Multiple government and industry sources close to trade discussions between Canada and the United States tell CTV News the momentum of the talks, just recently re-started in earnest, combined with U.S. President Donald Trump’s political vulnerabilities ahead of the midterms leads them to believe there is considerable appetite from the White House to strike a deal with Canada. All the...
The British government has turned down Ottawa's attempts to have it join the international Defence, Security and Resilience Bank, though London says it will work in lockstep with Canada to meet NATO spending targets. The DSRB is meant to reduce borrowing costs for military spending by pooling credit strength among allies. Canada has tried for months to convince
Canada has received its first pair of new F-35 fighter jets, with Ottawa still deliberating on how many of the American planes it will buy. The Royal Canadian Air Force announced receiving the two Lockheed Martin jets Friday on social media with a photo from Phoenix showing one plane with a maple-leaf roundel. The air force could not immediately say...
Former president Barack Obama took aim at U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs on Canadian goods Saturday during an impassioned speech at a Democrat campaign rally in Detroit, Michigan, ahead of next month's U.S. midterm elections. During a speech supporting Democratic candidates Abdul El-Sayed and Jocelyn Benson, Obama mocked the current president's tariff war with its northern neighbour while jokingly referring...
British Columbia's premier-designate Lorne Doerkson's long to-do list includes lowering taxes, while reviewing the provincial finances, working with Alberta and the federal government on the proposed Pacific Link pipeline and repealing Indigenous legislation. Doerkson laid out his priorities at a news conference Sunday, just hours after his party was elected with about two-thirds of the province's 93 seats in the...
The latest Liaison Strategies Toronto Pulse results put Olivia Chow at 52% among decided and leaning voters, followed by Brad Bradford at 44% and someone else at 4%. With the candidates drawing support from different parts of Toronto, the geographic composition of the final vote will be important. Liaison surveyed a random sample of 750 Toronto residents from October 2...
Our latest national tracking survey was conducted from October 16 to 21, 2026, as the federal government continues to navigate an uncertain economic environment, ongoing tensions with the United States, and persistent concerns about affordability and the cost of living. Despite those pressures, support for the Liberal Party and the federal government led by Mark Carney remains strong. In fact...
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...
Canada and the U.S. are “very close” to a trade deal, a key adviser to U.S. President Donald Trump said, days after the White House imposed new tariffs on Canadian goods and dropped others. National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett made the remark during an interview on Fox News Sunday. He said U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick had been speaking...
Voters gave Lorne Doerkson's B.C. Conservatives a two-thirds majority government on Saturday, now members of his party need to do the same to change their constitution to allow an interim leader to become permanent. ? The party's constitution prohibits an interim leader from seeking leadership in subsequent ballot, and change would require the support of two-thirds of the party's members...
Growing up in Huntsville, Ont., I learned early that community is not an abstract concept. It has faces and names. This was not simply something I observed; it was my lived experience. Months before my 16th birthday, determined to chart a path different from the one my parents had envisioned for me, I left home. I had no plan.
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...
Using her toughest words yet, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith decreed to United Conservative Party members Wednesday: get on the federalist train or get off the platform. No candidate, provincial board or constituency association board member would be permitted to publicly argue for anything other than a stronger Alberta within a united Canada, she said. But a parsing of Smith’s words...
Amid all the attention paid to her mildly salacious revelations about Justin Trudeau, Chrystia Freeland has been saying stuff that’s much more relevant to our current moment. At every tour stop to promote her new book “Unreliable Boyfriend: An Insider’s View of Dealing with a Chaotic Superpower, Plutocrats, and Other Complicated People,” the former federal cabinet titan has been going...
A spectre is haunting the United States — the spectre of Canada. At least, that’s according to the American embassy in Ottawa. In a new memo published Wednesday afternoon, the U.S. has directly accused Canada of meddling in their domestic affairs.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is like the arsonist who tries to play the hero because they helped put out the flames of a fire that they started. Don’t be fooled, she’s anything but a hero. She set things in motion towards the potential breakup of Canada, then fought against her own referendum question. She doesn’t deserve any credit. That goes...
One of the striking things about the Alberta referendum campaign was the media frenzy it triggered: wall-to-wall coverage, over-the-top headlines that declared Confederation was at stake. The outcome was never in doubt. As every poll testified, the result would be a rout. The hard-right separatists had about as much chance of victory as Eddie the Eagle winning the ski jump...
I believe the correct word is debacle. As in, “comprehensive failure, humiliating defeat, fiasco.” The secessionist campaign that Albertans have, in their wisdom and their mercy, dispatched to the hereafter is far from the only victim of the grotesque pantomime of democracy – 10 questions, none of them of any legal or practical effect – the province’s Premier saw fit...
