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Hamilton Spectator
a day ago
- Politics
- Hamilton Spectator
Mark Carney's minority government has an unexpected partner in the Conservatives — for now
OTTAWA—There's a new coalition in town. If the last Parliament was dominated by the Conservatives' insistence that the Liberal-NDP alliance had spun the country into an irreversible state of disarray, the opening weeks of the latest session has put a new pact on the map. 'It appears to me, and it remains to be seen, that (Prime Minister) Carney's new majority coalition is Liberal-Conservative, delivering Pierre Poilievre's policies with a more friendly face,' said the Green Party's Elizabeth May on Monday, as she raised the alarm over C-5, the Liberals' major projects bill. The Grit-Tory co-operation around that bill, which led to the proposed legislation being bulldozed through Parliament this week, prompted members of other federal parties to make the same dig. The Bloc Québécois warned of a 'new cross-party alliance,' while the NDP accused both parties of joining forces to steamroll over environmental protections and Indigenous rights. Of course, there is no actual coalition at play. But charges of one, combined with a fledgling Carney government pulling the Liberals away from the left, means the Conservatives must make a new case as to why they are still the top alternative in a post-Justin Trudeau world. 'Mark Carney is governing like a Progressive Conservative. So where's your opportunity?' said Tim Powers, a former Conservative strategist and chair of Summa Strategies. Carney's 'One Canadian Economy' bill, which proposes, in part, to grant Ottawa temporary powers to fast-track major resource and infrastructure projects, contains some promises that are not altogether different from what Poilievre pledged during this year's campaign. Rapidly spurring Canadian resource projects and accelerating approvals were key commitments in the Conservatives' platform, even if they were accompanied by other promises like scrapping the industrial carbon price and repealing the Liberals' contentious Impact Assessment Act. Bill C-5 is unlike any piece of legislation we have seen in Canada federally. Because Bill C-5 doesn't go that far, it doesn't have Poilievre's complete approval. And while his decision to be the Liberals' dance partner this week quickly drew the ire of other opposition parties, others believe it wasn't a damaging move. 'Canadians ultimately want them to work together,' said Shakir Chambers, a Conservative strategist and vice president at the public affairs firm Oyster Group. 'If you're going to co-operate on some things, co-operate on the things that you have been championing, even pre-election, to move forward and get them passed.' Powers said Poilievre now has heavyweights in his caucus like Edmonton Northwest MP Billy Morin, the former chief of Enoch Cree Nation, to push back against narratives that the Conservatives aren't attuned to concerns from Indigenous communities about the bill. MPs are expressing reservations about the push to fast-track major development projects. The Liberals, too, don't seem particularly bothered by the 'coalition' barbs. 'I don't take them very seriously,' London Centre Liberal MP Peter Fragiskatos told the Star. 'I'm very glad (the Conservatives) are coming to the game and playing a constructive role. It's been a very long time since they've done that,' Liberal MP and former House Speaker Greg Fergus said. Nevertheless, the early weeks of Canada's 45th Parliament have offered a few glimpses into where the Conservatives see their lines of attack. One emerged this week in the form of the Trudeau-era target that zero-emission vehicles should make up 20 per cent of new car sales starting in 2026, growing to 100 per cent by 2035. 'Well, somebody wants to tell you where to go and how to get there,' Poilievre said in a five-and-a-half minute video posted on social media Thursday. 'It's the Liberal government's new attempt to ban your gas-powered vehicles.' Conservative Deputy Leader Melissa Lantsman introduced a defeated motion this week, calling on the Liberals to scrap the policy and posting on social media that 'the government has no place in the driveways of Canadians.' The policy is not a 'new attempt,' nor is it a flat-out 'ban' on gas-powered vehicles: it's a regulatory scheme aimed at incentivizing the sale of more EVs. 'That's another thing that Justin Trudeau was focused on,' Powers said. 'Guys, wake up! And girls. Justin Trudeau is gone. He's gone. There's a new Liberal leader, and he's not giving you much ammunition.' But Chambers said zeroing in on the EV mandate is a natural next step for a party focused on buoying the oil and gas sector. 'It's a good point to attack,' Chambers said. 'If you bring back … the industrial carbon tax issue, again, opposing the EV mandate kind of fits with that overall blanket of policy ideas.' Other issues the party focused on this week, such as bringing forward a motion imposing a lifetime ban on ArriveCAN contractor GCStrategies, were more successful. But Chambers said that the past few weeks of Parliament have mostly been a 'test run', and that Canadians are currently focused on more pressing issues like affordability, trade disruptions and international conflicts. That's where he says Poilievre's focus should lie as he prepares for a fall session, where it's expected that the Conservative leader will make his triumphant return to the House of Commons after a summer byelection, revamp his shadow cabinet with fresh faces, and set Carney's first federal budget in his sights. He'll also have to factor in the Conservative party's national convention, set to be held next January, where he will face a leadership review following his election loss. Powers said that by the time the calendar rolls over into September, he wants to see more 'maturity' from the party. 'I think Conservatives need to lead a little bit again in thought, not just in (social media) clip, and in meme,' Powers said. 'Poilievre's a smart fellow. How can he do that? Where can he put a marker down?'
