Ahead of Canada’s April 28 election, a new poll paints a bleak picture of a polarized, peeved and pessimistic populace.
According to Research Co, nearly half of Canadians polled think the federal government is oppressive and controlling. More than two-in-five feel that their vote does not make a difference.
This week’s guest is Mario Canseco of Research Co.
Plus, hear the climax of the April 17 debate between the leaders of the Liberals, NDP and Conservatives.
As usual, Pacific Rim and Pacific Northwest headlines and the Virtual Nanaimo Bar.
Two years after he scoffed at Canada’s spy agency for suggesting the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) helped get him elected, Vancouver’s mayor sought support from leaders of a group affiliated with the People’s Republic of China consulate.
A video circulating on WeChat shows Mayor Ken Sim and one of ABC Vancouver’s two by-election candidates, Vancouver Police Union president Ralph Kaisers, meeting on March 26 with Canadian Community Service Association (CCSA) executive chair Peter Fu Binqing, vice chair Xu Hong and vice-president Richter Bai Jiping. In May 2023, a report on China’s state broadcaster CCTV showed CCSA chair Harris Niu Hua in a Beijing meeting with Xi Jinping.
Also present in the board room meeting were Canada Committee 100 Society (CCS) founder Ding Guo, who is an advisor to Premier David Eby, and Swan Zhou, a Deloitte Canada senior advisor and board member of Sim’s ABC Vancouver party.
Neither the Office of the Mayor nor Kaisers have responded for comment.
Kaisers and fellow candidate Jaime Stein, who did not attend the March 26 meeting, were the lowest-ranked, party-affiliated candidates in the April 5 by-election. Winners from left-wing parties COPE (Sean Orr) and OneCity (Lucy Maloney) were sworn-in April 15.
In February, Sim attended a ceremony of the pro-Beijing Chinese Benevolent Association with officials from the Chinese consulate and United Front groups where attendees sang the Chinese national anthem. In response to theBreaker.news, Sim’s press secretary Kalith Nanayakkara said: “Any suggestion that this implies coordination or meetings with a foreign government is categorically false.”
Leaks of Canadian Security Intelligence Service documents indicated a Chinese diplomat in Vancouver worked to get a Chinese-Canadian candidate elected mayor in 2022. Sim and ABC Vancouver won a landslide over pro-Taiwan incumbent Mayor Kennedy Stewart.
“If there is proof of this, I’d be as mad as hell as everyone else,” Sim said after the Globe and Mail story in March 2023.
China’s missions in Canada deny they meddle in Canadian affairs. But the Jan. 28-released report from the federal foreign interference public inquiry said Chinese diplomats and their proxies target all levels of government in Canada, supporting parties and politicians that China believes are helpful to its interests.
“The United Front Work Department, formally a department of the CCP, tries to control and influence Chinese diaspora communities, shape international opinions and influence politicians to support PRC policies,” the Hogue Commission report said.
The B.C. NDP government is spending $1.7 million to promote Premier David Eby’s crusade against Trump tariffs.
A new ad campaign, under the NDP’s StrongerBC slogan, launched April 7 and is scheduled to run through May 9. Agencies Trapeze Communications of Victoria and Captus Advertising of Vancouver were chosen to develop the creative. iProspect Canada is the media buying company for the TV, print and digital campaign.
“We will never stop standing up for the people of B.C.,” read the StrongerBC website. “Together, we can build a stronger, more secure future that is less reliant on the United States.”
(StrongerBC/BC Gov)
On April 10, Eby directed ministries, health authorities and Crown corporations to review and, if possible, cancel contracts with U.S. companies. Eby did not issue a similar directive about goods and services from China.
“The public information campaign aims to connect people to supports and services that address the issues that matter to them – like health care, housing affordability and cost of living help,” read the statement from the Ministry of Finance, which oversees the Government Communications and Public Engagement (GCPE) department.
