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 Matt Gurney.
In general, so long as it’s legal and not hurting anyone, I think people should be allowed to spend their money on what they want to spend it on. But how much money should be allowed to affect the democratic process sits uncomfortably alongside that preference of mine. A system in which everyone has one vote, but one person can...
It is the job of the columnist to pull a bunch of disparate stories together and find the common theme that links them all. If you’re feeling particularly ambitious, you could even try and create an entire grand narrative out of all the various little data points. I don’t think the recent wave of elections and referendums in this country...
Canada and Ukraine now have a drone deal. As announced recently by Prime Minister Mark Carney and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Alberta, Canada and Ukraine will jointly produce unmanned weapons systems. Although many details of the plan have not yet been released, the basic idea seems to be that Canada will produce millions of drones a year domestically, using...
Canada and Ukraine are partnering to build the weapons that will be needed in future wars. It’s a fantastic idea, and something I’ve long called for. It allows both countries to play to their strengths. Canada brings relative safety from Russian attack. Ukraine brings a degree of procurement efficiency to which we can only aspire.
There is nothing wrong with Prime Minister Mark Carney making frequent trips to Europe. The Europeans are clearly as alarmed about the state of things as we are. I think we should be showing a little more love and attention to some of our allies and partners in other regions of the world—especially the Asian democracies—but overall, you won’t hear...
Canada will get a new fleet of Via passenger rail cars, the prime minister announced on Thursday. At an event in Thunder Bay, Ont., where the new cars will be built by Alstrom, Mark Carney said the new fleet would be built in Canada, used in Canada, maintained in Canada and would use Canadian steel.
With the ultimate state of the U.S.-Canada trade relationship still very much in flux, with no one really sure what will happen from here, Prime Minister Mark Carney must be grateful for at least one bit of runway that he can count on: a delay, at least, before the next Quebec sovereignty referendum. As announced last week by Parti Québécois...
When he was asked on Saturday by reporters if Canada was now in a trade war with the United States, Prime Minister Mark Carney said that we were. Because we had been attacked. I agree with him. But we’re also in an info war. This isn’t something we have traditionally been good at. But it’s something we’re going to have...
Not quite a year ago, Mark Carney warned Canadians, particularly young Canadians, that they had to be prepared to make sacrifices for Canada. “I will always be straight about the challenges that we have to face and the choices we must make,” the prime minister said last October at the University of Ottawa. “And to be clear, we won’t transform...
Only he could tell you. Maybe one day I’ll get to ask him. The thought occurred to me on Tuesday: I wonder what was the exact moment Mark Carney truly felt in his bones, for the first time, that he was the prime minister of Canada. Maybe it was when people started complaining about where he takes summer vacation. After...
Doug Ford needed a good summer. He isn’t getting one. And it could end up being a big deal for his government. Ford has always been a bizarre politician to watch. You will never hear me count him out. Ontario’s premier has made a habit of surviving things that would be unsurvivable for most politicians. Many have written Ford off...
A country that needs multiple years to issue permits to retrofit an outbuilding is probably not one that is going to pull off a project that would cost tens of billions of dollars, take decades, and cross numerous jurisdictions, requiring significant land expropriation and considerable consultation with Indigenous Peoples.
Prime Minister Mark Carney says he has no intention of using Canada’s oil as a weapon in our trade war with the United States. The prime minister was asked about it during a public appearance with Premier Danielle Smith in Alberta, and answered, in part: “Being a reliable supplier is important … When you’re a supplier of a key commodity...
The White House fails to understand that Mark Carney and Canada’s regional leaders can’t cave in to the US president: it’s too toxic to voters
Donald Trump has often been described as unpredictable. And that’s true — but when he chose not to renew the CUSMA trade deal, no one could claim to be surprised. The Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement could have been renewed by all three parties on its existing terms for an additional 16 years. Having announced this week that it would not be...
