While National Newswatch does not keep an archive of external articles for longer than 6 months, we do keep all articles written by contributors who post directly to our site. Here you will find all of the contributed and linked external articles from Althia Raj.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre needs to be clear with Canadians about what Charter rights he is prepared to defend, or whether he believes — as he recently suggested — that the protection of Canadians’ constitutional rights should be left to the provinces. Speaking to reporters on Saturday, Poilievre was asked whether he would intervene in a Supreme Court challenge against...
Mark Carney had a chance to define himself as a Liberal leader who is guided by values and unafraid of decisive action, and on Monday he failed spectacularly. Was it overconfidence? A lack of political skills? A refusal to bend to opposition calls? Whatever held Carney back from dumping Paul Chiang as the Liberal candidate in Markham—Unionville, it raises questions...
Faced with President Donald Trump’s renewed tariff threats against Canada this week, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh shifted his campaign plans and headed to Windsor to stand with affected auto workers. Now Singh needs to shift again but this time to deal with the near existential threat his party is facing. Public opinion surveys show support for the NDP has fallen...
U.S. President Donald Trump injected himself into the Canadian election campaign this week but he was already a central figure. This week on “It’s Political” our panel of recovering partisans break down the campaign’s first week. Join David Christopherson, the former NDP Hamilton Centre MP; Sen. Rodger Cuzner, the former Liberal MP for Cape Breton—Canso; Kristina Michaud, the outgoing Bloc...
It’s a hard line to straddle. Are the Liberal MPs who announced they were heading for the exits when the polls were down but now want to contest their seats political opportunists? Or are they answering a call to duty? On Tuesday, Sean Fraser, the Nova Scotia MP and former minister of housing and immigration, announced he’d changed his mind...
Should a political party pay for news coverage? That’s the bizarre question that was put to the party leaders by the Quebec French-language broadcaster TVA. The private broadcaster, which operates as a subsidiary to media giant Quebecor, demanded the Conservative Party of Canada, the Liberal Party of Canada, the New Democratic Party and the Bloc Québécois each pay $75,000 to...
Pierre Poilievre has a problem, and her name is Danielle Smith.The Alberta premier has become a thorn in the Conservative leader’s side — one that pulls at Poilievre’s voter coalition and threatens his electability as a national leader.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre heads into the election campaign he’s long demanded on Sunday fighting for his political life, a victim of his own success facing a remarkable change of circumstances. Poilievre spent two years fomenting anger against Justin Trudeau, blaming him for everything from the opioid crisis to crimes on Toronto’s subway to inflation, pinning the blame on the...
What is Pierre Poilievre afraid of?On Tuesday, Conservative national campaign director Jenni Byrne informed journalists that, in a break with tradition, the party will not allow journalists to accompany its leader on his bus or plane during the next election campaign.
New Liberal Leader Mark Carney will be sworn in as Canada’s 24th prime minister Friday morning and have his first chance to put a new face on his government. Cabinet making is a delicate balance that must reflect regional considerations, and most recently gender, religion, ethnicity, while also signalling the focus of the new government. Here are six things to...
If Mark Carney’s political instincts are to be judged by his first day on the job as Liberal leader, the Grits may be in for a rough ride.On Monday, Carney marched into transition meetings with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Parliament Hill with a well-known personality at his side: Liberal MP Marco Mendicino.
Mark Carney has chosen Toronto MP and former public safety Minister Marco Mendicino as his first chief of staff. Mendicino will serve on an interim basis, two sources close to the Carney camp told the Star. Carney, who was selected Liberal leader Sunday, needed to find someone with a security clearance and sought to choose a person who knew caucus...
In the end, it was a friendly affair.Liberal leadership candidates used their podiums to introduce themselves to party members during these week’s debates, but they also shielded Mark Carney, the race’s perceived front-runner, from devastating blows that could have helped Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives attack the party during what is expected to be a spring election campaign.
In the end, it was a friendly affair. Liberal leadership candidates used their podiums to introduce themselves to party members during Monday night’s French-language debate, but they also sought to shield Mark Carney, the race’s perceived front-runner, from devastating blows that could have helped Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives attack the party during what is expected to be a spring election campaign...