The NDP government’s March 4 budget estimated a record $10.9 billion deficit in 2025-2026. That was before the March 31 end of the carbon tax on consumer fuel and heating bills. Neither Eby nor Finance Minister Brenda Bailey have explained how they will make up the lost $1.8 billion revenue.
The NDP budget also earmarked $32.45 million to GCPE for the new fiscal year.
Canada was world-renowned for its middle class and multicultural values, with a strong social safety net, anchored by its universal healthcare system.
Tristin Hopper (Google Meet/Mackin)
This week’s guest, National Post columnist Tristin Hopper, conducted an inventory of Canada’s declining productivity and rising social unrest over the last decade. He authored the witty and wise new book called “Don’t Be Canada: How One Country Did Everything Wrong All at Once” (Sutherland House).
In less than 100 pages, Hopper delves into euthanasia, identity politics, runaway housing costs, “harm reduction,” government censorship, the catch-and-release justice system and a mismanaged healthcare system. “Don’t Be Canada” is vital reading before you go to vote in the April 28 federal election.
“It’s not a partisan book, so you’re not going to find the name Trudeau in this book all that often,” Hopper told host Bob Mackin. “But about 10 years ago, particularly in the last five, the way Canada was being mentioned internationally started to shift. We were frequently mentioned as a model of what not to do. I’d never really seen that before.”
Listen to the full interview with Tristin Hopper.
Plus Pacific Rim and Pacific Northwest headlines and the Virtual Nanaimo Bar.
The Conservatives conjured the NDP’s 1996 budget scandal during Question Period on April 8.
Not once or twice. But 16 times.
Starting with leader John Rustad, members of the opposition party questioned the legitimacy of the March 4 spending plan, calling it a “fudge-it budget.”
The NDP’s $10.9 billion deficit forecast is now outdated, due to the March 31 elimination of the consumer carbon tax, which was expected to bring in $1.8 bililion this year.
“Can the Finance Minister confirm that nobody in her ministry was actually thought out of a plan as to how to deal with this?” Rustad asked Brenda Bailey. “Or, quite frankly, was this just pure incompetence or an intentional fudge-it budget?”
Replied Bailey: “Our budget was tabled in accordance with legislative requirements and prepared with the information available and government decisions at the time. A budget is a moment in time, and it is not appropriate to include speculative things in a budget.”
After winning the 1996 election, the Glen Clark-led NDP admitted that its $114 million surplus budget was actually a $318 million deficit.
Elizabeth Cull, who was the finance minister in 1996, oversaw the party’s 2022 leadership election, which David Eby won by default. Cull is now a member of the B.C. Emergency Health Services board.
WATCH: Conservatives taunt NDP over “fudge-it budget.”
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is trying to interfere in Canada’s April 28 federal election, according to an official federal election monitoring group.
The Security Intelligence Threats to Elections Task Force (SITE) revealed at its weekly briefing on April 7 that China’s most-popular WeChat news account carried stories on March 10 and March 25 that promoted Prime Minister Mark Carney.
The anonymous Youli-Youmian blog is tied to the CCP’s Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission. SITE, which includes Canada’s intelligence agencies, detected spikes in coordinated inauthentic behaviour intended to influence Chinese-Canadian voters who use WeChat.
SITE Task Force comparison of WeChat posts promoting Mark Carney (Global Affairs/Privy Council)
Youli-Youmian called Carney “Canada’s hard-tough prime minister and a “rock star economist.”
The same WeChat entity targeted Conservative MP Michael Chong in June 2023 and Liberal Chrystia Freeland in January 2025 when the former Deputy Prime Minister was running for the Liberal leadership against Carney.
The Communications Security Establishment’s 2023-2024 National Cyber Threat Assessment warned that WeChat “has been used to spread misinformation, disinformation and malinformation and propaganda specific to the Chinese diaspora.” WeChat was also used during the 2021 federal election to spread disinformation to help Liberal Parm Bains defeat Steveston-Richmond East Conservative incumbent Kenny Chiu.
The announcement came a week after Carney refused to kick out a Liberal candidate who suggested his Conservative opponent be handed over to Chinese diplomats for a bounty.
