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...
The Liberal government is making sweeping changes to the way it approaches supporting the domestic defence industry, as Canada looks to transition away from over-reliance on the United States for military gear. The government was expected to announce its strategy last week, but Prime Minister Mark Carney suspended his travel due to a mass-shooting in B.C. and pushed the announcement...
Government House Leader Steven MacKinnon is standing by the Liberals’ decision to deliver the Budget Implementation Act as a 634-page omnibus piece of legislation. Bill C-15, the Budget Implementation Act, allows the government to enact the legislative policies laid out in the budget thatrequire new laws or amendments to existing laws. Among other things, the legislation includes changes to transport...
Despite a slow start in late 2025, Liberal members of the House Finance Committee say they finally see signs of progress towards passing the government’s massive budget implementation bill, although opposition MPs continue to object to a clause in the legislation they argue would grant federal ministers unprecedented powers “like those of a king.”
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...
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...
This survey gauged the views of Canadians on US support for Alberta separation.
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.
Canada has officially signed onto the European defence procurement program it announced it would join last summer, as Washington's upending of geopolitics overshadows the world's top security conference. Defence Minister David McGuinty announced Ottawa had signed onto the European Union's 150-billion euro program called Security Action for Europe, or SAFE, Saturday at the Munich Security Conference. The program allows EU...
Economists expect tax changes from a year ago will result in a year-over-year surge in food prices when Statistics Canada reports January inflation figures later this week. StatCan will publish its January consumer price index report on Tuesday, a day later than originally scheduled. The agency recently adopted a Monday publishing schedule for the consumer price index but shifted the...
The GM plant in Oshawa often feels like a mythical place. Long-time residents in the region tell stories of a time when it was a hub of prosperity for tens of thousands of families. They say, when shifts would end, there were so many GM employees that some roads would become one-way streets so workers could drive home in an...
Prime Minister Mark Carney’s well-crafted and eloquently delivered speech at Davos has been widely noted, and I want to start by offering some praise of my own. The Prime Minister is right to restate what many have said for years: Canada must become more self-reliant, less dependent and work with like-minded countries to advance our interests. Conservatives are, as always...
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...
Many people in Ottawa, even some who know her well, did not know until this week that the former national director of the New Democratic Party, Anne McGrath, is the survivor of a school shooting. McGrath doesn’t tend to bring it up often, but every time there is a school shooting, as there was this week In Tumbler Ridge, B.C....
It’s not hard to imagine what would have happened if a year ago, or even a few months ago, Donald Trump had threatened to block the new Gordie Howe International Bridge linking Windsor, Ont., and Detroit. Shock and horror on the Canadian side. Front-page coverage in the Canadian media. Opposition calls for the government to do something.
Canada has a big, beautiful piece of infrastructure we think you might be interested in. It’s a tremendous, wonderful bridge, and it’s already been paid for — you only have to take the credit. And just because it’s you, because you’re such a clever and strong president, we named it for the best right-winger the Detroit Red Wings ever had...
Last week Conservative MP for Bowmanville-Oshawa North, Jamil Jivani, stated that he was going down to Washington, DC, in an effort to help move Canada-US trade relations along. Jivani has a longstanding friendship with the US Vice President JD Vance, so it would make sense for him to leverage his personal relationships in a professional capacity. Except, of course, Jivani...
The mass shooting in Tumbler Ridge is the kind of tragedy that Canada, unfortunately, has seen too often in recent decades. It will take some time to fully understand how this horror occurred. But we know the results. Nine people are dead: A mother, an educator, six children, and the shooter Jesse Van Rootselaar.
As part of his trip to Beijing last month, Prime Minister Mark Carney met with Zhao Leji, the third-ranking member of the 20th Chinese Communist Party Politburo and chair of the standing committee of the National People’s Congress. The readout that emerged from the meeting said they talked about the importance of ongoing parliamentary exchanges and “opportunities for enhanced understanding...
After Donald Trump came out this week with his latest instalment in his Browbeat Thy Neighbour series – his dip into Loo Loo Land with his Truth Social threat to block the opening of the Gordie Howe Bridge – I was keen to check in on the American reaction, from readers in both conservative and liberal media. Out of about...
If there’s one thing that’s driving me a little nuts about the active petition to foist a separation referendum on Alberta, it’s this: the claim that the process is some kind of benign and beautiful expression of democracy. Because, frankly, no, that’s not really how our democratic system is supposed to work. Canada is not California — which uses tools...
