TORONTO – L’ultimo appello all’azione lanciato dal Centro per Israele e gli Affari Ebraici (CIJA) (“Questa mozione deve essere fermata” This Week in Canadian Jewish Advocacy, www.cija.ca) è un altro segnale che Israele sta perdendo la guerra delle pubbliche relazioni in Gaza, e che la diaspora ebraica potrebbe esserne la vittima più significativa. Con poche eccezioni isolate, prima dell’8 ottobre 2023, la diaspora poteva contare sul sostegno praticamente incondizionato della società occidentale allo Stato di Israele in quanto Stato ebraico. Da allora gli eventi hanno messo alla prova quel “legame”…
TORONTO – The latest pleas for action by (CIJA) the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (“This motion must be stopped” This Week in Canadian Jewish Advocacy, www.cija.ca) is yet another signal that Israel is losing the public relations war in Gaza, and that the Jewish Diaspora may be its most significant victim. With few isolated exceptions, before October 8, 2023, the Diaspora could count on Western society’s virtually unconditional support for the State of Israel as a Jewish state. The events since then have been testing that “bond”.
TORONTO – For three of Canada’s provincial leaders, election season is near. Scott Moe of Saskatchewan and David Eby of British Columbia enter the October contests in a relatively strong position, with the approval of about half of their respective voters. For Premier Blaine Higgs in New Brunswick, instead, the path to re-election seems steeper: Higgs is currently the least popular provincial leader in the entire country.
This is what emerges from the approval ranking of Canada’s provincial premiers, drawn up by the Angus Reid Institute, with data updated to March 2024.
Let’s start with Doug Ford, premier of Ontario. Last month, he reiterated that he intends to “Get It Done” by introducing new legislation to simplify infrastructure projects, shorten environmental assessments, speed up approval processes, in order to build more, and faster. With the “hunger” for homes that exists, it should be a popular decision, but evidently it was not enough to revive Ford’s approval after the various scandals, controversies and about-faces: the Greenbelt, the Region of Peel, the law on wage limitation… long gone are the times (spring/summer 2020) when Ford’s popularity was close to 70%, now he has to settle for 34%, a percentage that he’s not able to exceed from the end of 2022.
Then there are the three prime ministers “on the cusp” of elections, in the provinces where elections will be held soon (in October): Saskatchewan, British Columbia and New Brunswick.
Premier Scott Moe of Saskatchewan remains among the most popular leaders in the country (he is one of only two leaders to exceed the majority threshold this quarter: 53%) and among his most popular moves is, certainly, the decision to not collect the carbon tax and distribute discounts to residents. An initiative that infuriated the federal government, but which earned points for the conservative Moe.
The premier of B.C. is doing well: David Eby of the NDP, approved by about half of residents (48%), a percentage that has remained unchanged for over a year now. The Eby government has announced significant new spending on housing and various affordability relief in its 2024 budget, which will project a deficit of more than $7 billion for 2024/25 (around double the projection outlined in the 2024 budget). 2023). Someone defined it as “the party’s electoral platform”.
Instead, the premier of New Brunswick, Blaine Higgs, a conservative, is doing badly and is preparing to face the elections as the least popular prime minister in the country: Higgs is in fact “liked” by only 31% of the residents of his province. In recent months, he has defended parents’ rights against LGBTQ2+ policies in schools and recently invested $75 million in funding for affordability – two initiatives that have earned him some points, given that a year ago it had dropped to 25%. But it is still light years away from that 80% of popularity achieved in the now very distant 2020.
And who is Canada’s most popular prime minister? Wab Kinew, NDP, premier of Manitoba, son of a First Nation chief: for him, the approval rating as of March 2024 is 63%. He’s “on his honeymoon” because he was recently elected, and he will present his first budget on April 2: apparently, it will focus on healthcare and low-carbon energy investments. Let’s see if his policies will confirm him as Canada’s most loved prime minister.
The others (Smith, Furey and Houston) “float” between 40 and 50 percent, while Legault is second to last at 32% where he plummeted within a year after losing over twenty points. A disaster.
To see the complete report, click here: Premiers’ Performance: In election year, half approve of Moe and Eby, Higgs has steep hill to climb – Angus Reid Institute
Above, the graph created by the Angus Reid Institute (from https://angusreid.org)
TORONTO – Negli ultimi mesi, il premier dell’Ontario, Doug Ford, è stato impegnato in un “tour” che lo ha visto distribuire assegni milionari alle varie Città che hanno raggiunto gli obiettivi abitativi fissati a livello provinciale. L’ultimo ad acquisire finanziamenti è stato il Comune di Milton, al quale sono stati consegnati più di 8 milioni di dollari per aver superato le aspettative edificando 1.952 nuove costruzioni…
TORONTO – Crolla la popolarità di Justin Trudeau. La conferma arriva da un’istantanea scattata da Abacus Data, che nel suo ultimo sondaggio mette in luce come solamente il 15 per cento dell’elettorato canadese vedrebbe di buon occhio un nuovo governo guidato dall’attuale primo ministro dopo le prossime elezioni. Il livello di consenso nei confronti del leader liberale non è stato mai così basso nell’ultimo anno e mezzo e questa bocciatura senza se e senza ma viene rafforzata anche dai dati relativi alle intenzioni di voto…
