Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced a handful of measures aimed at helping renters today that will be part of next month’s 2024 budget, including a $15-million tenant protection fund and a Canadian renters’ bill of rights.
Trudeau and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland made the announcement in Vancouver.
The dollar amounts involved are relatively small, but government officials say this will be the first of several announcements over the coming weeks that will unveil specific elements of the April 16 budget.
The communications plan was described to The Globe and Mail by two senior government officials. The Globe is not identifying the officials as they were not authorized to comment on the record about the plan.
The government’s hope is that by dropping budget details in advance, the Liberals will be able to garner more attention for the measures they are rolling out, rather than have it all released in a crush of stories on budget day.
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TODAY’S HEADLINES
Justice Marie-Josée Hogue resumes foreign interference inquiry: Hogueopened public hearings today as part of the inquiry on foreign interference, saying she wants to release as much information as possible about meddling in the 2019 and 2021 elections but warning some details must be kept secret to protect national security. Robert Fife and Steven Chase report.
Economists defend Liberals’ carbon price as political rhetoric heats up: Dozens of Canadian economists who have issued an ardent defence of Canada’s price on pollution say the national carbon price is the cheapest way to cut the most emissions, and also dispute the notion that the carbon price is driving up inflation and the cost of living.
NDP motion on Gaza threatened to split Liberal caucus: The federal Liberals expected upward of 80 of their backbench MPs to vote with the NDP last week on a motion that included a call to recognize a Palestinian state, according to sources with knowledge of the deliberations, prompting a scramble to convince New Democrats to accept amendments and avoid exposing deep divisions in the governing party.
Drowning in debt, Canadian Olympic athletes ask for raise in monthly ‘carding’ money in federal budget: With the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Paris on the horizon, Canada’s athletes are asking for a $6.3-million raise to the Athletes Assistance Program, which is informally known as “carding” money, in the federal government’s April 16 budget.
‘He understands Canadians’: Inside what ‘axe the tax’ means to Poilievre’s supporters: Heading into spring, federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has spent much of his time outside of Parliament campaigning across the country – and on social media – to keep up momentum as he rides high in public opinion polls. That includes a rally in Ottawa last weekend.
Canada pushes for trade in Vietnam as West lowers risks from China: Trade Minister Mary Ng, leading the largest-ever Canadian delegation to Vietnam, opened the second Canada-Vietnam Joint Economic Committee after meetings with senior Vietnamese leaders in Hanoi.
Ontario budget 2024: Billions for health care, rising deficits, car insurance changes and other highlights: Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy outlined a “deterioration” of Ontario’s fiscal situation and a higher deficit projection next year because of slower economic growth, inflation and higher interest rates as he tabled the province’s 2024-25 budget this week.
TODAY’S POLITICAL QUOTES
“I don’t agree that Canada is a climate laggard, and I certainly don’t agree that Saskatchewan is a climate laggard. I think Saskatchewan and Canada are leaders when it comes to developing industries that are reducing emissions with innovation.”– Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe appearing virtually today before the government operations committee about his opposition to federal carbon pricing.
“Any province that wants to put forward a similarly robust way to fight climate change, but do it in a way that works for them, is more than welcome to.” – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, during a news conference in Vancouver, responding to a question about whether he is open to talking to the premiers about their concerns with his government’s carbon-pricing policies.
“Your concerns are real. You are not making it up.” – Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland at the news conference, in Vancouver, with Trudeau on challenges facing young Canadians.
THIS AND THAT
Mark Carney meets China’s president: The former governor of both the Bank of Canada and the Bank of England, seen as a possible successor to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, met today in China with Xi Jinping as the Chinese president held talks with North American business leaders. Britain’s The Telegraph reports here.
Hannah Thibedeau exit: After more than 20 years covering Parliament Hill, Hannah Thibedeau is departing the CBC. The afternoon host on the CBC News Network is having a goodbye party in Ottawa this week, an internal notice said. In 2009, says her biography on the CBC website, Thibedeau joined CBC as a local reporter and producer for Politics with Don Newman. In 2012, she joined the national bureau.
