Erin O’Toole is selling a plan he seems to understand back to front. And that is distressingly rare in Canadian politics
Conservative leader Erin O’Toole used an interesting word this week, at least twice, while answering questions from reporters. The word was “yes.” It’s a simple word, but Canadian politicians will often turn rhetorical cartwheels to avoid using it (or its cousin, “no”). When a reporter concludes a question with “yes or no?” it’s a near-guarantee the response won’t contain either, let alone begin with it.
O’Toole has been asked repeatedly this week whether his support for a woman’s right to choose an abortion conflicts with his platform pledge to “protect the conscience rights of healthcare professionals.” His reasonable response: a “balanced approach” can accommodate both at the same time. Canadian society balances all kinds of competing rights every day.
On Friday in a very wet Winnipeg, though, he was asked directly whether a doctor with a conscientious objection to abortion would have to refer a woman to someone else willing to consult or perform it. “Yes,” O’Toole said, “they will have to refer, because the right to those services exists across the country.”
Crystal clear.
Twice earlier in the week, O’Toole was asked if he would be willing as prime minister to accept more than the 20,000 Afghan refugees the government has committed to resettling. Twice O’Toole said he really didn’t care about the number, but rather the people and their plights. It was a good answer. If Canada were as generous and welcoming to refugees as it likes to claim, it might not set quotas in the first place.
But journalists like to nail down numbers, and on the third try O’Toole obliged: “Yes,” he would admit more than the 20,000.
Clarity is by no means absolute on this campaign. The 20,000 Afghan refugees figure seems to have gotten mixed up with the issue of interpreters and others who worked with Canadian troops, diplomats and aid workers who are actually in Afghanistan right now. (The 20,000 will somehow have to make their own way out of the country.) When O’Toole said he doesn’t care how many come to Canada, he seemed to be referring specifically to the Afghans who worked with Canadians.
On Friday, a reporter noted that O’Toole’s leadership platform promised to protect “the conscience rights of all health-care professionals whose beliefs, religious or otherwise, prevent them from carrying out or referring patients for services that violate their conscience.” Asked why his position had changed, he said it hadn’t. It clearly has.
No one expects leadership platforms to become campaign platforms in their entirety, or even in large part. Where O’Toole has changed his mind, he should explain why. He would look all the more credible for it. To take one example: His leadership campaign proposed to sell off CBC’s English-language television operations within the first term of government. Now he proposes a wholesale mandate review — long overdue, and a strong position. I think I know why he did that, but he hasn’t offered inquiring reporters an explanation.
O’Toole isn’t a political colossus or a world-class orator. There’s plenty of chaff to go with the wheat
To be clear, O’Toole isn’t a political colossus or a world-class orator. There’s plenty of chaff to go with the wheat. But he has strong basic communications skills, which he is putting to use selling a plan that he seems to understand, believe in and know back to front. And that’s just distressingly rare in Canadian politics. God knows Andrew Scheer doesn’t have it: He met tough questions on abortion and same-sex marriage with the same verbatim sound bites every day, delivered with all the confidence of a deer caught in the headlights of an 18-wheeler.
O’Toole’s style also offers a useful contrast to Justin Trudeau’s, especially as Trudeau encounters more scrutiny than ever on the campaign trail. If you just listen to the cadences, Trudeau can sound articulate; but if you actually try to parse his words, they often crumble into dust. When it comes to not answering questions, Trudeau takes a back seat to no politician.
I know (Trudeau) cares, but he never acts
Erin O’Toole
Policy aside, the tone of the campaign O’Toole is running is precisely what the Tories have been looking for since Stephen Harper quit. Many in the party are consumed with various grievance complexes, as if they can never get a fair shake — not from the media, not from government bureaucracy, not from the courts, not from voters. It doesn’t matter if the grievances are justified; it creates a negative cycle. Smother reporters with nonsense day after day after day, and you’re very likely to get negative headlines no matter what you’re doing. O’Toole carries no such chip on his shoulder.
