Western premiers decided at their meeting in Regina on Friday to press Ottawa for more sustainable health care funding, with British Columbia’s John Horgan expressing hope that momentum from the gathering will help make that happen.
The issue will be on the table this July when the 13 provincial and territorial premiers in the Council of the Federation meet in Victoria. Premiers have said Ottawa should increase its contribution to the Canada Health Transfer at a level that would amount to about $28-billion more this year.
“We’ll see what the council comes up with in July,” Mr. Horgan said in an interview Friday. “But the message coming out of Regina is really clear, and is consistent with where we’ve been for a long, long time: Ottawa, you need to get to a table. We need to sit down and work these things out.”
Friday’s annual meeting was convened for representatives from British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Northwest Territories, Yukon and Nunavut.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said earlier this year that discussion on the issue should wait until the pandemic is over.
Mr. Horgan, the chair of the Council of the Federation, said at the conclusion of the Friday meeting that he is “optimistic,” noting he has met with federal Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Domenic LeBlanc and Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos.
“We’re making progress, but it’s just not fast enough to meet the emerging crises we’re finding in virtually every element of our delivery and in every part of the country,” said Mr. Horgan.
“We need to address these issues and now we’re being clear we need to address them now, not next year, not the year after that.”
Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe said additional federal health care funding would ensure that existing services are sustainable into the future.
“I think, in fairness, the federal government agrees on the priorities. What we need to do now and sit down and agree on what the funding level is to ensure these are sustainable into the future,” he told a news conference earlier Friday.
Parliamentary Reporter Kristy Kirkup looked here into the issue of the premiers intensifying their campaign for an increase to the Canada Health Transfer.
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TODAY’S HEADLINES
NO LIFE WITHOUT PAROLE FOR MASS MURDERERS: SUPREME COURT – The Supreme Court of Canada has unanimously struck down the punishment of life without parole for mass murderers, retroactive to the time it was enacted in 2011 – giving a large number of sentenced killers hope of release some day. Story here..
DION TO BE NEW AMBASSADOR TO FRANCE – Former federal foreign affairs minister Stéphane Dion is to be Canada’s new ambassador to France, according to a report here in La Presse. Mr. Dion, also a former federal Liberal leader, has been Canada’s ambassador to Germany since 2017. The ambassador’s post in France has been vacant for about a year.
NEW FIREARMS LEGISLATION TO BE INTRODUCED MONDAY: LAMETTI – Justice Minister David Lametti is telling CTV that his cabinet colleague Marco Mendicino, the public safety minister, will table new firearms legislation on Monday. The plan is to see the new bill unveiled shortly after MPs return to the Commons on May 30 to kick off their last four-week stretch of sitting before adjourning for the summer. Story here from CTV.
TUMULTUOUS SPRING SETTING ENDS IN ALBERTA – Alberta’s legislature has wrapped up a tumultuous spring sitting highlighted by a balanced budget and overshadowed by Premier Jason Kenney announcing his long goodbye. Story here.
TORONTO AIRPORT CEO ASKS FOR FEDERAL ACTION ON MOVING PEOPLE – Deborah Flint, the CEO of the Greater Toronto Airports Authority, is calling on the government to streamline the movement of people through the terminals by such measures as dropping some of the checks for COVID-19, and using biometrics to identify and expedite check-ins for trusted travellers. Story here.
TARGETED GOODS RELEASED – The only shipment of goods impounded by Canadian authorities since Ottawa banned imports made with forced labour in 2020 was later released after the importer successfully challenged the seizure. Story here.
LUXURY TAX TO HAVE $600-MILLION IMPACT: PBO – Parliamentary Budget Officer Yves Giroux says the federal government’s planned luxury tax will reduce sales of autos, boats and planes by more than $600-million a year. Story here.
ONTARIO ELECTION – Kelly Cryderman reports here on Ontario’s Doug Ford, a polarizing politician who has positioned himself as a steady leader and a friend of the working class. Meanwhile, in the ONTARIO ELECTION TODAY: Party leaders on the campaign trail are focusing on the Greater Toronto Area, and Hamilton region. And, in a bit of Ontario election history: TVO’s Jamie Bradburn here looks at how a “petulant and nasty” half-hour shouting match debate between Progressive Conservative leader Bill Davis and Ontario Liberal leader Robert Nixon changed the 1975 election. “
CONSERVATIVE LEADERSHIP RACE
CAMPAIGN TRAIL – Scott Aitchison is in Toronto. Roman Baber is campaigning in the Vancouver region over the weekend, with a Saturday meet and greet in Vancouver and a second event in Coquitlam. Jean Charest is campaigning in Montreal. Leslyn Lewis, on Friday, is in Woodstock, Ontario. On Saturday, Ms. Lewis is going on to campaign in St. Catherines. And Mr. Poilievre is campaigning Friday in Woodstock, New Brunswick and then holding an event in Edmunston at the Grey Rock Casino at the Maliseet First Nation. There’s no word on the whereabouts of Patrick Brown.
THIS AND THAT
TODAY IN THE COMMONS – The House is adjourned until Monday, May. 30.
