Happy Superbowl weekend, fellow patriots. In today’s episode we discuss the highlight reel of another big-ole stadium’s worth of political news:
Potential plot twist on election timing: The timing of the next election is always a topic of backroom Ottawa gossip, but a new development on that front started percolating out this week. Will the Liberals might wait for Parliament to return at the end of March and see what happens, or will they pull the plug as soon as their leadership race is over? We argue about whether or not they’ll actually go early, why they would do so, or if they’ll fumble that particular play.
Movement in the polls: After a monumental few weeks in Canadian politics, including the threat of a 25% blanket tariff from the American government, there’s been movement in some federal polls. Sean and I give you our take as veteran campaigners on what this data could mean.
Liberal campaign pivot: This week saw the Liberals unveil a big new strategy in their campaign tactics with some pretty big U-Turns on signature policy. We discuss whether or not you’re going to buy these particular policy turnovers, particularly in the context of how a spring election campaign could play out.
Liberals float banning X, and restart advertising on Meta: This week, a senior Liberal floated the idea of banning the X (formerly Twitter) platform in Canada, while restarting government advertising spending on the Meta platform. The timing of these moves is……suspect. We discuss why.
Liberal leadership deadline: The buy-in for Liberal leadership contestants is $350K. We break down why this figure is so significant, how it’s impacting the leadership race, what backroom political financing looks like in Canada, and who we think is likely to be able to meet that target. Also, we discuss a rumour that the Liberal party is purposely delaying potential leadership debates until the final deposit is in. Will there be a straight up coronation for the Liberal Party’s equivalent of the Vince Lombardi trophy, or will there be a full field of candidates?
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