Prime Minister Mark Carney responded Thursday to tech industrialist Elon Musk's endorsement of provincial separation movements by saying Canada's future will be decided by its citizens — not by large U.S. tech firms. Speaking at a news conference in Sherbrooke, Que., Carney said Canadians can live their lives in Quebec and across the country "free from interference from foreign governments...
A key piece of the Carney government's economic agenda, Bill C-39, passed its first vote in the House of Commons Thursday when Conservatives voted with the majority Liberals to send the bill for study by a special committee. The 243-page bill proposes to extend the government's one-project, one-review, within one-year approach to major infrastructure projects to apply to other projects...
Interim leader of the British Columbia Conservatives Lorne Doerkson has swiftly dumped a candidate in the provincial election over online posts that the NDP called racist. Doerkson said Thursday that the posts by Victoria-Beacon Hill candidate Joachim Agou cannot be tolerated and if he is elected, he will not be part of the Conservative caucus. Agou's ejection from the Conservative...
Rebate program targets homeowners with heating systems that have broken down or are nearing end of life. The federal government is launching a $2-billion rebate program that it says will help homeowners in Canada lower their annual heating costs while reducing emissions when they install heat pumps in their homes. The funding will provide rebates for up to 820,000 homeowners...
The federal government’s proposed legislation setting up the Defence Investment Agency as a Crown corporation in charge of billions of dollars in procurement is an “unprecedented” move that raises questions over accountability, warn former senior public servants as opposition MPs say any weakening of oversight on federal spending would be “misguided.” The government tabled Bill C-40, the Strengthening Canada’s Defence...
“Toronto’s mayoral race is unfolding against a backdrop of mounting affordability pressures. Traffic tops residents’ quality-of-life concerns, while housing costs and property taxes are leading affordability priorities. Nearly three-quarters say Toronto has become less affordable over the last four years. Many residents report cutting discretionary spending and delaying major purchases, and nearly one in four are considering leaving the city.”...
“Toronto’s mayoral election is shaping up as a two-candidate race. Olivia Chow holds a citywide lead over Brad Bradford and draws her strongest support from Toronto-East York, where she exceeds 60%, while also leading in Scarborough. One in five report still being up for grabs. Beyond the ballot, nearly eight in ten residents say Toronto is their preferred place to...
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...
A new report from the Calgary Chamber of Commerce says Alberta's economic prospects hinge on its ability to attract newcomers into the workforce. The group released the survey less than two weeks before Albertans vote on 10 referendum questions, half of which deal with immigration.
The parliamentary budget officer says Ottawa's gas tax pause is offering a bigger break at the pumps to the households that earn the most. The federal government temporarily suspended the federal excise tax on gasoline, diesel and jet fuel in April, then announced last month it would extend that pause into 2027. In a new report, Ottawa's budget watchdog says...
Canada’s infrastructure is under growing pressure from floods, wildfires, severe storms, aging assets, and mismanagement. When roads close, ports are disrupted, or electricity systems fail, the consequences extend beyond physical damage. Businesses lose ready access to mar...
The FBI affidavit filed in the Tumbler Ridge investigation is a true punch in the gut — not just for anyone who read it, but for governments forced to recognize the sheer scope of all that apparently went wrong. Worse, it’s hard not to walk away with the sense that government doesn’t have the tools it needs to thwart all...
It is hard to convey how thin a mandate the Parti Québécois has just won in Quebec, but I will try. With 28 per cent of the vote, the PQ’s popular vote share is the smallest for any winning party in any election, not just in the modern history of Canada but, as far as I can tell, in any...
Last weekend, I was in Saint-Antoine-sur-Richelieu, Que., a pastoral village 60 kilometres southeast of Montreal, for my son’s wedding. As I had a few moments to explore the town, I crossed the street from the wedding venue to check out a local park flying the tricolour flag of the “Patriotes” of the 1837 rebellion. Beneath the flag was a plaque...
Mark Carney can breathe a sigh of relief. Monday’s election results in Quebec delivered a Parti Québécois minority government that will prove thorny to handle, but the prime minister escaped the worst-case scenario: a sovereigntist premier with a strong majority government.
