Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is losing yet another top aide, with his deputy chief of staff Aaron Wudrick announcing Thursday that he is leaving for the private sector. In a letter obtained by CTV News, Wudrick told colleagues and Conservative members of Parliament that his exit would be effective Nov. 27. “It has been an honour and a privilege to...
Prime Minister Mark Carney is expected in Winnipeg today to highlight new measures in the federal budget aimed at eliminating homelessness within 10 years. It's a goal some support workers are applauding, while cautioning that solutions must involve more than four walls and a roof. Sara Goldvine is the chief operating officer at Coast Mental Health in Vancouver and says...
Canada's leaders are fanning out today to sell communities on this year's federal budget. Prime Minister Mark Carney will be in Winnipeg to highlight new measures around homelessness alongside Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew. The Carney government is promising to end homelessness in Canada within a decade, proposing $11.2 billion over four years, starting next year, and $17.8 billion over 10 years.
British Columbia's incoming Conservative premier Lorne Doerkson is all-in on the budget tabled by Prime Minister Mark Carney's Liberal government. Doerkson says the document is an "encouraging and ambitious statement" about Canada's economic future and recognizes B.C.'s "tremendous opportunity" in transportation and resources.
China has exponentially expanded its network of illegal overseas police stations, to “extend its tentacles” across a web of new community associations, according to a report by international human rights group Safeguard Defenders. In its latest report, the Spanish non-governmental organization (NGO) identifies nearly 1,250 overseas Chinese associations which they say are fronts for suspected police centres in 91 countries.
The research gauged the opinions among Canada aiming to accept 380,000 new immigrants as permanent residents, and an additional 385,000 workers and students as temporary residents. Nanos conducted an RDD dual frame (cell and landlines) hybrid telephone and online random survey of 1,058 Canadians, 18 years of age or older, from October 31st to November 2nd, 2026, as part of...
A new Abacus Data survey conducted ahead of Thursday’s federal budget finds Canadians approaching Budget Day with significant concerns about their household finances and the country’s economic future. The rising cost of living remains the most important issue facing Canada, while Donald Trump and the United States are increasingly seen as the country’s greatest threat. Concern about artificial intelligence has...
The Liberal government is arguing that tax changes, cultural supports and billions of dollars aimed at stoking investment in Budget 2026 will give Canada the freedom to shape its own future. Ottawa is proposing $142.1 billion in new measures, largely offset by stronger-than-expected federal revenues, in the budget tabled Thursday in the House of Commons. Big-ticket items are aimed at...
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?
So, farewell then, federal budget. Not only a mainstay of economic policy-making, you were a critical element of democratic accountability for many decades, the day each year when the federal government levelled with Canadians about how much it intended to spend, how much to tax, and how much to borrow on their behalf.
The 500-plus-page budget that has now landed before Canadians is not exactly a piece of literature — but it is coming from a government with some literary aspirations. Mark Carney’s government is leaning on themes of culture and identity with Budget 2026, hoping that it tells a story of Canadian pride and patriotism at this moment in the country’s history.
Old habits die hard in the Liberal party. Prime Minister Mark Carney declared on Thursday, after his latest budget was tabled, that “we’ve got spending under control.” By the standard measurement of fiscal sustainability, that is true. The debt-to-GDP ratio is forecast to tick gently downward over the budget’s five-year time horizon.
"Maitre chez nous" — "master in our own house" — was a rallying cry of Jean Lesage's Quiet Revolution, a period of rapid modernization and reform in Quebec in the 1960s. Mark Carney first tried it out a year and a half ago in the shadow of Donald Trump's America and a newly anglicized version — "masters of our destiny"...
The Canadian military currently has thousands of drones at its disposal. “It’s not enough,” a senior commander admits. The Carney government wants to add some zeros to that number: It wants one million drones, at least. And in Thursday’s budget, it is committing $2.3 billion to get there.
Officially, Mark Carney’s government is saying that the Republicans’ stunning losses in the U.S. midterm elections are the Americans’ own business. But this government also knows that there’s a clear line connecting the midterms to the budget being unveiled in Canada on Thursday — and that’s the affordability crisis.
There is no sugarcoating the results of the midterm elections in the United States for President Donald Trump and his administration. This was an astonishing and vast repudiation of the president. When Republicans lose in South Carolina, North Carolina, Mississippi, Texas, Kansas, Iowa, and Georgia solidifies as a blue state, it is impossible not to affirm that a judgment has...
