An internal Conservative party strategy document viewed by the Star shows how the party uses parliamentary committee meetings to maximize social media exposure and advance its political narratives. A “torture chamber” for the government. “Social media content generators.”
Four leaders, one moderator, two hours of debate. In a five week campaign did those two hours change the shape of Canada's election race? That's the question for Chantal Hebert and Rob Russo on this week's Good Talk. Plus, how did the debate organizers allow a fringe advocacy group disguised as reporters to take over the post-debate platform?
The Liberals widened their lead over the Conservatives when it comes to which party Canadians most trust to steer the economy, according to a new The Logic poll by Abacus Data, although there was also a small drop in the share of people who plan to vote for them.
The leader scrums that had been scheduled for after Thursday’s English-language debate have been cancelled due to security concerns. CTV News first reported the development while the debate was underway. Leaders’ Debates Commission executive director Michel Cormier later confirmed it, telling reporters the organizers don’t feel they “can actually guarantee a proper environment for this activity.” Cormier did not elaborate...
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is promising to end the federal single-use plastic ban on items like straws and grocery bags if his party is elected. Poilievre campaigned in Montreal this morning, as he and other federal leaders returned to the campaign trail following the two national leaders' debates Wednesday and Thursday. Liberal Leader Mark Carney is campaigning in Hamilton later...
A new poll by Liaison Strategies for the National Ethnic Press and Media Council of Canada (NEPMCC), the industry association representing Canada’s non-official language newspapers, TV, radio, and online news media, finds the Liberals leading with 44% (no change) to the Conservatives 39% (-2). The rolling survey, conducted from April 15 to April 17, 2025, used interactive voice response technology...
At 8:30 p.m. Eastern, as the English‑language leaders’ debate was close to wrapping up in Montréal, our team at Abacus Data pushed a national, English‑only survey into field. Within roughly ninety minutes we captured responses from a representative sample of 1,200 Canadian adults. We asked every participant whether they had watched “all or most,” “some,” or “a little” of the...
The CTV-Globe and Mail/Nanos nightly federal election tracking conducted by Nanos Research surveys 1,200 Canadians aged 18 years and over three days (400 interviews each day). Respondents are all randomly recruited through a dual-frame (cell- and land-line) RDD sample using live agents. Three quarters of the sample are administered the questionnaire by telephone and one quarter is administered the same...
Our watchers continue to see Liberals having the most momentum (89%), best candidates (82%) most effective leader (77%) and most impactful message (70%). Responses are a bit tighter on best ads, and Conservatives continue to be seen as having the best events. Read more.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is promising to end the federal single-use plastic ban on items like straws and grocery bags if his party is elected. Poilievre campaigned in Montreal this morning, as he and other federal leaders returned to the campaign trail following the two national leaders' debates Wednesday and Thursday. Liberal Leader Mark Carney is campaigning in Hamilton later...
The Liberals widened their lead over the Conservatives when it comes to which party Canadians most trust to steer the economy, according to a new The Logic poll by Abacus Data, although there was also a small drop in the share of people who plan to vote for them.
In the cut and thrust of an election debate, it's not uncommon for a political party leader to get a number or a fact wrong. But sometimes they repeat those erroneous statements — both on the campaign trail and the debate stage. The CBC News fact-checking team looked into some of the inaccurate claims that leaders have made more than...
Liberal Leader Mark Carney spent his first English election debate presenting himself as a safe pair of hands for a Canada in crisis -- while Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre sought to frame him as more of the same after a decade of Liberal government. Carney, who is leading in the polls, became the main target of all his rivals' attacks...
As voters enjoy a holiday meal with family and friends this long weekend, they might also be digesting the leadership debates — and the election campaign writ large. Holidays in the middle of a campaign aren't new. Canada's fixed date election rules means the vote usually takes place in October after the Thanksgiving weekend. But the spring snap election call...
The leader scrums that had been scheduled for after Thursday’s English-language debate have been cancelled due to security concerns. CTV News first reported the development while the debate was underway. Leaders’ Debates Commission executive director Michel Cormier later confirmed it, telling reporters the organizers don’t feel they “can actually guarantee a proper environment for this activity.” Cormier did not elaborate...
