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1 in 4 Quebec NDP candidates have little presence just days before election

1 in 4 Quebec NDP candidates have little presence just days before election

CBC24-04-2025

Jérémie Juneau's candidate page on the NDP website is just an orange square, with no photo, no biography and no link.
And voters in the northwestern Quebec riding of Abitibi-Témiscamingue where he is running might not have much luck learning about him, as he campaigns on a part-time basis without election signs, a campaign director or volunteers.
"I'm literally alone," the 29-year-old Amos, Que., resident said in an interview Wednesday. "There's a song about it," he added a moment later, humming a few notes of Eric Carmen's All By Myself over a spotty Wi-Fi connection.
Juneau isn't the only one. Days before the April 28 vote, there was no photo or biographical information on the NDP website for more than 20 of its 78 candidates running in Quebec, in what two political scientists describe as another sign of distress for a party fighting to keep a presence in the province.
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All parties have "paper" candidates who help parties fill out their slates, but have little chance of winning and often a limited presence in the field. In Quebec, they are known as candidats poteaux, or "pole candidates," seen only in election signs on utility poles.
It's a title Juneau doesn't fully reject. While he lives in the riding — unlike many paper candidates — he also works two construction-related jobs, including one that requires seven-day shifts. He says he doesn't mind campaigning by himself, but his work schedule means he's unable to meet as many voters as he'd like.
After the 'Orange Wave'
In 2011, the NDP swept to power in Juneau's riding, as part of the "Orange Wave" that saw the party win 59 Quebec seats. But 14 years later, the riding is held by the Bloc Québécois, the NDP riding association is dormant and party members are few and far between.
"It's as if the party doesn't exist in the riding," Juneau said.
Tari Ajadi, an assistant professor of political science at McGill University, sees the number of NDP paper candidates as a "marker of distress" for a party that "aims to be a national party, but doesn't have the resources or the capacity to really leverage that national party status."
He said the disorganization is notable because it was guaranteed there would be an election in 2025: "If you don't have your candidates in place or at least a riding association, some momentum, some kind of connection to the grassroots, that's a real challenge."
The NDP appears to be focusing most of its resources in Quebec on a handful of ridings, mostly in Montreal, where the party is most competitive. The party's only Quebec MP is Alexandre Boulerice, who holds a riding in the city.
Thierry Giasson, a political science professor at Université Laval, says the NDP had little choice but to narrow its focus, given its limited number of volunteers and financial resources, which are generated by riding associations.
"They have to make choices," he said in a phone interview.
As a result, while posters abound for NDP candidates such as Craig Sauvé, who is running again after finishing a close third in a byelection last fall in Montreal's LaSalle-Emard-Verdun riding, you won't see any for 78-year-old Suzanne Dufresne, who is running in the downtown riding next door.
'I'm being an example'
However, Dufresne said she has received support from the party, who sent people to help her collect the last few dozen signatures she needed to confirm her candidacy.
"It's a pleasure for me to represent the NDP as a candidate, even if my adventure ends here," the retired rail employee said ahead of a candidates' debate at a Montreal community centre.
While she has little chance of defeating Liberal MP Marc Miller, who has been in office for a decade, Dufresne has other goals.
"I consider that the arrival of women in politics is very important," she said. "I'm being an example, encouraging other women."
While Giasson and Ajadi agree the NDP had to target its limited resources, they say there is a political price to pay for running paper candidates.
Ajadi points out that failing to support long-shot candidates will mean a lower share of the popular vote, and it deprives new candidates of proper campaign experience. Giasson notes that when a candidate is largely absent, "it's ideas that aren't circulating, it's the chance of getting people involved, in getting donations, too."
Running paper candidates doesn't always finish badly, he noted. The 2011 Orange Wave saw several elected, including Ruth Ellen Brosseau, a campus bar manager in Ottawa who had never set foot in her rural Quebec riding before becoming its MP.
Brosseau became a success, winning re-election in 2015 and becoming the party's agriculture critic before narrowly losing in 2019 and 2021. This year, she's running again in the riding, as one of the NDP's best-known faces.
Back in Abitibi-Témiscamingue, Juneau has no illusions about winning — at least this time. Instead, he's looking to rebuild the grassroots support his party needs to succeed in the future, whether or not it's him on the ballot.

