Canada election: Voters will be choosing ‘who stands up for them,’ Carney says at Ontario campaign stop

Poilievre is up now at an event in Saskatoon.

Good morning! I'm J.P. Tasker travelling with the Conservative campaign.

Poilievre is rallying the party base in the final days of this campaign with stops in safe seats in Alberta and Saskatchewan — a decision that is raising eyebrows with two Conservative campaign operatives who spoke to CBC News. They say Poilievre should be playing offence in swing ridings elsewhere, with so little time left before Monday's election.

The campaign is defending the move by saying they want to hit all 10 provinces with their messages on tax cuts and being tough on crime — and these two days on the Prairies should really be seen as stopovers on the way to battleground B.C.

The reality is some seats in Western Canada could be in play, with polls suggesting the Liberals are poised to make some gains, potentially in urban Alberta, northern Saskatchewan and on B.C's Lower Mainland.

A small crowd greeted Jagmeet Singh in a Toronto park last night, where the NDP leader told those gathered it is unlikely that the Conservatives will form government.

“People are rejecting the Conservatives. It is a good thing. It is good to see that,” Singh said.

The NDP leader repeated the line this morning during a campaign event, adding that the “priorities of the other parties aren’t the right priorities for Canadians.”

What Singh is not saying is that voters may also be rejecting his party. Polls suggest the NDP's support has fallen, and the party could be on track to lose many of its seats. The fear is that Monday night’s result could leave the NDP without official party status.

With only a few days left in the campaign, Singh is trying hard not to let that happen.

Hi, I’m Cat Tunney, a senior reporter with CBC’s Parliamentary Bureau and, for full disclosure, a very active user of the federal government’s access to information system.

It’s the way Canadians, including journalists, can apply for government records that otherwise would not see the light of day, and it’s meant to be a pillar of government accountability.

The system is supposed to work like this: for a $5 fee, Canadians can request government records, ranging from emails to memos to reports. Federal agencies are supposed to respond within 30 days or provide a reason why more time is needed.

But in practice, the system moves at a glacial place and is stalled by excessive — and sometimes unjustified — redactions. (Just last month, I finally got a response back for a request I sent all the way back in 2018!)

Carney was asked today whether he’s open to improving the system.

“It's not in the platform. It's in my head, and so I will now, against the advice of my advisers, put it out of my head,” he said.

“I do think looking at access to information is quite important … I'm happy to commit to having a review of that.”

The Liberal leader added that he believes an objective review would serve Canadians, no matter who wins Monday.

Hello, I'm a reporter with the Parliamentary Bureau, following the Conservatives this week. I'm just leaving Nova Scotia, where Poilievre visited Wednesday and Thursday.

My colleague Michael Gorman and I published a story about tensions between Poilievre's office and the office of Progressive Conservative Premier Tim Houston. Michael has covered provincial politics in Nova Scotia for years.

Both of us had heard that things got frosty between the two teams after Poilievre's top advisor, Jenni Byrne, expressed her displeasure about remarks made by Houston during last fall's provincial election.

Houston distanced himself from the federal Conservatives, saying he wasn't a member of any federal party, and that his party is separate and distinct from Poilievre's.

Byrne expressed her displeasure to Houston's chief of staff soon after, saying the federal wing would not help the Nova Scotia premier if Poilievre became prime minister.

Houston has said he would stay out of the federal election, and didn't appear at Poilievre's Trenton, N.S., rally, even though he represents a nearby riding.

But on the eve of Poilievre's visit, Houston did release his own campaign-style video on social media.

You can read the full story, including the responses from Houston and Poilievre's teams, here.

Today, the NDP leader’s speech is framed around what the NDP will push for in the next federal budget. The party is trailing badly in the polls, and Singh’s messaging is focused on what New Democrat MPs can bring to the table in the House of Commons.

He says the NDP will push for a number of budget commitments, including ensuring every Canadian has access to a family doctor, expanding pharmacare to include all essential medications in Year 1, putting a price cap on essential grocery items and imposing rent control nationally.

The NDP leader is speaking to a crowd of supporters in Canada’s largest city.

Singh will start his day in Toronto before heading further south to shore up support for New Democrat seats in Hamilton and London — as the NDP makes its final push for votes in southern Ontario.

Singh kicked off this final swing last night with a rally in a park overlooking the Toronto skyline. The New Democrats don't hold a single seat in Canada's largest city, but hope to win back the Liberal-held riding of Toronto-Danforth, once the seat of former NDP leader Jack Layton.

It was an aspirational stop last night to pick up a seat, following a concentrated campaign this week to visit ridings the NDP is trying to hold on to.

In the last seven days, Singh’s team has hit Vancouver Island, Metro Vancouver, Edmonton and Winnipeg. After visiting those NDP incumbents in western Canada, Singh’s team now heads to southwestern Ontario, where the New Democrats hold three seats they want to keep.

Singh is very much on message track. He takes a variety of questions from reporters every day, but increasingly gives the same response.

Singh says he’s the only leader who will stand up for everyday Canadians — not Mark Carney.

The NDP leader continues to focus his attacks on the Liberal leader — pointing to Carney’s time in the private sector as a sign, he says, that Carney is only focused on making money for billionaires.

Years ago, former prime minister Justin Trudeau campaigned on a promise to reform Canada’s electoral system. It never happened.

Carney was asked today whether he has plans for reform, given that the issue wasn’t mentioned in his platform.

“A prime minister should be neutral on these issues so that, [when] a process is developed, they’re objective and not be seen to tip the scales in one direction or another,” said the Liberal leader, adding that — in his view — that perception “might be what stalled things” during Trudeau’s time in office.

Carney said that Canada’s economic and security issues have to be prioritized before “those more structural issues in our democracy can be addressed.”

Carney is still being asked today about a Radio-Canada story published yesterday that found that U.S. President Donald Trump referred to Canada as the 51st state during their March 28 call.

Some had criticized Carney for framing the call, afterwards, as one in which Trump respected Canada’s sovereignty. He maintained that stance today.

“It’s not right to provide all the details of such a conversation, in my opinion. What is important is to talk about the result,” he said in French.

Carney reiterated what he said was the outcome of that conversation: that Canada and the U.S. would enter negotiations after the election, that Trump respected Canada’s sovereignty during the call, and that the country’s leaders would meet “as two sovereign nations” to discuss their economic and security partnership after the federal election.