By Sheila Copps
First published in The Hill Times on June 5, 2023.

OTTAWA—The political fires surrounding foreign interference are being dwarfed by real fires.

Special rapporteur David Johnston’s decision to ignore a negative parliamentary vote could have added fuel to the firestorm.

But even Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre toned down his Question Period rhetoric, asking only one foreign influence question on June 1, the day following the Johnston vote. NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh, who introduced the “Dump Johnston” resolution, did not lead off on that issue, focusing instead on fires in Nova Scotia.

The fact that two major opposition parties moved away from Johnston indicates that the public is not as engaged with the issue as some believe.

Most people don’t know David Johnston, but they do know that he served two different governments and has a personal history as a non-partisan. He has been widely recognized for his experience in legal and university sectors, and accepted the responsibilities of being governor general.

The opposition may not like Johnston’s answer, but it is pretty hard to argue with his logic. In his decision to stay on, Johnston made it clear that he was mandated by the government and could not be removed by Parliament.

That is obvious. But it doesn’t coincide with the opposition’s attempt to keep the issue burning.

A majority in parliament should wield huge political clout. But by refusing to annul his own mandate, Johnston is banking on the fact that his personal history is strong enough to withstand the critics.

And the public may be moving on to other issues.

With real fires burning across the country, Canadians are rightly focused on that.

With firefighters working round the clock in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec, Ontario, Saskatchewan and Alberta, Canadians are getting a taste of the damage that global warming can wreak upon a country with so much land vulnerable to forest fires.

According to the federal government, multiple fires are the new normal.

With the summer still ahead, politicians are rightfully concerned about fire fatigue. Professional help to fight the fires has arrived from as far away as South Africa.

More than 200 homes have burnt to the ground in Nova Scotia, with evacuees awaiting the green light to return to residences that still remain.

The forest fires and floods were predicted by scientists more than a quarter century ago, but the human toll taken by the heating of the planet is only starting to be felt.

The mayor of Halifax and the premier of Nova Scotia are working diligently with emergency services to keep residents of that city safe and battle the flames. They are also working with Ottawa to clarify the level of support coming from the federal government once the rebuilding process begins.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tweeted personally that he would be there for any measures required to restore normalcy.

The country’s attention has been riveted by urban encroachment and the speed of fires in Halifax. The sister of a friend of mine had 10 minutes to get out of her house, which subsequently burned to the ground in a matter of hours.

The before and after pictures of her home were devastating. There was literally nothing left. No photos, no mementoes, nothing.

She has insurance, but it is going to take months to figure out whether her family will rebuild onsite or simply move on.

Heat wave warnings are in place across the country and the military is moving in to help with the aftermath of the fires in Nova Scotia. But we should expect that the evacuations being suffered in eastern Canada will continue over the summer in all parts of the country.

There are currently 2,400 firefighters attacking blazes in Alberta. Northern Quebec is currently evacuating citizens from two smaller communities.

When it comes to political issues, the public’s attention is shifting just as quickly.

At a press conference to update citizens on the situation in Nova Scotia, Progressive Conservative Premier Tim Houston accused the federal government of dragging its feet on post-Hurricane Fiona funding. He urged the federal Liberals not to repeat that mistake.

The Prime Minister’s Office rebutted his claim, saying the Fiona fund was approved within six hours of receiving the request.

In an emergency situation, all parties work together, but as the damages mount, forest fires can also become a political issue.

In the end, the real fires facing Canadians have nothing to do with China.

Sheila Copps is a former Jean Chrétien-era cabinet minister and a former deputy prime minister. Follow her on Twitter at @Sheila_Copps.

Foreign interference allegations are not limited to China. Recent reports of Russian interference have also surfaced. Politics is always a messy business. With identity politics, it will get even messier.

By Sheila Copps
First published in The Hill Times on March 20, 2023.

OTTAWA—Surprise, surprise: the first political casualty of the Chinese interference allegations was an Ontario Progressive Conservative MPP. Vincent Ke resigned last week from the PC caucus, despite characterizing the allegations as “false and defamatory.”

Ke tweeted his departure. “While the Global News allegations about me are false and defamatory, I do not want to be a distraction to the government and take away from the good work Premier Ford is doing for the province of Ontario.”

Global has been at the forefront of leaked stories about financial links between the Chinese government and Chinese-Canadian members of parliament.

Leaks are reported to be coming from inside the Canadian Security Intelligence Service.

The RCMP has been investigating the leak’s source, according to other news reports.

During last year’s provincial election, the Ontario Provincial Police was asked by the Liberal Party of Ontario to investigate the incorporation of 15 companies or associations associated with Ke.

Ke established the corporations after his election to the legislature in 2018.

At the time, Ontario Premier Doug Ford defended Ke, saying that several incorporations included non-profit cultural associations.

