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To understand the Liberals' new anti-terrorism measures introduced Tuesday, go back two years to when the party supported the then Conservative government's hard-line anti-terrorism bill with a promise to amend the most controversial measures just as soon as they got the chance.

The Conservatives were proposing to give this country's national security agencies dramatic new powers after two members of the Canadian Forces were killed by self-radicalized jihadists, powers that critics argued were too broadin the name of stopping real or perceived terrorist threats, with too little oversight of how those powers were used.

The issues for Liberals then are the same as they are today, to strike a balance between public safety and Canadians' rights to privacy.

It also doesn't hurt that the Liberalproposal, known as Bill C-59, once again puts the party firmly between the security-at-any-cost Conservatives and the oppose-at-all-costs New Democrats when it comes to anti-terrorism legislation and the power to be handed to agencies such as Canada's spy agency, CSIS.

"Canadians have made it very clear that they don't trust the NDP with their safety and they don't trust the Conservatives with their rights," Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale said in the Commons.

In fairness, the Liberals didn't appear to trust their own instincts when they promised in the last federal election campaign to get rid of the "problematic elements" in the Conservative's legislation.

The government embarked on months of public consultations, holding five town halls across Canada, soliciting nearly 59,000 public responses online, and meeting with security and privacy experts before tabling their bill.

What they gleaned from all of that is that a delicate balance exists between the need to confront terrorism at home and abroad and the need to avoid violating constitutional rights.

"Canadians expect their governments to do two things: protect our communities and uphold our rights and freedoms," Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said. "Getting that balance right has always been the focus of the Liberal Party."

It's no surprise then that the signature piece of the Liberals' plan is a new national security and intelligence review agency with the power to look into the actions of not just the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, but other government agencies such as the CanadaBorder Services Agency, and the Communications Security Establishment, which monitors foreign internet traffic.

The proposed law also creates an intelligence commissioner who must give prior authorization for some intelligence and cybersecurity actions. These new authorities will complement the parliamentary oversight committee created under separate legislation that passed in the Senate on Tuesday.

And the Liberals made good on their election promises to tighten the definitions in the Criminal Code of what constitutes terrorist propaganda and limitthe use of peace bonds to cases where it's "necessary" to prevent a terrorist attack rather than "likely" to prevent it.

University of Ottawa law professor Craig Forcese was among the most persistent critics of Bill C-51, the anti-terrorism measures introduced by the Conservatives. He calls the amendments put forward Tuesday by the Liberals "a repair job" that addresses concerns that security agencies would have too much power and too few constraints.

"I see this bill as both enhancing the accountability framework, but also to the extent that it refines the powers that were at issue in Bill C-51, putting them on a sounder constitutional footing this puts us in a better position to make use of our services in a manner that enhances national security."

The Conservatives are not impressed.

Former Conservative cabinet minister Erin O'Toole says the proposal put forward by the Liberals makes them seem oblivious to what's going on in Europe. (Chris Wattie /Reuters)

Former cabinet minister Erin O'Toole says the Liberals seem oblivious to what's going on in Europe, where trucks have been driven into pedestrians on bridges in London and where a suspected terrorist was shot just yesterday in Belgium, as well as what is happening here at home.

"Today's legislation makes it clear the Liberals don't take public safety seriously," he said. "In the days following horrific attacks in Europe, and one day after a court in Montreal convicted a Canadian of attempting to leave and train with ISIS, they are watering down Canadian security measurers."

But the Liberals' bill contains more than just additional monitoring of security operations. It comes with more powers to be overseen.

The CSE will be permitted to use more advanced methods of gathering intelligence from foreign targets, and will have new power to act proactively to stop cyberattacks.

Information sharing among government departments will continue, although with stricter guidelines than before.

New Democrat MP Matthew Dub says there's not much difference between the Conservatives' anti-terror law and the Liberals'.

"We still have in place an information-sharing regime that was one of the key problems with [the Conservative]bill," he said. "The fact remains there is still too broad a definition as to what constitutes national security."

The Liberals will take the criticism from their opponents one saying they've gone too far and will hamper national security, the other saying they haven't gone far enough to protect Canadians' rights.

It's all of question of balance. After many months of public consultations, the Liberals clearly think they've positioned themselves exactly where they need to be.

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National security vs. individual freedoms: How the Liberals aim to strike a balance - CBC.ca

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Liberals use half-truths to incite violence Fresno Bee The majority of the cause for the recent shooting at the congressional baseball practice is to be blamed on the the liberal Democrats and the mainstream press that support them. Donald Trump is trying to make this country safe, bring back jobs and ...

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Liberals use half-truths to incite violence - Fresno Bee

The B.C. Liberals unveiled another promise Tuesday that was never included in their February budget or their election-campaign platform.

Environment Minister Jordan Sturdy announced that Thursdays throne speech will include a commitment to invest $50 million over five years in new charging stations for electric vehicles.

Its important that we expand on this strong infrastructure, because we really want to encourage electrification of our transportation fleet, he said.

A day earlier, the Liberals revealed that Premier Christy Clark will pledge in the speech to raise welfare rates, tie disability assistance to inflation and ban big money from B.C. politics positions she previously opposed.

