Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne says criticisms of his government’s fiscal positioning are not based in fact. “What you’re seeing in the federal budget, first of all, is that deficits are down,” Champagne told CTV News Chief Political Correspondent Vassy Kapelos in an interview on CTV Question Period airing Sunday. “Last year, this year and projected into the future, they’re lower.”...
With Democrats now in control of both chambers of Congress following American voters’ strong pushback against United States President Donald Trump’s policies, MPs and Senators from Canada should reach out to their Washington counterparts to make a case for a bilateral free trade deal to help make life more affordable for Americans, say politicos. “There’s a lot of newly elected...
Conservative leader argues the range of qualifying businesses is too narrow. Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is criticizing a key feature of the Carney government's latest budget, arguing the proposed $15-million capital gains exemption on the sale of qualifying shares from a Canadian company applies too narrowly, excluding key businesses. "Basically, I can't figure out who actually qualifies," Poilievre said in...
When Lucia Lloyd immigrated to Canada in 2019, she thought she had moved far away enough from President Donald Trump's America. She said she was already upset when Trump first took office in 2017, but the president's controversial nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court and the judge's subsequent confirmation amid sexual misconduct allegations was the last straw...
Federal budgets are much more than a fiscal blueprint. Yes, they can define a prime minister’s economic legacy, telegraph their demographic targets, and record their policy priorities in the annals of history.
Our latest national tracking survey, conducted from October 30 to November 4, 2026, finds the Liberal Party and federal government led by Mark Carney remain in a strong political position, although there are signs of growing dissatisfaction with the government’s handling of some of the economic issues that matter most to Canadians.
The research gauged the opinions among Canada aiming to accept 380,000 new immigrants as permanent residents, and an additional 385,000 workers and students as temporary residents. Nanos conducted an RDD dual frame (cell and landlines) hybrid telephone and online random survey of 1,058 Canadians, 18 years of age or older, from October 31st to November 2nd, 2026, as part of...
When he’s the incumbent, he’s a loser. He lost the House in his first mid-term outing in 2018, lost the Presidency in 2020, and the Senate, the House and a half dozen Governors in 2026. The best thing that could happen for the Republican Party is if Trump spent the next couple of years being less of a lightning rod...
The funeral for one of the four Canadian soldiers killed in a fire at a military base in Alberta is today in Vancouver. The ceremony honouring 23-year-old Pte. Aidan Goulding will take place at the Seaforth Armoury where family, friends and members of the armed forces are expected to pay their respects. Goulding was part of the 3rd Battalion Princess...
The chants of nearly 1,000 Nova Scotians drowned out the rain in downtown Halifax Saturday as residents took to the streets to protest a proposed artificial intelligence data centre in southern Cape Breton. Protesters gathered in front of the provincial legislature at noon, taking up an entire block of Hollis Street before marching through the city's downtown core. They called...
Canada’s telecommunications networks are critical national infrastructure. They connect our businesses, governments, emergency services and citizens. As we expand 5G, artificial intelligence, data centres and digital infrastructure, we must ask a fundamental question: are the networks connecting all of it secure?
“Where are the girls? Where are the girls?” It was the first thing economist Armine Yalnizyan said to my colleague Susan Delacourt and me outside the budget lockup on Thursday. “You look at the front cover, it’s electricity,” she noted of the photo of transmission lines on the printed budget. “You look inside, where are the humans? All of the...
Everyone seemed to have the same take on the federal budget unveiled this week. That is, no one could figure out quite what it was. It certainly wasn’t a belt-tightening exercise, but the $151.5-billion in new spending over five years didn’t suggest a clear policy narrative about what it was trying to accomplish, either. On top of that, many of...
How full of itself does a government have to be to call its annual budget “Masters of our destiny”? Seriously.
So, farewell then, federal budget. Not only a mainstay of economic policy-making, you were a critical element of democratic accountability for many decades, the day each year when the federal government levelled with Canadians about how much it intended to spend, how much to tax, and how much to borrow on their behalf.
The 500-plus-page budget that has now landed before Canadians is not exactly a piece of literature — but it is coming from a government with some literary aspirations. Mark Carney’s government is leaning on themes of culture and identity with Budget 2026, hoping that it tells a story of Canadian pride and patriotism at this moment in the country’s history.
Old habits die hard in the Liberal party. Prime Minister Mark Carney declared on Thursday, after his latest budget was tabled, that “we’ve got spending under control.” By the standard measurement of fiscal sustainability, that is true. The debt-to-GDP ratio is forecast to tick gently downward over the budget’s five-year time horizon.
