New Brunswick election: Liberals offer plan to make life better for seniors

HALIFAX – The number of hate crimes reported by Halifax police in 2023 jumped by 62 per cent compared with the prior year.

Figures released last month by Statistics Canada show that Halifax police reported 121 hate crimes last year, more than 40 per cent of the total for the entire Atlantic region, at 300.

Halifax ranked fifth in the country for its hate crime rate, moving up from the seventh spot in 2022.

The country’s statistical agency says there were 23.3 police-reported hate crimes per 100,000 people in Halifax in 2023, up from a rate of 14.4 in 2022.

Canada-wide, hate crimes reported by police have been steadily increasing since 2019, and in 2023 there were 12 hate crimes per 100,000 people, up from 9.3 the previous year.

Warren Silver, an analyst with Statistics Canada, says the jump in numbers may not necessarily correlate to an increase in hatred, but to a rise in reporting.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 2, 2024.

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SAINT PAUL, Minn. – The debate between Tim Walz and JD Vance began with a focus on Donald Trump’s record in office as the vice-presidential hopefuls were quick to take an attack dog approach to defending their presidential partner on the ticket.

In response to a question about increasing turmoil in the Middle East, Walz, the 60-year-old Democratic governor of Minnesota, criticized Trump’s record on foreign policy and said “a near 80-year-old Donald Trump talking about crowd sizes” is not what is needed.

Vance, the 40-year-old Republican senator from Ohio, responded “Donald Trump actually delivered stability in the world.”

Republicans and Democrats are both hoping Tuesday’s matchup will demonstrate their vice-presidential candidate’s ability to connect with voters in battleground states that will play a critical role in deciding the U.S. election in November.

“They will both be trying to connect with those key Midwestern voters, that’s part of why each one of them was chosen,” said Matthew Lebo, a specialist in U.S. politics at Western University in London, Ont.

“Thinking about especially male voters in those key Midwestern swing states: Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan.”

Those states swung Republican when Trump won the 2016 election, and in 2020 they helped put President Joe Biden in the White House.

Walz has embraced his folksy, plain-spoken demeanour since he joined the ticket earlier this summer. He’s leaned into his Midwestern roots and the title “Coach Walz” from his former football coach days.

The strategy has seen him garner high favourability in polls but he will be facing a formidable opponent in Vance, who has become a mainstay on cable news shows since he was announced as Trump’s running mate in July.

Formerly a Trump critic, Vance was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2022 after becoming one of the former president’s loudest supporters.

Before entering the political sphere, Vance rose to fame with the 2016 publication of his memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy.” The Republican vice-presidential hopeful opened the debate talking about his life and struggles growing up.

Both men are expected to play on their working-class narratives during the debate to give credibility to their party’s plans for the economy and inflation.

“Vance is brilliant and I’m expecting good things from him,” said Alec Beck, chairman of the fifth congressional district for the Republican Party of Minnesota, at a watch party in New Hope.

“And our governor is very good on his feet, even though he’s not on our team, I give the devil his due. He has a lot of skills in this area.”

Political experts have said Vice-President Kamala Harris dominated the presidential debate last month by prodding Trump into tirades that strayed far from his intended goals of focusing on immigration and the economy.

Aaron Kall, the director of debate for the University of Michigan, said it’s unlikely Vance will fall for the same strategy, and he expects Tuesday night’s debate will lean more into policy.

But that doesn’t mean there won’t be barbs.

Walz was given credit for coining the label “weird” to describe his Republican opponents and the attack has stuck to Vance, with numerous viral videos and memes targeting the senator’s past comments and encounters with voters.

“They really couldn’t be more diametrically opposed, kind of like Harris and Trump,” Kall said.

“I think there’s going to be a lot of fireworks, given their personalities.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 1, 2024.

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OTTAWA – The Liberal government survived a second non-confidence vote in as many weeks Tuesday, once again putting off the possibility Canada would be plunged into an immediate election campaign.

Though the Liberals are in the clear for another day, the Bloc Québécois made it clear they may not be so fortunate the next time the Conservatives bring a non-confidence motion before the House of Commons.

Members of Parliament voted on a Conservative motion Tuesday afternoon that called for MPs to declare they have lost faith in Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his nine-year-old government.

The Liberals, NDP and Bloc Québécois voted against the motion, as they did with a similar motion last week.

Last month, the NDP ended a supply-and-confidence agreement that had stabilized the minority government for more than two years. New Democrats now will vote on a case-by-case basis but have given no ultimatums for their support.

Bloc Leader Yves-François Blanchet has given the Liberals until Oct. 29 to green-light his party’s pension bill, which is estimated to cost about $16 billion over five years.

In exchange, his party will “not unplug the government that isn’t doing well,” he said in French on Tuesday.

“If the government doesn’t accept our request, well, we’ll understand what that means and we’ll begin negotiations that might not be pleasant, but the end will be clear,” Blanchet said in his speech to the House Tuesday, promising in that case to work with other opposition parties to bring the government down.

Acquiescing to the Bloc’s demands, however, will only buy the government a few months of support.

The NDP and Conservatives already voted in favour of the Bloc’s pension bill at second reading, which would increase old age security payments by 10 per cent for seniors aged 65 to 74.

Because it’s a spending bill, the governing Liberals need to support the legislation. They have not yet said whether they will negotiate with the Bloc.

The Liberals increased old age security payments by 10 per cent for people over the age of 75 in 2022, with the intention of targeting the most vulnerable seniors.

Despite all the attention on the political threat to the Liberals, Bloc MP Yves Perron said the vote on the bill is a question of human dignity for seniors.

Instead of debating the motion, Kevin Lamoureux, the parliamentary secretary to the Liberal House leader, outlined other ways his party has supported seniors since it was elected in 2015, including by creating a national dental-care program for low- and middle-income Canadians and drafting national pharmacare legislation.

“These programs are of great benefit to our seniors. Unfortunately, the Bloc have made the decision to vote against these programs,” said Lamoureaux.

Liberal House leader Karina Gould would not comment on the Bloc’s motion Tuesday except to say that she looked forward to the debate.

NDP MP Bonita Zarrillo called the Liberals “cruel and callous” for withholding financial support for the Bloc bill. The vote on the Bloc’s motion is expected later this week.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published on Oct. 1, 2024.

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