ST. JOHN’S, N.L. — With a provincial byelection set for Tuesday in a long-held Progressive Conservative riding in Newfoundland, there’s something conspicuously hard to find on the Liberal candidate’s campaign signs: the name of his party.
Instead, Fred Hutton’s signs are emblazoned with Liberal Premier Andrew Furey’s last name against a white backdrop — not the party’s signature red — with “Newfoundland and Labrador Liberals” in small, barely perceptible, text.
About a month after Hutton launched his Liberal-lite campaign in the riding west of St. John’s, the federal Liberals took another hit from a Newfoundland and Labrador politician. Last week, Liberal MP Ken McDonald told Radio-Canada that Trudeau had reached his “best-before” date and it was time for a review of his leadership. Though McDonald promptly walked that back, Powers said his comments could be a smart strategic move.
“He hears what’s happening. He knows what’s happening on the ground,” Powers said of McDonald, pointing to an Abacus poll released Sunday showing the federal Conservative Party well ahead of Trudeau’s Liberals in Atlantic Canada.
In an interview Monday, Hutton said the branding of his campaign was not his decision. However, he was clear about his allegiances: “I’m running for Team Furey, the premier of Newfoundland and Labrador.”
He also dismissed his Progressive Conservative opponents’ efforts to link the provincial and federal Liberals, referring to the “Furey-Trudeau Liberals” in their press releases. Hutton noted that Furey pushed back against the federal carbon pricing scheme and its impact on home heating costs.
“The opposition likes to try to paint it as though they are provincial taxes. They are not,” said Hutton, who has been a senior adviser to Furey since 2020, when the premier was sworn in.
“I’m not connected with the federal Liberals at all,” he added. “I’m running for the provincial Liberal party. They’re two separate parties.”
Alex Marland, a political science professor at Acadia University in Wolfville, N.S., said he was surprised to see how blatantly the Newfoundland and Labrador Liberals seem to be distancing themselves from their federal counterparts with Hutton’s campaign materials.
Furey is the only Liberal provincial premier in the country, and he has often touted his strong relationships with Trudeau and with other federal Liberals, including Labour Minister Seamus O’Regan, who is the MP for a St. John’s riding.
However, he noted that the Liberal parties in British Columbia and Saskatchewan got rid of their associations with the federal party, rebranding last year as BC United, and the Saskatchewan Progress Party.
It shows how important public opinion polls are, and how much a federal party leader’s popularity can influence provincial politics, Marland said.
But the emphasis on Furey’s name over his party in Hutton’s campaign also shows party brass it holds weight, and that “he’s stronger than the Liberal brand itself,” Marland said.
Voting is set for Tuesday in the Conception Bay East-Bell Island byelection, after a winter storm delayed the polls by one day. The Conservative candidate is Tina Neary, while Kim Churchill is running for the NDP and Darryl Harding is running as an Independent.
OTTAWA – Liberal House leader Karina Gould lambasted Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre as a “fraudster” this morning after he said the federal carbon price is going to cause a “nuclear winter.”
Gould was speaking just before the House of Commons is set to reopen following the summer break.
“What I heard yesterday from Mr. Poilievre was so over the top, so irresponsible, so immature, and something that only a fraudster would do,” she said from Parliament Hill.
On Sunday Poilievre said increasing the carbon price will cause a “nuclear winter,” painting a dystopian picture of people starving and freezing because they can’t afford food or heat due the carbon price.
He said the Liberals’ obsession with carbon pricing is “an existential threat to our economy and our way of life.”
The carbon price currently adds about 17.6 cents to every litre of gasoline, but that cost is offset by carbon rebates mailed to Canadians every three months. The Parliamentary Budget Office provided analysis that showed eight in 10 households receive more from the rebates than they pay in carbon pricing, though the office also warned that long-term economic effects could harm jobs and wage growth.
Gould accused Poilievre of ignoring the rebates, and refusing to tell Canadians how he would make life more affordable while battling climate change. The Liberals have also accused the Conservatives of dismissing the expertise of more than 200 economists who wrote a letter earlier this year describing the carbon price as the least expensive, most efficient way to lower emissions.
Poilievre is pushing for the other opposition parties to vote the government down and trigger what he calls a “carbon tax election.”
The recent decision by the NDP to break its political pact with the government makes an early election more likely, but there does not seem to be an interest from either the Bloc Québécois or the NDP to have it happen immediately.
Poilievre intends to bring a non-confidence motion against the government as early as this week but would likely need both the Bloc and NDP to support it.
Gould said she has no “crystal ball” over when or how often Poilievre might try to bring down the government
“I know that the end of the supply and confidence agreement makes things a bit different, but really all it does is returns us to a normal minority parliament,” she said. “And that means that we will work case-by-case, legislation-by-legislation with whichever party wants to work with us. I have already been in touch with all of the House leaders in the opposition parties and my job now is to make Parliament work for Canadians.”
She also insisted the government has listened to the concerns raised by Canadians, and received the message when the Liberals lost a Toronto byelection in June in seat the party had held since 1997.
“We certainly got the message from Toronto-St. Paul’s and have spent the summer reflecting on what that means and are coming back to Parliament, I think, very clearly focused on ensuring that Canadians are at the centre of everything that we do moving forward,” she said.
The Liberals are bracing, however, for the possibility of another blow Monday night, in a tight race to hold a Montreal seat in a byelection there. Voters in LaSalle—Émard—Verdun are casting ballots today to replace former justice minister David Lametti, who was removed from cabinet in 2023 and resigned as an MP in January.
The Conservatives and NDP are also in a tight race in Elmwood-Transcona, a Winnipeg seat that has mostly been held by the NDP over the last several decades.
There are several key bills making their way through the legislative process, including the online harms act and the NDP-endorsed pharmacare bill, which is currently in the Senate.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
OTTAWA – Canadians in two federal ridings are choosing their next member of Parliament today, and political parties are closely watching the results.
Winnipeg’s Elmwood —Transcona seat has been vacant since the NDP’s Daniel Blaikie left federal politics.
The New Democrats are hoping to hold onto the riding and polls suggest the Conservatives are in the running.
The Montreal seat of LaSalle—Émard—Verdun opened up when former justice minister David Lametti left politics.
Polls suggest the race is tight between the Liberal candidate and the Bloc Québécois, but the NDP is also hopeful it can win.
The Conservatives took over a Liberal stronghold seat in another byelection in Toronto earlier this summer, a loss that sent shock waves through the governing party and intensified calls for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to step down as leader.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
OTTAWA – The latest phase of a federal inquiry into foreign interference is set to kick off today with remarks from commissioner Marie-Josée Hogue.
Several weeks of public hearings will focus on the capacity of federal agencies to detect, deter and counter foreign interference.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and key government officials took part in hearings earlier this year as the inquiry explored allegations that Beijing tried to meddle in the 2019 and 2021 federal elections.
Hogue’s interim report, released in early May, said Beijing’s actions did not affect the overall results of the two general elections.
The report said while outcomes in a small number of ridings may have been affected by interference, this cannot be said with certainty.
Trudeau, members of his inner circle and senior security officials are slated to return to the inquiry in coming weeks.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
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