There could not be a clearer sign that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s time is up than the Liberal loss of their central Toronto fiefdom of Toronto St. Paul’s, where Conservative Don Stewart beat Liberal Leslie Church by about 600 votes, according to preliminary results.
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.
Conservative candidate Don Stewart winning the closely-watched Toronto-St. Paul’s federal byelection, and delivering a stunning upset to Justin Trudeau’s candidate Leslie Church in the long-time Liberal riding, has sent political shockwaves through both parties.
Responding to the result, and facing calls from his main opponent now to call a general election, Trudeau acknowledged the outcome has made it clear that “I and my entire Liberal team have much more work to do to deliver tangible, real progress that Canadians across the country can see and feel.”
We feel it and see it already ask anyone who can’t afford rent or food you vicious sociopath.
Ottawa split on plan to let undocumented migrants apply to stay in Canada, Immigration Minister Miller says
Immigration Minister Marc Miller says a federal program to give migrants without valid papers the right to stay in Canada will not be coming any time soon as talks continue in cabinet about the plan, which some of his colleagues sharply oppose.
The proposal – which would include allowing rejected asylum claimants and former international students with expired study permits to apply to remain in Canada – was presented by Mr. Miller to cabinet before MPs began their summer recess.
OTTAWA — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Tuesday he is taking his party’s unexpected loss in a Toronto byelection Monday as a clear sign of voters’ frustrations, but insisted he won’t be leaving the party leadership.
He lies about everything.
How can one explain the fact that a Canadian government that has been so quick to apologize for every blemish in our nation’s history has been so adverse to speaking out against the growing tide of antisemitism on display from coast to coast?
By now, the litany of incidents should be well known — Jewish schools shot at, Jewish religious institutions desecrated with racist graffiti, Jewish students being bullied and harassed. The list goes on. When these incidents began shortly after Hamas’s October 7 terrorist attack on Israel, one could reasonably claim that they were isolated. They have now become increasingly routine.
Poilievre will not take a stand against Islam’s pernicious influence.
OTTAWA — Gen Z and millennials are split on whether Canada’s aggressive immigration targets are good for the country, and 70 per cent say the government should be ensuring new arrivals “share common Canadian values,” such as respect for minority groups, according to a new Postmedia-Leger poll.
Since 2021, Canada has been aiming for an intake of 500,000 new Canadians each year and the government plans to keep this steady until 2026. But only 11 per cent of Canadians aged 18 to 39 say this is overall a good thing, while 34 per cent say it is generally good for the country but has also created some problems.
Here’s how bad a loss this Toronto byelection is for Justin Trudeau — and why Pierre Poilievre now has a new problem on his hands
Pierre Poilievre and his Conservatives went into Monday’s byelection of Toronto-St. Paul’s claiming that the odds were against them in this downtown riding.
So much for that: Don Stewart is the newest member of Poilievre’s caucus.
Now, with the victory in what has been a stronghold for the Liberals — solid red for the last 31 years — it is going to be harder for the Conservatives to claim they’re underdogs whenever the next election rolls around.
That Justin Trudeau is so clever! He orchestrated that loss to sink Poilievre!
This morning I issued the following statement on the results of the Toronto-St. Paul’s byelection. Once again, thank you to all of our volunteers and supporters, and everyone reaching out today. pic.twitter.com/qHrDXU9lO2
— Leslie Church (@lesliechurch) June 25, 2024
For the past six or so months, Liberal MP Anthony Housefather has been an accidental maverick in his own party. It’s an unenviable position – lonely, polarizing, controversial – and one that, by his own telling, he didn’t seek to occupy. Indeed, Mr. Housefather didn’t have much of a reputation for dissidence before, with the exception of matters of English language rights in Quebec. But the events of Oct. 7, and more specifically, his government’s shifting position on Israel, changed things. Speaking on The Line podcast back in March, he accused his own government of “changing foreign policy on the fly.”
“The lack of support that has been shown to Israel since November by the Canadian government, to me, is disappointing,” he said. “Jewish Canadians feel truly betrayed.”
“Good enough to work. Good enough to stay.”
“Extend post-graduate work permits.”
“Tens of thousands face deportation.”
“Let us in. Don’t let us down.”
Those are some of the slogans that guest workers and international students have been unfurling on protest banners and social media across Canada.
They should be deported. End of story.
