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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has apologized for a controversial vacation trip to Tofino, B.C., that began on the first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation last week.
At his first news conference today since returning from a break in the Vancouver Island community, Mr. Trudeau addressed the issue of the trip.
“Travelling on Sept. 30 was a mistake, and I regret it,” Mr. Trudeau said at the news conference, convened to discuss federal policy on mandatory vaccinations. “I was in error to choose to travel on that day.”
Asked by a journalist whether anyone encouraged him not to go, Mr. Trudeau replied, “How it happened is far less important than that it happened.”
Mr. Trudeau has faced sustained criticism from Indigenous leaders and opposition parties for making a decision to fly to Tofino on Thursday, which was the first time that the country formally honoured survivors of residential schools and those who died while attending the institutions.
The Prime Minister thanked Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc Chief Rosanne Casimir for taking his call over the weekend so he could apologize directly for not being there with her community on the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. He said he plans to visit the Kamloops-area community soon.
Mr. Trudeau was asked about why his itinerary for the day had initially said that he would be in Ottawa before eventually being corrected to mention Tofino. “The itinerary said that I had private meetings and I had calls for a number of hours that day with survivors of Indian residential schools,” Mr. Trudeau said.
Parliamentary Reporter Kristy Kirkup reports here on Mr. Trudeau’s comments today.
The Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland also talked about plans that will see travellers boarding a flight from a Canadian airport, or taking a VIA Rail train, required to provide proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test as of October 30.
Parliamentary reporter Marieke Walsh and senior parliamentary reporter Steven Chase report here on that part of today’s news conference.
TODAY’S HEADLINES
NDP HOLD CAUCUS MEETING – NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh will tell the first meeting of the NDP caucus today that pursuing Indigenous rights – including access to clean drinking water – will be a key priority for the party in this Parliament. Also, the NDP has requested an official inquiry into what it calls “numerous and systemic failures of election officials” in last month’s federal election. Story here.
ERIN O’TOOLE TOUTS CAUCUS SUPPORT – Federal Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole said on Tuesday he has enough support from his caucus to keep his job, even as his elected caucus members voted to give themselves the power to oust him as leader and one MP advocated for the party membership to hold a speedy vote on Mr. O’Toole’s future.
ECHAQUAN FAMILY ANNOUNCES LEGAL ACTION – Joyce Echaquan’s family said Tuesday it would launch legal action against the hospital where she died, hours after a Quebec coroner said a combination of “undeniable” systemic racism and health-care system failings contributed to her death.
CANADA TO FALL SHORT OF EMISSIONS GOALS: REPORT – Canada is on pace to fall well short of its emissions goals, according to a new government-funded report that says the country’s current strategies will reduce its greenhouse gas output by only 16 per cent, relative to 2005 levels, by 2030 – a far cry from the 40-per-cent cut that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has promised.
CORRECTION: Yesterday’s Politics Briefingnewsletter said Conservative incumbents Blake Desjarlais and James Cumming lost their seats in Edmonton, while fellow incumbent Jag Sahota lost in Calgary. In fact, Mr. Desjarlais is the NDP member who beat Conservative incumbent Kerry Diotte in Edmonton-Griesbach.
NEW JOHN IBBITSON BOOK
John Ibbitson, Ottawa-based writer-at-large for The Globe and Mail, has a new book in the works.
Doug Pepper, the publisher of Signal/McClelland & Stewart, has announced his company has acquired the world rights to The Duel: Diefenbaker, Pearson and the Making of Modern Canada by Mr. Ibbitson.
The book, to be published in the fall of 2023, tells the story of the two prime ministers – John Diefenbaker, a Progressive Conservative, and Lester B. Pearson, a Liberal. A statement from the publisher notes the two were children of the Victorian era, who led Canada into the Atomic Age as prime ministers – fighting each other relentlessly, but together shaping the Canada we live in today.
“Several years ago I got it into my head that we needed to look again at the prime ministerships of John Diefenbaker and Lester Pearson,” says Mr. Ibbitson, whose previous 10 books include a biography of former prime minister Stephen Harper.
