Tag Archives: Election 2025

Roundup: Reiterating promises in battleground ridings

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Day thirty, and so much of the campaign was drowned out by the news that Pope Francis passed away after meeting with JD Vance (because clearly, after meeting with Vance he lost his will to live). Both Mark Carney and Pierre Poilievre are Catholics, and both responded do his passing. Much of the discussion of Francis’ legacy in Canada was around his apology for the Church’s role in residential schools.

Mark Carney was in Charlottetown, PEI, to reiterate his promises around working with provinces on healthcare (note that distinction), and also promised reduced tolls on the Confederation Bridge. He then headed to Truro, Nova Scotia, and Fredericton, New Brunswick. Carney will be in Quebec City this morning, followed by stops in Shefford, Saint-Bruno, and Laval.

Here are Debt/GDP ratios for three scenarios:1–PBO baseline.2–LPC platform (costed by themselves)3–CPC platform (costed by LPC)I'll happily update with CPC platform numbers if CPC releases them. But until then it doesn't seem fair that they escape scrutiny. So, I'll go with what I have.

— Kevin Milligan (@kevinmilligan.bsky.social) 2025-04-21T20:02:12.728Z

Here is the LPC's costing of CPC platform.liberal.ca/pierre-poili…Why is CPC projected debt/GDP so high?-> promised to uphold big social programs-> promised $140B or so of new spending and tax cuts-> Haven't mentioned any new revenue sources.I await with interest to see their own numbers.

— Kevin Milligan (@kevinmilligan.bsky.social) 2025-04-21T20:06:30.676Z

Pierre Poilievre was in Scarborough, Ontario, where he reiterated the party’s promises around building housing, and says the platform will be released today. Poilievre will be in Woodbridge, Ontario, followed by Vaughan.

https://twitter.com/maxfawcett/status/1914421261041840549

Why do both the Liberals and Conservatives keep promising to build 500,000 homes a year? It's a bad promise because:1. It's not feasible, particularly given the current market.2. We don't actually need *that* many homes.

— Dr. Mike P. Moffatt (@mikepmoffatt.bsky.social) 2025-04-21T13:46:00.000Z

We absolutely have a housing shortage that we need to fill. But can someone explain to me why as an aging country with a 350,000 person immigration target, that both the Liberals and Conservatives believe we need 500,000 new homes every year? That math doesn't math.

— Dr. Mike P. Moffatt (@mikepmoffatt.bsky.social) 2025-04-21T22:12:26.000Z

"Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is claiming the Liberals will impose a tax on Canadians' home equity if they're re-elected as the federal election campaign enters its final week."So they're trotting out this bullshit yet again, even though it's never happened (and never will)?

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2025-04-22T02:35:04.593Z

Jagmeet Singh was in Nanaimo, BC, where he lambasted the Liberals for not promising to further expand pharmacare, and promised that more NDP MPs could force him to do so. (Erm…) He also urged “strategic voting” to keep incumbents in their seats. He then headed to Comox and Port Moody. Singh will be in Vancouver, followed by his home riding of Burnaby today, and then head over to Edmonton.

In other campaign news, Conservative incumbent Larry Brock is apologising for circulating a clearly faked document and claiming the Liberals were using it to try to sway prisoners to vote for them. An election worker in King—Vaughan was reassigned to administrative duties after trying to sway people to vote for the Conservative candidate. Reproductive rights groups are concerned by the lack of details in the Liberals’ pledges on the matter. The Canadian Press has their own profiles of Carney and Poilievre.

Ukraine Dispatch

Russia launched a mass overnight drone attack on residential areas of Odesa.

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Roundup: Nonsense about inflation, again

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Day twenty-nine, and in spite of the holiday, there were again campaign events from all of the main parties, as they begin their last-minute stops through battleground ridings across the country. Mark Carney was in Ottawa, where he warned about the “$140 billion in divisive cuts” in Poilievre’s promises, which they have tallied up as Poilievre has still not released his full platform. Carney will be in Charlottetown, PEI, today, followed by Truro, Nova Scotia, and Fredericton, New Brunswick.