Four leaders, one moderator, two hours of debate. In a five week campaign did those two hours change the shape of Canada's election race? That's the question for Chantal Hebert and Rob Russo on this week's Good Talk. Plus, how did the debate organizers allow a fringe advocacy group disguised as reporters to take over the post-debate platform?
Mark Carney largely resisted the predictable onslaught from his opponents during the English leaders’ debate on Thursday night. He was helped by a boneheaded move by the hopeless Leaders’ Debates Commission that allowed fake news outlets into the room. Any difficult patches Carney may have experienced were pushed to the bottom of the page in post-debate analysis, owing to the...
As we enter the 10-day homestretch of Canada’s most important election campaign in generations, many voters will be spending this long Easter weekend either casting their ballots in advance polls across the country or taking a last look at the very different candidates. This week provided a crucial window on those candidates, especially the two top rivals, Prime Minister Mark...
Three leaders walked on to a stage in Montreal on Thursday night with one mission — to take the front-runner shine off Liberal Leader Mark Carney.If there was any doubt about Carney’s lead in this election, it was dispelled within minutes after the opening of the English-language leaders’ debate.
With the English-language leaders’ debate now in the rear-view mirror, the 2025 federal election campaign moves into its most important phase: the closing week.
The impact on the broader election race was a nothingburger: there simply were no flashpoints that would justify anyone shifting their vote
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre promised today that a new Conservative government will stop Mark Carney’s proposed Liberal food tax and scrap the existing Liberal plastic ban. Poilievre will:
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre pledged that his new Conservative Government will provide $22 billion worth of frozen Russian assets to Ukraine for their heroic defence of their country against Putin’s vicious and illegal invasion. The Conservative Party of Canada has always stood with our Ukrainian allies. Moscow’s war against Ukraine did not start in 2022, but nearly eight years prior...
Chris Warkentin, Conservative candidate for Grande Prairie, announced the second phase of the Canada First Arctic Defence Plan today in Yellowknife. In the face of rising global threats and growing foreign interest in the North, Conservatives are taking bold action to secure Canadian sovereignty and defend our Arctic. For years, Canada believed our geography would protect us. But the three...
We are living in a moment of profound disruption. From climate disasters to rising authoritarianism, from hospitals stretched past capacity to housing costs that defy logic — people feel the ground shifting beneath their feet. And they’re being told to put their faith in “stability,” to trust that the same institutions that created this crisis will somehow get us out...
Today, Rick Perkins, Conservative Candidate for South Shore—St. Margarets, and Chris D’Entremont, Conservative Candidate for Acadie-Annapolis, announced the Conservative plan to protect Canadian fisheries. A new Conservative government will put science first, restore law and order and protect harvester rights. Conservatives will restore sustainablefisheries and ensure fairness in Canada’s coastal communities.
In the face of President Trump’s tariffs, we need to build Canada strong. That starts by supporting our workers and helping them prepare for the careers of the future. Today, Mark Carney highlighted his plan to build Canada strong through this crisis, and announced a significant new benefit to help workers access and afford new skills training in the middle...
Mark Carney largely resisted the predictable onslaught from his opponents during the English leaders’ debate on Thursday night. He was helped by a boneheaded move by the hopeless Leaders’ Debates Commission that allowed fake news outlets into the room. Any difficult patches Carney may have experienced were pushed to the bottom of the page in post-debate analysis, owing to the...
As we enter the 10-day homestretch of Canada’s most important election campaign in generations, many voters will be spending this long Easter weekend either casting their ballots in advance polls across the country or taking a last look at the very different candidates. This week provided a crucial window on those candidates, especially the two top rivals, Prime Minister Mark...
Three leaders walked on to a stage in Montreal on Thursday night with one mission — to take the front-runner shine off Liberal Leader Mark Carney.If there was any doubt about Carney’s lead in this election, it was dispelled within minutes after the opening of the English-language leaders’ debate.
