Latest news with #CanadaElection
National Post
3 days ago
- Politics
- National Post
Kelly McParland: Poilievre needs to earn an extension as leader
Canada's federal Conservatives are stuck with a dilemma as they consider whether to do anything different in the next two years than they did in the last two. Article content At the centre of the dilemma are a host of riddles. As in, did they actually lose the last election? Sure, they didn't win, but did they lose lose? Like, did Canadians actually reject them, or did something else happen that got in the way of the victory they anticipated? Article content Article content Article content If they did lose, what do they do about it? And if they didn't lose lose, what do they do about that? Article content Article content Depending on the answers to those questions is another of equal weight: do they head into the future with the same team of decision-makers who didn't quite win if they maybe didn't lose? And how do you answer that question when you don't know what the future holds, given that one complaint against the current leader is that he didn't respond effectively enough when the playing field changed? Article content As far as Pierre Poilievre is concerned, there's nothing to decide. 'We had the biggest vote count in our party's history, the biggest increase in our party's history, the biggest vote share since 1988 and we're going to continue to work to get over the finish line,' he replied when asked. That same argument is on offer from other Conservatives keen on moving past the vote that left them once again in second place. Article content The 'nothing to see here' case goes like this: In any previous election dating back 40 years the Tory results would have put them in power, likely with a majority. The fact this one didn't was the result of unprecedented exterior factors, specifically, the timing of Justin Trudeau's departure and the coinciding emergence of a U.S. president even his most fervent detractors didn't foresee as being quite this nuts. Alarmed and unnerved, voters opted for continuity and incumbency over the very real practical policies they'd been firmly embracing until then. Article content It's not a bad argument, but also not entirely convincing. In the Liberal bastion of greater Toronto, it sounds a lot like the local NHL team's annual excuses for once again failing to deliver the goods. 'Hey, at least we did better than our last collapse,' doesn't quite cut it. Article content Article content To its credit, the conservative universe isn't ready to simply roll over and accept the excuses. In this the party shows itself once again to be more independent-minded than the rival Liberals, who — after refusing to give themselves the power to oust Justin Trudeau, and living to regret the fact — made the same decision over his replacement. A majority of the caucus voted not to accept the rules of the Reform Act, meaning Prime Minister Mark Carney knows he can rule as he sees fit, safe in the knowledge the minions can't get rid of him. Would any other party in the democratic world vote to remain minions? Article content Conservatives not only adopted the Reform rules, but are discussing whether Poilievre should face a leadership review. A decision could be made as early as this month, with a review to take place next spring. It's possible they'll reject the option, but it would be a mistake. The world a year from now may look a lot different than it does today. Given the level of international uncertainty and the daily madhouse in Washington, it would be a shock if it didn't. Locking themselves into a recently-defeated leader when circumstances could easily demand an entirely different set of calculations would not be a show of confidence but an act of denial.
National Post
26-05-2025
- Politics
- National Post
Interim NDP leader pushing for resources after party loses status in Parliament
OTTAWA — The interim leader of the federal NDP says that while the door may be shut to the party being granted official status in the House of Commons, he hopes other parties will grant it resources. Article content Article content Don Davies says that while he has not spoken to Prime Minister Mark Carney, federal New Democrats are having 'fruitful discussions' and looking to see what is possible through the Board of Internal Economy, which manages the House of Commons' resources. Article content Article content 'We've already made some progress,' Davies told reporters on Monday. Article content Article content These 'little privileges,' as Davies puts it, are what the federal party now considers as wins after a general election, where the party was reduced to a mere seven seats, down from its previous 24. Article content It was the worst showing the federal party has had in a Canadian election. The last time it lost official party status was in 1993, when the NDP came away with only nine seats. Article content Besides reeling from the political blow that voters dealt the party, which saw Jagmeet Singh, its former leader, resign after placing third in his riding, the fact that New Democrats are returning to Parliament with only seven seats means it has lost many of the resources afforded to parties based on the size of their caucus. Article content Losing official party status means NDP MPs will be limited in how often they can ask the governing Liberals a question in the House of Commons, and will not automatically be reserved a place on parliamentary committees, where legislation flows before it is passed in the House of Commons. Article content Article content While Davies said on Monday that it was 'possible' for the governing Liberals to relax some of the rules around what constitutes official party status, as has been done at the provincial level across different legislatures, House Leader Steven McKinnon appeared cold to the idea. Article content Davies said the NDP is now looking to see what may be decided by the Board of Internal Economy, which has not yet been struck. Article content 'One of the arguments I've made is we're a national party.' Article content 'We had 1.2 million Canadians vote for us, and it's important that we have the tools we need to function and discharge that responsibility.'
Yahoo
25-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Poilievre set to speak to Conservative MPs before House of Commons opens
OTTAWA — Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre will welcome the new House of Commons session with a speech to his MPs on Sunday afternoon. The Conservatives are still reeling from an election loss to Prime Minister Mark Carney's Liberals, which was made all the more devastating because the Tories were leading by more than 20 percentage points at the beginning of the year. The party has yet to confirm if it will be doing an official review of the campaign to determine if lessons can be learned for the next election, but some MPs have said that they want to see changes and 'contrition' from the leader in the wake of the loss in April. Last week, Poilievre announced that more than half of his MPs will serve in critic roles with the roster showcasing more experienced MPs than fresh faces. With the House set to open for the first time in nearly six months, there have been hints of a change of tone from the Conservatives, who have offered to work with the government on issues relating to Canada-U.S. relations as the country endures a trade war with its southern neighbour. The first order of business for Poilievre, though, will be to get a seat in the House of Commons. The Conservative leader will soon be running in a byelection in Battle River—Crowfoot after losing his own Ottawa-area seat in the April election. Conservative MP Damien Kurek has pledged to step down as member of Parliament in the riding to allow Poilievre to run. National Post Get more deep-dive National Post political coverage and analysis in your inbox with the Political Hack newsletter, where Ottawa bureau chief Stuart Thomson and political analyst Tasha Kheiriddin get at what's really going on behind the scenes on Parliament Hill every Wednesday and Friday, exclusively for subscribers. Sign up here. Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark and sign up for our daily newsletter, Posted, here.
