The City of London, Ontario, was the site of Canada’s first “safe supply” exemption program where drug addicts could receive hydromorphone tablets as a “safer” alternative to fentanyl and heroin. Since the program’s inception, London has become a diversion hub for hydromorphone tablets all over the city and across Ontario. One councillor, Susan Stevenson, has decided to fight back and speak on behalf of her constituents; however, she now faces a 30-day pay suspension without pay for doing exactly that.
Susan Stevenson joins Harrison Faulkner on the Faulkner Show.
Today on the Rachel Parker Show, Rachel is joined by the Conservative’s former national campaign spokesperson Anthony Koch to break down the latest in the failing Liberal government. Koch explains the impact of Chrystia Freeland’s exit from cabinet and whether Prime Minister Justin Trudeau can hold onto power.
Rachel also shares a personal story about Freeland’s impact on her life.
Tucked away in the Liberal government’s fall economic statement is a commitment to throw an additional $597.9 million over three years in taxpayer funds to confiscate guns from law-abiding firearms owners.
The gun buyback scheme was already projected to surpass $100 million by 2025 despite the government not collecting a single gun since the plan’s announcement.
“The government respects and will not infringe upon the rights of lawful gun owners and recognizes the fundamental importance of firearms, such as hunting rifles and shotguns, to the way of life for many rural Canadians, farmers, and Indigenous hunters,” reads the Fall Economic Statement.
However, Tracey Wilson, the vice president of public relations for the Canadian Coalition for Firearm Rights, told True North that the $600 million over three years proves the Liberals aren’t serious about confiscating firearms from Canadians.
“The projected costs of the ‘buyback’ confiscation program are projected to blow into the billions with the number of guns affected,” said Wilson. “$200M a year indicates they are allocating a trickle of what would be really necessary to carry out a full confiscation.”
She added that she expects the Liberals to continue with willing retailers who’ve been sitting on inventory they can’t sell and are forced to spend money for storage and insurance.
“They’re an easy first target, and the Liberals will tout it as ‘progress,’” she said.
The fall economic statement reiterated that Canada intends to donate any confiscated firearms to Ukraine.
Wilson criticized the idea of donating sporting rifles to Ukraine as “ridiculous” and “entirely performative.”
“I think it’s an attempt to reinforce the notion that these guns are ‘weapons of war.’ No military in the world uses semi-auto, 5-round plinkers in battle,” she said. “Not to mention you can’t export these guns without approval from the countries of origin, most of whom have weapons contracts with Ukraine.”
Most of the weapons used in crimes in Canada continue to be smuggled from the United States. For example, a record firearm bust in Peel consisted of 97% of illegal firearms smuggled across Canada’s southern border.
The Liberals’ most recent update on its long gun ban added 324 firearms to the original list of 1,500 that were banned under Bill C-21 in 2020. The legislation passed through the Senate last year.
Prohibitions on the firearms mean that they can no longer be legally possessed, sold, or imported into Canada and can only be transferred or transported in unique circumstances.
The Liberals said they are working to implement Bill C-21, and the remaining provisions fully will come into effect no later than Jan. 2025.
Prairie Director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation Gage Haubrich responded on X to Wilson’s post highlighting the budget lines, adding that the Parliamentary Budget Officer said paying for the guns will cost Canadian taxpayers $756 million.
“This is only the tip of the iceberg for what this expensive and ineffective scheme could end up costing taxpayers,” said Haubrich.
Wilson added that the program was a complete waste of taxpayer funds while taxpayers face tariff threats from President-elect Donald Trump due to Canada’s border issues.
Legal firearm owners were previously granted an amnesty period until Oct. 30, 2025, encompassing the newest models.
Wilson said collecting the more than 650,000 guns from hundreds of thousands of owners across Canada’s massive geographic territory was an impossible task and that the Liberals would extend the amnesty if they remained in office.
The fall economic statement showcased a deficit of $61.9 billion for the 2023-24 fiscal year, which is over 50% higher than the limit Chrystia Freeland previously promised to abide by.
“The Liberals continue to use legal firearms owners and businesses as a punching bag for political gain. They’ve learned absolutely nothing from their tanking polling despite the desperate channel changer of more gun control,” said Wilson.
“The CCFR looks forward to a decision out of the federal court of appeals on the legality of these continued attacks on Canada’s most vetted citizens. We’ll never stop fighting these people. It’s time for a new government.”
