Filmmaker Avi Lewis has been elected as the NDP's new leader, defeating his four rivals on the first ballot with nearly 40,000 votes. This victory signals a shift toward the party pushing big, unabashedly left-wing policies like government-owned and operated grocery stores as grassroots pushed for change after a devastating election result last year. Despite the strong mandate from party...
The American and Israeli war against Iran is 29 days old, and is costing America somewhere between a billion and 2 billion dollars a day. Far from getting a “rally around the flag” public opinion boost, Americans were skeptical from the start, and opinion has been hardening, especially against the idea of putting American troops on the ground. Even most...
The CEO of the Swedish manufacturing company Saab says there are still “intensive” talks underway with the Canadian government around the potential purchase of Gripen fighter jets, but that he has no timeline for when Canada will finish its review of the American-made F-35s. The federal government launched a review a year ago of its plan to purchase dozens of...
When he’s in the House of Commons during the daily 45-minute Question Period, Mark Carney seems to enjoy himself. While it’s never shown on TV cameras — House of Commons personnel and not broadcasters control the visuals — those in the galleries will often see Carney smiling and joking with members of the opposition, including Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre. Judging...
The Liberal leadership front-runner is vying for the the Ontario party’s nomination. Make way for the Nate juggernaut. That’s the message from the apparent front-runner in the Ontario Liberal leadership race to rivals hotly contesting the party’s nomination in Scarborough Southwest.
The American and Israeli war against Iran is 29 days old, and is costing America somewhere between a billion and 2 billion dollars a day. Far from getting a “rally around the flag” public opinion boost, Americans were skeptical from the start, and opinion has been hardening, especially against the idea of putting American troops on the ground. Even most...
Between March 19 and 24, 2026, Abacus Data surveyed 1,515 Canadian adults as part of our ongoing federal political tracking. This latest wave of research finds a political environment that remains largely unchanged from earlier in March. The Liberals continue to hold a clear national advantage, underlying attitudes about the government are steady, and the broader context shaping public opinion shows little meaningful movement.
By now, it’s clear that no matter what kind of resolution U.S. President Donald Trump attempts to impose on his latest misadventure in Iran, this conflict and its global repercussions will be far from over. More likely, it will resemble George W. Bush’s infamous “mission accomplished” moment aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln in 2003: a premature declaration of victory that...
The thing about Mark Carney’s government is that he’s not subtle about what he’s interested in – and what he’s not. When his cabinet was sworn in, the Prime Minister issued a single mandate letter for all his ministers containing just seven priorities wrapped relentlessly around economic development and sovereignty. And the way Mr. Carney has gone about tackling that...
Liberals lead everywhere except Saskatchewan and Alberta and the gap has closed there. A few weeks shy of the first anniversary of the election of a Mark Carney led government finds the country broadly endorsing his leadership. Our latest Spark Insights national survey (4000, online, field work between March 22-26, 2025) finds Liberal support at 46% compared to 30% for the Conservatives.
Amid the howling winds of the Sweet Grass Hills lies Border Road, a 14-kilometre ribbon of manicured gravel stretching between the United States and Canada. The shared road is on the Montana side, but Alberta maintains it. North of the road lives Ross Ford. On the south, it's Roger Horgus.
There has been a lot of debate in recent weeks about the province’s decision to take over the City of Toronto’s role in the agreement governing Billy Bishop Airport and to acquire the city-owned lands at the airport. Some have asked why the province would take such a step. The answer is that Billy Bishop is a critical piece of...
I have an urgent request for Prime Minister Mark Carney: please come to Vaughan, Ont., to meet with our Jewish community. As Vaughan’s mayor, I want you to know that Jews here feel angry, scared, defiant, tired, shocked and beleaguered. Who can blame them? I’ve lived my entire life in this country, but I have never before witnessed the shocking...
While Liberal MP Michael Ma has belatedly apologized for questioning the veracity of expert testimony at a Commons committee hearing that China uses forced labour — claiming that was not his intent — cozying up to China has been mainstream Liberal thinking in a line stretching from Justin Trudeau to Mark Carney.
Standing in front of a massive pipe organ at Winnipeg’s Knox United Church on Thursday evening, NDP scion Avi Lewis was preaching to the converted. It was the eve of the party’s leadership convention, one that party members believe could seal the NDP’s fate. Will the next leader revive a nearly moribund federal party by inspiring new and past voters...
There is nothing really new about the New Democratic Party, founded as it was in 1961. Nor with six seats, is it an official party, according to the status rules of the House of Commons. It is however, still democratic and the leadership vote culminating this weekend will point the way to where the NDP — and the progressive left...