National Post
23-05-2025
- Business
- National Post
Geoff Russ: Canada's populist movement will have its day
Canada's populist moment did not come to pass — at least not yet. Article content Having deluded themselves into believing that the status quo is tenable, many on the left celebrated the result of the recent federal election as proof that Canada could withstand the wave of anti-establishment politics that has swept the West in recent years. Article content The Trump trade war overtook the many other crises affecting Canada as one of the top election issues, but it did not extinguish them. If anything, Trump's attempt to reshape the global economic order will only exacerbate the problems this country is facing. Canadian cities remain mostly unaffordable and riddled with drugs and petty crime, and the broken immigration system will not repair itself. Article content Prime Minister Mark Carney has portrayed himself as an agent of change. While he still deserves the benefit of the doubt, his new cabinet does not. The most glaring of these is Gregor Robertson, the former mayor of Vancouver and the new minister of housing. Article content Article content In one of his first media appearances as minister, Robertson asserted that it is not his intention to bring down house prices. Robertson's words were in keeping with the Liberal government's track record. Article content Ahmed Hussen, who served as housing minister from 2021 to 2023, infamously tried to explain the federal government's at-best lackadaisical effort to address the cost of housing by asserting that ' mom and pop ' landlords would be at risk if home prices fell too drastically. Article content Following the Conservative party's seizure of affordability as their key issue, the Liberals made a show of shuffling Hussen out of the housing portfolio and replacing him with Sean Fraser. Formerly the most incompetent and damaging immigration minister in living memory, the choice of Fraser spoke volumes about Hussen's ability to run the file. Article content Article content With Fraser in charge, the government made a series of announcements related to the housing supply, but to little avail. He, too, explicitly said that the government's 'goal is not to decrease the value' of homes. Article content Article content This all occurred in 2023 when the Liberals began tanking in the polls. When Trump started rambling about annexing Canada and launching a trade war, the Liberals seized the opportunity. The American president was all they needed to activate their base and garner the support necessary to remain in office. Article content For millions of older voters, the Canadian election became an opportunity for them to stick it to Trump by voting for Carney, the guy they thought would put his elbows up and hopefully catch Trump on the nose. The Liberal party has evidently taken its victory as a validation of its decade in office, in which the country went into perceptible decline. Article content The Liberal vision of Canada's social contract involves redistributing wealth to the top of the age pyramid. Whether it's enlarged pension payments, maintaining the exorbitant rent charged by 'mom and pop' landlords or providing cheap labour to big businesses through mass immigration, the Liberal economic platform can only be described as 'gerontocratic.'
Globe and Mail
20-05-2025
- Politics
- Globe and Mail
Canadians have no appetite for another election, want parties to work together: poll
Canadians have no appetite for another election within the next year, and want the Liberals and opposition parties to work together to ensure voters don't have to go back to the polls soon, a new poll has found. Eight out of 10 respondents to the survey, conducted for The Globe and Mail by Nanos Research, said they would prefer that the minority government and opposition parties work together so Canada does not have another federal election for at least a year. The Liberals currently hold 170 seats in the House of Commons in last month's election – just shy of the 172 seats needed to form a majority government, meaning they would need the support of MPs from other parties to advance their legislative agenda. A majority government typically lasts for four years, while the length of a minority Parliament varies and is more vulnerable to non-confidence votes. Ninety-six per cent of survey respondents who identified as Liberal voters and 98 per cent of those who said they voted for the Bloc Québécois favoured co-operation between the parties to keep Prime Minister Mark Carney's minority government in place for at least 12 months. But only 57 per cent of the survey's Conservative supporters said they wanted the Liberals to remain in power for another year, with 28 per cent preferring another election to try to elect a majority government. Overall, 12 per cent of Canadians favoured within the year going back to the polls for that reason. Nik Nanos, founder of Nanos Research, said a motivating factor for wanting the current minority Liberal government to stay in power, and to work with opposition parties, is the uncertainty over relations with the U.S. under President Donald Trump. 'It's almost like Canadians want a secession of election-like hostilities between all of the federal parties for the next 12 months,' he said. 'Canada is in a vulnerable and transitional phase right now,' he added, and Canadians want to see 'less politics and more focus on solutions in the short term.' 'I don't think Canadians expect for there to be an indefinite suspension of hostilities between all of the federal parties. But I think a 12-month break would be welcome,' he said. This is the third Liberal minority government in a row, with Justin Trudeau failing to gain a majority in both the 2019 and 2021 general elections. In the 2019 election, the Liberals won the most seats, but were 13 seats short of a majority. In 2021, the Liberals were 10 seats short of a majority. That minority government lasted for about three-and-a-half years – longer than most – after the NDP agreed to a supply-and-confidence agreement with the Liberals that helped keep them in power. The same Nanos survey also found that three in five Canadians were feeling either optimistic (38 per cent) or satisfied (21 per cent) about the outcome of April's federal election. One in three said they were either feeling pessimism (22 per cent) or anger (10 per cent). The Nanos poll, which surveyed 1,055 Canadians using a hybrid telephone and online random survey, was conducted between May 5 and May 8 and has a margin of error of plus or minus three percentage points, 19 times out of 20. Elections Canada estimates that the cost of April's election will be $570-million or about $19.79 for each registered elector. With a report from Bill Curry
