Prime Minister Mark Carney now says Canada is working to become an "associate member" of the European Union, after largely avoiding that term. "We're here because we share a common mission. We're in the process of forging a new alliance for the future, with Canada as an associate member," Carney said Thursday. The prime minister on Thursday welcomed senior officials...
Regular question period viewers got a little more than the usual "yada, yada, yada" on Thursday as Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre and Government House leader Steven MacKinnon traded Seinfeld-related jabs. Poilievre kicked off the reference contest with a question about the Canada-EU summit taking place in Montreal this week. "Is this just another Seinfeld summit? A meeting about nothing?" Poilievre...
Prime Minister Mark Carney said Thursday his government will invest up to $1.6 billion in Canadian AI company Cohere. He made the announcement in Montreal as he welcomed European Union leaders to a summit aimed at forging closer ties. "We are not waiting for the future of AI to be decided somewhere else by those we don't know or by...
Prime Minister Mark Carney said it would be a mistake for Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. to fail to honour the commitments it made when it bought Stelco. At a news conference in Montreal, he declined to comment Thursday on the possibility of forcing the U.S. steelmaker to sell Stelco, saying a legal process is underway. Carney's comments came as Industry Minister Mélanie...
Defence Minister David McGuinty says the federal government's planned purchase of 88 F-35 stealth fighters remains under review, even after the military received its first two F-35s in recent days. McGuinty told reporters today the federal government will take all the time it needs to consider all factors, including industrial benefits and emerging autonomous air systems that can fly alongside...
In our latest Spark Advocacy polling we found that 74% give Mark Carney and his government a good or acceptable rating for handling Canada-US relations, a number which has held steady from our last measurement, when negotiations had broken off.
Despite, or because of, these uniquely challenging times, Carney has drawn support from left, right and centre; and polarization has eased. Our latest Spark Advocacy survey wrapped up 3992 interviews on October 21. Confidence in the Carney government remains at quite elevated levels by historical standards. With a voting intention advantage over the Conservatives of 49%-28%, the Liberals have built...
It’s no great secret that David Eby and the BC NDP were the biggest losers in Saturday’s BC election, which saw Lorne Doerksen and the BC Conservatives swept into power. Eby’s name has now become a verb, and anyone associated with his decision to call a snap election should be sent to the political equivalent of the Night’s Watch. But...
The midterm elections next Tuesday could deal a deathly blow to Trumpism. Even political stats guru Nate Silver says it’s possible. A shellacking of the Republicans could convince the party that Americans are getting fed up with the White House gong show and want to move back to traditional conservative leadership. What jubilation that news would bring to the rational...
Canadian labour leaders are warning that unions could trigger a nationwide job action if Ottawa rams through a contentious suite of proposed changes to the Canada Labour Code. The Liberal government's Bill C-39 includes language that would clarify a minister's power to use Section 107 of the labour code to order a business under federal jurisdiction to resume operations, or...
Former minister Jennifer Whiteside has been named the interim leader of the BC NDP after the party's crushing defeat in last weekend's election. Whiteside is the outgoing labour minister and previously served as minister of education, and minister of mental health and addictions. She represents the riding of New Westminster-Coquitlam.
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?
Former Alberta premier Ralph Klein would occasionally remark on the prosaic, conventional nature of the work he did as leader of his province. In 1998, Edmonton Sun journalist Neil Waugh wrote about Mr. Klein’s “good news” tour, during which the premier travelled across the province to spread the word about how “Albertans have turned their province into the envy of...
Some days it feels as if Canadian democracy is a complete farce. Provincial governments elected with near majorities on the strength of 28 per cent of the vote – the same 28 per cent that in another province is worth just two seats. Referendum ballots with 10 loaded questions, none of them binding. Party leaders elected by children, non-citizens, and...
David Eby, the outgoing premier of British Columbia, must regret his decision to call a snap election after being soundly defeated this past weekend by an interim party leader few people outside of his immediate family and constituents knew six weeks ago. Say “hello” to Lorne Doerkson, the leader of the B.C. Conservative Party who is now the province’s premier-designate...
As Conservative MPs gather for their weekly caucus meetings, some are attempting to read the tea leaves from last week’s Alberta referenda and British Columbia’s big Conservative win. Saturday, David Eby’s early election gamble — two years into his NDP government’s mandate — failed spectacularly. B.C. interim Conservative leader Lorne Doerkson won a majority after running a disciplined campaign and...
