“Canadian Politics”

OTTAWA — The Opposition Conservatives are calling on the Liberals not to overhaul the makeup of parliamentary committees, which Prime Minister Mark Carney signalled would be coming in the wake of securing a majority.

Conservative House Leader Andrew Scheer appeared before reporters on Thursday to underscore how the membership of committees — bodies where MPs can launch studies into issues and where legislation is sent to be dissected and amended — has up until now been decided through negotiations between the parties based on the most recent election results.

A slave labour apologist, chloroquine promoter and blue Albertan all walk into a bar …

Only it’s not a joke, and they didn’t walk into a bar. Michael Ma, Marilyn Gladu and Matt Jereroux are three former Conservative MPs who have walked into the Liberal caucus, where they found a Red Tory, Chris d’Entremont, already tickling the party ivories.

Welcome to Mark Carney’s Casablanca, where the Ottawa equivalent of Rick’s Cafe is now filling up with cast offs from the Conservatives and NDP. And I am shocked — shocked — to find that politics is going on here.

Conservative MPs lined up Wednesday to endorse Pierre Poilievre’s continued leadership despite recent stumbles that have left the party on the back foot and facing three more years on the Opposition benches.

Privately, there are serious doubts about his viability.

Poilievre has faced a series of setbacks in the months since the last federal election, continuing what former leader Erin O’Toole has called an “annus horribilis,” or a horrible year.

Officially, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is outraged. “The Carney Liberals did not win a majority government through a general election or today’s by-elections,” Mr. Poilievre posted on X Monday night, as the results erasing his leverage in the House of Commons rolled in. The Liberals swept all three by-elections, less than a week after they seduced the unlikeliest of floor-crossers, Marilyn Gladu, to join the Liberal caucus. “The Prime Minister spent the year on this cynical power grab,” he added.

OTTAWA — Despite being dealt double-digit defeats in the three federal byelections that handed Prime Minister Mark Carney his majority, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre says he has no plans to resign.

“Canadians might be discouraged right now because of the current political situation, but let us say this, Canadians should not give up,” he said in the House of Commons on Tuesday, vowing to continue fighting for Canadians.

“And I will continue to lead that fight in this House, across this country, and in the next election.”

Lots of ink has already been spilled on the impact of Prime Minister Mark Carney’s historic majority: the implications for the Liberal agenda, for House of Commons committees, and for the country. But one byelection matters more than the others: the riding of Terrebonne, which saw Liberal candidate Tatiana Auguste score a victory in traditional Bloc Québécois territory with a 731-vote margin, and which could reshape politics in both Quebec and Ottawa.

As Mark Carney and his Liberal government celebrate officially achieving majority status in the House of Commons, the Conservatives are nursing the political equivalent of a hangover.

Carney’s Liberals have their majority of 174 seats in large part because four Conservative MPs defected from Pierre Poilievre’s party to Carney’s.

OTTAWA — Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre took aim at Carney’s newly formed majority Liberal government Tuesday and pushed for more relief over fuel prices, bringing forward an opposition motion calling for longer term relief at the pumps.

“We should eliminate the gas tax for the rest of the year, reducing cost by 25 cents a litre, 20 dollars on a tank of gas, 1,200 dollars for the whole year,” Poilievre said.

Politics in Canada has become a theatre of appearances. Parties wear names that suggest one thing while practicing another. The Liberal Party still wraps itself in the language of freedom, dignity, responsibility, and the rule of law. The Conservative Party still speaks as though it stands for restraint, continuity, prudence, and smaller government. The New Democratic Party (NDP) still tries to present itself as the voice of the average person. Yet when these labels are tested against conduct, what emerges is not a clean contest between opposing principles, but a set of rival machines operating inside the same broad government system, each asking the public to judge by appearance rather than by result.