Poilievre tells Fredericton rally he'll make Canada stronger as it stands up to Trump
Conservative leader makes first N.B. visit by party leader during federal election campaign
With supporters from across New Brunswick packed into the Fredericton Exhibition Grounds, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre gave a nearly hour-long speech Monday night, promising a stronger country to stand up to Donald Trump while occasionally seeming to echo the U.S. president.
"We need to be a nation that stands on its own two feet, that supplies its own resources … we will stand up to President Trump from a position of strength," Poilievre told the crowd estimated by party organizers at 2,000.
As he ran through many of his campaign promises, Poilievre said more children should join the cadets, and the military needs to embrace more of a "warrior culture, not a woke culture."
Poilievre spoke of a "lost Liberal decade" under former prime minister Justin Trudeau, and the crowd responded with boos and jeers at every mention of Mark Carney, the new Liberal leader.
At one point, an audience member yelled out that Carney should be jailed, but Poilievre responded, "We don't need to do that, we need to vote them out."
Poilievre makes his pitch to Fredericton with rallyIt was the first visit to New Brunswick by a party leader running for the prime minister's job in the April 28 federal election. Earlier in the day, Poilievre was in Saint John, where he laid out his plan for an oil pipeline to the port city.
In Fredericton, he spoke about amending the Criminal Code to give harsher sentences to drug dealers and life sentences to gun smugglers and about reducing drugs coming across the Canadian border.
Poilevre also spoke about supporting trades workers and the need to build more homes, along with capping immigration to match housing construction and supporting gun owners. He also promised to make it easier for foreign doctors to start working sooner after immigrating.
Media covering the rally were tightly controlled, with party handlers stopping reporters from speaking to Poilievre supporters in the building before the rally began.
Supporters interviewed by CBC News barely mentioned Trump's tariffs or his desire to annex Canada but instead said affordability, getting rid of the Liberal Party and lower taxes were important to them.
Luke Gee of Harvey said that he came to the rally to be part of the "great change we're so in need of" and that Polievre felt genuine to him.
Luke Gee of Harvey attended the rally and likes the Conservative Party because he feels crime has gotten out of hand. (Silas Brown/CBC)
He said the New Brunswick government's moratorium on fracking has driven away opportunities from the province, and that crime has "gotten out of hand."
"I have great respect for our men and women in law enforcement, but their hands are tied with the courts," Gee said.
First-time voter David MacLean, 18, came to the rally from Memramcook and said seeing Poilievre made him feel proud to be a Canadian.
First-time voter David MacLean came to the rally from Memramcook wih rising housing prices among the issues on his mind. (Silas Brown/CBC)
As a young person, MacLean said, he's concerned that "housing is very unaffordable and everything is going out of control."
David Smith of Fredericton said there's a "long list of issues" that matter to him in the campaign, and he believed the Liberal government has been too big.
"The government needs to do less, let the private sector do more," Smith said.
He mentioned a Conservative promise to remove the capital gains tax and to allow Canadians to contribute $5,000 more a year to their tax-free savings accounts if they invest in Canadian companies.
Organizers
said more than 2,000 people came to the event, the first to be held by a
federal party leader during the campaign for the April 28 election. (Silas Brown/CBC)
The Conservative candidate for Fredericton-Oromocto, Brian Macdonald, along with Poilievre's wife, Anaida, opened the event.
Macdonald faces off in that riding against Liberal candidate David Myles, the NDP's Nicki Lyons-Macfarlane, the Green Party's Pamela Allen-LeBlanc, Heather Michaud of the People's Party, Dominic Cardy with the Canada Future Party and June Patterson of the Communist Party.
While Conservative candidates for New Brunswick ridings were given front-row seats, also in the crowd was former Premier Blaine Higgs, who said in an interview that he might help the federal party campaign this election.
"I experienced a federal government that didn't have the best interest of Canadians at heart, and I don't see that changing anytime soon without a change in government," said Higgs, whose party lost to the Liberals in the provincial election last fall.
