PHOTO C/O Arnaud Jaegers
An overview of the current state of Canada’s political parties
By: Max Cornblum, Contributor
On Sept. 20, 2021, Canadians across the country voted in an early federal election called by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Results of the election formed another minority government under the Liberal party, leaving Canadians to wonder what the future of the government would look like in the face of a new, but almost identical, parliament.
Liberal Party
After winning 159 seats and maintaining their minority government, many now-former members of parliament have lost their pensions. Pensions are awarded after six years of being seated in parliament and this election was called just over two months before some of those pensions would have vested.
Filomena Tassi, Member of Parliament for the Hamilton West, Ancaster and Dundas constituency, stands by the Liberal government’s decision to call a snap election.
Tassi believes that the party’s win proves Canadians agree with what the party has been doing and what they plan to do moving forward.
“The Canadians have accepted the mandate and that they agree with the way that we have navigated through COVID-19 and they say that they agree with our plan moving forward with regards to [future plans in things] such as environment, childcare and housing,” said Tassi.
Tassi added that she doesn’t see the snap election as a waste of money, but rather as a mandate from Canadians to have either voice heard.
“It is important that as we move forward, we are listening to Canadians, and this was the opportunity for Canadians to have their say with respect to what we have invested in,” explained Tassi.
“It is important that as we move forward, we are listening to Canadians, and this was the opportunity for Canadians to have their say with respect to what we have invested in.”
Filomena Tassi, Member of Parliament for Hamilton West, Ancaster & Dundas Constituency
Justin Trudeau currently remains the leader of the party. However, following public outrage regarding Trudeau’s decision to call the snap election, it remains to be seen as to whether the Liberal party is still committed to the Trudeau name.
Conservative Party
As the Conservative Party’s leader, Erin O’Toole’s platform let the voters know that he was pro-2SLGBTQIA+ and pro-abortion. He also supported a federal carbon tax, which was unheard of for a conservative leader.
However, the Conservative Party’s turn towards the centre with a more moderate leader such as O’Toole didn’t make up any ground from the Liberals.
As a result of the snap election, the Conservative Party now holds 119 seats in the House of Commons, a loss of two seats compared to the 2019 election.
“While [the Conservative Party] didn’t get the results we had hoped for, I am proud of our team for holding the Liberals to a minority in this pandemic election,” said O’Toole.
“While [the Conservative Party] didn’t get the results we had hoped for, I am proud of our team for holding the Liberals to a minority in this pandemic election.”
Erin O'Toole, Conservative Party Leader
New Democratic Party
The New Democratic Party was unable to pick up a sizable amount of seats despite their overwhelmingly popular policies. The NDP now holds 25 seats in the house of commons.
Although NDP leader, Jagmeet Singh, has garnered a large amount of popularity through social media platforms such as TikTok, this did not translate to an increase in seats in the House of Commons.
The NDP will reevaluate their leadership and platform to see if they can improve their results with another leader or may decide to continue the course with Jagmeet Singh.
Jagmeet Singh remains the leader of the NDP and has stated that he’s confident he will keep that position.
Bloc Quebecois Party
The Bloc Quebecois won 33 seats, short of their goal of 40 seats. As is the case with other parties, the Bloc Quebecois won a similar number of seats as the 2019 election where they won 32 seats.
Yves-François Blanchet, leader of the party, criticized Trudeau for calling the election.
“We almost feel like saying ‘All of that for this’,” said Blanchet.
“We almost feel like saying ‘All of that for this’.”
Yves-François Blanchet, Leader of the Bloc Quebecois
Green Party
After losing a Member of Parliament to the Liberals because of an internal party dispute about the Israel-Palestine conflict, the Green Party received far fewer votes than in 2019 and won two seats.
Despite climate change being a top priority for voters, the party dedicated to the climate lost ground and credibility with voters.
In her own riding in Toronto Centre, the previous leader of the Green Party, Annamie Paul, was unable to win her seat as well. Even before the election, her standing within the party was already in tatters.
Paul has now resigned and the Green party will begin its search for a new leader.
With only two seats in the House of Commons after this election, the Green Party does not meet the requirement of at least 12 seats to be deemed a recognized party for parliamentary proceedings.
People’s Party
While the People’s Party of Canada was able to increase its share of the popular vote, it remained unable to make any ground and won zero seats.
PPC leader, Maxime Bernier, also lost in his own riding in Beauce.
While the rise of right-wing populism has given great success to parties around the world, it appears that the ideology shared by these parties is not welcomed by enough Canadians to make this party feasible.
After an election that didn’t change the political landscape, every party is left to reflect on what happened in their campaign. Every party must reevaluate its strategies and come prepared for the next election either in 2025 or earlier.
