Calling out Carney’s ‘fancy’ education is loser talk. No wonder the Conservatives doubled down on it
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...
Mark Carney’s majority likely won’t help queer and trans people
After this week’s byelection results, Carney’s governing Liberals will have more unchecked power. But the party has moved away from its old progressive politics
Trudeau can live his post-political life however he wants, but it will invariably reflect on his time in office
George W. Bush took up painting when he left the Oval Office in 2009. In 2014, he unveiled his first public exhibit, entitled “The Art of Leadership: A President’s Personal Diplomacy,” which featured portraits of world leaders he met during his time in office. The whole thing was sort of … odd. It wasn’t just that Mr. Bush’s portraits were...
Ho hum, another Liberal dynasty in the making
With the flock of floor-crossers from the Conservative Party and the by-election results Monday, Mark Carney and company can remain in power until 2029. That will mark a 14-year stretch since Justin Trudeau’s dismantling of the Stephen Harper Conservatives in 2015. And who knows how much longer this run might extend. Ho hum, here we go again, another Liberal dynasty...
Conservative complaints at cross purposes with success - When the working response is that it’s always somebody else’s fault, it starts to come across as pathetic.
Last week, the Conservatives saw yet another Member of Parliament cross the floor to join Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Liberals. Marilyn Gladu, the Sarnia, Ont.-area MP and—briefly—a former Conservative leadership candidate, was the one who made the move. Gladu, who had previously chastised fellow floor crossers and is someone seen as being a far-right leaning Conservative, was an unexpected departure...
This isn’t just a Carney majority. It’s a national unity government
“Unity,” said Mark Carney last weekend, “does not require uniformity.” Accommodation beats assimilation, the prime minister told the Liberal faithful at the party’s convention in Montreal — and partnership is better than domination.
The bright side of the byelections
The byelection results on Monday night in Terrebonne, Scarborough Southwest and University--Rosedale have given everyone much to consider about the shift from minority to majority Parliament and the anticipated and rumoured fallout to come. In our 343-seat national legislature -- unless there are additional floor-crossing MPs on the horizon -- having a two-seat majority is still very unstable. Health challenges...
Floor crossings say something about Poilievre, but more about Carney (and Trump)
A slave labour apologist, chloroquine promoter and blue Albertan all walk into a bar … Only it’s not a joke, and they didn’t walk into a bar. Michael Ma, Marilyn Gladu and Matt Jereroux are three former Conservative MPs who have walked into the Liberal caucus, where they found a Red Tory, Chris d’Entremont, already tickling the party ivories...
The odd floor-crossing is one thing, but on this scale it undermines our system of government
Seeking to explain just where the Liberals draw the line on accepting members of other parties into their midst, House Leader Steven MacKinnon said the party would “keep a light on and a door open for all of those who want to support Liberal Party principles,” which he described as “immutable.” And of course, he’s right. Liberal policies may come...
Three byelection losses and a majority across the aisle; more hits to Poilievre's leadership - The plunge in Conservative support is ominous for Poilievre
How much more Liberal raiding and spending and winning can Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre survive? Maybe very little. Three byelection losses Monday night are a further humiliation. Prime Minister Mark Carney took quick advantage.
A moment Pierre Poilievre didn’t want to meet
Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet stepped out to meet reporters and take his by-election defeat on the chin. “We have to take it with humility. And we have to take it with patience,” Mr. Blanchet said. There’s a wave, he said – arguing that past Conservative and New Democrat voters moved to the Liberals – that seems even stronger now...
How Canada Fell in Love with Mark Carney
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney won three byelections Monday night, giving him a majority government and a free hand to further remake the government he inherited from Justin Trudeau.
Why Pierre Poilievre might quietly welcome the new Liberal majority
Officially, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is outraged. “The Carney Liberals did not win a majority government through a general election or today’s by-elections,” Mr. Poilievre posted on X Monday night, as the results erasing his leverage in the House of Commons rolled in. The Liberals swept all three by-elections, less than a week after they seduced the unlikeliest of floor-crossers...
Why Liberal Terrebonne win could push more Conservative MPs to flee
Tories worry that Carney has reshaped politics in Quebec
What I Learned at the Liberal Convention as Carney Clinches His Majority
LIBERAL PARTY MEMBERS milled, decked in red lanyards, taking photos. “Welcome to Libcon2026” read a banner high on the wall at the top of the escalators in Montreal’s Palais des congrès. On a merch table nearby lay piles of red shirts and crewnecks, emblazoned with the Liberal logo. Two rows of black hats were amongst the items. The words “Canada...
Mark Carney gets the gift of more time
Mark Carney didn’t just get a majority on Monday night — he also won the precious political commodity of time.
Mark Carney enters his majority era
Byelections give the Liberals one of the most remarkable majorities in Parliament's history. There have been a total of 24 prime ministers in Canada's history, but before Monday night only 13 could claim to have led their party to a majority of seats in the House of Commons. Mark Carney is now the 14th to do it.