By the standards of American elections, this was an earthquake. The two-party system is so entrenched, and American voters’ political identities so immovable, that shifts in the balance of power in any given election tend to be muted. So the Democrats’ gains last night are, in this context, historic. When all the votes are counted, they will probably emerge with...
Austin, Texas may have sounded like a street party as the results came in last night, but even in Canada, if you listened closely enough, you could almost hear the collective sigh of relief. Nobody who was rooting for a win by the Democrats wanted to trust the polls or the predictions of a “blue wave” after the traumatic experiences...
In his 2016 election campaign, Donald Trump made a remarkable observation. “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose supporters.” At a rally in Tennessee last month, he demonstrated that his attitude hadn’t changed. He told his audience, “I could say the stupidest things, and you clap.” Throughout the midterms campaign he...
American streets are being patrolled by murderous secret police. The constitutional order and the division of powers have broken down. Some major media outlets have become sycophantic devotees of the ruling party, and others are following suit. A sitting U.S. president has amassed billions of dollars in ill-gotten gains from brazen and scuzzy quid pro quos.
In the end, Canada didn’t have to interfere in the 2026 midterms to register our preference for an outcome. Americans did it for us. To compare the reasons for Tuesday’s midterm election result to any previous midterm election result is as pointless as comparing Donald Trump’s presidency to any previous presidency. Yes, there are statistics and charts and local issues...
Prime Minister Mark Carney has just called six byelections for early December. The results could have a determining effect on Pierre Poilievre’s future as Conservative leader. They could also provide the first clues as to whether the belligerent tone of the minority Parti Québécois government is finding favour with voters.
Mark Carney doesn’t seem like much of a prankster, but you could forgive Liberals who supported Justin Trudeau’s policies for feeling as if the prime minister is endlessly pulling their collective leg. Changes of direction are everywhere. The consumer carbon tax is gone. A new oil pipeline is on the way and major resource-development projects are on track to receive...
Watching the governor of the Bank of Canada field questions from MPs at the House of Commons finance committee was like viewing an episode of Star Trek: Next Generation, in which Jean-Luc Picard grapples with the Prime Directive. This general order prohibits Starfleet personnel from interfering with the natural development of primitive alien civilizations.
Opposition parties banded together this week in a futile attempt to hear more expert testimony on Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Building Canada Strong Act, C-39, after dozens of witnesses warned MPs the bill is deeply flawed, and more than 100 individual Canadians and groups urged amendments or begged the government to change course on legislation that will impact labour rights...
Around the world, borrowing costs are rising, growth is only middling, economic risks are tilted to the downside and, after six years of global shocks, most countries’ fiscal buffers are depleted. The IMF’s recent conclusion from all this is that governments need to rein in their spending and borrowing. This week’s federal budget should not take the view that Canada...
Winston Churchill once said that history would be kind to him because he intended to write it. And he did, producing 13 volumes of memoirs over the course of his long life. More than a decade after leaving the Prime Minister’s Office, Stephen Harper’s memoirs have finally landed with a thump — all 656 pages of them.
It truly is quite astonishingly hypocritical that the same people who have made careers railing against the way Alberta is under-represented by population in the Senate seem to get quite huffily defensive over the tabling of new electoral districts that would leave urban Albertans meaningfully under-represented compared to rural ones. Earlier this year, Alberta’s Electoral Boundaries Commission unveiled a new...
With Americans heading to the polls for their midterm elections, it feels like Thursday’s federal budget is getting a lot less media attention than usual. Ottawa might not mind this: every time U.S. President Donald Trump twitches, Prime Minister Mark Carney’s popularity rises. But while Washington commands the headlines, Canadians should check out the creeping sea of red ink below...
Prime Minister Mark Carney is returning at this writing from the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in St. John’s, Antigua and Barbuda, where his participation continued a long tradition in which Canada has not merely attended Commonwealth meetings but helped shape the organization’s evolution. “As Canada charts its path forward in this new world, we look to our fellow...
In general, so long as it’s legal and not hurting anyone, I think people should be allowed to spend their money on what they want to spend it on. But how much money should be allowed to affect the democratic process sits uncomfortably alongside that preference of mine. A system in which everyone has one vote, but one person can...
I am not, it should be acknowledged, an expert on the merits of frontier AI models. I am, however, a reasonably seasoned observer of government ministers proclaiming solemnly that they have just made a very prudent investment of taxpayers’ money, on the most favourable of terms, as AI minister Evan Solomon did this past weekend. Sometimes it works out: the...
