‘An invitation to sound bites’: Professor Emeritus Richard Johnston breaks down Canadian election debate
“It’s always going to be difficult when you have so many people on the stage,” Johnston explained. “Canadian debates have been predominantly terrible for about 20 years now.”
“Canada is a global carbon bomb,” Postdoctoral fellow Amy Janzwood tells Ricochet
Recent research shows Canada’s anticipated oil and gas production from 2021 to 2050 would exhaust about 16 per cent of the world’s remaining carbon budget. “Building new fossil fuel infrastructure, like this mega oil sands pipeline that locks in fossil fuel expansion, is wildly inconsistent with reducing our emissions,” Janzwood says.
The federal NDP may pay a price for the perceived sins of its provincial counterparts, says Prof. Kathryn Harrison
“What can happen in federal elections is that people’s frustration with a provincial government can spill over into the vote,” Professor Kathryn Harrison said. “And one of the challenges I suspect for Jagmeet Singh is that there are a lot of Green voters who are unhappy with the John Horgan government right now.”
Professor Emeritus Richard Johnston on whether election day be a holiday or held on a weekend in Canada
It remains far-fetched that Canada’s federal election day would be made a public holiday, Professor Emeritus Richard Johnston says, but the idea of holding a weekend election could be possible — if MPs ever have the will to explore it.
Liberals face loss of progressive votes in bid for Vancouver-Granville riding, Prof. Gerald Baier says.
“It’s not just the legacy of Wilson-Raybould with the Liberals, but (Noormohamed) has to run against the likelihood there are progressive voters in the riding now who have a more obvious progressive choice in the form of an NDP candidate,” Prof. Gerald Baier said in an interview.
Prof. Gerald Baier says social media campaigning not enough to get people out to vote.
“Young voters often don’t turn out to vote,” Prof. Gerald Baier explained. “You have to knock on doors and get people out to vote, and I think that will be even more important this time around when turnout is expected to be low.”
Prof. Kathryn Harrison comments on whether GHG emissions have risen under Trudeau
“It is very likely that [emissions] fell from 2019 to 2020, because of economic contraction during the pandemic — but we don’t have that data yet,” Professor Kathryn Harrison told CBC.
Prof. Gerald Baier comments on schisms between federal and provincial wings of the NDP
“When the NDP is in government, they tend to face a bit of criticism from the left, the farther left, even though they are the farthest left of the mainstream parties, because governing requires some degree of compromise,” Prof. Gerald Baier said.
Prof. Gerald Baier comments on Erin O’Toole’s campaign appearances on the North Shore
Gerald Baier, a North Shore resident and professor of political science at University of British Columbia, said O’Toole’s stop on the North Shore is indicative of the party’s desire to win back those seats. “We have 17 days left, so every place they go is very symbolic of where they’re hoping to make gains,” he said.
Professor Emeritus Richard Johnston says Liberal and NDP supporters more likely to use mail-in options to vote
“I would think parties would be unwise to certainly motivate their strategies and their logistics all that dramatically because of the possibility of mail-in ballots. They still need to get millions of voters down toward the end of the campaign,” Professor Emeritus Richard Johnston said.