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Friday, October 10, 2025

Anger towards Trudeau government at six-year high: poll

By
Quinn Patrick, True North Wire
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Source: Facebook

Canadians are angrier and more pessimistic about Justin Trudeau than ever.

A Nanos survey shows a six-year high for such feelings about the federal government, as it continues to lag in polls.

“Feelings of anger toward the federal government have increased or held steady in every region, with the largest increases among residents of Quebec (December: 12%; March: 24%) and Atlantic Canada (December: 21%; March: 38%),” reads the survey.

“Pessimism and anger remain the top emotions Canadians say best describe their views of the federal government in Ottawa.” 

The research firm has been measuring Canadians’ feelings of “optimism, satisfaction, disinterest, anger, pessimism and uncertainty” regarding the federal government since 2018.

While Nanos’ most recent survey found that optimism had rebounded slightly, up to 10% from its all-time low of 8% in September of last year, pessimism and anger have surged among the bulk of respondents. 

The majority of Canadians, 62%, said they were equally split between feeling either angry and pessimistic about the Trudeau government in March.

“What we’ve seen is, the anger quotient has hit a new record,” Nanos Research founder Nik Nanos told CTV News in an interview on Wednesday.

A small minority of Canadians, 11%, felt satisfied with the Trudeau government while another cohort of 11% said they had become disinterested. 

According to past surveys, the trend of anger towards the federal government has steadily been on the rise throughout Canada since March 2023, with satisfaction declining in tandem. 

It’s important to mention that the survey was conducted before the government announced its latest fiscal budget, meaning it’s possible that Canadians’ anger and pessimism may subside, however the budget has already been met with swift criticism as well. 

Nanos conducted a separate survey for Bloomberg aiming to find what the most important issues Canadians felt they were facing that would influence how they voted in the next federal election. 

The respondents said inflation and the cost of living, healthcare, climate change and the environment, housing affordability and taxes. 

The new budget includes spending on housing, the implementation of a national disability benefit and carbon rebates for small businesses. 

The federal government also plans to raise taxes on Canada’s wealthiest earners. 

Promising $52.9 billion in new spending, the budget also pledges to maintain the 2023-24 federal deficit at $40.1 billion. 

Currently, the federal deficit is projected to be 39.8 billion for the 2024-25 fiscal year. 

Nanos believes that if the details of the latest budget aren’t enough to turn around Canadians’ sentiments towards the Trudeau government, no amount of spending will.  

“If the Liberal numbers don’t move up after this, perhaps the listening lesson for the Liberals will be (that) spending is not the political solution for them to break this trend line,” he said. “It’ll have to be something else.”

Meanwhile, Nanos ballot tracking shows the Conservatives continue to have a strong lead on voters.

“Any way you cut it right now, the Conservatives are in the driver’s seat,” he said. “They’re in majority territory.”

According to the firm’s ballot tracker, for the week ending Apr. 12, the Conservatives were in the lead among respondents at 40%, with the Liberals at 23.6% and the NDP at 20.6%.

Nanos believes that the real decision Canadians need to make is whether or not government spending is the key to helping them improve their lives.  

“Both of the parties are fighting for working Canadians … and we have two competing visions for that. For the Liberals, it’s about putting government support into their hands and creating social programs to support Canadians,” he said. “For the Conservatives, it’s very different. It’s about reducing the size of government (and) reducing taxes.”

“Canadians are less safe under this government”: Conservatives pin rising crime on Trudeau 

By
Clayton DeMaine, True North Wire
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Source: Facebook

As Canadian crime stats “skyrocket” year-over-year, the Liberal government’s approach to crime has “demonstrably failed” and is making Canadians less safe, the Conservatives claim.

Rob Moore, the Conservative shadow minister, told True North in an interview Wednesday that Canadians feel less safe than they did before Justin Trudeau.

“When people are feeling less safe, it’s because Canadians are less safe under this government,” he said.

“These (stats) are the result of deliberate actions taken by the government in legislation that have created a catch and release (system), which means that in spite of the best work of police to capture someone, our justice system is releasing those individuals back onto the street to re-offend.”

Since Justin Trudeau took office in 2015, violent crime has increased across Canada by almost 40%, homicides are up by 43% and gang-related murders are up by 108%, according to Stats Canada data from 2022.

Despite Trudeau’s gun bans, violent gun crime is up by 101% since he took office. There has been a year-over-year increase in crime for the last four years.

