The Foreign Interference Federal Election - Week Four
Special Edition: A view from out west, where we like our Charter rights and freedoms
My Scottish/Irish ancestors arrived on the east coast of what was then known as “Lower Canada” in the early 1800’s and were part of several waves of genocidal colonization of the Indigenous people who were already here for thousands of years. My ancestors arrived on the traditional unceded territory of the Wəlastəkewiyik (Maliseet) whose ancestors along with the Mi’Kmaq / Mi’kmaw and Passamaquoddy / Peskotomuhkati Tribes / Nations had signed Peace and Friendship Treaties with the British Crown in the 1700s. I like to start every new post by explaining my family’s history as I continue to research and understand it. I keep this foremost in my mind (and my writing) at all times. I know I have benefited as a result of colonization, and I find the history deeply troubling. It is what motivates me to seek out the truth and advocate for real reconciliation. As a child in the 1970’s, my family decided to migrate west, and I am grateful to be writing this newsletter now in Moh’kinsstis, the traditional Treaty 7 territory of the Blackfoot confederacy: Siksika, Kainai, Piikani, as well as the Îyâxe Nakoda and Tsuut’ina Nations. This territory is also home to the Métis Nation of Alberta, Region 3 within the historical Northwest Métis homeland. I recognize that the land I now work and live on was stolen from these Nations (truth) and I support giving the land back as an act of reconciliation. Lands inhabited by Indigenous Peoples contain 80% of the world’s remaining biodiversity. Indigenous Peoples’ traditional knowledge and knowledge systems are key to designing a sustainable future for all.
Saturday, April 12 - Can’t look away
Let’s start with Andrew Scheer, shall we? The former leader of the Conservative Party of Canada decided to appear in a campaign video. The formidable independent journalist Rachel Gilmore shared it on Bluesky and her post was the chef’s kiss:
There is just so much wrong with the video that I don’t know where to start. He’s supposed to be a guy at a bar drinking a beer and talking to a woman (I think) about why she needs to break up with an abusive boyfriend, but I’m not actually sure. It goes to a really dark place with drugs and well, it wasn’t funny. The metaphor is supposed to apply to the Liberals but Scheer is just so revolting with his giant smirk that I think the message got lost.
For a party that is doing poorly with women voters, Scheer having a patronizing conversation with a theoretical woman while throwing back pints seems like a bad idea. What woman hasn’t sat across from this dweeb, and found themselves calling for the bill and bolting from the bar as fast as possible?
Needless to say, the video was almost immediately screen-captured (is that a verb?) and turned into a meme and I’m thinking of starting a petition calling for Conservatives to receive mandatory training before attempting humour. It is painful to watch.
The Conservative Party outlined its plan for veterans, which included a promise to prioritize veterans for jobs in the public service, give preference to veteran-owned businesses in federal contracts, double the hiring target at Veterans Affairs, and fast-track the renewal of security clearances for those who already have them and need them for a new job.
Ahem, Pierre Poilievre fast-tracking security clearances is ironic.
Poilievre also promised to remove red tape and speed up a list of processes to deal with backlogs for veterans waiting for approval of disability applications, saying they would be automatically approved if not processed within four months. This is the latest Conservative fix for everything. Rather than try to get to the bottom of the problem, they set a timer on it, and just hope for the best. I mean, if the application is so unimportant that it can just be tossed out after four months, why have it at all?
Setting a timer is the kind of thing we do with my preschool grandson when we want to help him transition from one thing to the next without as much resistance. It gives him a feeling of control but makes no promise beyond that. It doesn’t feel like a great strategy for taxpayer funded programs. Figure out what’s causing the delays and deal with it maybe?
Talk about uniting the generations - 83-year-old Bernie Sanders took to the stage at Coachella (of all places) to introduce Clairo, the 27-year-old who started out posting her songs on YouTube and went viral at the age of 13.
