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Justin Trudeau says the Liberals will be releasing their platform this week, more than two weeks after the NDP and Conservatives released their documents.
“We’re going to share our platform in the coming days,” Mr. Trudeau said Tuesday during a campaign stop in Kanata, Ont., where he promised a $4.5-billion transfer payment to the provinces for mental health programs.
Mr. Trudeau said he expects that decisions made by the federal government this fall will be key to how the pandemic is concluded in Canada. “The choices in this campaign are clear, very clear. We can regress, go backwards, go back to the [former prime minister Stephen] Harper years,” he said, referencing his party’s environment and child-care policies.
Nanos Research, tracking support in the campaign, reports here that the Liberals and the Conservatives are in a statistical tie – the Liberals have 33.2-per-cent support compared to 32.5 per cent for the Conservatives. The NDP has 19.2 per cent and the Green Party has 6.4 per cent.
There’s a campaign milestone coming this week with the TVA Face-to-Face leadership debate Thursday in Quebec – the first time leaders will face off at once. Further debates are scheduled Sept. 8 in English and Sept. 9 in French, organized by the Leaders’ Debates Commission.
TODAY’S HEADLINES
UPDATE ON CANADIANS IN AFGHANISTAN - Foreign Affairs Minister Marc Garneau says about 1,250 Canadian nationals, permanent residents and family members are stranded in Afghanistan as Canada and its allies continue to put pressure on the Taliban to allow them safe passage out of the country. On the latest Globe and Mail’s the Decibel podcast accessible here, Ottawa bureau chief Robert Fife talks about what the government has done and not done to help Afghans trying to flee the Taliban.
NEW CHALLENGES FOR GREENS - Racism and transphobia are significant problems within the national Green Party that the organization has failed to effectively manage, an internal report says. Story here.
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THREE WOMEN RUNNING FOR NUNAVUT’S ONLY SEAT - For the second federal election in a row, three women will face off for Nunavut’s only seat in Parliament. The riding is up for grabs after New Democratic Party MP Mumilaaq Qaqqaq announced she would not seek a second term.
FUREY MEETS LEGAULT - Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Andrew Furey met with Quebec Premier Fran？ois Legault in person for the first time Monday, with Mr. Furey saying Mr. Legault was supportive of Newfoundland and Labrador’s recent $5.2-billion agreement with the federal government. Story here.
LIVELY RACE IN VANCOUVER-GRANVILLE - Dan Fumano of The Vancouver Sun takes a look at the race in Vancouver-Granville, which has been represented by departing MP Jody Wilson-Raybould. “With the incumbent out, the riding is up for grabs,” writes Mr. Fumano, with many closely watching for the outcome. Story here. Meanwhile, the Liberal candidate is under fire for flipping more than 20 properties, since 2005, after a year of ownership. Story here from CBC.
LPC CANDIDATE ENDORSED AT NDP EVENT - Two First Nations leaders from Manitoba endorsed a Liberal candidate running in the province’s north while standing next to NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh at a campaign event. Story here from CBC.
LEADERS
Bloc Quebecois Leader Yves-Fran？ois Blanchet holds a press briefing, in Sherbrooke, on secularism, tours the Ascot Corner Village, and meets with the mayor of Sherbrooke.
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Campaign-Trail Commitment: Mr. Blanchet commits to promote the secularism of the state and urge federal parties not to challenge Quebec’s Bill 21.
Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole made an announcement and held a media availability and was to hold a virtual telephone town hall in Atlantic Canada.
Campaign-Trail Commitment: Mr. O’Toole says a Conservative government would provide more stimulus spending, but end it completely after five years.
Green Party Leader Annamie Paul holds a press conference at a community housing building in Toronto, and visits a resident’s project there.
Liberal Party Leader Justin Trudeau made an announcement in Kanata, Ont., and held a media availability. He was scheduled to go on to campaign in Sudbury.
Campaign-Trail Commitment: Mr. Trudeau said a re-elected Liberal government would spend $4.5-billion on a new mental-health transfer to the provinces. Story here.
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NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh was to make an announcement on housing in Coquitlam, B.C. and attend a burma-shave at his campaign office in Burnaby.