Nor does O’Toole seem to loathe the prime minister in the same way many partisans do. Conservatives assume far more people detest Trudeau than actually do, just as Liberals assume far more people detest Harper than actually do. If that sentiment colours a campaign, it can turn off people who are on the fence.
“I know he cares,” O’Toole said Friday of Trudeau’s attempts at reconciliation with Indigenous peoples, “but he never acts.”
O’Toole doesn’t seem to be campaigning to liberate us from Justin Trudeau’s profligate tyranny, in other words, but simply to run a better government. It’s a refreshing change, and it’s the way forward for Conservatives no matter what happens Sept. 20.
HALIFAX – Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston says it’s “disgraceful and demeaning” that a Halifax-area school would request that service members not wear military uniforms to its Remembrance Day ceremony.
Houston’s comments were part of a chorus of criticism levelled at the school — Sackville Heights Elementary — whose administration decided to back away from the plan after the outcry.
A November newsletter from the school in Middle Sackville, N.S., invited Armed Forces members to attend its ceremony but asked that all attendees arrive in civilian attire to “maintain a welcoming environment for all.”
Houston, who is currently running for re-election, accused the school’s leaders of “disgracing themselves while demeaning the people who protect our country” in a post on the social media platform X Thursday night.
“If the people behind this decision had a shred of the courage that our veterans have, this cowardly and insulting idea would have been rejected immediately,” Houston’s post read. There were also several calls for resignations within the school’s administration attached to Houston’s post.
In an email to families Thursday night, the school’s principal, Rachael Webster, apologized and welcomed military family members to attend “in the attire that makes them most comfortable.”
“I recognize this request has caused harm and I am deeply sorry,” Webster’s email read, adding later that the school has the “utmost respect for what the uniform represents.”
Webster said the initial request was out of concern for some students who come from countries experiencing conflict and who she said expressed discomfort with images of war, including military uniforms.
Her email said any students who have concerns about seeing Armed Forces members in uniform can be accommodated in a way that makes them feel safe, but she provided no further details in the message.
Webster did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
At a news conference Friday, Houston said he’s glad the initial request was reversed but said he is still concerned.
“I can’t actually fathom how a decision like that was made,” Houston told reporters Friday, adding that he grew up moving between military bases around the country while his father was in the Armed Forces.
“My story of growing up in a military family is not unique in our province. The tradition of service is something so many of us share,” he said.
“Saying ‘lest we forget’ is a solemn promise to the fallen. It’s our commitment to those that continue to serve and our commitment that we will pass on our respects to the next generation.”
Liberal Leader Zach Churchill also said he’s happy with the school’s decision to allow uniformed Armed Forces members to attend the ceremony, but he said he didn’t think it was fair to question the intentions of those behind the original decision.
“We need to have them (uniforms) on display at Remembrance Day,” he said. “Not only are we celebrating (veterans) … we’re also commemorating our dead who gave the greatest sacrifice for our country and for the freedoms we have.”
NDP Leader Claudia Chender said that while Remembrance Day is an important occasion to honour veterans and current service members’ sacrifices, she said she hopes Houston wasn’t taking advantage of the decision to “play politics with this solemn occasion for his own political gain.”
“I hope Tim Houston reached out to the principal of the school before making a public statement,” she said in a statement.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.
The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
REGINA – Saskatchewan Opposition NDP Leader Carla Beck says she wants to prove to residents her party is the government in waiting as she heads into the incoming legislative session.
Beck held her first caucus meeting with 27 members, nearly double than what she had before the Oct. 28 election but short of the 31 required to form a majority in the 61-seat legislature.
She says her priorities will be health care and cost-of-living issues.
Beck says people need affordability help right now and will press Premier Scott Moe’s Saskatchewan Party government to cut the gas tax and the provincial sales tax on children’s clothing and some grocery items.
Beck’s NDP is Saskatchewan’s largest Opposition in nearly two decades after sweeping Regina and winning all but one seat in Saskatoon.