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith fed a stray cat, in hopes that it would go away. But stray cats don’t do that. They eat until their bellies swell, then saunter away to go sleep it off. The next morning, however, they’ll come back for another meal, screeching by the side door until someone appears with a plate. And then, the next...
The separatists lose huge and now it's how Danielle Smith plays the cards she has in this game of high-stakes political poker
Similar levels of support launched secessionist parties in Quebec and Scotland decades ago, and both are in power today
First Nations leaders are gathering in Ottawa on Sunday for ceremonies ahead of a historic meeting on Monday with some premiers and Prime Minister Mark Carney. National Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak told reporters Sunday that First Nations want to be partners with the provinces in making a strong economy that works for everyone. "We see geopolitical unrest around the world...
The “energy poverty” experienced in Canada’s North has significant consequences for affordability, residents’ health and safety, and could affect the feds’ big economic plans if Ottawa doesn’t do more to help, said multiple witnesses, including territorial cabinet ministers, at a recent House Indigenous and Northern Affairs Committee meeting. “In a Yukon winter, electricity reliability isn’t a convenience; it is a...
India’s High Commissioner to Canada Dinesh K. Patnaik says he is “confident” a trade deal between Canada and India will be reached before Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Canada in December. “We have got most of it worked out. A few nicks here and there. Some legal scrubbing. But I’m extremely confident that we will be able to achieve...
The British Columbia Conservative Party has won a majority government after NDP Leader David Eby's decision to call a snap election two years early backfired in spectacular fashion. Here are the latest developments. All times are local.
British Columbians got their best look so far at Lorne Doerkson on Saturday night, their premier-designate, and self-described "guy from Williams Lake." The interim B.C. Conservative leader delivered a rollicking victory speech as he revelled in a sweeping majority win, secured in a snap provincial election called by outgoing Premier David Eby in a disastrous political miscalculation. Doerkson had emerged...
Just over five weeks ago, Lorne Doerkson was an obscure British Columbia legislator whose party was falling apart at the seams. He is now set to become premier at the head of a majority government, soundly defeating the New Democrats in Saturday's snap election that backfired spectacularly on outgoing Premier David Eby, who announced his resignation as NDP leader. It...
Lots of finger-pointing as the week comes to an end -- Danielle Smith tells separatists to get out of her party; Pete Hoekstra tells Canadians to stop interfering with Washington politics, while Mark Carney seems to be taking the "take a valium" approach. Quite the week for Chantal and Bruce to sum things up on this week's Good Talk.
For anyone looking, it was right there in bold text: white on blue, a message affixed to the front of the lectern Alberta Premier Danielle Smith used to speak two days after her province overwhelmingly rejected the pursuit of separatism. “Stronger Alberta within a United Canada,” the text read. It was a new formulation of a familiar refrain for Ms...
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says the matter of separatism is settled within her party and she doesn’t need the support of those who want the province to leave Canada. Smith says she told members of her United Conservative Party on Wednesday that they should support the will of the majority of Albertans who have voted to stay in Canada, or...
U.S. President Donald Trump is lifting some tariffs on Canadian exports at the end of this month, but adding tariffs to dozens of new products, including Canadian garbage and sewage. As the trade war with Canada becomes a ballot box issue in key races ahead of November's midterm election, Maine Sen. Susan Collins, a Republican, said Friday nine categories of...
Canada’s parliamentary budget officer is raising concerns over Canada’s debt levels, with the federal government set to table its budget in a little over a week. The PBO released her latest economic forecast on Tuesday, which is projecting slower growth in the country’s real GDP forecast, and laying the blame at the feet of the U.S. tariff war on Canada...
Havana is urging Ottawa not to drop its public opposition to the decades-long U.S. embargo as Washington ramps up pressure on countries supporting Cuba. "We are confident that Canada will stay with us, as they have done in the past," Cuban Ambassador to Canada Rodrigo Malmierca Diaz told The Canadian Press. "The blockade and this intensification is, in practice, killing...
First Nations leaders are gathering in Ottawa on Sunday for ceremonies ahead of a historic meeting on Monday with some premiers and Prime Minister Mark Carney. Monday's meeting will the first such gathering since the Kelowna Accord talks of 2005, which brought premiers and then-prime minister Paul Martin together with Indigenous leaders to discuss ways to close the socioeconomic gaps...
Separatist leaders affiliated with the Alberta Prosperity Project say the group’s two most prominent members – Jeffrey Rath and Mitch Sylvestre – were fired by the organization six weeks ago, but the news was kept quiet to avoid derailing the referendum campaign. In a Thursday night social-media post, Tanya Clemens said the APP’s board, of which she says she’s a...