Sanders had a message for Trump (and so did the crowd) and appealed to the younger generation to get involved.
Sunday, April 13 - Burgers and bullies
Breaking news from Burger Heaven in New Westminster: An update was posted on its “Bunofficial” election poll, a longstanding tradition in the British Columbia city. Diners selected their top choice for federal leader by purchasing a burger and it looked like most were choosing to chow down on Carney.
“The Mark Carney burger — which is ‘seasoned’ and ‘Lean-to-the-Middle’ with a ‘liberal’ slab of bacon — is the most popular, with 41% of the vote. The Pierre Poilievre burger — ‘Lean-to-the-Right’ with a ‘conservative’ slice of Alberta aged cheese — is in second place at 18%.”
With Carney and the Liberals leading in the burger poll and other less tasty polls, Poilievre came out swinging on Sunday with a list of changes to the Accountability Act that will likely never see the light of day even if the Conservatives win. The entire “plan” was a not-so-subtle attempt at highlight a number of Carney’s past jobs and activities. It appeared to be thrown together by the campaign team with sloganeering in mind.
They’ve taken to capitalizing slogans as if they are proper nouns (Lost Liberal Decade), which grates on my editing brain like chalk on a blackboard. They also label bad things as belonging to the Liberal leader (“the Carney loophole”), which is also super annoying and childish.
The Toronto Star reported, “Poilievre made the announcement at a downtown Ottawa hotel Sunday morning, taking his standard four questions from selected reporters, while accusing Carney of hiding from Canadians.”
Meanwhile, China was officially and unofficially taunting the US on various platforms. When asked by British Channel 4News about Trump’s recent remarks about his country, Victor Gao, Vice President of the Center for China and Globalization said China “doesn’t care.”
“China has been here for 5,000 years, most of the time there was no United States and we survived. And if the United States wants to bully China, we will deal with the situation. We expect to be here for another 5,000 years.”
Victor Gao
Monday, April 14 - Things are golden
Trump started his work week by hosting El Salvador’s “coolest dictator” (according to him) Nayib Bukele, for a cozy, fireside media scrum in the Oval Office.
The bromance between Trump and Bukele was a bit uncomfortable to watch, as the two chatted dictator to dictator about the human trafficking scheme they initiated (which the Supreme Court has now ordered to be stopped) whereby people with suspicious tattoos were exchanged, without due process, for $6 million in cash, probably to help Bukele pay for his sprawling torture facility.
“Some people say we imprisoned thousands, but I like to say we liberated millions,” said Bukele, to which the US president said, “who gave him that line, do you think I could use that?’
Things got more macabre when Trump, perched on a golden upholstered throne/chair, with elaborate gold frames and vases lined up behind him, expressed his desire to send many more people (millions, if he has his way) to the torture facility, including “homegrowns.”
While the Trump administration was fantasizing about deporting US citizens illegally to El Salvador, Poilievre and the Conservatives released their plan to reintroduce a piece of legislation that has already been struck down by the Supreme Court.
Poilievre said they will ignore the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and use the Notwithstanding Clause to bring in the harshest sentences for mass murderers.
Let that sink in - in what could be described as Canada’s “due process” equivalent moment, a federal political party is promising to suspend rights and freedoms in order to overrule the courts. Truly terrifying.
By contrast, Carney and the Liberals announced further plans to secure Canada’s sovereignty in the face of the menacing statements coming from south of the border.
The Liberal campaign was also trying to get the word out about disinformation being circulated about Carney’s 2021 book in which he laid out his economic vision at the time.
According to a fact checking website, Tamara Lich, recently convicted for her role in the convoy occupation, circulated images claiming Carney had said Western society was "morally rotten" and "corrupted by capitalism." It turns out most of the language had been pulled from a review of the publication, not the actual book.
It should be noted that it has been reported in previous weeks that Andrew Lawton, Poilievre’s official biographer and a Conservative candidate in this election, was part of a small Signal chat group of convoy organizers during the Ottawa occupation.
