Blacklock's Reporter

If focus groups were infallible every candidate would be a winner, every movie would be a blockbuster, every toothpaste would be recommended by 9 out of 10 dentists. Dilbert creator Scott Adams described focus groupers as people thrilled that somebody asked their opinion and gave them a free lunch at the same time. “There are actually some people who admitted in focus groups that they would sometimes taste soap,” he wrote.

Yet the mythology of focus group infallibility persists due in no small part to the claims of pollsters paid to conduct them, which brings us to The Big Blue Machine, J. Patrick Boyer’s account of “how Tory campaign backrooms changed Canadian politics forever.” Boyer is a former two-term Progressive Conservative MP for Etobicoke-Lakeshore. He is also an honest correspondent and skillful writer. The subtext to Big Blue Machine is failure. Boyer admits as much.

The Canada Revenue Agency will spend more than a half billion chasing ineligible claimants for repayment of pandemic relief cheques, records show. Cabinet was warned in 2020 the Canada Emergency Response Benefit program was open to abuse: 'There were only the flimsiest prepayment controls.'

The Department of Immigration says it is researching whether climate refugees will attempt to enter Canada. Current law does not recognize “climate considerations” as grounds to claim refugee status: "Canada is investing in projects that aim to strengthen data and evidence related to climate mobility."

Two provinces with the richest rebates for electric vehicles accounted for 74 percent of national sales last year, Department of Transport figures show. The department acknowledged it relied on rebates for “increasing the number of zero emission vehicles on the road.”

Chinese Canadians and Filipinos are more likely to be homeowners than Arab Canadians or Black people, Statistics Canada said yesterday. No reason was given: "Chinese, Southeast Asian and South Asian populations had the highest home ownership rates."

Cabinet yesterday said it will waive immigration rules to permit a limited number of Gazans, fewer than 1,000 with family here, to enter Canada. Security checks will be strict and applicants will be vetted by Israel, said Immigration Minister Marc Miller: "The Israelis have their say. They will screen people."

Toronto developer Toni Varone, a longtime Liberal donor and organizer with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s 2013 leadership campaign, yesterday was named a senator. The appointment follows Trudeau’s pledge to abolish “patronage in the Senate.”

Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault used misleading data and inaccurate generalizations in defending cabinet’s electric car mandate, records show. Guilbeault’s own department acknowledged banning the sale of inexpensive gas vehicles will result in net costs of billions for drivers and “disproportionately impact” the working poor: "Amendments are estimated to have incremental zero emission vehicle and home charger costs of $54.1 billion."

Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc yesterday deferred more gun regulations until after the next election. LeBlanc earlier postponed a federal buyback of prohibited firearms he said would criminalize his rural New Brunswick constituents: "People I know go hunting."

Cabinet yesterday brought into force long-promised regulations guaranteeing prompt payment to small subcontractors on public works. Reforms followed six years of review and evidence unpaid trades faced blacklisting if they complained: "We had men in tears here talking about this problem."

Cabinet yesterday officially listed the iconic Monarch Butterfly as endangered. The insect famed for wintering in Mexico faces disaster with loss of its sole food source, milkweed: "This is a population that has been dropping like a stone."

A Conservative cabinet would repeal electric car mandates as a tax on the poor, Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre yesterday said in a radio interview. Poilievre made his remarks ahead of cabinet’s publication today of a Regulatory Impact Analysis Statement on the cost of requiring drivers to buy electrics: "They have no idea how people are going to pay for it."

The private sector has raised Canadians’ expectations of faster, better service, says a Department of Employment report. Managers said the private sector “evolved rapidly through ever-advancing technologies” while the department struggles with months-long backlogs for benefits like Canada Pension Plan cheques: "Clients increasingly expect the delivery of government services to keep pace."

A registered charity had members hector a newspaper editor over coverage deemed insufficiently pro-Palestinian, records show. Canada Revenue Agency rules restrict political activity by taxpayer-supported charities: "The Income Tax Act requires a charity to be constituted and operated exclusively for charitable purposes and all the charity’s resources must be devoted to charitable activities."

Jewish advocates yesterday appealed for volunteer plaintiffs in civil court actions against anti-Semites at Canadian universities. It follows a demand by the Commons justice committee for immediate action to protect religious freedoms: "Shameful acts have one goal, to terrorize Canadians."