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Federal Housing Minister Sean Fraser said Monday that Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre doesn't really care about building more homes and is just whipping up fear and anxiety in order to get elected.

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a housing conference in Ottawa, Fraser said it's frustrating to see Poilievre pitch policies that prey on the anxieties of people who are very worried about buying a home without actually offering solutions.

Fraser recently releaseda three-minute video (new window)on social media. It blasts Poilievre's plan as a poor imitation of what the government is already doing to tackle a crisis that has left homes out of reach for many Canadians.

The video, entitled Pierre doesn't care, is similar in style toone Poilievre released earlier this year (new window)on the same topic. The video goes after the Tory leader's record as housing minister in the last Conservative government.

It's a sign that the Liberal government is starting to fight back against Poilievre, who has led his party to a commanding lead in the polls. Poll aggregator 338 Canada suggeststhe Conservatives enjoy an 18-point lead nationwide. Poilievre has made housing a central plank of his policy playbook.

WATCH:Federal minister pushes back against Conservatives on housing

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Minister of Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Sean Fraser accused the Conservatives of 'talking a big game to inspire a sense of fear or anxiety amongst the Canadian public.' On Saturday, Fraser posted a video to social media saying Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre doesnt care about building more homes.'

Poilievre has releaseda relatively detailed housing plan (new window)built arounda program that would tie federal funding for municipalities to housing starts.

Under his proposal, cities would have to increase the number of homes built by 15 per cent each year. Municipalities that fail to meet that target would see their federal grants withheld at a commensurate rate.

The Conservative plan also would make a $100 million fund available to cities that greatly exceed the target.

Fraser said that's a lot less than the government's existing $4 billion housing accelerator fund, which sends money to cities that cut housing-related red tape and allow more homes to be built on a particular plot of land.

The government has cut dozens of deals with cities using the accelerator fund agreements that Ottawa maintains will create hundreds of thousands of homes nationwide in the coming years.

Fraser also told conference attendees Monday that Ottawa will ramp up its low-interest construction loan program an initiative that will give developers access to cheaper cash if they build more homes.

He suggested there may be more funding for this program in the upcoming federal budget.

It's a program that doesn't necessarily cost Ottawa any money the expectation is that the loans will be paid back with interest but it leverages the government's superior credit rating to get more privately built homes on the market.

Citing Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation(CMHC) data,Fraser's social media video said that housing starts during Poilievre's tenure were lower than in any year of the Liberal government.

He wasn't very good at it and I'm not sure he even cared, Fraser said, while also criticizing the previousgovernment's track record on affordable housing and apartment construction.

Pierre's plan isn't going to solve the housing crisis because Pierre doesn't care about the people it impacts most, Fraser said. The thing Pierre cares about most is Pierre.

Poilievre and Fraser routinely spar in the House of Commons overthe housing issue.

Poilievre has blamed Fraser for the surge in international students during his time as immigration minister, while Fraser has said the Tory leader isn't up to the task of governing.

Poilievre has called Fraser the minister of photo-ops and media puff pieces. He's routinely called him incompetent.

Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre said nobody should take lessons on hate from a prime minister who wore blackface and racist costumes in the past.

Photo:La Presse canadienne / Ryan Remiorz

In Fraser's Nova Scotia, homeless encampments have popped up in Halifax in places where they never were before something Poilievre has cited as an indictment of the Liberals' housing record.

Trudeau told us that media darling Sean Fraser would reverse the Liberal housing crisis. What happened? Housing photo ops are up 100 per cent. Home building is down 7 per cent in 2023, Poilievre said in a social media post.

Poilievre is right about that last figure the CMHC's January report found that housing starts were down seven per cent in 2023 compared to the year before.

There were 223,513 units recorded last year, compared to 240,590 in 2022, according to CMHC data.

That drop is likely attributable to higher interest rates the Bank of Canada's hikes to tame inflation have made it more expensive to build anything.

But there were some bright spots in two of the country's largest cities, despite thechallenging interest rate environment.

Housing starts were 5 per cent and 28 per cent higher than in 2022 in Toronto and Vancouver, respectively, the CMHC said.

Speaking to reporters at the same housing conference Fraser attended, acting president and CEO of CMHC Michel Tremblaysaid there's a dire need for more supply to restore housing affordability.