Edmonton Journal
08-05-2025
- Business
- Edmonton Journal
Bell: Smith slams 'willfully blind' and 'ignorant' critics of Alberta
Article content 'We're feeling like the biggest threat to our economic survival is Ottawa, is continued Liberal-NDP policy like we've seen over the last 10 years. 'If they channel a little bit of their fear of Donald Trump to understand the trepidation of Albertans then maybe we'll get somewhere.' So Trump isn't the biggest threat? 'There is absolutely greater fear that the Liberals and their NDP supporters are going to continue with the same devastating policies. That is what you're seeing Albertans react to.' Why are many not getting it? Smith is not offering them any excuses. None. 'I would call it wilful blindness because Alberta is such a big contributor to Confederation that I guess out east they don't like to be reminded of that over and over again.
Calgary Herald
08-05-2025
- Politics
- Calgary Herald
Bell: Danielle Smith — Liberals not Trump are the greater threat to Alberta
Premier Danielle Smith is on fire this day. Article content Even though the critics continue to dish out the daily rage against her and her UCP government, Smith appears unfazed by the fury. Article content A question. How does Alberta's side of the story get through to these people? Article content Many of these folks live in Ontario and they don't appear to get what's going on in Alberta. Article content They are absorbed in the fear and loathing of the Donald Trump psychodrama. They are consumed by their feelings about the American president. Article content Article content 'As scared as these people are of what Donald Trump is going to do to their economy, that's how scared Albertans are of what the Liberals are going to do to the Alberta economy. Article content 'Maybe that will help get through to them a little bit. That's how we're feeling in Alberta. Article content 'We're feeling like the biggest threat to our economic survival is Ottawa, is continued Liberal-NDP policy like we've seen over the last 10 years. Article content 'If they channel a little bit of their fear of Donald Trump to understand the trepidation of Albertans then maybe we'll get somewhere.' Article content 'There is absolutely greater fear that the Liberals and their NDP supporters are going to continue with the same devastating policies. That is what you're seeing Albertans react to.' Article content Article content Why are many not getting it? Article content Smith is not offering them any excuses. None. Article content 'I would call it willful blindness because Alberta is such a big contributor to Confederation that I guess out east they don't like to be reminded of that over and over again. Article content Article content 'The willful blindness and maybe some expectation that no matter how much Alberta gets hit we will just find a way to keep on building and keep on sending money to Ottawa. Article content Article content 'I think now they understand there's a portion of Albertans that don't like this deal.' Article content The separatist portion. Article content Smith says that is why on Monday she went through Alberta's grievances 'so people understood why it is there's a portion of Alberta that have simply had enough and they want to see a new direction.' Article content Just a few of Smith's demands to Prime Minister Mark Carney.
Winnipeg Free Press
29-04-2025
- Politics
- Winnipeg Free Press
Tory strategists caught flat-footed
Opinion On a winter day more than a decade ago, when Stephen Harper's Conservatives were in power in Ottawa, I was sitting in a restaurant booth when a pair of Prime Minister's Office staffers sat down in the booth next to mine. They were talking loudly, so it was impossible to not hear what they were saying. As they sat there, one of the staffers remarked how the Tories would have never returned to power if the Canadian Alliance and Progressive Conservative Parties had not merged to form the Conservative Party. By 'uniting the right,' he argued, it gave them their only realistic hope of ever winning a federal election again. They then talked about how lucky the Tories were that the left and centrist segments of the Canadian political spectrum would never merge in a 'unite the left' movement, because such a combination would force them to water down their 'core conservative principles' on issues such as abortion and gun control in order to have any hope of winning an election. The way they saw it, as long as the 'Libs and Dippers' kept fighting each other and splitting the large base of moderate and left-of-centre voters in roughly equal proportions, Conservatives would always have a decent shot of forming government. One staffer warned, however, that if that split ever disappeared — if Liberal and NDP voters ever joined forces in one way or another — future elections could become unwinnable for Conservatives. They were right. Fast forward to the just-concluded election campaign, in which a massive shift by erstwhile NDP voters to the Liberals occurred and the Tories struggled to keep pace with the Liberals despite sky-high support and fundraising numbers prior to the election. They polled at a higher level than normally required in order to win a majority government, but they were consistently behind the Liberals in the polls for the final weeks of the campaign. The Conservative campaign strategists can only blame themselves. Based on the results of past campaigns, they crafted a platform and campaign strategy that focused on 'locking in' the percentage of voters they estimated they would need in order to win the election. They failed, however, to anticipate and plan for exactly the scenario the staffer had described