Race for Yukon's next premier between business insider and former chief

A new premier of Yukon is expected to be chosen by the governing Liberal party on Thursday, leaving the winner with just months to make their mark before a territorial election has to be called.
Yukon Liberals will pick the party's next leader at a convention in Whitehorse to replaced outgoing premier Ranj Pillai, who announced in May that he would be stepping aside once a successor is chosen.

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Vancouver Sun

an hour ago

• Vancouver Sun

Ottawa considering 'combination of approaches' to 20% military pay hike

OTTAWA — Defence Minister David McGuinty's office says it's considering a 'combination of approaches' to boosting pay for armed service members, including introducing retention bonuses for 'stress trades.' 'This investment represents an almost 20 per cent increase to the overall CAF compensation envelope,' McGuinty's spokesperson Laurent de Casanove said in an email statement to The Canadian Press. 'The Department of National Defence and the Canadian Armed Forces are actively working on how best to implement this investment, looking at options that include a combination of approaches such as retention bonuses for stress trades, increased starting salaries for junior members, and a broad-based salary increase.' Start your day with a roundup of B.C.-focused news and opinion. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder. The next issue of Sunrise will soon be in your inbox. Please try again Interested in more newsletters? Browse here. While McGuinty's recent public commitment to grant the Canadian Armed Forces a '20 per cent pay increase' won praise within the defence community, it has also led to confusion — and some experts are saying they want to read the fine print. Military pay scales are complicated and are based on rank, profession, deployment and other conditions. There are many ways to roll out a boost in compensation. Charlotte Duval-Lantoine, a fellow at the Canadian Global Affairs Institute, said she thinks this will not amount to an across-the-board pay hike. 'What is clear to me from this statement is that they are looking at all the options,' she said. 'We're still in that big question about what it looks like because a pay raise versus specialty pay versus an adaptation of the compensation package overall — not in salary — are not the same thing.' She said the way the pay pledge was communicated initially was 'risky' since the details were not readily available, and that has led to confusion among military members and expectations of a blanket pay hike. Gary Walbourne, former ombudsman for the Department of National Defence, called McGuinty's promise 'vague at best.' 'There's nothing clear in this message,' he said. 'A 20 per cent increase overall to CAF compensation envelope, what does that mean? Is it coming in benefits? … Is it going be on a cyclical basis? What's the percentage increase? Is it based on seniority, rank, merit?' The former watchdog for military personnel said it sounds like the Liberal government wants to implement a pay boost quickly, but 'the mechanisms that they apply to it is going to complicate it and once the bureaucrats get their hands on it, well, I can see a slowdown coming.' If CAF members don't see a 20 per cent pay bump after the minister's announcement, he said, it will be 'deja vu all over again' for military personnel who have been let down in the past by lofty promises followed by implementation that 'sucks big time.' The federal government has multiple policy options for addressing the cost of living for CAF members, such as lowering rent for on- or near-base housing or boosting allowances, such as danger pay. Duval-Lantoine suggested Ottawa should focus on specialty trades that 'do not get nearly the attraction that they need to have.' The military has long struggled with shortages of professionals who are hard to recruit and retain — people in the technical trades and logistics, pilots, medical specialists and middle management. The Navy has found it hard to attract and keep maritime technicians, while people working in maintenance trades such as plumbers and electricians can be paid better in the private sector. Walbourne suggested Ottawa look at direct pay, focus on the lower ranks and address regional disparities in the cost of living. Andrew Leslie, a retired lieutenant-general and former Liberal MP who has called for higher wages in the armed forces, hailed the minister's pledge as long overdue. 'They need it because the last 10 years, there hasn't been a lot of love shown to the Canadian Armed Forces by the government of Canada,' Leslie said. 'Quite frankly, a 20 per cent pay increase is outstanding and I compliment the leaders who made that decision. I firmly believe they're going to pay a 20 per cent pay increase to everybody in the Canadian Forces.' Gaelle Rivard Piche, head of the Conference of Defence Associations and the CDA Institute, called the promised pay hike a 'great first step' and something that could be achieved 'quite easily' compared to other challenges facing the armed forces. 'It was long overdue,' she said. 'We know that the Canadian Armed Forces have been dealing with both a recruitment and a retention problem, and an increase in salary will certainly help to make Canadian Armed Forces positions and employment more attractive.' Prime Minister Mark Carney vowed during the recent federal election that he would rebuild and rearm the military and increase military pay. Some of the largest earmarks in his election platform go toward national defence. He recently announced a cash injection of $9 billion into national defence this fiscal year, as Canada looks to finally meet its NATO defence spending commitment. Then-defence minister Bill Blair last year described the state of military recruitment as a 'death spiral' and Canada is still short some 13,000 regular and primary reserve personnel, according to the Department of National Defence. 'There's been generally some delays in terms of receiving basic training, but also trade-related training, which makes people less inclined to finish their training and then become an actual serving member,' said Rivard Piche. Leslie also said housing and base conditions remain abysmal in some areas and need to be quickly addressed. 'Black mould exists in a variety of national defence buildings. There are some bases that don't have drinking water. There's buildings and houses for families that are 60, 70, 80 years old in dire need of repair,' he said. 'As well, you've got to make sure that you have money for equipment, money for training, money to create the stockpiles of stuff you're going to need should the worst happen — i.e., war.' Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark and sign up for our daily newsletter, Posted, here .

