Cabinet ministers describe ‘electric,’ ‘ebullient’ atmosphere as Liberals hold first in-person policy convention in half a decade

Hundreds of Liberal Party members, operatives, MPs, and cabinet ministers came together in person for the first time in years as the governing party kicked off its three-day convention at the Shaw Centre on a grey May 4 in downtown Ottawa. Innovation Minister François-Philippe Champagne described the convention delegates’ mood as “electric.” This is the first convention for a significant number of delegates, said Champagne (Saint-Maurice–Champlain, Que.), who said he hoped they'd leave energized and with a sense of purpose and vision. The mood of Liberal delegates is "electric—you know me, I'm the minister of enthusiasm,” said Champagne. “My mission over the weekend is to make everyone feel special because everyone is special. This is about the Liberal movement. This is about us, this is about building for the future.” Champagne said that when a government is in a minority position, it has to make sure it's ready for an election since it's outnumbered by the opposition parties and a campaign could come at anytime. Innovation Minister François-Philippe Champagne says his 'mission over the weekend is to make everyone feel special because everyone is special.' The Hill Times photograph by Andrew Meade The minister said he was not concerned about the Conservatives raising more money than the Liberals or running neck-and-neck in national public opinion polls with the official opposition. The Conservatives raised more than $8.3-million during the first quarter of the year from about 46,000 donors while the Liberals raised $3.6-million from about 31,000 donors during the same time period, according to Elections Canada. Champagne argued that no one knows when the next election will be, and that polling numbers go up and down in between elections. He was confident that the Liberals will win again with their message of hope. “What you're seeing today is people energized. These are people who want to be engaged,” said Champagne. “And you know, what I like the most, is that I see a lot of young people and that is telling because in politics, if there's one thing I've learned: you need to add. And if we're adding new people, a younger generation, people who see themselves in the Liberal Party, I think it will be mission accomplished for us.” Tourism Minister Randy Boissonnault (Edmonton Centre, Alta.) called the mood in the room “ebullient” when he made his way into the convention around 4:30 p.m. on May 4. Boissonnault said he’s attended every Liberal convention since 1990, “and as an Alberta Liberal, there were some years that that was not a popular thing to do.” “People are happy to see each other, they’re happy to be in person, there are MPs past and present, and people who have been working for the party for decades,” said the minister. But Boissonnault said 45 per cent of attendees are newcomers who have never been to a convention before. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the last in-person biennial policy convention was held in 2018 in Halifax, N.S. The Liberal Party was expecting 4,000 Canadians to attend the 2023 event, including delegates, observers, and members of the media. “So that says to me people are curious, they want to know what we’re about,” he said. “And people ask us, ‘you have gas in the tank after seven years?’” “We’re just getting started, we have a lot more to do, and that’s what we’re hear to talk about,” said Boissonnault. "What are the policy ideas? What are the things where we need to double-down in?” “We’ve got a lot of work ahead of us in government over the next few years, but also as a party over the next few years to be ready for 2025." Regarding Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre (Carleton, Ont.), whose party is polling ahead of the Liberals, Boissonnault said Poilievre has been in the job “three times as long as I have.” “Sowing fear and making Canadians distraught with institutions isn’t a plan for the future, whether it’s attacking CBC or the Bank of Canada,” said the minister. Boissonnault said he didn’t believe in the politics of fear and division, and didn’t want to see MAGA-type politics coming north of the border, referring to former U.S. president Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again” sloganeering. “It’s happening: dog-whistle politics on social media sites, trying to activate incels against women—not acceptable, and I think it’s a win-at-all-costs strategy on their part, and I don’t think it’ll pass muster with Canadians,” he said. As for the prime minister, Boissonnault made note that Justin Trudeau (Papineau, Que.) took a “third-place party to first place on a campaign of hope and hard work.” “I ran because I saw that in his 40s, he was stepping up to be leader of a party that everybody had written off,” said Bossonnault. Liberal MP Jaime Battiste hopeful Liberal-NDP supply-and-confidence deal will hold 'There’s only one leader in this country who has the ability to lead us into the next election,' Liberal MP Jaime Battiste says of Trudeau. Photograph courtesy of the House of Commons Two-term Liberal Jaime Battiste (Sydney–Victoria, N.S.), who was attending his first in-person convention as an MP, said the mood in the party was “very good,” and that the Liberals are ready for an election if one were to be called. Battiste