polls

Friday September 17, 2021

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday September 17, 2021

‘Mad Max’ and why his party is on the rise

August 17, 2018

In 2018, after a falling out with his party and amid a backlash over statements he made about immigration and multiculturalism, then member of Parliament Maxime Bernier quit the Conservatives and formed his own federal party.

Mr Bernier, a former Canadian foreign minister, is a populist with a libertarian bent who supporters have nicknamed “Mad Max”. He has previously described his upstart party, the People’s Party of Canada (PPC), as a coalition of people “disenchanted with traditional politicians”.

The PPC has a wide-ranging platform that includes limiting immigration, an end to corporate welfare, a pro-firearms stance, and a rejection of what it terms “climate change alarmism”.

April 27, 2021

However, one issue above all has come to the forefront in the 2021 election: vaccine mandates and lockdowns.

Mr Bernier, 58, has been a vocal opponent of the what he calls “authoritarian” restrictions, claiming in an August rally, for example, that vaccine passports “will create two kinds of citizens, some with more rights than others”.

Such statements are “a huge part of the story behind the surge [for the PPC]”, said Elizabeth Goodyear-Grant, a political studies professor at Queens University.

“A lot of this has been generated by the party seizing on the sense that anti-lockdown, anti-vaccine passport sentiments exist in the population.”

September 15, 2021

Polling data suggests that this message is gaining momentum among some Canadian voters even while the country has some of the world’s highest vaccination rates – over 80%.

Recent tracking poll numbers from CBC, for example, ranked the PPC in fourth place nationally at 6.5% – ahead of the Green Party and the Bloc Québécois, which only runs candidates in Quebec. (The Liberals and the Conservative are in a statistical tie at around 30%).

In the 2019 election, by comparison, the PPC earned just 1.6% of the popular vote and Mr Bernier lost his own seat.

A significant portion of the party’s swelling support base comes from first time or irregular voters, as well as siphoning support from the Conservatives in parts of their western Canada political strongholds, said Prof Goodyear-Grant.

Federal Election 2021

“They are taking some support from all the other parties as well, which suggests there are people across all parties that are opposed to some of the [pandemic] measures that have been put in place,” she said.

Provinces like Quebec, Ontario, and British Columbia have all in recent weeks brought in vaccine passport systems that limit access in certain settings as cases rise in a fourth pandemic wave. (BBC News) 

 

Wednesday September 1, 2021

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday September 1, 2021

Liberals fall, Conservatives steady as election race remains neck-and-neck: polls show

The Liberals’ support is continuing to crumble as the election campaign reaches the halfway point, a new poll suggests, with the party now falling behind the Conservatives for the first time while staying in a statistical tie.

July 9, 2021

The Ipsos poll conducted exclusively for Global News found 32 per cent of voters would cast a ballot for the Conservatives, a number unchanged from last week. But the Liberals saw their potential vote share go down two points, to 31 per cent.

The NDP, meanwhile, is continuing to gain ground, with 23 per cent of voters surveyed supporting them — up two points from last week — suggesting the party is peeling away progressive support from Justin Trudeau.

“The Liberals should be very worried about where they are in the campaign,” said Darrell Bricker, CEO of Ipsos Public Affairs, “because all they’ve done since the start is lose momentum and lose support.

“What we’re seeing based on these numbers is a majority is very, very far away. And the Liberal Party will be fighting to even win the plurality of seats in this election campaign and may even come second to the Conservative Party.”

December 2, 2020

The poll, which surveyed over 1,500 Canadians online last week, suggests the Green Party is continuing to struggle and would earn only four per cent of voter support. The Bloc Quebecois would receive 30 per cent of the vote in Quebec, or equal to seven per cent nationally.

Eleven per cent remain undecided, while three per cent said they would not vote at all.

The results show the Liberals have lost their advantage over the Conservatives within the valuable 55-and-over voting bloc, which tends to be the most reliable on election day. Forty per cent of older voters surveyed said they will vote Conservative, while 33 per cent chose the Liberals — a flip from just two weeks ago.

Federal Election 2021

The Liberals are also facing dead heats in the battleground provinces of Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia, the last of which now sees the governing party in third place behind the NDP and the Conservatives. (Global) 

 

Friday April 23, 2021

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday April 23, 2021

Ford apologizes after public backlash to enhanced police powers, playground closures

Ontario Premier Doug Ford apologized to Ontarians Thursday morning, days after his government faced intense backlash for introducing a number of additional COVID-19 restrictions that were not recommended by health experts and then nixed earlier this week.

April 8, 2021

Ford, who is isolating at his late mother’s home in Etobicoke after a staff member tested positive for COVID-19, said at a news conference he wanted to “address the events of this past week” after his government put in new measures in response to “extremely troubling modelling.”

The province was trying to curb mobility in Ontario, he said.

“But we moved too fast,” Ford said, with some measures going too far.

“Simply put, we got it wrong. We made a mistake. These decisions, they left a lot of people really concerned,” Ford said.

“For that I am sorry, and I sincerely apologize.”

The premier and some of his top cabinet ministers have been under fire after announcing last Friday that the province would close playgrounds and hand police arbitrary powers, among other additional measures, in a bid to curb the third wave of the pandemic. 

November 12, 2020

The public outcry to both moves was so swift and fierce that the government reversed course on both within days of the announcement. Members of the Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table also disavowed the decisions, making clear in interviews with media that they were not based on their own recommendations to cabinet. 