Its unlikely, however, that Clark will get a chance to act on any of the promises. The NDP and B.C. Green Party have signed a pact to defeat her minority Liberal government in a confidence vote within days of the speech.

George Heyman, NDP MLA for Vancouver-Fairview, said the Liberals are using their final throne speech after 16 years in power to try to make up for all the failures of their government.

Its too little, too late, he said. And in this case, its not even included in their recent budget.

Sturdy said the $50-million investment in charging stations is a relatively modest expense when spread over five years.

Im quite confident the finance ministers confident that we are going to be able to incorporate this $50 million in our $49.5 billion budget, he said.

As to why the Liberals waited until after the campaign to announce the program, Sturdy said hes only been in cabinet for a week.

I only have so much time to be able to influence these outcomes, he said. Im pleased to be part of this change in direction, or this additional initiative, I suppose is a better way of saying it recognizing that this has always been part of the climate leadership plan. Were just advancing the objectives, advancing the targets a number of years.

Sturdy said the Liberal plan calls for 4,321 new charging stations across the province, including 110 stations offering 30-minute charges and 4,211 five-hour charging stations.

We have to have a more robust infrastructure in order to expect people to transition onto clean-energy vehicles, especially electric vehicles, he said.

But Heyman said the program should be part of a robust climate-action plan that the Liberals have failed to adopt.

What were seeing from the Liberals in the last few days are just distraction announcements and a failure to recognize that 57 per cent of British Columbians are ready for change, he said.

lkines@timescolonist.com

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BC Liberals add vehicle charging stations to their platform - Times Colonist

Democratic candidate Jon Ossoff lost the Georgia special election Tuesday despite the fact that his campaign received unprecedented funding from the deeply liberalstate of California.

The young Democrat received 8.9 times as many many donors from California than from any other state in the union, including all of the totals from Georgia itself.

The failed Democrat received 7,218private donations from California residents. He benefitted from only 808 donations from inside of Georgias sixth congressional district.

Hollywood insiders like Chelsea Handler and Georgia Takei donated to Ossoffs campaign, and other celebrities like Jane Fonda, Sam Waterston, and Kyra Sedgwick all donated their time towards the campaign.

The Georgia politician lost the election earlier than expected Tuesday evening. He earned 48 percent compared to former Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handels 52 percent showing in the race.

Former Democratic Candidate Hillary Clinton had overwhelming support from liberals in California. She earned $132,137,278 during the election against Trump, a full 22.49 percent of her campaigns total fundraising haul. The presidential candidate ended up earning and spending nearly $1.2 billion in her fight against Trump.

Perhaps not surprisingly, $49,224,731 came from residents of the Los Angeles area.

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The Liberals will make their first down payment of up to $600 million on their marquee defence strategy this fall, a Commons committee was told Tuesday.

Deputy Defence Minister John Forester saidcash to put the wheels of the newly-released policy in motion will come through supplementary spending estimates that are always tabled in Parliament as part of routine fiscal business.

Forester, Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan and Gen. Jonathan Vance, the chief of the defence staff, faced a series of questions from both Conservative and NDP MPsabout when and how the ambitious program will be funded.

The Liberals have chafed under the fiscal skepticism which greeted the release of the plan on June 7 when critics pointed out that the spring federal budget contained little extra new cash for the military.

That irritation was on full display Tuesday.

Sajjan became his most animated when beating back opposition critiques and pointing to specific funding provisions in the policy, which promises a 70 per cent increase in the overall defence allocation during the next decade.

"The investment starts now," he said.

Under the Liberal plan, the federal government will be spending $32.7 billion on the military by 2026-27, but as NDP MP Randall Garrison pointed out, much of the planned increase in spending does not fully kick in for a couple of years.

"What we see, in the short-term,the money you're proposing will not keep pace with the rate of inflation," he said. "How do you expect the military to keep pace with operations when they have no new real dollars in their budget."

Forester told MPs the money will start flowing in the supplementary estimates.

Since the defence plan had not been announced at the time of the budget, officials were not prepared to put it on the books.

In addition, Forester saidthe department's capacity to be able to spend the cash,through program administration and hiring,has to be ramped up first.

"There is a planned schedule of implementation," said Forester. "It is $600 million in addition to what was already planned in the defence budget."

While the Conservatives were in power, National Defence was routinely unable to spend its budget allocation.

In 2015, defence analyst Dave Perry of the Canadian Global Affairs Institute estimated the department had lapsed as much as $9.7 billion between 2007 and 2014.

The new policy calls for an expansion of the military to 71,000 full-time members and 30,000 part-time,or reservists.

MPs asked how meeting the plan outlined in the newly announced defence policy would be possible without an increase in the federal budget.

But Vance answered that he has,at the moment,the cash to sustain 68,000 members of the regular force and expects the rest will be coming quickly.

"We have sufficient resources to meet the plans and when the [supplementary funding] comes in the fall we will be increasing recruiting," Vance said. "I am actually far more concerned and consumed right now about being able to spend the [current] supply [of money]."

Shortly after the defence policy was released, finance officials told CBC News the plan would nothave a significant impact on future projected deficits.

A senior finance official, speaking on background, said the new spending will lead to some changes to the fiscal outlook, but insisted those changes will be minor.

How it might affect this year's projected deficit remainsunclear.

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Liberals planning $600M down payment on defence strategy - CBC.ca