Seriously, Canada. If former Syrian refugees are excited to vote in #Canada, you should be too. https://t.co/KqemxODC1R #elxn43 #cdnpoli
— Chad Rubel (@canadian_xing) October 15, 2019
If an election doesn't go the way you want it to go, but if there is a huge turnout and people know the issues, there isn't much you can do. The frustration of Canada Election 2019 is that there is a malaise that nothing is exciting and why should people vote. Thank goodness for Syrian refugees and other refugees and immigrants who appreciate the fact that they can vote and have choices in Canada.
Young people, if you want to government to care, if you want better choices, vote. They will pay attention to you if you vote. Why do they focus on married couples with children? Because they vote.
This is my last chance to make a difference. Please share this with your network and get out and vote! #whatsyourexcuse @justinpjtrudeau @andrewjscheer @jagmeetsingh @MaximeBernier @liberalca @cpc_hq @ndp @peoplespca @CanadianGreens #cdnpoli #Elxn43 #canpoli pic.twitter.com/xxfXxuOrEf
— Maddison (@MaddiYet) October 15, 2019
Your local MP candidates. A federal party leader. Wherever you find your inspiration, you can make a difference if you vote.
Canadian content notebook: Canada Election 2019
There appears to be a consensus on a Netflix tax. Changes could come to the Broadcasting Act or maybe not. Is Netflix fulfilling its Canadian content funding in spirit as well?
These are some of the questions we brought up earlier this week. Like our food coverage, we explored topics not likely to be covered in depth in the campaign.
Canadians lived through years of CBC funding cuts under the Harper Government and don't have much hope with Andrew Scheer on that topic.
CanadianCrossing.com Canadian politics coverage
There have been irrational waves of hatred aimed at Justin Trudeau online and in real life. People can disagree on Trudeau and his policies but the level of anger has little to do with what Trudeau has done.
Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau wore a bulletproof vest on stage after a 90-minute delay amid heavy security at a campaign rally in Mississauga, Ontario, after a security threat.
Trudeau's wife, Sophie Grégoire Trudeau, was supposed to introduce her husband but did not appear on stage.
Canada election 2019: The impact of the official debates
Transparency is crucial for Canadians to decide on a dual citizen for prime minister
Andrew Scheer has run a long list of lies against Justin Trudeau and the Liberals. The latest lie on Friday was a doozy: a GST hike and a federal transfers cut to provinces and territories. The CBC News article starts out with "Offering no evidence to back up his claims."
The lies have come in English and Chinese. The level of lies remind some people of a certain angry U.S. political figure. Lying did work well south of the 49th parallel. We'll find out Monday if that works in Canada.
Scheer could try being proactive such as finally answering how he traveled to the United States without a valid U.S. passport. He could also address whether the Conservative Party hired a consulting firm to "seek and destroy" the People's Party of Canada aka Maxime Bernier.
@jayme_poisson @FrontBurnerCBC promised in-depth look in party platforms. Their take on @CanadianGreens was quick and not sincere. Not rooting for a party. Bad #cdnjournalism. #elxn43 #cdnpoli
— Chad Rubel (@canadian_xing) October 18, 2019
Front Burner host Jayme Poisson and Power & Politics host Vassy Kapelos talked major party platforms. They grouped the Liberals and NDP in Part 1. The report did a decent job on listing highlights with some criticism. That was fine. The Conservatives and Greens were grouped together in Part 2. The Conservatives got 17 minutes of what I have termed olé journalism, where elements are presented without critique or criticism. The Greens were up next and the tone changed dramatically.
The attitude was that the Greens would not win a majority. The NDP won't either but they gave the NDP platform a decent critique. The Greens platform has a lot more than climate change, not that we heard that from Poisson and Kapelos. They spent more time talking after the Green Party "analysis" than the 4 minutes they spent on climate change. I know I read the Green Party platform; we don't know if they did.
This is an example of lazy/bad journalism we are used to seeing in the United States. CBC News should have much higher standards.