Quebec Conservative Leader Éric Duhaime was perhaps the night's biggest winner
Four years ago, as the Coalition Avenir Québec rolled over the competition to win 90 of the National Assembly’s then 125 seats, the Parti Québécois looked like a spent force. The sovereigntist “party of a generation” had its worst election result since its founding in 1968 by René Lévesque – the ruffled, chain-smoking everyman who charmed baby-boomer francophones – taking...
Alberta separatists are fond of pointing to Quebec’s sovereignty movement as a model. If those guys can get so much by holding a knife to the throat of the rest of the country, goes their thinking, then why shouldn’t we do the same? It’s a lousy comparison overall, given the fundamental differences between Alberta and Quebec (such as, for e.g....
Alberta’s forthcoming referendum on independence is a clear and meaningful threat to Canada’s safety, integrity, and prosperity. But a few of the other questions on Premier Danielle Smith’s democracy-o-rama — ten ballots, all to be hand-counted, with mayhem all but guaranteed at this point — might be even more dangerous. That’s because they deliberately invite a particular conversation around immigration...
The Alberta referendum on separation is less than two weeks away and it appears most Albertans have decided they want to remain in Canada; not just by a simple majority but overwhelmingly. That’s a relief. Now those voters just have to turn out to cast a ballot. In a recent poll, 72 per cent of Albertans said they wanted to...
The Carney government’s proposed labour law reforms target a serious problem: the increase in disruptions to critical industries such as airlines, ports and railways. Ottawa is taking heat from labour advocates, but the changes are a sensible measure to rebalance the interests of federally regulated employers, employees, and the public. In recent years, Canada has seen an upsurge in labour...
Canadians now have disturbing proof that the referendums of 2026 and beyond are nothing like the ones that have come before. A Globe and Mail investigation into American involvement in Alberta’s looming referendum shows that the U.S. is far more than a spectator and confirms that its interest may not be entirely in keeping our federation intact.
Separatists have been coy about how they’d work with Trump to dismantle Canada. Now they’re facing tough questions, and so they should. We’re lucky to live in a country where people can argue for ideas as radical as separatism. But our cultural politeness shouldn’t keep us from carving up such bad ideas, aggressively, in the public square...
It should come, perhaps, as no surprise that some in Alberta’s separatist movement are happy to sell out the province, swapping the authority of the Canadian government for domination by MAGA overlords in the United States. They do, after all, have no loyalty to Canada. But you’d think, in an ideal world, they’d have some loyalty to Alberta – and...
Let’s get a little dystopian. There is a non-zero chance that United States President Donald Trump tries to cancel the mid-term elections, wherein 100 per cent of the House and one-third of the Senate are up for election and re-election.
Pierre Poilievre has to feel robbed by the universe – and also like some cosmic gang of thugs keeps returning to make sure his pockets truly contain nothing but lint. He was supposed to be the next Prime Minister, with the 20-point lead and command on the public mood to prove it. Then everything exploded, the banker stepped neatly into...
I wrote a book thirty years ago about the three questions posed by the great Rabbi Hillel more than two thousand years ago: “If I am not for myself, who will be for me? But if I am only for myself, what am I? And if not now, when?” I have returned to those questions on countless occasions since, and...
Donald Trump, we know, poses an existential threat to Canada. And Canada, proclaims Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, poses an existential threat to Quebec. On Monday, Quebecers will go to the polls to elect a new provincial government. They are, more than most of the rest of Canada, freaked out by the threat emanating from south of the border and supportive of...
As a former prime minister of Canada, staying silent on the upcoming referendum on Alberta secession is not an option. But I wish it were. I love my country, and I love my province. I do not wish to pit one against the other. I believe that is how most Albertans feel. Despite the efforts of a few on each...
Like many people, you may be under the impression that the Conservatives lost the 2025 election. Lately, however, that interpretation has come under challenge. According to this new interpretation, the Conservatives actually won. The country has a Conservative Prime Minister, and his name is Mark Carney. According to political scientist Stewart Prest, Mr. Carney heads “the most conservative Liberal government...
The first day of October was a big one for Alberta. At the same time an Alberta-born astronaut was getting launched into space, Mark Carney and Danielle Smith were unveiling plans for a new pipeline here on Earth. An even bigger day looms later this month, when the province votes on whether to hold an independence referendum, and that pipeline...
