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Thursday was a townhall day for both Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre with each on the road, taking questions from members of the public in Atlantic Canada.
With the House of Commons on a break until March 6, the two leaders had an opening to get out of Ottawa for outreach on key issues.
“Townhalls outside of elections are critical opportunities to trial balloon ideas, tone, and key messages,” Nik Nanos, chief data scientist at Nanos Research, and the official pollster for The Globe and Mail, said in a statement.
“It shouldn’t be surprising that in a minority parliament with the two front running parties, neck and neck in the polls that they are calibrating their tour and messages. These are warm up events for the next federal election.”
After a pair of townhalls earlier this week in York Region, near Toronto, and Longueuil, near Montreal, Mr. Trudeau was in Nova Scotia where the Liberals hold eight of 11 seats to three for the Conservatives.
Over the week, the Prime Minister appeared before the Carpenters’ District Council of Ontario and farmers and agricultural producers in Longueuil (where, story here., he said the federal government is looking at how it can provide targeted aid to farmers who are struggling with inflation.) On Thursday, the audience in the room was university students.
Mr. Trudeau was largely talking about health care at Dalhousie University’s Collaborative Health Education Building in Halifax. During the event, Mr. Trudeau mentioned that his government had confirmed health care agreements in principle with five provinces. Story here.
“This is really as much an opportunity for me to hear from you on whatever it is you are preoccupied with. There is a lot going on in the world right now,” Mr. Trudeau said, opening the event.
Meanwhile, Mr. Poilievre was scheduled to hold a townhall in the Newfoundland and Labrador town of Clarenville, about 190 kilometres west of St. John’s.
An advisory from Mr. Poilievre’s office earlier this week said Mr. Poilievre would be holding a “Keep the Heat On, Take the Tax Off” townhall on increases to the cost of home heating.
The Conservatives did not release any details, in advance, on other parts of Mr. Poilievre’s visit to the province where the Liberals hold six of seven seats. However, The Telegram in St. John’s caught up with the Official Opposition leader to learn what he was up to, which is largely outside the provincial capital – and urban centre – of St. John’s. Their story is here.
Alex Marland, a professor and the head of the political science department at Memorial University in St. John’s, said he expects that Mr. Poilievre’s team is seeking, through the event, to bolster the messaging around a recent television spot they have been running in Atlantic Canada to attack federal Liberal policies on pricing carbon. Global News reports here on the ad effort.
He also noted that the Tories may see rural Newfoundland, outside the capital of St. John’s, as more promising political terrain. Their sole MP, Clifford Small, won his Central Newfoundland riding by 281 votes over his Liberal rival in the 2021 election.
“It’s a very strategic and targeted thing that they are doing. They’re trying to talk about a particular issue in a particular area where they think it’s going to resonate. [Mr. Poilievre is] not there by accident,” said Mr. Marland.”There’s not a lot of seats in Newfoundland, but he has chosen to be there.”
