Your World Tonight - Federal election campaign: Day One

Episode Date: March 23, 2025

Canada's 45th General Election is now underway. You'll hear what the leaders of all the major political parties are saying on day one of the campaign - and how they're pitching themselves to voters.Also: Canadians from across the country tell us what ballot box issues they care most about.And: We'll take you to Washington to talk about the how the strained Canada-U.S. relationship is playing out on the campaign trail. 

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. This is a CBC Podcast. Hi, I'm Julianne Hazelwood. This is Your World Tonight. I've just requested that the Governor General dissolve Parliament and call an election for

April 28th. She has agreed. And with that, Canada's 45th general election gets underway. Tonight, you'll hear what the leaders of all the major political parties are saying on day one of the campaign, and how they're pitching themselves to voters. Also in the podcast, you'll hear from Canadians about what ballot box issues they care most about. Plus, we'll take you to Washington

to talk about the strained Canada-U.S. relationship and how it's playing out on the campaign trail. And? We just don't have the level of scrutiny of public affairs, business affairs, of local issues that we should in order to make good democratic decisions. In big cities and small towns, local journalism is vanishing across Canada. And experts say that's bad for democracy. The starting pistol has been fired and candidates from coast to coast to coast are now sprinting

towards April 28th. On that day, Canadians will elect their next government. Just a few months ago, the results seemed almost certain, but the election of a new liberal leader and the return of a US president have changed the return of a U.S. president have changed the state of the race. JB Tasker tells us where the parties all stand on day one. There is so much more to do to secure Canada, to invest in Canada, to build Canada. The trade war election is officially underway. And new Liberal leader Mark Carney says he needs a mandate from the people as Canada stares down President Donald Trump, his tariffs and the 50 for state taunts.

President Trump claims that Canada isn't a real country. He wants to break us so America can own us. We will not let that happen. The former central banker says he has the experience to steer the country through an economic crisis. He helped Canada manage the Great Recession and he can do it again. I know we need change. Big change. Positive change. He's leaning on some homegrown star power to get his patriotic message out.

Mr. Prime Minister, Mike Myers, what are you doing here? Taping a campaign ad with comedian Mike Myers, an outspoken Trump critic. Will there always be a Canada? There will always be a Canada. Alright, elbows up. Elbows up. Carney's pledge comes as Trump says he's dead serious about annexation. The president is promising even more tariffs on April 2nd.

So when I say they should be a state, I mean that. While he's been endorsed by Trump ally and friend Elon Musk, conservative leader Pierre Poliev says he won't bend to the US administration. Do you respect Donald Trump? I respect the office of the president of the United States. Pointing out even Trump himself says he prefers to deal with the liberal. Our nation is more divided than ever before because the liberal radical post-national borderless and globalist ideology has weakened our nation.

Poliev says the liberals don't deserve another term. It's time for a change at the top. It's the same old liberal MPs, the same liberal ministers, the same liberal advisors, the same liberal elites, the same broken liberal promises of the last ten years. We cannot afford another lost liberal decade. We need to put Canada first for a change. According to the CBC poll tracker, NDP leader Jagmeet Singh starts his election in a distant third place. Some progressives have parked their vote with the Liberals instead.

Mark Carney spent his career making sure the system worked for the most wealthy, not for you. Singh is urging them to stick with the Orange team. Only new Democrats can be trusted to look out for you. This will be the shortest campaign allowed by law, just 37 days in total. Election Day itself is on April 28th. Polls suggest this is a tight race and there's a big battle ahead. JP Tasker, CBC News, Ottawa.

Our reporters will be covering the party leaders every stop of the way over the next five weeks. Liberal leader Mark Carney's first campaign stop is in Canada's easternmost city. Tom Perry will be travelling with the Carney campaign and he tells us what's ahead. Mark Carney goes into this campaign as the new face of the Liberal Party. Trying to persuade voters he can bring change, leading a party that's been in power for a decade at a time when Canada is facing an unprecedented threat from the U.S. and its president. I'm asking Canadians for a strong, positive mandate to deal with President Trump

and to build a new Canadian economy that works for everyone. Because I know we need change. Big change. Positive change. Kearney has announced his first new policy, promising a middle class tax cut that he says will save two income families up to $825 a year. But much of his speech kicking off this election was aimed at Donald Trump, warning the US president wants to break Canada so America can own it, telling Canadians they have to look out for themselves. For his first big event in St. John's, the beginning of a five-week campaign, Carney is

trying to persuade voters his Liberals aren't more of the same. Tom Perry, CBC News, Ottawa. The Conservative Party is not allowing reporters to travel with Pierre Polyev's campaign, though it's still promising to be accessible to media and to take questions. And CBC News is committed to covering the Conservatives as extensively as it does the other parties. Kate McKenna is watching Poliev's campaign for us tonight. Pierre Poliev is spending this evening and tomorrow in the Greater Toronto area. This is a crucial battleground for the Conservatives to win the election.