Is artificial intelligence the salvation of mankind, or its downfall? Are markets justified in bidding up AI stocks as high as they have, or is it all a bubble? Will we look back on the hundreds of billions of dollars the AI titans are currently investing in capacity as having laid the foundations for a new age of prosperity, or...
School shootings are the most senseless, shattering event that can befall a community. A feeling of ultimate loss grips the entire nation. Political leaders often have nothing more to offer than their condolences, but people want more than that. They are looking for reassurance, empathy and a sense that someone will do something about it.
When Stephen Harper was Prime Minister I wrote many columns warning about the influence that right wing Americans had on his political operation, and I spent many dreary hours trying to trace his connections south of the border. I now wonder if that was time well spent because, since the second election of Donald Trump, it has become clear that...
As a politician, federal Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre has many well-documented strengths. He is a relentless critic of the government he wishes to replace. He grew both his party’s vote share and parliamentary seat count in the last election, bringing the CPC to within spitting distance of victory. And who could blame him for still buzzing over an 87.4 per...
The former PM has devoted much of his post-political career to helping to empower right-wing political parties, but drew the line at threatening Canada’s existence. Stephen Harper came east to celebrate the 20th anniversary of something. While he was at it, the former Conservative prime minister—whether by design or coincidence—took on the task for his party of covering for the...
PIERRE POILIEVRE GAMBLED with his political future—and won—at the Conservative Party of Canada convention in Calgary two weeks ago. Delegates, who gathered under unseasonably warm January skies courtesy of a timely Chinook, were asked whether to grant their leader a vote of confidence. Late that Friday night, the verdict was delivered: 87.4 percent of those who cast a ballot voted...
"Question period is broken," Liberal MP Corey Hogan told the House of Commons last week. In fairness to the current state of question period — and those responsible for it — this is hardly a new complaint. One could spend a long time discussing how Parliament's daily airing of grievances came to be the way it is or who has...
Donald Trump’s threat to prevent the opening of the new Gordie Howe International Bridge unless Canada compensates the United States is but the latest chapter in a series of irrational threats and unjustified punitive measures he has inflicted on our country. Never mind that Canadian taxpayers paid $6 billion for the bridge, which is why there will be a toll...
As Albertans await some clarity from the premier as to whether she’s prepared to champion the cause of Confederation or take on the separatists in any meaningful sense, it falls to others to take up the mantle of national unity.
The prospect of Alberta leaving Canada is such a hot topic that the other potential “leavers” have been overlooked.
As discussion around Alberta separation continues, a new survey suggests many Canadians believe the United States would back the province if it chose to leave Confederation. A Nanos Research survey commissioned by CTV News found four in five Canadians believe the U.S. would support Alberta separating from Canada. Respondents in the Prairie provinces reported the highest levels of that belief...
Over 370 delegates and more than 200 businesses seeking new markets. A Canadian trade mission to Mexico this week could produce new deals by early spring, and marks the country's "most significant" such mission ever to Mexico, according to Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc. LeBlanc is leading the mission, which will see over 370 Canadian delegates and more than 20...
Defence minister says Canada's the only non-European country to join program. Defence Minister David McGuinty says Canada has now officially joined the European Union’s Security Action for Europe (SAFE) program, which offers loans to member states to invest in defence capabilities. "The agreement strengthens our collective security, supports the development of key defence capabilities, and gives Canadian industry access to...
'Every time you take the tunnel you're ... supporting the residents of Windsor,' Coun. Angelo Marignani said. A city councillor in Windsor, Ont., is encouraging Canadians who want to buy Canadian to travel from Windsor to Detroit through the Windsor-Detroit tunnel instead of crossing the Ambassador Bridge. The City of Windsor owns half of the tunnel and receives dividends from...
Canadian prime minister Mark Carney has told residents of Tumbler Ridge that the country is “with you, and we will always be with you”, during a candlelight vigil for the eight victims of a mass shooting that has shattered the small mining town.
Weeks after the 2025 federal election, Nick Belanger was on the phone when he started receiving calls from an unknown caller. Given he was already on a call, he declined to answer. The person tried again and Belanger relented. “I’m like, hello, who is this? Why do you keep calling me?” he recounts in a livestream. “Is this the Pleb?”...
