[Canada] Canadian Politics Redux

[Jacob]

Viper what's the dynamic in Quebec city?

Is it that the federalist vote will swing Con --> Lib if the Libs are stronger?

Or something else?

[crazy canuck]

For those wondering about the ties between the Canadian right wing and MAGA, look at the Americans speaking at the Canadian version of of CPAC- Canada Strong and Free (which used to be named after for the Manning Institute)

https://canadastrongandfree.network/event/csfn-ottawa-2026/

[crazy canuck]

Carney said it out loud, the new international order will be rebuilt out of Europe, and Canadians are happy to join in the rebuilding endeavour

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DX6efeoA2Wx/?igsh=NjJtZmRvMjlsZnZt

[Oexmelin]

Viper what's the dynamic in Quebec city?

Is it that the federalist vote will swing Con --> Lib if the Libs are stronger?

Or something else?

I am not Viper, but I now live in a place where in go very frequently to Quebec City...

My sense of it is: it depends.

I don't think it's about perceived strength for the federalist cause as it is about Carney governing to the right of the Liberal party, and the Conservative making some strategic mistakes as the party becomes more and more beholden to the West. I don't think the Conservatives in Quebec City will lose their hardcore, populist right-wing base, but they may lose the right-of-center, vaguely nationalist, voter - basically, the formerly CAQ voter.

There has been other things at stake in federal-level elections than federalists/sovereigntists, for quite some time now. However, the current turn to right-wing populist talking points within the PQ may stir things up at the federal level, where the BQ is in a weird situation - standing both as a left-wing refuge (with the NDP's umpteenth implosion and a functionally monolingual leader), and a party for Quebec sovereignty, who's had to deal with the PQ's twists and turns.

[viper37]

Viper what's the dynamic in Quebec city?

Is it that the federalist vote will swing Con --> Lib if the Libs are stronger?

Or something else?

They're heavily Conservative in & around the city, albeit quieter now, except the radio jocks.

They're not necessarily federalists, except maybe for a part of the South Shore, closer to Maine (Beauce).


The city itself is left leaning, so it's mostly Liberal ridings. Used to be Bloc, but they've been chased.  Surrounding the city, Dark Blue:
https://newsinteractives.cbc.ca/elections/federal/2025/results/

The Libs are becoming very popular (in the sense that people have stopped hating on them), but I don't see them making gains in terms of seats.  More votes, not enough to flip.  Unless PP really screws up more and starts losing MPs in his safe ridings.

I think we'd see the Bloc going down and the Libs going up to 2nd place in most ridings surrounding Quebec city, if there were to be an election (doubt there would be one though).

It's mostly the suburbs and the countryside (well, what's left of us) that are more conservative.

[crazy canuck]

From the Globe

Airbus SE EADSY +1.19%increase
 is set to unveil one of its biggest ever orders for its Canadian-made A220 airliner, a multibillion-dollar sale to budget carrier AirAsia that further cements Quebec as one of the key global hubs for commercial aircraft production.

The European aerospace giant will provide details Wednesday of a long-awaited order for as many as 150 planes from AirAsia, according to a senior federal official. The Globe and Mail is not naming the source because they are not permitted to speak for the companies.

Prime Minister Mark Carney is expected to join Quebec Premier Christine Fréchette and Airbus officials for the announcement at the Airbus complex in Mirabel, Que., the main site for A220 assembly. Union leaders and local politicians confirm that they've also been invited.

[Grey Fox]

Always good news when Airbus remembers to sell that plane. Quebec government owns 25% of it.

[crazy canuck]

Between late December and late April, references to Alberta separatism and various related themes, including talk of the province becoming a U.S. state and Canada failing as a country, rose sharply from known Russian content farms. During those four months, Alberta was the focus of 67 items produced and distributed by Pravda Network, nearly five times more than other Canada-related topics.

[viper37]

REPORT: Poilievre's only hope is that floor-crossing MPs will destroy Liberal Party from within

The Beaverton has endless material since last election.  

[viper37]

Fed's at it again.  2024, bilingualism too costly, takes too much time, let's go with English only for contracts on invites only!