Higgs went on to say that supporting the Energy East Pipeline, an issue he unsuccessfully pushed for as premier, "is now in vogue."
"When [Poilievre] becomes prime minister, I'm sad I'm not going to be there to be a part of it."
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Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre addresses supporters at a campaign rally in Fredericton, New Brunswick. He is joined by his wife Anaida Poilievre and Brian MacDonald, Conservative candidate for Fredericton—Oromocto.
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Pierre Poilievre headed to New Brunswick
Conservative leader will hold a rally in Fredericton on Monday night
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre will hold an election rally in Fredericton on Monday night, the first visit to New Brunswick by a major party leader since the campaign began just over a week ago.
The free rally will be held at the Capital Exhibit Centre, and doors will open at 6 p.m.
While Liberal Leader Mark Carney has already done campaign stops in Newfoundland and Labrador and Nova Scotia, he hasn’t dropped into New Brunswick yet.
Poilievre has been attracting big crowds at his campaign stops so far, and if a visit to Fredericton he made last year is any indication, Monday night’s affair will also likely be a full house.
The election will be held on April 28.
Pipeline to Saint John would help get Canada out from under Trump's thumb, Poilievre says
Conservative leader focuses on energy during first campaign stop in N.B.
At his first federal election campaign stop in New Brunswick, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said he would revive interest in building a pipeline to Saint John, by reducing the regulatory uncertainty that killed Energy East.
"Today I'm announcing the Canada First National Energy Corridor," Poilievre said.
"A pre-approved corridor that will allow our incredible businesses to build pipelines, transmission lines, rail lines and countless other kinds of infrastructure that we need to break our dependence on the Americans and ship our resources to ourselves and overseas markets."
Poilievre says policies of the Liberals, now led by Mark Carney, have made Canada weak and too dependent on U.S. trade, and that's why the country is under America's thumb.
"If we had a national energy corridor today, Saint John would not be so reliant on the Americans," he said. "We'd be able to transit billions and billions of dollars through this incredible city, without worrying what the Americans think."
The
campaign event was tightly controlled and mostly attended by campaign
staff and media. Four reporters were chosen by Poilievre's handlers to
ask one question each. (Roger Cosman/CBC )
The Energy East project was first proposed in 2013 and would have carried more than a million barrels of oil a day from Alberta and Saskatchewan across the country to be refined or exported from plants in New Brunswick and Quebec.
However, the proponent, TransCanada, pulled the plug in 2017. In its regulatory filing with the National Energy Board, the company cited "existing and likely future delays resulting from the regulatory process, the associated cost implications and the increasingly challenging issues and obstacles."
Poilievre said interest in pipelines has surged since the Trump administration introduced trade instability.
He said he's now convinced a private investor would step forward if a Conservative government could pave the way by pre-authorizing a safe route and setting project conditions in advance that would be guaranteed not to change.
"In other words, the government would not have the legal right to reverse course and change its mind. This would remove the uncertainty. I understand why businesses, after the lost Liberal decade, would not want to take the risk of starting an application process that could cost them billions of dollars."
Pierre Poilievre speaks to media inside the Saint John port terminal building. (Rachel Cave/CBC)
Poilievre said First Nations would still be consulted and environmental research would take place, but the tone of his speech sent the message that environmental concerns would only be taken so far.
"Do you think we could get the St. Lawrence Seaway open today? Do you think we could build the Canadian Pacific Railway today?" Poilievre asked.
"Really, think about it. There would be some environmental extremists like [former environment and climate change minister] Stephen Guilbeault or maybe Gregor Robertson, the new Liberal candidate, former Vancouver mayor, who would be chaining themselves to a tree to prevent if from happening. And it would take a decade to go through a bureaucratic process that would never lead anywhere."
Poilievre said a Conservative government would repeal Bill C-69, which became Ottawa's Impact Assessment Act. The act allows federal regulators to consider the potential environmental and social impacts of various resource and infrastructure projects.
"Let's be clear," Poilievre said. "The Liberals' no new pipelines law, law C-69, will make it impossible for any other project to ever get approved in this country."
