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Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland would like you to know that she will be grocery shopping in Toronto this weekend.

Im going to cook on Saturday, Freeland told reporters at a news conference this week. I go to the grocery store whenever Im home.

Freeland offered this little advance peek at her personal itinerary to prove that she is aware of the price of milk and bacon, bread and chicken.

How much are Canadians paying for chicken these days? Conservative MP Michelle Rempel asked in the Commons on Wednesday.

Her colleague, Conservative Deputy Leader Candice Bergen, was curious about whether Justin Trudeau does his own shopping.

When was the last time he went and filled up his tank with gas? she asked. When has he gone to a grocery store or a hardware store? Does he know what a loaf of bread costs now, or maybe a can of beans or a package of bacon?

Just in time for Black Friday, the political debate in Ottawa has become seized with all matters to do with shopping. It is the product pardon the pun of rising inflation, which is a relatively new and unwelcome development in Canada. The politics of grocery prices, however, are old and familiar.

Its so familiar, in fact, that price of milk question has its own Wikipedia entry, defined as: a tactic for gauging political candidates familiarity with the lives of ordinary voters.

Famous politicians who have been tripped up by this question, Wikipedia goes on to say, include U.S. president George H.W. Bush and British prime minister David Cameron. Long before he became Donald Trumps lawyer, Rudy Giuliani stumbled over the price of milk when he was running for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination, saying a gallon cost about $1.50 when the actual price was closer to three times that. But wily Margaret Thatcher, the daughter of a grocer, reportedly kept a list of prices of common shopping-list items among her briefing papers when she was prime minister of the U.K.

That rich history explains why all those questions were flying around Parliament this week about the price of bacon, milk and chicken.

Inflation is not a great thing for Canadian consumers, but it is a good issue for the Conservatives as Parliament resumes this week for the first time since the election. The focus on rising prices keeps the party focused on matters in which it traditionally has some credibility with the voters: budget management and consumer-friendly policies.

As a bonus, it also gives the Conservatives another way to cast Trudeau as a member of the privileged, out-of-touch elite, another now-familiar trope in Canadian politics. Justinflation is the term that finance critic Pierre Poilievre introduced to the Commons this week, with his trademark dramatic pause, and a few hours later, the made-up word had its own hashtag on Twitter.

The Liberals reply, at least so far, is that inflation is a global phenomenon, created by the pandemic and worldwide problems in supply chains. Freeland stood in the Commons on Thursday and rattled off a list of all the countries where inflation is rocketing up faster than it is in Canada.

Yes, everyday affordability is a growing concern, the government acknowledges, but this is why the Liberals are barrelling ahead with $10-a-day child care and initiatives to make home ownership more attainable.

All of this may be true, but inflation may be shaping up to be a bigger political problem for the Liberals than the pandemic was. Those are abstract answers to very real, tangible problems in Canadian households as 2021 draws to a close.

The government had an array of fixes immediate ones for the economic damage of COVID-19. Despite some Conservative attempts to lay blame for the pandemic at the feet of the Liberals, most Canadians were aware that the Trudeau government didnt actually bring the coronavirus to this country.

That case may be harder to make with this global phenomenon, especially if Conservatives keep insisting as Poilievre repeated on Thursday that inflation here is a homegrown result of too much spending during the pandemic.

Inflation, in short, is the very definition of a populist, pocketbook issue, which is why the Conservatives have rushed to make it their own. People are being priced out of their own lives, Conservative Leader Erin OToole told reporters on Thursday.

An Ipsos poll for Global News this week reported that four out of five Canadians are now worried or very worried about inflation, their anxiety rising along with prices. Expect Freeland and other members of the Trudeau government to be talking a lot more about the shopping theyre doing.

Correction Nov. 26, 2021: This article was edited to correct that Candice Bergen is the Conservative Deputy Leader, not House Leader.

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Whether its inflation or Justinflation, Liberals are keeping a careful eye on grocery prices - Toronto Star

Most Democrats support Powell and hes expected to win Senate confirmation because broad Republican support will offset defections by some progressive Democrats.

Why am I not picking fresh blood or taking the Fed in a different direction? Biden said Monday as he addressed progressive concerns about Powell, a Republican who was first appointed to the Fed by Barack Obama and elevated to chairman by Donald Trump. Put directly, at this moment of both enormous potential and enormous uncertainty for our economy, we need stability and independence at the Federal Reserve.

Biden tried to appease progressives by also announcing Monday that he would nominate Lael Brainard, the only Democrat on the Feds board, to be vice chairwoman, a promotion that would enhance her influence on monetary policy and regulation. But that wasnt good enough for Warren, who in September called Powell dangerous because of his regulatory stance. She later hammered Powell for ignoring what she called a culture of corruption at the Fed over financial trading by top officials, including Eric Rosengren, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, who retired this fall in the wake of the controversy.