The federal government’s fall economic statement blew past the previously announced “fiscal guardrail” that was supposed to keep the deficit below $40 billion.
Plus, the federal Conservatives have delivered another blow to the Liberals, clinching a decisive victory in the Cloverdale–Langley byelection.
And Canada Post employees were ordered back to work as negotiations reached an impasse.
Tune into The Daily Brief with Cosmin Dzsurdzsa and Noah Jarvis!
All items on the Consumer Price Index increased last month except for gas, according to Statistics Canada’s latest report.
The government agency released its CPI report on Tuesday, which revealed an increase of 1.9% on a year-over-year basis in November, down from a 2.0% increase the month before.
“Excluding gasoline, the all-items CPI rose 2.0% in November, following a 2.2% gain in October,” reads the report.
The “all-items” documented in the CPI are eight major components which contribute to the costs of living, including, “shelter; household operations, furnishings and equipment; clothing and footwear; transportation; health and personal care; recreation, education and reading; and alcoholic beverages, tobacco products and recreational cannabis.”
Grocery prices in Canada have skyrocketed in recent years, up 19.6% when compared to November 2021.
The latest report revealed that “prices for food purchased from stores rose 2.6% year over year in November, down slightly from 2.7% in October. Despite the slowdown, grocery prices have remained elevated.”
The cost of shelter shares a similar trajectory, with prices increasing 18.9% over the same period.
“On a monthly basis, the CPI was unchanged in November, following a 0.4% increase in October. On a seasonally adjusted monthly basis, the CPI rose 0.1%,” the report continued.”
“Year over year, gasoline prices fell to a lesser extent in November (-0.5%) compared with October (-4.0%). The smaller year-over-year decline was a result of a base-year effect as prices fell 3.5% month over month in November 2023.”
Gasoline prices remained relatively unchanged in November every month, with shelter costs continuing to rise, but at a slower pace year-over-year.
Shelter costs increased 4.6% year over year last month, following an increase of 4.8% in October.
However, renters in particular saw a jump in costs last month, up 7.7% compared with October’s 7.3% increase.
Provincially, Ontario saw the largest rent price acceleration (+7.4%), followed by Manitoba (+7.9%), and Nova Scotia (+6.4%).
“Conversely, the mortgage interest cost index decelerated for the 15th consecutive month in November (+13.2%) after rising 14.7% in October,” reads the report. “The mortgage interest cost and rent indices contributed the most to the 12-month all-items CPI increase in November.”
The report noted that Black Friday and other related sales are common in November, helping to alleviate the prices across several major components, including household appliances, furnishing, clothing and footwear.
“On a monthly basis, the household operations, furnishings and equipment index declined 0.9% in November, driven by lower prices for cellular services (-6.1%) and furniture (-2.1%),” it said.
“The clothing and footwear index declined 0.8% on a monthly basis, driven by prices for women’s clothing (-0.8%) and children’s clothing (-4.9%). The monthly decline for children’s clothing was the largest on record for the month of November.”
Travel services also saw a mild decline last month, dropping 6.7%, compared to the 7.1% decrease seen in October. The decline in costs was primarily slowed by an increase in accommodation prices, up 8.7%.
Hotel prices in Ontario saw an upward acceleration of 23.7% in November, following a gain of only 1.3% the month before.
According to Statistics Canada, “on a monthly basis, prices for traveller accommodation in Ontario were up 11.0%, the swiftest monthly increase ever recorded for the month of November, coinciding with a series of high-profile concerts.”
Overall, Atlantic Canada saw the largest acceleration in prices last month, as the rest of the country experienced relatively flat price growth.
“The regional disparity was mainly attributed to fuel oil and other fuels. Fuel oil is more commonly used to heat homes in Atlantic Canada, and as such, contributed more to price growth in these provinces compared with others,” concluded the report.
It was just a few days ago that Justin Trudeau was declaring his regret that Kamala Harris was not elected as president.
”Everywhere women’s rights and women’s progress are under attack,” he said, standing like a proud peacock. “I want you to know I always will be a proud feminist.”
Not so fast Mr. Trudeau.
Considering the “proud feminist” has just thrown his top female minister — Chrystia Freeland — under the bus, I would say he has a very distorted view of feminism.
According to a scathing resignation letter posted on social media, Freeland was informed last Friday that she was to be moved from finance minister, a position she has held for the past four years, to another cabinet post.
