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Did federal workers cost Poilievre his job? Top union boss says it's more about Trump
A major union leader says Pierre Poilievre's claim that he lost his seat because of his pledge to cut the public service is simplistic and should also be attributed to voters linking the Conservative leader to U.S. President Donald Trump. I think what people saw was too many similarities. People see the platform that was presented. They see past decision-making and they link it to what's happening down south in an extreme manner, said Sharon DeSousa, national president of the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC), the largest federal public sector union. She said Trump's mass firings of government workers caused Canadians to worry the same could happen here. They're worried about their livelihood. They're dependent on public services, she said. After Trump was elected president a second time, he launched the Department of Government Efficiency with the help of billionaire Elon Musk (new window) , which gutted several U.S. government agencies and fired thousands of workers. DeSousa said those events changed the game of the 2025 federal election. PSAC national president Sharon DeSousa says Poilievre's argument is 'simplistic.' Photo: CBC / Francis Ferland Poilievre said on Friday that he lost the riding of Carleton — which he represented for more than two decades — because of an aggressive union campaign after he was honest about wanting to cut federal jobs. It's an Ottawa riding with a lot of federal public servants who disagreed with that approach, Poilievre said in an interview with CBC's (new window) The House (new window) . "They ran a very aggressive campaign, particularly the public sector unions did, to defeat me on that basis." DeSousa said PSAC ran a campaign during the 2025 federal election called For You, Canada (new window) that focused on protecting public services and reached about four million people. The very basic campaign targeted MPs in a variety of ridings, she said. At the end of the day, the public sector unions don't have a vote. Individuals do, DeSousa said. I feel like the stance that is being provided is very simplistic. WATCH | Why Poilievre thinks he lost his riding: The union president also said Poilievre's track record in the House of Commons made him even less appealing to his constituents. DeSousa cited Poilievre's vote against developing a national framework (new window) to establish a school food program. I think it's also a disconnect with him and the members of that particular riding. Keep in mind, this is someone who's held that riding for 20 years and was re-elected seven times, she said. In a statement to CBC News, the president of the Canadian Association of Professional Employees, Nathan Prier, said Poilievre actively campaigned against the interests of both his constituents and all Canadians, and as a result, his ideas were rejected. Prier also said Poilievre blaming public sector unions should be a warning to anyone else who fell for his masquerading as a friend of unions, while he clearly attacks federal public sector unions over his electoral defeat. Poilievre claims Liberals hid plans to cut public service During his interview on The House , Poilievre argued he was honest with Canadians about his plans to cut the public service while the Liberals and Mark Carney hid their intentions to do the same. Some people might say, 'Well, it wasn't the best idea to run on a smaller federal public service when you're an Ottawa MP,' but I had an entire country to represent, Poilievre said. I had to be honest with people. Last week, Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne sent letters to cabinet ministers asking them to figure out ambitious savings proposals to handle public sector spending. The wording of the letter was confirmed by Champagne's director of communications. WATCH | Poilievre's exclusive interview with Catherine Cullen: DeSousa said she doesn't think the Liberals were hiding their plans because the Trudeau government had already begun the work to cut federal spending (new window) , including funding to departments and agencies. Carney's election platform promised to cap spending growth at two per cent per year through 2028-29. He also said during the election campaign that he would cap but not cut the public service (new window) . DeSousa said she's hoping Carney will keep that commitment. The prime minister still has an opportunity to make good on his promise, and I think it's a little bit early to say that it was a blatant lie, DeSousa said. We're in a transition period … the prime minister is well aware of the position of the federal public service, the unions and the workers.
CTV News
20 minutes ago
- CTV News
Thousands of Canadians to start receiving invitations to apply to sponsor parents and grandparents
A reveller carries a Canada flag on the Halifax Waterfront during Canada Day celebrations in Halifax on July 1, 2025. (Darren Calabrese / The Canadian Press) Thousands of Canadians will soon receive invitations to apply to sponsor their parents and grandparents as permanent residents. The 2025 intake will open for a few weeks starting July 28 for 17,860 potential sponsors who submitted an interest-to-sponsor form in 2020, according to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) in a notice published online Wednesday. IRCC said its goal is to accept up to 10,000 complete applications under the federal Parents and Grandparents Program. If you receive an invitation to apply in the 2025 intake, you can submit your applications online through the Permanent Residence Portal or the Representative Permanent Residence Portal, according to IRCC. What if you didn't get an invitation? Those who submitted an interest-to-sponsor form in 2020 but didn't receive an invitation to apply should check their email, including their junk and spam folders, IRCC added. It said IRCC will only send invitations to apply to potential sponsors from the 2020 pool of submissions and won't be opening a new interest-to-sponsor form. Those who don't receive invitations for the 2025 intake can apply for a super visa, a multi-entry visa valid for up to 10 years. The super visa would allow parents and grandparents to stay in the country for five-year periods. Parents and grandparents visiting on a super visa can apply to stay an extra two years at a time while they're still in Canada. While the federal government is reducing the numbers of temporary and permanent residents who will be allowed in the country, family reunification makes up 22 per cent of all permanent resident admissions, according to IRCC.
National Post
20 minutes ago
- National Post
Defence spending will lift Canada's economy, but not out of a recession: report
Ottawa's ramped up defence-spending plans will give the economy a lift, but not enough to save it from a recession, a newly released report forecasts. Article content The updated analysis from Oxford Economics published Wednesday projects that Canada's defence spending commitments will raise the country's real gross domestic product by a tenth of a percentage point this year and next. Article content Article content That would bring growth up to 0.9 per cent annually this year and 0.4 per cent in 2026. Article content Article content Prime Minister Mark Carney announced plans last month to reach NATO's defence and security spending target of two per cent of GDP by the end of this year. New member commitments from last month's NATO summit will see that funding ramp up to five per cent of GDP by 2035. Article content Oxford Economics assumes that the accelerated defence spending will be financed by a larger deficit from the federal government; the latest forecasts were prepared before Ottawa announced a plan last week to trim operations spending by 15 per cent in the next three years. Article content The federal government is planning to publish its 2025 budget in the fall after forgoing the traditional spring fiscal update. Article content Without associated savings, the higher defence spending would mean a permanently higher debt-to-GDP ratio for the federal government, the report argued. Article content The defence-driven bump in real GDP also won't be enough to lift Canada out of the 'trade war-induced recession' that's already underway, Oxford Economics said in the report. Article content Article content The firm expects the economy shrank last quarter and that the current recession will last through to the end of the year for a total decline of 0.8 per cent in real GDP before the contraction is over. Article content Article content While the labour market has held up relatively well so far amid Canada's tariff dispute with the United States — the economy added roughly 83,000 jobs last month, surprising most economists _ Oxford Economics thinks the resilience will be short-lived. Article content 'U.S. trade policy uncertainty and new tariffs will continue prompting firms to postpone or cancel investment plans, cut production, curb hiring and increasingly lay off workers,' the report read. Article content The firm projects 140,000 job losses to come in the recession as impacts broaden past tariff-related sectors. That would push the unemployment up to 7.6 per cent later this year from 6.9 per cent seen in June. Article content Oxford Economics expects the Bank of Canada will keep its policy rate on hold at 2.75 per cent through this turbulence, though the firm said it can't rule out an additional rate cut or two from this point.
