Your World Tonight - Record on early voting, Pope funeral plans, hockey player trial, and more

Episode Date: April 22, 2025

Canadians may be more engaged in this election race than ever before. More than seven million people cast a ballot over the weekend. It’s a record for advance polls. There are just six days left until Election Day, and the parties are working hard to push out their messages. The Conservatives have become the last major party to release a fully-costed platform. We have a look at what’s in it.And: The funeral for Pope Francis will happen on Saturday. World leaders are expected to attend. His body will lie in state for three days at St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City. On this Earth Day, some are remembering his environmental legacy — and his message about the urgency of the climate crisis.Also: Five former NHL players accused of sexually assaulting a woman in London, Ontario have pleaded not guilty. A woman says she was assaulted in a hotel room after a 2018 gala celebrating Canada's world junior hockey win. The trial began today and is expected to last weeks.Plus: IMF cuts global growth forecast, Canada set to export liquid natural gas from B.C., to Asia, and more.

1942, Europe. Soldiers find a boy surviving alone in the woods. They make him a member of Hitler's army. But what no one would know for decades, he was Jewish. Could a story so unbelievable be true? I'm Dan Goldberg. I'm from CBC's Personally, Toy Soldier. Available now wherever you get your podcasts. This is a CBC Podcast. This is exactly why I'm in politics, to reverse this, to give people back the promise of this country. And we know what to do. We know how to get there. We have to unleash a plan for change. With only a few days left in the campaign and more than 7 million votes already cast,

the Conservatives release their costed platform, what they'll do if elected and how they'll pay for it. With tax cuts and cuts to what they call government waste, the new slogan on Pierre Poliev's lectern change. But will his promise of tax cuts and lowering the deficit lead to a change of government? Welcome to Your World Tonight. I'm Susan Bonner. It is Tuesday, April 22nd, coming up on 6 PM Eastern, also on the podcast. He opened our hearts too, because sometimes we get stuck in our ways and we live our daily lives and we kind of go and don't see the poor, we don't see the suffering. Canadian Catholics are gathering to remember and pray for Pope Francis.

He will be buried on the weekend. Cardinals from around the globe are making their way to Rome for the funeral and to choose his replacement. And on this Earth Day, we look back at the impact Francis had on the environmental movement. There are signs Canadians are more engaged in this election race than ever before, including record-breaking voter numbers at advance polls. Olivia Stefanovic tells us what this could mean for leaders in a campaign that is less than a week away from the finish line.

How's your son David? Well, it's been a tough few years for him. He just can't seem to get ahead. If you've tuned in to the NHL playoffs, you've probably seen the Conservatives' new ad. Do you really think that a fourth liberal term is going to change anything? Notably not featuring leader Pierre Polyev, but instead two older men talking politics at a golf course. They usually do well among older men. Eric Grenier runs CBC's poll tracker. I think it is a reflection that they have lost some supporters that they had been counting on before this campaign began. And these ads might be an attempt to try to get those people back.

The two men running to lead us both once worked for me. The Tories are also running an endorsement by former Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Only Pierre will bring change. Our old relationship with the United States is over. While the Liberals prominently feature leader Mark Carney and his plan to shepherd Canada through the trade war with the U.S. I have a simple rule, spend less, invest more. All political parties are spending big money to get their messages out during the last

week of the campaign, but they're not all covering as much ground. Merci beaucoup. Merci. Carney is playing a mix of defence and offense, campaigning earlier today in the Bloc Québécois held riding of Trois-Rivières after visiting liberal strongholds in Atlantic Canada. With our plan, we will build to make Canada strong. You want someone that's going to fight to defend what you hold dear like your health care. With the NDP trailing far in the polls, leader Jagmeet Singh is staying on the West Coast, defending his riding in the seats of nearly half his caucus.

I'm confident Canadians have seen the difference that we've made. Here we are in Woodbridge to launch our platform. Meanwhile, Poliev is spending a second day in the Greater Toronto area where the Tories' electoral fortunes could be decided. We need a change. Canadians want to know what the plan is, not what's been done. Jennifer Stewart is a strategic communications expert. She expects all leaders to tighten their messages.