"Maitre chez nous" — "master in our own house" — was a rallying cry of Jean Lesage's Quiet Revolution, a period of rapid modernization and reform in Quebec in the 1960s. Mark Carney first tried it out a year and a half ago in the shadow of Donald Trump's America and a newly anglicized version — "masters of our destiny"...
The Canadian military currently has thousands of drones at its disposal. “It’s not enough,” a senior commander admits. The Carney government wants to add some zeros to that number: It wants one million drones, at least. And in Thursday’s budget, it is committing $2.3 billion to get there.
Officially, Mark Carney’s government is saying that the Republicans’ stunning losses in the U.S. midterm elections are the Americans’ own business. But this government also knows that there’s a clear line connecting the midterms to the budget being unveiled in Canada on Thursday — and that’s the affordability crisis.
There is no sugarcoating the results of the midterm elections in the United States for President Donald Trump and his administration. This was an astonishing and vast repudiation of the president. When Republicans lose in South Carolina, North Carolina, Mississippi, Texas, Kansas, Iowa, and Georgia solidifies as a blue state, it is impossible not to affirm that a judgment has...
By the standards of American elections, this was an earthquake. The two-party system is so entrenched, and American voters’ political identities so immovable, that shifts in the balance of power in any given election tend to be muted. So the Democrats’ gains last night are, in this context, historic. When all the votes are counted, they will probably emerge with...
Austin, Texas may have sounded like a street party as the results came in last night, but even in Canada, if you listened closely enough, you could almost hear the collective sigh of relief. Nobody who was rooting for a win by the Democrats wanted to trust the polls or the predictions of a “blue wave” after the traumatic experiences...
In his 2016 election campaign, Donald Trump made a remarkable observation. “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose supporters.” At a rally in Tennessee last month, he demonstrated that his attitude hadn’t changed. He told his audience, “I could say the stupidest things, and you clap.” Throughout the midterms campaign he...
American streets are being patrolled by murderous secret police. The constitutional order and the division of powers have broken down. Some major media outlets have become sycophantic devotees of the ruling party, and others are following suit. A sitting U.S. president has amassed billions of dollars in ill-gotten gains from brazen and scuzzy quid pro quos.
In the end, Canada didn’t have to interfere in the 2026 midterms to register our preference for an outcome. Americans did it for us. To compare the reasons for Tuesday’s midterm election result to any previous midterm election result is as pointless as comparing Donald Trump’s presidency to any previous presidency. Yes, there are statistics and charts and local issues...
Prime Minister Mark Carney has just called six byelections for early December. The results could have a determining effect on Pierre Poilievre’s future as Conservative leader. They could also provide the first clues as to whether the belligerent tone of the minority Parti Québécois government is finding favour with voters.
Mark Carney doesn’t seem like much of a prankster, but you could forgive Liberals who supported Justin Trudeau’s policies for feeling as if the prime minister is endlessly pulling their collective leg. Changes of direction are everywhere. The consumer carbon tax is gone. A new oil pipeline is on the way and major resource-development projects are on track to receive...
Watching the governor of the Bank of Canada field questions from MPs at the House of Commons finance committee was like viewing an episode of Star Trek: Next Generation, in which Jean-Luc Picard grapples with the Prime Directive. This general order prohibits Starfleet personnel from interfering with the natural development of primitive alien civilizations.
Opposition parties banded together this week in a futile attempt to hear more expert testimony on Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Building Canada Strong Act, C-39, after dozens of witnesses warned MPs the bill is deeply flawed, and more than 100 individual Canadians and groups urged amendments or begged the government to change course on legislation that will impact labour rights...
Around the world, borrowing costs are rising, growth is only middling, economic risks are tilted to the downside and, after six years of global shocks, most countries’ fiscal buffers are depleted. The IMF’s recent conclusion from all this is that governments need to rein in their spending and borrowing. This week’s federal budget should not take the view that Canada...
Winston Churchill once said that history would be kind to him because he intended to write it. And he did, producing 13 volumes of memoirs over the course of his long life. More than a decade after leaving the Prime Minister’s Office, Stephen Harper’s memoirs have finally landed with a thump — all 656 pages of them.
It truly is quite astonishingly hypocritical that the same people who have made careers railing against the way Alberta is under-represented by population in the Senate seem to get quite huffily defensive over the tabling of new electoral districts that would leave urban Albertans meaningfully under-represented compared to rural ones. Earlier this year, Alberta’s Electoral Boundaries Commission unveiled a new...
