Eby says new B.C. cabinet built around ‘kitchen table’ issues: affordability, homes

OTTAWA – If no political party is willing to say uncle, the drawn-out stalemate in the House of Commons is heading for an unprecedented situation that could amount to a tacit lack of confidence in the government, without anyone in Parliament casting a vote.

The Conservatives and Bloc Québécois have already announced plans to try to bring down the government and trigger an election with a non-confidence motion at the next opportunity. But there’s no telling when that opportunity will come, because the House has been gridlocked in a filibuster for more than a month.

That may seem like good news for the embattled Liberal minority government, despite the total lack of progress on legislation, but the standoff is inching Parliament ever closer to a procedural cliff that would prevent the Liberals from raising the funds they need to run the government.

“That would be unprecedented. I don’t know what exactly would happen,” said constitutional lawyer Lyle Skinner.

“That’s a clear sign that something unusual is occurring, and at a certain point in time it’s going to be seen as a loss of confidence without a confidence vote ever occurring.”

Parliament is set to resume Monday after being off for a week for Remembrance Day, where it is expected a weeks-long filibuster will pick up where it left off before the break.

The Liberals and Conservatives are each blaming the other for the state of the House.

The Conservatives have promised that House business will remain at a standstill until the government hands over unredacted documents to Parliament and the RCMP related to a green tech fund that misspent government money.

The Liberals say the Conservatives are filibustering their own motion and should instead move the talks to a committee, as the Speaker ordered.

“We are committed to getting things done for Canadians in Parliament. Important legislation is before the House, and we believe the Conservatives should stop playing obstructionist partisan games so that MPs can debate those bills,” Liberal House leader Karina Gould said in a statement.

Gould called the filibuster “reckless and irresponsible” and said the Conservatives are “putting their own partisan self-interest ahead of Parliament’s responsibilities.”

The government insists that it is out of order for parliament to be ordered to hand over documents for use not by the House of Commons or its members but by a third party, in this case the RCMP.

Opposition House leader Andrew Scheer shot back to say that if Gould really cared, she could get the House back to work immediately “by stopping the Liberal coverup and releasing all of the documents, as ordered by Parliament.”

The ongoing debate, which supersedes all other business, doesn’t allow the government to raise any money, which is one of the central reasons Parliament exists.

Legislation to raise funds — called supply bills — are special, said Skinner, because if the government can’t convince Parliament to pass them it shows the House has lost confidence in the government. Loss of confidence can trigger an election.

If the government can’t even bring its supply bills to a vote, it raises all kinds of questions.

“It’s almost like entering into a U.S.-style shutdown because nobody wants an election. And there is no playbook for that,” Skinner said.

Nothing so dire is expected in the near term.

The government will ask for money to cover unexpected expenses in December. If it never comes to a vote because of the filibuster, that could create a short-term budget crunch.

But if the situation persists into March, there will be far greater consequences that could indeed mimic a U.S.-style shutdown. The government wouldn’t be able to spend any money in the new fiscal year, and the Governor General would have to take notice.

There are still political off-ramps to avoid the situation, but so far no party seems prepared to take them.

Another opposition party like the New Democrats could work with the Liberals to put forward a motion to shut down the debate. But so far the NDP appear content to watch the Liberals and Conservatives hoist themselves by their own procedural petard for now and have not signalled any intention to put an end to the filibuster.

The Bloc have offered to do exactly that, but only if the Liberals agree to their demands, including putting up $16 billion over five years to increase old age security payments for seniors under the age of 75.

The Conservatives say they’ll only stop the filibuster if the Liberals hand over the documents, or the NDP agree to help bring down the government.

The Liberals can’t do much on their own except call an election, which will allow funds to flow while the government is in caretaker mode, or prorogue Parliament and put a hard reset on the proceedings.

Green Party Leader Elizabeth May says she doesn’t think it’ll come to that.

