Fresh off a decisive victory for his newest Conservative caucus member, Tory Leader Pierre Poilievre woke up to the news Tuesday that he has hit a 10-year high among Conservative leaders for the coveted preferred prime minister ranking.
According to Nanos Research data, Poilievre has outpaced Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in the preferred prime minister category since September. Now he is also ahead of where Mr. Trudeau was ranked a year before the 2015 federal election and also tracking ahead of Stephen Harper circa 2014.
He’s also outperforming Erin O’Toole and Andrew Scheer, the two Conservative leaders who have also vied against Trudeau.
According to the Nanos polling, Poilievre is the preferred prime minister for 37 per cent of respondents. Trudeau is tied with the unsure category – each at 19 per cent – and NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh is the preference for 17 per cent.
The data is based on a four-week rolling average in which 250 respondents are polled each week, for a total sample size of 1,000 respondents. The telephone survey has a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
The Conservatives are also celebrating Monday night’s by-election result in Durham, Ont., where O’Toole’s Conservative successor, Jamil Jivani, won the riding in a landslide. With 57.4 per cent support, Jivani dramatically increased his party’s share of the vote by more than 11 percentage point from 2021. The gains came at the expense of the Liberals and NDP, which fell to 22.5 per cent and 10.4 per cent, respectively.
The People’s Party of Canada slipped in its share of the vote to 4.4 per cent on Monday night from 6 per cent in 2021. Voter turnout was just 28 per cent.
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TODAY’S HEADLINES
Brian Mulroney’s state funeral scheduled for March 23: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s office announced the funeral will be held in Montreal in two weeks. Prior to the service there will be a lying-in-state in Ottawa and a lying-in-repose in Montreal. Mulroney, a titan of Canadian politics whose policies transformed the economy, died last week in Palm Beach, Fla. He was 84.
RCMP accused of pattern of mistreatment toward Rebel News: A statement of claim was filed in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice that alleges the arrest of Rebel News reporter David Menzies early this year is part of a pattern of “intimidation and exclusion” by the RCMP against the organization. Kristy Kirkup reports.
Guilbeault calls Saskatchewan Premier immoral for breaking carbon-price law: Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault says Ottawa has to take action against Saskatchewan for breaking the federal carbon-pricing law. Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe said last week his province would not submit the money it owed for the carbon price on natural gas as required on Feb. 29. The Canadian Press has more.
ArriveCan fallout prompts scrutiny of Indigenous procurement program: Political fallout over the ArriveCan app should be a catalyst for Ottawa to deal with long-standing problems with a procurement program aimed at supporting Indigenous businesses, says the Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business. Bill Curry has the latest on the file.
THIS AND THAT
Today in the Commons: The House of Commons is on a two-week break. The public accounts committee, however, is meeting to continue its study of the ArriveCan scandal.
THE DECIBEL
On the Decibel today, senior parliamentary reporter Steven Chase breaks down the bombshell documents tabled in the House of Commons last week that revealed two scientists who worked at a high-security infectious-disease lab in Winnipeg provided confidential scientific information to China. The documents show that one of the scientists was “a realistic and credible threat to Canada’s economic security.” Catch the latest episode here.
PRIME MINISTER’S DAY
Justin Trudeau met with the President of Ecuador, Daniel Noboa, and later met with the Assembly of First Nations National Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak.
LEADERS
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh spent Tuesday in Campbell River, B.C. The small town on Vancouver Island is in NDP MP Rachel Blaney’s riding. She joined him for a visit at Ocean Pacific Marine Store & Boatyard, and the two will then be joined by NDP MP Gord Johns for a meet and greet in Comox, B.C.
Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet is on a three-day trip to Washington, D.C., where he is talking softwood lumber tariffs and French-language regulations in Quebec.
There was no schedule released for Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre.
OPINION
Danielle Smith’s attack on clean power is an attack on free enterprise
“This government attack on one industry is not a random event. While Ms. Smith says she supports net-zero emissions by 2050, her actions are effectively working to ensure Alberta falls short. She opposes Ottawa’s goal to cut most emissions from power generation by 2035. Alberta is, she claims, “a natural-gas province.” Favouring fossil fuels and slowing clean power is the UCP strategy.” – Editorial Board, The Globe and Mail
Jamil Jivani will fit right in with activist, populist conservatism of Poilievre
“If the Conservatives win the next election, no one is going to write a story about their retreat into incremental centrism. Things will be wild. There will be one tough-on-crime bill after another, spending cuts, sharp reductions in the budget deficit, even as the military receives more funding. It will be a fiery time that will delight conservatives and appall progressives. And Jamil Jivani will be in the thick of it.” – John Ibbitson, The Globe and Mail
The proposed new pharmacare program is yet another pilot project with an uncertain future
“Canada is “a country of perpetual pilot projects,” former health minister Monique Bégin once famously said. Despite all the hype surrounding the “historic” Bill C-64, or the Pharmacare Act, what’s being floated is really nothing more than a giant pilot project.” – André Picard, The Globe and Mail
How and why Ottawa can and should get back to balance by 2028
Quebec legislature member Youri Chassin has announced he’s leaving the Coalition Avenir Québec government to sit as an Independent.
