Can Trudeau’s new affordability measures counter Poilievre as Liberal support weakens?

Welcome back to power on politics the liberal caucus gathered in London Ontario this week to plot a response to the anger and anxiety Canadians are voicing about housing and the cost of living the Prime Minister and key ministers got an earful from nervous MPS and then rolled out some initial

Measures to deal with housing and the high cost of food so here’s the big question will it all work let’s check the pulse of federal politics with our panel of insiders Fred delore is the managing partner at delaurier public affairs and former conservative campaign manager Melanie riche is a senior

Consultant at earnscliff strategies and former director of communications for the new Democratic party and Greg McEachern with can strategies is a former liberal ministerial staffer all right gang let’s get to it so Greg I’m going to start with you because you think what happened at the liberal

Caucus or the announcements was the best political move of the week make that case Not only was it a good play it was a ultimately well needed play we all read the the coverage we knew what was going in MP’s angry and the the thing that they have to to

Do is do these announcements without looking desperate and so if you look like you’re just pulling things like Jerry Seinfeld trying to find a reservation it’s it’s not going to work and what I thought was really interesting is look first of all Yes it needs to be done housing is horrendously

Expensive rent is Out Of Reach but the way they did it politically quite smart Sean Frazier full disclosure I’ve known him for about 20 years did a smart thing in that keeps the story going he challenged the provinces to do the same I worked at City Hall in Halifax for a

Year I knew as soon as they did that announcement in London and the mayor was there I know that counselors were phoning their Mayors and saying how do we do this how do we get in on it so it keeps the story going and you know a

Couple of weeks ago the Prime Minister got in a lot of trouble for saying that housing wasn’t necessarily a federal responsibility I’m sure you’d like to take that back and he’s not entirely wrong this is a better way to tell people that there is more responsibility around this issue than just the feds

Right if you want the money you got to sign up and you can’t say the truth out loud Greg you know Melanie what did you think of this did they avoid looking desperate and instead look deliberate which is something they have struggled to do from this these

Issues right I think what Greg said about they needed to do this I think is is really true and we started the week everybody was talking about how bad this liberal caucus was going to be how upset liberal caucus members were um and that this is going to be a moment for Trudeau

About how he could answer those um that that upsetness and and I think he did genuinely I think the story at the end of the week is the food cost measures and I think the end of the the story at the end of the week is this

Removal of the GST on new builds I will say the the different lens that I had that on this weekend and maybe a win that I would give to the new Democrats this week is um This Promise has been in the liberal platform since 2015 and it has taken

Them so long to move on it and this is removing the GST removing the GST because they argued it wouldn’t be effective they went with another a program but now their argument is that interest rates are so high we need to do this as well right that’s their

Explanation exactly and what I thought was strategic from from the new Democrats when they were trying to push the government to do this you know it’s been months now that they’ve tried to push the government to do this is they went through those platforms and they said hey action is needed on housing

Here are the things that you promised how about you just do a b and c and then this will start moving the needle for folks so I thought that was a cool win for for the NDP in that in that story yeah she did that Greg she took a win

For your crowd and turned it into a win for her crowd so Fred your crowd we’re we’re happy this is a confidence and Supply agreement happening right here at the PMP table you know Fred Fred how do you think the conservatives are are looking at this right like the Liberals

Have kind of been fumbling around on some of these issues there’s the veneer of getting their act together and making some progress do you think that how do you think the conservatives view all this I think it’s great the Liberals are finally talking about it uh this is a

Very serious issue that has really gathered Canadian’s attentions over the last number of months and conservatives Peter pauliev has dominated on this issue this is his issue he owns this issue right now um and this week it was it seemed like a bit of a fumbling mess on the liberal

Side you know Mr Frazier came out and at full disclosure too I know I’ve known him for eight years he defeated me when he first got elected so you’ve got a chip on your shoulders nice fella but you know he came out and he said this is going to be like the

Something we’ve never seen before this announcement it really raised expectations high and then they came out and announced this little uh you know it’s a big deal in London uh that was an announcement a couple or seven million dollars there was already before 74 sorry but previously earmarked in in the

Budget it’s already there it’s not new money and then then they came out the next day with a more robust plan uh to announce so the communication seems very weak on my my for my side of things with the Liberals this is an issue uh you

Know they used to own it and they don’t anymore uh I don’t know if it’s the policy it seems to be adrift on the communication side of things and that’s where they need to fix where they’re going but you know Fred I felt when the Prime Minister actually spoke uh you

Know and the closing news conference that they were a little bit sharper like it wasn’t Minister after Minister after Minister after Minister and this big long thing that should take 20 minutes takes three hours and it’s about 40 different things like so they were a little bit this is what’s new and this

Is what’s next as opposed to the Litany of things they’ve done in the past so they seem to be I don’t know a little bit a little bit more focused right well look that’s their strength is the prime minister and I’ve written about this Justin Trudeau for all his faults enough

People may not like him he is a solid Communicator when he’s on fire when he goes out there and does it pure poliev is owning this issue no one no one else in the conservative party is really doing it it’s him this we presidentialize our elections right next

