U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday that the letters he sent to Prime Minister Mark Carney and other leaders about new tariff rates are "the deals", as Carney prepares to meet with his cabinet on tariffs and the trade negotiations. Trump appeared to be losing patience with his administration's efforts to make trade deals with nations around the world...
The Canadian International Trade Tribunal has ordered the government to pause its multimillion-dollar procurement of night-vision binoculars for the military, following a complaint from a Canadian firm that claims the contract’s restrictive criteria favours an American supplier.
Prime Minister Mark Carney's cuts to government spending will include the foreign service, just as Global Affairs Canada aims to expand its presence abroad. Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne sent letters to ministers on Monday asking them to find savings of 7.5 per cent in their budgets starting next spring. Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand says that will include Global Affairs...
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre was slammed by several separatist opponents in the province Monday after he said that the province should stay part of Canada, no matter what. “Pierre Poilievre and the federal Conservatives want Albertan votes but not Albertan autonomy. Saying Alberta should stay no matter what shows exactly how little respect they have for the province’s right to...
A new Liaison Strategies/NEPMCC poll for the Toronto Star shows Mayor Oliva Chow would win re-election comfortably if an election were held today - unless former Mayor John Tory entered the race. Conducted from July 2-6, 2025, using interactive voice response technology, the poll surveyed 1,000 Torontonians. The margin of error for the poll is +/- 3.09%, 19 times out...
Nanos conducted an RDD dual frame (land- and cell-lines) telephone random survey of 1,047 respondents in Canada. This report is based on the four waves of tracking ending July 11th, 2025. The margin of error for a random survey of 1,047 Canadians is ±3.0 percentage points, 19 times out of 20. The research was commissioned by the Bloomberg and was conducted by Nanos Research.
As Pierre Poilievre launches his byelection campaign to re-enter Parliament, he’s swapping Ottawa’s suburbs for Alberta’s vast prairie heartland—home to grain farmers, cattle ranchers, and oil-service crews, spread across an area larger than Costa Rica. Carleton was the riding he had represented since 2004, the place where he built his reputation as a combative, small-government conservative. But when it flipped...
What basic message are we sending as we condemn the purchase of Chinese-made ferries while profiting from our sale of goods and services to China? Nothing brings out the worst in our politics and public discourse than a phony crisis. The commercial decision by BC Ferries to buy four ferries from China—and the decision by the Canada Infrastructure Bank to...
The Conservatives want Prime Minister Mark Carney to sell all the assets in his blind trust to avoid any possible conflicts of interest. Carney set up a blind trust after he was sworn in as prime minister in March and the details of how it works were made public on Friday.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is calling for a tougher stance on immigration, saying Monday he wants to see "very hard caps" on the number of newcomers allowed into the country. Speaking to reporters at a news conference in Ottawa, Poilievre said the country has struggled to integrate newcomers and he wants to see more people leaving than coming in "while...
It’s only halfway through 2025 and Canada isn’t just making record breaking sports headlines — we’re seeing the extraordinary potential of what this country can achieve. From MVPs, to record-breakers, to thriving professional women’s leagues, Canadians are showing what’s possible when talent is matched with opportunity.
Advocacy campaigns aimed at swaying legislators and regulators are nothing new. Companies have long used their influence to protect their interests. But TikTok’s recent efforts in Canada add a clever twist to this well-worn playbook that may prove to be as culturally resonant as it is politically strategic.
MY MOTHER’S paternal grandmother, Maaliaana, was born in Kangaamiut, in western Kalaallit Nunaat, sometime in the beginning of the 1900s. (Kalaallit Nunaat is an endonym for my motherland; Greenland is what the international community generally calls it.) She was the product of a one-night stand with a British whaler, at a time when ships filled with men from other places...
The on-again-off-again trade talks between the United States and Canada are taking on a whole new meaning in light of newly proposed escalatory import duties. U.S. President Donald Trump continues to weaponize import duties, cajoling and bullying nations to agree to hastily enacted trade deals that oftentimes fall woefully short of addressing even the most basic tenets of his perceived...
At some point in the not-distant future, the errors of this particular provincial government will emerge in starker relief. Be it the grotesquerie of a mega-spa and monster parking tower at revamped Ontario Place or the erosion of environmentally protected land in sweetheart deals with palsy developers — because the halting of one Greenbelt swap, sparked by public outcry and...