What marijuana tourism in Ontario will look like on Opening Day
Opening Day for legal recreational marijuana in Canada
Justin Trudeau and the Liberal Party should get full credit for legalising marijuana coast to coast to coast. They also should get criticism for not legalising edibles at the time. Thursday marked the 1-year anniversary of legal marijuana in Canada. Edibles finally became legal in Canada on Thursday but in Orwellian fashion, there is a 60-day period before edibles can go on sale.
When you have a year-long delay, why do you need 60 days more of a delay.
Trudeau deliberately set up the introduction of edibles until after the 2019 election. The tax money raised from edibles could have made a lot of crucial constituencies very happy.
Canada election 2019: Diary of an 'insurance broker'
Canada election 2019: The impact of Tout le monde en parle
There was an excitement about the 2015 election. 3,657,415 Canadians came out early to vote in advance polls. In 2019, the numbers went up to 4.7 million electors, according to Elections Canada. The numbers are up by 29%.
The 2019 total does not include ballots from on-campus polling stations or at local Elections Canada returning offices. The university numbers were at 111,300 electors, up from 70,000 in 2015.
We don't know if overseas voters factored into those numbers.
The numbers broken down by the day: 1.2 million on Friday; 977,000 on Saturday; 915,000 on Sunday; and about 1.6 million on Thanksgiving Monday.
I was proud to work with Justin Trudeau as President. He's a hard-working, effective leader who takes on big issues like climate change. The world needs his progressive leadership now, and I hope our neighbors to the north support him for another term.
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) October 16, 2019
Barack Obama and Justin Trudeau clicked on a level that a U.S. president and Canadian prime minister rarely reach in modern times. Obama endorsing Trudeau wouldn't be a surprise in private but a bit of a surprise in public.
Obama is definitely loved in Canada by many of the same people who are on Trudeau's side. Elections Canada weighed in that the endorsement is not political interference. Obama is now a private citizen.
We likely will never know whether the endorsement will help down the stretch. The consensus is that the race is somewhat tight, polls at least, and every little bit can make a difference for those who haven't already voted.
Barack Obama takes in Montreal
Obama Canadian Parliament speech needs to ignite significant growth in the bilateral relationship
Justin Trudeau White House State Dinner shows potential of successful partnership
Obama in Canada: a little talk, a lot of charm
We aren't thrilled about any type of a "100 Day Action Plan" from any candidate or party. There was an element in Andrew Scheer's such plan that sparked our interest.
Scheer promised to meet with premiers to eliminate provincial trade barriers. The Conservative Party leader pointed out that some Canadian businesses find trading with the U.S. and Europe easier than with other provinces.
We have thought this was bad for business for years. We doubt Scheer will have that much luck in pulling that off, but mentioning that concern gives you points.
Canadian political ads from fall 2019 NHL Center Ice free preview
We usually run a summary of Canadian ads from the week long NHL Center Ice free preview every October. We focused purely on political and election related ads.
If you didn't see that from this week, you might be pleasantly surprised how many ads we got to see during 7 days of the NHL.
There are only 2 negative ads, both Conservative ads against Justin Trudeau. The rest are positive or neutral.
Canada election 2019 debates preview
Canada election 2019: Make room for 6 at the commission debates
Climate change and the carbon tax has been a key issue in Canada election 2019. Quite frankly, no one has explained this well, especially Justin Trudeau and the Liberals. The deal was to encourage provinces to come up with a program on its own to fight climate change. If your plan didn't meet set federal standards, your province would be subject to a carbon tax.
So the cap-and-trade system that Ontario, Quebec, and California had far exceeded those federal standards. Alberta wasn't subject to the carbon tax under Rachel Notley and the NDP. The wave of Conservative wins brought mostly a lack of a plan. Quebec kept its plan and New Brunswick decided not to fight the carbon tax.
The other premiers didn't want to submit a plan. They wanted to criticise the federal carbon tax that was only levied because they had no plan.