Pulling no punches, she declared in the resignation letter that she and Trudeau had been “at odds” over how to handle the prospect of 25% tariffs from the regime of President-elect Donald Trump.
She suggested that “costly political gimmicks” — in particular the now cancelled $250 cheques for all Canadians earning under $150,000 a year — would send the message that the Trudeau government does not understand the “gravity” of the tariff war.
She said her belief is that they need to push back against “America First” economic nationalism with a determined effort to fight for capital, investment and the jobs they bring.
Instead of this push to fight Trump, I think Canada would be far better off if there was an admission that the country’s immigration policy has been an unmitigated disaster and that Canada intends to do better to stem the flow of illegal migrants across the border.
But then that would force Trudeau to admit the flow of migrants has wreaked havoc on Canada, starting with the most recent decision to allow 5,000 Gazans into the country.
That said, it was just desserts to see Freeland demonstrate what we all knew: Our feckless leader is adept at tossing women aside, no matter how loyal they’ve been, if they dare disagree with the Great Feminist and Narcissist.
I get it.
Feminism according to Trudeau means carrying his water, no questions asked, as he trots off to Tofino to surf or takes a southern vacation at one of his elitist friends’ estates.
Indeed Freeland did carry his water for her entire tenure as finance minister, even as Canada’s fiscal fortunes declined and personal debt increased exponentially.
Still I really have very little sympathy for Freeland. I disagreed with everything she stood for and regularly winced at her lack of class on the world stage. Many of her actions were reprehensible.
Trust me, she enjoyed the power of being the PM’s right-hand woman.
After Trudeau used the Emergencies Act to end the “Freedom Convoy” protests in 2022, Freeland gave Canadian banks the authority to freeze 280 bank accounts of those who participated in the convoy.
Earlier this year, a federal judge found that the use of the Emergencies Act violated Charter rights.
Her self-righteous smugness then and after will never be forgotten.
She did silly press conferences such as the one about grocery rebates at a downtown Toronto convenience when all the price tags behind her were covered.
I will never forget the press conference she did on the day of byelection earlier this year to replace long-time Liberal Carolyn Bennett in my riding of Toronto—St. Paul’s — after she spent weeks shilling for the Liberal candidate and her former chief of staff, Leslie Church.
Desperate to cull the vote and knowing they were going down to defeat in that Liberal stronghold, she called all those who would vote for Conservative Don Stewart, “cold, cruel and small.”
I have a t-shirt commemorating that infamous moment.
Anyone who does not vote Liberal is "cold, cruel and small," declares @cafreeland ….and does not believe in our country and in our neighbours.
Speaking of cold, cruel and small, she did absolutely nothing to stem to rising tide of antisemitism in Canada and in her very own downtown Toronto riding.
She sat silent as the streets were clogged with Hamasniks calling for the destruction of Israel and never once spoke out in support of the Jewish community in her very own riding.
So trust me, I won’t be holding any tag days for Freeland.
Still she did it all for the Great Feminist. When he was done with her, he kicked her to the curb like a used piece of trash.
In typical cowardly fashion, the narcissist has taken and will take no responsibility for the actions she carried out on his behalf.
He has proven yet again that he is a coward – user and the furthest thing from a feminist. Nope. There’s no doubt in my mind our PM is a misogynist.
President-elect Donald Trump isn’t pulling punches when it comes to Chrystia Freeland’s exit from Justin Trudeau’s cabinet.
Following her bombshell resignation as finance minister and deputy prime minister, Trump said it was no great loss.
“The Great State of Canada is stunned as the finance minister resigns, or was fired, from her position by Governor Justin Trudeau,” Trump said on Truth Social. “Her behaviour was totally toxic and not at all conducive to making deals which are good for the very unhappy citizens of Canada. She will not be missed!!!”
Trump’s post also referenced what has become a running joke for him in recent weeks, referring to Canada as the 51st state of the United States with Trudeau as its governor.
This isn’t the first time Trump’s made his opinion about Freeland known. Following renegotiations over the North American Free Trade Agreement in 2018, an agreement which was later replaced by Trump’s U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, Trump expressed his dissatisfaction with Freeland.
“We don’t like their representative very much,” he said of her.
