Prime Minister Mark Carney was swamped by selfie-seeking well-wishers Thursday as he toured through Alberta's largest city to rally the pro-Canada vote ahead of Monday's referendum on separation. Carney urged Albertans to not only vote for Confederation, but to also reject the nine other questions on the ballot involving immigration and the Constitution. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says she needs...
Prime Minister Mark Carney and Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre are both bringing a pro-unity message to Alberta, just days before voters in the province decide whether to trigger a binding referendum on separation.
Canada and the European Union are laying out concrete steps to strengthen ties around digital security, critical resources and a would-be fleet of Canadian water bombers, according to a draft joint statement ahead of a major summit at month's end. The document, seen by The Canadian Press, states that Ottawa and Brussels aim to let Canadian companies bid on cloud...
The British Columbia Conservatives have dumped a candidate in the provincial election after he was accused of posting online remarks about Hitler and the Holocaust. The party says Vancouver-Strathcona candidate Jordan McIntosh is no longer a Conservative candidate and if elected he would not sit in the caucus. The Conservatives announced his removal from the slate less than an hour
Cindy Mitchell left the federal public service this past spring through workforce adjustment, the process used when federal positions are being cut or eliminated. She was entitled to a transition payment, including $42,151 that was supposed to be transferred into her registered retirement savings plan. The money was issued as a paper cheque. It never reached her bank.
“Chow voters prioritise TTC investment (32%), while Bradford voters favour congestion relief (37%). Bike-lane expansion divides them: 74% of Chow voters support or somewhat support it, while 74% of Bradford voters oppose or somewhat oppose it.”
Our latest national tracking survey was conducted from October 2 to 13, 2026, as the federal government continues to navigate an uncertain economic environment, ongoing tensions with the United States, and persistent concerns about affordability. Since our previous survey in late September, the Carney government has continued to emphasize economic growth, investment, and affordability. The Prime Minister announced a $2-billion...
Intelligence agencies have reportedly warned that Moscow is upping preparations to assassinate leaders of companies supplying drones to Ukraine
Billions of dollars are being pumped into defence. “If we are going to rearm,” says Flavio Volpe, “shouldn’t we do it ourselves?” If Flavio Volpe’s plan comes together, Canadian automotive workers will soon be building military vehicles, creating a crucial backstop for an industry imperilled by the trade war with the United States.
Trudeau first asked Freeland to run in 2013. He fired her over Zoom 11 years later. In Unreliable Boyfriend, one-time finance minister and deputy prime minister Chrystia Freeland digs into how her political relationship with Justin Trudeau went from a warm face-to-face invite into public service to a cold Zoom call where he booted her from the finance role years...
Growing up in Huntsville, Ont., I learned early that community is not an abstract concept. It has faces and names. This was not simply something I observed; it was my lived experience. Months before my 16th birthday, determined to chart a path different from the one my parents had envisioned for me, I left home. I had no plan.
The federal budget expected next month would be a good time for Mark Carney to start thinking small. Not in terms of economic ambition. This is not a case to pivot hard into fiscal-restraint mode, when there’s still tons to be done to get this country to compete more aggressively for investment and growth and a reduced reliance on the...
Some conservatives believe they struggle to win elections because of media bias. Some say it’s because they are unfairly maligned by people on the left. These points are debatable, but to me they are a distraction from the real reasons Conservatives are finding it hard to get traction today. Voters prioritize economic policy, keeping taxes down, and promoting trade and...
In her just-released book, Chrystia Freeland writes that she is “profoundly, sometimes embarrassingly, earnest.” True. A bit school-marmish, you might say. She also describes herself as “diminutive.” True also. At barely over five feet, she was rather unimposing. Not the most advantageous qualities for a politician. And yet she became the most powerful woman politician Canada ever produced.
One year ago this week, Doug Ford unveiled the anti-tariff ad that incurred the wrath of Donald Trump. Former deputy prime minister Chrystia Freeland was given an early look at that ad, she reveals in her new book, which also makes clear she was a fan of standing up to Trump that way, even if it did make the president...
Canada is often described as a divided country, and of course it is. No country as large and diverse as ours, built on two official languages, 10 provinces, several dozen Crown-indigenous treaties and countless ethnicities, could fail to be. But lots of other countries have similar divisions, without arriving at the fix we are now in, with not one but...
Voters, please don’t be fooled into voting no to Canada in order to “send Ottawa a message.” Article content Convincing you to do that is the strategy of failed separatists who are trying to pull victory out of the voting that concludes next Monday. In this context, sending a message means endorsing a genuine separation referendum at some vague point...
