WEDNESDAY RECAP: Poilievre shines at French debate, Liberals, Tories in dead heat in GTA
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Follow the Toronto Sun’s live coverage of Canada’s 45th general election and tariff-related news, with contributions from Brian Lilley, Bryan Passifiume, Lorrie Goldstein and columnists Joe Warmington and Warren Kinsella, as well as contributions from the Sun’s editors and reporters covering the election ahead of the April 28 vote. Plus, you can find all of our election coverage here.
LILLEY: POISED POILIEVRE PUSHES FOR ECONOMIC INDEPENDENCE AT FRENCH DEBATE
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WEDNESDAY RECAP: Poilievre shines at French debate, Liberals, Tories in dead heat in GTA Back to video
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Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre took his message of economic sovereignty into the French-language leaders debate on Wednesday, Brian Lilley writes.
As each leader tried to make their case to francophone voters mostly based in Quebec, Poilievre pushed one message — ensure Canada is economically independent.
Time and again, Poilievre said that the key to pushing back against the economic threats from the United States is to make Canada stronger.
Throughout the debate, which was focused on Quebec, Poilievre stood firm and sounded confident, relaxed and able to handle the issues. At the same time, Liberal Leader Mark Carney was passable in French, but at times seemed halting, unable to jump into the cut and thrust of the debate and out of his depth to a degree compared to the other three leaders.
KINSELLA: POILIEVRE SHINES IN DEBATE, BUT DOESN’T TAKE NEEDED GROUND
The French-language debate: Brian Lilley and I watched so you didn’t have to.
Some of my Kinsellian debate rules: People don’t watch debates to have their minds changed — they watch to have their choice ratified. By that standard, Mark Carney did what he had to do. He went into the debate ahead of the others, and that is unlikely to change after the French debate.
Another rule: TV is about pictures, not words. Carney occasionally looked a bit furtive and off-balance — while Pierre Poilievre looked the most at ease. Poilievre looked, dare we say it, Prime Ministerial.
A third Kinsellian rule: Voters in their living rooms are the audience — not the moderator or the other leaders. Poilievre did best on that score, and he addressed the camera most often. He wasn’t as angry as he is so often in the House of Commons, too. He was calm but assertive.
Read Kinsella’s take on each candidate here:
LIBERALS HAVE SLIM LEAD ON CONSERVATIVES LOCALLY: LEGER POLL
While the Conservatives gain ground against the Liberals nationally, the two front-runners have entered a statistical dead heat in the Greater Toronto Area, Bryan Passifiume writes.
In new polling released this week by Leger for Postmedia, approval ratings for Mark Carney’s Liberals in the GTA currently sit at 47%, just 3% more than Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives’ 44% — a difference within the poll’s margin of error.
The Liberals maintained their comfortable lead in metro Toronto, 53% compared to the Tories’ 37%.
Provincewide, the Liberals sit at 47% approval, a two-point drop from last week — while the Conservatives scored 40%, a gain of 1%.
LIVE: FRENCH-LANGUAGE DEBATE TODAY
Canada’s federal party leaders will face off in the French-language debate organized by the independent Leaders’ Debates Commission. The debate is being livestreamed from the Maison de Radio-Canada in Montreal. Watch it live here beginning at 6 p.m.
LIBERALS’ SOFT-ON-CRIME POLICIES NEED TO GO: LILLEY
Hearing that violent crime is up 50% is a distant statistic. Hearing that five men stormed into a suburban home at 4 a.m. to rob the place is the cold reality too many Canadians are facing, Brian Lilley writes.
On Tuesday morning, that’s what happened in Grimsby, according the Niagara Regional Police Service. It’s a scenario that is taking place far too often.
Robberies to steal cars, jewelry, and other valuables are becoming commonplace, the video doorbell images shared online showing the brazen thugs seemingly not caring about the possibility of spending time in jail.
Violent crime is up by 50% since the Liberals took office. Gang murders are up by 78% since 2015. Auto thefts are up across the country, even more in the Toronto area which has been described as “a candy store” for car thieves by the New York Times.
