Maxime Bernier’s climate change plan summed up: “___________”

The race in Burnaby South is back on, taxpayers will be pipeline owners for a while longer, and Bernier says he’d “do nothing” to address climate change

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Maxime Bernier speaks at a People’s Party of Canada rally in Gatineau, Que., on November 20, 2018. THE CANADIAN PRESS/ Patrick Doyle

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Barring any more surprises, we now know which Liberal candidate NDP leader Jagmeet Singh will face off against in the Burnaby South byelection: Richard Lee, a former B.C. Liberal MLA. Lee, of course, replaced Karen Wang, who sent out a social media message on the Chinese language WeChat platform that contrasted her ethnicity to that of Singh. (Global News)

One distinction between the two candidates has taken shape—their stances on the Trans Mountain pipeline. Lee came out in support of the pipeline, arguing voters in the riding will back the project if it meets the ongoing National Energy Board review. Singh has stated his opposition to the pipeline and reiterated that in an interview aired over the weekend, saying Ottawa should be prepared to scrap the project unless it receives “partnership” and “buy in” from all Indigenous communities along the route. (Burnaby Now, CBC News)

Meanwhile, in the riding of Milton, Ont., it’ll be former Olympic kayaker Adam van Koeverden versus Conservative veteran MP Lisa Raitt in the next federal election, after van Koeverden clinched the Liberal nomination Sunday. (Global News)

Brianna Dounia” was the woman on social media who caught Tony Clement‘s eye and inspired him to send her sexually explicit photos of himself. Turns out Brianna was a couple of guys from Ivory Coast. Two men, identified as CH and DML, were arrested in that country last month in connection with the blackmail attempt that led Clement to be kicked out of the Conservative party and resign from his parliamentary committee duties. (CP24)

Tick-tock: Time is running out for the U.S. to file a formal extradition request for Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou, who is currently out on $10 million bail and living at her Vancouver home. At least one lawyer thinks the U.S. has no choice but to meet the extradition deadline, otherwise the country might, you know, lose face in the eyes of the world: “The Americans… having caused all of this so far—would never be able to say with a straight face, ‘Yeah, we’ve decided not to go ahead’ or ‘Gosh, there was nothing to our case.’ ” (Canadian Press)

Didn’t catch the weekend politics shows? Here’s what you missed:

  • Canada is in a much tougher position with regards to China over the arrest of Huawei’s Meng because Ottawa failed to ban the Chinese telecom’s 5G technology, a former CSIS official told Global’s The West Block: “We’ve gotten ourselves into a difficult situation. Had we made the decision on the 5G when everybody else did, we wouldn’t be the lone person standing out.” Meanwhile, Infrastructure Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne told host Mercedes Stephenson that despite China’s warning to Canada that it stop trying to recruit other nations as allies to its side, Ottawa will continue work to build a “coalition” of partners.  Global said Champagne was the only minister the Trudeau government would make available to talk about Canada-China tensions. (Global News, Global News)
  • Conservative foreign affairs critic Erin O’Toole made the rounds on political shows with a message for Justin Trudeau: Get on the phone with Chinese President Xi Jinping. “[Trudeau] needs to take a personal role and if he shows he’s seized with the matter, that will allow them to respond in kind,” O’Toole said on CBC’s The House. “The Chinese want to see that this is considered seriously in Canada, and only the Prime Minister can project that.” (CBC News)
  • Canadians will remain in the business of owning pipelines until after the next federal election, even though several Indigenous investment groups are vying to take the Trans Mountain pipeline off Ottawa’s hands, according to Finance Minister Bill Morneau: “We’re going to remain open to talking to Indigenous peoples … but it’s not time yet where we can conclude on them,” he said on The House. In a separate interview a representative from one of those investor groups, Chief Mike LeBourdais of the Whispering Pines First Nation north of Kamloops, B.C., said he wishes Morneau would get on with it: “We still need some love from the minister of finance, but I’m certain we’ll get it through cooperation and communication.” (CBC News)
  • What would Maxime Bernier do to address climate change if his People’s Party is elected this fall? “Nothing,” he told Evan Solomon on CTV’s Question Period. He’d leave it up to the provinces: “It’s a shared jurisdiction with provinces, and like right now some provinces want to do something… and other provinces, they don’t want to do anything about that.” (CTV News)

Lastly, China isn’t the only country Canada is in a dust up with right now. Norway ticked off some folks in Moose Jaw by building a giant moose sculpture that stands three feet taller than the Saskatchewan city’s own Mac the Moose. Says Moose Jaw’s mayor: “There are some things that you just don’t do to Canadians: You don’t water down our beer, you don’t tell us we can’t put maple syrup on our pancakes and you don’t mess with Mac the Moose.” (New York Times)