B.C. NDP to unveil election platform, Conservatives promise to end insurance monopoly

Saskatchewan’s New Democrats are criticizing the Saskatchewan Party’s health-care record as the provincial election campaign enters its third day.

The NDP says the emergency room at Saskatoon’s Royal University Hospital reached 350 per cent capacity on Tuesday night, a situation it blames on the Saskatchewan Party and its leader, Scott Moe.

Nurses are set to rally at noon today at the provincial legislature in Regina, with the Saskatchewan Union of Nurses saying the health system is beset by issues including ER overcrowding, hallway beds and staffing shortages.

NDP Leader Carla Beck is set to hold a media availability at the legislature shortly after.

Moe is scheduled to make an announcement in Prince Albert this morning before visiting small businesses and the local campaign office in Warman.

Election day is Oct. 28.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 3, 2024.

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WINNIPEG – Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew continues to enjoy a honeymoon with voters one year after his NDP government was elected, but there are challenges ahead in fulfilling promises to improve health care and balance the budget.

One of the things Kinew says he has learned since the Oct. 3 vote last year is that changes can’t be made quickly.

The province has seen hundreds of new health-care workers hired as part of Kinew’s election promise to “fix” health care. But more workers, equipment and space are needed.

“The change that we want for patients to be able to see improvement in health care is going to take, not just one year of doing that, but multiple years in a row of doing that,” Kinew said in an interview.

“On a personal level, I would love it if we could just snap our fingers and say, ‘New (emergency room) over here, all these people staffed up over there.’ But the reality is it will take time.”

Recent opinion polls have suggested Kinew, the first First Nations premier of a Canadian province, continues to enjoy high levels of support, both personally and for his government. The NDP won a recent byelection in the Tuxedo constituency in Winnipeg, which had been staunchly Progressive Conservative since its creation in 1979.

Kinew has been an effective user of social media and has at times made announcements directly to his tens of thousands of followers instead of at traditional press conferences.

A political analyst says there’s no immediate sign of the NDP honeymoon ending, partly because Kinew has followed through on some high-profile election promises, including temporarily suspending the provincial fuel tax in January. The tax is slated to be brought back in on Jan. 1, 2025.

“Kinew has been putting through his election promises of last summer and fall,” said Christopher Adams, an adjunct professor of political studies at the University of Manitoba.

Kinew has also succeeded in reaching out to people affected by tragedy, including the families of missing and murdered Indigenous women, and has come across as empathetic and charismatic, Adams said.

The honeymoon has also been helped because the Opposition Progressive Conservatives and Liberals are in rebuilding mode, Adams said. Both parties are operating under interim leaders and are working on restoring their party machinery and war chests.

Kinew, however, has faced some recent bumps in the road.

Mark Wasyliw, a lawyer who holds the Fort Garry seat in Winnipeg, was kicked out of the NDP caucus because a colleague is representing disgraced fashion mogul Peter Nygard on sex assault charges. The removal drew sharp criticism from the legal community.

Wasyliw, who now sits as an Independent, has criticized Kinew and accused the premier of being a bully who has strayed from NDP principles. Kinew has denied the allegations and said he has never bullied anyone on the job, yelled at any of his staff or dismissed opposing views.

The government also stirred up controversy by pausing a program that provides rent money to people at risk of homelessness. The province quickly backtracked after public outcry.

One area where Kinew admits work needs to be done is in ending the province’s chronic annual deficits. The government has registered red ink in every year but two since 2009, and Kinew has promised to balance the budget by 2027.

The government has laid out a path to balance that requires overall annual spending increases of less than 2.5 per cent. Recent provincial collective agreements include wage hikes higher than that, and the government has made other promises with price tags, such as hiring more public-sector workers, building more personal care homes, and reducing class sizes in schools.

Kinew said the government is looking at areas where it can tighten its belt, but he offered no specifics.

“You roll up your sleeves and you just go through what each department does and figure out where there are opportunities for us to be responsible with the resources Manitobans have invested in their provincial government,” Kinew said.

Adams said the government, which had criticized the former Tory government’s spending cuts, will be hard-pressed to end deficits and could see, at some point, a downgrade from credit-rating agencies.

“They’ve got to figure out the fiscal picture. The spending seems to be very, very high.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 3, 2024.

OTTAWA – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau condemned missile attack on  Wednesday, but said the international community must do everything it can to help avoid a bigger regional war.

Exchanges of fire between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon over the last year erupted into broader violence in the last week as Israel ramped up its campaign against Hezbollah by air and Tuesday began sending in ground troops.

Also on Tuesday, Iran launched some 200 ballistic missiles at Israel, and warned of a “harsher” attack if Israel responds in kind.

“It is further destabilizing action by this terrorist regime in the region, putting civilians at risk, running the risk of a wider war,” Trudeau said after speaking with this G7 counterparts in a joint call Wednesday morning.

“Obviously, Israel has the right to defend itself against these attacks. At the same time, we have to try and do everything we can to avoid a wider war, to protect civilians and to get humanitarian aid into affected regions.”

Officials in Washington said U.S. destroyers assisted in Israel’s defence, while the U.K. defence secretary said British forces played a part but did not specify what. Defence Minister Bill Blair said Canadian forces were not involved at all.

Trudeau said in his call with other G7 leaders, all agreed the international community must do everything it can to achieve peace and stability in the region. That includes reiterating calls for a ceasefire and pushing for a two-state solution where both Israel and a Palestinian state can exist safely.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who holds the rotating presidency of the G7, maintains that a diplomatic solution is still possible.

Earlier in the day, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council that in just a week the alarming situation in Lebanon has gone from bad “to much, much worse,” and called for an end to the hostilities.

“The sickening cycle of escalation after escalation that is leading the people of the Middle East straight over the cliff” has to stop, he said.

Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly acknowledged Wednesday that Israel has already vowed that Iran would face “severe consequences” for its attack and that it would retaliate.

“Canada’s role right now, Canada’s goal, is to make sure that there’s no full-scale war in the Middle East, and so that’s why we’ll continue to engage diplomatically,” Joly said.

The rapid escalation in the conflict comes just days before the one-year anniversary of the Oct. 7 Hamas attack that saw 1,200 people killed and 250 taken hostage in Israel.

The attack sparked immediate retaliation from Israel in the besieged Gaza Strip, where tens of thousands have since been reported dead and millions have been displaced.

The international community has harboured concerns that the Israel-Hamas war would lead to a broader regional conflict in the Middle East for the last year.

With the massive increase in hostilities in Lebanon and the latest attack on Israel from Iran, those fears are coming true.

Israeli airstrikes have been reported in recent days in Gaza to the south, Lebanon to the north and Syria to the east.

Joly once again called on Canadians who are still in Lebanon to accept help to leave the country. Since Friday, Global Affairs Canada has been helping citizens book plane tickets out of Lebanon.

So far more than 400 Canadians have left through the airport in the Lebanese capital of Beirut, and roughly 300 more were due to leave on the next flights, Joly said. All the flights are destined for Istanbul.

Joly’s department estimates there are as many as 45,000 Canadians in Lebanon, and has warned in the past that Canada may not be able to help them escape if commercial flights are grounded. The government has been preparing a possible evacuation plan for months.

Still, many of the seats the government has offered on flights out of Lebanon remain vacant, Joly said, begging those who are offered a seat to take it.

“I know it’s difficult. I know it’s difficult to leave your loved ones,” she said.

“Please, this is about your own safety and the safety of your loved ones.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 2, 2024.

— With files from The Associated Press