The Bank of Canada held off hiking interest rates on Wednesday but said that the economy is now operating at full capacity, teeing up a rate increase for the bank’s next meeting in March.
Policy makers voted to keep the central bank’s key interest rate at 0.25 per cent, where it has been since the early days of the pandemic. At the same time, they withdrew their forward guidance for rate hikes and made it clear that emergency economic support is no longer necessary, indicating that the cost of borrowing will rise in the coming months.
And there is an Explainer on the issue here by Economics Reporter Matt Lundy.
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TODAY’S HEADLINES
UKRAINE
TRUDEAU SHOULD CALL PUTIN: AMBASSADOR – Moscow’s envoy in Canada is urging Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to telephone Vladimir Putin so he can hear the Russian President explain how there is “zero chance” that Russia will invade Ukraine. Story here.
UKRANIAN GOVERNMENT DOUBTS FULL-SCALE RUSSIAN INVASION – The Ukrainian government does not see a full-scale Russian invasion as likely, despite escalating international concern, believing it’s more plausible that Moscow will instead try to destabilize the country internally. Story here.
RUSSIA WARNS OF `RETALIATORY MEASURES’: Russia warned Wednesday it would quickly take “retaliatory measures” if the U.S. and its allies reject its security demands over NATO and Ukraine, raising pressure on the West amid concerns that Moscow is planning to invade its neighbour. Story here.
NDP MPS CRITICIZED FOR UKRAINE COMMENTS – Three sitting New Democrat MPs are being criticized for posting “terrible” comments about the escalating tensions between Ukraine and Russia on social media, some of which questioned Canada’s support for Ukraine in the face of Moscow’s aggression. Story here from Global News.
MEANWHILE
POTENTIAL GRAVES FOUND – The Williams Lake First Nation has announced the discovery of 93 potential graves at the sprawling site of a former residential school in B.C.’s Central Interior, 50 of which appear to be outside of the facility’s cemetery. Story here.
CONSERVATIVE RIDING ASSOCIATION CALLS FOR O’TOOLE REVIEW – A Conservative riding association is calling for the federal party to move ahead quickly with a leadership review of Erin O’Toole as a new poll shows almost half of respondents feel he has done a poor job as leader. Story here.
CALLS FOR RELEASE OF SAUDI BLOGGER – Advocates for Saudi blogger Raif Badawi are urging Riyadh to release him next month, when his 10-year prison sentence will come to an end according to the Islamic calendar.
TORY MPS CHEER TRUCKER CONVOY – Conservative MPs are publicly cheering on the trucker convoy that’s making its way across the country with the intent of converging onto Parliament Hill this weekend, voicing opposition to the federal government’s mandatory vaccination policies. Story here from CTV. Meanwhile, there’s a Globe and Mail explainer here on why the anti-vaccine mandate trucker convoy called the Freedom Rally is driving across Canada.
INDUSTRY MINISTER DEFENDS GOVERNMENT DECISION ON LITHIUM CORP. SALE – The federal Industry Minister is defending the government’s decision to allow Canada’s Neo Lithium Corp. to be acquired by state-owned Chinese mining giant Zijin Mining Group Co. Ltd. without a formal national security review, saying the process was rigorous. Story here.
THIS AND THAT
The House of Commons has adjourned until Jan. 31 at 11 a.m. ET.
HARPER CALLS FOR FUNDRAISING HELP FOR MACKAY – Former Conservative prime minister Stephen Harper is calling on party members to help Peter MacKay pay off debts from the August, 2020 leadership race that current leader Erin O’Toole won. In a fundraising letter, Mr. Harper says Mr. MacKay ran a “strong and thoughtful campaign, but came up short” in the race to name a successor to Andrew Scheer. Mr. Harper, who was prime minister from 2006 to 2015, added that the extension of the duration of the campaign, along with the cancellation of planned in-person fundraising events caused Mr. MacKay’s campaign expenditure to exceed its revenue. Mr. Harper touts Mr. MacKay’s service as foreign affairs minister, defence minister, and justice minister. “I understand that times are tight, but I do not want to see Peter and his family’s future weighed down by debt incurred in the service of our country and our Conservative Party,” writes Mr. Harper.
