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CBC
29-04-2025
- Politics
- CBC
Other parties need to organize if they want to change Conservative dominance in B.C. Interior: poli sci prof
Though they didn't manage to form government, the Conservative Party of Canada is celebrating a near-complete sweep of British Columbia's resource-rich Interior and north following Monday's election, growing on decades of centre-right dominance in the area. And a political science prof in the region says other parties need to start organizing now if they want to have any chance of stopping what he describes as largely a "one-party race" in the province outside of Vancouver Island and the Lower Mainland. The Conservatives wrestled away two key NDP-held ridings, flipping both Skeena-Bulkley Valley and Similkameen-South Okanagan-West Kootenay. The party had long hoped to take the seats, and Leader Pierre Poilievre touched down in both locations to meet with voters during the campaign. It marks the first time the NDP hasn't had a presence in the province's Interior since 2000, and continues the near shutout of the Liberals from the region dating back to the 1970s. Jason Morris, a professor of political science at the University of Northern B.C., says supporters of other parties need to be "busier than beavers" organizing themselves if they hope to see someone other than a Conservative elected to represent the region next time around, pointing out that party has a strong presence in the area even in non-election years. In contrast, he observed that the Liberal Party often doesn't even announce candidates for some ridings in the area until midway through election campaigns and has at times put forward the names of people with no history in the region. "It's just a terrible way to try to build for the future," he said in an interview that was completed prior to the election results. "Political parties ... aren't just supposed to be functioning when the writ is dropped. They're supposed to be doing their best in the communities they wish to represent." NDP 'squeezed out': former MLA Former NDP MP Nathan Cullen says he believes the party he used to represent had a strong ground game with local volunteers and incumbents, but ultimately met with circumstances it couldn't control. "The NDP got squeezed," he said in an interview with CBC Daybreak North host Carolina de Ryk. Cullen said he heard from former colleagues that many NDP supporters felt they had to cast their vote for either the Liberals or the Conservatives in order to make their voices heard, creating an uphill battle for the party. Among those to lose their seats was Taylor Bachrach, Cullen's would-be successor as NDP MP for the Skeena-Bulkley Valley riding, defeated by the Conservatives' hand-picked candidate Ellis Ross. Ross, a former chief councillor of the Haisla Nation, had managed to flip the North Coast once before, when he defeated the NDP incumbent in the provincial race for the Skeena riding in 2017. In the federal election, he campaigned under a promise to bring more major industrial projects that would benefit area First Nations, pointing to the success of the LNG Canada project, which is set to come online later this year. "There was a lot of energy on the Conservative front," Cullen said, while praising Bachrach for a strong second-place finish. The NDP also lost the riding of Similkameen-South Okanagan-West Kootenay, coming in third behind the Conservative winner. Conservatives set to work across party lines Elsewhere, Conservative incumbents saw their vote share increase over previous years, signalling strong support for the party in ridings it already held. Among them was Dan Albas, winning his fifth consecutive term in the newly formed riding of Okanagan Lake West-South Kelowna and cracking the 50 per cent mark for overall votes for the first time since 2011. He said while he appreciates the mandate, he recognizes his party will have to find common ground with others in a parliament that seems poised to return a minority government. "We are going to have to really work together to try and figure out where we can find areas that we can agree on," he said. That was echoed by Cariboo-Prince George victor Todd Doherty, who pointed to his work advocating for mental health supports under a Liberal government as the type of work he wants to continue. Liberal gains But despite Conservative dominance, the Liberals also saw gains in their overall vote share in the Interior, finishing second in the majority of races in a region in which the party is often an afterthought. And the party has gained a seat in Kelowna, where Stephen Fuhr led Conservative incumbent Tracy Gray by just 235 votes. Fuhr was first elected in 2015, becoming the first victorious Liberal candidate in the Interior since 1974. However, he lost to Gray in 2019 and chose not to run again in 2021. But he says the momentum of Mark Carney and his desire to fight against Donald Trump brought him back into the race this year, and he credits both of those factors for his potential victory, as well as the shifting demographics of Kelowna to being younger and more urban. "Progressive parties can win in Kelowna," he said.
