ST. JOHN’S, N.L. — With a provincial byelection set for Tuesday in a long-held Progressive Conservative riding in Newfoundland, there’s something conspicuously hard to find on the Liberal candidate’s campaign signs: the name of his party.
Instead, Fred Hutton’s signs are emblazoned with Liberal Premier Andrew Furey’s last name against a white backdrop — not the party’s signature red — with “Newfoundland and Labrador Liberals” in small, barely perceptible, text.
About a month after Hutton launched his Liberal-lite campaign in the riding west of St. John’s, the federal Liberals took another hit from a Newfoundland and Labrador politician. Last week, Liberal MP Ken McDonald told Radio-Canada that Trudeau had reached his “best-before” date and it was time for a review of his leadership. Though McDonald promptly walked that back, Powers said his comments could be a smart strategic move.
“He hears what’s happening. He knows what’s happening on the ground,” Powers said of McDonald, pointing to an Abacus poll released Sunday showing the federal Conservative Party well ahead of Trudeau’s Liberals in Atlantic Canada.
In an interview Monday, Hutton said the branding of his campaign was not his decision. However, he was clear about his allegiances: “I’m running for Team Furey, the premier of Newfoundland and Labrador.”
He also dismissed his Progressive Conservative opponents’ efforts to link the provincial and federal Liberals, referring to the “Furey-Trudeau Liberals” in their press releases. Hutton noted that Furey pushed back against the federal carbon pricing scheme and its impact on home heating costs.
“The opposition likes to try to paint it as though they are provincial taxes. They are not,” said Hutton, who has been a senior adviser to Furey since 2020, when the premier was sworn in.
“I’m not connected with the federal Liberals at all,” he added. “I’m running for the provincial Liberal party. They’re two separate parties.”
Alex Marland, a political science professor at Acadia University in Wolfville, N.S., said he was surprised to see how blatantly the Newfoundland and Labrador Liberals seem to be distancing themselves from their federal counterparts with Hutton’s campaign materials.
Furey is the only Liberal provincial premier in the country, and he has often touted his strong relationships with Trudeau and with other federal Liberals, including Labour Minister Seamus O’Regan, who is the MP for a St. John’s riding.
However, he noted that the Liberal parties in British Columbia and Saskatchewan got rid of their associations with the federal party, rebranding last year as BC United, and the Saskatchewan Progress Party.
It shows how important public opinion polls are, and how much a federal party leader’s popularity can influence provincial politics, Marland said.
But the emphasis on Furey’s name over his party in Hutton’s campaign also shows party brass it holds weight, and that “he’s stronger than the Liberal brand itself,” Marland said.
Voting is set for Tuesday in the Conception Bay East-Bell Island byelection, after a winter storm delayed the polls by one day. The Conservative candidate is Tina Neary, while Kim Churchill is running for the NDP and Darryl Harding is running as an Independent.
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.
The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
Quebec wants to curb excessive tipping.
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.
The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
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.
The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
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