While National Newswatch does not keep an archive of external articles for longer than 6 months, we do keep all articles written by contributors who post directly to our site. Here you will find all of the contributed and linked external articles from Alexander Panetta.
There's some good news, and some bad news, for Canada from U.S. President Donald Trump's ambassador to Ottawa. First, the good news: He suggests a new Canada-U.S. agreement is achievable in the not-too-distant future, and it would benefit both countries. The bad news? Don't count on tariff-free trade again.
No immediate comment from Ottawa. Donald Trump says Canada has asked to join the missile-defence program his administration is building, adding a new chapter to a long-running cross-border saga. The U.S. president dropped that news in the Oval Office on Tuesday as he unveiled the initial plans for a three-year, $175 billion US project to build a multi-purpose missile shield...
Canada's newly elected prime minister will soon meet with U.S. President Donald Trump. Reaching a deal with him? That's another matter. Trump said Wednesday that Carney will visit the White House within about a week and that the PM wants to make a deal. But Carney has three major steps to get through in order to arrive at the comprehensive...
The U.S. president has remarked on the staggering turnaround he provoked. Donald Trump is fully aware he provoked a political earthquake in Canada — just ask him. On the day of Canada's election, the U.S. president was quoted in an interview voicing detailed knowledge of the historic plot-twist he triggered. "You know, until I came along, remember that the Conservative...
U.S. President Donald Trump is dealing another tariff blow to Canada, signing an executive order on Wednesday that will hit all non-U.S.-made autos with hefty import levies. Trump said the United States will be applying a 25 per cent tariff on those imports, but it's not clear when they would apply. The president said the auto tariffs will kick in...
A just-released annual report on the global state of democracy makes for depressing reading. But what's even more depressing is what might appear in next year's edition. Or rather, what might not appear in the 2026 volume: an old democracy, by some measures the world's oldest; a superpower that long circled the globe professing to spread freedom. "If it continues...
At confirmation hearing, Canada ambassador nominee Pete Hoekstra pressed over president's rhetoric. The man with the delicate task of representing U.S. President Donald Trump in Canada has offered an indication of how he plans to handle it. Canada, meet good cop. At his U.S. Senate confirmation hearing for ambassador to Canada, Pete Hoekstra steered clear of annexation talk and saluted...
Fentanyl was not his main target. His team has made that clear. One trade war down, two to go — maybe more. U.S. President Donald Trump has dialled back his tariffs against Canada after rattling the economy from the markets, to factories, to the borders. But that was this week's battle. There's another one next week when his steel and...
Reports that Canada and Mexico are set to be slapped with U.S. tariffs next week may be premature. That's the latest word from the Trump administration. The White House has clarified that North America-wide tariffs are not a done deal, as many news headlines suggested following remarks Monday by U.S. President Donald Trump.
Ottawa has started taking him seriously. Americans can't believe it's real. In normal times, a G7 and NATO leader accusing a U.S. president of craving annexation would be a headline-detonating, multi-megaton blast of news, leaving shock waves for months. These aren't normal times.
Possibility of emergency tariffs over border for now, then wider-ranging tariffs in spring. The U.S. is threatening a two-stage tariff plan in which Canada and Mexico could get hit with initial trade penalties within days then face broader penalties this spring.
U.S. president-elect Donald Trump has been roasting Canada like a maple-glazed ham in recent days. But amid all the sizzle in his punchlines, some less-noticed messages might have more meat on them. The running gag about Canada as a 51st state is clearly generating a torrent of online clicks, and yuk-yuks on Fox News, and indignation from his critics.
Message underscores key moment in Freeland's nine-year cabinet career. Dealing with him. A day that rattled Canadian politics ended the exact same way Chrystia Freeland spent a defining chapter of her political career: Getting trash-talked by Donald Trump. That blast from Freeland's past came came in a social media post from Trump late Monday, in a comment on her departure...
