Roundup: Promising to capitulate to the oil companies

Day ten, and things felt a bit more on track today now that the Paul Chiang situation didn’t loom over everything. Mark Carney was in Winnipeg, and re-announced his party’s affordability measures, such as the cancellation of the consumer carbon levy (though I’m not sure how losing the rebates after this quarter will help most households with affordability), his tax cut plan (which disproportionately helps the wealthy), and their various home building pledges along with the previously announced expansion of dental care this summer. That said, he also said expanding pharmacare likely wasn’t going to be a priority (but remember that pharmacare done in the dumbest way possible because the NDP insisted, so maybe it’ll give it time to negotiate a better system? But only if the premiers actually want to play ball, mind you, and they were reluctant beforehand. Carney is back in Ottawa today for “meetings” in advance of the tariff announcement this afternoon.

Pierre Poilievre was in Petty Harbour, Newfoundland and Labrador, and announced that he was going to cave to five demands from the oil industry, including repealing the Impact Assessment Act, scrap the emissions cap, the industrial carbon price, guarantee “six-month approvals” for projects (and good luck with that), and increase Indigenous loan guarantees for resource projects. Of course, the justifications he keeps pointing to are things that predated Trudeau and the IAA, and there are a tonne of approved projects on the books that aren’t moving ahead for market-based reasons. He’s selling a fiction about the need for more oil and gas projects which the market has not moved on, and is convinced this is the way to fight Trump. It’s baffling. Poilievre also insisted that the Liberals were going to bring the consumer carbon levy back once the election is over, just like Andrew Scheer and Erin O’Toole also insisted that the Liberals were going to tax the capital gains on your home. He later made an announcement in PEI about removing the automatic escalator on beer, wine and spirits, which…is a fraction of a cent every year. Honest to Dionysus… Poilievre will be in Toronto this morning, and heads to Kingston for the evening.

Jagmeet Singh was in Edmonton, and promised changes to the Canada Health Act to ensure that American corporations can’t buy Canadian healthcare facilities, and to put stronger controls on provinces who allow cash-for-access services. He later headed to Winnipeg and met with Wab Kinew. Singh remains in Winnipeg today.

In other campaign news, the Greens have qualified to be in the leaders’ debates, but Maxime Bernier and his vanity party have not (as it should be). Here is a comparison of the various carbon pricing (or not) policies as we now appear to be in a race to the bottom based on false premises. Here is an analysis of the various housing promises. And stories of frustration continue to leak out from the Conservative ranks.

Ukraine Dispatch

Russians claim to have captured a new village in eastern Donetsk region. President Zelenskyy is meeting with a small number of countries about contributing troops as part of the security guarantee in the event the conflict does end.

Good reads:

  • Parliamentarians got a pay increase (that is automatic and indexed).
  • In advance of their new round of tariffs, the Americans released their new list of trade irritants, which include Quebec’s new language legislation.
  • Elections Canada is working with Indigenous candidates to increase voter turnout in Indigenous communities.
  • Here is a good look at the junk websites on the internet that make bogus claims, like saying Poilievre’s net worth is $25 million (it’s not).
  • A Conservative candidate in Windsor has been removed when it was revealed he called for Trudeau to be hanged during the “convoy” occupation.
  • A second Conservative candidate, this time in Montreal, was dumped for social media posts containing conspiracy theories (and outright slander).
  • And then a third Conservative got turfed in New Westminster-Burnaby, but the reasons for which are unclear.
  • Danielle Smith wants a meeting with François Legault about provincial autonomy goals, because man does she have some things to distract from. Oof.
  • Justin Ling points to a path forward that Canada needs to take with allies in defence of Greenland, and for our own Arctic sovereignty.
  • Althia Raj calls out Poilievre’s silence when it comes to defending Charter rights from provinces who encroach on them and invoke the Notwithstanding Clause.
  • My column points to the Paul Chiang incident as one more example of where Carney’s political judgment is still lacking, and his learning curve remains steep.

Odds and ends:

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