The World This Hour - The World This Hour for 2025/03/24 at 02:00 EDT

Episode Date: March 24, 2025

The World This Hour for 2025/03/24 at 02:00 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 This Hour, I'm Neil Herland. We begin in Ottawa. I've just requested that the Governor General dissolve parliament and call an election for April 28th. She has agreed. Canadians will vote next month

in a federal election. Three and a half years after the last vote, the party leaders and their candidates are now presenting their plans and promises for a country under the threat of U.S. tariffs. And CBC News has reporters covering all the major parties. Here's a roundup of where the leaders were tonight. I'm Ashley Burke in St. John's, Newfoundland with the Liberals Campaign. Mark Carney is riding high in the polls here in Atlantic Canada, but about 50 protesters tried to disrupt his first rally.

Police asked them to move outside and lock the door. Carney acknowledged them off the top of his speech and said he's here to listen. Then he tried to position himself as the best option to take on Donald Trump, and he got a big round of applause here when he tried to liken conservative leader, Pierre Poliev, to the US president.

But one of the biggest challenges Carney faces is differentiating himself from the Trudeau government. Carney said the proof that he's different is in the action that he's taken since becoming prime minister just over a week ago. And he has now proposed a one percent cut to the lowest tax bracket, saying it would put $825 back in the pockets of those families. I'm Kate McKenna covering the conservatives and I'm at a rally in North York where they're actually turning people away because so many people came.

It's unclear how many people are here in total but it's well over a thousand, more than 200 were turned away, some were given t-shirts and this is in the Toronto area which is a liberal hub of support. Now this is the momentum that conservatives are hoping to get after dipping slightly in the polls and it's momentum that they're hoping to continue to have throughout the weeks ahead. I'm Marina von Stackelberg in Montreal

with the NDP campaign, where leader Jagmeet Singh is entering his third election as the longest serving party leader. So how does he show voters he's offering them something different? The slogan for this campaign is one they've used before, in it for you. Singh says the New Democrats will protect and fight for everyday people impacted by Donald Trump's tariffs, but they could be in for their own battle.

Recent polling suggests the New Democrats could be at risk of losing many of their seats. Conservatives have been targeting working class voters and progressives may be returning to the Liberals. Still, the LNDP say they have more money raised and are better prepared than they have been in a decade. And Singh is a seasoned campaigner. I'm Rafi Vujicanian in Montreal with the Bloc Québécois where leader Yves-Francois Blanchet has just met with comedians at this awards gala, but his party's electoral fortunes are no laughing matter. With Justin Trudeau's resignation, the Bloc has lost its lead in Quebec to the Liberals.

Blanchet says he'll address the US trade war by focusing on specific economic threats to Quebecers such as those employed in the dairy or aluminum sectors. He'll also talk up how Quebecers do not accept pipelines even as conservatives and liberals speak of national energy corridors. One clear advantage for Blanchet over Marc Carney is his fluency in French, very important in French language debates, though this year there may only be one of those. Thanks Rafi. The Green Party is running this time with two co-leaders. Elizabeth May is sharing duties with Jonathan Pedneau, a 34-year-old Quebecer who has never

been elected. The role for the Green Party right now is to stand up for every single Canadian that's having a hard time because of politicians and career politicians standing up in front of them and consistently constantly lying to them. We're not politicians. We're both people who have been to the front lines, have put our bodies on the line to fight for what we believe in. Annemarie Paul was the Green Party leader in the last federal election. Her tenure was marked by infighting among Green members. And

that is your World This Hour. For CBC News, I'm Neal Herland.