It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Saturday, September 09, 2023
NEW BRUNSWICK
City of Saint John faces potential strike by inside workers
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Union local says it gave city until midnight Monday night to resume talks
The City of Saint John has received notice of a potential strike by members of CUPE Local 486, representing employees in largely administrative and support roles across various departments. (Julia Wright/CBC file photo)
The union local representing many of the administrative, support, IT and technical employees of the City of Saint John has given the city notice of its intention to strike.
According to Mike Davidson, CUPE's national servicing representative, Local 486 gave the city until Monday at midnight to return to bargaining in order to avoid a work stoppage.
He said 94 per cent of the membership voted in favour of a strike in a dispute that is largely over wages.
Local 486 represents just under 140 workers in various municipal departments that include emergency dispatch, court services, recreation, bylaw enforcement and financial services.
The City of Saint John and the Saint John Board of Police Commissioners have released a statement claiming their wage offer balances fairness and responsibility to employees and taxpayers.
They say their offer is in line with their wage escalation policy, which Local 486 representatives dispute.
Union representatives Bill Neil, Mike Davidson, Brittany Doyle, Monic MacVicar, Lisa Chiasson and Cheryl McConkey are shown at a press conference last week. (Submitted by Mike Davidson)
"This wage escalation policy was part of the sustainability plan for the City of Saint John," said Davidson. "And that wage escalation policy basically had a promise that when the finances of the City of Saint John improved, they would share that with the employees and unfortunately, now they're trying to renege on that promise."
But the statement from the city says its wage proposal "is fair and reasonable and fully compliant with Council's Wage Escalation Policy."
The wage escalation policy was a policy implemented by the city in 2019 to control the fact that its costs had been outpacing revenue growth.
The city says it has contingency plans in place, though the public may experience delays in police response to non-emergency situations. It says it remains optimistic an agreement can be reached, according to the statement.
Davidson said the union is hopeful that a strike can still be avoided, but said the city is more focused on contingency plans than negotiating an agreement.
The two sides have been deadlocked since mid-August
Mike Davidson is a CUPE servicing representative and said the biggest sticking point between Local 486 and the City of Saint John is wages.(Submitted by Mike Davidson)
Monique LaGrange removed as Alberta Catholic School Trustees’ Association director
LaGrange’s account that showed two images: one of a group of children holding Nazi flags with swastikas, the other: a group of children holding rainbow Pride flags.
Above the images were the words “brainwashing is brainwashing.”
A recent story shared online from the account of Monique LaGrange included an old black and white photo of smiling children leaning out a window waving Nazi flags with the swastikas on them.A more modern photo directly beneath it shows young children in a classroom holding up homemade Pride rainbow flags.The caption reads: “Brainwashing is brainwashing.”. Supplied to Global News
“Our Catholic schools love all students as gifts from God made in His image, irrespective of their sexual orientation and gender expression,” Salm said in the statement.
The Alberta Catholic School Trustees’ Association added that “removing a representative from our board is not something we take lightly” but LaGrange’s post was “unbecoming of an (Alberta Catholic School Trustees’ Association) director.”
Global News has reached out to LaGrange for a statement and will update this article if/when we get a response.
Earlier this week, the Alberta Teachers’ Association called for LaGrange, a Red Deer Catholic school trustee, to resign or face sanctions over the post, which ATA president Jason Schilling called hate speech.
In a news release sent Wednesday afternoon, Red Deer Catholic Regional Schools (RDCRS) said it held a special board meeting on Tuesday to discuss LaGrange’s conduct.
The board said it was writing to the minister of education “as to the dismissal of Trustee (Monique) LaGrange.”
For its part, Alberta Education said the board has the ability to disqualify a trustee.
“This matter is currently in front of the board, who has full authority and autonomy to disqualify a sitting trustee, Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides said Wednesday in a statement to Global News.
“The board has indicated that they are seeking advice on the code of conduct, and then will proceed accordingly. The board has assured me that they will handle this in a quick and effective manner.”
Alberta Teachers’ Association wants Red Deer trustee to resign after ‘hateful post’
Forsaken and ‘Urgent’: Alberta’s Eroding Coal Roads
Scars left by global prospectors are ‘a prescription for how to ruin a watershed,’ says former park chief.
