The Halifax Mooseheads defeated the Drummondville Voltigeurs 4-2 at the Scotiabank Centre, taking a 3-2 lead in the series.

Halifax and Drummondville traded goals in the first period. Ethan Gauthier opened the scoring for the Voltigeurs, Jacob Steinman making back to back saves before Gauthier finally buried the rebound on Drummondville’s third attempt. Brady Schultz tied the game from the top of the left wing faceoff circle, receiving a pass from Carlos Handel and firing a shot through the five-hole of Voltigeurs netminder Louis-Félix Charrois

Braeden MacPhee gave the Herd their first lead of the night 13 minutes into the second period. Captain Brady Schultz finding MacPhee with a lengthy pass from the Moosehead zone, MacPhee’s initial shot was stopped by Charrois but MacPhee forced a rebound and banked the puck off Charrois’s pad and into the Volt’s net. Steinman also earning an assist on the play.

Halfway through the second period the Mooseheads announced forwards Caylen Blake and Callum Aucoin would miss the remainder of the game with injuries.

The Voltigeurs tied the contest eight minutes in the third period as Yoan Tassé sent a backhand past Steinman. Lincoln Waugh restored Halifax’s lead for his first goal in a Mooseheads jersey, sending a puck on net that found its way through traffic and into the Drummondville net for the game winning goal. Liam Kilfoil added an insurance marker on the empty net to secure the win for the Herd at the Scotiabank Centre.

With the win the Herd now have a 3-2 series lead over the Voltigeurs as the series returns to Drummondville.

The Moosehead overagers earned the three stars of the contest. Jacob Steinman was awarded first star, making 29 saves in the win. Braeden MacPhee earned second star with a goal and third star went to captain Brady Schultz with a goal and two assists.

The Herd now have a chance to move on the the second round as the travel back up to Drummondville to face the Voltigeurs on Monday, April 7 at the Marcel Dionne Centre. Puck drop is at 8 p.m., and you can catch all the action here on 95.7 NewsRadio.

Emergency crews are on the scene of a rollover on the Trans-Canada Highway west of Swift Current Friday evening.

The single-vehicle rollover is about 10 kilometres from the city limits.

According to eyewitnesses, the vehicle was travelling westbound.

Dark secrets from the past emerged at a provincial court trial this week, where an 85-year-old former North Vancouver teacher was convicted of nine historic sexual offences against boys he groomed with ski trips, water-skiing and camping.

The stakes are high as Canadians prepare to vote. The country faces aggressive U.S. tariffs, an affordability and housing crisis, and declining living standards relative to other OECD countries. 

Amid the noise of campaign promises and personality politics, voters must choose between two different visions for Canada’s future — one defined by government-led solutions and the other by market-based approaches.

Rather than getting caught up in each leader’s personality, it may be more useful to consider the underlying values driving each party. After all, leaders are chosen by their party’s members and supported by the caucus. While they may have their own priorities, leaders will mostly be in sync with their party. For voters, understanding these core values may offer a better guide than relying solely on each candidate’s rhetoric.

Liberals generally see government as a way to influence social and economic outcomes. They support intervention through taxation, regulations and spending to address their priorities, such as climate change and child care. Socially, they emphasize inclusion, diversity and rights protections, viewing government as a vehicle for advancing pluralism and collective progress.

Conservatives, in contrast, place more emphasis on individuals and markets. They tend to support a more limited government that is focused on ensuring core services, order and an environment that allows private enterprises to thrive. Their approach favours lower taxes, lighter regulation and fiscal restraint. They are typically skeptical of state-led solutions and more focused on maintaining established norms.

Both parties recognize Canada’s extremely poor productivity growth record, and its importance for maintaining living standards. But their responses differ. 

Liberals look to government-led strategies — including public investments in child care, education and technology — as foundations for growth. They support industrial policy and subsidies for government chosen sectors, such as clean innovation. Critics argue this has done little to raise per capita output.

Conservatives favour market-led productivity growth. They believe tax relief, deregulation and resource development attract private investment. Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre pledges to reduce hurdles to construction, energy projects and entrepreneurship. The goal is to stimulate productivity by freeing capital and initiative. Critics counter that without public funding in emerging sectors the strategy may have limited success.

The parties also differ on fiscal policy. 

The Trudeau Liberals ran deficits even during periods of economic growth. From 2016 to 2023, federal program spending rose about 10 per cent annually, up from just over two per cent from 2006 to 2015. Liberals say the increased spending boosts growth and funds important programs, while Conservatives say it adds to the national debt and raises interest expenses.

Conservatives instead focus on managing spending in order to balance budgets. In response to the 2008-2009 financial crisis, the Harper government recorded a $55 billion budget deficit. But it returned to a small surplus by 2015 through spending cuts. 

