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Published May 2, 2023 11:22 a.m. ET

Updated May 2, 2023 4:58 p.m. ET

OTTAWA -- The Conservative Party of Canada brought in more donations during the first three months of the year than any other federal party.

Financial statements from Elections Canada show the Conservatives raised more than $8.3 million during the first quarter of the year from nearly 46,000 donors.

The Tories routinely outperform their political rivals on fundraising, and this time they beat out the governing Liberals by nearly $5 million.

The Liberals brought in about $3.6 million from nearly 31,000 donors during the same period.

The New Democrats, who agreed to support the Liberals in the minority Parliament with a supply-and-confidence deal, raised almost $1.3 million from about 16,000 donors.

The Green party brought in nearly $401,000, the Bloc Quebecois brought in more than $322,000 and the People's Party of Canada raised over $296,000.

The Conservative party said in a statement that their fundraising bounty "speaks to the growing movement of Canadians who are putting their hard-earned dollars behind a leader who is listening to them and speaking to their concerns."

The Liberal party may have trailed the Conservatives by a wide margin but it can still point to positive news in having its best first-quarter showing in three years.

Liberal party spokesman Dmytro Basmat said it was a strong first quarter for the party which followed a byelection win in Mississauga in December.

Basmat said 97 per cent of donations were for less than $200, and half the donations were made $10 or less at a time

Basmat called that "a true testament to the party's strong grassroots support."

"While Pierre Poilievre and the Conservative Party believe that the best way to fundraise is by doubling down on negative and divisive politics, Justin Trudeau and our Liberal team are focused on moving forward with a positive plan to make life more affordable, create good middle class jobs, and deliver clean air and a strong economy -- and all of our grassroots fundraising approaches have reflected that focus," Basmat said in a statement.

However, the Tories can brag that they have widened the gap between their results and those of the Liberals since Pierre Poilievre took the helm.

While the Conservative party was consistently ahead of Liberals in the first three quarters of 2022, the biggest gap was $1.8 million in the first quarter. That lead widened to $4 million in the last three months of the year after Poilievre's election as leader in early September, and then $4.7 million in the first three months of 2023.

As the party grows its fundraising momentum, Poilievre said in a statement that his party will continue to fight for Canadians to have "a decent life."

He said the Liberal government's policies "have broken this country and have made Canadians broke."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 2, 2023.

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Conservatives out-fundraise Liberals by nearly $5 million in first ... - CTV News

Amidst the tidal wave of modern political hypocrisy, it can be hard to identify all the ridiculous acts deserving of scorn. Drinking from a fire hose of about-faces inevitably means Canadians will not savour every drop. The recent proposal from Swiss-headquartered Glencore to take over Vancouver-based Teck Resources is a case in point.

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Whenever we are confronted with such abrupt turnarounds in previous attitudes on a potentially emotional issue it is valuable to take a step back and ask ourselves the essential questions. In this case: one, based on past activity who should we ultimately trust more in their intentions? Glencore or the government? Two, do we still believe in the free market system? And finally, why isnt Teck the one acquiring companies all over the world?

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Who we should trust in their stated intentions is an easy one. Whether one agrees with Glencore as a company or not, their motivation is naked and simple: profit and shareholder value. One can filter any statements and actions through that framework and understand what their motive is likely to be. Glencore sees future value in Teck, notably its coal resources, and so it wants to make it part of its global empire. End of story.

The governments rhetoric is much less clear. Having spent the better part of their term bashing natural resources, particularly oil, the Liberals seem very belatedly coming to the realization that our energy does need to come from somewhere, and that somewhere will be electricity.

The issue is that electrification requires minerals and minerals mean you need miners; not exactly the constituency most environmentalists tend to love. Open pit mines arent pretty and even underground mines must disrupt some of the surrounding area to work. Thats the reality of an extraction industry. The other stark and for some uncomfortable reality is that there is no electrification without miners. Anyone believing otherwise is an enviro-irrealist.

