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 Peter Zimonjic.
'I’m proud to join the Conservative caucus and be part of a strong team that stands up for Canadians.'The formerly non-affiliated New Brunswick Sen. David Richards has joined the Conservative Senate Caucus. Richards, a bestselling author and one of only a handful of writers who has received a Governor General's award in both the non-fiction and fiction categories, was appointed...
When King Charles III and Queen Camilla visit Canada later this month for the monarch's reading of the speech from the throne, it will kick off two days of pomp and ceremony across the capital. The King's visit will mark the third time a British monarch has read the speech from the throne in Canada, with Queen Elizabeth ll having...
Prime Minister Mark Carney's new cabinet has taken shape without 11 of the ministers he brought around the table barely two months ago. On the outs are former defence minister Bill Blair, former president of the Treasury Board Ginette Petitpas Taylor and former energy and natural resources minister Jonathan Wilkinson. All of those experienced ministers held numerous posts under former...
U.S. President Donald Trump said former prime minister Justin Trudeau led the effort to have Russia removed from the G8, even though the decision took place more than a year before Trudeau came to power. Speaking alongside FIFA president Gianni Infantino at a World Cup event in Washington on Tuesday, Trump said Trudeau and former U.S. president Barack Obama "didn't...
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is promising to clean up Canada's streets and parks by giving police the power to dismantle encampments and arrest their occupants for setting up tents and shelters to live in. "Public spaces must be safe for everyone. We will take back our streets and restore order in our communities," Poilievre said during a campaign stop in...
Canada's political leaders are remembering Pope Francis as a humble leader with a deep moral obligation and the spiritual courage to help the world's most vulnerable. "Today, the world lost a man who profoundly touched the lives of billions of people," Prime Minister Mark Carney said during a campaign stop in Charlottetown on Monday.
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 Leader Mark Carney laid out his party's public safety plan on Thursday, promising to crack down on gangs, protect children, reduce intimate partner violence and tackle the illegal flow of drugs and guns coming from the United States. "Tariffs are not the only American policies that are threatening our economy and our society. They're also threatening the safety of...
Conservative leader would offer whistleblowers up to 20% of recovered tax revenue. Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is promising to crack down on the use of offshore tax havens and recover as much as $1 billion a year in lost revenues. In a video posted on X, Poilievre said the money recovered through the initiative will be used to help pay...
'There is a fairly profound divide within the Conservative movement': University of Calgary's Lisa Young. Long-simmering tensions within the Conservative movement are bursting out into the federal election, experts say — undercutting Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre's efforts to present himself as a unifier who can take on U.S. President Donald Trump. Those tensions materialized again after ex-Reform Party leader Preston...
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh says a government led by him will issue "Victory Bonds" to raise the money needed to strengthen the Canadian economy through the trade war with the United States. The plan would see the federal government offer five- and 10-year bonds that Canadians can buy through a payroll deduction. The NDP is promising that none of the...
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative released its annual list of global trade barriers Tuesday, and it includes Quebec's controversial language law Bill 96 as a trade irritant between the two countries. The nearly 400-page National Trade Estimate Report lists in almost encyclopedic detail all of the tariff and non-tariff barriers present in countries that import U.S. goods and...
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre announced his second tax cut of the campaign targeted at investors Sunday, promising to exempt capital gains from taxes if the proceeds are reinvested in Canada. "The current capital gains tax locks up investment in old assets, because selling them would force a big bill," Poilievre said in a statement.
Voting day will either be April 28 or May 5, according to sources. Prime Minister Mark Carney will ask the Governor General to dissolve Parliament and call a federal election this Sunday, Radio-Canada has learned. The election campaign will kick off barely a week after Carney was sworn in as prime minister and appointed his cabinet.
Prime Minister Mark Carney said Canada can stand up for its own sovereignty in response to annexation talk from the U.S. administration as he wrapped up his first international trip. Carney met with King Charles and U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer in London on Monday evening after meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris earlier in the day. Speaking...
Liberal government signs new deals with provinces, Indigenous nations. As Prime Minister Justin Trudeau works through what is likely to be his last week in office, he and his government appear to be moving to cement his political legacy. Trudeau and his ministers have been making significant announcements on infrastructure, social programs and reconciliation. Trudeau has also made recent international...