With the English-language leaders’ debate now in the rear-view mirror, the 2025 federal election campaign moves into its most important phase: the closing week.
The impact on the broader election race was a nothingburger: there simply were no flashpoints that would justify anyone shifting their vote
The dynamics of this election campaign have been nothing if not unusual. Consider, for example, that the Liberals’ remarkable ascent has had very little to do with the flagging fortunes of their Conservative rivals — and plenty to do with the near-collapse of the NDP and Bloc Québécois. Support for the independantistes has declined almost exclusively due to threats from...
Surprisingly absent from the debate was major focus on U.S. President Donald Trump. His offences were just one of many themes
Before the current campaign, Canada held eight federal elections in this century. Five — including the last two — resulted in a minority government. Minorities have become the norm in our multi-party system. But now is not the time for another minority. It’s not the time for another government that has to cut deals to stay in office, that’s always...
There should be no denying that, for Canada and for our allies, we have a unique chance to diversify and expand our economic and security relationships that will be of mutual benefit.
In an election campaign that has been obnoxiously micromanaged, where the aspirants to lead our country have treated journalists — and, by extension, the public — with varying levels of disdain, last night’s debates should have been a breath of fresh air. Instead, the whole affair was hijacked by right wing conspiracy-minded outlet Rebel News and another right-wing network. We...
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has said that, if elected, he would override constitutionally protected rights and freedoms to implement his controversial “tough on crime” agenda. He would be the first-ever prime minister to take that extreme step — and his cavalier attitude toward civil liberties should alarm all Canadians.
Liberal Leader Mark Carney walked away unscathed from his first faceoff with his opponents during the French-language leaders’ debate in Montreal. Carney, who has a huge lead in public opinion polls in Quebec, had the most to lose. Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh and Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet are all nipping at his support, notably in...
Carney, like Michael Ignatieff before him, doesn't even seem to be in charge of his own campaign. Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre landed a few pretty solid blows against Liberal leader Mark Carney during the French-language debate in Montreal on Wednesday night. Whether those blows will matter to Quebecers, who will have comprised the vast majority of the audience for the...
There was no clear “winner” of the French-language leaders’ debate on Wednesday night in Montreal, but the lack of a clear loser, and the takeaways based on expectations, produced a number of results. First, it is quite clear that this debate is unlikely to be particularly consequential in terms of shifting party standings in this campaign, partly because no party...
Wednesday night’s French-language leaders’ debate in Montreal didn’t produce any knockout punches — but if you were scoring on points, Liberal Leader Mark Carney came out on top. And he did it the old-fashioned way: by letting his opponents beat each other up. Carney’s performance was far from riveting, and he frequently fell into economist-speak, such as when he talked...
Two weeks out from election day, the story many expected to be writing by now—about Pierre Poilievre’s march to victory—hasn’t materialized. Despite years of strong polling, a Prime Minister with record-low approval, and a party machine firing on all cylinders, the Conservative Party now finds itself trailing the Liberals in every major publicly released poll, including ours, where the gap...
Try as she might, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has discovered she can’t keep a lid on a brewing scandal threatening her government.It is boiling over into something of a political mutiny. Not enough of a mutiny at this point to capsize Smith’s leadership, but an insurrection nonetheless.
The gladiator stands staggered on the sandy floor of the colosseum, waiting for the thumbs up or down. On federal election day, April 28, the CBC will discover its fate: live or die.The Mark Carney Liberals have promised to defend the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and even increase its funding.
If Ford does see himself as the next Conservative leader, he’s doing a poor job of laying the groundwork
One of the standout features of the 2025 federal election has been the ability of Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre to draw thousands of people out to listen to his stump speeches—even in ridings where the party currently holds no seats and has been shut out for years. From airport hangars to warehouses and convention centres, Poilievre has seen no shortage...
If Pierre Poilievre was a hockey player instead of a politician, he’d be a pest — the kind of guy you hate to play against but love to have on your team. He’d be Sean Avery or Brad Marchand: making life miserable for the other team’s best player while driving opposing fans up the wall. He would, in other words...