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Teck Resources is a world leader in mining, specifically copper and zinc, as well as steelmaking coal, and so, perhaps, the government truly has come to suddenly value that home grown capability. However, losing a company headquartered in Canada also looks terrible politically. This is a muddy question, currently impossible to parse. Should we believe in a long-term commitment to mining from Justin Trudeaus Liberals? In theory Id love to, but anyone involved in the mining industry for any length of time has more than enough government-induced PTSD to take the seriousness of this commitment du jour with an extra helping of freshly mined salt.

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Canadas, and indeed the worlds, success is based on a free market system with minimal government intervention. So, much as I personally want Teck Resources to say put in Vancouver a city all too bereft of head offices compared to, say, Seattle I ultimately believe in a free market more. In that, Glencore is doing nothing improper or evil. They are using the free market to unlock value in a company they believe has more potential when integrated into their corporation than the two do separately. It remains to be seen if they are correct, but the basic mechanism is one to be supported and one which Pierre Poilievres Conservatives should support, not deride. There are emotional reasons to stop Teck leaving Vancouver and I share those emotions, but logic and a belief in the free market must ultimately win out.

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In a more certain regulatory environment with a supportive government it is not hard to imagine homegrown Canadian miners more willing to invest in Canada first, exporting their expertise and being the ones acquiring companies in other countries. We have the resources and ability to extract our minerals better than anyone, our government all too often simply doesnt want to.

Recent developments offer possible glimpses of light at the end of the mining tunnel. Initiatives such as the Canadian Critical Minerals Strategy and tax incentives for exploration are positive developments for Canadian miners. In that, we should acknowledge that farcically late though the government may be, its still better than never. The impact will nonetheless be slow. The current timelines of 10-15 years to take a mine to production will not change overnight and any visible impact could easily be more than a decade off; do we, as a country, have the will to see through our new vision so that in 2035, Canadian companies are the acquirers, not the acquired?

National Post

Adam Pankratz is a lecturer at the University of British Columbias Sauder School of Business.

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Adam Pankratz: Wait, so now the Trudeau Liberals care about mining companies? - National Post

Russias current invasion in Ukraine happened because the world didnt do enough to respond when they did it before, former U.S. secretary of state Hillary Clinton said Friday in Ottawa.

And failing to stop Russia now would also be disastrous in terms of unleashing Chinese aggression, she said.

It is in our interest to stop them, Clinton said, as a keynote speaker at the Liberal policy convention in Ottawa.

Clinton was sharing a stage with Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland for a wide-ranging discussion that heavily focused on the threats to democracy and human rights in both Canada and the United States.

Clinton said when Russian President Vladimir Putin invaded Georgia in 2008, we all sat him down, we gave speeches about it.

We, you know, expressed our absolute opposition, but nobody really did much. Think of the lesson Putin took from that.

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Then he invaded Ukraine the first time in 2014, and again it was Oh my gosh, we wish he wouldnt do, its really fortunate, but weve got other things weve got to focus on, other places that we have to pay attention to.

And the message Putin took from that was that he can get away with invading other countries and interfere with elections and buy his way to influence all in his great quest to restore Russian greatness.

The only solution, she said, is Ukraine has to win and that means like-minded nations must send everything they can to Ukraine to help them do that.

Freeland agreed and said its not just about Russia.

The single strongest message of deterrence we can send to China is a decisive Ukrainian victory that says to all the worlds dictators, You know what, democracy is prepared to fight back and democracy can actually win.

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1:16Putin on wrong side of history, Freeland warns China amid Xis meeting in Moscow

Clinton also brought with her warnings that Canada will not be immune to the attempts to turn back the clock on human rights, and in particular, reproductive rights, that are happening in the United States.

Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the Roe v Wade abortion rights ruling that allowed for legal abortions.

