OTTAWA — Former Conservative deputy leader Leona Alleslev has officially entered the party’s leadership race.
Alleslev, who lost her Greater Toronto Area seat in last year’s federal election, unveiled her plans at a Parliament Hill news conference Wednesday afternoon.
She did so standing alone behind a microphone, save for reporters and several of her team members who were in the room.
Despite her low-key launch, Alleslev said her campaign has a solid foundation. She denied that she was going to have to play catch-up to the other candidates in the race, who for weeks have been criss-crossing the country selling memberships and campaigning with supporters.
Candidates have until April 29 to submit all the necessary signatures and pay $300,000 in fees to appear on the ballot. They have until June 3 to sign up new members.
“Simply because I chose to wait until now to announce doesn’t mean that I haven’t been doing all of the work that the other candidates have been doing,” she said.
“I am not behind.”
Alleslev, a former logistics officer in the Air Force who then worked in the private sector, is one of 11 people who have declared they want to replace former leader Erin O’Toole in the Conservative party’s top job.
The race was triggered after O’Toole was ousted by a majority caucus vote in early February.
Among the contestants Alleslev faces is former colleague and Ottawa-area MP Pierre Poilievre, whose recent rallies have attracted thousands, generating buzz about the level of momentum behind his message of “freedom.”
Poilievre’s campaign has also taken to accusing fellow candidate and former Quebec premier Jean Charest as being a Liberal for having led the Quebec Liberal Party.
Unlike Charest or any other candidate in the race, Alleslev was first sent to Parliament Hill as a Liberal MP in 2015 before she crossed the floor to join the Conservatives in 2018.
Former leader Andrew Scheer then appointed Alleslev to be the party’s deputy leader. She stepped down from the role to help Peter MacKay, the ex-leader of the federal Progressive Conservatives, try to win the party’s leadership in 2020.
On Wednesday, she defended her Liberal history by stating that she made her decision to cross the floor based on principle.
“In order for (Conservatives) to be successful in an election, to win a majority government, we need a lot of other people to make the same choice that I did,” Alleslev said.
The former MP also declined to identify why she thinks she lost her seat in last fall’s federal election, saying there were a number of reasons.
“Even the best candidate can only do so much in an election. They actually also need a strong party and a strong leader.”
In terms of policy, Alleslev raised concerns about the federal government’s level of spending and its national carbon price. In her launch speech, she also spoke about how Canada needs to better support its military and the country’s resource sector.
She was set to attend a meet and greet in Ottawa Wednesday evening.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 6, 2022.
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.