If Canadians focused solely on recent commentary from union leaders and their lawyers, they’d be forgiven for thinking the current Liberal government has been engaged in a long battle against workers’ rights, culminating in a final charge against the right to strike.
First of all, that title. Chrystia Freeland chose to call her new book “Unreliable Boyfriend” — the boyfriend in question being the United States — which puts the focus firmly on her role in managing Canada’s fraught relationship with Donald Trump’s America.
Prime Minister Mark Carney has built his political reputation on being the adult in the room — and a man at ease in the corridors of power. He’s a former central banker with friends in high places, a guy who understands how the world works, and, supposedly, a leader who can handle U.S. President Donald Trump. Article content But this...
The moment for voting approaches on the Alberta referendum, and the separatists, having seemingly largely failed to convince a critical mass of Albertans to adopt their millenarian view of the province’s place within Confederation, are now putting an awful lot of weight in an alternate way to make their case – namely, that this is all about leverage. Leverage, you...
It’s unlikely Mark Carney was aiming to relaunch a national immigration debate when he popped into the New York Times last month and mentioned in passing that Canada will “resume some controlled increase in the population” once the system is under control. But that, unsurprisingly, has been the result — with opposition MPs warning about Ottawa again letting in “too...
It didn’t take long for Elon Musk, one of President Donald Trump’s attack dogs, to stick his unwelcome nose into Canada’s domestic political drama. Shortly after the Parti Québécois’s election victory on October 5th, he endorsed Quebec independence and, to pour more gasoline on the fire, said Alberta and Saskatchewan should leave Canada too. Musk, who has Canadian roots, studied...
For decades, public discourse regarding Indigenous economies in Ontario has been framed through a narrow lens of dependency or isolated community-level initiatives. Our firm’s comprehensive report, Indigenous Economic Contribution Analysis of Ontario, changes that narrative entirely. By integrating Statistics Canada’s Indigenous Peoples Economic Account with provincial input-output models, new data show that Indigenous economic activity is a robust, widely distributed...
Enough is enough. It is not at all certain that the world can take two more years of United States President Donald Trump. A dangerous and possibly demented man occupies the most powerful office in the world, and he is increasingly using it to lash out at anyone who opposes him.
Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of last week’s provincial election in Quebec was not the threat of constitutional turmoil, or even separation—which does not feel imminent, for various reasons. It was the silence, from nearly all parties, concerning legislation aimed at driving Muslim women who wear a hijab from public life in the province. That isn’t the stated goal of...
If it has been said that the first job of a Canadian prime minister is national unity, it was easier in recent years to forget. Before this summer, it had been 30 years since a prime minister had to worry about a provincial referendum to secede. Before this week, it had been more than a decade since a prime minister...
Most Canadians don’t know much about the Singh decision. But if you’re the country’s Immigration Minister, you must. So it was alarming that Lena Metlege Diab seemed confused when she was asked about the seminal 1985 Supreme Court decision in an interview for a Radio-Canada podcast.
Parry Sound—Muskoka MP Scott Aitchison’s upcoming departure from the House of Commons reflects the greater malaise within Pierre Poilievre’s Conservative caucus. Aitchison, Huntsville’s former mayor, sees himself, like many MPs, as a doer. Few politicians want to sit back and watch others make big decisions. They want to be cabinet ministers; some want to lead the party, and dream of...
Globalization’s fans argue that populist movements of the left and the right use global trade as a whipping boy for the other big challenge liberal democracies confront, and one which is a lot harder to address: how to enjoy the economic growth that capitalism delivers while also distributing the fruits of that growth beyond the 1 per cent. How can...
The Supreme Court’s coming ruling has the potential to reignite separatism and quake the teetering balance between courts and government
In one of the most famous television commercials in Canadian history, a man puts an eraser to a stylized map of North America and removes the border between Canada and the United States. Aired during the 1988 federal election campaign, it was the Liberals’ way of protesting then-prime minister Brian Mulroney’s negotiation of the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement. They didn’t...
This is not the first time Albertans have been asked to vote on matters outside their jurisdiction. Five years ago, under United Conservative Party premier Jason Kenney, the province asked its citizens whether Section 36(2) of the Constitution Act, 1982 – the one committing the government of Canada to the “principle” of equalization payments – should be removed from the...
The Nobel Peace Prize is being announced Friday and Prime Minister Mark Carney is considered a contender. Can we imagine if it’s the Canadian who takes the award and not the man in the White House who has hardly let a week go by without sounding desperate for the honour? Donald Trump claims he has ended no fewer than eight...
