Roundup: Leaders on the final push

Day thirty-four, and leaders are all in the final push, making last-minute stops in key ridings that they either hope to keep, or win outright. Mark Carney was in Sault Ste. Marie to visit Algoma Steel, where he gave the Ontario-centric and, more importantly, steel-focused, version of his pitch to voters. He did say, in response to a question, that he was open to electoral reform but didn’t think that a prime minister should champion it because it politicises it. (I swear to Zeus, if this turns into another round of “citizen assembly” nonsense, I will lose my mind). He also said he’s open to reviewing the Access to Information regime (which every leader says), and called on Israel to end the blockade on food aid to Gaza. The then made stops in Georgetown, Cambridge, and London, Ontario. He also made his appearance at the virtual AFN forum, where he committed to implementation of UNDRIP. Carney is sticking in Ontario today with events in King City, Newmarket, Aurora, Markham, Mississauga, and then Windsor.

Pierre Poilievre was in Saskatoon, where he laid out his plans for his first 100 days in office (which is another imported Americanism), and it involved promising to sit through the summer in order to pass three massive omnibus bills that dealt with large swaths of his agenda. Part of his hundred days, however, was a promise to get a deal with Trump, which is not only ridiculous because nobody is getting an actual deal with Trump, but he’s been saying that Carney thinks he can control Trump but nobody can, and yet he’s simultaneously insisting that only he can control Trump enough to get a deal. It’s laughable that he thinks this is at all serious. Poilievre then stopped in Calgary for a rally, where he called for bigger voter turnout, before heading to Nanoose Bay, BC. Poilievre will be in Delta, BC, today for one of his finally rallies.

Poilievre is still peddling the fantasy that *he* can make a deal with Trump that will stick, after he says Carney is delusional for thinking he can control Trump.

Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2025-04-25T15:44:59.656Z

Jagmeet Singh was in Toronto, where he just invented the threat that the Liberals will cut healthcare if there aren’t enough NDP MPs elected, which is outrageous bullshit. For one, the problem is with the provinces, and they have long-term funding agreements with the federal government, and two, the threats of cutting healthcare are at the provincial level. This is just outright mendacity from an increasingly desperate Singh. His campaign then stopped in Hamilton and London, Ontario. Singh starts the day in London, then heads to Windsor before flying to Vancouver and Burnaby.

Singh is just literally making shit up at this point.

Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2025-04-25T15:02:12.089Z

On a side note, Yves-François Blanchet made the statement today that Canada is an “artificial country with very little meaning,” in response to questions about previous remarks about sitting in a “foreign parliament.” While this is probably self-defeating at a time of heightened patriotism, what Blanchet is really trying to do is appeal to ethnic nationalism in Quebec. All countries are artificial, but a good many around the world are bound together by a common ethnicity and language, and Canada is not. Certain elements of Quebec would like to think that they have a common ethnicity and language, but this is the kind of ethnic nationalism that fuels racism and xenophobia. It’s what François Legault has been appealing to as he attacks the rights of religious minorities. And Blanchet is trying to appeal to it to say that Liberals can’t represent Quebec because only the Bloc can truly represent “ethnic” Quebeckers. But he’s also been hoping that he’ll get a bump in the polls like he did last time after Shachi Kurl raised (badly formed) questions about Law 21, which Blanchet was able to spin into “She’s calling us racists!” and that gave him the boost in the polls he needed. It looks like he won’t get that this time around.

https://twitter.com/acoyne/status/1916013202388721995

In other campaign news, Equal Voice’s tally shows that the Liberals, Conservatives, and Bloc are all running fewer women as candidates in this election. Elections Canada says that Poilievre’s riding of Carleton had the highest advance turnout in the country. None of the parties have been clear about how they plan to meet existing climate commitments. Singh is trying to convince George Stroumboulopoulos that their poll numbers are rebounding (really!) so they’ll come out of the election with “lots” of re-elected MPs. (Aside from the quarter of his caucus that’s not running again?)

For Canadians being inundated by riding-level polls right now:The data is crap if it has no dates, small samples (<800), high margins of error.The people showing them to you are trying to persuade you to vote for their own preferred party. It's sales pitch, not an evidence-based argument.

Jared Wesley (@jaredwesley.ca) 2025-04-26T01:02:15.747Z

https://bsky.app/profile/emmettmacfarlane.com/post/3lnnrnrygrs2r

Yes. Yes I do.

Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2025-04-25T13:35:18.917Z

Ukraine Dispatch

A drone attack on Pavlohrad killed five and injured at least eleven. A Russian general was killed by a car bomb, and Russia is blaming Ukraine (who have not yet claimed responsibility).

https://twitter.com/ukraine_world/status/1915669752787149047

Continue reading

Roundup: Reiterating promises in battleground ridings

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.

Continue reading

Roundup: A more comprehensive justice package

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.

Continue reading

Roundup: Double the campaign announcements

Day sixteen, and suddenly each of the parties was doubling up on their news releases today, each announcing not one but two different policy planks, because apparently, we were a little too comfortable already.

Mark Carney was in Victoria, where the first announcement was about protecting retirement savings through reducing the minimum amounts that need to be withdrawn from an RRIF for a year, as well as a temporary increase of the GIS. Later, but still in Victoria, Carney spoke about conservation efforts by pledging new national parks and marine protected environments, bolstered Indigenous stewardship, and nature-based climate solutions. Carney also insisted that he’s prepared and has a plan to deal with the market chaos that Trump has unleashed. Carney also met with BC premier David Eby to talk about the softwood tariffs that Trump plans on increasing. Carney will start the day in Delta, BC, and head to Calgary later in the day.

Pierre Poilievre was in Terrace, BC, and declared that he will create a single office for resource projects, with one application, and a maximum one-year timeframe for approvals (which raises all kinds of question about provincial jurisdiction, and the complexity of projects). He even listed projects as examples that…already have their approvals but the market hasn’t bought into the projects, which should raise even more questions about whether he has a clue about what he’s talking about, other than “oil project good.” Poilievre later said he would delay the age by which seniors need to withdraw their savings from their RRSPs. Poilievre will start the day in Edmonton, and then head for Sault Ste. Marie later today.

Jagmeet Singh was in Toronto, and used the demise of Hudson’s Bay Company to tout more protections for workers during bankruptcies, and to keep “predatory” foreign private equity funds at bay. Later in the day, he promised that he could build three million homes by 2030, and good luck with that given just how few details their plan contains for such a complex, multi-jurisdictional problem. Singh will be in Vancouver this morning, followed by his home riding in Burnaby (where apparently his seat is under threat, if polls are to be believed).

In other campaign news, the Longest Ballot jackasses have targeted Poilievre’s riding, making his Liberal rival’s job all that much harder. And nominations are now closed, so here is a look at some of the familiar names that will be on ballots.

Ukraine Dispatch

Russia continues to claim that Ukraine is targeting its power stations in spite of the “energy ceasefire.” Funerals were held in Kryvyi Rih for those killed in Friday night’s attack. President Zelenskyy confirmed that there are Ukrainian troops in Russia’s Belgorod region.

 

Continue reading

Roundup: Recovery and rent control

Day fifteen, and not every campaign was busy today. Mark Carney was quiet in the early part of the day, where he had a call with UK prime minister Keir Starmer, but was in Victoria in the evening, where he started the western leg of his tour by holding a rally. Carney will remain in Victoria in the morning, and head to Richmond, BC, later in the day.

Readout of Carney's call with Starmer. I very much noticed the reference to "reliable partners." #cdnpoli

Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2025-04-06T20:59:36.949Z

Pierre Poilievre was in New Westminster, BC, and he promised funding for 50,000 more addiction recoveries (so I’m not sure how that translates to spaces), and said that “drug dens” (aka safe consumption sites) be forbidden from within metres of a laundry list of places, as though the people consuming on the streets care about that prohibition. Poilievre will start the day in Terrace, BC, and end the day with a rally in Edmonton.

Jagmeet Singh was in Halifax, and promised to use federal spending powers to bring in national rent control, which is 100 percent provincial jurisdiction, which they want to get around by essentially saying he would withhold federal housing money unless they brought it in (and it’s all about “corporate landlords,” but never about private ones being a problem, which many of them are). They also once again tried to trot out Ruth-Ellen Brosseau as a “star” candidate, never mind that it didn’t work the last time, and is unlikely to again this time. Singh plans to be in Toronto today.

*siiiiiiiiiigh* This way of intruding into areas of provincial jurisdiction is going to have all kinds of unintended consequences, guys. And yes, the fact that We The Media are essentially demanding it to happen is also a problem.

Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2025-04-06T17:28:30.325Z

In other campaign news, it’s the cut-off day for nominations today, and some parties are scrambling to get names on ballots. Here’s a look at how Singh has abandoned the message about becoming prime minister in favour of just trying to elect as many NDP MPs as possible, and another look at how much the campaign has been struggling since the beginning.