Freeland’s resignation came just hours before the government announced its Fall Economic Statement, which revealed a $62 billion deficit for the fiscal year 2023/2024. The deficit was $22 billion beyond the $40 billion “fiscal guardrail” Freeland placed on the Liberal government at the start of the year.
The resignation spurred public statements from multiple Liberal MPs calling on Trudeau to resign himself.
Trump’s jests about annexing Canada started when he joked with Justin Trudeau at a dinner party at Mar-a-Lago that Canada could simply join the U.S. if it couldn’t deal with the threatened 25% tariffs.
He subsequently took multiple jabs at Trudeau, referring to him as “Governor Justin Trudeau” and to Canada as “the Great State of Canada.”
Trump shared an AI-generated image of himself looking over Canada – although it was actually the Swiss Alps – with a Canadian flag waving.
Canadian officials, including the newly appointed replacement for Freeland as finance minister, Dominic Leblanc, told Canadians not to worry as Trump’s dinner comments and subsequent social media posts amounted to jokes made among family or friends.
A recent Leger poll found that less than one-third of Canadians are confident in the Trudeau government’s ability to manage the incoming Trump administration and the tariff policies associated with it effectively.
A top NDP official has said his party is willing to defeat the Liberals in a confidence vote if Justin Trudeau hasn’t resigned by next February or March, a timeline that happens to coincide with leader Jagmeet Singh’s pension eligibility.
Speaking on CBC’s Power and Politics Monday evening, NDP House leader Peter Julian told host David Cochrane that if Trudeau isn’t gone by then, the NDP would “100%” vote to support a “straight up” non-confidence motion in the House of Commons.
“If at the end of February or early March, we have the continued debacle that we’re seeing here, and the prime minister has not stepped out… We simply cannot continue like this,” Julian said. “So yes, the NDP, as the adults in the room, would step up on that. We need to act now to help people and stand up against the Trump administration.”
NDP House Leader Peter Julian says the NDP would vote non-confidence in the government if Justin Trudeau remains Prime Minister come February or March. pic.twitter.com/guBYgsPzMz
Hours earlier, Singh called on Trudeau to resign but refused to commit to supporting a non-confidence vote to trigger an election, simply saying “all options are on the table.”
Jagmeet Singh refuses to directly say whether he will vote no confidence in the Trudeau government, repeatedly stating that "all options are on the table" while calling for Trudeau to resign. pic.twitter.com/4aLpyTJStn
Singh said Canadians deserve a different party in government.
“Canadians are sick and tired of watching government after government put themselves, their friends and corporate giants first,” Singh said in a statement released Monday. “People deserve a government that fights for you for a change.”
Trudeau faced many renewed calls to resign on Monday from across the political aisle, including several in his own caucus publicly demanding his resignation.
The calls came after Trudeau’s deputy prime minister and finance minister, Chrystia Freeland, resigned from the cabinet just hours before she was set to deliver the government’s Fall Economic Statement. In her resignation letter, she criticized Trudeau for “costly political gimmicks” over his proposed $250 cheque rebate.
Singh’s pension will be secured in February 2025, six years after he was elected in a British Columbia byelection on Feb. 25, 2019. Many pointed out on X that “late February, early March” is exactly when Singh’s pension is secured.
The Canadian Taxpayer Federation has estimated that if Singh took his pension early at 55 and lived until he was 90, the taxpayer would be on the hook for $2.3 million for Singh’s total retirement.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford said Canada’s premiers must unify in the face of looming U.S. tariffs and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland’s surprise resignation.
“Today has been an important reminder of how critical it is that premiers work together. No matter what’s happening (in) Ottawa, all of us premiers will remain united as ‘Team Canada’ to provide steady and stable leadership during these uncertain times,” said Ford after chairing the premiers meeting on Monday.
It’s never been more important that Canada’s premiers work together to provide strong and stable leadership. We’re united as Team Canada and will never stop fighting for families, workers, businesses and communities from coast to coast to coast. pic.twitter.com/xjUYZCh68h
Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc was quickly sworn in on Monday to take over Freeland’s role as Finance Minister.
Her resignation comes as the premiers gathered to brainstorm how best to deal with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s proposed 25% tariffs on all Canadian imports once he takes office in January.
The tariffs are punitive measures against both Canada and Mexico in response to what Trump called a lax attitude towards illegal border crossings and the entry of illicit drugs like fentanyl into the U.S..