More than merely the loss of an able, fair-minded MP, it looks like the Conservative party's reach is ebbing
Two American litigation funders allege Alberta separatist leader Jeffrey Rath and his firm made “false, inaccurate, and misleading” representations to keep receiving millions of dollars to finance two First Nations lawsuits against Ottawa – even after his firm had been fired and replaced. The allegations are contained in a lawsuit filed Thursday by Delaware-based Diriba Investments and Western Springs Investments...
As the RCMP investigation into Premier Doug Ford’s Greenbelt land swap marks its third anniversary, a former Ontario solicitor general says the Mounties should let the public know how the probe is proceeding. Bob Runciman, a former Conservative senator who served as the province’s top lawman for two stints between 1998 and 2003, said the federal police force needs to...
The B.C. Conservatives will spend their second consecutive day campaigning in Surrey, a critical battleground in the provincial election. The Conservatives say interim leader Lorne Doerkson will be in Surrey to make a policy announcement a day after being in the city to roll out promises for businesses that include eliminating the PST on some equipment. Surrey is British Columbia's...
Canada's oil and gas sector accounted for a lower level of emissions in 2025, despite boosts in production, while the country's overall emissions ticked up thanks to increased reliance on natural gas to heat homes. Those are among the findings in the Canadian Climate Institute's annual national emissions report, released Thursday. The institute, which receives three-quarters of its funding from...
The premiers of Alberta and Saskatchewan are shutting down a suggestion from U.S. tech titan Elon Musk that the two provinces should split from Canada. Musk, the trillionaire tech businessman and former adviser to U.S. President Donald Trump, says on his social media platform X that Quebec would benefit from independence, as would the two Prairie provinces. Saskatchewan Premier Scott...
Prime Minister Mark Carney said Wednesday his government is closely tracking allegations of foreign interference in the Alberta referendum campaign, adding it is critical that votes are “free and fair.” His first public comments came the day after a federal watchdog office revealed it notified a leading Alberta separatist group, among 60 others, about legal obligations to report foreign influence.
Patrick Weiler's comments are some of the first signs of Liberal dissent to Bill C-39. A Liberal MP is calling for more guardrails as the Carney government moves to fast-track construction of major projects like pipelines, mines and ports. Liberal MP Patrick Weiler spoke in the House of Commons on Tuesday night, breaking ranks with his party on the Building...
Canada's industry minister says Stelco Holdings Inc. cannot use the trade war to justify cutting jobs it committed to maintain when it bought the Hamilton, Ont.-based steel plant, particularly when the head of its U.S. parent company has publicly backed tariffs on steel. Mélanie Joly told reporters Wednesday that the chief executive of U.S.-based Cleveland-Cliffs has supported steel tariffs and...
Canada's defence minister came to Alberta Wednesday to highlight the billions of military dollars being spent there, with less than two weeks to go before Albertans vote on whether it's time to quit Confederation. David McGuinty, with Alberta Premier Danielle Smith standing beside him, reiterated that Ottawa is investing $8 billion in ongoing military projects in the province. He said...
Michigan Senate candidate Mike Rogers has broken with U.S. President Donald Trump over his trade war with Canada as the Republican faces a tight race in a state hit hard by the tariffs. In a campaign ad posted on social media Wednesday, Rogers said people in Michigan "know that Canada is not our enemy." "We need to end this tariff...
The Canadian government has withdrawn its sponsorship of an anti-disinformation conference in Lithuania that feature panels talking about the United States as a foreign interference threat. Samantha Lafleur, a spokesperson for Global Affairs, said the government wasn’t comfortable with the framing of some of the panels and Canadian officials will still take part in the conference but will not chair...
President Donald Trump’s trade war against Canada is allowing Prime Minister Mark Carney to press the gas pedal on an industrial agenda that would have been deeply divisive just a few years ago. With no end to US tariffs in sight, the former central banker has focused on clearing obstacles to investment, including unwinding rules brought in by his predecessor...
The NDP's election campaign in British Columbia has moved on from the threat of Donald Trump's tariffs to focus on affordability issues. When NDP Leader David Eby called the snap election on Sept. 22, he said British Columbia needed a "firebreak" against Trump's economic attacks and Trump-style politics, which he said were threatening to infect the province. But Eby says...