According to a Leger poll in Apr. 2023, 32% of Canadians said crime and violence had gotten much worse since before the pandemic, while another 32% said it had gotten “a little worse.”

Almost two-thirds of those polled reported they feel much less safe than they did before 2020.

Under the previous Conservative government, which was voted out in 2015, crime was on the decline.

Moore said Bill C-75, which became law in 2019, and Bill C-5, which was passed in 2022, contributed to “skyrocketing” crime rates, along with an “unwillingness to listen to police and victims” are largely to blame for the “skyrocketing” crime rates.

The two bills have been criticized by the Conservatives as being “soft on crime” for repealing mandatory minimum sentences and making bail easier for offenders to get.

“So we’re seeing individuals who should not be on the street out on bail. And the Toronto police have identified over the last several years individuals who were on bail for a firearms crime, being arrested and charged again for another firearms crime and getting bail again,” Moore said. “It’s simply a revolving door of catch and release and it’s putting Canadians at risk.”

Moore criticized a case from earlier this week in which a repeat offender out on bail stabbed a Toronto police officer.

Moore’s problem with Bill C-5 is that it allows house arrest for crimes such as sexual assault, kidnapping, human trafficking and auto theft.

“It allows individuals who commit those serious crimes to serve their sentence from the comfort of their home in their communities, which is leading to those individuals committing crimes while on house arrest,” Moore said.

He said people on house arrest have rules they are supposed to be following, but police do not have the resources to monitor everyone.

“If we want someone to be out of the community and keep the community safe from crime, there’s a reason we have jails,” he said. “It’s for those individuals, those repeat offenders who have proven that they are going to re-victimize Canadians when they’re back on the street.”Bill C-5 also eliminated mandatory jail time for firearms offences such as robbery with a firearm, extortion with a firearm, and using a gun in the commission of an offence.

Moore took aim at what he characterized as the Liberals’ position of “allowing people to get bail that wouldn’t have otherwise got bail, that somehow that would create a safer country.”

“In fact, the evidence is in now. We have empirical evidence after eight years of Liberal government, just the opposite is true,” Moore said.

Lack of judges leads to man with repeat human trafficking charges walking free

By
Andrew Lawton, True North Wire
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Source: tps.ca

A lack of judges has led to a man having his human trafficking charges thrown out due to delays at Toronto Superior Court for the second time this year. 

According to the Toronto Star, Superior Court Justice Michael Code called the federal government’s failure to appoint enough judges an “embarrassment to the administration of justice.”

Marlon Downey’s first case of human trafficking was tossed out in January due to delays and now so has a second case involving a different complainant.

According to the Supreme Court, cases in Superior Court must be heard within 30 months or else be tossed out for violating the accused person’s constitutional right to a trial within a reasonable time. 

Other cases which were tossed out due to a shortage of judges include charges of child sexual abuse, gun possession linked to a fatal shooting, assault and sexual assault.  

Downey’s second case was tossed by Superior Court Justice Jennifer Penman on Monday, who in her decision said that “the most significant contributing factor to the overall delay in this case was a systemic lack of judicial resources.”

Downey’s first case was tossed after 33 months had passed since it was last adjourned, due to a lack of judges.

“There was no moratorium on judicial vacancies being filled during the pandemic,” wrote Penman, who deducted the court’s time off as a result of the pandemic from the total elapsed time since adjournment. 

“There is no reason why vacancies which have existed since before the pandemic could not have been filled at a faster pace than what we have seen.”

Downey’s latest human trafficking case was stayed in January following his trial judge being elevated to the Court of Appeal without an immediate replacement. 

For years now, the Trudeau government has been scrutinized over the issue but its reached new heights in Toronto recently as the city has seen a staggering number of cases being thrown out.

The federal government responded to critics by extending the membership terms of the various committees responsible for screening judicial applications from two to three years, requesting that they convene more regularly. 

Additionally, lawyers applying for the bench are now asked to complete paperwork for a security check while they fill out their application form to expedite the security check process. This will allow the Minister to bring their name before cabinet for appointment faster. 

Justice Penman’s decision on Monday comes only a week after Justice Code tossed out a case involving sexual assault charges against a man who allegedly took sexual photographs of his niece when she was six for the purpose of extorting sexual acts from her for years.  

The man’s trial had already been adjourned twice as a result of no judges being available to preside over the case. 