said he hoped, however, that the Liberal-NDP supply-and-confidence agreement would continue until 2025. The MP said that after the pandemic, the country was still in the recovery mode and Canadians were relying on the current government to make their return to normal life as easy as possible. He said he was not worried that the Liberals were running neck-and-neck with the Conservatives, as the only poll that counts is the one on election day. Whenever the next election is called, the Liberals will have enough money to run a competitive election campaign, said Battiste, adding that Trudeau should lead the Liberals in the next election, comparing the prime minister to a legendary NFL quarterback. “He's like Tom Brady. He's a winner, he's won three times in a row,” said Battiste, who won his riding in the 2019 and 2021 elections with a three per cent margin. “If he wins the fourth time in a row, that puts him right up there as one of the top prime ministers of all time.” Battiste and Indigenous Services Minister Patty Hajdu (Thunder Bay–Superior North, Ont.) also gave ringing endorsements of the prime minister at an Indigenous Peoples’ Commission meeting on the first day of the convention. Hajdu encouraged audience members to raise their concerns about things the government hasn’t done well in its seven years in power. But she said she also wanted them to return to their communities and “remind them of what it looked like” before the prime minister’s time. “We’ve come a long way, and we need to do more, and the only person that’s going to be able to bring us there is Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the Liberal Party,” Hajdu told the crowd. “The guys across from us, they have no idea, no plan, they have no relationships, and there is a lot to lose.” Battiste paid tribute to members of the audience who had put their names forward as Liberal candidates in previous elections. Describing himself as the only First Nations MP who lives on a First Nations reserve, Battiste told the assembled Indigenous leaders and party members that “there’s only one leader in this country who’s going to continue that role of reconciliation for us.” “I know that it’s not an easy thing to be Indigenous and to be partisan in a colonial country,” he said, “because people will judge you and say ‘How can you be a part of these colonial systems?’ But I have to be clear: we need you in that room. We need you in the House of Commons, we need you in the provincial legislature, we need you on the boards, whether they be Liberal or non-partisan.” Battiste acknowledged the mix in the room, between support for the Liberals and frustration over ongoing issues such as high suicide rates in Indigenous communities. “The frustration is valid because we need to do a lot,” said Battiste, again emphasizing the importance of getting more Indigenous candidates elected. He added that this was his first convention as an MP, and that meeting First Nations MPs at the party’s 2018 convention in Halifax inspired him to run for office. Former Liberal MP Doug Eyolfson who represented the riding of Charleswood–St. James–Assiniboia–Headingley, Man., from 2015-2019, said he was planning on running again in the next election. He lost the 2021 election by a razor-thin margin of 461 votes to Conservative MP Marty Morantz, and said he’s been preparing for the next election since then. An emergency room physician, Eyolfson said the party needs to put more focus on communicating its message by reminding Canadians about the accomplishments of this government. “We've got good ground game, my is ready,” said Eyolfson. “And, we've got a very, very good shot . More communications, just keeping to remind people of what this government has done for Canadians, which is quite a lot.” Earl Belcourt, aged 71, said he’s been a member of the party for nearly 50 years, but has voted for the NDP once or twice in the past. “There’s going to be a lot of people coming here because it has been a while since we’ve had a convention,” said Belcourt. When asked about the challenge presented by the Conservative leader, Belcourt said he wished he could have a positive attitude towards Poilievre, “but he strikes me more as a right-wing Trumper.” “It bothers me that we even have people like that in Canada, but that’s just my attitude,” said Belcourt. “Every time he speaks, he’s always looking for loopholes. Instead of complaining, why don’t you have solutions?” “I’m hoping that I’m wrong, but that’s where I stand right now,” said Belcourt. Liberals 'trying to understand what's going on in the country,' says party member Jas Narain Singh Gill, who said he’s been a member of the Liberal Party for one year, described the mood in the venue as "quite good." "I think the Liberal Party and the members are trying to understand what’s going on in the country,” said Gill. “With so much happening in the past two to three years, we’ve heard a lot of good news about what the prime minister has done for the country.” Gill brought up inflation and the government’s role, and said “if you do quantitative easing, inflation follows, and there’s a backlash on that.” For Gill, those who oppose the prime minister’s actions throughout the pandemic “don’t understand that if that had not been done, in times of crisis, they would have been in much worse situations right now." Young Liberals of Canada chair Lucas Borchenko told The