THE DECIBEL – On Wednesday’s edition of The Decibel, parliamentary reporter Kristy Kirkup talks about the reasons behind shortages of goods at stores and the “the Freedom Convoy” of truckers heading to Ottawa to protest policies that say they must be vaccinated. Story here.
Excerpt:
Menaka Raman-Wilms, Host: I was watching Erin O’Toole’s press conference yesterday where he is talking about supply-chain stuff, but a lot of the questions that journalists were asking him were actually about this trucking convoy. Some Conservative MPPs have expressed support online for for the convoy. Can you give us a sense of, I guess, Erin O’Toole’s response to this situation here?
Kristy Kirkup: So Erin O’Toole, for his part, seems to be trying to, you know, he essentially suggested at this news conference that he was not going to be weighing in on a specific protest, that he doesn’t see that being his role as leader. So if people are wondering, you know, if he was going to show up at the rally whenever people arrive and converge in the nation’s capital, I think we can draw from his comments that that is likely not to be the case. That being said, we’ve seen a bit of activity again from some of the backbench Conservative MPs kind of posting videos of themselves, recording messages of support. And, in the way of Erin O’Toole, he’s kind of trying to take a step back. And then other members of the caucus, I think, are clearly being allowed to to say and do as they decide to do that.
Private meetings. The Prime Minister attended the virtual Cabinet retreat, and was scheduled to hold a media availability on Wednesday afternoon. In the evening, an interview with the Prime Minister on mental health and wellness was to air on TSN, and later another interview on mental health and wellness was to air on RDS.
LEADERS
Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole attends a caucus retreat in Ottawa.
No schedules provided for other party leaders.
OPINION
Andrew Coyne (The Globe and Mail)on the many delusions of Russia-Ukraine `realists.’: “As Russia masses troops on Ukraine’s borders, poised to invade, a chorus of voices urges the democracies to do nothing to deter it. They include, of course, the Trumpist right, whose indifference to Ukraine is of a piece with their worship of Vladimir Putin, but also the pacifist left, who insist there can be no “military solution” to a conflict to which Mr. Putin is at this moment readying a military solution. But the largest contingent are the self-styled foreign-policy “realists,” who profess to no ideology but only an unblinking view of nations as self-interested actors pursuing their strategic objectives. The realist refrains from moral judgements about the players or their aims: he only describes the game. Is Mr. Putin seeking, if not wholesale absorption of Ukraine into a reconstituted Russian empire, then at least to confine it within its sphere of influence? But of course. That is what great powers do.”
John Doyle (The Globe and Mail)on the witless naivete around efforts to kill or defund the CBC: “The standing army of anti-CBC pundits in Canada is never less than 10,000. Or so it seems. They’re a noisy bunch and any excuse to attack the CBC begets reams of prose about the CBC’s irrelevance, bias or alleged incompetence. Recently, the news that the British government will diminish the BBC’s funding with a two-year freeze on the fee the public pays to watch the broadcaster, brought a round of reform-the-CBC columns in Canada. This was preceded by an uproar predicated on a piece by a disgruntled former temporary CBC employee, who announced that her umbrage at younger employees being “woke” led her to quit. The blather that ensued was pitifully small-minded, begrudging and naive.”
Gary Mason (The Globe and Mail)on why Erin O’Toole’s days as Conservative leader appear to be numbered: “Other than the pay and the cool house you get to live in as Opposition leader, you have to wonder why Erin O’Toole even wants the job any more. He’s clearly having to front policies he doesn’t believe in (see his objection to vaccine mandates) and yet he risks losing critical support inside caucus if he doesn’t. He likely knows, too, that some of these policies are putting the CPC offside with a majority of Canadians. The problem is, they are policies backed by party donors, many of whom reside in rural parts of the country where support for things such as vaccine mandates is low and backing for trucker protests is high.”
