The World This Hour - The World This Hour for 2025/04/18 at 17:00 EDT

Episode Date: April 18, 2025

The World This Hour for 2025/04/18 at 17:00 EDT

So Canada, we've got to choose a new prime minister and it's a pretty crucial time. Even people who don't normally follow politics are trying to figure out what the heck is going on. I'm Catherine Cullen, host of The House, and I started a new weekly election show with two friends and fellow political nerds. Hello, I'm Daniel Thibault bringing you the Quebec Point de Vu. I'm Jason Microsoft and Calvary bringing the takes and stakes from the West. Together, we are House Party, a weekly elections podcast for everyone.

We tackle one big burning question every Wednesday. Find us in the House's feed wherever you get your podcasts. From CBC News, the world this hour, I'm Julianne Hazelwood. The federal election is more than a week away, but advance polls are already open across the country and some have long lineups. As Peter Cowan found, one person not on the ballot was on voters' minds. At a St. John's Recreation Centre, the lineup of voters snakes down the hallway. They were willing to wait in line to cast their ballot on the first day of advance polls.

Donald Trump's threats to Canada were on many voters' minds. The way Trump is getting on, carrying on with his foolishness and dialysis and garbage, this is why I wanted to get out. It's just pretty terrifying, I think. So that would be the top one. The crowds this morning were bigger than officials expected. Karen Linfield is the returning officer in St. John's East. She says people coming into her office to vote

are feeling the importance of this election. You can just see the intent in people's faces. We don't know who they vote for, that's their decision. But what we know is that they are not going to miss their opportunity to vote this time. Last election, almost 6 million people voted in advance polls. How many come out to vote this weekend could be an early indication of just how interested Canadians are in this election. Peter Cowen, CBC News, St. John's. Conservative leader Pierre Pollyaev is promising to repeal the ban on single-use plastics,

a pledge that's long been part of the party's platform. Julia Wong reports. This isn't about science. it's about symbolism and control. They're not about saving the planet, they're about punishing all of us to make themselves feel good. As he stood in an East End Montreal plastics recycling business, Conservative leader Pierre Poliev committed to repealing the federal plastics ban if his party forms government. It prohibits single-use plastic grocery bags, cutlery, and straws.

Poliev calls that impractical and expensive. We will end the liberal ban on convenience. We will base policy on evidence and affordability, not on elite virtue signaling and bureaucratic power grabs. The ban was intended to reduce the amount of single-use plastic waste ending up in landfills and oceans. It was ruled unlawful by the courts in 2023, but remains in effect while the federal government's appeal is ongoing. Julia Wong, CBC News, Ottawa. NDP leader Jagmeet Singh is in Quebec,

promising to boost immigration funding by a hundred million dollars a year. Singh says the province would also be reimbursed for dealing with an influx of asylum seekers and he promises to invest in a national hydroelectric grid that would benefit Quebec. Although opinion polls don't look promising for the NDP, Singh is sounding optimistic. We are gonna really just let Canadians know the choice in this election. I mean that's what we want people to know in the last 10 days. What's at stake and what's the choice? Really who's in it for you? And that's ultimately the question.

And we have said this and I really believe this and more and more Canadians are telling me, yeah, they agree as well. Ottawa does work best when one party doesn't have all the power. I'm going to let people know in the last 10 days of this campaign. Singh is promising to release his party's

fully costed platform, in his words, very soon. The US is threatening to pull out of Russia-Ukraine ceasefire negotiations if progress isn't made quickly. We want to see it end. President Donald Trump says if either side makes things too complicated, the US will step away from brokering a full ceasefire. But he says he believes there is a good chance of ending the conflict. My whole life has been one big negotiation and I know when people are playing us and

I know when they're not and I have to see an enthusiasm to want to end it and I think I see that enthusiasm. I think I see it from both sides. He declined to comment on what abandoning peace talks would mean for American military support to Ukraine. Russia has rejected a previous US proposal and placed several conditions on any potential ceasefire. French President Emmanuel Macron is inviting scientists from all over the world to come work in France or Europe. The invitation comes at the same time Donald Trump is slashing funding for universities and research bodies.

In his invitation Macron does not mention the US, but he says in France research is a priority, innovation a culture, science a limitless horizon. And that is your World This Hour. For CBC News, I'm Julianne Hazelwood.