Politics

Trudeau may have saved his political skin, at the cost of public confidence in the next election – The Globe and Mail

Published

2 years ago

March 7, 2023

Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau takes part in a press conference on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Feb. 17BLAIR GABLE/Reuters

Of course, Justin Trudeau’s decision to kick the question of Chinese interference in Canadian elections over to parliamentary committees and a yet-to-be named rapporteur is inadequate.

But it might save the Prime Minister’s political skin – at the high cost of undermining public confidence in the next federal election.

Under measures Mr. Trudeau announced Monday, two committees will examine in secret evidence of election interference by Beijing. A rapporteur will decide whether more needs to be done.

The difficulty, says Fen Hampson, Chancellor’s Professor at Carleton University’s Norman Paterson School of International Affairs, is that any final report may not arrive in time to ensure the integrity of the next election.

“The problem with kicking the can down the road is that it doesn’t address the fundamental problem that Canadians are not confident, as a result of the storm over this issue, that the next election is going to be free of foreign interference,” he said in an interview.

Margaret McCuaig-Johnston, senior fellow at the Institute for Science, Society and Policy at University of Ottawa, agrees. “The Chinese need to be held accountable,” for illegally interfering in Canadian elections, if that is the case, she told me. By putting off any reports and recommendations for months and possibly years, “we’re giving China a pass for what they’ve done,” she said.

All of this could be prevented if Mr. Trudeau convened a public inquiry with, say, a one-year time frame to investigate allegations of Chinese interference and to recommend how elections can be better protected in the future.

But such an inquiry would be bound to ask whether the Prime Minister knew of the Chinese activity and did nothing because his party stood to benefit.

The answer might hold Mr. Trudeau blameless. But for the Prime Minister, the question itself is politically intolerable.

Will Mr. Trudeau’s efforts at deflection work? Certainly they have worked in the past. Whether it was during the SNC-Lavalin affair or the WE Charity controversy or any of the other imbroglios, he has been able to wiggle his way out by appointing this, referring the matter to that, or pointing the finger at someone else.

The Prime Minister is further aided and abetted by NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh, who continues to prop up this minority government. And Mr. Trudeau has also benefited from problems within the Conservative Party.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has chosen not to punish three MPs who met with a far-right member of the European Parliament, further tainting him as someone who turns a blind eye to extremists within his own political base.

Liberals will comfort themselves with the thought that Mr. Trudeau, if he chooses to stay on as leader, will have plenty of ammunition as he seeks to discredit Mr. Poilievre in the eyes of the voters before and during the next election campaign.

But Mr. Trudeau’s political future remains at risk from the possibility of future leaks. Those leaks are now a greater threat to his survival than anything said or done by opposition politicians. If people within the public service or security services or elsewhere believe that this government is willfully covering up misdeeds committed by Beijing in this country, there could be more front-page stories.

Even before the first election-interference stories appeared in The Globe and Mail and on Global News, Liberals in Ottawa were debating among themselves whether it would be better to fight the next election with Mr. Trudeau as leader or for the party to choose someone else.

The general feeling was that, even if the Liberals lost, Mr. Trudeau would be able to “save the furniture” – to hold the party’s base in Quebec and in downtown Toronto and Vancouver.

Before Mr. Trudeau became leader, the Liberals were broke, faction-ridden and no longer even the official opposition in the House. In many ways, the Liberal Party of Canada is really just the Justin Trudeau Party. What it will look like without him might not be pretty.

But if these leaks continue, then the question will arise of how badly the Prime Minister has been damaged, and how much furniture might in fact be lost. If the leaks continue, it’s 50-50 whether he stays or goes.

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Politics

Beyoncé, whose ‘Freedom’ is Harris’ campaign anthem, is expected at Democrat’s Texas rally on Friday

Published

19 hours ago

October 24, 2024

Anne Joseph

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Beyoncé is expected to appear Friday in her hometown of Houston at a rally for Vice President Kamala Harris, according to three people familiar with the matter.

Harris’ presidential campaign has taken on Beyonce’s 2016 track “Freedom” as its anthem, and the singer’s planned appearance brings a high-level of star power to what has become a key theme of the Democratic nominee’s bid: freedom.

Harris will head to the reliably Republican state just 10 days before Election Day in an effort to refocus her campaign against former President Donald Trump on reproductive care, which Democrats see as a make-or-break issue this year.

The three people were not authorized to publicly discuss the matter and spoke on condition of anonymity. The Harris campaign did not immediately comment.

Beyoncé‘s appearance was expected to draw even more attention to the event — and to Harris’ closing message.

Harris’ Houston trip is set to feature women who have been affected by Texas’ restrictive abortion laws, which took effect after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. She has campaigned in other states with restrictive abortion laws, including Georgia, among the seven most closely contested states.

Harris has centered her campaign around the idea that Trump is a threat to American freedoms, from reproductive and LGBTQ rights to the freedom to be safe from gun violence.