Singh thinks the polls have stabilized enough to make it safe for progressives worried about a Conservative win to 'come home' to the NDP
“In its letter, that we received this morning at 7:20am,” Jonathan Pedneault said, the Leaders’ Debate Commission announced that it would “exclude the Green Party of Canada from the leaders’ debates.”This decision is “unjust and baseless,” Pedneault told a gaggle of reporters at a hastily assembled press conference at his campaign office. "Their decisio…
There are two big questions about who will show up for the first leaders’ debate this week: Which Pierre Poilievre will we see? And how forgiving will the audience be? The Pierre Poilievre who appeared on the Radio-Canada talk show, Tout le monde en parle, was a creature that had rarely been spotted in front of TV cameras. The Conservative...
Crowd size is the new phallic symbol. The red-pilling of Canadian politics is complete. In The Matrix, the main character Neo is faced with two choices: living an illusion represented metaphorically by taking the blue pill, or awakening to a hidden reality, represented by the red pill. The dilemma is popularized by the manosphere, the radicalization of men through misogynistic...
In the cut and thrust of an election debate, it's not uncommon for a political party leader to get a number or a fact wrong. But sometimes they repeat those erroneous statements — both on the campaign trail and the debate stage. The CBC News fact-checking team looked into some of the inaccurate claims that leaders have made more than...
Liberal Leader Mark Carney spent his first English election debate presenting himself as a safe pair of hands for a Canada in crisis -- while Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre sought to frame him as more of the same after a decade of Liberal government. Carney, who is leading in the polls, became the main target of all his rivals' attacks...
As voters enjoy a holiday meal with family and friends this long weekend, they might also be digesting the leadership debates — and the election campaign writ large. Holidays in the middle of a campaign aren't new. Canada's fixed date election rules means the vote usually takes place in October after the Thanksgiving weekend. But the spring snap election call...
The head of the Leaders’ Debates Commission said Thursday he wasn’t aware that right-wing media group Rebel News — which was permitted more opportunities to question leaders after Wednesday’s debate than most mainstream outlets — had registered as an official third party in the federal election. Third parties are groups that seek to influence elections but aren’t parties or candidates...
'I'm a very different person from Justin Trudeau,' Liberal Leader Mark Carney says. With polls showing Liberal Leader Mark Carney is the front-runner in this federal election, the other three main party leaders on stage for Thursday's English-language debate spent much of the contest trying to tear him down. Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre took aim at Carney early on in...
New questions have surfaced about relations between a federal Liberal candidate running in Markham-Unionville and China’s consulate in Toronto, including his presentation of an award of appreciation to a consul-general and appearing to salute the Communist flag at an event celebrating the establishment of the People’s Republic of China.
Investment fund co-headed by Liberal leader acquired 51% of Westinghouse in 2023. During the first leaders' debate on Wednesday, Liberal Leader Mark Carney praised nuclear energy and named two companies in the sector with which he did business during his tenure at Brookfield Asset Management. In 2023, Brookfield formed a partnership with uranium mining firm Cameco to purchase the Westinghouse...
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith's government is pausing the procurement policy it announced more than a month ago to fight U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs. Service Alberta Minister Dale Nally says since the province's retaliatory measures were first announced in early March, Trump's administration has put a hold on further tariffs. Nally says, "in the spirit of diplomacy," Alberta has decided...
Amid mounting American trade threats and global instability, Prime Minister Mark Carney recycled the Liberal promise of overhauling Canada’s problem-plagued military procurement system through a new centralized agency. That pledge, floated repeatedly over the past two decades, could take root if the next government has “the political imperative” to follow through, but it won’t solve everything, say defence experts...
John Mutton — the Greenbelt lobbyist known as “Mr. X” — has been banned from lobbying government for two years.Mutton, a former mayor of Clarington, gained notoriety when integrity commissioner J. David Wake dubbed him “Mr. X” in a 2023 report on the $8.28-billion Greenbelt land swap scandal.