Canada is showing up at this year's international nature summit in Armenia with pledges to protect swaths of land bigger than most countries. But it's also facing criticism for advancing major projects that put those protections in jeopardy. Environment and Climate Change Minister Julie Dabrusin spoke to CBC News about the work she hopes to advance in Yerevan and responded...
British Columbians go to the polls today in an early election called by NDP Leader David Eby in the biggest gamble of his political life. The five-week campaign saw the major parties fight over issues from health care to housing, the province's record deficit and the increasing cost of living. Polls open at 8.a.m. and close at 8 p.m. in...
After three days spent fostering tighter economic and political ties with Turkey, Prime Minister Mark Carney is on his way home to Ottawa. Carney closed out his trip earlier this morning by visiting one of Istanbul's many great cultural landmarks, the Kariye Mosque, accompanied by his wife, Diana Fox Carney. The mosque was once a Byzantine church and is renowned...
Despite Alberta's decision to remain a province of Canada rather than hold another referendum, anger is still simmering at the surface, says Preston Manning. The former Calgary MP and leader of Canada's Reform party, which later morphed into the Conservative Party of Canada, doesn't believe that the issues that prompted Alberta's referendum have been solved.
Industry Minister Melanie Joly says new federal investments announced Friday are a first step toward reducing the Canadian aluminum sector's dependence on the United States. Joly, who is also the minister responsible for economic development in Quebec, made the comments in La Baie, Que., where she announced more than $193 million in federal funding for projects at four Rio Tinto...
PM criticizes 'whoever' decided to limit Ukraine's ability to track Russian strikes. Prime Minister Mark Carney on Friday criticized a decision to restrict Ukraine's access to Elon Musk's military-grade satellite network, saying the move is costing lives. "I search for the right adjective to describe whoever took this decision, or a group of people took this decision, against a country...
A senior federal adviser says the Liberals are poised to release a new national security strategy -- the first such policy in more than two decades. David Morrison, senior diplomatic and international affairs adviser to Prime Minister Mark Carney, says the strategy will look to bolster Canada's defences against an array of security threats.
Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem may have boxed himself into an interest-rate hike next week after his hawkish commentary convinced traders a hike is all but certain.
Canada and the U.S. are close to a trade deal, according to U.S. President Donald Trump. Asked about progress toward a deal with Mexico, Trump said during a scrum with reporters in Washington that his administration is “very close” to a “very good” deal. “The same thing with Canada. Canada’s working very hard to make a deal with us. And...
Prime Minister Mark Carney said he is “disappointed” in ongoing allegations from U.S. Ambassador to Canada Pete Hoekstra, who is accusing Canadian politicians of interfering in the upcoming U.S. midterm elections. “There is no merit to these claims, so I’ll call it out that way,” Carney said while speaking to reporters in Istanbul on Friday. “I’m disappointed that their envoy...
Prime Minister Mark Carney says there is "no merit" to American claims that Canadians might be interfering in U.S. politics ahead of November's midterm elections. Officials in the Trump administration, including U.S. Ambassador to Canada Pete Hoekstra, have claimed Canadian politicians are interfering in the democratic process south of the border. Hoekstra said earlier this month that the administration is...
Prime Minister Mark Carney said Friday a Canadian company has a real shot at winning a lucrative tender to supply nuclear energy to Turkey — a prospect he said was remote a year ago. Carney was meeting with Turkish business leaders in Istanbul Friday, a day after he announced a new strategic partnership between Canada and Turkey to deepen co-operation...
National Defence plans to install 47 sensor stations across the North starting as early as next summer to bolster Norad's surveillance and early warning abilities, according to recently published regulatory filings. The planned installations would start in Yukon near the Alaskan border and follow along the Arctic coast across the Northwest Territories, reaching as far out as Alert, Nunavut, the...
Prime Minister Mark Carney is defending Canada's decision to seek closer ties with Turkey as the country is accused of infringing on LGBTQ+ rights. Carney is in Turkey for a three-day trip to strike a new strategic partnership for deeper economic and social ties with the NATO ally. A joint statement released Thursday with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan stated...
It's the last full day of campaigning in British Columbia's election ahead of final voting day Saturday, when most ballots will be counted by hand. Elections BC has confirmed that votes cast on election day will be tallied manually, in a departure from 2024, when electronic tabulators were used to count paper ballots for the first time in a general...
A union representative for a beef processing plant south of Calgary is warning of worsening labour shortages if immigration policy proposals that narrowly passed in Alberta's referendum are enacted. "These are tough and high turnover jobs with few candidates lining up to fill them," said Faduma Ahmed, with the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 401 at Cargill's abattoir in...