Gould in Boston:Karina Gould, who has been on maternity leave from her role as government house leader, was at the Harvard Kennedy School this week, speaking about public-sector programs to support families and their impact on key social and economic outcomes. Gould’s press secretary, Philippe-Alexandre Langlois, confirmed the personal trip. Bernadette Jordan, Canada’s consul general to Boston and the New England states, posted on the event.
Commons, Senate: The House of Commons is on a break until April 8. The Senate sits again on April 9.
Deputy Prime Minister’s day: Chrystia Freeland, in Vancouver, joined Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for the housing and renters announcement.
Ministers on the road: Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne, in St. John’s, participated in a fireside chat hosted by Energy NL with Premier Andrew Furey and Energy NL chief executive officer Charlene Johnson. Housing Minister Sean Fraser, Marci Ien, Minister for Women, Gender Equality and Youth, and Justice Minister Arif Virani made an affordable-housing announcement in Toronto. Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault and Transport Minister Pablo Rodriguez, in Montreal, made a housing and affordability announcement.
In Québec City, Immigration Minister Marc Miller and Public Services Minister Jean-Yves Duclos were scheduled to make a housing announcement. International Trade Minister Mary Ng is in Ho Chi Minh City, leading a trade mission in Vietnam this week. Families Minister Jenna Sudds, in Edmonton, made a housing announcement. Filomena Tassi, Minister responsible for the Federal Economic Development Agency for southern Ontario, was scheduled to make a housing announcement in Waterloo. Energy Minister Jonathan Wilkinson, Northern Affairs Minister Dan Vandal and Treasury Board President Anita Anand, in Winnipeg, made a housing and affordability announcement. Small Business Minister Rechie Valdez, in Toronto, attended an event hosted by PARO Women’s Enterprise Canada to celebrate female entrepreneurs from across Canada.
Commons committee highlights: Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe appeared by video conference before the government operations committee on main estimates related to government spending.
PRIME MINISTER’S DAY
In Vancouver, Justin Trudeau made a housing announcement, accompanied by Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland and Harjit Sajjan, the president of the King’s Privy Council for Canada.
LEADERS
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre was scheduled to hold a rally in Edmonton.
Green Party Leader Elizabeth May, in B.C., held a caucus meeting and later spoke at a youth nuclear disarmament gathering in Victoria hosted by Mines Action Canada.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh was scheduled, in Ottawa, to join the Public Service Alliance of Canada picket line in support of striking Canadian Forces Morale and Welfare Services workers. However, his schedule for the day was cancelled.
No schedule released for Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet.
THE DECIBEL
Today’s edition of The Globe and Mail podcast features international correspondent Nathan VanderKlippe on how the local high school in the Colorado mountain town of Aspen – often called a snowy “playground for the rich” – is dealing with real estate pressures affecting teachers. Student-built tiny homes for the teachers is one solution. The Decibel is here.
TRIBUTE
Trevor Harrison: The family of the late Liberal political volunteer and staffer have created a scholarship in his name linked to brain tumours, an affliction which led to his 2022 death. The $2,000 award through the Brain Tumour Foundation of Canada aims to provide financial support to politically engaged students, affected by a brain tumour, who want to make positive contributions to public policy or politics through civic engagement. Scholarship details are here. Former Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff eulogized Harrison.
PUBLIC OPINION
Alberta NDP leadership race: Former Calgary mayor Naheed Nenshi is the most well known of the candidates seeking to lead the Alberta NDP, and the only candidate with a clear, net-positive impression, according to newly released research from Abacus Data.
OPINION
The Liberals’ dithering on defence is indefensible
“Years of neglect cannot be overcome overnight. But the defence policy update needs to lay out a clear and credible path to Canada meeting its obligations to NATO (not to mention, to the members of the armed forces). A failure to do so will relegate Canada to the periphery of NATO discussions, as well as making it clear to the United States that it needs to assume responsibility for the defence of the Arctic. So, what will the Trudeau Liberals pick: a hard road to rebuilding relevance, or continued decline? The moment of decision is approaching – swiftly.” – The Globe and Mail Editorial Board
The Liberals broke the immigration system at high speed. They’re repairing it by baby steps
“They filled the pool with a firehose. Now they’re bailing with thimbles. After years of the Trudeau government flooring the growth accelerator on temporary immigration, Immigration Minister Marc Miller last week announced a tap of the brakes. The overdue move is welcome – though so far it’s more pledge than plan, with many details about execution (not this government’s strong suit) still to come.”