Pierre Poilievre was in Surrey, BC, where he promised to cut government spending in order to reduce inflation…which is already at target, and government spending hasn’t fuelled inflation, because the last spike was caused by global supply chains breaking down in the pandemic, and the effects of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. But because he has to stick to his branding, he’s also trying to all inflation a “tax” and claim that it benefits Brookfield, which in turn benefits Carney, which is not only convoluted logic, but pretty stupid. Poilievre also repeated the falsehood that inflation is being driven by “printed money” (and for the love of Hermes, could a media outlet actually refute that claim, because it’s entirely false. FFS!) Oh, and the cuts will only be on “consultants,” because that’s another magical money tree. Poilievre will be in Scarborough, Ontario, today. And maybe he’ll finally release his costed platform like he says he will.

Jagmeet Singh was in Victoria, BC, where he made a bunch of commitments as to what will appear in the first budget in the next Parliament, and it’s laughable because the NDP will be lucky to get official party status, let alone any influence on just what is in the budget. Singh will be in Nanaimo, BC, followed by Comox and Port Moody today.

In other campaign news, Correctional Services found no evidence that a (clearly faked) document was circulating in prisons that several Conservatives purported was from the Liberals to try to get prisoners to support them in the election. Shocking, I know. Poilievre dodged questions about whether he would repeal the Liberals’ handgun ban. While certain Conservative-aligned chuds have been flooding social media with conspiracy theories about Elections Canada offering pencils instead of pens or sharpies at ballot boxes, Elections Canada reminds you that you can use either. (Said chuds should also be charged).

Speaking of Poilievre's economically illiterate announcement today…

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2025-04-20T18:21:38.960Z

Ukraine Dispatch

After the “Easter ceasefire,” Kyiv and half of Ukraine are under air raid alerts. Ukraine lists some 2935 violations of Russia’s own “ceasefire,” including blasts reported throughout Russian-occupied Donetsk region.

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Roundup: Two platforms released

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Day twenty-eight, and two of the parties had platform releases, while one of them played silly games with media (and I’ll let you guess which is which). We also heard from Elections Canada that a record two million people voted in the advance polls on Friday, (but nobody knows what it means). It also looks like nobody will be downing tools for the holiday today, so there’s that.

Mark Carney was in Whitby, Ontario, where he unveiled his “costed” platform, which did talk a lot about the scale of the challenge facing us with decoupling from the US, but remained vague on a lot of details. (Costing details here). One of my biggest issues, upon first reading, is the assumption made throughout that it’ll be easy to work with provinces on things like credentials recognition when we have been trying this for decades with little progress. Yes, the moment is different, but these things have been slow to change for a reason, so essentially promising to get this done in a few months is dubious at best. I am also incredibly dubious with the reliance on AI as the way to “increase efficiency” in the civil service, as though AI has ever shown itself to be reliable. (Write-ups from The Logic, the Star, CTV, CBC). There are also the start of some threads below that are worth clicking through. Afterward, Carney stopped in Newcastle and Peterborough. Carney will be in his home riding of Nepean today.

Here's the costing on the Liberal housing promises. Thoughts:1. Limiting the GST cut to first-time homebuyers really does render it near-useless. Very few $s.2. Reintroducing MURB really is a big deal.3. No way municipalities agree to halve DCs in exchange for 1.5B.

— Dr. Mike P. Moffatt (@mikepmoffatt.bsky.social) 2025-04-19T16:37:19.000Z

Finally got a chance to read the Liberal platform. On Defence, some of this stuff was already in process such as reforming recruitment, but more can be done. So, quickening clearances is a good thing. More pay, better housing/health care/childcare all easier ways to spend more 1/

— Steve Saideman (@smsaideman.bsky.social) 2025-04-19T20:30:14.086Z

A few comments on the @mark-carney.bsky.social platform released today. You can find it here: liberal.ca/cstrong/.I provided some 'sounding board' advice here and there to those working on the platform. As always: I disclose, but you can decide what weight to put on that.Thread below…

— Kevin Milligan (@kevinmilligan.bsky.social) 2025-04-19T18:04:43.522Z

tl;dr for this thread.1. The LPC platform would re-orient Canada in the face of epoch-defining US aggression. 2. Strength is focus on investment while aiming at fiscal sustainability.3. Weakest parts are i) reliance on spending restraint to make numbers work ii) blowing $22B on a PIT tax cut.

