Pierre Poilievre’s Great Unravelling
MARK CARNEY HAS achieved something close to rock-star status for being one of the only world leaders to stand up to United States president Donald Trump. Breaking off trade talks with the US carries enormous risks, but according to Angus Reid, 76 percent of Canadians back the prime minister’s decision. “They asked too much,” he explained, with characteristic crispness, “and...
U.S. President Trump has pegged Canadians all wrong
There is a lot that United States President Donald Trump doesn’t understand. Canada is close to the top of the list. Trump is accustomed to wielding the presidency as the ultimate big stick. He gets his way by threatening, not persuading or charming, as past U.S. leaders have done. Can anyone picture Jimmy Carter threatening to annex the Great White...
Danielle Smith is sowing the seeds of a democratic legitimacy crisis
Danielle Smith clearly loves America. In addition to her numerous diplomatic visits and personal holidays there, she has also used the country as a model for her own political brand, one that focuses far more on things like individual freedom and liberty than more traditionally Canadian values like community and shared interests. She has deliberately imported their most noxious culture...
Canada and Ukraine now have a drone deal, but it’s only going to work if we get the basic stuff right
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...
The economics of Alberta separation would be disastrous for everyone
There's a level of irony in the deep admiration so many Alberta separatists harbour for our neighbour to the south. After all, there is no legal process for an American state to separate from the U.S. and, thus, such a movement could not exist there. Of course, the United States underwent a far messier and bloodier process before concluding that...
As Parliament Returns, Carney is in the Hot Seat but the Pressure is on Poilievre
Over the summer of 2026, the annual escape from the daily battleground of question period overwhelmingly benefited Prime Minister Mark Carney. Carney used his summer vacation from the House of Commons to burnish his economic credibility with Canadians through infrastructure announcements, boost his global currency by standing up to Donald Trump on trade, and renew his parliamentary majority via three...
Carney to meet with leaders of France, Norway closer to home after whirlwind Euro trip
Prime Minister Mark Carney is back from Europe and now Europe is coming closer to him. Over 48 hours on Sunday and Monday, he’ll meet with two European allies, two leaders who, like Mr. Carney, see strategic autonomy as the key goal of their foreign policy. If he wanted allies to help knit together a trans-Atlantic geopolitical alliance, he could...
U.S., not EU, the priority on trade
Reaching a deal with southern neighbours will provide long-term certainty for Canadian economy
We may look back on this as the week Canada began to take its fate into its own hands
There are, as Lenin apparently did not say, decades when nothing happens, and weeks when decades happen. This was one of those weeks: a remarkable series of policy and diplomatic moves that give unmistakable form to what until lately had been mostly rhetorical flourish. The Carney doctrine remains only partly visible, and may only be partly developed, but there’s no...
Canada and the EU’s Long Haul: Call the Partnership What You Want, It Just Needs to Go Beyond the Trump Years
By suggesting that Canada could eventually become the first associate member of the European Union (EU), European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen expressed in her own way how much Europe wants closer, more ambitious, and more intense cooperation with Canada. At the same time, she stirred up concerns on both sides of the Atlantic.
Canadian pride and rage in the face of tariff madness
In the early days of the world’s stupidest trade war, outsiders seemed impressed, amused and somehow surprised when Canada pushed back by yanking American booze from our stores, booing The Star-Spangled Banner and dishing out retaliatory tariffs. The same punchline kept surfacing online and among late-night TV hosts: “Do you know how obnoxious you have to be to tick off...
Yes, be cautious of Europe. But this is why Mark Carney is still right to pursue an agreement with the EU
The Canadian prime minister is once again on the road, this time taking in some footie alongside new U.K. Prime Minister Andy Burnham and, more importantly, playing footsie with the European Union in the form of a possible “associate membership.” Now, I’m here from the future to warn you that nothing will happen very quickly, if at all, with this...