Various sources close to the government told CBC News the decisions came amid panic over the latest modelling for the pandemic and fears that Ford’s approval among voters would suffer badly if he was not seen to be taking action.

At one point during Thursday’s news conference, Ford appeared to cry while talking about the pandemic and how hard it has been for businesses, health-care workers and families.

June 9, 2020

“I understand your frustration,” he said. “This experience, this pandemic, it’s something that has affected every single person.”

Ford said Thursday it is “not lost on him” that he is able to isolate and continue working.

“For too many people right now, that’s not the case,” Ford said.

Throughout the pandemic, Ford and his ministers have shut down calls to create a system for paid sick days in Ontario by saying the province didn’t want to double up on the federal program, which until recently, they repeatedly said was sufficient.

Provincial officials have rejected calls from GTHA (Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area) mayors, the province’s science table, local medical officers of health, Opposition parties and countless citizens to do more. The City of Toronto called on the province to institute paid sick leave last May, but to no avail. (CBC) 

 

Friday August 2, 2019

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday August 2, 2019

A lot at stake for Canadians in this election

July 31, 2008

In a perfect world we should see an election as an outward symbol of something almost sacred, the culmination of generations of struggle for electoral equality and the representation of popular will.

That, of course, is not how it all seems. An election is called, and the usual pundits, consultants, and advisers are wheeled out, many of them seemingly more concerned with winning than with ideas, with what they consider a great game, as they mimic characters from The West Wing, and throw around fog rather than clarity.

Be that as it may, it’s all we’ve got, and we should see it as a moral maze, an opportunity to tread through the lies and the nastiness and reach a place that might, just might, achieve the best for the most. I would never tell anybody who to vote for, but I will suggest some of the stepping-stones in the maze that should be avoided.

July 11, 2019

The People’s Party of Canada borders on the cultish, and is built around one man, Maxime Bernier, who never forgave the Conservatives for failing to elect him as leader. He only lost on the 13th ballot, was still ahead on the 12th, and lost with more than 49 per cent of the vote. He is an angry man, convinced he was the heir apparent denied, at the last moment, his rightful inheritance – and by a much lesser man.

His party has made up policies in a scream of hysterical pragmatism, has become exponentially more right wing, and as such has assembled a list of frequently unattractive and volatile eccentrics as parliamentary candidates. They rely on a dark consensus of ill-informed panic, and while they certainly won’t win the election, they’ve brought into the relative mainstream what was formerly the preserve of the internet basement. Any party that tries to exploit the most hideous aspects of a society – racism, fear, and panic, – should be rejected.

July 17, 2019

Bernier has taken some of the most raw and strange elements away from the Conservatives, but Andrew Scheer still has a number of such people within his ranks. While Scheer makes occasional statements about inclusion and tolerance, he’s been far too slow in jettisoning those who clearly don’t share this view of Canada; for example, his repeated and long-term refusal to march in any Pride parades, in Ottawa or in his riding, has become ridiculous. Attending Pride should not be a party political action, but an affirmation of diversity and a physical statement that LGBTQ people are welcomed and loved. Mr. Scheer, your absence speaks volumes, and your attempts to obfuscate are not convincing anybody.

While Scheer may not be personally responsible, the anti-Trudeau campaign on social media and particularly in Western Canada, is vitriolic and dangerous. I’ve found the Liberals to be disappointing in government, but the visceral personal attacks on the prime minister resemble the worst of U.S. politics. As with the late John McCain’s intervention regarding Barack Obama during the 2008 election, Scheer should make it quite clear that this scandalous vendetta has to stop.

May 28, 2019

The Liberals? In the early days they relied far too heavily on the charisma of their leader, and he was given a very easy run by the media. That all began to change, and various errors and scandals that may have been treated more leniently, and in some cases even forgiven, stuck firm. As always with the Liberals, they promise more than they can deliver, but there have been some tangible successes, particularly for those most in need.

June 11, 2019

The NDP is still the political conscience of Canada, but the problem with consciences is that people tend to listen to them only when it’s convenient. If it were otherwise, the world would be a much better place. As for the Greens, Elizabeth May is arguably the most principled and likeable politician in the country, and it’s a great shame that her honesty sometimes gets her into trouble in this cynical and unforgiving age.

So it begins. As I say, tread through the moral maze carefully, and look beyond the style and the show, the bots and the bullies. It may just be that this one is going to matter more than most.- Michael Coren (Toronto Star) 

Wednesday May 29, 2019

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday May 29, 2019

Doug Ford’s ‘government that listens’ is hearing the polls

Premier Doug Ford wants you to believe that his decision to postpone municipal budget cuts had absolutely nothing to do with successive polls showing a sharp drop in voter support for his party.

October 23, 2008

Ford insists he made his about-face because he heard loudly and clearly from mayors across the province

“They need more time,” he told a news conference Monday. “We’re a government that listens.”

There’s no doubt the mayors’ argument resonated at Queen’s Park, simply because it was rather reasonable: that it was completely unfair for the province to cut municipal funding for 2019 when cities were already part-way through their budgets for the year.

The sustained public-relations offensive from Toronto Mayor John Tory can’t help but have contributed to Ford’s polling numbers. The man who beat Ford in the 2014 mayoral race was also beating Ford in the realm of public opinion over budget 2019.

Tory’s tactics to keep the story alive included distributing leaflets to voters in PC-held ridings, gathering signatures on a petition and holding a news conference at a city-run daycare.

Tory’s conservative credentials as a former PC leader meant that Ford could not dismiss his critique as mere ideology. (CBC)