In an interview with POLITICO, the Canadian prime minister delivered a sharp brushback to Washington just days before the U.S. midterm. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said Friday that if his government could not successfully negotiate a suitable trade pact with the Trump administration, he was prepared to wait for a new American president to close the deal. In an...
Prime Minister Mark Carney is expected to call by-elections shortly, with his party nominating candidates for four ridings in Ontario, Quebec and Saskatchewan in the past week. The Liberals will head into those elections having raised more money than the Conservatives in the third quarter of 2026, a reversal of roles for the Tories, who traditionally lead the pack in...
Alberta’s chief electoral officer is urging members of the provincial legislature to either not approve the new electoral maps scheduled to be released Monday or delay next year’s provincial election, saying Elections Alberta doesn’t have the time or resources to implement the changes by next year’s fixed election date. Chief Electoral Officer Gordon McClure, in a Friday letter sent to...
A decision from the Court of Arbitration for Sport requiring Russian teams to be allowed back into international ice hockey tournaments is “unwelcome,” Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney said Friday in an interview with POLITICO. CAS ruled that the International Ice Hockey Federation can no longer bar Russia from participating in the coming World Junior Championship in Canada this December...
Last night Donald Trump cancelled his final weekend rallies in the US midterms. Why? Is he doing so poorly it's not worth it? Or does he have something else planned? How critical are Tuesday's results to the negotiations with Canada? Are we at yet another turning point in the relationship? Lots of questions for Bruce and Chantal.
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 was at the G8 where my growing animosity toward Vladimir Putin would start to become public. I had been accused of having a Cold War mentality and bringing that to Canada’s relations with Russia. The charge was simply not true. My view is that Russia’s natural long-term gravitation should be toward the West, not against it. I believe the...
Welcome to Grand Strategy Fall. The Carney government is publishing some serious stacks of paper describing how it plans to make Canada relevant again, including a national security strategy, released on Thursday; a new defence policy, already in effect but not yet published; and a full foreign policy.
Democrats are hoping Tuesday's midterm elections will give them the power to rein in U.S. President Donald Trump -- but Canadians hoping for an outcome that stabilizes the rocky bilateral relationship may be disappointed. Once-safe Republican seats are now in peril and control of Congress could flip. Trump's poll numbers are plummeting thanks to his unpopular war in Iran, rising...
Prime Minister Mark Carney has laid out a timeline that would see Canada sign an agreement on a new partnership with the European Union in the next seven months, if all goes well. Carney said Friday that Ottawa and Brussels are working toward the "deepest possible partnership short of accession" that would see Canada become "the European Union's first associate...
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?
There are some things you just have to get done quickly, and there are others where you should take the time you need to get it right. The key is knowing which is which. But when it comes to the thorny issues involved in medical assistance in dying, or MAID, the federal government is showing it doesn’t know, or care...
“Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney declined to let Quebec’s newly-elected separatist premier deliver a speech at the Canada-European Union Summit in Montreal this week, sparking a wave of backlash in the French-speaking province
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...
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...
As Canada-U.S. trade talks intensify, the federal government is pushing ahead with efforts to diversify Canada’s trading relationships and attract foreign investment, with a series of international meetings and trade initiatives planned in the coming weeks, and several others that have already happened. This week, Canada and the United Arab Emirates launched a new strategic partnership. “A comprehensive economic partnership...
The planned Roberts Bank Terminal 2 expansion, which is expected to add 2.4 million containers of capacity at the Port of Vancouver, the largest in the country, has officially been named a project of national interest. Transport Minister Steven MacKinnon said the move provides certainty for a project that's a key part of Ottawa's drive to expand and diversify trade...
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says high-profile separatist leader Jeff Rath has been kicked out of her United Conservative Party. Smith told reporters in Calgary that the party's executive director made the decision to revoke Rath's membership over code of conduct issues, and it's a decision she supports. "Somebody whose objective and mission is to turn us into something we are...
Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand says Russia should not have attended a G20 meeting the U.S. hosted on Friday, but she still used the opportunity to make a point to Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. "I was sitting at a table directly across from Sergei Lavrov and I looked him in the eye," she told The Canadian Press on Friday. "I...
Prime Minister Mark Carney said Canada is working to become the European Union's first associate member, his most definitive statement on the issue to date after hosting the bloc's leaders in Montreal this week. This year's Canada-EU summit saw Canada and European officials finalize a number of negotiations and launch a long list of new commitments as part of a...
