Hey! It’s Samantha and Jack, the editors of Well-Versed. We’re happy that you’re joining us. Tomorrow is the federal election – what this newsletter has been leading up to – and we hope that we’ve been helpful in getting you well-versed on the issues that matter to you.
This campaign was a whirlwind and we’re glad to have spent it with you. Today, instead of taking a deep dive on a topic, we’ll be tracking how the federal conversations around the issues have developed since we first touched on them with you.
With this Thursday’s edition, we’ll examine what you have to say after the election. Surprised, or not at all? Confused about what the results mean? We’re looking for reflections, more than simply partisan commentary. Write a comment online or send us an e-mail. Include your name, age and city if you’re comfortable.
Environmental policy
We kicked off Well-Versed with an explanation of where the federal parties stand on environmental policy, including an analysis of carbon pricing and emissions policies in our very first edition.
We chose to start this newsletter with climate policies because we felt they illustrate the stark differences between the parties and are a defining issue – of both this election and this time in Canadian history. As our colleague Adam Radwanski wrote on Oct. 8: “When some of the biggest policy disagreements are around the most daunting global issue of the 21st century, no one should be able to dismiss this election as lacking sufficient meaning.”
On Sept. 27, waves of Canadians, led by climate-change fighter Greta Thunberg, marched in the country’s streets to demand leaders take action. Large crowds packed Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver and Ottawa while smaller boisterous crowds gathered in at least 85 other communities, from Victoria to St. John’s to Inuvik. Trudeau, Singh and May participated in what was part of a global climate protest, while Scheer stayed away from the demonstrations.
In the Oct. 7 English-language leaders’ debate, the Liberal Leader struggled to defend his climate policy, promising to “meet and surpass” targets that government numbers show will fall short of the 2030 emissions targets. He was attacked from both sides: Scheer lambasted the carbon tax, while Singh and May criticized him for buying a pipeline and keeping former prime minister Stephen Harper’s emissions targets.
A national debate on climate change that had been planned for last week was cancelled because the Conservatives declined to participate. The Conservatives initially signalled an intention to participate – the other three parties all committed to it – but later told the organizers they couldn’t find anyone to join in.
One of the latest public figures to weigh in on the election is acclaimed Canadian novelist (and recent Booker Prize winner) Margaret Atwood, who wrote on Oct. 17 that Canadians should “Vote for the party that knows there really is a climate crisis, that has even a semi-viable plan, and that might actually win in your riding.”
“You can’t afford to be squeamish.”
Housing affordability
The cost and availability of housing is an issue that affects Canadians from coast to coast to coast. On Sept. 15, we outlined what the federal parties were promising on the housing affordability front. From increasing units in the housing supply to tweaking mortgage rules and installing a foreign-buyers tax, all of the federal parties brought something to the table.
However, the conversations around housing affordability have largely stalled in the more recent throes of the campaign as other issues have come to the fore.
On Sept. 23, Scheer promised that, if elected, his Conservative Party would extend the period that home buyers can amortize an insured mortgage – to 30 years from the current 25 years. That could lower buyers’ monthly costs, but also encourage them to gamble on more expensive properties and end up deeper in debt.
Gun control
On Sept. 22, on the back of a detailed Globe investigation into the path of handguns used in Canadian crimes, we got you well-versed on gun policies.
The same day, the mayor of Canada’s largest city said that the country needs a single source of national data about where handguns come from and how they fall into the hands of criminals. Toronto Mayor John Tory called it “a big problem” that so little is known about the origins of the firearms discharged in violent incidents, including what proportion are stolen or diverted from legal domestic sources.
While gun control hasn’t been a central part of the debate during this campaign, the conversation has evolved since we wrote our newsletter on the topic.
When the Liberals released their platform on Sept. 29, it revealed that, if re-elected, they would spend an extra $400-million over four years for initiatives aimed at reducing gun violence. A new cash-for-gun program would allow for a $200-million buyback next year for all legally purchased assault rifles. Another $50-million a year would be available for municipalities to fight gang-related violence and to help municipalities meet the needs of at-risk communities.
The next day, at a campaign event with Trudeau, health-care professionals working on the front lines of gun violence in Toronto called on the federal government to implement stricter firearms laws, including a national handgun ban – which none of the four parties have pledged to do.
On Oct. 4, Scheer announced that, if elected, his party would bring in a new five-year mandatory prison sentence for individuals who possess smuggled firearms, as well as a five-year mandatory minimum for violent gang crime.
Health care
In our lengthy edition on health care, we dove into the behemoth that is national pharmacare. The Liberals, NDP and the Greens all boast big promises, but due to the tricky provincial component of Canadian policy, any follow through will require co-ordination and co-operation between levels of government.
There haven’t been too many updates from the party leaders on their health-care plans – the lay of the land was established pretty early. But since we wrote on the topic in late September, the Conservatives gave us an idea of what health care would look like under a Scheer government.
The Conservatives say they plan to increase health-care transfers to the provinces by at least 3 per cent per year, but say that a Conservative government will “live within its means to protect health care in the long term.” They also want to introduce a national autism strategy, emphasize home care and mental health, ensure Canadians with rare diseases get treatment and invest $1.5-billion in new medical equipment over four years.