No one knows where Donald Trump got the notion of annexing Canada. It hasn’t been seriously suggested by any significant figure in American politics for at least a century. There has been next to no take-up of the proposal, even among his MAGA followers. But the underlying premises – the idea that America must have complete dominion over the Western...
Here is an evergreen news story if there ever was one: the Prime Minister’s official residence has problems. Yes, we are talking about that again – the PM’s digs. Except this time we aren’t talking about 24 Sussex. We’re talking about the cottage that the Prime Minister of Canada had to move into on the grounds of the Governor-General’s residence...
Sunday's coronation won't revive a dead federal party, but his extremist agenda will absolutely tank their provincial success stories. Pundits love to overcomplicate politics, but the math for this Sunday’s NDP leadership vote is painfully simple. For Avi Lewis to be denied a first-ballot victory, the other four candidates on the ballot need to somehow scrape together 50% plus one...
Impressive ambition. A needed boost for Canadian sovereignty. Some hope for industrial transition. But when you get down to the math, there is only half the equation. The figures are big. After touring a Royal Canadian Navy ship on Thursday, and boasting that Canada has finally met the NATO target for defence spending, Prime Minister Mark Carney made a point...
In a way, the Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer came full circle this week. In February 2013, as the term of the first parliamentary budget officer neared an end, the Official Opposition put a motion before the House of Commons calling for the independence of the office to be reinforced and for the term of Kevin Page to be...
The Supreme Court spent most of this week hearing oral arguments in what is widely known as the Bill 21 case, after the infamous Quebec law banning the wearing of religious symbols in much of the public sector – effectively a hiring bar on observant members of certain religious minorities. Only it isn’t really Bill 21 that is at issue...
I once predicted semi-seriously in a long-ago column that climate change and calm — or a combination of temperature and temperament — would make Canada a 21st-century superpower. Donald Trump may have achieved it in half the time. The term “New World Order” went viral not long after the dawn of 2026, when Prime Minister Mark Carney used it to...
MY EXCELLENT FRIEND and former colleague Steve Walt of the Harvard Kennedy School calls them the predatory hegemons. America, China, and Russia are prowling the world, turning a rule-ordered playing field into a jungle in which the rule of the strongest prevails. The middling powers Prime Minister Mark Carney talked about at Davos are scrambling to escape the jungle. Carney’s...
For years, the dismal state of 24 Sussex Drive has been a recurring punchline, a symbol of political paralysis, and a quiet national embarrassment. I spent years inside the machinery of government, close enough to watch good policy die, not from bad ideas, but from political timidness. The file on 24 Sussex is one I know well. It remains, after...
Those who aspire to lead democratic nations are tested from the moment they declare their candidacy. Does he speak well? Is she good on her feet? How will he handle the economy? Will she be trusted in a crisis? Each candidate is sliced and smeared and pressed onto a slide, so that the electorate can inspect every personal and professional...
The Carney government needs to get its story straight on foreign interference and transnational repression — especially as it relates to India. After this government insisted that the Indian government was cooperating with the Canadian investigation into the murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar and other crimes like extortion and arson, the Indian government said there was never anything to investigate...
You’d never know it, given the scarcity of attention accorded the NDP leadership race, but there is so much riding on it. There’s the question of whether the party can survive, whether the sagging left in Canada can keep it alive. There is, ipso facto, the question of whether Canada is reduced to an American-styled two-party system, with less choice...
Just as turkeys don’t vote for Christmas, it would be unreasonable to expect Canada’s chicken farmers to elect for more open trade with the world’s major poultry exporter. The chicken sector is, after all, one of this country’s supply-managed industries. It’s protected from most foreign competition, ostensibly in the name of domestic food security but also, whisper it, to ensure...
There are days when Canada just makes me want to crawl under the bed and hide. Days when I wonder if this country really is redeemable, despite its endless natural resources, generally level-headed and tolerant population, geographic insulation from global strife and hundreds of years of good luck. Tuesday was one of those days. Wednesday was another. I’m not expecting...
Several years ago, a cabinet minister seated next to me at an Ottawa dinner, leaned in. The chatter around the table was the NDP’s particularly biting criticism of the Trudeau government that day. “I don’t mind,” the minister whispered in my ear. “They keep us honest.” This minister believed pressure from the NDP kept the Grits true to their values...
Except for the ill-conceived public campaign to get well-known commentator Don Cherry installed as a member of the Order of Canada, the Conservatives look like they have carved out a few positive weeks for themselves. It’s better than the abysmal fall and early winter that left many Conservative supporters in a foul mood, and Leader Pierre Poilievre constantly having to...
