March 20, 2025 • Volume 39, No. 22
Next edition April 2
5369 Canotek Rd. 613-841-7867 • www.stitchco.ca
Here we go again: federal election call expected this week By Fred Sherwin The Orléans Star
Olympic soccer referee and Orléans resident Dr. Carol Anne Chenard accepts her Leading Women’s Award from Orléans MP Marie-France Lalonde. See story on page 3. FRED SHERWIN PHOTO
Orléans residents are expected to go to the polls once again this spring as a federal election call was expected any time this week. The ink has barely dried on the provincial election ballots and another campaign is set to begin as the Conservative Party of Canada tries to wrestle control of the House of Commons from the Liberals who have served as a minority government since September 2021. A lot has changed since then. Most notably is the fact that both the two major parties have new leaders. In 2021, the Conservative Party was led by Erin O’Toole who was ousted during a subsequent leadership review and replaced by Pierre Poilievre who won the position on the first ballot. Liberal leader Mark Carney was also elected
on the first ballot when party members voted for a new leader to replace outgoing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on March 9. The NDP, Green Party and Bloc Quebecois are all being led by the same people who ran in 2021. This will be Jagmeet Singh’s third federal election as the leader of the NDP party, while Elizabeth May has been at the helm of the federal Green Party for 16 of the past 19 years. Bloc Quebecois leader Yves-François Blanchet was first elected in January 2019. According to the most recent Ipsos Canada poll taken between Feb. 21 and Feb. 24, the Liberal Party had a two point advantage over the Conservatives heading into the election. The latest Leger survey taken between March 7 and March 10 had the two parties in a virtual dead heat. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2