The five main party leaders met for the first and only English debate of this election campaign Thursday night and clashed over the country’s most pressing problems, from climate change and the pandemic crisis to fractious foreign relations.
From the opening bell, Trudeau faced an onslaught of attacks from his opponents over the fall of Kabul, the imprisonment of two Canadians in China and his decision to call a snap election during a pandemic. Trudeau sometimes struggled to respond to the attacks during an often chaotic campaign event with a rigid format that featured few opportunities for one-on-one exchanges.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh and Green Party Leader Annamie Paul tried to brand Trudeau as a failed prime minister who has long promised transformative progressive change but has failed to deliver. Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole, who faced comparatively few jabs throughout the matchup, positioned himself as a more moderate choice than his predecessors in a pitch to disaffected Liberal voters.
Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet struggled to compete in his second language and bristled at questions from the moderator, Shachi Kurl, that suggested some of Quebec’s policies — like Bill 21, which restricts religious garb at work — are discriminatory and xenophobic.
Trudeau, meanwhile, asked voters to return his party to government to finish the fight against COVID-19, saying his party has released a viable plan for a post-pandemic Canada.
With the polls suggesting the race for first place is a virtual dead heat less than two weeks out from election day, Trudeau and O’Toole set their sights on each other early in the debate.
Climate and emissions targets
Trudeau tried to paint O’Toole as a climate laggard. Pointing to a positive review from a prominent climate analyst, Trudeau said the Liberal climate plan is the least costly and the most effective strategy on offer to drive Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions. He dismissed O’Toole’s promised green policies as “weak.”
O’Toole has said that, if he’s elected, he will push the reset button on Canada’s climate plan, returning to the previous national target of reducing emissions by 30 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030. Trudeau said O’Toole threatens to drag Canada back to “the Harper years,” when former prime minister Stephen Harper committed to less ambitious environmental action.
Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet, left to right, Green Party Leader Annamie Paul, Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh and Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole take part in the federal election English-language Leaders debate in Gatineau, Que., on Thursday. (Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press)
“We have to win back trust on this issue — we haven’t met the expectations of Canadians on climate change,” O’Toole said. He defended his lower target, saying his plan is actually doable and would not tank Canada’s resource-rich economy.
“Mr. O’Toole can’t even convince his party that climate change is real because they voted against that,” Trudeau said, referring to a failed Conservative party convention motion to declare that “climate change is real.”
O’Toole hit back, saying the Liberal leader talks a big game on climate but has failed to put a dent in Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions.
Watch: Blanchet, Singh, O’Toole spar over pipelines:
Blanchet, Singh, O’Toole spar over pipelines
8 hours ago
During the English leaders’ debate, Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh, and Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole discussed their views on how to transition Canada to a green economy. 3:09
“Mr. Trudeau always forgets one thing — he has never made a target for climate change. He has great ambition, that’s part of the reason we’re in an election in a pandemic is his ambition, but he doesn’t have achievement,” O’Toole said.
Singh also piled on. “Justin Trudeau has failed all of us,” he said. “You had six years and you’ve got the worst track record in the G7 after six years.
“Let’s talk about the cost — the cost of inaction is the entire town of Lytton being wiped out by a climate forest fire.”
Trudeau said he wouldn’t take lessons from Singh on climate, pointing to poor grades independent experts have given the NDP’s climate plan. “How is it that the experts rated our plan an A and rated your plan to be an F?” Trudeau said.
According to the latest report from Environment and Climate Change Canada, the country’s emissions have ticked up on Trudeau’s watch.
In 2019 — the first year of the federal carbon pricing system, commonly called the “carbon tax” — Canada produced 730 megatonnes of carbon dioxide emissions, an increase of one megatonne — or 0.2 per cent — over 2018.
However, the economy grew faster than emissions did in 2019 — which means the country’s “emissions intensity” is lower than it has been in the past.
The 730 megatonnes of emissions recorded in 2019 is slightly higher than the 723 megatonnes Canada churned out in 2015, the year Trudeau first took office.
Watch: Trudeau, O’Toole debate climate change
Trudeau, O’Toole debate climate change
7 hours ago
During the English leaders’ debate, Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau and Conservative Party Leader Erin O’Toole respond to the question about how one in four Canadians do not believe climate change is caused by human activity. 2:11
Paul said Canada could become a renewable energy superpower, and the leaders need to form an “all-party cabinet” to combat the shared threat of climate change. “This is a global issue, this is a national issue, this is a non-partisan issue. And we have got to be able to come together across party lines,” she said.
The cost of living and housing
The leaders also debated the issue of affordability. O’Toole blasted Trudeau over the spike in inflation in recent months — with the value of the dollar dropping and the price of some everyday goods rising thanks in part to government largesse and a strengthening economy.
O’Toole touted some of the more populist measures tucked into his 160-page election platform, like a GST holiday in December and a month-long discount at restaurants — measures meant to simulate the bricks-and-mortar economy, which has been hard hit by public health measures like lockdowns.