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Exclusive: B.C. public sector jobs have more than doubled under the NDP
Exclusive: B.C. public sector jobs have more than doubled under the NDP

Vancouver Sun

time2 hours ago

  • Vancouver Sun

Exclusive: B.C. public sector jobs have more than doubled under the NDP

The number of B.C. public-sector employees in health care, schools and government ministries who make at least $75,000 a year has more than doubled since the NDP was elected in 2017, data collected by Postmedia reveals. In the time since the NDP took power, the total number of taxpayer-funded positions in health authorities, K-12 schools and the core of government have leapt to 104,600, from 49,400. And the amount of money spent annually on salaries for those government workers has jumped from just under $5 billion to more than $11.5 billion in that time, according to the 12th edition of The Vancouver Sun's searchable public sector salaries database. ( You can search the database HERE .) Stay on top of the latest real estate news and home design trends. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder. The next issue of Westcoast Homes will soon be in your inbox. Please try again Interested in more newsletters? Browse here. British Columbians may scratch their heads when learning that the number of workers paid at least $75,000 from the public purse has doubled — especially if their local emergency department has recently closed due to a lack of nurses or doctors, or if their grandmother's retirement home doesn't have enough care aides, or if there isn't a teacher for their child's classroom. Union leaders maintain their members in hospitals, schools and community services represent only part of this growth of government workers. They argue the biggest expansion has been in non-union staff and management roles, which they say increased disproportionately compared to workers on the ground. 'We've had this explosive growth in (non-union) management, and that hasn't resulted in a more efficient organization,' Paul Finch, president of the B.C. General Employees' Union, said of the public service. 'That should never have been allowed to happen.' The Finance Ministry, in a statement to Postmedia, said public sector salaries have risen an average of 23 per cent since 2017 through collective bargaining and that the government has launched efforts to hire more in-demand professionals such as nurses and teachers. It said three-quarters of the public sector is unionized, but did not address the unions' concerns that the overall percentage of non-unionized employees increased at a faster pace than the percentage of front-line workers in recent years. Postmedia's database contains the names and wages of nearly 170,000 workers who made at least $75,000 in 2023-2024 at approximately 100 public sector agencies, including the provincial government, city halls, universities and colleges, school districts, health authorities, Crown corporations, municipal police departments, and other agencies that use taxpayers' money to fund their payrolls. The Sun has created this searchable database for the 12th time because detailed information on how your tax dollars are spent on salaries is not otherwise easily available for the public to search, as it is in other provinces such as Ontario . The total amount the provincial government spends on salaries for its 600,000 public sector employees is $53 billion, representing 60 per cent of the provincial budget. Our database contains just the 170,000 workers who make more than $75,000. By comparing this database with an earlier version, Postmedia determined the number of people who worked directly for government ministries and were paid at least $75,000 ballooned by 135 per cent since 2017 — a faster pace than health and education workers. Job titles captured in that surge include directors, managers, policy analysts, team leaders and supervisors. The BCGEU's Finch used B.C. Public Service Agency data to determine the number of non-unionized and management workers grew by 45 per cent, increasing to 7,350 in 2024, from 5,202 in 2017. In that time, the number of unionized members in the public service increased by 31 per cent, from nearly 25,000 to just over 32,000 seven years later. That trend means that in 2010, there was one manager for every four unionized workers, but by 2024 that ratio was one-to-three, Finch said. 'That's a completely unacceptable ratio,' he said. 'We need to see ceilings put in place on ratios of management to front-line workers.' How to determine those ratios should be based on 'what serves the best interest of British Columbians,' he added. Postmedia's data shows that in some union jobs, such as child protection workers, wildfire fighters, probation officers and correction services staff, the number of people making $75,000 went from zero in 2017 to several hundred by 2024. Finch said those are not all new hires, but include existing staff pushed above $75,000 under collective agreement pay raises. The health sector also had significant growth in our database, with the number of provincial employees making at least $75,000 increasing by 122 per cent since 2017. B.C. Nurses' Union President Adriane Gear said she'd like the government to assess the number of managers versus front-line workers during the health sector expansion. During that period, BCNU membership grew by just 16 per cent, from 43,000 in 2017 to 50,000 in 2025. 