CMHC projects the country needs to build 3.5 million more housing units by 2030 to meet explosive demand as the country's population expands, thanks in part to record immigration.

That number is quite daunting, Tremblay said.

John Paul Tasker (new window)CBC News

Link:
Liberals say Poilievre 'doesn't care' about the housing shortage and mock his record | RCI - Radio-Canada.ca

Too many of my friends are having a hard time correctly interpreting the criticism leveled by liberals in countries throughout the world against our governments policies.

We demonstrated together against the current governments efforts to undermine our judicial system and against the policies of a coalition formed by Benjamin Netanyahu with messianic zealots, draft evaders, and corrupt politicians.

Yet, particularly in the aftermath of the barbaric massacre carried out against us by Hamas on October 7, it is difficult for many of them to come to terms with the fact that the world is seeing very difficult pictures from Gaza, while we, completely understandably, are still dealing with our trauma, mourning our dead, and living in denial with respect to the terrible suffering of the Gazans.

Too many of my colleagues in the liberal camp in Israel still relate to every international statement that is critical of the governments policies as anti-Israel. They are searching for the hasbara (public diplomacy) wizards who will show the world our good side, while it is actually much more important for us to invest our energy in improving the soul of our nation rather than its image.

Too many Israeli centrists are delighted to see the Israeli flags waving at demonstrations in Brazil in support of the populist Bolsonaro, or that the racist Viktor Orban of Hungary is preventing the European Union from imposing sanctions against violent settlers. They are enthusiastic about the speeches against Muslims made by the Dutch Geert Wilders and the bizarre visit by Milei, Argentinas Elvis Presley, to the Western Wall. They even supported the cruel and cynical dictator Vladimir Putin, simply because of his image as a friend of the Israeli prime minister, an image that turned out to be nothing but a smoke screen. At the same time, they relate to all criticism regarding the humanitarian crisis in Gaza as deriving from anti-Israel sentiment, or even antisemitism.

This is not a new phenomenon; for years I have been hearing many of my liberal friends relating to every decision of any UN institution against the settlements as if it is an anti-Israel decision, to all criticism of the infringement of human rights by our government as if it is antisemitic. They relate to the requirement to mark products from the settlements as such as if this is a boycott of Israel, while in fact it is not a boycott and it is not against Israel. These are decisions that strive to extricate us from the one-way ticket to a binational state drowning in blood that we are led to by our governments.

I still remember how, in my childhood on the kibbutz, Scandinavian volunteers would come who admired Israel as a model of tikkun olam (improving the world). However, they no longer see the same Israel, because Israel has changed. They see the right-wing governments that aspire to turn Israel into an ethnocracy and a theocracy. They see an occupation with no end in sight and boundless expansion of settlements intended to perpetuate it. And when they voice their criticism, our way to avoid dealing with it on the merits is to call them antisemites.

This approach also characterizes many of the establishment Jewish organizations. These are the organizations that think that the Evangelicals are our best friends, simply because they actively support the occupation and the expansion of the settlements, in spite of the fact that their vision is that we will die while helping to bring about Armageddon which will lead to the Second Coming. These Jewish organizations supported the narcissistic, misogynistic Trump and his loyal election results deniers followers, who spread the antisemitic replacement theory, because he gave legitimacy to Israels policies in the occupied territories.

This same line led these organizations to refrain from expressing support for the democratic protest movement in Israel against the attempt to overthrow the legal system, and at present they are not taking a stand against Netanyahus policy to continue the war without any political vision, while hardening their hearts in their willingness to sacrifice the hostages.

At this dangerous time for the future of Israel, our good friends are actually those who are critical of our government and who are trying to effect a change in its policies. They expect us to act in a manner consistent with the values we share with liberal democracies and against the policies that impair the chance to arrive at a reasonable agreement that will safeguard the states security and will ensure its democratic values, for our own good and for the stability of the region and of the world.

The policies of the right-wing governments continue to drag Israel down to the status reserved for pariah nations, such as Iran and Syria. Therefore, just as we expect that the world act against the infringement of human rights by such countries, we should not be surprised that it is considered legitimate at this juncture to oppose the policies of our government.

When the government acts against the interest of the State of Israel and continues with its agenda to reduce it to an occupying ethnocracy, the criticism of such policies must not be viewed as harmful to Israel, but, rather, as an act that might just save it from itself and return it to the path of a liberal democracy.

