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 Robert Fife.
Canadian financier Mark Wiseman has officially been selected by Prime Minister Mark Carney to take up Canada’s most important diplomatic role as ambassador to the United States as the country prepares for tough USMCA trade talks, two sources say. The appointment was approved by cabinet on Thursday, the sources said. The Prime Minister is to make the announcement in the...
Opposition parties are warning Prime Minister Mark Carney against appointing a long-time friend and wealthy financier as Canada’s ambassador to Washington. The U.S. envoy post opened after Ambassador Kirsten Hillman announced Tuesday that she will leave Canada’s most important diplomatic position in the new year. A source has told The Globe and Mail that Canadian financier Mark Wiseman, a close...
Opposition MPs, national-security experts and human-rights activists are accusing the federal government of dragging its feet on setting up a foreign agent registry. The last Liberal government, under former prime minister Justin Trudeau, passed enabling legislation in June, 2024, to set up a registry and name a commissioner to oversee it. But the new government of Prime Minister Mark Carney...
Ottawa and Alberta appear close to striking an energy accord long sought by Premier Danielle Smith to boost her province’s oil and natural gas sector, with Privy Council Clerk Michael Sabia playing a key role in the negotiations, two sources say. Two federal insiders said the broad outlines of the agreement, which would take the form of a memorandum of...
U.S. Ambassador Pete Hoekstra is facing internal criticism over his management of the Michigan Republican Party before he took up his duties as Donald Trump’s voice in Canada. Some Republicans, including the current chair of the Michigan GOP, say Mr. Hoekstra left the party saddled with a US$1-million debt.
The Liberals are pursuing other Conservative MPs to cross the floor after Nova Scotia MP Chris d’Entremont stunned Conservatives by joining Mark Carney’s caucus. Two Liberal sources say the minority government has been in discussions with a number of Conservative MPs to gauge their willingness to either cross or sit as independents before a vote is held on the federal...
Tuesday’s federal budget will announce a $50-billion fund for local infrastructure, including housing, transportation and a specific stream for health infrastructure such as hospitals and emergency services, a senior government official told The Globe and Mail. The source said the budget will also lay out a plan to retire aging military fleets as a way to save money on maintenance...
Millions of dollars of Canadian technology has been shipped through a sprawling network of Hong Kong-based shell companies to feed Russia’s war machine, according to an investigation by a human-rights watchdog. The Washington-based Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation (CFHK), in collaboration with the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights, combed through Ukrainian battlefield forensics, Hong Kong public records...
A trade deal on steel, aluminum and energy could be ready for Prime Minister Mark Carney and U.S. President Donald Trump to sign at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit later this month, two sources say. Such a deal would offer long-sought relief for the Canadian metals industry, which has been among the hardest hit in this country by U.S. tariffs...
High-level trade talks between Canadian and U.S. officials have resumed in Washington as a united front among the provinces has begun to unravel in the face of punishing tariffs on autos, steel, aluminum and lumber. Privy Council Clerk Michael Sabia, the country’s top public servant, has joined Canadian Ambassador Kirsten Hillman, the chief trade negotiator, in Washington to continue talks...
Dominic LeBlanc, Canada’s minister in charge of U.S. trade, has remained in Washington in the days after Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Tuesday White House visit to pursue high-level negotiations aimed at lifting punishing tariffs on Canadian steel, aluminum, lumber and autos. The talks have taken on an intensity that has led to some optimism on the Canadian side that substantial...
Mark Carney heads to Washington Monday, with his government setting expectations low for talks on tariffs and security with Donald Trump, even as damage mounts from the U.S. President’s protectionist levies. Two senior government officials said not to expect any breakthroughs at the Tuesday White House meeting and emphasized that this will just be a working visit. One U.S. industry...
Canada could encourage more high-end tourism by allowing South Americans to use U.S. visas to enter the country, says a former Chrétien-era cabinet minister. Herb Dhaliwal told The Globe and Mail Thursday that he made the proposal to the office of Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand and the idea is under consideration. Mr. Dhaliwal held several cabinet posts under former...