'There have been nurses hired in this province, but has it kept up with the needs of British Columbians? No. Nurses continue to work extremely short-staffed, which means below safe levels of nurses to patients,' she said. Statistics Canada estimates B.C. has 5,600 vacancies for different types of nurses. Gear stood shoulder-to-shoulder with the premier in September, when the province announced improved nurse-to-patient ratios, in an effort to attract more nurses to B.C. But, she said, the details are still being worked out. 'I'm very frustrated. … We still don't have that deal inked yet,' Gear said. 'I'm puzzled how that doesn't seem to be one of the very top priorities.' The Hospital Employees Union maintains there is also a desperate need to hire more of their members, especially care aides who are in high demand in care homes and hospitals as the population ages. 'More than 50 per cent of our members are working short (staffed) at least one day and sometimes twice a week. And so this is a really big part of the problem,' said Lynn Bueckert, the HEU's secretary-business manager. 'Retention and recruitment are such big issues in the health-care system. Period.' HEU members, including lab assistants, cleaners, and staff who deliver meals, play vital roles for patients in hospitals. But they are unlikely to be represented in the database's 122 per cent growth in health workers making at least $75,000, because 'the vast majority' of those jobs don't pay that much, Bueckert said. The membership of the HEU expanded from 49,000 members in 2017 to nearly 68,000 in 2025, an increase of 39 per cent. Some of that growth was due to recruiting care home staff to join the union, said Bueckert. The third sector analyzed for this story, K-12 education, had a 70 per cent surge in staff making more than $75,000 since 2017. During that time, though, the B.C. Teachers Federation said its membership numbers rose from 46,200 to 52,600 — a 14 per cent bump. BCTF president Clint Johnston said he doesn't know the source of the growth in school district numbers. Government is making efforts to hire more teachers, but there is still a serious shortage. 'How many teachers we need versus how many teachers we actually have? That gap is growing every year,' he said. 'You can verifiably see it by the number of uncertified teachers who are being used in the province.' Postmedia's database shows twice as many teachers making at least $75,000 compared to our 2017 version, but Johnston said the number of instructors hasn't risen by that much. The increase could be due to wage enhancements pushing some teachers above the $75,000 threshold, as well as more veteran teachers at the top of the salary grid postponing retirement. BCTF members have raised anecdotal concerns about a hike in non-classroom staff, such as district learning coordinators or assistant superintendents, who would typically fall into the $75,000-plus salary bracket, Johnston said. 'That is absolutely an issue that they frequently talk about, the disproportionate growth in district staff who aren't in a classroom teaching, directly supporting kids,' he said. B.C. is short more than 900 teachers and nearly 600 education assistants and other support staff, positions that are advertised on the government's education-related jobs page . Johnston said the provincial education budget is large but does not keep pace with demand, which has forced school districts to cancel special programs like band and to find alternative revenue for inclusive education programs. Interviews with Finance Minister Brenda Bailey, Health Minister Josie Osborne and Education Minister Lisa Beare were requested for this story. They all declined. In written answers to our questions about the 135 per cent increase in government ministry workers, the B.C. Public Service Agency said ministry workers have an average salary today of $67,819. In 2017, the agency said, public service workers, on average, made less than health and school employees, which may explain why ministry workers earning more than $75,000 today have grown at a disproportionately faster rate. 