Dull campaign makes for ‘easy’ election call, says Léger, as most firms capture little shift in voting intentions
A somewhat “boring” 41-day campaign helped make this election easy for the industry to forecast a minority government, says one pollster, as others remained more cautious in saying so, but agree there was little shift in voters’ intentions nationally in the lead-up to the vote. With the majority of polls reflecting a close race between […]
The last of the ‘McGill Four’: outgoing MP Dubé on losing to Bloc leader Blanchet
When he noticed the Bloc Québécois surging in the polls, the NDP’s Matthew Dubé says he knew that he faced an “uphill battle” in holding onto his riding. “I arrived in a wave. I survived one, but two is a bit too much,” said the outgoing Quebec MP in for Beloeil-Chambly who lost to Bloc […]
Singh challenges Trudeau to co-operate in minority government
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh says he’s ready to work with a Liberal minority government as his party makes its push for a single-payer pharmacare plan, but has yet to hear from the prime minister since he conceded the election. Speaking to reporters in Ottawa on Wednesday, Mr. Singh (Burnaby South, B.C.) faced questions about what […]
From staffer to MP: five former Hill staffers among newly elected
The post-election push to get the class of 2019 settled in is underway, and among the MPs-elect are five former federal staffers, who have a leg up when it comes to the, at times, daunting task of learning the ropes of life on Parliament Hill. Thirty-eight former full-time political staffers ran as non-incumbent candidates this […]
‘Modest’ progress sees more women elected to the House, but researchers call 2019 the ‘status quo’
Women were more likely to run in weaker ridings for their respective parties this election, while new male candidates disproportionately ran in target seats—a trend academics say lines up with historical patterns, and puts this election firmly in the “status quo” for poor gender representation. Though 10 more women were elected on Oct. 21 compared […]
‘You don’t want any early bumps in the road’: first 100 days to chart Liberals’ path
A former top federal bureaucrat says the prime minister’s top priority in his first 100 days should be to “figure out how to manage the House” in a minority scenario, while another former bureaucrat-turned-politician says “you don’t want any early screw ups” following the return of politicians to Ottawa from the campaign trail. “When I […]
The election interference call is coming from inside the house
OTTAWA—On Oct. 23, with the dust still settling in the wake of the federal election results, it was quietly announced by the Privy Council Office that there had been no attempted foreign inference in Canada’s democratic process. While it was reported by several national media outlets, if you blinked you likely missed this particular news […]
Congratulations, we played ourselves
OTTAWA—We got played. The Liberals talked a big game this past election, insisting that “[if] you want progressive action, you need a progressive government, not a progressive opposition.” They reminded us at every turn that cuts to social services, like we saw in Ontario, would surely follow if the electorate foolishly supported a Conservative government […]
Parties must work between elections to improve diversity, say MPs, candidates
Parties have moved in the right direction when it comes to recruiting and selecting diverse political candidates, but more has to be done between elections to make federal politics accessible, say recent candidates and newly elected MPs. “It’s not going to cut it,” if parties only focus on bringing in politicians that better reflect Canada’s […]
Canada’s next choice: chaos or collaboration?
As anyone interested enough in politics to be reading this knows, between the narrative rudder of agitprop social media storms, the normalization of previously unthinkable headlines, and the apparent commoditization of lunacy as a political tool, shit happens—a lot more often and much more avoidably than it used to. For now, as we await the […]
