45th Canadian federal election - scheduled for on or before Oct 25 2025

Here is my suggestion for who progressives should vote for in West Vancouver-Sea to Sky in 2025:

Avi Lewis

https://rabble.ca/rabbletv/trudeaus-abusive-relationship-with-truth-re-c...
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Avi got 26% of the vote in his first kick at the can in 21. Even David Suzuki was campaigning for him to win.

https://globalnews.ca/news/7958162/canada-election-west-vancouver-sunshi...
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https://www.nsnews.com/canadavotes2021/local-news/david-suzuki-offers-he...

Thanks MM. Read a wonderful article today about government officials who needed to get some skeptically rural folks to buy into a project.
Instead of lording over them, or not listening to the rural folks, they invited them all to join them for a meal and answered every question about the project that was put to them. The rural folks left feeling every question they asked was answered appropriately, and they bot into the project. It is essential that all of us try hard to be respectful of each other as much as possible. Will try to find the article and post it.

A Volcano waiting to erupt

https://nationalpost.com/opinion/joel-kotkin-the-working-classes-are-a-v...

The Conservatives are already starting to build a lead over the Liberals. And the Conservatives haven't even had the Poilievre coronation yet. Obviously Trudeau is damaged goods, so who is his replacement going to be?

Anti-scab legislation is a win for workers

Back-to-work legislation must end: Union leader

For Jan Simpson, the National President of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW), the move is a great first step, one that must be followed by governments ending the use of back-to-work legislation.

“The bargaining power of workers ultimately comes down to our ability to withdraw our labour,” Simpson noted in a statement to rabble.ca.

Simpson pointed out that union strikes are difficult positions for workers to put themselves in, forcing them to miss out on both pay and benefits.

“Using replacement workers, or scabs, undermines the bargaining power of locked out or striking workers because employers don’t have the same incentive to negotiate in good faith,” she said. “The ability to strike without scab replacements is vital to free, fair, good faith collective bargaining.”

Simpson added that while the legislation gives “a much-needed boost to workers’ power,” it also must be enacted quickly. She hopes that provincial governments will follow the federal government’s lead in evening “the playing fields between workers and employers during labour disputes.”

Abandon back-to-work legislation

The next step, Simpson says, is ending the use of back-to-work legislation, an option that allows governments to force workers back on the job, further jeopardizing their bargaining power.

For Elmwood—Transcona MP Daniel Blaikie, ensuring anti-scab legislation as part of the Liberal-NDP agreement represents “bringing the political will to get this across the finish line.”

The NDP finance critic touted the fact that the legislation will cover both walkouts and strikes, giving workers an opportunity to meet at the bargaining table without fear of being replaced on the job.

“Workers should be able to work on terms that they think are fair, and they should be able to withhold their labour when they don’t feel that the employer is dealing with them in good faith in contract negotiations,” Blaikie said. “I think workers should be empowered to make that call themselves and not have their rights undermined.”

While the timeline in the agreement would see legislation tabled by the end of next year, Blaikie says the NDP is “happy to move sooner.”

“[Workers] shouldn’t have to wait for an employer to lock them out in order to have their right to bargain collectively defended by the government and Canadian law,” he added.

The confidence-and-supply deal between the Liberals and the NDP, which runs until 2025, also includes action on 10 paid sick days, pharmacare and a national dental care program.

https://rabble.ca/labour/anti-scab-legislation-is-a-win-for-workers/

The Liberal-NDP deal and the next election
https://www.policymagazine.ca/the-liberal-ndp-deal-and-the-next-election/

Prime Minister Singh? Don’t laugh

In a recent Ipsos survey, pollster Darrell Bricker found that 54 per cent of respondents wanted Justin Trudeau to step down in 2023. The same poll found that 59 per cent had an unfavourable view of Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre. This is not a ringing endorsement of either of the two traditional parties that have ruled the roost in Canada since Confederation. In the same poll, Jagmeet Singh scored the highest approval rating of any federal leader at 53 per cent.

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh, pictured on the Hill. Prime Minister Singh? At a time when establishment parties of both stripes might be bartering away public and universal health care, don’t laugh, writes Michael Harris. The Hill Times photograph by Andrew Meade

OPINION | BY MICHAEL HARRIS |

January 30, 2023

HALIFAX—Last December, Jagmeet Singh rose in the House of Commons to ask Prime Minister Justin Trudeau a question. He was challenging Justin Trudeau on the issue of backing up his words with deeds. In the course of putting his question, the NDP leader said, “When I’m prime minister, I will keep my promises.” Conservative MPs laughed out loud.

Such behaviour was insulting and demeaning, the death march of arrogance. Their laughter delivered the message that they found it absurd of the NDP leader to even think of ever becoming prime minister.

This from the political party that has lost three straight federal elections, and which, in an earlier incarnation, was reduced to two seats in the House of Commons. They seem to have forgotten that what happens to Singh will be decided by voters, not the cackling airheads of the Conservative back bench.

It is true that, despite a run of impressive leaders, the NDP has never won a federal election since its creation in 1961. To mention just a few, Tommy Douglas, David Lewis, Ed Broadbent, Jack Layton, and Tom Mulcair were never able to deliver the goods—despite strong showings on their individual leadership qualities in poll after poll.

