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Winnipeg Free Press
5 days ago
- Politics
- Winnipeg Free Press
Provincial Liberals hunt for relevance — and a leader
Opinion In recent months, there has been much discussion regarding the current predicament and near-future prospects of Manitoba's Progressive Conservative Party. Hard questions have been asked. Hands have been wrung. Eyes have rolled. Heads have been scratched. Having been emphatically defeated and deservedly humbled after seven years of austere policy-making under the leadership of Brian Pallister and, briefly, Heather Stefanson, the PCs have elected a new leader, offered apologies of a sort for the most noxious positions adopted during the last provincial election campaign, and pledged to bring a more palatable brand of conservatism to Manitoba politics. MIKE DEAL / FREE PRESS Acting Manitoba Liberal Leader Cindy Lamoureux. As the ruling NDP continues to ride high in public-opinion polls, it's the PCs' turn to reflect and rebuild. In time, inevitably, they will rise again; such is the cyclical nature of the process in a province in which politics is essentially a two-party affair. But there is another entity seeking to undergo a period of reflection and, hopefully, eventual rebirth. And for the Liberal Party of Manitoba, the issues at hand are of a more urgently existential nature. Rather than 'What's next?' the future-focused question for Manitoba Liberals is more along the lines of 'Is there one?' As the party readies for the search for its next leader, it must grapple with the fact its lone elected member — Tyndall Park MLA Cindy Lamoureux — does not want the job. 'After much consideration,' she said in a statement released last week, 'I have made the decision to not pursue the leadership. I will continue to focus my attention on serving the constituents of Tyndall Park and will remain on as the interim leader until a new leader has been elected by the party membership.' That leaves the Liberals in the unenviable position of heading toward the next provincial election — which is expected in October 2027 — with a leader who does not hold a seat in the house and, based on recent electoral history, has at best a middling chance of winning one. Wednesdays Columnist Jen Zoratti looks at what's next in arts, life and pop culture. 'We've had some rough times (but) we still are a viable party,' party president Terry Hayward said last week. 'A bit reduced, I would admit that.' In fact, it has been decades since the Liberals' role in Manitoba politics has been anything but reduced. The modern-history high point came in 1988 when, under the leadership of Sharon Carstairs (and thanks largely to the unpopularity of then-premier Howard Pawley's NDP), the Liberals secured 20 seats and served as official Opposition to Gary Filmon's minority PC government. The brush with relevance was short-lived, however; the next two votes (1990 and 1995) resulted in Tory majorities, and as then-NDP leader Gary Doer strategically pushed his party from the political left to the centre, the Liberal seat count dwindled from 20 to seven to three and, by 1999, to a single seat. Since the turn of the century, Manitoba Liberals have not held more than three seats in the legislature. The nature of modern Manitoba politics is that whichever party, PC or NDP, wins power does so by presenting a moderate version of its ideology to voters in the city of Winnipeg, where elections here are won or lost. And with centre-left and centre-right positions effectively staked out, there's simply no ideological real estate remaining for what's supposed to be this province's middle-ground alternative. That's the existential challenge facing whomever seeks and wins the leadership of the Liberal Party. And despite Hayward's assurance that 'there is a needed third voice here in Manitoba,' it's currently difficult to discern which route a return to relevance might follow, and what that voice would sound like.
