Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says there are no current plans to deploy the military to deal with protests besieging downtown Ottawa and that no one has officially requested the option.
“One has to be very, very cautious before deploying the military in situations engaging Canadians. It is not something that anyone should enter in lightly,” said Mr. Trudeau, when asked Thursday about the protests during a virtual news conference on child care in Manitoba.
“As of now, there have been no requests and that is not in cards right now.”
That said, the Prime Minister added he sympathizes with Ottawa residents who are looking for an end to the chaos, which has seen the harassment of pedestrians, truck horns blaring, and the shutdown of the downtown Rideau Centre mall – one of the largest in Canada.
“The people of Ottawa deserve to have their lives back, their neighbourhoods back,” Mr. Trudeau said.
He said the federal government is prepared to assist local authorities with the services of the RCMP and intelligence services.
On Wednesday, Ottawa police Chief Peter Sloly said all options are on the table for dealing with the protests, including calling in the military to end the continuing demonstration that some councillors have described as an “occupation.”
OTTAWA MAYOR DENOUNCES MPS – Ottawa’s mayor is calling on several Conservative MPs and a senator from Saskatchewan to apologize for praising the anti-vaccine mandate protest that has brought the capital’s downtown to a standstill for close to a week. Story here.
WORRIES IN QUEBEC ABOUT TRUCKER CONVOY – With tensions mounting in Quebec City over the prospect of a disruptive trucker convoy, the political class and police have teamed up to make a pitch for order despite the uncertainty in the air. Story here from The Montreal Gazette.
QUEBEC MP DENOUNCES CONFEDERATE FLAGS IN PROTEST – The chair of the Parliamentary Black Caucus is denouncing the display of Confederate flags during the protests in Ottawa. “Let’s not mince words. The Confederate flag is a symbol for slavery. Whips deformed Black bodies, forced labour, mangled limbs, torture almost always preceded lynchings,” Greg Fergus, the Liberal MP for Hull-Aylmer told Parliament. Story here from CTV.
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TODAY’S HEADLINES
O’TOOLE OUT; BERGEN IN AS INTERIM TORY LEADER – Candice Bergen is now the interim leader of the Conservative Party of Canada after the party caucus ousted Erin O’Toole as leader, delivering a stunning rebuke of his brief tenure and triggering the party’s third leadership race in seven years. Story here. CP has an overview here of some possible contenders for the full-time leadership.
BOOSTER DRIVE SLOWING – Canada’s COVID-19 booster drive is slowing despite mounting evidence that an additional vaccine dose is needed to maintain strong protection from severe illness caused by SARS-CoV-2, according to a Globe and Mail analysis of uptake across the country. Story here.
CONSUMERS DICTATING RATE HIKES: MACKLEM – Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem said the pace of interest rate increases this year will depend to a significant extent on how quickly consumers run down excess savings they have built up over the course of the pandemic. Story here.
CARTER OUT AS MAYORAL ADVISER – Stephen Carter, a veteran Alberta political operative who has worked with former premier Alison Redford and former Calgary mayor Naheed Nenshi, is out as chief of staff to Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek’s after a little over three months on the job. Story here from The Calgary Herald.
THIS AND THAT
The projected order of business at the House of Commons, Feb. 3 is here.
PREMIERS NEWSER – Canada’s premiers will be holding a virtual news conference on Friday, with British Columbia Premier John Horgan, chair of the Council of the Federation of premiers and territorial leaders, chairing the proceedings. Health care is likely to be the key topic. Parliamentary Reporter Kristy Kirkup wrote here on the premiers stepping up their campaign to increase the Canada Health Transfer.
THE DECIBEL –On Thursday’s edition of The Globe and Mail podcast, political columnist and writer-at-large John Ibbitson argues that the infighting in the Conservative Party of Canada that led to a vote that this week ousted Erin O’Toole as party leader is not just bad for their supporters, but bad for Canada as a whole.