We got a real sense today of where they're hoping to take their message. Their slogan is Canada first for a change. It's a nod to two of the biggest issues that have come up in opinion polling. First, Donald Trump's threats against Canada. And second, a desire for change after nearly a decade of Justin Trudeau as prime minister. But Poliev will have to convince Canadians that he's the change they want since Liberal leader Mark Carney is also presenting himself as an outsider and that he's the best person to take on Trump.

He came out strong against Trump's tariff and sovereignty threats to Canada, but in some ways he's walking a tightrope since a portion of Polyab's base likes the American president. We can expect to see the Conservative leader try to thread the needle, tying the issue of cost of living to the Trump threats in his bid to convince Canadians that he's the best option for Prime Minister. Kate McKenna, CBC News, Toronto. NDP leader Jagmeet Singh is an election veteran at this point. He's running in his third campaign as the head of the New Democrats. David Thurton tells us what he's up against.

You deserve a prime minister. You can trust to make decisions in your best interest, not to advance his personal wealth. And we know that someone who's going to be fighting in your best interest, that's not Mark Carney. He has spent his whole career serving the interests of billionaires. NDP leader, Judd Mead Singh, launching his campaign with Liberal leader, Mark Carney, in his crosshairs. He's not our guy because anyone who profits off the crisis should not be in charge of

fixing it. Singh acknowledged that he is beginning his campaign at a disadvantage. not our guy. Because anyone who profits off the crisis should not be in charge of fixing it. Singh acknowledged that he is beginning his campaign at a disadvantage. The CBC's poll tracker shows the NDP is polling at some of its lowest levels since the 1990s. I'm very familiar and comfortable being an underdog. I think a lot of Canadians can relate to that. But what I'm looking at right now is I'm seeing a country where there's a lot of workers who are worried. Singh added, other parties would want nothing more than for New Democrats to disappear, but vows, that won't happen.

David Thurton, CBC News, Ottawa. The Bloc Québécois leader has a tough balancing act. Yves-Francois Blanchet is leading the separatist party, at a moment when Canadian national pride is surging. Rafi Boujikaniat was at his campaign launch. I read Newton, what goes up goes down. If that's good for me, that's good for Mr. Carney. Let's see. Yves-François Blanchet making light of how his party is starting this race behind where

it was just months ago. The Bloc Québécois, once hoping to pick up the pieces of Justin Trudeau's spent Liberal Party, now dealing with resurgent grits under Marc Cardy. Blanchet says he will lean heavily on environmental questions, raising the specter of pipelines and national energy corridors talked up by both Liberals and Conservatives and how he believes Quebecers won't accept that.

One of the first thing that this would do, by the way, is make gas at the pump more expensive in Quebec. Each household to pay for the damages of climate change. An assertion already challenged by Quebec Premier Francois Legault just days ago, who says public opinion on this issue is slowly shifting because of the economic threat represented by U.S US President Donald Trump.

Rafi Bajikhan, UNCBC News, Montreal. Green Party co-leaders Elizabeth May and Jonathan Pedneau launched their campaign in Montreal today. The party's senior adviser, Rod Leggett, says the other parties have let environmental issues fall to the wayside in this election. A lot of the major parties just tend to neglect climate action and this is just something that we never have let go because it really is the threat of our generation and a future generation. So yeah indeed I think it's an opportunity for us to demonstrate to Canadians that this is something that we very much need to take seriously.

The Green Party had two seats in the House of Commons heading into this election. Leggett says increasing the number of Green MPs would be a victory. Still ahead? A cancer survivor, MPEI is begging the province to fix its doctor shortage. One way to do that is to make it easier for doctors trained in other countries to get accredited here. And PEI is now the only province without a program to do just that.

You'll hear that story later on Your World Tonight. [♪upbeat music playing throughout the video.♪ [♪upbeat music playing throughout the video.♪ In Quebec, the political landscape appears to be shifting. New polls suggest the Liberals are gaining ground following Justin Trudeau's resignation. Vanessa Lee is in Montreal with a closer look at this battleground province. At this Sugar Shack festival in Montreal, people are tapping into a time-honoured tradition, maple taffy on snow.

It's important because we have our identity. David Lessard is a fifth-generation maple syrup producer from the community of Saint-Joseph-des-Erabes, southeast of Quebec City. He proudly displays a Canadian flag. I always have been a Canadian first. I'm a Quebecer, I'm first a Canadian. We are a family and especially in this time we need to be strong together.

