Another federal election?!
With bated breath and undereye bags, we're getting you up to speed on the snap federal election PM Justin Trudeau will likely call on Sunday.
Hey there, and welcome to the 43rd issue of The Supplement, a newsletter that fills in the gaps of your other news intake. This is Sam, one-third of the Supplement team!
Just in case you don’t know the drill, we’re driven by reader-submitted questions. If you’d like to submit a question, email us at thesupplementnewsletter@gmail.com. And don’t forget to check us out on Instagram, and on Twitter.
Quick housekeeping note: we’re taking a little summer holiday, so this will be our last issue until the beginning of September!
This week, we’re tackling this question: Another federal election?!
TL;DR: Major media outlets have reported that PM Justin Trudeau plans to call a snap federal election for September 20 on Sunday, just two years after the last one. In making this decision, Trudeau no doubt took into account the goodwill generated by the government’s response to COVID-19, which involved billions in relief money and a vaccine campaign that has stood out internationally. He’s hoping this will generate him the majority government he failed to secure in 2019.
Ooooh boy. Are we doing this again already?
On Thursday, confidential sources told The Associated Press and Reuters that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will call a snap election on Sunday for September 20. While political experts have speculated about an election for weeks, we don’t know much yet. But let’s get you up to date on what we do know, because pretty soon we’ll all have way too much federal election news to catch up on (buy your poor neighbourhood journalist a coffee).
First up: why call a snap election, just two years after the election in October 2019? Trudeau likely wants to capitalize on Canada’s COVID-19 successes (relative to the rest of the world, anyway) and the billions of dollars he has spent in aid and relief money. He absolutely wants to use any current goodwill to secure a majority government (here are the chances of that happening, according to recent polls). Currently the Liberals are 15 seats short of the 170 needed for a majority, meaning that they need to secure support from the opposition to pass legislation.
If the campaign kicks off this Sunday and election day is Sept. 20, it would be just 36 days in length, the shortest possible permitted under elections law. Governments regularly call elections prior to their full four years, but this particular decision has been met with criticism. For example, over 2,500 people have signed a petition launched by non-profit organization Democracy Watch that asks Governor General Mary Simon to reject Trudeau’s election request.
Part of that criticism is because Canada has firmly entered its fourth COVID-19 wave, largely driven by cases of the Delta variant among the unvaccinated. Chief public health officer Dr. Theresa Tam is calling it a “strong resurgence trajectory.” Cases have more than doubled in the past couple weeks, with the current count of active cases sitting at over 13,000 nationally.
“A snap election will be dangerous for many voters. A fourth wave of COVID-19 is expected across Canada this fall, more contagious than ever, as many people are still not fully vaccinated,” Democracy Watch said in a news release about their petition. “Voters who are vulnerable to COVID-19 will, completely justifiably, feel hesitant about going to a polling station to vote.”
Meanwhile, other parties have jumped on this news to make their own case for election. The NDP is already starting to outline its campaign promises — in a document no less than 115 pages — which include free mental healthcare, an end to for-profit long-term care and better pandemic preparedness.
But it has also been quick to criticize Trudeau’s move as a power grab during a dire time. “Fighting the pandemic and delivering for people should be a prime minister’s No. 1 priority,” NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh said in a statement.
The Conservative Party and Green Party have been slower to leverage the news, as both are undergoing a turbulent time: the CPC is fracturing ideologically, and the Green Party is still losing staff amid an ongoing internal rift.
And how will the ongoing pandemic impact an election? Likely lots of virtual and distanced campaigning, as well as a large proportion of mail-in ballots. This means we likely won’t know the result right away, much like what happened with various provincial elections during the pandemic.
As we wait with bated breath and growing undereye bags for this election, we’re thinking about how to frame our coverage over at The Supplement. We want to know: what do you want to see from us? Recommended readings, breakdowns of the main issues? Want to read anything but election coverage? Let us know at thesupplementnewsletter@gmail.com.
Here’s someone to follow: We would be remiss not to recommend you immediately follow David Moscrop after reading this issue. The political writer, analyst and commentator pens a regular column for The Washington Post, and has already started a Twitter thread to commemorate the #elxn44 madness … Dad jokes included.
Here’s a story to check out: Just in case you haven’t seen it plastered across your feed, this is the major news you should be paying attention to: the UN-backed Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released their first assessment in nearly a decade, and it doesn’t look great. Like we knew already, it points out just how responsible human activity is for rising temperatures. Read this coverage — and then this.