Roundup: Meeting the local volunteers

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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

Good reads:

  • Here’s a look at why the far-right is trying to invent a Jeffrey Epstein scandal to tie Mark Carney to, and the truth about the photo with Ghislaine Maxwell.
  • Here is a deeper dive into the “Century Initiative” that the Conservatives are trying to tie Mark Carney to (which is anti-immigrant dog-whistling).
  • The Bloc released their platform today, for what that matters.
  • Timothy Snyder calls out the naked imperialism of JD Vance’s visit to Greenland.
  • Kevin Carmichael (correctly) notes that the promised tax cuts are a distraction from the real issues facing this election, as cost-of-living concerns have moderated.
  • Stephen Maher talks to Mark Bourrie about his new book on Poilievre.
  • Justin Ling calls on all parties to adopt plan Trudeau put forward to end RCMP contract policing.
  • Sabrina Maddeaux takes apart the NDP’s housing plans as an example of why they are no longer a serious party.
  • Althia Raj suggests that Jagmeet Singh stop pretending he’s going to be prime minister and start making the case why Parliament still needs the NDP.

Odds and ends:

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