CBC
02-03-2025
- Business
- CBC
Canada's steel industry is bracing for tariff pain. Aluminum? Not so much
Social Sharing In the on-again, off-again talk of tariffs on Canadian products being sold into the United States, Jérôme Pécresse has advice for his industry: "Be patient, be calm, be agile." Pécresse is chief executive of aluminum for Rio Tinto, which includes overseeing the company's Canadian smelter operations. Though most of those are in Quebec, where Pécresse is based, this past week he paid a visit to Kitimat, on B.C.'s North Coast, where a Rio Tinto aluminum smelter employs roughly 1,100 people in the community of just over 8,000. But, Pécresse said, no one in the community should be worried about losing their job. While Canadian steel producers say they have already felt the imapct of tariff threats with more pain to come, their aluminum-making counterparts remain relatively sanguine. "Obviously it's a concern," Pécresse said, speaking to CBC Daybreak North host Carolina de Ryk, saying ultimately markets prefer stability. But he also pointed out that since every other aluminum-producing country that sells to the United States is getting hit by the same tariffs, Canada's position remains strong. "If everybody's taxed the same, it's probably something that's not going to materially change our volumes... into the U.S. market." Pécresse's confidence is borne out in the numbers: Unlike steel, which has near-parity when it comes to Canada-U.S. trade, the United States' dependence on Canada for aluminum is stark: the U.S. imports more than three times as much aluminum from Canada as it exports. According to World Bank data, the U.S. is the world's largest aluminum importer, with the bulk coming from its northern neighbour. And U.S.-based buyers know it: Jean Simard, CEO of the Aluminum Association of Canada, says most contracts between Canada and the United States have a clause built in agreeing that the American company purchasing Canadian aluminum will pay whatever tariffs are put in place. In fact, when Trump imposed aluminum tariffs during his first term, Canadian companies saw their value spike, prompting one person in the industry to describe it as the president writing "a cheque for $600 million to Canadian aluminum producers," as roughly half a billion in value flowed northward. Further, the U.S. doesn't have much in the way of options for domestic production: it's estimated that just one Canadian smelter comes close to equalling the entire output of the U.S. industry. WATCH | How aluminum tariffs could impact Canada's economy: How tariffs on Quebec's massive aluminum exports could have ripple effects across the economy 30 days ago Duration 2:57 While the province's second largest industry has a built-in firewall against President Donald Trump's tariffs on Canadian exports to the U.S., the complexity of the aluminum-related trade relationship between Quebec and the U.S. means effects will still be felt. One reason for that is the cost of electricity in the United States compared to Canada, a key component in running a smelter. Quebec and B.C. have access to cheap hydropower to run their plants, U.S. producers do not. Mario Simard and Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe, Bloc Québécois MPs for the Jonquière and Lac-Saint-Jean ridings which have thousands of aluminum jobs, told Radio-Canada that the Canadian hydropower advantage can't easily be replicated. "A dam can't be folded," Simard said in a French-language interview. "It can't be put in a suitcase, moved south of the border." Brunelle-Duceppe said it was tough to understand what Trump hoped to gain for the U.S.-based industry by tariffing Canadian aluminum, given the realities of the industry. "Aluminum smelters closed in the United States because, precisely, it costs too much energy," he said in French. That sentiment has been echoed by U.S. aluminum producers, including Pittsburgh-based Alcoa, which also operates in Canada. CEO Bill Oplinger was quoted by Reuters warning a mining conference that he expects tariffs to cost the U.S. aluminum industry roughly 20,000 jobs. "It's bad for American workers," Oplinger is reported as saying, adding that he's lobbied for an exception for Canadian aluminum. He said without cheaper electricity in the United States, there's no way for that country's aluminum industry to compete with Canada's, even with the addition of tariffs. And in Kitimat, Pécresse said Rio Tinto has the added bonus of easy access to Asian markets through the Port of Prince Rupert. None of this means there won't be any impact on Canadians as a result of aluminum tariffs. Like steel, aluminum is passed back and forth across the border during the production of products like cars or construction materials. As a result, tariffs will increase the product end-price for consumers. And companies that sell or buy products with aluminum will also be hit when making cross-border sales — such as beer cans and lids that are made in the U.S. using Canadian aluminum and then imported back across the border by B.C. beer makers. But for those involved in the production of aluminum itself, industry leaders say, it should be business as usual.
CBC
27-02-2025
- Politics
- CBC
B.C.'s longest-serving mayor, a champion of women in politics, dead at 91
The longest-serving mayor in B.C.'s history has died at the age of 91. Alice Maitland was born in the Village of Hazelton and started her career in local politics in 1956 when she helped map out property locations in preparation for the community to be officially recognized as a municipality. She was often a champion for rural issues, living in a community of just a few hundred people, about 1,200 kilometres northwest of Vancouver. Maitland was first elected to council in 1965, a position she held until 1970. She became mayor in 1976 and held that position until she was defeated in the 2018 municipal election. Her daughter, Julie Maitland, was elected to her mother's old job in 2022 and continues to serve in that role. News of Maitland's death was shared by the former MLA for the region, Doug Donaldson. "She mentored many in leadership roles, especially women in an oftentimes male-dominated field, and was for numerous years a lone voice speaking out for rural communities seeking more control over nearby natural resources that sustained not only local services but provincial programs," he said in a statement. "She linked that work to the ongoing fight for First Nations' rights and title." "Alice's kindness, generosity and fierce determination in fighting for justice will be missed. But the spirit of that determination she instilled in many others will carry on her legacy." In 2020, she received the Federation of Canadian Municipalities' Ann MacLean Award for Outstanding Service by a Woman in Municipal Politics which recognized her as a trailblazer and mentor for other female policians as well as her advocacy work, noting she had joined the Gitxsan First Nation in blockades against development and industry in order to preserve the local environment. "It's very humbling," she said in an interview with CBC Daybreak North host Carolina de Ryk after receiving the award. "It was a great time. I don't know what else I would have done with my life, and I feel like being awarded for being so happily engaged all those years is kind of strange." She said she hadn't considered running for politics until she was approached by some locals who wanted her to represent them. "I was about to have my fourth baby. It was a Sunday night, and I had two or three kids in the bath," she said. "They said, 'We want you to run for council,' and I said, 'Oh, why not?'" She compared the job to "smoking opium," saying she kept at it because it was intoxicating to be able to make positive change for her community. One of her proudest accomplishments, she said, was getting the village paved. She believed being a woman was an asset as she brought new perspectives to the role, juggling raising four kids with the demands of the job. "We know how the world goes round," she said, recalling rushing to meetings with groups of men wearing "shirts their wives had ironed." She said that even in the 2020s, prejudices and challenges remained, but she encouraged people of all backgrounds to get involved in politics. Memorial arrangements will be announced in the days ahead, Donaldson said.
