🗳🚶‍♂️Elections Canada announces record turnout on 1st day of advance voting

Elections Canada has announced preliminary estimates that show nearly two million electors voted Friday, the first day of advance polls.

Representatives of the non-partisan agency said that's a record turnout.
#election
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🚨 Saskatoon's escalating drug crisis

Saskatoon is facing a severe drug poisoning epidemic, with firefighters responding to 901 overdose calls since January—more than double last year’s numbers.

A toxic batch of drugs, including pink and purple pills, has worsened fatalities. Prairie Harm Reduction, the city’s only safe consumption site, temporarily closed due to staff burnout and lacks a required paramedic.

Overdoses and violence also forced two libraries to shut temporarily. The city activated its emergency operation center to coordinate responses like naloxone distribution and paramedic deployment.

#Saskatchewan
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Carney pledges to cap non-permanent resident population at below 5%

A re-elected Liberal government will cap the number of non-permanent residents in Canada at less than 5 per cent of the population, and limit the annual growth of permanent residents to less than one per cent, according to the party’s election platform released on Saturday.
#election #Carney
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📈 Canada population growth likely to be higher than forecast, CIBC says

Statistics Canada expects the population growth rate to slow to 0.3 per cent in 2025, from 1.8 per cent last year, before contracting 0.2 per cent in 2026. But the agency is overestimating the number of temporary residents who will leave once their visas expire, failing to count people holding long-term visitor permits and understating the amount of likely asylum seekers, the bank’s Deputy Chief Economist Benjamin Tal said in a report Monday.

After correcting for those issues, Tal projects the growth rate to be 1.1 per cent this year and around one per cent next year.
#immigration
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Conservatives roll out ads without Poilievre in final stretch of campaign

The Conservatives released two ads with no images of party leader Pierre Poilievre: an endorsement by Stephen Harper, and an ad that shows two golfers criticizing Liberal Leader Mark Carney but making no mention of Poilievre.
#election #Poilievre #Carney
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🩺 🇺🇸 Carney urges Canadian doctors in the U.S. to come home

Liberal Leader Mark Carney is making a direct appeal to Canadian doctors and nurses living in the U.S. to “come home.”

He said his government would streamline credential recognition and look to poach global talent, including doctors working in the U.S.

To the Canadian health-care professionals practising in the U.S., let me say this. If you’ve been thinking about coming back to Canada, there’s never been a better time.

#healthcare #Carney #US
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🗳Record 7.3 million people voted in advance polls, Elections Canada says

A record 7.3 million people voted in advance polls over the long weekend, Elections Canada says, about one-quarter of all registered voters.

This is a 25-per-cent increase over the 5.8 million people who voted in advance polls in the 2021 election, the agency said, noting that the numbers are an estimate as some polls may not have reported yet.

Over all, about 28.2 million people are registered to vote in this election as of March, Elections Canada said.
#election
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Carney accuses Poilievre of using ‘phantom numbers’ in campaign platform

Liberal Leader Mark Carney is accusing Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre of relying on “phantom numbers” and lowballing the cost of his party’s platform.

Both Carney and Poilievre are looking to poke holes in each other’s platforms — Carney by claiming the Conservatives wouldn’t spend enough to counter a looming economic crisis, and Poilievre by accusing the Liberals of presenting a high-spending plan that would weaken the country’s fiscal position.

Poilievre said Tuesday a Conservative government would chop away at the deficit over the next four years, and claimed Carney would inflate government debt.
#Carney #Poilievre
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Conservatives score endorsement from Toronto Police Association

On Tuesday, the Toronto Police Association offered its support to the Pierre Poilievre’s Tories, while sharing responses from Canada’s two major party leaders on what they’ll do to solve increasing levels of social disorder.

It is clear to us there is only one party that has maintained a strong position on public safety issues and proactively supported police services. While our vote is with Pierre Poilievre and the Conservative Party, we will work with whoever leads the next government and we will hold them accountable as we continue to advocate for our members and the public.

the association posted on social media Tuesday.
#Ontario
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🇺🇸 White House cites drop in people caught at Canada-U.S. border as tariffs continue

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Tuesday there have been “successes” at the Canada-U.S. border — but offered no new hints about what might convince U.S. President Donald Trump to drop his tariffs on Canada.

Leavitt said only 54 people were apprehended last month in the Swanton Sector of the northern border — which includes areas of New Hampshire, Vermont and New York — a 95 per cent drop since March 2024. She said the area is a “main hot spot” that recorded more than 80 per cent of all apprehensions along the northern border during the 2024 fiscal year.
#US
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Pierre Poilievre pledges ‘ban’ on new taxes in costed platform that projects $14 billion deficit in four years

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre unveiled a governing plan Tuesday that envisages smaller government and billions in tax cuts which would deplete revenues, leaving a $14 billion deficit in the budget four years from now.

