David L. Cohen, the previous US Ambassador to Canada, credits new Prime Minister Mark Carney with a strong start resetting the country’s relationship with President Donald Trump. That’s partly why Cohen, a former Comcast executive and ambassador during the Biden administration, remains optimistic about the countries’ friendship, and an eventual cooling off in their trade war.
It's only been a few days since the election but already some signs of discontent on Parliament Hill. Conservatives sure, that's expected. But some Liberals who thought they should be in cabinet aren't, and they aren't happy either. Is this all meaningless inside the Ottawa bubble stuff or is it something Mark Carney should watch out for? That and a...
The Conservatives know more today about when their leader could return to the House of Commons, now that Damien Kurek has been officially declared the member of Parliament for Battle River--Crowfoot. Kurek, who won the election in the rural Alberta riding with more than 80 per cent of the vote, has promised to step aside to give Pierre Poilievre a...
Prime Minister Mark Carney’s decision to task two senior ministers with boosting economic co-operation across the country suggests he remains keen to keep pushing Canada to get out of its own way—even if his picks might remind voters of his unpopular predecessor. “We need to balance experience and new perspectives,” Carney said Tuesday after his new cabinet was sworn in...
Liberal Kristina Tesser Derksen says she found out just before midnight on May 15 that a judicial recount had confirmed her victory in the federal Ontario riding of Milton East--Halton Hills South. The margin narrowed from 29 votes to 21 with the recount. Elections Canada ordered the recount last week after the vote validation process showed Tesser Derksen won the...
Between April 16 and 21, 2025, Abacus Data conducted a national survey of 1,920 Canadian adults (18+), on behalf of the University of Toronto, to understand what Canadians believe is needed to succeed in a rapidly changing world. The findings reveal a country at a turning point: confidence in long-term stability is wavering, yet support for bold, forward-looking action is...
The research gauged the opinions among Canadians on the impact of tariffs on purchase of US-made goods and the US-Canada relationship. Nanos conducted an RDD dual frame (land- and cell-lines) hybrid telephone and online random survey of 1,055 Canadians, 18 years of age or older, between May 5th and 8th, 2025 as part of an omnibus survey. The margin of...
One of the most consequential responsibilities of any new Prime Minister is the selection of their cabinet. It reveals priorities, defines how government will operate and sets the tone for how competing regional, political and public interests will be managed. It is also a delicate balancing act — between rewarding loyalty, introducing new talent and signalling fresh purpose
The Industrial Inquiry Commission report on the labour dispute at Canada Post recommends phasing out daily door-to-door letter mail delivery for individual addresses, while daily delivery to businesses should be maintained. It also says the moratoriums on rural post office closures and community mailbox conversions should be lifted.
First-time cabinet minister Shafqat Ali is assuming the role of Treasury Board president at a “delicate moment,” with trust frayed between the federal public service and its employer, says Canadian Association of Professional Employees President Nathan Prier. “Repairing the relationship between his workers and management in the federal public service has to be a top priority right off the bat...
Since U.S. President Donald Trump began threatening Canada with tariffs, I’ve heard from many people and businesses about the intense anxiety they’re feeling. Ontarians are already struggling in the face of an ongoing affordability crisis and are now facing potential layoffs and staring down the face of an impending recession. But instead of uniting people to push back against Trump...
For an action-oriented new government about to reinvent the Canadian economy, find new trade and defence partners and withstand the onslaught of President Donald Trump and his tariffs and territorial ambitions, this week was not an auspicious beginning. Instead of appearing as a crack, recently elected team of men and women ready to redefine Canada, the first meeting of Prime...
He's the King's first minister, which means he has no business making Trumpian executive-order signing performances
Here’s a puzzle: How do you make homes more affordable without making them cost less? It’s a riddle that ex-Vancouver mayor Gregor Robertson is promising to solve in his new role as federal housing minister. But I’m here to tell you it’s no ordinary brainteaser, but a paradox.