Singh weathered a bit of criticism earlier this week after telling the Winnipeg Free Press that he would reopen an emergency facility in their city – a decision that Manitoba would have to make, given the tricky jurisdictional boundaries.
Well-Versed also touched on the ongoing issues with access to abortion clinics. Many women are forced to travel up to hundreds of kilometres to those clinics, predominantly located in urban centres, and the barriers don’t end once they arrive. And in some locations, the issue of equitable access has only gotten worse since our newsletter was published – New Brunswick will not cover abortion services in private clinics and Fredericton’s only abortion clinic is closing.
Foreign policy
Our foreign-policy edition of Well-Versed focused on Canada’s role in the world, Chrystia Freeland’s impact on Liberal foreign policy and our key relationships with the U.S. and China.
So what has happened on this front since then? While this isn’t exactly foreign policy, and according to Elections Canada, it isn’t foreign interference, either: Barack Obama waded into the election earlier this week and endorsed Trudeau in a Twitter statement.
“I was proud to work with Justin Trudeau as President,” Obama said, a rare intervention into Canadian elections from a former U.S. president. “He’s a hard-working, effective leader who takes on big issues like climate change. The world needs his progressive leadership now, and I hope our neighbors to the north support him for another term.”
Speaking of U.S. presidents, public-affairs columnist Lawrence Martin posed an interesting question from Washington: Why didn’t Trudeau play the Trump card?
Martin calls Trudeau’s decision not to highlight his bilateral work with the U.S. a “highly questionable call.”
“If [Trump] is the most destabilizing, reckless U.S. president to come along in ages, no matter,” he wrote. “And so what if in respect to Canada his protectionist presidency is so impactful – on trade where a continental deal hangs in the balance waiting for Congressional ratification; on China where the health of Canadian relations is tied up in Washington-Beijing controversies; on immigration, the environment, the economy and more.”
Indigenous issues
In our latest edition Well-Versed covered Indigenous issues and the pledges party leaders have made to incorporate and address them. We zeroed in on sovereignty and pipelines, health and wellness, language preservation and revitalization, and Indigenous children.
Recently, the debate over who can call themselves Métis has centred around candidates from a few different parties running in ridings in Eastern Canada.
Some of the candidates only have one distant ancestor who was Indigenous — which is worrying for Clément Chartier, president of the Métis National Council, which represents the Métis Nation.
He says they “pose significant problems for us, because they bring bad philosophy and bad self-understanding to the greater debate."
And a word from a recent Globe editorial: The future of Indigenous Canada is more than an argument over pipelines, and focusing solely on them “is missing the point.”
All things voting
First things first: Here’s The Globe’s breakdown on everything you need to know about before Oct. 21.
- Check here to register with Elections Canada in advance – but you can also sign up in person at your polling place or returning office.
- When you go to vote, be sure to bring identification to prove who you are. Here are the kinds of ID that Elections Canada accepts.
- The first polls in Atlantic Canada will close at around 7 p.m. (ET), then proceed east to west throughout the evening. But depending on how close the results are, there may not be a final decision until late at night or the following morning. Check back at globeandmail.com and follow The Globe’s journalists on Twitter to see the results come in.
The election in your community
What about Alberta? The Globe’s James Keller and David Parkinson examined the campaign conundrum of Canada’s resource-rich Western province, the economic future of which is intimately tied to the energy and environmental policies that are an important part of this election. The prolonged slump in Alberta’s oil-and-gas sector has left tens of thousands unemployed, wrought havoc on provincial finances and spurred calls for separation in a province that has long felt isolated by the rest of the country.
And yet amid economic upheaval that could ignite political change, there is a real lack of electoral suspense in Alberta, where pollsters predict a possible Conservative sweep tomorrow. According to Martha Hall Findlay, president of the Canada West Foundation, that has meant no party has an incentive to spend much time campaigning in Alberta, much less tackle the very real long-term problems facing the province.
Instead, Alberta’s place in the campaign has largely been limited to the future of the Trans Mountain oil pipeline expansion, which the Liberals and Conservatives are both pledging to build.
The election outcome in Alberta is unlikely to be a surprise, but the question remains how and when the next government will address the economic issues in the province and position it for the future with or without a thriving oil and gas economy.
Headliners
- Wondering where the party leaders stand on drug policy? We have you covered with a full explainer.
- Scheer says his assertions that the Liberals and NDP are contemplating tax hikes are “not misinformation at all,” though neither party has announced any such hikes. “Justin Trudeau did a lot of things that wasn’t in his platform after 2015,” he told a crowd of supporters on Friday.
- Facebook is further reducing the transparency of information on which users political ads are targeting, and have imposed barriers to collecting and analyzing data. This will have tangible effects on Globe reporting like this.
- The NDP has dramatically increased racial and gender diversity this year under the leadership of Jagmeet Singh. The party says that 24 per cent of its candidates are racialized minorities, compared with 13 per cent in 2015.
If you’re a Globe subscriber, be sure to also sign up for our regular Politics Briefing newsletter, written every weekday by deputy politics editor Chris Hannay. He’s covering all the big headlines and campaign trail news this election season to keep you informed.
Samantha McCabe
Jack Denton