Its no secret I oppose Chair Jerome Powells renomination, and I will vote against him, Warren said in a written statement Monday. Two other Senate Democrats, Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island and Jeff Merkley of Oregon, also said last week they opposed Powells renomination. Warren and Merkley voted against Powells confirmation as Fed chair in 2018, two of the 13 senators including four Republicans who opposed him then.

While she said she supports Brainard, Warren added that Powells failures on regulation, climate, and ethics made it crucial for Biden to quickly nominate a strong regulator to a second Fed vice chair position, currently vacant, focused on supervising financial firms. The slot is one of three seats coming open on the Feds seven-member board in the coming weeks, giving Biden an opportunity to put his stamp on the independent central banks leadership.

But the most influential job is chair and after months of deliberation, Biden decided to stick with Powell, a lawyer and former investment banker who served as a Treasury official under President George H.W. Bush.

Unlike most Fed leaders, Powell is not an economist. But hes earned wide support across party lines for his extensive financial experience, clear communication, and ability to withstand sharp criticism from the left and right. Trump quickly turned on him in 2018 as the central bank began slowly raising interest rates as the economy improved, unleashing unprecedented public criticism of a Fed chair by a president.

Senator Patrick Toomey of Pennsylvania, the top Republican on the Senate Banking Committee, said Monday he supported Powells nomination despite concerns that the Fed has been too slow in removing emergency monetary policy measures that were put in place to deal with the pandemic. Powell has also been criticized for not acting more quickly on rising inflation this year, asserting as the White House did that the increased prices would be temporary.

Inflation, however, has proven to be more persistent and the annual rate by one government measure in October jumped to its highest level in three decades. The Fed is mandated by law to promote maximum employment and stable prices, and its apparent misread of inflation might have given pause to Biden on Powells re-nomination, said Greg Valliere, chief US policy strategist for AGF, an asset management firm in Toronto.

But despite those concerns, Biden decided that Powell was a safer bet on the economy than naming a new chair some liberals had pushed for Brainard a move that could have unsettled financial markets, said Valliere, a longtime Washington analyst of the Fed and economic policy.

I think Biden probably felt the last thing he needs right now is a grouchy stock market, and the market could have been displeased if the pick had not been Powell, Valliere said. Major stock indices reacted positively to the news Monday morning.

Powell pledged on Monday to deal with inflation while saying other priorities included vigilantly guarding the resilience and stability of the financial system and addressing evolving risks from climate change.

The unprecedented reopening of the economy, along with continuing effects of the pandemic, led to supply and demand imbalances, bottlenecks and a burst of inflation, Powell said after Biden announced the nominations. We know that high inflation takes a toll on families, especially those less able to meet the higher costs of essentials, like food, housing, and transportation.

The Fed has a difficult task in the coming months in trying to pull back economic stimulus to reduce inflation without moving so quickly that job and economic growth is slowed, said Diane Swonk, chief economist at the accounting and advisory firm Grant Thornton.

You dont want a knee-jerk reaction. You want a pirouette. Thats a harder thing to accomplish, Swonk said of Fed monetary policy under Powell. I dont want to say hes been behind the curve, but hes been underestimating inflation and so has the Fed. Thats, something that a lot of people did.

Although inflation has jumped on Powells watch, progressives generally dont have problems with him on the economy. In a public letter this summer raising concerns about his leadership, Pressley, Ocasio-Cortez, and three other progressive House Democrats said they thought the Fed has made positive changes to its approach to full employment. Nonetheless, they urged Biden to nominate a new Fed chair because they said Powell had taken very little action to mitigate the risk climate change poses to our financial system and had weakened regulatory reforms enacted after the 2008 financial crisis.

Progressives have been happy with most of Bidens picks for financial regulators, including Gary Gensler as chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Rohit Chopra, a Warren ally, to be director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and regulatory scholar Saule Omarova to be Comptroller of the Currency. Gensler and Chopra were narrowly confirmed, while Omarovas nomination is pending and under fire from Republicans.

But in renominating Powell, Biden placed economic policy over regulation and picked someone expected to easily be confirmed, said Valliere.

It looks to me as if Biden has other regulators who will be pretty tough on financial regulations, Valliere said.

Jim Puzzanghera can be reached at jim.puzzanghera@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter: @JimPuzzanghera.

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Biden crosses liberals to renominate Powell as Fed chairman, keeping a crisis-tested veteran to tackle inflation - The Boston Globe

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The Liberals previously introduced, but did not pass, a sweeping gun bill that included banning certain weapons and allowing municipalities to ban handguns

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OTTAWA The Liberals throne speech promised to work with provinces and territories to allow them to ban handguns, going further than the government had proposed previously in allowing cities to ban the weapons.