Campaign-Trail Commitment: Mr. Singh says the NDP would increase the taxable amount of capital gains profits in housing transactions to head off the efforts of speculators who buy affordable homes, renovate them quickly and re-sell for profits.
ELECTION SPOTLIGHT – ALBERTA
34 seats. At dissolution of Parliament: 33 Conservatives. 1 NDP.
Lisa Young, political science professor, University of Calgary
“The most important thing for people elsewhere in the country to understand is that federal elections in Alberta don’t matter very much during the election campaign (though they can matter a lot afterward, as Albertans respond to the outcome).
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There are very few competitive seats in Alberta so we don’t see party leaders coming to the province very often, and when they do, they don’t stay long. If the Liberals benefit from a national swing, it might be enough to land them a couple of seats in Calgary where they have got prominent candidates. The NDP can, I think, count on holding its seat in Edmonton. It’s not that there’s no competition in Alberta but it’s really localized to the downtown and neighborhoods proximate to downtown in the two major cities.
Some local campaigns are going through the motions because the outcome is so clear. There are many Conservative MPs who were elected with 60 or 70 per cent of the popular vote. Even if their party isn’t doing as well, they still can count on a comfortable victory. There isn’t that sense of an exciting campaign going on on the ground. In most of the province, there isn’t that sense of a hotly contested campaign. We don’t see as many signs or as much advertising.
“There is enormous attention to provincial politics that is taking up a lot of bandwidth. The ongoing state of provincial politics in Alberta right now is one of polarization between the NDP and the United Conservative Party. The temperature has been turned up significantly by controversies over how the provincial government has handled the pandemic. And the temperature has been particularly high since the provincial government announced it was going to stop test, trace and isolate, reversed course and now is avoiding statements as daily case numbers rise. So there’s this growing sense of anger at the provincial government for not being present, and it’s really preoccupying people. The federal election is kind of in the background.”
OPINION
Campbell Clark (The Globe and Mail) on a blunt oil sands answer to Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau’s recurring Trans-Mountain pipeline question: “The biggest concern that people have around the pipeline is, ‘Oh, we’re going to see oil sands expansion,’” Mr. Trudeau said at a campaign stop in Granby, Que. “No, we’re not.” “We’re not going to see an increase in those emissions. And that’s really important.” Yes, the Liberal Leader followed that assertion that the oil sands would not expand with a verbal asterisk, that it is emissions that won’t be allowed to increase, and will have to keep going down. But that first part – no oil sands expansion – was the message. It is a blunt answer to the pipeline question: TMX doesn’t matter, anyway, because the oil sands wouldn’t be expanded.”
Konrad Yakabuski (The Globe and Mail) on declining anybody-but-Conservative sentiment in Quebec: “But Sunday night’s French-language interviews with the five main federal party leaders buttressed the notion that Canadians will elect another minority government and that it could well be one led by Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole. That constitutes a significant change from the outset of the campaign. And while it remains too soon to conclude that the political ground has shifted in Quebec since Mr. Trudeau called the election on Aug. 15, the anybody-but-Conservative sentiment that dominated the previous three federal campaigns in the province is much diminished.”
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Thomas Mulcair (CTV) on where things stand in the continuing federal election campaign, citing the looming “crucial” debates as possible turning points: “Through arrogance or hubris, or perhaps a little bit of both, the Liberals appear to have believed that they only had to show up to win. Trudeau still gives the impression of having been caught off guard by an election that he himself called. He hasn’t even produced a platform yet! O’Toole, on the other hand, was ready. His team had done their homework and it’s paying off. Unused to being in second place, the Liberal Cavalry has been called in. Their A-team seems to have wrested control from the amateurs who have apparently run the campaign thus far. The real battle is about to be joined.”
Lori Turnbull (Global News) on how federal Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole’s soft stance on the Cheryl Gallants of the Conservative Party sends the wrong message: “When O’Toole dodges questions on whether he would appoint an anti-vaxxer or an anti-abortionist as his minister of health, he’s sowing distrust. These questions are not merely political traps or attempts to jam him; he must answer them honestly to rise above the Liberals’ attempt to paint him not as a man with a plan, but as a man with a hidden agenda.”
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