The first was at the federal level. Prime Minister Mackenzie King announced he would retire. The Liberals held a leadership convention and elected Louis St Laurent, the federal Justice minister, as party leader on August 7, 1948.
King resigned immediately as Liberal Party leader, did not resign his position as PM until November 15, 1948, so St Laurent was leader of the governing Liberal Party, while King was the Prime Minister of Canada, with St Laurent in his cabinet.
The other example was in Newfoundland. I can’t remember the names, but the PC premier announced his resignation as party leader. The winner of the leadership convention announced that he would only take office as premier if he won the general elections. So the outgoing premier stayed in office as a caretaker until the election, which the Liberals won, so the new PC leader never became premier.
(Details may be fuzzy, but I’ve got to get back to work.)
I am surprised Freeland was crushed this badly, and suspect she would not have been had Trump not been threatening war. I think Carney is seen as the better choice for that problem, and I think the reality is he’s got a way better shot at winning an election than Freeland would have. Freeland isn’t something new. Carney is.
I am far less hung up on partisan matters as I am intelligence and fundamental ethics and sanity. Once in office, a head of government’s ideal plans run facefirst into reality, and have to be cast aside to deal with reality. I never liked Justin Trudeau because I just don’t think he’s especially bright or ethical, and a lot of his sunny ways stuff is an act; I VEHEMENTLY dislike Pierre Poilevre because I also don’t think he’s especially clever and he strikes me as being without any moral compass at all.
Carney, to my mind, is superior to both, though you never know. I wasn’t as blown away by his little Daily Show thing as others, but his track record is one of smarts and practicality.
If you’d told me a year ago Poilevre was going to blow a 20/25-point lead I’d never have beleived you but here we are, and whoever is giving him campaign advice has GOT to be a Liberal mole because he is just running over his own dick.
Which is particularly lame, since there wasn’t any real reason for Ignatief to come back at that time - except that the party leadership was available.
But Carney volunteered for this job in the middle of this Trump mess, knowing full well that, if he wins the general election, he’ll be the guy stuck with dealing with Trump for most (or all) of his first full term as PM. You don’t jump on a grenade like that if all you’re interested in is the ego boost of being Prime Minister. No matter how well Carney does over the next four years, it’s going to be a shitshow. If all he does is finish his term with Canada still a viable independent nation, he can count that as a win.
Thank you for clarifying about Canadian politics. I’ve appreciated the illumination from you and others as well. My previous knowledge of this were old World Book encyclopedia entries from. 1981 so I’m grateful for this thread,
It won’t work. Aside from the fact it isn’t the same situation,
Ignatieff was a clueless doofus who kept stumbling into coffee tables,
They’ve been running attack ads for a year and the effectiveness of them has peaked and is declining, and
Nobody gives a shit right now because THE AMERICANS WANT TO INVADE US. The #1 issue on the minds of Canadians is how to deal with Trump. And Canadians are right to be preoccupied with that.
Poilivere wasn’t leading by 25 points for any other reason than he wasn’t Justin.
Justin got in because he wasn’t Harper.
Now it’s a horse race and the paper boy ain’t got the smarts internationally and is now fighting a rearguard action.
Quebec won’t touch PP. Alberta will always vote PP. That leaves Ontario as hinge pin where it’s split.
BC can swing either way and I think East Coast might not like PP.
Traditionally Ontario has the opposite party in power provincial vs federal.
Doug Ford is popular for the Cons in Ontario which s another edge for Carney.
I’m not so sure. Being in Alberta myself, I can state that nobody here liked Justin Trudeau, so if he had run again, it would have been a slam-dunk for PP in Alberta. But there has been a lot of discussion, in my favourite hangouts anyway, about the Liberal leadership race, and a lot of people have mentioned that they will consider the Liberals if Carney or Freeland get the leadership. Note that they did not say “vote for”; they said “consider,” but that’s more than they said in the last election when the dislike for Trudeau was so strong that nobody said they would consider the Liberals. Thus, Alberta went solidly Conservative.
It won’t matter much, because Alberta will go Conservative anyway. But there have been Liberal and NDP MPs in Alberta before, mostly in Edmonton, so it’s not unprecedented. Besides, Carney is originally from the NWT, but spent his formative years in Alberta, which should give him some points among Albertans.
Jean Charest, the most distinguished politician the Conservatives ever had… Perennially rejected by the CPC because he belongs to the Red Tory tradition.
I, truly, don’t see him thumbing his nose at the CPC and joining Carney’s Liberals. I suspect Charest wants PP’s job if he fails at winning the next election. Of course, the CPC will reject him again if this happens, in favour for another hard right reform populist.
He may be playing his card close to his chest as he’s desirable to both parties and would be brilliant for the Cons to move them off the populist shite and back toward the center which many Canadians want.