Canada is buying a sophisticated radar system from our friends in Australia … at a speed not seen in generations, and all that jazz. First, the news: Canada will spend $2.6-billion to procure an “over-the-horizon” radar system that will (hopefully!) allow anything approaching North America from the North—aircraft, missile, or drone—to be tracked at long ranges. The Australian system is...
No prime minister has the luxury of being able to worry about a single problem. But among Mark Carney’s many problems, one looms particularly large: managing Canada’s relationship with the United States and its president. And Carney faces a difficult question on that file: How flattering to Donald Trump can he dare to be? We saw some examples recently of...
If there is one common theme in much of the Canadian commentariat of late that I cannot understand, it’s the hostility to Pete Hoekstra, the United States ambassador to Canada. How do you guys not realize he is perfect? We could not ask for a better American ambassador to our country at this time.
Canada will buy the GlobalEye aircraft from Swedish manufacturer Saab, Prime Minister Mark Carney announced on Wednesday at the CANSEC defence industry conference in Ottawa. Canadians could be forgiven for having two questions: What does that mean? And also, what does it mean?
Unless you had to go fill your gas tank after the long weekend — like this loser, right here — you could almost be forgiven for forgetting the war in the Middle East is still ongoing, sort of. Especially as the White House seems to be much more focused on us and its other neighbours. The Third Persian Gulf War...
Everything should be adjusted for inflation and population growth. This is something I always think of when looking at comparative stats. When I saw a few days ago that Canadian personal insolvencies had hit a level we hadn’t seen since 2009—the era of the global financial crisis and the so-called Great Recession—I immediately thought about this. And it turns out...
So far, there's been a lot more talk than action, and, for a guy who campaigned on rebuilding this country so it could confront existential threats to our sovereignty, more speed would be better. I suspect even the prime minister would agree.
It seems odd to even suggest this right now, but … what if the plane was a good idea? Seriously. What if a private jet for the use of the premier and other key officials was actually worth considering?
Congratulations to Prime Minister Mark Carney and the Liberals on securing their majority. Now, please, please, pick a fighter jet already. No one can stop you! This isn’t the first time I’ve made this exact plea in these very pages. It was just last September that I begged the prime minister to get around to picking a jet to replace...
Not once have I ever thought that Doug Ford has much in common at all with U.S. President Donald Trump. Sure, the Ontario premier is a blustery, (in-theory) right-leaning politician who even has a passing physical resemblance to the U.S. president. But anyone actually making the comparison has always been, in my mind, confessing how superficial their understanding of either...
I don’t know what the Conservatives’ path back to electoral relevance looks like. If I did, I might try to sell them the roadmap for a heap of money. I do have a strong hunch it won’t involve attacking the academic credentials of Prime Minister Mark Carney, he of the Liberals’ newly established majority government. That’s why it’s been so...
The most basic problem now confronting Donald Trump isn’t a matter of complex geopolitics. It’s more a simple matter of talent. The U.S. president, as much as many people hate to admit it, does have some real talents. He’s a natural showman. He’s a talented negotiator. And, as commander in chief of the world’s greatest military, he has a lot...
Let’s talk for a moment about the scale of Canada’s ambition and how it compares to the scale of what we can plausibly achieve. Last week, Prime Minister Mark Carney announced major plans for Arctic infrastructure. Much of the $35 billion budgeted for them will be used to expand and upgrade existing military facilities; these, in theory, will increase the...
By luring now-former NDP Lori Idlout across the floor to join the Liberal caucus, Prime Minister Mark Carney has brought his Liberals up to 170. With three byelections pending, two of which are in reliably safe Liberal seats and the third a Liberal-Bloc tossup, the Liberals seem set to achieve a bare minimum majority in the near future, almost a...
The prime minister has been flying all over the world lately, doing his best to drum up new business opportunities for Canada. No criticism there. It’s a huge part of how Canada will adapt to this strange new global order, and he’s probably better suited to it than most. But let’s not miss out on chances to find new opportunities...
TORONTO—For the last week or two, any time the federal government has tried to explain what this country’s position actually is towards India, we haven’t come off looking great. There is a very simple explanation for this incoherence, but there is also a more alarming one, and I think that one is worth spending a minute thinking about. First, let’s...