Make no mistake about it, in our country there is a very significant historical struggle going on, about whether we move forward or the clock is turned back, said Clinton.

And she said some of that debate is being fuelled by misinformation and disinformation campaigns, including by politicians who have started to see democracy as a nuisance to getting what they want.

And I would predict that youre going to have some of that, you know, in the next election whenever it is for you because there are forces in your own country that are trying to figure out whether they can tinker with the clock and maybe turn it back a little, said Clinton.

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Clinton was enthusiastically received by the crowd of about 3,500 people in town for the Liberal convention. Another 500 or so were expected online.

It is the first in-person policy convention for the Liberals since 2018 and likely the last before the next election. Many Liberals wanted the convention to help the party regroup and recharge after an exhausting and difficult few years.

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They got some of that Friday from former prime minister Jean Chretien, who before Clinton took the stage, led the Liberals on a walk down memory lane of the legacies Liberal governments have left.

He listed medicare, official language rights and gun control laws among them, but got the largest and loudest ovation for the legalization of same-sex marriage.

Liberals, said Chretien, must never lose their social conscience.

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When you stick to your values, you cannot go wrong, he said. That has been my experience all my life.

The Liberals inclusion of Clinton on the program came in part as a way to draw more people to the convention, and give them a sense they got their moneys worth.

4:57Survey suggests Liberals and Conservatives tied in popularity

But the day before Clintons speech, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau borrowed from some of Clintons messaging as a presidential candidate in 2016, attempting to draw a sharp contrast between what he said was a positive, progressive Liberal vision for Canadas future and the darker, more divisive one offered by his main political rival, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre.

That narrative echoes the Democrats approach to challenging former president Donald Trump, who beat Clinton in the 2016 election and is now running for the Republican ticket again.

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Liberal MP Rachel Bendayan, who introduced Clinton and Freeland, said Clintons appearance came because Freeland called to invite her personally. Freeland and Clinton have been close since they met when Clinton was secretary of state.

She has inspired a lot of women to get involved in politics to really have their voices heard and that will speak to a lot of women at the convention, said Bendayan in an interview.

Trudeau was absent from the evening Friday, boarding a plane to fly to London for the coronation of King Charles on Saturday.

© 2023 The Canadian Press

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Hillary Clinton brings warnings on Russia, human rights to Liberal convention - Global News

The most rapid growth in public-sector employment was at the federal level. Government of Canada data indicate the federal public service now employs more than 336,000 people. As Jack Mintz, Presidents Fellow at the University of Calgarys School of Public Policy and former president of the C.D. Howe Institute, wrote in theFinancial Post in January, annual compensation of federal employees has risen from $38 billion to $58 billion since the Justin Trudeau government gained office in 2015 a 52 percent increase that far exceeds the growth in the number of federal employees. And still these workers and their unions want even more.

A study by the Fraser Institute using data for the pandemic year 2021 found that government-sector workers enjoyed a 5.5 percent wage premium over private-sector workers even after controlling for differences in age, gender, education, work type/experience, unionization and other labour market factors. Just two years later, the studys most recent edition finds, the disparity had jumped to 8.5 percent. That was before this weeks deals.

Mintzs own calculations based on Statistics Canada data suggest that the average full-time federal employee makes $75 per hour nearly $150,000 per year in wages and benefits. That is unbelievable, Mintz said in a recent interview with C2C. By contrast, he notes, Oil and gas workers and mining workers, manufacturing workers, make an average $40 per hour.

The public/private disparity in job-related benefits is much larger than the mere wage difference. More than 86 percent of government workers are covered by a registered pension plan compared with just 23 percent of private-sector workers. Government workers are much less likely to lose their jobs. They have longer paid vacations and take an average of five more days off per year for personal reasons than private-sector workers. Moreover, they typically retire more than two years earlier, most likely thanks to their generous pensions.