Here’s an excerpt:
Menaka Raman-Wilms, host: How would you describe the current state that the Conservative Party of Canada finds itself in?
John Ibbitson: “I think the Conservative Party of Canada is in a very vulnerable, fragile state. It is in danger of turning into the kind of schism that we saw in the 1990s when you had the Reform Party representing the western part of the Conservative movement and the Progressive Conservatives representing the centre in the east. Before it, Stephen Harper was able to unite the two parties in some ways. It’s also like the 1930s and ‘40s where the Conservatives lost one election after another, changed leaders after every election and the Liberals were able to govern for decades as a result. That doesn’t have to be the Conservative Party’s future. But it’s a risk now.”
Private meetings. The Prime Minister made an early learning and child care announcement virtually with Manitoba Premier Heather Stefanson, then held a media availability. The Prime Minister also participated in a round table with Winnipeg teachers about their experience as educators during the pandemic, and was also scheduled to virtually visit Country Corner Donuts, a local shop in Regina.
LEADERS
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh held a virtual news conference on the opioid crisis.
PUBLIC OPINION
HOW CANADIANS FEEL ABOUT OTTAWA PROTESTERS – Two out of three interviewed for an Abacus Data nationwide poll feel they have “very little in common with how the protesters in Ottawa see things,” while 32 per cent say they “have a lot in common.” Details here.
OPINION
The Globe and Mail Editorial Boardon why Canada needs a progressive Conservative party: “The Conservatives who defenestrated Mr. O’Toole are misunderstanding Canada, Canadians and even Canadian conservatism. Canada is not America. Its people aren’t, its problems aren’t, its answers aren’t and its conservatism isn’t. Our politics simply aren’t as polarized, though Conservatives and Liberals alike have of late been trying to change that. Our parties have traditionally won by appealing to the middle and the reasonable. And by – however a dirty word this has become – compromising. This is coalition country. Big, broad tents. It is not a land of extreme political faiths. Please hang up and try your call again, you have the wrong number.”
Campbell Clark (The Globe and Mail)on former federal Conservative leader Erin O’Toole: “Mr. O’Toole’s sudden ouster was rough, but not unique. Ask Tom Mulcair, who was dumped hard by the NDP after he failed to win the 2015 election. Both leaders lacked a deep connection to the grassroots of their party that might have saved their leadership after a losing campaign. Mr. O’Toole’s own party hardly knew him. He won the leadership on the third ballot as a lesser-known candidate in a pandemic campaign that was mostly virtual, and therefore lacked a lot of face time. Then he changed political persona. He didn’t have a big constituency of Conservatives who felt that they’d walked the long road with him.”
Lawrence Martin (The Globe and Mail)on the powder-keg party having blown itself up again: “Don’t rule out a Peter MacKay bid, a close colleague of his tells me. The former leader feels he has considerable support in caucus and that he is a candidate who can bridge the party divide. Before he was sacked, Mr. O’Toole issued a final appeal on said divide, saying there were two possible roads forward. One is “angry, negative, and extreme. It is a dead end.” “The other road is to better reflect the Canada of 2022. To recognize that conservatism is organic, not static, and that a winning message is one of inclusion, optimism, ideas and hope.” Sounds right. But the powder-keg party probably has other ideas.”
Konrad Yakabuski (The Globe and Mail)on how the vaccination-tax flip-flop caps a bad month for Quebec Premier François Legault: “The year has not started off well for François Legault. The Quebec Premier seems to have lost the magic touch that allowed him to sail through the first 18 months of the COVID-19 pandemic with an approval rating that was the envy of his peers across Canada. His once uncanny political judgment has failed him in recent weeks – first, when he reintroduced a hated nighttime curfew, and then with his vindictive vow to tax unvaccinated Quebeckers. Both measures flopped spectacularly because they were transparent attempts to divert public attention away from uncomfortable truths.”