Carney’s handshake with Europe and the end of the ‘American age’
Trust U.S. President Donald Trump to prove Mark Carney’s point even before Carney made it. The prime minister hadn’t yet laid out his vision of greater co-operation with Europe to the European Parliament and Trump was already out trashing the idea as “laughable” and threatening yet more tariffs if he didn’t like the outcome. A year ago I expect that...
Liberals ponder an early election as Poilievre confronts his Macbeth moment
The Conservative party is a “fractured mess,” according to one caucus member who volunteered the opinion to a CTV reporter Wednesday. Article content Few people (with the possible exception of leader Pierre Poilievre) will have been more distressed by the sense of incipient rebellion than Mark Carney’s political advisers.
In Europe, Mark Carney seeks a partner that respects Canada in a way Donald Trump won’t
Even before Mark Carney had uttered a word at the European Parliament, Donald Trump was proving the cold truth in the speech — that the president is a threat to sovereignty, not just trade. Trump said on the eve of the speech that he would decide what to make of Canada and Europe’s strengthened alliance, and mete punishment accordingly.
Carney’s Davos speech diagnosed the problem. His EU speech lays out the cure
Prime Minister Mark Carney emphasized that a proposed new alliance with Europe is not an attempt to create a new bloc to rival the great powers. Yet it was a bit of a stretch to assert, as he did in a press conference in Strasbourg, France, on Thursday, that it wasn’t a reaction to others. The speech he had made...
Mark Carney’s flight plan means turbulence for Canadian air travellers
It’s a flight plan Prime Minister Mark Carney may come to wish he’d never filed. This week, Carney announced Canada would seek private investors for the country’s four largest airports — a measure that was floated in last fall’s budget, but faced no public consultations and was not part of the Liberals’ election platform.
Mark Carney has become the heir to C.D. Howe
Mark Carney succeeded Justin Trudeau as Prime Minister. But it feels more spiritually accurate to say that he succeeded C.D. Howe, who transformed Canada’s industry and infrastructure before, during and after the Second World War, much of it with foreign money. Almost 70 years after Howe’s death, Mr. Carney is seeking to launch a new industrial and infrastructure revolution. Howe...
Parliament Returns: Carney Faces a Tougher Crowd in a Turbulent Political Fall
Prime Minister Mark Carney is undeniably a political rockstar, both at home and abroad. He’s been running the country like an economic guru all summer long, making deals left and right, hosting our first Canada Investment Summit, and pursuing new partnerships around the globe. In his latest plurilateral tour de force, this week’s next-level Canada-EU relationship reveal, Carney as Canada...
On his latest trip overseas, Carney should warn Europe: Trump is coming for you next
Mark Carney’s latest Euro trip is something of a love-in — a cheery celebration among pals looking for new ways to strengthen their friendship. But the prime minister’s charm offensive at the European Parliament in Strasbourg should be merely the opening move in a larger mission. Carney needs to be a bringer of bad tidings to the Continent: We were...
Canada’s investment problem won’t be solved in a hotel ballroom
I confess to a certain skepticism about the Canada Investment Summit, the two-day confab of company executives, institutional investors and politicians which has just wrapped up in Toronto. Why such a conference was needed, or what it would accomplish, has never been entirely clear, despite all the hype about “catalyzing” a trillion dollars in investment. To imagine a mere conference...
Yes, that’s Stephen Harper as Mark Carney’s wingman. Here’s why it works for both of them
Mark Carney and Stephen Harper are avid hockey fans. But to see them serving as wingmen for Team Canada this week was still an extraordinary sight — maybe even a historic one. Intended as a show of cross-partisanship, Harper’s marquee presence at Carney’s big investment summit in Toronto was the most vivid display of how far the current prime minister...
Canadians can see only scattered pieces of a national strategy. Carney needs to explain how they fit together
Eighteen months into Mark Carney’s government, Canadians can see elements of a foreign and defence policy scattered like puzzle pieces across a table — but no one has shown us the box with the picture illustrating what the pieces assemble into. On Sept. 17, Carney will add another piece to the pile: an address to the European Parliament in Strasbourg...