In the spring of 2024, nine months before he formally entered politics, Mark Carney made a couple of public appearances to discuss the state of the Canadian economy and the possible paths forward.
The Carney government’s second budget aims to paint a rosier financial picture for Canada’s economy, while emphasizing growth and investment efforts alongside affordability measures closer to home. “With everything going on in the world, I think Canadians understand we need to do more to build this country,” Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne (Saint-Maurice–Champlain, Que.) told reporters ahead of the budget’s tabling...
The federal government is extending its journalism tax credit by $501 million over five years, with $85 million in ongoing annual funding. Ottawa first said in its spring fiscal update that it would consult Canadians and stakeholders about extending the Canadian Journalism Labour Tax Credit to broadcasters. The federal budget tabled today says that measure, as well a move to...
The federal government has tabled the 2026 budget proposing $142.1 billion in new spending and projecting a steady decline in the deficit. Here are some highlights from the new fiscal plan. Support for northern communities
This year's federal budget leaves unanswered a major accounting question on Ottawa's plans to meet its 2035 NATO spending commitments. The budget charts a path to meet alliance defence spending targets from now through to 2030 -- but the math stops there. Reaching the goal of spending five per cent of national GDP on defence by 2035 won't be cheap...
Here's a brief look at some key numbers in the Liberal government's 2026 budget. -- $142.1 billion: The total amount of new spending and tax breaks included in Budget 2026. --$62.3 billion: The projected deficit for 2026-27. -- $3 billion: How much lower Ottawa's projection for the 2026-27 deficit is compared with the April spring economic update.
The government's updated immigration plan looks to maintain broad targets for permanent and temporary resident admissions while offering permanent status for up to 200,000 longtime temporary residents. The government says its 2027-2029 immigration levels plan will admit 380,000 permanent residents and 370,000 temporary residents each year. Those targets for 2027 and 2028 are the same as they were in the...
The federal budget zeroes in on business investment and growth in Canada with a suite of new tax measures aimed at spurring private-sector productivity and innovation. The 2026 budget includes a new tax exemption on up to $15-million in capital gains earned on successful eligible investments. The tax break would apply to shares is
The Carney government is promising to end homelessness in Canada within a decade. The 2026 budget, released Thursday, offers $11.2 billion to tackle homelessness over four years, starting next year, and $17.8 billion over 10 years. The federal government says it would "create the conditions to end homelessness" by setting up a new fund to support projects addressing health, addictions...
Canada's envoy to the European Union says Brussels removed language about ratifying the decade-old trade deal from a joint statement issued at the end of the summit in Montreal last week. Jonathan Wilkinson made the comment today at the Senate foreign-affairs committee, confirming media reports the EU had the phrasing removed. Canada and the EU signed a new alliance pa
High gas prices and the Iran war may have been top of mind among American voters in this week’s midterm elections, but there was a sleeper issue at work as well that Canadians should watch carefully – unease about data centres. The giant compute facilities are powering the AI revolution and tech companies have been building them at a furious...
OTTAWA -- The new federal budget commits $32 billion over 10 years to repair, replace and build First Nations infrastructure -- though the Assembly of First Nations says the work will require more.
Prime Minister Mark Carney and Quebec Premier Paul St-Pierre Plamondon will have their first of two planned meetings in Cambodia during the Francophonie Summit later this month. A spokesperson for the Parti Quebecois government says the two leaders will then meet for a second time in Quebec City, likely in December.
The federal Liberals are teeing up Thursday's budget as the government's next step toward fixing long-standing problems facing Canada's economy. Budget 2026 will be the second tabled under Prime Minister Mark Carney. Budgets detail a government's expectations for economic growth and the projected pace of spending and borrowing. They're also political documents that can serve as a launching pad for...
A majority of Canadians want the country to accept fewer immigrants and temporary residents next year, according to a new Nanos Research survey commissioned by CTV News, as the country continues to grapple with immigration levels and their impact on housing, services and the economy. The survey found that 52.3 per cent of respondents believe Canada should accept fewer immigrants...
Having just seen, in the U.S. midterm elections, the political price of a public struggling with the cost of living, the Carney government is expected to table an annual budget Thursday that seeks to reassure Canadians that Ottawa is here to help. The new fiscal blueprint is being packaged in advance as the vital next step in what Prime Minister...
Many Canadians welcome the Democratic sweep of U.S. Congress, but have mixed views on whether voters' strong rebuke of President Donald Trump's administration will change their attitude toward America amid the ongoing trade war. Trump's punishing tariffs on Canadian goods, repeated musings about making Canada the 51st state and escalating tensions that include changing the name of Lake Ontario to...