Brantford is seeing election controversy before a winter by-election has even been announced yet. In September, Federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre exercised his power as leader, and chose the party’s candidate, despite there being others interested in vying for the spot. CHCH News spoke with one of those men, who is leaving the party and plans to run as an...
A pastor and longtime Conservative is running as an independent candidate in an upcoming federal byelection in Ontario after the party chose to bypass a local nomination contest and appoint Brantford Mayor Kevin Davis as its candidate. Dave Carrol's decision to run independently adds intrigue to the Brantford-Brant byelection as it could draw votes from the Conservatives, who were already...
Canada and the European Union capped a much-anticipated two-day summit by agreeing to strike the “deepest possible partnership short of accession,” as their political leaders double down on a pathway towards Canada becoming an associate member. In an 11-page joint statement, Canada and the EU struck agreement on a swath of areas, including foreign policy, trade, advanced technologies, defence and...
Prime Minister Mark Carney says Ottawa has made progress on a trade irritant with the European Union — a carbon tariff on energy intensive Canadian exports. At the closing news conference for the Canada-EU summit in Montreal, Carney said there are "common solutions" to resolving the carbon import levy on Canadian products such as iron ore, steel, aluminum, cement and...
Bourbon is a way of life in Bardstown, Ky. The town of more than 13,000 people, located about an hour from Louisville, is known as the bourbon capital of the world. Kentucky distillers were hit hard in March 2025 when Canadian provinces pulled American alcohol and spirits off the shelves in response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs. Most still...
De Havilland’s banana-yellow Super Scooper looks like something drawn from the cover of a 1960s Beatles album. But the deceptively retro airplane is actually the only purpose-built water bomber currently in production. In aerial firefighting, it’s prized for its hulking tank capacity and its remarkable adroitness when scooping: the plane can lift 6,000 litres of water from a lake or...
Canada and the European Union officially launched an "alliance for the future" on Friday and pledged to spend the next eight months in negotiations on making Canada an associate member — despite objections to that language on both sides of the Atlantic. "Today we move toward associate membership for Canada and we launch a new alliance for the future," Prime...
Ottawa is drawing inspiration from the North American Free Trade Agreement as it works to develop a new alliance with the European Union, Industry Minister Melanie Joly says. Joly told The Canadian Press that Canada's trade agreement with the United States and Mexico fostered industrial integration that has worked effectively in North America for decades. The minister said the accord...
The federal government posted a deficit of $5.36 billion for the first five months of its 2026-27 fiscal year. In its monthly fiscal monitor report, the Finance Department says the result compared with a deficit of $11.07 billion in the same April-to-August period a year earlier. The deficit came as revenue totalled $215.54 billion, up from $201.18 billion a year...
New Brunswick's Crown-owned electric utility is being criticized for changing its policy on the sale of excess power. Forestry giant J.D. Irving Ltd. executive Mark Mosher says his company and others used to purchase NB Power's surplus electricity at discounted rates. But earlier this year, the provincial regulator started allowing the utility to sell that surplus power to customers in...
Statistics Canada says the economy stalled for a second month in a row in August amid weakness in the public sector and wholesale trade. The agency says real gross domestic product was essentially unchanged in August despite a rebound in retail trade that more than offset a decline in July. Manufacturing output has also grown in five of the last...
A proposal to ban sports betting advertisements is picking up steam on Parliament Hill. For years, Ontario Sen. Marty Deacon has sought to curtail the number of gambling ads shown to Canadians during broadcasts of hockey games, football matches, and other sporting events. Bill S-211, introduced in the Senate last year, would create a national framework for regulating sports betting...
CIBC is naming former federal finance minister Bill Morneau as the next chair of its board of directors. Morneau will assume the role on Jan. 1, succeeding Katharine Stevenson, who is will retire from the board at the end of 2026. Stevenson has been chair of the bank for six years and an independent director for 10 years. Morneau has...
U.S. President Donald Trump has been telling supporters to vote like he's on the midterm ballot next Tuesday -- but voters are heading to the polls looking for politicians ready to tackle the affordability crisis. Trump returned to the White House with a massive agenda to realign global trade and a promise to Americans that his tariff policies would reinvigorate...
The top diplomatic officials from Canada and the European Union inched closer to laying blame with the United States for the need for deeper ties, despite remarking that the new approach isn’t about “any other country.” Canadian and EU officials have avoided directly pointing a finger at U.S. President Donald Trump as the reason they are seeking a more intense...
