HALIFAX —
After partisanship largely took a break during the early days of COVID-19, politics is ramping up across the board and throughout all levels of Canadian government.
Even a political junkie like Christina Hayes has been finding it a challenge to keep up with everything in this day and age.
“I usually am the one that keeps up the most in the family, but I think we’ve all been kind of distracted with COVID, so we’re all losing touch with everything going on in the world,” says Hayes.
“I think the pandemic really showed the benefit of non-partisan political problem solving,” says Don Wright, a political science professor at the University of New Brunswick.
Wright says that trend of parties working together was never going to last forever, and this month’s call for a New Brunswick election displays that politics are returning to normal.
And New Brunswick isn’t the only Maritime province where politics is returning to the spotlight.
Municipal elections in Nova Scotia will be held on October 17, with residents able to vote in person, online or by phone, depending on where they live.
Nova Scotia’s Liberal party will choose a new leader in February, who will become Stephen McNeil’s replacement as Premier. Candidates have until October 9th to register. That vote will happen electronically and by phone.
In Ottawa, Canada’s Parliament has been shut down. The Trudeau minority government will present a Throne Speech when Parliament resumes in late September, which will prompt a confidence vote.
Many Canadians also are following the events south of the border, where Americans will vote on whether Donald Trump or Joe Biden will be the next President of the United States on November 3.
“You can vote now,” says Ariel Harper Nave, a dual American/Canadian citizen who has already mailed in her ballot for the U.S. election. “Democracy is so fragile, we will lose it if we don’t exercise it. This is the way we can make our voices heard consistently.”
“I’m very concerned as a scholar and citizen about voter disinterest and voter decline over the past couple of decades,” says Wright. “I really hope the pandemic doesn’t dissuade people from showing up to a ballot box, or requesting a special ballot and voting by mail.”
The New Brunswick election is the first election to happen in Canada since the pandemic shutdown the country in March.
“I’m confident it can set an example for the rest of the country, how you can have an election during a pandemic,” says Wright.
Municipal elections in New Brunswick were scheduled to be held in March, but have been delayed until May 2021, although it is possible they could be held before that.
OTTAWA – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the NDP is caving to political pressure from Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre when it comes to their stance on the consumer carbon price.
Trudeau says he believes Jagmeet Singh and the NDP care about the environment, but it’s “increasingly obvious” that they have “no idea” what to do about climate change.
On Thursday, Singh said the NDP is working on a plan that wouldn’t put the burden of fighting climate change on the backs of workers, but wouldn’t say if that plan would include a consumer carbon price.
Singh’s noncommittal position comes as the NDP tries to frame itself as a credible alternative to the Conservatives in the next federal election.
Poilievre responded to that by releasing a video, pointing out that the NDP has voted time and again in favour of the Liberals’ carbon price.
British Columbia Premier David Eby also changed his tune on Thursday, promising that a re-elected NDP government would scrap the long-standing carbon tax and shift the burden to “big polluters,” if the federal government dropped its requirements.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
Simon Jolin-Barrette, minister responsible for consumer protection, has tabled a bill to force merchants to calculate tips based on the price before tax.
That means on a restaurant bill of $100, suggested tips would be calculated based on $100, not on $114.98 after provincial and federal sales taxes are added.
The bill would also increase the rebate offered to consumers when the price of an item at the cash register is higher than the shelf price, to $15 from $10.
And it would force grocery stores offering a discounted price for several items to clearly list the unit price as well.
Businesses would also have to indicate whether taxes will be added to the price of food products.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
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.
