Fast favours independent candidate over Sukhman Gill for the Conservatives.Retiring Conservative Abbotsford MP Ed Fast has announced his endorsement of independent candidate Mike de Jong instead of the candidate for his party.In a statement released Tuesday morning (April 15), Fast criticized the selection of 25-year-old Sukhman Gill as the Conservative candidate in the new riding of Abbotsford-South Langley.
U.S. President Donald Trump still wants Canada to become the country’s 51st state, the White House said Friday, a threat he has made repeatedly but had appeared to quiet on in recent weeks. Trump’s rhetoric toward Canada has appeared to soften since he spoke with Prime Minister Mark Carney last month, although he has occasionally brought up long-standing grievances on...
The start time of Wednesday's French-language debate has been changed from 8 p.m. to 6 p.m. after two federal party leaders requested it not clash with a potentially consequential Montreal Canadiens hockey game.
Liberal Bruce Anderson and Conservative Fred DeLorey continue their 2025 election conversation with two new topics this week. The LIberals get caught playing dirty tricks, while both parties prepare for this week's debates. With little time left in the campaign, is the die cast, or is anything still possible?
Automobile companies that continue to manufacture vehicles in Canada will get an exemption from Ottawa's retaliatory tariffs as U.S. President Donald Trump attempts to upend the North American industry through steep import duties. Federal Finance Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne announced Tuesday that auto manufacturers will be allowed to import a certain number of U.S.-assembled vehicles -- ones that comply with the...
The Liberals maintain a 5-point lead over the Conservatives heading into the debates as Liberal voters’ intentions harden. These are the topline findings of an online survey of 1,455 Canadian citizens sponsored and conducted by Innovative Research Group Inc. (INNOVATIVE) between April 10th and April 14th, 2025. Results are weighted by age, gender, region, education, and self-reported federal past vote...
A new poll by Liaison Strategies for the National Ethnic Press and Media Council of Canada (NEPMCC), the industry association representing Canada’s non-official language newspapers, TV, radio, and online news media, finds the Liberals leading with 44% (no change) to the Conservatives 39% (+1). The rolling survey, conducted from April 12 to April 14, 2025, used interactive voice response technology...
The CTV-Globe and Mail/Nanos nightly federal election tracking conducted by Nanos Research surveys 1,200 Canadians aged 18 years and over three days (400 interviews each day). Respondents are all randomly recruited through a dual-frame (cell- and land-line) RDD sample using live agents. Three quarters of the sample are administered the questionnaire by telephone and one quarter is administered the same...
Our watchers continue to see Liberals having the most momentum (89%), best candidates (82%) most effective leader (77%) and most impactful message (70%). Responses are a bit tighter on best ads, and Conservatives continue to be seen as having the best events. Read more.
The start time of Wednesday's French-language debate has been changed from 8 p.m. to 6 p.m. after two federal party leaders requested it not clash with a potentially consequential Montreal Canadiens hockey game.
The Premier’s unusually sharp critique of the federal Conservative campaign has insiders wondering why Ford is behaving like that. Some are saying he might be laying the groundwork for something bigger.
The Green Party says it deliberately didn't run candidates in some ridings, even though the party submitted a full slate of potential candidates to the commission responsible for organizing the leadership debates.
For Ian Brodie, time is of the essence to reduce the federal budget. If Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives win the federal election, they could move at lightening speed to shrink the size of the public service. That’s according to Ian Brodie, a former chief of staff of prime minister Stephen Harper, who believes the most surefire way to usher in deregulation...
U.S. President Donald Trump still wants Canada to become the country’s 51st state, the White House said Friday, a threat he has made repeatedly but had appeared to quiet on in recent weeks. Trump’s rhetoric toward Canada has appeared to soften since he spoke with Prime Minister Mark Carney last month, although he has occasionally brought up long-standing grievances on...
Fast favours independent candidate over Sukhman Gill for the Conservatives.Retiring Conservative Abbotsford MP Ed Fast has announced his endorsement of independent candidate Mike de Jong instead of the candidate for his party.In a statement released Tuesday morning (April 15), Fast criticized the selection of 25-year-old Sukhman Gill as the Conservative candidate in the new riding of Abbotsford-South Langley.
