Federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre says transgender women should not be allowed in women’s change rooms and public washrooms, but as prime minister he would not have the reach to introduce legislation implementing a ban.
Poilievre also said women’s sports should be off-limits to transgender athletes, when asked about the issue by a Rebel News reporter at a news conference in a Kitchener, Ont., health food store today.
“Female spaces should be exclusively for females, not for biological males,” Poilievre said. “Female sports, female change rooms, female bathrooms should be for females.”
But he noted many of those spaces are provincially and municipally controlled. “So it is unclear what reach federal legislation would have to change them.”
The Conservative Leader’s comments align with a policy endorsed at the party’s convention in Quebec City last fall “protecting female sports, intimate spaces and women’s rights.”
Trudeau said Poilievre and politicians like him are very good at creating division, anger and wedges between people, but terrible at putting forward any concrete solutions to challenges that Canadians are facing.
He said Poilievre would “rather pick a fight with trans kids,” but that he would rather do whatever is possible to protect vulnerable people in Canada.
“That’s what Canadians expect,” he said. “I am not going to get dragged into culture wars about this when the fact is Canadians expect their governments to roll up their sleeves and deliver for them, and that’s what we’re doing.”
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TODAY’S HEADLINES
Liberals have not agreed to fully fund diabetes medications in pharmacare talks, Jagmeet Singh says: The NDP Leader said at a news conference in Toronto that diabetes medications remain a sticking point in negotiations on pharmacare.
Quebec turns to Supreme Court to stop asylum seekers’ access to subsidized daycare: Justice Minister Simon Jolin-Barrette says the government will seek leave at the Supreme Court to appeal a Feb. 7 decision that found the province’s daycare rules are discriminatory.
Conservative government would require websites to verify age to watch porn, says Pierre Poilievre: When asked at a news conference in Kitchener, Ont., whether his government if elected would require porn websites to verify the age of users, the Conservative Leader gave a one-word answer: “Yes.”
More humanitarian aid needed for Gaza, Ahmed Hussen says: The movement of aid is nowhere near what’s needed, the International Development Minister said he learned during his recent trip to the Rafah border crossing, where he discussed the crisis with humanitarian workers.
Suspended public servants ask court to block internal border agency probe: Cameron MacDonald and Antonio Utano have filed the notice of application for judicial review in Federal Court after the Auditor-General delivered a report on federal outsourcing at the Canada Border Services Agency that decried a deficit in basic management and contracting practices.
Newly appointed human rights commissioner vying for Sask. Party nomination: Mubarik Syed is seeking a nomination for the governing party in a Saskatoon riding and abstaining from work on the commission until the completion of the nomination and resigning if nominated, the Regina Leader-Post reports.
Bank of Canada Governor highlights inflation fighting errors, lessons learned: The surge of inflation over the past three years has been a “stark reminder” that central banks can’t always ignore supply shocks and hope price increases stabilize on their own, Tiff Macklem wrote in an essay.
B.C. government promises financial relief in budget, despite near-stagnant economic growth: With the next provincial election no more than nine months away, the Throne Speech emphasized the need for new measures to help with a rising cost of living.
TODAY’S POLITICAL QUOTES
“That core choice about who we are as Canadians is so fundamentally important that I could not be the person I am and choose to step away from this fight right now when it is so important just because it’s getting a little difficult or people are wondering if they’re not tired of me or whatever.” – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau today in an interview on Ryan Jespersen’s Real Talk show in Edmonton on the question of whether he will quit ahead of the next election.
THIS AND THAT
Online harms legislation bill next week: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said today in Edmonton that his government will table a long-awaited online harms bill next week. “I look forward to putting forward that online harms bill, which people will see is very, very specifically focused on protecting kids and not on censoring the internet.”
Commons and Senate on a break: Both the House of Commons and the Senate are on breaks until Feb. 26.
Deputy Prime Minister’s day: Private meetings in Toronto.