It wasn’t so long ago that Canada perennially cashed in on its so-called “peace dividend.” The logic went like this: while our tanks might rust, the salaries of our Armed Forces members stagnate, and our ammunition stockpiles dwindle, the government could reallocate military spending toward areas of more immediate concern — entitlement programs, infrastructure and other “flavours of the day.”
The NDP, it is well known, is in deep trouble. With seven seats and 6.3 per cent of the popular vote in the recent election, the party posted its worst showing, not only since its founding, but since the founding of its predecessor, the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation, in 1935.
In 1993, Liberal party leader Jean Chrétien had dinner with four top Canadian academics. Over dessert, one asked a blunt question: If you win, what do you actually want to do? “I have three priorities,” replied Chrétien. They were to keep Canada independent from the United States, keep the country together and keep the International Monetary Fund out.
We are witnessing the rapid transformation of the federal Liberal party from NDP-lite to something much more like Ontario’s Progressive Conservative government. Whether with a newfound love for energy development or deep cuts to federal spending, Mark Carney is making clear there’s a new kid on the block running Ottawa.
Guess what? Tariffs are back on. Well, at least that’s what Donald Trump is saying. Earlier this week, the American president threatened to impose new tariffs. “I believe the tariff on copper — we’re going to make it 50 per cent,” Trump told reporters at the White House on Tuesday. He added a 200 per cent tariff on pharmaceuticals for...
On August 1st, unless a breakthrough is achieved at the negotiating table, Canadian exporters could face a punishing new reality: a 35% tariff on goods entering the United States. This threat, the latest salvo from President Trump, is sending shockwaves through Canadian boardrooms and Ottawa. Yet, as with so much in the Trump era, crucial details remain shrouded in a...
If we want investment and jobs in Canada, we need smart decisions, not dumb ones. Too often, though, the federal government or federal regulators favour dumb decisions over smart ones and drive investment and jobs out of the country.
Prime Minister Mark Carney is facing a harsh fiscal reality. As the new Liberal leader tries to chart a course toward economic credibility, Ottawa’s budget numbers tell a story no amount of political spin can obscure. The federal deficit, now estimated at a staggering $92 billion by the C.D. Howe Institute, has ballooned to levels that can no longer be...
The post-Cold War order has collapsed, and NATO allies face the prospect of one day finding themselves in a war for which they are ill-prepared. Despite years’ worth of evidence that the hostile axis anchored by China and Russia was preparing for conflict and growing more powerful by the day, America’s allies failed to make the investments needed to rebuild...
Seven seats. No party status. No research bureau. No guaranteed questions in the House. No vote on committees. For the second time in its history, the federal NDP has lost official recognition in Parliament. And the 2025 election is the worst seat result ever.
Former New Democratic Party MP Charlie Angus was being charitable when he called the party’s recent federal election campaign “an unmitigated disaster.” Under Jagmeet Singh, the most unpopular of the three main national-party leaders, the NDP lost three-quarters of its seats and failed to secure official party status in the House of Commons. Its share of the popular vote fell...
EDMONTON -- Premier Danielle Smith's hand-picked panel hearing how to fix relations with the federal government is set to get down to work this week with back-to-back town halls.
MONTREAL -- One of four men accused in an alleged anti-government plot to forcibly take possession of land in the Quebec City region was granted bail on Monday.
Finance Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne is looking for feedback from Canadians on national security and defence spending and fortifying the Canadian economy amid an ongoing trade war as he prepares to deliver a federal budget in the fall.
An American helicopter manufacturer has reached a confidential settlement with the families of six Canadian military members killed in a helicopter crash off the coast of Greece five years ago. The families sued Sikorsky in 2023 after a CH-148 Cyclone flown by the Royal Canadian Air Force crashed into the Ionian Sea at full speed in April 2020.
U.S. President Donald Trump said Monday he would punish Russia with tariffs if there isn’t a deal to end the war in Ukraine within 50 days. The Republican president made the announcement during an Oval Office meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte. “We’re going to be doing very severe tariffs if we don’t have a deal in 50 days,”...
Danielle Smith says husband is an adviser, invited to deepen understanding of industry. As Alberta's transportation minister prepares to unveil a passenger rail strategy this summer, freedom of information documents obtained by CBC News show that Premier Danielle Smith's husband, David Moretta, was invited to three meetings in 2023 about passenger rail and its potential expansion in the province.