Winnipeg Free Press
06-06-2025
- Politics
- Winnipeg Free Press
Ignorance far from bliss, PC leader pleads in effort to leave stench of '23 campaign behind
Opinion Obby Khan wants to make it perfectly clear that the Progressive Conservative Party of Manitoba's controversial 2023 election campaign is not an accurate reflection of who he is. Khan, who became PC party leader in late April, said he continues to struggle to explain his role in that campaign, particularly ads and flyers promoting him as the champion of 'parental rights,' a well-established dog whistle for anti-LGBTTQ+ activists in Canada and the United States. When the idea for the advertisements was first brought up, Khan said no one from the central campaign team ever warned him the term 'parental rights' was being used in heavy rotation by anti-LGBTTQ+ activists seeking to remove books from school and public libraries and expunge any reference to sexual orientation or gender in public school settings. MIKE DEAL / FREE PRESS FILES Progressive Conservative Party of Manitoba Leader Obby Khan says he supports the LGBTTQ+ community and would never knowingly promote hatred towards them. 'People will believe me or not believe me on this,' Khan said in an interview on the Niigaan and the Lone Ranger podcast. '(But) I did not know the parental rights was a dog whistle. I was legitimately, like, 'It makes sense, you want to be involved (in your child's education). Let's go, let's go do this.' And then, it was afterwards… that I was made aware of (the meaning). People were talking to me about this and it was kind of like one of those 'a-ha' moments.' Khan said he supports the LGBTTQ+ community and would never knowingly promote hatred towards them. However, he said during the campaign, the parental rights issue was presented to him as a way of pledging support to families struggling to get their children's' education back on track after the worst years of the pandemic. Although he is reluctant to say he was misled by the campaign, Khan did say that he now realizes how divisive the term is and wants to apologize to anyone who thought he was promoting a hateful concept. 'I do believe parents should be involved in their children's lives but it's really sad and unfortunate that we used it in a way to create divide and anger and hurt some people, because that was never my intent. My intent was really about trying to protect all kids. If it has caused some harm to some people, I apologize for that.' Niigaan and the Lone Ranger | Khan said he also had an 'a-ha' moment on the 'stand firm' against the landfill search campaign ads. In fact, he said the first time he learned of the advertisements was when he drove past one on a McGillivray Boulevard digital billboard with his son in the car. 'Seeing the damage that it's done, the divide it's created, and anger… I'll say it again: unequivocal apology to the families and… the entire province of Manitoba.' Khan is not the first Tory to argue the most controversial planks in the 2023 election campaign were kept from candidates until the moment that they were broadcast in advertisements and plastered across digital billboards. However, many of the other candidates from that election have moved on, while others enjoy a political existence that is well away from the spotlight reserved for political leaders. The 2023 campaign is clearly still an albatross for Khan, the lens through which everything he says and does is assessed. For example, Khan had to scramble recently to explain why he did not participate in last Sunday's Winnipeg Pride parade, the annual celebration of LGBTTQ+ culture. Pride organizers said neither Khan nor any of his MLAs signed up as an official entry in the parade; Khan said he personally could not attend because of a conflicting obligation and besides, Pride organizers did not invite anyone from his party to participate. In any other year, with any other leader perhaps, this might not be a big concern. But when the poster boy for an ill-fated parental-rights campaign advertisement does not reach out to the Pride community, it leaves both leader and party open to criticism. Can he rise above the meanness of the 2023 campaign and once again stake out ground near the middle of Manitoba's political spectrum? On the positive side of the equation, he seems wired for the job. Despite a lack of experience in politics — he won a 2022 byelection to replace former Tory premier Brian Pallister in Winnipeg's Fort Whyte riding — he is gregarious and unafraid of wading into a room full of voters. Khan is also used to a certain degree of success in his personal and professional life. Tuesdays A weekly look at politics close to home and around the world. A superstar lineman in the Canadian Football League, Khan spent only eight years in professional football but won folk-hero status here in Winnipeg. After retiring, he became a successful business owner with two different local restaurant chains. As for politics, it goes without saying that his victory in 2023 in Fort Whyte was important for his party; Khan was one of only three Tories to win seats in Winnipeg. He quickly translated his political resilience into a leadership win. Now that he's in charge, Khan said he is looking for ways of getting past the mistakes made during the 2023 campaign. 'For any of the hurt or the damage that's been caused throughout the (campaign), I apologize for that. It was never my intent. My intent is always to work for a better Manitoba, for everyone.' Dan LettColumnist Dan Lett is a columnist for the Free Press, providing opinion and commentary on politics in Winnipeg and beyond. Born and raised in Toronto, Dan joined the Free Press in 1986. Read more about Dan. Dan's columns are built on facts and reactions, but offer his personal views through arguments and analysis. The Free Press' editing team reviews Dan's columns before they are posted online or published in print — part of the our tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press's history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates. Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber. Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
CBC
30-05-2025
- Business
- CBC
Special economic zones: the secret weapon in Doug Ford's Bill 5