Des contrats publics n'ont été offerts qu'à des entreprises anglophones pour «éviter des délais»

Public contracts have only been offered to English-speaking companies to "avoid delays"
A federal Crown corporation benefits from a grey area in procurement policies.


A federal Crown corporation, the National Capital Commission (NCC), favours English-speaking companies in the realization of certain projects in order to avoid having to translate documents into French, learned Le Devoir.

Created by Parliament in 1959, the NCC is the steward of federal properties in Ottawa-Gatineau. According to the Communications Department of the Crown Corporation, it awards nearly 2000 contracts worth a total of US$120 million each year in the federal capital region.
Internal emails, particularly under the Access to Information Act — and to which Le Devoir has had access — show that, to avoid the "fees" and "time limits" related to the translation of documents into French, the NCC has sometimes favoured attribution processes favouring English-speaking companies.

This was the case at the end of 2024, in connection with excavation and development work in the Ottawa area of Nepean.
The NCC had then ruled that it would publish a bilingual call for tenders on the government platform AchatsCanada, and then retracted. Why? "Going forward with a public tender would pose a risk to the project schedule because of the additional time required to translate the documents," a CCN project manager told other Crown Corporation employees by email.
The federal government requires its departments and companies to publish their tenders in both official languages when using the PurchasingCanada platform. But if the value of the contract is below a certain threshold, a federal agency may submit a call for tenders by invitation to a pool of bidders that it has chosen. And if the latter claim documents in only one official language, the obligation of bilingualism disappears.

"Going forward with a public tender would pose a risk to the project schedule because of the additional time required for the translation of documents. »

Thus, Nepean's contract, worth $250 000, was subject to a restricted pool of bidders, all of whom were English-speaking. "We are within the tax limit to make an invitation to bid," a project manager said in an email. A civil engineering executive from the NCC added: "We have recently launched a few tender projects, using the invitation-to-invitation method, and we have only provided drawings and specifications in English. We have also worked with these suppliers recently and we are confident that their quotes will lead to a fair price. »

"The requirement for bilingualism on PurchasingCanada ... affects the operational effectiveness of the National Capital Commission, since clients must take time for translation and, in some cases, incur additional costs," writes a director of the NCC's procurement department in an email asking an employee to pay attention to the publication of contracts on the bilingual federal platform.

The NCC in the grey zone

While the NCC has the right to tender by invitation when the value of a contract is below a certain threshold (variable depending on the nature of the contract), the pool of bidders must not be established according to "random or potentially discriminatory criteria", says in interview Mr^. Sébastien Laprise, public procurement lawyer and associate at Langlois Avocats.

Choosing this path to avoid translating documents therefore places the federal Crown corporation's approach in a grey area.
In contact with this, the NCC maintains that it "has a procurement policy that complies with Treasury Board rules and complies with the Official Languages Act."

"We also consider socio-economic and environmental considerations, such as reconciliation with Indigenous peoples, ecological supply, diversity and the fight against forced labour and child labour in supply chains. These considerations must be taken into account from the moment of planning," the Crown Corporation's portion of this policy was written.

However, there is no mention of official languages, it was found.

[viper37]

A comparison of Harper's 2012 policy on environnment and Carney's 2026 policy.
In French, translate on your own this time

https://ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelle/2253253/carney-harper-steven-guilbeault-environnement

[crazy canuck]

Direct bid processes are not uncommon and in fact make commercial sense.  If the companies selected for the direct bid process communicate in English, what would be the purpose of translating all of the contractual documentation into French? 

[Grey Fox]

That's not the issue.

[crazy canuck]

That's not the issue.

As framed by the newspaper article, I agree that is not the issue they highlighted.  But the issue they highlighted makes no commercial sense for the reasons I stated.

The inference being made is that the reason this went to a direct bid is to avoid the bilingual requirement.

It makes no sense, either practical or commercial, to tender a contract worth so little in a full-blown public tender process.  That is of course a point that is not consistent with the angle the newspaper article took.  Ignoring the commercial and practical realities is a good way of stoking linguistic discontent.

[Oexmelin]

If the angle is always "commercial and practical realities", we may as well dispense with the fiction that Canada is bilingual.