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Gun violence is on the rise in many of our biggest cities. While investing in prevention and supporting the work of law enforcement, we must also continue to strengthen gun control, reads the speech delivered in the Senate on Tuesday.

The government will now put forward measures like a mandatory buyback of banned assault-style weapons, and move forward with any province or territory that wants to ban handguns.

Public Safety Minister Marco Mendocino said the government wants to do whatever is required to deal with gun violence.

Weve seen too many innocent lives lost. And certainly that is true in my hometown in Toronto and in many other parts of the country, he said. If municipalities and provinces are ready to engage the federal government on looking at additional ways, on how we can get illegal guns, including handguns out of our communities, then my door and this governments door will remain open.

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In the last Parliament, the Liberals introduced, but did not pass, a sweeping gun bill that included measures limiting the capacity of rifle magazines, banning certain weapons and allowing municipalities to ban handguns within their jurisdiction. The bill died with the election in August and the Liberals will have to reintroduce the legislation in this Parliament.

Under the bill, a city like Toronto could pass a bylaw banning handguns and the federal government would respect it by refusing to license handgun owners who live within the city and intend to store their weapons there.

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A provincial ban could operate differently because provinces have more constitutional authorities and might not need federal legislation to ban handguns. But the Liberals could also pass federal legislation alongside provincial rules that would prevent people in those provinces from getting a licence for a handgun.

To legally own a handgun in Canada requires owners to take a two-day safety course, a waiting period and background check. Owners are also restricted to using the weapon at shooting ranges.

After a recent shooting, where a 16-year-old boy was killed, Quebec Premier Franois Legault and Montreal Mayor Valrie Plante asked the federal government for a national handgun ban.

Saskatchewans government in contrast passed legislation specifically preventing municipalities from banning handguns.

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The Liberals pledged $1 billion in their platform to help provinces with the cost if they wanted to restrict handguns.

Mendocino said his government is prepared to work with provinces or municipalities who want to restrict the weapons.

What you saw yesterday in the throne speech was a concrete commitment to continue to put into place programs around buybacks, but also to work very closely with provinces and other levels of government to ensure that we take additional strong action to get illegal guns out of our communities, particularly handguns, he said. If the government of Quebec wants to work with the federal government to take additional strong action against getting guns out of our communities, well be there.

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He didnt lay out a specific timeline for what might come next, but said the government would move, as quickly as possible.

Conservative Public Safety critic Raquel Dancho said the Liberals are focusing on the wrong target.

The simple fact is that every dollar spent taking a firearm away from a law-abiding firearm owner is a dollar not going to fight the core issue of firearm crime in Canada illegally smuggled guns, she said in a statement.

She said the government has now had six years to address the issue and is yet to come up with a real plan.

Violent crime has only gone up under Trudeau and what we are seeing is more of the same from the Liberals ineffective and costly programs that do nothing to keep our communities safe.

Twitter: RyanTumilty Email: rtumilty@postmedia.com

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Liberals say they will allow provinces to ban handguns, citing rise in gun violence - National Post

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The western economy is not what the current prime minister or his activist environment minister misrepresent it as, writes Warren Steinley.

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Justin Trudeaus handpicked environment minister, Steven Guilbeault, has spent his whole life campaigning against Canadian energy. His ideological opposition to energy workers in the Prairies ignores the fact that it is these Canadians that develop the best carbon reduction practices and technology that benefits Canada, and the world.

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Those of us who actually live, work and raise our families on the Prairies know better. Despite the technological innovation, sustainable development, and carbon neutral projects that come out of our resource-rich Western provinces, the Trudeau government and Minister Guilbeault refuse to acknowledge the potential of our Canadian prairies. The economic challenges we face, made worse by the Liberal governments policies and messaging, is an inaccurate perception that energy from the Prairies cannot be sustainable and ethical.

The facts speak contrary to Justin Trudeaus beliefs, which are made clear by their anti-energy and anti-resource messaging. Our prairie industries are setting the tone as highly motivated innovators in the world of sustainable development.

Whitecap Resources carbon sequestration units in Joffre and Weyburn serve as world class examples of using captured and sequestered carbon to produce oil from deep earth reserves. The Mcilvenna Bay copper mine in northeast Saskatchewan will be the worlds first carbon neutral copper development project. Prairie Lithium has developed technology to extract solid lithium from the brine found in mature oil wells across southeastern Saskatchewan.

These are just a few examples of sustainable market solutions creating a competitive advantage for prairie industries and for Canada to compete in greening global markets. Our resource and agricultural economies continue to innovate and evolve for the better, and instead of championing these developments at every turn, our government refuses to recognize them or include them as credible examples in the conversation about Canadas future.

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As industries on the Prairies and all of Canada adjust to new environmental expectations, fair attention must be paid when new or innovative steps are taken to meet these expectations. Canadas government should be supporting and promoting these innovations and technological developments at home and abroad. Instead, the Liberal government continues to demonize Canadas resource and agriculture sectors and excludes them from important discussions around meeting climate goals.