— Kevin Milligan (@kevinmilligan.bsky.social) 2025-04-19T19:32:20.492Z

$25 million won't do much if provinces continue to dismantle their universities.

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2025-04-19T17:03:06.508Z

 

Pierre Poilievre was in Richmond, BC, where he promised mandatory drug treatment for people with addictions, which is both against the Charter, and is hard to square with a party who thought that vaccine mandates were too much of an imposition on their personal liberties. They also refused to take questions from national media and took questions from local media who looked to have had planted questions, because of course they did. Poilievre will be in Surrey, BC, today.

Jagmeet Singh was in Burnaby, BC, to release their, well, not platform but “commitments,” including their costing, since they’re not going to form government. But of course, so many of those commitments are also in provincial jurisdiction, so it’s not like they would be able to achieve any of them anyway, so this is mostly just fairytale maths. (Write-ups from the Star, CTV, CBC) Singh will be in Victoria and Nanaimo today.

Here's the NDP housing plan costing. 7B a year. Not much to say on this one. Unclear to me how the Homes Transfer and Community Fund are meaningfully different from the government's Housing Accelerator and Housing Infrastructure Fund.

— Dr. Mike P. Moffatt (@mikepmoffatt.bsky.social) 2025-04-20T00:40:37.000Z

In other campaign news, the Star has pre-election profiles of Carney, Poilievre, Singh, and the Elizabeth May-Jonathan Pedneault team-up. Here is a look into Poilievre’s promise to fight “wokeness” in universities (just like Trump).

Ukraine Dispatch

Russia claimed they would have an “Easter ceasefire,” but kept up their attacks, particularly on the front lines, because of course they did.

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Roundup: Ranting about plastic packaging

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Day twenty-seven, and in spite of it being a statutory holiday, all of the leaders were out campaigning while the advance polls opened (and there was no irony lost in the fact certain Conservatives were howling about how insulting it was to Christians that the polls were opened on Easter weekend, while their leader was out campaigning). There were also reports of long line-ups at the advance polls, so that could be a sign that this is an election with higher turnout because of the level of early engagement.

Mark Carney was in Niagara Falls, and had a media availability before heading to Colborne and Brantford, Ontario, apparently not announcing anything other than saying he can stand up to Trump (but also made statements about being clear-eyed about China and pointing out that they are helping Russia), or releasing the platform as we are waiting for. Carney will unveil that platform today in Whitby, Ontario, before heading to Newcastle and Peterborough.

Pierre Poilievre stayed in Montreal and appeared at a plastics recycling facility, and he promised to repeal the single-use plastics ban with a bunch of completely false claims about just what was banned, and how it was increasing food costs so that he could claim that this was aa “food packaging tax,” which obviously it is not, but he needs to keep desperately cranking on that wedge. Poilievre will be in Richmond, BC, today.

Jagmeet Singh starts the day in Yamachiche, Quebec, where he unveiled the party’s Quebec-only platform, which mostly consisted of patting himself on the back for things from the last parliament, promising intrusions in provincial jurisdiction while simultaneously promising asymmetrical, cooperative federalism (really?!), and promising greater protectionism. (French-only release, because they did not put one up in English on their site). He then ended the day in Burnaby, BC. Singh will be in Burnaby today, and is apparently also releasing his “platform” (such as it is).

In other campaign news, Carney is defending the existence of the Leaders’ Debates Commission, while Blanchet thinks it should be abolished (and for everyone who says Blanchet and Singh have no place there, people are electing a parliament and not a prime minister, because we’re not America). Here are five things the different leaders are consistently getting wrong as they campaign. The Star has clipped nine moments from the English debates.

