The World This Hour - The World This Hour for 2025/03/23 at 15:00 EDT

Episode Date: March 23, 2025

The World This Hour for 2025/03/23 at 15:00 EDT

In Scarborough, there's this fire behind our eyes. A passion in our bellies. It's in the hearts of our neighbors. The eyes of our nurses. And the hands of our doctors. It's what makes Scarborough, Scarborough. In our hospitals, we do more than anyone thought possible. We've less than anyone could imagine.

But it's time to imagine what we can do with more. Join Scarborough Health Network and together, we can turn grit into greatness. Donate at lovescarborough.ca. From CBC News, The World Is Sour, I'm Neil Kumar. We begin in Ottawa. There is so much more to do to secure Canada, to invest in Canada, to build Canada, to unite Canada.

That's Prime Minister Carney speaking outside Rideau Hall where he asks the Governor General to dissolve Parliament and call a federal election. He says Canada needs a positive government that can bring Canadians together and build a strong economy. It's easy to be negative about everything when you've never fixed anything, when you've never built anything. But negative slogans aren't solutions. Anger is an action. Division is in strength. Negativity won't win a trade war. Conservative leader Pierre Polyev says his government would end what he called the loss of the decade and he slightly changed the party's new slogan from putting Canada first to putting Canada first for a change

He also said that he's the one who is best suited to deal with US President Donald Trump I respect the office of the president of the United States You can be respectful and firm and I believe we have to be both I will insist the president recognize the independence and sovereignty of Canada. I will insist that he stop terrifying our nation. At the same time I will strengthen our country so that we can be capable of standing our own two feet and standing up to the Americans where and when necessary. Pauli have argued that the Carney liberals are the same as the Trudeau Liberals

and don't deserve a fourth mandate. NDP leader Jagmeet Singh launched his third election campaign with a pitch to working Canadians saying only the new Democrats are prioritizing average Canadians over the rich. This is like being told you have to pick between a house with a leaky roof or a cracked foundation. One patched together with empty conservative slogans, the other

rotting from the inside after years of liberals protecting the most wealthy. People will tell you in this election that it's about who can negotiate with Donald Trump. I'm here to tell you the real question is who will make sure you and the things that you care about are not on the table. you and the things that you care about are not on the table. Singh says New Democrats are the only ones putting in protections for workers affected by Trump's tariffs as their priority. The political landscape in Canada has radically changed in the last couple of months. At the end of last year the Conservatives had a huge lead in the polls, more than 20 points, but today the Liberals enter this election with a slight lead. Poll analyst Eric Grenier. Well nationally in the polls it is a very very tight race.

The Conservatives started the year with about a 25-point lead over the Conservatives and now the Liberals are in the lead in our poll tracker. Now it isn't a very big lead. We give right now the Liberals about 37 and a half percent support. The Conservatives are trailing with about 37 percent. The New Democrats have fallen back quite far and they're now at about 12 percent and they're six percent for the Bloc, four for the Greens and two for the People's Party. So nationally when we do look at those polls it is a very tight race, but in terms of seats it's actually not that close. So right now in the seat projection we are giving the Liberals 174 seats which

is just over the threshold for majority government. So it is more or less a coin toss whether the liberals would be able to win that majority if the election were held today. The conservatives are now at 134 seats in the projection, so would pick up a few. The block would drop a few down to 26. The NDP would drop a lot down to seven, and the Greens still look like they could hold their two seats. And Pope Francis is back at the Vatican after spending five weeks in hospital where he was battling pneumonia. Before leaving, he greeted well-wishers from the balcony

of the Rome hospital. The 88-year-old appeared weak, but he gave the crowd a thumbs up before being wheeled away. Doctors say the Pope needs to continue drug therapy and to rest for about two months. And that is Your World This Hour. Remember, you can listen to us wherever you get your podcasts. The World This Hour is updated every hour, seven days a week.

For CBC News, I'm Neil Coomber.