Why the Cons continuously play to the mob who will vote for them anyways is beyond me.
Have they even got to acknowledging AGW officially ??
For those not familiar …Jean Charest was mostly centre right but ran for the the Liberals in Quebec and became the Premiere. Quebec runs further left than the rest of Canada.
He ran against PP in 2022 and of course the Con mob put a paper boy in charge.
If the Cons lose this one ( Trudeau was in third and ended with a majority ) hopefully some navel gazing goes on.
Meanwhile Doug Ford is doing an admirable job in Ontario despite my misgivings…he is certainly taking to the dumpf.
Interesting times.
I smell collusion between Doug and Donald, this whole each act tough in turn, then back down, call for working together, then compliment each other on their reasonableness. It smells of insincerity to me. Like they’ve agreed to take turns, talking trash about each other, to appear tough, but alas, pull back showing respect for the other.
Doug Ford is sincere in his attacks against Trump and both in his escalations and his pull backs. Trump’s trade war will destroy Ontario’s economy. It has the most to lose so his position forces him to act more reckless, desperate, and angry.
Ford’s tactic is to retaliate very very strongly while publicly giving daily interviews to American news agencies to explain his actions. Trump just cannot ignore it. So he lashes out too.
All this forces both parties to meet in an attempt to deescalate, which is ultimately what Ford wants. Trump would rather Canada and Ontario just accept his EO’s quietly, without response. Ford’s strategy is brinkmanship to force a resolution.
They “compliment each other on their reasonableness” as a negotiating tactic to ensure that the meeting will be productive. If they were insulting each other there would be no point in meeting as both parties are not trying to bargin.
Danielle Smith has a different calculus then Ford. While Ontario’s economy will be devastated by export tariff’s Alberta is the only province who’s export will not be greatly affected (Alberta will get hurt, but not nearly as much as Ontario as oil is too critical and immediately damaging to ignore for Trump).
So while Trump flatly plans to blow up the entire economical landscape of Canada/Mexico/USA and reset the continent’s economic infrastructure of industry and trade like he is Mao during the “Great Leap Forward” (but backward toward the USA’s industrial revolution). Ford is trying to make this decision as painful as possible for the Americans, as to get them to put the gun down.
Smith just sees this as a “prisoner’s dilemma” where Alberta (maybe) can “get in good” with the executioner. Economic collapse of the other provinces doesn’t seem to bother her (which is fitting with her aggressively anti-Federal politics).
ETA: It makes sense for Ford to front load all the pain and economic woes for the Americans and not wait until the market forces respond/collapse in 6 months. This way an economic resolution can be achieved quicker. Smith thinks Alberta will weather it fine and just doesn’t care about the other provinces’ industrial destruction.
Ford’s tough talk was a big nothing burger, he backed down directly. He’s playing from Trump’s playbook, say what they want to hear, loudly. All that ‘won’t back down’ talk? Nothing burger. Tell them what they want to hear and they won’t look past it to see the reality.
I get that everybody WANTS to believe, what he’s saying and that he’s not playing both sides of the street.
And I sincerely hope you’re right, but it smells like Koolaid to me, and everyone’s drinking it up because it’s what they DESPERATELY want to hear. And want to believe.
Leger surveyed 1,548 Canadians between March 7 and March 10 — which means the poll wrapped up just after Liberals picked Mark Carney as the new party leader and prime minister-designate.
OTTAWA — The federal Liberals and the Conservatives are running neck-and-neck in voter support, a new Leger online poll suggests. The poll of Canadians’ voting intentions has both parties sitting at 37 per cent.
It shows a drop of six points for the Conservatives and a seven per cent jump for Liberals since Feb. 24, while the NDP is down two per cent to 11 per cent.
OTTAWA — The federal Liberals and the Conservatives are running neck-and-neck in voter support, a new Leger online poll suggests. The poll of Canadians’ voting intentions has both parties sitting at 37 per cent.
That was Leger and this is Nanos at Mar 11
As Canadians’ concerns about U.S. President Donald Trump rise, Pierre Poilievre’s Conservative polling advantage appears to have evaporated, with the Liberals now just one point behind according to the latest Nanos numbers.
In new weekly tracking released Tuesday, the Conservatives are at 36 per cent support, the Liberals – now under the leadership of Mark Carney – have risen to 35 per cent support, and the NDP are at 15 per cent.
[Conservatives now just 1 point ahead of Liberals: Nanos]
As Canadians’ concerns about U.S. President Donald Trump rise, Pierre Poilievre’s Conservative polling advantage appears to have evaporated, with the Liberals now just one point behind according to the latest Nanos numbers.
No one is in majority territory and what a wild scenario with a Con minority
) hopefully some navel gazing goes on.
