Good morning,
The biggest political news this week is likely to come from south of the border, as Americans vote in their midterm elections on Tuesday night. The so-called midterms are the votes held in even years in the middle of a president’s four-year term, where elections are held for every single seat in the U.S. House of Representatives and one third of those in the Senate are up for re-election. (Representatives are elected for two-year terms and senators for six years at a time.)
Most U.S. presidents who were voted in with their party controlling both chambers of Congress usually lose at least one during the midterms, such as Barack Obama in 2010 or Bill Clinton in 1994. Democrats are hopeful they can retake the House, owing to Donald Trump’s low approval numbers, though retaking the Senate may be difficult because of which seats are in play. On the weekend, Saturday Night Live made light of the anxiety mixed in with that hope.
This is the daily Politics Briefing newsletter, written by Chris Hannay in Ottawa. It is exclusively available only to our digital subscribers. Have any feedback? Let us know what you think.
TODAY’S HEADLINES
Statistics Canada’s Chief Statistician, Anil Arora, is defending his agency’s plan to collect Canadians' personal banking information, though he says he is open to delaying the data collection to address privacy concerns. “This is not the kind of reaction that we were hoping for in the middle of the planning of a project,” Mr. Arora told The Globe. But Statscan says it has no choice but to find new ways of collecting information because its phone surveys just aren’t cutting it any more. “It’s moving markets. It’s a major, major important survey, but it’s so onerous that people are refusing to complete it in increasing numbers,” said former chief statistician Ivan Fellegi.
Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer is determined to take the fight to his former leadership rival Maxime Bernier in next year’s election. Mr. Bernier, who came in second to Mr. Scheer in last year’s leadership race, quit the Conservatives earlier this year and started his own party. Now Mr. Scheer has picked a former longtime mayor and dairy producer, Richard Lehoux, to run for the Conservatives against Mr. Bernier in his Quebec riding next year.
Political advocacy groups could have a big influence on the next election. Ontario Proud, for one, boasts that its online content was seen millions of times in the provincial election earlier this year, and now it will turn its attention to helping elect the federal Conservatives. These kinds of groups aren’t allowed to collude with political parties, but can still spend hundreds of thousands of dollars pushing an issue or political party. A Liberal elections bill that’s currently in the Senate would put some more spending limits on the groups, but not eliminate them.
British Columbians are voting in a referendum to decide the province’s electoral system (the third in 13 years) and Premier John Horgan says he voted for the “mixed-member proportional” system.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh says he doesn’t see the relevance of the monarchy and doesn’t think most Canadians do, either.
And the Stronach family feud has gotten a little more intense, with Andrew filing a lawsuit against sister Belinda, which joins one already filed by his father, Frank, for control of the $1.6-billion family company.
Campbell Clark (The Globe and Mail) on conservative premiers: “Andrew Scheer is working to ally himself with a raft of rising small-c conservative leaders in the provinces, but he’d better be wary. Those allies won’t always help him.”
Barrie McKenna (The Globe and Mail) on Statistics Canada and personal data: “Statscan has been peeking into our lives for a long time. Unfortunately, response rates from the agency’s traditional surveys have been falling, leaving it with often suspect and outdated data to feed into its key reports. The agency says getting access to financial transactions is vital to producing a timely, accurate picture of the economy.”
Ottawa Citizen editorial board on the expenses of former governor-generals: “All expenses under this unique program should be transparent. Clarkson, for example, has been heavy criticized this week for her continued spending, even though it’s possible that a full accounting would persuade Canadians their money has been put to good use.”
Former governor-general Adrienne Clarkson, in The Globe, on her expenses: “I had the privilege of being Governor-General for six years. This work confirmed my conviction that I would continue to do as much as I could with Canadians after I left office. I feel that Canadians expect me to remain active. Certainly, it’s what I expect of myself.”
Alana Prochuk and Kasari Govender (The Globe and Mail) on the #MeToo movement: “The paradigm of skepticism must be flipped as a matter of fundamental human rights. This is what lies behind the hashtag #BelieveWomen: not throwing away due process, but defending it by challenging the deeply rooted bias that blames survivors, automatically disbelieves them and puts them on trial.”
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