Deteriorating roads like these threaten a water supply that ‘supports the entire economy,’ says naturalist Kevin Van Tighem, one of many calling for remediation.
Photo via Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society.
The summer heat beat down on Kevin Van Tighem as he traced a steep dirt road up Cabin Ridge Mountain, deep in Alberta’s Rockies. This was no ordinary hike. Van Tighem was investigating the state of industrial coal roads, constructed years prior. As he neared the peak of Cabin Ridge, the signs of deterioration came into focus.
Groundwater oozed from the edges of the roads, evaporating long before it could reach the river. Weeds flourished in the disturbed soil. Drill sites near the peak of the mountain, left by coal prospectors, were in disrepair. Industrial equipment was scattered haphazardly across the flat clearings near the switchbacks.
Van Tighem wasn’t surprised by the ramshackle state of the roads. He has led expeditions to the sites since 2020. Each year he finds the situation becomes “increasingly urgent, but also increasingly hopeless.”
He is the former superintendent of Banff National Park. Over the past three years, he has worked with locals in the Livingstone area, northwest of Pincher Creek, opposing mine development and exploratory roads.
“They are exposed to the elements and are eroding like crazy,” Van Tighem said.
“If you wanted to come up with a prescription for how to ruin a watershed, that is what Alberta has accomplished,” said Van Tighem, who ran in the last provincial election for the NDP and lost.
Between June 2020 and February 2021, the United Conservative Party gave a handful of Australian coal companies free rein over some parts of Alberta’s iconic Rockies and foothills. After a public outcry in which protest signs sprouted on front lawns across Alberta, the policy was hastily reinstated.
Kevin Van Tighem: Roads cut into mountain sides, then simply abandoned by investors, ‘are exposed to the elements and are eroding like crazy.’ Photo supplied.
Exploratory roads contain barriers for sediment control, but they have not been properly maintained.
“They’re in disrepair,” Katie Morrison said. Morrison is president of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, or CPAWS, a conservation group.
“I don’t think the companies are out there actually upkeeping things like sediment control. It is very likely that in its absence we are seeing these sediment and stream diversion issues happening.”
Although no mines were built, the exploratory roads remain.
“Most of these companies are penny stock companies, they have no capital,” Van Tighem said.
“You can tell them to go back and clean it up and they will say, ‘With what? The investors walked away, the policy was brought in and we got no money.’”
“The resource will not be extracted, there will be no money made. All we have done is compromise another major resource which is our water supply. That water supply supports the entire economy,” Van Tighem said. Alberta’s Coal Mining Reversal: These Tyee Pieces Tell the Tale
If left unattended, exploratory roads pose a number of potential negative environmental impacts. Soil layers are shallower in Alberta’s mountains and are easily disturbed. Natural plant life struggles to regrow, exposed sediment washes into rivers and reservoirs, and groundwater intersected by roads escapes early in the season and evaporates.
“We’re in a drought,” Van Tighem said. “Our rivers are shrunken down. Our reservoirs are empty. If it ever was obvious which is more important, water or coal, this is the year that we have the answer.”
Nestled in the mountains on Alberta’s border, the Oldman River headwaters — the location of a proposed mine — provide water to 45 per cent of Alberta. One fifth of Alberta’s agricultural production is irrigated agriculture, one reason it is critical to maintain a healthy watershed.
Coal exploratory roads quickly exceeded legal density limits. CPAWS found the government approved 448 kilometres of exploratory roads between 2018 and 2020.
“They certainly built extensive roads and drill site networks, but we don’t know exactly how many or where all of them are,” Morrison said.
When the UCP government briefly opened sensitive areas of the Rocky Mountains to coal excavation, global firms swooped in. Public outcry made the government backtrack on mines, but the landscape is now riven with scenes like these of eroding roads and industrial remnants. Photos by Kevin Van Tighem.
The first time Morrison asked the government for detailed information about the density of road networks, the government said they hadn’t compiled the data. Morrison said the government now has completed the database, but won’t provide the data.