OTTAWA – The federal agency that investigates election infractions found insufficient evidence to support suggestions Beijing wielded undue influence against the Conservatives in the Vancouver area during the 2021 general election.
The Commissioner of Canada Elections’ recently completed review of the lingering issue was tabled Tuesday at a federal inquiry into foreign interference.
The review focused on the unsuccessful campaign of Conservative candidate Kenny Chiu in the riding of Steveston-Richmond East and the party’s larger efforts in the Vancouver area.
It says the evidence uncovered did not trigger the threshold to initiate a formal investigation under the Canada Elections Act.
Investigators therefore recommended that the review be concluded.
A summary of the review results was shared with the Canadian Security Intelligence Service and the RCMP. The review says both agencies indicated the election commissioner’s findings were consistent with their own understanding of the situation.
During the exercise, the commissioner’s investigators met with Chinese Canadian residents of Chiu’s riding and surrounding ones.
They were told of an extensive network of Chinese Canadian associations, businesses and media organizations that offers the diaspora a lifestyle that mirrors that of China in many ways.
“Further, this diaspora has continuing and extensive commercial, social and familial relations with China,” the review says.
Some interviewees reported that this “has created aspects of a parallel society involving many Chinese Canadians in the Lower Mainland area, which includes concerted support, direction and control by individuals from or involved with China’s Vancouver consulate and the United Front Work Department (UFWD) in China.”
Investigators were also made aware of members of three Chinese Canadian associations, as well as others, who were alleged to have used their positions to influence the choice of Chinese Canadian voters during the 2021 election in a direction favourable to the interests of Beijing, the review says.
These efforts were sparked by elements of the Conservative party’s election platform and by actions and statements by Chiu “that were leveraged to bolster claims that both the platform and Chiu were anti-China and were encouraging anti-Chinese discrimination and racism.”
These messages were amplified through repetition in social media, chat groups and posts, as well as in Chinese in online, print and radio media throughout the Vancouver area.
Upon examination, the messages “were found to not be in contravention” of the Canada Elections Act, says the review, citing the Supreme Court of Canada’s position that the concept of uninhibited speech permeates all truly democratic societies and institutions.
The review says the effectiveness of the anti-Conservative, anti-Chiu campaigns was enhanced by circumstances “unique to the Chinese diaspora and the assertive nature of Chinese government interests.”
It notes the election was prefaced by statements from China’s ambassador to Canada and the Vancouver consul general as well as articles published or broadcast in Beijing-controlled Chinese Canadian media entities.
“According to Chinese Canadian interview subjects, this invoked a widespread fear amongst electors, described as a fear of retributive measures from Chinese authorities should a (Conservative) government be elected.”
This included the possibility that Chinese authorities could interfere with travel to and from China, as well as measures being taken against family members or business interests in China, the review says.
“Several Chinese Canadian interview subjects were of the view that Chinese authorities could exercise such retributive measures, and that this fear was most acute with Chinese Canadian electors from mainland China. One said ‘everybody understands’ the need to only say nice things about China.”
However, no interview subject was willing to name electors who were directly affected by the anti-Tory campaign, nor community leaders who claimed to speak on a voter’s behalf.
Several weeks of public inquiry hearings will focus on the capacity of federal agencies to detect, deter and counter foreign meddling.
In other testimony Tuesday, Conservative MP Garnett Genuis told the inquiry that parliamentarians who were targeted by Chinese hackers could have taken immediate protective steps if they had been informed sooner.
It emerged earlier this year that in 2021 some MPs and senators faced cyberattacks from the hackers because of their involvement with the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, which pushes for accountability from Beijing.
In 2022, U.S. authorities apparently informed the Canadian government of the attacks, and it in turn advised parliamentary IT officials — but not individual MPs.
Genuis, a Canadian co-chair of the inter-parliamentary alliance, told the inquiry Tuesday that it remains mysterious to him why he wasn’t informed about the attacks sooner.
Liberal MP John McKay, also a Canadian co-chair of the alliance, said there should be a clear protocol for advising parliamentarians of cyberthreats.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17, 2024.