Two Catholic bishops have expressed regret about agreeing to a White House meeting that produced a publicly distributed photo of them praying with President Donald Trump.
FORT MYERS, Fla. (AP) -- President Donald Trump on Friday told a rally for candidates in South Florida that U.S. warships returning from the Middle East could stop over in Cuba on their way back from the Iran war, his latest suggestion of taking an interventionist approach to the nearby country.
Republican Vivek Ramaswamy on Friday defended his campaign's ad featuring the estranged mother of Democratic rival Dr. Amy Acton in the closely watched race for Ohio governor.
PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- President Donald Trump on Thursday accused LeBron James of disrespecting the United States after the NBA star appeared to continue his warmups while the national anthem was performed before Philadelphia's season opener on Tuesday.
Havana is urging Ottawa not to drop its public opposition to the decades-long U.S. embargo as Washington ramps up pressure on countries supporting Cuba. "We are confident that Canada will stay with us, as they have done in the past," Cuban Ambassador to Canada Rodrigo Malmierca Diaz told The Canadian Press. "The blockade and this intensification is, in practice, killing...
PM criticizes 'whoever' decided to limit Ukraine's ability to track Russian strikes. Prime Minister Mark Carney on Friday criticized a decision to restrict Ukraine's access to Elon Musk's military-grade satellite network, saying the move is costing lives. "I search for the right adjective to describe whoever took this decision, or a group of people took this decision, against a country...
Prime Minister Mark Carney said Friday a Canadian company has a real shot at winning a lucrative tender to supply nuclear energy to Turkey — a prospect he said was remote a year ago. Carney was meeting with Turkish business leaders in Istanbul Friday, a day after he announced a new strategic partnership between Canada and Turkey to deepen co-operation...
Prime Minister Mark Carney is defending Canada's decision to seek closer ties with Turkey as the country is accused of infringing on LGBTQ+ rights. Carney is in Turkey for a three-day trip to strike a new strategic partnership for deeper economic and social ties with the NATO ally. A joint statement released Thursday with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan stated...
Prime Minister Mark Carney is betting that a promise to deepen Canada's economic and social ties with Turkey will help reset relations between two countries that haven't always seen eye to eye. Canada is forming a three-year "strategic partnership" with Turkey aimed in part at securing a free-trade agreement, Carney announced Thursday after an hour-long meeting with Turkish President Recep...
In a previous commentary, I suggested that the Bank of Canada replace its near-term inflation targeting framework (maintaining two per cent inflation over a horizon of approximately two years) with a macrofinancial stability framework. This new regime would focus on ensuring price stability over a longer-term horizon, allowing policy interest rates to “lean” against financial booms and busts. In this...
Canada cannot afford to treat citizenship as paperwork to process rather than a covenant worth keeping.
The federal government’s internal accountability regime continues to grow more complex. Public service leadership is detached from policy implementation and socialized to avoid risk. Public servants should be evaluated on the rules they remove and services delivered. Those with delivery experience should be rotated periodically into roles that establish internal processes and policies. Improving the federal accountability regime requires simplifying...
A collection of SubStack publishing within Canadian public affairs.
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...
Prime Minister Mark Carney has finally charted a course out of the morass that is 24 Sussex Drive, the official residence of Canada’s prime ministers since 1951. Carney’s June announcement of a private-sector competition to “modernize” the decrepit building, abandoned in 2015 and later put into mothballs, was welcomed by heritage advocates as an end to a political impasse. A...
Alberta voted decisively to stay in Canada. Stéphane Dion and Janet Annesley welcome the result. But both view the referendum a “sad exercise”? Former Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Stéphane Dion and Alberta energy and public affairs adviser Janet Annesley join hosts Edward Greenspon and Allan Gregg in back-to-back conversations about what the vote exposed and what comes next. Can Ottawa address...
American officials are alleging Canadian electoral interference in the U.S. midterms, what’s behind the latest missives from the Trump administration? And as Alberta Premier Danielle Smith asks separatists in her party to accept their loss or leave, will they listen? The National Post’s Stuart Thomson and Tonda MacCharles of the Toronto Star discuss. Then, as British Columbia heads to the...
At Issue this week: Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says her party is committed to Canada but will UCP separatists play ball? B.C. stares down a close provincial election race after David Eby's big gamble. And, what to make of U.S. accusations that Canada is meddling in midterm elections.
As Canada looks to rely less on the United States, it’s looking across the Atlantic to build closer ties with Europe. There’s even talk of Canada becoming the European Union’s first associate member.
