“Canadian Politics”

Premier Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservatives have slipped slightly in popularity just as MPPs are set to return to Queen’s Park after a 21-week break, a new poll suggests.

The latest Abacus Data survey had the Tories at 40 per cent, down from 42 per cent last month, while the Liberals, who elect a new leader Nov. 21, were up one percentage point to 32 per cent and Marit Stiles’s New Democrats rose three points to 20 per cent. Mike Schreiner’s Greens were unchanged at four per cent.

Another mystery.

Jason Kenney rolled into Alberta provincial politics in a big blue pickup truck with a straightforward proposition: unite the right, defeat Rachel Notley, and restore competent conservative government. He delivered the merger and election victory. His political rise ended less triumphantly: after receiving just 51.4% support in his 2022 leadership review, he announced his resignation before completing one term. The epic salesman proved better at filling the truck than getting his passengers to their destination.

Prime Minister Mark Carney faced pointed questions Monday about his government’s “Buy Canadian” agenda after a Toronto Star analysis found American-controlled corporations received an estimated $7.8 billion in federal contracts during his first 16 months in office.

The analysis found that U.S.-controlled multinationals have dominated Ottawa’s largest contracts under Carney, with the share of federal procurement dollars going to American-controlled companies rising from about one-fifth before he took office to nearly a third under his government.

OTTAWA — Stephen Harper is warning Albertans against setting the province on a path toward secession by using their votes in an upcoming referendum in an attempt to send Ottawa a message.

In an essay published Friday in the Calgary Herald, Harper also expressed optimism over how he sees the Liberals under Prime Minister Mark Carney turning a page from the “anti-Alberta” policies of Carney’s predecessor, Justin Trudeau.

“As a former prime minister of Canada, staying silent on the upcoming referendum on Alberta secession is not an option. But I wish it were,” he wrote.

The Conservatives will try to spin the departure of Scott Aitchison, the popular MP for Parry Sound–Muskoka, as being of negligible importance. Here’s a guy in his early 50s who has spent more than 30 years in municipal and federal politics, and who has decided to move on to another stage in life.
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Fair enough. Aitchison’s reasons for leaving at the end of the fall session remain vague. He said on social media that it is “time for a new chapter to explore new opportunities.”

Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Liberals would secure a larger majority if an election were held today as support plunges for Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives, polls suggest.

The Signal — the Star’s supercomputer-powered poll aggregator — forecasts that the Liberals would win between 192 and 238 seats, with a median tally of 215 on 46.9 per cent of the vote.

Carney’s party currently holds 173 seats in the 343-member House of Commons, a narrow majority.

I’m shocked a Star commissioned poll would turn out this way.

There could be two snap elections in Canada before Christmas.

British Columbia Premier David Eby has already called one for Oct. 24 and Prime Minister Mark Carney is rumoured to be calling another in the coming weeks that would be held sometime before mid-December.

Parliament is back with a substantive legislative agenda that reminds us: Democracy is nothing without accountability. For shame, then, that His Majesty’s Loyal Opposition is distracted by internal schisms and online echo chambers.

This fall, Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives must gain a foothold. The party’s own MPs know it. Conservative deputy leader Melissa Lantsman told reporters, “This is not the position we want to be in.”

Indeed not.

OTTAWA – Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is pitching a plan to cut federal taxes on diesel fuel and help ensure Canada has affordable supplies of the fuel in the future.

Poilievre says Canada already produces enough diesel to meet national demand, but transportation bottlenecks leave some regions dependent on U.S. imports.

He proposes eliminating all tax on diesel sales until at least Canada Day by extending the full fuel excise tax cut until July 1 of next year and removing the GST from the purchase of fuel.

OTTAWA — Conservative MP Gérard Deltell lauded the federal government for finally springing into action with its Building Canada Strong Act after what he called a decade of “inaction” to get big projects built under former prime minister Justin Trudeau.

Deltell, who is the Conservative critic for intergovernmental affairs and One Canadian Economy, said his party agrees “in principle” with the new legislation put forward.

The statement that NDP Leader Avi Lewis posted on X on the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur deserves to be reproduced in its entirety, in order to fully appreciate its malignancy and reckless stupidity.

“Tonight Yom Kippur begins, the most sombre moment of the Jewish calendar,” Mr. Lewis wrote. “It’s a time of atonement – a time to grieve those who have been lost, a time to acknowledge and take responsibility for harms we have caused, individually and collectively. For Jewish people, the personal has always been political and the political always personal. This year I’m reflecting on the fact that we failed to do our part to stop an ongoing genocide committed in our name. There are many other fronts where I have to do the work of repair. But nothing on this scale.”

He’s good for laughs, so I’m against disqualification.

Phil McColeman stopped as he walked out of Pierre Poilievre’s rally on Sunday and said, “No, no, no.” The former Conservative MP was expressing his displeasure at Poilievre appointing a candidate to run in the next election.

They don’t appear to be in any danger of winning an election so let em roll the dice.

Ontarians tuning in to the news have been greeted with stories of politicians blowing taxpayer money on hotels and facing accusations of serious crimes.

Wouldn’t it be great if voters didn’t have to wait every four years to hold them accountable?

Doug Ford really wants everyone to know that when he endorsed Olivia Chow the other day, it wasn’t an endorsement. Ford had his office put out a statement to that effect late Thursday, about 32 hours after he made the original statement.