By Nicholas Marshall, Contributor
Grits. Reds. Libs. We need to talk. Let us consider Justin Trudeau’s domination in the 2015 federal elections. Here, Trudeau, the son of the heavenly father of our Constitution, descended from the lofty peaks of Canadian society to liberate our wretched souls from the clutches of Harper’s conservative austerity. I take it you were feeling pretty confident this time around. Trudeau was a media darling, beloved on the world stage and, in contrast with our neighbors to the south, a head of government that was hoping to unite our diverse population with Canada’s virtues of multiculturalism and equality.
But then, the scandals started rolling in. They began as relatively innocuous misdemeanours; his trip to India donning garb of another culture may have seemed like a substantial embarrassment, but it was only foreshadowing whats to come.
Things started to get more serious when the Liberal government approved the expansion of the Trans Mountain pipeline. The Trans Mountain pipeline is poised to carve a path straight through the Liberal rhetoric on climate change, and undermine every word that spilled out of Trudeau’s mouth about protecting future generations.
Nothing could have prepared us for the big fish: the SNC-Lavalin scandal was a disaster for public confidence in our prime minister. A private corporation lobbying the government to change the law in their favour so that they could escape conviction was and is an international scandal. But to also pressure and demote your attorney general and then lead a coverup inside your own cabinet demonstrates a profound lack of respect for the political process and the rule of law. In fact, according to the ethics commissioner, the sitting prime minister had broken the law. At least things couldn’t get any worse, right?
We soon learned that the prime minister was “two-faced” in more ways than one.
So, where do we go from here? Justin Trudeau has been involved in scandal after scandal, while Andrew Scheer, the Conservative party leader, is climbing in the polls. Scheer, the leader who pinky promises that his personal opinions about gay people won’t inform his policy decisions.
So what do we do?
The truth is, most people like how the Liberals brand themselves, but in practice they don’t like watching their feminist darling sell war machines to Saudi Arabia. So, perhaps it’s time to wake up to the fact that Liberals campaign themselves as New Democrats and govern themselves as Conservatives, especially when they know no one is looking.
This election, it’s time we build our image of the Liberal party based on actions and not on words. We should recognise that the policies the Liberals win on are the actual policies of the NDPs and the policies they sneak in behind our backs are Conservative.
And, we must keep in mind that when Canadians don’t have the appetite for a scandal-ridden Liberal, voting Conservative is a counterproductive exercise in masochism (see Doug Ford). When your sheep start to bite, you don’t start shearing wolves.
This election has only just begun, so now is the time to get to know your candidates and evaluate them based on what they offer you as a citizen. Take nothing at face value, and remember that these people may not be exactly what you expected. But if you give it time, I’m sure they will all reveal their true colours to you.
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By: Celine Ferreira
After one of the longest election campaigns in Canada's history, the Liberal Party's victory is not the only surprising change to come out of this election.
Professor Karen Bird, whose research involves comparative politics, gender and politics, and indigenous and minority groups, spoke on a panel organized by the Department of Political Science on Oct. 21 concerning the 2015 Canadian Federal Election.
"The share of women among the newly elected Parliament is little better than before. Women now hold 26 percent of the seats, compared to 25 percent. The glass, for women, is still only half full," she said. “The evidence overall suggests we’ve been stuck at about 25 percent for a long time and it doesn’t seem to fix itself on its own.”
The addition of new ridings and the insurgence of new candidates suggested that more women would be elected. However, the one percent increase does not truly reflect this hypothesis. Prof. Bird said that is due to the lack of seats won by the New Democratic Party which had the largest proportion of women in their caucus.
The NDP has implemented various practices that have increased their number of female MPs, including reaching out to women and offering the support they need to run. A great effort is put into recruitment and a mandate has been established requiring justification for why a female candidate was not found if that’s the case. Bird later stated that such efforts should be adopted by all parties if there is going to be a translation to a more gender balanced parliament.
Due to the higher proportion of women with a post-secondary education, women are increasingly doing well economically, therefore resources such as those provided by the NDP are not of prime interest. Bird went on to say that something must be done at an institutional level to address the lack of women represented in parliament.
Female representation is also topical at McMaster. Last year’s “MSU Wants You” campaign urged more female candidates to seek high-ranking positions within the MSU, and while this initiative is a step towards better female representation at McMaster, it also signifies the work that remains to be done. The federal election can be examined to see how our student government can become more representative of the undergraduate student body at McMaster.
Out of the top nine research universities in Canada, McMaster has the second lowest representation of women in its council especially in executive positions. When asked about her opinion regarding this, Bird said that this is not due to the fact that the women are less qualified for the position or that voters are voting against women; it is a result of structural hindrances.
“I think that if there was some information about what the office involves – what the work is on a day-to-day level, what kinds of tasks are involved – a lot of women would say, ‘I have exactly those skills,’” she said.
Bird further stated that explicitly publicizing what the job involves would attract more women as they would recognize that student government is something they would like to be involved in and that they do have many skills and accomplishments that would make them strong candidates for that position.
Bird hopes that in future elections, whether on the federal scale or at the university level, women will recognize that they possess the skills, experiences and ideas needed to hold key positions that shape public policy.
