Day thirty-six, the final day of the campaign, was marred by the tragedy at the Lapu-Lapu festival in Vancouver. Some of the campaigns, particularly the Liberals, scrambled to figure out how to respond to it, without losing their election momentum while also trying to be respectful of what took place. Others, however, were less scrupulous.
Mark Carney was Hamilton, and delayed the morning’s events in light of Vancouver, before he made a statement about it. The campaign was supposed to stop in Saskatoon, Edmonton, Calgary, Richmond and Victoria, but cancelled the rally in Calgary. The Richmond stop was going to be cancelled, but was back on in a smaller capacity, as with all of the interactions over the day. Vancouver, Carney and the premier attended a memorial to lay flowers. Carney returns to Ottawa today, where he will hold his election night event.
Pierre Poilievre was in Oakville, Ontario, for his pre-planned rally, before adding a stop at a church in Mississauga to meet with members of the Filipino community there regarding the tragedy in Vancouver. Poilievre then made stops in Pickering, Peterborough, and Keene before reaching his riding in Carleton for a final rally. There were, however, some online ads the Conservatives put out that appeared to take advantage of the tragedy and fold it into their “safe streets” slogans, which was immediately pretty ghoulish. Poilievre will be in Ottawa for election night.
Jagmeet Singh was in Penticton, BC, where he also spoke about the tragedy in Vancouver, as he had apparently left the festival minutes before it happened. He still held his events in Oliver, New Westminster, Vancouver, and Coquitlam. Singh has a campaign event in Port Moody in the morning (really?), will attend a day of mourning event in Burnaby, and hold his election night event there.
In other campaign news, the CBC made a sad attempt at doing some campaign fact-checking (that gave equal weight to outdated statistics and absolute ludicrous lies). Here is an attempt to find meaning in where the leaders’ campaigns took them around the country.
It’s Election Day! Go vote!
Ukraine Dispatch
North Korea has confirmed for the first time that they sent troops to Russia to fight against Ukrainians in the Kursk region, calling them “heroes,” and that it’s an “honour” to ally with a country like Russia.
Good reads:
- The pen-or-pencil at the ballot box conspiracy theory demonstrates Canadians’ susceptibility to disinformation online.
- The Logic heads to Eabametoong First Nation in Ontario to talk about the critical minerals play there, and why there is scepticism among the local First Nations.
- The NDP candidate in Winnipeg South Centre encouraged people to join a pro-Palestinian protest outside the campaign office of the Jewish Liberal incumbent.
- Danielle Smith’s appearance at the PragerU fundraiser merited unanimously negative feedback to her office.
- Justin Ling explains why the different positions on foreign aid in this election matter in the bigger picture, especially as the Conservatives hope to slash it.
- Althia Raj worries about divisive language on the campaign trial and polarization, and how the winner of this election has to go about dealing with it.
- My column laments that this election has been fought solely on vibes and not about policy like any election should reasonably be.
Odds and ends:
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I thought that two differences would be sharper during the election and maybe I’m wrong, but Carney talks about building an economy more independent from the US. The Conservatives, mostly from Doug Ford, but Pierre Polievre suggests it, making the alliance with the US stronger. Even talking about renegotiating the trade agreement right away. Didn’t that advisory group recommend waiting till the set date? And I thought security would be a bigger issue. I don’t think Polievre was even asked about his proposed cuts to foreign aid.