Beyonce gave Harris permission early in her campaign to use “Freedom,” a soulful track from her 2016 landmark album “Lemonade,” in her debut ad. Harris has used its thumping chorus as a walk-out song at rallies ever since.

Beyoncé’s alignment with Harris isn’t the first time that the Grammy winner has aligned with a Democratic politician. Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, danced as Beyoncé performed at a presidential inaugural ball in 2009.

In 2013, she sang the national anthem at Obama’s second inauguration. Three years later, she and her husband Jay-Z performed at a pre-election concert for Democrat Hillary Clinton in Cleveland.

“Look how far we’ve come from having no voice to being on the brink of history — again,” Beyoncé said at the time. “But we have to vote.”

A January poll by Ipsos for the anti-polarization nonprofit With Honor found that 64% of Democrats had a favorable view of Beyonce compared with just 32% of Republicans. Overall, Americans were more likely to have a favorable opinion than an unfavorable one, 48% to 33%.

Speculation over whether the superstar would appear at this summer’s Democratic National Convention in Chicago reached a fever pitch on the gathering’s final night, with online rumors swirling after celebrity news site TMZ posted a story that said: “Beyoncé is in Chicago, and getting ready to pop out for Kamala Harris on the final night of the Democratic convention.” The site attributed it to “multiple sources in the know,” none of them named.

About an hour after Harris ended her speech, TMZ updated its story to say, “To quote the great Beyoncé: We gotta lay our cards down, down, down … we got this one wrong.” In the end, Harris took the stage to star’s song, but that was its only appearance.

Last year, Harris and her husband, Doug Emhoff, attended Beyoncé’s Renaissance World Tour in Maryland after getting tickets from Beyonce herself. “Thanks for a fun date night, @Beyonce,” Harris wrote on Instagram.

___

Long and Kinnard reported from Washington. Associated Press writer Linley Sanders in Washington contributed to this report. Kinnard can be reached at

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Politics

Saskatchewan NDP promises to work with Ottawa on homeless supports if elected

Published

19 hours ago

October 24, 2024

Anne Joseph

PRINCE ALBERT, Sask. – Saskatchewan NDP Leader Carla Beck says her party would collaborate with the federal government to work out the best deal for solving homelessness if elected on Monday.

Federal Housing Minister Sean Fraser has said he sent a letter last month to provinces and territories asking them to work with Ottawa to find shelter for those experiencing homelessness.

The minister has said the government plans to directly hand out funding to Regina and Saskatoon since the province hadn’t responded to the offer before entering an election period.

Beck says it’s important to have a provincial leader who would sit down with federal officials to work out proper deals for Saskatchewan residents.

She says Saskatchewan should be working with municipalities and the federal government to ensure they can provide services for homeless populations.

Beck has said an NDP government would introduce rent caps, make vacant provincial housing units available to families and increase the supply of rental units.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 24, 2024.

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Politics

NDP plan motion to push back against anti-abortion ‘creep’ from Conservatives

Published

19 hours ago

October 24, 2024

Anne Joseph

OTTAWA – The NDP is taking aim at the Conservatives on abortion by putting forward a motion to push back against what it calls a “creep” of legislation, petitions and threats aimed at reducing access to abortion.

Leader Jagmeet Singh says his party will use its next opposition day to force the House of Commons to debate and vote on a motion calling for urgent action to improve abortion access.

Singh claimed that anti-choice Conservative MPs are “often calling the shots” in the Official Opposition, and that leader Pierre Poilievre has “let his MPs bring in anti-choice laws, anti-choice motions.”

“There is a real threat from the Conservatives,” he said, speaking to the media at a news conference in Montreal.

A spokesperson for Poilievre did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The NDP in its press release cited several examples of what it called “anti-choice” moves from the Tories, including a petition presented earlier this year by a Conservative MP that claimed more than 98 per cent of abortions “are for reasons of social or personal convenience.”

Poilievre said at the time he disagreed with the petition.

He has previously called himself “pro-choice” and said he would not pass laws that restrict reproductive choices if he is elected.

“When I am prime minister, no laws or rules will be passed that restrict women’s reproductive choices. Period,” Poilievre said in a statement in June addressing the petition.

Conservative MP Cathy Wagantall introduced a private member’s bill last year to encourage judges to consider a victim’s pregnancy as an aggravating factor in sentencing.

The Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada urged MPs to vote against the bill on the grounds that it promoted fetal rights, even though the bill’s text didn’t mention fetal rights.

Liberal ministers called the bill an effort to reopen the abortion debate in Canada.

Wagantall, who has been clear that she opposes abortion, said Bill C-311 had nothing to do with abortion.

At the time, a spokesperson for Poilievre said he planned to vote in favour of the bill.

Speaking in Montreal on Thursday, Singh also called out the governing Liberals, saying they haven’t done enough to improve abortion access in Canada.

“This vote is very important, but it’s also important that the vote on this motion is about not just the Conservative threat, but the lack of action of the Liberals,” said Singh, adding that access to abortion in Canada is “getting worse, not better.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 24, 2024.

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