Ukraine Dispatch

Russia missiles struck Kharkiv, killing one and wounding at least 112 others when they struck homes. As well, a drone attack on Sumy hit a bakery preparing Easter cakes, because Russia is such a great “Christian” nation (if you believe the far-right who have swallowed that propaganda).

https://twitter.com/ukraine_world/status/1913161923475992770

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Roundup: A disinformation fest in the English debate

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Day twenty-six, and the second day of debates. Both Mark Carney and Jagmeet Singh had photo ops in Montreal before the debate, while Pierre Poilievre stayed quiet. And it looks like no one is downing tools today, in spite of it being a statutory holiday—Carney will be in Niagara Falls, followed by Colborne and Brantford. I didn’t get Poilievre’s itinerary, while Singh starts the day in Yamachiche, Quebec, and then ends the day in Burnaby, BC.

In other campaign news, the Conservatives had other incumbents release the second part of their Arctic defence policy, and it appears that they didn’t consult with any Northerners or Inuit for this part either.

And then the English debate, or as it should more properly be called, a disinformation fest. The sheer volume of utter horseshit uttered was absolutely astonishing, and yet nobody was challenged or called out on hardly any of it. Steve Paikin as moderator had a fairly light tough for much of it, and allowed a lot of talking over one another, but did keep things moving at a fairly good clip in order to have a couple of rapid-fire rounds at the end, though near the end, there was a “Leader’s Choice” segment where each leader could ask a question of one another, and everyone chose Carney to attack (quelle surprise), while Carney picked Poilievre, and returned to the security clearance issue (which Poilievre yet again lied about). I also note that at the top of each thematic section, Paikin asked a different question of each of the leaders, so they weren’t answering the same and made it hard to compare them.

https://bsky.app/profile/emmettmacfarlane.com/post/3ln2atae4lk2y

Poilievre is again lying about "printing money" and inflation. Carney: "I know you want to run against Justin Trudeau. Justin Trudeau is not here." #debate

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2025-04-18T00:41:27.247Z

Poilievre lying about being "gagged" if he gets his security clearance. He would merely need to be responsible in his commentary, which he refuses to do. #debate

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2025-04-18T00:46:11.096Z

As for the leaders themselves, Carney again kept his cool, even when constantly being talked over, and just kept trying to make his point with “If I may,” before they shut up. I also noted that he would keep saying how many points he had for responses before listing those points, but he also did have the occasional misspeak (for example referring to TMX as “Keystone.”) Poilievre pretty much spent the whole exercise lying about absolutely everything, shamelessly, and was not challenged on about 99 percent of it, which doesn’t help the average viewer. Singh was a little less hyper than last night, and we avoided any tantrums tonight, because the moderator did give him the chance to talk about healthcare, but also challenged him on it about the jurisdictional issue, which Singh, of course, talked around rather than answering. And as for Blanchet, he kept trying to make a pitch for a minority parliament where he can exert influence. He also demanded that whoever becomes prime minister call the other leaders to meet one week after the election in order to discuss the various crises we’re facing. (Here are the recaps from The Canadian Press, CBC, National Post, and the Star, and six takeaways from the debate).

https://bsky.app/profile/emmettmacfarlane.com/post/3ln2afzfgac22

Poilievre's dodge on Indigenous incarceration was astounding. Just absolutely amazing that he could get away with that. #debate

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2025-04-17T23:42:39.614Z

Paikin actually corners Singh on how he would deal with provinces who don't want to spend his healthcare dollars the way he wants. Singh just talks around it, doesn't actually say how he would force the provinces. #debate

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2025-04-18T00:19:58.773Z

https://bsky.app/profile/emmettmacfarlane.com/post/3ln2bndu4ds2h

The other notable part of the evening was that the post-debate scrums were cancelled, because of an ostensible safety issue after Rebel media started trying to accost other journalists, including trying to interrupt CBC’s broadcast before the debate. The fact that the Debate Commission’s chair didn’t even realise that Rebel and Ezra Levant had registered as third party advertisers with Elections Canada should have meant an automatic disqualification, but he said he was so afraid of losing another lawsuit meant he just caved to their demands, which is yet again another sign of democracy being under assault in this country.

