Next federal election a referendum on Trudeau’s management of COVID-19, say pollsters, ‘a crisis like no other’
With the country deep in the throes of a deadly global pandemic, veteran pollsters are predicting that the next federal election will be a referendum on how Justin Trudeau’s minority government managed COVID-19 and its impact on Canadians after this global crisis is over. “We won’t know until the very end how much damage this […]
Canada’s chief electoral officer Perrault consulting provincial counterparts regularly on how to hold an election if one is called in the midst of COVID-19
While it’s highly unlikely that an election will be called in the midst of a global pandemic, Canada’s Chief Electoral Officer Stéphane Perrault is still consulting with his provincial counterparts regularly to plan for the possibility if one is called in this minority government. “The chief electoral officers from the various electoral management bodies across […]
Inside the Campaign: Managing Elections In Canada: a new book pulls curtain on the people and machinery behind the vote
Crashed buses and a blackface scandal highlighted the 41-day campaign of the 2019 election. A new book with contributions from political staffers, campaign managers, pollsters, and journalists takes readers inside Canadian political campaigns. From the day the writs are issued and the race is off and running, politicians crisscross the country stumping, but behind the […]
Conservative riding presidents, candidates, MPs rebelling against party’s decision to claw back half of election rebates
The Conservative Party is facing serious pushback from riding associations, candidates, and caucus members over the Conservative Fund’s decision to claw back 50 per cent of the election rebates from Elections Canada that candidates receive for their expenses after an election, and the three main leadership candidates are vowing to cancel the “rebate sharing program” […]
Discrepancy between Elections Canada, StatsCan reports likely due to social desirability bias
Despite an 11-percentage-point discrepancy between self-reported and actual voter turnout, a recent Statistics Canada survey still provides valuable information on the electorate and voting trends, experts say. The StatsCan survey, which relies on self-reporting, collected data by adding five election-related questions to the 2019 Labour Force Survey, which is distributed to approximately 56,000 households. The […]
It’s high stakes: senior House Liberals hold ‘tactics meeting’ every morning to plot daily strategy in minority Parliament
As Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberals deal with the new reality of the minority Parliament, their senior House leadership team is holding a high-stakes “tactics meeting” every morning when the House is sitting to plot strategy for the Commons and committees, Liberal sources told The Hill Times. In interviews last week, Liberal sources said the […]
Platform costing measure gets nod, but fixes for getting info needed, says PBO
A platform costing service offered by the Parliamentary Budget Officer is receiving a thumbs up from one expert, but the office is looking to Parliament to clarify an “oversight” in its powers in accessing information to do its work, ahead of the next election. In a report released Jan. 24, the PBO wrote that “legislative […]
Liberals still haven’t had a national caucus discussion about federal election outcome and they want one, say Grit MPs
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, whose Liberals were reduced from a majority to a minority Parliament three months ago, still hasn’t held a full-blown national caucus meeting to discuss the last federal election’s outcome, and some Grit MPs say they wonder if the leadership is trying to avoid it. The Liberals, who won 157 seats on […]
From representing a town of 5,000 to a riding the size of Poland: NDP MP Bachrach settles into job
NDP MP Taylor Bachrach, who represents a riding roughly the size of Poland, expects to rack up a lot of mileage. The job of representing Skeena-Bulkley Valley, a far-flung northern B.C. riding, involves hitting the road regularly to connect with as many of its more than 89,000 residents, including the Haida First Nation. It’s one […]
Parties agree to NDP’s push for representation on steering committees
The Liberals and opposition parties have agreed to give the NDP representation on all steering committees, an ask that the Conservatives’ whip says had delayed the process of setting up committees. The House on Wednesday voted by “unanimous consent” to strike the Procedure and House Affairs Committee, also known as PROC, the body responsible for […]