Native plant life uprooted by exploratory roads doesn’t regrow easily, as non-native plants and invasive species sprout in their place. Dedicated weed control is required to keep them in check. On a recent visit, Morrison found the sites “in disrepair.” The Australian Invasion: Big Coal’s Plans for Alberta
“Until these are actually reclaimed, these roads are just going to sit there and we are going to continue having these water, wildlife and vegetation impacts on the landscape.”
Exploration permits granted to companies by the Alberta Energy Regulator have a five-year timeline. Companies are given two years to conduct exploration followed by three years reclaiming the sites. Unlike British Columbia, Alberta does not require a deposit from exploration companies before operations begin.
One of the Australian-based coal firms that built roads while prospecting in Alberta, Montem Resources, said they “intend to continue to reclaim and remediate areas on which it conducted exploratory activities in accordance with its coal exploration permits and other regulatory requirements.”
Minister of Energy and Minerals Brian Jean and the AER declined to respond to Tyee interview requests.
David Luff served in the government of former premier Peter Lougheed, and helped finalize the Coal Policy in 1976. He described the UCP’s revocation of the policy as “morally and ethically wrong.” Critics Skeptical as Alberta Reverses Course on Open-pit Coal Mines
“There was no consultation by the UCP with Indigenous communities whose treaty rights and Aboriginal rights are directly and adversely affected,” Luff said. “It was all done behind closed doors and the public was not aware of it.”
Former energy minister Sonya Savage reinstated the Coal Policy by ministerial order in February 2021. She created the Coal Policy Committee shortly after to consult the public on how coal development should proceed. The committee found 90 per cent of Albertans felt there were areas not appropriate for coal development, while 85 per cent were “not at all confident that coal development in Alberta is regulated to ensure it is environmentally sustainable.”
Luff said the fight over coal mining is far from over.
“Ministerial orders can be changed with the whim of the minister, or the direction of the premier. The next three to four months will be critical to understand exactly where this government is on coal,” Luff said.
“Danielle Smith was not the premier back then. She is now. We don’t know where she and her government will go. That uncertainty is over everything.”
The Tyee Clayton Keim is a Calgary-based freelance journalist with an interest in the economy, social issues and Alberta politics. If you have any additional information on this story, contact them via email.
Ancient Deep-Sea Dwellers: 104 Million-Year-Old Fossils Unveil Ocean’s Past
ByUNIVERSITY OF GÖTTINGENSEPTEMBER 8, 2023
Scientists have found fossil evidence that higher invertebrates, specifically irregular echinoids or sea urchins, have stably colonized the deep sea for at least 104 million years since the Cretaceous period. Analyzing over 40,000 spine fragments from sediment samples, the team discovered evolutionary changes over time, notably after major extinction events, and suggested potential impacts of future global warming on deep-sea ecosystems.
A team led by Göttingen University described the early occurrence of irregular sea urchins in the depths of the oceans.
Deep within the ocean’s abyss, it’s believed that the earliest and most rudimentary life forms on our planet took shape ages ago. Nowadays, the deep sea is known for its bizarre fauna. Researchers are delving into how the species diversity on the ocean floor has evolved over time.
There are hypotheses suggesting that the deep-sea ecosystems have been reborn repeatedly following numerous mass extinctions and marine disturbances. Hence, the current marine life in these depths might be relatively recent in Earth’s timeline. However, growing evidence hints that segments of this underwater realm might be older than once assumed.
A research team led by the University of Göttingen has now provided the first fossil evidence for a stable colonization of the deep sea floor by higher invertebrates for at least 104 million years. Fossil spines of irregular echinoids (sea urchins) indicate their long-standing existence since the Cretaceous period, as well as their evolution under the influence of fluctuating environmental conditions. The results have been published in the journal PLOS ONE.
A range of sea urchin spines from different periods of the Earth’s history illustrating the diversity of shapes. Credit: PLOS ONE, 2023 Wiese et al.
The researchers examined over 1,400 sediment samples from boreholes in the Pacific, Atlantic, and Southern Ocean representing former water depths of 200 to 4,700 meters. They found more than 40,000 fragments of spines, which they assigned to a group called irregular echinoids, based on their structure and shape.
For comparison, the scientists recorded morphological characteristics of the spines, such as shape and length, and determined the thickness of around 170 spines from each of the two time periods. As an indicator of the total mass of the sea urchins in the habitat – their biomass – they determined the amount of spiny material in the sediments.