The writer is J Street Israels executive director. He has served as an Israeli diplomat in Washington and Boston and as a political adviser to the president of Israel.

The rest is here:
Even when it criticizes Israel, the liberal world is not against us - opinion - The Jerusalem Post

There is also new language on the need to fight the far right on the first page of the 10 page document, compared to an earlierJanuary draft.

Socialist parties and leaders from across Europe will gather on Friday and Saturday in Rome to endorse EU Jobs Commissioner Nicolas Schmit as the face of their election campaign, and officially support the manifesto. Schmit will face incumbent Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who will be endorsed as lead EPP candidate next week.

The Socialists manifesto is light on new policy proposals but doubles down on core social democratic tenets, such as battling the cost of living crisis, securing better protections for workers and making the climate transition fairer for citizens. The manifestos lack of ambitious ideas is perhaps a tacit acknowledgment that those socialistfundamentals are under threat, as the center of political gravity in Europe shifts to the right. Polls predict a far-right surge in the next European Parliament.

The Party of Euroepan Socialists points toanother document,agreed by national member parties in November, as being a more detail policy agenda.

The Socialists are set to lose seats, according toPOLITICOs Poll of Polls, but will remain the second-largest faction in Parliament, behind the EPP. That means its likely the Socialists will have to find a way to work with the EPP, and possibly the liberals too.

During the campaign, the PES is expected to accuse the conservatives of enabling the normalization of far-right parties, for example in Italy, and will seek to exploit the policy gulf between the EPPs leader in Parliament, Manfred Weber, and von der Leyen, who staked her legacy on many of the proposals Weber is now seeking to undo,such as the Green Deal.

Read this article:
Socialists ramp up attacks on conservatives and liberals in EU election manifesto - POLITICO Europe

In my column last week, I took a tour of mostly right-wing conspiracy theories that are infecting our political dialogue with a vertigo-inducing warp of reality.

Its only fair that we explore some of the most prominent left-wing conspiracy theories this week, for no party has a true monopoly on tinfoil hats.

1. Maybe the most outrageous liberal conspiracy theory swimming out there now is that Donald Trump is a Russian asset.

I saw this post on X just the other day from Republicans Against Trump:

Feb. 19: The entire world: Putin murdered Navalny.

The Russian government: Navalny died from 'Sudden death syndrome'

Trump this morning: 'The sudden death of Alexi Navalny.'

Donald Trump is a Russian asset."

Ex-Republican lawmaker Liz Cheney issued a similar warning recently on CNNs State of the Union: I believe the issue this election cycle is making sure the Putin wing of the Republican Party does not take over the West Wing of the White House.

Throughout Donald Trumps presidency, information including a dossier compiled by former British spy Christopher Steele posited collusion between Trumps aides and Russian operatives.

While liberal media outlets like MSNBC promoted these rumors, many more reputable news outlets never aired the claims from the dossier because they could never be verified. They turned out to be baseless. Special counsel Robert Muellers investigation found no evidence linking the Trump campaign to Russian interference in U.S. politics. But now these theories have reared their head again as Trump runs for his old office and seems to avoid most criticism of Vladimir Putin. That doesnt mean he works for the Russians.

We went down that road. The Clinton campaign planted a rumor in the press that Trump was a Russian asset, Constitutional scholar Rob Natelson told me. It turns out to be completely false. I dont see very many people buying into that. Most conspiracy theories tend to be for fund-raising purposes or so the left can titillate themselves about what danger they are in when they control every major commanding height in America. And Colorado.

2. A conspiracy theory Natelson does worry about is one that claims a handful of reform groups on the right are trying to overthrow the Constitution.

The most serious conspiracy theory is regarding Common Cause, said Natelson, who is a senior fellow in Constitutional Jurisprudence for the conservative Independence Institute in Denver. Common Cause, a watchdog group based in Washington, D.C., recently put out a fundraising letter that demonizes those seeking a convention for proposing new amendments under Article V of the Constitution.

Many different groups that favor constitutional amendments on campaign finance reform, a balanced federal budget, and extending term limits to Congress have called for such a convention of states.

Yet Common Cause depicts the whole lot as conspiring in a dangerous far-right plot promoting a secret plan to rewrite our Constitution.