'Those other data sets may already have had a higher percentage over $75,000, which would reflect in (health and education's) lower growth rates over the term,' the agency said in a statement. The Public Sector Employers' Council said ministries have fewer workers than in health care and K-12 education, which means the hiring of a few new staff can boost the percentage of sector employees more quickly. While the B.C. Public Service Agency and Public Sector Employers' Council minimized the apparent surge of workers in ministries and service agencies making more than $75,000, the government's own budget documents chronicle the growth of ministry employees across all salary ranges. Budget documents show full-time-equivalent staff in ministries and service agencies grew significantly over eight years, to 48,386 in 2025-26 from 32,865 in 2017-18 . This includes all ministry workers, regardless of their salaries, and the total money spent on wages for this group grew by 63 per cent over those eight years. The Public Sector Employers' Council acknowledged there are still shortages of key workers in other sectors, including health and education. The government has launched initiatives such as a K-12 recruitment and retention drive to find more teachers, the statement said. 'In health care, many efforts have been initiated to make recruitment easier from out-of-province and international health workers, including a new, fast-tracked credential recognition for U.S. trained and certified nurses last month,' the council said in a statement. The council noted there are three unionized workers for every non-unionized employee, but didn't answer questions about that ratio previously being four-to-one. Of the 600,000 people employed by the province, 44 per cent work in health but, on average, have higher wages that account for 52 per cent of money spent on salaries; 17 per cent work in K-12 education but their lower-than-average salaries mean they take up just 15 per cent of the salary budget; and the eight per cent working in ministries collect nine per cent of the money spent on salaries, according to government figures. The Health Ministry, in an email, said the database's 122 per cent growth in health staff is largely attributable to collective agreements pushing some workers' salaries above $75,000 as well as the hiring of more in-demand staff 'to keep pace with an increasing population and corresponding demand for services.' It said the Provincial Health Services Authority, for example, has hired more paramedics, cancer specialists, and Indigenous health leaders. When asked about union allegations that the percentage of non-unionized staff has grown at a faster pace than that of front-line workers, the ministry said these 'non-contract positions' represent more than managers. They also include people who support quality improvements in labs or medical imaging, nurse practitioners and associate physicians, and human resources staff to help with recruiting health workers. The ministry said it has committed to new nurse-to-patient ratios and is fast-tracking credentials for nurses from places such as the U.S. and Australia in an effort to expand their ranks. The number of nurses in B.C. has grown by 27 per cent since 2018, based on statistics from the nurses' regulatory body, the email said. It is not clear why that number is different than the BCNU's 16 per cent increase since 2017. In addition to trying to hire more nurses, the ministry said a program to recruit additional workers for care homes has filled 10,000 positions since 2020. The ministry defended its hiring practices. It said the Canadian Institute of Health Information found B.C.'s ratio of spending on finance and human resources, compared to on front-line health workers, was the second best in Canada. The Education Ministry did not answer Postmedia's question about the database's finding of a 70 per cent growth in staff in K to 12, or explain what types of jobs had expanded the most. It referred all queries to the B.C. Public School Employers' Association, but later provided this statement. When asked about BCTF allegations of a disproportionate increase of non-union and management staff compared to teachers and others in classrooms, the ministry responded that those decisions are up to school districts. 'Decisions about hiring are made at the local level for what makes sense in their community.' The statement acknowledged, though, that 'one of the biggest challenges the K-12 sector faces is hiring enough qualified teaching and support staff,' a problem that exists across Canada. B.C. is trying to hire more teachers by reducing barriers for internationally trained educators to work here, by offering hiring incentives of $500,000 for people to work in rural and remote communities, by increasing flexibility in teacher training programs to allow students to remain in their community to study, and by working with Indigenous groups to recruit more Indigenous teachers, the ministry said. Premier David Eby campaigned last year on every K-3 class having an education assistant. The ministry says 75 per cent of those classrooms have an EA, and it is exploring 'ways to support hiring more.' In our database, remuneration includes salary, overtime, bonuses and other one-time payouts or benefits, such as unused vacation time. It does not include expenses. The figures come from publicly available compensation disclosure reports and freedom of information requests. Some of the names and positions in the database may be out of date if someone has retired or moved jobs, but it provides a recent snapshot in time of public sector payrolls in B.C. lculbert@ ngriffiths@