Heather Barr (Contributed to The Globe and Mail)on why LGBTQ Afghans living under the Taliban are in grave and immediate danger: “Countries receiving asylum-seeking Afghans should recognize that LGBTQ Afghans face a special risk of persecution in Afghanistan and neighbouring countries and expedite their applications for evacuation and resettlement. But it will never be feasible for all LGBTQ people in Afghanistan to flee and be resettled in a country where their rights are respected. All countries, including those that sent troops to Afghanistan over the past 20 years, have a responsibility to press the Taliban to end their abuses against LGBTQ people and uphold their rights.”
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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.
MONTREAL – NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh says he will not be taking advice from Pierre Poilievre after the Conservative leader challenged him to bring down government.
“I say directly to Pierre Poilievre: I’m not going to listen to you,” said Singh on Wednesday, accusing Poilievre of wanting to take away dental-care coverage from Canadians, among other things.
“I’m not going to listen to your advice. You want to destroy people’s lives, I want to build up a brighter future.”
Earlier in the day, Poilievre challenged Singh to commit to voting non-confidence in the government, saying his party will force a vote in the House of Commons “at the earliest possibly opportunity.”
“I’m asking Jagmeet Singh and the NDP to commit unequivocally before Monday’s byelections: will they vote non-confidence to bring down the costly coalition and trigger a carbon tax election, or will Jagmeet Singh sell out Canadians again?” Poilievre said.
“It’s put up or shut up time for the NDP.”
While Singh rejected the idea he would ever listen to Poilievre, he did not say how the NDP would vote on a non-confidence motion.
“I’ve said on any vote, we’re going to look at the vote and we’ll make our decision. I’m not going to say our decision ahead of time,” he said.
Singh’s top adviser said on Tuesday the NDP leader is not particularly eager to trigger an election, even as the Conservatives challenge him to do just that.
Anne McGrath, Singh’s principal secretary, says there will be more volatility in Parliament and the odds of an early election have risen.
“I don’t think he is anxious to launch one, or chomping at the bit to have one, but it can happen,” she said in an interview.
New Democrat MPs are in a second day of meetings in Montreal as they nail down a plan for how to navigate the minority Parliament this fall.
The caucus retreat comes one week after Singh announced the party has left the supply-and-confidence agreement with the governing Liberals.
It’s also taking place in the very city where New Democrats are hoping to pick up a seat on Monday, when voters go to the polls in Montreal’s LaSalle—Émard—Verdun. A second byelection is being held that day in the Winnipeg riding of Elmwood—Transcona, where the NDP is hoping to hold onto a seat the Conservatives are also vying for.
While New Democrats are seeking to distance themselves from the Liberals, they don’t appear ready to trigger a general election.
Singh signalled on Tuesday that he will have more to say Wednesday about the party’s strategy for the upcoming sitting.
He is hoping to convince Canadians that his party can defeat the federal Conservatives, who have been riding high in the polls over the last year.
Singh has attacked Poilievre as someone who would bring back Harper-style cuts to programs that Canadians rely on, including the national dental-care program that was part of the supply-and-confidence agreement.
The Canadian Press has asked Poilievre’s office whether the Conservative leader intends to keep the program in place, if he forms government after the next election.
With the return of Parliament just days away, the NDP is also keeping in mind how other parties will look to capitalize on the new makeup of the House of Commons.
The Bloc Québécois has already indicated that it’s written up a list of demands for the Liberals in exchange for support on votes.
The next federal election must take place by October 2025 at the latest.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante is defending her decision to turn off comments on her social media accounts — with an announcement on social media.
She posted screenshots to X this morning of vulgar names she’s been called on the platform, and says comments on her posts for months have been dominated by insults, to the point that she decided to block them.
Montreal’s Opposition leader and the Canadian Civil Liberties Association have criticized Plante for limiting freedom of expression by restricting comments on her X and Instagram accounts.
They say elected officials who use social media should be willing to hear from constituents on those platforms.
However, Plante says some people may believe there is a fundamental right to call someone offensive names and to normalize violence online, but she disagrees.
Her statement on X is closed to comments.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