Hill Times that he thought “the mood is great" and that they were expecting around 600 young Liberals to attend. “There’s beginning to be some people, mostly in the media, who are saying the prime minister needs to step down.” “We don’t believe that. He still has that star factor with young people and with young Liberals,” said Borchenko. “I think it’s really important that he’s going to be around here all day.” Party members check in to the Liberal Party Convention in Ottawa at the Shaw Centre, just steps away from Parliament, on May 4, 2023. The Hill Times photograph by Andrew Meade Borchenko, who’s originally from Toronto–Danforth and now lives in Ottawa Centre, said he thought a lot of young Liberals are really excited for another election. When asked about Poilievre as an opponent, in comparison to the previous two Conservative leaders Andrew Scheer (Regina–Qu'Appelle, Sask.) and Erin O’Toole (Durham, Ont.), both of whom did not hold on to the party’s top job after election losses, Borchenko said Poilievre is “different.” “But we need to keep to our messaging of the good work we’ve done on climate change, on human rights, on LGBTQ+ rights, and tons of other social issues,” said Borchenko. “If Canadians see these two visions for the country, I’m confident that they’ll choose the Liberal Party for another term.” Robert Lavigne has been a member of the party for 54 years. He currently lives in Kingston, Ont., and has also lived in Toronto, Montreal, and in New Brunswick, where he attended Mount Allison University. “At the moment, I think the body of the party is very much trying to re-establish connections with other people to get a feeling,” said Lavigne. Paul Brault is on the executive of the Charleswood–St. James–Assiniboia–Headingley, Man., Liberal riding association. He said he will be looking at how the Liberals prepare for the next election while at the convention. But when asked if he believes the party can secure another term, Brault said yes, but discussed the speculation over Trudeau potentially not continuing as the Liberal leader. “Whether we still have Justin Trudeau as the leader or if we find another one in between, just depending on the circumstances,” Brault said. “We are prepared, I think, both as a party, and individually, as a number of ridings are prepared .” Brault said talks about a new Liberal leader is speculation but that it would be up to Trudeau to decide whether he will hold his current position in the next election. “That would be his choice of whether he continues on. So that being said, I think there are some people wondering. However, when I take a look at where the Conservatives are under the leadership of Pierre Poilievre, Justin Trudeau would be a very, very strong leader to go against .” Brault said the reason why Trudeau could beat Poilievre in the next election has to do with Trudeau having support in seat-rich Quebec and Ontario. “Mr. Trudeau has taken this party from a third place, won three consecutive elections. I believe that he’s a strong leader.” Brault added that if the Liberals get a new leader, they should focus on winning the Quebec and Ontario ridings to come out on top. Looking at who would be in the running to replace Trudeau as the next Liberal Party leader, Brault listed Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland (University–Rosedale, Ont.), Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly (Ahuntsic-Cartierville, Que.), and Champagne as three names that have come up in the media. “All three are very, very strong contenders, in my opinion, if that should happen. However, it’s speculation … but I believe that all of them are strong,” said Brault. He added the Liberal party is strong, which is “the key.” “If you have the strong grassroots and have a strong leader then we’re well prepared to go into the next election,” Brault said. Brault said his riding has steady funding by Victory Fund donors and added that a number of other ridings are also financially ready for the next election. “The Conservatives always out-fund us,” said Brault. “But they’re primarily big funders. And when you take a look, strategically, our funds are from low donations. And so that really translated into a lot of grassroots rather than having well-heeled people donating to a party.” Katherine Johnson said she’s been a Liberal Party member for at least a decade, and said she’s attending the convention to be part of something important. Johnson said she “strongly believes” Trudeau can win the next election against the Conservatives, and criticized the opposition party and Poilievre for not having brought forward a viable agenda. “We need to hear that in order to even consider what they have to offer,” said Johnson. “So far, it’s been criticism and we need to hear a positive tone and a genuine, credible program from them.” "Which we haven’t heard,” said Johnson. news@hilltimes.com The Hill Times

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Cabinet ministers describe ‘electric,’ ‘ebullient’ atmosphere as Liberals hold first in-person policy convention in half a decade

'This is about the Liberal movement. This is about us, this is about building for the future,' says Innovation Minister François-Philippe Champagne, with Tourism Minister Randy Boissonnault saying 'people are happy to see each other, they’re happy to be in person.'

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