In almost any context, one of Prime Minister Mark Carney’s major problems — and it’s one that he inherited, in fairness to him — is the state of the Canadian Armed Forces. Our military is too small to do all the jobs we need it to do. It lacks critical capabilities necessary for survival on the modern battlefield. Manpower shortages...
Retired general Wayne Eyre, Canada’s former chief of the defence staff, says this country’s security and sovereignty would be best protected if we possessed our own nuclear weapons and the delivery systems to fire them at whatever targets we deemed in need of vaporization. He didn’t recommend starting a program at once, but said it would be the only real...
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre had a pretty good convention. It seems to have been a well-organized affair, competently pulled off. Poilievre’s speech was well received, and he certainly has nothing to complain about regarding the 87-plus per cent support he got from party members for his continued leadership. So yeah. It’s mostly good news. But the man is facing some...
Conservatives are beginning to gather in Calgary for their national convention. It’ll start today and run through to Saturday; The Line will be covering it, so stay tuned for more. One of the items on the agenda, and a rather important one, is going to be a review of how Pierre Poilievre performed during the last federal election, which was...
A few months ago, the PM spoke of sacrifice as Canada realigned around new priorities. The same theme popped up in a Globe and Mail story last week about planning work at Canadian Defence HQ about how to resist, via an insurgency, an American attack. The key line to me in that story was this: 'Conscription has been ruled out...
It seems like a million years ago now, but do you remember the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership? It was signed between Canada and some Pacific nations plus the United Kingdom way back in that long-ago time of 2018. I remember being amused by it—not because of what was in the deal, but because of some of the...
Canada‘s existing fleet of fighter jets is overdue for replacement. The CF-18s have been operating continuously since the early 1980s, longer than most of their pilots have been alive. The basic existing design of the fighter is even older than that. They should have been replaced long ago. This was supposedly a priority for the Harper government. In theory, it...
The Major Projects Office’s list of major projects has gotten longer. The new additions include electrical generation projects, mines, and an additional LNG export facility on the B.C. Coast, and more. It’s a good list. It captures both real economic needs and opportunities, and also sprinkles ventures all around the country.
Reflective contrarianism isn’t my thing, so you can take everything you’re about to read as my literal, sincere view. Pete Hoekstra, the United States’ ambassador to Canada, is a godsend. I love the guy. We need 10 more just like him. We should put a microphone on him and leave it on at all times, with a special YouTube channel...
It’s time for Doug Ford to focus on being the premier of Ontario. He’ll be sad to hang up the Captain Canada cape, but the best thing he can do to help this country stand up to U.S. President Donald Trump is to make sure our most populous province is running at peak efficiency. Right now, it isn’t. Let’s get...
Mark Carney went to Washington. Then he came back. Other than leaving Dominic LeBlanc behind, not much else happened. That’s maybe a touch too cynical. Face-to-face meetings matter. Relationships matter. Getting Canada’s issues at the top of the White House’s agenda matters. That’s always been true but it’s especially true with this White House, where domestic and foreign policy seem...
Prime Minister Mark Carney has taken some predictable fire from Conservatives for his frequent jaunts abroad. After hitting the United Nations in New York recently, Carney was off to London, U.K., for a conference and meetings with other Western leaders. The Conservative attack line was what you’d expect: globe-trotting PM, problems at home, blah, blah, blah. I tune it out...
Mark Carney shouldn’t have been saddled with a failing Canada Post. A labour dispute over a contract? Any PM can end up in that situation, and if they stay in office long enough, they will. But the mess Carney faces with Canada Post has been obvious for years. It was clearly seen, talked about at length, and the last government...
The federal gun confiscation program that will be announced in a few hours is illogical. It won’t save lives or make the public safer. The federal government doesn’t really even expect it to work, and is only going ahead with it because they’ve been stuck with a dumb proposal the Trudeau government made almost five years ago. If they could...