Tuesday, April 15 - Defund or defend
With Poilievre running on a promise of defunding the CBC, it was jarring this week to read the White House statement listing its reasons for defunding NPR/PBS. Here are just a few of the complaints (quotation marks are from the original statement):
ran a Valentine’s Day feature around “queer animals,” in which it suggested the make-believe clownfish in Finding Nemo would’ve been better off as a female, that “banana slugs are hermaphrodites,” and that “some deer are nonbinary”
produced a documentary making the case for reparations
covered up Joe Biden’s clear mental decline, with far-left “journalist” Jeff Goldberg claiming Biden is actually “quite acute”
Sesame Street partnered with CNN for a town hall aimed presenting children with a one-sided narrative to “address racism” amid the Black Lives Matter riots
aired a panel devoted to what it “mean[s] to be woke” and “white privilege.”
produced an entire movie celebrating a transgender teenager’s so-called “changing gender identity.”
refused to cover the explosive Hunter Biden laptop scandal in the runup to the election
CEO Katherine Maher once called President Trump “racist,” shared a photo of herself wearing a “Biden for President” campaign hat
If you can stomach it, you may want to read the full list, but strap in because it's a wild ride. I can’t wait to read Poilievre’s reasons for defunding the CBC. He’s already refusing to allow any questions from any CBC reporters trying to cover the campaign.
Check out Forward Canada, a non-profit group that has launched a campaign focused on protecting the CBC. As I’m writing this post, 88,198 CBC supporters have signed up.
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Federal Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne announced Tuesday that automobile companies that continue to manufacture vehicles here will get an exemption from Ottawa’s retaliatory tariffs. The manufacturers in compliance with the Canada-US-Mexico Agreement on trade will be allowed to import a certain number of US-assembled vehicles.
Carney and the Liberal campaign promised to provide up to $15,000 for workers in priority sectors to help access and afford new skills training in the middle of their careers. This is in addition to a previous commitment to cover apprenticeship training costs of up to $8,000 for skilled trade workers.
The Conservatives under Poilievre were focused on affordability, pointing out the latest Consumer Price Index numbers showing rising food prices. They mentioned egg prices, which seemed to echo complaints in the US.
“Of course, the Liberals don’t want to talk about this. They are desperate to keep the conversation off of Canadians’ household finances, where they would have to reckon with their disastrous record of making Canadians poorer and food more expensive for ten (sic) years.”
Conservative Party news release
Poilievre also blamed the Liberals for new data showing housing starts were down nine points across the country.
They promised new rules for banks and telecom companies requiring them to deploy cutting-edge technology to protect Canadians, particularly seniors, from scams. Poilievre said he would increase fines and prison sentences for the “callous criminals who defraud vulnerable Canadians.”
Wednesday, April 16 - Rocking the polls
On the day of the first leaders debate - the French version - David Coletto of Abacus Data wrote about Carney’s appeal and marvelled at how resilient his personal popularity has been.
“In an age of heightened polarization, growing regional divides, and global uncertainty—especially with U.S. President Donald Trump’s recent tariff announcements and even outlandish talk of annexing Canada as the 51st state—Carney’s ability to maintain and even grow his personal popularity may well be the central story of this campaign.”
Coletto said Carney’s overall impressions “are the best we’ve measured for a party leader since Jack Layton in 2011.”
And with that, Canadian music legend Neil Young entered the chat, posting a letter to Carney on his website.
“Mr. Carney, I believe you are the person to do it. I believe you are the person our country needs to lead us through this crazy situation and bring us out the other side as a stronger, smarter, more resilient Canada, our core values of caring and fairness and generosity intact, along with our souls. They want our resources, they want our land, they want our fisheries, they want our water, they want our Arctic, maybe they want our souls. I know the U.S. president could use a soul.”