It's now about who can steady the ship, not rocket. I think Canadians are looking for the adult in the room. As they target the remaining undecided voters in these final days of the election. Olivia Stefanovic, CBC News, Ottawa. Pierre Poliev's message in the home stretch is one he's been saying from the start. Canada needs a change. He unveiled the Conservative platform today, the last leader of a major party to do that.

It has promises to cut taxes, spending and the deficit. But as JP Tasker reports, critics say the Tory plan to pay for those cuts relies on math that does not add up. This is a hopeful message and you know this really is the choice. Do you want hope for a change or do you want fear? With just six days left in the federal election campaign, conservative leader Pierre Poliev has released his platform, a roadmap for the next four years including tax cuts and tens of billions of dollars in new spending for housing and the military and a government led by him will slash the public service foreign

aid and the CBC to help pay for it all. Canadians have been pinching their pennies long enough it's time for government to start pinching pennies. But there's no plan to balance the budget. Polyev is reporting a 31 billion dollar deficit this fiscal year and next. You're right, we are inheriting a very large liberal deficit. To shrink the size of government and keep it there, Poliev is pitching a new law that will put all tax increases to a referendum. The choice is this, a fourth liberal term with Mark Carney, whose reckless liberal plan will add even more debt than Trudeau,

or a new conservative government with a Responsible plan to save a hundred and twenty five billion dollars and put us back on the path to growth and security This is my plan for change the conservative platform is booking revenue from expected economic growth It's an unusual practice not followed by the other parties Polyev says his policies will spur development and fill government coffers with new revenue. Now, whether they're guaranteed, they're not guaranteed. But they're estimates that are kind of based on some credible analysis. Economist Trevor Toome says Poliev is making some reasonable assumptions.

Fast-tracking oil and gas projects and slashing red tape could deliver more money to Ottawa, he says. There are so many phantom numbers in that platform. But Liberal leader Mark Carney isn't buying what Poliev is selling. These numbers are a joke. We aren't in a joke. We are in the worst crisis of our lives. It takes a serious government. It takes a serious plan. Carney says Poliev's figures are irresponsible. He's expecting growth with his policies too, but he didn't account for that in his platform. Lots could change, Carney says, especially with the country in the throes of a trade war.

And the conservative cuts? They go too far, he says. There is relatively little talk about the. trade war in the conservative platform. Polyev only mentioned President Donald Trump once by name in his remarks. Even as polls suggest it's the issue Canadians care about most. JP Tasker, CBC News, Fond, Ontario. As party leaders burnish their promises, their ability to implement them depends on what happens to the economy. We got a key update to the

global forecast today. The International Monetary Fund has dramatically cut its global growth projections, particularly for the United States. Let's bring in the CBC's Peter Armstrong. Peter, what does this latest forecast tell us about the state of the global economy? This is just the latest in a series of downgrades that are starting to figure out what the impact of the tariffs and the expanding trade war are going to have. Back in January, the IMF was predicting global growth was going to come in at 3.3%. That's down to 2.8%.

U.S. growth has been cut all the way to 1.8%, a full percentage point down from last year's projection. Here in Canada, the economy is set to grow by like 1.4% 2025, 1.6% in 2026 instead of what we had been projecting, which was 2% growth. So how much of the downgrade can be pinned on the trade war? Almost all of it, right? Tariffs, they put up barriers and that's bad but the broader trade war is causing all this deep uncertainty and that's going to weigh heavily on business investment, on trade, on employment and as we've talked about Susan we're already seeing that. So broadly speaking Peter why do these

global forecasts matter to domestic party platforms here in Canada? Look, all of these platforms are built in a series of economic assumptions, like any budget. You start with a bunch of projections for growth, for inflation, borrowing costs, the labor market. Those in turn inform what you can expect in terms of tax revenue, borrowing, operating costs. So the forecast is really the backbone. And the forecast keep getting downgraded.

