happens to also be disabled. He didn't keep his promise to veterans over their life-time disability pensions, nobody knows when the Liberal's budget promises will come into effect - least of all the veterans. Just really, really disappointing. It seems like the new minister is really nothing more than a Fantino without the arrogance. He certainly is no Erin O'Toole, and he most definitely should at least come to the aid of fellows like Robin Brentnall - wounded warriors that amde a real difference.

How to Fix Veterans Affairs Canada

Veterans Affairs Canada is the department of government that's meant to look after the needs of Canada's military and RCMP veterans. These days, actual war veterans numbers are dramatically falling, while soldiers injured and hurt in normal duties is on the rise. Part of that is awareness of mental health issues like PTSD and/or Serious Depressive Disorder. Often referred to as "operational stress injury". However, the vast majority of injuries are of the physical nature. Currently there are just over 3000 civilian employees at Veterans Affairs administering the needs of people that the department refers to as "clients".

It's come to my attention that the new Veteran's Affairs Minister O'Toole has been heavily canvassing VAC staff to seek answers for making the system run smoother. One answer he appeared to receive was the need for more case managers. I would argue here that is the response of the bureaucracy seeking to help the bureaucracy and not the veteran. By way of example, it was three years into the process before I even new a case manager was assigned to me. I found out when a central VAC operator transferred me to him by mistake. Has it helped a lot since I found him. Not really. The case manager can't do a thing to speed up decision making on benefits, or anything similar to that. That process is highly centralized in certain centres in Quebec, and the Maritimes.

Where I believe Minister O'Toole is being lead astray is that the bureaucracy is more concerned with making its job easier, rather than making Veterans lives easier. The two are not necessarily the same. To understand Veteran's Affairs you need to realize that the department is heavily politicized. Not just by the current government. In fact the New Veterans Charter was brought in by the Martin Liberal government. It's sole purpose was to strip the right of injured Veterans to receive a proper disability pension, and instead give a one time payment. In other words, instead of a Veteran receiving over a million dollars over a life time on pension, he would receive on average $40,000.00 and cut loose. The Rehab program provides a stop gap measure for the most seriously injured, but there are not guarantees with it like there is with a pension.

Here are some steps that I believe would depoliticize Veterans Affairs and make it better for Veterans:

1. Disband Veterans Affairs Review and Appeal Boards. These two levels of appeal boards are all political appointees. Many are failed political candidates, party fund raisers, etc. Almost none are ex military, and even less have medical training. They are viewed, for reason, as persons delaying and denying Veterans benefits.

2. Replace the Review and Appeal Boards with single judges. Singular judges can be placed in each province or region, depending on demand. Judges are more likely to understand the evidence and the legislation. They are professional decision makers. They are required to be apolitical. When a Veteran can't get a positive decision at the review and then appeal level, he/she must go to Federal Court in any case, and all the Federal Court is currently empowered to do is refer the matter back to the same process a soldier just came out of - the review and/or appeal boards. A never ending bureaucratic ride that only serves to employ civil servants and delay/deny veterans. The result would be a judicial system, showing judicial respect, and a vast reduction in matters going as far as the Federal Court.

3. Amend the Canada Health Act to require doctors to conduct medical examinations, and complete paper work as required or face sanction for refusing to do so. Many Veterans find that doctors simply want nothing to do with the huge paperwork required of VAC, and therefore refuse Veterans a proper examination and most importantly the filling out of currently needed paperwork. An alternative to this is a massive reduction of the paperwork to two simple doctoral requirements: 1) Is there a diagnosis; and 2) If the answer is yes can it be contributed to military service. Pure and simple.

4. Do away with the massive amount of nitty-gritty medical analyses currently numbing the system. The system of awarding dollars or benefits based on fifths of an injury. If a soldier is injured he is injured. It doesn't matter whether three fifths or five fifths is attributable to military service. If he was injured during service that's it. Whether or not he can wipe his own arse, whether or not he can drive, etc. People with no legs can drive. Does that mean they are only partially disabled?  Drop all these massive manuals defining this degree of injury or that definition of injury. It's an injury. Full stop. Simplify so that the system meets the legislation, which means the soldier is given the "benefit of the doubt" by a "grateful nation". Not the soldier is given "what we have no choice to give him" by a "stingy nation".

5. Require that all injury claims be administered, adjudged, and settled no later than 1 year after application. With a massively reduced paperwork/bureaucratic trail, there is no reason why a soldier should have to wait for more than a year to finalize all his financial/benefit determinations. After which the soldier may or may not need further or life long care, but the dollars and cents that will stabilize his life and give the family peace of mind will be in place fast. In my own case it's been 5 years, and I'm not finished yet - which to me is bizarre. I know there are others that have been in the system for longer than that.

6. Institute a Triage System. Major injuries get priority handling, meaning they are expedited within weeks. Lesser injuries that are not considered major can be somewhat less. By way of example, if one soldier has injuries that could result in loss of life or ability to work, then it takes priority. Lesser injuries like arthritic pain in a limb are secondary for priority, but all must still be dealt with in a year.  

7. Layoff some staff and hire others. By massively simplifying paperwork, eliminating fifths of injury and other minute nitty-gritty diagnosis requirements, the government can massively reduce the work force in Veterans Affairs. Veterans Affairs salaries alone constitute about a quarter of a billion dollars. By reducing the administrative portion of VAC and refocusing it from an administrative organization to a "response" organization, the government can actually save money in pension and salaries to civil servants. In other words a complete culture change. We aren't "clients". We are Vets. We served our country. We didn't go to Walmart.

It's an old saying in the military: "KISS - Keep it Simple Stupid". Veterans Affairs doesn't need nips and tucks. Veterans Affairs need radical surgery. It's NOT the fault of this government. Veterans have been getting short shafted for decades. Where it's becoming an issue for this government is due to its continuation of the system, not the creation of it. That is understood by all Vets I believe. Certainly those of us who had parents serve in the Second World War understand that. The Canadian public needs to understand it as well. Transformation to serve the Veteran is what is necessary. Whether labour unions like or dislike the loss of membership is irrelevant. Treat the men and women with the respect and dedication they served with. Show them Canada cares, and not that Canada just does the bare minimum..or less. That's how to fix Veterans Affairs Canada.