Polls have good news for Ford on election day

A number of last minute polls show Doug Ford is likely to comfortably win a second majority government when Ontarians mark their ballots today, although it is not clear who will come second. The Post has a Leger poll that shows even Toronto, not normally a hotbed of conservatism, can expect a three-way split. The Star's aggregator has the Tories with a comfortable lead, the NDP in second and Steven Del Duca in danger of losing his seat.

Campaign's end: The Globe has a story on the leaders making their closing pitches.

Morneau disappointed: Bill Morneau had harsh words for the economic policies of his former cabinet colleagues in a speech at Wednesday evening to the C.D. Howe Institute, his first since he left politics two years ago, the Globe reports: "When I look at politics in Canada today – from the perspective of a former insider – I have to confess that I’m much more worried about our economic prospects today, in 2022, than I was seven years ago. So much time and energy was spent on finding ways to redistribute Canada’s wealth that there was little attention given to the importance of increasing our collective prosperity.”

Good news for banks: Canadians may struggle with higher debt service charges after the Bank of Canada boosted rates on Wednesday, but the big banks expect to earn billions of dollars in added income from interest charges over the next year, the Globe reports.

Unaccountable: A skeptical Louise Arbour tells the Star that Ottawa’s lack of political accountability must change to fight sexual misconduct in the armed forces: All the “blah, blah, blah about change of ‘culture’ is leaving me a little skeptical,” she said. Arbour released her final report on Monday with 48 recommendations that amount to a condemnation of the failure of successive ministers and military leaders to implement recommendations of past reports. “They currently are sitting on — and this is not an exaggeration — hundreds of recommendations” that would have led to change in how the military handles sexual misconduct and harassment, Arbour said.

Secrets sought: The man leading the public inquiry into Justin Trudeau's invocation of the Emergencies Act has asked for cabinet secrets, the Star reports. Ontario judge Paul Rouleau wrote in documents posted online: “It is the government that must explain its decision. In light of this, the commission has asked the government to disclose to the commissioner the information, including advice and information that may be protected by cabinet confidence or any applicable privilege, that led to cabinet’s decision to declare an emergency.”

Buzzed: Chinese jets are repeatedly “buzzing” a Canadian surveillance plane in international airspace, sources tell Global.

Those jets are frequently flying as close as 20 to 100 feet from the Canadian plane, sources say — so close that Canadian pilots can make eye contact with the Chinese pilots, and sometimes see them raising their middle fingers. The sources spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive information. “(That distance is) scary close at those high speeds, and it could lead to disaster in a crash,” said Charles Burton, a senior fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute in Ottawa.

Snoopy Tims: The federal privacy commissioner's has found that the Tim Hortons mobile app unnecessarily collected data without obtaining adequate consent from users, CBC reports.

Phone snooping: Civil liberties groups warned senators Wednesday that a proposed legal threshold stipulating when border officers can search cellphones is too low, the Post reports. Bill S-7, a government bill introduced in the Senate, amends the Customs Act to clarify the circumstances under which border officers can search personal digital devices.

Great reset: The federal ethics commissioner’s office was flooded with over 1,000 emails, calls, letters and even faxes this winter from people asking it to investigate a conspiracy theory about the World Economic Forum, the Post reports.

Confined: An Ottawa man was convicted on Wednesday of unlawfully confining Liberal MP Anita Vandenbeld after blocking her car in a condo parking lot, the Citizen's Gary Dimmock reports.

Bill blocked: The NDP is crying foul after Liberal and Conservative MPs voted against the NDP’s private members’ bill that would decriminalize illicit drugs across Canada, Global reports. On Tuesday, B.C. was granted a three-year exemption for possession of small amounts of drugs.

Jagmeet Singh is disappointed the government has refused to do the same nationally.

Forced labour: Liberals signalled Wednesday that they will support a Senate bill requiring government and businesses to annually report on steps they have taken to identify forced labour in their supply chains, the Globe reports.

Cruel and unusual: In the Globe, Andrew Coyne has a carefully reasoned column on the Supreme Court ruling that found Alexandre Bissonnette's multiple life sentences violated the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Coyne writes that the judges "restored ancient common-law principles of justice, not to say common sense, to Canadian sentencing."

The solution: Former Quebec premier Lucien Bouchard said Wednesday that he believes sovereignty is the best solution for Quebec, CP reports: “It is still relevant because it is in the hearts of a large number of Quebecers, not a majority. In mine too. I am convinced that this is the solution.” Bouchard made his remarks after a ceremony for the unveiling of a statue of former premier Jacques Parizeau behind the National Assembly in Quebec City.

— Stephen Maher

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