U.S. officials urge Canada to start tackling big, systemic problems with organized crime. The Canadian government is talking about adding helicopters and drones at the border to stop fentanyl shipments so Donald Trump drops his threat of devastating economic tariffs. But David Asher, a Trump ally, says it should be doing more. Much more. And as someone who's worked on...
What’s less clear is what Trump wants in exchange for dropping tariff threat: sources. Donald Trump left his Canadian guests at Mar-a-Lago with a clear impression that fentanyl is his top priority for now in the Canada-U.S. relationship, according to Canadian officials familiar with the details of Friday's surprise dinner with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. The incoming U.S. president gave...
Will Canada escape the potentially economy-smashing tariffs threatened by Donald Trump? If you can't answer that question, congratulations, you're in good company. It's the multibillion-dollar enigma on the minds of some of the best-connected people in North America's capitals.
Donald Trump has levelled his most severe threat against Canada in years, warning that on his very first day on office he might impose punishing economic sanctions across North America. The U.S. president-elect threatened Monday evening to slap a 25 per cent import tariff on all products entering the country from Canada and Mexico on Jan. 20, 2025, his inauguration...
The gasps echoing across Washington on Wednesday proved that Donald Trump retains the capacity to shock. That's just what he did with some boundary-busting cabinet picks. Members of his own party expressed astonishment at news of the president-elect's choices to oversee law enforcement and national intelligence: Matt Gaetz for attorney general and Tulsi Gabbard as director of national intelligence. The...
The head of Canada's largest province appears to be dipping his toe into new territory: talking about removing Mexico from the North American trade agreement. As leaders across the continent weigh the implications of Donald Trump's presidential election win, Ontario Premier Doug Ford issued a statement Tuesday. He alluded to the likely difficult review ahead for the pact known in...
Trump's reported choice for national security adviser can't wait to see the Liberals lose next election. The man reportedly tapped for the top international role inside the Trump White House isn't just predicting the defeat of Canada's Trudeau government: He's celebrating it. Mike Waltz has a vast digital footprint on international issues in his six years as a congressman, following...
Canada, prepare for the big squeeze. A new Trump administration is likely to press this country on multiple fronts: trade, migration and military spending. The reverberations of Donald Trump's election win will ripple internationally with his plan for sweeping tariffs, mass deportation of migrants and intense pressure on countries to spend more on their own defence.
What exactly would Donald Trump's tariff plans do to Canada? A prominent Washington think-tank has an answer — and it's not pretty. The Peterson Institute for International Economics released a sprawling report Thursday calculating the effect Trump's policies might have on different countries.
There's an old joke about politics in Kamala Harris's home state, where election campaigns, for various reasons, rarely ever include large political rallies. "A California political rally is three people standing around a television set," says Dan Schnur, a political communications professor at the University of Southern California, sharing the classic gag. His point being that the U.S. vice-president had...
Fearing difficult negotiations, Canadian official sends retaliatory tariff warning. Canada has already begun talks with members of Donald Trump's circle about avoiding new trade tariffs if he's elected U.S. president this fall. If it happens, the Canadians have warned of retaliation. The public line from Canada for months has been that Trump's proposed 10 per cent tariff should not apply...
American history is repeating itself in a most macabre way. If everything unfolds as expected, Donald Trump will deliver a triumphant speech in Milwaukee next Thursday night to accept the Republican presidential nomination. Adrenaline will be coursing through that crowd for another reason: His admirers will celebrate his very survival from an apparent campaign-stop assassination attempt.
Think Canada faces pressure now to spend more on military? Wait 'til next year, Trump allies warn. A day before the start of the NATO summit, a top U.S. congressman brought up Canada as a source of frustration without any prompting. When asked about American allies who are pulling their weight in defence spending, the Republican speaker of the House...
Here's one thing we can state with virtual certainty: The United States Supreme Court has taken a chainsaw to the most consequential criminal case against Donald Trump. It has delayed, damaged, and perhaps permanently disfigured the federal case against Trump for what prosecutors have called his attempt to steal the 2020 election. In a 6-3 ruling on Monday, the court...