Omer Aziz (Contributed to The Globe and Mail) on why what’s happening in Ottawa is an assault on democracy: “The truckers’ movement is no longer a demonstration for freedom or vaccine mandates, but a well-fundedassault on democracy. As one organizer put it, their mission was to “compel the government to dissolve government.” We must be clear about what took place in Canada last weekend: an attempt to alter government policy by force – while masquerading as a rally for freedom. More dangerously, it was a movement insidiously co-opted by white nationalists and their far-right allies.”
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HALIFAX – Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston says it’s “disgraceful and demeaning” that a Halifax-area school would request that service members not wear military uniforms to its Remembrance Day ceremony.
Houston’s comments were part of a chorus of criticism levelled at the school — Sackville Heights Elementary — whose administration decided to back away from the plan after the outcry.
A November newsletter from the school in Middle Sackville, N.S., invited Armed Forces members to attend its ceremony but asked that all attendees arrive in civilian attire to “maintain a welcoming environment for all.”
Houston, who is currently running for re-election, accused the school’s leaders of “disgracing themselves while demeaning the people who protect our country” in a post on the social media platform X Thursday night.
“If the people behind this decision had a shred of the courage that our veterans have, this cowardly and insulting idea would have been rejected immediately,” Houston’s post read. There were also several calls for resignations within the school’s administration attached to Houston’s post.
In an email to families Thursday night, the school’s principal, Rachael Webster, apologized and welcomed military family members to attend “in the attire that makes them most comfortable.”
“I recognize this request has caused harm and I am deeply sorry,” Webster’s email read, adding later that the school has the “utmost respect for what the uniform represents.”
Webster said the initial request was out of concern for some students who come from countries experiencing conflict and who she said expressed discomfort with images of war, including military uniforms.
Her email said any students who have concerns about seeing Armed Forces members in uniform can be accommodated in a way that makes them feel safe, but she provided no further details in the message.
Webster did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
At a news conference Friday, Houston said he’s glad the initial request was reversed but said he is still concerned.
“I can’t actually fathom how a decision like that was made,” Houston told reporters Friday, adding that he grew up moving between military bases around the country while his father was in the Armed Forces.
“My story of growing up in a military family is not unique in our province. The tradition of service is something so many of us share,” he said.
“Saying ‘lest we forget’ is a solemn promise to the fallen. It’s our commitment to those that continue to serve and our commitment that we will pass on our respects to the next generation.”
Liberal Leader Zach Churchill also said he’s happy with the school’s decision to allow uniformed Armed Forces members to attend the ceremony, but he said he didn’t think it was fair to question the intentions of those behind the original decision.
“We need to have them (uniforms) on display at Remembrance Day,” he said. “Not only are we celebrating (veterans) … we’re also commemorating our dead who gave the greatest sacrifice for our country and for the freedoms we have.”
NDP Leader Claudia Chender said that while Remembrance Day is an important occasion to honour veterans and current service members’ sacrifices, she said she hopes Houston wasn’t taking advantage of the decision to “play politics with this solemn occasion for his own political gain.”
“I hope Tim Houston reached out to the principal of the school before making a public statement,” she said in a statement.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.
REGINA – Saskatchewan Opposition NDP Leader Carla Beck says she wants to prove to residents her party is the government in waiting as she heads into the incoming legislative session.
Beck held her first caucus meeting with 27 members, nearly double than what she had before the Oct. 28 election but short of the 31 required to form a majority in the 61-seat legislature.
She says her priorities will be health care and cost-of-living issues.
Beck says people need affordability help right now and will press Premier Scott Moe’s Saskatchewan Party government to cut the gas tax and the provincial sales tax on children’s clothing and some grocery items.
Beck’s NDP is Saskatchewan’s largest Opposition in nearly two decades after sweeping Regina and winning all but one seat in Saskatoon.
The Saskatchewan Party won 34 seats, retaining its hold on all of the rural ridings and smaller cities.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.
