The former deputy leader of the Conservative Party of Canada has a message for any other party members who are considering crossing the floor, after MP Matt Jeneroux announced he would join the Liberal caucus: “Get it over with. Don’t draw this out.” Former Conservative cabinet minister Lisa Raitt told CTV Your Morning on Thursday that the party is rife...
Earlier this morning, unmarked police vehicles were seen arriving at Sandringham Estate in Norfolk, where Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor has been living. He was arrested by Thames Valley Police - but while we know they are carrying out searches in Norfolk and Berkshire, we do not know where Andrew was arrested. In most cases suspects are held for 12 or 24 hours...
Three Conservative sources, two of whom are former MPs, say a damning quote is making the rounds in their circles after a third Tory joined the Liberal caucus: 'Pierre Poilievre has become the Justin Trudeau of the Conservative Party,' says one former MP. Alberta MP Matt Jeneroux is now the third Conservative to cross the floor to the Liberals in...
Poilievre says floor crosser has 'betrayed' the people of Edmonton Riverbend Another Conservative MP has crossed the floor to join the Liberal Party, nudging Prime Minister Mark Carney closer to the line of a coveted majority. Alberta MP Matt Jeneroux, who said last year that he planned to leave politics altogether after his name circulated as a potential defector, announced...
It’s not just about the trade war. Nearly half of America’s neighbors to the north now think the U.S. is a bigger threat to world peace than Russia. It’s the world’s most awkward breakup. More than a year after U.S. President Donald Trump casually joked about absorbing Canada and repeatedly threatened debilitating tariffs on its goods, many Canadians are convinced...
More than 30 years after the narrowly defeated second Quebec referendum, the separatist movement has been resurrected again on the backs of a resurgent Parti Québécois, who have not governed the province in more than a decade With still much to be decided in the fall provincial race – and when, if ever, the PQ decides “winning conditions” make it...
From January 21 to 28, 2026, Abacus Data surveyed 601 adults living in Nova Scotia. Our latest Nova Scotia release provides a detailed snapshot of the province’s political landscape as Premier Tim Houston and his Progressive Conservative government returns to the legislature and prepares to table their 2026-27 budget, which is widely expected to emphasize spending restraint.
Canadian politics rarely turns on a single riding. This time, it might. With Edmonton MP Matt Jeneroux crossing the floor to join Mark Carney’s Liberals, the government now sits at 169 seats. In a 343-seat House of Commons, 172 is the majority threshold. There are three vacancies. Two - University—Rosedale and Scarborough Southwest - are Liberal strongholds and, barring an...
Our trailblazing Prime Minister was at the podium in Montreal. “Over the last few decades,” Mark Carney said, “Canada has neither spent enough on our defence nor invested enough in our defence industries.” That has to change, he added, setting out plans for far more domestic spending on military hardware because “the assumptions that defined decades of Canadian defence and...
The federal government is bringing law enforcement and financial institutions together to fight extortion operations targeting Canadian businesses and households. Finance Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne was in Mississauga, Ont., on Thursday to announce a suite of new initiatives he said will make it easier for police to "follow the money" and disrupt criminal networks. Champagne said organized crime is making Canadians...
Eight months after downgrading the air fleet readiness target, the Liberal government’s Defence Industrial Strategy is promising new ambitious goals for serviceability in the next 10 years. As part of the much-anticipated strategy, Canada has pledged to raise air fleet serviceability to 85 per cent, as well as 75 per cent for maritime and 80 per cent for land fleets...
While the terrible tragedy at Tumbler Ridge prevented Prime Minister Mark Carney from attending this year’s Munich Security Conference, echoes of his recent Davos speech could be heard throughout the meeting halls, hallways, and bars of the Bayerischer Hof Hotel. I was there again this year as a Canadian parliamentarian and Senate committee chair, so some of those conversations were...
Prime Minister Mark Carney leapfrogged his way closer to a majority Wednesday when Alberta MP Matt Jeneroux joined the Liberal ranks, saying the moment called for “steady leadership” and leaving Pierre Poilievre’s dispirited Conservatives wondering if more blows are coming and who might be next. They have reason to worry. Several sources, both Liberals and Conservatives, who were granted anonymity...
Two weeks ago, Mark Carney and Pierre Poilievre met in the prime minister's Parliament Hill office in an apparent attempt to find common ground on the government's legislative agenda. "My message to him is to work with us," Poilievre told reporters afterwards. Perhaps Carney took that message more literally than Poilievre intended.
By now, nearly everyone has had a whack at Conservative MP Jamil Jivani’s bizarre solo diplomatic mission to Washington. It was never clear what the trip was supposed to accomplish. Mr. Jivani does not represent the government of Canada; he does not even represent his own party. There was nothing he could offer the Americans, and nothing they could offer...
