Poilievre pledges Nunavut military base as part of Arctic defence plan
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Montreal Gazette
12 hours ago
- Montreal Gazette
Libman: Much at stake for Quebec party leaders in Arthabaska byelection
Many Gazette readers might have trouble locating the largely rural Arthabaska riding on a map, but we'll be hearing a lot about it in the days ahead. Located between Montreal and Quebec City, advance voting begins there this weekend for an Aug. 11 byelection to replace Coalition Avenir Québec MNA Eric Lefebvre, a recently elected federal Conservative MP. The byelection is a critical test for Quebec's main political parties and their leaders. Over the past 25 years, the riding has shifted between the Parti Québécois, Liberals, Action démocratique and CAQ. And this byelection offers the possibility of a breakthrough for the provincial Conservatives, with party leader Éric Duhaime potentially making his grand entrance into the National Assembly. The Conservatives finished second here in the 2022 vote with an unknown candidate. Duhaime is the standard bearer this time, and polls show his party neck and neck with the PQ. At a candidates debate last week, he was the centre of attention and primary target of the others, usually the sign of a front-runner. The former radio shock jock has the gift of the gab and would light things up in the assembly. This is Duhaime's best shot. If he doesn't win, the Quebec Conservative Party he has resurrected over the past few years will likely go back in hibernation. For the PQ, anything short of a win will be interpreted as a stalling of the party's momentum, after leading in the polls for almost two years now and having won the last two byelections (Jean-Talon and Terrebonne). PQ Leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon is as confident now as Pierre Poilievre was a year ago in the federal campaign — looking in the mirror, and believing the person staring back at him is the future premier ministre. The byelection will also be the first electoral test for the Liberals since choosing former MP Pablo Rodriguez as leader. There are genuine concerns about his ability to make inroads in the regions. If they fare poorly in Arthabaska — a 97 per cent francophone mother-tongue riding — questions may bubble up as to whether they made a mistake in not opting for Charles Milliard or Karl Blackburn. When asked about the regions, Rodriguez, who was a child refugee from Argentina, talks about growing up in Sherbrooke — which happens to be just south of Arthabaska. We'll see. At last week's debate, the Liberal candidate in the riding also had to fend off criticism about Rodriguez's role in the Justin Trudeau regime regarding the exaggerated influx of newcomers. As for the CAQ, it has won this riding convincingly in all five elections since the party's founding in 2012. It will likely be a very different story this time. This week's news that Quebec's auditor general is probing millions in provincial subsidies to the electric battery industry (Northvolt and Lion Electric) is another blow to a government that appears to be falling apart at the seams amid other financial fiascos like SAAQclic and Santé Québec. It's too early to call this byelection a foreshadowing of the general election that's still over a year away. Nonetheless, the results could unleash internal party tensions at the CAQ. François Legault's leadership hasn't yet been challenged from within, but you can bet his MNAs are hearing considerable grumpiness from voters during the summer break as they spend more time in their ridings. Legault seems desperately hoping for a Hail Mary with a cabinet shuffle in the fall, which he (oddly) advertised well in advance. If the byelection goes sour in a riding his party has dominated for over a decade, and his rearranging of the cabinet chairs doesn't prompt any meaningful bump in support, he will soon have an important decision to make about his future. For a seemingly nondescript byelection in the dog days of August, there are certainly many moving parts, with potentially consequential spinoffs.
CBC
15 hours ago
- CBC
Is the tradition of giving party leaders a free pass to the House dead?