Debates Commission has cancelled the post-debate scrums after this English leaders debate. This cancellation follows an altercation prior to the debate involving Rebel News and other journalists. #elxn45

— davidakin (@davidakin.bsky.social) 2025-04-18T00:23:05.379Z

Ukraine Dispatch

Russian missiles struck Kharkiv, killing one and injuring at least 57, as president Zelenskyy notes that Russia has shifted from targeting energy facilities to civilian targets. Russians on the front lines appear to be shifting to using mass-assault tactics as they try to advance. Ukraine says they have signed a memorandum as a first step toward a mineral deal with the US, which would involve setting up an investment fund for Ukraine’s reconstruction.

https://twitter.com/KyivIndependent/status/1913102312286900366

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Roundup: No blows landed in the French debate

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Day twenty-five, and right as the day got started, the Greens were disinvited from the leaders’ debates because they had told the media that they held back several nominations for “strategic reasons,” and the commission could no longer say that their not meeting the candidate threshold was for “innocent” reasons like not getting enough signatures in time. The Greens complained that it wasn’t democratic and that it favoured parties that already had “their turn,” but seriously? You made that choice.

Mark Carney had a photo op in Montreal where he got some poutine to “fuel up” for the debate, while neither Pierre Poilievre nor Jagmeet Singh had public events, and it looks like it’ll be more of the same today before the English debate.

In other campaign news, the Conservatives unveiled a fisheries policy,

And then the French debate.

It was…fine. There really wasn’t much in the way of standout moments, and it was relatively well-behaved, barring one or two exceptions, and the moderator was the one punctuating it with a few editorial comments and jabs. Carney showed greatly improved French, and he was frequently brief and concise on some issues, but at others he went into details (albeit slowly) and got cut off for it. But he didn’t really screw up on anything and came away unscathed. Poilievre was frequently a robot with a rictus grin, reciting his pre-prepared talking points about his platform plans, and occasionally trotting out the swipes at Justin Trudeau, which Carney shrugged off, and ultimately, Poilievre wasn’t able to land any punches. Yves-François Blanchet would frequently take over and dominate conversations, and on several occasions would “speak for Quebec,” never mind that he certainly doesn’t speak for much of the province in spite of claiming to. Singh, in spite of his being under the weather, was the one constantly interrupting and demanding attention. He kept trying to bring healthcare into the debate, in spite of it not being a topic, and got cut off at one point when he didn’t stop, and toward the end, he threw a tantrum and attacked the moderator because he *gasp!* tried to do his job and keep the leaders on topic, and not bring up something unrelated. Imagine that.

(Recaps from The Canadian Press, CBC, National Post, and the Star, and here are seven notable moments).

Trying to nail Poilievre down on whether he'd force pipeline through provinces or First Nations, Poilievre keeps refusing to admit that anyone would refuse. It's a bit weird. #debate

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2025-04-16T23:05:51.576Z

He says he wouldn’t subsidize a pipeline and says red tape reduction would stimulate investment in them. That is…a whopper lol.

— David Moscrop (@davidmoscrop.com) 2025-04-16T23:06:00.095Z

And we're into Century Initiative bullshit.*sigh* Will anybody challenge it? Of course not. #debate

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2025-04-16T23:24:23.826Z

A couple of the exchanges stood out, one being the moderator asking the leaders which American products they’ve given up, and it just turned into interminable jokes about strawberries, after the issue during the Cinq chefs interviews a couple of weeks ago, where the interviewers asked Carney if he buys American strawberries and he didn’t have an answer for them. There was also a question that asked whether the federal government should create its own health programmes or just increase transfers to the provinces, and it was a lot of back-and-forth that said very little, and as you might expect, there was absolutely nothing about holding any premiers to account for their allowing healthcare to collapse.