With Americans heading to the polls for their midterm elections, it feels like Thursday’s federal budget is getting a lot less media attention than usual. Ottawa might not mind this: every time U.S. President Donald Trump twitches, Prime Minister Mark Carney’s popularity rises. But while Washington commands the headlines, Canadians should check out the creeping sea of red ink below...
Israeli President Isaac Herzog said Saturday night that he was giving opposition candidate Gadi Eisenkot the first opportunity to form a governing coalition following elections on Oct. 27. Eisenkot, a former military chief who ran as the main challenger to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, is now a step closer to ousting Israel’s longest-serving premier. He has up to six weeks...
It's been quite the week ... starting with six byelection calls, ending with a budget, and in the middle, Donald Trump's party crashes in the U.S. midterms. What does it all mean, and where do things go now? Chantal Hebert and Bruce Anderson are here with their thoughts.
Former prime minister Justin Trudeau has joined England's Oxford University in a new role. Trudeau, 54, joined the Blavatnik School of Government as a distinguished fellow and member of the World Leaders Circle, the school said in a news release Friday. The release says the former Liberal leader joins an international network of former heads of government, which includes former...
Canada's aid sector is expressing dismay over the first federal budget in more than 15 years to make no mention of foreign aid, and is calling on Ottawa to outline its vision in an upcoming foreign policy review. "The budget is largely silent on issues of international development co-operation and humanitarian action," said Co-operation Canada head Kate Higgins, whose coalition...
A Democratic blue wave in the United States midterm elections hasn’t changed the immediate economic struggles facing Canadians businesses as they navigate the most recent tariffs, although the results may send a message about affordability, say sector reps. “The tariffs are having a real impact on Canadian manufacturers, and the longer they remain in place, the greater the risk to...
The mayor of a Montreal-area suburb posted online comments about Palestine that were "violent in nature" and have no place in society, said the disciplinary committee of the Quebec order of professional accountants in a new ruling. The disciplinary committee said it was ordering Hampstead Mayor Jeremy Levi to pay a $30,000 fine and undergo mandatory training, noting that his...
The drone looks like a small fighter jet. Artificial Intelligence is flying it, and it's firing a missile. A human approved the shot, but AI carried it out. That's not science fiction. It may be the future of modern warfare. In July, American defence company Anduril's YFQ-44A drone, known as Fury, fired an air-to-air tactical missile at a simulated target...
Palantir is often referred to as a data analytics company, but some experts say Canada should cut its ties. Canada has multimillion-dollar contracts with Palantir, a controversial U.S. software company. Experts warn the deals could expose Canadian military data to U.S. authorities and leave Canada reliant on critical technology supplied by a foreign company.
Participants flagged family-related issues, high cost of living as deterrents. Northern and isolated RCMP detachments have become "chronically and at times critically" understaffed, according to an internal evaluation report — the latest document pointing to retention and recruitment issues within the storied organization. The June 2026 evaluation, made public last month, found Mounties' interest in staffing northern and isolated posts...
Prime Minister Mark Carney says his government welcomes "any moves" to restore free trade between Canada and the United States as officials south of the border push to end the trade war. In the days since the U.S. midterm elections gave the Democrats firm control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate, several party officials have indicated repealing...
Former prime minister Justin Trudeau has a new role at Oxford University in England. The university announced on Friday that Trudeau has joined its Blavatnik School of Government as a Distinguished Fellow and member of the World Leaders Circle. According to Oxford University, the World Leaders Circle is an “international network” of former heads of government, “whose experience and insight...
Canada will grant permanent and temporary residency to a combined total of more than a million people next year as part of the federal government's new immigration levels plan laid out in the 2026 budget.
Wayne Gretzky says he backs Canada's decision to bar Russia from the upcoming world junior hockey championship in Alberta. Prime Minister Mark Carney announced earlier this week Russian and Belarusian athletes will not be permitted to represent their countries on Canadian soil while the war in Ukraine continues. The decision came after the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Switzerland...
Prime Minister Mark Carney says the federal government has learned from past mistakes as it sets out its ambitious aim of eliminating homelessness within 10 years. "For decades, governments and communities have tried to address this crisis. Too often, these efforts have been inadequately resourced, poorly co-ordinated, and not sustained," he said at a press conference Friday in Winnipeg. Carney...
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre says he will stay on as leader even if the party loses an upcoming byelection in the Ontario riding of Brantford-Brant South. “We’re going to fight for the people. I’m going to continue to fight for the people of Canada to save them money,” Poilievre said Friday at a press conference in Brampton, Ont. when asked...