Ministers on the road: Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Gary Anandasangaree, in Abbotsford, B.C., appeared with Alice McKay, chief of Matsqui First Nation, to announce a settlement that, according to a department statement, addresses a historic wrong. Later, he held a media availability in Burns Lake with Chief Murphy Abraham, along with other Lake Babine Nation representatives, about a new funding agreement to support the Wit’at and Tachet communities. Public Services Minister Jean-Yves Duclos, in Quebec City, made an announcement regarding the Canadian Coast Guard fleet on behalf of Fisheries Minister Diane Lebouthillier. Rural Economic Development Minister Gudie Hutchings, in St. John’s, with Tourism Minister Martinez Ferrada, and provincial Tourism Minister Steve Crocker, announced details of a federal-provincial initiative to support the Atlantic Canada tourism industry. Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc, in Montreal, announced federal financial support to combat vehicle theft at a news conference with Transport Minister Pablo Rodriguez, Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante, RCMP Commissioner Mike Duheme, and Montreal Police Chief Fady Dagher. In Mississauga, Filomena Tassi, minister for the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario, announced $2.4-million toward the growth of three Southern Ontario food manufacturing companies.
Commons committee highlights: Auditor-General Karen Hogan appeared before the public-accounts committee on the ArriveCan app. Caroline Maynard, the Information Commissioner of Canada, appears before the government-operations committee also on the ArriveCan app.
PRIME MINISTER’S DAY
Justin Trudeau, in Edmonton, visited a housing development with Employment Minister Randy Boissonnault and Edmonton Mayor Amarjeet Sohi, made a housing announcement, and took media questions. Later, Trudeau participated in a roundtable discussion with members of the LGBTQ community.
LEADERS
Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet, concluding a tour of the city of La Malbaie, met with Mayor Michel Couturier, then held a news conference.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre held a news conference in Kitchener, Ont.
Green Party Leader Elizabeth May, with deputy leader Jonathan Pedneault, was scheduled to hold an evening gathering with supporters in Kitchener, Ont.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh, in Toronto, held a news conference on the NDP pharmacare plan, met with the executive committee on the Ontario Federation of Labour and spoke to the 2024 convention of the Service Employees International Union.
THE DECIBEL
Today’s edition of The Globe and Mail podcast features The Globe’s Kelly Grant and Tu Thanh Ha, who have found that, as health care systems across Canada struggle with staffing shortages, the provincial use of private nursing agencies has recently skyrocketed. The Decibel is here.
OPINION
A new kind of affordable housing in B.C.
“In mid-2022, when David Eby was cruising toward an easy victory in the NDP leadership race in B.C. – and set to become the province’s next premier – housing was his primary policy focus. His main idea was provincial intervention in housing, to push cities to loosen their overly strict zoning rules to allow for more construction. Mr. Eby, however, also advocated for using government’s heft, from land to financing, to build “housing for the middle class on public land, using public resources.” It was a more expansive view of affordable housing, a political euphemism that generally means homes for lower-income Canadians.” – The Globe and Mail Editorial Board
Must Canada leave a mountain of debt to future generations?
“The 2023 fall economic statement projected large deficits through 2028-29 and a net debt-to-GDP ratio that rises in 2024-25 and then declines only slightly, remaining well above the prepandemic level through 2028-29. Interest payments eat up almost 14 per cent of revenue. The 2024 budget must correct this imprudent treatment of risk. Debt’s risk is lost opportunity. When servicing costs rise, more tax dollars have to go toward financing the debt, leaving less room for more meaningful expenditure. The federal government justified the deficits and debt by showing the net debt-to-GDP ratio declining through 2055-56. This is not credible.” – Don Drummond
Public lands can help unlock the housing crisis – and our governments hold the key
“By any measure, Canada needs to build more housing in the next decade – more than we’ve ever built in the past. Adding more supply will relieve the pressures being felt on all ends of the housing continuum, with middle-class homeowners feeling insecure about the stability of their housing, young people losing sight of a path to home ownership altogether, and newcomers struggling even to pay rent, as homelessness continues to surge. Today, the average price of the average home in Vancouver, for example, is 12 times the average Canadian salary. And yet our housing starts are actually slowing.” – Jennifer Keesmaat
To avoid ArriveCan-style fiascos, the Canadian government should create a COO position
“By almost any objective measure, the public service has not adapted to meet the heightened demands of citizens when it comes to service delivery.” This isn’t a quote from last week’s damning report on the ArriveCan app scandal by the Auditor-General, but it could have been. It’s from a December report to the Clerk of the Privy Council – Canada’s top public servant – on values and ethics in the public service. The ArriveCan scandal was a failure of public servants, not politicians. While ministers are still accountable to Parliament for this failing, the public service was responsible for the fiasco.” – David McLaughlin
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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.
