Alberta's chambers of commerce say talk of the province potentially quitting Confederation is bad for business, with one saying it's time Premier Danielle Smith's government move on from blaming former prime minister Justin Trudeau. The Alberta Chambers of Commerce says a recent survey of members and investors suggested more than half of participants say the provincial separation issue is affecting...
A Manitoba politician has announced he is leaving the Progressive Conservative caucus and will sit as an Independent. Bob Lagasse has represented the Dawson Trail constituency east of Winnipeg since 2016. He rose in the legislature today and said he intends to sit as an Independent and run for re-election as an Independent in the next general election. He says...
A petition looking to oust Alberta Premier Danielle Smith from her seat in the legislature has failed. Smith is the second premier in Alberta's history to face a recall petition, with the other happening nearly 90 years ago.
Calgary Chamber of Commerce head says organization’s inbox inundated with concern. Ongoing discourse around the prospect of Alberta separation is emerging as a top concern for Calgary businesses, half of whom say the debate is already impacting the local economy, a new Calgary Chamber of Commerce survey suggests. In a survey the chamber released Monday, 28 per cent of respondents...
On October 9, 2025, the Quebec government, through Minister of Justice Simon Jolin-Barrette, tabled Bill 1, entitled the Québec Constitution Act, 2025, in the National Assembly. This unilateral action was taken against the backdrop of a deadlock in the multilateral process of negotiating amendments to the Canadian Constitution and reflects a recent trend toward constitutional unilateralism that is developing not...
Between February 20 and 25, 2026, Abacus Data surveyed 1,000 Alberta adults aged 18 and over as part of our Alberta Omnibus study. This is the second release from that survey. The first examined attitudes toward Alberta independence. In this report, we turn to the broader provincial political landscape, including mood, priorities, leadership evaluations, and vote intention.
A new Liaison Strategies survey reveals that while the Progressive Conservatives maintain a narrow lead in voter intent, opposition leaders and potential Liberal leadership candidates are battling significant name-recognition challenges across the province. "The ballot remains competitive, but the favourability numbers suggest that many voters are still getting to know the alternatives to the current government," said David Valentin, principal...
The premier won’t have time to turn the economy around as the prospect of an election this year looms large. Spare a moment, if you will, for British Columbia Premier David Eby. Not long ago, the former Vancouver lawyer seemed to have it in the bag. He inherited the premiership and a budget surplus of $5.7-billion from the popular John...
Back at the end of November when Prime Minister Mark Carney and Premier Danielle Smith signed their memorandum of understanding (MOU), it was presented as the best of all possible worlds: Canada would get a new oil pipeline and reduced carbon emissions.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s chief of staff is stepping down and will be replaced by a top aide with experience in Canada-U.S. relations. Patrick Sackville, who has spent eight years in government and was named Mr. Ford’s chief of staff in December, 2022, is leaving government on Friday and will be replaced by Travis Kann, the government announced on Monday...
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says the war in Iran underscores the need for a new pipeline connecting her province's oil reserves to the West Coast. The threat of shipping disruptions has seen global oil prices jump since American-Israeli attacks on Iran over the weekend. Smith says any disruption in the Strait of Hormuz, a key oil choke point at the...
I’ve recently spent a week working in Ottawa. Keeping in mind that I work in public policy and am surrounded by political junkies, on one of those days not one but five separate people raised Quebec sovereignty with me unprompted. Clients. Colleagues. Even housemates. The anxiety is real.
This week, the world will converge in Toronto for the annual Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) convention, the largest mining conference in the world. At a moment defined by geopolitical instability, fractured supply chains, and surging demand for critical minerals, Ontario is emerging as the world’s reliable partner.
The B.C. Conservative Party says nine candidates have advanced to the next phase of the race to replace former leader John Rustad, but one of the candidates who did not make the cut says the party must remain "grounded in genuine Conservative principles." A release from the Official Opposition says it has approved the applications of MLA Bruce Banman, MLA...