Previously, there was a 21-sitting-day waiting period after a trade agreement was tabled in the House of Commons before an implementation bill could be moved. Now, both can be tabled on the same day.
The Liberal government says it will table legislation in the fall to indefinitely exclude people who solely suffer from mental illness from medical assistance in dying. Justice Minister Sean Fraser said there is a lack of consensus within the medical community on when mental illness is irremediable, and concern around a lack of access to mental health supports. "While there...
Supreme Court's landmark Singh decision led to establishment of Refugee Board. Refugee rights advocates say they are shocked that the federal immigration minister appeared to be unfamiliar with the landmark Supreme Court decision widely considered to be the cornerstone of the Canadian refugee protection system. In an interview with Radio-Canada, Immigration Minister Lena Metlege Diab was repeatedly asked about the...
Edmonton mother Salomy Abusalim is running out of excuses to give her son when he asks why his dad is still in Gaza. "This is killing me as a mom. I can't keep going on, lying to him," said Abusalim, whose husband has been trapped in Gaza due to bureaucratic difficulties. "My husband was starving, literally starving," she said. "For...
With less than two weeks to go until Alberta's referendum, the province's election administrator says more than 3,000 mail-in ballots have been returned with errors that make them invalid. Elections Alberta says some ballot packages were returned with either declaration forms missing, errors or issues with identification. But they say there's still time to submit the correct information via email.
The British Columbia Conservatives plan to repeal the province's no-fault auto insurance system, in a major policy proposal revealed by a leaked letter from the party's interim leader to lawyers and insurance executives. Lorne Doerkson says in the letter that if elected on Oct. 24, the Conservatives would bring in legislation to restore accident victims' rights to sue, under a...
Quebec's premier-designate says a referendum on sovereignty is not among his immediate priorities as he focuses instead on homelessness, government spending and attempting to sever the province's ties to the monarchy as his first acts in office. Parti Quebecois Leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon outlined his plans on Tuesday, one day after Quebecers chose to hand his party a minority government...
Fewer than 3 dozen submissions to registry received before deadline. Meetings between advocates of Alberta separation and American government officials don't have to be included in Canada's new foreign influence registry because they took place before the registry went into effect, says Canada's foreign influence watchdog. Speaking to reporters after appearing before a parliamentary committee on Tuesday, Anton Boegman said...
Outgoing Quebec Premier Christine Frechette has resigned as leader of the Coalition Avenir Quebec.
Prime Minister Mark Carney and Quebec's incoming opposition party leaders pledged Tuesday to work with the sovereigntist Parti Québécois as it prepares to form a government with a minority mandate. On his way into a cabinet meeting on Tuesday, Carney told reporters he spoke with Quebec premier-designate Paul St-Pierre Plamondon after Monday's provincial election. St-Pierre Plamondon has promised to call...
Leading figures in the push for Alberta separation are celebrating the election of Quebec premier-designate Paul St-Pierre Plamondon. Jeff Rath said Tuesday that St-Pierre Plamondon's election victory could change the political dynamic of Canada, especially since the premier-designate has already shown his willingness to support Alberta's separatist movement. "For the first time in Canadian history, we have a government in...
Tim Gitzel, 64, leans forward as he names mining companies Canada has lost. “Inco, Falconbridge, Noranda,” he says, counting off his fingers. “I can keep going. People say, ‘Oh wow, that’s too bad,’” says the chief executive of Cameco. Yet when the Saskatoon-based uranium giant flipped the script, acquiring 49 per cent of Westinghouse Electric, a legacy U.S. nuclear giant...
Quebec Sen. Richard Martel is back in the opposition caucus after joining the Conservative Senate group today. Sen. Leo Housakos, the opposition leader in the Senate, says Martel is a "natural fit" in a statement issued today. Martel left the House of Commons in July when Prime Minister Mark Carney appointed him to the Senate but had not identified which...
Prime Minister Mark Carney is returning to Turkey later this month as he seeks to boost trade and defence ties with a country with rising importance. Carney was in Turkey for the NATO summit in July, and his office says he will again visit the country from Oct. 21 to 23. He will start in Ankara to meet with President...