Liberal Bruce Anderson and Conservative Fred DeLorey continue their 2025 election conversation with two new topics this week. The LIberals get caught playing dirty tricks, while both parties prepare for this week's debates. With little time left in the campaign, is the die cast, or is anything still possible?
Doug Ford and Pierre Poilievre agreed on one subject this week: change is needed.The federal Conservative leader is saying that Canada needs change. The Ontario premier is saying that Poilievre needs to change his campaign team.
Much ink has been spilled offering explanations for how the Liberals have replaced a 25 point deficit with a 4 or 5 point advantage – all in a matter of a few months.
According to survey data released last week by Pollara, Canadians are evenly split on whether they want this federal election to result in "change" or "stability" — 46 per cent of Canadians want change and 45 per cent want stability. Among those who want change, 47 per cent say Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre would best deliver that change, while 2...
As Canadians tune in to the leaders’ debates this week — in French on Wednesday and English on Thursday — they’ll hear about affordability, tariffs, immigration and even an entire segment on climate, an issue that no longer cracks the top five. But one subject is conspicuously absent from both stages: national defence. It’s a baffling omission. While the French...
In the face of President Trump’s tariffs, we need to build Canada strong. That starts by supporting our workers and helping them prepare for the careers of the future. Today, Mark Carney highlighted his plan to build Canada strong through this crisis, and announced a significant new benefit to help workers access and afford new skills training in the middle...
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre announced his plan to protect Canadian seniors by cracking down on financial scammers who target them. A new Conservative government will ensure that Canadian banks and cell phone companies do a better job detecting scams, alerting victims before they are scammed, and reporting and blocking suspected fraud in real-time. We will also increase fines and prison...
Today, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh unveiled a national strategy to tackle the nursing shortage by hiring more nurses, improving working conditions, and ending the wasteful use of costly private agencies—because public health care only works when we protect the people who deliver it. “Health care is at the heart of what makes Canada, Canada. But right now, people are waiting...
This election comes at a time of crisis. With President Trump threatening our economy and sovereignty, we need to secure Canada by supporting our businesses and industry here at home, and helping them diversify to new markets. “We will protect our sovereignty in an increasingly dangerous and divided world by rebuilding, reinvesting, and rearming our military,” said Mark Carney, Leader...
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre announced today that a new Conservative government will put justice first–For a Change–by giving judges back the power to sentence multiple murderers to consecutive prison sentences without parole eligibility beyond 25 years. “For the worst mass murderers, a life sentence should mean what it says: a sentence for life,” Poilievre said. “These monsters should face the...
Today, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh announced key elements of the NDP’s Northern Ontario platform—focused on fixing health care, lowering grocery prices, investing in infrastructure, and protecting access to French-language services in the North. “For too many people in the North, life is getting harder,” said Singh. “It’s harder to find a doctor, harder to afford groceries, and harder to access...
Doug Ford and Pierre Poilievre agreed on one subject this week: change is needed.The federal Conservative leader is saying that Canada needs change. The Ontario premier is saying that Poilievre needs to change his campaign team.
Much ink has been spilled offering explanations for how the Liberals have replaced a 25 point deficit with a 4 or 5 point advantage – all in a matter of a few months.
According to survey data released last week by Pollara, Canadians are evenly split on whether they want this federal election to result in "change" or "stability" — 46 per cent of Canadians want change and 45 per cent want stability. Among those who want change, 47 per cent say Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre would best deliver that change, while 2...
As Canadians tune in to the leaders’ debates this week — in French on Wednesday and English on Thursday — they’ll hear about affordability, tariffs, immigration and even an entire segment on climate, an issue that no longer cracks the top five. But one subject is conspicuously absent from both stages: national defence. It’s a baffling omission. While the French...
Something significant has happened to the NDP vote in this federal election. A party that, for much of the past two years, consistently held between 18% and 20% support now finds itself with just 9% of the committed vote, according to our latest Abacus Data survey conducted from April 7 to 10, 2025. That’s a collapse—one of the most dramatic...