Neil Young
That must’ve been a confidence boost for the Liberal leader as he went into the French debate that evening, with probably the weakest command of the language of all the leaders. Carney was born in Fort Smith, Northwest Territories, and raised in Edmonton, Alberta.
The CBC had a good summary of the French debate, which ended with an interesting conversation about buying Canadian products that seemed to surprise some of the leaders. I enjoyed watching them answer as it was unrehearsed and they seemed more relatable. My takeaway - Yves-François Blanchet likes his dessert, Jagmeet Singh doesn’t do much grocery shopping, Carney enjoys the finer things, and Poilievre has some explaining to do with Alberta beef ranchers.
Meanwhile, things weren’t going well in upstate New York where The Syracuse Post Standard reported a local farmer's recent order of livestock feed from Ontario cost him $2,200 extra due to tariffs.
“I’m not even sure it’s legal! We contracted for the price on delivery,” said Nicholas Gilbert, who has 1,400 cows at his dairy farm in Potsdam, close to the Canadian border. He mistakenly believed his Canadian supplier would cover the difference created by Trump’s tariffs.
Also, news broke that the Canadian Association of University Teachers issued a travel advisory to its members that “strongly recommends” Canadian academic staff travel to the United States only if necessary. The association represents 72,000 teachers, researchers, librarians and general staff at Canada’s public universities and colleges.
“In both preclearance zones and border crossings, a U.S. or Canadian border officer can require access to electronic devices such as laptops, notepads and cellphones, thereby seriously compromising the protection of research confidentiality and academic freedom.”
Canadian Association of University Teachers
In its supplementary information package, the association said that the search powers may not be new, “reports continue to suggest that those search powers are being more frequently and arbitrarily exercised.”
Thursday, April 17 - Something fishy
After his love-in with Bukele, Trump was back at his desk signing a new executive order on “Restoring American Seafood Competitiveness.” Apparently America has the “greatest seafood in the world” and so Trump feels he needs to destroy that too?
The White House will kick off a process of “suspending, revising, or rescinding regulations that overly burden America’s commercial fishing, aquaculture, and fish processing industries,” and delivering an “America First Seafood Strategy.”
“Nearly 90% of seafood on our shelves is now imported, and the seafood trade deficit stands at over $20 billion. The erosion of American seafood competitiveness at the hands of unfair foreign trade practices must end.”
Donald Trump
Coincidentally, the Conservative party also released a plan to protect Canada’s fisheries the day before. Rick Perkins, Conservative Candidate for South Shore—St. Margarets, and Chris D’Entremont, Conservative Candidate for Acadie-Annapolis announced the “Canada First Fisheries Plan.”
While the US was looking at reducing regulation, the Canadian Conservative party called out a number of problems with the current fisheries regulations, saying “out-of-season and undocumented harvesting continues to rise due to the Liberals’ refusal to enforce the rules.”
The plan called out a “Liberal Lost Decade” of fish chaos and said the Liberal government was stealing the livelihoods of those in the fishing industry.
“They’ve ignored science, weakened enforcement, and stolen quota from law-abiding Canadians,” said Perkins. “Now they want a fourth term to do more damage. Enough is enough.”
The Conservatives also doubled down on “Liberal crime and chaos” with two more news releases reiterating their already promised measures related to public safety.
You may enjoy this astute video about Poilievre created by Dogwood. Highly recommend, in fact.
A Nanos poll found that most Canadians feel as safe or safer than 10 years ago. The only group in which a majority of respondents reported feeling at least somewhat less safe was Conservatives.
Among supporters of Pierre Poilievre’s party, 59% either said they feel “less safe” (48%) or “somewhat less safe” (11%) in their own neighbourhoods. That’s compared to 26.5% of Liberal voters, 23.6 per cent of NDP voters, and 18% of Bloc Québécois voters.
The second leaders debate was held Thursday evening and things got a little shouty in the press area with several journalists challenging a large contingent of right wing content creators who were inexplicably granted media passes.
