Hello,
This is the final Politics Briefing newsletter of 2022. We will be back on Jan. 9. In the meantime, all the best for the Holidays and the New Year. See you in 2023.
A major Acadian group in New Brunswick is calling on the province’s Conservative Party to review the Premier’s leadership over his policies on bilingualism in Canada’s only officially bilingual province.
Friday’s development involving the Acadian Society of New Brunswick and Premier Blaine Higgs reflects tensions that have recently drawn Prime Minister Justin Trudeau into the fray.
In an open letter released Friday, the Acadian society, representing the community that is about one-third of the province’s population, accused Mr. Higgs of abdicating his responsibilities toward official bilingualism.
The letter, signed by more than 40 individuals calls on the party to conduct a review of Higgs’s leadership, suggesting the Premier has become wildly unpopular. Story here.
Among other things, the society accuses Mr. Higgs of sowing discord between linguistic and cultural communities, portraying himself as a victim of bilingualism and lacking respect for the province’s Acadian and francophone communities, and its Mi’kmaq and Wolastoqey First Nations.
The letter criticizes the Premier’s recent review of New Brunswick’s Official Languages Act and his proposal to introduce a new French immersion program that cuts the time elementary school students spend learning in French. Education Reporter Caroline Alphonso reported here on that policy change.
In November, Mr. Trudeau criticized the Premier for naming Kris Austin – former leader of the defunct People’s Alliance of New Brunswick known for his past criticism of bilingualism – to a committee reviewing the province’s Official Languages Act. Mr. Austin is the province’s public safety minister.
“You don’t put someone who’s spent his entire career attacking official bilingualism and questioning the need to protect French in New Brunswick or elsewhere, on a panel designed to protect bilingualism in New Brunswick,” Mr. Trudeau told a news conference during a visit to the province.
“It doesn’t make any sense and it’s certainly something I’m going to be bringing up with Premier Higgs when I see him in about an hour.”
The government also came under fire from Dominic Cardy, who resigned as education minister in October and accused Mr. Higgs of moving too quickly to reform the French immersion program in schools.
This is the daily Politics Briefing newsletter, written by Ian Bailey. It is available exclusively to our digital subscribers. If you’re reading this on the web, subscribers can sign up for the Politics newsletter and more than 20 others on our newsletter signup page. Have any feedback? Let us know what you think.
TODAY’S HEADLINES
EASING INFLATION RATE – Canada’s inflation rate eased in November, as an acceleration in grocery and rent prices was offset by a decline at the gas pump. Story here.
PM TOLD CHINA TARGETED 11 CANDIDATES IN 2019 – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau received a national security briefing this fall in which he was told China’s consulate in Toronto had targeted 11 candidates in the 2019 federal election, but that security agencies had found no evidence of covert funding by Beijing, according to two sources with direct knowledge. Story here.
SIX NATIONS COUNCIL CONCERNED ABOUT SETTLEMENT DEADLINE – Canada’s most populous Indigenous reserve says countless residents have been left out of the $1.47-billion federal Indian day school settlement, and has applied to extend the January deadline by three years. Story here.
PM UNCERTAIN ABOUT DOMESTIC PRODUCTION TO PROVIDE CHILDREN’S MEDICATIONS – As Canada faces a continuing shortage of children’s medications, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he doesn’t know if ramping up domestic production of pharmaceuticals is the right approach to addressing the problem. Story here.
ORTIS OUT ON BAIL – After three years behind bars awaiting trial, Cameron Ortis, the RCMP official accused of breaching Canada’s secrecy law, has been released on bail. Story here.
SIXTY PER CENT OF VEHICLE SALES MUST BE ELECTRIC BY 2020 – One-fifth of all passenger cars, SUVs and trucks sold in Canada in 2026 will need to run on electricity under new regulations Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault is proposing. Story here.
TULLOCH NAMED CHIEF JUSTICE OF ONTARIO -A judge who urged an end to random police stops and was inspired by the civil rights movement to take up law has become the first Black Chief Justice of Ontario, and the first of any province. Story here.
CANADIAN POPULATION UP – As 2022 draws to a close, Canada’s population has already grown more than in any other year since Confederation. Story here.
BQ AND NDP CRITICIZE CONSERVATIVE MP – Bloc Québécois and New Democrat MPs are criticizing a Conservative colleague for refusing to help a Quebec family facing deportation and calling them “illegal refugees.” Story here.
RUSSIAN BILLIONAIRE REBUTS SANCTIONS PLAN – Russian billionaire Alexei Mordashov wants Ottawa to ignore requests from Canadian parliamentarians for the government to impose sanctions on him and his family’s gold mining company, which has an exploration project in Nunavut. Story here.
ISLANDERS REACT TO CONFEDERATION TOLL POLICY – Prince Edward Islanders are relieved the Confederation Bridge toll will not be increasing next year, but there is still frustration over the cost to leave the province. The federal government has announced it would be freezing the tolls. Story here from CBC.
`THIS IS NOT AS GOOD AS IT GETS’: NEW ONTARIO NDP LEADER – Marit Styles, the new leader of the Ontario NDP, tells Global News here she is 100-per-cent intent on leading the party to power in the 2026 election to better than the Ford government on issues including health care.