Election is going to be who is our prime minister I know we don’t vote for it directly but that’s what everyone’s going to be thinking so Greg on that with the Prime Minister you know the Anonymous liberal source is making a comeback I mean it’s the comeback story

Of the summer and they were grumpy about him and his staff um you know it’s some people saying maybe he’s on the clock he’s got like six months to get this sorted out you know or the messenger might have to change do you think they did enough I

Mean is it too early to tell where do you think you know your party is at this point in time I think senior liberals would admit that they have a habit of doing a big announcement and then forgetting about it and moving on to the next thing you know it might be dealing

With the hurricane but the fact that this kept going I think is a good sign but you’re right we had a little bit of this in may we had the um the liberal had their the Liberals had their biennial convention here in Ottawa and the mood was very good and this is

Trudeau’s party you know he really does own it but this is not a one and done I think there was a lot of venting on that first day and directed you know maybe Beyond you know the Prime Minister himself could be staff could be other cabinet ministers so I do think there’s

A bit on notice people want to see the follow through and I think we will you know I talked about last week you know we think that I would expect a bill the first week around housing and affordability you’re also probably going to see some legislation that it’s going

To reflect the announcements that they just did and probably we’ll see pharmac high are not too far uh after that right so on that point and then we’re going to move on on to your pick of the week they do need that follow through and Sean Fraser suggested like London’s the

Beginning you know then you see the letters from Calgary and other things but they need to they need to do this in Southern Ontario Southwestern Ontario Atlantic Canada like they need real follow through here right for sure there’s a lot of places that are angry

Right now and and I’m going to pick up on and one of Fred’s points earlier that this was the Liberals issue housing was the Liberals issue I remember when I worked for the NDP you couldn’t find a stakeholder anywhere across the country that would go against the liberal plan

They would say no we need to do more and we need to do it faster people were so happy that this is happening and now fast forward how many years later and that’s not the sentiment at all so I think can’t just be this announcement

This week that was a good first step for sure but it needs to be continued and it needs to be all of the time and not just the the crisis of the day because I know that’s important for governing for for the government but to check in with

People and make sure that people understand that they’re hearing their worries and and answering them in a real way so so Greg thinks the liberal caucus was a good move you’ve got something for us that you think was a bad move yeah what do you got yeah I uh my my bad move

For this week was um uh Pi poliev came out this week uh kind of lamenting prime minister Trudeau about the his trip to India kind of using the same frame that India Indian media was using against against us in Trudeau and um to me I I I didn’t like seeing that and

The reason I didn’t like seeing that is because we know that there’s been attempts from India to undermund our sovereignty we know that there’s been attempts of foreign interference and to see the conservatives and piafully have come out so strongly against uh Chinese foreign interference and then to

Um to to make light or to to punch when it wasn’t necessarily there’s a lot of stuff that you can criticize Mr Trudeau about I didn’t think that this was it and it to me as somebody watching that it said um that I was using the for interference

From China as a political weapon I didn’t mean it it wasn’t genuine and this is this is not something that I I think we need answers about and Canadians deserve those answers Friday it used to be a tradition that sort of politics ended at the border right you

Didn’t make politics about foreign trips and like that’s gone out the window since that a lot of traditions are gone yeah yeah it’s been a disruptive time but like I was on that first India trip in 2018 as a reporter then it didn’t go well and it became a real problem from

Here but what do you make of this and sort of this everyone’s people seem to be willing to side with Modi as if the Modi government is a good actor in this space necessarily yeah look if if a foreign leader and a member of the G20 is criticizing our prime minister our

Government uh you know we have to look at what that means and why they’re doing that I think that’s fair game yeah uh and if there’s if there’s stuff that we can make hay of that as conservatives and we should any opposition probably should I think we if it’s legitimate if

They believe in what those issues are they should be able to push out uh those comments so I don’t see this as a problem at all I don’t see this at all in line with foreign interference I’m as you know I’m very well uh yes that doesn’t and I don’t align with my

Conservative party on this in a lot of their stances on this but in this instance I don’t see this as an issue I feel we have a G20 country uh who’s critical of our prime minister I think it’s fair to to raise that well you know

Greg there’s a lot of other issues at Play Rather that maybe just go beyond whatever Justin Trudeau did on this is what the Sikh population is doing in Canada with the kalistan referendums and things I mean what do you make of how that the whole whole India part 2

Fallout laid out I think the rush to dump on Justin Trudeau at the expense of your country is problematic and I remember when the conservatives were in power they were very upset when opposition MPS would go to Washington and there was a meeting they didn’t like and then there’s the individual here

Modi back in 2009 he was refused of Visa by the United States because of his role when he was a regional politician around a riot there were many deaths Patrick Brown former conservative MP current mayor in Ontario I remember he got his wrist slapped by defaate right for for

His dealings with them so I would say on this one in terms of who the actors are involved I would pump the brakes a little bit before I rushed to join the side of of the Prime Minister yeah well I don’t know if it was the brakes but

There was a problem with the plane and it kept in there a little bit longer than he wanted to be there and Fred like that’ll bring us uh speed them up for that well speaking of planes you are gonna your best move of the week