A future Liberal government under Mark Carney would likely continue to run (smaller) deficits to keep debt manageable relative to GDP. New revenues may come from higher taxes on corporations. Conservatives would likely scale back the budget, cut some Liberal programs and reduce the size of the public service.

Climate policy offers perhaps the starkest contrast. 

Liberals would keep regulations and subsidies to cut emissions, while Conservatives propose eliminating all carbon taxes and relaxing regulations they see as harmful to competitiveness. Their approach relies on private sector-led emissions reductions, carbon capture and other mitigation technologies. While this may lower costs for households and businesses, it could make emissions targets harder to meet.

On Indigenous matters, Liberals stress reconciliation, rights recognition and increased funding. They passed legislation recognizing UNDRIP, a United Nations declaration supporting Indigenous rights, framing the relationship as nation-to-nation. Conservatives focus more on economic opportunity, such as resource partnerships, and administrative transparency.

In health care, Liberals have increased transfers, introduced new federal programs such as dental benefits, and oppose any private involvement in the public system. Conservatives also support increased funding, but with fewer federal restrictions and are open to limited private delivery within the public health-care system.

Regarding civil liberties, Liberals prioritize protecting vulnerable groups, regulating harmful content and promoting equality, even if it means limiting some expression. Conservatives favour free speech, religious freedom and opposition to state authority. They oppose legislation such as Bill C-11, which regulates online content, and proposed online harms laws. 

Headlines and photo-ops are often a distraction from what is really at stake in an election. It is by understanding parties’ values and priorities that voters can best understand how each party would govern. 

Although both Liberals and Conservatives aim to improve life in Canada, they take different paths: Liberals rely on government action, while Conservatives favour private enterprise and individual initiative.

The post Op-Ed: Forget the photo ops. Here’s what you should base your vote on appeared first on CANADIAN AFFAIRS.

A union that represents public sector workers in Ontario says it was hit by a "cybersecurity incident" on Wednesday but it cannot say what data, if any, was compromised by the attack.

Police continue to investigate what they believe to be an incident of shots fired.

Some Manitoba snowbirds are selling their properties in the United States after year of spending their winters there, saying they feel pushed out by an eroding sense of safety and growing tensions in the U.S. under Donald Trump.

With federal party leaders on the campaign trail, pollsters are closely tracking who Canadians plan to support with their vote. CBC Ppoll analyst Eric Grenier helps makes sense of opinion polls and their accuracy.

The jurors at the coroner’s inquest investigating the 2019 death of Kimmirut man George Arlooktoo concluded he died by suicide and made multiple more than 30 recommendations aimed at preventing a similar death.

They also recommended that Goverenment of Nunavut declare a “suicide crisis.”

“We all hope that another death will be prevented as a result of the recommendations made here,” Nunavut’s chief coroner Dr. Michael Foote said Friday afternoon at the end of the five-day hearing.

During the inquest, six jurors heard testimony from 14 witnesses, including Arlooktoo’s aunt Levee Arlooktoo, who found her distraught 28-year-old nephew with two guns and threatening to hurt himself the morning after he stabbed his partner.

She testified that Arlooktoo said he was “terrified” of having to go back to jail, and that something bad happened to him when he was in jail previously.

Two RCMP officers — Sgt. Dustin Grant and Cpl. Bayden Austring — who responded to Arlooktoo’s home to try to get him mental health support testified. When they saw him trying to hurt himself, they tried to use a stun gun — a weapon that emits a jolt of electricity to immobilize someone — but it was unsuccessful because of the thickness of the coat he was wearing.

And so did pathologist Dr. Alfredo Walker, who said Arlooktoo couldn’t have survived the self-inflicted stab wounds he suffered after police entered his home.

Nunavut’s assistant deputy minister of health Victoria Madsen described changes in a new Mental Health Act aimed at giving authorities the ability to intervene in mental health crises sooner.

Ottawa Police Service Det-Sgt. Kevin Jacobs, who did a third-party investigation of the RCMP conduct, said the officers’ attempts to stop Arlooktoo were “commendable” and “impressive.”

The purpose of a coroner’s inquest is not to determine blame like a criminal trial does. The goal of an inquest is to have the jury determine the cause of death and to make recommendations.

One juror said suicide in Kimmirut had become a “crisis” with four other people having died that way since Arlooktoo’s death six years ago.

On Feb. 9, 2019, Arlooktoo was at home, distraught and threatening to kill himself after having stabbed his partner the night before. He refused to let police officers or anyone else into his home. After officers forced his front door open, Arlooktoo stabbed himself in the neck 11 times, the inquest heard. 

Officers transported him to a health clinic less than two minutes away. The moment Arlooktoo arrived and for the 30 minutes until he was declared dead, nurses never obtained a pulse.

