In the news today: Liberal leadership debate begins with Trump talk

Here is a roundup of stories from The Canadian Press designed to bring you up to speed…

Liberal hopefuls set to square off in final debate

Liberal leadership contenders will take the stage again Tuesday night for the English-language debate in Montreal — their last shot to confront each other in person and shake up the race.

Read More:

• Liberal party confirms Ruby Dhalla’s disqualification from leadership race
• Carney under pressure as Liberal leadership candidates prepare for French debate
• Here’s the latest as Liberal leadership candidates square off in French debate

The four candidates left in the race played it safe in Monday night’s French-language debate.

Presumed front-runner Mark Carney had his guard up and stumbled the most in French.

But none of the other candidates attacked him despite his perceived lead.

Freeland even bailed Carney out of one jam when he flubbed a comment about Hamas and the war in Gaza.

On Wednesday, Liberal party members will be able to start casting advance votes for the person who will replace Justin Trudeau at the top of the party.

Here’s what else we’re watching…

28% of Canadians trust AI-generated info: poll

More than a quarter of Canadians — 28 per cent — consider artificial intelligence systems like ChatGPT reliable sources of information, a new survey suggests.

Among generation Z Canadians — those born between 1997 and 2012 — 41 per cent say they see AI systems as reliable information sources. That’s not far off from the 49 per cent of gen Z respondents who said they trust stories on news media websites, according to the annual CanTrust Index published by Proof Strategies.

The high level of trust in AI’s reliability among gen Z respondents appears to be driven by younger males. More than half of gen Z males polled — 54 per cent — expressed a high level of trust in search results from large language models and platforms like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini.

Florian Martin-Bariteau, research chair in technology and society at the University of Ottawa, said the poll results offer cause for concern because many people don’t understand how generative AI works — and many don’t know that it can give wrong answers.

AI systems don’t understand ideas and concepts the way humans do. Instead, they identify patterns in training data to make predictions, which they use to generate new content. The results can include inaccurate or fabricated information, known as hallucinations.

Ontario votes: Leaders gearing up for election day

Ontario’s main political party leaders will be making multiple campaign stops today as the countdown to Thursday’s vote begins.

Progressive Conservative Leader Doug Ford is set to hold a news conference in Ottawa this morning before making stops in Manotick and Stittsvile and then heading to Mississauga later in the day.

Ford released his party’s official platform on Monday — just three days before election day — and it contains $40 billion worth of promises but not a full costing breakdown.

NDP Leader Marit Stiles is starting her day in London before making stops in Cambridge and Waterloo on her way back to Toronto.

Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie will spend the day in Toronto and make an announcement there in the morning.

Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner will spend a second consecutive day in Ontario’s cottage country, starting with a news conference in Huntsville.

Rare winter campaign sees icy stairs, snowy signs

Falling down stairs, pushing stuck cars out of snow banks and cancelling events are just some of the challenges candidates have faced on the winter campaign trail, but Sol Mamakwa may have them all beat.

This is Ontario’s first winter election campaign since 1981 and the incumbent NDP candidate for Kiiwetinoong in northwestern Ontario has rented a plane with skis so he can try to visit some of the 24 fly-in First Nation communities in his riding that spans nearly 300,000 square kilometres.

In Kenora-Rainy River, directly south of Kiiwetinoong, the temperatures were similarly bone chilling, and the Progressive Conservative incumbent has been feeling it while out canvassing.

“I look like Kenny from South Park,” Greg Rickford said, describing how he bundles himself up from head to toe.

Rickford, who has several provincial and federal campaigns under his belt, said he usually likes to door-knock four to five hours a day, but it’s just not possible this winter. He has pivoted to canvassing by phone at some points, largely for the sake of his team.

Earthquake hits off northwest Vancouver Island

Another earthquake has struck off the British Columbia coast.

A post on X from Emergency Info BC Monday night said a 5.2-magnitude earthquake struck west of Port Alice, a community on northwest Vancouver Island.

The agency added there was no risk of a tsunami, and there have been no reports of damage or injuries.

This is the second earthquake in British Columbia in four days, after a 4.7-magnitude temblor struck the southwest coast on Friday, northeast of Sechelt.

Tremors were felt on the Sunshine Coast, Metro Vancouver as well as Vancouver Island.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 25, 2025.

The Canadian Press