As the federal election campaign tightly focuses on the ongoing trade war with America, we must also consider the implications for Canada of the culture war – in particular Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre’s weaponization of the word “woke” and what he means by promising action against it. The term woke is rooted in the African-American experience of racialized violence and...
It’s bad enough Canada already faces myriad threats to our democracy from covert foreign influence campaigns and online disinformation. Now, Canadians apparently also need to worry about Liberal operatives sneaking around planting fake evidence about their political opponents.
The federal election on April 28th is one of the most consequential in our history. With U.S. President Donald Trump openly threatening to annex Canada amidst an unjustified and unprovoked trade war, and conservative figures like Preston Manning and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith fanning the flames of “Western separatism”, the stakes couldn’t be higher.
Carney Liberals once again want to link Pierre Poilievre to Donald Trump, this time with dirty tricks of their own
It’s debate week on the Chaos Campaign, but arguably the most important conversation of the campaign transpired last night. Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre and Liberal leader Mark Carney visited Radio-Canada’s nouvelle maison to participate in Tout le monde en parle, the wide-ranging panel show hosted by comedian Guy A. Lepage, and watched live by at least one million Quebecers every...
The dramatic collapse in the once insurmountable lead Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre held over the Liberals is the most astonishing reversal of political fortunes I have ever seen. For one thing, it happened in a matter of a few weeks. For the two years before that, the Liberals could barely see Poilievre’s tail lights. He was on cruise control to...
That was a very short-lived pivot by Pierre Poilievre.Yes, after internal party dissent and at the urging of various Conservative worthies, he now weaves more criticism of Donald Trump into his stump speeches. It doesn’t seem terribly heart-felt, but, to be fair, the opposition leader betrays no hint of admiration for the rampaging U.S. president.
I spend a lot of time digging into our Abacus Data polling data, looking at trends, understanding the relationship between variables. Imagine a chef in a kitchen testing out new recipes. That’s me in a dataset, and I love it!
This week’s leaders’ debates began in Quebec — albeit unofficially. The much-anticipated French-language debate is set for Wednesday night — scheduled at the same time as the Montreal Canadiens’ final regular-season game. Unlike in 2011, when the debate was moved up a day to avoid a similar clash, this time the Leaders’ Debates Commission either didn’t have a choice —...
One of the more searing images of the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign came during the debate when Donald Trump kept lurking behind Hillary Clinton on stage.Clinton, who lost that election, would recall later in her book that she found it “incredibly uncomfortable,” and considered telling Trump: “Back up, you creep.”
Mark Carney must know, from his hockey-playing days, the uncomfortable feeling of nursing a lead while the clock winds down. It always goes slower than you’d like. But instead of watching the minutes and seconds tick by on an arena scoreboard, Carney has two-plus weeks to steer the Liberals toward what, three months ago, would’ve seemed like an unthinkable victory...
Shortly after being sworn in as Canada’s new prime minister, Mark Carney presented his new cabinet consisting of ministers who kept their jobs, others who were shuffled to a new portfolio and some new faces. Conspicuously absent was the role of minister for women and gender equality and youth.Cutting this ministry is a mistake.
It’s been a strange Canadian election campaign, dominated by a politician who isn’t on the ballot, or even a citizen of our country: US President Donald Trump. While initially the Conservatives thought Trump’s win might help them – who would have better relations with Washington, ultra-progressive PM Justin Trudeau or Elon Musk-approved Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre? – that theory quickly...
It’s hard to pin a simple description on Prime Minister Mark Carney, who has devoted much of his career to public service without holding public office, and is now running his first election campaign. One word that seems to be sticking is “technocrat.” With respect to my media colleagues, we should un-stick it. Admittedly, it’s usually a compliment. In the...
Matt Gurney: Something the small but mighty team at The Line is doing during the campaign is a fun little feature with a profane name we publish on Fridays. It’s an accountability/fact-check feature. Last week, we noted in it that the parties were more or less behaving and keeping relatively honest. As late as the middle of this week, that...