Premier Doug Ford's justification for his controversial Bill 5 is to protect Ontario's economy against the threats posed by U.S. President Donald Trump by reducing red tape and speeding up approvals of major projects. Ford campaigned vociferously on that theme this winter and it carried his Progressive Conservative Party to its third straight majority. However, Ford never said a word during the 29-day election campaign about the single most powerful thing in Bill 5: granting cabinet the authority to create "special economic zones." The bill would enable cabinet to designate any location in Ontario as a special economic zone, and then to exempt any company or project in the zone from having to comply with whichever provincial laws, provincial regulations or municipal bylaws the government chooses. It opens the door for cabinet to declare that such things as Ontario's minimum wage rules, its environmental regulations, its tax laws or a city's noise restrictions don't apply in the designated zone. No other Canadian province has anything like this. Asked to name jurisdictions that do, Ford government officials offered a list that includes Singapore, South Korea, Poland and Panama. "Essentially, the cabinet could give corporations a free pass to circumvent all sorts of important protections," Anaïs Bussières McNicoll, a director of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, said in an interview. WATCH | Ontario NDP, Liberals successfully stall Bill 5 with midnight filibuster: Ontario NDP, Liberals successfully stall Bill 5 with midnight filibuster 16 hours ago Duration 3:36 Bussières McNicoll says the powers government would get to create special economic zones are akin to emergency powers to override laws, and should therefore be time-limited with checks and balances. 'Easier for companies to invest' Ford and his ministers haven't been quite as specific in explaining the purpose of special economic zones as they've been with other parts of Bill 5, such as shortening the timelines for mining approvals or replacing Ontario's endangered species legislation. "We need to get rid of unnecessary red tape, make it easier for companies to invest, to hire and to grow, and that's exactly what Bill 5 is going to do," said Vic Fedeli, Minister of Economic Development, Jobs and Trade, in question period Wednesday. Under the bill, Fedeli is the minister who gets the power to hand out the legal exemptions to companies of his choosing in the special economic zones. There's some indication the zones are meant to attract foreign investment. There's a line in the text of Bill 5 that talks of making Ontario "the best place in the G7 to invest, create jobs and do business." What's not in the bill are any criteria for deciding which locations, companies or projects would be eligible to be a special economic zone, nor any limits on which laws could be taken off the books in such zones. The only caveat in the Special Economic Zones Act section of Bill 5 was added by the government as an afterthought, more than a month after tabling it: a clause saying that its provisions will be consistent with existing Indigenous and treaty rights under the Constitution. Ring of Fire, 401 tunnel are candidates The government added that clause on Wednesday, six weeks after Ford first signalled that his top priority for a special economic zone is the Ring of Fire mineral deposit in the treaty lands of northern Ontario. The government now says it won't actually designate such a zone in the Ring of Fire without consulting with First Nations, but that hasn't satisfied First Nations leaders who feel the government shouldn't have plowed ahead with the bill without consulting first. The other project Ford has floated as a candidate for a special economic zone is his idea of building a tunnel under Highway 401 through Toronto. But there's nothing in the legislation stopping the government from giving any project or business in Ontario the special status. WATCH | First Nation leaders tell Ford government to kill Bill 5: First Nation leaders tell Ford government to kill Bill 5 3 days ago Duration 2:14 Critics of Doug Ford's Bill 5 say the proposed law would gut environmental protections for wildlife and infringe on treaty rights. As CBC's Mike Crawley reports, Ontario First Nations leaders are now warning of 'conflict on the ground' if it passes. For instance, it could declare the massive Volkswagen electric vehicle battery plant to be built in St. Thomas, Ont. — described as the largest auto industry deal in Canadian history — a special economic zone, and exempt the company from whichever laws cabinet chooses. "You can call them special economic zones, but what we know you are doing is opening up the floodgates for an abuse of power by government," NDP Leader Marit Stiles said. 'The power to override every law' "The government is giving themselves the power to override every law," Stiles said in question period on Wednesday. Ford has expressed disbelief at the opposition to Bill 5, insisting that his entire campaign focused on its measures and that the voters gave him a mandate to take action. "I was crystal clear about getting rid of the red tape, getting rid of the regulations, making sure that we attract investments," Ford said in question period Tuesday. It's true that Ford promised during the campaign to speed up mining approvals and to shrink bureaucracy, both central parts of Bill 5. However, the phrase "special economic zones" never publicly crossed his lips, nor does it appear in the PC platform. The closest the platform comes is a paragraph that promises to designate areas with multiple deposits of critical minerals as "regions of strategic importance" where select projects would get "automatic" approvals to proceed with early phases of work — nowhere near as sweeping as the blank cheque of special economic zones as laid out in Bill 5. Labour unions say Ford is using the Trump threat as a pretext to create the zones. "Under the cloak of an impending economic crisis and the guise of fighting tariffs, Doug Ford plans on delivering workers to the wild west of working conditions, all to the benefit of big business," said CUPE Ontario president Fred Hahn in a statement. Greenbelt parallels It's not a stretch to see parallels between Ford's move to create special economic zones (as a response to the tariff threat) and his move a few months after the 2022 election to allow development on certain properties in the Greenbelt (as a response to the housing crisis.) Both measures involve giving select companies special exemptions from existing rules, neither measure was promised during the preceding campaign and it's unclear how effective either measure would be in achieving its stated economic goal. Ford ultimately reversed course on the Greenbelt.
