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The Liberal Leadership race came to a close today. After a week-long voting period, 104,552 ballots were cast, representing 82% of eligible voters for the leadership race. Trudeau has taken 80.1% of those votes and his chief opponent Joyce Murray received 10.2%.
This weekend the Liberals and NDP are doing housekeeping in preparation for a showdown in the polls. With recent polls showing Liberal momentum and a strong possibility that Justin Trudeau will win the leadership, the NDP prepares to take a massive hit. The NDP are meeting to discuss policy and give their leader Thomas Mulcair a new image.
Voting for the next Liberal leader may only end on Sunday but for former Progressive Conservative Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, Justin Trudeau is the clear choice. Mulroney infuriated the Conservative party Monday as he endorsed their toughest adversary in an interview with CTV’s Power Play. Ever since Trudeau entered the race, polls have shown a sharp incline for the party which would give them a majority government.
You may have seen the ads, they air everyday. They tout the government’s steady hand on the economy and the creation of new jobs. However, putting successful PR aside, recent job numbers state a dip of 50K jobs and an explosive report finds that common Canadian jobs are being given to temporary foreign workers for lower wages.
It has been nearly 2 years since the election that gave the Conservative Party a majority mandate and since alleged robocalls took the political scene by storm with the sole intention of misleading voters. The Conservatives may have tried to deny it and derail any investigations, but Elections Canada has moved forward with its investigation placing charges in the riding where it all started.
Chief Electoral Officer Marc Mayrand warns that the robocall scandal that plagued the 2011 election with misleading phone calls is on track to be repeated if tough new rules and punishments are not put in place. Will this be the “tough on crime” Conservatives’ time to shine or yet another pitfall where they fall flat on their rhetoric?
Some of the Filipino media in British Columbia has been taken by Conservative Party members, introducing the opportunity for interference and influence. This has led one alarmed editor, Yul Baritugo from Living Today to resign after his publisher, Reyfort Media Group CEO Reyfort Fortaleza, joined the fold. Is the integrity of Canadian media at stake?
Harper’s centralization of communications and operations has left some backbench Conservative MPs feeling like they have no say, sparking a mini revolt among MPs. Harper’s control has kept his government out of hot water in a country that doesn’t connect with right wing ideas, but it has also went against the principle of representative democracy, which gives each MP a right to represent the people who elect them.
Expect prices on all goods to rise as the Conservatives increase tariffs on everything imported from China and India. The hidden tax will likely be overlooked until it hits your pocketbooks as the Conservatives advertise the removal in tariffs for hockey and baby equipment. However, don’t be fooled, the ‘low tax’ mantra of the Conservatives, desperately being portrayed here is nothing but a lie. Taxes will go up, just you won’t see it directly. Expect the Canada-US price gap to grow even further.
NDP leader Thomas Mulcair and Prime Minister Stephen Harper are exchanging fire over speeches Mulcair recently made to the business community in Washington and New York that outlines a critical view of the current direction of the current government. Harper claims Mulcair is “trash talking” Canada while Mulcair points to Harper’s past. Meanwhile, how true is Mulcair’s pitch about the banking system?