Normally, it's considered a good thing when the world beats a path to your door. Maybe not so much when we're talking about nuclear deterrence. At the very least, it is an ominous sign of the times.
Inuit leaders back from a recent trip to Greenland say there's a stark contrast between the infrastructure in that Nordic country compared to Canada's North, and they're calling on the federal government to urgently fill the gap as part of its enhanced focus on Arctic security. "They're way ahead of us," said Paul Irngaut, president of Nunavut Tunngavik Incorporated (NTI)...
Brig.-Gen. Christopher Horner says access to spaceports is a challenge. The head of Canada's military space division says the country "should absolutely be" concerned about Russia's potential capabilities amid global fears the Kremlin is considering putting nuclear weapons in place to target satellites. "That would be cataclysmic," said Brig.-Gen. Christopher Horner, Commander of 3 Canadian Space Division during an interview...
CPP announces record $780B in assets — 47% in the U.S. For all the fear over the U.S. trade war and President Donald Trump's threats to Canadian sovereignty, this country's biggest pension funds remain heavily invested in the U.S. The Canada Pension Plan (CPP), the largest pension fund in the country, announced this week that it has grown to a...
Prime Minister Mark Carney says there's nothing anyone can do to fill the silence left by the loss of those killed in the mass shooting in Tumbler Ridge, B.C. The prime minister spoke to a crowd of hundreds at a vigil in the community where people held photos of the loved ones they have lost.
Officers from the five-person RCMP detachment in Tumbler Ridge arrived at the community's secondary school on Tuesday to sounds of fire alarms and a voice yelling from a window that the shooter was upstairs. In seconds they were through the door and up the stairs, where RCMP Deputy Commissioner Dwayne McDonald said they were met with gunshots. Soon after, more...
The Commissioner of Canada Elections said former Liberal MP Chrystia Freeland unintentionally violated the Elections Act by answering reporters' questions about a 2024 Toronto byelection at two government-organized press conferences. A report on the incidents published by the commissioner's office Friday cites rules restricting who can make a contribution to a candidate. Freeland was the deputy prime minister and finance...
Pact enhances collaboration on surveillance and joint operations. Canada and Denmark signed a defence co-operation agreement on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference, setting the stage for a deeper partnership after the Trump administration threatened to annex Greenland. The agreement was signed by Defence Minister David McGuinty on Friday. Originally Prime Minister Mark Carney was supposed to be present...
MONTREAL -- The Quebec Liberals have acclaimed 46-year-old Charles Milliard as their new leader, forgoing the need for a second leadership race in less than one year.
The Supreme Court of Canada has invalidated a federal Liberal candidate's one-vote victory in last spring's federal election, pushing the governing party further away from a majority in the House of Commons. Liberal Tatiana Auguste has sat as a member of Parliament since the spring, after being declared the winner over Nathalie Sinclair-Desgagné, the Bloc Québécois candidate. Sinclair-Desgagné let out...
Remember that old saying "Stick a fork in him, he's done"? Some people are beginning to say that about Donald Trump, which may well work in Canada's favour. A little early or no? Chantal Hebert and Bruce Anderson on that, and also more on the possible Alberta referendum and Washington's supposed involvement.
A new study published Friday by the Canadian Climate Institute says Canada is not on track to meet any of its climate targets -- not the 2026 interim emissions reduction target, the 2030 Paris Agreement commitment, or even the long-term goal of reaching net-zero emissions by 2050. The report suggests Canada has moved away from its climate goals thanks to...
Mike Dawson says some of his colleagues are angry he's trying to forgo wage hike. The Conservative MP who went public with his intent to refuse a pending parliamentary pay increase was called out by the party whip in front of his colleagues and heckled as he tried to defend his decision, CBC News has learned. In a letter to...
With the fate of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement on the line, Conservative MP JAMIL JIVANI is positioning himself as a key cross-border interlocutor. Jivani even scored a White House tour that culminated in a Trump run-in. Not bad.
Today is the deadline to apply to be leader of the Quebec Liberal Party. Candidate Charles Milliard, former head of the Quebec federation of chambers of commerce, has the support of the majority of the party caucus. Mario Roy, a farmer from Quebec's Beauce region, is the only other person who has confirmed an interest in running, but he may...
Conservative MP Jamil Jivani says he stands ready to help Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government when it comes to navigating the upcoming review of the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA), after returning from Washington, D.C. last week where he met with senior officials within U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration, including Vice-President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and U.S. Trade Representative...