There has been a surge in patriotism here over the past few weeks. A recent poll found the percentage of Canadians saying they have a deep emotional attachment to the nation shot up the most in Quebec. Current projections have the Liberals in the lead over the Bloc Québécois, with the Conservatives in third place. Philippe Fournier is a polling analyst with 338 Canada. Monsieur Trudeau had poor numbers in Quebec, so you remove him from the equation. It helps the Liberals.

The reaction again to what happened with South of the Border with the Trump administration matters a lot to Quebecers because we know we sell aluminum, we have lumber, we have water, we have all these resources that we sell to Americans. I think Quebecers are thinking about Donald Trump as much or more as any other Canadians. Concordia University political science professor Brooke Jeffery says support for Quebec separatism has declined dramatically with its linguistic and cultural survival at stake. Everybody in Quebec knows that in Canada they have a very specific place, a protected place, official languages, charter of rights, constitutional guarantees, including representation in the

House of Commons. And Mr. Trump just signed an executive order which said English is the only official language in the United States. With 78 seats up for grabs, Quebec is once again shaping up to be a key battleground. Voter Mary Adams, a mother of two, says she will be casting her ballot based on leader rather than party platform. I think this time it's more important to look at who and why and what they're doing for us. With Quebecers known to be notoriously fickle when it comes to federal politics, the path to victory for any party won't be easy. Vanessa Lee, CBC News, Montreal.

In the coming weeks you're going to hear a lot about polls. But how reliable are these numbers and what can they really tell us about the state of the election race? Poll analyst Philippe Fournier is Editor-in-Chief of 338 Canada. When polls are conducted properly by professionals, they constitute the most objective information you will ever have about a campaign. During a campaign, the parties, they buy advertising, they have of course rallies, everything is made to influence you, to spin the news their way. The polls, if they're done correctly,

will give you the score of the game and that's why I like following the polls so much because the game and that's why I like following the polls so much because it tells the story of the campaign even though every which way the narrative will be pulled. If you'd like to become more poll literate, CBC News has an explainer. You can find that online at cbcnews.ca. And while you're there, you can check out our poll tracker as well. Canadians seem to agree an election's a good idea not only in the face of threats from the US but also to plot a path forward on issues ranging from housing to health care. As Phil Blishanok

reports people are divided on who's best to lead. Although it was a non-partisan event at an elbows up rally in Toronto, Lewis Pike says he's made up his mind. I think it would be nice if the Canadian people had more of a chance to understand who Carney is. But I think it's appropriate to give him a vote of confidence, not only for the party but for the country. In St. John, New Brunswick, voters run hot and cold for the former governor of the Bank of Canada. Recent polls have suggested the Liberal leader and his conservative opponent Pierre Poliev

are in a neck-and-neck race. So you look at the polls they swing pretty dramatically. So I think it's a dead cat bounce, I think the Conservatives will win. Well I look at the Liberal candidate. He's already shown that his financialatives will win. Well, I look at the liberal candidate. He's already shown that his financial abilities are excellent. Even though I think Carney's a great guy, but there's too many of the same bureaucrats and the same policies. James Cumming, the former Conservative MP for Edmonton Centre, expects Carney to be a tough sell despite his roots in Alberta. Conservatives won all but four of the province's 34 ridings in the 2021 election.

Conservatives usually do quite well in Alberta. The polls would suggest that it's tightened up quite a bit. But I'm still pretty optimistic. I think people want change. I think the next Prime Minister needs to engage the prairies. Edmonton business owner Cam Main says he's open to hearing about what Carney will do to counter Western alienation. I'm interested to see what he brings forward but I think it'd have to be drastically different than his

predecessor in order for it to really truly represent the prairies. In Vancouver Joe Hitchcock says Carney has his vote on housing and education. I saw a poll that put Mark Carney ahead. We like him so I think we were happy to see that. Verun Tananger says he expects a close race. I think Mark Carney has changed the game. So I think it's going to be cut to cut, yeah. Pollster Eric Grenier of The Ritz says current surveys put Carney and Poliev in a dead heat. So it is a very tight race between the two front runners and it's certainly not what things look

like at the beginning of the year when Justin Trudeau resigned when the Conservatives were leading on average by about 25 points. But he expects much to change before April 28th with voters waiting to hear what's said in the leaders debate before making up their minds. Philip LeChanoc, CBC News, Toronto. As you've been hearing, U.S. President Donald Trump's persistent threats of tariffs and annexation are clearly front of mind this federal election. All parties are vying to win over concerned Canadians with their approach to tackling