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As a McMaster alumnus, Vincent Samuel is proud of the close ties he has with both the school and the community.
As the Conservative candidate for the Hamilton West-Ancaster-Dundas riding, Samuel is counting on both his personal connection with the community and the experience of the Conservative party as support for his election this Oct. 19.
"I think that hard work, education and the focused approach always helps. It's our job to make sure we create the opportunities and that is what we are doing ever since the Conservative Party came into power nine years ago," he said.
With regards to students, Samuel focused on the experience of the Conservative Party, along with citing examples of measures the party has previously taken to support students.
"Since 2012, we eliminated the interest on new and existing loans for part-time students, so that education can become more affordable," Samuel explained.
Samuel also described how the Conservatives have expanded the eligibility of the Canada Student Loans and Grants program for part-time and full-time students in time for 2016. This includes lifting a penalty on the amount of financial assistance students receive who are both working and receiving a student loan. The number of weeks a student must be enrolled to be eligible for a grant is also being reduced from 60 to 34 weeks to help students in practical skills programs and improving the transition from education to employment.
The Conservative government's main pull for students has been to promise $65 million to businesses and industries that will work with post-secondary institutions to better align school curriculum with the needs of employers. They've also committed to doubling the federal contribution to supplementary grants for low- and middle-income students who have a Registered Education Savings Plan.
Samuel explained that the Conservatives are aiming to help students beyond the issues of student debt, looking to expand the job market available to students when they enter the workforce.
"There must be an alignment to the job market. I know every year there are so many graduates, but they're not ready. Whatever they learn at school is not applicable in every market . . . so that's something that should be a key focus."
While other parties have put in more substantial plans to directly support students, Samuel argued that they are simply throwing numbers to create the impression they are addressing the problem.
"Some of the complex problems may have a very simple but wrong answer. One of the easiest ways — and what I think the other parties are doing — is they're throwing money around. That if the Conservatives have put in $5 million, let's put $10 million. If they're putting $10 million, let's put in $20 million. Just throwing away the money is not the answer, because the answer is to make sure that students have the right education, which can be used in real life."
Samuel explained, "If the focus is only to reduce the student debt, but not giving you a better or high-paying job, then it's not something that will go a long way in your life."
Jeffrey Doucet / The Silhouette
On Tuesday, Ontario Progressive Conservative leader Tim Hudak released a policy paper titled “Paths to Prosperity: Higher Learning for Better Jobs.”
The paper lays out a series of recommendations that would dramatically change the post-secondary education landscape in Ontario. There are several points in the paper that will catch the eye of students, professors and university administrators. The paper aims to advance policy that will change the way financial aid and education is delivered across Ontario.
The paper advances an argument that the Ontario government must hold universities and students more accountable, while gearing undergraduate education towards the job market.
Hudak boldly proposes to grant student loans based on academic achievement, calling it a market solution. “Decisions about who should receive loans and how much money is to be awarded should involve assessments of future employability and should reward good academic behaviour,” he says.
This is troubling. It is the role of the university to evaluate students and determine if they merit a university degree.
Giving OSAP the power to evaluate the worth of a student will undermine our universities. If Hudak believes that poor academic performance will lead to worthless degrees, he should push universities to improve undergraduate education.
While any paper on university education will get the attention of student groups, this paper begs for it. Hudak argues that both student unions and university administrations need to be held more accountable when it comes to student fees. Specifically, “students should be allowed to opt-out of paying fees that go toward political advocacy.”
This is a reaction to a small number of student groups across Ontario that have engaged in poor fiscal management and partisan political advocacy. Hudak references the McMaster Association of Part-Time Students (surprise) as well as two other student groups in Ontario. When you consider the number of student unions in Ontario – we have 47 Post-Secondary institutions – it seems absurd for the party to attack all political advocacy efforts by student groups. Advocacy from special interest groups is an important part of the democratic process, and the small number of groups referenced is evidence of a poorly crafted policy.
While some ideas floated in the paper are troubling, others would lead to a stronger undergraduate education.
They argue that universities should embrace teaching-only faculty as a means of improving learning quality and the student experience. This is a welcomed initiative, but will be difficult to implement. If elected, Hudak will be forced to navigate existing faculty agreements that bind faculty positions to research.
Hudak makes a strong push for focusing universities on job creation. The paper suggests funding universities based on levels of immediate employment for graduates. This would reward universities for programs that have high employment rates for their graduates immediately after education. While professional programs will likely welcome the idea and opportunity for enhanced investment, non-professional programs will reap little benefit from this policy. To implement this policy and funding mechanism, a Hudak government will have to define meaningful employment. With our current job market for new grads, good luck.
The Progressive Conservatives are leaning heavily on the assumption that we are in university to get a job.
They are gambling that we will accept less autonomy for our universities if it will increase job numbers. In the coming months it will be interesting to see reaction from student groups, professors, university administrators and other provincial parties. The official opposition has raised important questions that we as undergrads must answer.