The Alberta government plans to head up an application for a new oil pipeline to the B.C. coast, leveraging the expertise of Enbridge Inc. ENB-T, South Bow Corp. SOBO-T and Trans Mountain Corp. to help develop the plan, according to three sources. The idea is to hammer out an application and an early estimate that can be sent to the...
A prominent advocate for a Sikh homeland in India was arrested on firearm charges in Ontario earlier this month, more than two years after his predecessor’s killing led to a significant rift in Canadian-Indian relations. The arrest happened a day after Canada’s national security adviser met with her Indian counterpart in New Delhi as part of an effort to reset...
Prime Minister Mark Carney’s national security and intelligence adviser has travelled to New Delhi for a one-on-one with her Indian counterpart, with the two countries seeking to heal their fractured relations after India was accused of involvement in the 2023 murder of a Canadian citizen. Nathalie Drouin said in a statement that she held talks Thursday with national security adviser...
Canada’s spy agency is warning Canadian tech entrepreneurs about showcasing their wares at international pitch competitions organized by China, events it cautions pose a serious risk to their intellectual property. The Canadian Security Intelligence Service has issued a bulletin in tandem with U.S. partners, such as the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, that lays out steps tech players should take...
Tom Pitfield, a top lieutenant to Prime Minister Mark Carney and long-time Liberal Party campaign strategist, is one of the largest shareholders in a marketing and analytics company that has for years been working on behalf of Big Tobacco in Canada and globally, two sources say. The sources told The Globe and Mail that Mr. Pitfield, who shares principal-secretary duties...
Prime Minister Mark Carney is considering naming two sitting MPs to diplomatic posts as rewards for their service as former cabinet ministers and as a means to recruit fresh talent, unencumbered by the Justin Trudeau years, two sources say. Bill Blair, a former Toronto police chief who served in several high-profile cabinet roles including National Defence and Public Safety, is...
Prime Minister Mark Carney expects high-ranking public servants to speedily carry out his ambitious nation-building agenda and is prepared to discipline anyone unable to meet his expectations, government and Liberal insiders say. To meet his stated goal of achieving “the largest transformation” in the Canadian economy since the Second World War, the sources say, Mr. Carney is also ready to...
Former Liberal justice minister Irwin Cotler, who is on an Iranian hit list, says he fears Tehran may have activated sleeper cells in Canada to carry out acts of violence against opponents of the regime. Mr. Cotler, a noted Canadian human-rights advocate and critic of the Iranian clerical regime, would not discuss his personal security situation since war broke out...
Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree says Ottawa continues to have “difficult conversations” with New Delhi about the 2023 killing of a Canadian Sikh leader, but the Prime Minister’s Office has declined to say if the matter was raised earlier this week in talks between Mark Carney and his Indian counterpart, Narendra Modi. Mr. Carney ducked a question Tuesday about whether...
As Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi attends the final day of the G7 summit, Canada’s spy agency warns that New Delhi remains a persistent foreign interference threat to this country. In its annual report to Parliament, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service also identified China, Russia, Iran and Pakistan as the main perpetrators of foreign interference.
The Senate has agreed to hold full hearings to study two key pieces of Prime Minister Mark Carney’s agenda, including bills proposing a middle-class tax cut and to fast-track major projects, according to two Senate sources. Mr. Carney has suggested he wants to have bills C-4 and C-5 passed by Canada Day. Both bills are at second reading in the...
Prime Minister Mark Carney is holding direct talks with U.S. President Donald Trump to iron out a framework for a trade and security agreement, the U.S. Ambassador to Canada says. Pete Hoekstra told The Globe and Mail that talks between the leaders and top cabinet ministers are being held under a cone of silence to ensure a positive outcome. The...
Prime Minister Mark Carney will present provincial and territorial premiers next week with the broad outlines of legislation that will impose a two-year approval process for major nation-building projects such as ports, critical mineral mines and trade corridors. The legislation contains measures to fast-track significant infrastructure projects through upfront regulatory approvals, and includes a framework to remove all federal barriers...