Involves a plane it was a 45 second clip by Mr poliev on WestJet that has exploded and seems to have dominated social media for the last week it’s been six days it’s still going on we’ve have millions of people have have watched this clip and a lot large part is

Because of uh some other actors uh in interfering if you will and pushing out saying that it they’re you know they think it’s ridiculous has happened John Arden brought attention to it a local union uh spoke out ridiculously on this uh and Mr pauliev has weighed in and

Then about an hour ago six days later a liberal cabinet minister has now weighed in on this video this is video 45 seconds of Mr poliev leaving the convention going to Calgary on a flight and uh giving his hour and a half speech in 45 seconds to a raucous uh crowd and

Seeing people cheering on the plane I don’t remember the last time was I saw this many people having a great time on a plane or anywhere just listening to a politician so I think this was a a great play it was a quick thing that happened

I think it was good for the conservative party I think it was good for WestJet okay well we’ll see I mean the union and the management are now fighting and the President says you know so internally they could have some issues there but look this was either a charter flight or

An extra commercial flight that was put on specifically for the conservative traffic going to Quebec City from Calgary for the convention and Greg people have like lost their mind over this is this a big deal in the real world or is this a big deal in the worlds of partisan Twitter

I’m not an engineer but this is the first plane I’ve ever seen fly with only a right wing but I think you know let’s say let’s switch this let’s save Justin Trudeau went up to the front of a plane right now picked up the mic and did this the

Outrage would be incredible what’s reflected here is where poliver is at this moment he’s in kind of a can’t do much wrong right now um but there are people that are obviously concerned about him and they’re the ones who are being very vocal I think this is kind of one of

These 10 percent of teapots like the passports things like that I if I was giving them advice I wouldn’t I would tell the Liberals not to get too exercised about it Mel I don’t remember liberals being this upset when I watch videos of Omer algabra with a microphone

On a VIA Rail train talking about High-Speed Rail that they were announcing like you know it’s a private company they made their decision whatever like this whole thing is like I don’t know it feels mad for the sake of mad I I don’t know what what that’s

That’s definitely what my Twitter was or my ex sorry was over here whatever it’s called was over the week it was a lot of outrage and a lot of I’m never taking Western again Etc which which it does seem overblown it does seem to be a bit much and to your point

Um when you are in elections what you’re trying to do is you’re trying to put your leader in the biggest crowd as possible to show people at home that look how well liked he is look how many people came to see him so to have a

Plane of people cheering for him if I’m watching that I said oh people might like him now I thought the clip was super cheesy and I don’t know that I would have convinced a lot of people to vote for him but um to to your point like so many people

See it and and what we always or what when I used to work for the party but we used to always say to MPS is don’t retweet stuff and include the video because all you’re doing is you’re showing all of your followers this video right so I think it got a lot of

Eyeballs um and uh it it is a thing that happens I’ll show pure polio by giving him exactly what he wants by retweeting this and putting it on more phones okay look we got about 90 seconds left Parliament comes back on Monday a you know it looks

Like the Liberals are going to focus on affordability and Public Safety Fred would just quickly what are your expectations for what we’re going to see when MPS get back into town well I think we’re going to be you’re going to see Mr pauliev focusing on inflation and

Housing and those type of issues and continue to fight on crime and bail reform and we’re going to be pushing those things and I think because of that because he’s leading the way I think you’re going to see the Liberals following and trying to catch up yes if

Greg your crowd’s going to be following Fred’s crowd is that what we’re going to see um you know what not since Clark Kent and Superman has taking off glasses meant so much there has there’s a reason why the conservative leader needed to Rebrand um there’s a there’s a problem with some

Of the ways he acted before so when he gets back to the house which he loves being in the house is he going to be the guy in the commercials or is he going to be the guy that we know that’s been in Parliament for the last 20 years right

He’s going to at least need to put the tie back on he goes back into problem because there is that dress code sort of thing Mel uh what do you think where are the NDP going to go on this uh they they’re getting squeezed a little bit

Here in the last couple of weeks what is drug me singing and crew need to do yeah I think they need to to keep doing it and keep doing what they’ve been doing louder because to your point they’re getting a bit squeezed everybody’s now talking about the same things that

They’re talking about and they’re they’re making more um impact when they’re saying it so I think we’re going to see me talk about grocery store prices next week and and actual measures that’ll help those grocery store prices go down so kind of calling um the Prime

Minister out and saying hey I’ve got it for you you can do these things and this will help today and interestingly enough in the morning on Monday the grocery store CEOs are going to be on Parliament Hill meeting with industry Minister Juan Philippe champagne so uh we’ll see what

Happens there that anyway wait till Monday night to go shopping yeah or two Tuesday to buy your groceries that’s probably the best thing to do all right gang uh thank you so much have a great weekend thanks so much to Fred delaurie Melanie riche and Greg McKenna

The Liberal caucus gathered in London, Ont., this week to plot a response to the anger and anxiety Canadians are voicing about housing and the cost of living. Power & Politics checks the pulse of the federal government with our panel of insiders: former Conservative campaign manager Fred DeLorey, former director of communications for the NDP Mélanie Richer, and former Liberal ministerial staffer Greg MacEachern.

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