“I think that there’s a very strong likelihood that the majority of individual members of Parliament and the larger parties will see a benefit in making sure we don’t have a crisis on continuity of supply for government business,” May said at a press conference this month.

All that requires is for the parties to co-operate in a way they haven’t for weeks.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 17, 2024.

AVONDALE, N.L. – The four women sipping tea around an antique wooden table in rural Newfoundland said they weren’t looking for much in a mate: kindness, humour, a good sense of fun and, ideally, a full set of teeth.

Sick of dating apps and with few places to meet men in person, the women were at a new speed-dating event for seniors at a railway station museum in Avondale, N.L., about 40 kilometres southwest of St. John’s.

They hoped to put down their phones, look someone in the eye and make a real connection.

“I’m retired. I babysit my grandpuppy, I go visit my single girlfriends. At my age, I’m like, OK, where do you go?” asked Daphne Simmons, 65. Her sense of humour had everyone at ease within minutes, even as a reporter watched them go on six-minute dates.

“If I was 40 or 30, I’d be downtown,” Simmons said, referring to St. John’s, where there are plenty of bars and clubs in which to catch someone’s eye. “I met my late husband downtown, and he was the best man that ever walked this Earth.”

Single men her age are exhausted too, she added. Those she has met through apps and websites have the same complaints trying to meet women.

“I might have to start crashing funerals,” Simmons joked.

It is widely agreed that dating can be difficult. The women in Avondale on a recent Friday afternoon bonded over a shared portfolio of horror stories that would make love-seekers of any age wince with recognition: online matches that will message but not meet, promising suitors that ultimately reveal they’re married or attached, and in-person dates with someone who looks nothing like their profile picture.

But older adults have added complications.

Jenny Temple organized the event in Newfoundland, in part because she’s hoping to find a match for her mother, Annie White, an elegant 75-year-old whose home-baked tea buns were so tasty at least one attendee hustled a few out of the building in a napkin at the end of the afternoon.

Temple teaches movement, yoga and nutrition classes for seniors in rural communities outside St. John’s, including Avondale, and she saw a need for some way other than the Plenty of Fish dating app for older adults to connect.

“I would hear the stories of people lonely, some are depressed, maybe they moved here and they don’t know anybody, so they’re even looking for just friendship,” Temple, 49, said in an interview after the event.

She saw, too, that ageism can be a barrier. Sometimes children or grandchildren disapprove of them dating, or dismiss it as silly, Temple said. Some older adults hold themselves back, worried people might think they’re dating too soon after the death of a spouse.

“There’s this whole mindset in society — we’re so used to seeing, even in the movies, younger people dating. You don’t see older adults,” she said. “So I thought, shag this, I’m going to give this a try.”

She named her event How Ya Gettin’ On after a popular Newfoundland expression for “How are you?”

Across the country in Victoria, dating coach Cherie MacCormack said watching older adults struggle to connect inspired her to start offering matchmaking services last month. She’s been coaching and hosting events for singles of all ages since 2013, and with a roster of more than 1,400 past clients, she figured she could do more to help people find love.

Older adults aren’t looking for someone to buy a house or have children with. Instead, they approach relationships with a wealth of life experience, and they’re hoping to find someone with common interests to spend time with, the 52-year-old said in an interview.

That life experience often means older adults know exactly what they need in a partner, and what they don’t want, she said. But sometimes, past heartbreak — divorce, death — can make them more hesitant to trust someone new.

“Everyone deserves to have a life partner,” she said. “I would love to find love for people in their 80s and 90s. I don’t think it matters how old you are, there’s somebody out there for everyone.”

In Avondale, Simmons smiled as she came back from her speed-dating round with the men at the event. “It was good,” she said, still smiling, but otherwise tight-lipped.

In all, eight women and three men took part. Temple was hoping for higher numbers — 25 men and 25 women would be ideal, she said — but it was only the first event. The next one is planned for St. John’s.