These days I read product labels as carefully as I used to read liner notes. You’ll not get an “assembled in” or a “distributed in” Canada past me any more than you’d have got a “the band’s third bass player got legal rights to the name and this album’s even less live than any of its founding members” album past...
Prime Minister Mark Carney confirmed Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to visit Canada Dec. 11 and 12. Carney made the remarks while speaking with visitors at a local restaurant in Calgary on Thursday morning, as he meets with Albertans ahead of Monday’s referendum vote.
Cultural sector groups say they're starting to worry about the Liberal government's silence on $600 million in promised funding. In June, the federal government said it would tell the CRTC to change course on requiring big streamers like Netflix to contribute to Canadian content, and would instead provide funding directly.
The federal government plans to spend $430 million over the next five years to help unions train a new generation of workers in the skilled trades. John Zerucelli, secretary of state for labour, announced Thursday that Ottawa is opening applications for access to the new pool of funding, most which comes from an expansion to the Union Training and Innovation...
Market access for Canadian fish, seafood and deepening trade relations are key priorities, spokesperson says. Canada's fisheries minister will be travelling to China at the end of the month, ahead of a looming tariff deadline affecting the lobster and crab industries. As part of an agreement in January, China suspended a 25 per cent tariff on Canadian lobster and crab...
Prime Minister Mark Carney is expected in Calgary today to rally support for a united Canada as Alberta gears up for a separation referendum. Carney is scheduled to join former Alberta deputy premier Thomas Lukaszuk at a rally for his "Forever Canadian" group ahead of Monday's vote. Premier Danielle Smith has put 10 questions on the ballot, including one on...
The federal government is set to announce a $100-million commitment toward developing offshore wind energy in Nova Scotia in the hope of attracting private investment to projects like the province's Wind West plan. Federal Energy Minister Tim Hodgson is expected to deliver the announcement in Halifax on Thursday morning. A media advisory says he is to be joined by Justice...
How the prime minister is using the rift with the U.S. to boost his country’s global standing. Canada—Nobody here is surprised that trade negotiations with the United States have blown up or that relations with Washington have taken yet another turn for the worse, at least not anyone with a maple leaf on their passport. Political insiders of all stripes—current...
British Columbia NDP Leader David Eby repeatedly acknowledged his government's imperfections in a debate where his B.C. Conservative and Green Party rivals railed against his record on the economy, health care and Indigenous rights. "Look, I'm not perfect, but I will always act in the best interests of British Columbians, and that's my commitment to you and your family," he...
British Columbia's three main party leaders took part in the only televised debate on Wednesday night, trading barbs, criticizing their opponents' policies and making their pitch for votes. Here are five take-aways from the debate between interim B.C. Conservative leader Lorne Doerkson, NDP Leader David Eby and Green Party Leader Emily Lowan:
As Albertans prepare to cast their ballots in a vote that could make or break the provincial separatist movement, Alberta Liberal MP Corey Hogan says he is satisfied that U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration is not attempting to interfere with the referendum.
Industry Minister Mélanie Joly said Stelco could face financial penalties or even a forced sale of their assets in Canada if they proceed with layoffs of up to 500 workers. Speaking to reporters after an event in Ottawa on Wednesday, Joly said the federal government is continuing to work with the company on a solution, but “everything is on the...
U.S. President Donald Trump told a crowd of supporters that Canada will “end up being the 51st state” as he expressed a series of longstanding grievances the United States has with its northern neighbour. “Canada treats us very badly. They always have. Not anymore. It’s a whole different ball game now that Trump is in town,” he said during a...
The NDP has released costings for its British Columbia election campaign promises that would see the province's record deficit fall by about $2 billion over two years.
OTTAWA -- Major Projects CEO Dawn Farrell told First Nations in B.C. on Wednesday that the frustrations expressed over a lack of consultation on the Pacific Link pipeline made her feel like Canada is "never going to work," but her office is determined to try to be better.
EDMONTON -- Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says she has voted at an advance poll for the province to stay in Canada.
The first day of advance voting is in the books in Alberta's separation referendum -- and the numbers suggest voter interest remains very high. Elections Alberta says close to 175,000 voters trekked to the polls on the first day of advance voting on Tuesday, with the official polling day set for Monday. A spokesperson for the agency says that's higher...
Newfoundland and Labrador's finance minister says skyrocketing oil prices are expected to deliver a windfall for the province. Craig Pardy had previously said he anticipated additional revenues of more than $500 million, as the war in Iran sent crude prices soaring. But on Wednesday he said that figure is even higher, though he said the public will have to wait...
