Canada’s Trudeau must change to survive with parliamentary minority
Canada’s Trudeau must change to survive with parliamentary minority
Historical evidence suggests Trudeau’s task will not be easy. There were three consecutive minority governments from 2004 to 2011 — one Liberal and two Conservative — and none lasted more than 2½ years. “[Liberals] need to change how they do their business. If they continue as usual, it’s sending a signal that they haven’t really been listening to anybody,” said Libby Davies, who was House leader for the smaller left-leaning New Democratic Party (NDP) for all three of those governments. “Not only the leaders, but the key people around them have got to look at this different political environment,” she said in an interview.
The original article, Canada’s Trudeau must change to survive with parliamentary minority was published on November 3, 2019 in The Japan News. Author(s): Reuters
Housing
What can Justin Trudeau learn from the Harper and Martin minority governments?
What can Justin Trudeau learn from the Harper and Martin minority governments?
To save his government, Martin struck a deal with the NDP, under former leader Jack Layton, which included $4.6 billion in additional spending on social programs. “Certainly Martin was under enormous pressure and Jack was very good at seizing opportunity,” said Libby Davies, NDP House leader from 2003 to 2011. The episode ended with a dramatic tied vote in the House of Commons, with the Speaker casting the deciding vote that saved the government.
The original article, What can Justin Trudeau learn from the Harper and Martin minority governments? was published on October 30, 2019 in The Star Phoenix. Author(s): Maura Forrest
PM MUST SHOW LEADERSHIP, AGREE TO MEETING WITH FIRST NATIONS LEADERS
Podcast: How the NDP can effect change in a minority government
Podcast: How the NDP can effect change in a minority government
Ed Broadbent and Libby Davies spoke to The Sunday Edition’s Michael Enright following the 2019 federal election.
The original article, How the NDP can effect change in a minority government was published on October 25, 2019 in CBC – The Sunday Edition. Author(s): Michael Enright
Libby's Open Letter to a Minister
Conservative’s Drug Strategy for Canada
Conservative’s Drug Strategy for Canada
Ms. Libby Davies (Vancouver East, NDP): – Mr. Speaker, health and addictions professionals across Canada are bracing themselves for the worst when the Conservative government reveals its so-called new drug strategy that will sacrifice the successes of harm reduction and a balanced approach to drug use, for a heavy handed US style enforcement regime.
Time and again, empirical evidence has proven that harm reduction works. Programs like needle exchanges and Vancouver’s safe injection site, InSite, are reducing the transmission of HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis C, and increasing the number of people accessing treatment.
I am alarmed that despite this evidence, the government is accelerating the criminalization of drug users. The 2007 budget quietly removed harm reduction from Canada’s new drug strategy. It now reads like a carbon copy of George Bush’s war on drugs- which has seen drug use rise, along with skyrocketing social and economic costs of incarceration.
In 2006, the Conservatives refused to renew the exemption that allows InSite to keep its doors open until pressure from the community forced them to grant a temporary extension. We know the Health Minister and the RCMP are now resorting to propaganda tactics to try and close InSite.
Attacking InSite and adopting US drug policies will fail as dramatically here as it has in the US.