It was agony in Atlanta — for Joe Biden, for Democrats, and for anyone around the world dreading another Donald Trump presidency. Because the chances of that happening just grew. Biden appeared confused for an agonizing 14 seconds early on, in a catastrophic moment that will enter the cringe-inducing annals in the history of presidential debates. His voice raspy, his...
To understand Canada's failure to criminally prosecute foreign collusion, an old news report from Washington offers a useful starting point. In 1981, a Canadian correspondent made an observation: when it came to using security intelligence in policing, Canada and the U.S. were diverging onto opposite paths.
The United States was growing desperate, months before its entry into the Second World War. It was gravely short of aluminum, and scrambling for suppliers. Its solution: turn north to Canada. American public money flooded into Quebec, building the aluminum industry that supplied raw materials for Allied planes and tanks.
A subcurrent of worry pulsed through a summit this week in Washington between the leaders of the U.S., Japan and the Philippines. The concern in question holds global dimensions. It involved a gnawing fear that the world's once-dominant superpower is woefully ill-equipped for the possibility of a maritime standoff in Asia. America's promises to defend its friends in the event...
Canada staged a large-scale diplomatic deployment this week in preparation for a U.S. presidential election of more consequence than usual. More than a dozen Canadian diplomats posted in various U.S. cities came to Washington to meet with scores of American lawmakers on Capitol Hill.
Don't get too comfortable with the North American trade pact: that's the warning from President Joe Biden's top trade official as countries prepare to review the deal. Katherine Tai made the comments as the agreement between Canada, the U.S. and Mexico, known in the U.S. as USMCA, passed the halfway point toward the six-year mark where countries will start discussing...
If the premier of Alberta has a preference in the upcoming U.S. presidential election, she's not sharing it publicly. At a news conference during a trip to Washington, D.C., Danielle Smith pointed to different difficulties in dealing with either a Democrat or a Republican. When asked whether Joe Biden or Donald Trump would be better for her province, she replied...
Two Canadians planned to conduct assassinations in the U.S. on behalf of Iran's intelligence services, according to allegations in a newly unsealed indictment. The suspects are accused of plotting to shoot a man and woman living in Maryland, one of them a defector from Iran. The charges unsealed Monday by the U.S. Department of Justice include details of the alleged...
With Trump ahead in polls, lawmakers aim to keep him from leaving alliance. Trump-proof NATO? The United States Congress is on it. American lawmakers have moved to prevent any U.S. president from unilaterally withdrawing from the international alliance.
For anyone with lingering night terrors from the last renegotiation of NAFTA, the notion of reopening the pact might evoke the trailer for a classic horror movie sequel: It's baaaaa-aaaack. But this time is different, says the U.S. envoy to Canada. In an interview with CBC News, Ambassador David Cohen said officials in his country have begun informal talks to...
India's alleged role in assassination plots across North America has drawn rare criticism inside the U.S. Congress for a nation often cast as a growing American ally. It was mentioned several times during a hearing on transnational repression held Wednesday in the U.S. Senate, where lawmakers mostly focused on human-rights abuses by China, Russia and Iran.
A U.S. criminal indictment unsealed Wednesday has unleashed an unprecedented flood of details about an alleged plot connected to the Indian government to carry out multiple assassinations in North America. Perhaps the most surprising allegation in the murder-for-hire indictment filed in New York State against Indian national Nikhil Gupta is the claim that there were plans to carry out three...
For a few hours Wednesday afternoon, Canada appeared to be staring down the barrel of an unwelcome and potentially painful international crisis. News reports were awash in misinformation following an explosion at the Canada-U.S. border crossing at Rainbow Bridge near Niagara Falls. Some U.S. media began describing it as a terrorist explosion, caused by a vehicle entering from Canada...