If you find yourself in a hole, stop digging. That’s known as the “First Law of Holes,” and it’s wisdom the caucus colleagues of Conservative MP Jamil Jivani desperately need to familiarize him with before he digs any deeper into the political hole they’ve all found themselves in. It was bad enough that he decided to freelance a trip down...
Prime Minister Mark Carney’s January address to the World Economic Forum called for Canada to join with other middle powers in following a path that is both principled and pragmatic. He argued that we are witnessing a rupture in the rules-based international order, and must rethink how we engage with the world. Our fundamental assumptions about Canada’s place in the...
The sight of David McGuinty as a silent presence at the prime minister’s announcement Tuesday of a new defence industrial strategy was a reminder that, while that government purports to be a team, it is really a confederation of warring tribes. The defence minister is ostensibly the lead author of the plan, but it seems to have been hijacked by...
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre was like Oprah handing out free cars when he named his shadow cabinet last May. More than half of the Conservative caucus got a role; it’s possible that the guy who vacuums the rugs in MPs’ offices was accidentally named shadow minister for small business for a brief moment during the flurry of appointments. But notably...
For generations, Canada lived under a durable assumption: integration guarantees security. We carried the flag for multilateralism in the postwar period, embedding ourselves in alliances, supply chains and global markets, confident that economic openness and collective defence would reinforce our sovereignty. By and large, that strategy helped Canada prosper. But in today’s volatile world, it no longer holds.
Prime Minister Mark Carney revealed his government’s Defence Industrial Strategy (DIS) Tuesday, including plans to spend more than 6 billion additional dollars transforming the Canadian Armed Forces into a modern self-sufficient military force. Carney said the plan’s primary role will be to defend Canada and Canadian sovereignty. But it will also meet NATO obligations with like-minded allies and allow Canada...
Embedded in the marquee numbers of the Defence Industrial Strategy Prime Minister Mark Carney unveiled on Tuesday was a long-unfathomable message: the United States is no longer a reliable ally, but a potential kinetic enemy. “The assumptions that defined decades of Canadian defence and foreign policy have been turned upside down,” Mr. Carney said at the DIS unveiling in Montreal...
Canada’s defence industry got a $6.6 billion boost Tuesday, as Prime Minister Mark Carney formally unveiled Ottawa’s new Defence Industrial Strategy. The plan promises to create 125,000 new jobs over 10 years and award 70 per cent of defence contracts to Canadian companies, through a “Build-Partner-Buy” framework that prioritizes domestic industry. It is part of the government’s plan to increase...
Over the past week, both Campbell Clark in The Globe and Mail and Althia Raj in The Toronto Star have written about a section of Bill C-4 (the federal affordability bill) that deals with political party privacy rules. Both have raised serious concerns, using words like “cahoots,” “cabal,” “lawless,” and “above the law” to describe the cross-partisan agreement behind it...
The opposition parties were all trumped, as it were, in last year’s election. They may well face the same fate again this year as talk of an election call in Canada grows. If an election does occur, Donald Trump’s continued raft of threats, insults and incoherent rants is a gift to the Liberals. His behaviour underlines the threat he represents...
Prime Minister Mark Carney won many plaudits for his recent speech to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, in which he warned that the rules-based economic order is over, and that “middle powers” such as Canada must work together against great-power coercion. The speech continued making waves at last week’s Munich Security Conference. But talk is cheap and applause...
The Supreme Court of Canada’s February 13th decision to nullify last April’s “single vote election win” in the Quebec riding of Terrebonne has increased the number of anticipated federal byelections to three — a number of exceptional importance based on the minority status of Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Liberal government in the House of Commons. The departure of University-Rosedale MP...
It’s unanimous: Federal political parties agree that they should be above the law. In this instance, the laws in question are provincial privacy laws that set limits on how your personal information can be used and provide individuals with some rights to know what information has been collected. Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Liberal government snuck measures into a bill on...
Canada’s political parties are in cahoots. The Liberals, Conservatives and New Democrats are attempting to grant themselves the right to do what they want with your personal information — without your knowledge or third-party oversight.
Silence is a decision. And this is, effectively, where Pierre Poilievre now finds himself on the issue of U.S. President Donald Trump.
The British band The Clash famously asked “Should I Stay or Should I Go” in its 1982 hit song. That was two years after Quebecers were asked a far wordier question about independence. How a question is phrased — and what response options are offered — can have a massive impact on a study’s results.