The Conservative ‘movement is bigger, stronger and more energized than ever’ under Pierre Poilievre’s leadership, says Conservative MP Arpan Khanna. While Pierre Poilievre is preoccupied with his August byelection and with “grumbling” about his leadership getting “louder,” Conservative MP and national outreach chair Arpan Khanna is reaching out to his party’s unsuccessful candidates from the last election, urging them to...
The CEO of TikTok is asking Industry Minister Melanie Joly for an urgent meeting about the federal government's order directing the company to shut down its Canadian operations. Shou Chew wrote to Joly on July 2 asking for an in-person meeting within two weeks, according to a letter obtained by The Canadian Press.
A six-year-old child’s teacher told her she was “half human” because one of her parents was Jewish - one of nearly 800 antisemitic incidents in the Ontario elementary and high school system since 2023 reported to a federally commissioned survey. Others included a 13-year-old girl being swarmed several times a day by classmates who raised their hands in a Nazi...
A duty-free shop at a New Brunswick border crossing is shutting down after more than three decades in business, with its owner warning that more closures could follow as Canada’s trade tensions with the United States continue to strain cross-border traffic. John Slipp, owner of the Woodstock Duty Free Shop in Belleville, N.B., says he plans to close his store...
Premier John Hogan has written Prime Minister Mark Carney urging him to act “swiftly” on his campaign promise to reduce Marine Atlantic fees “by at least half.” Carney made the announcement while on the campaign trail in April, but with the summer tourism season in full swing there has been no movement on that promise.
Chidi Nwagbo says he made a "stupid" decision paying human smugglers to get him into Canada that left him permanently scarred and in the hands of the very U.S. immigration authorities he was trying to flee. The 57-year-old says he paid $2,000 US in cash to a human smuggling organization in New Jersey to escape the immigration raids sweeping the...
Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand says the economy is becoming the primary focus of Canada's relationships in the Indo-Pacific -- a shift that appears linked to Canada's recent moves to overcome its security dispute with India. Anand was in Japan and Malaysia this week for her first trip to the region since taking over as foreign minister in May. Her...
Premier earning reputation for hearing a plea, being persuaded, acting. Chad Anderson had travelled 90 minutes from his farm near Cremona, Alta., to bend the premier's ear, but it was starting to look futile. He'd come to a town hall with Danielle Smith and Agriculture Minister RJ Sigurdson in Okotoks, an apparent rehearsal of sorts for the Alberta Next panels...
The City of Toronto is at risk of losing $30 million in federal housing funding after city council voted last month against allowing sixplexes citywide, a key condition of its deal with Ottawa. At its meeting on June 25, city council debated the motion to approve sixplexes in all parts of the city, but that was amended by councillors who...
Dental association says government dealing with 'avalanche' of submissions. As federal dental care expands to cover most uninsured Canadians, providers say some procedures are being bogged down by paperwork and processing delays. Health Canada says 52 per cent of requests for pre-authorized dental work between November 2024 and June 2025 have been rejected. While the vast majority of claims don't need p
EDMONTON -- Alberta is rolling out new regulations this fall banning transgender athletes from playing women's sports, but the province will still welcome out-of-province transgender competitors.
Former privy council clerks say there are upfront costs to long-term savings. The federal government has started its comprehensive review of government spending, but what will it mean for Canada's public service, what balance will it have to strike and can the Liberals really cut so much? These are the questions facing Prime Minister Mark Carney as he embarks on...
Conservative leader hopes to regain House of Commons seat in an August byelection. Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre says he lost his riding of Carleton in the federal election due to an "aggressive" campaign by public sector unions after he was honest about wanting to cut federal worker jobs. Poilievre had held the Ottawa riding of Carleton for two decades...
Conservative leader says Trump will leverage the time crunch. Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre says Canada urgently needs to land a trade deal with the United States but it should not have set a deadline for negotiations because U.S. President Donald Trump "will try to take advantage" of the time crunch. "The challenge with a unilateral, self-imposed deadline is that it...
Battle River-Crowfoot candidates say many voters are unhappy about having to go back to the polls less than four months after re-electing their Conservative Party of Canada MP. Residents of the rural Alberta riding overwhelmingly voted for Damien Kurek in April’s general election, when the now former MP received more than 82 per cent of the vote.
Prime Minister Mark Carney's chief of staff and the country's top public servant will be responsible for maintaining an ethics screen preventing him from making decisions that benefit his former employer. That information is part of a newly released disclosure from the office of the ethics commissioner.