A tale of two political leaders
Last week presented a fascinating contradiction of two political leaders—one long retired, and one hoping not to be retired anytime soon. Who am I talking about? Jean Chrétien, the former prime minister, and Pierre Poilievre, the Conservative opposition leader who has yet to hold top office. Let us start with Chrétien. Last week, he was in Gander, N.L., to commemorate...
Pierre Poilievre should oppose the government – but he can support it, too
On Monday afternoon, Prime Minister Mark Carney announced what has been billed the single largest private capital investment in Canadian history: $52-billion to expand Bell’s AI Data Centre project in Saskatchewan. If completed, the project will mean hundreds of good, permanent data-operations jobs, plus thousands more in associated opportunities. It promises to attract further investment in the province and to...
Byelection signals trouble for UCP, as a conservative rival gears up
NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi called his party's victory in Calgary-Shaw an "earthquake." He was hyper-excited by the unexpected win. Earthquake or not, the NDP sure sent a tremor through Premier Danielle Smith's caucus. This loss could signal deep discontent with her handling of separatism and the Oct. 19 referendum.
Smith UCP — it's wakey-wakey time from those Calgary byelection blues
The UCP lose in south Calgary. They cannot afford losses like that
Mark Carney’s investment moment
“What incredible timing, huh?” That was John Toomey, CEO of Boston-based private equity firm HarbourVest Partners, speaking at an event hosted by the Canadian Venture Capital and Private Equity Association on the eve of the Canada Investment summit as foreign investors touched down in Toronto. It is a unique moment. Mere weeks ago, the Canada-U.S. trade war was bumped up...
Mark Carney just played his Trump card
Memo to Donald Trump: Canada does, in fact, have some cards to play. While the president and his cabinet secretaries seem to think they can bully, mock or cajole the Canadians back to the negotiating table, Prime Minister Mark Carney clearly has other plans. As the Wall Street Journal reported over the weekend, Carney is deep into conversations with his...
Canada's leftists are out for revenge
For a movement supposedly wandering the political wilderness, the Canadian left made a lot of noise in downtown Toronto Monday night. Hundreds of protesters gathered at Nathan Phillips Square before marching to the Art Gallery of Ontario, where Prime Minister Mark Carney was hosting some of the world's wealthiest investors. The demonstration reunited an old-school coalition of labour unions, Indigenous...
Mark Carney’s new Ukraine partnership lets Canada kill 2 birds with 1 drone deal
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.
Mark Carney threw a party and everyone came. What he does the morning after is key to our future
Whatever comes of this week’s Canada Investment Summit in the long term, it’s an unqualified success in the moment: we threw a party and everyone came. Raising capital and growing your brand requires shots on goal, and this forum will invariably give some of Canada’s leading entrepreneurs a unique chance to tell their story to a rarefied audience. There was...
Mark Carney is squandering the Liberals’ advantage on climate change
It’s been a brand-defining characteristic of the Liberal Party of Canada for more than a decade, a wedge issue successfully deployed against the Conservatives in four federal elections, and a useful tool to mobilize voters in Ontario, B.C. and Quebec specifically, but the Grits’ advantage on climate change is at risk of being squandered by Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government...
If Canada really is open for business, Carney needs to rein in labour strife
Mark Carney’s pitch to over 100 institutional investors from 11 countries, responsible for over $70 trillion, in Toronto this week is that Canada is open for business. Article content The early signs from the Canada Investment Summit are that the Prime Minister is on track to raise $1 trillion in new spending commitments over the next five years. Eight Canadian...
Trump isn’t the only show in town
Instead of being slavishly tied to the U.S., Canada needs to be a truly global player. There may even be an unexpected dividend in walking an independent line. It might show American policymakers that punitive measures against Canada could have unintended consequences for them.