The night before at the French debate, five different right wing influencers were able to ask questions of the leaders after the debate (under threat of a lawsuit from Rebel News founder Ezra Levant) while most other news outlets were only allowed one reporter at the microphone.
Tensions were so high in the media room that the debate commission decided to cancel the question and answer session with the leaders following the debate. The CBC reported their live newscast was disrupted by these folks and security had to be called.
The debate commissioner revealed during an on-air interview with the CBC that he wasn’t aware that Rebel News was registered as a third party advertiser in the federal election, which should definitely cancel any claim they’re a legitimate media outlet.
The White House continued to defy a court order by blocking Associated Press access and announced they had expanded their ban to include two more wire services - Reuters and Bloomberg. Wire services are important as they feed stories to hundreds of other smaller media outlets who cannot cover the White House themselves. Markets also rely on the wire services.
The press secretary has also been given more power to determine which reporters are able to ask questions. Karoline Leavitt reportedly says a quick prayer before each press availability. Presumably, she's asking for forgiveness preemptively, since each time she enters the room, she lies.
The leaders debate on Thursday evening has so far not made a big impact on any leader’s favourability ratings.
Poilievre did better than he has up to this point, but he still came across as though he was reading a memorized script. Whenever he had to come up with an answer that he hadn't prepared for, he stumbled. Given how many years he's been doing this he should've been the most comfortable on that stage.
This wasn't Singh's best performance. He seemed too desperate and Blanchet stood up well for the climate. Singh had important points, and I appreciated the fact that he brought them to the table. But now that he's been at this for 7-8 years, the constant interruptions made him seem less serious.
Carney handled the pressure well. He was attacked from all sides but remained composed. There were a couple of times where he looked like he was teetering on saying something he might regret, but he pulled himself back from the brink. He also had a couple of new, good zingers already making the rounds FTW.
Friday, April 18 - Projection
With rumours circulating of another planeload of immigrants being readied for deportation to who knows where (likely El Salvador) the American Civil Liberties Union made a direct appeal to the Supreme Court to stop the flight.
SCOTUS issued a late order on Thursday evening blocking Trump’s planned deportations. Trump’s top advisor, Stephen Miller had claimed the Supreme Court gave them absolute authority to continue, but that is not the case.
Also, Senator Chris Van Hollen, the Democratic representative for Maryland, had flown to El Salvador the previous day vowing to meet with Kilmar Aprego Garcia. He then posted photos of his meeting with the man who the Department of Justice admitted had been deported there by accident. Apparently, the lawyer who made the admission has since been fired.
Meanwhile, environmental advocacy groups in the US were preparing for the worst next week.
Bill McKibben, author and environmental activist who helped to found 350.org wrote: “Nothing specific yet, but E&E News was reporting on widespread rumors that the administration planned (on Earth Day no less!) to cancel the tax-exempt status of many green groups.”
In Canada, the David Suzuki Foundation had asked the five main federal parties to respond “yes,” “no” or “partial” to five questions.
The Conservative Party did not respond to any of the five questions. The Liberals did not give any “yes” or “no” or “partial” answers, but did provide responses. Here’s the TL:DR summary below:
On meeting targets for reducing carbon pollution, the Liberal response was they would “work to achieve” the targets in the Paris Agreement. The NDP gave a strong thumbs up to the Paris Agreement and Canadian Net-Zero Emissions Accountability Act and also would meet the objectives of the Sustainable Jobs Act. The Greens voted against the Accountability Act, calling it fraudulent because it replaced the Paris goals with “a bogus goal of net zero by 2050.”
On meeting international biodiversity targets to reverse biodiversity loss, the Liberals quoted their biodiversity campaign promises announced April 7. The NDP would meet the international targets by setting up an expert advisory panel with measurable targets backed by funding. The Green Party would establish and expand Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas (IPCAs), immediately halt logging of endangered old-growth forests, bring in stronger environmental regulations, and expand funding for protected parks, marine areas and wildlife reserves.
