Canada
Poilievre-led attempt to bring down Trudeau minority over carbon tax fails
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre’s attempt to pass a vote of non-confidence and bring down Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal minority government over the carbon tax failed Thursday.
After a day of debate seeing MPs air their grievances over the climate policy, as well as the state of political discourse surrounding it, Trudeau ultimately prevailed, securing majority support in defeating the motion of non-confidence.
John Robson: Hamas supporters’ grandiose delusions need to be disparaged
More than 20 years ago, the Mackenzie Institute newsletter identified a bizarre and deadly defect in then-Palestinian leader and terrorist Yasser Arafat: “an impulsive urge for trying to take the pot with a pair of fours.” But it’s not just him. It’s on display today from Gaza to Toronto, and we need to stand up to it.
Admittedly Canadian pro-Hamas protesters could be forgiven for thinking they’re strong. They appear to have the police on their side, and much of the political class including that jangling dunce Jagmeet Singh. But I think it’s as bad a misread of the situation on the ground as Arafat’s belief he was about to destroy Israel.
Trudeau government calls in the RCMP over suspected fraud worth $5 million on federal contracts
OTTAWA—The federal government has referred three cases of suspected subcontractor fraud to the RCMP following an internal review that found nearly $5 million in illegitimate payments on federal contracts from 2018 to 2022.
“We need to do better when it comes to ensuring the integrity and the reputation of our procurement system,” Public Services and Procurement Minister Jean-Yves Duclos told reporters at a press conference Wednesday.
Ottawa should move to Haiti.
Canada’s Parliament Considers Detective Helen Grus Case
The case of Ottawa Police Detective Helen Grus and her investigation into a cluster of Sudden Infant Deaths in the Ottawa area is being raised in Canada’s Parliament. According to the rules, the Government must now provide a written answer within 45 days.
Canada slips to 15th place in annual World Happiness Report
Canada has slipped to 15th place in the annual World Happiness Report(opens in a new tab).
Down from 13th place last year, Canada now sits behind countries like Costa Rica, Kuwait and Austria.
“What’s happened in Canada and the United States is that over the past few years, those under 30 have become much less happy than they were 10 or a dozen years ago,” Canadian economist and World Happiness Report founding editor John Helliwell told CTV News Channel on Wednesday.
Israel Furious After Canada Votes To Halt Arms Exports To Tel Aviv
Canada will impose a ban on arms sales to Israel, the country’s Foreign Minister Melanie Joly announced on Tuesday. “It’s a real thing,” Joly told Canadian newspaper The Toronto Star on Tuesday. The decision follows a vote of 204-117 in the Canadian parliament on Monday in favor of ending the sales. While it originally called for a suspension, it was later changed into a full ban.
h/t DS
Justin Trudeau isn’t meeting China’s threat to our democracy. Here’s one thing he could do right now
As U.S. legislators race to disconnect the world’s most downloaded app and prevent TikTok’s massive American data from potentially feeding Chinese security agencies, Ottawa should demonstrate equal resolve.
Canada’s Bill C-34 — proposed legislation to prevent foreign investors from harbouring foreign intelligence services — is in its home stretch of Senate review, before going to the House of Commons for final discussions.
China’s Sinochem buys first oil cargo from Trans Mountain Expansion
China’s Sinochem Group has purchased one of the first crude cargoes shipped through a new pipeline in Canada, which is designed to move oil from landlocked Alberta to the Pacific Coast for export.
h/t Mauser
Trudeau’s electric vehicle mandate could cause Canada’s power grid to collapse, analysis shows
A noted fiscally conservative think tank warned that a proposed federal mandate from the government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to ban the sale of new gasoline/diesel-only powered cars after 2035 and allow electric-only sales is an unrealistic fantasy that would cause massive chaos by threatening to collapse the nation’s power grids.
“Requiring all new vehicle sales in Canada to be electric in just 11 years means the provinces need to substantially increase their power generation capabilities, and adding the equivalent of 10 new mega-dams or 13 new gas plants in such a short timeline isn’t realistic or feasible,” said G. Cornelis van Kooten, a Fraser Institute senior fellow and author of “Failure to Charge: A Critical Look at Canada’s EV Policy.”
‘Wish I had better news’: NDP MP behind Israel-Gaza motion disappointed by outcome on Palestinian statehood
OTTAWA—Late Monday night, after the New Democrats agreed to overhaul a controversial motion that could have seen Ottawa recognize Palestine as a state, two NDP MPs walked up to the House of Commons’ public gallery where a group of Palestinian Canadians had gathered.
The party’s foreign affairs critic, Heather McPherson, and her colleague, Matthew Green, briefly sat and spoke with the young activists, many of whom wore black and white kaffiyehs: scarves traditionally donned in parts of the Middle East that have become emblematic of the Palestinian cause.
“I’m not going to lie. I wish that I could have delivered to them statehood for Palestinian people,” said McPherson, who championed the NDP motion, in an interview with the Star.
MP Anthony Housefather ‘reflecting’ on future with the Liberals after Middle East motion vote
Quebec Liberal MP Anthony Housefather says he is “reflecting” on his future in the Liberal party after a heavily amended NDP motion on Palestinian statehood passed in the House of Commons on Monday.
Housefather was among three Liberals who voted against the final motion, which called only for progress towards a two-state solution instead of the recognition of a Palestinian state.
The other two, former public-safety minister Marco Mendicino and Manitoba MP Ben Carr, both say they are disappointed in how the 11th-hour amendment process went.
Watch Housefather describes how Trudeau visited his riding, assured Jewish constituents at a synagogue there would "be no daylight between the Liberal position on Israel with the Conservative position" Since Oct 7 Liberal wedge position is the NDP anti-Semitic one.."horrendous!" pic.twitter.com/EdNenfNGRx
— cbcwatcher (@cbcwatcher) March 20, 2024
For many in B.C. finding a rental has become a full-time job, competition is fierce
In 2018, teen brothers Hudson and Jackson Forsyth-Beck started growing veggies in the front yard of their rental home in Squamish, B.C., selling pickles.
That turned into a busy farm stand over the years.
But now, their family is facing eviction. Their father Robert Forsyth posted a video in a Facebook group appealing for help to find a home — and freezer space — to save about 10,000 pounds of produce, pies and preserves.
Justin Trudeau and Pierre Poilievre reveal their hidden hopes in tributes to Brian Mulroney
Tributes to fallen comrades tend to bring out the best in politicians — and provide one of the increasingly rare times it isn’t awful to watch the proceedings in the House of Commons. This week’s speeches to the legacy of former prime minister Brian Mulroney provided a shining example.
But it wasn’t a total pause in the tumultuous politics of our time. When Justin Trudeau and Pierre Poilievre and other leaders stood up to speak in Parliament in Mulroney’s honour on Monday, they also opened up a window into their own political souls at this juncture in Canadian politics.
A divide is growing between the Conservatives, Liberals on issue of Israeli and Palestinian rights
Canada’s decades-old bipartisan consensus in support of a negotiated two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian question is falling apart.
Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government voted Monday night for a heavily diluted version of a non-binding NDP motion that advances supports for Palestinians in the conflict in Gaza.
The amended version arrived at almost literally the last minute, after Parliamentarians had spent the day debating the original and much firmer NDP motion. Clearly, the two parties had been in talks that went down to the wire, before reaching wording both could live with.