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Michael Chong, the foreign affairs critic for the federal Conservatives, has ruled out a bid for the leadership of the party.
As candidates, including former Quebec premier Jean Charest, jump into the competition, the MP for the Ontario riding of Wellington-Halton Hills said on Friday that he would not follow them.
“Now is not the time. For now, Canada’s foreign policy will remain my focus,” Mr. Chong said in a tweet.
He was a contender for the leadership in 2017, and lately said he was considering another shot at leading the party. But he said he will, this time, be taking a role outside the spotlight.
“In the upcoming leadership race, I’ll engage party members & candidates to help elect a Conservative leader ready for the serious challenges of our times,” he wrote.
There are now four candidates in the race toward a Sept. 10 announcement on the replacement for Erin O’Toole, who was voted out by the party caucus in February.
They are Ontario MPs Pierre Poilievre and Leslyn Lewis, independent Ontario legislature member Roman Baber, and Mr. Charest, who officially entered the race, in Calgary, on Thursday. Former MP Patrick Brown, the mayor of the Toronto-area city of Brampton and a former leader of Ontario’s Progressive Conservative party, is expected to enter the race on Sunday.
Earlier this week, Mr. Charest said he is opposed to Quebec’s controversial religious-symbols law and also favours more oil and gas production, including new pipelines, as he formally entered the race for the Conservative Party leadership. Story here. Please check the newsletter’s opinion section for Campbell Clark’s take on Mr. Charest’s view on truckers. Also, there’s a Globe and Mail explainer here on the leadership race.
Also Friday, Mr. Poilievre said B.C. MPs Tracy Gray, Kerry-Lynne Findlay and Todd Doherty are serving as his campaign co-chairs.
Meanwhile, former Quebec Tory MP Christian Paradis, who represented the riding of Mégantic—L’Érable from 2006 to 2015, announced his support for Mr. Charest, calling him a seasoned politician and consensus builder.
“Canadians deserve to be governed by an experienced, talented and inspiring leader, which Jean Charest embodies,” Mr. Paradis said in a tweet.
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TODAY’S HEADLINES
SIGNIFICANT CONTINENTAL DEFENCES SPENDING PLAN COMING: ANAND - Defence Minister Anita Anand says the Canadian government will soon unveil a significant spending plan to help modernize continental defences under NORAD, a revamp the United States has been seeking for years. Story here.
SANCTIONS ON HIGH-PROFILE OLIGARCH - Canada slapped sanctions on Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich on Friday, but said the move won’t affect the Canadian operations of Evraz North America, which supplies much of the steel for the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion. Parliamentary reporter Marieke Walsh reports here from Warsaw. There are live Globe and Mail updates here on the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
UPTICK FOR LABOUR MARKET - Canada’s labour market bounced back sharply in February, more than recouping the jobs that were lost when the Omicron variant of COVID-19 ripped through the economy. Story here.
EMERGENCY ACT NECESSARY TO END TRUCKER PROTESTS: PM ADVISER - Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s national security and intelligence adviser says the invocation of the federal Emergencies Act was necessary to end the trucker protests, whose leaders were bent on overthrowing the government. Story here.
ROOKIE MP CHARGED BY THE NAVY - After an investigation lasting more than five months, the Royal Canadian Navy has charged Sub-Lt. Kevin Vuong – a naval reservist and member of Parliament – for failing to disclose that he was criminally charged with sexual assault in 2019. Story here from CBC.
REMAIN VIGILANT: NJOO - As Canada embarks on its third year in a global pandemic, Dr. Howard Njoo, the deputy chief public health officer, says Canadians need to remain vigilant. Story here.
GG NOMINATION PROCESS PASSES MUSTER WITH OFFICIAL LANGUAGES MINISTER - The Commissioner of Official Languages has ruled that the nomination process of Governor-General Mary Simon did not violate federal legislation concerning bilingualism. Story here from CBC.
THIS AND THAT
TODAY IN THE COMMONS -The House of Commons is not sitting again until March. 21.
NEW STOPS ON GREEN RECONNECTION TOUR - Amita Kuttner, interim leader of the Green Party of Canada, will be in Hamilton on Saturday as part of a national “Reconnection Tour” the party has organized after their recent challenges. The leader plans to participate in a Fair Transition rally at Hamilton Town Hall in the afternoon and in the evening they will host a public town hall. Details here.
THE DECIBEL - On Friday’s edition of The Globe and Mail podcast, The Globe’s Europe correspondent Paul Waldie , who has been reporting from border towns in Poland since the war between Russia and Ukraine began. talks about how these towns are handling so many refugees coming in from Ukraine, the few long-term options available for refugees and why the Polish government needs to figure out a plan to help people resettle. In two weeks, more than 2.3 million refugees have fled Ukraine because of the continuing war. It is the fastest exodus since the Second World War. Poland has seen the largest influx of refugees with more than 1.4 million people arriving in the country since Feb. 24. The Decibel is here.
