The Liberal government accused Conservatives on Wednesday of abandoning Ukraine by voting overwhelmingly against an updated free trade deal that promotes carbon pricing.
Most of the Conservative caucus voted nay on the deal in the House of Commons at second reading Tuesday, triggering a chorus of heckling from the government benches.
The issue surfaced again during question period on Wednesday, with the Conservatives and Liberals exchanging blows and accusing each other of betraying Ukraine.
Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly said Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre was just trying to score “small political points” at the expense of supporting Ukraine in its conflict with Russia.
“We’re seeing how much Ukrainians are on the battlefields defending their freedom and fighting for ours, and now you see Poilievre playing shenanigans,” Joly said after a Liberal caucus meeting.
“This is absurd.”
Poilievre calls Ukraine trade agreement a carbon tax deal
Featured VideoConservative Leader Pierre Poilievre says his party is not supporting the modernization of the Canada-Ukraine Free Trade Agreement because it involves promoting carbon pricing.
Poilievre defended his party’s decision, saying that while the Conservatives support free trade with Ukraine, they can’t back any deal that involves a price on carbon.
“I really think it speaks to how pathologically obsessed Trudeau is with the carbon tax that he, while the knife is at the throat of Ukrainians, would use that to impose his carbon tax ideology on those poor people,” Poilievre said Wednesday.
“The last thing they need is a carbon tax when they’re trying to rebuild from war — from this illegal invasion by Russia.”
Ukraine already signed onto carbon pricing, which it needs in order to one day become a member of the European Union and avoid tariffs.
Poilievre said a Conservative government led by him would continue free trade with Ukraine, which was negotiated under former Conservative prime minister Stephen Harper’s government. Poilievre said he would remove any reference to carbon pricing from the agreement.
“The argument that Poilievre is using about the carbon tax and the agreement is a red herring,” said Liberal MP Yvan Baker on Wednesday.
Baker, chair of the Canada-Ukraine Parliamentary Friendship Group, said Canada’s existing free trade agreement with Ukraine only covers goods. The updated version includes services and investment, things Baker said are essential for Ukraine to rebuild.
Baker argued the Conservatives’ vote is part of a larger pattern of behaviour contributing to waning public support for Ukraine.
Liberal MP accuses Conservatives of voting against Ukraine
Featured VideoLiberal MP Yvan Baker, who chairs the Canada-Ukraine Parliamentary Friendship Group, said the Conservative’s decision to vote against the updated Canada-Ukraine Free Trade Agreement shows the party doesn’t support Ukraine.
“[Poilievre] argues that the war doesn’t affect inflation, when we know the war is the primary reason for food and energy price inflation around the world, including here at home,” Baker said.
“It’s very clear yesterday’s vote is just another example that the Pierre Poilievre Conservatives don’t support Ukraine.”
The revised Canada-Ukraine trade treaty was signed by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during his September visit to Ottawa.
Bill C-57, an Act to Implement the 2023 Free Trade Agreement between Canada and Ukraine, is now headed to a committee for study after passing the Commons by a vote of 205 to 109 with support from the NDP, Greens, Bloc Québécois and the governing Liberals.
Head of Canada-Ukraine Chamber of Commerce disappointed
Zenon Potichny, president of the Canada-Ukraine Chamber of Commerce, expected the vote to get unanimous consent.
“It was disappointing,” Potichny said in an interview with CBC News.
“It sort of sends a bad signal, first of all, to Ukraine.… Why would you block it when you know your Canadian companies also will get more contracts, more jobs, more involvement in Ukraine?”
Zenon Potichny is president of the Canada-Ukraine Chamber of Commerce. (Paula Duhatschek/CBC)
Baker defended the spending and said Canada needs to continue to support Ukraine.
“We either pay a small price now by helping the Ukrainians win this war decisively, or we pay a much bigger price later and much higher inflation, much greater security risks in the years to come,” Baker said.
Shachi Kurl, president of the Angus Reid Institute, said past Conservative voters are most likely to say Canada has been offering too much support for Ukraine and that Canada should stay out of the conflict all together.
“Conservative voters, in general, are more likely to profess higher support for focusing on domestic affairs and less support for Canada having a large intervening role in crises or conflicts around the world,” Kurl said.
WINNIPEG – The federal New Democrats have kept a longtime stronghold in the Elmwood-Transcona riding in Winnipeg.
The NDP’s Leila Dance won a close battle over Conservative candidate Colin Reynolds, and says the community has spoken in favour of priorities such as health care and the cost of living.
Elmwood-Transcona has elected a New Democrat in every election except one since the riding was formed in 1988.