Canada’s housing stock is among the priciest in the world, with the average price of a single family home costing well over $1 million in the Toronto and Vancouver urban areas. According to the Canadian Real Estate Association’s MLS system, the average price of a home in Canada is $716,000, an eye-popping figure that means property ownership is a distant dream for many.
“There’s a housing crisis and Mr. Trudeau is making it worse,” O’Toole said. To address this, the Conservative housing plan commits to building one million new homes over three years while easing mortgage requirements and making more federal land available for development.
WATCH: The party leaders debate housing affordability
Federal party leaders debate housing affordability
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Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole, Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau and NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh spoke with the CBC’s Rosemary Barton during the leaders debate. 2:22
Trudeau said the Conservatives’ housing plan would give tax breaks to the wealthy — a reference to O’Toole’s platform commitment to create incentives for Canadians who invest in rental housing by making tweaks to the capital gains tax regime.
The Conservatives maintain the housing “crisis” is driven by a shortage of supply and say programs that encourage people and companies to build more rental units will help to alleviate the problem.
Vaccine mandates
Trudeau, who is in the fight of his political life after six years in office, presented himself as a vaccine champion — a leader determined to boost vaccination rates to avoid the worst effects of the delta variant.
At a time when experts say vaccine coverage needs to be even higher than it is now, Trudeau said he would create a billion-dollar fund to help provinces pay for vaccine passports.
He criticized O’Toole’s resistance to the idea of a vaccine mandate for federal public servants and the travelling public, saying O’Toole’s preference for rapid tests over mandatory shots punishes the 85 per cent of Canadians who’ve had at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.
“We’ve shown unequivocal leadership on getting everyone vaccinated. Unfortunately, Mr. O’Toole can’t even convince his own candidates to get vaccinated,” Trudeau said.
O’Toole said if Trudeau was so concerned about ending this pandemic — and boosting vaccination rates — he wouldn’t have plunged the country into an election campaign during a fourth wave of the pandemic.
Paul, who has grappled with internal party issues for much of the summer, is also opposed to mandatory vaccines.
“This is another case where policy gets put aside for partisan advantage. We need to encourage people to get vaccinated — vaccines save lives — but there are people who can’t get vaccinated and we need to reasonably accommodate them,” she said.
O’Toole’s signature platform item — and by far the most costly item he has proposed — is a $60 billion cash injection into the Canada Health Transfer, a financial commitment that would help provinces and territories spend more on a system that is battered and bruised after a 19-month long health crisis.
The promised financial boost, which would come with no strings attached, has been welcomed by premiers like Quebec’s François Legault who are reluctant to see Ottawa impose conditions in an area of provincial jurisdiction.
But Trudeau panned the Conservative promise, saying too much of the money is backloaded to the last five years of the 10-year plan. The Liberal plan, by comparison, promises $25 billion on a faster timeline.
Singh, who is contesting his second federal election, has promised to make the “ultra rich” pay more in taxes to fund a host of new social programs like universal pharmacare.
Indigenous reconciliation
Indigenous reconciliation was another topic of the debate. Since the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation reported this summer that as many as 215 children could be buried at a former residential school site, the issue of Crown-Indigenous relations has been at the forefront of the national conversation.
Singh clashed with Trudeau on the issue, saying the Liberal leader has allowed longstanding issues to fester.
“The calls to justice are out there and you haven’t acted,” Singh said of the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls Inquiry (MMIWG)’s findings.
“You can’t take a knee one day when you’re going to take Indigenous kids to court the next,” Singh added, citing ongoing litigation over funding for First Nations social services — a claim Trudeau batted away as an oversimplification of a complex legal matter.
Watch: Singh says Trudeau has not acted on Indigenous calls to justice.
Singh says Trudeau has not acted on Indigenous calls to justice
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NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh accuses Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau of saying one thing but doing another when it comes to compensation for Indigenous kids. 1:13
“The cynicism that Mr. Singh is showing by saying that we did nothing is harming reconciliation and the path that we’re moving forward on,” Trudeau said.
Trudeau said there’s no doubt “Canada has failed” Indigenous peoples after centuries of abusive colonial policies but he said there has been meaningful progress in recent years. Trudeau said he has made Indigenous issues a priority while in government, flowing billions in new funding to end drinking water advisories, repair First Nations schools, set up a new Indigenous-led child welfare system and revive Indigenous languages, among other commitments.
The election campaign is entering its final stretch. Advance polls open tomorrow and election day is Sept. 20.
People’s Party of Canada Leader Maxime Bernier was not invited to participate because the commission determined that his party did not have the required level of voter support — four per cent — five days after the date of the election call. Recent polling figures suggest the PPC has since overtaken the Greens in national support.
Watch: Trudeau, Paul have heated exchange over feminism and leadership:
Liberal and Green leaders have heated exchange over feminism and leadership
8 hours ago
Justin Trudeau and Annamie Paul had the first exchange in the English leaders’ debate, hosted by Shachi Kurl of the Angus Reid Institute. 2:12
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.
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.
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.