“This has been a labour of love for me, so it’s wonderful that McClelland & Stewart will be bringing it out in two years under Doug Pepper’s guidance. This will be our fifth collaboration, and I couldn’t be happier.”
HOW TO BE A PRIME MINISTER
From Governing Canada, A Guide to the Tradecraft of Politics by Michael Wernick (Published by On Point Press, an imprint of UBC Press)
This week, the Politics Briefing newsletter is featuring excerpts from Governing Canada, a new book by Michael Wernick, the former clerk of the privy council. Our focus is a key chapter, Advice to a Prime Minister. (Parliamentary reporter Kristy Kirkup reported on the project here.)
In today’s excerpt, Mr. Wernick makes the case for change in a prime minister’s inner circle:
“You will not be successful if you hang on to the same closed circle of close advisors and confidants for your whole time in office. There is an inevitable drift into a comfort zone and a form of groupthink that can create blind spots and put you at risk. Sometimes, sudden departures come along – perhaps due to a political crisis or a personal choice to leave – and you lose one of your core team. But you will tend to want to stay with the people that you started with for too long, especially if your government is doing well. If you are doing badly in the polls, you can expect your ministers and caucus members to start grumbling about those in your inner circle and perhaps starting to spin against them with journalists. It can be a precursor to grumbling about you.
“Succession planning is rarely done well in the political business, but try to pause at key points, perhaps during the summer recess of Parliament, and think about when would be the best time to swap out key players and who might be an option to bring in.”
PRIME MINISTER’S DAY
Private meetings. The Prime Minister, joined by the Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland, addresses Canadians on the COVID-19 situation and holds a media briefing.
LEADERS
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh, holds a news conference in Ottawa and then attends the first NDP caucus meeting since the federal election.
No schedules issued for the other federal leaders.
OPINION
Andrew Coyne (The Globe and Mail)on the question of whether other parties will follow the Conservative move to take power back from their leader: “While Conservatives at large ponder whether to ditch Erin O’Toole as leader or keep him, the party’s parliamentary caucus has just made a decision of much greater import: it has given itself the power to dismiss the leader – and thus transformed the office itself. Meeting for the first time since the election, the Conservatives held four votes, as all parties are required to do by the Reform Act, 2014. The votes are to decide whether to accept the four powers conferred upon party caucuses by the Act: the power to decide who sits in caucus, to choose a caucus chair, to remove the leader, and to choose an interim leader.”
John Ibbitson (The Globe and Mail)on the perils of Tories failing to learn from their past: “Nonetheless, there is only one path to power for Conservatives: marrying rural old Canada to immigrant, suburban new Canada. Mr. O’Toole gets that. His strategy was sound; he just failed to execute. There is no better education in politics than to lose an election. This is Mr. O’Toole’s opportunity to learn and to grow. But if the caucus and the party membership don’t give him that opportunity, if Mr. O’Toole becomes another Manion or Bracken or Clark or Scheer, then the Conservatives will deserve the fate that history says awaits them.”
Jo Ramsay (Contributor to The Globe and Mail)on the fixes Elections Canada needs to institute so outdated ballots don’t misguide voters: “An effective solution to inform voters of late-stage changes in an electoral race could be to place a large, accessible notice board outside of every polling station, displaying updates such as disavowed candidates or other ballot inaccuracies in real-time. Another initiative could be to provide clear and publicly accessible methods for groups of private citizens to advocate or trigger a local by-election in situations similar to Spadina-Fort York, where there is mass dissatisfaction with the elected candidate. Both of these proposed changes would serve to maintain faith in our electoral system and quell community frustrations in the event ballots cannot be updated.”
Josée Legault (Le Journal de Montreal)on the chilling report on Joyce Echaquan: “Here, as elsewhere in Canada, there is hope. Many Quebecers and Canadians are experiencing a sincere awakening of consciences about the plight of First Nations. Will their policymakers follow the same pace? It will have to be. The worst mistake would be to get stuck in a Manichean struggle that condemns us to go around in circles. Because those who reject the notion of systemic racism are not “racist” and those who claim to be so are not woke or “Québécophobes.”
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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.