It is Mark Carney’s first big test. The former Bank of Canada governor leads the pack of Liberal leadership contestants to replace Prime Minister Justin Trudeau with fundraising dollars and caucus endorsements, and polls suggest he would put up quite a fight against the Conservative’s Pierre Poilievre. But unlike the Tory leader, who has been elected to the House of...
Are the federal Conservatives flailing?In the span of a week, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has gone from his previous description of Canada as a country where “everything is broken” to basking in a sea of red and white, and an election-style speech asking supporters, staff and MPs: “Who’s ready to put Canada First”?
For Conservative strategists, this wasn’t supposed to happen.Just a few weeks ago, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre appeared to be on his way to winning a crushing majority government in the next election, and the conversation in Ottawa was about whether the Liberals would end up in third or fourth place.
What does U.S. President Donald Trump want?It’s the question that will determine how long this impending mutually destructive trade war between Canada and the United States lasts. And no one on this side of the border seems to truly know.
The consumer price on carbon is dead.Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre can pat himself on the back — all those rallies, all those ads, all those talking points in the House of Commons — the case against the carbon price was so successfully prosecuted that the two leading Liberal leadership candidates are walking away from it.
The federal Liberal leadership race is gearing up to be a contest between formers: former Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney, former finance minister Chrystia Freeland, and former B.C. premier Christy Clark as the dark horse.
Justin Trudeau is stepping down. Now, the assumption within Liberal circles — and of Grit MPs — is about to be tested.Is the Liberal party’s slump in the polls related to Trudeau’s unpopularity, or is it a general dissatisfaction with the federal government?
The fight for the future of the Liberal Party of Canada has begun. It is no longer a question of whether Prime Minister Justin Trudeau should resign — for most of caucus, that question is settled. It may even be settled for the prime minister. He is in British Columbia, possibly taking the 2024 version of a walk in the...
The majority of Ontario’s Liberal MPs have come to the consensus that the prime minister needs to go.Saturday morning, 51 of the province’s 75 Liberal MPs met virtually on a zoom call to discuss the past week’s developments — from Chrystia Freeland’s bombshell resignation as finance minister to the growing calls for Justin Trudeau to resign.
The walls that were caving in around Justin Trudeau earlier this week came crashing down Friday. The prime minister remains alive, in hiding, but with every player in Ottawa circulating overhead trying to out-strategize each other, his days in office are now dramatically reduced.The day began with NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh throwing a grenade into Trudeau’s cabinet shuffle.
It wasn’t Chrystia Freeland’s announcement Monday that she was quitting as finance minister that marked the third and final act of Justin Trudeau’s government. It was how she quit. How she tried to define what siding with the prime minister says about Liberals — MPs and cabinet ministers alike — and in doing so paved the way for deeper internal...
Like teenage infatuation, it burned bright and fizzled quickly, with one party barely aware the love affair had begun. This week, the Conservatives appeared to mark the end of their outward courtship of organized labour. For a while, it seemed Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre was serious about standing up for workers’ rights. He’d picked up the ball from former leader...
They did what Justin Trudeau asked of them.The 27 Liberal MPs who went to the microphone last Wednesday — and the 24 who signed their names to a letter — did not plan a coup to overthrow the party leader. They followed the instructions Trudeau gave MPs during his first caucus meeting as prime minister back on Nov. 5, 2015.
You could call it Pierre Poilievre’s blind spot. Because the Conservative leader sees politics through the prism of a game — as calculated moves required to crush your opponents and avoid the traps they have laid — rather than as a means towards a policy end, he’s losing sight of the larger picture.
It was short, concise and eyebrow raising.At the Liberals’ national caucus meeting in Ottawa on Wednesday morning, the chair of the Atlantic caucus — an ambitious, young Nova Scotia MP named Kody Blois — went to the microphone to report on the discussions earlier held at the regional caucus.