After the debate were the scrums, and it turned out that Rebel “News” had bullied the debate commission into letting them bring five reporters, each supposedly representing a “division” of the organisation, whereas legitimate organisations each got one reporter and one cameraman. It’s an admission that bullying and lawfare works, which it shouldn’t, but here we are.

Ukraine Dispatch

Glide bombs and artillery struck Kherson Wednesday morning, killing one and wounding nine. There was a mass drone attack on Dnipro overnight, killing three and wounding at least thirty.

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Roundup: Letting a hockey game take precedence

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Day twenty-four, and the announcements didn’t really matter because the only thing anyone was concerned about was the fact that tonight’s French debate was at the same time as a Montreal Canadiens hockey game, and the Bloc and NDP demanded the debate be rescheduled (but when exactly, given that it’s Easter weekend and that’s when the advance polls are open). So, the organizers and the networks agreed to change the time to 6 from 8, which means that it’ll be on at 3 for anyone out in BC. Yeah, that’s going to get viewership by francophones in the west. We are such a parochial country sometimes.

Mark Carney was in Saint-Eustache, Quebec, and announced a plan to provide more assistance for job training or retraining in certain priority areas, with some additional promises for those whose jobs are affected by the tariffs. Carney will have a photo op in Montreal around noon before the debate, now two hours earlier.

Pierre Poilievre was in Montreal, and he announced plans to crack down on people who scam seniors, which means forcing phone companies and banks to have mandatory “scam detection systems,” which sounds a bit like a magic wand given that the field is constantly changing to keep one step ahead. I also fail to see what tougher penalties will do given that the vast majority of these scams operate overseas. Poilievre will hold a press conference this morning, in advance of the debate.

Do we need to have a conversation about why those prices are up? -Beef continues to rise because drought has meant culling herds, which raises prices-Eggs are up because we have bird flu outbreaks, albeit not as bad as the US-That fruit figure is mostly oranges, because the FL crop was devastated

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2025-04-15T19:02:03.936Z

Are the Conservatives planning to do anything about climate change that has meant more droughts on the prairies? Nope. Part of what devastated the Floria orange crop were hurricanes, which are exacerbated by climate change. Again, do they want to do anything about that? Nope.

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2025-04-15T19:02:03.937Z

Now, have the Liberals pointed any of this out? Of course not. They're too busy patting themselves on the back for killing the consumer carbon levy, and pretending that it was imposed by some mysterious force. We have real issues to discuss in this election, but they're not being discussed.

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2025-04-15T19:02:03.938Z

Jagmeet Singh was also in Montreal, where he promised to restore the changes to the capital gains inclusion rate, under the rubric of making the ultra-wealthy pay the price, and promising to use these revenues to fund all of his promises (good luck with that magical money tree), but didn’t actually spell out the actual issue of tax arbitrage and fairness for all different types of capital gains to be taxed at the same rate. Singh’s only engagement today is the debate.

In other campaign news, Poilievre is now saying there’s no timeline for defunding CBC after previously saying he wants to do so as soon as possible. Carney says that he wants the F-35 review to go swiftly, but DND is still establishing the parameters of said exercise. And the White House confirmed that annexation talk is still on the president’s mind.

This election is *really* testing my limit.

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2025-04-15T21:35:48.964Z

Ukraine Dispatch

Russian drones hit homes on Odesa overnight, injuring at least three. This after NATO secretary general Mark Rutte was in Odesa to reaffirm “unwavering” support for Ukraine. Meanwhile, life in Sumy is carrying on after Sunday’s deadly attacks.

https://twitter.com/ukraine_world/status/1912116063560495426

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Roundup: Promising to invoke the Notwithstanding Clause

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Day twenty-three, and the campaigns are starting to converge around Montreal as debate prep starts to take over, but they are still getting platform planks announced in the meantime. Mark Carney was in Dorval, Quebec, to announce his plan to overhaul defence procurement, including re-promising a centralized agency, to focus on Canadian defence industries and those of non-US allies, along with some other pledges around giving members of the armed forces another raise, and working to reform recruitment processes to speed up intake. Carney also offered an apology for the bad button scandal, and said that the culprits have been “reassigned” on the campaign, which doesn’t exactly make it sound like they have suffered much in the way of consequences. Carney will be in Saint-Eustache for his morning announcement before returning to debate prep.