Experts say criticism that some members couldn't vote is better than the alternative. The problems some registered Liberals are having with online voting in the party's leadership race shouldn't be a surprise and may even be a good thing, say some experts. "You can't have a wide open, hardly at all verified process for selecting the prime minister of Canada,"...
Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly concluded her recent tour of Europe saying she delivered a "wake-up call" to Canada's allies across the Atlantic about the economic and political threat the Trump administration is posing to Canada. "Based on my conversations with many European colleagues, many of them are not necessarily completely aware of what is going on, first in the...
Economist argues U.S. could be worse off if it had a surplus with Canada. U.S. President Donald Trump's claim that his country subsidizes Canada with hundreds of billions of dollars every year has become a key plank in his argument for annexing the country. But do his numbers add up? His argument hinges on a belief that the deficit in...
As athletes from 25 countries gather in B.C. this week to compete in the seventh Invictus Games, a Canadian veteran who suffered life-changing injuries in the previous games is suing the Department of National Defence and the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) for $2.4 million. Scott Snow, a poster boy for Team Canada in Dusseldorf, Germany, in 2023, was injured during...
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told business leaders at the Canada-U.S. Economic Summit in Toronto that U.S. President Donald Trump's threat to annex Canada "is a real thing." "Mr. Trump has it in mind that the easiest way to do it is absorbing our country and it is a real thing. In my conversations with him on…," Trudeau said, before the...
Experts say Trudeau has the powers he needs to deal with Trump without sitting MPs. As Prime Minister Justin Trudeau meets with Canada's premiers and works with cabinet to craft his government's response to an unpredictable Trump administration, he's also batting away repeated demands from opposition leaders to recall Parliament.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said Monday that if he becomes prime minister he will implement a plan to boost internal trade in Canada that he says will increase the country's gross domestic product (GDP) by more than $200 billion. Poilievre said Trump's decision to slap 25 per cent tariffs on most Canadian imports, and 10 per cent on energy imports...
Six of the seven Liberal leadership candidates who submitted their nomination papers have now been approved by the party to run in the race to succeed Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Former central banker Mark Carney, former finance minister and deputy prime minister Chrystia Freeland, Nova Scotia MP Jaime Battiste, former government House leader Karina Gould and former Brampton, Ont., Liberal...
Conservative leader dodged question over whether he backs Alberta, or rest of provinces and federal government. Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre won't say whether he backs the premiers and prime minister's threat to impose export tariffs or restrict the supply of oil and gas bound for the United States as a possible response to president-elect Donald Trump's promised tariff regime.
Carney soft-launched his campaign for the leadership on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart Monday. Mark Carney will launch his candidacy for the Liberal Party leadership at an event in Edmonton on Thursday, according to a notice from Calgary Skyview MP George Chahal. The former governor of the Bank of Canada and the Bank of England will join Ottawa MP...
As a giant of industry and the world's richest man, Elon Musk wields influence across the global economy. He's now leveraging that success to extend his influence into the democratic process in Canada and elsewhere. In the past week alone, Musk has dipped into Canadian politics on his social media platform several times; endorsing Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, showering him...
Ontario has reached an agreement with the federal government that will see $108.5 million roll out over the next three years to help fund a school food program in the province. Officials said the money represents a first round of funding, with federal support for the program in the years ahead still to be negotiated.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh says he has written to Canada's premiers asking them to match his pledge to remove the GST from daily essentials by doing the same with their provincial sales taxes. "Working people are being gouged every time they pay their cell phone bill or stop at the grocery store to grab something for dinner," Singh said in...
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is flying in and out of Bermuda on Wednesday, where he will deliver a eulogy at the funeral for Peter Green, a close family friend. Trudeaus have been friends with the Green family since the 1970s. Pierre Trudeau was godfather to Peter Green's son Alexander, who delivered a reading at Trudeau's funeral in Montréal. Pierre Trudeau...
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is pledging to eliminate the GST on new homes sold for under $1 million if his party wins the next federal election. The Conservative leader made the announcement early Monday morning in a campaign-style video released online and is holding a media event at 10:00 a.m. ET in Ottawa to provide more detail.