Monday's event at the Saint John cruise terminal was tightly controlled by Poilievre's handlers, who chose in advance which four reporters would be able to ask one question each. CBC News was not one of the chosen.
The leader was introduced by John Williamson, who represented Saint John–St. Croix in the last Parliament, and he stood for photos with Williamson and Melissa Young, the candidate for Saint John–Kennebecasis.
The crowd was small, mostly Conservative Party insiders and the news media. There was no visible representation from the business community or Irving Oil, which has a refinery in the city.
Poilievre was then expected to travel to Fredericton for a rally, followed by a stop in St. John's on Tuesday and a rally Tuesday in Charlottetown.
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Conservative seeking Saint John nomination says he's stepping aside for 'parachute candidate'
Conservative Party of Canada didn't respond to requests for information or confirm allegations
A doctor hoping to run for the Conservative Party of Canada in Saint John-Kennebecasis says he's suspending his campaign because higher-ups in the party have already chosen the candidate.
In a letter to his supporters, Jeff Steeves said he had a series of interviews with party officials locally and in Ottawa "to ensure that my candidacy would be legitimate and that no favored candidates were waiting in the wings."
"I was encouraged to run," wrote Steeves, an ophthalmologist and former president of the New Brunswick Medical Society who launched his campaign more than two months ago.
But recently, he said, he was told to step aside because a nominee of "national interest" was chosen to run.
Typically, according to party rules, the local Conservative riding association would be involved in choosing a candidate. People would submit their nominations, would be vetted, then registered party members in that riding would vote for their favourite.
The rules also say a national committee is able to reject any person before or after nomination, "at any time on any grounds," that it sees fit.
In his letter, Steeves said the nominee he was asked to step aside for is a "parachute candidate," referring to a practice of a party leader choosing a candidate who doesn't live in the area and ensuring that person gets the nomination, instead of letting the competition play out.
Steeves declined to provide an interview, saying his letter speaks for itself.
But Randall Goodwin, a supporter and member of Steeves's campaign, said interfering with the nomination process, while technically allowed, is bad for democracy,
Goodwin said in an interview that choosing a parachute candidate is "stripping the people's voice."
"We join the party so we can have a democracy, to go vote for the candidate we want to represent our riding," he said.
Goodwin and Steeves said the chosen candidate has roots in New Brunswick but lives in Toronto.
Conservative
Leader Pierre Poilievre is expected to appear at a fundraising event in
Saint John on Friday. The invitation says Melissa Young is the host. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press)
The Conservative Party of Canada did not respond to requests for an interview and did not confirm whether a parachute candidate was indeed chosen for Saint John-Kennebecasis.
At least two other people, besides Steeves, have been campaigning for the nomination: Lisa Keenan and James Robertson.
In an interview, Keenan confirmed her nomination papers are in and said she has not been told to step down.
"As far as I'm concerned, I'm still running," Keenan said.
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Liberals, Conservatives both criticized
During this election season, both the Conservative and Liberal parties have been criticized for sidestepping the nomination process.
The Conservative Party has been accused several times of handpicking candidates and bringing someone in from outside, but has previously denied the allegations.
On the Liberal side, Justin Trudeau announced that he chose Laura Palestini as the candidate for LaSalle–Émard–Verdun in Montreal without a nomination process.
According to Liberal Party rules, the leader has the authority to designate a candidate in any election, without the need for a nomination meeting.
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With files from Rachel Cave
Jos Allaire
Democracy in action❗
Diva Decatte
Which riding will Mark Carney parachuted into after the party gives you know who the heave ho...
Jim Lake
Reply to Diva Decatte
Based on absolutely nothing.
MR Cain
Reply to Diva Decatte
Not in the game; media speculation.
Daniel Leroux
Reply to Diva Decatte
They have a seat for him in Ottawa.
Lou Bell
Reply to Diva Decatte
He wants no part of the Trudeau Liberals . He'd really have to swallow his pride , and he's too smart to " bless this mess " .
Douglas James
Of 'national interest'? I bet nobody in Saint John has ever heard of the anointed one.
