Author: Blazingcatfur

The shocking result in the Toronto-St. Paul’s by-election leaves the Liberals with only one question: should they lose the next election with Justin Trudeau as leader, or should they lose it led by someone else?

After an excruciatingly slow vote count over Monday night and into Tuesday morning, Conservative candidate Don Stewart snatched from the Liberals what used to be one of their safest seats, a riding in the heart of the Grit bastion of downtown Toronto, a riding that had withstood the tsunami of 2011, when veteran Liberal MP Carolyn Bennett held on even as the Liberals nationally suffered the worst result in the history of the party, being reduced to third place in the House of Commons.

Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland says she still has faith in Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s leadership, after the party lost what was once considered one of the safest Liberal seats in the country.

“The prime minister is committed to leading us into the next election and he has our support,” said Freeland at a news conference, following the Liberals’ stunning defeat to the Conservatives in the Toronto-St. Paul’s byelection.

In news that is sending shockwaves through Canadian politics, the opposition Conservatives claimed victory overnight in a closely watched by-election for a safely Liberal parliamentary constituency in downtown Toronto. The once Liberal “fortress,” known as Toronto-St. Paul’s, is one of the most Liberal-leaning electoral districts in all of Canada — the Liberal Party has carried the seat in the last ten Canadian federal elections, and the Liberal candidate has won by margins of greater than 20 percent in the last three. From an American perspective, this outcome is roughly analogous to Republicans winning a special election for a safely Democratic congressional seat in New York City.

He can walk away with dignity now or stick around to get creamed by a man he loathes

If Justin Trudeau’s life were a country music song, now would be the point in the proceedings where he’s all sad and lonesome, watching his girl dance with another man.

That’s because Pierre Poilievre — Donald Trump incarnate, according to all right-thinking Liberals — has just swooped into downtown Toronto, the Big Smoke, Liberal party HQ, and done stole his woman. You can practically hear the pedal steel guitar lick accompanying the prime minister’s tears to the floor.

OTTAWA — Federal Liberals are now grappling with the fallout of Monday’s stunning byelection in Toronto, where Pierre Poilievre’s Tories dealt them their first loss in the 416 since Justin Trudeau became prime minister almost nine years ago.

In losing Toronto—St. Paul’s, Trudeau’s team lost a seat the Liberals have held since 1993. And Poilievre’s Conservatives now have a toehold in Canada’s biggest city, raising questions about whether — with national polls showing the Conservatives in a commanding lead in voting intentions — there are still safe ridings for the Liberals in their once-formidable Fortress Toronto.

Higher grocery prices continue to wallop Canadian household budgets, with food inflation ticking higher in May for the first time in nearly a year.

Statistics Canada reported Tuesday that grocery prices rose 1.5 per cent in May, slightly higher than in April when they rose 1.4 per cent. It marks the first acceleration in grocery prices since June 2023.

While the May increase was modest, it comes on top of already elevated grocery costs in Canada.

I look at hamburger for kicks.