For nearly a decade, young Canadians have been drowning in a sea of economic pain. The rising tides of housing and inflation threaten to drown them as older Canadians, safely aboard sturdy boats bought decades ago, mostly float on by. In such circumstances, the only lifesaver is a relatively stable, and occasionally even healthy, job market. Now that’s gone, too...
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith absolutely, unequivocally does not want to see a cockfight. She’s merely provoking these specially bred roosters and will soon release them together in a pen. Whatever happens, happens. She has been adamant in her opposition to forest fires. “They’re dangerous,” she says, as she gingerly places a pack of matches on a pile of dry leaves...
There have been concerns about the “presidentialization” of the Canadian prime ministership for years — worries that have been exacerbated by Mark Carney’s tendency to sign Trump-style legislative orders to grant tax cuts.
Canada’s federal ridings range in population from 26,665 in Labrador to 134,415 in Kingston and the Islands
One vote. That’s all that separated the Liberal and Bloc Quebecois candidates in the riding of Terrebonne after a judicial recount that moved the Liberals one seat closer to a majority government. Unfortunately, it’s also apparently all that separated some Conservative Party of Canada candidates from flirting with election conspiracy theories — the very sort that now defines the MAGA...
Let Trudeau be our guide: How provincial power can break Ottawa’s grip In 1961, Pierre Elliott Trudeau published an essay, The Practice and Theory of Federalism, that remains among the most intellectually coherent and politically subtle defences of Canadian federalism. Trudeau did not merely justify, in abstract terms, the peculiar geometry of our constitutional order; rather, he advanced a bold—albeit...
When the federal election campaign was underway, the Star invited two eminent pollsters — David Coletto of Abacus Data and Allan Gregg of Earnscliffe Strategies — to discuss what they’ve learned from the election results. Here’s what they had to say:
James Moore is a former federal cabinet minister under prime minister Stephen Harper, and a columnist for CTVNews.ca. Perhaps the three most important words spoken by Prime Minister Carney during the campaign came after all the ballots had been cast and the results were known. During his victory speech on election night in Ottawa he said to Canadians: “Build, baby...
As the new prime minister reflects with pride on his unsullied cabinet, he should remember the words of P.G. Wodehouse’s Bertie Wooster: “It’s always when a fellow is feeling particularly braced with things in general that Fate sneaks up behind him with a bit of lead piping.”
If there was ever a pipeline that was not going to get built, it was the Northern Gateway project to construct an oil conduit near some of the most cherished, pristine forest and marine areas of British Columbia’s north. The possibility of oil spills from the 1,170-kilometre line to carry oilsands bitumen from Alberta to a tanker terminal on the...
As the dust settled on election night, things immediately got off on the wrong foot for the defeated Conservative Party. Older voters had instructed Tory candidates that they wanted to see a “more conciliatory tone,” according to Calgary Centre MP Greg McLean, yet Bowmanville–Oshawa North MP Jamil Jivani weaponized what should have been a perfunctory election-night interview to settle personal...
In his second term as president of the United States, Donald Trump is forcing the Canadian body politic —every level of government and every party — to recalibrate. There is the threat not just of tariffs and economic upheaval but, for the first time since the 19th century, of annexation. Prime Minister Mark Carney set the record straight in the...
Standing outside Rideau Hall on Tuesday, Mark Carney said his new cabinet — the first real cabinet of his time as prime minister — was "purpose-built for this hinge moment." Carney has long been fond of thinking of this current moment as a hinge — even before its real depths were clear. The Hinge was the title of the book...
Most cabinet shuffles unfold with a flurry of attention on all the new faces, and Mark Carney’s first ministry after the election has plenty of them. But this was a shuffle with an unusual amount of attention on who and what wasn’t there — big names from Justin Trudeau’s time in office and of course, Trudeau himself.