What these fossil spines document is that the deep sea has been continuously populated by irregular echinoids since at least the early Cretaceous period about 104 million years ago. And they provide further exciting insights into the past: the devastating meteorite impact at the end of the Cretaceous period about 66 million years ago, which resulted in a worldwide mass extinction – with the dinosaurs as the most prominent victims – also caused considerable disturbances in the deep sea.
This is shown by the morphological changes in the spines: they were thinner and less diverse in shape after the event than before. The researchers interpret this as the “Lilliput Effect”. This means that smaller species have a survival advantage after a mass extinction, leading to the smaller body size of a species. The cause could have been the lack of food at the bottom of the deep sea.
“We interpret the changes in the spines as an indication of the constant evolution and emergence of new species in the deep sea,” explains Dr Frank Wiese from the Department of Geobiology at the University of Göttingen, the lead author of the study. He emphasizes another finding: “About 70 million years ago, the biomass of sea urchins increased. We know that the water cooled down at the same time. This relationship between biomass in the deep sea and water temperature allows us to speculate how the deep sea will change due to human-induced global warming.”
Reference: “A 104-Ma record of deep-sea Atelostomata (Holasterioda, Spatangoida, irregular echinoids) – a story of persistence, food availability and a big bang” by Frank Wiese, Nils Schlüter, Jessica Zirkel, Jens O. Herrle and Oliver Friedrich, 9 August 2023, PLOS ONE. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0288046
In addition to the University of Göttingen, the Universities of Heidelberg and Frankfurt as well as the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin were involved in the research project.
SOMETHING WEIRD IS GOING ON WITH THE ASTEROID NASA SMASHED "THAT WAS INCONSISTENT AT AN UNCOMFORTABLE LEVEL."
Darting Around
Nearly a year ago, NASA successfully smashed an asteroid for the first time, in a landmark test to see whether we could divert a killer space rock before disaster — but now, the asteroid in question is behaving strangely.
As New Scientist reports, a schoolteacher and his pupils seem to have discovered that the orbit of Dimorphos, the space rock socked by the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) last September, has apparently continued slowing down, unexpectedly, in the year since the refrigerator-sized craft smashed into it.
Jonathan Swift, a math and science teacher at the Thacher School in California, and his team of student astronomers have discovered that Dimorphos, which orbits around the larger near-Earth asteroid Didymos the way our Moon orbits the Earth, has been spinning consistently slower around Didymos than it did prior to the DART test.
To be clear, changing Dimorphos' trajectory was the point of the DART test.
As NASA announced a few weeks after the collision last fall, it succeeded at doing exactly that, bringing the asteroid's orbit down a full half hour, from 11 hours and 55 minutes to 11 hours and 23 minutes. Given that the space agency's "minimum successful orbit period change" was 73 seconds, this meant that the DART test, which showed whether or not Earth can smash near-Earth asteroids out of the way, was a resounding success.
But as Swift and his charges at the Thacher Observatory found when looking at Dimorphos' orbit more than a month after the initial collision, the asteroid's orbit seems to have continued to slow down — an unexplained turn of events, considering that most astronomers expected it to return to its original orbit speed pretty quickly.
"The number we got was slightly larger, a change of 34 minutes," Swift told New Scientist. "That was inconsistent at an uncomfortable level." Theoretically Speaking
Though NASA did say in its original post-DART findings that the orbit slowing had a margin of error of plus or minus two minutes, the orbit's change is nevertheless a startling result — though some theories suggest that the impact may have "tumbled" Dimorphos' orbit, or unlocked it from Didymos' tidal forces.
"We tried our best to find the crack in what we had done," Swift expounded, "but we couldn’t find anything."
NASA will also be releasing a report soon on the DART mission's latest update, a spokesperson told New Scientist — but the agency will have to compete with Swift and his students, whose findings were shared this summer with the American Astronomical Society, which is publishing their paper soon.
CANADA
ECHO CHAMBER
Conservatives approve policies to limit transgender health care for minors, end race-based hiring
Conservative delegate Patrick Wuori speaks to the crowd prior to party leader Pierre Poilievre's Friday speech at the Conservative Party Convention in Quebec City. (Jacques Boissinot/Canadian Press)
Conservative delegates voted Saturday to add some new social conservative policies to their policy playbook, including a proposal to limit access to transgender health care for minors and another to do away with vaccine mandates.