Montreal Gazette

3 hours ago

• Montreal Gazette

Pablo Rodriguez can't treat anglos ‘as the party wallet'

The Corner Booth Pablo Rodriguez is the new leader of the Quebec Liberal Party, but is he the right man for the job? As pointed out by The Gazette's Philip Authier, Rodriguez 'has his work cut out for him.' Political strategist Jennifer Crane, founder of Connexion Quebec Public Affairs, and political analyst Raphaël Melançon, founder of Trafalgar Stratégies, join hosts Bill Brownstein and Aaron Rand on this week's episode of The Corner Booth at Snowdon Deli to break down Rodriguez's closer-than-expected leadership win, and whether he can bring Quebecers back to the party in time for the 2026 election. 'I was surprised he didn't win as solidly as he thought he was going to win,' Crane said. 'Most people I know who are anglos voted for (second-place finisher) Charles Milliard.' A new Pallas Data poll shows the provincial Liberals sit in second place under their new leader, only five points back of the Parti Québécois. With Paul St-Pierre Plamondon's party ahead and François Legault's CAQ a distant third, Melançon says sovereignty is back on the table, meaning Rodriguez can position the Liberals as a refuge for voters who don't want a referendum. But Rodriguez will have to make inroads in the regions of Quebec, where his resumé as a Montreal-area federal cabinet minister under Justin Trudeau could complicate matters. 'He is an easy target to attack. He's an easy target for the PQ,' Melançon said. 'One thing I hope he doesn't import from the federal Liberals is to treat the English-speaking community as the party wallet,' Crane said. 'And then we're expected to turn around and say 'oh, we didn't notice you're putting a knife in our back.'' In the episode, they also discussed Marwah Rizqy leading the Liberals in the legislature, as well as this fall's municipal election, which will see a new mayor get elected with Valérie Plante choosing to not run again. Projet Montréal's Luc Rabouin and Ensemble Montréal's Soraya Martinez Ferrada are in the running, but could we see a last-minute candidate emerge?

Montreal Gazette

4 hours ago

• Montreal Gazette

Libman: Quebec Liberals gamble on Rodriguez. Will voters?

Did Quebec Liberals shoot themselves in the foot last weekend? Pablo Rodriguez, a former MP and minister under Justin Trudeau, narrowly won the leadership of the provincial party over pharmacist and former head of the Fédération des chambres de commerce du Québec, Charles Milliard. The Liberals face an uphill challenge. To win next year's election, they must wrestle back the support of francophone voters who make up 80 per cent of the electorate. For the past several years, francophone support has been languishing at or below 10 per cent. The Liberals are largely the default party for non-francophones concentrated primarily in the Montreal area. Montreal Island and Laval, however, comprise only 33 of 125 ridings. As the Coalition Avenir Québec and Parti Québécois have shown, you can win elections without Montreal, but you can't win without the overwhelmingly francophone regions covering the rest of Quebec. Rodriguez came to Quebec as a refugee from Argentina at eight years old, not speaking French or English. He became involved politically in the provincial Liberal youth wing before jumping to federal politics. He is affable and a good organizer with political experience who knows how to say the right things. Is that the right recipe, though, to save the Liberals? According to polls, most voters crave change from the CAQ government, and with the Liberals in limbo, had been parking their votes with the PQ — despite a commitment by its leader to hold a sovereignty referendum most Quebecers don't want. Rodriguez will undoubtedly hammer away at the PQ's referendum pledge as adding more uncertainty in an uncertain world. And when asked how he will win over the regions, he duly responds that all Quebecers want good government. More than rhetoric, though, he will need to start showing some substance on major issues, particularly the economy, health care and education — areas of failure by the existing government. His campaign website has several broad commitments but is short on specifics. Rodriguez's challenge, however, may go beyond just that. In the history of Quebec, only one premier — French-born Henri-Gustave Joly de Lotbinière (1878-'79) — wasn't born in the province (though René Lévesque was born in a hospital in Campbellton, N.B., across the bay from his Quebec home in New Carlisle.) Electoral politics, like it or not, often includes an element of voting for someone with whom you identify — linguistically, culturally, ethnically. In Quebec's regions, where the population is much less diverse and typically more nationalistic, a native son could articulate immigration or economic policies, for example, without the message's focus being potentially blurred by their roots or nationality or mother-tongue. On language issues, Rodriguez has recently been criticizing the CAQ government's actions as divisive, saying he would modify Bill 96 by eliminating two irritants — the search and seizure provisions and six-month grace period for immigrants to receive government services in English. He also promises to reverse tuition hikes that penalize English universities, and he opposes the pre-emptive use of the notwithstanding clause. But as he inevitably faces pressure to solidify his pro-Quebec credentials or acknowledge 'the decline of French,' will the standard recoil reflex to throw anglophones under the bus kick in? He certainly didn't object to Bill 96 as Trudeau's Quebec Lieutenant, and he supported the Official Languages Act revision (C-13) that compromises minority-language protections for Quebec anglophones. Rodriguez beat other strong leadership candidates, but many party members may have supported him based on a Léger poll showing the Liberals under his direction had the best chance of rivalling the PQ. However, that poll may have been skewed by the name-recognition effect at the time. Any new leader, once chosen, inevitably grows in stature. Few Canadians knew Mark Carney a year ago. Rodriguez has positive attributes and a compelling life story. In choosing him, though, Liberals are challenging history — and gambling that Quebec voters are prepared to do the same.