Ford defended his MPP’s exit last week in a statement. “Not proven, they [allegations] are serious and deserve his full and undivided attention as he works to clear his name.”

Identity politics will also take centre stage in upcoming federal investigations into electoral foreign interference.

By choosing former governor-general David Johnston to head a probe into foreign meddling, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has managed to secure an individual with impeccable credentials.

Appointed governor general by then-prime minister Stephen Harper, Johnston managed to secure broad public support during his seven-year tenure.

However, his nomination was criticized by the Conservatives because, after retirement, he volunteered for the Trudeau Foundation.

Johnston has his work cut out for him. Foreign interference allegations are not limited to China.

Recent reports of Russian interference have also surfaced.

Politics is always a messy business.

With identity politics, it will get even messier.

Sheila Copps is a former Jean Chrétien-era cabinet minister and a former deputy prime minister. Follow her on Twitter at @Sheila_Copps.

Maxime Bernier’s ideas should be defeated at the ballot box, not in the back rooms of the Leaders’ Debates Commission.

By Sheila Copps
First published in The Hill Times on August 26, 2019.

OTTAWA—The broadcast debate rule makers need to take another look at their election work. By the current rules established for party leader participation, floor-crosser Lucien Bouchard would have been silenced.

At the time of the 1993 election, Bouchard was the leader of the Bloc Quebecois, having been previously elected as a Progressive Conservative. His party did not field candidates across the country, the second of the three criteria established for entering October’s debates.

The rules currently bar the People’s Party of Canada from the debate because leader Max Bernier was elected as a Tory. Can you imaging the uproar if the founding leader of the Bloc had been denied a seat at the televised debating table?

Rules say a party must run candidates in 90 per cent of the ridings across the country, which again eliminates new regional parties like the Bloc. The threshold for support is either a reasonable chance to win a couple of seats, or support from approximately four per cent of the popular vote in a general election. Current polling numbers situate the PPC just under 3 per cent with a chance to win one seat. Those numbers will fluctuate once the campaign begins.

Not surprisingly, the decision to block Bernier has been met by other parties with muted acquiescence. Conservatives are breathing a sigh of relief because Bernier is trying to tap into the right wing of their base. New Democratic Party Leader Jagmeet Singh went so far as to claim the party should be blocked because its viewpoints are odious, and do not deserve a platform.

Many Canadians might have felt the same way about a separatist party, but it was never denied a voice at the table.

Politicians of any stripe should not welcome state-mandated censorship, even when they vehemently disagree with another party’s viewpoint. An organization headed by a sitting Member of Parliament, with candidate recruitment across the country, deserves a chance to be heard.

Last weekend, Bernier’s party held a countrywide candidates’ convention in the nation’s capital, attended by 500 people. The party has managed to nominate candidates from coast to coast and has even recruited some dubious stars, like the widow of former Toronto mayor Rob Ford.

Bernier, who came within two percentage points of leading the Conservative Party, is no political neophyte. His father sat as a Tory member before him, and with his deep roots in that party, Bernier also managed to recruit a number of former Conservative colleagues. Most of them claim to have left the Conservative party to pursue more freedom of speech. They believe the current crop of Tories are too mainstream, denying debate on race and immigration issues.

The PPC is officially advocating a reduction in annual immigration targets by two-thirds, and an end to multiculturalism in the country. Their leader also claims that climate change has not been caused by human activity, despite ample scientific evidence to the contrary.

I am not a fan of Bernier’s ideas. From his misrepresentation of global warming to his call to build a wall against Canadian immigration, he represents the antithesis of my political philosophy. But surely his viewpoint is relevant.

If politically-appointed committees are destined to decide which perspectives can be aired, how does that strengthen democracy?

Bernier’s ideas should be beaten at the ballot box, but he should not be outside the debates looking in. That only strengthens his party’s capacity to play the victim card. Marginalized supporters will claim that their voices are being ignored in favour of other politically correct perspectives.

Given the makeup of the moderators for the English language debate, you can hardly blame them. The debate airing on October 7 features five respected women journalists, including Lisa Laflamme of CTV, Rosemary Barton of CBC, Dawna Friesen of Global, Althia Raj of Huffpost and The Toronto Star’s Susan Delacourt.

All of the aforementioned have the qualifications and the experience to be excellent moderators. But why should a panel on Canadian politics only include participants of one gender? I would be first to complain if the debate consortium had chosen only men. So why is it okay to repeat gender bias with a women-only line-up? Former governor-general David Johnston, the first-ever debates commissioner, is treading a fine line in decisions on the format and composition of the debates. In French, there will be a mix of genders, with three men and two women journalists.

By excluding Bernier from this politically correct table, Johnson is providing dangerous fodder to the populists.

Sheila Copps is a former Jean Chrétien-era cabinet minister and a former deputy prime minister. Follow her on Twitter at @Sheila_Copps.