News roundup, 24 Feb 2025

- The centre-right Christian Democrats under Friedrich Merz have won a plurality of seats in Germany's parliamentary election, receiving just under 29% of the vote. The far-right AfD came second, with around 21%; all parties have vowed to maintain the "firewall" and not form a coalition with AfD.

- Robert Garcia, a Democratic member of the US House of Representatives from California, in a session of the House subcommittee on Doge, referred to a photo of Elon Musk as a "dick pick" and referred to Musk as "President". Shortly thereafter, the Department of Justice has sent Garcia a letter that makes reference to an interview with CNN in which he said "What the American public wants is for us to bring actual weapons to this bar fight. This is an actual fight for democracy"; the DOJ is demanding clarification regarding this comment, which it indicates could be interpreted as a threat.

- Former Liberal MP Ruby Dhalla has been disqualified from her party's leadership race after an investigation concluded that she committed 10 different violations of the rules for the race. This includes campaign financing issues as well as the apparent failure to disclose the involvement of a non-citizen in the campaign.

- Manitoba PC leadership candidate Wally Daudrich is claiming that there's porn in school libraries. He claims to have seen these books but refuses to say where. While a reasonable person would respond with "put up or shut up", the kind of people Daudrich is trying to attract to his campaign are not reasonable people. 

- Despite recent cold weather, the opening of the winter road network in northern Manitoba has been delayed until the end of February, causing significant problems for northern residents.

- Because bird flu has hit the US poultry and egg industry much harder than that in Canada and Mexico (so far), there has been a rash of egg smuggling at the borders, as well as large scale thefts of eggs.

- Rebecca Marodi, a CalFire fire captain who served on the front lines in the recent Los Angeles County wildfires, was stabbed to death in her home outside San Diego. She had been the subject of online abuse for supposedly being a "DEI hire" and blamed for the fires, which led some to speculate that this was the reason for her death. However, police now say that her wife is the prime suspect and may have fled the country. Yolanda Marodi had previously pleaded guilty to manslaughter following the stabbing death of her then-husband in 2000, and served more than 13 years in prison. I daresay there may be a pattern here.

- Around 200 people who stayed at a four-star resort in Playa del Carmen suffered from a nasty sickness, suspected of being food poisoning, that caused severe vomiting, diarrhea and dehydration. Just in case being in a resort full of middle-aged suburbanites wasn't bad enough on its own.

Liberals shoot down floor-crossing rumours

Well, that was quick:

Federal Liberals denied a report Tuesday that three of their party's MPs were interested in crossing the floor to join the Tories.

Liberal MPs Ken Dryden and Marc Garneau told reporters in Ottawa that the talk was Conservative mischief and an attempt to sow dissension in the party.

A report in the Toronto Star on Tuesday cited an anonymous Conservative government official, who said the party had discussions with three Liberals in the last month about crossing the floor.

Ruby Dhalla, the MP for the Ontario riding of Brampton-Springdale, was one of the names mentioned in the story.

Asked by CBC News if she was defecting, Dhalla responded: "No."

She also said no Tories contacted her about crossing the floor, and she had never thought about defecting.

Source. Makes you wonder what was really going on there. Were the Cons trying to sow dissention in the Liberal ranks, or did the Liberals lead them on in the hope that they'd embarrass themselves by going to the press with a false story? It's hard to imagine the whole thing being an innocent misunderstanding, in any case.

Liberal trio looking to defect, Tories say

Remember that old line the Liberals like to use about how "a vote for the NDP is a vote for the Conservatives"? Well, it seems that a lot of people who voted Liberal may be about to find that they've helped elect Conservative MPs:

A Conservative government official said Monday there have been discussions with three Liberal MPs interested in crossing the floor to the Tory side over the past month.

Liberals immediately dismissed the talk as Conservative "mischief" and said it is the government that is on a raiding mission.

There has been speculation in the past few days that Ruby Dhalla, Liberal MP for Brampton-Springdale, has considered defecting to the Conservatives because her own party has refused to back her private member's bill to increase old-age benefits to immigrant seniors.

From the Toronto Star.