Ten years after a gunman died in a hail of bullets in Parliament's Centre Block, security on Parliament Hill is noticeably different — but the debate over how to safeguard Canada's national legislature is still going strong. The National Police Federation (NPF), the union that represents the RCMP, has been highly critical of the decision to end the RCMP's responsibility...
It "absolutely is possible" for the federal government to strike pharmacare agreements with all the provinces by the spring, Health Minister Mark Holland said Friday. "I'm not saying this is going to be easy," Holland said from the G7 health ministers' meeting in Ancona, Italy. "Getting this bill adopted in the House and getting it through the Senate was incredibly...
Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet says the Liberal government has only days left to secure his party's support in the House of Commons by agreeing to boost to some pensions and shield supply management from concessions in trade talks. "The solution is so simple. It is so simple that I do not know what more I could explain," Blanchet said...
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says it "bugged him" when NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh ended his party's supply and confidence agreement with the Liberals without calling first. "The relationship obviously wasn't what I thought it was," Trudeau said in a recent conversation with Liberal MP Nathaniel Erskine-Smith on the Uncommons podcast. "I know that if I had chosen to end it...
While French President Emmanuel Macron acknowledges that he — like Prime Minister Justin Trudeau — is facing sliding poll numbers and pressure from the political right, he says this is no time for national leaders to abandon their "principles." In a wide-ranging interview with CBC News and Radio-Canada last week in Ottawa, before his meeting with Trudeau, Macron said "tough...
Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said Tuesday she is "absolutely" considering following the U.S. move to ban vehicle hardware and software from China or Russia. "Our government has made it very clear that we take really seriously intentional Chinese overcapacity and we take very seriously the security threat from China," Freeland said in Ottawa. Freeland's comments come...
On the evening of December 10, 2018, Michael Kovrig was out for dinner in Beijing with his six-months-pregnant partner, unaware it was the last time he'd enjoy her company for more than two and a half years. Strolling home, the couple climbed a spiral staircase in front of his apartment building. "And boom … I come out of the stairs...
A Canadian Armed Forces veteran who was a poster boy for Canada's 2023 Invictus Games team now says he is thousands of dollars out of pocket after learning he was not covered by medical insurance for injuries he sustained while representing his country. Scott Snow went to Dusseldorf, Germany to participate in archery, rowing and wheelchair rugby. During his first...
On the same day the Liberal government's House leader told reporters she was "confident" her party's governance agreement with the NDP would last until June 2025, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh was busy recording a video in front of Parliament saying he was killing the deal. "I'm fairly confident that agreement is a good agreement, it's a strong agreement and we'll...
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh is terminating the supply-and-confidence agreement his party made with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's Liberal government. The party made the announcement in a video posted to social media Wednesday afternoon. The deal was scheduled to run until June 2025.
The Liberal government is putting a stop to an immigration exemption that allows visitors to apply for work permits from within Canada. Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) introduced the policy during the pandemic for visitors who couldn't leave Canada due to COVID-19-related travel restrictions.
The Supreme Court of Canada will not hear People's Party Leader Maxime Bernier and former Progressive Conservative premier of Newfoundland Brian Peckford's appeals over the vaccine mandate imposed on air travellers during the COVID-19 pandemic. From Nov. 30, 2021, to June 20, 2022, all air and rail passengers travelling
The federal government can afford to increase spending by $46 billion, or cut taxes by that amount, every year until 2098 and remain fiscally sustainable, according to a report from the Parliamentary Budget Officer Yves Giroux's office. This year's fiscal sustainability report also says that taken as a whole, Canada's provincial governments are sustainable but cannot collectively increase funding nor...
Developments follow federal labour minister's referral of dispute to Canada Industrial Relations Board. The Teamsters union has served Canadian National Railway (CN) with a 72-hour strike notice, hours after saying it was taking down picket lines and workers were returning to the job. "Please find this letter as official notice to the company of our intention to withdraw the services...
Paddling solo for 174 kilometres down the Kispiox and Skeena rivers in northwestern British Columbia each summer, NDP MP Taylor Bachrach encounters rapids, storms, grizzly bears and a spectacular landscape in his unusual effort to connect with constituents. It's nothing like the summer BBQ circuit that occupies many of his parliamentary colleagues once the House of Commons rises. Bachrach said...