Despite warnings that these policies could be weaponized by their political opponents to hurt their standing among more moderate voters, a strong majority of the delegates on hand voted for a motion that stated children should be prohibited from gender-related "life-altering medicinal or surgical interventions," and for another that said Canadians should have "bodily autonomy" when it comes to vaccines and other health treatments.
About 69 per cent of the delegates agreed that young people should be barred from gender-affirming care, which sometimes includes hormone-related treatments that delay puberty or promote the development of masculine or feminine sex characteristics.
Michelle Badalich, an Edmonton delegate, said dysphoria is a "mental health disorder" and it should be addressed with treatment not "irreversible procedures."
"Please protect our kids," she said to thunderous applause.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is not bound to adopt any of the policies that were passed at this convention. Poilievre did not take questions from reporters after the votes.
'Protect your wives and daughters'
Liam O'Brien, a Newfoundland and Labrador delegate, noted that "Canada is watching" as Conservatives debate controversial policies like this one.
"Canada is also watching our leader kick Justin Trudeau's ass," O'Brien said as he urged delegates to keep the focus on the high cost of living and "Liberal incompetence."
On another transgender-related policy, delegates voted by an overwhelming 87 per cent to support a plan to demand single-sex spaces that are only open to women, which the party now defines as a "female person" with the adoption of the policy.
The policy is intended is to keep transgender and other gender-diverse people out of women's prisons, shelters, locker rooms and washrooms.
Badalich said it's "not extremist" to demand that what she calls "biological women" have a space to call their own.
"Vote yes to protect your wives and daughters," said another delegate, a 15-year-old from Sherwood Park, Alta.
A dissenting delegate from Quebec who did not give her name said "the Liberals will love nothing more" than to see Conservatives pass policies like this one and use discriminatory rhetoric to describe sexual minorities.
"Please, let's get the Liberals out. Let's get elected," she said.
The convention also adopted a proposal from the Alberta riding of Medicine Hat-Cardston-Warner to impose stiffer penalties on sex offenders and pedophiles.
"Children are little angels of the world," a delegate from that riding named Logan said during the debate. He said there are nefarious actors who are trying to "assault, sexualize and traffic our children," and a Poilievre-led government needs to crackdown on the practice.
About 86 per cent of the delegates agreed there should be "stronger legislation" from a Poilievre-led government to try and curb these activities.
On the issue of vaccines, an Ontario delegate and medical doctor pleaded with Conservatives to reject mandates so to avoid repeat of what transpired during the COVID-19 health crisis.
"Justin Trudeau's coercive, divisive and ineffective vaccine mandate is a violation of the human right to bodily autonomy. Stand up for freedom, stand up for common sense," said Dr. Matt Strauss, the former acting medical officer of health for Haldimand-Norfolk.
Delegates agreed with about 68 per cent voting to "affirm Canadians have the freedom and right to refuse vaccines."
The delegates were in lockstep on most policy matters.
Hiring policies
On the issue of preferential hiring for minorities by research institutions, delegates passed a policy that said federally funded jobs should go to a person who's best qualified, "irrespective of the personal immutable characteristics," stated the motion.
Adrian Dylianou, a Saskatchewan delegate who backed the policy, said "woke ideology" should be rooted out of Canada's universities.
The "woke ideology whims of whoever is in power" is not the way to structure a workplace, he said.
Justin Vuong, an Edmonton delegate who identified as a visible minority, said all job choices should be decided on merit, not the colour of a person's skin.
WATCH | Pierre Poilievre's first leadership convention speech
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre attacked Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's economic and fiscal record, as he doubled down on his promise to balance the federal budget, at his party's national policy convention Friday evening.
About 95 per cent of members on hand for the vote agreed.
On a similar matter, 81 per cent of delegates supported a policy to end "forced political, cultural or ideological training of any kind" at a workplace, such as mandatory diversity training and other such programs.
Discussion about the motion focused on Jordan Peterson, a professor with a large following in right-wing circles who was ordered by the College of Psychologists of Ontario to take social media training in the wake of complaints about his controversial online posts and statements.
