Day nineteen, and the weird pace of this campaign was back again as there wasn’t a fresh Trump eruption to steal the spotlight. Mark Carney was in Brampton, and delivered his party’s big justice plan, which was pretty comprehensive, and contained a lot of different parts—doubling down on gun buybacks and classifications, training more RCMP and CBSA officers, and hiring more Crown prosecutors, tougher sentencing guidelines (not mandatory minimums), claims for tougher bail conditions (which is where they start getting into trouble), and more on online luring and even criminal prohibitions around deepfake nudes. Carney will be back in Ottawa with his prime minister hat on today to meet with the Canada-US Cabinet Committee (while Michael Chong howls that this is abusing the Caretaker Convention, which is not how that works).

Nobody wants to believe that the problem with bail is a provincial issue (underfunding, primarily), because everyone is absolutely allergic to holding premiers to account in this country.

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2025-04-10T15:57:20.675Z

https://bsky.app/profile/emmettmacfarlane.com/post/3lmhuivcd522k

Pierre Poilievre was in Milton, Ontario, and proposed a scheme where municipalities lower development charges or other taxes on new homes, and a Conservative government would reimburse 50 percent of those cuts up to a maximum threshold. Poilievre was also asked about the “I Don’t Believe The Polls” crowd that has been at his rallies (and whom he has sought out to take photos with), and sort of distanced himself from them saying he would respect the election outcome, but also didn’t say whether he trusts those polls. Poilievre opens his day in St. Catharines, Ontario, and ends it in Windsor.

Jagmeet Singh was in Saskatoon, and he warned that Mark Carney was planning major cuts over the next three years, and produced a document to show the cost of those cuts—based entirely on speculation. He also made a big deal about releasing a new campaign video that called for as many NDP MPs to be elected as possible to ensure the Liberals don’t cut everything, which is achingly desperate. Singh is also in Ottawa today to address the Broadbent Institute’s Progress Summit, rallying the troops.

In other campaign news, both Carney and Singh have had interviews with Nardwuar in Vancouver, and done the hip flip.

Ukraine Dispatch

A Russian drone hit an apartment building in Zhytomyr region, killing one person. There was a missile strike in Dnipro that killed one, and drone attacks on Kyiv and Mykolaiv, injuring at least twelve. Russia claims to have captured a village in Sumy region. The Chinese foreign ministry accused president Zelenskyy of being “irresponsible” by pointing out that over 150 Chinese nationals are fighting for Russia on Ukrainian soil.

Good reads:

• Former trade negotiator Steve Verheul says Trump’s reversals shows he’s vulnerable to pressure (but that sounds like treating him rationally).
• Pete Hoekstra has been confirmed as the new US ambassador to Canada, so we’ll see how long before he PNGs himself.
• After much confusion, former Liberal justice minister Irwin Cotler has confirmed he’s endorsing Anthony Housefather in his old riding.
• Former Conservative strategist Kory Teneycke was back in the news, throwing grenades at Poilievre for “campaign malpractice.”
• Danielle Smith moderated her crybaby separatism threats slightly at the Formerly-Known-As-Manning Conference.
• Former BC Liberal/BC United MLAs are launching a new CentreBC party.
• Anne Applebaum points to the failure of the American system to check the power of one tyrant, who is now wreaking havoc on the entire global economy.
• Kevin Carmichael looks ahead to next week’s Bank of Canada decision in the era where Trump is now dismantling the global financial ecosystem.
• Frank Graves suggests that Trump has scared Canadians off the path of authoritarian populism that we were headed down.
• Rob Shaw describes how BC’s internal divisions are playing out on the federal campaign trail.
• Althia Raj wonders where Poilievre actually stands on abortion, as his actions don’t match his words.
• Paul Wells’s second part in his series about the big picture of politics takes on stultifying message control and how it has suffocated governance in Canada.
• My Xtra column looks at Poilievre’s continued attacks on “woke ideology” in his speeches, and what that might look like if he were to win the election.
• My column wonders if Poilievre has actually pivoted in regards to dealing with Trump, of if he’s dressing up his same approach.

Odds and ends:

For National Magazine, I delve into yesterday’s Supreme Court of Canada decision in the Jennifer Pan case, which has garnered international attention via Netflix.

Hey BSers! I'll be doing a Q&A episode on my channel this weekend. Have a #cdnpoli question for me? Leave it on the Patreon or in the replies below. Thanks!

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2025-04-10T23:55:51.623Z

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