As Donald Trump continues waging his dizzying trade war against Canada and sends global markets spiraling, ordinary Canadians could be forgiven if they missed an extraordinary milestone in our ongoing federal election.Just recently, Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre set what is perhaps a new Canadian election record by dropping not one, not two, but three candidates all on one day.
“In many ways,” Jonathan Pedneault says, “the Greens have been at the forefront of identifying threats.” Risk-detection may not be the first attribute that comes to mind when thinking about the Green Party. But Pedneault, the party’s co-leader along with stalwart Elizabeth May, is hoping to convince Canadians that, in dark, weird, and uncertain times, the Greens are up to...
Liberal government misspending has left us ill-equipped to fight a tariff war with the U.S. – and one of the only alternatives the government has will be to increase taxes to do so.
The Premier’s unusually sharp critique of the federal Conservative campaign has insiders wondering why Ford is behaving like that. Some are saying he might be laying the groundwork for something bigger.
The Green Party says it deliberately didn't run candidates in some ridings, even though the party submitted a full slate of potential candidates to the commission responsible for organizing the leadership debates.
For Ian Brodie, time is of the essence to reduce the federal budget. If Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives win the federal election, they could move at lightening speed to shrink the size of the public service. That’s according to Ian Brodie, a former chief of staff of prime minister Stephen Harper, who believes the most surefire way to usher in deregulation...
In December, Poilievre told Toronto Sun columnist Brian Lilley that he would defund the public broadcaster 'very quick.' Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre now says he doesn’t have a timeline for when he would defund the CBC despite promising in December to do it “very quick.” Questioned by National Post on Tuesday on whether the Conservatives would defund the CBC within...
Ontario plant will 'operate at full capacity for the foreseeable future,' company said. Honda Canada says it is not planning to move production out of Canada to the U.S., contrary to reports from a Japanese news outlet. Nekkei newspaper reported Tuesday that Honda is working on plans to switch some car production from Mexico and Canada to the U.S., after...
The federal NDP is facing plenty of challenges this campaign—from poor polling, to breaking into the Canada-United States relations narrative that has dominated the race—but the party has a familiar, experienced team on hand leading the fight.
On an overcast afternoon on Canada’s east coast, Mark Carney emerged from a pickup truck and stepped carefully in his dress shoes through the muddy lot outside a lumber mill. His hard hat didn’t fit right, pitched forward at an awkward angle; an aide hustled over to fix it before he went inside.
When it was time for former prime minister Justin Trudeau to vacate his office, he left at least one thing behind for his successor: blueprints to overhaul one of Canada's most iconic institutions: the RCMP. Calling the nearly 152-year-old agency "strained," Trudeau urged the winner of the next election to start the process of getting the Mounties out of boots-on-the-ground...
No federal government has ever used the notwithstanding clause. In January 2006 during the federal leaders' debate, Liberal Leader Paul Martin surprised many political observers when he seemingly out of the blue raised the issue of the notwithstanding clause. Martin challenged Conservative Leader Stephen Harper to agree to a constitutional amendment ensuring that Ottawa would never use the controversial clause...
Ontario Premier Doug Ford says he was told by the president of Honda Canada that a report suggesting some production in Canada and Mexico will move to the U.S. is “not accurate at all.” Ford also told reporters Tuesday that the company plans to send out a statement clarifying the situation. “We’re going to keep Honda here, and I’ll do...
At least seven Conservative MPs held stock in Liberal leader’s former company, IJF analysis finds.Multiple Conservative MPs personally invested in Liberal Leader Mark Carney’s former company, a business their party has spent weeks attacking in the lead-up to this month’s election, according to an IJF analysis.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford is defending his long-time campaign strategist Kory Teneycke for comments he made criticizing federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre. Speaking to CTV Power Play host Vassy Kapelos last week, Teneycke accused Poilievre and his team of “blowing” a big lead in the polls, which now firmly place the Liberals ahead of the Conservatives by a notable margin...