He announced the decision shortly after writing an open letter criticizing Premier François Legault’s government for abandoning its principles of smaller government.
In the letter published in Le Journal de Montréal and Le Journal de Québec, Chassin accused the party of falling back on what he called the old formula of throwing money at problems instead of looking to do things differently.
Chassin says public services are more fragile than ever, despite rising spending that pushed the province to a record $11-billion deficit projected in the last budget.
He is the second CAQ member to leave the party in a little more than one week, after economy and energy minister Pierre Fitzgibbon announced Sept. 4 he would leave because he lost motivation to do his job.
Chassin says he has no intention of joining another party and will instead sit as an Independent until the end of his term.
He has represented the Saint-Jérôme riding since the CAQ rose to power in 2018, but has not served in cabinet.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
MONTREAL – NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh says he will not be taking advice from Pierre Poilievre after the Conservative leader challenged him to bring down government.
“I say directly to Pierre Poilievre: I’m not going to listen to you,” said Singh on Wednesday, accusing Poilievre of wanting to take away dental-care coverage from Canadians, among other things.
“I’m not going to listen to your advice. You want to destroy people’s lives, I want to build up a brighter future.”
Earlier in the day, Poilievre challenged Singh to commit to voting non-confidence in the government, saying his party will force a vote in the House of Commons “at the earliest possibly opportunity.”
“I’m asking Jagmeet Singh and the NDP to commit unequivocally before Monday’s byelections: will they vote non-confidence to bring down the costly coalition and trigger a carbon tax election, or will Jagmeet Singh sell out Canadians again?” Poilievre said.
“It’s put up or shut up time for the NDP.”
While Singh rejected the idea he would ever listen to Poilievre, he did not say how the NDP would vote on a non-confidence motion.
“I’ve said on any vote, we’re going to look at the vote and we’ll make our decision. I’m not going to say our decision ahead of time,” he said.
Singh’s top adviser said on Tuesday the NDP leader is not particularly eager to trigger an election, even as the Conservatives challenge him to do just that.
Anne McGrath, Singh’s principal secretary, says there will be more volatility in Parliament and the odds of an early election have risen.
“I don’t think he is anxious to launch one, or chomping at the bit to have one, but it can happen,” she said in an interview.
New Democrat MPs are in a second day of meetings in Montreal as they nail down a plan for how to navigate the minority Parliament this fall.
The caucus retreat comes one week after Singh announced the party has left the supply-and-confidence agreement with the governing Liberals.
It’s also taking place in the very city where New Democrats are hoping to pick up a seat on Monday, when voters go to the polls in Montreal’s LaSalle—Émard—Verdun. A second byelection is being held that day in the Winnipeg riding of Elmwood—Transcona, where the NDP is hoping to hold onto a seat the Conservatives are also vying for.
While New Democrats are seeking to distance themselves from the Liberals, they don’t appear ready to trigger a general election.
Singh signalled on Tuesday that he will have more to say Wednesday about the party’s strategy for the upcoming sitting.
He is hoping to convince Canadians that his party can defeat the federal Conservatives, who have been riding high in the polls over the last year.
Singh has attacked Poilievre as someone who would bring back Harper-style cuts to programs that Canadians rely on, including the national dental-care program that was part of the supply-and-confidence agreement.
The Canadian Press has asked Poilievre’s office whether the Conservative leader intends to keep the program in place, if he forms government after the next election.
With the return of Parliament just days away, the NDP is also keeping in mind how other parties will look to capitalize on the new makeup of the House of Commons.
The Bloc Québécois has already indicated that it’s written up a list of demands for the Liberals in exchange for support on votes.
The next federal election must take place by October 2025 at the latest.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante is defending her decision to turn off comments on her social media accounts — with an announcement on social media.
She posted screenshots to X this morning of vulgar names she’s been called on the platform, and says comments on her posts for months have been dominated by insults, to the point that she decided to block them.
Montreal’s Opposition leader and the Canadian Civil Liberties Association have criticized Plante for limiting freedom of expression by restricting comments on her X and Instagram accounts.
They say elected officials who use social media should be willing to hear from constituents on those platforms.
However, Plante says some people may believe there is a fundamental right to call someone offensive names and to normalize violence online, but she disagrees.
Her statement on X is closed to comments.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