ESDC is projecting 6,700 job cuts over the next three years. Those numbers were published before Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne tasked departments with finding 15 per cent in program savings.
Prime Minister Mark Carney will be meeting with his cabinet and Canada's premiers to discuss U.S. President Donald Trump's new threat to slap 35 per cent tariffs on Canadian goods next month. The Prime Minister's Office announced there will be a cabinet meeting on Tuesday to discuss ongoing Canada-U.S. trade negotiations. Carney's office said he also will meet with the...
NEW YORK (AP) -- Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Monday he will campaign for mayor of New York City as an independent candidate, staying in a crowded field running against surging left-wing Democratic candidate Zohran Mamdani.
A broken promise to release more information about the Jeffrey Epstein case has sparked outrage among some of President Donald Trump's loyal supporters.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell has asked an inspector general to review the cost of the central bank's building renovations that White House officials have attacked as "ostentatious."
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Democrats and Republicans don't agree on much, but they share a conviction that the government should help American manufacturers, one way or another.
U.S. President Donald Trump said Monday he would punish Russia with tariffs if there isn’t a deal to end the war in Ukraine within 50 days. The Republican president made the announcement during an Oval Office meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte. “We’re going to be doing very severe tariffs if we don’t have a deal in 50 days,”...
GREENBELT, Md. (AP) -- A federal judge in Maryland scolded the Trump administration on Friday for its "utter refusal" to detail its deportation plans for Kilmar Abrego Garcia, including where the government plans to send him and whether he'll get a chance to fight his expulsion before he's whisked away.
SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) -- An independent U.N. investigator and outspoken critic of Israel's actions in Gaza said Thursday that "it was shocking" to learn that the Trump administration had imposed sanctions on her but defiantly stood by her view on the war.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attended a memorial service on Thursday for two slain Israeli Embassy staffers as he wraps up a four-day visit to Washington in which talks with President Donald Trump, White House aides and lawmakers focused on finding a pathway to a ceasefire deal in Gaza.
The Trump administration has announced it's issuing sanctions against an independent investigator tasked with probing human rights abuses in the Palestinian territories, the latest effort by the United States to punish critics of Israel's 21-month war in Gaza.
Atlantic Canada faces a substantial challenge in the realm of tax competitiveness. Across multiple dimensions of taxation, the region imposes higher tax rates than most other Canadian provinces.
The Cambodia-Thailand relationship has deteriorated since a border clash broke out on May 28 and has led to the death of one Cambodian soldier. The conflict, not the first between the two countries, stems from a longstanding dispute over the lines of demarcation, dating back to early 20th century negotiations between Thailand (then Siam) and the French colonial authorities in...
A collection of SubStack publishing within Canadian public affairs.
For readers of a certain generation, Lloyd Axworthy represents a Golden Era for Canada on the international stage during the 1990s after the Cold War. Serving as Prime Minister Jean Chrétien’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Lloyd Axworthy helped to shift power away from the nuclear-armed superpowers toward increased multilateralism, international institutions, and disarmament. Chief among his accomplishments is the global treaty...
RCMP officers continue to break rules around investigative note-taking, despite a decade-old commitment to fix the problems.
A pioneering effort to make the federal government more transparent has been shut down. The National Capital Commission (NCC) removed hundreds of original documents from its website after an adverse ruling from the official languages commissioner.
To kick off the week, we tackle a few big stories in two realms of Canadian politics: the military, and the federal public service. First, the Ottawa Citizen's David Pugliese tells us about the investigation into a Facebook group where military members of one regiment regularly share misogynistic, racist and derogatory content. He also shares his thoughts on another story...
The civil service in Ottawa is bracing for layoffs. It comes after Finance Minister Francois-Phillippe Champagne was tasked with finding $25-billion dollars in savings to offset the biggest increase in defense spending in a generation.
Once again, U.S. President Donald Trump is threatening to slap more tariffs on Canada — and Pierre Poilievre has thoughts. The Conservative leader speaks with Catherine Cullen in his first national English interview with CBC since becoming party leader to discuss how he’d tackle the Canada-U.S. trade war differently and why he thinks he deserves a second shot at holding...
The 113th Calgary Stampede is in full swing. But the 10-day festival wouldn’t be complete without the biggest names in Canadian politics and business walking the grounds in cowboy cosplay. Politicians are flipping pancakes, corporate parties are packed, and with Prime Minister Mark Carney pledging to make Canada an energy superpower, oil patch optimism is on full display. But tensions...
