PM Carney Calls Federal Election

[GO-NAD!]

Election campaign starts in shadow of trade war with Canadians casting their votes April 28 | CBC News

Just ten weeks ago, it looked like the Liberal Party were facing certain and catastrophic defeat at the hands of the Conservatives. However, Trump may just be the best thing to ever happen to the Grits (Liberals). They are currently favoured to win - even flirting with a majority of seats.
Poll Tracker | CBC News

A lot can happen over a five week campaign however. While Carney has been a public figure for over 20 years, he is an inexperienced politician (Sound familiar?). While he has faced his share of slings and arrows during his tenures as Governor of the Bank of Canada and Bank of England, how he performs under the pressure of an election campaign remains to be seen.

Tory (Conservative) leader, Pierre Poilievre, on the other hand, has done nothing but politics his entire adult life, though this will be his first campaign as party leader. He is an abrasive figure and has a habit of attacking journalists should they have the temerity to ask anything other than slo-pitch questions. During previous elections, journalists would normally accompany party leaders' campaigns on their aircraft and buses. This time, Poilievre is avoiding the possibility of unpleasant interactions with reporters by banning them from travelling with him.

The New Democratic Party has been hemorrhaging support to the Liberals, as normally leftist voters adopt an "ABC" (Anything But Conservative) stance. The separatist Bloq Quebecois has also lost some support to the Liberals.

Support for the Green Party and People's Party of Canada amount to rounding errors and aren't expected to be a factor.

 

[Eppie]

Haven't seen enough of Steve Boots to know whether his reporting is balanced or biased over all but he makes some pretty good points in this video:

 

[GO-NAD!]

Haven't seen enough of Steve Boots to know whether his reporting is balanced or biased over all but he makes some pretty good points in this video:

He is definitely left-leaning, but his take in this video seems sound to me. That said, I don’t think the Poilievre's goose is quite as cooked as he appears to believe.

 

[Eppie]

He is definitely left-leaning, but his take in this video seems sound to me. That said, I don’t think the Poilievre's goose is quite as cooked as he appears to believe.

Even right-leaning Lilley had some criticism of their campaign. When Carney came down hard on Rosemary Barton, he said that it was a good opportunity for Poilievre to gain some favour with the media but instead he announced that they would not be allowed on the campaign bus. Danielle Smth's interview on Breitbart didn't do the Tories any favours either.

 

[Trell]

I do recall many years ago that a Canadian was selected to be the Governor of Bank of England as that was reported as unusual at that time (but not in a bad way). I saw a YouTube clip of his speech when he won the nomination for party leader and that heartened me.

Krugman has his take on this as well.

>>>For those puzzled by my headline: Back in 1986 The New Republic challenged its readers to come up with a headline more boring than “Worthwhile Canadian Initiative,” the title of a New York Times op-ed by Flora Lewis. They couldn’t. Canada, you see, was considered inherently boring.

As I wrote a couple of months ago, economists have never considered Canada boring: It has often been a laboratory for distinctive policies. But now it’s definitely not boring: Canada, which will hold a snap election next month, seems poised to deliver a huge setback to Donald Trump’s foreign ambitions, one that may inspire much of the world — including many people in the United States — to stand up to the MAGA power grab.

So this seems like a good time to look north and see what we can learn. Here are three observations inspired by Canada that seem highly relevant to the United States....

...

<<<

Worthwhile Canadian Observations

About a “boring” country that definitely isn’t

paulkrugman.substack.com

 

[GO-NAD!]

Top Conservative strategist says Poilievre needs to urgently pivot or he will lose | CBC News

One of the country's top Conservative strategists who just helped Ontario Premier Doug Ford win a sizable majority government says Pierre Poilievre urgently needs to make a pivot and start talking more about the issue voters care about most — the U.S. threat — or he risks losing the federal election.

In an interview with CBC News, Kory Teneycke said only weeks ago Poilievre was on track to win a massive majority government, and now every major pollster in the country says it's the Liberals who are set to win big. If an election were held today, the Conservatives would lose, Teneycke said.

He said it's because of U.S. President Donald Trump — and the Conservative Party's inadequate messaging around what it would do to try and stop his tariffs and annexationist threats.


But it's not just that, Teneycke said, there's also a stylistic issue — the party's leader is just too "Trump-y" and he's got to make a change fast.

Teneycke said Poilievre acts and sounds too much like the president, with his pet names for his political opponents ("Carbon tax Carney") and catchy sloganeering ("big beautiful bring it home tax cut"), and it's off-putting to voters the party needs to win.

"It all sounds too Trump-y for a lot of voters," Teneycke said.

Again, this is from one of the top Conservative strategists.^

 

[Eppie]

I've been reading the same thing but my Conservative chums seem blinded by reality. They think that the past Liberal economic record is enough to prevent anyone from voting Liberal. Both governments will need to spend big if we go into recession, so it's a matter of where you think the money should be spent. My concern is whether Carney will stick to his NetZero roots when it comes to fiscal policies and big projects.