Douglas James
Poilievre
is going to be in Saint John for a fundraising reception (another cash
for access opportunity for the wealthy) which is being hosted, according
to the invitation, by Melissa Young. No coincidence if you read between
the lines.
Diva Decatte
Reply to Douglas James
Of the Skill Trades Council...that would be an awesome candidate...hope your right....
Douglas James
Reply to Diva Decatte
Even if the person isn't selected by local Conservatives and has no experience or previous connection with local citizens?
Douglas James
Seems to be that the
Pollievre and the Conservative party concave in Ottawa are hoping to
cosy up with trade unionists in a bid to break up the alliance between
the NDP and Liberals. It won't work. Claiming to represent the working
class while holding fundraisers with a choice of donating between $1000
and $1750 for access to Pollievre is the height of hypocrisy.
James Risdon
Reply to Douglas James
Well, to be fair, it's not like $1,000 is worth as much now with all the inflation we've had as it used to only a few years ago.
Douglas James
Reply to James Risdon
Sure.
And all those homeless people in Saint John will no doubt be rushing
down to the Cruise Terminal tomorrow to hand out their thousand dollar
bills to Pollievre.
James Risdon
Reply to Douglas James
There shouldn't be any homeless people in Saint John. What's the point in staying in a city where you can't have a home?
Douglas James
Reply to James Risdon
It is there city as much as it is yours. Where would you have them go and what right do you have to even suggest such a thing?
James Risdon
The only solution to all these woes is to vote for me and Make New Brunswick Great Again.
of transparency' from federal Conservatives leads riding president in N.B. to quit
Leslie Keirstead apologizes to candidates who worked over a year on campaigns for nomination
James
Robertson, right, one of three candidates hoping to win the
Conservative nomination in Saint John-Kennebecasis, shakes hands with
the party leader, Pierre Poilievre, in a photo posted in January on his
Facebook page. (James Robertson for Saint John-Kennebecasis/Facebook)With a federal election call expected within weeks and a Liberal incumbent certainly running for a fourth term in Saint John-Kennebecasis, some Conservatives in the riding are keen to get cracking on their own campaign — if only they could.
But the national party is standing in the way, refusing to set a nomination meeting date and to dispel rumours that the party brass has already identified the nominee it wants to run, according to a resignation letter submitted by riding president Leslie Keirstead.
"I have asked the National Party staff, on numerous occasions, to clarify their intentions but they have been unwilling to share that information with me," Keirstead wrote in a letter to the board directors.
Keirstead said that "lack of transparency" meant the nomination process was not the open and fair process she had hoped it would be, and she apologized to the candidates who had been campaigning for over a year.
One candidate gave up race
The three nominees who are openly campaigning for the job are Melissa Young, Lisa Keenan and James Robertson.
A fourth candidate, Dr. Jeff Steeves, quit the race last summer, after he thought he had received the party's blessing and had been signing up new members. He told his supporters he'd learned the national party preferred a candidate, who he said was living in Ontario.
"Despite my protest to the upper levels of the party, it has been made clear that my path to the nomination has ended," Steeves wrote in a letter dated July 23 and distributed widely to constituents.
Steeves did not name the chosen candidate.
A photo of federal Conservative nominee Melissa Young from her campaign website votemelissa.ca. (Votemelissa.ca)
Young, who would not provide an interview to CBC News, was appointed CEO of Skilled Trades Ontario in January 2022 and served in that position until she was replaced in November 2024. On her campaign website, Young describes herself as a lifelong resident of New Brunswick, currently living along the Kennebecasis River.
Lisa Keenan, the only candidate who agreed to an interview, said she would continue her campaign, and she defended Keirstead's role as riding leader.
"Leslie Keirstead has been a tireless worker for the federal party and the provincial party for the last 30-something years, and I think the riding association has conducted itself impeccably for the last year in connection to a possible nomination."
Keenan said she will continue to campaign for the nomination.
The party is not breaking its own rules by not having a nomination meeting nor one scheduled.
