As last week ended, it looked like the Conservative Party of Canada (CPC) might actually overcome COVID-19 restrictions and Derek Sloan embarrassments to emerge from an unconventional leadership race strengthened and with a viable new leader. Then somebody called the cops.
Ontario MP Erin O’Toole is thought to be running second in the four-person contest, behind Pictou County native and Harper-era stalwart Peter MacKay. Many observers believe O’Toole lost ground to MacKay during last week’s debates — a raucous one Wednesday in French, followed Thursday by a more muted English encore.
And then, in the dead of Friday night, O’Toole’s campaign issued a statement accusing MacKay’s team of theft and asking no fewer than three police departments to investigate the alleged larceny.
O’Toole claims MacKay’s campaign hacked its files and stole confidential campaign material. Lest the allegation be written off as the usual internecine warfare that marks and mars party leadership races, O’Toole upped the ante by filing formal complaints with the Mounties, the Ontario Provincial Police and the Toronto police.
MacKay’s campaign responded as you’d expect the front-runner to respond. They laughed it off, calling the allegations “mildly amusing,” and an act of political desperation.
Warring camps are nothing new in the bare-knuckle politics of leadership contests, but calling the cops on a rival is, at the risk of understatement, a bit unorthodox.
“We call on Peter MacKay and his team to immediately return and delete any stolen data or video’s currently in possession of staff and volunteers,” the O’Toole campaign said in the Friday night release.
“We further insist on swift co-operation from Mr. MacKay and his campaign with the RCMP, OPP, and Toronto Police Service and the immediate termination of all involved in this potentially criminal action from their campaign.”
Yeah. None of that’s going to happen, except maybe cooperation with the police, if any ever show up.
Even if one or more of the police departments take up the investigation, there’s little chance it would show results before Conservatives vote for their next leader in August.
So, the party faithful and thousands of new recruits signed up by the four leadership contenders, will likely vote knowing little more about the alleged theft than they do now.
An unproven allegation is unlikely to move many votes, but it hints at deep division and mistrust between the top two camps that will be hard to heal after the race is decided.
Party insiders believe the leadership is MacKay’s to lose, and he could do just that if he doesn’t win or come close on the first ballot.
O’Toole’s running to the right of MacKay on social issues to woo later ballot votes from supporters of social conservatives Leslyn Lewis, the consensus third-place contender, and Sloan.
Lewis has caught the approving eye of many Conservatives, and although she’s given almost no chance to win, where her supporters land once she’s knocked off the ballot will matter if O’Toole is within striking distance of MacKay.
Sloan’s primary function in the race seemed to be to remind the majority of Canadians why they harbour nagging doubts about the CPC. During Thursday’s debate he managed some gratuitous boosterism for Donald Trump and a healthy dollop of homophobia.
Sloan advocates conversion therapy, the discredited and — many mental health experts say — dangerous practice of attempting to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity.
Sloan’s candidacy aside, the Conservatives deserve credit for running a credible campaign despite the COVID-19 lockdown, and for dramatically increasing party membership.
There will be almost as many eligible voters — cardcarrying Conservatives — choosing the next leader as there where in 2017, when 14 candidates were hawking memberships. Party membership is said to be approaching 250,000, up from about 100,000 before the leadership race began.
Last week’s debates were high-stakes events because they were the one and only chance for Conservatives to measure the candidates in face-to-face competition.
With voting little more than a month off, most observers thought that after the debates the die would be cast. But then the O’Toole camp threw a wrench in the works with the allegations that MacKay’s team is a den of thieves and calling the cops on them.
That’s a gamble that doesn’t seem likely to pay off unless the police look, find and disclose some evidence of wrongdoing. It will, however, influence future relations between MacKay and O’Toole as well as many of their supporters, and not in a positive, party-unifying kind of way.
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.