The federal government will announce plans to help fund new infrastructure, equipment and recruitment efforts by unions and other organizations to train workers as part of a major funding announcement expected on Thursday. Secretary of State for Labour John Zerucelli is expected to announce more than $350 million in funding, according to a senior government official speaking on background.
U.S. Ambassador to Canada Pete Hoekstra says American officials are "closely watching" Canadian politicians for signs of election interference ahead of the pivotal midterms next month. During an interview on the "The Really Big Show" podcast that was posted last week, Hoekstra said political ads run by the province of Ontario last year could be interpreted as political interference. U.S...
Pete Hoekstra, the U.S. ambassador to Canada, is warning Canadian politicians to stay out of American politics, saying officials are monitoring potential “political interference in the U.S. midterms.” In an interview with “The Really Big Show” podcast, Hoekstra suggested the actions of several Canadian politicians, including Industry Minister Mélanie Joly, could amount to interference in close American races just weeks...
In the first part of a series on political fundraising, The Hill Times explores eight years of data showcasing that the Liberals have hosted 430 fundraisers representing $40-million in potential value. That's more than twice the official opposition in tally and totals, but Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre ranks No. 1 in both attendance and estimated value since November 2022.
The trade war doesn’t appear to be deterring many Canadians and Americans from travelling across the border, new data from Statistics Canada suggests. Canadian-resident return trips from south of the border – both by car and air travel – rose for the sixth straight month year over year, according to StatCan’s latest numbers released Tuesday. Canadians made a total of...
Ottawa halted plans to buy 16 U.S.-made helicopters ahead of trade talks: sources. The Liberal government quietly ordered a pause on a modest, but important purchase of 16 U.S.-made UH-60M Black Hawk helicopters just before trade negotiations began last summer with the Trump administration, CBC News and Radio-Canada have learned. The aircraft, which are intended for use by Canada's special...
In the lead-up to the scuppered trade talks between the Canadian and American governments, the term “digital trade alignment” was being floated by the U.S. trade representative as part of the discussions.
A Saskatchewan Party backbencher says he paid close to $30,000 out of his own pocket for two trips on a private jet and that one of those flights was for government business. Kevin Weedmark released a letter Tuesday from Maurice Herauf, the province's conflict of interest commissioner, who provided his opinion on the airfare expenses. Herauf wrote in the Sept...
Former premier Jason Kenney, who co-founded Alberta's governing United Conservative Party, says separatists have infiltrated it and are wielding an outsized influence. Kenney, speaking to business leaders in Edmonton alongside his former political rival Rachel Notley, said Tuesday that after the province's separation vote the party will face a "reckoning." He said the UCP needs to decide whether it stands...
Prime Minister Mark Carney is set to attend two "Forever Canadian" rallies in Alberta this week, just ahead of the province's referendum. On Oct. 19, Albertans will vote on the whether to stay in Canada or hold a future separation referendum. There are also nine other questions involving constitutional and immigration issues. The "Forever Canadian" campaign, launched by Alberta’s former...
British Columbia NDP Leader David Eby says he and his wife donated the difference in costs after their children's daycare fell under the $10-a day program a couple years ago, but he declined to specify the amount. Eby says he and wife Cailey Lynch, a doctor, didn't need the daycare discount that has only reached a minority of parents in...
The Ottawa-based defence company Dominion Dynamics is partnering with Ukrainian robotics company Tencore to start building its ground-based drone vehicles in Canada as early as next year. The two companies signed a memorandum of understanding at a defence conference in Washington, D.C., today which outlines their plans to manufacture Tencore's Termit drone in Canada and install Dominion's software in the...
In the midterm elections, meat is on the menu.
BULLHEAD CITY, Ariz. (AP) -- President Donald Trump showed off the new Air Force One and defended accepting the luxury jet from the Qatari royal family as he campaigned for Republicans Wednesday in an economically struggling corner of rural Arizona.
U.S. Ambassador to Canada Pete Hoekstra says American officials are "closely watching" Canadian politicians for signs of election interference ahead of the pivotal midterms next month. During an interview on the "The Really Big Show" podcast that was posted last week, Hoekstra said political ads run by the province of Ontario last year could be interpreted as political interference. U.S...
Pete Hoekstra, the U.S. ambassador to Canada, is warning Canadian politicians to stay out of American politics, saying officials are monitoring potential “political interference in the U.S. midterms.” In an interview with “The Really Big Show” podcast, Hoekstra suggested the actions of several Canadian politicians, including Industry Minister Mélanie Joly, could amount to interference in close American races just weeks...