The platform, dropped online a short time before Poilievre addressed reporters, reveals a new pledge by the Conservatives as well, to “ban new or higher federal taxes without asking taxpayers first in a referendum.”

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🇻🇦Mark Carney to skip pope’s funeral, Gov. Gen. Mary Simon will represent Canada

Gov. Gen. Mary Simon will represent Canada at the funeral for Pope Francis at the Vatican on Saturday, says Prime Minister Mark Carney.

I’m not going to be attending the funeral, given the crucial election, and sending the right signal.

The Prime Minister’s Office says Simon’s husband Whit Fraser and Senate Speaker Raymonde Gagne will also be part of Canada’s delegation.
#Carney
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Mark Carney serves poutine in Quebec: 'I'm a bit like Trump. Trump at McDonald's'

#Carney
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Poilievre may lose his Ottawa-area riding as Liberals poised to sweep the region

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is at risk of losing his Ottawa-area riding as the party scrambles to send in volunteers to save the seat he has held since 2004, two federal and two provincial Conservative sources say.

With several polls showing the Liberals poised to win the election, the loss of Mr. Poilievre’s Carleton riding would make it difficult for him to hang on to his federal party leadership post.
#Poilievre
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❌ Singh can’t stay on as leader if NDP loses official party status, Mulcair says

Former NDP leader Tom Mulcair says Jagmeet Singh cannot continue leading the party if the NDP loses official status in Parliament, as some polling suggests could happen.

Mr. Singh knows what the results are going to be. I think he’s serene in his understanding of what it might mean for him, and I’m not getting any indication that he’s intent of fighting to stay on.

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Conservatives update platform to include omitted 'anti-woke' promise

The Conservative Party has republished the English-language version of its platform after what it says was a "publishing oversight" resulted in the omission of a previous commitment to crack down on "woke ideology" in the public service and federal funding for university research.

Earlier in the campaign, the Conservatives had promised as part of their Quebec platform to "put an end to the imposition of woke ideology in the federal civil service and in the allocation of federal funds for university research."

When the party released its full national platform on Tuesday, that commitment was repeated in the French-language version, but it was missing from the English version.

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🗳Jagmeet Singh and Elizabeth May at risk of losing their B.C. seats, poll aggregator projects

Neither the NDP nor the Green Party of Canada are expected to form government after April 28, and now it’s forecast that respective leaders Jagmeet Singh and Elizabeth May are in danger of losing their B.C. seats to a Liberal and a Conservative.

In Singh’s riding of Burnaby—South, poll aggregator 338Canada projects Liberal candidate Wade Wei Lin Chang to win with 38 per cent of the vote. Singh is forecast to finish third with 29 per cent behind the Conservatives’ James Yan, who clocks in at 32.
#BritishColumbia #Singh #election
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🔫Man shot dead by police after ‘dispute’ at Toronto Pearson airport

Officials say a 30-year-old man shot by Peel Regional Police officers at Toronto Pearson Airport on Thursday morning has died.

Peel Regional Police Chief Nishan Duraiappah said it was just before 7 a.m. when police received a call “to assist in resolving a dispute at Terminal 1 departures level right at the curbside.”

Duraiappah said officers “engaged in discussions” with a group of people — about two to three people — that were “experiencing a dispute.” He said officers spent an amount of time, around 10 to 15 minutes, trying to de-escalate and resolve the dispute.
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🩺 Manitoba family pushes for "Debbie’s Law" to address surgical wait times

The family of Deborah Fewster, a Manitoba woman who died in October 2024 while waiting for cardiac surgery, is advocating for "Debbie’s Law" – proposed legislation requiring healthcare providers to inform patients when wait times exceed medically recommended limits. Supported by SecondStreet. org, the family claims Deborah waited over 60 days for surgery despite a median 12-day wait time cited by the province.

Manitoba Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara has directed steps toward implementation. The law aims to create transparency about surgical delays, with advocates hoping it becomes a national model.
#Manitoba #healthcare
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NDP incumbent calls for soul searching after election

NDP incumbent Matthew Green, representing Hamilton Centre, is urging his party to engage in "soul searching" following a challenging federal election. Green emphasizes that the NDP needs to reconnect with its grassroots and articulate a compelling vision to regain relevance in Canadian politics.

🤡🤡🤡

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11 people killed, more than 20 hurt after SUV rams into Vancouver street festival

Eleven people have been killed and multiple others injured after the driver of a black SUV slammed into a crowd Saturday evening at a street festival in Vancouver celebrating the contributions of the Filipino Canadian community, police say.

A 30-year-old Vancouver man is now in custody.
#BritishColumbia
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