Toronto Star
25-05-2025
- Automotive
- Toronto Star
No sad songs for my friend Father Sean who went ‘gently toward that glorious goal'
An eleven-year-old Sean O'Sullivan first met John Diefenbaker in 1963 when the prime minister spoke at the Connaught Hotel in Hamilton, where O'Sullivan's father was manager. The two corresponded and then talked again when Diefenbaker returned to the city during the 1965 election campaign. O'Sullivan next worked for Dief part-time in Ottawa, then became his full-time executive assistant in 1972. As press secretary to Robert Stanfield I met O'Sullivan because Dief's lair was across the hallway. I thought if I got close to O'Sullivan, maybe he would blunt the Old Chief's barbs aimed at Stanfield who replaced him as leader of the Progressive Conservative Party. That plan didn't work. Dief wasn't about to change his ways. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW As time passed, however, O'Sullivan and I became such good friends that he freely shared with me — mimicking Dief's voice — some of Dief's foibles. For example, Dief would greet O'Sullivan every morning by saying, 'News, views, interviews,' indicating he sought the sort of gossipy bits that don't appear in newspapers. If he were pleasantly surprised by something O'Sullivan related, he'd say, 'I gollies.' If the news was bad, it was, 'What the hell.' In 1972 O'Sullivan became MP for Hamilton-Wentworth, at twenty the youngest ever elected to Parliament at the time. His seat was in the back row where it was difficult to catch the speaker's eye in order to pose a question to the government. O'Sullivan took it all in stride. Business Opinion Rod McQueen: Cadillacs, corporate jets and war stories: Flying high with Canadian banking's former king of all he surveys The U.S.-born, former BMO CEO Bill Mulholland, writes Rod McQueen, tried several times to 'There's no such thing as a bad seat in the House of Commons,' he once told me. Diefenbaker annually celebrated two anniversaries when supplicants filled his office for a reception. One was his birthday, Sept. 18; the second was March 26, the anniversary of his first election to Parliament. One year, O'Sullivan was travelling with a delegation and missed the March gathering. Knowing Diefenbaker would wonder why he wasn't there, he sent a telegram, saying: CONGRATULATIONS UPON ANNIVERSARY OF YOUR FIRST ELECTION. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW As Sean told the tale, he visited Diefenbaker upon his return, and was surprised to find him irate. 'Were you drunk?' asked Diefenbaker. 'That is the only possible explanation. This is the most damnable thing I've ever seen.' He flung the telegram at O'Sullivan. It read, 'CONGRATULATIONS UPON ANNIVERSARY OF YOUR FIRST ERECTION.' In 1977, O'Sullivan surprised everyone by resigning as MP to study for the priesthood. His explanation to me was straightforward. 'The call to politics makes you open to the pursuit of power. You ask, 'How can I gain?' The call to priesthood is to service. You ask, 'How can I give?'' Father Sean began his new calling as a parish priest then was promoted to publisher of The Catholic Register where he enjoyed dinners plus a car and driver. 'I never took an oath of poverty,' he said. Appointed director of vocations in 1982, he ran a memorable billboard campaign. The large, dramatic, black-and-white rectangular signage showed the head and upper torso of Christ on the cross, looking beseechingly at the viewer. The slogan was: 'Dare to be a priest like me.' The campaign won a prize for outdoor advertising in Canada and thirty possibilities for the priesthood. Anna Porter, of Key Porter Books Ltd. in Toronto, phoned him to say he should do his memoirs. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW 'I will,' he said, 'if Rod McQueen will write them.' I had written speeches as well as two books, The Moneyspinners and Risky Business, but this was my first time as a ghostwriter, or in this case, the Holy Ghostwriter. I needed some guidance so called Ron Graham who had ghosted Jean Chrétien's 1984 autobiography entitled Straight from the Heart. Graham's recipe was straightforward: thirty-five hours of interviews with the subject will yield a 1,000-page transcript which provides enough meat for a 300-page manuscript. I followed the formula and recorded Father Sean's recollections, including the distressing description of his newly-arrived leukemia — cancer of the bone marrow — at thirty-one. Once the interviews were done, I worked eighteen-hour days for a month to produce a 100,000-word first draft. I've written many books since, but that was the most fun I've ever had writing. Business Opinion Rod McQueen: The man who could have been PM — before an infamous fumble zapped his chances Fumbling photo of Stanfield became a metaphor for his beleaguered campaign, writes Rod McQueen, Father Sean contributed, too, including the book's evocative ending which says, in part, 'Soon, I may be summoned home. But sing no sad songs for me; for I am a Christian. Without merit of my own and trusting only in His abundant mercy, I go gently toward that glorious goal.' After publication in September 1986, Father Sean's leukemia grew steadily worse. There was a Canadian boxer at the time named Shawn O'Sullivan. Father Sean would say, 'I'm the fighter, not the boxer.' Father Sean suffered through four chemotherapy programs and visited Lourdes twice. He was preparing for a bone-marrow transplant when he died in 1989 at thirty-seven. But sing no sad songs for him. For he was a Christian.
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Ontario expects budget deficit to more than double in face of US tariffs
By Fergal Smith TORONTO (Reuters) -Ontario, Canada's most populous province and manufacturing powerhouse, on Thursday forecast its widest budget deficit since the height of the pandemic, more than doubling in size, and a slower move into surplus as it increased spending to support the economy in a trade war with the United States. The province's ruling Progressive Conservative Party retained power in a February election, with Premier Doug Ford calling the vote more than a year early, arguing that he needed a stronger mandate to fight U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs. Ontario sends more than three-quarters of its exports to the United States, including autos, steel and aluminum, which are facing hefty U.S. duties. The province said its deficit would increase to C$14.6 billion ($10.4 billion), or 1.2% of gross domestic product, in the current fiscal year, its widest by far since 2020-21, from an estimated C$6 billion in 2024-25. The fiscal year began on April 1. A deficit is also expected in 2026-27, of C$7.8 billion, before a shift into surplus in 2027-28, one year later than was projected in a fiscal update in October. A C$2 billion reserve is set aside in each fiscal year. Economic growth was forecast to slow to 0.8% this year from 1.5% in 2024. Other major provinces, such as Quebec, British Columbia and Alberta, have also projected a deterioration in their finances. "Our government is delivering on our mandate to protect Ontario and help workers and businesses weather the storm, while creating the long-term foundations for a strong, resilient and competitive economy," Ontario Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy said in a statement. "We're making the investments in workers, infrastructure and services that will protect Ontario, no matter what," Bethlenfalvy said. Measures include a C$5 billion emergency backstop for businesses facing significant tariff-related disruptions, expanding a manufacturing investment tax credit at a cost of C$1.3 billion and C$500 million for a new fund to help increase the province's processing capacity in critical minerals. The province, one of the world's largest sub-sovereign borrowers, is also adding C$5 billion to a fund that partners with Canadian institutional investors to finance infrastructure projects, such as energy, affordable housing, long-term care and transportation. It forecast that its net debt-to-GDP ratio will rise to 37.9% in the current fiscal year from its lowest in more than a decade of 36.3% in 2024-25. A further increase to 38.9% is expected in 2026-27 before dipping to 38.6% in 2027-28. Still, long-term borrowing is forecast to decline to C$42.8 billion in 2025-26 from C$49.5 billion in the last fiscal year, which was more than anticipated, with further declines expected in future years. ($1 = 1.3998 Canadian dollars)