Local board director Nargis Kheraj said that only the national party can sign off on a nomination date. It can't be done locally.
Kheraj said she'd like to see a Conservative candidate in place so that person has time to campaign and establish what they stand for, especially if they're facing Liberal incumbent Wayne Long, who was first elected in 2015.
"I think our party in Saint John is a little frustrated because we want to get this going," Kheraj said.
"We have an existing MP, and we want to make sure that our candidate gets some exposure, and we can't do that unless we have a candidate, and we can't have a candidate because we don't have a nomination."
Lisa
Keenan is one of three candidates publicly campaigning to be the
Conservative candidate in the riding of Saint John-Kennebecasis (Submitted by Lisa Keenan)
CBC was unable to reach party officials in Ottawa. Messages left for Kevin Price, the New Brunswick representative on the Conservative National Council, went unanswered.
Emil Olsen, a federal Conservative stalwart and Progressive Conservative Party of New Brunswick riding president in Quispamsis, said he still fully expects a riding vote to take place, although he said he'd not yet heard of a date being set.
"I'm expecting a nomination meeting," said Olsen. "Everybody should have the opportunity to vote for the person they're supporting. I can't see it not happening. That's the democratic process."
Long says he does not expect to face a nomination contest because of his long incumbency. Furthermore, no other candidate has stepped forward.
Federal race tightens
Poll analyst Eric Grenier said Saint John-Kennebecasis is a riding to watch and the choice of local candidate could make a difference on election day.
He says nationally, the Conservatives had been leading in the polls for about a year and a half, but over the past two months, the gap between the Liberals and the Conservatives has shrunk by half and could be affected yet again by Mark Carney's leadership win.
CBC
polling analyst Eric Grenier says there has been a huge change in the
polling in Atlantic Canada, and he expects the Liberals may gain ground
with Mark Carney as leader. (CBC)
"Atlantic Canada has seen a huge change in the polling," Grenier said. "The Conservatives were on track to win Saint John-Kennebecasis and lots of ridings across New Brunswick," said Grenier.
"Now we've seen the Liberals have actually moved ahead in Atlantic Canada by a pretty significant margin. So a riding like Saint John-Kennebecais would now be a toss-up.
"So who the local candidate is going to end up being could end up playing a huge role in Atlantic Canada. We do see the local candidates having a bigger impact on the race than we see in the rest of Canada."
Few nominations competitive, charity finds
Researchers at the Samara Centre for Democracy say contested nominations are uncommon.
The non-partisan registered charity examined how candidates were chosen for Canada's five major federal parties across five federal elections between 2004 and 2015.
Competitive nomination races uncommon, says Samara Centre for DemocracyOf the 6,600 federal candidates captured in the study, only 17 per cent arrived there through a competitive nomination race. Parties directly appointed more than 2,700 election candidates with no nomination process at all.
"It's hard to even call them contests in many ways," said research director Beatrice Wayne.
"Many people are acclaimed, appointed by the party leader and in many so-called contests there's only one contestant running. So it's hardly accurate to call it a contest. We found in our analysis of races from 2004 to 2015 that 70 per cent of contests were just one person running and that is in addition to the people who are appointed by party leaders."
Wayne says members of parliament who gave interviews to the centre expressed frustration about the lack of information around the timing of nomination contests.
"One thing that's very interesting in terms of diversity, we know that the longer the nomination contest runs for, the more likely there will be women running in the nomination contest," Wayne said.
"But nomination contests are very short. Often, even though they are supposed to be at least two weeks, they're shorter. So this is not helpful in terms of achieving a more representative House of Commons."
In the Saint John-Kennebecasis, David MacFarquhar is running for the Green Party. The NDP does not have a candidate yet.