Parliament is back with a bang and things are not going Pierre Poilievre’s way. It started with a stinging byelection loss for the Conservatives in Winnipeg’s Elmwood—Transcona, where they spent considerable resources trying to win a seat from the NDP. Conservative signs urged voters to reject NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh for crafting a deal with the Grits — “Sellout Singh”...
Who would have thought Canada might be saved from an election by the only political party that seeks to break up the country?And yet that is what appears to have happened Wednesday, after the Liberals decided to play chicken by offering Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives a chance to defeat the government next week.
“I believe we’re going to win everything!” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau responded when asked this week whether he thought the Liberals will win Monday’s byelection in LaSalle—Émard—Verdun.“We’ve got everything going, man!” Trudeau declared, as he dashed out of his party’s final caucus meeting Wednesday in Nanaimo, a big smile on face.
Mark Carney wants you to know he’s answering a call from his country, not overtly positioning himself for the Liberal leadership, or painting himself to be the Grits’ saviour. “I’m an outsider,” the former Bank of Canada governor told journalists in Nanaimo, B.C., where Grit MPs are gathered for three days of caucus meetings. On Monday, Carney was announced by...
It’s become too obvious to hide. Liberal MPs publicly acknowledged Monday that some of their constituents want Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to go. Using words like “too preachy” and “tired,” a handful of MPs told the Star there is a clear appetite for change, and some worry the prime minister’s unpopularity will affect their own bids for re-election. There’s “a...
These should be consequential meetings. Justin Trudeau’s Liberals face the greatest challenge they have ever faced — the possibility of a fourth-place finish after the next election. Aside from the leadership question hanging over all Grit MPs’ heads — should the prime minister stay or should he go — there are other challenges to address. What is the Liberals’ offer...
Former Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney is scheduled to attend the Liberals’ summer caucus meetings in Nanaimo, B.C. where, starting Monday, Grit MPs will plot the return of Parliament and the next election. Carney won’t be joining the Liberal team as a cabinet minister — despite earlier talks with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Instead, the likely future Liberal leadership...
The federal Liberal party’s national campaign director is quitting, the Star has learned. Jeremy Broadhurst privately told Prime Minister Justin Trudeau last month he is leaving, according to several Liberal sources. The news blindsided Trudeau’s chief of staff, Katie Telford. According to one individual who spoke on condition of anonymity, Broadhurst told the prime minister he didn’t think Trudeau could...
It was a marriage of convenience that ended because it was no longer convenient. No need for progressives to shed a tear, or for Liberals to fear the fall of the government, or for Conservatives to celebrate. NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh did what he needed to do, what caucus members wanted him to do, what many New Democrats members believed...
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau sought to reframe public opinion about his unpopular government Monday by pointing out Canada has the strongest economic performance of the G7, reminding Canadians he has provided well-liked initiatives and expressing a willingness to reverse course on issues of concern such as immigration. But Trudeau had little to say when asked about the biggest issue facing...
It should be the Green Party’s moment.Abnormal extreme heat waves are affecting large parts of the country, sparking wildfire and health and safety concerns.
Green Party Leader Elizabeth May says it’s “obvious” Justin Trudeau should “pass the torch,” and if she were in the Liberal party she’d be pulling him aside saying, “prime minister, with all due respect, don’t you think it’s time?” Following a press conference Tuesday, where May’s unofficial co-leader, Jonathan Pedneault, resigned, the long-time head of the Green Party was confronted...
It was a political call to arms that no Liberal MP appears to have taken up. In an email to his colleagues last week, New Brunswick MP Wayne Long gave voice to feelings Grit MPs were confidentially sharing, in chat groups and with reporters, that the prime minister should step down. He expected further calls for Justin Trudeau’s resignation would...
Sources say he and former Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney have spoken at least twice, prior to Monday’s byelection. They’ve discussed Carney joining the team as finance minister. Carney’s presence would provide the government with new energy. It could signal a new policy direction, and may help stop some of the bleeding of Liberal votes, enticing Liberals to come...
As MPs scurried out of Ottawa’s oppressive heat this week for what is likely the last summer break before the next federal election — the fixed election is set for October 2025, but it’s difficult to see NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh supporting the Liberals’ next budget — many were looking forward to hitting the barbecue circuit and taking time to...