the U.S. president head on. Katie Simpson joins us from Washington. Katie, this campaign is happening at a time when the Canada-U.S. relationship is expected to sour even further. Things are poised to get worse before they get better. We're just over a week or so away from the Trump administration delivering another significant blow to the Canadian economy. President Donald Trump has promised reciprocal tariffs on all US trading partners starting April 2nd. So basically any country that has tariffs on US goods will be hit or if a country has trade barriers or economic policies the Trump administration

doesn't like that they think are unfair to American businesses, they could be hit for that too. We still don't know exactly how it's going to work. The Trump administration has been erratic on this issue, but Canada has been told additional tariffs are coming. It doesn't matter that Canada is an election campaign and that the government is in caretaker mode. The Trump administration is pushing ahead and it will be a major test for the campaigns in Canada. And Katie, Trump and some of his allies have weighed in on this campaign. Yeah, Elon Musk who's leading Donald Trump's efforts to slash the size of the US government, a source of great controversy

in the opening days of the Trump administration. He has previously posted supportive social media messages about conservative leader Pierre Poliev, as has Mike Walz, who serves as Trump's national security advisor. He too has praised Poliev on social media. As for Trump himself, he's distanced himself from the conservatives. In an interview last week on Fox News, he criticized Poliev saying he'd rather work with a liberal. But that, of course, is all in a different context now because of that revelation from Alberta Premier Danielle Smith. Earlier this month, she told a right-wing media outlet she urged the Trump administration

to pause the tariff agenda because the backlash in Canada is actually helping the liberals. Right. Trump himself, his language about Canada isn't changing. No, all you have to do is look at what Trump said in the Oval Office on Friday, again, arguing that Canada must become the 51st state, suggesting that Canada doesn't have the cards to play, and he's used similar language in talking about Ukraine. Trump is pursuing an expansionist agenda,

and this week he is sending a delegation to Greenland saying after repeatedly saying the US must take control of the Danish territory. He's sending Mike Waltz the national security adviser and Usha Vance the second lady. Trump does not look like he's backing down and it certainly does not look that all like all of this annexation talk is a joke to him. Katie, thanks very much for this. Thanks. The CBC's Katie Simpson in Washington. Ottawa has updated its travel advisory for anyone planning a trip to the United States. Visitors to the U.S. are now required to register if they're staying more than 30 days.

The federal government says those who don't comply could face fines and misdemeanor prosecution. Travelers can look at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration website to find out how to register. In southern Gaza, Palestinians survey a crater in the ground caused by an Israeli airstrike. Both Hamas and Israel's military say the strike killed a top Hamas commander in Gaza. Israel's military says it killed another key Hamas militant near the area of Nasser Hospital. Meanwhile, Gaza's health ministry says the number of Palestinians killed since the start of the war with Hamas has passed 50,000. Ukrainian and US officials are holding talks in Saudi

Arabia. The meeting is part of an ongoing push by U.S. President Trump to end three years of war between Ukraine and Russia. In a social media post, Ukraine's defense minister writes the two countries are ironing out the details of a limited ceasefire, including proposals, he says, to protect energy facilities and critical infrastructure. U.S. and Russian delegations will meet tomorrow. Finding a family doctor in this country is hard. One solution provinces are

taking to reduce the doctor shortage is called practice-ready assessment. It's used to accredit foreign-trained doctors. Only one province doesn't have a PRA program, PEI. Taylor O'Brien spoke to a cancer survivor from Prince Edward Island who wants the barriers preventing doctors from practicing on the island to come down. How do I advocate for myself here? For the first time, Bar Broom doesn't have a family doctor because hers retired in November. I thought, oh yeah, you know, a kid can't be that bad. There's got to be a nurse practitioner. There's got to be somewhere to go.

There isn't, you know, there really isn't. Nine years ago, Broom was diagnosed with thyroid cancer. She had her thyroid and all parathyroids removed. Now her body can't manage calcium. Without a family doctor, Broom has to request copies of her own blood work and get an internist to look at them. But her health has gotten worse. I wouldn't have to be at that emergency department

or taking up space in that hospital if I had a family doctor. Broom is one of more than six million Canadians who don't have a family doctor. She says she would like it to be easier for doctors to come and practice on PEI. If you're a doctor in one country and you come to Canada, well I understand there may be some differences but if you can pass that test then you should be able to practice medicine here. One way is through a practice ready assessment program or PRA. It's a faster way to get internationally trained physicians practicing in Canada within months instead of years. Normally foreign trained doctors would have to complete

two years of family medicine residency training to get licensed in Ontario. With the province's PRA, the doctors get assessed in 12 weeks. All provinces have their own version of a practice-ready assessment, except PEI. Dr. George Carruthers is the CEO of PEI's College of Physicians and Surgeons. We've had discussions a few times with the department and with the health authority talking about whether a practice-ready assessment is right for PEI. Do we have the resources with the medical school, with the teaching?

