Canada Federal Liberals 2023

Québec Bill 96/Canada C-13

After 8 years, Trudeau’s approval rate falls short of Chretien but beats out his father and Harper
Canadians are split in their opinions on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, according to a new national poll, with two in five Canadians saying they approve of the prime minister, while slightly more than half answered that they disapprove.
A study run by Angus Reid sought to create a picture of the long-term trends of approval rates to see how Trudeau compares to his predecessors in their eighth year in office — and the results are largely favourable, despite a large percentage disapproving.
At 40 per cent approval, Trudeau has a higher approval rate than three past prime ministers at similar stages in their careers, with only Jean Chretien surpassing him.

17 May
Ottawa’s Day of Shame
Beryl Wajsman
For the first time Anglophones in Quebec know they have no federal champion. All this fuelled by a cowering thirst to protect or add Quebec seats. It is pandering to ethno-centric Quebec nationalism.
The Commons vote passing the Trudeau government’s notorious Bill C13 was a day of shame that will not be forgotten. That Bill, superficially an updating of Canada’s Official Languages Act, recognizes by reference the supremacy of Quebec’s Bills 101 and 96 even in areas of federal jurisdiction and makes impotent Ottawa’s responsibility to protect Constitutionally guaranteed English language rights. No Canadian government has ever ceded jurisdiction. Bill C-13 would have Quebec’s language laws apply to such federal businesses as banks, airports, Canada Post and others. For the first time Anglophones in Quebec know they have no federal champion. All this fuelled by a cowering thirst to protect or add Quebec seats. It is pandering to ethno-centric Quebec nationalism.

16 May
Anna Gainey remporte la course à trois de l’investiture libérale dans NDG-Westmount
(Le Devoir) Proche du cercle de Justin Trudeau, la candidate Anna Gainey a remporté lundi soir la course à trois que représentait l’investiture libérale dans la circonscription de Notre-Dame-de-Grâce–Westmount, laissée vacante par l’ancien ministre Marc Garneau. Au coeur des préoccupations des militants venus voter se trouvait celle de « préserver les droits » des anglophones.

10 May
Abolish the free press, and other fringe policies just adopted by the Liberals
(National Post) Abolishing the free press, closing ‘major’ Canadian streets to cars and Toronto-izing the prairies, to name a few
One of the most notable items to emerge from last weekend’s Liberal Party convention was that party members voted to effectively abolish the existence of a free press.
A resolution – passed without debate – said the party should “explore options to hold online information services accountable for the veracity of material published on their platforms.”
Party resolutions are non-binding and they’re typically more extreme than the platforms that parties will ultimately sell to voters come election time. In 2021, for instance, delegates to a Conservative Party convention voted down a proposal to add the phrase “climate change is real” to their official policy declarations.
However, it’s notable that the Liberals are now entertaining far more extreme positions than they used to.

4-6 May, Ottawa
2023 Liberal National Convention focuses on moving Canada forward
Over 4,000 Canadians participated in the 2023 National Convention, bringing together Liberals from coast-to-coast-to-coast to engage in important policy discussions, participate in campaign trainings, and hear from keynote speakers, including Jean Chrétien and Hillary Rodham Clinton. Liberal delegates also elected Sachit Mehra as their new President of the Liberal Party of Canada, alongside the other members of the National Board.
“Over 45% of all participants attended their first-ever Liberal convention and more than 4,000 Canadians participated in our policy process, submitting more than 300 policies,” said Azam Ishmael, National Director of the Liberal Party of Canada. “That’s a real testament to the Liberal Party’s commitment to growing the most open and inclusive movement in Canadian politics, and we still have so much more to do,” said Mr. Ishmael.
Trudeau tries to rally base amid questions of foreign interference
Trudeau tried to energize the Liberal faithful gathered in Ottawa by touting his record, mentioning the renegotiation of NAFTA and the Canada child benefit.
“More than ever, in this consequential moment in the world, your energy is needed,” he said. “It’s because of your hard work that we can continue to deliver for Canadians.”
The Liberal party has struggled in recent national polls as the Liberal government is hounded by allegations it is mishandling foreign interference and failing to truly understand the struggles of average Canadians amid high inflation.
The most recent numbers also show the Liberals lagging behind the Conservatives in fundraising. The Tories raised $8,306,535 in the first quarter of 2023 — more than double the amount the Liberals collected, according to Elections Canada data.
Canada’s Trudeau vows to run in next election at Liberal party convention
(Reuters) – Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Thursday promised to run in the next election at what is likely the last Liberal party convention before a vote and attacked his Conservative rival’s characterization of the country as broken.
Speaking in front of some 3,500 party members at the first in-person gathering in five years, Trudeau delivered what sounded like a campaign speech even though one is not due for another two years.