“The imposition of tariffs by the U.S. would be a significant failure on the part of the federal government. To protect workers, we need a full ‘Team Canada’ approach,” said Ford.
“That means that the federal government needs to do better engaging with premiers as it deals with the threat of tariffs with regular meetings with the prime minister and whoever is on his team that takes a role on U.S. relations.”
Ford went on to say that a strategy to boost NATO spending must be formed as soon as possible if Canada plans on meeting the 2% GDP requirement as another avenue to increase border protection.
The Ontario premier acknowledged that while his peers have been briefed on the Trudeau government’s plan to strengthen Canada’s borders, they have yet to see concrete details about how and when it will be implemented.
When asked if he had confidence in Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s ability to deal with Trump during a trade dispute, Ford said he would provide support to his counterparts, saying that everybody would be “at the table.”
Ford had previously announced that he was prepared to cut power off to the 1.5 million homes south of the border that rely on Ontario-made energy as a retaliatory measure for the tariffs.
However, both Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and Quebec Premier Francois Legault publicly expressed their discontent with his proposed action.
“If it comes to Alberta or Quebec, that is their choice. They believe in diplomacy, good luck,” said Ford in response.
Additionally, the Ontario premier threatened to restrict the LCBO from purchasing American-made alcohol.
He also said he may halt the exporting of critical minerals to the U.S., effectively removing them from the provincial procurement process.
Ford will travel to Washington, D.C. in February, along with all the other premiers after Trump takes office to further negotiate things.
The premier also confirmed that he has been in contact with Freeland since her resignation announcement, telling reporters that he and the other premiers were concerned about the news.
In a letter to Trudeau posted on social media Monday morning, Freeland said rather than be shuffled to another cabinet position she will be resigning, claiming she and Trudeau have been “at odds about the best path forward for Canada.”
Freeland, who has served in the position since 2020, said she will be staying in caucus as a member of Parliament and seeking re-election.
The federal Conservatives have delivered another blow to the Liberals, clinching a decisive victory in the Cloverdale–Langley byelection.
On the evening of Chrystia Freeland’s resignation from cabinet, Conservative candidate and former member of Parliament Tamara Jansen secured the British Columbia riding for her party.
Jansen won the riding with a landslide Monday night. Unofficial results show the Conservatives received 66.3% of the vote, followed by the Liberals at 16.0%, and the NDP at 12.5%.
Freeland’s surprising resignation followed Liberal housing minister Sean Fraser’s announcement that he would not seek re-election in the next federal election and would be leaving the Liberal cabinet.
The Liberals ran Madison Fleischer as the candidate after former Liberal MP John Aldag announced he would resign as an MP to become a B.C. NDP candidate in the 2024 provincial election. Aldag eventually lost the race to the provincial Conservatives.
Cloverdale–Langley has been a contested seat, swapping between the Liberals and Conservatives. Jansen beat Aldag, who had been elected in 2015, in the 2019 election by around 1,500 votes. The 2021 federal election saw Aldag unseat Jansen by just over 1,500 votes.
Only 14,979 of the riding’s 92,061 registered electors, or 16.27%, turned up to vote. The 2021 General Election in Cloverdale–Langley City saw 53,758 votes cast out of a total 88,348 electors – a nearly 61% voter turnout, although byelections are notorious for low turnout.
Polls gave the Conservatives a comfortable chance of winning as of Sunday. The popular poll aggregator 338Canada estimated that the Conservatives would receive 53% of the popular vote, followed by the Liberals at 27%, and the NDP at 17%.
However, a variable that pollsters may not have been able to account for for was the Canada Post strike, which resulted in electors not receiving voter information cards. Canada Post workers were ordered back to work the day following the byelection.
Voter information cards are not required to vote, although they do notify people about polling dates, times, and locations.
The 2012 federal electoral boundaries redistribution created the federal electoral district in the Metro Vancouver area of British Columbia of Cloverdale—Langley City, which came into effect during the 2015 Canadian federal election.
However, the borders were redefined following the 2022 Canadian federal electoral redistribution.
The British Columbia riding flipping to the Conservatives follows a nationwide surge of support for the party.
As of Sunday, the Conservatives are projected to win 43% of the popular vote nationally, trailed by the Liberals at 22%, and NDP at 19%.
The Conservatives are projected to win 226 seats. A majority government requires 172 seats. A two-thirds majority, often referred to as a supermajority, requires 226.