Control of both chambers of the U.S. Congress will shift to the Democrats next year, after Tuesday's midterm elections saw a blue wave wash over even some of the most reliably Republican states. Here are some ways the change in the distribution of power in Washington could affect Canada. Tariffs When the Democrats take control of the House of Representatives...
Ghana's head of state praised Canada this week for advocating against what he called a "rigged global system" that keeps African countries trapped by debt and mired in climate chaos. His comments come as Canadian officials confirm Ottawa will appoint a new Africa envoy, months after leaving the post vacant. "Canada has a favourable disposition towards the Global South," Ghana's...
Ontario Liberal leadership hopefuls are pitching themselves as the antidote to Premier Doug Ford in the final debate before voting begins with little disagreement between them, though several took different tacks on taxes. Navdeep Bains, Stephanie Bowman, Lee Fairclough and Dylan Marando say they are serious politicians at a serious time in an effort to contrast with Ford's folksy yet...
When Michel Pottier and his wife decided a year ago to move from Maine to his hometown of Halifax, they did their best to plan ahead and play by the rules. Pottier made arrangements to transfer his job to Canada. His American-born wife, Lindsey Jade Higgins, applied for spousal permanent resident status.
Since late 2022, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has relied heavily on mansion fundraisers to court billionaires, business dynasties, and television personalities, while Prime Minister Mark Carney and his ministers have drawn developers, investors, and former politicians since his Liberal leadership bid in early 2025.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says sweeping Democrat wins in the U.S. midterm elections prove her province was on the right path in the cross-border trade war. "It is a vindication of our approach when it comes to tariffs," Smith told the house during question period Wednesday. "We always have objected to tariffs. W
Beijing and Ottawa are extending a January agreement to provide Chinese market access to Canadian imports in exchange for Canadian market access for Chinese steel and aluminum. The news comes as one of China's most important officials prepares to visit Vancouver and Prime Minister Mark Carney plans to return to China later this month. In March, China dropped tariffs on...
Federal Energy Minister Tim Hodgson accused the Tories Wednesday of peddling "conspiracy theories" as they asked questions about who the Liberals are seconding to work at the government's major projects office. For the second straight day, Conservatives pressed the Liberals for details of the arrangements. They accused the government of not being transparent about where those employees are being seconded...
Canada-U.S. trade minister says strategy unchanged after Republican midterm losses. A senior Democrat says his party will work to end U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs on allies, including Canada, when it takes control of Congress next year. "We want to have free and fair trade with Canada like the rest of the world. So that's going to be very much...
The Liberal government's push to diversify trade won't change direction now that Democrats are preparing to take control of both houses of Congress following Tuesday's midterm elections, Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc said Wednesday. LeBlanc said recent talks with U.S. President Donald Trump's administration have been productive and he looks forward to speaking more with his American counterparts in the...
The fallout from the Democrat tsunami that crashed over the U.S. Congress was swift on Wednesday, after American voters rejected President Donald Trump's turbulent second term with a midterm election blowout. In a stinging rebuke of the second Trump administration, Democrats flipped long-held Republican Senate seats in Texas, Maine and South Carolina. The blue wave also washed over House seats...
Canada’s upcoming federal budget will earmark more money to address homelessness, including funds for supportive housing, as cities struggle with encampments and growing unsheltered populations. Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government has said improving affordability and stimulating growth will be top priorities of the spending plan, which will be presented Thursday. Tackling the country’s homelessness problem will be a focus, said...
Publicly, Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government is taking a cautious approach to the U.S. midterms election result. But privately, it’s buoyed and relieved. Following a decisive Republican defeat in the House and Senate on Tuesday night, Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc told reporters on Parliament Hill the election results change nothing in Canada’s approach to trade talks with the White...
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) -- After a campaign season filled with outrage against artificial intelligence data centers, the midterm elections ushered in a wave of Democrats pledging to clamp down on the energy-hungry behemoths.
SAN JUAN, Texas (AP) -- Latino voters moved sharply to the left in the midterm elections, propelling Democrats to an improbable electoral sweep in Texas and in battleground House races from coast to coast.
President Donald Trump seems more concerned with his Washington beautification projects than his party's midterm election wipeout. Trump signed a proclamation on Thursday that he said will prevent future changes to the Oval Office and Cabinet Room, both of which he redesigned. It's the third day this week that the president has delivered remarks fixated on his construction pet projects...