These groups obviously represent a threat to the D.C. establishment, so many people who want to blunt that engage in conspiracy theories: This is a deep, dark conspiracy against the Constitution, theyre going to rewrite the Constitution, they are going to gut the Bill of Rights, said Natelson. This is all garbage but apparently generates contributions.

3. Another conspiracy theory out there is that right-wing groups will erupt in violence if Donald Trump loses the presidential race. Natelson believes this is left-wing conspiracy theorists crying wolf.

Many leftists seem to get a thrill from fantasies about right-wing violence. In the real world, however, large-scale domestic violence and intimidation come almost exclusively from the left rather than the right, Natelson said.

Leftist violence and intimidation went big time in 1968, at the Democratic Convention and in the Watts section of Los Angeles. It continued through the campus seizures in the 1970s, the 1980 Miami riots, the 1999 anti-World Trade Organization riots, the 2011 occupation of the Wisconsin state capitol, the 2018 occupation of the Hart Senate office building, the 2018 storming of the Supreme Court, the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests, and on and on. Intimidation continues today, as mobs harass Supreme Court justices and their families.

And unlike the mostly spontaneous and nearly unique right-wing riot of Jan. 6, 2021, leftist uprisings sometimes kill dozens of people.

4. Another raging left-wing conspiracy theory: The Hamas attack was a false flag staged by Israel.

Ive seen this claim made right here in Colorado by pro-Palestinian protesters who have taken over the state Capitol and city council meetings.

Hashtags and terms linking Israel to false flag a staged event that casts blame on another party tripled on social media in the weeks after the attacks, according to the Network Contagion Research Institute, a nonprofit tracking disinformation.

This conspiracy theory comes from a small but growing group on the left that are so upset with Israels retaliation they deny the basic facts of the attacks, pushing a range of falsehoods.

The thing is, the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack is among the most well-documented in history. A crush of evidence from smartphone cameras and GoPros captured Hamas breach of the border.

5. Next: The world can live without fossil fuels.

Last count, about 79% of our energy in the U.S. still comes from fossil fuels. Even if one assumes that fossil fuels are behind the rise in global temperatures over the last century, it is just not rational to believe that we can abandon fossil fuels for many, many years.

If fossil fuel production were stopped tomorrow, the world would quickly grind to a halt. Without that power, electricity grids would see widespread blackouts. Within a few weeks, a lack of oil still the major fuel used for trucking and shipping goods worldwide would impede deliveries of food and other essential goods, a Washington Post science reporter wrote recently.

Natelson believes the facts of climate change have gotten drowned in an ocean of climate propaganda" and the fight has become so politicized that claims are being exaggerated all the time and every weather event has been turned into a political football, whether it should be or not.

6. A Washington Post columnist, ABC News and Gloria Steinem all recently voiced versions of an ungrounded conspiracy theory that when Roe v. Wade was overturned the anti-abortion movement and the Supreme Court majority were merely pretending to oppose abortion while secretly wanting only to boost White birthrates for the sake of perpetuating dominance of the White race. Seventy-one million Catholics who oppose abortion for religious reasons will be surprised to hear this.

At the end of the day, my central concern isnt necessarily that the left embraces conspiracy theories more than the right, or vice versa.

A recent study published by Political Behavior found, in fact, that Americans who lean conservative in their political beliefs are no more likely to believe in conspiracy theories than liberals.

In addition, many conspiracy theories are equally supported by both sides of the political spectrum, the study found.

The larger concern to me is that people on the left and the right are losing their ability to distinguish conspiracy theory from plain old controversy or disagreement, or conspiracy theory from reality. My bigger worry is that facts no longer matter.

In a world awash in conspiracy theories everybody thinks they are being lied to and manipulated and theyre right. Now our disagreements are mostly about who is doing the lying and the reasons for the lies rather than healthy disagreement about the issues themselves.

In a new book, writer Naomi Klein worries that we have created a kind of Mirror World with our culture of conspiracy theory and the separate news and internet bubbles in which left and right dwell.

The Mirror World is a strange mirror image of the world where I live, she writes. Its a place where many ideas that I care about are being twisted and warped into dangerous doppelgnger versions of themselves. Think, for example, of Putin claiming that hes liberating Ukraine from fascism.

When looking at the Mirror World, it can seem obvious that millions of people have given themselves over to fantasy, to make-believe, to playacting, writes Klein. The trickier thing, the uncanny thing, really, is thats what they see when they look at us.