The Parti Québécois has won a minority government, completing a dramatic political comeback and paving the way for an eventual third sovereignty referendum. The party captured 59 seats after the votes were counted late Monday, falling short of the 64 needed to form a majority in Quebec's legislature. The Coalition Avenir Québec, which has governed the province for the past...
The federal government is turning up the heat on the U.S. owner of Stelco Holdings Inc. over impending layoffs at the Hamilton-based steel plant. Industry Minister Melanie Joly sent a letter to Stelco president Paul Simon on Monday laying out her "extreme disappointment" over the company's plan to lay off 500 workers in response to U.S. tariffs and other market...
Police say Prince Edward Island's elections authority has asked them to investigate contributions made to the province's Progressive Conservatives last year. RCMP spokesperson Scott Ferris says Elections P.E.I. approached the police force in August. He said in an interview that investigators have been reviewing the file and it's not clear when they might finish.
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) -- When the U.S. Department of Homeland Security publicized the arrest of a Nigerian man for indecent exposure this week, it included a political attack that's drawing complaints from Democrats and a nonpartisan government watchdog.
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) -- Republican Mike Rogers and Democrat Abdul El-Sayed, competing for an open U.S. Senate seat in Michigan, are set for their first campaign debate Thursday after weeks of sparring both online and in advertisements that are flooding the state in one of the nation's most closely watched races.
SAN ANTONIO (AP) -- President Donald Trump on Wednesday fought to rally Texas voters behind embattled Senate candidate Ken Paxton as a series of protests disrupted his rally in San Antonio.
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) -- President Donald Trump on Wednesday said he wants to develop one of his Florida golf courses into a presidential retreat where his successors can spend quiet weekends on the greens, describing it as "sort of a Camp David " that he says would already have many of the security features needed to host presidents and...
Prime Minister Mark Carney is returning to Turkey later this month as he seeks to boost trade and defence ties with a country with rising importance. Carney was in Turkey for the NATO summit in July, and his office says he will again visit the country from Oct. 21 to 23. He will start in Ankara to meet with President...
Canada and the European Union plan to link next-generation payment systems to enable faster cross-border transactions, according to a draft joint statement prepared for a summit between Ottawa and Brussels later this month. This will help remove obstacles to business and investment between the two jurisdictions, according to the statement, an early version of a summit communiqué that was viewed...
A pilot stabbed another pilot and then apparently tried to crash to aircraft carrying dozens of Israelis on Wednesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. Passengers and crew staged a dramatic intervention to subdue the attacker and the plane eventually made an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia. The FlyDubai flight travelling from the United Arab Emirates to Israel landed safely after...
Prime Minister Mark Carney appealed to common values like democracy and reliability when he called for deeper trade and defence ties at the European Parliament earlier this month. But some experts say with the rise of far-right parties on the continent, key European allies may not always share those values — and Canada should keep that possibility in mind as...
One of U.S. President Donald Trump's trade advisers is threatening repercussions for Canada if it "interferes" in the upcoming midterm elections — though it's not clear what he anticipates the country would do to impact the vote. Peter Navarro, who has lashed out at Canada in the past, made these latest remarks during a talk at an economic conference in...
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...
Canada has spent thirty years pretending that internal free trade can be achieved through polite first ministers’ meetings, press conferences, action plans, and the creation of agencies.
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...
It’s not very often we see a party go from a landslide victory in one election to a complete wipeout in the next. But that’s what happened on Monday when the Coalition Avenir Québec was reduced to zero seats after winning 90 in the last Quebec provincial election. But the CAQ’s wipeout did not deliver the Parti Québécois a majority...
The PQ win the Quebec election with a promise to call a referendum at some point in their mandate. What does this do to Canada's united approach against Donald Trump? And what signal does it send to Alberta voters as they edge closer to their referendum later this month? Rob Russo and Althia Raj are here to discuss.
David Herle, Scott Reid, Jordan Leichnitz, and Kory Teneycke provide insights on the latest in Canadian politics.
With the election of the Parti Québécois in Quebec Monday night, it's the first time in twelve years that Canada will have a separatist government in power. Over the course of the campaign, the party's leader, Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, made clear some of the fights he could take up with Ottawa, over issues like immigration. He also vowed to hold...