Governor General Mary Simon confirmed she will join Prime Minister Carney at a vigil to the victims of a mass shooting in Tumbler Ridge, B.C. on Friday night. Nine people died in the shooting on Tuesday at a home and school in the town of about 2,700 people in northeastern British Columbia. Carney asked all the other federal party leaders...
Liberal MP Jenna Sudds has called for 'flexibility' after fellow local caucus colleague Bruce Fanjoy criticized requirements that public servants work in-office four days a week starting in July, and executives five days a week starting in May.
CALGARY -- Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says she has not signed a petition currently gathering signatures for a referendum to pull the province out of Confederation.
Culture Minister Marc Miller accused a Conservative MP Thursday of misleading a Parliamentary committee by claiming a comment from the head of an independent producers' group in support of the government was made on behalf of the news media. "The job of these people is to make shows. Like with puppets," Miller said to MP Rachael Thomas. "I think you're...
OTTAWA -- The mother of the shooter in the Tumbler Ridge, B.C., killings once posted a photo on Facebook of several long guns in a cabinet with the caption, "Think it's time to take them out for some target practice."
Some members of Parliament are slamming the Liberal government's plan to give new powers to cabinet to exempt individuals or corporations from some federal laws. The exemptions are being referred to as "regulatory sandboxes" and are contained in a clause in the government's omnibus budget implementation bill, currently being debated at a House of Commons committee.
The Bank of Canada’s second-in-command is warning of future inflation risks if investment in artificial intelligence is concentrated among the country’s big companies. Article content Senior Deputy Governor Carolyn Rogers said that while large firms have the scale and capacity to make “big bets on technology,” the country’s ailing productivity is more likely to be repaired if there’s broader adoption...
Leaders of a right-wing group pushing a conservative Canadian province to secede and form a new nation say they have been meeting with Trump administration officials to discuss how their radical plan can benefit the U.S. In three separate, highly unusual meetings with officials from the State and Treasury departments, they’ve discussed the logistics of Alberta breaking off from Canada...
All the world's a stage for California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
The world's largest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford, has been ordered to sail from the Caribbean Sea to the Middle East.
NEW YORK (AP) -- A year ago, U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said he wanted to rebuild trust in federal health agencies, and vowed to employ "radical transparency" to do it.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- About 6 in 10 U.S. adults say President Donald Trump has "gone too far" in sending federal immigration agents into American cities, according to a new AP-NORC poll that suggests political independents are increasingly uncomfortable with his tactics.
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...
Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand is calling on China to release Hong Kong publisher Jimmy Lai after he was sentenced to 20 years in jail today under a sweeping national security law. Canada joins numerous peers, including the United States and the European Union, in condemning Beijing for the sentence imposed under a law used to crack down on Hong...
Jimmy Lai, the pro-democracy former Hong Kong media tycoon and a fierce critic of Beijing, was sentenced to 20 years in prison in one of the most prominent cases prosecuted under a China-imposed national security law that has virtually silenced the city's dissent.
Since the legalization of medical assistance in dying (MAiD) in 2016, the federal government has created certain safeguards and regulatory mechanisms – including data collection – to ensure that people don’t request death because they lack access to care, including palliative care.
A collection of SubStack publishing within Canadian public affairs.
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...
The RCMP has handed out 23 awards for excellence to officers and employees in Nova Scotia for their performance during the April 2020 mass murders, in which a gunman impersonating a Mountie murdered 22 people in cold blood.
Peter Mazereeuw gets you up to speed on what happened on and away from Parliament Hill this week in this five-minute mini-pod.
Remember that old saying "Stick a fork in him, he's done"? Some people are beginning to say that about Donald Trump, which may well work in Canada's favour. A little early or no? Chantal Hebert and Bruce Anderson on that, and also more on the possible Alberta referendum and Washington's supposed involvement.
With the polls showing a spike in support for the Liberals, speculation has also spiked about an early election. What do the polls say about whether Mark Carney’s Liberals or Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives should want to head back on the campaign trail in 2026?
Secretary of State for Sport Adam van Koeverden joins Playbook Canada from the Winter Olympics in Milano Cortina, where he’s watching Team Canada compete and looking ahead to a potential Canada–U.S. hockey showdown. But back home, the mood shifts dramatically as news of a mass shooting in Tumbler Ridge, B.C., brings Parliament to a halt and forces Prime Minister Mark...