The fun thing about Ottawa is that it’s a town where people will swear with a straight face that they’re not thinking about a thing they are definitely thinking about, which is also the thing everyone is talking about. This week, that thing is snap-election speculation. It’s easy to picture the polls batting their eyelashes and waving seductively at the...
The NDP’s leadership race is hurtling toward the March 29 finish line, with all five declared candidates still in the race, having met their fundraising and signature-gathering requirements. There are differences emerging from the “violent agreement” that we normally see in NDP leadership races, and this could indeed be an existential choice that the party faces as they determine what...
Everybody knows what’s happening with Donald Trump’s threat to block the opening of a Detroit-Windsor bridge. At least, everybody in the political system in Washington and Ottawa. It’s a shakedown, with a choke point in Canada-U.S. relations as leverage. Detroit border crossings have been used that way for years. Now it’s a pretty good analogy for all of U.S. foreign...
They are greyer now: greyer of hair and face, but also in perception. In their younger days, they saw things more in black and white, as we saw them. But the years have passed, and now we see them through a mist of … what? Nostalgia? Ambivalence? Maybe say complexity, and respect, and, finally, gratitude. They are the lions in...
Ottawa will provide $50 million to help build the first Inuit-led university in Canada and more than $170 million for tuberculosis elimination, food security, and child and family supports in Inuit communities, CBC News has learned. Indigenous Services Minister Mandy Gull-Masty is scheduled to make the announcement in Kuujjuaq, Que., on Thursday afternoon at a meeting with the Makivvik Corporation...
5 hopefuls take the stage as party looks to both rebuild and prove its relevance. When the five NDP leadership candidates take the debate stage on Thursday, they will face two challenges — convincing Canadians the party is still relevant, and then rebuilding it. "We don't know when the next election will be, it could be a few months away...
The minister in charge of Canada-U.S. trade said he will be sitting down with U.S. President Donald Trump's trade czar in the coming weeks to discuss the looming review of the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement. Dominic LeBlanc on Wednesday said he spoke with U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer on the phone after he told "Fox Business" last week that Canadians had barriers...
Democrats are demanding correspondence between a billionaire bridge owner and U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick as part of their investigation into President Donald Trump's threat to stall the opening of the Gordie Howe Internaitonal Bridge. "President Trump's wealthy donors should not be holding secret meetings with administration officials to influence economic and foreign policies that have real impacts on the...
OTTAWA -- The Liberal party's decision to hold closed-door fundraisers under Prime Minister Mark Carney's leadership is being criticized by experts in political ethics, with one calling the move a "step back."
Quebec Liberal Leader Charles Milliard says he won't reinstate Marwah Rizqy in his party's caucus.
Canada is expanding its Express Entry immigration stream so it can bring in a range of skilled workers the Liberal government says are critical to growing the economy and defending the country. The new categories for Express Entry are giving priority to workers who classify as: researchers and senior managers, pilots, aircraft mechanics and inspectors as well as skilled military...
As Canada opens up to China, it should do more to ensure that the country doesn't use the opportunity to increase transnational repression against members of the Chinese diaspora living here, warns a veteran national security expert.
In a move Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is calling a betrayal, Conservative MP Matt Jeneroux is joining the Liberal caucus. “Matt, welcome to the government team,” Prime Minister Mark Carney said Wednesday, sitting down with Jeneroux for a press conference in Edmonton. The two did not take questions from journalists.
The Canadian PM responded to questions about POLITICO’s reporting that Ottawa is spearheading conversations between the EU and an Indo-Pacific trade bloc. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has offered to “broker a bridge” between the European Union and a fast-growing Indo-Pacific trade bloc this year to form a new anti-Trump trade pact. Carney was responding to questions on Tuesday about...
With the United States House of Representatives voting to overturn President Donald Trump’s emergency tariffs on Canada, Canadian Senators who were on a recent delegation to Washington, D.C., say they are hopeful that the tide is changing. The Canada-U.S. Inter-Parliamentary Group (IPG) travelled to the American capital Jan. 21-22 as part of the Future Borders Coalition Transportation Border Summit. During...
Federal government rejected a recommended $28K-$36K salary hike for judges. An association of federal judges is asking the government to refer a dispute related to their compensation directly to the Supreme Court, according to a letter obtained by Radio-Canada. The Canadian Superior Court Judges Association argues it would be more efficient to simply ask the Supreme Court to settle the...
The memberships have been sold, entry fees have been paid and now the NDP leadership candidates are preparing for their second and final party-organized debate in B.C. on Feb. 19. This second debate will be held in English. The first debate, held in November, was supposed to be a French-language debate -- but since most of the candidates are not...