Pierre Poilievre was in Montreal, and he repeated a two-year-old promise to invoke the Notwithstanding Clause to ensure that multiple murders get consecutive sentences instead of concurrent, in defiance of the Supreme Court of Canada, but totally swears he wouldn’t invoke it for anything else. Really! It’s all so stupid because a) no mass murders have ever been given parole; b) this would only apply to future mass murders, not those currently serving life sentences, and it’s not going to act as a deterrent; and c) the Notwithstanding Clause needs to be renewed every five years, so this is really nothing more than an exercise in optics so that he looks tough. Poilievre will again hold his announcement today in Montreal before returning to debate prep.

https://bsky.app/profile/emmettmacfarlane.com/post/3lmrn7ukzyk2m

Jagmeet Singh was in Toronto, where he made a whole bunch of promises around healthcare that no federal government could possibly deliver on, because it’s provincial jurisdiction, but hey, he plans to “incentivize provinces.” What in the names of Apollo and Asklepios do you think that federal governments have been trying to do for four decades? How is it possible for him to be that naïve? Singh then headed to Montreal for his debate prep, and he will hold his own announcement there this morning.

In other campaign news, Carney’s campaign says that he has formally renounced his UK and Irish citizenships, and that he does indeed pay his taxes in Canada (because the Conservatives were trying to make more hay over this). LGBTQ+ groups around the country are hoping to hear more from the parties about addressing their issues (though some of them are provincial I must point out). The Debates Commission is defending the decision to invite the Greens even though they no longer meet the criteria of running candidates in at least 90 percent of ridings (which they apparently planned to, but not enough of them registered with Elections Canada).

Ukraine Dispatch

Russia made a second attack on Sumy on Monday, btu this one struck the outskirts of the city and no one was injured. There was also an overnight attack on Zaporizhzhia which ignited a petrol station. The Ukrainian air force said that Russia used new types of missiles and cluster bombs on their attack on Sumy on Sunday, which Russia is falsely claiming was targeting a military gathering, which everyone knows is false (except maybe Trump).

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Roundup: A double-header on TLMEP

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Day twenty-two, and we are moving into the debate preparation part of the campaign, so expect a couple of small announcements in the Montreal area (where the debates are being held), but for the pace to cycle down. Mark Carney was in Montreal for Tout le monde en parle, and by all accounts, acquitted himself reasonably well enough. Carney will be in Dorval, Quebec, today to make an announcement.

My unqualified $0.02 on #TLMEP – The TLMEP team asked Carney questions about policy, but Poilievre got more questions about his campaign and his personal style. Even the CBC/SRC question was whether or not his plan to cut is financially or ideologically motivated.

— Stephanie Carvin (@stephaniecarvin.bsky.social) 2025-04-14T01:50:23.686Z

Pierre Poilievre was in Ottawa, where he proposed an “Accountability Act 2.0,” both to bring back the Harper vibes, but to also proposed to change a whole bunch of ethics rules specifically for Mark Carney, that will have the added effect of chasing away every accomplished individual from politics for all time. (Seriously, though, this is a party whose generational turnover gets increasingly incestuous as so many of its candidates and MPs are former staffers). He then headed to Montreal to also appear on Tout le monde en parle. Poilievre will remain in Montreal today.

Jagmeet Singh was in Timmins, Ontario, where he promised a “Plan for Northern Ontario,” which was pretty much entirely within the domain of the provincial government, because of course it was. This is the federal NDP we’re talking about. Singh will be in Toronto for the morning.

Once again, the NDP's announcement is pretty much entirely things that the province needs to do, and the federal government can do pretty much nothing about.Oh, a 1% top-up on your transfers to comply? Seriously?