The Liberals have a marginal five-point advantage over the Conservatives on Day 26 of the 36-day federal election campaign, while a breakdown of voter intention by age shows an “absolute dead heat” when it comes to key middle aged voters. A three-day rolling sample by Nanos Research ending April 16 has the Liberals at 44 per cent over the Conservatives...
Some of the organizations have looked to courts to obtain accreditation. Rebel News and other right-wing media outlets dominated the question-and-answer sessions with federal party leaders after Wednesday's French-language leaders' debate — though not all of them got answers to their questions. Liberal Leader Mark Carney was the first leader to take 10 minutes of questions from the media after...
Canadians are split right down the middle on whether retaliation—including with counter-tariffs—is the best way to handle U.S. President Donald Trump, according to a new The Logic poll by Abacus Data.
A number of the Conservative leader’s priority projects are nearing or have final approvals, while others face concerns about environmental and First Nations impacts
Liberal says he's 'not Justin Trudeau' and criticisms of past government aren't on him. Liberal Leader Mark Carney faced jabs from his opponents at Wednesday's French-language leaders' debate, with accusations he's out of touch with working people and won't offer enough change from his unpopular predecessor. Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said Carney was former prime minister Justin Trudeau's "economic adviser"...
After calling out his own party over how it was handing the investigation into allegations of corruption in multimillion-dollar health contracts, Alberta MLA Peter Guthrie has been kicked out of the United Conservative Party caucus.
Doug Ford insists he has no interest in succeeding Pierre Poilievre as federal Conservative leader.“You know something, I have the greatest job in the world,” the recently re-elected Progressive Conservative premier told reporters Wednesday when asked about his federal ambitions.
Prominent campaigners will push for provincial independence, inside and outside of UCP tent. You don't need to be a Preston-Manning-like soothsayer to imagine western separatist sentiment ticks upward if the Liberals win re-election. You just need to remember 2019 and the Wexit movement. Justin Trudeau's Liberals narrowly won a second term that fall, and disgruntled Albertans and Saskatchewanians self-branded a...
Despite Poilievre’s complaints that the media go easy on his Liberal opponents, the opposite is true in this election campaign. Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre is getting an easier ride at media events during the current election than Liberal Party Leader Mark Carney, an analysis by The Maple finds. The data shows that despite Poilievre’s constant complaints that the media...
TORONTO -- Ontario is set to table legislation to make trade between provinces easier, as a way to shore up the economy against the effects of American tariffs.
Green Party co-leader Jonathan Pedneault says the "last minute decision" to remove his party from the debate is "unfounded" and "undemocratic." Early this morning the Leaders' Debate Commission rescinded its invitation to the Green Party to participate in the two federal leaders' debates. It says the decision was made because the party made a strategic decision not to run candidates...
When Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre finally emerged from a holding room, excited shouts erupted in a tsunami-like wave throughout the banquet hall. Party faithful – some in the ill-fitting free T-shirts handed out by staffers – craned their necks for a glimpse of the man they hoped will be the next Canadian prime minister.
Leaders' Debates Commission says party's decision to remove candidates for strategic reasons led to decision. The Leaders' Debates Commission, which is tasked with organizing the French and English debates, has removed the Green Party from federal leaders' debates for failing to meet participation requirements. "Deliberately reducing the number of candidates running for strategic reasons is inconsistent with the Commission's interpretation...
Liberal Bruce Anderson and Conservative Fred DeLorey continue their 2025 election conversation with two new topics this week. The LIberals get caught playing dirty tricks, while both parties prepare for this week's debates. With little time left in the campaign, is the die cast, or is anything still possible?
The musician Neil Young has written an open letter in support of Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney ahead of the country's federal election, as he takes on U.S. President Donald Trump in a battle over trade.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Donald Trump has stepped up his attacks on Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell at the same time that the Supreme Court is considering a case that could make it easier for the president to fire him.
JENA, La. (AP) -- Amid rural Louisiana's crawfish farms, towering pine trees and cafes serving po'boys, nearly 7,000 people are waiting at immigration detention centers to learn whether they will be expelled from the United States.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Donald Trump is drastically shrinking the size and the mission of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the latest step in an extraordinary reshaping of the federal government.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) -- California Gov. Gavin Newsom said Wednesday that his state will file a lawsuit challenging President Donald Trump's authority to impose sweeping tariffs that have set off a global trade war.
