Justin Trudeau and some of his senior ministers wrapped up their week-long tour of Europe Thursday with a stop in Warsaw, Poland, where the Prime Minister met with U.S. Vice-President Kamala Harris.
Ms. Harris said the two would discuss what they can do to “strengthen our assistance in terms of security assistance, humanitarian assistance” for Ukraine.
As Ukraine’s western neighbour, Poland is on the receiving end of a wave of refugees fleeing their home country following Russia’s military invasion.
At a joint press conference with Mr. Trudeau, Polish President Andrzej Duda said 1.5 million refugees have crossed into his country. He later told reporters that he asked the Prime Minister to speed up the immigration process for refugees seeking to come to Canada.
“I told him please, Justin, try to introduce some very, very, very simple procedures,” Mr. Duda said, “simple procedures of visas, etc., to move this process faster, to accelerate it.”
The Globe and Mail’s Marieke Walsh, who is covering the Prime Minister’s trip, filed this report from Warsaw.
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TODAY’S HEADLINES
TRUCK CONVOY LEADERS SOUGHT TO OVERTHROW GOVERNMENT, SAYS CANADA’S NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: Prime Minster Justin Trudeau’s national security and intelligence adviser says the invocation of the federal Emergencies Act was necessary to end the trucker protests whose leaders were bent on overthrowing the government.
Jody Thomas, former deputy minister at the Defence department who became Mr. Trudeau’s top national security adviser in January, said the Emergencies Act was meant for an extreme situation like the truck convoy protests. Globe story here.
CHAREST LAUNCHES CONSERVATIVE LEADERSHIP CAMPAIGN IN CALGARY: Calgary might not appear a natural home for Jean Charest, the former premier of Quebec. But the veteran of both provincial and federal politics, who will formally launch his leadership campaign in the city this week, has a surprising cadre of support in the heartland of Canadian conservatism. Globe story here.
ON THE IMPORTANCE OF INDIGENOUS NAMING: The new Indigenous adviser to the Geographical Names Board of Canada hopes to revitalize Indigenous place names through his position. Globe story here.
PROPOSED CLASS ACTION AT CORRECTIONAL SERVICES: A proposed class-action lawsuit alleges Ottawa was negligent in failing to ensure female employees of Correctional Service Canada could work in an environment free of gender-based harassment, discrimination and assault. Globe story here.
THIS AND THAT
TODAY IN THE COMMONS -The House of Commons is not sitting again until March. 21.
THE DECIBEL – Chief political writer Campbell Clark says “blast from the past” Jean Charest could have a shot at the top job, but likely isn’t the favourite. He discusses who the early favourites are – including Charest, Pierre Poilievre, and Leslyn Lewis – and what this election might reveal about the identity and direction of the Conservative Party.
Here’s an excerpt: “I think it’s going to be a hard slog for him, but he does have a shot, and the shot is probably based on the notion that he can organize Quebec very well – and Atlantic Canada. He doesn’t really have deep connections in the party and [with] party members, but he is well-known in Quebec. There are 78 ridings in Quebec. You get 100 points for every riding in the Conservative leadership race. So in 78 ridings out of 338, he’s probably going to do very well. You add to that the fact that as Progressive Conservative leader, he was pretty popular in Atlantic Canada, and Atlantic Canada is thought to be more PC than hard-right conservative, then maybe he’ll win some ridings there. So the way you win this race is by organizing a riding or a lot of ridings. And since he has a lot of strength in Quebec and Atlantic Canada – and certainly the MPs in the Conservative Party in Quebec are solidly behind him – he has a very good shot at a substantial portion of the party. The trick is when he goes to campaign in parts of Ontario, Alberta, Saskatchewan, in B.C., he’s dealing with people in the Conservative Party that don’t really know him all that well.”
PRIME MINISTER’S DAY
In Berlin, the Prime Minister held private meetings and then had a breakfast meeting with German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier. The Prime Minister then departed for Warsaw where he was scheduled to meet with Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, then Polish President Andrzej Duda, and then hold a media availability with the president. The Prime Minister was scheduled to tour a temporary refugee shelter with Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski.
LEADERS
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh, in British Columbia, held a news conference about health care at Eagle Ridge Hospital in the Lower Mainland city of Port Moody, and was then scheduled to hold a roundtable with health-care workers, meet with Vancouver Mayor Kennedy Stewart and hold a community town hall.
OPINION
Elizabeth Renzetti (The Globe and Mail) on the world’s failure to deliver on nuclear disarmament: “It is lunacy that the planet’s future rests on the murky psychology of a handful of men. The American President, for example, has sole launch authority for his country’s nuclear weapons. He may consult advisers, but he does not have to. You may be wondering at this point how you’re ever going to sleep again. The good news is that you’re not alone. The terror that plagued children of the Cold War is back with a vengeance.”
This Conservative leadership race, then, takes on unusual importance. Opinion will vary on the current Prime Minister’s qualities as a leader, but what is indisputable is that the opposition has a duty to provide the country with an alternative: to elect a leader who could credibly step into the job at any moment and provide as good or better leadership in a crisis.
Given a choice between a candidate whose policies I prefer, but who lacked the requisite qualities of leadership, and a candidate deficient in policy but well supplied in character and judgment, I would unhesitatingly choose the latter. That is the choice that matters in this race: not between right and left, or Blue Tories versus Red, but between adolescence and adulthood.”
Lawrence Martin (The Globe and Mail)on Canada and the Russians: Fifty years of hope go up in smoke: “All that progress with the Russians squandered. It’s been a half-century since the Soviet-Canada hockey series, the landmark clash of Freedom versus Oppression that started us down the road to understanding with the Russians. Headway was made. But it’s gone now – gone in a flash with Vladimir Putin’s subhuman horror show. My bottle of Prince Igor vodka will remain on the shelf. I don’t want to go near it.”
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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.