Adam Pankratz: David Eby's CleanBC initiative a greater hit to economy than Trump's tariffs
Adam Pankratz: David Eby's CleanBC initiative a greater hit to economy than Trump's tariffs

National Post

time5 hours ago

  • National Post

Adam Pankratz: David Eby's CleanBC initiative a greater hit to economy than Trump's tariffs

Article content Open any book on politics and you will find that, in Canada, the NDP stands for the New Democratic Party. In British Columbia under David Eby, the acronym needs to be updated to — Not Delivering Prosperity. Article content Since Eby and his government took over in 2022, British Columbia has been an economic basket case. The deficit projection for 2025 was revised upwards in March to $10.9 billion — a record — which followed hot on the heels of the 2024 deficit of $9.1 billion — also a record until 2025 stole the deficit crown. The result in April was a downgrade to BC's credit rating from AA to A+. By any measure, the outlook is grim, as total debt for the province is predicted to soar by 70 per cent over the next three years. Article content Article content The ruling NDP and Premier David Eby have been quick to blame economic woes on Donald Trump and his tariff policies. While tariffs are no doubt hurting B.C. — as they are all of Canada — this tactic is already tired. In truth, the damage appears to be mostly self-inflicted, caused by poor budgeting and economic policy driven by ideology rather than actual economics. Article content Article content At the B.C. Chamber of Commerce AGM on June 4th, Ken Peacock, the former Chief Economist at the Business Council of B.C., presented analysis indicating the NDP's CleanBC initiative has actually been a far greater hit to the province's sputtering economy than any tariffs. From 2019-2024 it cost B.C. $29.3 billion in lost GDP and is projected to cost the province a further $109.7 billion between now and 2029. That's David Eby's economic leadership in action: ideology torpedoing economic prosperity for hard working British Columbians. Article content Eby and the NDP will of course point to the fact that they have passed Bill 14 and 15. Bill 15, the Infrastructure Projects Act, is ostensibly a bill to speed up major infrastructure project development, particularly in the resource industry. Eby and the NDP say the bills are 'critically important' to respond to a 'rapidly evolving situation' (read Trump) rather than acknowledge their need as a result of the NDP's actions in creating a provincial economic dud. Bill 15 gives cabinet sweeping powers to override existing regulations for projects in the provincial interest and fast-track them to permitting. It has been met with serious pushback from B.C. Municipalities and from First Nations who claim it ignores their voices and dismisses their rights. Article content Article content While any business which has tried to work in the province's economically critical resource sector may applaud the notion of a government finding ways to stop B.C.'s quagmire of delays and regulatory hell, the bill fails to address the real problem and merely hands unmerited power to a small group of NDP ideologues. This is always the Eby NDP way: power consolidation for decision making. Article content Article content The problem should be obvious to any free-market supporter. Bill 15 does not reignite B.C.'s economy by streamlining regulation for private enterprise; it merely allows cabinet to pick and choose which projects it will decide to ram through any further regulatory oversight. This is ripe for abuse and political interference. It is a pay-to-play system where randomness and arbitrary decisions based on cabinet whims, without clear process, will become the norm. Eby's NDP claim the bill brings investment clarity, in fact, it does anything but. Article content The vague backroom modus operandi of the NDP is, however, consistent in one way. They echo the closed-door decision-making attempts and history of the NDP when deciding how the province's crown land will be used; something essential for investment and resource development. This important process has been shrouded in secrecy on multiple occasions. The latest announcement in this regard covers all of Northwestern B.C. including the mineral-rich Golden Triangle. As a result, nearly a third of British Columbia is now subject to a one year pause on new mining-tenure registrations. This is the exact of opposite of what attracts investment to the province and will send the critical dollars B.C. needs to friendlier investment regions. Article content David Eby's NDP has bankrupted the province and has no plan back for the simple reason that they cannot trust the free market to do its work. They are trapped in an ideologically-driven mindset which does not permit British Columbians to make full use of their own province. This arbitrary and regressive policy must change. Article content

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