Trade unions issue surprise early endorsements for Conservatives

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Endorsements are still scarce in week two of the federal campaign, but the Conservatives are trumpeting the early support of two trade unions as a harbinger of endorsements to come.

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Over the weekend, the piping trades union United Association Local 67 endorsed Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, with the union’s business manager appearing at a Conservative rally in Hamilton, Ont.

This joined a March 24 endorsement from the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers (IBB).

Both are unusual in that they come from organizations not known for their support of conservative politics.

The U.S. chapters of both unions typically endorse Democrats, including in the most recent 2024 election. The U.S. arm of the United Association endorsed Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris, and past U.S. endorsement lists published by the boilermakers union have been more than 90 per cent Democrat.

As to why the unions are going Conservative in Canada, union leaders cited both the Tories’ energy policy — which they said would put more tradespeople to work — and also Poilievre’s specific outreach towards organized labour.

“Pierre gets it. He knows and understands that the surest and most sustainable route to providing a cleaner environment is through technology, not dismantling our energy sectors, raising taxes, importing energy from other nations, and shipping Canadian jobs abroad,” reads the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers’ endorsement, written by the union’s international vice president for Canada, Arnie Stadnick.

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The IBB represents tradespeople who work on tanks and pressure vessels, both of which feature pretty heavily in the energy sector, be they nuclear power plants, pipelines or oil and gas projects.

“For decades, we have poured our sweat, our blood and our very lives into the Canadian energy sector,” wrote Stadnick, adding that the Conservatives were the best choice to propel Canada towards “energy independence.”

United Association Local 67 also cited energy policy in endorsing the Conservatives, but was more direct in opposing the Liberals.

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“The industrial carbon tax that Mark Carney has pledged to keep and undoubtedly increase will decimate the city of Hamilton and all its supportive industries,” read a statement by Nathan Bergstrand, the union’s business manager.

The union represents plumbers, steamfitters and welders, three trades that are also heavily involved in the energy sector, as well as the Hamilton steel industry.

It was Bergstrand who introduced Poilievre at a rally in Hamilton, saying, “We don’t need handouts, we need work, safe streets, a strong dollar, affordable homes and the freedom to responsibly own and use our legal firearms.”

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The last Conservative government was not overly beloved by organized labour, particularly when then prime minister Stephen Harper attempted to push through transparency legislation that would require unions to disclose any spending over $5,000, and any salary over $100,000.

Bergstrand’s written statement said that the party had now changed, and would not “entertain or introduce anti-union legislation.” Bergstrand said he had been “working with Pierre and his team” to teach them the “intricacies of private sector trade unions.”

This week, the Conservatives were also endorsed by the Peel Regional Police Association, who cited a “skyrocketing” increase of crime over the last 10 years. “We’ve arrested the same people time and time and time again. This revolving door needs to close,” said association president Adrian Woolley at a Conservative announcement in Mississauga, Ont.

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The police association’s endorsement is less surprising than the trade unions.

The Peel Regional Police Association has generally leaned towards conservatives in its prior political endorsements. Those have included Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown, a former leader of the Ontario Progressive Conservatives, and Progressive Conservative Graham McGregor, now an MPP in the Ontario government of Doug Ford.

But particularly in recent months, police organizations have made no secret of their dissatisfaction with the Liberal government.

Just in October, a Liberal statement celebrating the second anniversary of its ban on the sale or transfer of handguns attracted pushback from both the Surrey Police Union and the Toronto Police Association.

“Our communities are experiencing a 45% increase in shootings and a 62% increase in gun-related homicides compared to this time last year,” wrote a social media reply by the Toronto Police Assocation. “Your statement is out of touch and offensive to victims of crime and police officers everywhere.”

Just on Monday, the Durham Regional Police Association issued a social media post criticizing Liberal Leader Mark Carney for deciding to retain candidate Paul Chiang in the light of revelations that Chiang had joked about turning over his Conservative opponent (a wanted Chinese dissident) to Beijing authorities.

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Chiang used to serve with the Durham Regional Police before entering politics, which appears to have motivated the statement.

“These are actions an active Officer would be held to an higher standard for in Ontario,” wrote the association, which also accused Carney of using “Chiang’s policing career as a shield for his actions.”

If police and trade unions seem to be leaning Conservative this election, it’s a decidedly different story among public sector union leadership.

Within hours of the election call, the Canadian Union of Public Employees issued a statement endorsing the NDP, their usual choice in federal elections.

WHITHER BIOLOGICAL CLOCKS

Liberals seized on a recent statement by Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre in which he said he was fighting for the “36-year-old couple whose biological clock is running out faster than they can afford to buy a home and have kids.” The controversial part was Poilievre’s reference to a “biological clock.” “Pierre Poilievre has views on your biological clock,” read one typical social media critique, written by former immigration minister Marc Miller. But the claim is backed by survey evidence finding that young Canadians are indeed delaying or even foregoing parenthood due to affordability issues. Just this week, new research came out from the University of British Columbia finding that high rent and home prices were preventing millions of Canadians from “forming the households they want” – including couples who wanted to have children.

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CARNEY ‘PLEASED’ THESIS IS BEING READ

Last week, an exclusive story by the National Post’s Catherine Lévesque found that there was evidence of apparent plagiarism in the doctoral thesis of Liberal Leader Mark Carney. The allegations weren’t as severe as some; it was a number of duplicated sentences from otherwise cited sources (as opposed to, say, disgraced former Harvard president Claudine Gay lifting whole paragraphs for a 1997 dissertation). In Carney’s first direct response to the story on Tuesday, he said, “I’m pleased that there’s such interest in my doctoral thesis. It’s sort of languished on the shelf for over three decades.”

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