Ukraine Dispatch

Russian troops are pushing into Ukraine’s Sumy region in the northeast.

Continue reading

Roundup: Another plan to save the CBC

Day thirteen, and the campaigns were trying to get back to a message that wasn’t trade war-related, for what that’s worth in the current moment we’re in. Mark Carney was in Montreal, where he promised to protect CBC/Radio-Canada though a more accountable governance structure and more funding directed to local coverage, and to protect it by enshrining its funding in legislation…except that you can’t bind future governments by statute, and yes, the Supreme Court of Canada has said so. He also downplayed Preston Manning’s crybaby separatism comments, and reminded reporters of his western credentials. Carney will be in Oakville and Toronto today.

I should have been clear. This is from Carney's announcement this morning about funding CBC/Radio-Canada.

Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2025-04-04T14:04:04.457Z

Pierre Poilievre was in Trois-Rivières, Quebec, to propose tougher bail conditions and sentencing for intimate partner violence (which is something to tackle! But sentencing is not the only solution). The Conservatives didn’t send out a notice as to where Poilievre would be today.

Jagmeet Singh was in Montreal to pronounce that they would crack down harder on offshore tax evasion, with some digs about Brookfield as though Carney was making all of its decisions (because apparently the NDP need to learn how corporate boards operate). They also promised they would tear up tax treaties with havens like Bermuda…except those treaties are vital for information sharing used to combat tax evasion. Because apparently the NDP really thought through that policy. Singh will be in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador this morning, and then off to Halifax for the evening.

NDP: We're going to cancel tax agreements with havens like Bermuda to stop tax evasion!Reality: Those tax agreements provide information sharing crucial to combating tax evasion.

Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2025-04-04T15:10:14.685Z

In other campaign news, here is what we heard from the Radio-Canada “Five leaders” interviews, and how Poilievre is starting to moderate a few of his positions including on things like the digital services tax.

Ukraine Dispatch

A Russian attack on a residential area of Kryvyi Rih killed nineteen people including nine children, and yet they claimed they were targeting “gathering military,” which is obvious disinformation. Germany is funding Eutelsat to provide Ukraine an alternative to Starlink, with the hopes of sending between 5,000 and 10,000 terminals within weeks.

https://twitter.com/ZelenskyyUa/status/1908205945790107887

https://twitter.com/ukraine_world/status/1908247091601711399

Continue reading

Roundup: Retaliatory tariffs on American non-compliant cars

Day twelve, meaning we’re about a third of the way through, and so much of the day was all about the fallout of Wednesday’s tariff announcement. Mark Carney was in Ottawa where he had yet another virtual meeting with the premiers before meeting with the media. There, he said that the era of trade where America leads is over is over, that Trump’s actions will rupture the global economy as it has been since the end of World War II, and that while this is a tragedy, it’s the new reality. Canada’s response is a matching 25 percent tariff on vehicles from non-CUSMA-compliant vehicles coming from the United States, but not on auto parts, where the proceeds would go back to the auto workers. Carney will start the day in Montreal, before heading to Woodbridge, Ontario, and then Scarborough.

https://twitter.com/flaviovolpe1/status/1907890689330778611

Pierre Poilievre was in Kingston, where he promised to remove the GST on Canadian-made vehicles (which the NDP initially proposed), and a fund to help keep workers stay on the job in affected industries. It is also noteworthy that Poilievre distanced himself from Danielle Smith and Preston Manning’s crybaby separatism comments, saying that they need to unite the country. Poilievre will be Trois-Rivières, Quebec, today.

We're back to Poilievre just sanewashing Trump.

Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2025-04-03T17:03:07.441Z

https://bsky.app/profile/jrobson.bsky.social/post/3llwvxlkeo22j

Jagmeet Singh was in Ottawa to propose the creation of Victory Bonds to fund public infrastructure, in addition to reannouncing his previous protectionist plans. Singh will be in Montreal again today.

The NDP have a tense problem here.They haven't launched anything because they are not in government. They are proposing launching these bonds. There is a difference.

Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2025-04-03T13:43:56.546Z

In other campaign news, Carney said that legislation to protect Supply Management was unnecessary (which is true, but also because you can’t bind a future government so you’re just wasting everyone’s time). Poilievre insisted that their willingness to dump candidates (so far) shows that they’re different from the Liberals (which is a specious argument before the cut-off date).

