MONTREAL — The Quebec Liberal Party on Sunday became the first political party of the current campaign to release a costed breakdown of its election promises, which includes $41 billion in spending over five years.
The party estimates the annual deficit would average about $5 billion, after mandatory contributions to a fund to reduce the province’s debt.
The party projects the net debt would increase by a total of $5 billion over the forecasts reviewed by the auditor general in August, before the start of the election campaign.
Liberal Leader Dominique Anglade defended her party’s plan as “equitable and responsible,” noting that the province’s overall debt burden would continue to decrease.
“We’re not talking about huge deficits,” she said.
The Liberals are counting on paying for their promises in part through an additional $10 billion in revenue. The party also predicts the revenue paid into the debt-reduction fund will continue to increase, as will revenue from taxes and other sources.
A pre-election financial report released by Quebec’s outgoing finance minister ahead of the election projected the province’s projected deficit had shrunk by billions of dollars, thanks in large part to inflation.
The province’s auditor general, who reviewed the report and found it plausible, credited increased tax revenue from salaries and sales tax for the improvement in the government’s fortunes.
The most expensive promise in the Liberal platform is $12 billion for income tax cuts, followed by a $10-billion allowance to seniors.
Anglade said the party’s platform includes measures to tackle the province’s labour shortage, including incentives to keep older workers on the job.
The plan she released Sunday also takes into account measures to help Quebecers handle the increase in costs of living, she said.
“There are families that are struggling right now between paying rent, buying groceries, paying for activities for the children,” she said. “People are really having a hard time making ends meet.”
The Liberals are counting on increasing revenue through tackling undeclared work and tax havens — although she did not explain how her party would succeed in doing the latter when so many other politicians have failed.
“It takes political will, which we have,” said Fred Beauchemin, one of the party’s candidates.
The party also plans to bring in several new taxes, including a wealth tax, a tax on vacant buildings and another on web giants.
Anglade said the promises would be achieved without cutting services, an attempt to distance herself from the last Liberal government led by Philippe Couillard, which brought in unpopular austerity measures to balance the budget.
The Liberal plan was denounced by Coalition Avenir Québec Leader François Legault, who accused his rival of irresponsible spending.
“It’s not pretty, I think the Liberals have just disqualified themselves,” he said in Laval.
Most of Quebec’s party leaders spent Sunday in the Greater Montreal Area as the provincial election campaign entered its second week.
Legault began his day in a Liberal-held riding in Laval, where he continued his string of health-care promises with a commitment to implement home hospitalization services if re-elected.
Legault said Sunday that hundreds of hospitalized patients each year could be transferred home, where they could continue to be followed through a combination of telemedicine and in-person visits from health workers.
He told reporters the service could be rolled out beginning in late 2023 to patients who agree and who meet strict criteria, including living within a certain distance of a hospital and having help from a caretaker.
Québec solidaire unveiled its environmental platform, including a plan to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 55 per cent over 1990 levels by 2030.
The left-wing party’s environmental platform also includes a law that would force the government to meet its climate goals in the medium term, intercity train and bus services and a ban on gas-powered vehicles by 2030.
The Parti Québécois, meanwhile, focused on labour issues, including a promise to gradually raise the province’s minimum wage to $18 an hour.
Later Sunday, all the main party leaders were set to appear on Radio-Canada for a series of individual interviews.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 4, 2022.
With files from Patrice Bergeron, Caroline Plante, Stéphane Rolland and Frederic Lacroix-Couture
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.
The New Democrats have declared a federal byelection victory in their Winnipeg stronghold riding of Elmwood—Transcona.
The NDP candidate Leila Dance told supporters in a tearful speech that even though the final results weren’t in, she expected she would see them in Ottawa.
With several polls still to be counted, Conservative candidate Colin Reynolds conceded defeat and told his volunteers that they should be proud of what the Conservatives accomplished in the campaign.
Political watchers had a keen eye on the results to see if the Tories could sway traditionally NDP voters on issues related to labour and affordability.
Meanwhile in the byelection race in the Montreal riding of LaSalle—Émard—Verdun the NDP, Liberals and Bloc Québécois remained locked in an extremely tight three-way race as the results trickled in slowly.
The Liberal stronghold riding had a record 91 names on the ballot, and the results aren’t expected until the early hours of the morning.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