Prime Minister Mark Carney has unveiled his new cabinet, and he has tasked his team with changing government. Not “small change,” he insisted, but “big change.” Applying the measuring tape to his new government, however, we can conclude that the freshly-elected prime minister is exaggerating just how radically different his new team really is. And in his medium-sized change cabinet...
Barely two months after he and his cabinet were first sworn in and two weeks after his election, Prime Minister Mark Carney attended the swearing-in ceremony at Rideau Hall Tuesday during which two dozen new people joined his shuffled, culled and expanded ministry. More than half of them are newly elected MPs, which brings many new faces to the fore...
Change is hard – Prime Minister Mark Carney is finding that out. His second cabinet is a departure from his first cabinet, which in turn was a departure from all of Justin Trudeau‘s cabinets. The new PM went from 37 ministers (including Mr. Trudeau) to 24 ministers (including Mr. Carney), and is now back up to 29 including Mr. Carney...
“You cannot fight a war on a committee of twenty.” That was the United Kingdom’s Prime Minister Lloyd George’s blunt assessment in 1916. Faced with a divided and sluggish Cabinet during the First World War, he created a five-member War Cabinet to bypass bottlenecks and focus Britain’s war effort. It worked. And it helped win the war.
He's prioritizing economic development, but not in the West.
The Canadian military has launched a new online recruitment portal to try to modernize the application process and address a personnel crisis. But technical glitches emerged during the launch, prompting concerns that frustrated applicants may be discouraged from joining at a time when the ranks are short more than 14,000 troops and U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened Canadian sovereignty.
OTTAWA -- Prime Minister Mark Carney is flying to Rome today to attend the inaugural mass of Pope Leo XIV on Sunday.
Economist says lack of budget could slow down promised stimulus. The recently re-elected Liberal government isn't planning to release a budget this year, opting instead for an economic statement later this fall. But experts warn that not providing a fiscal snapshot could erode economic confidence and delay the government's agenda.
As the first Indigenous person ever to lead the federal department responsible for delivering services to First Nations, Inuit and Metis, Mandy Gull-Masty knows she has a daunting task ahead. But the newly-appointed Indigenous services minister also knows what it's like to sit at both sides of the table -- as a cabinet minister now and, until recently, as the...
Canadian members of Parliament spent a record $187.8 million in 2024, including $32 million on travel. That’s an increase of $12.7 million over 2023, according to proactively disclosed expenditure records. The $187.8 million in taxpayer money also included $114.1 million for MP staff salaries, $39.8 million for third-party contracts and $1.9 million for hospitality expenses.
Attrition rate for new recruits more than double the average across Forces. The Canadian military insists it's getting a handle on its recruiting crisis, but a new leaked internal report obtained by CBC News suggests many of those who come through the door quickly leave in frustration over the inability to get trained and into the job they want.
It's up to his party to manage who lives in the official residence. Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre closed his constituency and Parliament Hill offices following his election defeat in Carleton, but is expected to stay in Stornoway — Canada's residence for the leader of the Official Opposition — despite losing that title. While Poilievre remains the leader of the Conservative...
Former Canadian diplomat Michael Kovrig says a full reset of the Canada-China relationship is not possible, and that the federal government should instead be focusing on building stable diplomatic relations with Chinese officials to mitigate any possible worsening of the relationship. “Always with a new government, there will be maybe a temptation for ministers to think that ‘I can be...
OTTAWA -- Canadians are showing a lot of enthusiasm for retaliation against the U.S. over President Donald Trump's tariffs -- even as many of them fear that the country has slid into a recession already.
A new report from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) warns fentanyl “super laboratories” in Canada are “a growing concern for the United States,” particularly as production and supply from Mexico is disrupted. The DEA’s latest annual Drug Threat Assessment says that while the flow of fentanyl from Canada into the U.S. is far lower than from Mexico, Canadian opioid...