It's a trend. It is. And we spoke about this when the Bank of Canada put out its last forecast, right? All that uncertainty is making business decisions hard, obviously, but it's also making it really hard to forecast because we don't know how the rest of the economy is going to react. Like if the dollar falls, that can help cushion the hit on exporters. If we get at any given moment, some policy certainty out of the White House, that'll help shape these forecasts too. But as the trade dispute itself drags on, it becomes less ethereal and more real. We know this is weighing on business investment because that's starting to show up in the data.

We know jobs are being lost because we can see that in the numbers and as that impact becomes more real, we can measure it and come up with a more accurate forecast. What are the markets telling us about all of this down a little bit this morning? They've since posted a pretty solid rebound. Yeah, look, the markets are struggling with the exact same uncertainty that me and you and everyone listening and everybody trying to write policy platforms are struggling with as well.

The uncertainty, the not knowing how any of this gets resolved. Today's rebound came as a senior U.S. official reportedly said the standoff with China can't be sustained and that they'll have to find ways to deescalate. But saying that is a long way from actual deescalation. So for now, at least uncertainty reigns and will weigh on forecasts and policy platforms alike. Thank you, Peter.

You bet. CBC's Peter Armstrong here in Toronto. Coming up on the podcast, the Vatican reveals the plans to mourn and bury the Pope and why he's being remembered as an environmentalist. Plus a look at efforts to get Canada's liquified natural gas to the Asian market. The public will soon have an opportunity to pay their respects to Pope Francis. Starting tomorrow, his body will lie in state at the Vatican ahead of his funeral this weekend.

As Catholics mourn, attention is also quickly shifting to who might succeed Francis. Chris Brown is in Rome and looks at how that choice could shape his legacy and the future of the Church. While the death of Pope Francis has been met with a deep sense of loss, in Rome the day after the unexpected news, newspaper headlines also reflected gratitude for his life and convictions. One read, Thank you, Francis, another, Everyone's Pope. The Vatican released video of Francis' body in an open wooden casket in the chapel of

the Santa Marta residence where he lived. The Pope's death from a stroke and heart failure Monday morning immediately sent in motion a sequence of ancient rituals, including a gathering of cardinals Tuesday morning. They announced his funeral will be Saturday, outdoors in St. Peter's Square. And while the full list of world leaders coming isn't known, it will be an enormous event. This is the Super Bowl for the the Vatican. Journalist Claire Giangrave at Religion News Service, whose beat is the Vatican, says the politicking over Francis's successor is already well underway.

During his 12 years leading Catholics, Francis was seen as a champion of progressive causes, including relaxing opposition to homosexuality, promoting women and apologizing for sexual abuse committed by Catholic priests. Some people are coming into this conclave ready to turn the clock back a little bit on what Pope Francis has done. I have seen that. There are Cardinals who think that Pope Francis went too far on certain aspects.

Francis appointed many of the Cardinals who gathered during the conclave in the Sistine Chapel several days after the funeral. Father Jao Villa-Scha, a Jesuit and theology professor, says that may be significant. If the members of the conclave vote as if they were members of party A or party B, the liberals or the conservatives. Yes, I think the rather progressive side will have more numbers, but I believe, I deeply believe that that must not happen.

Among the visitors to St. Peter's Square Tuesday were members of Holy Spirit School in Conception Bay South, Newfoundland. Teacher June Loveless says they were fortunate enough to witness history and she hopes Francis's legacy is not rolled back. I think world peace, inclusion, accepting of other people is going to be critical. Starting Wednesday thousands of people are expected to say their own individual goodbyes to the Pope. His body will be moved from the Papal

residence tomorrow morning to St. Peter's Basilica and for three days visitors will be able to file past his open casket. Chris Brown, CBC News, Rome. Count climate activists among those grieving the Pope's death. Today is Earth Day and the head of Earthday.org praised Francis as the world's most earnest and influential voice in protecting our planet. Science and climate reporter Anand Ram looks at how the Pope tried to spur environmental action. It should come as no surprise perhaps that the Pope who took his name from the patron saint of ecologists Francis of Assisi would care so deeply about the planet. His powerful statement on climate change, Laudato Si, on the care for our common home, a 2015 papal document