Avi Lewis likes neon-sign politics. That was the point of the Leap Manifesto he co-authored more than a decade ago in a bid to prod the NDP to the left. He didn’t propose steps. He wanted a leap. “We’re challenging decades of political clichés. So we want to spend like drunken sailors,” he said then, in an interview at the...
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith faces heat Tuesday from some folks who likely voted for her and the UCP in the last provincial election. Heat from those who may support Smith and like a lot of what she’s doing but think the deal she inked with Prime Minister Mark Carney to get a pipeline to the west coast is not worth...
Every March, millions of fans set aside their better judgment and give themselves over to the chaos of a basketball tournament aptly called March Madness. Its charm is simple. Anything can happen. Underdogs from small colleges sometimes topple the giants. We watch, we wince, we marvel. This year, the madness has spilled beyond the court into far more dangerous territory...
U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran have driven up prices, darkened the outlook for the world economy, sent global stock markets reeling and forced developing countries to ration fuel and subsidize energy costs to protect their poorest. Ongoing strikes and counterstrikes on Persian Gulf refineries, pipelines, gas fields and tanker terminals threaten to the prolong the global economic pain for...
Reports of the NDP’s death have been greatly exaggerated. That’s according to current and former politicians and party supporters at the NDP’s three-day convention in Winnipeg, Man., ahead of the crowning of a new leader. They say their path forward with a new leader will include door-knocking, winning seats, bold platforms, and hard work as the Carney Liberals leave an...
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said Saturday that for her, “a sovereign Alberta within a united Canada” means Alberta stays. Smith was reacting to UCP MLA Jason Stephan’s recent comments in an op-ed column in The Western Standard. In that piece, Stephan said he invited Albertans to sign the separation petition. “Signing the petition supports your right to vote and decide...
Add another star to the Junos guest list: Prime Minister Mark Carney. The prime minister will make his Junos debut at Hamilton's TD Coliseum on Sunday evening. Also due at the ceremony are Joni Mitchell, who will receive a lifetime achievement award, and Nelly Furtado, who is being inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame. Sarah McLachlan and Allison...
Premier to meet with politicians, business leaders in Houston, Dallas, and Austin. Ontario Premier Doug Ford is taking a trip to Texas next week, and packing his pro-trade and anti-tariff messages with him. Ford will visit Houston, Dallas and the state capital of Austin during the multi-day trip, which was first reported by The Toronto Star. The premier plans to...
A terrible crash of an Air Canada jet in New York becomes a language crisis at the top of the country's national airline. The airline employs more than 35 thousand people, about a third of them in Montreal. But their Montreal based CEO speaks only English and this week that became painfully clear. Bruce and Chantal have their thoughts on...
The NDP leadership candidates made their last pitch to voters Saturday morning in a last-ditch effort to win support from the handful of members who have not voted yet. Many of the roughly 2,000 delegates at the Winnipeg convention have already cast their ballots. This includes Sofia Lindfield, a delegate from Halifax who said this is her first year getting...
Premier Danielle Smith's parliamentary secretary for constitutional affairs is encouraging Albertans to sign a petition that calls for a vote on separation from Canada. Jason Stephan, a United Conservative Party legislature member, penned his opinion for the online conservative media outlet "Western Standard." In it, Stephan argues signing the petition to have a referendum on separation is different from signing...
Army commander warns current force structure isn't fit for rising threats. The military's operations command is currently drawing up an "all arms defence of Canada" plan which will lead to a major reorganization of the army this fall, says the country's top army commander. Lt.-Gen. Mike Wright, speaking at a land forces conference at the University of Calgary on Thursday...
Thousands of refugee claimants already in the system awaiting a hearing will have their asylum claims terminated under new eligibility criteria that are applied retroactively in a law that has just taken effect. Under the Strengthening Canada’s Immigration System and Borders Act, which received royal assent Thursday night, anyone who first arrived in Canada after June 24, 2020, will not...
The government will be making a "devil's bargain" if it moves ahead with a recommendation to boost revenue for sport organizations through taxes on sports gambling, former track and field Olympian Bruce Kidd said. A commission this week strongly urged the federal government to find new sources of revenue, including sports betting, to address a funding crisis hurting national sport...
Premier Wab Kinew spoke at convention, but sources say Manitoba NDP has distanced itself from national party. When Manitoba NDP Premier Wab Kinew addressed the federal leadership convention Friday in Winnipeg, he spoke one line three times during his speech: "To have a strong Canada, we need a strong federal NDP." For the battered federal party at an all time...
WINNIPEG -- Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew called on NDP delegates Friday to focus on issues like affordability and health care and put off tackling bigger policy ideas until they form a government.