Conventional wisdom suggests by-elections are a consequence-free way for voters to send a message to the governing party that they are unhappy. But the results of a contest later this month in the riding of Toronto—St. Paul’s may prove quite consequential. If the Liberals do not win this riding, and it looks increasingly like that’s a possibility, there will be...
It wasn’t nice.“Mr. Speaker, the Conservative leader is wearing more makeup than I am today,” Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said of Pierre Poilievre earlier this week in question period.
It’s not a topic of conversation in English Canada. Mention “separation” in a political context and, just like Google search results, the discussion is likely to be about Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s split from his spouse Sophie Grégoire or, as the Edmonton Journal recently put it, Alberta’s “slow-motion” separation from Canada. Quebec separation? Well, that matter was placed on the...
It was quite a week in Canadian politics.On Monday, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, who polls suggests could win a majority government with more than 200 seats in the next election, suggested he will invoke the notwithstanding clause if he becomes prime minister.
Perhaps Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre was feeling too comfortable. After all, his party is ahead of the Liberals by 20 points in public opinion polls. The poll aggregator 338Canada.com has the Conservatives winning a 207-seat majority in the House of Commons, if an election were held today — a Brian Mulroney-sized landslide, and that’s without the Bloc Québécois’ seats...
Worry is starting to set in. Days after Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland tabled her government’s latest budget, with $53 billion in new spending and a $19-billion tax increase to help pay for it, there is concern among some Grit MPs that the Liberals are shooting themselves in the foot. Some — in Liberal-Conservative swing ridings — worry that blue Liberals...
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre may not have, in his words, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s “soft blue eyes and fluffy hair and fancy socks,” but he has many reasons to smile. His two main opponents — Trudeau and NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh — are adopting the frames by which he presents issues, demonstrating not only that Poilievre’s messaging resonates with the...
Justin Trudeau acknowledged this week that he’s no longer popular. Hearkening back to similar comments by former prime minister Brian Mulroney, whose funeral will be held Saturday, Trudeau said, “My job is not to be popular. … My job is to do the right things for Canada now, and do the right things for Canadians a generation from now.” Friends...
The NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh describes it as “historic.” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau talks about “moving forward with national, single-payer pharmacare.” But for those who view the Liberals’ new legislation as the baby steps toward a plan that covers all — regardless of income or status — with life-saving medicines, the bill should come with a warning label: “Don’t get...
Anti-immigration sentiment used to be politically taboo. Election after election, a majority of voters told party leaders they wanted more immigrants, not fewer. That vision of a Canada welcoming newcomers with open arms, however, is increasingly challenged. Unless governments address a growing perception that unbridled migration is making the country worse off, we may be walking towards a darker, more...
Pierre Poilievre revealed a lot about himself this week.Asked for his reaction to Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s announcement about her government's controversial ban on gender-affirming care to children, the Conservative leader lashed out at reporters. He lied, misled, obfuscated and unfairly tried to pin the blame on the prime minister for
It was a rare show of unity: Members of Parliament from all parties standing together to support a Bloc Québécois MP’s bill that strengthens the federal government’s embarrassingly weak whistleblower law.“Now if we could get that collegiality to roll over into our other debates, that would be great,” quipped deputy speaker Chris d’Entremont.
If anyone thought the toxic partisanship on display in the House of Commons this December was just a symptom of tired, cranky MPs sitting late into the night and anxious to get home to their loved ones, Monday’s return proved a six-week break did little to change the decorum in the chamber.
Senators are about to turn the table on themselves and study the consequences of their own actions on social media. It’s a needed exercise as more and more politicians seek to whip up public outrage online and end up putting their colleagues in danger in real life. What’s unfortunate is that it’s not in the Senate where the behaviour is...
The latest controversy on Parliament Hill is really not about the Conservatives’ alleged attack on the use of French, their perceived questioning of official bilingualism in Canada or a slight towards Quebecers. Rather, what happened Thursday morning in a fourth-floor committee room is indicative of what is wrong with the House of Commons these days.