Prime Minister Mark Carney is returning to B.C. today less than a week after he attended a vigil honouring the victims of a mass shooting in Tumbler Ridge, B.C. While in B.C., the prime minister will attend a Liberal Party fundraiser at a private residence in Vancouver, with tickets costing $1,775. Carney's itinerary says he will be in Richmond, B.C....
British Columbia's finance minister begins selling a budget today that has drawn critics from all sides with its soaring debt and deficit, public sector cuts, and construction delays for care homes, student housing and a cancer centre. Brenda Bailey calls the budget "serious work for serious times." It raises the base income tax rate by 0.54 per cent -- the...
Conservative leader says he spoke to Jivani following MP's trip to Washington. Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre says he disagrees with how one of his MPs recently characterized Canada's reaction to U.S President Donald Trump's tariffs and taunts. Following a recent trip to the U.S. capital, Conservative MP Jamil Jivani told the right-wing U.S. media outlet Breitbart News that "we are...
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre says his party will fight for a united Canada as a movement in Alberta pushes for that province to separate. Answering a question from a reporter today, Poilievre said the Conservatives are "entirely a federalist caucus" and that he has not had a single member of Parliament on his team express they are in favour of...
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said Tuesday Ontario MP Jamil Jivani does not speak for the party after Jivani told a right-wing U.S. news site that Canada is harming itself with an "anti-America hissy fit." In a scrum with reporters, Poilievre was peppered with questions about Jivani's recent trip to Washington, D.C., and comments made to Breitbart News that Canadians would...
VICTORIA -- British Columbia Finance Minister Brenda Bailey has unveiled what she calls a “serious” budget for 2026 that raises the base income tax rate while failing to rein in the deficit as previously pledged.
TERREBONNE -- Residents of the Montreal-area federal riding of Terrebonne said Tuesday that every vote in an election should count, following a recent Supreme Court decision that forced their MP to vacate her seat.
Public Services and Procurement Canada will not answer repeated questions about whether there will be enough office space to accommodate the federal government's new policy on in-office work. Most public servants are expected to be in the office three days per week and executives are expected to attend the office four days per week, with the remaining days being worked...
Jivani joined Breitbart News Washington Bureau Chief Matthew Boyle on the program on the heels of meeting with President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio earlier this month, which led to a liberal member of parliament, John-Paul Danko, labeling Jivani a Nazi sympathizer.
Statistics Canada reported an easing in the headline inflation rate Tuesday but a jump in the pace of food inflation amid tax changes and lingering pressures at the grocery store continue to put the squeeze on consumers. StatCan said Tuesday that the annual rate of inflation edged down to 2.3 per cent in January. Economists had expected inflation to hold...
Prime Minister Mark Carney sent a clear signal through his overtures to the domestic defence industry on Tuesday: it's time to grow. Carney announced the country's first defence industrial strategy in Montreal, a $6.6 billion plan that lays out how Ottawa wants to build out the defence industrial base and scale up small and medium-sized Canadian businesses to create anchor...
New defence strategy has been in the works for more than a year. The Canadian government’s long-awaited defence industrial strategy formally landed on Tuesday and arrives in the shadow of a push by the Trump administration to further make the United States the arms-maker of choice among allies. The new strategy has been in the works for more than a...
Hockey personality Don Cherry and tech titan Edward Rogers are among 30 new recipients of the Order of Ontario. Lt.-Gov. Edith Dumont has announced the 2025 appointments, which include trade union leader Joe Mancinelli of the Labourers' International Union of North America and former ambassador to the United States David MacNaughton. Dumont says the appointees have made a "profound contribution"...
Statistics Canada says lower prices at the pump and easing shelter inflation helped rein in the pressure facing consumers in January. The agency said Tuesday that the annual rate of inflation ticked down to 2.3 per cent last month. Economists had expected inflation to hold steady at 2.4 per cent. StatCan said gas prices were 16.7 per cent lower year-over-year...
Between February 5 and 10, 2026, Abacus Data surveyed 1,915 Canadian adults as part of our ongoing federal political tracking. This wave comes at a consequential moment in federal politics. It follows the Conservative Party convention in Calgary and Pierre Poilievre’s leadership review, but more importantly, it represents the first clear read on the political environment after several weeks of...
A new national survey by Liaison Strategies reveals that if a federal election were held today, the Liberal Party, led by Mark Carney, would hold a substantial 9 point lead over the Conservative Party. The Weekly Federal Tracker shows high approval ratings for Prime Minister Mark Carney, while Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre continues to face high unfavourable numbers. Among decided...
As some Albertans push to leave Canada, they could also be pushing away the billions of dollars needed to build a pipeline, in the same way past threats of separation led to capital flight from Quebec, warns the province’s former premier. “The oil and gas sector, the big projects that drive employment and government revenues, require tens of billions of...