President Donald Trump said Friday that Stephen Miller was replacing Susie Wiles as White House chief of staff, mere days after Republicans lost control of Congress in the midterm elections. Miller, long a key member of Trump's inner circle, is a key architect of the administration's hard-line immigration policies. He is one of Trump's closest and longest-serving advisers, joining his...
Industry Minister Melanie Joly is asking the Competition Bureau to examine whether Cleveland-Cliffs' rationale for acquiring Stelco Inc. was conducted in bad faith. In a letter to the competition commissioner, Joly points to Cleveland-Cliffs chief executive Lourenco Goncalves' testimony in a January 2026 congressional hearing where he said the company acquired Stelco in part to prevent Canadian steel from flooding...
Canada and the U.S. could reach a deal on trade before the end of 2026, American Ambassador Pete Hoekstra predicts, but don’t expect the midterms to move the needle. Hoekstra, who was appointed as Washington’s ambassador to Canada by U.S. President Donald Trump, made the prediction during an interview with commentary outlet Northern Perspective. “I think Mark Carney probably knows...
Some members of Prince Edward Island's ruling Progressive Conservatives are trying to oust Premier Rob Lantz by triggering a confidence vote less than a year after he officially became party leader. The potential leadership challenge comes on the eve of a general election scheduled for 2027, as recent polls suggest the Tories are trailing the provincial Green and Liberal parties...
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre says the government is hiding the facts on the number of newcomers it's bringing to Canada, despite the focus in the new immigration levels plan on people who are already here. Poilievre told a news conference in Brampton, Ont., today the current government is blowing past the Trudeau government's immigration numbers with plans to grant permanent...
Canada's leaders are fanning out today to sell communities on this year's federal budget. Prime Minister Mark Carney will be in Winnipeg to highlight new measures around homelessness alongside Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew. The Carney government is promising to end homelessness in Canada within a decade, proposing $11.2 billion over four years, starting next year, and $17.8 billion over 10 years.
The Manitoba Metis Federation says it's appalled by the lack of Metis-specific funding in Prime Minister Mark Carney's new budget. While First Nations and Inuit have targeted funding measures in the budget, Metis do not, despite having pressed the government for supports in areas like housing and health care. The only mention of Metis in the budget is in association...
The latest federal budget promises billions of dollars in affordability relief, but middle-income Canadians struggling with the cost of living may find little new immediate help in the spending plan. While Ottawa earmarked fresh assistance for lower-income households in Budget 2026, families with earnings above income-tested thresholds may be iced out. For example, the budget offers a one-time grocery benefit...
The Liberal government is arguing that tax changes, cultural supports and billions of dollars aimed at stoking investment in Budget 2026 will give Canada the freedom to shape its own future. Ottawa is proposing $142.1 billion in new measures, largely offset by stronger-than-expected federal revenues, in the budget tabled Thursday in the House of Commons. Big-ticket items are aimed at...
The federal government is extending its journalism tax credit by $501 million over five years, with $85 million in ongoing annual funding. Ottawa first said in its spring fiscal update that it would consult Canadians and stakeholders about extending the Canadian Journalism Labour Tax Credit to broadcasters. The federal budget tabled today says that measure, as well a move to...
China has exponentially expanded its network of illegal overseas police stations, to “extend its tentacles” across a web of new community associations, according to a report by international human rights group Safeguard Defenders. In its latest report, the Spanish non-governmental organization (NGO) identifies nearly 1,250 overseas Chinese associations which they say are fronts for suspected police centres in 91 countries.
Prime Minister Mark Carney is expected in Winnipeg today to highlight new measures in the federal budget aimed at eliminating homelessness within 10 years. It's a goal some support workers are applauding, while cautioning that solutions must involve more than four walls and a roof. Sara Goldvine is the chief operating officer at Coast Mental Health in Vancouver and says...
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is losing yet another top aide, with his deputy chief of staff Aaron Wudrick announcing Thursday that he is leaving for the private sector. In a letter obtained by CTV News, Wudrick told colleagues and Conservative members of Parliament that his exit would be effective Nov. 27. “It has been an honour and a privilege to...
While the 2026 federal budget includes some modest re-investment in the federal Courts Administration Services (CAS) after funding cuts, along with new funding for the Black Justice Strategy, legal advocates say it’s far below what the system needs.
When he’s the incumbent, he’s a loser. He lost the House in his first mid-term outing in 2018, lost the Presidency in 2020, and the Senate, the House and a half dozen Governors in 2026. The best thing that could happen for the Republican Party is if Trump spent the next couple of years being less of a lightning rod...