The seat became open after three-term member of Parliament Daniel Blaikie resigned in March to take a job with the Manitoba government.
A political analyst the NDP is likely relieved to have kept the seat in what has been one of their strongest urban areas.
Christopher Adams, an adjunct professor of political studies at the University of Manitoba, says NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh worked hard to keep the seat in a tight race.
“He made a number of visits to Winnipeg, so if they had lost this riding it would have been disastrous for the NDP,” Adams said.
The strong Conservative showing should put wind in that party’s sails, Adams added, as their percentage of the popular vote in Elmwood-Transcona jumped sharply from the 2021 election.
“Even though the Conservatives lost this (byelection), they should walk away from it feeling pretty good.”
Dance told reporters Monday night she wants to focus on issues such as the cost of living while working in Ottawa.
“We used to be able to buy a cart of groceries for a hundred dollars and now it’s two small bags. That is something that will affect everyone in this riding,” Dance said.
Liberal candidate Ian MacIntyre placed a distant third,
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024
OTTAWA – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau say the Liberals have “all sorts of reflections” to make after losing a second stronghold in a byelection in Montreal Monday night.
His comments come as the Liberal cabinet gathers for its first regularly scheduled meeting of the fall sitting of Parliament, which began Monday.
Trudeau’s Liberals were hopeful they could retain the Montreal riding of LaSalle—Émard—Verdun, but those hopes were dashed after the Bloc Québécois won it in an extremely tight three-way race with the NDP.
Louis-Philippe Sauvé, an administrator at the Institute for Research in Contemporary Economics, beat Liberal candidate Laura Palestini by less than 250 votes. The NDP finished about 600 votes back of the winner.
It is the second time in three months that Trudeau’s party lost a stronghold in a byelection. In June, the Conservatives defeated the Liberals narrowly in Toronto-St. Paul’s.
The Liberals won every seat in Toronto and almost every seat on the Island of Montreal in the last election, and losing a seat in both places has laid bare just how low the party has fallen in the polls.
“Obviously, it would have been nicer to be able to win and hold (the Montreal riding), but there’s more work to do and we’re going to stay focused on doing it,” Trudeau told reporters ahead of this morning’s cabinet meeting.
When asked what went wrong for his party, Trudeau responded “I think there’s all sorts of reflections to take on that.”
In French, he would not say if this result puts his leadership in question, instead saying his team has lots of work to do.
Bloc leader Yves-François Blanchet will hold a press conference this morning, but has already said the results are significant for his party.
“The victory is historic and all of Quebec will speak with a stronger voice in Ottawa,” Blanchet wrote on X, shortly after the winner was declared.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh and his party had hoped to ride to a win in Montreal on the popularity of their candidate, city councillor Craig Sauvé, and use it to further their goal of replacing the Liberals as the chief alternative to the Conservatives.
The NDP did hold on to a seat in Winnipeg in a tight race with the Conservatives, but the results in Elmwood-Transcona Monday were far tighter than in the last several elections. NDP candidate Leila Dance defeated Conservative Colin Reynolds by about 1,200 votes.
Singh called it a “big victory.”
“Our movement is growing — and we’re going to keep working for Canadians and building that movement to stop Conservative cuts before they start,” he said on social media.
“Big corporations have had their governments. It’s the people’s time.”
New Democrats recently pulled out of their political pact with the government in a bid to distance themselves from the Liberals, making the prospects of a snap election far more likely.
Trudeau attempted to calm his caucus at their fall retreat in Nanaimo, B.C, last week, and brought former Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney on as an economic adviser in a bid to shore up some credibility with voters.
The latest byelection loss will put more pressure on him as leader, with many polls suggesting voter anger is more directed at Trudeau himself than at Liberal policies.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17, 2024.
The New Democrats have declared a federal byelection victory in their Winnipeg stronghold riding of Elmwood—Transcona.
The NDP candidate Leila Dance told supporters in a tearful speech that even though the final results weren’t in, she expected she would see them in Ottawa.
With several polls still to be counted, Conservative candidate Colin Reynolds conceded defeat and told his volunteers that they should be proud of what the Conservatives accomplished in the campaign.
Political watchers had a keen eye on the results to see if the Tories could sway traditionally NDP voters on issues related to labour and affordability.
Meanwhile in the byelection race in the Montreal riding of LaSalle—Émard—Verdun the NDP, Liberals and Bloc Québécois remained locked in an extremely tight three-way race as the results trickled in slowly.
The Liberal stronghold riding had a record 91 names on the ballot, and the results aren’t expected until the early hours of the morning.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