CBC's Journalistic Standards and Practices
Federal Conservatives hand pick Saint John-Kennebecasis candidate
In doing so, the party is scrapping a four-candidate runoff in order to acclaim Melissa Young to go against incumbent Liberal Wayne Long
The
federal Conservatives have hand picked the recent CEO of Skilled Trades
Ontario Melissa Young to be their candidate in the federal riding of
Saint John-Kennebecasis. SUBMITTED
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/poilievre-campaign-messaging-1.7497965
Poilievre says the federal election can't just be about Donald Trump
Conservative leader pitches policies to address cost of living, housing and energy sector
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre mounted a defence of his campaign messaging Monday, saying he has no qualms about focusing on issues like the housing crisis, cost of living concerns and relatively weak economic growth, even as some of his critics say he should go all in on Canada-U.S. relations.
In the first week of this federal campaign, Poilievre has so far largely stuck to the playbook that catapulted him and his party to the lead in the polls for much of the last two years.
He's been rolling out such measures as an income tax cut, a TFSA top-up and a tough-on-crime agenda with mandatory life sentences in prison for drug traffickers, while also prosecuting the Liberal government's tenure — even as U.S. President Donald Trump's threats loom large.
He made those announcements last week at sites that could be seen as a nod to U.S. trade tensions — a company that works with steel and a B.C. sawmill — but largely avoided talking about the cross-border dispute.
Trump's name gets scant mention at his rallies or news conferences, unless he's asked by reporters to comment.
That has prompted some party grandees, like senior strategist Kory Teneyecke, to say Poilievre is missing the mark by not aggressively taking on Trump, regarded by many Canadians as a threat and a menace.
Poilievre's party has also lost its lead over the governing Liberals, according to CBC Poll Tracker, causing anxiety among some campaign staff who say there's no clear plan to get it back.
Conservative campaign is 'a mess,' party insiders sayPoilievre said Monday he'll make no apologies for pushing what he calls a "Canada first agenda," which is largely focused on rectifying perceived Liberal failures.
He said he will talk about how to address U.S. tensions — his capital gains tax pitch Sunday was specifically designed to drive investment at home, he said — but won't ignore the other issues that have emerged out of what he called the "lost Liberal decade."
"Some people have said I should stop talking about the doubling of housing costs that have denied an entire generation the chance to own a home after the lost Liberal decade. They say we shouldn't be debating why single moms are lined up at food banks in record numbers," Poilievre said.
He said he will stand up for the millennial women "whose biological clock is running out faster than they can afford to buy a home and have kids."
"They suggest that we shouldn't debate why 50,000 of our citizens have lost their lives to drug overdoses under the radical Liberal drug policies," he continued.
"My purpose in politics is to restore Canada's promise," he said. "So we will continue, despite calls to the contrary, to talk about those things even if I am the only leader in the country that offers any change."
Poilievre asked if he will make changes to Conservative campaign leadership There's a reason why Poilievre wants to talk about those issues more than the Trump factor.
A recent Angus Reid Institute poll suggests non-Liberal survey respondents are most concerned about the cost of living and inflation, while the Liberal ones, both longtime supporters and recent switchers, say Canada's relationship with the U.S., including tariffs, is the most important issue.
Poilievre said today he will stand against "unjustified threats by President Trump," and he pitched a longtime Conservative promise to build a national energy corridor to fast-track projects like an east-west pipeline to finally move more Alberta oil and gas to eastern markets.
Liberal Leader Mark Carney has promised something similar.
Poilievre said a government led by him will streamline environmental reviews and create a "pre-approved transport corridor," which will see all levels of government provide legally binding commitments to approve projects like transmission lines, railways and pipelines that run along the route.
The party is promising to work with First Nations to ensure some economic benefit flows to their communities.
Poilievre outlines proposal for national energy corridor Poilievre said building more energy infrastructure will help Canada stand on its own two feet and lessen its dependence on the Americans. So much of Canada's oil and gas is exported to that one market, making the country beholden to a single customer. It also deprives central and eastern parts of the country from Canadian energy, forcing refineries there to rely on foreign supplies from the U.S., Saudi Arabia and Nigeria, among other places.
Poilievre said he won't stand for that anymore. Carney has signalled he won't, either.
Just before calling the federal election, Carney met with the premiers to hash out a new agreement that will see Ottawa slash some red tape as part of the approvals process on major projects.