Along with determining how Arlooktoo died, jurors were also asked to make recommendations in the interest of preventing deaths of a similar nature in the future.

Officers were understaffed and overworked leading up to Arlooktoo’s death. Jurors recommended the RCMP maintain three officers at the Kimmirut detachment at all times. It also made recommendations around mental health.

Jurors made 31 recommendations on subjects including policing and mental health. 

Policing

• Three officers should be stationed in the community at all times.
• The local RCMP detachment should hire a bilingual staff member to assist dispatchers and the police.
• New RCMP officers should receive local, cultural and community-specific training and orientation.

Mental Health

• A permanent mental health practitioner should be recruited to work at the health centre on a long-term basis.
• Local Inuit should be hired and trained as counsellors.
• Men’s and youth groups and clubs should be created and maintained.

The resources are available to people in distress and who need to talk with someone:

Kamatsiaqtut Help Line is Nunavut-specific and offers services in Inuktitut. Phone: 979-3333 for Iqaluit residents and 1-800-265-3333 for other Nunavummiut.

The Suicide Crisis Helpline is available 24/7 in English and French by phone or text at 9-8-8.

The First Nations and Inuit Hope for Wellness Helpline: 1-855-242-3310 or chat online at hopeforwellness.ca.

Bob Mackin

The NDP-aligned party aiming to keep a seat on Vancouver city council in the April 5 by-election is concealing the mining background of its candidate.

Bike lane campaigner Lucy Maloney’s career with Australian mining giant BHP is omitted from the OneCity Vancouver website. It calls her a holder of a law degree and an MBA who built “a career in both the public and private sector.”

A LinkedIn profile lists Maloney’s jobs as superintendent of sourcing and contracts for BHP Billiton Worsley Alumina Pty. Ltd. from 2008 to 2011 and health safety, environment and community and risk specialist for BHP Billiton Minerals Exploration beginning in March 2011.

Her husband, Scott Maloney, held multiple roles for BHP from 2007 to 2017 in Australia, Singapore and Chile. He is now vice-president of environment for Vancouver copper and zinc giant Teck Resources Ltd.

Maloney did not explain why OneCity omitted her BHP experience from the website.

“I supported operations in rural communities producing aluminium, copper and potash, which are necessary for the climate transition, and to feed the world,” Maloney said by email.

According to the Corporate Research Project: “BHP Billiton has often been the subject of controversy over its hardline labour relations policies and what is seen as its overly aggressive pursuit of new mining opportunities in poor countries.”

Prominent NDPers endorse anti-Israel COPE candidate

Ex-Burnaby-Lougheed MLA Katrina Chen and retired Richmond city councillor Harold Steeves are urging voters to send Sean Orr to 12th and Cambie on April 5.

However, former Minister of Finance and Minister of Advanced Education Selina Robinson hopes voters look elsewhere on the ballot.

“Be sure to exercise your right to vote in the upcoming by-election and please don’t elect someone who has no interest in keeping Jews safe, especially when antisemitism is at an all time high,” Robinson wrote on Facebook. “All Vancouverites deserve better than this.”

In early 2024, Orr was involved in the successful campaign, spearheaded by the pro-Hamas Samidoun, to oust Robinson from the NDP cabinet after she called Mandatory Palestine a “crappy piece of land within nothing on it.” Robinson issued an apology and vowed to take anti-Islamophobia training, but Premier David Eby removed her from cabinet and she quit the party soon after.

Last October, after the anniversary of the Oct. 7 massacre and start of the Israel-Hamas war, the U.S. and Canada declared Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-affiliated Samidoun a terrorist entity.

Orr publicly expressed support on X (formerly Twitter) for an un-permitted Feb. 12, 2024 anti-Israel protest that blocked traffic on the Burrard Bridge, an important link for ambulances between downtown and Kitsilano (Orr: “not illegal”).

Orr also praised the May 23, 2024 takeover of the Samuel and Frances Belzberg library at Simon Fraser University downtown. Protesters covered the names of the prominent Jewish philanthropists and posted one bearing the name of senior PFLP leader Khalida Jarrar (Orr: “was a fantastic event”).

One of Orr’s latest endorsers is scheduled to appear in Vancouver Provincial Court on April 16. Harrison Johnston is among 13 protesters who were charged with mischief for blocking railway tracks in East Vancouver during a May 31, 2024 anti-Israel protest that delayed Amtrak travellers.

Also endorsing Orr: Atiya Jaffar, the campaigns manager for U.S.-based environmental protest charity 350. Jaffar was involved in organizing anti-Israel protests in 2023 and 2024 and the 2020 Shut Down Canada protests.

The by-election runs 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. on April 5 across Vancouver to fill the seats vacated by OneCity’s Christine Boyle, who became an NDP cabinet minister last fall, and the Green Party’s Adriane Carr, who retired.

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