Intelligence whistleblower publishes op-ed on election interference

In case you’ve been living under a rock – or locked up in a re-education centre – the Canadian political establishment has been rocked by revelations from both the Globe and Mail and Global News regarding interference in Canadian elections by the Communist Party of China.

This afternoon in the Globe, the whistleblower that formed the “backbone” of this reveal (according to an attached note from Editor-in-Chief David Walmsley) penned an op-ed explaining why they did this and what’s at stake.

Respecting the subscriber paywall, I’ll just report on the news of this op-ed (do subscribe to the Globe and Mail).

First, the whistleblower is a Liberal voter and hopes to vote Liberal again in the future. This will be an interesting point to some, as a standard (weak) defence against the facts is the allegation of partisanship. These leaks have been damaging for Justin Trudeau’s government first-and-foremost, so this will clarify some of the waters which have been muddied in the defence of the Prime Minister.

From the op-ed, we learned that the leaks were instigated as a result of inaction by supervisors, and inaction by top government officials to do anything on “the threat” which “grew in urgency” and that “serious action remained unforthcoming”. In fact, as the threat of foreign interference grew, and as elections passed, the whistleblower perceived that these warnings were only being ignored.

Additionally, serious consequences have weighed on the public servant. Worries about family, prison, career were considered but were ultimately weighed against the public interest. Further, a desire to protect any Canadian against coercion by a hostile foreign power gave weight to the whistleblower’s decision to go public – and they expect to eventually be unmasked (“if and when”) for their role in bringing this to light.

It’s important to note that as the source of these stories, this individual does not believe that the government itself would be different had there been no interference by Beijing. Furthermore, that no politician has betrayed their country via the CCP’s meddling. Finally, it is the Chinese diaspora that has borne the brunt of these manipulations and one should conclude that Canada’s institutions should protect them from such an assault.

“Knowing that while what I have done may be unlawful, I cannot say that it was wrong”

It is not known where the whistleblower works – whether at CSIS, the PCO, PMO, or another government department or agency with access to classified information.

Who is the Canadian whistleblower? For now, I get to speculate using the Archer checkpoint model for Stable Diffusion.

Marc Garneau retires from Parliament

Marc Garneau is retiring from Parliament after almost 15 years. The Liberal MP marked his controlled descent onto terra firma in the House of Commons in 2008, elected as a Member of Parliament for the riding of Westmount–Ville-Marie (now Notre-Dame-de-Grace–Westmount) in Montreal. The former astronaut then slogged it out in opposition during Stephen Harper’s rise to a majority government in 2011 – until 2015 when the Liberals formed government under the leadership of Justin Trudeau.

The first Canadian in space launched his bid for the leadership of the Liberal Party of Canada against the low payload son of a former Prime Minister in 2012, but aborted when it became clear that Trudeau’s selection by Liberal members was following a single-stage-to-orbit trajectory.

In government, Garneau would go on to serve as Minister of Foreign Affairs and Minister of Transport, but eventually found himself on the backbench in a push by the PM to renew the faces in cabinet and for superficial gender balance.

Garneau is a cautionary tale for anyone seeking office while relying on their resume to cement their success as a legislator. Though he had some success in cabinet, the navy captain had perhaps the most impressive credentials of any Parliamentarian, but was eventually jettisoned, with the Prime Minister favouring flash over sustained burn.

The Trudeau government’s style has been heavily focused on image in place of the substantive; it is a government concerned more about how their look will play on social media, rather than how their policy will find its foundation.

The former NASA shuttle mission specialist departs at a time when speculation is growing about the successor to Justin Trudeau.

The former private school teacher turned G7 leader is facing a new scandal in Parliament over the alleged interference of the Chinese Communist government during the 2019 and 2021 Canadian federal elections. Beijing is alleged to have agitated and put resources toward the election of a Canadian government led by Justin Trudeau.

During what may be an election year, it is also during this part of the Parliamentary calendar when those who have options outside of elected life start to seriously consider their escape trajectory. This is especially true for ageing governments whose re-election isn’t as likely today as it was yesterday.

Trudeau is more likely than Garneau to be smarting over the loss of his Tik Tok account – now banned from the devices of Parliamentarians as a security risk posed by China. Indeed, Garneau is certainly a man out of time. As the Prime Minister’s image wanes, we may all yearn for an era of renewed substance.

Mapped Results of the 2021 Canadian Federal Election

Elections Canada has just released the official results of 2021 Canadian federal election.

The official voting results present the results of the election in much greater detail than the validated results that were shared immediately after the election. While the results themselves do not change, the official voting results provide more context by combining multiple data sources—including updated data on the number of registered electors, demographic information on candidates and poll-by-poll results—and presenting the data as a complete package, shared in multiple formats.

Elections Canada

This detailed CSV files of these results were released on April 7th and include the poll-by-poll tallies of the 338 ridings. Those polls are neighbourhood-sized slices of Canada of under 1000 electors (some neighbourhoods are bigger depending on the geography, of course). There are, by my count, 69997 polling divisions in Canada.

As I do, I stayed up all night to crunch through the data and plot it in map format. This, because I know you prefer not to consume your elections data via spreadsheet.

You can dive in by starting at the national map and clicking on any riding of your choosing.

Kitchener Centre was picked up by the Green Party

It’s still early so I haven’t done too much analysis on these maps yet (please tell me what you discover!)

As we all know, Justin Trudeau was held to a minority government with no significant change in the seats between the Liberals and Conservative parties.

The Liberals chipped away at a few urban centres with the Conservatives picking up strength in eastern Canada.

Edmonton Centre votes in 2021. Liberal strength is plotted from green (strong) to red (weak) polls.
Coast of Bays–Central–Notre Dame was a pickup for the Conservatives in 2021. Scott Simms, the Liberal incumbent was retired after 17 years in office. Conservative strength plotted from green (strong) to red (weak).

There were some peculiarities of note. Take Saint Boniface–Saint Vital in Manitoba, for example. I believe they have the distinction of running the most candidates for office in 2021.

Democracy scenesters or an inside joke?

Since the last election, I’ve added a couple of features that make the mapping tool more interactive. You can search for riding in the search bar above any map. Clicking the “✨ Related content” button at the top right of the screen will show you ridings near the local map you’re looking at, and you can also view the history of the riding at a glance and navigate through last 8 elections. Even if the riding didn’t exist during a previous election, those nearest to the current mapped view will show up along the timeline.

Cliiiick ittt….
Get that context!
The history of the Milton riding!

As always, you can size up a map how you like it and click the download image button. Share these maps on Twitter and Instagram. Print them on a t-shirt and wear them proudly to your next family reunion. You’ll be glad you did!

You’ll be the coolest person on twitter when you download these maps to share.
Simcoe North has never looked so good!

I hope you enjoy this project as much I as enjoyed making it. If you have any feature requests, just let me know on twitter @stephen_taylor.

If you want to use the maps on your website, I’d appreciate a link back to my site so that more people can discover the project.

Thanks, and happy exploring!

Related:

The Stephen Taylor Data Project

CPC leadership race mapped out. Where will 2022’s hopefuls look to dominate membership sales?

Original mapping project announcement