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"...
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...
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.
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...
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.
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 46% (+2) to the Conservatives 39% (no change). The rolling survey, conducted from April 13 to April 15, 2025, used interactive voice response technology...
With less than two weeks to go before Canadians head to the polls on April 28, our most recent Abacus Data survey (conducted on April 14 and 15) provides an updated snapshot of the race as party leaders prepare for two pivotal debates: the French-language Leaders’ Debate tonight and the English debate tomorrow. This smaller sample, quick turnaround poll serves...
With election day less than two weeks away, the Liberal Party holds a commanding lead across Atlantic Canada. Voting intentions: When considering voting intentions among decided voters the Liberal Party holds a strong lead with two-thirds (65%) planning to vote Liberal in the upcoming federal election. One-quarter (26%) plan to vote for the Conservative Party, while fewer than one in...
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.
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"...
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...
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.
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...
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?
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…
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...
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre announced his plan to protect Canadian seniors by cracking down on financial scammers who target them. A new Conservative government will ensure that Canadian banks and cell phone companies do a better job detecting scams, alerting victims before they are scammed, and reporting and blocking suspected fraud in real-time. We will also increase fines and prison...
Today, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh unveiled a national strategy to tackle the nursing shortage by hiring more nurses, improving working conditions, and ending the wasteful use of costly private agencies—because public health care only works when we protect the people who deliver it. “Health care is at the heart of what makes Canada, Canada. But right now, people are waiting...
This election comes at a time of crisis. With President Trump threatening our economy and sovereignty, we need to secure Canada by supporting our businesses and industry here at home, and helping them diversify to new markets. “We will protect our sovereignty in an increasingly dangerous and divided world by rebuilding, reinvesting, and rearming our military,” said Mark Carney, Leader...
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre announced today that a new Conservative government will put justice first–For a Change–by giving judges back the power to sentence multiple murderers to consecutive prison sentences without parole eligibility beyond 25 years. “For the worst mass murderers, a life sentence should mean what it says: a sentence for life,” Poilievre said. “These monsters should face the...
Today, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh announced key elements of the NDP’s Northern Ontario platform—focused on fixing health care, lowering grocery prices, investing in infrastructure, and protecting access to French-language services in the North. “For too many people in the North, life is getting harder,” said Singh. “It’s harder to find a doctor, harder to afford groceries, and harder to access...
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...
Not three months into Donald Trump’s second term, the United States has entered the constitutional crisis everyone knew was coming, but somehow hoped would never arrive. The Trump administration is now openly defying a Supreme Court ruling ordering it to bring home Kilmar Abrego Garcia – a U.S. resident who, though he has neither been charged with nor convicted of...
Doug Ford and Pierre Poilievre agreed on one subject this week: change is needed.The federal Conservative leader is saying that Canada needs change. The Ontario premier is saying that Poilievre needs to change his campaign team.
Much ink has been spilled offering explanations for how the Liberals have replaced a 25 point deficit with a 4 or 5 point advantage – all in a matter of a few months.
According to survey data released last week by Pollara, Canadians are evenly split on whether they want this federal election to result in "change" or "stability" — 46 per cent of Canadians want change and 45 per cent want stability. Among those who want change, 47 per cent say Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre would best deliver that change, while 2...
As Canadians tune in to the leaders’ debates this week — in French on Wednesday and English on Thursday — they’ll hear about affordability, tariffs, immigration and even an entire segment on climate, an issue that no longer cracks the top five. But one subject is conspicuously absent from both stages: national defence. It’s a baffling omission. While the French...
Something significant has happened to the NDP vote in this federal election. A party that, for much of the past two years, consistently held between 18% and 20% support now finds itself with just 9% of the committed vote, according to our latest Abacus Data survey conducted from April 7 to 10, 2025. That’s a collapse—one of the most dramatic...
As the federal election campaign tightly focuses on the ongoing trade war with America, we must also consider the implications for Canada of the culture war – in particular Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre’s weaponization of the word “woke” and what he means by promising action against it. The term woke is rooted in the African-American experience of racialized violence and...
It’s bad enough Canada already faces myriad threats to our democracy from covert foreign influence campaigns and online disinformation. Now, Canadians apparently also need to worry about Liberal operatives sneaking around planting fake evidence about their political opponents.
The federal election on April 28th is one of the most consequential in our history. With U.S. President Donald Trump openly threatening to annex Canada amidst an unjustified and unprovoked trade war, and conservative figures like Preston Manning and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith fanning the flames of “Western separatism”, the stakes couldn’t be higher.