The western economy is not what the current prime minister or his activist environment minister misrepresent it as. The Prairies have progressive-minded businesses that are aware of their environmental footprint and are actively seeking ways to minimize it. What it would take to encourage other businesses and sectors to seize advantage of and invest in these technologies when developing our untapped potential, would be an admission from the Trudeau government that developments made in these sectors are part of the solution, not the problem, to the countrys environmental concerns.

Justin Trudeau could choose to be a champion for cutting-edge, world-class resource development and technology that sustains hundreds of thousands of Canadian jobs. But something tells me the newly minted environment minister and his boss are content in their own misconceptions and that is bad for Canada.

Warren Steinley is the MP for ReginaLewvan and Conservative shadow minister for prairie economic development and interprovincial trade.

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Liberal Party members are running in the upcoming council elections as independents and under the banner of community tickets, with no mention on their websites or promotional material that they hold Liberal Party membership.

The NSW Liberal Party does not endorse candidates in some council areas, including North Sydney, Kiama and Shoalhaven.

Local Liberals who wish to run for office in those councils are not allowed, under Liberal Party rules and the NSW Electoral Act, to use Liberal Party branding, even if they openly identify as Liberals.

Elle Prevost, a first-time candidate who is running as an independent for North Sydney council, said she was a proud Liberal party member.

North Sydney candidate Elle Prevost.Credit:ellefornorthsydney.com

I am a Liberal, but we are not endorsed in the North Sydney area, she said. Maybe its me being naive, but because I am not endorsed by the Liberal Party, my understanding is Im an independent.

Ms Prevosts ticket is called Team Elle. Its website announces her as an Independent for North Sydney council and her Liberal Party membership is not mentioned. The membership is disclosed in Ms Prevosts candidate nomination form, filed under a subheading in a PDF document on the NSW Electoral Commission website.

This is a really Liberal area, so I should be screaming it from the rooftops because it would win me more votes, she said.

Retired naval officer Mark Croxford is a member of the executive of the NSW Liberal Party, and a Liberal Party member. But his connection to the Liberal Party is not mentioned on the promotional materials for his run at the Kiama council in the upcoming elections on December 4.

Mark Croxford is standing for election in the Kiama LGA elections.Credit:Janie Barrett

Mr Croxford is at the top of the Your Community Candidates ticket, which pledges to form a council free from party political agendas. The groups website urges voters not to risk a council influenced by party politics and says that party politics has no place in local government.

Mr Croxfords bio on the Your Community Candidates website lists his background as a lobbyist and a senior ministerial adviser in the Howard government, but not his position as a country representative on the NSW Liberal Party executive, or his party membership.

The membership is declared on his nomination form on the Electoral Commission website.

I hide in the open, Mr Croxford said. I am in the Liberal Party for the purpose of federal and state politics. I personally dont believe there is any room for party politics in local politics.

He said he always discloses his Liberal Party roots when he is speaking to constituents.

I am happy to say I am a Liberal member but as a councillor I want to be a representative of my community, he said.

The Declaration of Independents Local Government, created by the Voices of North Sydney group, has been signed by 56 candidates in the Lane Cove, North Sydney, Willoughby, Hunters Hill and Georges River councils.

Rod Simpson, the co-convener of the Voices of North Sydney group, says the intention of the declaration is to get some transparency into local government.

Its asking people what their political status is and whether they have been [a member of a political party] in the past and whether they have made political donations or been a staffer, says Mr Simpson, who is a former environment commissioner with the Greater Sydney Commission.

Its really hard for people to untangle this and we are just trying to bring it up to the surface and make it easy for people to see what on earth is going on.

The Declarations stated intention is to differentiate community-minded independents from independents who are affiliated with political parties. A community minded independent is defined as a candidate who is not currently a member of a political party, and will vote as an individual.

At the Shoalhaven Council, Serena Copley is billed as an independent on the ballot form, but the NSW Electoral Commission records show she is also a Liberal Party member.

Serena Copley is a candidate for Shoalhaven City Council.Credit:Facebook/Serena Copley for Shoalhaven City Council

The same goes for the other candidates on her ticket, Fred Campbell, Leonard White and Francoise Sikora.

Ms Copleys team is called A Fresh Approach and does not mention any connection with the Liberal Party in its promotional materials.

Council candidates Fred Campbell OAM and Leonard White.Credit:Facebook/Serena Copley for Shoalhaven City Council

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In response to questions from The Sydney Morning Herald, Ms Copley said she had been a member of the Shoalhaven community for more than 30 years.

They know me and what I stand for, she said. I am running as an independent so I can represent my community and only my community, not any party or their agenda.

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Liberal Party members running as independents, community candidates in local elections - The Sydney Morning Herald