Politics Briefing: Andrew Scheer denies his campaign manager is in conflict of interest

Hello,

Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer said at a press conference this morning that he does not believe his campaign manager Hamish Marshall is in a conflict of interest because an ad company he co-founded is doing business for both the Conservative Party and a pro-oil advocacy group.

He was making the comments in light of an exclusive Globe report, from Bill Curry in Ottawa, that showed that One Persuades (co-founded by Mr. Marshall), was working in this election for both the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers and the Conservative Party.

Elections Canada rules say so-called third parties – such as interest groups – can agree with political parties on issues, but they cannot directly co-ordinate their efforts.

One Persuades says that Mr. Marshall is on a leave of absence from the company during the campaign and has not been involved with their ad campaigns.

This is the daily Politics Briefing newsletter, written by Chris Hannay. It is available exclusively to our digital subscribers. If you’re reading this on the web, subscribers can sign up for the Politics newsletter and more than 20 others on our newsletter signup page. Have any feedback? Let us know what you think.

DAILY TRACKING OF PUBLIC OPINION

• Liberals: 36 per cent
• Conservatives: 35 per cent
• NDP: 13 per cent
• Green: 9 per cent
• Bloc Québécois: 5 per cent
• People’s Party: 1 per cent

Analysis from Nik Nanos: “Liberals and Conservatives continue to be tangled in a tight race. Scheer closing gap with Trudeau on the preferred prime minister tracking.”

The survey was conducted by Nanos Research and was sponsored by The Globe and Mail and CTV. 1,200 Canadians were surveyed between Oct. 6 and 8, 2019. The margin of error is 2.8 percentage points, 19 times out of 20. Respondents were asked: “If a federal election were held today, could you please rank your top two current local voting preferences?” A report on the results, questions and methodology for this and all surveys can be found at https://tgam.ca/election-polls.

KNOW THE LEADERS

Jagmeet Singh took the helm of the federal New Democrats at a troubled time for the party. And while the first two years of his leadership have been rocky at times, Mr. Singh has earned plaudits for his performance in the debates and in his discussions of race in the election – while at the same time facing acts of racism that no other party leader has had to endure. Globe and Mail writer Ann Hui takes a close look at the experiences that formed Mr. Singh’s political beliefs and how he is changing the conversation in this election.

TODAY’S HEADLINES

Turkey’s military has launched its operation in northern Syria, with the way cleared by the U.S. withdrawing troops that had been working with Kurdish fighters in the region.

A restaurant run by Syrian refugees has closed after an altercation with supporters of Maxime Bernier’s People’s Party. The son of the restaurant’s owner had taken part in protests outside a People’s Party event in Toronto, and when his identity was posted online, the restaurant became the target of death threats from anti-immigrant and far-right groups.

And Stephen Harper became the first former Canadian prime minister to visit Taiwan this week, to speak about his recent book, his consulting business and his views on populism. While there, he made some thinly veiled criticisms of China’s economic model, warning things could get worse as the China-U.S. trade war progresses.

Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond (The Globe and Mail) on the court case on Indigenous child welfare that the government is fighting: “Let’s be clear: The blatant discrimination and racism the human-rights tribunal was compensating for were not incidences from 100 years ago. Or 50 years ago. Or even a few decades ago. They were from acts in recent years – since January, 2006, and continuing right until today. And let’s not mince words about what this discrimination is. It is the actions by successive recent governments, including Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government, to provide less support for some children rather than others based on race. Effectively, if you are Indigenous, you get less. If you are non-Indigenous you get more.”

Loui Anastasopoulos (The Globe and Mail) on the Liberals’ tax promises: “The federal government, should it survive the Oct. 21 election, plans to cap the value of options that large, established companies can award to top executives. The real question is which companies to define as large and established. The current proposal seems based on the theory that if a company is publicly traded, it’s most likely big. We must remember that although mega-sized initial public offerings and companies grab headlines, public companies in Canada are not always big.”

Konrad Yakabuski (The Globe and Mail) on economic talk in the election: “If there was no winner in Monday’s English-language leaders’ debate, it’s not hard to identify the night’s biggest loser. The economy barely got mentioned during the two-hour slugfest.”

Steve Patterson (The Globe and Mail) on the Monday night election debate: “Overall, as soon as this format was announced, I knew it was going to be a challenge for all involved. But credit where credit is due: The organizers outdid themselves. With too much of every element, it somehow achieved not enough of the one thing debate viewers are looking for: a clear idea of the grasp of issues of each leader. A ridiculous idea on paper was turned even more ridiculous by its execution.”

Allison Hanes (Montreal Gazette) on race, Quebec and the election: “It’s not that Montreal and Quebec are more racist than anywhere else, although not every place has a law that enshrines job discrimination based on religious belief. Racism, sadly, exists everywhere. Where it is present, it infects institutions and systems. And where it is not acknowledged, it will fester.”

Justin Ling (National Post) on the situation in Syria: “Turkey is, of course, a NATO ally, though it has hardly acted like one recently. Syria is a bloodthirsty dictatorship that Canada, at one time, claimed to oppose. That powder keg should be concerning to Western leaders. Though you wouldn’t know it to hear Canada’s politicians.”

Lawrence Martin (The Globe and Mail) on U.S. diplomacy in the age of Donald Trump: “The Ukraine debacle offers just one of so many examples of how the foreign policy establishment has been neutered, how traditional American diplomacy has been shredded by Mr. Trump’s contempt for conformity. Foreign policy has now been reduced to whatever the swarm of wasps in his brain happen to come up with.”

Got a news tip that you’d like us to look into? E-mail us at tips@globeandmail.com. Need to share documents securely? Reach out via SecureDrop