Canada Soccer has named five-time Olympian Charmaine Crooks as its interim president as the embattled national sports organization looks to broker labour peace with its men’s and women’s teams.
Ms. Crooks, whose appointment was announced on Wednesday, had been serving as vice-president of Canada Soccer’s board of directors.
She takes over from Nick Bontis, who resigned on Monday. The executive change comes in the wake of a letter from provincial and territorial soccer leaders asking Mr. Bontis to step down given the bitter labour dispute.
Canada’s World Cup men’s team refused to play a planned exhibition against Panama last June at Vancouver, while the Olympic gold-medal-winning women played the SheBelieves Cup last month only after Canada Soccer threatened legal action.
As an athlete, Ms. Crooks was Canada’s first female five-time Olympian and won a silver medal as a member of the 1984 women’s 4×400-metre relay team in Los Angeles. She is the first woman and the first person of colour to lead Canada Soccer after serving as vice-president for two years.
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TODAY’S HEADLINES
SASKATCHEWAN SIGNS ON TO FEDERAL HEALTH DEAL – The federal government has signed an agreement in principle with Saskatchewan to invest nearly $6-billion into the province’s health care system over the next 10 years. Story here. UPDATE: In mid-afternoon, the governments of Canada and British Columbia announced a similar agreement. Please watch The Globe and Mail for more updates on this development.
MEDDLING IN 2021 ELECTION FAILS: REPORT – Efforts to meddle in the 2021 federal election did not affect the outcome of the vote, a new report based on the work of a panel of senior public servants has determined. Story here. Meanwhile, the politically connected Chinese donors who pledged $1-million to the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation and the University of Montreal did not only want to build a statue of the former prime minister. Story here.
HARPER BLOCKED KHADR REPATRIATION: BOOK – Former U.S. secretary of state Hillary Clinton told Omar Khadr’s lawyer over a decade ago that Washington was prepared to repatriate the Canadian citizen and Guantanamo Bay detainee, but then-prime minister Stephen Harper was blocking the move, according to a new book. Story here.
WESTERN BUDGETS – Budgets were released in British Columbia and Alberta this week. B.C.’s budget – story here – rings up a $4.2-billion deficit as the province’s NDP government spends billions on health, housing and families. Meanwhile, Alberta, which expects to post a $2.4-billion surplus this year, plans to establish a new fund the government can use to pay for one-time projects, creating a deep pool of cash. Story here.
MILLER ANNOUNCES NEW POLICY ON MODERN TREATIES – Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Marc Miller announced a new policy meant to address issues in the federal government’s implementation of the approximately two dozen treaties it has signed with Indigenous peoples since 1975, which are known as modern treaties. Story here.
CHARGES RARE FOR POLICE OFFICER WHO KILL, INJURE PEOPLE – When Canadian police kill or injure someone, they seldom face charges or discipline – and in B.C., they rarely co-operate with independent oversight bodies. The Globe reviewed thousands of cases to see the scope of the problem. Story here.
PRETROLEUM CLUB REGRETS ANDERSON VISIT – The venerable Calgary Petroleum Club has expressed regrets about an event held in its facility that featured the controversial, far-right German politician Christine Anderson. Story here.
BROWN WORKING OFF TORY LEADERSHIP RUN DEBTS – Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown is working to pay off debt from his federal Conservative leadership bid, but without the help of the party or the ability to issue tax receipts to donors. Story here.
SUPREME COURT JUSTICE ON LEAVE – Supreme Court Justice Russell Brown has been on a leave of absence from the court since the beginning of February – which the top court says is related to a confidential matter. Story here.
VIGIL PLANNED FOR RIDEAU CANAL – Community groups in Ottawa are planning a vigil to mourn the Rideau Canal Skateway, which did not open for the first time in its 53-year history this year. Story here.
THIS AND THAT
ON A BREAK – Both Parliament and the Senate are on breaks, with the House of Commons returning on March 6 and the Senate on March 7.
DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER’S DAY – Chrystia Freeland, also the Finance Minister, held private meetings in Toronto and was scheduled to meet with clean technology and green economy leaders as part of pre-budget consultations.