Social Sharing Political parties won't be giving Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre a free ride back into the House of Commons — seemingly ignoring a parliamentary tradition that dates back decades. But the convention of political parties standing aside to allow seatless party leaders an easy path to the House — known as "leadership courtesy" — hasn't been consistently applied. Former Alberta MP Damien Kurek vacated his seat in Battle River-Crowfoot to give Poilievre a chance to rejoin the House of Commons after the Conservative leader lost his longtime Carleton riding in April's general election. Although a large majority of the more than 200 names registered for the Aug. 18 byelection are associated with a group of electoral reform advocates, the Liberals, NDP, Greens and a number of smaller parties are all running candidates against Poilievre. WATCH | Poilievre takes part in candidates' debate: Poilievre, 9 other candidates square off in debate for seat in Alberta byelection 3 days ago Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre faced off against nine other candidates during a two-and-a-half-hour political debate in Camrose, Alta., ahead of the Battle River-Crowfoot byelection. The byelection is a chance for Poilievre to rejoin the House of Commons after he lost his longtime Carleton riding in April's general election. Lori Turnbull, a political science professor at Dalhousie University, said she isn't surprised. "I didn't expect the leader's courtesy to apply here at all," she told CBC News. There are several examples from the last century of parties not contesting a byelection where a party leader is seeking to gain a seat. One of the earliest cases took place in 1919, when recently elected Liberal Leader William Lyon Mackenzie King was the acclaimed candidate in a byelection in Prince Edward Island. King offered the leadership courtesy to Progressive Conservative Leader Robert Manion in 1938. King would also benefit from the PCs not putting up a candidate against him in byelections in 1926 and 1945 — though he had to run against Independent candidates both times. The Liberals also stood down for other PC leaders: George Drew in 1948, Robert Stanfield in 1967 and Joe Clark in 2000. The PCs didn't run a candidate against then Liberal leader Jean Chrétien in 1990. And the Liberals and PCs opted out of byelections that saw former Canadian Alliance leaders Stockwell Day and Stephen Harper gain seats in 2000 and 2002 respectively. WATCH | Jean Chrétien wins byelection in 1990: Jean Chrétien wins byelection in 1990 35 years ago "It's not like a hard and fast rule. But when it applies, it's typically when the leader is elected and they're not an MP yet," Turnbull said. "[Poilievre] was an MP and then he lost. So it doesn't strike me that this would be a place where, necessarily, that courtesy would apply." Potentially the most comparable case to Poilievre's is King, who twice had to seek a seat after losing in a general election. But in King's case, his Liberal Party won the most seats both times — and King was running in byelections as prime minister, not the leader of an opposition party. WATCH | Stephen Harper's 2002 byelection win: Harper '02 byelection win 9 years ago Stephen Harper wins handily in the 2002 byelection. Green Party Leader Elizabeth May, who has been a vocal supporter of the tradition in the past, agreed that Poilievre's situation wouldn't warrant an automatic application of leadership courtesy. "We've been respectful of the tradition, although it's not an obligation," she told CBC News. "It couldn't be more unusual as a set of circumstances — and in this context, a leader's courtesy agreement doesn't spring to mind from any perspective." Even when it comes to newly elected leaders, leadership courtesy hasn't always been consistently applied — or applied equally to all parties. The Liberals ran a candidate against Brian Mulroney in a 1983 byelection shortly after he became leader of the Progressive Conservatives. The NDP has almost always opted to run candidates against newly elected leaders — Stanfield in 1967 being the lone exception — and New Democrat leaders haven't seemed to be granted the courtesy either. In 2019, when Jagmeet Singh was seeking to gain a seat in a B.C. byelection, only the Greens stood down their candidate. The party's first leader, Tommy Douglas, also had to run against Liberal and PC candidates in byelections after failing to secure a seat in both the 1962 and 1968 general elections. May criticized the NDP for running a candidate against former leader Annamie Paul in 2020. But she said Poilievre's situation is different for a few reasons. Beyond Poilievre not being a recently elected leader, he is running in what is considered to be one of the safest Conservative seats in the country. "I don't think it would make a material difference to the outcome if we had withdrawn our candidate," May said. But she said the Greens would've considered pulling their candidate had the Conservatives asked them to do so. Turnbull said it is also generally expected that parties run a candidate when they can. She pointed to former Liberal leader Stéphane Dion facing backlash from some of his party's members for not running a candidate in a Nova Scotia riding as part of an agreement with May during the 2008 election. "People expect the party to contest it. It would not be easy for a political party to explain to its supporters that we're not going to run this one," she said. Even when leadership courtesy has been offered, they can still expect to face Independent candidates. Beyond the 200 or so electoral reform candidates, Sarah Spanier and Bonnie Critchley are putting themselves forward as non-partisan options to Poilievre in Battle River-Crowfoot. Both Turnbull and May suggested the parliamentary tradition might be slowly on its way out of fashion, mostly due to the hyperpartisan nature of the current political climate. "I think a lot of our parliamentary traditions are increasingly seen as covered in cobwebs — particularly the traditions that speak to setting partisanship aside in a tradition of respectful engagement in Parliament," May said. "If people see this as a blood sport — and they do … it just seems to me like as a whole we've moved more towards that competitive edge than any sort of courtesy between the parties," Turnbull said, adding that the leadership courtesy tradition "might be dead."