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A large banner featuring Donald Trump's face was hung on the exterior of Justice Department headquarters on Thursday in a physical display of the Republican president's efforts to exert power over the law enforcement agency that once investigated him.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The National Governors Association is pulling out of an annual meeting at the White House after President Donald Trump declined to invite two Democratic governors, undercutting one of Washington's few remaining bipartisan organizations.
A federal judge has accused the Trump administration of terrorizing immigrants and recklessly violating the law in its efforts to deport millions of people living in the country illegally.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Donald Trump can't seem to stop talking about Maryland Gov. Wes Moore.
Earlier this morning, unmarked police vehicles were seen arriving at Sandringham Estate in Norfolk, where Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor has been living. He was arrested by Thames Valley Police - but while we know they are carrying out searches in Norfolk and Berkshire, we do not know where Andrew was arrested. In most cases suspects are held for 12 or 24 hours...
Prime Minister Mark Carney is facing mounting calls to speak out against the United States for widening its restrictions on fuel reaching Cuba, or to send aid to the country. For more than a year, Global Affairs Canada has warned travellers of "shortages of basic necessities, including food, medicine and fuel" across most of Cuba. In January, the island lost...
China is dropping its visa requirement for Canadian tourists and business visitors, after moves by Prime Minister Mark Carney to put relations with Beijing on a better footing. China's Foreign Ministry says Canadians will no longer be required to get visas for 30-days stays, starting Tuesday until at least the end of this year. A month ago, during his visit...
Foreign diplomats in Ottawa are applauding the vision of Canada’s foreign policy direction outlined by Prime Minister Mark Carney in his Davos address, but they’re coming to different conclusions about how it will get implemented.
President says he won't allow opening until U.S. 'is fully compensated for everything we have given' Canada. U.S. President Donald Trump is threatening to block the opening of the Gordie Howe Bridge, poised to become the newest border crossing between Windsor, Ont., and Detroit. "I will not allow this bridge to open until the United States is fully compensated for...
From a snail in a bottle of ginger beer to cannibalism to revoking a liquor licence for helping fellow Jehovah’s Witnesses, many seminal law school cases are remembered for their extraordinary facts (Hutchinson 2010). Every so often, however, a case prescribes a legal test that is equally memorable, even when the facts of the case are not. The Supreme Court...
Canada’s first-ever Defence Industrial Strategy (DIS) marks a genuine shift in how Ottawa thinks about sovereignty, security, and economic resilience. After decades of treating defence procurement as a back-office function, the government is now framing it as strategic statecraft — linking military readiness, industrial policy, innovation, and economic security. The creation of a Defence Investment Agency and the adoption of...
A collection of SubStack publishing within Canadian public affairs.
Cuba has been plunged into darkness. Schools, hospitals and essential services are hit by rolling 12-hour blackouts. Foreigners, including Canadians, have fled. Even worse, infant mortality is climbing.
Lisa Banfield, common-law wife of the man who meticulously slaughtered 22 people six years ago, recently published a memoir of her life-on-eggshells with a controlling killer.
The head of Ottawa’s public service got an earful from the federal information commissioner about the dismal state of access to information – the sign of a growing rift between the Liberal government and Parliament’s watchdog on transparency. At a Nov. 12 meeting, Caroline Maynard presented Michael Sabia, clerk of the Privy Council, with statistics detailing the deterioration of the...
Did Marco Rubio present a gentler view of transatlantic relations than JD Vance did a year ago, or the same vision, in more diplomatic language? Louise, Peter and Jeremy also unpack another busy couple of weeks for Mark Carney who is countering Davos critics with plans for an alliance to preserve rules-based open markets.
Another Truth Social post, another crack in the Canada-US relationship. US President Trump threatened to stall the opening of the Gordie Howe International Bridge until 'the United States is fully compensated for everything we have given'. A complete 180 from his joint statement with former Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau back in 2017 when he called for its 'expeditious completion'.
How do you handle an MP who goes rogue from his own party? That's a question for this week's Moore Butts conversation. But first, Gerry Butts on the world's new security order. Gerry has just returned from the Munich Security Conference and the former principal secretary to Justin Trudeau, and former Stephen Harper cabinet minister James Moore discuss how Canada...
The Globe exclusively reported that Prime Minister Mark Carney and Ontario Premier Doug Ford discussed the possibility of a snap federal election this spring. The next federal election is scheduled for no later than 2029, though historically, minority governments usually last around two years. But just how realistic is this speculation of another election? Laura Stone, who broke the story...