in that restaurant years ago — a huge wave of former NDP supporters being willing to vote for Liberal candidates in order to prevent a Tory win. That shift — or at least the possibility of such a shift happening — should have been apparent in properly focused Conservative polling, for several reasons. First, the 'confidence and supply agreement' between the Liberals and NDP kept the Trudeau minority government in power for four years, sending a message to voters that the Liberals and NDP weren't all that different on a range of important policies. Second, Tory MPs consistently derided the Liberal-NDP agreement as a 'Liberal-NDP coalition,' effectively promoting and legitimizing the idea of Liberal and NDP voters working together toward a common objective. Thirdly, and perhaps most importantly, a de facto merger of Liberal and NDP voters has already taken root in several provinces, making such an effort palatable to voters at the federal level. In Manitoba and most other provinces, for example, there is a conservative party, a 'not conservative' party and a few single-digit bottom-feeders. That creates a binary choice for voters that has determined the outcome of many provincial elections for many years, and it may finally be an electoral reality at the federal level. Given those factors, it is both fair and necessary to ask why the Tory strategists failed to see the potential for such a shift to occur and, despite their enormous financial and strategic resources, failed to have a 'ready to go' plan in place to counter it. Without that strategy, the Conservative campaign was caught flat-footed and never really adapted to the new reality that was crushing their hopes of what, just months earlier, had seemed like an inevitable landslide victory. That leads to this obvious question: If Tory staffers were concerned years ago about the possibility of Liberal and NDP voters combining to defeat Conservatives, how was the 2025 Conservative campaign team caught by surprise? How did they not see this coming? Deveryn Ross is a political commentator living in Brandon. deverynrossletters@ X: @deverynross
Ottawa Citizen
29-04-2025
- Politics
- Ottawa Citizen
Yasir Naqvi leading in Ottawa Centre
Liberal Yasir Naqvi was leading in Ottawa Centre as preliminary results came in. Article content With just over 11 per cent of polls reporting, Naqvi was winning more than 61 per cent of the vote. NDP candidate Joel Harden trailed in a distant second with slightly less than 20 per cent and Tory candidate Paul D'Orsonnens was in third with 16 per cent of the vote. Article content Cheers erupted at Naqvi's election-night party at Beyond the Pale brewery in Centretown as Naqvi took his early lead. Many of his campaign staffers and volunteers donned jersey-like t-shirts with 'Never 51' splashed across the back, a reference to U.S. President Donald Trump's repeated threats to make Canada an American state. Naqvi supporter Hamza Arsbi said he sees Trump's threats as a key issue in the riding, which encompasses much of downtown Ottawa, Parliament Hill and surrounding core neighbourhoods. 'For most people in the area it matters a lot to them,' he said. 'It's a very motivating call to arms, especially in the capital.' Meanwhile, at Harden's watch party, a crowd of about 50 supporters gathered at Eggspectation, a downtown diner that usually closes at 3 p.m. Orange, blue, and pink balloons bobbed gently above the booths, and caught the soft glow of the overhead lights of the rustic dinner. As polls officially closed at 9:30 p.m., a volunteer nudged the volume up on the large TV mounted above the bar. Conversations softened. But that did not last for long as loud cheers erupted when the NDP was projected to pick up a seat. 'NDP is on the board,' said one supporter. Article content Article content The race has been a rematch of the 2018 provincial election, which saw Naqvi ousted by Harden in a heated campaign. Article content Article content Historically, Ottawa Centre has long been a Liberal-NDP battleground, but in recent months, poll aggregator consistently predicted a Liberal win, calling the riding as 'safe' for the Grits in the run-up to Monday night. Article content Before Naqvi was elected to the federal seat in 2021, he had represented the riding in the provincial legislature from 2007 until 2018, and was an international trade lawyer before that. Article content Harden left his seat in the provincial legislature to try oust Naqvi a second time. The NDP's Catherine McKenney was won the seat in the recent provincial election. Article content Ed Broadbent and Paul Dewar, two NDP heavyweights, held the riding back-to-back for more than a decade before Justin Trudeau's red wave swept the country in 2015. The Liberals have held the seat federally since then. Article content Article content First, Catherine McKenna was the riding's MP, after defeating Dewar in the 2015 election. She was the minister of environment and climate change from 2015 to 2019, and minister of infrastructure and communities from 2019 until 2021, when she decided to leave politics, making the opening for Naqvi. Article content Article content Article content During the candidates' debate leading up to the election, Naqvi drew on his background in international trade when answering questions on how to deal with U.S. President Donald Trump's trade war. Article content Naqvi said dealing with Trump involves outlining 'non-negotiables,' and that it's 'carved in stone' that Canada not become the 51st state. He said tariffs should be fought back dollar-for-dollar. Article content Carleton Article content Ottawa West-Nepean Article content Kanata Article content Ottawa South Article content