"Two words: Jordan Peterson," one Alberta delegate said during the debate.
"Forced cultural or ideological training — none of us that support that," he said.
Oil and gas
Virtually all those assembled agreed that Canada should have more "robust measures to counter foreign interference" amid alleged Chinese meddling, improve services for Canada's veterans, eliminate the deficit, reduce the national debt to reduce "inter-generational inequity," and streamline the natural resources regulatory approvals process.
In another vote, 84 per cent of delegates agreed there should be a "purposeful, gradual transition to a lower carbon-use future," but the country should continue to use oil and gas.
A majority of voters also supported a renewed push to get more pipelines built to move those fuels to market.
During a spirited debate on high-speed rail, an urban-rural divide became obvious as competing speakers weighed in on whether the Tories should back a new rail network.
A Nova Scotia delegate said that rural dwellers shouldn't be forced to pay for proposed projects that would primarily benefit the country's cities.
Trudeau blasted for passport redesign
Earlier Saturday, Daniel Hannon, a member of the British House of Lords and a prominent Brexit campaigner, delivered a speech to the convention blasting Trudeau for allegedly unpatriotic acts taken by his government.
A reoccurring theme of the Conservative convention is Tory disgust with the government's redesign of the passport.
On Trudeau's watch, the document was stripped of references to notable events in Canada's history, including the country's First World War victory at the battle of Vimy Ridge.
The government also dumped images of Terry Fox, who became a national hero with his Marathon of Hope, Quebec City's historic old quarter and the Famous Five trailblazing Canadian women who helped advance women's rights.
These changes have been interpreted by many Conservatives delegates as an attempt to erase Canada's history.
"Who would want to efface the images of your history from the passports? Who would want to replace the pictures that tell your story with generic shapes and patterns that could come from anywhere?" Hannon said.
"Canadians are not a random set of individuals who happen to qualify for the same passport," he said. "Canadians are a nation and not just any nation — they're bound together by shared stories and shared dreams."
Poilievre shares Hannon's position that the country should embrace a more robust form of national pride. In his keynote address Friday, Poilievre said Trudeau's trying to suppress Canadian patriotism.
CANADA'S ALCOHOLIC TORY FIRST PRIME MINISTER
"Justin Trudeau wants to cancel our proud history, erasing it from our passports," Poilievre said. "Why? Because there can be no heroes but him."
"This business of deleting our past must end. And this is a matter on which English Canada must learn from Quebec. Quebecers — and I'm saying this in English deliberately — do not apologize for their culture, language or history. They celebrate it. All Canadians should do the same."
‘Social’ issues distract from Poilievre’s focus
on economy, affordability
By Alex Boutilier Global News Updated September 9, 2023 4:23 pm
VIDEO
It's day two of the Conservative Party convention and 2,500 delegates are meeting in Quebec City, Que., behind closed doors to debate party priorities. Party leader Pierre Poilievre is riding the party's growing popularity in Quebec, as the Conservatives look to make modest but important gains there in the next federal election. David Akin reports.
The Conservative grassroots voted overwhelmingly to restrict gender-affirming care for trans youth under the age of 18 on Saturday, distracting from leader Pierre Poilievre’s focus on economic and affordability issues.
Poilievre, in his message to party faithful Friday night, tried to keep the message firmly focused on the economy and affordability issues, two of the most pressing preoccupations for Canadians at the moment, and issues for which the Conservatives typically enjoy an advantage.
However, Conservative members voted 69 per cent in favour of banning “life altering medicinal or surgical interventions” for Canadians under 18 experiencing “gender dysphoria and related mental health challenges.”
The new policy follows moves by conservative governments in New Brunswick and Saskatchewan to restrict trans youth under the age of 16 from using their preferred names or pronouns at school without parental consent.
“Transitional gender surgery is a significant and substantial decision for any adult to make … Children, on the other hand, are not equipped to make that decision,” said delegate Scott Anderson, speaking on behalf of the B.C. riding that sponsored the policy.
Lisa Bonang, a family physician from Nova Scotia, spoke passionately against the motion and argued that “age alone does not determine the ability to consent” to medical care.