$200B SPENT ON CLIMATE CHANGE NOTHING SHORT OF DISASTROUS: GOLDSTEIN
Given that the federal Liberal government has earmarked more than $200 billion of taxpayers’ money to fight climate change, Lorrie Goldstein asks how effective has all that spending been?
The answer is that it has been a financial disaster for Canadians when one considers the primary purpose of the spending, which is to lower Canada’s annual output of industrial greenhouse gas emissions.
We’ll never get to the bottom of what happened if Mark Carney and the Liberals win the April 28 election because nothing short of a forensic audit will ever get to the truth.
To cite just one example of what’s been going on, an investigation last year by auditor general Karen Hogan of the now-disbanded, $1-billion Sustainable Development Technology Fund, which audited just a sampling of the projects it funded, found 90 cases where conflict-of-interest rules were not followed in awarding $76 million worth of government contracts and 10 cases where $56 million was awarded to ineligible projects.
HAUBRICH: CARNEY NEEDS TO LEAVE OTTAWA’S FAILED GUN POLICY BEHIND
A hunter checks the sights of his rifleLiberal Leader Mark Carney rebuilt his party by scrapping failed policies like the carbon tax, but there’s one apparent failure he’s doubling down on.
Carney announced that, if elected, he will “reinvigorate the implementation” of Ottawa’s gun ban and buyback program.
Carney should be listening to law enforcement experts and scrapping the expensive and ineffective gun buyback, not doubling down on the failed policy.
And by all measures, it’s a failed policy.
The ban was initially announced in 2020 and included about 1,500 different types of firearms. That means from the date of that announcement, all those firearms were illegal to use.
Read the full column here.
LILLEY: POILIEVRE TALKS TRUMP
The Toronto Sun‘s Brian Lilley had a relaxed and casual interview with Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre. In this clip, Poilievre is asked how he would deal with U.S. President Donald Trump.
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GAP NARROWING BETWEEN LIBERALS, CONSERVATIVES: POLL
New polling suggest the Liberals’ lead is narrowing.
And while Canadians seem to have lost faith in the NDP and leader Jagmeet Singh, these new numbers suggest New Democrats are sharing in that sentiment.
In Leger’s latest poll conducted for Postmedia, the Liberals dropped 1% while the Conservatives went up 1% — putting support for the Liberals at 43%, compared to the Conservatives’ 38%.
That closes the gap between the two front-runners to 5%.
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GREEN PARTY CALLS DEBATE EXCLUSION ‘BASELESS AND UNDEMOCRATIC’
Canada’s Green Party is accusing the producers of this week’s leader’s debates of deliberately silencing them after the party’s attempt to strategically tweak their candidate roster resulted in them being turfed from the telecasts.
Speaking to reporters from Montreal, Green Party co-leader Jonathan Pedneault said Wednesday’s decision to exclude them from the debates is baseless and undemocratic.
“It follows a coordinated campaign by Bloc Quebecois and Conservative commentators, people who are less interested in informing Canadians than they are in protecting their political turf,” said Pedneault, who took no questions after his remarks.
“They’re afraid – not of chaos and confusion, but afraid of a clear voice that’s calling for change and fighting for Canadians.”
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GUNTER: PLAN TO IMPOSE LIFE IN PRISON LEGITIMATE USE OF NWC
The pearl clutchers are at it again.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre promised Monday that, if elected, he and his government would use the Constitution’s notwithstanding clause to allow people who commit multiple murders to be imprisoned for life without possibility of parole.
At present, the longest sentence a Canadian murderer can receive is 25 years without parole, no matter how many victims he or she has killed.
A long line of activists, academics and analysts have lined up to condemn the idea as controversial, if not dangerous.
Read Gunter’s full column here.
HOW PEOPLE WITHOUT ID OR FIXED ADDRESS CAN VOTE
Anyone who wants to register to vote in the April 28 federal election has to be able to prove who they are and where they live.
Elections Canada realizes both of those things can be a challenge for someone without a home or standard ID cards, said spokesperson Diane Benson.
If an unhoused person uses services at a shelter or community kitchen, that facility may be able to provide a letter saying the voter resides there, she said. For example, someone living in an encampment who frequents a soup kitchen could get a letter of confirmation from that facility, said Benson.
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