Another area the Liberals haven't promoted is while the carbon tax is paid at the moment, households will get rebates.
Andrew Scheer has said repeatedly that the largest carbon producers are being exempt from the carbon tax. That sounds bad but there isn't much to know about whether that is true. The Liberals don't deny that. But we don't have the numbers.
Those on the left to the Liberals look at the carbon tax as a relatively light way to manage the climate crisis. The carbon tax is a conservative (small c) idea. The Scheer plan is to come up with great technology and export that technology to China and India. Does that technology exist? If so, why hasn't Canada done that. If not, how do we know that technology will exist.
The carbon tax is designed to change behaviour but give a rebate on the back end to not do financial harm to average Canadians.
School strike week 61. Edmonton. Organisers say 10 000-12 000 people!#climatestrike #fridaysforfuture #schoolstrike4climate pic.twitter.com/bVEXa9BGdS
— Greta Thunberg (@GretaThunberg) October 18, 2019
Greta Thunberg was in Alberta this past week, briefly in Calgary and then in Edmonton for her weekly Fridays for Future strike at the Alberta Legislature in Edmonton. The rally in Edmonton also got pro-pipeline protesters as well.
Ryan Reynolds and Margaret Atwood cited climate change as the biggest issue in the election.
The Current on CBC Radio One had a great discussion on where the major parties stand on climate change.
2019 Canadian politics preview
Green Party leader Elizabeth May said she would not support a minority government that would move to build the Trans Mountain pipeline. That move definitely ruled out the Conservatives. The Liberals, short of a sharp reversal on the pipeline, would also be on that list.
NDP leader Jagmeet Singh has said he would not support a Conservative minority government. The NDP might help out a Liberal minority government but Singh has 6 "urgent priorities":
- A national, single-payer universal pharmacare plan and a national dental care plan.
- Investments in housing.
- A plan to waive interest on student loans.
- A commitment to reduce emissions, to end subsidies for oil companies and to deliver aid to oilpatch workers to transition them out of fossil fuel industries.
- The introduction of a "super wealth" tax and a commitment to closing tax loopholes.
- Reducing cellphone bills.
In the 2015 election, Justin Trudeau's argument was to vote Liberal to avoid Stephen Harper winning another term. Trudeau is making that same argument in 2019. If the NDP gains more momentum in the GTA (Toronto), that could swing ridings to the Conservatives. The NDP would likely take those ridings in the Vancouver area.
The loss of seats in Quebec, whether to the Liberals or the Bloc Quebecois; if the Greens win 5-7 seats, especially in British Columbia: all of these outcomes could erode the impact of the NDP.
Canada election 2019: MacLean's, Citytv big losers in the first debate
2019 Canada election preview
We talked in the beginning about the fear of non-profits for having to register as a third-party group because they didn't want to risk their funding. The Manning Centre (from former Canadian Alliance leader Preston Manning) raised more than $300,000 to give to third-party groups to run anti Justin Trudeau ads during the campaign. The Manning Centre isn't releasing the source of the donations.
Former chief electoral officer Jean-Pierre Kingsley notes that the letter of the law is not being broken but the spirit of the law definitely has been violated.
Presumably, the letter of the law would be broken if those donations came from foreign sources. The Globe and Mail first reported this story.
Pour la deuxième en deux jours, un militant conservateur me demande de poser mes questions en anglais. #polcan
— Philippe-Vincent Foisy 🎙 (@pvfoisy) October 18, 2019
New Brunswick is the only officially bilingual province. The French language newspapers have a more independent impact in the province. Deep in this story, we find out that a Radio-Canada reporter was shouted down by Conservative supporters for asking questions in French.
Despite Kevin O'Leary's attempt to prove otherwise, party leaders are bilingual in part to answer questions from media in both official languages. New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs, a Progressive Conservative, should step up and defend the right to get questions in English and French.
Twitter captures: @canadian_xing; @MaddiYet; @canadian_xing; @BarackObama; @GretaThunberg; @pvfoisy
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