“This policy stands against the values of our party to embrace freedom and bodily autonomy. A vote for this is voting against what you say you’re all for, and is pure hypocrisy,” Bonang said.
VIDEO 0:49 Most say they support LGBTQ2 Canadians: Poll
As with anti-abortion policy debates at previous conventions, the motion around medical care for trans youth – as well as motions about “single-sex spaces” and affirming the right to refuse medical treatments like vaccines – also distracts from Poilievre’s focus on economic and affordability issues.
Poilievre told reporters earlier this week that he would not be bound by whatever policy positions his party’s base adopted at the convention. While the policies may not necessarily translate into Poilievre’s eventual election platform, they do provide a sense Conservative grassroot priorities.
Freedom of speech issues, promoting Canadian energy products and a more muscular approach to foreign policy and defence issues all figured prominently among those priorities – with most policy motions passing with strong majorities.
VIDEO 3:23
‘Life or death’: LGBTQ2 people warn education policy changes on pronouns, names pose dangers
Delegates also passed a new high-level statement on environmental policy, focused on the need to protect a “clean” climate – with one member referring to environmental issues as a major electoral weakness for the Conservatives.
The motion was not without its detractors, however, with one Alberta delegate suggesting it opened the door for “eco-radicals” to attack Canada’s oil and gas industries.
Speaking to delegates Friday evening, Poilievre delivered a long speech drawing from interactions he said he had while on a cross-country tour this summer. He took aim at Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and promised to ease Canadians economic anxieties should a Conservative government get elected.
“An economy where the people who build our homes cannot afford to live in them is fundamentally unjust and wrong,” Poilievre said, speaking of Canadians he met during his cross-country tour this summer.
“The family that saw its mortgage payments increase by $1,000 a month, that family’s not angry. They’re just afraid they won’t be able to keep their family home.”
5:37 Could ‘densification’ fix Canada’s housing crisis?
Policy aside, the Conservatives head into the fall flush with cash and riding high in national opinion polling. Abacus Data recently reported a 14-point lead over the governing Liberals.
In a poll conducted from Aug. 29 to Sept. 4, surveying 3,595 voting-age Canadians,Abacus put Poilievre’s Conservatives at 40 per cent of the national vote, with the Liberals trailing at 26 per cent and Jagmeet Singh’s NDP at 19 per cent.
The Abacus poll – which is considered accurate within 1.7 percentage points – had the Conservatives ahead by six points in Ontario, potentially a troubling sign for the Liberals’ re-election chances. But Trudeau and Singh control when the next election will be, and their governing agreement can last as long as 2025.
The Conservatives are attempting to use that time – and the party’s fundraising advantage – wisely, rolling out a $3 million advertising campaign re-introducing Poilievre to Canadian voters.
Speaking to delegates on Friday, Conservative Fund head Robert Staley said the advertising push will continue leading up to the election, as will Poilievre’s crisscrossing the country to meet with Canadians individually.
“With fixed-date elections, we know that other parties and unfriendly special interests groups will spend heavily in the (pre-election) period,” Staley said.
“I’m not going to give you a number, but we have an amount set aside, cash in the bank, agreed upon by the leader, to spend in the immediate pre-writ period, principally on advertising.”
Analysis
The strengths and limits of Pierre Poilievre's 'common sense'
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Tory leader's speech focuses on housing and inflation
— but that's not all Canadians have to worry about
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre speaks to delegates at the Conservative Party convention on Friday in Quebec City, where he emphasized the need for 'common-sense' policies. (Jacques Boissinot/The Canadian Press)
If an election were held tomorrow, polls suggest Pierre Poilievre would defeat Justin Trudeau and become the 24th prime minister of Canada. And if an election were to happen tomorrow, the Conservative leader says the choice would be quite straightforward.
"Canadians will have only two options," Poilievre told the Conservative Party convention in Quebec City on Friday night. "A common-sense Conservative government that frees hardworking people to earn powerful paycheques that buy affordable food, gas and homes — in safe neighbourhoods.
"Or a reckless coalition — of Trudeau and the NDP — that punishes your work, taxes your money, taxes your food, doubles your housing bill and unleashes crime and chaos in your neighbourhood."
