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CANADIAN PRIME MINISTER Justin Trudeau has triggered an election as he seeks to capitalise on the country being one of the most fully vaccinated in the world.
Trudeau announced the election would be held on 20 September after visiting the governor general, who holds a mostly ceremonial position representing the Queen as head of state.
“We’ve had your back, and now it’s time to hear your voice,” he said. “Canadians need to choose how we finish the fight against Covid-19.”
Trudeau is seeking to win a majority of seats in Parliament. His Liberal Party fell just short of that two years ago and must rely on the opposition to pass legislation.
The election comes as Canada is experiencing a new wave of Covid-19 cases, driven by the delta variant of the coronavirus.
Lockdowns lifted
Trudeau is not as popular as he once was, but his government’s handling of the pandemic has been widely viewed as a success.
After a slow start, Canada now has enough vaccine for every citizen. More than 71% of eligible Canadians are fully vaccinated and more than 82% have received at least one dose.
The government has spent billions to prop up the economy amid lockdowns that have now lifted.
But if the result is another minority government, the “knives will start to come out”, said Robert Bothwell, a professor of Canadian history and international relations at the University of Toronto.
“Trudeau is not widely liked. He’s what the Liberals have so they will fall in behind him, but if he loses he’s toast,” Bothwell said.
It’s not that he’s unpopular but there’s no affection there. The Liberals behave as if he is this beloved figure but he’s not. The novelty is gone. But there’s still enough there and the performance on Covid was pretty solid so I think people will balance these things going into the election and vote for Trudeau.
Trudeau, the son of the late Liberal prime minister, Pierre Trudeau, became the second youngest prime minister in Canadian history when he was first elected with a majority of seats in Parliament in 2015.
The Liberal’s victory ended almost 10 years of Conservative Party government in Canada, but scandals combined with high expectations have damaged Trudeau’s standing.
His father served as prime minister from 1968 to 1984 with a short interruption.
Opposition leftist New Democratic Party leader, Jagmeet Singh, said it is “selfish” for Trudeau to call an election in a pandemic. Ontario, Canada’s largest province, reported more than 500 cases for the fourth straight day.
Nelson Wiseman, a political science professor at the University of Toronto, said many Canadians will resent having an election they see as unnecessary, but said the Liberals will win the most seats.
“Trudeau is seen as having delivered on vaccines and there has been widespread support for the government’s income-and job-support programs to counter Covid’s economic fallout,” Wiseman said.
“Canadians compare their situation to the US. The current spike in the US. contributes to smug complacency among Canadians. This feeling benefits the Liberals at present.”
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Surely we should at least be checking stomachs to see if plastic is an issue?
@brian boru: All died from plastic at the same time? Not likely.
@brian boru:
Oh, plastic is the current buzzword, it must be plastic so!,
Its more than likely sonar. Sonar is used in oil exploration and during military exercises.
Not really a mystery when you see the amount of such activity in our Atlantic waters.
@brian boru: Probably full of condoms as they look like small jellyfish as well, go to any beach here and its full of them…
@TamuMassif2019: they must be full of seamen too so ;-)
We will act when no whales can be found in our seas.
@Winterfell: I’ve swam in Dollymount for 35 years and never saw a whale. The old dead whale hoax.
@Winterfell: What will Norway and Japan do then, kill dolphins?
@Paul Whitehead: not exactly the Atlantic is it
Until today, I was ignorant of how destructive active sonar is to marine life.
I was just reading that sonar on some American ships is way more powerful than the minimum needed to kill a human in the water. It stands to reason it can’t be good for whales/dolphins which are biologically designed to pick up sonar.
The government and the MSM have missed a trick here. Surely they could have pointed to Climate Change being the cause. Another reason to slap carbon taxes on all of us.
The Great Climate Change Shakedown missed an opportunity here….
Russian naval activity in the Atlantic. Destroyers passed through the English Channel yesterday on the way to the Atlantic. Bet there’s subs there too. I wonder are the Irish navy keeping an eye on things or playing Irish ferries in the med?
@Phil Keenan: It was a British ship.
@Phil Keenan: far more non russian than Russian. Those clickbait articles in the Sun are only there to incite anti russian hatred before the next government anouncement blaming them for something.
Like it was said earlier, the exploration activity off the coast is clearly a more likely explanation
Also, it could be deep sea fishing vessels coming into Irish waters to catch our fish. The whales are also being netted. Fishing vessels dump the unwanted catch back into sea. Read something about this happening in the north west Irish deep sea.
@Ashling Visser Bishop: absolutely. Also the sonar they use for catch location is probably as powerful as military grade.
“Whales are designed for dealing with pressure changes” who’s designing these whales I demand to know.
sounds fishy
Another one spotted in the water close to sligo today. Will be on the shore in a few hours.
What are US and UK subs doing in our waters, why is this not asked, a few months ago a trawler got into difficulties as it seemed with a sub in the Irish sea but that wasn’t reported anywhere.
Those military children and their war games and UK’s Trident using the XP Windows operating system, it is crazy.
It has been stated for years that the sonar is causing this but the military don’t care, it’s time they did.
Also… “We take our environmental responsibilities very seriously and continue to work with the relevant UK authorities to reduce any environmental risk.
A necessary series of safety checks is observed and an environmental risk assessment is carried out before any underwater task is undertaken by the Ministry Of Defence, to minimise any potential risk to marine life.”
And again I ask what are they doing in and near Irish waters???
Saw one floating off Murder Hole Beach in Donegal on Sunday. Same colour as the ones above.
@Gavin Sheehan: Murder Hole Beach. What a fantastic place name!
There is absolutely no evidence of any kind provided here that naval sonar is the cause of these deaths.
Grace O Malley, pirate queer sorry what am l saying pirate queen……..she has not gone away yiz know…watch the sky
Saying there’s no evidence, instead of actually denying involvement in this, is like saying “you can’t prove it, so F off”.
Marine research vessel discovered coral reefs 300 miles off our west coast recently. How did they achieve that. SONAR maybe???
have your say