National Observer
a day ago
- National Observer
Freeland tells MPs she is 'dismayed' by BC Ferries' decision buy Chinese ships
Transport Minister Chrystia Freeland told MPs Friday she was "dismayed" by BC Ferries' decision to purchase four new electric-diesel ships from a Chinese shipbuilder using a $1 billion federal loan — but did not call for the loan's cancellation. The House of Commons transport committee launched a study of the Canada Infrastructure Bank loan on Friday. BC Ferries announced in June that it had hired China Merchants Industry Weihai Shipyards to build the new ships after a five-year procurement process that did not include a Canadian bid. The Canada Infrastructure Bank contributed a $1 billion loan to the deal and said in June that the new ferries "wouldn't likely be purchased" without this financing. In her opening remarks before the committee Friday, Freeland said she was troubled by the planned purchase and she believes in supporting Canadian jobs. She said she has sent 71 letters directing all organizations under the Transport Canada umbrella to prioritize Canadian content in their major procurements where feasible — particularly Canadian steel, aluminum, and lumber. When Canadian options aren't available, she said, the preferred option is to buy from countries with trade deals that include reciprocal procurement agreements. Dan Albas, Conservative transport critic and committee co-chair, requested the committee study of the purchase and has asked why $1 billion in public funds was earmarked to finance overseas shipbuilding in the middle of a trade war with the U.S. Freeland said Transport Canada will soon be convening a meeting with provinces and territories, ferry owners and operators, shipyards, labour representatives and the steel industry. She said she's also assembling a second meeting with major rail operators. Freeland did not directly respond when MPs asked her whether the government would push for the cancellation of the loan. She said she agrees that this is a moment of crisis for the steel and aluminum sectors and they need the government's support. The Canada Infrastructure Bank is accountable to Parliament through Housing and Infrastructure Minister Gregor Robertson, who also testified at the meeting. In his opening remarks, Robertson told committee members that the shipbuilder was chosen by BC Ferries, not the federal government or the Canada Infrastructure Bank. He said BC Ferries conducted its own global procurement process that didn't yield bids from Canadian shipyards. Robertson said he's disappointed by BC Ferries' decision and wants to see more Canadian-built vessels and more opportunities for domestic industry to participate in major infrastructure projects. He also called the purchase a "critical" investment and said that "these ferries need to get built." Robertson assured MPs that there will be Canadian jobs associated with the maintenance of the ferries and at terminals. Robertson said the government is looking closely at how it can better align its industrial policy, procurement tools and investment incentives to "support and scale up Canadian capacity in important sectors like shipbuilding." He said the Canada Infrastructure Bank is independent of government and that most of the projects it has funded involve Canadian infrastructure and businesses. BC Ferries CEO Nicolas Jimenez told the committee that it received six compliant bids to replace its four oldest ships, all from foreign countries. While two Canadian shipyards pre-qualified for the competition, he said, neither chose to formally submit a proposal. The organization chose the proposal that offered the best combination of value, quality, delivery, speed and protections for customers, Jimenez said. "This was a choice between a foreign bid or no new ferries," Jimenez said, adding that BC Ferries spoke with officials from the federal transportation department in April about the fact that the procurement was coming to a close. Jimenez said that if the company had gone with another foreign proposal, it would have cost up to an extra $1.2 billion. Even if there had been a Canadian bid, he said, "it too would have cost more and those ships would have taken up to a decade longer." "British Columbians desperately need safe, affordable, reliable new ships to keep them and our economy moving. Our decisions have saved our customers and British Columbians from unaffordable, unnecessary fare increases," he said. Throughout the build, Jimenez said, BC Ferries will have a team of Canadian experts on site in China to ensure high standards of quality and security. Ehren Cory, CEO of the Canada Infrastructure Bank, told MPs that the Crown corporation played no role in BC Ferries' procurement decision. He said it's not the bank's role to tell project partners where they should buy their components. Cory said that regardless of where BC Ferries gets its vessels, the benefits of the Canada Infrastructure Bank's financing go directly to service users "by keeping fares more affordable and ensuring new, reliable, cleaner ships are in service as soon as possible." Jeff Groot, executive director of communications for BC Ferries, has said the company signed the loan with the bank before the contract with the Chinese shipyard was finalized. Freeland sent her B.C. counterpart, Mike Farnworth, a letter in June saying she was disappointed that BC Ferries would choose a Chinese state-owned shipyard "in the current geopolitical context," and asking him to confirm that no federal funding would be diverted to purchase the ferries. Before Friday's meeting began, Bloc MP Xavier Barsalou-Duval said he'd like to see an apology from the government and from the Canada Infrastructure Bank. He said it's "unacceptable" and "problematic" that the government plans to invest in foreign infrastructure when Canada's steel industry is facing tariffs from the United States. The new vessels are expected to join the BC Ferries fleet between 2029 and 2031. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 1, 2025.