“The government had knowingly allowed the court to continue without its full judicial complement during an unprecedented crisis of rapid population growth, increasing numbers of certain serious crimes, and a pandemic backlog,” wrote Code. 

“I cannot leave this application without saying, in conclusion, that it is an embarrassment to the administration of justice that this serious ‘priority’ case, involving alleged sexual abuse of a child, cannot be tried in accordance with the constitutional standard of trial ‘within a reasonable time.’” 

Tech CEOs sign open letter to feds opposing capital gains tax hike

By
Isaac Lamoureux, True North Wire
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Source: House of Commons (ParlVu)

A tech uprising is stirring in opposition to the Liberal government’s capital gains tax hike.

Over 1000 Canadian CEOs and tech leaders have signed an open letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland, urging them to reconsider the proposed increases to capital gains taxes outlined in the 2024 federal budget. 

It started with 150 signatures but the list of those putting their name to it has ballooned in just a couple of days.

The letter, linked in a post to X by the Council of Canadian Innovators, called for more CEOs and tech leaders to add their names as signatories. 

“You cannot tax your way to prosperity. But in the 2024 federal budget, we see a government trying to hike taxes on investment. Anybody with experience in entrepreneurship and investment can see how this will stifle growth,” reads the letter.

True North previously reported that the budget raises the inclusion rate for capital gains tax from 50% to 66% for individuals on amounts exceeding $250,000. The amendments to the Income Tax Act come into effect on June 25, 2024.

The Liberals expect to make $19.4 billion from raising the capital gains tax over the next five years.

The letter alerts people to a productivity emergency in Canada, which it contends will lead to even further inflation.

Higher interest rates and economic uncertainty already result in companies struggling to secure growth capital on decent terms, said the letter. It added that a standard compensation for skilled talent is stock options, subject to capital gains tax.

“Canada’s economy needs productivity growth, innovation and above all, we need investment. As signatories of this letter, we’re investing in Canada,” reads the letter.

Although he has not yet signed the letter, Shopify president Harley Finkelstein has been very outspoken against the tax increase on X. He said that Canada should do everything in its power to turn the country into the best place for entrepreneurs to build.

“What’s proposed in the federal budget will do the complete opposite. Innovators and entrepreneurs will suffer, and their success will be penalized — this is not a wealth tax, it’s a tax on innovation and risk taking,” he said.

The Council of Canadian Innovators posted several new posts with updates on Thursday. Very early in the morning, they said that the letter had reached over 600 signatures from CEOs, tech leaders, and citizens. Later that same morning, they issued a new post, signalling that it had reached over 750 signatures. 

“We are calling on the federal government to scrap this disastrous tax hike on investment and listen to the innovators who are trying to create a more prosperous future for every generation,” concluded the letter.

Prior to releasing its letter, the Council of Canadian Innovators issued a response to the Liberals’ budget. 

“We hope that Minister Freeland and the Liberal government will listen to innovators and adjust the proposed tax hike before they do irreparable harm to the Canadian innovation economy,” wrote the council’s president, Benjamin Bergen.

At the time of writing this article, on Thursday afternoon, the letter had 861 signatories. Every signature included the person’s full name, their role (primarily CEOs), and where they live.

The Daily Brief | Recent immigrants leaning towards Conservatives

By
Cosmin Dzsurdzsa
-
Source: Facebook

Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek says the prospect of never owning a home and becoming a forever renter is a liberating experience.

Plus, recent immigrants to Canada are voicing concerns about high immigration levels and are more likely to support the Conservatives than any other party, according to a recent Leger poll.

And legal scholars are sounding the alarm about the Liberals’ online harms bill.

Tune into The Daily Brief with Cosmin Dzurdzsa and William McBeath!

SUBSCRIBE TO THE DAILY BRIEF

Ratio’d | Sports gambling ads need to stop

By
Harrison Faulkner
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Canadians are being assaulted by sports gambling ads every time they watch a sports game. The problem is particularly bad in Ontario, where the provincial government has licensed over two dozen private online casinos to operate single-game sports betting apps. This has completely ruined the experience for fans who just want to watch a hockey game or a baseball game.

The proliferation of online sports gambling has real world consequences. According to the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, over 30% of high school students in Ontario are reporting that they have engaged in online gambling and calls to problem gambling hot lines have increased. In the United States, where the gambling legislation is nearly identical to Ontario, the situation is the same. So why is the government allowing this to happen? Why is the promotion of a self-destructive vice like gambling becoming normalized and seen by minors?