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It is also true that there is little evidence in recent polling that Jagmeet Singh is about to reverse that trend. But then there was not much evidence in the polls that Jack Layton was poised to win 103 seats in the 2011 election, making the party the official opposition for the first time in its history.

Before writing off a potential NDP surprise in the next federal election, which will probably take place this year, there a few things to consider.

In a recent Ipsos survey, pollster Darrell Bricker found that 54 per cent of respondents wanted Justin Trudeau to step down in 2023. The same poll found that 59 per cent had an unfavourable view of Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre. This is not a ringing endorsement of either of the two traditional parties that have ruled the roost in Canada since Confederation. In the same poll, Jagmeet Singh scored the highest approval rating of any federal leader at 53 per cent.

There is good reason for the voter disenchantment with the Liberals and the Conservatives.

Despite some very impressive accomplishments, the Liberals are beginning to make the kind of unforced errors characteristic of a government running out of steam. Chequebook politics is making them look like people who can’t manage a troubled economy, an impression reinforced by former Liberal insider Bill Morneau’s unflattering portrait of the prime minister in his new book.

With a possible recession on the horizon, and rampant inflation breaking budgets from coast to coast, post-COVID grumpiness has reached a new high. The usual casualty of such oceanic disgruntlement is the incumbent government, whether or not it is to blame for the problems.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, pictured in a Hill scrum. With a possible recession on the horizon, and rampant inflation breaking budgets from coast to coast, post-COVID grumpiness has reached a new high. The usual casualty of such oceanic disgruntlement is the incumbent government, whether or not it is to blame for the problems. The Hill Times photograph by Andrew Meade
People are prepared to forgive flip-flops, like the PM’s stunning reversal of his policy on first-past-the-post elections, and on buying the controversial F-35 fighter jets. But scandal is another matter. If it should be shown that there was hanky-panky in the $100-million worth of contracts awarded to the U.S. firm McKinsey and Company, or corruption in contracts let out of the offices of Liberal cabinet ministers, the bloom could go off the Trudeau rose in a hurry.

The usual result of dissatisfaction with the government of the day is that it changes places in the House of Commons with the official opposition. But that is far from a slam dunk when the alternative is a leader that most Canadians don’t like.

Pierre Poilievre, who feeds off the anger of the disaffected, failed his initial test as leader when the CPC lost the first byelection under his watch. The party’s candidate not only lost to the Liberals, he was thrashed, losing by 20 points. That said, the turnout in Mississauga Lakeshore was just 26 per cent.

In Quebec—like Stephen Harper before him—Poilievre has so far been a flop. A recent Angus Reid poll found that 44 per cent of respondents strongly disapproved of the new Conservative leader. Only eight per cent held strongly favourable views of Poilievre.

Like Donald Trump, Poilievre came out of the gate painting a picture of a country where everything was broken. Like Trump, he talked of starting a movement, a sort of Make Canada Great Again effort.

Like his Republican cousins, he talked about making Canada the “freest” country on Earth, as if Viktor Orbin were running the place now.

He came out in favour of a mob of truckers who gave Canada its own version of the Capitol Building riot.

He supported foolish and dangerous anti-vaccine sentiments, even though the C. D. Howe Institute said the federal government’s vaccination program during COVID saved 34,900 lives.

And his claim that crypto currency might be the way for Canadians to opt out of inflation is absurdity in hot pursuit of farce.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, pictured at a Hill presser on Jan. 25, failed his initial test as leader when the CPC lost the first byelection under his watch, writes Michael Harris. The Hill Times photograph by Andrew Meade
Jagmeet Singh and the NDP’s social democratic values are much closer to Canadian values than anything the CPC can put on the table: expanding health care, protecting the environment, protecting minority rights. It is remarkable that Canadians have never once put the NDP in power at the federal level, given the quality of the party’s leadership over the years, and how many of its ideas have been “borrowed” by the Liberals.

If it is because Canadians believe the economic sky would fall if the “socialists” got to run the show, it bears remembering that it is the two mainstream federal parties who have racked up the country’s record debt, failed to protect the environment, and watched the health-care system spiral into dysfunction. And just for the record, there have been some very competent NDP governments at the provincial level.

Prime Minister Singh? At a time when establishment parties of both stripes might be bartering away public and universal health care, don’t laugh.

Michael Harris is an award-winning author and journalist.

The Hill Times

See all stories BY MICHAEL HARRIS

https://www.hilltimes.com/story/2023/01/30/prime-minister-singh-dont-lau...

source is a right-winger but regardless....

Trudeau’s Liberals have to get health care ‘right’ or ‘explosive’ issue could trigger an election, say politicos

If the Liberals fail to deliver on healthcare, this issue is strong enough to ‘run them over,’ says Innovative Research president Greg Lyle.

https://www.hilltimes.com/story/2023/01/30/trudeau-liberals-have-to-get-...

No one should be surprised by this, as it is what the behaviour of the anti-vaxer freaks, cheered on by the Conservative leader, leads to.

Health Workers Are Facing Record Levels of Violence

Data obtained by The Tyee shows a dramatic increase in ‘Code Whites’ in B.C.’s two largest health regions.

https://thetyee.ca/News/2023/01/31/Health-Workers-Record-Levels-Violence/

Are these Catholic supporters big fans of Jean Vanier as well? Just askin!

https://globalnews.ca/news/9448422/amira-elghawaby-bill-21-quebec-criticism/