Paul Chiang, the Don Valley North incumbent, quit late March 31. He made the comments in January against Joe Tay, a Conservative candidate wanted by the Hong Kong Police for his pro-democracy activism.
The Canadian Friends of Hong Kong, in conjunction with the Found in Translation Substack, launched the first of nine visual maps April 7 to identify and counter agents of Beijing’s political warfare.
The first Dotting the Map flowchart is called “Follow the Money, Follow our PMs,” and provides a timeline from Pierre Trudeau to Carney.
Canadian Friends of Hong Kong co-sponsored map showing China’s influence in Canada.
It mentions the elder Trudeau’s opening of diplomatic relations with Mao Zedong in 1970. Also the late 1990s end of Ports Canada Police by Jean Chretien at the same time as national security warnings about China targeting Canadian ports. Also mentioned, the influence of the Desmarais family, their backing of the Canada China Business Council and co-founder SNC-Lavalin, now known as AtkinsRealis.
About Carney, Dotting the Map emphasizes recent deals with China during his chairmanship of Brookfield Asset Management.
“Brookfield has substantial offshore banking exposure and manages over US$3B assets in PRC state-linked real estate and energy companies.”
Carney held US$6.8 million in Brookfield stock options at the end of 2024. He resigned from Brookfield to enter politics, but has refused to publish his list of shareholdings. Instead, he has opted to follow parliamentary disclosure rules that would only kick-in if he is elected in the Nepean riding on April 28. That is not good enough for either Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre or NDP leader Jagmeet Singh.
Charles Burton, a sinologist and former diplomat at Canada’s Beijing embassy, said the detailed schematic shows the “tangled relations between agencies of the CCP, Chinese business, Beijing supported astroturf social organizations in the guise of Chinese diaspora civil society, their Chinese-Canadian leaders (many selected and vetted by Beijing) and Canada’s political and economic elite.”
On the 139th anniversary of incorporation, Vancouver’s city manager has apologized to voters, candidates and civic parties for the hours-long lineups and counting delays that marred the April 5 by-election.
In an April 6 statement, Paul Mochrie called it “unacceptable” and “deeply regrettable.” He vowed that the city will do better for the 2026 civic election.
Paul Mochrie (Vancouver Economic Commission)
“The extended wait times at many voting places reflected flawed planning assumptions for this by-election that informed staff decisions and the plan presented to council,” Mochrie said. “Recognizing the effort by the City’s elections team to promote and execute this plan, it was clearly insufficient to accommodate the electorate in accessing an efficient voting process.”
COPE’s Sean Orr (34,448 votes) and OneCity’s Lucy Maloney (33,732) were elected to serve until the next election in October 2026, after Green Adriane Carr retired and OneCity’s Christine Boyle was elected an NDP MLA. Jaime Stein (9,267) and Ralph Kaisers (8,915) of the ruling ABC Vancouver party were the lowest vote-getters among the seven, party-affiliated candidates.
The polls were scheduled to close at 8 p.m., but votes were still being cast after 10 p.m. at West End Community Centre, West Point Grey Community Centre and Kitsilano Community Centre.
The city elections office said 67,962 ballots were counted, 40% more than the 48,645 in the 2017 by-election. It did not say that the 15.09% turnout rate in 2025 was slightly higher than the 10.99% from the 2017 by-election that sent Hector Bremner of the NPA to city council.
It also did not say that in 2017, voters could visit one of 50, mostly schools and more than 600 people staffed the operation with a $1.5 million budget. In January, the ABC majority city council rubber stamped a plan to spend $2 million with 265 staff spread out across 25 mostly community centres.
It was the most-chaotic civic election since 2014 when a “vote anywhere” policy was instituted to encourage a higher turnout, after years of assigning voters to the nearest school, church or community centre.
Vision Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson was re-elected for a second time and became Vancouver’s first mayor to serve a four-year term.