WINNIPEG – The federal New Democrats have kept a longtime stronghold in the Elmwood-Transcona riding in Winnipeg.
The NDP’s Leila Dance won a close battle over Conservative candidate Colin Reynolds, and says the community has spoken in favour of priorities such as health care and the cost of living.
Elmwood-Transcona has elected a New Democrat in every election except one since the riding was formed in 1988.
The seat became open after three-term member of Parliament Daniel Blaikie resigned in March to take a job with the Manitoba government.
A political analyst the NDP is likely relieved to have kept the seat in what has been one of their strongest urban areas.
Christopher Adams, an adjunct professor of political studies at the University of Manitoba, says NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh worked hard to keep the seat in a tight race.
“He made a number of visits to Winnipeg, so if they had lost this riding it would have been disastrous for the NDP,” Adams said.
The strong Conservative showing should put wind in that party’s sails, Adams added, as their percentage of the popular vote in Elmwood-Transcona jumped sharply from the 2021 election.
“Even though the Conservatives lost this (byelection), they should walk away from it feeling pretty good.”
Dance told reporters Monday night she wants to focus on issues such as the cost of living while working in Ottawa.
“We used to be able to buy a cart of groceries for a hundred dollars and now it’s two small bags. That is something that will affect everyone in this riding,” Dance said.
Liberal candidate Ian MacIntyre placed a distant third,
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024
OTTAWA – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau say the Liberals have “all sorts of reflections” to make after losing a second stronghold in a byelection in Montreal Monday night.
His comments come as the Liberal cabinet gathers for its first regularly scheduled meeting of the fall sitting of Parliament, which began Monday.
Trudeau’s Liberals were hopeful they could retain the Montreal riding of LaSalle—Émard—Verdun, but those hopes were dashed after the Bloc Québécois won it in an extremely tight three-way race with the NDP.
Louis-Philippe Sauvé, an administrator at the Institute for Research in Contemporary Economics, beat Liberal candidate Laura Palestini by less than 250 votes. The NDP finished about 600 votes back of the winner.
It is the second time in three months that Trudeau’s party lost a stronghold in a byelection. In June, the Conservatives defeated the Liberals narrowly in Toronto-St. Paul’s.
The Liberals won every seat in Toronto and almost every seat on the Island of Montreal in the last election, and losing a seat in both places has laid bare just how low the party has fallen in the polls.
“Obviously, it would have been nicer to be able to win and hold (the Montreal riding), but there’s more work to do and we’re going to stay focused on doing it,” Trudeau told reporters ahead of this morning’s cabinet meeting.
When asked what went wrong for his party, Trudeau responded “I think there’s all sorts of reflections to take on that.”
In French, he would not say if this result puts his leadership in question, instead saying his team has lots of work to do.
Bloc leader Yves-François Blanchet will hold a press conference this morning, but has already said the results are significant for his party.
“The victory is historic and all of Quebec will speak with a stronger voice in Ottawa,” Blanchet wrote on X, shortly after the winner was declared.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh and his party had hoped to ride to a win in Montreal on the popularity of their candidate, city councillor Craig Sauvé, and use it to further their goal of replacing the Liberals as the chief alternative to the Conservatives.
The NDP did hold on to a seat in Winnipeg in a tight race with the Conservatives, but the results in Elmwood-Transcona Monday were far tighter than in the last several elections. NDP candidate Leila Dance defeated Conservative Colin Reynolds by about 1,200 votes.
Singh called it a “big victory.”
“Our movement is growing — and we’re going to keep working for Canadians and building that movement to stop Conservative cuts before they start,” he said on social media.
“Big corporations have had their governments. It’s the people’s time.”
New Democrats recently pulled out of their political pact with the government in a bid to distance themselves from the Liberals, making the prospects of a snap election far more likely.
Trudeau attempted to calm his caucus at their fall retreat in Nanaimo, B.C, last week, and brought former Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney on as an economic adviser in a bid to shore up some credibility with voters.
The latest byelection loss will put more pressure on him as leader, with many polls suggesting voter anger is more directed at Trudeau himself than at Liberal policies.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17, 2024.
