Former seven-term NDP MP Charlie Angus has spelled it out in no uncertain terms: “I am not looking to return to elected office or to attempt another leadership run,” he said in a May 11 statement posted on social media.

Angus said he remains “a committed New Democrat,” but felt he needed to quell the “many messages asking if I am considering running to be NDP leader” since Jagmeet Singh resigned on election night. 

Angus noted he’d “had the honour” of running in the party’s last leadership contest in 2017, in which he placed second to Singh. But he’s just not interested in running for leader again.

“My focus is to serve Canada and to build resistance to the fascist and anti-democratic threats facing our world,” Angus said in his statement. “I will do whatever I can to bring people together from across this great nation. I will work across political lines to resist the threats to our economy, values and democracy,” he wrote.

Now on tour with his band Grievous Angels, Angus in his statement expressed condolences for his former NDP colleagues who lost their seats—Angus himself didn’t run again in this election—to the “great staffers who have been laid off,” and to the candidates and volunteers who “gave their all.” 

“The New Democratic Party must undertake a full and transparent audit of the decisions made that led to such a catastrophic loss,” concluded Angus. “But that is an issue I will leave to the NDP grassroots.”

On May 12, The Globe and Mail reported the NDP’s national director Lucy Watson as saying “that the federal council would meet ‘in the near future’ to lay out a plan for a leadership race.”

Bloc names its new House leadership team

Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet announced his new caucus leadership team at a May 7 press conference.

Christine Normandin will be House leader. Alexis Deschênes, who unseated former Liberal cabinet minister Diane Lebouthillier on April 28, will be the deputy House leader.

Three-term MP Yves Perron said on social media that he was “honoured” to be tapped as the party’s whip, a responsibility he first took on back in December from Claude DeBellefeuille. He will be supported by Marilène Gill as deputy whip, a role she’s held since 2019.

The Bloc caucus chair will be three-term Martin Champoux, with longtime veteran MP Louis Plamondon as his second in command.

Of note, none of the Bloc’s 22 members of caucus are planning to attend the Throne Speech on May 27. Blanchet posted on X on May 8 that “we will bring back to the House a bill ending the obligation for new MPs to take an oath to the king. Let us finally free ourselves from the monarchy.”

Recount flips Terrebonne seat by one vote

Speaking of the Bloc Québécois caucus, its membership was reduced by one seat last weekend thanks to the unprecedented results of the official recount in Terrebonne, Que. Incumbent Nathalie Sinclair-Desgagné lost the seat by a single vote, flipping the riding to the Liberals and MP-elect Tatiana Auguste. The Liberals now have 170 seats; the Bloc 22.

Three other official recounts are taking place. Out east in Terra Nova–The Peninsulas, N.L., Liberal candidate Anthony Germain was leading by 12 votes over Conservative rival Jonathan Rowe going into the recount. Previously known as Bonavista–Burin–Trinity, this constituency has been Liberal since 2015, and was held by then-Liberal MP Churence Rodgers from 2017 until he chose not to reoffer this year.

The results from the recount in the newly established riding of Milton East–Halton Hills South, Ont., are expected on May 13, after HOH’s deadline. There, Liberal candidate Kristina Tesser was leading former Conservative MP Parm Gill by 29 votes. 

The results from the recount in the renamed southern Ontario riding of Windsor-Tecumseh-Lakeshore—formerly just Windsor-Tecumesh—are anticipated May 20. Conservative candidate Kathy Borrelli was leading two-term Liberal incumbent Irek Kusmierczyk by 77 votes, according to Elections Canada. Kusmierczyk and Borrelli previously battled for this seat in 2021, with Borrelli placing third to Kusmierczyk.

Monsieur Blouin heads to Washington

Radio-Canada’s Louis Blouin is trading one capital assignment for another. Calling it a “dream come true” on X last week, Blouin announced he will be leaving Ottawa this summer for Washington, D.C., as Radio-Canada’s correspondent there alongside Azeb Wolde-Giorghis. Blouin will take over from Frédéric Arnould who, after four years in D.C., is headed to Europe.

Succeeding Blouin in Ottawa as Radio-Canada’s parliamentary bureau chief is Daniel Thibeault, erstwhile host of RCI’s program Ici Télé. “You couldn’t find a better captain,” Blouin said of Thibeault in a four-part X post last week, praising Thibeault as being “experienced” and “well-connected.”

Roy MacGregor named honorary Ottawa Riverkeeper

Globe and Mail feature writer and author Roy MacGregor has been named as the new honorary Ottawa Riverkeeper, the charity announced on May 8.

MacGregor will speak at the upcoming Riverkeeper Gala on May 21, taking place in a new location this year in Jacques-Cartier Park in Gatineau, Que.

MacGregor is the author of more than 50 books including A Life in the Bush, Northern Light, Canoe Country, and Original Highways.

In her September 2023 profile on MacGregor, The Hill Times’ editor-in-chief Kate Malloy noted MacGregor “has always been drawn back to the forests, lakes, and rivers,” based on his early years growing up in the bush in northern Ontario.

Andrew Coyne’s book launch is May 21

Another Globe and Mail writer will be out rubbing elbows with the Ottawa’s who’s who on May 21.

Over at the popular political hangout Metropolitain Brasserie, Globe columnist Andrew Coyne will launch his new book, The Crisis of Canadian Democracy, which was officially released on May 6 by Sutherland House Publishing.

cleadlay@hilltimes.com

The Hill Times