APPOINTMENTS TO NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has announced a series of appointments and changes at the National Security and Intelligence Review Agency. Matthew Cassar and Foluke Laosebikan have been named members for five-year terms. Meanwhile, Craig Forcesebecomes Vice-Chair for the remainder of his current term ending in 2024, and John Davies has been reappointed executive director. Details here.
TEACHING ASSIGNMENT FOR FORMER PRIVY COUNCIL CLERK – Ian Shugart, the former clerk of the Privy Council and secretary to cabinet, is to take on a new role as an educator, teaching in the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy’s Master of Global Affairs & Master of Public Policy programs. He begins his assignment, in a part-time capacity, in September 2022. Details here.
THE DECIBEL
Friday’s edition of The Globe and Mail podcast features Dr. Kisha Supernant , one of the people at the forefront of the effort to look for unmarked graves at former residential schools. She’s a Métis archaeologist and chair of Unmarked Graves Working Group with the Canadian Archaeological Association. She explains how she does this work, what happens after potential graves are found, and what needs to happen next. The Decibel is here.
PRIME MINISTER’S DAY
The Prime Minister has a “Personal” day in Nova Scotia according to the itinerary provided by his office.
LEADERS
No schedules released for party leaders.
OPINION
The Globe and Mail Editorial Boardon how Ottawa wants to search your phone at the border, but its proposed rules are unreasonably suspicious:“Reasonable general concern” is the Trudeau government’s proposed threshold for allowing a border guard to access the contents of your cellphone, laptop or other digital device, any time you enter the country. It’s in a bill, S-7, that the government has weirdly introduced in the Senate rather than the Commons, provoking the first of many questions about this legislation. The proposal has also raised eyebrows for the fact that the legal standard it applies appears to have been created out of thin air. Unlike “reasonable suspicion” or “reasonable grounds to believe,” which are well established legal standards that police must meet in order to arrest someone or conduct a search, “reasonable general concern” is making its international debut. And it’s already not earning rave reviews.”
Andrew Coyne (The Globe and Mail)on the notion of getting rid of gatekeepers, for real: “The thing is,Pierre Poilievre has a point about the “gatekeepers.” Only it’s about much more than just a few blinkered municipal bureaucrats standing in the way of needed housing development. If he were serious, and not just test-driving applause lines, he’d broaden the discussion out to the other gatekeepers at work in other areas of the economy. As with housing, their function is to protect the interests of those already in the market at the expense of those who would like to enter it. Or, as the economists Assar Lindbeck and Dennis Snower have put it, of insiders over outsiders.”
Gary Mason (The Globe and Mail)on the inexcusable gong show at our passport offices: “As COVID-19 vaccines began to do their work last year, more Canadians began to venture out and allow themselves to imagine vacations to exotic locales – or even just to the United States. Surely, the federal government was aware of this. It must have known that the demand for travel after two years of being cooped up at home would be unprecedented. Airlines began preparing for this eventuality months ago, when it was evident COVID-related travel restrictions were being lifted around the world. You would assume the federal government would have brainstormed as well: What should we be prepared for, when the travel surge occurs?”
Konrad Yakabuski (The Globe and Mail)on how Quebec could play kingmaker in a Conservative leadership race: “Now, as Conservatives prepare yet again to choose a new leader, Quebec could play kingmaker anew, with surprising results. While former premier Jean Charest’s political network in the province should make him the hands-down favourite among Quebec Tories, Pierre Poilievre is catching the same populist wave that has turned the formerly fledgling Parti conservateur du Québec (which is independent from its federal Conservative Party namesake) into a player on the provincial scene.”
Tony Farrell, Tillmann J. Benfey, Mark Fast, Kurt Gamperl, Ian Gardner, Jim Powell, Crawford Revie, Spencer Russell, and Ahmed Siah (Contributed to The Globe and Mail) on a defence of Canada’s peer-reviewed science advisory process on salmon farming: “As scientists who have contributed to many peer-reviewed analyses on salmon conservation and farming for the DFO, we’re compelled to respond to prevent propagation of any misinformation. Canadians can trust the scientific facts and advice presented by CSAS, the science evaluation body of the DFO. Home-grown, ocean-farmed salmon is a valuable food resource for Canadians. It is an affordable, highly nutritious protein with year-round access. Such salmon – which is currently front and centre as the federal government is deciding whether to renew British Columbia salmon-farming licences – is affordable, in part, because it taps into renewable and free tidal power (driven by lunar cycles) for renewing oxygen and seawater.”
Shachi Kurl (The Ottawa Citizen)on how the Ontario election 2022 will be remembered as the Battle of the Bleah: “If Doug Ford’s ludicrous insistence that the building of highways somehow combats climate change has you worn down; if the Ontario Liberals’ bizarre fixation on chicken (the rotisserie kind, the seizure-inducing six-foot dancing, trolling kind) has you fed up; if you too, were tempted, every time you heard Andrea Horwath utter the words “fix what’s broken” to take a drink — take heart, dear readers. This campaign is almost over.”
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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.