that didn't read like one. In it Francis brought up the dangers of climate denialism and putting too much faith in technology to solve the crisis, layering it with scientific points about sea level rise, ocean acidification, and the bioaccumulation of toxins from pollution. They were almost like a mini summary of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports. Catherine Hayhoe is Global Chief Scientist at Nature United, an environmental organization. Beyond the foothold in science, she says it gave people a moral way forward. And that is what Pope Francis did so strongly.

He spoke out clearly about the science, but he was also crystal clear on the fact that climate change is a justice issue. That document purposely released in the months before the landmark Paris agreement, where world leaders agreed to limit the planet's warming. So there were multiple international leaders who referenced Laudato Si and Pope Francis' moral authority when they were discussing and negotiating the Paris Agreement. Dan DeLeo is a theologian at Creighton University in Nebraska. He says Francis built on the environmental legacies of Benedict and John Paul II the second before him,

but some of the reaction to his views on climate was stiff. Then we looked at the response of US Catholic bishops to Laudato si, and we found overwhelming silence among the bishops whose responsibility is to share and to communicate church teaching that includes

church doctrine in 2023. Francis wrote a follow up calling out the lack of progress on climate and pointing at the weak international politics that failed to reach agreements at climate conferences. It's a good thing that he's telling political leaders that they should be doing better because you know they are the leaders of our countries, right? Joseph Virgilio is a grade 9 student at St. Michael's College in Toronto. For him, Francis was a way to unite around the environment and leave a better world.

I hope the new pope can also have a care for the environment like Pope Francis did and understand that we as the people of earth should take care of our own planet like it's our home. Pope Francis leaving a legacy of wanting to protect the pastures beyond that of his flock. Anand Ram, CBC News, Toronto. Five members of Canada's 2018 World Junior Hockey Team have pleaded not guilty to sexual assault. The men entered the pleas as their trial got underway in London, Ontario.

Eleven women and three men will serve on the jury. The CBC's Karen Pauls is covering the case and brings us the latest. Wearing suits and looking serious, the five former Team Canada hockey players arrived first thing this morning. They spent the day listening in court as potential jurors were questioned about their ability to serve for the full eight weeks and their knowledge of the case. This is a very historic moment in the history of Canadian sport and in the history of Canadian criminal justice.

Walter de Cessareti is a sociologist at West Virginia University. He co-authored the book called On Thin Ice, Professional Hockey, Rape Culture and Violence Against Women. I don't think we've ever had a group sexual assault trial involving, you know, professional hockey players. This all started back in January 2018 when Canada won the World Junior Championships in Buffalo. Later that year, the team attended a Hockey Canada fundraising gala in London, Ontario. After that event, a woman went to police with allegations of sexual assault by eight members of that team. Police investigated but closed the case in 2019. The woman sued Hockey Canada for three and a half million dollars. It settled out of court using money from a reserve fund partially funded by children's registration fees. The scandal rocked hockey in Canada with parliamentary hearings,

resignations and sponsors pulling out. London police reopened the case and later announced we have found sufficient grounds to charge five adult males with sexual assault. They are Michael McLeod, Cal Foot, Dylan Dubay, Carter Hart and Alex Formonton. McLeod faces an additional count of being party to the offense. They all pleaded not guilty this morning. The biggest issue in a sexual assault case is how is the complainant going to present her side of the story with respect to consent. Daphne Gilbert teaches law at the University of Ottawa.

We have no such thing as implied consent in Canada and consent has to be ongoing and contemporaneous with every act that is taking place. There is a publication ban on the identity of the complainant. With five separate defence teams, she will undergo intense cross-examination. Nick Cake is a former Crown attorney, now defence lawyer in London. He says it will be challenging for the players and their legal teams too. I'm sure everyone will have their elbows up. Certainly all these players are not playing together on the same team as it stands right now.