U.S. Ambassador to Canada Pete Hoekstra says American officials are "closely watching" Canadian politicians for signs of election interference ahead of the pivotal midterms next month. During an interview on the "The Really Big Show" podcast that was posted last week, Hoekstra said political ads run by the province of Ontario last year could be interpreted as political interference. U.S...
Pete Hoekstra, the U.S. ambassador to Canada, is warning Canadian politicians to stay out of American politics, saying officials are monitoring potential “political interference in the U.S. midterms.” In an interview with “The Really Big Show” podcast, Hoekstra suggested the actions of several Canadian politicians, including Industry Minister Mélanie Joly, could amount to interference in close American races just weeks...
Canada, France, the United Kingdom and Australia expressed deep "regret" Tuesday over the postponement of Palestinian presidential and legislative elections. The votes were set to happen next month. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has delayed them until September 2027. In a media statement, Canada and its allies said the delay deprives Palestinians of the chance to vote and noted that elections...
Mark Carney thanked U.S. President Donald Trump for "his leadership toward securing an energy ceasefire" between Ukraine and Russia, the Prime Minister's Office said on Sunday. But on the same day, Carney also expressed to Ukraine's leader that Trump's new diesel supply agreement with Russia undermines Canada's efforts to end the war in Europe. Trump posted on his Truth Social...
Prime Minister Mark Carney spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Sunday and criticized U.S. President Donald Trump's new diesel fuel supply agreement with Russia. The Prime Minister's Office said the two leaders discussed Trump's agreement with Russia, announced Friday, that secures the supply of millions of tonnes of diesel fuel to the United States. "The prime minister was clear...
The federal government’s internal accountability regime continues to grow more complex. Public service leadership is detached from policy implementation and socialized to avoid risk. Public servants should be evaluated on the rules they remove and services delivered. Those with delivery experience should be rotated periodically into roles that establish internal processes and policies. Improving the federal accountability regime requires simplifying...
Amid U.S. President Donald Trump’s on-again-off-again trade war, trade diversification has been the talk of the town. But for a country like Canada, which has long felt the gravitational pull of the enormous U.S. market, diversifying trade will be no easy feat. It also shouldn’t be the goal in and of itself. As the first part of the IRPP’s new...
Canada’s aim to diversify and grow its exports will inevitably mean a significant focus on building deeper and more beneficial linkages with the Asia-Pacific. In this report, we show that Canada’s diversification challenge cannot be fully solved by merely substituting one large market with many small ones, nor by assuming that supply chains can quickly or easily be re-wired. To...
A collection of SubStack publishing within Canadian public affairs.
RCMP officers who responded to the April 2020 mass murders in Nova Scotia will receive bravery medals from Governor General Louise Arbour. An announcement is expected “imminently,” says an Arbour spokesperson. The medals follow 23 awards for excellence quietly distributed last year by RCMP Commissioner Mike Duheme to RCMP members and employees who managed the grisly incident, in which 2...
Prime Minister Mark Carney has finally charted a course out of the morass that is 24 Sussex Drive, the official residence of Canada’s prime ministers since 1951. Carney’s June announcement of a private-sector competition to “modernize” the decrepit building, abandoned in 2015 and later put into mothballs, was welcomed by heritage advocates as an end to a political impasse. A...
Artificial intelligence has moved from a promising general-purpose technology to an increasingly consequential layer of economic, social and public infrastructure. It is already raising productivity, expanding access to expertise, accelerating scientific discovery and creating new ways to deliver services. At the same time, AI systems are implicated in fraud, manipulation and cyberattacks and unreliable results and misinformation. The most capable...
Mickey Djuric joins Nick Taylor-Vaisey from Calgary to discuss the stakes in Alberta’s referendum debate and where things go after Monday's vote. They hear from key players, including separatist leader Mitch Sylvestre. And Government House Leader Steven MacKinnon shares notes on the fall political season. Plus, 200 seconds with “Unity Bus” driver Thomas Lukaszuk.
As Thanksgiving fell on Monday this week, Dr. Janice Stein joins us for her regular weekly conversation on Wednesday this week. The topic is all about Donald Trump's claim that he arranged a ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia ... a ceasefire neither country says they were aware of. What's up with that? Well, oil, specifically diesel oil, is what.
I received a number of letters this week from loyal Bridge listeners and viewers on two topics worth exploring. From Albertans worried about being "stressed out" by the referendum in their province and what it may mean for them and the country. And from British Columbians with related concerns about the upcoming BC election and the impact it may have...
There are just a few days left until Alberta’s referendum on separation (and more). If the vote goes through, it won't redraw the country’s borders overnight, but it could give Premier Smith a mandate to pursue the next vote where Alberta could actually separate.