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2025-04-13T18:06:31.507Z

In other campaign news, everyone’s tongues were wagging about the fact that Liberal operatives admitted to planting buttons at the Formerly-Known-As-Manning Conference this weekend, saying things like “Stop the Steal,” among other things, which the party called staffers getting “carried away.” There is a long tradition of “funny” buttons at opposing conventions, but this was not done openly and is at a time of heightened disinformation I will probably write more about his later in the week, but I will also say that I have zero patience for all of the Conservatives on their fainting couches, clutching their pearls about this while they have lied and slandered throughout the campaign, and spent the very day this story broke trying to push a bullshit tale about Liberal organising prisoners to vote for them, and bringing back the canard about “secret plans” for a home equity tax. And no, the Conservatives lying doesn’t make Liberal ratfuckery any more justified. This kind of thing is poisoning our democracy.

Dirty-tricksterism like those Liberal-planted buttons may be the political world’s oldest profession. Last year, some unknown right-wing operatives printed these race-baiting brochures at the Alberta UCP convention, ahead of Danielle Smith’s leadership review.

— Jason Markusoff (@markusoff.bsky.social) 2025-04-13T19:18:08.678Z

https://twitter.com/maxfawcett/status/1911532346068832768

I get that the vast majority of partisans have absolutely no self-awareness, but seriously? On the same day that they have trotted out the lie that the Liberals are secretly planning a "home equity tax," like they have in every election for the past decade, no less. Honest to Zeus, guys.

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2025-04-13T22:29:23.200Z

Ukraine Dispatch

Russians bombed the city centre of Sumy as people were gathering for Palm Sunday celebrations, killing 34 people and wounding at least 117.

https://twitter.com/ZelenskyyUa/status/1911374389746004111

Instant results ARE possible. Russia just needs to stop attacking and go home.

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2025-04-14T04:13:18.964Z

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Roundup: No contrition for past treatment of veterans

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Day twenty-one, and it was a fairly quiet one on the campaign, with the announcements fairly low-key. Mark Carney was in Ottawa, and announced his plans for a “Canada Strong Pass” that would so things like discount national park and museum access, give free children’s fares on VIA Rail (if accompanied by an adult), and reduce prices for camping at said national parks, as a way to help Canadians enjoy more of their vacations in this country. He also had a call with the secretary general of NATO, as the Conservatives accuse him of “hiding,” and using his office as a “free ride.” Carney will be in Montreal today to appear on Tout le monde en parle, which is a pretty big gamble given his French.

Pierre Poilievre was in Ottawa, and promised sweeping reforms to veterans’ pensions and disability benefits, but offered no contrition for the treatment of veterans when he was last in government, and in fact, praised certain Harper-era veterans programmes while he was at it. He also insisted that he would made any changes to Medical Assistance in Dying laws (which one presumes means it won’t expand to cover other conditions as it was supposed to). Poilievre will remain in Ottawa this morning.

Jagmeet Singh was in Timmins, Ontario, for an event in the evening, but made no announcements. Singh remains in Timmins for the morning, and heads to Toronto later in the day.

In other campaign news, here is a deeper dive into the Conservatives’ tough-on-crime proposals, and why the courts are likely to strike them down. That said, the Conservatives are also planning to appoint more “conservative” judges, which would just wind up politicizing the judiciary. Here’s a look at the problem of “energy corridors” that both Poilievre and Carney have broached, and why they’re a lot harder than they sound. Here is a rundown of the races in the suburbs of Toronto, where the Conservatives would need to make inroads if they hope to win. If the polls hold, there could be a lot more Liberal seats in urban Alberta, which will likely mean a lot more talk of crybaby separatism.

https://twitter.com/MikePMoffatt/status/1911090729855647904

Ukraine Dispatch

Russia launched a barrage of 88 drones, of which 56 were shot down, and there were four injuries and damage to buildings in Kyiv. A guided bomb hit a house in Kupiansk in the Kharkiv region, injuring four. Russia is complaining that Ukraine hit five energy infrastructure sites in the past day, violating the “energy ceasefire.”

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