The courtroom being a very different arena for these professional hockey players. Karen Pauls, CBC News, London, Ontario. This is Your World Tonight from CBC News. Ontario. This is Your World Tonight from CBC News. If you want to make sure you stay up to date and never miss one of our episodes, follow us on Spotify, Apple, wherever you get your podcasts. Just find the follow button and lock us in. There's been a lot of discussion of Canada's energy future in the election campaign on new markets and new ways to deliver the goods. On British Columbia's north coast, the first shipments of liquefied natural gas are set to begin, creating excitement in the energy sector, but also concern about the environment

and indigenous rights. Lindsay Duncombe reports. There's something new on the scenic coastal horizon in Kitimat, BC. A bright orange flare burning above LNG Canada's scrawling export terminal. A sign of testing ahead of the very first shipment of liquefied natural gas from Canada to Asia. Certainly Canadian gas offers a whole new opportunity. Theresa Waddington is a vice president with LNG Canada. It is going to diversify Canada's energy export market,

allowing us to reach different sales locations for our natural gas. It's estimated LNG Canada will generate hundreds of millions of dollars every year. That's before a proposed expansion that would see the terminal double capacity. In British Columbia alone, there are at least five proposals for LNG projects. I believe Canada can be the number one exporter of LNG to Asia. Speaking recently at the Canadian Club in Toronto, TC Energy CEO Francois Poirier argued more LNG could reduce Canada's dependence on trade with the United States.

Canada is energy rich and has the potential to be an energy superpower. Natural gas is a fossil fuel often extracted through a controversial process called fracking, releasing the gas to be transported by pipeline. Terminals take that gas and cool it to minus 160 degrees Celsius, making it easier to ship. LNG is called clean because burning it causes fewer emissions than coal or oil. But that claim is often disputed because of the energy and destruction it takes to produce. This trade war is something so much larger than us. Taylor Whale is a biologist and member of the Gitsan Nation.

She's worried about the push to expand LNG. Wale is part of a group opposing a proposed LNG pipeline in the nation's traditional territory. So we're risking our food security, we're risking the futures of young people on the land, and we're risking culture, essentially. LNG Canada took 10 years to build, done in partnership with the Heisla Nation. Chief Crystal Smith says it took time to trust the industry.

It was a long process to be able to build that relationship to the point we currently have right now. The Heisla Nation has its own LNG Project 2, a floating facility that will use gas from the same pipeline as LNG Canada. It's expected to start exporting in 2028, part of a push that could prove both lucrative and volatile. Lindsay Duncombe, CBC News. Kitimat. Finally, Canadian puppeteer Noreen Young has died. Even if you don't know her name, you probably know her work. She worked on

High Dittle Day and Sesame Park in the 1960s and 70s and in 1987 she developed her own show. Do you ever wonder what could happen under, under an umbrella tree? Under the Umbrella Tree ran on CBC for six seasons. Young played Gloria the Gopher. There was also Iggy the Iguana, Holly the Human, and Jacob Bluejay, played by Young's brother, Stephen Brathwaite. And it's fun for me to bump into adults that it's like they're 10-year-olds or six-year-olds again.

They all of a sudden become little children you know sitting in front of a TV and and how it touched them and what each of the characters and to those kids. Brathwaite says his sister was a lot like Gloria the Gopher in his words a sweet creative problem-solving bulldozer. She always loved puppets even performing shows in local cafes around her home in Ottawa when she was 12. Performance was an act of love really for kids and for the community and you know what she was giving was kindness and just making them laugh.

Very proud of who she was, what she did, and who she touched. Young also helped found the Puppets Up Festival in Almont, Ontario, which is still going strong. There's a bronze statue of Gloria Gopher in the town, and people have been laying flowers there since her death a few days ago. Noreen Young was 85. Thank you for joining us. This has been Your World Tonight for Tuesday, April 22nd. I'm Susan Bonner. Talk to you again. For more CBC podcasts, go to cbc.ca slash podcasts.