Justin Trudeau found a friendly audience at the Hotel Saskatchewan Thursday, as he urged Liberal donors to build up the party’s strength in a politically inhospitable province.
The prime minister used his short speech in Regina to revisit familiar Liberal Party themes: The middle class, gender equality, innovation and “real change.”
In his remarks, Trudeau did not specifically mention Premier Scott Moe, who he is expected to meet with on Friday. But he did plug the federal climate change plan, which the provincial government is still resisting.
“We still have important work to do,” the prime minister said. “We will work on getting Saskatchewan to sign onto the Pan-Canadian Framework on Clean Growth and Climate Change.”
Trudeau said that his government has made progress on issues important to Saskatchewan people. He mentioned a recent investment in a new protein supercluster, and touted his record on defending farmers abroad.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks at a reception for Laurier Club donors at the Hotel Saskatchewan in Regina on March 8, 2018.
“We’ve stood up to make sure that we get a good deal for canola in China,” he said. “We’re defending our pulses in India.”
He said his ministers are working to “hold the railroads to account” over the continuing grain backlog. As of the last full week of February, Canadian National was filling only 17 per cent of hopper car orders — its worst performance of the current grain year.
A bill that producers say will help ameliorate the bottleneck is still stuck in the Senate, a delay Trudeau did not address on Thursday.
Despite all the celebratory messages, his government remains unpopular on the Prairies. Most recent polls put the Liberals behind the Conservatives here.
Trudeau called on the people in the room — organizers, party secretaries and candidates among them — to carry his message to Saskatchewan people. He noted that the next federal election will creep up faster than anyone thinks.
“Talk to your friends, get involved, push the things that we’ve been doing,” he told them.
The attendees, all of them part of the exclusive Laurier Club of donors, seemed delighted with what long-time member Jean Cameron called a “special” evening.
“I got to give him a button that I had from his dad’s campaign in 1968,” she said. “He seemed to think that that was pretty neat.”
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in Regina on Thursday.
Carolyn McBean, who serves as secretary for Ralph Goodale’s Regina Wascana riding, said most of the attendees are already prepared for the battle Trudeau urged them to fight. She thinks the party’s best shot is another Regina seat in 2019 — but not Andrew Scheer’s.
“I think, federally, it’s not going to need as much work as you think,” she said.
Trudeau will remain in Regina on Friday, when he is expected to officially announce the appointment of a new RCMP commissioner.