Return to the House of Commons: Hot topics likely to be discussed | CTV’s Question Period

So how significant are these numbers and how could it impact government priorities this fall the scrum is here to answer those questions shirelle Evelyn is the managing editor at the hill times Marika Walsh is a senior political reporter for the Globe and Mail and David coletto is the CEO of

Abacus data hi everybody nice to see you uh David I’m going to start with you as I was saying before we started kind of the man of the Arts your poll a few weeks ago that I think it feels like kickstarted this entire conversation about a rapidly declining level of

Support among Canadians for the Liberals you spent some time briefing various members of caucus what do you think is driving the Gap the widening Gap right now I think it’s I think it’s two things one is a much longer term kind of deterioration I would say in how people

Feel about the government the prime minister and the direction of the country more broadly I think people are just feeling that things are kind of getting out of control whether it’s housing cost of living growing anxiety about the economy and not feeling the government has a handle on it or a plan

Or a vision to deal with it and then more recently it’s I think that the conservatives have upped their game and they’re out there advertising introducing uh Pierre poliov to some reintroducing him to others and that has helped push their their lead even further so we’re left with General

Dissatisfaction with the government and increasing interest I would say in in an alternative that for many now is on their radar and they’re seriously considering it and they’re telling me they would vote for if they had the chance today Marika you and I both covered the cabinet retreat in PEI

Almost a month I think it was something like a month ago and I I found there there were a lot of liberals still saying well the polls are you know we’ll see we’ll see that seems to have really the response has really evolved in the caucus Retreat that you just covered in

London Ontario where they’re just openly talking about what they need to do to counter the decline in in popularity they’re no longer refuting that it’s happening no they’re still saying you know polls go up polls go down but then they’re also saying Canadians are angry they’re frustrated there’s discontent across the

Country the Prime Minister acknowledged last week so I think just that alone how much they are acknowledging and putting on the table what Pierre pauliev has been saying now for a year and what clearly we know liberal MPS from across the country heard at the doorsteps this

Summer to me shows a difference in language from the government and a sharpening of the understanding of how much they still need to do and how far off they have been in terms of talking about what matters most Canadians right now so they certainly tried to blunt

That this past week we’ve been talking this morning about the stuff they put on the table around affordability do you expect or what to what degree do you expect this narrative to Trail them as the fall sitting gets underway tomorrow well I think they well they want the

Narrative to Trail them that they’re doing something about it they’ve heard the concerns they’ve said okay yes we’re listening we hear you that’s what the narrative that they wanted Trail them I don’t know if that’s what’s actually going to follow it’s what’s going to follow I think might be that you know

The dark shadow that uh has the conservatives you know surging in the polls that they are the ones who’ve been you know pounding on these issues and yes the Liberals can point to well we had some of these issues we had some of these Solutions rather in our platform

You know from years ago but we just decided not to move forward on them or we just took this long to get around to them you know the housing accelerator fund you know the applications for that only closed mid-august so that’s not something that they could have rolled

Out any sooner apparently but because you know thinking about the fall sitting the first week prime minister Trudeau is not even going to be there so that gives again another opportunity for the conservatives to set the tone we’ve talked a lot throughout the morning in the past few weeks about the Liberals

And their vulnerabilities I’m wondering David from where you sit and the numbers that you’re looking at starting off with the conservatives what are their biggest challenges heading into this sitting heading into the fall I think it’s just continuing to convince people that that they’re ready to govern I mean an

Election could be two years out so they don’t need to be immediately ready but they need to constantly be demonstrating not just Pierre poliev that he’s ready to be prime minister but I think increasingly that they have a team of members of parliament who could be cabinet ministers who could be leading

The big files that Canadians want to see action on and more importantly reassuring people right there’s still this large group about a third of Canadians who say I want change but I’m not completely happy or comfortable with the Alternatives so you know it’s not it’s

Not in it doesn’t appear pure poly has a normal instinct to be reassuring he likes to be the attack dog he likes to create Sparks but I think you’ve seen this shift in him in the last few months where he is actually trying to find a balance between being opposition leader

But also being this prime minister in waiting and they are buying more ads we learned at the conservative convention last week America right they had that huge ad buy this summer they’re spending they made so much money on Friday I think they’re going to spend more on it

To keep I think doing exactly what what David’s talking about yeah exactly they they will be doing that and they’re doing so right now in a field where the Liberals have not found an effective way yet to push back on polyev I think one of the things that pauliev is going to

Be need to be ready for is more scrutiny because of the increase in the polls and I think that extra scrutiny can be very challenging to deal with and so as there’s more scrutiny from the Press from journalists from the public on him that can be sort of one of those

Pressure points to see whether it’s it’s a moment in time or whether there’s a more sustained Trend in terms of support for him and I think the Liberals are trying to reassess how to attack him they seem to think or one of something I was told last week was that they think

That they can frame him as somebody who is about going backwards not about change for Canada whether they actually form an attack around that and whether they actually decide to deliver it as something that liberal back Ventures say they’re confused about why they haven’t seen that so far in terms of the Prime

Minister my sense from Liberal MPS on the back benches is that he essentially has until kind of the winter break to show that things are really getting back on track to show that the government is paying attention and is refocusing before sort of the next big test of his

Leadership last word to you shrell where does the NDP fit into that I mean they released uh you know moments before the government made an announcement the fact that they were going to introduce a private members bill tomorrow that basically spelled out everything the government ended up doing yeah I mean

It’s the kind of the ongoing struggle that the NDP and leader judgment Singh have had you know basically from the time they’ve been uh you know put into this third party position but even more so since they entered into the supply and confidence agreement with the Liberals they put forward ideas the

Liberals co-opt them and then suddenly it’s the liberal win as opposed to the NDP win as much as I think the NDP are going to want to keep pushing that narrative I don’t know if it’s gonna I don’t know if it’s going to sell because as we were

Even seeing in the polling whereas the Liberals might not have uh and budged much in the in the latest that round of David SATA the NDP dropped like they lost a point right if I’m correct me if I’m wrong but they went up and I thought probably went to the conservatives so

That’s probably where that fight is going to happen more okay I have to leave it there I appreciate all of your insights today David Coletta Marika Walsh and shirelle Evelyn thank you

Journalists discuss what hot topics are expected to come up in the House of Commons as politicians return on Monday.

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