Hoping for a young and listless new year

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 30/12/2023 (672 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

This is our last visit of the year. I suppose it’s a good time to review the top 10 events that made us laugh, made us cry, and made us want to write letters to the editor.

Stop. Stop. Stop the madness. There is nothing that induces annoyance faster to my brain than having some bingo caller drone into my ear about old news, with the rationale that this is something the public needs to be exposed to at the end of year. So you may read on and not worry about being slammed with redundance. I won’t recycle old headlines you need to know, repeating stories you already know. I won’t ask you to support an artificial decision on which stories appear in my top 10 of what’s important. You don’t have to wonder if this writer/analyst/neighbour to Manitoba is going to say that the election of Wab Kinew is more important than the Conservative Party of Canada giving the appearance of withdrawing support for the war in Ukraine.

The price we pay at the pumps, which is now in the nieghbourhood of $1.20, will get sliced by 14 cents on Monday. It’s the fulfilment of Premier Wab Kinew’s promise to pause the provincial gas tax for two business quarters. No worries about yours truly prioritizing the war in the Middle East over the Kinew discount on my list of the top 10 stories of the year. I won’t be doing that.

We have a new scandal brewing. This paper’s newest columnist, Rochelle Squires, a former minister in the PC governments of Brian Pallister and Heather Stefanson is writing about corruption in the final days of the government she served. Stay tuned for details in this newspaper. And by the way, you don’t have to be concerned that I will place the possibility of PC scandal during their death-rattle days, over the story of Donald Trump going full-metal fascist and being rewarded with higher poll numbers. Is there an appetite for brown shirts and white supremacism in the United States of America?

Why would I ever think that the possibility of Americans turning to authoritarianism is more important than former Manitoba ministers exchanging phone calls about a well that’s never going to be dug. Seems the public may care more about the safety of drinking water than seeing a handful of PC friendly investors drinking profits. No worries that I may place that story above the rise of authoritarianism in the U.S. That won’t happen in this column because I don’t do lists.

Inflation is tanking. The inflation rate at the end of 2023 was banging on the door of six per cent. It’s now only half as high, as we inch closer to the Bank of Canada two per cent target. All of this is coming up in 2024 and it means that all interest rates will be coming down, including the all important mortgage interest rate, making it much easier for us to buy a home, or stay in the one we have. No worries about yours truly making that a more important story than Pierre Poilievre’s political gains on his never-ending narrative that Canada is broken because of Justin Trudeau’s evil plot to burn down the country’s economy. That won’t happen here because I don’t do year-end top 10 lists.

“No secretary of state has ever deprived a presidential candidate of ballot access based on Section 3 of the 14th amendment. But no presidential candidate has ever engaged in insurrection…” This was said on Thursday of this past week by the top election official in the state of Maine, Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, telling the world Trump isn’t legally qualified to run for the highest office in the country.

Once again there is no need for the reader to be concerned that I will make that a more important story than the Manitoba PCs self-destructing in October by billboards bragging about their refusal to search for the remains of two missing and allegedly murdered Indigenous women.

If I were compiling a list of the dumbest political strategies of 2023, that would be the one. But fortunately for the Free Press reader, I don’t do lists.

Here’s hoping you and your family have the happiest of new years. My resolution for 2024 is to remain young and listless.

Charles Adler is a longtime political commenter and podcaster.

charles@charlesadler.com