Ontario Premier Doug Ford says the federal Conservatives would be in a better position if his own campaign manager were in charge, defending criticism from Kory Teneycke about Pierre Poilievre’s election strategy. Mr. Ford on Monday weighed into the latest fracas between the provincial and federal conservative parties, speaking out in support of Mr. Teneycke who has accused Mr. Poilievre’s...
Party provided full list of candidates to commission, but only about 2/3 are registered to run. Canada's Leaders' Debates Commission is defending its decision to invite Green Party co–leader Jonathan Pedneault to this week's debates, even though the party is well short of a full slate of candidates.
A cheerfully brash bald guy cavorts among the thousands at a Poilievre rally in Windsor, Ont., livestreaming his antics from a pole-mounted iPhone. “Hi, hi, let’s go!” I hear him call. “Do you believe the polls?” “Not for a second,” comes the answer. It’s The Pleb, a right-wing YouTuber and darling of the Freedom Convoy movement who’s been following Poilievre...
TORONTO -- The members of Ontario's legislature have chosen Donna Skelly as the province's first female Speaker.
Liberal Leader Mark Carney has renounced his British and Irish citizenships, a spokesperson for the campaign told CBC News on Monday. Carney, who was born in Canada, acquired Irish citizenship decades ago through his family ancestry and got his U.K. passport in 2018 while working overseas as the governor of the Bank of England. Carney's wife is also British-born. "His...
Liberal Leader Mark Carney said on Monday he was “unaware” that Liberal staffers had planted some fake Trump-style buttons at a Conservative conference last week but nonetheless apologized for this “unreservedly” on behalf on his campaign. “This is totally unacceptable, to be absolutely clear,” he said at a campaign stop in Montreal in response to CBC News, who broke the...
Liberal Leader Mark Carney and Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre are both campaigning in Montreal today and making announcements about defence procurement and justice reform. Poilievre is vowing to use the notwithstanding clause to implement some of his crime agenda -- something no federal government has ever done. He says that "to bring justice back to the criminal justice system," the...
Conservative leader says 'multiple-murderers should only come out in a box.' Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre says he'll ensure multiple-murderers die in jail by becoming the first Canadian prime minister to override Charter rights by invoking the notwithstanding clause. "Conservatives believe a punishment should be proportionate to the crime. If you kill multiple people you should spend the rest of your...
Conservatives in Canada could be forgiven for celebrating earlier this year. Their nemesis Justin Trudeau announced that he was resigning as prime minister, and polls showed they would romp to victory over the Liberals whenever the election was called.
Canada’s fiscal position is set to worsen as the country’s two leading political parties vie to win an election by promising tax cuts and measures to protect industries from US President Donald Trump’s tariff barrage.
I started writing this newsletter as a way of framing and better understanding how the events of the week ahead were going to shape the conversation. But events are happening at a breakneck speed right now. So the last few editions have been focused on the impact those events are having. But this week, we have the Bank of Canada...
Demand for the services of local food banks has never been higher, and Carolyn McLeod-McCarthy of the Guelph Food Bank says she's worried about the impact U.S. tariffs will have on the local economy and workers."We're quite nervous about what that's going to mean for being able to provide food to people in need," McLeod-McCarthy told CBC News.
Our government created the Citizens’ Services portfolio in 2023 to champion service delivery excellence and to improve government efficiency. This State of Service report was drafted to communicate how we are accomplishing this mandate and to update Canadians on some of our biggest programs, including the Passport Program, the Canadian Dental Care Plan, Employment Insurance, Benefits Delivery Modernization and the...
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Former President Joe Biden returns to the national stage Tuesday to elevate liberal concerns that President Donald Trump's agenda is threatening the health of Social Security.
BOSTON (AP) -- The federal government says it's freezing more than $2.2 billion in grants and $60 million in contracts to Harvard University, since the institution said Monday it won't comply with the Trump administration's demands to limit activism on campus.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Vice President JD Vance ended the Ohio State football team's visit to the White House on Monday by fumbling the team's national championship trophy.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Donald Trump 's top advisers and Nayib Bukele, the president of El Salvador, said Monday that they have no basis for the small Central American nation to return a Maryland man who was wrongly deported there last month. Bukele called the idea "preposterous" even though the U.S. Supreme Court has called on the administration to "facilitate"...
