Pierre Poilievre is challenging Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to meet the premiers in a televised conference to defend the federal government’s carbon pricing measures.
“Will he agree to a televised carbon tax conference if he is so sure of himself on this issue?” the Conservative Leader asked during Question Period today, echoing a call from several provincial leaders, including Alberta’s Danielle Smith and Newfoundland and Labrador’s Andrew Furey.
Trudeau did not directly respond to the urging. Instead, he touted the positive aspects of his government’s approach to pricing carbon, and said he will meet premiers on affordability issues. He also noted that he met with the premiers on climate change in 2016.
The federal carbon price increased April 1 by $15 to $80 a tonne. The federal charge is applied in all provinces except British Columbia and Quebec, which have their own provincial carbon pricing systems.
Poilievre is also sponsoring an Opposition Day motion that calls for a “carbon tax emergency meeting” with the 14 premiers and territorial leaders on the government’s carbon-pricing policies.
Asked for comment on the motion, Government House Leader Steven MacKinnon was non-committal. “Well, we will see how the debate turns out. We have opposition motions all the time,” he told journalists after the weekly cabinet meeting.
Meanwhile, the former governor of the Bank of Canada and the Bank of England says he supports the idea of Trudeau meeting the premiers on the issue.
Speaking at an event in Ottawa on Monday, Mark Carney, now the United Nations’ special envoy on climate action and finance, said he supported a call from Ms. Smith for a first ministers’ meeting on climate.
But he said the discussion should go beyond a debate over the federal carbon levy, which has been heavily criticized by Poilievre and a number of provincial premiers.
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TODAY’S HEADLINES
National security adviser says foreign meddling efforts do not equal success: Nathalie Drouin told the federal inquiry into election interference that Canadians might mistakenly think foreign actors had an effect on Canada’s election results. Meanwhile, CSIS says the Prime Minister’s Office, top ministers and senior officials received 34 briefings on foreign interference since 2018.
MPs approve rare censure of ArriveCan contractor for refusing to answer questions: The House unanimously passed a motion declaring Kristian Firth to be in contempt of Parliament, and calling for him to face new questioning from MPs.
Liberal budget to include $500-million for youth mental health, Freeland says: “We want younger Canadians to have the support they need so they are set up for success,” Freeland told a news conference in Ottawa.
Freeland doesn’t rule out new taxes on wealthy or Corporate Canada in coming budget: The Finance Minister pointedly did not answer when asked during a news conference about the prospect of new taxes on Corporate Canada or others not part of the middle class.
Ontario looks at counting student residences toward aim of building 1½ million homes: Housing Minister Paul Calandra wrote in a letter to Mississauga’s acting mayor that the ministry is tracking housing starts as defined by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp., in addition to counting long-term care beds, but it is also now looking at “other institutional types of housing.”
Alberta distillery to stop making four-litre vodka jugs after minister raises concern: T-Rex Distillery says public response has been mixed since photos of the jugs began circulating on social media, with about half praising the jugs for “innovation and convenience.”
New challenge for Ottawa’s embattled LRT system: As The Ottawa Citizen reports, the stench at the Parliament Station of the transit system in the nation’s capital hits like a picnic basket full of egg salad sandwiches that have been left behind for a week or two.
“Very often on budget day, all of you are met with a flurry of announcements. Laying out our plan, step by step, day by day is an opportunity for Canadians to hear from us what it is we’re doing and for there to be a real thorough, reasoned, fact-based debate about a number of the measures, and I think that’s a really good thing.” – Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland, at a news conference in Ottawa today, on releasing details of next week’s federal budget in recent announcements ahead of the April 16 official release of the document.
“I think he’s too scared. …Trudeau’s in hiding. He’s hiding from me at [Question Period] today. I just learned he won’t show up to debate me on the carbon tax in the House today, but do you blame him. He’s losing the debate: Canadians want to axe the tax.” – Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, in a Parliament Hill scrum this morning. The Prime Minister’s schedule for today initially said he was not attending Question Period, but was later updated to indicate he would be there.
“I just spoke with Anthony Housefather, actually. We’re both on House duty together. I just gave him a big hug, and he is my parliamentary secretary and he’s – he and I have a wonderful working relationship. I’m very happy that he’s back and resuming his work as parliamentary secretary. It’s wonderful news” – Treasury Board President Anita Anand on Liberal MP Housefather ruling out a departure from the Liberal caucus over a motion passed last month.
“I haven’t had a chance to read the book. … I’m aware of it. I’ll put it on my reading list.” – Health Minister Mark Holland on the new book by former health minister Jane Philpott, Health for All: A Doctor’s Prescription for a Healthier Canada. Monday’s Politics Briefing newsletter featured a Q&A with Philpott on the new book.
THIS AND THAT
Today in the Commons: Projected Order of Business at the House of Commons, April 9, accessible here.
Federal Ethics Commissioner Konrad von Finckenstein has released a review of sponsored travel by MPs in 2023. The list of travels is here, and the commissioner explains his views on the issue here.
PRIME MINISTER’S DAY
Justin Trudeau chaired the weekly cabinet meeting, and attended Question Period.
LEADERS
Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet held a news conference at the House of Commons ahead of Question Period, which he attended.
Green Party Leader ELizabeth May, in Ottawa,’ met with representatives of the Canadian Cancer Society along with fellow MP Mike Morrice. Later, May attended the Equal Voice International Women’s Day Celebration.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh participated in Question Period.
No schedule released for Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre.
The Liberals are sleepwalking through an increasingly dangerous world
“The official name of Ottawa’s defence policy review is Our North, Strong and Free, but the title really should be While Canada Sleepwalks.” – The Globe and Mail Editorial Board
Sham defence review shows Canada will never meet its commitments to NATO allies
“If Canada is to retain any credibility with its allies, the government needs to get a move on. That means accelerating the procurement process for major new acquisitions. It means working with the United States to provide a timeline for modernizing NORAD’s defences, and then meeting the commitments of that timeline. The update is out. Now it’s time to act.” – John Ibbitson
Nuclear tech isn’t all the same, and there’s a specific type Canada must focus on
“We have an opportunity to assume a global leadership role that will support domestic and international efforts to fight climate change while nurturing Canada’s cutting-edge nuclear ecosystem. We urge governments at all levels and of all stripes to seize on this occasion by choosing the deployment of homegrown Candu nuclear technology in the Canadian market, and aggressively marketing it to energy-starved partners across the planet.” – Jean Chrétien and Mike Harris
Requiring age-verification for porn won’t save children from online harm. But it will invade our privacy
“We can all agree that young people deserve protection from harm, so keeping kids safe online is a position that politicians are quick to endorse; support for anti-porn bills offers an easy route to positive PR. But good intentions don’t make for good laws.” – Maggie MacDonald
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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.