15 April
The chief of staff in the hot seat (audio)
(The House) After weeks of debate and filibuster, the prime minister’s chief of staff Katie Telford testified Friday before a parliamentary committee looking into allegations around Chinese election interference in Canada. Journalists Aaron Wherry and Jen Gerson break down what her testimony revealed.
Trudeau’s cross-country town halls are back with a new format — and new skeptics
By Mickey Djuric
(Canadian Press via City News) Every town hall begins the same way: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau arrives in a blue or white shirt with rolled-up sleeves, takes the microphone, waxes poetic about the state of the world and acknowledges the challenging years Canadians have recently faced.
The people in the crowd who will have the chance to ask unvetted questions of the prime minister are no stranger to those struggles. At the 14 hour-long town halls Trudeau has attended in the past 11 weeks, the prime minister has put himself in a position to hear their concerns during the question-and-answer sessions that follow his speeches.
But though some attendees who participated in the events said they were encouraged by Trudeau’s efforts, others found themselves cynical about whether he and his government were actually listening.
For Trudeau, it’s a familiar format — and one that some pundits say could serve the party well, even if its utility to the broader public is in question.

14 April
Trudeau Foundation asks Auditor-General to investigate donation from Chinese benefactors
A foundation official said the chair of the foundation, Ted Johnson, wrote to Auditor-General Karen Hogan on Friday to request a formal audit of the non-profit organization.
Andrew Coyne: ‘These stories are based on unnamed sources,’ and other Liberal deflections
Let us suppose for the moment that the stories are true. It is plainly in the public interest to know by what means China attempted to tilt our elections, for what reasons, with what success, and with what assistance – witting or unwitting, by commission or omission – from domestic sources.

13 April
The strange death and rebirth of the Liberal Party under Trudeau
Aaron Wherry
One way to read the events of the past 10 years is to conclude that the post-2011 theories of realignment turned out to be broadly correct — that the party system did polarize, with the Liberals shifting to become the dominant party of the left.
There may be something to that, at least in the short term. But it’s also possible to overstate how much the Liberals have moved leftward. The Liberals remain far less inclined than New Democrats to talk about class or heap scorn upon the rich and powerful.
Despite major new social investments, the Liberals still seem reluctant to create new federally run programs. Dental care is only happening because the NDP demanded it, while Liberal interest in pharmacare has waned. Even when you consider trends in federal spending, the Liberals’ leftward lurch seems more like a nudge. As a share of GDP, federal program spending in 2023-24 is projected to be merely on par with what it was in the late 1980s, when Brian Mulroney’s Progressive Conservative government was in office.

In electoral terms, it’s also possible to conclude that Trudeau’s election victories have merely dressed up what is actually a long-term decline in the Liberal Party’s standing.

8 April
François-Philippe Champagne is building his case to replace Justin Trudeau
Konrad Yakabuski
François-Philippe Champagne suddenly seems everywhere all at once.
When he is not cheerleading for Canada’s participation in NASA’s Artemis II mission to the moon, as he did in Houston on Monday, the federal Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry is ordering the country’s wireless providers to cut cellphone rates or face his wrath, as he did last week in approving Quebecor’s purchase of Freedom Mobile.

4-6 April
Data Dive with Nik Nanos: Have the Liberals passed their expiration date?
Have Justin Trudeau’s Liberals passed their expiration date? Right now, all the major indicators are trending in that direction.
That said, the resilience of the Liberals should not be underestimated. After winning a resounding majority in 2015, the Trudeau Liberals have effectively weathered a number of storms.
… First, the Liberals are trailing the Conservatives outside of the margin of error by about five or six percentage points. The Liberals are on the defensive in major key battlegrounds. In Ontario, they trail the Conservatives. In Quebec, the Bloc Québécois is on the rise and, in British Columbia, the Liberal-Conservative-NDP-Green vote splits could be bad news for Mr. Trudeau.
For a party that was propelled into power largely on “Sunny Ways” and younger voters, the fact that the Liberals are trailing both the Conservatives and the NDP among voters under 35 years of age is bad news.
… Second, the leadership advantage held by most incumbent governments is weakening. Usually, the prime minister of the day enjoys about a five-point baked-in advantage just by occupying the PM’s chair. Not so much for Mr. Trudeau. Mr. Poilievre is very competitive when it comes to who voters would prefer as prime minister – in fact, he’s the first challenger since 2015 to be competitive outside of an election cycle.