American lawmakers are demanding answers from the Trump administration after a Canadian man says U.S. customs officers held him for three hours at the border and forced him to provide a DNA sample before sending him home. U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell, a Democrat who represents an area of Michigan just outside Detroit, says she’s “outraged” by the man’s experience...
Michael Ma's industry committee confrontation amplifies risk of U.S. tariff retaliation. Liberal MP Michael Ma's apology for confronting an academic witness about whether her evidence on forced labour in Chinese aluminum supply chains could be "hearsay" coincides with a highly sensitive moment in Canada's ongoing trade war with the Trump administration. After some of the tariffs Canada faced were struck...
Public servants who are eligible for the federal government's early retirement incentive can now apply for it after waiting months for the program's launch. The program -- part of the government's efforts to cut the number of public servants -- is meant to allow some federal workers to retire early without a pension penalty. It was announced in the fall...
Energy Minister Tim Hodgson said today the federal government is opposed to forced labour, a day after another Liberal MP cast doubt on China's labour practices. On Thursday, Michael Ma apologized after appearing to question reports of human rights abuses in China while engaging with a witness at a parliamentary committee hearing earlier in the evening.
Economists are boosting their forecasts for Canadian inflation and unemployment as the war in Iran drives up oil prices and heightens global instability. Article content Analysts in a Bloomberg survey see the consumer price index rising at a 2.4 per cent annual pace this year, up from 2.2 per cent in last month’s survey. Unemployment is expected to average 6....
A referendum on whether Alberta should separate from Canada “can have an effect” on investor confidence in the province, Prime Minister Mark Carney said on Friday. Carney was in Nova Scotia, speaking to the Halifax Chamber of Commerce. When asked whether he thought an Alberta referendum could impact investor confidence, Carney said, “It can, yeah. It can have an effect.”...
Prime Minister Mark Carney's first budget bill is now law, marking a milestone for the minority Liberal government. The budget implementation act, Bill C-15, received royal assent Thursday evening after the Senate gave its final sign-off on the legislation. The bill passed the House of Commons on recorded division in February, which means members of Parliament gave it the green-light...
Contrary to popular belief, the choice made by voters in the Montreal-area riding of Terrebonne in the April 13 byelection will have major implications on moving bills forward in the House of Commons. The rules of procedure in the Commons mean that, in this current Parliament, the magic number allowing a government to have a free hand is not 17...
Group of Seven foreign ministers met on Friday in France to discuss the Russia-Ukraine conflict, with deep divisions apparent over the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran, following U.S. President Donald Trump’s repeated complaints that America’s allies have ignored or rejected requests for help in the military operation and in confronting Iran’s retaliatory attacks, including the closure of the Strait of Hormuz...
Winner will take over a party that only elected 7 MPs — then lost 1 to Liberals. The NDP will have a new leader by Sunday afternoon — and whoever comes out of the party's convention in Winnipeg with the top job will be tasked with bringing the party back from a historic low. Five candidates — MP Heather McPherson...
New Democrats from across the country are gathering in Winnipeg for the party's convention, where a new federal party leader will be chosen by the end of the weekend. After a six-month leadership race, voting closes on Saturday and the new leader will be announced Sunday morning. The candidates are union leader Rob Ashton, social worker Tanille Johnston, filmmaker Avi...
MP Michael Ma, who left the Conservatives to join the Liberals, has apologized after appearing to cast doubt on reports of human rights abuses in China. Ma said he regretted making a mistake with his remarks, while pointing out that he had referred to the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, and not Xinjiang, where the Communist government has been accused...
An MP who left the Conservatives to join the Liberals is casting doubt on reports of human rights abuses in China's Xinjiang region. MP Michael Ma asked an expert during a parliamentary committee hearing Thursday whether she'd seen forced labour with her own eyes. "Have you witnessed forced labour in Xinjiang? Have you witnessed forced labour? Just a short answer...
Ontario is delaying a path to balance once more, as one of several shock absorbers meant to ease the province down a potentially bumpy economic road ahead, though it is currently faring better than previously feared in the face of U.S. tariffs. Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy is for the third year in a row delaying a surplus, now projecting black...
For the first time since the end of the Cold War, Canada is spending roughly two per cent of its GDP on national defence — a key NATO alliance benchmark Ottawa previously failed to meet. NATO's annual report, released Thursday, contains estimates stating Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government met the key spending benchmark for 2025 by shelling out just over...
British Columbia Conservative MLA Hon Chan has been charged with assault, assault by choking and uttering threats, prompting his removal from the party caucus. The BC Prosecution Service says the Richmond Centre legislator was charged under the name Hon-Sang Chan after a special prosecutor was appointed to look into the case last June.
