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Fresh off a decisive victory for his newest Conservative caucus member, Tory Leader Pierre Poilievre woke up to the news Tuesday that he has hit a 10-year high among Conservative leaders for the coveted preferred prime minister ranking.
According to Nanos Research data, Poilievre has outpaced Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in the preferred prime minister category since September. Now he is also ahead of where Mr. Trudeau was ranked a year before the 2015 federal election and also tracking ahead of Stephen Harper circa 2014.
He’s also outperforming Erin O’Toole and Andrew Scheer, the two Conservative leaders who have also vied against Trudeau.
According to the Nanos polling, Poilievre is the preferred prime minister for 37 per cent of respondents. Trudeau is tied with the unsure category – each at 19 per cent – and NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh is the preference for 17 per cent.
The data is based on a four-week rolling average in which 250 respondents are polled each week, for a total sample size of 1,000 respondents. The telephone survey has a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
The Conservatives are also celebrating Monday night’s by-election result in Durham, Ont., where O’Toole’s Conservative successor, Jamil Jivani, won the riding in a landslide. With 57.4 per cent support, Jivani dramatically increased his party’s share of the vote by more than 11 percentage point from 2021. The gains came at the expense of the Liberals and NDP, which fell to 22.5 per cent and 10.4 per cent, respectively.
The People’s Party of Canada slipped in its share of the vote to 4.4 per cent on Monday night from 6 per cent in 2021. Voter turnout was just 28 per cent.
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TODAY'S HEADLINES
Brian Mulroney’s state funeral scheduled for March 23: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s office announced the funeral will be held in Montreal in two weeks. Prior to the service there will be a lying-in-state in Ottawa and a lying-in-repose in Montreal. Mulroney, a titan of Canadian politics whose policies transformed the economy, died last week in Palm Beach, Fla. He was 84.
RCMP accused of pattern of mistreatment toward Rebel News: A statement of claim was filed in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice that alleges the arrest of Rebel News reporter David Menzies early this year is part of a pattern of “intimidation and exclusion” by the RCMP against the organization. Kristy Kirkup reports.
Guilbeault calls Saskatchewan Premier immoral for breaking carbon-price law: Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault says Ottawa has to take action against Saskatchewan for breaking the federal carbon-pricing law. Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe said last week his province would not submit the money it owed for the carbon price on natural gas as required on Feb. 29. The Canadian Press has more.
ArriveCan fallout prompts scrutiny of Indigenous procurement program: Political fallout over the ArriveCan app should be a catalyst for Ottawa to deal with long-standing problems with a procurement program aimed at supporting Indigenous businesses, says the Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business. Bill Curry has the latest on the file.
THIS AND THAT
Today in the Commons: The House of Commons is on a two-week break. The public accounts committee, however, is meeting to continue its study of the ArriveCan scandal.
THE DECIBEL
On the Decibel today, senior parliamentary reporter Steven Chase breaks down the bombshell documents tabled in the House of Commons last week that revealed two scientists who worked at a high-security infectious-disease lab in Winnipeg provided confidential scientific information to China. The documents show that one of the scientists was “a realistic and credible threat to Canada’s economic security.” Catch the latest episode here.
PRIME MINISTER’S DAY
Justin Trudeau met with the President of Ecuador, Daniel Noboa, and later met with the Assembly of First Nations National Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak.
LEADERS
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh spent Tuesday in Campbell River, B.C. The small town on Vancouver Island is in NDP MP Rachel Blaney’s riding. She joined him for a visit at Ocean Pacific Marine Store & Boatyard, and the two will then be joined by NDP MP Gord Johns for a meet and greet in Comox, B.C.
Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet is on a three-day trip to Washington, D.C., where he is talking softwood lumber tariffs and French-language regulations in Quebec.
There was no schedule released for Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre.
OPINION
Danielle Smith’s attack on clean power is an attack on free enterprise
“This government attack on one industry is not a random event. While Ms. Smith says she supports net-zero emissions by 2050, her actions are effectively working to ensure Alberta falls short. She opposes Ottawa’s goal to cut most emissions from power generation by 2035. Alberta is, she claims, “a natural-gas province.” Favouring fossil fuels and slowing clean power is the UCP strategy.” – Editorial Board, The Globe and Mail
Jamil Jivani will fit right in with activist, populist conservatism of Poilievre
“If the Conservatives win the next election, no one is going to write a story about their retreat into incremental centrism. Things will be wild. There will be one tough-on-crime bill after another, spending cuts, sharp reductions in the budget deficit, even as the military receives more funding. It will be a fiery time that will delight conservatives and appall progressives. And Jamil Jivani will be in the thick of it.” – John Ibbitson, The Globe and Mail
The proposed new pharmacare program is yet another pilot project with an uncertain future
“Canada is “a country of perpetual pilot projects,” former health minister Monique Bégin once famously said. Despite all the hype surrounding the “historic” Bill C-64, or the Pharmacare Act, what’s being floated is really nothing more than a giant pilot project.” – André Picard, The Globe and Mail
How and why Ottawa can and should get back to balance by 2028
“When you’re running deficits and debt somebody has to pay them some time and some way. It never comes free.” – Don Drummond, of the C.D. Howe Institute, on the Herle Burly podcast
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Marieke Walsh