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Donald Trump on Thursday signed a proclamation that he said will prevent future changes to the Oval Office and Cabinet Room as he has redesigned them.
China has exponentially expanded its network of illegal overseas police stations, to “extend its tentacles” across a web of new community associations, according to a report by international human rights group Safeguard Defenders. In its latest report, the Spanish non-governmental organization (NGO) identifies nearly 1,250 overseas Chinese associations which they say are fronts for suspected police centres in 91 countries.
Ghana's head of state praised Canada this week for advocating against what he called a "rigged global system" that keeps African countries trapped by debt and mired in climate chaos. His comments come as Canadian officials confirm Ottawa will appoint a new Africa envoy, months after leaving the post vacant. "Canada has a favourable disposition towards the Global South," Ghana's...
The fallout from the Democrat tsunami that crashed over the U.S. Congress was swift on Wednesday, after American voters rejected President Donald Trump's turbulent second term with a midterm election blowout. In a stinging rebuke of the second Trump administration, Democrats flipped long-held Republican Senate seats in Texas, Maine and South Carolina. The blue wave also washed over House seats...
While Canada and the U.S. remain embroiled in an extended trade war, U.S. President Donald Trump suffered a huge domestic blow Tuesday, as the Democrats swept the midterm elections, taking control of both the Senate and the House of Representatives. The vote saw several long-held Republican states flip to the Democrats in a major rebuke of the president and his...
U.S. President is weakened, but still holds lots of executive power and can veto Democrat bills. A thumping, a shellacking, maybe even a disaster: there's no shortage of strong words you could choose to describe the midterm defeat that American voters just handed to U.S. President Donald Trump and his Republican Party. The Democrats will take control of both the...
On a ridge in northern France, two great white pillars rise nearly 30 metres toward the sky. Visible for kilometres across a former First World War battlefield, the Canadian National Vimy Memorial is one of Canada’s defining symbols, an expression of sacrifice, nationhood and remembrance. Each year, nearly a million people make the pilgrimage to Vimy Ridge. The memorial’s image...
On October 15, Ottawa committed $100 million to gather more offshore data for Nova Scotia’s Wind West offshore wind project. The next day, Premier Tim Houston stood beside EverWind Fuels at Point Tupper, Nova Scotia, as the company unveiled a $10-billion data-centre complex on a site long promoted for green hydrogen and ammonia; EverWind’s hydrogen project had already received nearly...
Public support for immigration in Canada has dropped sharply in recent years amid rising concerns about the cost of living and economic insecurity. Using Canadian election survey data dating from 1988, we find that people who feel economically insecure are more likely to hold negative views of immigration. This link has become stronger since 2019. Negative attitudes toward immigration also...
A collection of SubStack publishing within Canadian public affairs.
Six years ago, a Burlington-made camera turned up on Turkish drones in the war over Nagorno-Karabakh, and Ottawa shut off arms exports to Turkey.
Prime Minister Mark Carney’s ad-lib brought down the house at Thursday night’s Forever Canadian rally in Calgary. “They’re a little touchy down there at the moment,” he added, to roars from a crowd of about 5,000.
RCMP officers who responded to the April 2020 mass murders in Nova Scotia will receive bravery medals from Governor General Louise Arbour. An announcement is expected “imminently,” says an Arbour spokesperson. The medals follow 23 awards for excellence quietly distributed last year by RCMP Commissioner Mike Duheme to RCMP members and employees who managed the grisly incident, in which 2...
At Issue this week: Mark Carney's second budget lays out billions to build Canada's sovereignty and tackle the affordability crisis, but will it work? And what does the Democratic Blue-nami mean for Canada-U.S. trade talks?
The federal government has released the 2026 budget. And this year the focus is on new net spending. It looks to put money toward boosting the housing supply, investing in Canadian businesses and bulking up the cultural sector. How do those ambitions balance against fiscal constraints and a deficit?
The federal budget was unveiled Thursday afternoon, and it lays out some of the big bets the Carney government plans on making in the years ahead. A $36-billion tax break to kickstart an “investment supercycle”. A number of affordability measures. A plan to end homelessness within a decade.
The political stakes are high in the six federal byelections scheduled for December 7. Mark Carney’s majority will survive intact regardless of the outcome, but his Liberal Party is looking to make gains at the expense of the Conservatives, New Democrats and Bloc Québécois, putting the other three leaders on the defensive — especially Pierre Poilievre, as his party’s polling...
