Half of Canadians have negative opinion of latest Liberal budget: poll
A new poll suggests the Liberals have not won over voters with their latest budget, though there is broad support for their plan to build millions of homes.
Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen has resigned as head of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party following local election losses suffered by her party.
Tsai offered her resignation on Saturday evening, a tradition after a major loss, in a short speech in which she also thanked supporters. She said she will shoulder the responsibility as she had hand-picked candidates in Saturday's elections.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP's earlier story follows below.
Voters in Taiwan overwhelmingly chose the opposition Nationalist party in several major races across the self-ruled island in an election Saturday in which lingering concerns about threats from China took a backseat to more local issues.
Chiang Wan-an, the Nationalist party's mayoral candidate, won the closely watched seat in capital Taipei.
“I will let the world see Taipei's greatness,” he said in his victory speech Saturday night. Other Nationalist party candidates also won mayoral seats in Taoyuan, Taichung and New Taipei city.
Not all votes had been formally counted by the time of his speech, but Chiang and the other candidates' numerical lead allowed them to declare victory.
Kao Hung-an, a candidate in the relatively new Taiwan People's Party, won the mayoral seat in Hsinchu, a city home to many of Taiwan's semi-conductor companies.
Taiwanese were picking their mayors, city council members and other local leaders in all 13 counties and in nine cities. There was also a referendum to lower the voting age from 20 to 18.
While international observers and the ruling party have attempted to link the elections to the long-term existential threat that is Taiwan's neighbor, many local experts do not think China has a large role to play this time around.
“The international community has raised the stakes too high. They've raised a local election to this international level, and Taiwan's survival,” said Yeh-lih Wang, a political science professor at National Taiwan University.
During campaigning, there were few mentions of the large-scale military exercises targeting Taiwan that China held in August in reaction to U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit.
“So I think if you can't even raise this issue in Taipei,” Wang said. “You don't even need to consider it in cities in the south.”
Instead, campaigns resolutely focused on the local: air pollution in the central city of Taichung, traffic snarls in Taipei's tech hub Nangang, and the island's COVID-19 vaccine purchasing strategies, which had left the island in short supply during an outbreak last year.
The defeat for the ruling Democratic Progressive Party may be partly due to how it handled the pandemic.
“The public has some dissatisfaction with the DPP on this, even though Taiwan has done well relatively speaking in pandemic prevention,” said Weihao Huang, a political science professor at National Sun Yat-sen University.
At an elementary school in New Taipei City, the city that surrounds Taipei, voters young and old came early despite the rain.
Yu Mei-zhu, 60, said she came to cast her ballot for the incumbent Mayor Hou You-yi. “I think he has done well, so I want to continue to support him. I believe in him, and that he can improve our environment in New Taipei City and our transportation infrastructure.”
President Tsai Ing-wen also came out early Saturday morning to cast her ballot, catching many voters by surprise as her security and entourage swept through the school.
Tsai, who also chairs the ruling party, has spoken out many times about “opposing China and defending Taiwan” in the course of campaigning. But the party's candidate Chen Shih-chung, who was running for mayor in Taipei, only raised the issue of the Communist Party's threat a few times before he quickly switched back to local issues as there was little interest, experts said.
“If the DPP loses many county seats, then their ability to rule will face a very strong challenge,” said You Ying-lung, chair at the Taiwanese Public Opinion Foundation that regularly conducts public surveys on political issues.
The election results will in some ways also reflect the public's attitude toward the ruling party's performance in the last two years, You said.
Some felt apathetic to the local race. “It feels as if everyone is almost the same, from the policy standpoint,” said 26-year-old Sean Tai, an employee at a hardware store.
Tai declined to say who he voted for, but wants someone who will raise Taipei's profile and bring better economic prospects while keeping the status quo with China. “We don't want to be completely sealed off. I really hope that Taiwan can be seen internationally,” he said.
A new poll suggests the Liberals have not won over voters with their latest budget, though there is broad support for their plan to build millions of homes.
When identical twin sisters Kim and Michelle Krezonoski were invited to compete against some of the world’s most elite female runners at last week’s Boston Marathon, they were in disbelief.
Appointing a trusted person to help with financial obligations can give you peace of mind. In his personal finance column for CTVNews.ca, Christopher Liew outlines the key benefits of naming a confidant to take over your financial responsibilities, if the need ever arises.
The federal government has added $36.4 million to a program designed to support people who have been seriously injured or killed by vaccines since the end of 2020.
Senators in Canada claimed $7.2 million in expenses in 2023, a nearly 30 per cent increase over the previous year.
A Winnipeg man said a single date gone wrong led to years of criminal harassment, false arrests, stress and depression.
A photographer who worked for Megan Thee Stallion said in a lawsuit filed Tuesday that he was forced to watch her have sex, was unfairly fired soon after and was abused as her employee.
A Minnesota state senator and former broadcast meteorologist told police that she broke into her stepmother's home because her stepmother refused to give her items of sentimental value from her late father, including his ashes, according to burglary charges filed Tuesday.
Australian police arrested seven teenagers accused of following a violent extremist ideology in raids across Sydney on Wednesday, as a judge extended a ban on social media platform X sharing video of a knife attack on a bishop that started the criminal investigation.
The giant stone statues guarding the Lions Gate Bridge have been dressed in custom Vancouver Canucks jerseys as the NHL playoffs get underway.
A local Oilers fan is hoping to see his team cut through the postseason, so he can cut his hair.
A family from Laval, Que. is looking for answers... and their father's body. He died on vacation in Cuba and authorities sent someone else's body back to Canada.
A former educational assistant is calling attention to the rising violence in Alberta's classrooms.
The federal government says its plan to increase taxes on capital gains is aimed at wealthy Canadians to achieve “tax fairness.”
At 6'8" and 350 pounds, there is nothing typical about UBC offensive lineman Giovanni Manu, who was born in Tonga and went to high school in Pitt Meadows.
Kevin the cat has been reunited with his family after enduring a harrowing three-day ordeal while lost at Toronto Pearson International Airport earlier this week.
Molly Knight, a Grade 4 student in Nova Scotia, noticed her school library did not have many books on female athletes, so she started her own book drive in hopes of changing that.
Almost 7,000 bars of pure gold were stolen from Pearson International Airport exactly one year ago during an elaborate heist, but so far only a tiny fraction of that stolen loot has been found.