Finance Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne said Wednesday that when Parliament resumes, the government will put forward a middle-class tax cut, deliver a throne speech and release a fiscal plan in the fall economic update. Absent from that plan, was the traditional federal budget to start the fiscal year. Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said Thursday the lack of a federal budget sends...
U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs cast a pall over Ontario's budget Thursday, dragging down GDP growth and knocking the province off its path to balance, with a $14.6-billion deficit projected this year. Now is the time to spend on infrastructure and job creation in Ontario so the province can come out stronger on the other side, Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy...
TORONTO -- The Ontario government tabled a budget Thursday that focused on investments it says will protect Ontario workers in the face of U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs.
TORONTO -- Ontario plans to spend hundreds of millions of dollars boosting the province's alcohol sector, including programs to support grape farmers, wineries, distilleries and craft breweries.
In October 2024, it was announced that Carney would be writing a second book, entitled The Hinge: Time to Build an Even Better Canada.
One of Premier Doug Ford’s closest former aides has been sanctioned by the legislature’s ethics watchdog for breaking Ontario lobbying rules. Amin Massoudi, who was on the infamous 2020 Las Vegas trip with Greenbelt developer Shakir Rehmatullah that cost former Ford minister Kaleed Rasheed his job in cabinet, received a slap on the wrist from integrity commissioner Cathryn Motherwell.
A new poll suggests nearly half of Canadians think Prime Minister Mark Carney "stood up" for Canada in his recent face-to-face meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump. The Leger poll says 48 per cent of poll respondents think Carney "clearly stood up for Canada's interests" in his meeting with Trump, while another 24 per cent say Carney should have taken...
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said Thursday the lack of a federal budget sends "a bad signal" to investors and credit rating agencies. Poilievre told a press conference on Parliament Hill that he wants Prime Minister Mark Carney to "steal his ideas" and offered to help him draft a budget. The Conservative leader listed off policies his party campaigned on in...
Liberals won the riding by 1 vote. The Bloc Québécois is expected to challenge the result in the federal riding of Terrebonne, where the party lost by one vote, as Elections Canada revealed issues with five more mail-in ballots. Radio-Canada sources say Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet will announce the party's intentions this morning. He will be holding a news...
Alberta's government has made 11th-hour changes to controversial proposed legislation declaring that no separation referendum question could threaten First Nations' existing treaty rights. Premier Danielle Smith's government is working to considerably lower the threshold to allow for citizen-initiated referendums, including whether the province should separate from Canada.
Industry Minister Melanie Joly says Honda Canada remains "fully committed" to major electric-vehicle investments in Canada after the company announced Tuesday that it was pausing a multibillion-dollar EV project in Ontario. Joly said in a statement that she spoke with Honda Canada president and CEO Dave Jamieson, who assured her that "no jobs will be lost."
Ontario Premier Doug Ford is signalling that his government's budget will favour spending over balanced books, as a way to keep the economy afloat in light of U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs. Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy is set to table the 2025-26 budget later today. Ford has said the province can always balance the budget in a year or two...
With Canada’s electric vehicle industry stalling this week, some are worried the sector may experience a full-scale power outage in the months ahead. “You have to be worried, what (the industry) is looking at it, they’re looking at the (U.S.) tariffs”, says Ivey Business School professor Gal Raz. Honda‘s decision to take a reported 2-year break on its $15-billion investment...
Canada intends to expand its military training regime in the Arctic, deploying a variety of forces in the region for up to 10 months a year, starting this year, the military's operations commander says. Lt.-Gen. Steve Boivin says the military's signature Far North exercise — Operation Nanook — will see additional elements created, resulting in a greater, consistent presence in...
The Conservative leader took particular note of Sean Fraser who served as immigration minister and housing minister
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Thursday that federal law enforcement is investigating a social media post made by former FBI Director James Comey that she and other Republicans claim is a call for violence against President Donald Trump.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard fired two veteran intelligence officials because they oppose President Donald Trump, her office said, coming a week after the release of a declassified memo written by their agency that contradicted statements the Trump administration has used to justify deporting Venezuelan immigrants.