A former MP who was barred from running in the federal election for the Liberal Party because of alleged ties to India has formed a lobby group for Hindu Canadians. Chandra Arya, who served as a member of Parliament for the Ottawa riding of Nepean for more than nine years, was removed as the Liberal candidate for the district shortly...
The Conservative caucus will meet on Tuesday to mull over the party’s election defeat and select an interim Opposition Leader to replace Pierre Poilievre amid concerns that the Liberals are trying to poach some of their MPs. Front-runners for the job of Opposition Leader are former leader Andrew Scheer and deputy Conservative leader Melissa Lantsman, according to a caucus source...
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is at risk of losing his Ottawa-Carleton riding as the party scrambles to send in volunteers to save the seat he has held since 2004, two federal and two provincial Conservative sources say. With several polls showing the Liberals poised to win the election, the loss of Mr. Poilievre’s riding would put the leader in a...
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...
A Liberal candidate running in a Greater Toronto Area riding, whose candidacy has come under scrutiny for ties to pro-Beijing groups, accepted an invitation from China to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the People’s Liberation Army victory over Japan in the Second World War. Peter Yuen, who has also been linked to Toronto’s Chinese consulate, joined a group of about...
The Liberal candidate selected by Mark Carney to replace one who was dropped over a China-related controversy is a member of a Beijing-friendly lobby organization and has given talks at events honouring a Toronto group that advocates for the annexation of Taiwan by China. Onetime Toronto police deputy chief Peter Yuen, who is now carrying the Liberal banner in the...
A prominent Canadian conservative think tank has invited the top tariff power broker from Donald Trump’s first cabinet to a conference in Ottawa this week that includes a who’s who of premiers, former politicians and Conservative strategists. Former U.S. trade representative Robert Lighthizer, who supports dramatically higher tariffs and dismisses concerns about tanking the global economy, will be the keynote...
Calls are mounting for Liberal Leader Mark Carney to fire Toronto-area candidate Paul Chiang, who said people should bring a Conservative politician to the local Chinese consulate to collect a bounty on him for criticizing Beijing’s crackdown on Hong Kong. NDP candidate Jenny Kwan urged Mr. Carney to drop Mr. Chiang for his comments on Conservative candidate Joe Tay. “He...
Liberal Leader Mark Carney is being urged by the Conservatives to fire a Toronto-area candidate who said people should bring a Conservative politician to the local Chinese consulate to collect a bounty on him for criticizing Beijing’s crackdown on Hong Kong.
Pierre Poilievre is facing mounting discontent over campaign manager Jenni Byrne’s handling of strategy and operations, multiple sources say, citing what they call her unwillingness to pivot from attacks on the Liberal government record to a laser focus on the trade war launched by U.S. President Donald Trump.
Justin Trudeau has rented a home in the upscale Ottawa neighbourhood of Rockcliffe, where he plans to live for at least another year, two advisers of the former prime minister say. There are no plans for Mr. Trudeau to play any role in the federal election campaign. Mark Carney called an April 28 vote shortly after he was sworn in...
The Liberal Party revoked MP Chandra Arya’s bid to run for the party leadership and his nomination in his own Ottawa riding over alleged foreign-interference concerns involving India, according to a source with top-secret clearance. Mr. Arya took a trip to India last August and met Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The source said Mr. Arya had not informed the government...
Agents of India and their proxies allegedly meddled in the 2022 election of Pierre Poilievre as Conservative Party Leader as part of a larger effort to cozy up to politicians of all parties, according to a source with top-secret clearance. The source said the Canadian Security Intelligence Service learned that Indian agents were involved in raising money and organizing within...
Barring an upset, Mark Carney is poised to be elected leader of the ruling Liberal Party on Sunday, becoming the country’s first prime minister without any political experience and setting the stage for an early election amid a trade war with Canada’s biggest trading partner. The return of Donald Trump to the White House and the U.S. President’s threats to...