Apart from Alberta’s no vote on separation, this month’s elections and referendums have given progressive Canadians who care about climate little to cheer about. The country’s biggest oil and gas booster, Premier Danielle Smith is still ruling Alberta and her recent anti-immigrant referendum win, as narrow as it was, hasn’t totally dampened her intent to make new arrivals pay for...
If Mark Carney was anticipating a quiet, even raffiné Canada-EU Summit this week in this most European city of non-European cities in our most European country of non-European countries, he may already be disappointed. The Prime Minister, who recently accepted compliments from a reporter on his vastly improved French and credited his teacher for his fluency, may want to add...
British Columbians elected David Eby as their premier on Oct. 19, 2024. They elected New Democrat MLAs in 47 of 93 seats, giving his party a third term in government and a second consecutive majority government on that day. He was given a majority mandate to govern until 2028 if he wanted to. Speaking on election night, a freshly re-elected...
It’s time for the separatist factions to bring some intellectual honesty to their avowed separatism. There are lots of ways to do that, but the simplest and most effective way is that both parties to this never-ending debate resolve this situation one way or the other.
It may be the most Canadian ad of the U.S. midterms and it’s for a Republican. A man settles in at a neighbourhood bar with a Labatt Blue and the Red Wings game and tells us it doesn’t get any more Michigan than that. Then comes a line you wouldn’t expect: “Canada is not our enemy. We need to end...
British Columbians took a huge political gamble this weekend, handing power to someone they barely know who leads a party that looked like it was imploding only a few weeks ago. But such was the level of anger and disgust over NDP Leader David Eby’s move to call a snap election – amid provincewide municipal elections no less, and with...
Monday, a trial begins in Vancouver whose outcome could significantly alter climate change policies across the country. A group of youth are taking the federal government to court for failing to adequately address climate change, arguing that their Section 7 Charter rights — to life, liberty and security of the person — have been breached.
Jerry Andres watched the results roll in Monday night from his usual perch — at his computer, in his living room in Eckville, Alta., windows open to podcasters livestreaming on YouTube and Rumble. Anders, a retired oilfield worker, wasn’t surprised by the outcome, but he was disappointed. “To be honest with you, I’m more anti-Carney and the Liberals than I...
Are Canada and Europe really “besties”? That is certainly the message that Prime Minister Mark Carney and European Union President Ursula von der Leyen hope to convey when they meet for their much-anticipated Canada-EU Summit in Montreal this Thursday and Friday. But whether this budding romance between Canada and Europe becomes a serious relationship will depend on a host of...
Partisanship may have finally peaked. It’s about time. It can be hard to hear anything over U.S. President Donald Trump’s bluster. But look closer. A fascinating trend is emerging ahead of the U.S. midterm elections, with wider implications. A handful of candidates are galvanizing voters by ditching their party’s jersey altogether.
Mark Carney’s government was perhaps an hour old when he first laid out an intimate shared narrative of Canada and Europe that he has returned to and refined, again and again. “The ceremony we just witnessed reflects the wonder of a country built on the bedrock of three peoples: Indigenous, French and British,” he said as he began his first...
Referendums tend to raise as many questions as they answer. And so it may be for the 10-part questionnaire that Alberta Premier Danielle Smith put to her province — although with a series of no's Albertans have seemingly foreclosed on a number of possibilities. "I am well aware that not every grievance Alberta has with Ottawa has been resolved," Smith...
Danielle Smith wanted to walk into the coming first ministers meeting armed with the tools to start prying open this country’s lock on the Constitution. Alberta voters didn’t give her those tools. With almost all the votes counted, the referendum results show that all of Smith’s proposed constitutional reforms have been rejected. On Senate abolition and on giving the province...
It wasn’t all bad for Danielle Smith Monday night. True, Albertans voted massively to “remain” a province of Canada, thus depriving her of the bad cop for whatever good-cop, bad-cop routine she might have hoped to play with the rest of the country. And yes, Albertans voted to reject all four of the constitutional proposals the Premier had also put...
Pete Hoekstra, U.S. President Donald Trump’s ambassador to Canada, is apparently ticked off that no one took his warning about alleged Canadian meddling in the U.S. midterm elections seriously. So he had his embassy issue a profoundly unserious “fact sheet” this week backing up his claim. It’s tempting to brush off the document — a list of nine “FACTS” in...
If Canadians focused solely on recent commentary from union leaders and their lawyers, they’d be forgiven for thinking the current Liberal government has been engaged in a long battle against workers’ rights, culminating in a final charge against the right to strike.