Read the rest here:
Six liberal conspiracy theories clouding politics | Business - Colorado Springs Gazette

The governing Liberals took their first major step toward national pharmacare Thursday as the health minister tabled a bill that paves the way for a universal drug program and secures NDP support in the House of Commons.

But Health Minister Mark Holland made clear there is still a long way to go before all drugs in Canada are covered under a federal program.

The bill allows the government to negotiate with provinces and territories to cover birth control, along with diabetes drugs and supplies, for anyone with a health card.

Holland said the cost is likely to be in the realm of $1.5 billion, but he said that estimate is very likely to change over the course of his talks with provinces.

This is a proof-of-concept opportunity to try (providing) two drugs on a universal, single-payer model, Holland said at a press conference Thursday.

Were going to have an opportunity to evaluate the effectiveness of that model.

He said he believes the government will be able to show significant cost savings in fairly short order.

In addition to testing the waters on universal coverage, the bill also fulfils a promise made to the New Democrats, who touted the legislation Thursday as the fulfilment of a long-held dream.

This is historic. This is the dream of our party since the conception of our party, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh said Thursday morning.

It is happening not by coincidence, it is happening because New Democrats fought and we forced the government to do this.

Pharmacare is a central pillar of the political pact between the two parties, which has the NDP helping the Liberals stave off an election in exchange for progress on a list of shared priorities.

Its future had seemed uncertain amid a months-long stalemate over the wording of the legislation and the number of drugs they planned to launch with.

The NDP announced they clinched the negotiations late last week, in the lead-up to a negotiated March 1 deadline to table a bill.

Health critic Don Davies, who led the negotiations for the New Democrats, said the final pieces were put in place over the weekend.

The Liberals fought us every step of the way. They resisted, they delayed, they opposed, but New Democrats persisted, said Davies.

The legislation makes reference to a single-payer, universal model something Davies said he insisted on.

And it includes universal coverage as a binding principle that must guide the implementation of a future pharmacare program.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre spoke to the media in the foyer of the House of Commons Thursday, but walked away when reporters asked him for his position on the governments pharmacare plans.

As it stands, Canada is the only country in the world with a universal health-care system that does not also have universal coverage for prescription drugs outside of hospitals.

In December, the NDP and Liberals agreed to push back the original timeline, which wouldve seen legislation fully passed by the end of last year.

The reticence on the Liberals part largely came down to cost.

A full fledged pharmacare program would cost the government nearly $40 billion a year by the time it is fully up and running, the parliamentary budget officer estimates.

Singh threatened to pull out of the deal if the March 1 deadline wasnt met with legislation that earned his approval, though he was open about a desire to keep the deal alive and see a pharmacare bill debated in the Commons.

The bill calls for the minister to put together a committee of experts to make recommendations about how to pay for a national, universal, single-payer plan within 30 days of the act receiving royal assent.

Alberta and Quebec have already said they want to opt out of the program and would rather put the money toward their existing drug plans.

We were not consulted about the federal governments plan and, although information available to us is limited, we have concerns about the proposed limited scope, Alberta Health Minister Adriana LaGrange said earlier this week.

LaGrange said Alberta intends to opt out of the program, but still wants to receive its per-capita share.

On the other hand, British Columbia already covers many contraceptives as part of its provincial pharmacare program, and Manitobas government has already pledged to do so as well.

Ontario also provides many contraceptives for people under the age of 25 who dont have private insurance, and has existing programs to support people with diabetes. The provincial government says it wants more information about what the bill will mean for those programs.

I was very clear with the minister when we spoke that Im not writing off anything, but Im also not buying into something where I dont know exactly whats there, Ontario Health Minister Sylvia Jones said Thursday.

Singh called it disappointing that provinces would dismiss the program out of hand, without seeing the details.

Despite the immediate concerns from Alberta and Quebec, Holland said he is very optimistic this is a plan we can deliver across the country.

In addition to the initial plans for diabetes and birth control drugs, the bill lays out several next steps and deadlines designed to nudge the government toward a bigger pharmacare plan.

Those steps include asking the new Canadian Drug Agency to develop a list of essential medicines within a year of royal assent, which would inform which drugs are covered in the future.

Here is the original post:
Liberals take first step toward pharmacare with bill for birth control, diabetes meds - Sylvan Lake News