There was at least one big win: several of the attendees left the event together and went to a local bar to hear a band play. Regardless of whether any of them wind up dating, they had still become friends.

“It’s just pure joy to be honest,” Temple said. “Because I know some of their stories, the loneliness. And now, when they leave here today, they might have somebody to call upon that they didn’t have before.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 17, 2024.

HALIFAX – Zach Churchill freely admits he’s a career politician.

The leader of the Nova Scotia Liberal party — first elected to the legislature when he was 26 — makes no apologies for dedicating his working life to public service, saying his experience has been invaluable during a provincial election campaign that has just over a week to go.

“This has been my life’s passion and I’ve been very fortunate to do it for this long,” the 40-year-old former cabinet minister said during an interview Friday with The Canadian Press. “I don’t think there’s anybody who can better relate to people than those in service-related positions.”

Churchill said that as an only child growing up in Yarmouth, N.S., he was the centre of attention within the third generation of a family that moved to Nova Scotia from Lebanon. “I come by that inclination naturally,” he said.

In high school, he was lead singer in a rock band called Oden. And when he was cut from the basketball team, he ran for student council co-president and won. While studying history and religion at Saint Mary’s University in Halifax, he became known for painting his face and acting like a maniac at Huskies football games.

After university, Churchill served as national director of the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations in Ottawa for two years before being hired for a brief stint as a senior policy analyst with the federal Department of Human Resources.

When a provincial byelection was called in Yarmouth in 2010, he returned home and was elected to the legislature for the first time. He was the first Lebanese-Canadian to win a seat in the Nova Scotia house of assembly.

He and his wife Katie — an optometrist in Yarmouth — have two young daughters, Cecelia and Eva.

After the Liberals won a majority in 2013, he held several cabinet portfolios, including health, education, natural resources and municipal affairs. One of his most notable accomplishments was introducing Nova Scotia’s universal pre-primary program for four-year-olds, and he also served briefly as health minister during the COVID-19 pandemic.

But his tenure in cabinet was also marked by an ugly incident in March 2019, when Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Houston accused Churchill of assaulting him during a heated argument outside the legislative chamber. Churchill denied attacking Houston, but he admitted losing his temper with the man who would go on to lead the Tories to victory in 2021, ending almost eight years of Liberal rule.

“What I learned from it was that I make my biggest mistakes when I’m angry,” Churchill said during the interview. “I had words with Mr. Houston … and then he falsely accused me of assaulting him. It was also a learning moment for me in terms of what he might be willing to do to win a political battle.”

Churchill was elected to lead the Liberals in July 2022.

With voting day in Nova Scotia set for Nov. 26, the latest polls suggest the Progressive Conservatives are leading by a wide margin, with the New Democrats — led by Claudia Chender — and Churchill’s Liberals in a tight race for second.

Among the pledges in the Liberal platform are: reducing the harmonized sales tax to 13 per cent from 15 per cent; removing the HST from all groceries; shrinking income taxes; providing free public transit; building 80,000 homes by 2032; building more non-profit housing; establishing a rent bank; and building more collaborative health-care facilities.

As the campaign enters its final phase, Churchill has been critical of the premier’s decision to ignore the first piece of legislation the Tory government passed in October 2021: a law that set July 15, 2025 as the date for the next election.

At the time, Houston said the law would “limit any perceived advantage by the government to control the timing of the next election.” But with the Tories riding high in the polls last month, Houston jettisoned that commitment and called a snap election, arguing that he needed a new mandate to deal with an affordability crisis and to “stand up” to Ottawa.

“There’s a lot of shock, surprise and confusion over why there’s an election happening right now,” Churchill said in the interview. “People are not really buying the reasons for it.”

During a televised leaders debate on Thursday, Churchill said Houston’s failure to keep his fixed-date promise was proof the premier is more interested power than accountability.

“This election is not about you,” Churchill told viewers as he looked directly into the camera. “It’s about him.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 17, 2024.