Even a casual observer of politics will have seen and heard it. After the election of a new government, a great deal of the new administration’s time is spent blaming the previous government. This is fairly standard political stuff. This is not always without some explanation. For example, if a new government is elected halfway through a budget year, there is clearly some shared decision making between the two administrations.

But as time goes on, it becomes more difficult for a government to blame those that came before them. That’s because, naturally, the longer you are government the more time you have had to either set a new course or to reject entirely decisions by a previous government. And while the public at some point starts to demand results and not excuses from a government, it is often hard for elected officials to stop blaming those that came before them.

Take for example the current Manitoba NDP government. It has now been almost a year-and-a-half since the NDP were elected. Manitobans likely remember that they came into office promising to improve things like healthcare, justice and the economy with some quick and easy fixes. What those quick and easy fixes would be were not well explained, but the NDP simply said “Trust us.”

Now, after months and months in government, “Trust us” has been replaced with, “Don’t blame us.” Far from there being improvements to these specific areas as the NDP promised, things have gotten worse and there doesn’t seem to be any plan to make them better. It’s unclear at this point whether the NDP ever had a plan to address these issues or whether they are just struggling to implement it. Either way, it is Manitobans who are paying the price.

Canada will never be the 51st state no matter how many times Donald Trump might claim otherwise.

Every major political party leader has made this point abundantly clear. One of the few things that Justin Trudeau, Pierre Poilievre, and Jagmeet Singh agree on is that they have no interest in Canada joining the United States. That is a good thing.

Of course, the main reason Trump keeps talking about Canada becoming the 51st state is because he holds Trudeau in contempt and knows that the Liberal government is teetering on the brink. A classic negotiating tactic is to hit your opponent when they are at their weakest point and Justin Trudeau has never been weaker than he is right now.

This is why we cannot rely on Trudeau to defend the honour of our country. All Canadians, regardless of political stripe, must stand up and make it clear that we believe in Canada’s future as a strong independent nation.

RCMP shot and killed a 33-year-old male in Dominion City on Tuesday morning, resulting in an investigation by the Independent Investigation Unit of Manitoba.

Police say a member of the Morris RCMP responded to a call for service, described later in the day in an IIU press release as a “wellness call” for a residence in Dominion City.

The IIU said while the officer was waiting for backup, a male came towards the first responding officer with a metal object in his hand.

“The officer commanded the male several times to drop the item, but he continued to advance,” the IIU press release stated.

La Broquerie is looking to hire someone to study the designing of a new community gathering space that could include a new library, daycare, indoor playground, performance area, pickleball, walking track and other recreation.

Council passed a motion at its last meeting on Jan. 8 to request proposals for the creation of a functional design study. The study would include input from the public, council, and stakeholders that could use the space.

Whomever is hired would identify what La Broquerie’s needs and wants are, then draw up a potential facility that could be used by residents and people from around the region. A preliminary budget to build and maintain the new facility would be included.

Deputy Mayor Laurent Tétrault said the study will help give a cost estimate, and the RM would seek grants after it is completed. He added that there is a location already in mind.

On Monday, after weeks of internal pressure, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stated it was his intention to resign as soon as the party elected a new leader.

I will start this piece on Trudeau’s resignation—one that I and millions of Canadians have eagerly awaited for years—with the caveat that Mr. Trudeau is human. He is a man, and while he has been disastrous in his tenure as Prime Minister, that is not to say the job has not cost him and his family a great deal. Being the leader of a country requires everything of those who are entrusted with and take up that mantle. Mr. Trudeau’s many failures do not negate that toll and sacrifice. Nor can it be easy to step aside and hand over power, especially when it has been so clear that is the opposite of what he wanted to do. While I cannot quite bring myself to thank him for his service to Canada, I do want to recognize the sacrifices he and particularly his family have made, and applaud him for making a wise decision that is in the best interest of the nation.

Justin Trudeau has resigned…kind of.

Rather than do the honourable thing and step down immediately, Justin Trudeau has chosen to enjoy two more months as prime minister. A lame duck to be sure, but also one with zero accountability and nothing to lose.

Politics has always been tribal. Political parties are driven to win elections and because of that there isn’t much grace given to other political parties. Division in politics isn’t new nor is it inherently bad. Division helps to provide choice and competing visions. But recently what has developed is a level of division that is more vitriolic and personally toxic than what we have seen in the past.

Because of this, I am aware that many of my own articles or interviews are viewed through this political lens and can just be seen as Conservative partisanship. I had this in mind when asked at Manitoba Youth Parliament late last month whether I thought Prime Minister Trudeau should resign. My answer was a firm “Yes”, but I prefaced that with the comment that it wasn’t simply a partisan perspective.

I have only interacted with Mr. Trudeau on a handful of occasions. Most of my time was dealing with ministers in his government who held federal portfolios that were the same, or closely connected, to my provincial ministerial responsibilities. That meant working with former Liberal Health Minister Jane Philpott, Finance Minister Bill Morneau, and on the Justice and Public Safety file, David Lametti and Marco Mendicino. I had many disagreements with the policies these Liberal ministers put forward and, ironically, eventually each of these Liberal ministers had disagreements with the Prime Minister as well and either left cabinet or government all together.

But as I said to the youth parliamentarians, I also had several opportunities to interact with Mr. Trudeau directly. Some of these were at events like Folklorama, others were funding announcements such as at Canada Goose and on several occasions in the fall of 2021 serving as Premier of Manitoba. To be sure, there were many points of strong disagreement, but like most discussions between governments they were disagreements on policy, such as the use by the federal government of The Emergencies Act.