Alberta might be landlocked but the province is sinking in a sea of red ink — and red faces. An embarrassed United Conservative government admits its new deficit-riddled budget unveiled Thursday breaks the province’s own law against running deficits — a law the UCP introduced in 2023 when the government was flooded with oil-generated revenue and buoyed by an $11.6 billion surplus.
A comprehensive new Liaison Strategies survey reveals that a majority of Ontarians are dissatisfied with the provincial government’s performance across seven major policy areas, ranging from affordability to ethics. The survey found that the Ford government faces its most significant challenges in the areas of housing and the cost of living. Both files currently see a total disapproval rating of...
The once debt-free Alberta government projects three consecutive years of red ink and increased borrowing to fund critical public services.
It's budget day in Alberta, and the overarching question is not whether the budget will show a deficit, but exactly how many billions of dollars in the red it will be. Premier Danielle Smith has signalled for weeks that the deficit is going to be, in her words, "significant" but has not provided a dollar figure. She says the main...
A new poll indicates that the Quebec Liberals are experiencing a bump in support after naming Charles Milliard as leader. Polling by Pallas Data published today shows the Parti Quebecois leading with 30 per cent support, slightly ahead of the Liberals at 27.
A new Liaison Strategies of Ontario reveals a tightening provincial race, with the Progressive Conservatives (PCs) and the Ontario Liberal Party (OLP) nearly neck-and-neck among decided and leaning voters. The PCs led by Doug Ford would garner 40% of the decided and leaning vote, followed closely by the Ontario Liberals at 36%. The Ontario NDP sits at 17%, with the Green Party at 5%.
The only person who could realistically benefit from Doug Ford’s appearance on CNN on Monday is Doug Ford himself. Ontario’s Premier decided to insert himself once again in the middle of international trade negotiations, an area he has no jurisdiction over, by appearing on American television.
Parti Quebecois Leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon says his party's fourth consecutive byelection victory is a sign that Quebecers are ready for profound change. PQ candidate Marie-Karlynn Laflamme won the byelection in the Chicoutimi riding on Monday with more than 45 per cent of the vote, compared to about 26 per cent for second-place Conservative Catherine Morissette.
Lost in the controversy around the substance of the referendum questions that Alberta Premier Danielle Smith will put to voters next fall has been that the timing is nearly as striking. Less than three months ago, via a memorandum of understanding, Prime Minister Mark Carney gave Ms. Smith many of the concessions on energy and environmental policy – among them...
Danielle Smith isn’t blinking on her immigration stand. And she is not prepared to let things slide when utter and vile crap comes of the mouths of her political opponents.
Danielle Smith is getting desperate. She knows the provincial budget will be revealed Thursday and all indications are that it will have a whopper of a deficit: $5.2 billion to nearly $8 billion. Last year Alberta had an $8.3 billion surplus. She could just blame it all on low oil prices, which Alberta has no control over, yet still dictates...
British Columbia Premier David Eby says it "looks like" OpenAI had the opportunity to prevent the recent mass shootings in Tumbler Ridge, B.C., in which nine people died, as pressure piles on the artificial intelligence firm over its handling of interactions with 18-year-old shooter Jesse Van Rootselaar. Eby said Monday there would be a public accounting in which the company...
The Parti Quebecois is looking for its fourth consecutive byelection win today in the riding of Chicoutimi, north of Quebec City. The riding had been a PQ stronghold before Andree Laforest captured it twice for the Coalition Avenir Quebec, first in 2018 and again in 2022. Chicoutimi has been vacant since Laforest, a former cabinet minister, left provincial politics in September.
To understand Premier Danielle Smith’s headline-grabbing and controversial attack on federal immigration policy last Thursday, you have to look ahead to the Alberta provincial budget being unveiled this Thursday. It’s going to be a doozy. A doozy of a government fiscal deficit, to be precise. We don’t know yet how much, but the current 2025-26 budget is expected to run...