THIS AND THAT
HOUSE ON A BREAK – The House of Commons is on a break until Jan. 30.
POILIEVRE ON THE THREE WORDS POLITICIANS SHOULD USE MORE OFTEN – Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre told an interview Wednesday that politicians should learn to use three words more often. They are “I don’t know,” Mr. Poilievre told Bruce Claggett, guest host on the Jas Johal Show broadcast on CKNW in Vancouver. “We don’t have the answers to every question,” he said in a reflective moment of the year-end interview. “I think we all could use more humility in accepting that. From time to time, like every other politician, I could use those three words, `I don’t know’ to show this humility that I don’t have all the answers and none of us does, but by listening to the people we’ll get the right ones.”
PRIME MINISTER’S DAY
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, in the Ottawa region, has a “personal” day.
LEADERS
No schedules released for party leaders.
THE DECIBEL
Thursday’s edition of The Globe and Mail podcast looks at the subject of YouTube channels made by recent immigrants to help new Canadians arriving after them learn about where to get groceries, what kind of winter coat they need and even what people are like in a particular town. The Decibel’s guest is The Globe’s Dakshana Bascaramurty, who has talked to some of these Youtubers. The Decibel is here.
OPINION
The Globe and Mail Editorial Board on how federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has to show that he can fix things that are broken: “Mr. Poilievre needs to correct course in 2023 and beyond. As pundits love to point out, to win seats outside of the West, where Conservative support is based, he’ll need to appeal to the centre. But that doesn’t have to be the centre as the Liberals, in their heavy-spending parliamentary alliance with the NDP, define it. To attract the votes of working-class and middle-class voters across the country, Mr. Poilievre can redefine the centre of political gravity, and pull Canadians toward a vision of this country that is both compassionate and Conservative. He will have to offer solutions to the country’s rising cost of living, the health care crisis, sputtering productivity and a continued reliance on natural resources in the climate change era. Those solutions will have to be credible, but can still be steeped in the Conservative values of smaller government and fiscal responsibility.” (Newsletter Note: Please check The Globe and Mail on Friday for a look at Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s year in politics.)
Tanya Talaga (The Globe and Mail) on how, by ignoring the duty to consult First Nations, three Canadian premiers show their true colors: “There are 634 First Nations throughout the country we now call Canada, including 133 here in Ontario. Each nation is different, with its own laws, governance and ways of being, but we do share commonalities: the Indigenous laws that establish First Peoples as protectors of the Earth. But this work has proved nearly impossible over the course of our relationship with Canada, which has been marked by violations of treaties and the rights set out in the country’s own Constitution. Three provincial governments have recently shown just how deep this disrespect runs.”
Konrad Yakabuski (The Globe and Mail) on how Ottawa is finally on board with a plan to modernize passenger rail in Canada: “The idea of faster passenger rail service has been on the minds of central Canadian politicians ever since France introduced its train à grande vitesse, or TGV, leading to more than a dozen feasibility studies on high-speed rail funded by the federal, Ontario and Quebec governments over the past three decades. But without the population density of some European countries, or their willingness to pump massive operating subsidies into high-speed rail service, efforts to bring fast trains to the Quebec City-Windsor, Ont., corridor have never left the station.”
Amanda Clarke. Laura Chang and Sarah Niedoba (Contributed to The Globe and Mail) on $4.6-billion on outsourced IT as an indicator of the federal governent’s ailing approach to procurement and outsourcing: “While the recent House of Commons inquiry into the $54-million ArriveCan is much needed, the truth is that Canada’s once-mandatory COVID-19 travel app is merely a symptom of the federal government’s ailing approach to procurement and outsourcing. A recent research project led out of Carleton University helps illustrate a root cause: an unhealthy dependence on private IT vendors, with a whopping $4.6-billion spent federally on contracting in 2021-22 alone. That was an increase of almost 8 per cent year over year. To make matters worse, this isn’t a case of “you get what you pay for” – big spending isn’t yielding the best-in-class digital solutions Canadians would expect (and deserve) based on the price tag.”
Alika Lafontaine (Contributed to The Globe and Mail) on how Canada’s health care system is stuck firmly in the past: “When confronted with a need for deeper collaboration and co-ordination with between levels of government, we rely on thinking first framed in 1867. The writers of the British North America Act didn’t envision Canada would ever emancipate itself from British rule, much less build publicly funded health systems that service 38 million people. It was never imagined that data, when shared deliberately and transparently, could drive quality and efficient care. It was never imagined that freedom of movement for both patients and providers could drive better access to care. It was never imagined because there was only one pan in which to cook confederation. There was no other option but to cut the two sides off so everything would fit. This is the real challenge to governments in this time of health care collapse. Will we question why we do things the way we always have, or simply lean into old, repackaged ideas served up as ideological leftovers?”
Murray Mandryk (Regina Leader Post) on the possible method to the political madness of Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe: “Frustrations with Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe this year revolved around how he weather-vaned his way through 2022, opting to appease the far right rather than show the leadership the province needed to properly emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic. Reasons for this perception were sometimes valid.”
Got a news tip that you’d like us to look into? E-mail us at [email protected]. Need to share documents securely? Reach out via SecureDrop.