MINISTERS ON THE ROAD – Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos and Seniors Minister Kamal Khera, in Mississauga, restated aspects of the government’s policy on long-term care homes across Canada. Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault, in Toronto, announced more than $11.7-million to support the Ontario Land Trust Alliance to conserve wetlands, grasslands and forests as well as more than $850,000 to support several projects with the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority. Rural Economic Development Minister Gudie Hutchings, and Tourism Minister Randy Boissonnault, in Gander, N.L., announced an investment of up to $4.6-million under the National Trade Corridors Fund for the construction of a specialized seafood storage facility project at the Gander International Airport. Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly began a three-day visit to Delhi, India, to participate in the G20 Foreign Ministers’ Meeting and the Raisina Dialogue, co-hosted by India’s external affairs ministry and the Observer Research Foundation. Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez, in Saguenay, Que., announced funding for le Centre d’expérimentation musicale and la Société d’histoire du Lac-Saint-Jean. Sports Minister Pascale St‑Onge, also minister for the Canada Economic Development for Quebec Regions agency, in Bromont, Que., announced a non‑repayable financial contribution of $450,000 for Quebec’s Electronic Systems Industry Cluster. Filomena Tassi, minister for the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario, in Woodbridge, Ont., announced nearly $16-million in support for southern Ontario’s manufacturing sector as it transitions to a net-zero clean economy. Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson, in Sudbury, announced a $100,000 investment in the Cambrian College of Applied Arts and Technology to install 20 EV chargers on its Sudbury Campus.
HARPER AND MANNING TO DISCUSS REFORM PARTY LEGACY – Former prime minister Stephen Harper will be in the spotlight at the opening night of the 2023 conference of the Canada Strong and Free Network. Preston Manning, co-founder of the network, will hold a fireside chat with Mr. Harper, discussing the legacy of the Reform Party, after the former federal Conservative leader delivers a keynote address. The conference is being held in Ottawa.
PRIME MINISTER’S DAY
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, in the Vancouver region, joined B.C. Premier David Eby and federal Employment Minister Carla Qualtrough to meet with nursing students. Mr. Trudeau then made an announcement with Mr. Eby and took media questions. Later, the Prime Minister participated in a town hall with trade workers and apprentices.
LEADERS
Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet held a media availability in the House of Commons foyer, regarding foreign-election interference.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre held a news conference on Parliament Hill.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh, in Penticton, B.C., with South Okanagan-West Kootenay NDP MP Richard Cannings held a meet-and-greet with supporters in the city.
No schedules released for other party leaders.
THE DECIBEL
On Wednesday’s edition of The Globe and Mail podcast, technology reporter Temur Durrani talks about how Canada’s biggest bookstore got hacked: On Feb. 8, Indigo’s website went down and customers couldn’t buy products in-store either. After scrambling to launch a new website with limited e-commerce abilities, the company announced a major breach of personal and financial information of employees. The Decibel is here.
PUBLIC OPINION
A majority of Canadians want Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to respond more forcefully to alleged election interference by China, according to a poll published on Wednesday, as relations between the two countries again take a turn for the worse. Details here.
OPINION
The Globe and Mail Editorial Boardon how B.C. needs to do more homework on its work-from-home plan: “Federal public servants will return to the office at least two days each week by the end of March, under orders from the Treasury Board Secretariat. In British Columbia, the head of the public service is heading in the opposite direction, with a plan to entrench working from home as an option for the province’s 37,000 employees. B.C. and Ottawa’s diverging paths will offer a real-world test of whether remote work enhances an organization’s performance.”
Andrew Coyne (The Globe and Mail)on how CSIS is worried about China interfering in our elections, even if the government isn’t: “By now it will have dawned on many people that we have a full-blown, five-alarm national security crisis on our hands. Two possibilities are open to us; each would be a crisis of a different kind. Either 1: rogue officers within the Canadian Security Intelligence Service have been making a series of sensational and wholly false accusations against the government of Justin Trudeau and certain prominent members of the Liberal Party, in an apparent bid to destabilize the government. Or 2: the substance of the charges is true. That this is easily the more plausible of the scenarios underlines the gravity of the situation.”
Kelly Cryderman (The Globe and Mail) on how Alberta’s budget shows it’s not the absolute best of times, but it’s still close: “Alberta’s NDP Opposition promises this will be Premier Danielle Smith’s first, and final, budget. But the document, released Tuesday, gives the now-governing United Conservative Party an advantage with fistfuls of cash and ample room to manoeuvre before the rapidly approaching May election. Over all, it’s not the absolute best of times for Alberta budget-makers, but it’s close. Amidst global economic uncertainty, the province took in its highest-ever non-renewable resource revenues this fiscal year – $27.5-billion – substantially more than the $14.3-billion recorded in the heady days of 2005-06.”
Alan Bernstein (Contributed to The Globe and Mail) on Canada incorrectly framing the challenge that China poses: “Our challenge with China is being framed as a security issue – arguably, however, it is primarily a scientific and an economic one, driven by the current revolution in science and the simultaneous emergence of China as a science superpower, with a knowledge-based economy that rivals that of the Western democracies. That difference in framing produces very different policy responses.”