The decisive, pro-remain result of 75% in the Alberta referendum has prompted two questions, one in that province and the other in Ottawa. The Alberta question is whether Premier Danielle Smith can remain in office after telling separatist members of her United Conservative Party (UCP) to “join a different party” if they can’t accept the referendum results. “The United Conservative...
The Liberal government's new national security strategy stresses the need to better manage shocks to Canada's economy while fostering growth and innovation. The long-awaited strategy, made public Thursday, says securing Canada's sovereignty in key industrial sectors -- and delivering resources and expertise to the world -- will reinforce the country's position as an important player in the global economy. The...
Former British Columbia opposition leader Kevin Falcon has stepped down as head of the deregistered BC United party, two years after it folded its 2024 election campaign to support the provincial Conservatives. Falcon says he is leaving his post after the "exciting" victory by the B.C. Conservatives in last weekend's provincial election. He explains in a statement on social media...
Two prominent figures in British Columbia's outgoing NDP government have spoken out about the scale of the mistake made in calling last weekend's election that resulted in the party's crushing defeat. Niki Sharma and Ravi Parmar are both leaving open the possibility they may seek party leadership in the wake of the resignation of outgoing Premier David Eby, as the...
Ontario's fiscal outlook has worsened due to global uncertainty and trade disruptions, leading to a larger deficit this year and a delayed path to balance, the finance minister said Thursday in an economic update. Peter Bethlenfalvy's spring budget had projected a $13.8-billion deficit this year, but his fall economic statement now says there will be $16.9 billion in red ink...
Canada has launched an updated framework for national security with a call to prepare for all emergencies, including the possibility of war. The release of the plan comes as the trade war with the United States deepens. Since becoming president, Donald Trump has continued to threaten turning Canada into the 51st state. In a recent interview with the New York...
Environment and Climate Change Canada abandoned its work on ending thermal coal exports without ever notifying the public and without any record of being directed to do so, according to a new audit. A report from the office of the auditor general, tabled Thursday, criticized the move and pointed out that Canada is co-chair of an international alliance meant to...
The federal government says it is launching a road map to boost competition and choice within Canada's telecommunications sector. The plan, announced late Wednesday by Industry Minister Melanie Joly, is meant to break down regional barriers and promote cross-Canada competition in the internet and mobile services sector. It incorporates many policies already unveiled by the federal government and CRTC in...
Senior Canadian national-security officials are warning that the Jewish community in Canada is facing unprecedented and unparalleled threats, both in severity and number, in the aftermath of the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel. The officials told The Globe and Mail that the speed of radicalization in this country is creating risks to the Jewish community at a pace...
Tax reform designed to spur economic growth will be a key pillar in Prime Minister Mark Carney’s second budget, government sources say, signalling another policy shift in the governing Liberals from the Justin Trudeau era. National Post has learned that the budget, to be unveiled next Thursday, is expected to prioritize tax measures to spur innovation and improved competitiveness as...
In our latest Spark Advocacy polling we found that 74% give Mark Carney and his government a good or acceptable rating for handling Canada-US relations, a number which has held steady from our last measurement, when negotiations had broken off.
The federal spending watchdog plans to issue report cards today tracking government agencies' progress on reducing greenhouse gas emissions and working toward a ban on the export of thermal coal. The latest batch of reports from Auditor General Karen Hogan will also evaluate efforts to reduce health and environmental risks from pesticides, manage the Canadian Dental Care Plan and oversee...
Members of the decimated B.C. NDP caucus are set to meet at the legislature today to discuss who will be the interim leader of the party after its weekend election defeat. The caucus has been reduced to 28 members after going into Saturday's election numbering 47, while the B.C. Conservatives have a crushing two-thirds majority with 63 seats. Outgoing Premier...
Scott Gillingham has been re-elected as the mayor of Winnipeg in Wednesday's slate of municipal elections across Manitoba. Unofficial results show Gillingham received 80,206 votes to send him to a second term, while former legislature member and city councillor Kevin Klein drew 41,703 votes. Software developer Noah Redden came in third place with 39,962 votes, and funeral home director Mike...
The Liberal government has voted to keep the B.C. oil tanker ban place, defeating a Conservative bill that would have repealed it. MPs voted along party lines during second reading in the House of Commons today, with only the Conservatives voting to move the bill forward to the committee stage. Prime Minister Mark Carney, who made a rare appearance after...