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) -- President Donald Trump said Saturday that he has offered the job of White House press secretary to his friend and UFC boss Dana White, an announcement unconventional even for the norm-busting president. White said Saturday that he plans to meet with Trump on Monday at the White House.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Republicans aren't holding back.
JERUSALEM (AP) -- In the space of about 24 hours, U.S. President Donald Trump suggested cutting off aid to Israel, a staunch critic of Israel won a key Senate race and the vice president partly blamed his own party's landslide defeat on U.S.-Israel relations.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog said Saturday night that he was giving opposition candidate Gadi Eisenkot the first opportunity to form a governing coalition following elections on Oct. 27. Eisenkot, a former military chief who ran as the main challenger to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, is now a step closer to ousting Israel’s longest-serving premier. He has up to six weeks...
President Donald Trump said Friday that Stephen Miller was replacing Susie Wiles as White House chief of staff, mere days after Republicans lost control of Congress in the midterm elections. Miller, long a key member of Trump's inner circle, is a key architect of the administration's hard-line immigration policies. He is one of Trump's closest and longest-serving advisers, joining his...
China has exponentially expanded its network of illegal overseas police stations, to “extend its tentacles” across a web of new community associations, according to a report by international human rights group Safeguard Defenders. In its latest report, the Spanish non-governmental organization (NGO) identifies nearly 1,250 overseas Chinese associations which they say are fronts for suspected police centres in 91 countries.
Ghana's head of state praised Canada this week for advocating against what he called a "rigged global system" that keeps African countries trapped by debt and mired in climate chaos. His comments come as Canadian officials confirm Ottawa will appoint a new Africa envoy, months after leaving the post vacant. "Canada has a favourable disposition towards the Global South," Ghana's...
The fallout from the Democrat tsunami that crashed over the U.S. Congress was swift on Wednesday, after American voters rejected President Donald Trump's turbulent second term with a midterm election blowout. In a stinging rebuke of the second Trump administration, Democrats flipped long-held Republican Senate seats in Texas, Maine and South Carolina. The blue wave also washed over House seats...
On a ridge in northern France, two great white pillars rise nearly 30 metres toward the sky. Visible for kilometres across a former First World War battlefield, the Canadian National Vimy Memorial is one of Canada’s defining symbols, an expression of sacrifice, nationhood and remembrance. Each year, nearly a million people make the pilgrimage to Vimy Ridge. The memorial’s image...
On October 15, Ottawa committed $100 million to gather more offshore data for Nova Scotia’s Wind West offshore wind project. The next day, Premier Tim Houston stood beside EverWind Fuels at Point Tupper, Nova Scotia, as the company unveiled a $10-billion data-centre complex on a site long promoted for green hydrogen and ammonia; EverWind’s hydrogen project had already received nearly...
Public support for immigration in Canada has dropped sharply in recent years amid rising concerns about the cost of living and economic insecurity. Using Canadian election survey data dating from 1988, we find that people who feel economically insecure are more likely to hold negative views of immigration. This link has become stronger since 2019. Negative attitudes toward immigration also...
A collection of SubStack publishing within Canadian public affairs.
Six years ago, a Burlington-made camera turned up on Turkish drones in the war over Nagorno-Karabakh, and Ottawa shut off arms exports to Turkey.
Prime Minister Mark Carney’s ad-lib brought down the house at Thursday night’s Forever Canadian rally in Calgary. “They’re a little touchy down there at the moment,” he added, to roars from a crowd of about 5,000.
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...
Donald Trump took a beating in the midterms. Canadians have reason to welcome the result, but a weaker president still has tariffs, a veto and two years left in office.
Prime Minister Mark Carney’s second budget is betting on big business — at a time when the future of U.S. tariffs is unknown. The House delves into the economic picture with CBC’s senior business correspondent Peter Armstrong; then venture capitalist and Dragon’s Den regular Arlene Dickinson evaluates the measures to spur investment; the Canadian Federation of Independent Business’s Dan Kelly...
At Issue this week: Mark Carney's second budget lays out billions to build Canada's sovereignty and tackle the affordability crisis, but will it work? And what does the Democratic Blue-nami mean for Canada-U.S. trade talks?
The federal government has released the 2026 budget. And this year the focus is on new net spending. It looks to put money toward boosting the housing supply, investing in Canadian businesses and bulking up the cultural sector. How do those ambitions balance against fiscal constraints and a deficit?