Sasayama Takuya (Contributed to The Globe and Mail) on doubling down on Canada-Japan ties is vital to our rules-based international order: “Thus, this year we look forward to the visit to Japan by “Team Canada 2.0,″ comprising federal and provincial governments. The 3,000 Sakura trees planted in Ontario through our Sakura Project will be blooming again this year. Japan and Canada, celebrating the 95th anniversary of our diplomatic relations, are also about to enter a new season of splendour.”
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FREDERICTON – New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs has called an election for Oct. 21, signalling the beginning of a 33-day campaign expected to focus on pocketbook issues and the government’s provocative approach to gender identity policies.
The 70-year-old Progressive Conservative leader, who is seeking a third term in office, has attracted national attention by requiring teachers to get parental consent before they can use the preferred names and pronouns of young students.
More recently, however, the former Irving Oil executive has tried to win over inflation-weary voters by promising to lower the provincial harmonized sales tax by two percentage points to 13 per cent if re-elected.
At dissolution, the Conservatives held 25 seats in the 49-seat legislature. The Liberals held 16 seats, the Greens had three and there was one Independent and four vacancies.
J.P. Lewis, a political science professor at the University of New Brunswick, said the top three issues facing New Brunswickers are affordability, health care and education.
“Across many jurisdictions, affordability is the top concern — cost of living, housing prices, things like that,” he said.
Richard Saillant, an economist and former vice-president of Université de Moncton, said the Tories’ pledge to lower the HST represents a costly promise.
“I don’t think there’s that much room for that,” he said. “I’m not entirely clear that they can do so without producing a greater deficit.” Saillant also pointed to mounting pressures to invest more in health care, education and housing, all of which are facing increasing demands from a growing population.
Higgs’s main rivals are Liberal Leader Susan Holt and Green Party Leader David Coon. Both are focusing on economic and social issues.
Holt has promised to impose a rent cap and roll out a subsidized school food program. The Liberals also want to open at least 30 community health clinics over the next four years.
Coon has said a Green government would create an “electricity support program,” which would give families earning less than $70,000 annually about $25 per month to offset “unprecedented” rate increases.
Higgs first came to power in 2018, when the Tories formed the province’s first minority government in 100 years. In 2020, he called a snap election — the first province to go to the polls after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic — and won a majority.
Since then, several well-known cabinet ministers and caucus members have stepped down after clashing with Higgs, some of them citing what they described as an authoritarian leadership style and a focus on policies that represent a hard shift to the right side of the political spectrum.
Lewis said the Progressive Conservatives are in the “midst of reinvention.”
“It appears he’s shaping the party now, really in the mould of his world views,” Lewis said. “Even though (Progressive Conservatives) have been down in the polls, I still think that they’re very competitive.”
Meanwhile, the legislature remained divided along linguistic lines. The Tories dominate in English-speaking ridings in central and southern parts of the province, while the Liberals held most French-speaking ridings in the north.
The drama within the party began in October 2022 when the province’s outspoken education minister, Dominic Cardy, resigned from cabinet, saying he could no longer tolerate the premier’s leadership style. In his resignation letter, Cardy cited controversial plans to reform French-language education. The government eventually stepped back those plans.
A series of resignations followed last year when the Higgs government announced changes to Policy 713, which now requires students under 16 who are exploring their gender identity to get their parents’ consent before teachers can use their preferred first names or pronouns — a reversal of the previous practice.
When several Tory lawmakers voted with the opposition to call for an external review of the change, Higgs dropped dissenters from his cabinet. And a bid by some party members to trigger a leadership review went nowhere.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
FREDERICTON – A 33-day provincial election campaign is expected to officially get started today in New Brunswick.
Progressive Conservative Premier Blaine Higgs has said he plans to visit Lt.-Gov. Brenda Murphy this morning to have the legislature dissolved.
Higgs, a 70-year-old former oil executive, is seeking a third term in office, having led the province since 2018.
The campaign ahead of the Oct. 21 vote is expected to focus on pocketbook issues, but the government’s provocative approach to gender identity issues could also be in the spotlight.
The Tory premier has already announced he will try to win over inflation-weary voters by promising to lower the harmonized sales tax by two percentage points to 13 per cent if re-elected.
Higgs’s main rivals are Liberal Leader Susan Holt and Green Party Leader David Coon, both of whom are focusing on economic and social issues.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
VICTORIA – If the lead up to British Columbia‘s provincial election campaign is any indication of what’s to come, voters should expect the unexpected.
It could be a wild ride to voting day on Oct. 19.
