Counting Nova Scotia this week, 5 of the 10 provinces plus Yukon have had a pandemic election. Saskatchewan had to have its election. Newfoundland and Labrador as well as Nova Scotia fell under elections with a new person in power.
British Columbia and New Brunswick went to the polls in 2020 for the same reason Justin Trudeau and the Liberals have called for a federal election on September 20: a minority government with favourable numbers trying for a majority government.
The campaign will last 36 days, which is the minimum length of time. The election will be held on September 20.
Trudeau met with Governor General Mary Simon, who approved his request to dissolve Parliament.
This will be the third election for Trudeau, second for NDP leader Jagmeet Singh and Bloc Quebecois leader Yves-François Blanchet, and the first for Conservative Party leader Erin O'Toole and Green Party leader Annamie Paul.
There are 338 seats in the House of Commons with 170 needed for a majority. The Liberals leave this Parliament with 155 seats, the Conservatives have 119, the Bloc Québécois 32, the NDP 24, and the Greens with 2. There are 5 Independents and a single vacancy.
Here's a (completely non-partisan) simple question. If @JustinTrudeau is so confident in his leadership and the strength and smarts of his government, why not continue with the mandate Canadian voters gave him 17 months ago? Is this election call a sign of strength or weakness?
— Dawna Friesen (@DFriesenGlobal) August 15, 2021
Global news anchor Dawna Friesen doesn't really understand the concept of a non-partisan question. Her math is also off by 6 months.
Majority government > minority government: this is the simple answer to Friesen's "simple" question. Will it work? That would be a non-partisan question. What is not getting done in a minority government than would get done in a majority government? That would be a non-partisan question, even if asked sarcastically.
We tend to watch more CBC coverage as opposed to CTV and Global. Easier access, mind-numbingly neutral, and less of this. There is an antagonism in the most popular press in Canada against the Liberals, Greens, and NDP. The vast majority of newspapers. The private broadcasters. Some are more obvious than others.
Journalists should ask sharp questions to the people who want to be prime minister. Friesen is off to a horrible start.
Justin Trudeau wins second term as Canada PM but in a minority government
2019 Canada election preview
The one major pitfall in covering a debate is having to sit through Paul Wells of MacLean's run a debate. Still have nightmares from the embarrassing 2019 debate on Citytv (Rogers owns MacLean's and Citytv).
The more relevant question is whether Green Party leader Annamie Paul will be invited to the private debates. Elizabeth May was invited to some debates but not others in what seemed a random process. May had stature having been a federal party leader for some time.
The Green Party had 3 members in the 2019 election but are down to 2 members. MP Jenica Atwin (Fredericton) left the Greens to sit as a Liberal. There has been a bit of infighting within the party on Paul's leadership.
Maxime Bernier and his People's Party have 0 members in Parliament. We can debate (pun intended) as to whether he should be on stage but Paul deserves to be invited to be on the stage.
The Leaders Debates Commission debates are set. The French language debate is scheduled for September 8 (8-10p Eastern) and the English language debate on September 9 (9-11p Eastern). Both debates will be held at the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau, QC.
Patrice Roy of Radio-Canada will moderate the French debate with Hélène Buzzetti (Les coops de l'information), Guillaume Bourgault-Côté (L'actualité), Paul Journet (La Presse), Marie Vastel (Le Devoir), and Noémi Mercier (Noovo Info).
Shachi Kurl, president of the Angus Reid Institute, will moderate the English debate with Rosemary Barton (CBC News), Melissa Ridgen (APTN News), Evan Solomon (CTV News), and Mercedes Stephenson (Global News).
2021 Canadian politics preview
A pair of stalwarts from Justin Trudeau's initial cabinet will not run in this election.
Catherine McKenna served as the Minister of Environment and Climate Change in the 2015 Cabinet. McKenna switched to Minister of Infrastructure and Communities in the second term.
She came under some misogynist criticism for her concerns over the climate crisis. The MP from Ottawa Centre announced in June that she won't run in the next federal election.
Independent MP Jody Wilson-Raybould says she won't run in the next federal election. Wilson-Raybould was the first Indigenous person to serve as Minister of Justice. The SNC-Lavalin affair shifted her path to being an independent. She won the Vancouver Granville riding as an independent in 2019.
"From my seat over the last six years, I have noticed a change in Parliament, a regression," Wilson-Raybould said in a letter posted online. "It has become more and more toxic and ineffective while simultaneously marginalizing individuals from certain backgrounds. Federal politics is, in my view, increasingly a disgraceful triumph of harmful partisanship over substantive action."
Mumilaaq Qaqqaq, the lone MP from Nunavut, will not seek re-election. Qaqqaq is with the NDP.
You may not recognise the name Will Amos, a MP from Quebec riding of Pontiac. Amos, who has been a MP since 2015, was caught twice on camera during hybrid sessions of the House of Commons. He was caught naked once and the another time was relieving himself.
What did we learn from pandemic elections in Canada?
Canadian politics coverage on CanadianCrossing.com
We ran election notebooks on Sundays in 2019 to boost weekend reading and to give a nice safe place for those readers who aren't into the minutia of political elections. The notebooks will go up at 9 am Eastern/6 am Pacific/10:30 am in Newfoundland on Sundays between now and September 20.
Canadians love to complain about the number of elections. Canadians have things pretty easy in terms of elections, compared to Americans.
Similar to other pandemic elections, Canadians will be able to have mail-in ballots. Since many Canadians will take advantage of this option, we may not know the exact breakdown of this election on the night of September 20. The Liberals enter this race 15 seats short of a majority. We've seen some close elections in recent years in Canada.
In the last 6 federal elections, Canadians have voted for a minority government 4 times (2004, 2006, 2008, 2019) and a majority government (2011, 2015) 2 times. When 2020 started, Canada had a minority government in 4 provinces and the federal government.
If Trudeau and the Liberals won a majority in 2019, there would be a different story to read instead of this one.
photo credits: CBC News; compilation, originals from CBC News
Twitter capture: @DFriesenGlobal
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