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) -- Crowds of people protested Saturday against the war in Iran and President Donald Trump's actions, in "No Kings" rallies across the U.S. and in Europe. Minnesota took center stage, in what organizers expected to be mass demonstrations involving millions of people.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A pro-Iranian hacking group claimed Friday to have hacked an account of FBI Director Kash Patel and posted online what appear to be years-old photographs of him, along with a work resume and other personal documents dating back more than a decade.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order Friday afternoon that should pay TSA employees next week. Trump's action came after a Homeland Security funding measure collapsed in congress. The measure passed the Senate early Friday morning but was swiftly rejected by House Republicans. TSA workers were set to miss a second consecutive paycheck Friday.
STOWE, Vt. (AP) -- Looking back, gubernatorial candidate Dean Roy says his political ambitions started in the eighth grade. And by that he means, last year.
U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran have driven up prices, darkened the outlook for the world economy, sent global stock markets reeling and forced developing countries to ration fuel and subsidize energy costs to protect their poorest. Ongoing strikes and counterstrikes on Persian Gulf refineries, pipelines, gas fields and tanker terminals threaten to the prolong the global economic pain for...
Group of Seven foreign ministers met on Friday in France to discuss the Russia-Ukraine conflict, with deep divisions apparent over the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran, following U.S. President Donald Trump’s repeated complaints that America’s allies have ignored or rejected requests for help in the military operation and in confronting Iran’s retaliatory attacks, including the closure of the Strait of Hormuz...
Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew is accusing U.S. President Donald Trump of fuelling the war in Iran to distract from the millions of documents related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, also referred to as the “Epstein files,” saying the conflict is driving up gas prices for Canadians. In an interview with CTV’s Power Play with Vassy Kapelos on Tuesday, Kinew...
Democrat Emily Gregory won a special election for a Florida state House seat on Tuesday, flipping a district that is home to President Donald Trump's estate, Mar-a-Lago. The Republican president endorsed Gregory's rival, Jon Maples. In a social media post Monday, he urged voters to turn out, saying Maples was endorsed "by so many of my Palm Beach County friends."...
India would like to create a trusted traveller program with Ottawa that could ease access to Canada for Indian businesspeople similar to the NEXUS program for Canadians and Americans, New Delhi’s top envoy says. Dinesh Patnaik, India’s high commissioner to Canada, said such an arrangement could be part of the deepening ties between the two countries that follow from Prime...
Canada’s renewed embrace of industrial policy and megaprojects signals a decisive shift toward an activist ‘nation-of‑builders’ strategy. However, a real test of its success is whether it can support lasting, community‑led prosperity in regions that depend on natural resource extraction or energy generation.
A collection of SubStack publishing within Canadian public affairs.
Canadian troops may be only days away from deploying to the Middle East to aid the U.S.’s and Israel’s war on Iran. The latest indication is a joint statement expressing concern about Iran’s restriction of oil tankers through the narrow Strait of Hormuz signed by Prime Minister Mark Carney and NATO allies late in the week.
Canadians who have neglected to pay their taxes to the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) have been coming forward in droves to take advantage of new amnesty rules.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s spurious excuses for gutting the province’s freedom-of-information (FOI) law are exactly why we need transparency legislation in the first place: governments are habitual liars. Last week, the Ford government said it plans to weaken its sunshine law by erecting brick walls around every minister’s office, including the premier’s. Freedom-of-information requests will no longer be accepted. The...
Avi Lewis secured the NDP leadership in Winnipeg today, getting 56% of the vote on the first ballot. In this quick-hit episode of The Numbers, we give our initial reactions to the results and chat about where the NDP under Lewis goes from here.
Is defending the Arctic alone realistic? Is NATO salvageable? Will politics deny the best plane? Will Canadians support defence spending increases all the way to 5%? Earlier this week, NATO reported that Canada (finally) met the alliance’s defence spending target of 2%t of GDP. Twelve years after committing to the benchmark, Canada now aims higher: five per cent by 2035...
Loyal Dippers are gathering in Winnipeg this weekend to decide their next leader — and the direction of the party. Alberta NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi joins The House to explain why he told frontrunners to not do anything that could affect his party's electoral fortunes. Then, political strategists Marci Surkes, Kate Harrison and Jordan Leichnitz weigh in on who the...
A terrible crash of an Air Canada jet in New York becomes a language crisis at the top of the country's national airline. The airline employs more than 35 thousand people, about a third of them in Montreal. But their Montreal based CEO speaks only English and this week that became painfully clear. Bruce and Chantal have their thoughts on...
