Sheila Gervais

I'm so proud to see our first foreign affairs minister of East Indian origins. Congratulations Anita Anand.

Conservatives drop Quebec candidate for accusing Polytechnique survivor of exploiting shooting | CBC News The Conservative Party of Canada has dropped a Quebec candidate after he harshly criticized Liberal candidate and Polytechnique shooting survivor Nathalie Provost online.

I am sick to my stomach.
www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

It will be fascinating to see Carney and Poilievre running in ridings next door to each other, while running against each other for the country... Clash of titans?

@ CBC the House: I find it a bit rich that CPC commenters can disparage any cabinet member's roots and ability to apeak to different parts of the country when Pierre Poilievre can purport to speak both for Albertans and evil Ottawans depending on which side of his mouth he's using. #cdnpoli

Canada to impose 500% tarrif on US Firearms legally imported into Canada; perveyors of illegal firearms and US exporters of #FirearmCulture to be submitted to a squad using their own products.
#UnfortunatelyFakeButWishfulNews

Ok! Shouldn't we also impose retaliatory action until the US stops the flow of illegal firearms into Canada?

Cut Off U.S. Energy and Resources Now: No Electricity, No Critical Minerals, No Oil and Gas  | Canadian Labour Congress WINNIPEG – Bea Bruske, President of the Canadian Labour Congress, issued the following statement today:  Donald Trump’s reckless tariffs are an attack on Canadian workers and our economy. With 2.4 mil...

Canada’s biggest labour organization is calling on the federal government turn off the taps, “cutting US access to critical Canadian resources—including electricity, lumber, critical minerals, oil, and gas—until the tariffs are lifted”

75% of Canadians support restricting US access to our resources

@melaniejoly.bsky.social Mme Joly, Thank you for providing the facts to our American friends on security at our border. I hope in the process you are asking what the US is doing to secure the border against all the illegal firearms crossing in to Canada.

Of that, ”$817 million relates to the planned expansion of the beverage alcohol marketplace starting on Jan. 1, 2026, and $612 million relates to the decision to accelerate that expansion to begin in 2024,” the independent office said.
#DoNotElectDougFord

The Financial Accountability Office of Ontario estimates the liberalization tab will jump to $1.4 billion by the end of 2030. It cost taxpayers an additional $612 million so Premier Doug Ford could expand booze sales in time for his early Feb. 27 election, a fiscal watchdog has found.

Don't fall for this: The Ford Government costs you money. #DoNotElectDougFord
From Toronto Star Jan. 27, 2025
Doug Ford’s alcohol sales expansion deal cost taxpayers an additional $612M, watchdog says

Sign ups close on Jan 27. So go nuts!

No news yet on candidates signing up folks, but with these timelines, bulk buying, um, registering, won't be possible anyway, so a moot point.

Let's see on the debates. The more the merrier. More exposure and mettle testing/honing.

Looks like the LPC Board had made some good decisions. So far.

The Vote will be March 9.

Supporters will need to be citizens or PRs. (could have gone a bit further).

Candidates need to be in by January 23, with an entry fee of $350,000 (keep out that riffraff!!)

...

I can see the public – the Canadians we need to engage – taking a serious interest in such debate and competition.
I do believe that incorporating and instituting some of these concepts will go a long way in restoring the reputation of the Party, and support that of a new leader in the future.

This will be a great contrast to PP as well, but allow the focus of the whole race and particularly the candidates themselves on wooing the fish with words, policies and deportment, not signing them up (organizing).

It also allows all candidates to fish out of the same pool and focus on competing for ideas and hearts. This should be combined with MANY debates - mandatory debates with disqualification not fining being the penalty.

It will help to avoid some of the issues involved in bulk signing at any rate but specific to non fungible supporters (yes, I meant that) and increases independent scrutiny on the veracity of the Supporter. It gets all candidates away from the sticky wicket of the usual shenanigans or worse.

This concept of agency flies in the face of the concept of party to begin with. At the base of it, you are a supporter of the Party, not just your own candidate. At minimum, to the extent they are allowed, ALL sign ups should be through Liberal.ca and not through candidates’ sites or forms.

The Party has a (horrid, to my mind) tradition of allowing people to sign up either through the Party or through candidates, and “hiding” those Supporters signed up by candidates from everyone else until the last week or two of a campaign.

This would be a long way for this party to go, so it’s a long shot, but for once let’s have the courage to do what is best, in this case for BOTH Party and Country. Certainly, for the integrity of a “democratic” process in an important Canadian democratic institution.

That’s going to tick off a bunch of 14-year-old Young Liberals no doubt, but it will go a long way toward avoiding the potential for foreign actors to manipulate and participate in the process through the back door.

My reading of the current Supporter clauses and by-laws (which of course can be changed) is that interpretations could be made that only Supporters who are eligible to vote in a Federal General Election could vote.

It should also use its by-law ability to adjust just which supporters can vote. Everyone can be a supporter, but you may not be eligible to vote this time.

I say, special times (political circumstances, as the LPC Constitution calls it) call for special actions and the Party should interpret the clause allowing it to alter timelines very broadly, and perhaps beyond the timelines themselves and into the process the timeline refers to.

Some are calling for Caucus and perhaps riding presidents to make the decision and others are calling for effectively a retroactive cut-off period so that only those who are Supporters as of the date of the call of the Vote, or perhaps even the date of the Trigger (Jan 5) can vote.

One is related to the potential for foreign interference and special interest groups in the signup process and another is related to the desirability for candidates to sign up and engage Canadians (as the PM put it) in a robust process. The question is: what is the best way to “engage” Canadians?

Under current rules, and this scenario, sign ups would end January 28. That’s about three weeks from now, likely 2 weeks from a decision about the actual rules. So if folks aren’t sure, should sign up now and/or donate. But there are big issues that could put a spanner in these types of works.

you pretty much have to have the Leadership Vote completed March 10, okay March 15 at the very latest. Basically it should be an electronic vote (special provisions to be made for northern and remote communities), and algorithms can calculate the weighting etc..

Currently the LPC constitution says only supporters signed 41 days prior to a Leadership Vote can vote. So in a perfect world to have a Leader in place, sworn in as PM and ready with a Cabinet and team for the Opening of Parliament on March 24,

Anyone 14+ years of age “ordinarily resident” in Canada can sign up. You are then a Supporter for a period of three years. You can sign up every week if you want and restart another three years. You're also automatically signed up when you donate, and the three years resets at every donation.