Watch the latest episode of Ratio’d with Harrison Faulkner!

LAWTON: Jewish groups’ condemnation of anti-Muslim violence is hardly reciprocated

By
Andrew Lawton
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Source: X

A new study from the Aristotle Foundation shows that Jewish organizations in Canada are more likely to condemn attacks on the Muslim community than Muslim organizations are to condemn attacks on Jews. Study author Rahim Mohamed joined True North’s Andrew Lawton to discuss his findings and why they raise concerns about the maintenance of religious plurality in Canada.

Toronto “decolonization” manager who led Dundas renaming no longer working for city

By
Cosmin Dzsurdzsa, True North Wire
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Source: Unsplash

One of the key architects behind Toronto’s moves to “decolonize” and distance itself from historical figures deemed problematic by city officials is no longer working for the city.

As the general manager of economic development and culture, Cheryl Blackman oversaw the defunding of a historic reenactment at Fort York over a bogus “anti-colonial review of values.”

Blackman also spearheaded efforts at the City of Toronto to rename Yonge-Dundas Square, citing diversity, equity and inclusion principles.

True North reached out to the City of Toronto for confirmation on Blackman’s status of employment but was not provided a reason as to why Blackman no longer works for the city.

“We can confirm that Ms. Blackman is no longer employed by the City of Toronto and that all programming will continue without interruption,” said a city spokesperson.

Blackman was placed in charge of consulting on the renaming of Yonge-Dundas Square after a petition was presented to the City of Toronto, spurred by the killing of George Floyd in 2020 and subsequent protests.

The committee she led alleged that the square’s namesake, Henry Dundas, was allegedly responsible for extending the transatlantic slave trade, a claim that his descendants and historians dispute.

The city’s research was found to be faulty and dispelled by descendant Linda Dundas, who provided peer-reviewed studies showing that the claims against her ancestor were inaccurate.

“Professor Angela McCarthy, an expert in Scottish history, published two peer-reviewed articles in 2022 that detail the inaccuracies in the accusations against Henry Dundas. In her written submission to the Executive Committee, she advised it not to accept the accusation that Dundas had prolonged the slave trade,” said Dundas.

These studies were ignored by the city. Eventually, the city of Toronto settled on a controversial new name for Dundas, Sankofa Square.

As first reported by True North, the term “Sankofa” comes from an African tribe known for its active role in the slave trade.Blackman also triggered a review of Fort York’s historic re-enactment program that resulted in the defunding of Friends of Fort York’s heritage activities.

Freedom of information documents showed that the review was triggered on flimsy grounds and that city officials made no effort to substantiate why Friends of Fort York fell afoul of the city’s decolonization policies.

Recent immigrants lean Conservative, disapprove of record immigration targets: poll

By
Isaac Lamoureux, True North Wire
-
Source: Facebook

Recent immigrants to Canada are voicing concerns about high immigration levels and are more likely to support the Conservatives than any other party, according to a recent Leger poll.

Leger’s poll surveyed over 2,100 Canadian adults who immigrated to Canada within the last decade.

Among those surveyed, 42% said that the Liberals’ current immigration plan will result in too many immigrants entering Canada. 34% felt the Liberals’ plan would admit the right amount of immigrants, while 7% said it wouldn’t bring enough immigrants. 17% said they did not know.

The survey question was prefaced by saying that Canada planned to welcome 465,000 immigrants this year, 485,000 in 2024, and 500,000 in 2025. The question said that Canada admitted over 437,000 immigrants in 2022.

However, True North’s Candice Malcolm previously reported that when calculating the amount of temporary foreign workers, international students, and illegal immigrants, Canada brings in about 2.2 million people per year. Even though the poll did not reflect this reality, recent immigrants still felt the 465,000 target was too high than those who agreed with the amount.

“Demographically, Quebec residents are much less likely to believe the current plan will admit too many immigrants (25% vs 45% across all other provinces),” said the survey.

The 42% of recent immigrants who believe the Liberals’ immigration plan is too high is slightly lower than the 50% of Canadians who believe immigration levels are too high, as previously reported by True North.