The explanation for why Poilievre and the Conservatives have recently come to lead the Liberals in public surveys by substantial margins is probably at least as simple.
For one thing, Poilievre is not Trudeau. If Canadians are unhappy with the current state of things or merely tired of Trudeau's government, Poilievre is offering not just an alternative but something very different.
More importantly, Poilievre is promising that all of the things that currently seem to cost too much — your mortgage, your rent, gas, groceries — would cost less if he was in charge.
Poilievre said Friday the 'reckless coalition' of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's Liberals and the NDP has raised taxes, crime rates and housing costs for Canadians. (Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press)
This is what Poilievre spends most of his time talking about these days. Probably because this is what most Canadians are most worried about right now.
Poilievre does not have as much to say anymore about the things he used to talk about. There was nothing in his speech on Friday night about "wokeism" or "elites" or the "liberal media." He didn't mention the freedom convoy or extol the virtues of cryptocurrency. He didn't repeat his vow to fire the governor of the Bank of Canada. There was only a winking reference to the World Economic Forum.
He didn't even call the prime minister a "Marxist," which he was recently recorded doing while door-knocking in a byelection.
What Poilievre is talking about now are all the things the Trudeau government is struggling to find simple answers for: inflation, housing and what has euphemistically come to be known as the "cost of living."
And what Poilievre is emphasizing now is "common sense."
Poilievre and his wife, Anaida, wave to delegates at the convention. (Jacques Boissinot/The Canadian Press)
He is hardly the first politician to claim it — that vaguely egalitarian and inherently populist notion that flatters its purveyors and supporters while implicitly disqualifying its opponents and critics. Who would dare disagree with something as sensible and universal as common sense? Surely only some out-of-touch snob would attempt to quibble or dismiss something so obvious and true.
Wielded by Poilievre, "common sense" is no doubt meant to contrast with the ideas and schemes of Trudeau and the Liberal government. And there was, in Poilievre's remarks, an explicit promise to get back to the way things were before the Liberals came to office in 2015, as if the last eight years had been some kind of historical aberration.
Easier said than done
But what "common sense" would mean in practice — that is, if Poilievre were to form government — is still largely left to the imagination.
"My common-sense plan cuts waste and caps spending to bring down inflationary deficits and interest rates," he said on Friday night. "My common-sense plan is to have a new funding formula that links the number of federal dollars cities get for infrastructure to the number of houses they allow to be completed."
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Such things might be altogether easier said than done — and not free of consequences that some Canadians might not enjoy or appreciate. (The Liberals are already linking some federal funding to the construction of new houses.) At the very least, it is not yet possible to know how Poilievre's promises of tax and spending cuts would add up.
But it is impossible to question the validity of the anxious and frustrated Canadians that Poilievre says he encountered — individuals who are dealing with the very real consequences of inflation and a dysfunctional housing market. In the face of such stories, it is hard, and perhaps even foolish, to argue the finer points of global inflation trends.
And it is not hard to see the appeal of the idyllic, 1950s-tinged portrait of an imagined future that Poilievre painted at the end of his speech — one of shopkeepers sweeping storefronts, kids playing street hockey and young couples sitting on front-porch swings basking in the comfort of cold drinks and financial security.
But in the summer of 2023, that pleasant scene could be interrupted by wildfires or blankets of smoke. That couple might not have been on the porch because it was hard to breathe outside. Or because they were forced to flee their home. Or because their house burned down.
Such problems went unmentioned on Friday night. And Poilievre's climate-related commitments remain scant. He is strident in his desire to "axe" the federal carbon tax, and he would also repeal the clean fuel regulations. Otherwise, he says he would focus on clean energy and technologies — "technology, not taxes" is Poilievre's slogan.
After this summer, the "common sense" of having a plan to meet Canada's greenhouse gas emissions targets is all the more apparent.
But for now, it is enough to not be Trudeau and to promise to make life a little bit easier.
Aaron Wherry has covered Parliament Hill since 2007 and has written for Maclean's, the National Post and the Globe and Mail. He is the author of Promise & Peril, a book about Justin Trudeau's years in power.
Mike Davidson is a CUPE servicing representative and said the biggest sticking point between Local 486 and the City of Saint John is wages. (Submitted by Mike Davidson)
