Balanced budget, electoral reform back on policy agenda for Liberals at convention
Balanced budgets and electoral reform are back on the agenda for Canada's Liberals this week as the party holds its first in-person policy convention in five years.
The last time the party had a full convention was 2018 in Halifax, when the Liberals still held a majority government, nobody had ever heard of COVID-19, inflation wasn't a constant anxiety and Russia hadn't launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The Liberal government is also coming off a rough winter, with the government hounded by allegations it is failing to protect Canadians and the electoral system from foreign interference.
Most national polls have the Liberals trailing the Conservatives by several points in recent months, and some Liberals see the three-day convention as a chance to regroup and remember who they are and what they are trying to do.
"This is a huge opportunity to re-energize," said Greg MacEachern, a longtime Liberal strategist.
Many Liberal members of Parliament agreed when they were asked about the convention Wednesday.
"Look, we've got a lot of work to do," said Associate Finance Minister Randy Boissonnault. "We have a lot of ambition. We have a lot of energy, and we want to keep building the country and that's what we're going to talk with liberals around the country about this weekend."
More than 4,000 Liberals are registered for the weekend, though the party hasn't clarified how many are attending in person or virtually.
They will hear from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in a keynote speech Thursday evening before Trudeau leaves for London to attend the coronation of King Charles.
Former U.S. secretary of state Hillary Clinton is the main draw for Friday, a woman MacEachern said can still draw big crowds.
Having lost to Donald Trump in the 2016 election, Clinton can also be a reminder to Liberals not to let their guard down as they begin planning for the next campaign against Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, he said.
"She's a reminder of how not to be blase about these things," said MacEachern.
A new party president will be elected Saturday.
But much of the three-day event will be set aside to debate None are binding on the party, but some could form part of the Liberal platform in the next election.
If the Quebec wing of the party has its way, that will include a promise to balance the budget. The resolution is one of 16 that are being "fast-tracked," which means they will go right to the convention floor for debate and vote, rather than having to go through additional discussions in break-out sessions.
The Liberal wings of each province, as well as the one that represents all three territories, all got to identify one policy resolution for fast-tracking. So did the caucus, and the party's commissions for women, Indigenous Peoples, seniors and youth.
Quebec's Liberals say that after years of high government spending to manage the pandemic, Canada's debt is too high, and they expect Canadians and Conservatives to "place significant importance" on managing debt in the next election.
Few members of Parliament or cabinet ministers would pick a lane on that proposal Wednesday, insisting it will be a healthy debate. But the push would be a 180-degree turn from the 2015 campaign, when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's unexpected promise to run deficits to allow for investments in economic growth and families helped get him elected.
Trudeau promised then to only run deficits for three years, but the Liberals have never balanced the budget. For the last few years, they could blame that fact on COVID-19. But their latest budget predicts deficits will continue for the next five years.
MacEachern said the Quebec budget resolution is something that can't be totally ignored, because the Liberal party is a centrist one that has fiscal conservatives in its ranks.
"Keep an eye on the blue Liberal wing of the party because, you know, there are people that are concerned about how much spending has been going on for the last couple of years," he said.
Ontario Liberal MP John McKay is among them, saying Wednesday that while he understood the need to spend during the pandemic, and now appreciates the recent budget move to shrink the deficit, he would "prefer" for it to happen faster.
"I do think that you need to pay for what you commit to," he said.
The party's grassroots are also pushing for another return to 2015, in a way, with the British Columbia wing fast-tracking a resolution to resume debate on reforming Canada's electoral system.
Trudeau famously promised that the 2015 election would be the last to use the first-past-the-post voting, but did not keep that promise after he said a consultation process could not find a consensus for a new system.
The B.C. Liberals are calling out that broken promise as they call for the party to back the creation of national citizen's assembly to debate and put forward a new proposal on electoral reform.
Other policy resolutions relate to defence spending, affordable housing and combating disinformation and misinformation in politics. The party will vote on the resolutions that make it to the final stage on Saturday.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 3, 2023.
-- With files from Mickey Djuric and David Fraser.
IN DEPTH
Jagmeet Singh pulls NDP out of deal with Trudeau Liberals, takes aim at Poilievre Conservatives
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh has pulled his party out of the supply-and-confidence agreement that had been helping keep Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's minority Liberals in power.
'Not the result we wanted': Trudeau responds after surprise Conservative byelection win in Liberal stronghold
Conservative candidate Don Stewart winning the closely-watched Toronto-St. Paul's federal byelection, and delivering a stunning upset to Justin Trudeau's candidate Leslie Church in the long-time Liberal riding, has sent political shockwaves through both parties.
'We will go with the majority': Liberals slammed by opposition over proposal to delay next election
The federal Liberal government learned Friday it might have to retreat on a proposal within its electoral reform legislation to delay the next vote by one week, after all opposition parties came out to say they can't support it.
