Jane Philpott listens to an address at the B.C. Assembly of First Nations annual general meeting at the Musqueam First Nation, in Vancouver on Thursday, Sept. 19, 2019. Ms. Philpott’s story should stand out as a remarkable tale from 2019.
DARRYL DYCK/The Canadian Press
Justin Trudeau was damaged by the SNC-Lavalin affair but limped back to power with a minority government. The former attorney-general who accused him of political intrusions in a criminal prosecution, Jody Wilson-Raybould, now sits across the aisle as an independent; she was named Newsmaker of 2019 by The Canadian Press wire service.
But one figure from the affair didn’t return to Ottawa: Jane Philpott.
The former senior cabinet minister wasn’t really one of the chief actors in the scandal. She didn’t have any role in the SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. prosecution. She did a rare thing: She resigned from cabinet because she felt the government wasn’t being honest.
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She didn’t quit politics, or her party. Mr. Trudeau threw her out of the Liberal caucus, along with Ms. Wilson-Raybould. When she ran for re-election as an independent in her riding of Markham-Stouffville, she lost to Liberal MP Helena Jaczek.
MPs, including good ones, lose in every election. But Ms. Philpott’s story should stand out as a remarkable tale from 2019. She did what many Canadians want politicians to do. And she was turfed out of politics.
Ms. Philpott is an unlikely rebel. Mr. Trudeau argued that she and Ms. Wilson-Raybould had to be expelled from caucus for the sake of party unity. Most of the MPs in the Liberal caucus wanted them expelled, too: In their eyes, they had undermined the Liberal Party from within.
Some Liberal insiders whispered rumours that in the weeks before she resigned, Ms. Philpott had been conspiring to remove Mr. Trudeau and have him replaced temporarily by then-Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale. CBC journalist Aaron Wherry, in his book Promise and Peril, recounted that cabinet minister Patty Hajdu had warned Mr. Goodale his name was being floated as a possible interim prime minister.
What really happened, according to Ms. Philpott, was not a cabal, but the what-if discussions of a fretting Liberal cabinet. And she wasn’t trying to find a replacement for Mr. Trudeau: “Absolutely not,” she said.
“I wasn’t personally working toward that,” Ms. Philpott said in an interview at a coffee shop in Stouffville, Ont., in November, after her election loss. “There were other cabinet ministers who were also greatly shaken by what took place, and there were conversations around, ‘Oh my gosh, where is this going to go?’ ”
At the time, Ms. Philpott clearly didn’t know, either. Although she still hasn’t recounted many of the details of what happened, citing cabinet confidentiality, she has said she advised Mr. Trudeau to acknowledge a mistake, apologize and move on.
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Cabinet ministers are expected to speak with one voice, and the SNC-Lavalin affair was so high profile she couldn’t avoid questions about it. So she quit cabinet to sit as a Liberal backbencher. She gave an interview in which she told a journalist there was “much more to the story.”
There was. And in retrospect, Ms. Philpott’s actual criticisms were restrained. Other Liberals, such as Toronto MP Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, have said the Prime Minister’s Office collectively crossed a line. Ms. Philpott’s offence was taking a high-profile action that showed she felt a principle was at stake.
She did not want to repeat Mr. Trudeau’s wholesale denials of pressure on the attorney-general – the PM called the allegations false. Ministers were given similar lines. “Those allegations were not false,” she said. “And I’m not going to go out there and say that they were false. I draw the line at lying.
“And I think that I could have continued as a caucus member if they hadn’t been so annoyed at me.”
That hope was long past when she spoke, still wistfully, in November, in a break from packing up three offices and her Ottawa apartment. She was feeling regret for her constituency staff, who has built up expertise and relationships that would suddenly stop.
A medical doctor, she worked for the better part of a decade in Niger. In Canada, she started the Give a Day to AIDS campaign, encouraging people to give a day’s pay. When Paul Martin appeared at a fundraiser, she told him her frustrations at inequities; he spoke to her about politics. When she was elected as an MP in 2015, she told The Globe and Mail she saw politics as “medicine writ large.”
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Inside government, she was seen as one of Mr. Trudeau’s most effective ministers. At her first cabinet meeting, then as Health Minister, she was made chair of the task force charged with bringing in 25,000 Syrian refugees. She is proudest of some of things most people never saw, such as approving the use of prescription-grade heroin in addiction clinics over the political concerns of political operatives. Her medical background, she said, allowed her to explain: “You don’t need to be afraid. We’re actually saving people’s lives. We’re making the streets safer.”
For a month after resigning, Ms. Philpott did remain in the Liberal caucus. There were discussions, notably between Mr. Trudeau’s team and Ms. Wilson-Raybould, about what would happen next. But Ms. Philpott said that from the time she resigned from cabinet on March 4 to the day the PM called her in to say she would be expelled from the Liberal caucus on April 2, Mr. Trudeau never spoke to her personally.
Looking back, Ms. Philpott still questioned why she wasn’t able to stay in the Liberal caucus as a backbencher when other Liberals such as Mr. Erskine-Smith were allowed to disagree. Is it because he is a man? Ms. Philpott shrugged, inconclusive. “There are lots of men that have been able to say contrary things,” she said. “Women are expected to follow.”
Her campaign as an independent brought in hundreds of volunteers, many previous backers of other parties. She said she thought she had a shot. But on the doorsteps, voters expressed a desire to choose a prime minister, or vote against the party leader they dislike, but especially, a concern that if they vote for an independent MP, the riding will somehow miss out on the spoils of party politics.
“We would hear over and over again, ‘We love you, Jane, we think you’re fantastic, but we’re really worried about what an independent can do.’ ”
Ms. Philpott’s remarkable resignation has faded from view. But it is a tale of how Canadian politics works. She made a point of principle. When that clashed with the leader, there was no room for her in the party.
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“The voters say that’s okay. Essentially,” she said. “Or there is something more important than that. To me, that is disappointing.
“I’m sure most people in the voting booth weren’t saying to themselves, ‘We don’t mind if the Prime Minister kicks out caucus members.’ But to a certain extent the effect is the same.”
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.