Carney Liberals once again want to link Pierre Poilievre to Donald Trump, this time with dirty tricks of their own
It’s debate week on the Chaos Campaign, but arguably the most important conversation of the campaign transpired last night. Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre and Liberal leader Mark Carney visited Radio-Canada’s nouvelle maison to participate in Tout le monde en parle, the wide-ranging panel show hosted by comedian Guy A. Lepage, and watched live by at least one million Quebecers every...
The dramatic collapse in the once insurmountable lead Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre held over the Liberals is the most astonishing reversal of political fortunes I have ever seen. For one thing, it happened in a matter of a few weeks. For the two years before that, the Liberals could barely see Poilievre’s tail lights. He was on cruise control to...
That was a very short-lived pivot by Pierre Poilievre.Yes, after internal party dissent and at the urging of various Conservative worthies, he now weaves more criticism of Donald Trump into his stump speeches. It doesn’t seem terribly heart-felt, but, to be fair, the opposition leader betrays no hint of admiration for the rampaging U.S. president.
I spend a lot of time digging into our Abacus Data polling data, looking at trends, understanding the relationship between variables. Imagine a chef in a kitchen testing out new recipes. That’s me in a dataset, and I love it!
This week’s leaders’ debates began in Quebec — albeit unofficially. The much-anticipated French-language debate is set for Wednesday night — scheduled at the same time as the Montreal Canadiens’ final regular-season game. Unlike in 2011, when the debate was moved up a day to avoid a similar clash, this time the Leaders’ Debates Commission either didn’t have a choice —...
One of the more searing images of the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign came during the debate when Donald Trump kept lurking behind Hillary Clinton on stage.Clinton, who lost that election, would recall later in her book that she found it “incredibly uncomfortable,” and considered telling Trump: “Back up, you creep.”
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.
Toronto-Dominion Bank closed down the accounts of a pro-Beijing organization on suspicion of money laundering in the spring of 2023, and shuttered the joint account of then-sitting MP Han Dong without explanation, according to confidential documents. Records show TD Bank had concerns about suspicious activities of the Confederation of Toronto Chinese Canadian Organizations and the information was passed on to...
Federal party leaders are getting ready for their first debate of the election campaign this evening.The French-language debate will take place this evening at 6 p.m., followed by the English debate tomorrow at 7 p.m. Both debates are happening in Montreal at the CBC/Radio-Canada building downtown, in a large studio in its ground-floor atrium.
The number of cross-border travellers going from Canada to the U.S. dropped by nearly 900,000 in March compared to the same month last year, according to the latest U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data — easily one of the worst year-over-year drops recorded outside of the COVID-19 health crisis. The border figures show 4,105,516 travellers crossed the U.S. northern...
The Liberal government has consistently trumpeted a commitment to transparency in trade negotiations, but Canada’s foreign ministry ended verbal briefings to stakeholders on the status of trade talks to “better control” information after leaks to media. The Hill Times previously obtained information from briefings on negotiations regarding trade talks with Indonesia, India, and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)...
Deputy leader Melissa Lantsman held an undisclosed number of shares in 2024, documents show
Longtime Conservative MP Ed Fast says his party held a “sham” nomination process in his B.C. riding, where he has endorsed an Independent candidate to be his successor. “I still support the election of a strong Conservative government under (leader) Pierre Poilievre, but this is not the way to do it,” Fast told CTV’s Power Play host Vassy Kapelos in...
Fast favours independent candidate over Sukhman Gill for the Conservatives.Retiring Conservative Abbotsford MP Ed Fast has announced his endorsement of independent candidate Mike de Jong instead of the candidate for his party.In a statement released Tuesday morning (April 15), Fast criticized the selection of 25-year-old Sukhman Gill as the Conservative candidate in the new riding of Abbotsford-South Langley.
The start time of Wednesday's French-language debate has been changed from 8 p.m. to 6 p.m. after two federal party leaders requested it not clash with a potentially consequential Montreal Canadiens hockey game.
The Premier’s unusually sharp critique of the federal Conservative campaign has insiders wondering why Ford is behaving like that. Some are saying he might be laying the groundwork for something bigger.
The Green Party says it deliberately didn't run candidates in some ridings, even though the party submitted a full slate of potential candidates to the commission responsible for organizing the leadership debates.
For Ian Brodie, time is of the essence to reduce the federal budget. If Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives win the federal election, they could move at lightening speed to shrink the size of the public service. That’s according to Ian Brodie, a former chief of staff of prime minister Stephen Harper, who believes the most surefire way to usher in deregulation...