Former Conservative prime minister Stephen Harper has accused Liberal leadership front-runner Mark Carney of falsely claiming credit for managing the 2008 financial crisis and linked him to the Trudeau’s government’s failure to build energy projects and increases in the federal deficit. In a hard-hitting fundraising letter to Conservative party faithful, Mr. Harper said the former central banker is not the...
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau pushed U.S. President Donald Trump in a phone call Saturday to ensure that any peace deal for Ukraine offers security guarantees and prevents Russia from using military force to further expand its territorial reach. Mr. Trudeau, who left Ottawa Sunday for a summit in Kyiv of world leaders on the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion of...
Donald Trump won’t be on the stage at the Liberal leadership debates but the four candidates are expected to focus on how they would handle the U.S. President’s “America First” economic agenda and threats to Canadian sovereignty. The Liberals are staging separate debates in French and English on Monday and Tuesday, respectively – a chance to lay out their vision...
The Liberal Party says its concerns about the campaign of leadership candidate Ruby Dhalla are not related to foreign interference from India. The Globe and Mail reported Thursday, citing two Liberal sources, that the party sent a list of questions to Ms. Dhalla that raise concerns about possible foreign interference from India and alleged campaign irregularities. Ms. Dhalla, the sources...
Conservatives MPs are targeting Liberal leadership front-runner Mark Carney, accusing the former central banker of being an elitist who is out of touch with the concerns of working Canadians. Heading into a caucus meeting Friday, the MPs took aim at Mr. Carney, seeking to link him to unpopular Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, who has for months refused to apply for a top-secret clearance to receive confidential briefings, has now rejected a proposal by CSIS to offer him classified guidance on foreign interference.
The federal government is planning a multibillion-dollar, pandemic-style bailout for workers and businesses if U.S. President Donald Trump follows through on his threat to impose 25-per-cent tariffs on Canadian goods as early as Feb. 1, two sources say. The sources said some of the measures, such as waiving the one-week waiting period for employment insurance benefits, do not require parliamentary...
The final report from Canada’s Foreign Interference Commission, to be released Tuesday, is set to lay out how Ottawa and its security and electoral agencies can better protect the country’s political system from foreign meddling. But all eyes will be on what Justice Marie-Josée Hogue, the commissioner, says about federal politicians suspected of working for hostile powers.
Transport Minister Anita Anand is backing former Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney for the Liberal Party’s leadership, making her the latest cabinet minister to turn away from former finance minister Chrystia Freeland. Ms. Anand told The Globe and Mail in an interview that her decision traces back to working with Mr. Carney when she was a visiting scholar at...
Liberal Party leadership contender Karina Gould has officially entered the race, saying the fact that she could raise the money and get the required signatures in just two weeks is a sign of momentum for her bid. Ms. Gould, an MP and former cabinet minister, submitted her paperwork at party headquarters Thursday morning, joining former Bank of Canada governor Mark...
Former central banker Mark Carney is lining up more endorsements from senior cabinet ministers from Quebec and top party brass as the Liberal caucus is set to meet Thursday to discuss the leadership race and threat of U.S. tariffs on Canadian goods.
The departures of Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly and Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc from the Liberal leadership contest has seen MPs flock to the camps of either Chrystia Freeland or former central banker Mark Carney, according to party sources. Pressure is also mounting on Innovation Minister François-Philippe Champagne to either enter the race or throw his support to either Ms...
Chrystia Freeland and former central banker Mark Carney are poised to seek the Liberal leadership while Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly and Innovation Minister François-Philippe Champagne remain uncertain over whether to join the race, sources say.
Justin Trudeau is expected to announce as early as Monday that he will resign as Liberal Party Leader, three sources said Sunday, as the Prime Minister faces a caucus revolt and dismal public opinion polls that show his party will likely be swept out of power by Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives.
Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc is defending staying over at the home of billionaire J.D. (Jim) Irving this month, as the Conservatives call on the ethics commissioner to review the conflict-of-interest screen set up to shield Mr. LeBlanc from his government’s extensive dealings with the New Brunswick family’s company, J.D. Irving, Ltd. In Palm Beach, Fla., for a meeting on...