The Conservative Party of B.C. that didn’t elect a single member in the last election and gained less than two per cent of the popular vote is now leading the charge for centre-right, anti-NDP voters.
The official Opposition BC United, who as the former B.C. Liberals won four consecutive majorities from 2001 to 2013, raised a white flag and suspended its campaign last month, asking its members, incumbents and voters to support the B.C. Conservatives to prevent a vote split on the political right.
New Democrat Leader David Eby delivered a few political surprises of his own in the days leading up to Saturday’s official campaign start, signalling major shifts on the carbon tax and the issue of involuntary care in an attempt to curb the deadly opioid overdose crisis.
He said the NDP would drop the province’s long-standing carbon tax for consumers if the federal government eliminates its requirement to keep the levy in place, and pledged to introduce involuntary care of people battling mental health and addiction issues.
The B.C. Coroners Service reports more than 15,000 overdose deaths since the province declared an opioid overdose public health emergency in 2016.
Drug policy in B.C., especially decriminalization of possession of small amounts of hard drugs and drug use in public areas, could become key election issues this fall.
Eby, a former executive director of the B.C. Civil Liberties Association, said Wednesday that criticism of the NDP’s involuntary care plan by the Canadian Civil Liberties Association is “misinformed” and “misleading.”
“This isn’t about forcing people into a particular treatment,” he said at an unrelated news conference. “This is about making sure that their safety, as well as the safety of the broader community, is looked after.”
Eby said “simplistic arguments,” where one side says lock people up and the other says don’t lock anybody up don’t make sense.
“There are some people who should be in jail, who belong in jail to ensure community safety,” said Eby. “There are some people who need to be in intensive, secure mental health treatment facilities because that’s what they need in order to be safe, in order not to be exploited, in order not to be dead.”
The CCLA said in a statement Eby’s plan is not acceptable.
“There is no doubt that substance use is an alarming and pressing epidemic,” said Anais Bussières McNicoll, the association’s fundamental freedoms program director. “This scourge is causing significant suffering, particularly, among vulnerable and marginalized groups. That being said, detaining people without even assessing their capacity to make treatment decisions, and forcing them to undergo treatment against their will, is unconstitutional.”
While Eby, a noted human rights lawyer, could face political pressure from civil rights opponents to his involuntary care plans, his opponents on the right also face difficulties.
The BC United Party suspended its campaign last month in a pre-election move to prevent a vote split on the right, but that support may splinter as former jilted United members run as Independents.
Five incumbent BC United MLAs, Mike Bernier, Dan Davies, Tom Shypitka, Karin Kirkpatrick and Coralee Oakes are running as Independents and could become power brokers in the event of a minority government situation, while former BC United incumbents Ian Paton, Peter Milobar and Trevor Halford are running under the B.C. Conservative banner.
Davies, who represents the Fort St. John area riding of Peace River North, said he’s always been a Conservative-leaning politician but he has deep community roots and was urged by his supporters to run as an Independent after the Conservatives nominated their own candidate.
Davies said he may be open to talking with B.C. Conservative Leader John Rustad after the election, if he wins or loses.
Green Leader Sonia Furstenau has suggested her party is an option for alienated BC United voters.
Rustad — who faced criticism from BC United Leader Kevin Falcon and Eby about the far-right and extremist views of some of his current and former candidates and advisers — said the party’s rise over the past months has been meteoric.
“It’s been almost 100 years since the Conservative Party in B.C. has won a government,” he said. “The last time was 1927. I look at this now and I think I have never seen this happen anywhere in the country before. This has been happening in just over a year. It just speaks volumes that people are just that eager and interested in change.”
Rustad, ejected from the former B.C. Liberals in August 2022 for publicly supporting a climate change skeptic, sat briefly as an Independent before being acclaimed the B.C. Conservative leader in March 2023.
Rustad, who said if elected he will fire B.C.’s provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry over her vaccine mandates during the COVID-19 pandemic, has removed the nominations of some of his candidates who were vaccine opponents.
“I am not interested in going after votes and trying to do things that I think might be popular,” he said.
Prof. David Black, a political communications specialist at Greater Victoria’s Royal Roads University, said the rise of Rustad’s Conservatives and the collapse of BC United is the political story of the year in B.C.
But it’s still too early to gauge the strength of the Conservative wave, he said.
“Many questions remain,” said Black. “Has the free enterprise coalition shifted sufficiently far enough to the right to find the social conservatism and culture-war populism of some parts of the B.C. Conservative platform agreeable? Is a party that had no infrastructure and minimal presence in what are now 93 ridings this election able to scale up and run a professional campaign across the province?”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