Voting at four of the 117 stations was extended beyond the 8 p.m. deadline after running out of ballots. Voters who lined up inside or outside voting stations by those times were allowed to vote. People with disabilities complained that they could not be accommodated at several voting stations.
Additionally, postcards mailed to downtown condo residents contained incorrect information, recommending they vote at a location outside their neighbourhood, thus potentially deterring seniors, people with mobility issues and work commitments from voting.
Third-place again
In the April 5 by-election, TEAM for a Livable Vancouver leader Colleen Hardwick recorded 17,352 votes for third place. An improvement on the 16,769 from when she finished third in the 2022 mayoral election, behind Ken Sim and Kennedy Stewart.
TEAM’s other candidate, Theodore Abbott, was fifth (11,581).
Hardwick, an NPA-elected, 2018-2022 city councillor, told supporters gathered at Simpatico on 4th that planning for the 2026 election is underway. She delivered a concession speech at 11:40 p.m. with two-thirds of the polls reporting.
She said the April 5 results showed “an overwhelming negative response to ABC, a radically mismanaged electoral process, and the success of the NDP cabal, which is off the back of the recent provincial election.”
“I don’t want to be in despair for my children and my grandchildren, but I am so worried about the future of our city at this point, folks, I really believe that what we were doing with TEAM gave us hope, hope for the future of the city,” she said. “I don’t get any hope from what I’m seeing here.”
Hardwick said she believes TEAM in 2026 “can get the people of this city to rise up and speak out for themselves, because that’s not we’re seeing, we’re seeing petty party politics playing themselves out here.
“I wasn’t looking for a job. I’m looking to try and do the right thing. I feel a strong sense of responsibility to turn this ship around,” Hardwick said.
Transparency International Canada is sounding the alarm. Canada has fallen on a world anti-corruption ranking and Canada is behind China and Russia in real estate secrecy and anti-money laundering practices.
Trevor Loke (Google Meet)
The executive director of Transparency International Canada says voters deserve better from whoever forms government after the April 28 federal election.
Trevor Loke is Bob Mackin’s guest on this edition of thePodcast.
Plus Pacific Rim and Pacific Northwest headlines and the Virtual Nanaimo Bar.
The Vancouver Whitecaps could bring Major League Soccer back to Hastings Park.
But not to the Empire Field site, where they launched in 2011 and where the North American Soccer League franchise played from 1974 to 1983.
Hastings Racecourse on Oct. 12, 2024 (Mackin)
The Whitecaps’ ownership confirmed in an early evening statement on April 4 that they are “currently in discussion with the City of Vancouver regarding the construction of a stadium at the PNE fairgrounds site.”
A source told theBreaker.news that the two parties have a memorandum of understanding to explore building a soccer-specific stadium at Hastings Racecourse.
Hastings Racecourse has operated as a thoroughbred horseracing venue since 1892. Slot machines were added in 2008, but it has not lived up to expectations for leaseholder Great Canadian Gaming.
Where would that leave horseracing? The president of the Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association of B.C. is wondering.
“Nobody has talked to us,” Dave Milburn told theBreaker.news. “It’s shocking to hear that this is being contemplated without any notice or our group being informed.”
Last December, the Greg Kerfoot-controlled Whitecaps announced they retained Goldman Sachs to find a new owner. The club has a sweetheart lease at B.C. Place Stadium, where B.C. Pavilion Corporation keeps the food and beverage revenue. B.C. Place is undergoing a $109 million renovation demanded by FIFA in order to host seven matches during the 2026 World Cup.
A source told theBreaker.news that a new stadium deal could be the catalyst to complete the sale of the club. The Hastings Racecourse land could be transferred to the Whitecaps’ new owner, who would be responsible for financing the stadium project.
The announcement by the Whitecaps comes on the eve of a civic by-election. Two seats are up for grabs.
Mayor Ken Sim’s 2022 ABC Vancouver campaign included a photo op in the Hastings grandstand. But not to discuss the ponies. He is in favour of expanding SkyTrain under or over Hastings Street and onward to North Vancouver.
A new stadium would be a logical magnet for a station.