Tom Mulcair: When the Liberals fall out of favour, they fall hard
(CTV) There’s a Trudeau “credibility gap” that is widening.
At the flagship English-language Montreal radio station (iHeartRadio’s CJAD 800) where I also work, I was gobsmacked by the generalized bad sentiment towards the Trudeau Liberals during recent call-ins. Something I’d never heard before.
It’s cyclical but over the long haul, English-speaking Quebecers are some of the most faithful Liberal voters in Canada. Trudeau’s recent budget performance seems to have broken that close bond.
Failure to lift a little finger to defend that community from Francois Legault’s outrageously unconstitutional Bill 96, that attacks equality of English and French before the courts, could cost the Liberals big time at the polls in some of their safest ridings.

27 March
Ottawa hangover: After triumph of Biden visit, reality bites back at Trudeau
Come Monday, Canada’s prime minister must grapple again with a Chinese influence scandal, economic troubles and a resurgent opposition.

16 March
The House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance (FINA) recommendations
Is this a ‘Liberal problem or a Trudeau problem’?: David Frum on the potential political fallout from the election interference story
This is the twenty-eighth episode of The Hub’s bi-weekly series featuring Sean Speer in conversation with leading author, journalist, and thinker David Frum. The two discuss the growing allegations of Chinese interference in recent Canadian elections, the Trudeau government’s handling of the issue, and the potential political fallout.

Data Dive with Nik Nanos: Canadians feel the country is on the wrong path
(Globe & Mail) Young people are dour about the future. Confidence in institutions is on the decline and a significant number believe Canada is on the wrong economic track.
For the past three years, Nanos has tracked satisfaction with Canada and confidence in institutions. In 2021, Canada scored a satisfaction rating of 7.2 out of 10. In 2022, this dropped to 6.8. Now, it is at a dismal 6.6.

30 January
Parliament returns with Liberals facing pointed questions about ethics, health care
Parliament is back after a six-week break and the Liberal government is facing aggressive questions from the opposition bench about a number of ethical missteps and the sorry state of Canada’s health-care system — two issues that are poised to dominate this spring sitting.
On the ethics front, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre called on the Liberal government to report the amount of money it has funnelled to McKinsey, a consulting firm that has received tens of millions of dollars in government contracts over the past seven years.

10 January
Tom Mulcair: Signs another federal election is coming
Bill C-13, the ill-considered rewriting of the Official Languages Act, could move anglo votes away from the Liberals.
A lengthy visit to Quebec from Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre; Prime Minister Justin Trudeau apparently reaching an entente on health care with Premier François Legault; bits and pieces of bureaucratic and legislative debris being swept off the runway. As the year gets underway, it really does appear 2023 could bring us our third federal election in four years.
Trudeau’s polling numbers remain steady and he’s a superior campaigner. But messy situations like the $100 million in contracts to U.S. consulting firm McKinsey could quickly spin out of control as the Liberals’ tendency to hide information makes the saga drag on. Trudeau saying he’d look into it was laughable. He’d had occasion to look at it as the contracts crossed desks in his own department, the Privy Council Office.
… he’s going to have to do something to convince Canadians he actually knows how to run the government. Watch for a cabinet shuffle, starting with Transportation, with Citizenship and Immigration not far behind.

4 January
The value of one consulting firm’s federal contracts has skyrocketed under the Trudeau government
The consulting firm McKinsey & Company has seen the amount of money it earns from federal contracts explode since Prime Minister Justin Trudeau came to power — to the point where some suggest it may have a central role in shaping Canada’s immigration policies.
A Radio-Canada investigation also learned the private consulting firm’s influence is raising concerns within the federal public service.
Paul Wells: Shine a brighter light on contract government
Ottawa’s becoming addicted to consulting firms. Other countries have rung the alarm. It’s time for the same to happen here.
This is only the latest evidence of a massive trend in Canada’s federal government, in many provinces, and abroad: the contracting-out of complex problems to private firms that charge a premium; are never around when problems arise later; often produce work of questionable quality; and are too often exempt from even the minimal transparency and accountability that’s expected of work done in-house by the regular public service.