The Power List: Politics – Macleans.ca

Unwilling to see her city decline, Olivia Chow pressured all levels of government to step up. She has the money to prove it.
Lately, a mix of pressure points — unforeseen costs of the pandemic, record immigration highs, housing supply shortages, a rise in violent crime — have frayed tensions between Toronto and the feds. The city receives just nine cents of every federal tax dollar paid and still maintains 60 per cent of Canada’s basic public infrastructure. In recent years, Toronto has also shouldered much of the burden of affordable housing, which was once a federal docket. For Olivia Chow, a former NDP MP elected mayor of Toronto last July, the costs of that unequal agreement have been clearly manifested on the streets of Canada’s largest city.

It’s almost guaranteed to take over the PMO
There is no doubt that Pierre Poilievre will be the next prime minister of Canada. The only question is when. Until elections are called, Poilievre keeps his name in the news by criticizing the incumbent government as much as possible. He has openly opposed the Liberals’ unpopular carbon tax, vowing to overturn it in the House of Commons and winning strong support from Conservative prime ministers. He posted a 15-minute video condemning Trudeau for plunging Canada into a “housing hell” and promised that, if elected, he would withhold funding from cities that fail to increase housing by at least 15 per cent each year. . And, in a move sure to resonate with voters, he accused the Liberals of “breaking the promise of Canada” – the guarantee that each generation will be more prosperous than the last. His next task: win over GTA voters, who will be key to victory.

For criticizing technology companies
Freeland, facing the barrel of a $38 billion deficit, recently pledged $500 million in spending cuts to federal departments. At the same time, it is also looking for ways to attract money: one of its biggest policy goals is the Digital Services Tax, which will impose a 3 percent tax on companies with annual revenues of more than 750 billion euros and more. of 20 dollars. million in digital services revenue earned in Canada. The tax, largely aimed at big tech companies such as Amazon, Netflix and Google, has put Freeland at odds with both the tech community and the Biden administration. But the influx of cash could be worth it: The tax, applied retroactively to 2022, will generate $7.2 billion in revenue in its first five years.

She is fighting Ottawa every chance she gets.
Smith has spent his first full year in office pushing a sovereignty agenda that makes Quebec look patriotic by comparison. He wants to break away from the Canada Pension Plan, claiming Alberta is entitled to more than $300 billion in assets (critics have doubts). He is cracking down on where renewable energy projects can be built in Alberta, contrary to federal clean energy mandates. And while other provinces have largely limited the debate over trans rights to classrooms, she has introduced sweeping changes across the board that, if passed, would ban trans people from competing in women’s sports and ban blockers. puberty and gender affirmation surgeries for younger children. 17. Albertans aren’t complaining: Her approval numbers have remained stable since she was elected last May.

Gave Poilievre a leadership-worthy makeover
Pierre Poilievre owes his huge approval numbers to both Jenni Byrne’s astute strategy and Trudeau’s fatigue. The veteran campaign manager, who has pulled the strings for all the big conservative names over the past decade, has transformed Poilievre from a goofy, bespectacled MP into a charismatic, networked leader who digs deep into voter discontent and offers solutions. tangible to appease him. And while Byrne has helped Poilievre galvanize his conservative base, her real coup is attracting unlikely voters under the Conservative umbrella: millennials fed up with the unsustainable cost of living, immigrants and defectors from other parties. Liberals certainly see Byrne as a threat: She has recently been pilloried for her firm’s lobbying for Loblaw, a move Poilievre’s camp called “laughable.”

For going hard on the big highways
DoFo had a chaotic 2023, with controversy surrounding its decisions to open the GTA’s beloved Greenbelt to development and place a Scandinavian-style spa on the grounds of Ontario Place. But Ford has never let a scandal derail its plans. While his brother Rob’s catchphrase was “subway, subway, subway,” Doug’s could simply be “roads, highways, highways.” He recently introduced the Get It Done Act, designed to speed up new construction (by shortening the timeline for environmental assessments) and took over two major thoroughfares, Gardiner Expressway and Don Valley Parkway, from the City of Toronto, in exchange for $1,200. millions of dollars. in financial aid. He’s also working on building cars to fill those roads, with new electric vehicle battery manufacturing plants in Windsor and St. Thomas both set to create thousands of jobs.

To address the doctor shortage head-on
Kinew, the son of an Anishinaabe chief and Canada’s first First Nations premier, is an outlier amid Canada’s wave of ultra-conservative provincial politicians. Late last year, he was elected with a majority government and his approval rating continues to rise, reaching a crazy high of 63 per cent in early 2024. Kinew performed as a rapper for the group Dead Indians, hosted a CBC radio show and served as vice-president of Indigenous Relations at the University of Winnipeg before entering politics, where he achieved victory on a platform of radical health care reform. He promised to spend $500 million to reopen shuttered emergency rooms, improve access to primary care and, crucially, hire 400 doctors, 300 nurses and 200 paramedics over the next five years.

She’s getting to the bottom of foreign interference
Last year, multiple CSIS reports were leaked to the media indicating that the Chinese government had tampered with the last two federal elections. After much nonsense (and a brief appointment by former Governor General David Johnston as “special rapporteur” on the matter), the Trudeau government finally ordered an investigation into the allegations last fall, with veteran Quebec judge Marie-Josée Hogue at the forefront of the investigation. While Johnston reported that nothing had affected the integrity of the election, Hogue is starting his investigation again and adding Russia and India to the list of potential meddlers. She will have to work quickly: Public and closed-door hearings began in January and the initial report is due this month.

For unifying 600 indigenous communities
Over the past few years, the Assembly of First Nations, which represents more than 600 communities across Canada, has been plagued by internal disputes. That turmoil ended (hopefully) with the election of Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak, a member of the Pinaymootang First Nation. Woodhouse Nepinak, a staunch liberal and former Trudeau aide, has extensive bona fides in the realm of Indigenous politics: a day school survivor, she was part of a delegation to the Vatican in 2022 to discuss the legacy of residential schools with the Pope Francis and helped. She negotiated the record $23 billion child welfare deal with the government. The next step: oversee the distribution of that windfall among indigenous survivors and restore AFN unity.

For making YIMBY’s dreams come true
Last fall, BC’s NDP government under Premier David Eby passed Canada’s most dramatic housing reform in decades: Bill 47, which repealed local zoning across the province, forcing municipalities to allow 20-story buildings within 200 meters of rapid transit stations and eight stories. within 800 meters. In one fell swoop, the legislation enabled the dramatic urban transformations that housing supply advocates have sought for years. It will likely reshape neighborhoods in Vancouver and other British Columbia cities, as blocks of single-family homes give way to high-density streetscapes. One report estimated the changes could produce almost 300,000 additional homes across the province in the next decade. The government has been criticized for rushing through the measures, but Eby is defiant and suggests it is not yet done with major property reforms.

This story appears in the May issue of Maclean’s. You can buy the issue. here or subscribe to the magazine here.