The Saskatchewan Party won 34 seats, retaining its hold on all of the rural ridings and smaller cities.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.
The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
HALIFAX – Nova Scotia‘s growing population was the subject of debate on Day 12 of the provincial election campaign, with Liberal Leader Zach Churchill arguing immigration levels must be reduced until the province can provide enough housing and health-care services.
Churchill said Thursday a plan by the incumbent Progressive Conservatives to double the province’s population to two million people by the year 2060 is unrealistic and unsustainable.
“That’s a big leap and it’s making life harder for people who live here, (including ) young people looking for a place to live and seniors looking to downsize,” he told a news conference at his campaign headquarters in Halifax.
Anticipating that his call for less immigration might provoke protests from the immigrant community, Churchill was careful to note that he is among the third generation of a family that moved to Nova Scotia from Lebanon.
“I know the value of immigration, the importance of it to our province. We have been built on the backs of an immigrant population. But we just need to do it in a responsible way.”
The Liberal leader said Tim Houston’s Tories, who are seeking a second term in office, have made a mistake by exceeding immigration targets set by the province’s Department of Labour and Immigration. Churchill said a Liberal government would abide by the department’s targets.
In the most recent fiscal year, the government welcomed almost 12,000 immigrants through its nominee program, exceeding the department’s limit by more than 4,000, he said. The numbers aren’t huge, but the increase won’t help ease the province’s shortages in housing and doctors, and the increased strain on its infrastructure, including roads, schools and cellphone networks, Churchill said.
“(The Immigration Department) has done the hard work on this,” he said. “They know where the labour gaps are, and they know what growth is sustainable.”
In response, Houston said his commitment to double the population was a “stretch goal.” And he said the province had long struggled with a declining population before that trend was recently reversed.
“The only immigration that can come into this province at this time is if they are a skilled trade worker or a health-care worker,” Houston said. “The population has grown by two per cent a year, actually quite similar growth to what we experienced under the Liberal government before us.”
Still, Houston said he’s heard Nova Scotians’ concerns about population growth, and he then pivoted to criticize Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for trying to send 6,000 asylum seekers to Nova Scotia, an assertion the federal government has denied.
Churchill said Houston’s claim about asylum seekers was shameful.
“It’s smoke and mirrors,” the Liberal leader said. “He is overshooting his own department’s numbers for sustainable population growth and yet he is trying to blame this on asylum seekers … who aren’t even here.”
In September, federal Immigration Minister Marc Miller said there is no plan to send any asylum seekers to the province without compensation or the consent of the premier. He said the 6,000 number was an “aspirational” figure based on models that reflect each province’s population.
In Halifax, NDP Leader Claudia Chender said it’s clear Nova Scotia needs more doctors, nurses and skilled trades people.
“Immigration has been and always will be a part of the Nova Scotia story, but we need to build as we grow,” Chender said. “This is why we have been pushing the Houston government to build more affordable housing.”
Chender was in a Halifax cafe on Thursday when she promised her party would remove the province’s portion of the harmonized sales tax from all grocery, cellphone and internet bills if elected to govern on Nov. 26. The tax would also be removed from the sale and installation of heat pumps.
“Our focus is on helping people to afford their lives,” Chender told reporters. “We know there are certain things that you can’t live without: food, internet and a phone …. So we know this will have the single biggest impact.”
The party estimates the measure would save the average Nova Scotia family about $1,300 a year.
“That’s a lot more than a one or two per cent HST cut,” Chender said, referring to the Progressive Conservative pledge to reduce the tax by one percentage point and the Liberal promise to trim it by two percentage points.
Elsewhere on the campaign trail, Houston announced that a Progressive Conservative government would make parking free at all Nova Scotia hospitals and health-care centres. The promise was also made by the Liberals in their election platform released Monday.
“Free parking may not seem like a big deal to some, but … the parking, especially for people working at the facilities, can add up to hundreds of dollars,” the premier told a news conference at his campaign headquarters in Halifax.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.
— With files from Keith Doucette in Halifax
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