When asked about subsidies for oil and gas, and other environmentally damaging land-use practices, the Liberals claimed to have phased out “inefficient fossil fuels by 2023,” which makes no sense. They must’ve meant fossil fuel subsidies. They also say they will ensure big polluters pay by strengthening industrial carbon pricing. The NDP would remove subsidies and the Greens would “immediately” do so.
As for working in partnership with Indigenous Peoples and increasing funding for the Land Guardians programs, the Liberals would establish a new Arctic Indigenous Guardians program, and enshrine First Nations’ right to water into law. The NDP answered yes, and the Greens would “prioritize genuine Indigenous decision-making authority” and also transition fisheries management in key regions fully to Indigenous-led governance, legally recognizing Indigenous laws and management plans.
When asked whether they would establish a permanent, high-level Office of Environmental Justice to implement Canada’s first national strategy on environmental racism and environmental justice, the Liberals say they would bring forward a national strategy within two years. The NDP agreed to both, and the Green Party also gave strong support.
Saturday, April 19 - Due process
There was another day of protests in the US on Saturday. I didn’t follow as closely this time but there was a noticeable shift in the protest messaging from what I could tell. There were signs about Musk and Trump similar to the April 5 protest, but also more about "due process," in defence of immigrants, and more climate protesters. I am planning to write more about this protest movement after the federal election.
I’ve included some of the live video I tuned into below:
Status Coup News reports from New York City
ABC 7 News reports from Washington, DC
CNN News18 reports from New York City
The New York Post reports from Washington, DC
Fox 26 reports from Houston, Texas
There was also a noisy protest outside Vice President JD Vance’s home, although he and his family were busy visiting the Pope in Rome.
Hours after that meeting, Pope Francis died. May he rest in peace and at least he doesn’t ever have to meet with Vance again.
This is my last weekly election update post but I am planning to do a deeper dive into some specific election stories next weekend. All of the main parties have now released the estimated cost of their platforms…except the Conservatives. I’ll wait until all are released before writing more about that, but TikTok had some ideas based on Poilievre’s promises so far.
A new record was set in the Canadian federal election as two million people voted on the opening day of advance polls.
Best reads:
Palestinian Journalist and Protagonist in Cannes-Bound Documentary Killed in Gaza
Trump Has Found His Class Enemy - The Atlantic (gift link)
When this is over, U.S. rights abusers must be tried for crimes against humanity
‘One million.’ The private goal driving Trump’s push for mass deportations. - The Washington Post (gift link)
Mahmoud Khalil and the Necropolitics of Trump’s Deportation Regime
Trump told us the horrifying reason why Kilmar Abrego Garcia is not back in the U.S.
Whistleblower Who Exposed DOGE Raid of NLRB Data Finds Threats Taped to His Door | Truthout
Trump effect leaves Canada’s Conservatives facing catastrophic loss
Best listens:
Will Pierre Poilievre's Policy Proposals Actually Help Young Men?
The Conservative Activist Pushing Trump to Attack U.S. Colleges - The New York Times (Canada’s conservatives had Rufo speak at their conference in Red Deer, Alberta)
Gina | The Guardian (Meet the billionaire who wants to open a new mine in the Eastern Slopes of the Rocky Mountains in Alberta)
Jawknee 2.0 explains the costs of the Conservative plan on TikTok
Additional Sources:
https://www.npr.org/2025/03/17/g-s1-54206/el-salvador-mega-prison-cecot
https://edmontonjournal.com/entertainment/music/neil-young-slams-trump-in-mark-carney-endorsement
https://www.conservative.ca/stop-the-liberal-crime-wave/
https://www.conservative.ca/conservatives-will-keep-our-streets-safe-for-a-change/
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/rebel-news-rightwing-media-press-conferences-debates-1.7512714
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/04/19/mark-carney-unveils-plan-to-trump-proof-canada-00299654