Meta Platforms Inc. faces a historic antitrust trial beginning Monday that could force the tech giant to break off Instagram and WhatsApp, startups it bought more than a decade ago that have since grown into social media powerhouses.
China announced Friday that it will raise tariffs on U.S. goods from 84 per cent to 125 per cent -- the latest salvo in an escalating trade war between the world’s two largest economies that has rattled markets and raised fears of a global slowdown. While U.S. President Donald Trump paused import taxes this week for other countries, he raised...
A helicopter broke apart in midair Thursday and crashed upside-down into the Hudson River between Manhattan and the New Jersey waterfront, killing a family of Spanish tourists, including three children in the latest high-profile aviation disaster in the U.S., officials said. Mayor Eric Adams said the flight began at a downtown heliport around 3 p.m. and that the dead had...
NEW YORK (AP) -- President Donald Trump has launched tariff wars with nearly all of America's trading partners. And there's no end in sight.
GREENBELT, Md. (AP) -- A federal judge on Friday ordered the Trump administration to arrange for the return of a Maryland man to the United States after he was mistakenly deported to a notorious El Salvador prison, while a U.S. government attorney was at a loss to explain what happened.
The introduction of smartphones, and with it, ubiquitous social media usage, are clearly key factors in the rise in youth mental health issues seen across the world.
The principal ballot box question for the 2025 federal election is which party leader is best positioned to address Donald Trump’s trade war and threats to Canadian sovereignty. The conflict with the Trump administration has the potential to be a turning point for the Canadian economy. Forecasters are suggesting we brace for an economic recession. Whether or not this happens...
In the rush to diversify Canada’s trade routes and export destinations, provincial, territorial, and federal politicians of all partisan stripes have heralded new corridors and ports. With major ports already established on the Pacific side, in Vancouver and Prince Rupert; and the Atlantic side, in Montreal, Halifax, and Saint John; attention has turned to the Arctic.
A collection of SubStack publishing within Canadian public affairs.
Is it time I admit defeat, pull up my tent and go home? For 30 years I have advocated for reductions to Canada’s military spending, and it keeps rising and rising. Now it’s reached the point where Canada is the 6th highest in actual dollars within NATO (after USA, Germany, UK, France, Poland). Responding to expensive plans to increase military...
Last fall, before the Trump shitstorm, advisers to the prime minister saw the black clouds gathering to the south. The new president had not yet been sworn into office, but it was clear Canada was in the crosshairs.
The 10 men who have governed the Bank of Canada since its inception in 1934 have been taciturn types, studiously avoiding the mud-holes of public controversy. Central banks trade in trust, and must project immutability and stability.That’s why it was so unusual in 2012 to hear Mark Carney, then governor of the Bank, apologize to Canadians for screwing up.
Three terms and a decisive majority under Stephen Harper. Erin O'Toole's leadership run — and subsequent castigation. Pierre Poilievre's meteoric ascendency to within striking distance of the country's top office. What do these things all have in common? Jenni Byrne, the longtime Conservative powerbroker running Poilievre's campaign, who has moved in the party's inner circles since first joining the Reform...
Abacus Data CEO David Coletto breaks down the latest numbers from his firm which show the Liberals maintaining their lead over the Conservatives. Edelman Montreal General Manager Martine St-Victor and National Post Reporter Chris Nardi talk about the impact of Mark Carney and Pierre Poilievre's appearance on the show Tout le monde en parle. BMO Senior Economist Robert Kavcic talks...
Canada is less than two weeks away from its 45th Federal Election, and whether it's going to be your first time voting, or you've spun the block before, The Big Story is getting down to the basics. Where can you vote? What do you need to bring? Who's eligible? What if you don't have a voter information card? Host Cormac...
David Herle, Scott Reid, Jordan Leichnitz, and Kory Teneycke provide insights on the latest in Canadian politics.