U.S. President Donald Trump still wants Canada to become the country’s 51st state, the White House said Friday, a threat he has made repeatedly but had appeared to quiet on in recent weeks. Trump’s rhetoric toward Canada has appeared to soften since he spoke with Prime Minister Mark Carney last month, although he has occasionally brought up long-standing grievances on...
Automobile companies that continue to manufacture vehicles in Canada will get an exemption from Ottawa's retaliatory tariffs as U.S. President Donald Trump attempts to upend the North American industry through steep import duties. Federal Finance Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne announced Tuesday that auto manufacturers will be allowed to import a certain number of U.S.-assembled vehicles -- ones that comply with the...
In December, Poilievre told Toronto Sun columnist Brian Lilley that he would defund the public broadcaster 'very quick.' Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre now says he doesn’t have a timeline for when he would defund the CBC despite promising in December to do it “very quick.” Questioned by National Post on Tuesday on whether the Conservatives would defund the CBC within...
Ontario plant will 'operate at full capacity for the foreseeable future,' company said. Honda Canada says it is not planning to move production out of Canada to the U.S., contrary to reports from a Japanese news outlet. Nekkei newspaper reported Tuesday that Honda is working on plans to switch some car production from Mexico and Canada to the U.S., after...
The federal NDP is facing plenty of challenges this campaign—from poor polling, to breaking into the Canada-United States relations narrative that has dominated the race—but the party has a familiar, experienced team on hand leading the fight.
On an overcast afternoon on Canada’s east coast, Mark Carney emerged from a pickup truck and stepped carefully in his dress shoes through the muddy lot outside a lumber mill. His hard hat didn’t fit right, pitched forward at an awkward angle; an aide hustled over to fix it before he went inside.
When it was time for former prime minister Justin Trudeau to vacate his office, he left at least one thing behind for his successor: blueprints to overhaul one of Canada's most iconic institutions: the RCMP. Calling the nearly 152-year-old agency "strained," Trudeau urged the winner of the next election to start the process of getting the Mounties out of boots-on-the-ground...
Our government created the Citizens’ Services portfolio in 2023 to champion service delivery excellence and to improve government efficiency. This State of Service report was drafted to communicate how we are accomplishing this mandate and to update Canadians on some of our biggest programs, including the Passport Program, the Canadian Dental Care Plan, Employment Insurance, Benefits Delivery Modernization and the...
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.
A federal judge says some nonprofits awarded billions for a so-called green bank to finance clean energy and climate-friendly projects cannot have their contracts scrapped and must have access to some of the frozen money. The ruling is a defeat for President Donald Trump's Environmental Protection Agency, which argues the program is rife with financial mismanagement.
CHICAGO (AP) -- Former President Joe Biden warned on Tuesday that President Donald Trump has "taken a hatchet" to Social Security, weighing in on a critical issue for millions of Americans as the 82-year-old Democrat briefly returned to the national stage.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Former President Joe Biden returns to the national stage Tuesday to elevate liberal concerns that President Donald Trump's agenda is threatening the health of Social Security.
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.
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...
The introduction of smartphones, and with it, ubiquitous social media usage, are clearly key factors in the rise in youth mental health issues seen across the world.
The principal ballot box question for the 2025 federal election is which party leader is best positioned to address Donald Trump’s trade war and threats to Canadian sovereignty. The conflict with the Trump administration has the potential to be a turning point for the Canadian economy. Forecasters are suggesting we brace for an economic recession. Whether or not this happens...
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.
Making sense of the online invective-scape. Plus: Continued effort to make sense of Quebec! “There’s a lot of crap on the internet,” Taylor Owen tells me early in this week’s feature interview. “But that is not an election phenomenon, that is not a foreign-interference issue, that’s just a reality of our internet and our social media.”
To burner phone or not to burner phone? The current debate on social media amid heightened searches of personal electronic devices by US immigration officers. Combined with new requirements for Canadians travelling to the US, such as mandatory registration with the American government for a 30+ day stay, as well as frightening headlines of travelers being detained at the border...
Three terms and a decisive majority under Stephen Harper. Erin O'Toole's leadership run — and subsequent castigation. Pierre Poilievre's meteoric ascendency to within striking distance of the country's top office. What do these things all have in common? Jenni Byrne, the longtime Conservative powerbroker running Poilievre's campaign, who has moved in the party's inner circles since first joining the Reform...