He's calling it a "one project, one review" permit system to reduce duplicative federal-provincial processes.
"It's time to build," Carney said.
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NOTEBOOK: Carney faces accusations of plagiarism for doctoral thesis
Editor’s note: The following are brief summaries of just four of the federal election stories available across the Postmedia network.
Carney accused of plagiarism for doctoral thesis
Liberal Leader Mark Carney has been accused of taking other people’s ideas as his own in the federal election campaign. It isn’t new. The National Post obtained a copy of Carney’s 1995 thesis for his doctorate in economics from Oxford University titled “The Dynamic Advantage of Competition.” It shows 10 instances of apparent plagiarism, according to the judgment of three university academics who reviewed the material. In several sections of his thesis, Carney used full quotes, paraphrases, or slightly modified quotes from four previous works without proper acknowledgement or attribution. Carney’s campaign at first provided a statement from his doctoral supervisor at Oxford University. “I believe you are mischaracterizing this work. As an academic of nearly 40 years, I see no evidence of plagiarism in the thesis you cited nor any unusual academic practices,” said Margaret Meyer, Official Fellow of Economics at Nuffield College, in the provided statement. Clink the link to read the full story www.nationalpost.com
Liberal candidate sparks concern over Phoenix pay scandal
The Liberals are backing Claude Guay, a former IBM Canada executive, as their candidate in the Montreal riding of LaSalle–Émard–Verdun, but his role in the scandal-plagued Phoenix payroll system is raising concerns, National Post reported. Public sector unions question the government’s commitment to fixing the pay system, which is managed by the Public Pay Centre in Miramichi. The system has left thousands of federal workers with payroll issues since its launch in 2016. IBM received about $784 million for the project, despite ongoing failures. In 2017 Guay acknowledged mistakes made in the Phoenix rollout, but critics argue his candidacy sends the wrong message to federal employees still affected. Click the link to read the full story www.nationalpost.com.
Novia Scotia MP returns to politics after brief exit
Just three months after stepping away from politics to focus on family, former cabinet minister Sean Fraser is making a comeback as a Liberal candidate, National Post reported. In a statement on Tuesday, Fraser said the upcoming election is too important to sit out and rejoined at the request of Liberal Leader Mark Carney. Fraser’s return replaced another candidate in Central Nova, in Nova Scotia, who had campaigned for just a few hours. Fraser’s departure in December came amid low party support, but with polls showing growing Liberal support, he could reclaim a cabinet spot. This follows Transport Minister Anita Anand’s reversal to leave politics just one month after her departure. Click the link to read the full story www.nationalpost.com.
Poilievre pledges to keep French Radio-Canada alive
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has vowed to maintain CBC’s French language Radio-Canada services while continuing his push to “defund the CBC,” National Post reported. His Quebec-focused platform, released Wednesday, does not mention CBC’s English services, raising questions about how he would separate the two. Poilievre is actively campaigning in Quebec, where the Conservatives lag behind the Liberals and the Bloc Québécois. His platform acknowledges the decline of the French language and pledges support for Quebec and francophone cultural funding. He also promises to give Quebec more control over temporary immigration. Poilievre held a press conference and rally in Quebec City on Wednesday as part of his ongoing outreach. Click the link to read the full story www.nationalpost.com.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/poilievre-world-economic-forum-rhetoric-1.6935294
Poilievre's Conservative Party embracing language of mainstream conspiracy theories
Tory leader's summer stump speeches include ramped-up rhetoric about the World Economic Forum
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has been hitting the summer barbecue circuit with ramped-up rhetoric around debunked claims that the World Economic Forum is attempting to impose its agenda on sovereign governments.
It is, some experts suggest, another sign that some conspiracy theories are moving from the fringes of the internet to mainstream thinking, as people's distrust of government grows.
In speeches to Conservative supporters across Canada, Poilievre has promised that none of his ministers will attend the international organization's conferences, including the annual meeting typically held in Davos, Switzerland.
"It's far past time we rejected the globalist Davos elites and bring home the common sense of the common people," said a Saturday fundraising email.