PSAC was determined to increase that public/private compensation disparity by wresting wage increases of 4.5 percent in each of the next three years. Even that wasnt enough for the CRA workers, who demanded 20.5 percent more over three years plus a one-time adjustment of another 8 percent, for a total of over 30 percent. Presumably this enormous increase, aptly described as unprecedented and crazy, was intended to compensate them for taxing their brains pushing the keys on an almost fully automated tax return system.

No wonder Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre observed during a recent Question Period that, Its one thing to increase the size and cost of the public serviceand another thing to be faced with a massive strike by public servantsbut it is an especially incredible achievement of incompetence to do both of those at the same time.

PSACs excessive demands would normally be tempered by the possibility of back-to-work legislation most recently used in 2021 but the NDPs support of PSACs goals reduced the chances of that to virtually nil. Passing back-to-work legislation with the support of Poilievres Conservatives, though technically feasible, was unthinkable for it would have ended the Liberals de facto coalition deal with the NDP. That put the Trudeau government between the proverbial rock and a hard place: either leave government services that people count on shut down or agree to a settlement that adds many more billions to already perilously high deficit spending.

In the end, the unions demands were met for the 120,000 Treasury Board workers, but dressed up in slightly different clothes. Rather than receiving the demanded 13.5 percent increase over three years, PSAC settled for a nominal 11.5 percent over four years, but retroactive to 2021 and with a 0.5 percent special adjustment added for 2023. The unions website shows a total wage increase of 12.6 percent compounded, with 10.1 percent coming immediately. This is not only higher than what the federal government originally offered but higher than the Public Interest Commission recommended.

Thats not all. According to the unions triumphant press release issued on Monday, PSAC members will also receive a pensionable $2,500 one-time lump sum payment that represents an additional 3.7 percent of salary for the average PSAC member. Moreover, the union also gained new protection against contracting-out with a provision designed to protect public service jobs and reduce contracting out in the federal public service. Federal workers will also be paid to attend training in diversity, equity and inclusion, i.e., radical left-wing ideology. And Indigenous federal employees will get paid time off to go hunting. Its true PSAC is bragging about all of it. On Thursday, the CRA workers tentatively settled for the same deal, considerably less than their original demand, but still a large increase.

Its hard to comprehend how the settlement could have been worse, both for taxpayers and in how it increases the already-dangerous disparity between public and private-sector workers. As government workers try to justify their excessive wage demands, the rest struggle with the rising cost of groceries and other necessities. These are the same private-sector workers whose taxes pay the cost of the public service. But it has become quite clear that PSAC workers and union bosses just dont care. This is a shamefully selfish attitude that tears at the fabric of our nation.

Continued here:
Incredible Achievement of Incompetence: How the Liberals ... - C2C Journal

Norton Lovolds recent letter to the editor should be eye-opening to those of you that agree with him. He shows how brainwashed he, himself, is by the extremist leftwing news media which includes CBS, NBC, CNN, NPR government broadcasting. And others

He believes FOX is a brainwashing arm of the right. Does any of the leftist media amount to brainwashing or propaganda? Where is the truth to be found?

In my experience (at least as experienced as Lovold due to his timeframe references), I have found that most fear and distrust is based on the left. Climate change crisis has been so for over 50 years of my life, and Earth-ending dates by these leftist extremists keep moving outward as to where we will all be dead long before the Earth has been destroyed by us. But we have to follow them today or perish. There's no real science involved, only predictions based on non-science proven conditions. How else do these predictions never, ever come close to reality?

Government education should not be based on right or left propaganda but on real things, like being able to read, write and know some mathematics. Real history the good, the bad and the ugly - should be taught, not propaganda written by people who have a grudge to grind or a narrative to perpetuate.

Slavery has been a worldwide condition primarily driven by totalitarian governments Socialist, Communist, Islamist.

Steve Johnson is a resident of Fargo.

This letter does not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Forum's editorial board nor Forum ownership.

Link:
Letter: It's the liberals who've been brainwashed - INFORUM