It doesn’t take much to see how badly Premier Danielle Smith’s broadside against immigrants in Alberta could go.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says her government isn't sure how much it might save if referendum questions proposing restrictions to social services for some newcomers are approved in the fall. Smith announced in a TV address Thursday that her United Conservative Party government is putting nine questions to a provincewide referendum on Oct. 19. They include proposals to restrict social...
Alberta's Opposition NDP says Premier Danielle Smith is stoking hatred by blaming her government's financial "mismanagement" on newcomers. Smith announced in a TV address Thursday night that her government is putting nine questions to a provincewide referendum on Oct. 19. They include proposals to restrict social services from some immigrants and to open up Constitutional negotiations on abolishing the Senate...
The Alberta government intends to hold a referendum on immigrants’ status, their access to social services and federal influence over provincial laws and services in October this year. In a televised address on Thursday night, Premier Danielle Smith outlined upcoming budget deficits amid crashing oil prices and what she says is “out-of-control” immigration. Smith cited previous “disastrous” federal open border...
More than 30 years after the narrowly defeated second Quebec referendum, the separatist movement has been resurrected again on the backs of a resurgent Parti Québécois, who have not governed the province in more than a decade With still much to be decided in the fall provincial race – and when, if ever, the PQ decides “winning conditions” make it...
From January 21 to 28, 2026, Abacus Data surveyed 601 adults living in Nova Scotia. Our latest Nova Scotia release provides a detailed snapshot of the province’s political landscape as Premier Tim Houston and his Progressive Conservative government returns to the legislature and prepares to table their 2026-27 budget, which is widely expected to emphasize spending restraint.
British Columbia's finance minister begins selling a budget today that has drawn critics from all sides with its soaring debt and deficit, public sector cuts, and construction delays for care homes, student housing and a cancer centre. Brenda Bailey calls the budget "serious work for serious times." It raises the base income tax rate by 0.54 per cent -- the...
As some Albertans push to leave Canada, they could also be pushing away the billions of dollars needed to build a pipeline, in the same way past threats of separation led to capital flight from Quebec, warns the province’s former premier. “The oil and gas sector, the big projects that drive employment and government revenues, require tens of billions of...
As discussion around Alberta separation continues, a new survey suggests many Canadians believe the United States would back the province if it chose to leave Confederation. A Nanos Research survey commissioned by CTV News found four in five Canadians believe the U.S. would support Alberta separating from Canada. Respondents in the Prairie provinces reported the highest levels of that belief...
The British band The Clash famously asked “Should I Stay or Should I Go” in its 1982 hit song. That was two years after Quebecers were asked a far wordier question about independence. How a question is phrased — and what response options are offered — can have a massive impact on a study’s results.
This survey gauged the views of Canadians on US support for Alberta separation.
Today is the deadline to apply to be leader of the Quebec Liberal Party. Candidate Charles Milliard, former head of the Quebec federation of chambers of commerce, has the support of the majority of the party caucus. Mario Roy, a farmer from Quebec's Beauce region, is the only other person who has confirmed an interest in running, but he may...
Doug Ford and the Progressive Conservatives enter February in a weaker position than they held at the start of the year. The PCs remain ahead on vote intention, but their lead has narrowed considerably. Approval of the Ford government has fallen sharply. The desire for change remains elevated. And the Ontario Liberals, despite lacking a permanent leader following Bonnie Crombie’s...
Leaders of a right-wing group pushing a conservative Canadian province to secede and form a new nation say they have been meeting with Trump administration officials to discuss how their radical plan can benefit the U.S. In three separate, highly unusual meetings with officials from the State and Treasury departments, they’ve discussed the logistics of Alberta breaking off from Canada...
If there’s one thing that’s driving me a little nuts about the active petition to foist a separation referendum on Alberta, it’s this: the claim that the process is some kind of benign and beautiful expression of democracy. Because, frankly, no, that’s not really how our democratic system is supposed to work. Canada is not California — which uses tools...