NEW YORK (AP) -- After a week of promises to alter the policy, the U.S. Department of Commerce has rescinded a Biden-era rule due to take effect Thursday that placed limits on the number of artificial intelligence chips that could be exported to certain international markets without federal approval.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- House Republicans proposed sweeping tax breaks Monday in President Donald Trump's big priority bill, tallying at least $4.9 trillion in costs so far, partly paid for with cuts to Medicaid, food stamps and green energy programs used by millions of Americans.
ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates (AP) -- President Donald Trump said Friday he's moving to set up direct talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin as soon as he can.
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) -- U.S. President Donald Trump met with Syria's interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, the first such encounter between the two nations' leaders in 25 years.
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) -- President Donald Trump in a speech in Saudi Arabia will urge Iran to take a "new and a better path" as he pushes for new nuclear deal.
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) -- U.S. President Donald Trump signed a host of economic and bilateral cooperation agreements in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday as he kicked off a four-day Middle East trip with a focus on dealmaking with a key Mideast ally while shared concerns about Iran's nuclear program and the war in Gaza dragged on in the background.
The United States and China said Monday they had agreed to a 90-day pause on most of the tariffs they have imposed on each other since last month, in a major step toward easing a trade war between the two powers that has rattled the global economy.
For too long, Canada has been content to muddle in the slow lane when what is needed — now more than ever — is a breathtaking build out. Here’s how to do it.
Mortgage fraud in Canada has surged in recent years, raising deep concerns across multiple sectors. Anxiety is soaring among lenders as they face rising losses and inflated property prices. Meanwhile, organized criminal actors are overwhelming regulators and law enforcement. Several complex factors are behind the growing crisis, including pressures from housing affordability, rising interest rates, and the lingering effects of...
A collection of SubStack publishing within Canadian public affairs.
Parliament will look very different when newly-elected MPs return to Ottawa this month. There will be far less diversity of voices in the House of Commons with the demise of the NDP, and this is not good for our democracy.
Canada’s premier agency for cyber-security, which helps governments and businesses defend against bad actors, itself got scammed as part of a wide-ranging IT overbilling fraud worth several million dollars.
Some dismissed it as the “erectile dysfunction” ad. Others laughed it off as a desperate Hail Mary to salvage a faltering campaign in Southern Ontario—specifically in the all-important 905 region. Well, they can stop laughing. Call it the blue belt now. The Conservatives not only held their ground in the 905—they flipped several Liberal ridings.
At Issue this week: Prime Minister Mark Carney has assembled a new cabinet, but what do his choices say about his priorities? The government comes under fire for delaying its first budget. And, a Quebec riding at the centre of a recount and mail-in ballot fight. Rosemary Barton hosts Althia Raj, Aaron Wherry and Rob Russo
Government House Leader Steven MacKinnon discusses which spending priorities the Liberals will try to pass before the summer despite forgoing a budget this year. Conservative MP Adam Chambers expands on leader Pierre Poilievre's accusations that skipping the budget sends the wrong message to investors, and goes against Prime Minister Mark Carney's assertion that he has a 'plan' for the economy...
Measles case numbers in Ontario are now higher than the total registered cases in the entire United States. This week’s report from Ontario Public Health puts the total at 1,646 cases of the disease since January. In Alberta, measles is spreading even quicker, outpacing Ontario in growth per-capita. Nearly three decades ago Canada had declared measles completely eliminated. But now...
Opposition critics Chandra Pasma, NDP MPP for Ottawa West-Nepean; Stephanie Bowman, Liberal MPP for Don Valley West; and Mike Schreiner, leader of the Green Party of Ontario and the MPP for Guelph react to the Ontario government's 2025 budget.