Prime Minister Mark Carney won’t want to hear this. Lord knows he has enough on his plate. But he absolutely needs to make a decision, as soon as possible, on a major purchase of fighter jets for the Royal Canadian Air Force. This is not something we can afford to delay any longer. Our national security depends on it.
Canada is now Mark Carney’s problem. He actively campaigned on it being his problem. And I’m politely asking him and his government, on behalf of 41 million of my buddies, to imagine how they’ll respond to the next crisis, when it comes. We need to know now.
Pierre Poilievre is going back to Parliament. Having easily and decisively won the recent byelection in Alberta, the Conservative leader is assured of soon finding himself across the aisle from Prime Minister Mark Carney. Which, like the cooling nights and the earlier sunsets, is a sure sign that our summer is nearly over.
The United States holds tremendous economic leverage over us. For now, Canada is protected by the existing North American trade agreement and most of our exports to the U.S. are tariff-exempt. But the agreement will soon be renegotiated and that’s when the U.S. will apply real pressure.
Mark Carney deserves time. He needs time in order to get up to speed, fair enough. But time is not his friend. Every prime minister should get a chance. No matter who I may have preferred, or who I may have cast a ballot for, once the Canadian people have spoken, a duly elected prime minister and their government have...
Matt Gurney: Let’s open with something of a confession. Or maybe a strategic repositioning of the shield I use to cover my bottom from being called out for bad predictions. In the immediate aftermath of the election, I would have said, with no reservations, that I thought Pierre Poilievre was safe as Conservative leader. I still think that, but now...
Susan Delacourt: Thanks to Doug Ford, I have had a song stuck in my head for days this week. “Love is in the Air,” a one-hit wonder from the 1970s, turned into the soundtrack of the first ministers’ meeting after the Ontario premier walked in singing it.
Matt Gurney: Over the last few weeks, Prime Minister Mark Carney’s postelection government has been shaping up. A cabinet has been announced. Parliamentarians are being sworn in — including the PM, for the first time. Some key staff positions remain unfilled. With the House returning next week and the King coming to town, what’s your sense of where things stand...
There isn’t much point going on at any length analyzing Prime Minister Mark Carney’s refreshed cabinet. There’s some good moves there (Anita Anand to Foreign Affairs is a massive upgrade in a critical portfolio). There’s some bad news (a rookie GTA MP as energy minister, now?!). And there isn’t a snappy or definitive answer as to whether this cabinet marks...
Susan Delacourt: One word leapt out at me in a piece you wrote for this paper last week, Matt, and it was this one: “killed.” As in, the Conservatives got killed in the election. I agree that their hopes got killed — especially the hopes they had when they were 20 points ahead of the Liberals. But here’s the thing...
When my editor asked me recently whether I had any thoughts on a Conservative election post-mortem, my reply was simple: we have to use the term post-mortem in a more literal sense than normal. The Conservatives don’t need to merely review the campaign. They need to figure out precisely what killed them. Because unless they find an answer, they won’t...
Matt Gurney: A few weeks ago, I expressed some irritation with the candidates. I still feel that way. This has been an uninspiring campaign. We are, we’re told, facing major, existential threats to our way of life and maybe even our national survival. And I honestly can’t recall a single policy proposal from any of the parties off the top...
Canada doesn’t have a gun-control problem. And Mark Carney should stop pretending it does. We do have a problem with gun crime, particularly in some of our larger cities. And we also have a problem with intimate-partner violence. These problems need attention and, critically, more resources. What they don’t need is more gun-control laws: everything that should be illegal already...
Susan Delacourt: Well, the debates are now behind us, advance voting is under way, and I am thinking a lot this weekend about the whole idea of change. I wonder whether the debates changed anything. I’m curious to see if poll trends change in the last week of this election. And I’m also reflecting on Pierre Poilievre and whether we’ve...
Matt Gurney: Something the small but mighty team at The Line is doing during the campaign is a fun little feature with a profane name we publish on Fridays. It’s an accountability/fact-check feature. Last week, we noted in it that the parties were more or less behaving and keeping relatively honest. As late as the middle of this week, that...