Budget 2024 prioritizes housing while taxing highest earners, deficit projected at $39.8B
In an effort to level the playing field for young people, in the 2024 federal budget, the government is targeting Canada's highest earners with new taxes in order to help offset billions in new spending to enhance the country's housing supply and social supports.
'One of the greatest': Former prime minister Brian Mulroney commemorated at state funeral
Prominent Canadians, political leaders, and family members remembered former prime minister and Progressive Conservative titan Brian Mulroney as an ambitious and compassionate nation-builder at his state funeral on Saturday.
Opinion
opinion Don Martin: Gusher of Liberal spending won't put out the fire in this dumpster
A Hail Mary rehash of the greatest hits from the Trudeau government’s three-week travelling pony-show, the 2024 federal budget takes aim at reversing the party’s popularity plunge in the under-40 set, writes political columnist Don Martin. But will it work before the next election?
opinion Don Martin: The doctor Trudeau dumped has a prescription for better health care
Political columnist Don Martin sat down with former federal health minister Jane Philpott, who's on a crusade to help fix Canada's broken health care system, and who declined to take any shots at the prime minister who dumped her from caucus.
opinion Don Martin: Trudeau's seeking shelter from the housing storm he helped create
While Justin Trudeau's recent housing announcements are generally drawing praise from experts, political columnist Don Martin argues there shouldn’t be any standing ovations for a prime minister who helped caused the problem in the first place.
opinion Don Martin: Poilievre has the field to himself as he races across the country to big crowds
It came to pass on Thursday evening that the confidentially predictable failure of the Official Opposition non-confidence motion went down with 204 Liberal, BQ and NDP nays to 116 Conservative yeas. But forcing Canada into a federal election campaign was never the point.
opinion Don Martin: How a beer break may have doomed the carbon tax hike
When the Liberal government chopped a planned beer excise tax hike to two per cent from 4.5 per cent and froze future increases until after the next election, says political columnist Don Martin, it almost guaranteed a similar carbon tax move in the offing.
CTVNews.ca ÐÇ¿Õ´«Ã½
Police have arrested an 18-year-old woman who allegedly stole a Porsche and then ran over its owner in an incident that was captured on video.
Since she was a young girl growing up in Vancouver, Ginny Lam says her mom Yat Hei Law made it very clear she favoured her son William, because he was her male heir.
Advocates have identified the woman who died this week after being shot by police in Surrey, B.C., as a South American refugee who was raising a young daughter.
Three men were injured after trying to subdue a man armed with a knife during afternoon prayers at a Montreal-area mosque Friday afternoon.
Kamala Harris tells Oprah any intruder to her home is 'getting shot'
U.S. Vice-President Kamala Harris on Thursday issued a warning to any potential home intruder: 'If somebody breaks in my house, they're getting shot.'
A 15-year-old boy who was the subject of an emergency alert in New Brunswick has been arrested.
On the trail of the mystery woman whose company licensed exploding pagers
What Cristiana Barsony-Arcidiacono, 49, the Italian-Hungarian CEO and owner of Hungary-based BAC Consulting, says she hasn't done is make the exploding pagers that killed 12 people and wounded more than 2,000 in Lebanon this week.
The search for a missing six-year-old boy in Shamattawa is continuing Friday as RCMP hope recent tips can help lead to a happy conclusion.
Provincial police investigating the death of a cat that was allegedly set on fire in Orillia earlier this week released surveillance video of a person of interest in the case.
Local Spotlight
Getting a photograph of a rainbow? Common. Getting a photo of a lightning strike? Rare. Getting a photo of both at the same time? Extremely rare, but it happened to a Manitoba photographer this week.
An anonymous business owner paid off the mortgage for a New Brunswick not-for-profit.
They say a dog is a man’s best friend. In the case of Darren Cropper, from Bonfield, Ont., his three-year-old Siberian husky and golden retriever mix named Bear literally saved his life.
A growing group of brides and wedding photographers from across the province say they have been taken for tens of thousands of dollars by a Barrie, Ont. wedding photographer.
Paleontologists from the Royal B.C. Museum have uncovered "a trove of extraordinary fossils" high in the mountains of northern B.C., the museum announced Thursday.
The search for a missing ancient 28-year-old chocolate donkey ended with a tragic discovery Wednesday.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police is celebrating an important milestone in the organization's history: 50 years since the first women joined the force.
It's been a whirlwind of joyful events for a northern Ontario couple who just welcomed a baby into their family and won the $70 million Lotto Max jackpot last month.
A Good Samaritan in New Brunswick has replaced a man's stolen bottle cart so he can continue to collect cans and bottles in his Moncton neighbourhood.