PRIME MINISTER’S DAY
In Warsaw, the Prime Minister held private meetings, met with Larisa Galadza, the Canadian ambassador to Ukraine, held a media availability, and departed for Ottawa.
LEADERS
NDP leader Jagmeet Singh, in British Columbia, attended a meeting with members of the provincial legislature from Surrey, B.C. and participated in a discussion with students at an elementary school in Burnaby.
No schedules provided for other leaders.
OPINION
The Globe and Mail Editorial Board on whether it is time for Canada to drop the mask: “Canadians need clear, consistent public-health advice. And health leaders also need to remind people that dropping masks is not necessarily forever. Where public measures stand depends on where the virus sits. That’s why Dr. Moore talked about the possibility of masks returning in the fall, as did his B.C. counterpart, Dr. Bonnie Henry. “While today is another really positive step forward, we have to be ready to bring some tools back, if necessary, depending on the situation as it changes,” she said Thursday. Some Canadians think masks are about to disappear for good; others are afraid to ever take them off. Canadians need more and better communication from public-health leaders on who can remove masks now, and why – and whether we might one day have to bring them out again.”
Campbell Clark (The Globe and Mail) on whether Jean Charest’s opposition to clash with the Conservative mood: “It is true that the Conservative Party has considered itself the party of law and order. Yet you have to wonder if Mr. Charest’s stand on the convoys – or Mr. Charest himself – will fit with the mood of the current Conservative Party. The putative front-runner in the leadership race, Ottawa MP Pierre Poilievre, cheered for the convoys, posted a picture of himself delivering doughnuts to a trucker and, as convoy blockades developed, Mr. Poilievre said he was proud of the truckers. So when Mr. Charest says that anyone who wants to be prime minister has to stand up for the rule of law, he’s talking about Mr. Poilievre – even if he’s not mentioning any names.”
Andrew Coyne (The Globe and Mail) on a message to Conservatives: Smarten up - serious times need serious leaders: “Too many Conservatives make the same mistake as their most blinkered opponents – of confusing being conservative with being a jerk. Stephen Harper was certainly blessed with the ability to irritate Liberals, but in 10 years in government left precious little in the way of a lasting conservative legacy. What he did leave was a party that was all too prone to picking needless fights and peddling conspiracy theories – the party, or rather that section of it that is attracted to this sort of thing, that thinks the World Economic Forum is a threat to our freedom, but cheered on the lawless mob that occupied Ottawa. To subscribe to such idiocies does not prove you are a principled conservative. It merely marks you as unfit to govern. That is what the party will have to decide in this race: whether it wants to be a serious party with serious ambitions of governing, or a marginal party for marginal cranks.”
Robyn Urback (The Globe and Mail) on how the West is turning to xenophobia against individual Russians to respond to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion: “It is one thing to sanction industry in response to an invasion (though, yes, this does have secondary effects on individual citizens), or even to suspend sports teams that compete in the name of the state. But there is no moral justification for directly penalizing individuals because their mere presence as a citizen of one country or another might create a negative impression about Canadian loyalty during this war. Just as it was wrong to stoke suspicion about Japanese nationals during the Second World War, or to lash out against Chinese Canadians because of Beijing’s obfuscation over COVID-19, it is wrong to punish individual Russians for the actions of a regime over which they have no control.”
Pat Carney (Contributed to The Globe and Mail) on how refugee children will never truly forget their flight from home: “Once again we are witnessing mass flights of humanity, this time from Ukraine. We look at the faces of the tired, tearful toddlers on our televisions, trudging away from their homes, hanging on to their exhausted mothers’ hands, as they flee their homeland and the horror of war. Do not think that they are too young to retain the memory of their journey. While they may not remember every detail, they will never forget their harrowing escape to anywhere but home.”
Molly McCarron (Contributed to The Globe and Mail) on how the doors are closing in Russia: “I’ve been fascinated by Russia for most of my life, one of those oddly specific interests that emerge in childhood, like mastodons or maps. The first time I visited was on a school trip in the last years of the Soviet Union. The curtain was still iron and being there felt unreal, like an expedition to another planet we might never get to see again. But things changed just a few years later and I went back to study, and to work, and kept returning in ways that felt more and more normal over the years. Already, it’s feeling more remote again. As Russian independent media is crushed, social-media access is restricted, and Western media pulls out, a veil has been pulled back in place. I don’t know if I’ll ever be back in Russia. Everything is terrible and we don’t know what to do, writes a friend. They’re horrified by the war. They know they’re not in physical danger, unlike the Ukrainians. But their lives are shattered. “It was great when there was hope that we were part of the world,” they say. “And we were!” Ostorozhno, dveri zakryvayutsya. “Careful, the doors are closing.” It’s what the recorded voice says on Russian metro systems before the train leaves a station. Cities like Samara are no longer closed. Instead, Russia is a closed country.”
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