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith could face another political test as United Conservative Party members prepare to debate dozens of policy resolutions, including proposals to end Indigenous land acknowledgements and restrict transgender access to washrooms and change rooms.
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...
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...
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...
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.
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...
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...
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...
Norway has turned to a bit of toilet humor in response to U.S. President Donald Trump's recent comments insulting the Scandinavian country and the Nobel Peace Prize.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Donald Trump has rescheduled weekend campaign rallies in a pair of critical Midwestern states that he had previously canceled, according to a person familiar with the plans.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Early voting is continuing to significantly outpace the last midterm election, with millions more Americans casting ballots in advance and particularly sharp increases in states hosting competitive Senate races, according to an Associated Press analysis of voting data five days before Election Day.
U.S. President Donald Trump has been telling supporters to vote like he's on the midterm ballot next Tuesday -- but voters are heading to the polls looking for politicians ready to tackle the affordability crisis. Trump returned to the White House with a massive agenda to realign global trade and a promise to Americans that his tariff policies would reinvigorate...
Democrats are hoping Tuesday's midterm elections will give them the power to rein in U.S. President Donald Trump -- but Canadians hoping for an outcome that stabilizes the rocky bilateral relationship may be disappointed. Once-safe Republican seats are now in peril and control of Congress could flip. Trump's poll numbers are plummeting thanks to his unpopular war in Iran, rising...
Prime Minister Mark Carney has laid out a timeline that would see Canada sign an agreement on a new partnership with the European Union in the next seven months, if all goes well. Carney said Friday that Ottawa and Brussels are working toward the "deepest possible partnership short of accession" that would see Canada become "the European Union's first associate...
Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand says Russia should not have attended a G20 meeting the U.S. hosted on Friday, but she still used the opportunity to make a point to Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. "I was sitting at a table directly across from Sergei Lavrov and I looked him in the eye," she told The Canadian Press on Friday. "I...
Prime Minister Mark Carney said Canada is working to become the European Union's first associate member, his most definitive statement on the issue to date after hosting the bloc's leaders in Montreal this week. This year's Canada-EU summit saw Canada and European officials finalize a number of negotiations and launch a long list of new commitments as part of a...
A decision from the Court of Arbitration for Sport requiring Russian teams to be allowed back into international ice hockey tournaments is “unwelcome,” Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney said Friday in an interview with POLITICO. CAS ruled that the International Ice Hockey Federation can no longer bar Russia from participating in the coming World Junior Championship in Canada this December...
Canada is facing a range of challenges that will drive economic transformation at the national, regional and local levels. The relationship with the United States, its largest trading partner, is changing. Investment in defence is growing. Global energy markets are shifting as investment in clean energy and electrification is rising. The changing climate and geopolitical tensions are creating new risks...
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...
As Canada defines its foreign policy and rebuilds its hard power, Tom Codrington, CSS Senior Fellow, argues that its global reputation deserves strategic investment too. From cultural exports to scientific leadership, the article explores how Canada can turn its soft power into concrete gains for its security, prosperity and international influence.
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...
Nick Taylor-Vaisey and Brussels Playbook host Zoya Sheftalovich sit down with Prime Minister Mark Carney for a feature interview on Canada’s developing relationship with the EU, trade talks with Donald Trump, support for Ukraine — and exactly when he will wear one of the Brooks Brothers shirts the U.S. president gifted him.
American voters head to the polls on Tuesday for pivotal midterm elections — and Canadian tariffs have become a key issue in battleground states. But is the spotlight good for Canada? Guest host J.P. Tasker speaks to former American diplomat Scotty Greenwood, former Trump advisor John Bolton, former Democratic state senator Emily Cain, Republican political strategist Dennis Lennox, Bloomberg reporter...
After an “out of control” spike in temporary residents, the Carney government says Canada’s immigration system is back under control. But Jason Kenney, Canada’s longest-serving immigration minister, says what was once a model system is still far from fixed — and now is not the time to raise immigration levels again. This week on Open Question, Kenney joins CPAC’s Marc-André...
At Issue this week: Confusion and resentment over how to define the relationship becomes a hot topic at the Canada-EU summit in Montreal. With U.S. midterms days away, is Canada any closer to a trade deal? And, Ottawa ramps up pressure on Cleveland-Cliffs to restore jobs at Stelco.