Meta Platforms Inc. faces a historic antitrust trial beginning Monday that could force the tech giant to break off Instagram and WhatsApp, startups it bought more than a decade ago that have since grown into social media powerhouses.
China announced Friday that it will raise tariffs on U.S. goods from 84 per cent to 125 per cent -- the latest salvo in an escalating trade war between the world’s two largest economies that has rattled markets and raised fears of a global slowdown. While U.S. President Donald Trump paused import taxes this week for other countries, he raised...
A helicopter broke apart in midair Thursday and crashed upside-down into the Hudson River between Manhattan and the New Jersey waterfront, killing a family of Spanish tourists, including three children in the latest high-profile aviation disaster in the U.S., officials said. Mayor Eric Adams said the flight began at a downtown heliport around 3 p.m. and that the dead had...
NEW YORK (AP) -- President Donald Trump has launched tariff wars with nearly all of America's trading partners. And there's no end in sight.
GREENBELT, Md. (AP) -- A federal judge on Friday ordered the Trump administration to arrange for the return of a Maryland man to the United States after he was mistakenly deported to a notorious El Salvador prison, while a U.S. government attorney was at a loss to explain what happened.
On March 11, China concluded its annual 'Two Sessions' — a pair of legislative and advisory meetings focused on Beijing's economic priorities for the year ahead. The slew of macroeconomic measures announced at those meetings are now taking on heightened significance amid the escalating U.S.–China trade war.
The reciprocal tariffs announced by U.S. President Donald Trump on April 2 – what he referred to as “Liberation Day” – hit Southeast Asian economies particularly hard. While they and others received a brief respite in the form of a 90-day pause, with a universal lowered reciprocal tariff of 10 per cent, tariffs on goods from China spiked to 14...
Canadian health care is ripe for major reform. In 1965–66, Canada experienced a paradigm shift – a “big bang” policy change. Since then, the core relationships between patient, state, medical profession, and labour remain the same. For 60 years, political actors have focused on policies that promise incremental change and avoid major reform. Medicare might be one of the most...
A collection of SubStack publishing within Canadian public affairs.
Is it time I admit defeat, pull up my tent and go home? For 30 years I have advocated for reductions to Canada’s military spending, and it keeps rising and rising. Now it’s reached the point where Canada is the 6th highest in actual dollars within NATO (after USA, Germany, UK, France, Poland). Responding to expensive plans to increase military...
Last fall, before the Trump shitstorm, advisers to the prime minister saw the black clouds gathering to the south. The new president had not yet been sworn into office, but it was clear Canada was in the crosshairs.
The 10 men who have governed the Bank of Canada since its inception in 1934 have been taciturn types, studiously avoiding the mud-holes of public controversy. Central banks trade in trust, and must project immutability and stability.That’s why it was so unusual in 2012 to hear Mark Carney, then governor of the Bank, apologize to Canadians for screwing up.
David Herle, Scott Reid, Jordan Leichnitz, and Kory Teneycke provide insights on the latest in Canadian politics.
Major party leaders meet in Montreal for the English-language leaders' debate with less than two weeks until Canada votes. And event organizers are forced to cancel the post-debate news conferences over security concerns. Rosemary Barton hosts Chantal Hébert, Andrew Coyne and Althia Raj.
As the federal election reaches the homestretch, four party leaders squared off in Montreal Thursday evening in the only English-language debate of the campaign. Liberal leader and polling frontrunner Mark Carney took heat from all sides as the Conservatives' Pierre Poilievre, the NDP's Jagmeet Singh and the Bloc's Yves-François Blanchet kept the barbs coming his way all night.
It’s getting hard to tell who’s a friend and who’s an enemy in this turbulent geopolitical era. As Canada searches for new trade partners, one big question mark that’s emerging is what to do about China. Is it time to rethink an economic relationship or are the security risks still too great? WONK host Amanda Lang talks to Peter Van...
