CanadaPolitics

Oil and gas lobbyists make up at least six members of Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre’s inner circle in the home stretch of the campaign, raising new questions about his commitment to grant the fossil fuel industry’s wishlist should he be elected.

Across political institutions, public spending on infrastructure is often shaped not just by economic need but by political strategy. Governments in power have historically rewarded loyal districts and secured electoral support rather than prioritizing the areas with the greatest real need for investment.

Otherwise referred to as “distributive politics,” there has been limited study on it in Canada, due partly to the difficulty of accessing comprehensive data. Since infrastructure programs are administered by multiple government agencies at different levels, data is often fragmented, inconsistently recorded, or not centralized, making large-scale analysis more challenging.

The issue of political discretion in allocating infrastructure projects and benefiting government-held core districts disproportionately ignores the broader public interest. After all, allocating resources based on electoral factors over genuine need can be viewed as a form of political bribery: votes are effectively exchanged for funding.

Social-welfare legislation often comes in the form of private members’ bills, which are typically assigned lower priority. Many are repeatedly introduced across multiple parliamentary sessions but are never adopted. So, while the death of social legislation is not uncommon, the combined effect of prorogation and the federal election was particularly damaging in this case.

Although prorogation and Prime Minister Carney’s call for a spring election undermined the tackling of these worrisome and widespread public-health issues, the death of social-support legislation in Parliament is endemic.

A fundamental review and restructuring of Canada’s legislative process is warranted.

Australia and the U.K. offer some examples of possible structural reforms. With respect to the former, the Federation Chamber, technically a Parliamentary Committee, has provided a secondary venue for the debate and adoption of simple and uncontroversial legislation since 1994.

According to her campaign materials, Liberal candidate Stephanie McLean might sound like a Liberal candidate who could appeal to working-class voters in the Vancouver Island riding of Esquimalt–Saanich–Sooke.

But McLean’s allegiances can be difficult to peg down. After leaving the Alberta NDP, McLean became a donor supporting Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives in 2023 and decided only a month ago she would now be running for the Liberals in BC.

Some members of BC’s labour movement also say McLean, who has represented employers in labour disputes, has a questionable history representing the interests of workers in BC given her past ties to a union that has been ostracized by the province’s labour movement as well as influential “anti-union” figures in the province.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/37094102

Canadian Conservatives are discussing how to emulate Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency north of the border should they win the upcoming federal election — and they think they can make cuts even more quickly than the Trump administration has.

cross-posted from: https://aussie.zone/post/19771757

With a federal election looming, reps from Amazon and TC Energy discuss how a new Pierre Poilievre government could slash bureaucracy ‘more quickly’ than Trump.

https://open.substack.com/pub/billhulet/p/why-its-important-to-be-able-to-walk?r=4ot1q2&showWelcomeOnShare=true

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is one of 91 candidates registered in the suburban Ottawa riding of Carleton. It's tied for the record of having the most candidates on the ballot with the 2024 byelection in the Montreal riding of LaSalle—Émard—Verdun. Most candidates are connected to an electoral reform advocacy group called the Longest Ballot Committee. Mark Moutter, an independent candidate in the riding who is part of that initiative, joins Power & Politics to discuss why he’s put his name on this large ballot.

Élection Fédérale 2025 / 2025 Federal Election

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