It's very heavy supervision for those physicians. Some provinces' programs have seen success. BC has assessed over 300 family physicians in the last 10 years. On the East Coast, New Brunswick just graduated the first class of doctors from its own program. Those 10 doctors can take on up to 15,000 patients. Right now, Prince Edward Island has a program that lets an internationally trained doctor work under the supervision of another doctor. In a statement the province's health authority says it continues to explore pathways to get internationally trained doctors licensed to practice on PEI. Taylor O'Brien, CBC News,

Charlottetown. During an election campaign it's vital to have access to a trusted source of local news, not only to know what your local candidates are promising, but also to sort through the mire of conspiracies, hoaxes and scams that can spread online. A new report by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives says local news outlets are disappearing across Canada quickly. As Jamie Strashan reports, it's happening in both big cities and small towns. We are on a fairly steep downward spiral.

The numbers are bleak. Nearly two and a half million Canadians live in a postal code with one or zero local news outlets. More than double than in 2008. David McDonald is one of the report's authors. This isn't only a small town rural issue. This is a big city issue where we just don't have the level of scrutiny of public affairs, business affairs of local issues that we should in order to make good democratic decisions. The decline McDonald says driven by a model built around advertising with much

of those dollars now eaten up by social media and search engines. There is still a deep desire for local news and in many communities where larger corporations have stepped away it's fallen to individuals. In Brighton Ontario about 150 kilometres east of Toronto Amy McQuade founded the Brighton Community Gazette which focused on City Council. I found that people were not getting accurate information and there was so much happening. Like decisions were being made and nobody knew about it. And I think with municipal government it is your first point of contact with government. It should be the most open.

The newsletter quickly took off attracting hundreds of subscribers. Some of its reporting even getting traction on the floor of the provincial legislature. But in the end, with a family and a full-time job, documenting city council became too much and McQuade had to pause the newsletter. In its absence, McQuade says misinformation has filled the void, something the study found was a major implication of local news loss. They believe the stories that are being told that are broken telephone that are not based on fact that are not based on what's actually happening and then those stories that are being told sort

of at the watering hole to people then get interpreted in ways that are harmful and have people act in ways that are not informed. April Lindgren, a former journalist and longtime professor at Toronto Metropolitan University says currently there's no workable formula to sustain local news. If your community is lucky enough to have an innovator, an innovative entrepreneur, risk-taker, brave soul, somebody willing to take on the challenge of running a local news outlet these days, you're lucky. Lindgren says those willing to take on the challenge of running a local news outlet these days. You're lucky. Lindgren says those willing to do it face the same challenges as the bigger players

who have abandoned the space, creating attractive content and figuring out how to pay for it. Jamie Strash in CBC News, Toronto. And finally, as an election looms amidst a backdrop of sovereignty threats and a trade war, the rallying cries for Canadian solidarity keep coming. At first we were afraid, we were petrified, kept thinking we could never live without you by our side. And we spent so many nights thinking how you did us wrong. Now we've banned it all together.

Your tariff made us strong and so you know. We Will Survive, written in the style of the 1978 Gloria Gaynor hit. This time, Gord Moran is the wordsmith, a retired teacher from Prince Edward County, Ontario. And the track was produced by his best friend, Wayne McFall. He let me hear it in the morning over coffee, and I read it it and I went,

holy smokes boy, this is not only pertinent but cleverly written and a nice rhyming scheme. And he said, well, what are we gonna do with it? And I said, well, why don't I get it recorded for you? So Wayne pitched the idea to a local singer. Within a few days, the track was recorded and once it was posted online, the reaction was swift.

More than a million people listened, and thousands commented, Canadians voicing support and solidarity, and Americans apologizing for their president. But Gord didn't get to see the incredible response. He died suddenly at the age of 75 the same day the song was shared online. Wayne is certain his friend would have been elated that the song is resonating. Oh he would be beside himself. I mean it would be just be he wouldn't be able to believe the numbers. Totally thrilled. He'd probably start writing another one. In honor of Gord and all Canadians looking for a fight back anthem, here's more of We

Will Survive. This has been Your World Tonight for Sunday, March 23rd, 2025. I'm Julianne Hazelwood. Thanks for listening. have a clue when we sell all our resources to anyone but you just so you know you're not so great for more cbc podcasts go to cbc.ca podcasts