Anaida Poilievre wants you to know she’s unbothered by social media vitriol, and you shouldn’t be, either.

In a June 29 post, “The Art of Not Caring: Social Media Hate? Not My Problem” on her 10-year-old blog Pretty and Smart Co., Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre’s wife writes about how reading the online comments isn’t something on which she’s going to waste her time.

“When I published my recent piece ‘Has Society Become Too Promiscuous?’ on Pretty & Smart Co., I knew it would spark conversation. What I didn’t anticipate was the sheer volume of vitriol that would follow or how utterly unbothered I would be by it,” Poilievre wrote.

“Not indifference born of numbness, but a profound sense of clarity about what deserves my emotional energy and what doesn’t.”

The accompanying photograph of the author eating an apple whilst reading Mark Manson’s book The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck channels both her husband’s viral apple-eating interview from 2024, and the message on the jacket worn by United States First Lady Melania Trump in 2018, which read: ”I really don’t care, do u?”

Mrs. Poilievre noted that Manson’s premise that “we all have a limited amount of emotional energy to give in life, so we better choose wisely where we spend it,” has inspired her. 

“The secret to a good life isn’t eliminating problems or avoiding criticism. It’s choosing the right problems and caring about the right things,” she wrote.

“This doesn’t mean I’m immune to criticism or that I never doubt myself. It means I’ve learned to distinguish between criticism worth considering (thoughtful disagreement from people I respect) and noise worth ignoring (anonymous vitriol from people who don’t know me),” she wrote, encouraging her readers to do the same.

Two films spotlighting Canadian political crises part of upcoming REEL Politics Film Festival

The anticipated lineup for the movies to be shown at the REEL Politics Film Festival this fall has been released, including two Canadian films touching on domestic political crises that actually happened.

“Ottawa people: save these dates for 8 great evenings of movies about politics,” posted event organizer Bruce Anderson on X on June 28, plugging this year’s fundraising event for the Jaimie Anderson Parliamentary Internship and scholarship fund at Carleton University.

As Heard on the Hill first reported on May 12, the film festival is a new event that the fundraiser organizers are trying out starting this fall. It will take the place of the one evening of music in Wakefield that they’ve done for the past few years. 

The two Canadian films on the eight-film slate are 2020’s Beans, a coming-of-age drama directed by Tracey Deer and set in 1990 during the Oka Crisis at Kanesatake, Que.; and 1974’s Les Ordres, a docu-drama about the 1970 October crisis directed by Michel Brault. 

There are two European films on the schedule. The Battle of Algiers is a 1966 Italian-Algerian war movie directed by Gillo Pontecorvo about the 1954–1962 Algerian War. And 2017’s political satire black comedy The Death of Stalin is a French-British-Belgian co-production by Armando Iannucci and starring Steve Buscemi, Jason Isaacs, and Michael Palin.

The remaining films are all American, starting with 1957’s A Face in the Crowd starring Andy Griffith and Walter Matthau; All the President’s Men, a 1976 mystery thriller with Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman; 1997’s Wag the Dog comedy/drama with Hoffman and Robert De Niro; and 2005’s thriller Good Night and Good Luck with George Clooney.

Tickets are anticipated to go on sale later this month. The films will be screened at the ByTowne Cinema at 325 Rideau St.

Three ex-parliamentarians, PMO’s new chief of staff among July 1 Order of Canada recipients

Speaking of Bruce Anderson, the president of Spark Advocacy was one of 83 Canadians who received the Order of Canada on July 1. Anderson was recognized as being “one of our country’s leading opinion researchers” as well as for his co-founding the aforementioned Jaimie Anderson Parliamentary Internship.

Other notable inductees who are ex-parliamentarians are former Liberal deputy prime minister John Manley, who was promoted within the Order to the rank of companion; retired Conservative Senator Bob Runciman, who sat from 2010 to 2017 following 29 years in Ontario politics as an MPP and cabinet minister; and former Alberta Liberal Senator Claudette Tardif, who was commended for her “exemplary commitment” to promoting minority language rights in Canada. Tardif sat in the Senate from 2005 until her early retirement in 2018.

Then there’s a tranche of former senior public servants—many from the health sector—who were inducted, most notably Dr. Theresa Tam, the Public Health Agency of Canada’s former top doctor; former deputy health minister Dr. Stephen Lucas, and the country’s first chief public health officer David Jones, who helped create the agency. Two other former civil servants are from the world of foreign affairs: former ambassador and G8 summit sherpa Donald Campbell, and former ambassador Alexandra Bugailiskis, now chair of the UNU Institute for Water, Environment and Health.

Other notable names from the Ottawa bubble who joined the Order are lawyer Maureen McTeer who is also married to former prime minister Joe Clark; “retired senior public servant, arts patron, and philanthropist Susan d’Aquino; Canadian military and veteran law practitioner Michel Drapeau; and Prime Minister Mark Carney’s incoming chief of staff Marc-Andre Blanchard who was recognized for his “outstanding contributions to Canada and its economic development, both domestically and internationally” in his varied career as lawyer, ambassador to the UN, and in the private sector.

Rose LeMay’s book makes The Globe’s bestsellers’ list

The Hill Times columnist Rose LeMay’s recently published book Ally is a Verb: A Guide to Reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples, cracked the Globe and Mail’s top 10 list of Canadian non-fiction books on June 28.

LeMay’s book, published by Strong Nations Publishing, is one of three books on the list on the topic of reconciliation. Bob Joseph’s 2018 book 21 Things You May Not Know about the Indian Act, published by Indigenous Relations Press, appeared in seventh place. And David A. Robertson’s book 52 Ways to Reconcile, published by McClelland and Stewart, remains in the fourth spot where it had been the previous week. It has been on the bestseller list since it was released back in May.

Clinching top place on the list is Prime Minister Mark Carney’s 2021 book Value(s), which has been on the bestseller list since at least April.

Marc-André Blanchard’s father has died

The funeral for Claude Blanchard took place on July 3 in Saint-Zotique, Que.

Claude, aged 88, was the father of Marc-André Blanchard, incoming chief of staff to Prime Minister Mark Carney. 

Blanchard senior was a lawyer and University of Ottawa alumni, and former mayor of Saint-Zotique, according to Le journal Saint-François on June 30, which noted he was a life-long supporter of the federal Liberal party and its Quebec cousin.

He leaves behind his wife Denyse Perron-Blanchard, son Jean-François and Marc-André, as well as four grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

cleadlay@hilltimes.com

The Hill Times