Ukraine Dispatch

Hundreds of Ukrainian troops are allegedly holed up in a monastery as Russian troops try to drive them from Kursk region. President Zelenskyy visited the neighbouring Sumy region yesterday. Ukraine appears to have resolved some of its manpower challenges.

Continue reading

Roundup: Chiang overshadows the day

Day nine, and in spite of the big plans that some of the leaders were trying to put forward, the issue of Paul Chiang loomed over everything. Mark Carney was in Vaughan, Ontario, and pitched a very bold plan to stand up a new Build Canada Homes organization, which would see the federal government take charge of building houses, with a goal of reaching 500,000 new homes per year, and using the market power to stand up a pre-fabrication industry that would have the certainty that these orders are coming in. (They also had to quietly change the French name of the proposed organisation after the initial version was grammatically incorrect). He also promised a number of things around development charges and permitting that are not within federal jurisdiction, so questions remain as to how he expects to reach those goals. Carney will be in Winnipeg today.

Pierre Poilievre was in Fredericton, New Brunswick, pitching a national energy corridor, without saying how he plans to actually achieve it over the provinces and First Nations. (Yes, Carney talked about this with the premiers, but there have been no details yet). When asked about the mounting frustration within the campaign, Poilievre avoided answering the question, but defended his platform under the rubric that the Liberals weakened the country. Poilievre will be in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador this morning, and hold a rally in Borden-Carleton, PEI, in the evening.

Jagmeet Singh was in Victoria, and promoted energy retrofits that would create “good union jobs,” which continues to feel hopelessly behind the curve. We also saw Singh’s messaging strategy start to shift as well, insisting that electing more NDP MPs mean more people fighting for the “little guy” in negotiations around the future of the country and yeah, I’m not sure that’s not quite how it works. Singh remains in Edmonton today.

In other campaign news, here’s a comparison of how the party leaders are each dealing with the Trump threats, and how that is reflected in their policies. On the Paul Chiang question, Carney said that he spoke with Chiang and that he still has his confidence, which raises big questions about Carney’s political judgment. Chiang posted that he had resigned as candidate around midnight, which takes the issue off the table, but leaves the questions around Carney’s judgment hanging in the air.

Ukraine Dispatch

President Zelenskyy says that Russia has committed over 183,000 war crimes in Ukraine since the start of their invasion, and that they need to be punished for it.

Continue reading

Roundup: Meeting the local volunteers

Day seven of the campaign, and it was a quieter day, but things were still happening. It also looks like, despite previous campaigns usually having quieter Sundays for the parties to regroup, to let reporters swap in and out of campaign planes and so on, that some of the parties are having active campaign days today, because why let anyone catch up?

Mark Carney was in his riding, meeting his team and volunteers, and had along the way kicked out local media. Oops. He’ll remain in Ottawa today, meeting with local families and volunteers.

Pierre Poilievre was in Winnipeg, where he pledged to allow tradespeople to write off their expenses when they travel for work, because he’s trying very hard to secure the blue-collar vote, and to pretend that the solution to the trade war with Trump is to just expand the oil and gas sector. Poilievre also said he wouldn’t contest any controversial Quebec language law in courts, and presumably that means their “secularism” legislation either (because apparently he’s still trying to out-Bloc the Bloc). Poilievre’s campaign returns to the GTA today.

Jagmeet Singh was in Ottawa, and promised “emergency price caps” on certain grocery items in order to “tariff proof” them, which seems like it’s asking to defeat the purpose of counter-tariffs because Singh and his advisors don’t have a clue about how these things work, and refuse to listen to economists. He also wants a windfall tax on grocery giants and more powers to the Competition Bureau to enforce grocery prices—almost all of which are old policies just dressed up for the trade war era rather than the spike in inflation, meaning that the NDP has a box of “solutions” that they are seeking out problems for. The campaign heads off to Port Moody, BC, today.

Meanwhile, the knives are out in the Conservative camp, with even more leaks and anonymous sources™ calling up more media outlets to discuss their concerns with the state of the campaign (CBC and Globe and Mail this time), painting even more of a picture of a campaign that is too centralised, too focused on weird, niche issues (including reporting of crowd sizes), bullying, and tone-deafness. This also includes the fact that some 90 ridings were set aside to have Poilievre and Jenni Byrne choose the candidates rather than allowing a nomination process, which is frankly happening across too many parties these days.