U.S. Ambassador to Canada Pete Hoekstra told a closed-door meeting on Tuesday that Ottawa could be blamed if key races in next week’s midterm elections go against U.S. President Donald Trump’s Republican Party. According to three sources with knowledge of the discussions, Hoekstra delivered the message at a private business lunch hosted at his official residence in Ottawa. The sources...
Former senator Pamela Wallin criticized the co-chair of a special joint committee on MAID while testifying at an inquiry into a leaked confidential report, calling him "dismissive" and describing the process as "chaotic and exclusionary." "It was the worst that I've seen it," Wallin said, testifying from Saskatchewan on Tuesday about the committee and its leadership. Wallin resigned from the...
A stronger alliance between Canada and the European Union would only include a financial commitment if either side joins specific programs in either jurisdiction, a senior government official said Wednesday. The next steps in that alliance are expected to be finalized and announced Thursday and Friday, during the Canada-EU Summit in Montreal. In a briefing for reporters ahead of the...
Canada has again voted at the United Nations to oppose the U.S. embargo on Cuba as Havana accuses Washington of running a campaign of coercion to sway the vote. In a vote of 130-17 with 25 abstentions, the UN General Assembly today condemned the economic embargo for the 34th year in a row. The number of countries voting against the...
The leader of Alberta's Opposition NDP says Premier Danielle Smith's governing United Conservatives are cooking the riding boundaries for their own advantage ahead of next year's election. Naheed Nenshi says a report now before an all-party committee gerrymanders ridings in Lethbridge and Calgary to dilute NDP support in favour of the UCP in multiple constituencies. "This is a shocking and...
Cabinet ministers briefed on the increased pace of talks between Canada and the United States remain skeptical U.S. President Donald Trump will make the necessary concessions to secure a deal. However, many who spoke to CTV News are convinced he wants one, given the political pressure he faces in the midterms. One minister, who is not authorized to speak publicly...
Carney says it's the substance of Canada-EU relationship, not its name, that matters. The European Union is backing away from the idea of making Canada an associate member of the 27-nation bloc, sources tell CBC News. A joint statement expected to be released at the 21st Canada-EU summit in Montreal on Friday will instead use softer language promising closer ties...
Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. CEO Lourenco Goncalves said Wednesday he hopes to bring back laid-off Stelco workers before Christmas if a plan to increase Canadian sales succeeds. He said the company is now counting on increased purchases of Canadian-made steel, rather than tighter import restrictions, to restore jobs at its Ontario operations. "It will depend on Canadian customers buying Canadian steel, made...
Prime Minister Mark Carney says Canada is not yet in a position to reach a trade deal with U.S. President Donald Trump's administration, even with the congressional midterms just days away. On his way into the weekly Liberal national caucus meeting on Parliament Hill today, Carney said Ottawa is prepared to make a deal only when it suits Canadians' interests...
British Columbia’s incoming Conservative premier is already showing signs he may not follow the same policies proposed by federal Conservatives, with his lukewarm response to their proposed tanker ban reversal. On Tuesday, leader Pierre Poilivre repeatedly stood in the House of Commons to urge Mark Carney’s Liberal government to reverse the moratorium on the ships off B.C.’s north coast to...
The effort to raise $50-million in donations to renovate the prime ministerial residence at 24 Sussex Drive in Ottawa has hit $5.7-million, according to new figures released by the Rideau Hall Foundation. Although the newly released figure is only about 11 per cent of the goal, foundation president and chief executive officer Teresa Marques said she is pleased with the...
Six Canadians are among the injured and a seventh remained unaccounted following a high-speed rail crash in central Spain Wednesday morning. The deadly accident occurred just before 9 a.m. local time, when one train slammed into another that had stopped on the tracks. Spanish officials reported at least 68 people killed, and another 58 were receiving treatment at local hospitals...
The Bank of Canada raised its benchmark interest rate for the first time in more than three years on Wednesday as it tries to get ahead of looming price hikes. The central bank's policy rate now stands at 2.5 per cent following a quarter-point hike. That key rate, which influences the cost of borrowing for banks, businesses and consumers alike...
Prime Minister Mark Carney will attend the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Antigua and Barbuda next week. Carney and other Commonwealth leaders are set to meet in the Caribbean nation's capital of St. John's from Nov. 2 and 4. Topics on the agenda include collaboration on climate change, renewable energy and security, according to a news release issued by...
At the Oakwood Café, people aren’t shy about telling you who they’re voting for in the midterms. “Republican Party across the board,” said Mike Hales, a lifelong Republican who supports his country’s aggressive tariff stance and tariffs on Canada. “They’ve leaned on the United States to a point it’s time to stop it,” Hales said of Canada. “If I order...