GAC does not need approval to buy residences abroad for less than $10M, committee hears. The decision to buy a new luxury apartment for the consulate general of Canada in New York, and to sell the old one, was made by officials at Global Affairs Canada (GAC), a committee of MPs heard Tuesday. Samantha Tattersall, a senior official at the...
Sajjan endorsed request because Dosanjh 'is the biggest Punjabi artist in the world,' spokesperson says. Canada's emergency preparedness minister is defending an official request he made to use Canadian soldiers as a backdrop for a concert by Punjabi pop star Diljit Dosanjh, one of India's biggest actors and singers. As first reported in The Globe and Mail, Harjit Sajjan received...
Canada's privacy commissioner has launched an investigation into a cybersecurity breach at Ticketmaster after an attack by a hacker group compromised the personal information of millions of customers around the world. "The investigation will allow us to understand why this cyber incident happened and what must be done to address this situation and prevent it from happening again," Privacy Commissioner...
For the past 150 years, the governments of Ontario and Canada have made a "mockery" of their treaty obligations to the Anishinaabe of the upper Great Lakes, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled Friday. In a unanimous decision, the top court said the ongoing failure to increase the annual per-head resource extraction revenues since 1875 for the residents of two...
Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Beijing on Friday as both countries appear to be taking steps to ease ongoing tensions that have strained bilateral relations. After the sit-down, a senior government source told CBC news the ministers held a "constructive and productive meeting" — the first face-to-face talks in Beijing involving a...
The 2022 Rogers outage that left 12 million people without wireless and hard-wired services was caused by human error and made worse by management and system "deficiencies," says an independent review conducted for Canada's telecommunications regulator. The review report also says steps taken by Rogers since the outage are "satisfactory to improve the Rogers network resiliency and reliability, as well...
A Liberal caucus source tells CBC News a number of MPs might not run again if Trudeau stays. As Prime Minister Justin Trudeau continues to say he means to stay on as Liberal leader after last week's surprise Conservative win in the Toronto-St. Paul's byelection, one Liberal MP is telling CBC News some caucus members are thinking about calling it...
Embassy used a stock image created by generative AI. Canada's embassy in Washington has taken down a social media post that included an image generated by artificial intelligence. In a media statement, Global Affairs Canada (GAC) confirmed its June 30 post on X (formerly Twitter) encouraging people to celebrate Canada Day did not cite generative AI as its source.
Elections Canada says the count in the Toronto-St. Paul's byelection that saw the Liberals lose a party stronghold went slowly but well, despite the challenges of managing a contest with 84 names on the ballot. "The unusual dimensions of the ballot itself meant that some steps took more time than normal," Elections Canada spokesperson Matthew McKenna told CBC News in...
The House of Commons has risen for the summer, sending MPs back to their ridings to meet with constituents and point to their legislative accomplishments over the past year. The Liberal government is hailing the recent sitting as a success. The Commons passed 15 government bills on such matters as medical assistance in dying, foreign interference, child care, pharmacare and cybersecurity.
Two Liberal MPs provided a parliamentary committee with multiple examples Thursday of threatening abuse they say they have received from members of the public — some of which they claim was in reaction to public messaging by Conservative MPs. Pam Damoff and Iqra Khalid were testifying before the House of Commons procedures and House affairs committee as part of its...
The harassment members of Parliament experience from the public has jumped almost 800 per cent in the last five years, according to the person in charge of security in the House of Commons. Patrick McDonell, sergeant-at-arms and corporate security officer, told a committee of MPs studying the House harassment policy Tuesday that the spike was driven by incidents that are...
The increasing frequency of extreme weather events across the country has caused the sums paid out annually for catastrophic insurance claims to explode — and annual payouts for the last four years now rank among the ten largest on record, says a new Statistics Canada study. "Homeowners have been particularly affected by extreme weather claims, with recent hurricanes, floods and...
The president of the Canada Border Services Agency told a parliamentary committee Tuesday that there was a lack of transparency in the contracting process used to create the controversial ArriveCan app. The CBSA has been under fire since Auditor General Karen Hogan's February report estimated ArriveCan cost taxpayers roughly $59.5 million, in part because of the agency's reliance on external contractors.