Ukraine Dispatch

Russian drones struck a military hospital, shopping centre, and apartment blocks in Kharkiv late Saturday.

https://twitter.com/ukraine_world/status/1905866120684319066

Continue reading

Roundup: Carney’s first call with Trump

Day six of the campaign, and things took a slightly different tone as the tariff issue still loomed large. Mark Carney remained in Montreal, where he had his first call with Donald Trump since becoming prime minister, and they both gave very civil readouts, but the tariffs are still coming, as are the retaliatory measures. Carney then had a virtual meeting with the premiers, before holding his announcement for the day, which was about a $5 billion fund for trade corridors and infrastructure, dedicated in particular to east-west trade and ports to different destinations than the US. Today, Carney will be back in Ottawa to meet his campaign volunteers in Nepean (but no word on any actual door-knocking).

Readout of Carney's call with Trump. #cdnpoli

Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2025-03-28T16:50:03.092Z

https://bsky.app/profile/jrobson.bsky.social/post/3llh4c35vnk2a

Readout of Carney's virtual meeting with the premiers. #cdnpoli

Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2025-03-28T21:56:12.976Z

Pierre Poilievre was in Nanaimo, BC, to essentially re-announce his previously revealed, completely unconstitutional promise of locking up fentanyl traffickers for life. This is just going to capture low-level users whose lives are already miserable, but sometimes the cruelty is the point. When asked about the latest tariffs, Poilievre continues to hope for a change in tone out of Trump (and is not facing the reality of a dead relationship), but then went into a rant about how only the oil industry can make us economically viable. Poilievre will be in Winnipeg today.

Jagmeet Singh was in Toronto to announce a policy about banning corporate landlords from buying affordable units and jacking the rents, and tried to tie it to Carney and Brookfield. Of course, Singh’s plan is mostly unworkable because much of it lies within provincial jurisdiction, so that’s not unexpected. He’ll be in Ottawa today, canvassing with local candidates.

Aside from this being weaksauce, I fail to see how they can stop corporations from buying rental properties (especially as property transactions and landlord-tenant legislation are provincial responsibilities).

Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2025-03-28T14:14:56.337Z

I'll just point out the obvious that not-for-profit corporations are… corporations. So are condo corporations and corps that own apartment buildings since individuals rarely have the cash to build or buy them. As for the constitutional division of powers, Singh has had a longstanding problem.

Stephen Lautens (@stephenlautens.bsky.social) 2025-03-28T16:51:51.036Z

In the wake of Kory Teneycke’s pillorying of Poilievre’s campaign, other Conservatives on the campaign are coming out the woodwork to talk about how the campaign is shambolic, the leader isolated, and that the wheels have already come off of it. In other campaign news, the National Post dug up Mark Carney’s PhD thesis and got an academic that they run op-eds for—and who donates to the Conservatives—to declare that aspects were “plagiarised.” They weren’t really, and the only real plagiarism here is the lifting wholesale of far-right US tactics (see: Claudine Gay at Harvard), but hoo boy, the stench of desperation coming off the Conservatives as every one of their candidates screamed over social media about this non-scandal. In a similar example of the media pushing a non-story comes word that one of the funds Poilievre invested in holds Brookfield stocks, after all of his grief about them (but again, they’re funds, he doesn’t direct them Meanwhile, Breach Media found evidence that Poilievre’s wife helped her uncle stay in the country after he was deemed inadmissible and was ordered to be deported, and contrasts it to Poilievre’s rhetoric about “illegal border crossers” needing to be deported.

https://bsky.app/profile/emmettmacfarlane.com/post/3llhfo4w3vc26

Migrant Workers Alliance for Change just fired a shot across Poilievre's bow.

Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2025-03-28T14:11:35.328Z

I mean, Carney's french isn't good. But I would hardly describe it as satanic. (Rusty anglo bureaucrat is more accurate)

Jess Davis (@jessmarindavis.bsky.social) 2025-03-28T19:24:09.953Z

Ukraine Dispatch

A Russian drone attack on Dnipro killed four late Friday, and drone attacks on Poltava damaged warehouses owned by the state gas producer, in spite of the “energy ceasefire.” Russia claims Ukraine destroyed a gas infrastructure unit in Sudzha, but Ukraine said Russia did it. Now that Ukrainians are out of Kursk region, they have started fresh incursions into the Belgorod region. Ukrainian intelligence, corroborated by two G7 allies, suggests that Putin is planning a fresh offensive on three regions in order to strengthen Russia’s negotiating position with the US.

https://twitter.com/ukraine_world/status/1905766350825607175

Continue reading