The Conservative Party also recently sent out mailers with a poll asking people to tell Prime Minister Justin Trudeau who they think the prime minister should stand with: working Canadians or the World Economic Forum.
The wording implies Trudeau's cabinet is beholden to the latter.
Poilievre did not agree to an interview on the matter. His spokesperson instead pointed The Canadian Press to a clip of him at a rally in Penticton, B.C., in July, expressing concerns over the government invading people's personal privacy and financial decisions.
"There will be no mandatory digital ID in this country, and I will ban all of my ministers and top government officials from any involvement in the World Economic Forum," Poilievre said, chuckling as he received lengthy applause for the remark.
A
group of anti-World Economic Forum protesters are seen outside the
Hamilton conference centre where Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his
cabinet met in January 2023. (Submitted by Zimo Wang)
Ottawa's history with the WEF
Canada has long participated in WEF events. Former Conservative prime minister Stephen Harper and his cabinet ministers attended the summit regularly. Trudeau attended in person in 2016 and 2018, and his ministers have attended as well. Liberal Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland went to the most recent annual summit in January.
On digital IDs, the federal government has been looking at technology to create a national digital identification document to help people access government services. It has not been promoted as something that will become mandatory.
Last winter, a conspiracy theory circulating on social media suggested Trudeau was going to require provinces to sign on to digital ID systems for their residents in order to get billions in new health-care funding. That conspiracy was also debunked.
Conservatives reintroduce Pierre Poilievre with $3M ad campaignDuane Bratt, a political science professor at Mount Royal University in Calgary, said some people have long embraced conspiracies, but now they have moved into mainstream politics.
"The big shift that we have seen is that it is now being promoted by someone who could be prime minister," said Bratt.
Poilievre peddled the WEF control claims during the Conservative leadership race in 2022, and it has emerged again as a regular talking point following the federal byelection in southern Manitoba, said Bratt.
In
speeches to Conservative supporters across Canada, Poilievre has
promised that none of his ministers will attend the WEF's conferences,
including the annual meeting typically held in Davos, Switzerland. (Justin Tang/The Canadian Press)
In that contest in Portage–Lisgar, the Conservatives were looking to beat back a growing challenge from the People's Party of Canada. Maxime Bernier, the leader of that party who has long accused the WEF of having a globalist agenda, ran in the byelection.
The Conservatives attacked him for having attended the Davos summit when he was Harper's foreign affairs minister in 2008.
Bratt said Poilievre's embrace of conspiracy theories could be because he's attempting to steal back votes from the PPC.
"The question is does he really believe it or is he just pandering to people, and will he pivot again if he becomes prime minister," Bratt said.
Pandemic as a trigger
Kawser Ahmed, a politics professor at the University of Winnipeg with a research specialty in conspiracy theories, said the number and uptake of conspiracy theories began to grow after the 2016 presidential election in the United States, aided by social media and encrypted messaging apps.
But Ahmed said the biggest trigger was the COVID-19 pandemic.
"At that time, whatever decisions government took, it was explained to some corner of our citizens — in line with conspiracy theories — that the government is controlling you, the government has asked to give you a vaccine, the government has asked not to go out and so forth," said Ahmed.
It's a sentiment politicians have learned to pick up on, and Bratt believes that many people aren't willing to reject a politician just because they peddle false claims or conspiracies.
"There's a lot of ideas that are now moving into the mainstream that are simply not supported by science, evidence or facts," he said. "But it doesn't matter and some of those politicians have been elected, like the current premier of Alberta."
United Conservative Party Premier Danielle Smith has said she is in lockstep with Poilievre, and will having nothing to do with the World Economic Forum.
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Populism has driven politicians to feed into conspiracy theories because they need votes, and fear is a great motivator, said Ahmed. They get less interest peddling for votes using their record.
"It's very easy to appeal to people that something is a threat," he said. "For example, your identity, your livelihood, your religious values."
Ahmed said it is affecting our democracy, pitting groups against each other, creating suspicion and harming national security by spreading misinformation that eventually affects policy.
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