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Republican Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy has ordered an investigation into the Democratic candidate running for the U.S. Senate in the state after revelations that her campaign appeared to be involved in recruiting another candidate with the same name as Republican incumbent Dan Sullivan.
Three news outlets have beefed up their legal complaint against the White House over access, saying it is continuing to defy a judge's orders by refusing to let them return to covering President Donald Trump in the Oval Office and on Air Force One -- thus violating their free speech rights by continuing to keep them out of the rotating...
The midterm elections next Tuesday could deal a deathly blow to Trumpism. Even political stats guru Nate Silver says it’s possible. A shellacking of the Republicans could convince the party that Americans are getting fed up with the White House gong show and want to move back to traditional conservative leadership. What jubilation that news would bring to the rational...
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- Conservative activists James O'Keefe and Cam Higby were charged Wednesday with unlawful voting and identity theft after a Minnesota prosecutor said they gave false names to poll workers during the state's primary election. The men recorded the exchanges for a video to expose what they say are vulnerabilities in the state's voting laws.
Prime Minister Mark Carney now says Canada is working to become an "associate member" of the European Union, after largely avoiding that term. "We're here because we share a common mission. We're in the process of forging a new alliance for the future, with Canada as an associate member," Carney said Thursday. The prime minister on Thursday welcomed senior officials...
Canada has again voted at the United Nations to oppose the U.S. embargo on Cuba as Havana accuses Washington of running a campaign of coercion to sway the vote. In a vote of 130-17 with 25 abstentions, the UN General Assembly today condemned the economic embargo for the 34th year in a row. The number of countries voting against the...
Carney says it's the substance of Canada-EU relationship, not its name, that matters. The European Union is backing away from the idea of making Canada an associate member of the 27-nation bloc, sources tell CBC News. A joint statement expected to be released at the 21st Canada-EU summit in Montreal on Friday will instead use softer language promising closer ties...
At the Oakwood Café, people aren’t shy about telling you who they’re voting for in the midterms. “Republican Party across the board,” said Mike Hales, a lifelong Republican who supports his country’s aggressive tariff stance and tariffs on Canada. “They’ve leaned on the United States to a point it’s time to stop it,” Hales said of Canada. “If I order...
Today, I report on the wrangling over how to name the EU-Canada romance, and our energy correspondent reports on the campaign against a gas-price cap.
Canada is at a crossroads. In his now famous Davos speech, Prime Minister Carney warned of a “rupture in the world order” as the United States-led “rules-based order” has fractured. This and subsequent events have motivated a sense of national pride (“elbows up”) and opened a discussion on policy changes aimed at reshaping our economy in the context of this...
This brief is the second of two policy briefs analyzing the history, law and effects of the Canada-U.S. Safe Third Country Agreement (STCA). It focuses on changes to U.S. asylum law and policy since the second inauguration of President Donald Trump in January 2025, their impact on the safety of the United States for asylum-seekers and refugees, and the implications...
Canada likes to imagine itself as a compassionate society that protects its youngest citizens, but the daily realities facing children and youth at risk belie the rhetoric. The child welfare system is broken (Trocmé et al. 2019) and many of its failings were documented in the December 2025 Senate Standing Committee on Human Rights report, Nothing to Celebrate (Senate of...
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...
David Eby’s B.C. New Democrats went down to defeat on Saturday, as Lorne Doerkson and the B.C. Conservatives took advantage of Eby’s early call to win in a (by B.C. standards) landslide. The polls were predicting this would be the result. But were there any surprises — or lessons to be learned?
The third book by the writing team of Bulgutch and Mansbridge comes out next week and today a preview. These are inspiring stories about the teachers who shape our world. My friend and colleague Mark Bulgutch is my guest as we discuss our new book, how it came about, how we wrote it, and what it tells us about Canadian...
Americans will vote for members of the U.S. Congress in the midterm elections on Nov. 3. But in a number of states, this year’s election will have a major factor: Canada. A combination of President Donald Trump’s tariffs on a range of industries, to threats of annexation and a loss of revenue from tourism – has made Canada and its...
How will the future of Canada be affected by voters from the two westernmost provinces last week? The BC vote threw out the NDP and elected Conservatives. The Alberta vote showed major support for Canada on the separation question. Former Harper cabinet minister James Moore and senior liberal strategist Gerald Butts with another of their conversations.