When asked what political party they agree with most, based on federal political parties’ stances and policies, 24% of recent immigrants said they agree with the Conservatives. This was followed by 22% who agreed most with the Liberals, 8% for the NDP, 3% for the Green Party, 1% for the Bloc Québecois, and 5% of recent immigrants said they’d vote for “someone else” not previously mentioned.

The largest number of recent immigrants said they didn’t know which federal party they agreed with most, at 38%.

True North previously reported that the Conservatives’ immigration formula could result in lower immigration, according to Conservative immigration critic Tom Kmiec.

The Conservatives plan to tie immigration numbers to available jobs and homes in the country. The calculations will involve permanent immigration and temporary resident immigration.

This came just weeks after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau admitted that the “massive spike” in temporary immigration has risen at a rate “far beyond” what the country has been “able to absorb.”

Three in ten recent immigrants to Canada are Canadian citizens. 41% are permanent residents. 16% are work permit holders, while 11% are student permit holders. Only 1% have refugee status. Less than 1% are visa holders and others. 1% of respondents preferred not to say their legal status in Canada.

Most recent immigrants to Canada are highly educated. 

79% of respondents had a University degree, while 12% had a College diploma. Only 8% of those who immigrated in the last decade had an education in high school or less.

The survey only allowed two gender options. 47% of respondents were men and 53% were women.

“Immigrants tend to be younger than the Canadian average, with the majority under 55,” said the Leger survey.

43% of respondents were between the ages of 18 and 34. 48% were between the ages of 34 and 54. Only 8% of those surveyed were 55 years or older. Polling Canada’s most recent data shows support for the Conservatives at an all-time high, 20 points ahead of the Liberals. 44% of Canadians intend to vote for the Conservatives, 24% for the Liberals and 17% for the NDP.

Vote fails to lift Palestinian keffiyeh ban in the provincial legislature

By
Clayton DeMaine, True North Wire
-
Source: Pexels

A motion to overturn a ban on a pro-Palestinian symbol in Ontario’s legislature has failed.

A unanimous consent motion to reverse Ontario legislature speaker Ted Arnott’s ruling to ban the Palestinian keffiyeh head scarf from being worn by everyone in the provincial legislature was blocked after a small number of MPPs, including Progressive Conservative legislator Robin Martin, opposed it.

The motion was introduced by NDP leader Marit Styles Wednesday, one day after Arnott banned MPPs from wearing the keffiyeh.

Arnott said after undergoing “extensive research,” he concluded the keffiyeh is intended to be a political statement, according to the Toronto Star.

Critics of the move disagree.

“The kaffiyeh is a culturally significant clothing item to many in Ontario’s Palestinian, Muslim and Arab communities and should neither be considered an expression of a political message nor an accessory likely to cause disorder, and should therefore be permitted to be worn in the house,” Stiles said in her motion.

Arnott’s directive was criticized by his own party’s leader, Premier Doug Ford, who said the decision “needlessly divides the people of our province.”

Opposition to the order came from some members of Ontario’s Progressive Conservative party. The only audible voice to say no to the motion was Martin, whose office has been targeted by anti-Israel vandals in the wake of the Oct. 7 attack on Israel.

Arnott prohibited the Palestinian keffiyeh from being worn by MPPs or guests in the chamber at Queen’s Park.

In the provincial legislature there is a long-standing rule of decorum which prevents the use of political props from being worn or brought into the chamber.

The keffiyeh has been a symbol of Palestinian resistance to Israel since the Arab Revolt in Palestine in 1936. The demands of the armed uprising was an end to Jewish immigration and independence from British rule.

The leadership of the rebellion ordered every man to wear the keffiyeh to show solidarity and give cover to the fighters who wore them so the British wouldn’t know who were combatants and who were civilians.

In the 1960s rebellions against Israel, Yasser Arafat, the leader of the Palestinian Liberation Organization, which carried out a number of terrorist attacks, used the keffiyeh again in his fight against Israel.

The keffiyeh was used by Leila Khaled in two plane hijackings in 1969 and 1970 involving the Marxist, Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, which is a designated terrorist group by the Canadian Government.

Independent MPP Sarah Jama, who was removed from the Ontario NDP caucus after calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and likening the Oct. 7 attack on Israel to “retaliation rooted in settler colonialism” last October, condemned the ban as the “forceful suppression of cultural identity and cultural symbols.”

True North reached out to Arnott for comment but his office said he could not respond before the given deadline given his duties in the legislature.

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