HALIFAX – Nova Scotia‘s growing population was the subject of debate on Day 12 of the provincial election campaign, with Liberal Leader Zach Churchill arguing immigration levels must be reduced until the province can provide enough housing and health-care services.
Churchill said Thursday a plan by the incumbent Progressive Conservatives to double the province’s population to two million people by the year 2060 is unrealistic and unsustainable.
“That’s a big leap and it’s making life harder for people who live here, (including ) young people looking for a place to live and seniors looking to downsize,” he told a news conference at his campaign headquarters in Halifax.
Anticipating that his call for less immigration might provoke protests from the immigrant community, Churchill was careful to note that he is among the third generation of a family that moved to Nova Scotia from Lebanon.
“I know the value of immigration, the importance of it to our province. We have been built on the backs of an immigrant population. But we just need to do it in a responsible way.”
The Liberal leader said Tim Houston’s Tories, who are seeking a second term in office, have made a mistake by exceeding immigration targets set by the province’s Department of Labour and Immigration. Churchill said a Liberal government would abide by the department’s targets.
In the most recent fiscal year, the government welcomed almost 12,000 immigrants through its nominee program, exceeding the department’s limit by more than 4,000, he said. The numbers aren’t huge, but the increase won’t help ease the province’s shortages in housing and doctors, and the increased strain on its infrastructure, including roads, schools and cellphone networks, Churchill said.
“(The Immigration Department) has done the hard work on this,” he said. “They know where the labour gaps are, and they know what growth is sustainable.”
In response, Houston said his commitment to double the population was a “stretch goal.” And he said the province had long struggled with a declining population before that trend was recently reversed.
“The only immigration that can come into this province at this time is if they are a skilled trade worker or a health-care worker,” Houston said. “The population has grown by two per cent a year, actually quite similar growth to what we experienced under the Liberal government before us.”
Still, Houston said he’s heard Nova Scotians’ concerns about population growth, and he then pivoted to criticize Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for trying to send 6,000 asylum seekers to Nova Scotia, an assertion the federal government has denied.
Churchill said Houston’s claim about asylum seekers was shameful.
“It’s smoke and mirrors,” the Liberal leader said. “He is overshooting his own department’s numbers for sustainable population growth and yet he is trying to blame this on asylum seekers … who aren’t even here.”
In September, federal Immigration Minister Marc Miller said there is no plan to send any asylum seekers to the province without compensation or the consent of the premier. He said the 6,000 number was an “aspirational” figure based on models that reflect each province’s population.
In Halifax, NDP Leader Claudia Chender said it’s clear Nova Scotia needs more doctors, nurses and skilled trades people.
“Immigration has been and always will be a part of the Nova Scotia story, but we need to build as we grow,” Chender said. “This is why we have been pushing the Houston government to build more affordable housing.”
Chender was in a Halifax cafe on Thursday when she promised her party would remove the province’s portion of the harmonized sales tax from all grocery, cellphone and internet bills if elected to govern on Nov. 26. The tax would also be removed from the sale and installation of heat pumps.
“Our focus is on helping people to afford their lives,” Chender told reporters. “We know there are certain things that you can’t live without: food, internet and a phone …. So we know this will have the single biggest impact.”
The party estimates the measure would save the average Nova Scotia family about $1,300 a year.
“That’s a lot more than a one or two per cent HST cut,” Chender said, referring to the Progressive Conservative pledge to reduce the tax by one percentage point and the Liberal promise to trim it by two percentage points.
Elsewhere on the campaign trail, Houston announced that a Progressive Conservative government would make parking free at all Nova Scotia hospitals and health-care centres. The promise was also made by the Liberals in their election platform released Monday.
“Free parking may not seem like a big deal to some, but … the parking, especially for people working at the facilities, can add up to hundreds of dollars,” the premier told a news conference at his campaign headquarters in Halifax.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.