By-elections start Phase 2 of the Carney government
The second phase of Mark Carney’s government now begins. It has a majority in the House of Commons, and that allows it to look further ahead. In the year since winning a general election on the hustings, Mr. Carney’s Liberals have campaigned by other means. They have juggled expectations higher and higher – adding onto Mr. Carney’s narrative about an...
Mark Carney’s Technocrat Groundswell
As Mark Carney celebrates a belated majority victory nearly a year after his election as prime minister, he can once again thank Donald J. Trump, along with the voters of University-Rosedale, Scarborough Southwest, and Terrebonne. Of all the improbable outcomes Trump’s presidency has rationalized, Canada’s pro-technocrat groundswell of floor-crossers and byelection voters is among the most interesting, and least dystopian...
Get ready for Mark Carney unencumbered
Prime Minister Mark Carney has secured the first Liberal government since 2019. That’s right — in case you hadn’t noticed, Canada has been operating under minority governments for seven years. Two were won by Justin Trudeau in 2019 and 2021, one by Carney in 2025. Trudeau’s minorities necessitated significant compromise with the NDP; from 2021 until the fall of 2024...
The end of Orbán’s rule is a blow to MAGA — and the start of something new
On Sunday, after 16 straight years of hoarding power and money, the authoritarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán lost one of the last things in Hungary he’d allowed to remain free: the election. He lost with everything behind him but the Hungarian people. He had the judiciary, every level of which he’d stacked with loyalists and, in some cases, created out...
The illiberal right's expansion just suffered a serious setback
The global expansion of the illiberal right has been so seemingly inexorable that the victory of a democratic centre-right leader in Hungary, after 16 years of “electoral autocracy,” still seems implausible.
Mark Carney’s Liberals are branding themselves as the beyond-politics party
The federal Liberals are now the strongest party in the country, as was amply on display at their convention in Montreal over the weekend. It’s not their politics that have put them there, as was also clear in Montreal. It’s the absence of politics — the ability to shape-shift into a force that can’t be pinned down as right or...
Harper Conservatism is passé, and so is Poilievre
Pierre Poilievre has flunked the most basic test for any leader, advancing his party's prospects to portray it as a government-in-waiting. But it will be waiting a long time under the status quo. Admittedly, part of the reason that the CPC has set up permanent residence in the political wilderness has to do with the current prime minister.
On verge of a majority, Carney offers reassurance and a measure of caution
Amid the floor-crossing, Liberals may have needed to hear a salute to their party. At a moment of celebration and on the eve of potentially even greater triumph, Prime Minister Mark Carney offered a brief note of caution. "Just over a year ago, in the midst of a blizzard ... we started down the road to make the best country...
Liberals celebrate imminent majority with a touch of old hubris
The buzz at the Liberal convention over the weekend was all about floor-crossers. On Friday morning, there was a rumour circulating that Prime Minister Mark Carney would show up unexpectedly to unveil another, freshly recruited Conservative to follow the surprise defection of Marilyn Gladu. Later, there was scuttlebutt that Mr. Carney might show up on Saturday with two or three.
Will Playing the Carney Card Help Fréchette win the Quebec Election?
As Quebecers prepare for an election in early October, the dramatis personae of what will be a very political summer — from the beaches of Gaspésie to the Festival Western de Ste-Tite — was filled-in with another major party leader on Sunday. Christine Fréchette, 56, a former minister in the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) government of outgoing premier François Legault...
Make no mistake, securing a majority is worth it for Carney. But it comes with its own host of challenges
By the time this column appears in print, the Liberal party will have wrapped up its convention in Montreal.
Three by-elections, a floor-crosser and the week we learned that anyone can come and anyone can go
This was supposed to be a column about the trio of by-elections in a few days that would have delivered the Liberals to the balmy climes of MajorityLand – if everything went exactly right for them, that is. But then, Marilyn Gladu decided to make Wednesday the most exciting day of the week. The Sarnia, Ont. MP was elected four...
For a party once thought endangered, the Liberals are enjoying a surprising afterlife
Supporters of the Liberal Party of Canada had much to celebrate in Montreal this weekend. For one thing, the party is on the verge of commanding another majority in the House of Commons. Sixteen months ago that seemed implausible, bordering on inconceivable. For another, it continues to exist as a significant presence in Canadian politics. Fifteen years ago that seemed...
Mark Carney’s grip on the Liberal party is on full display in Montreal
Prime Minister Mark Carney plans to follow in Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre’s footsteps and strip the ability of his party’s members across the country to weigh-in on his leadership should he fail to win the next election. It’s the latest demonstration of Carney’s grip on the Liberal party, which was on full display Friday during the Grits’ national convention in...
Political Pulse: How will Marilyn Gladu fit into the Liberal caucus?
As Prime Minister Mark Carney accepts a fifth floor-crosser into the Liberal caucus from across the political spectrum, how big is too big of a tent? The Political Panel weighs in on how floor-crossers are shaking up the dynamics on Parliament Hill.
If this Keeps Up, Carney Could be Headed for a National Unity Government
Politicians who worry that the newest Conservative convert to Mark Carney’s Liberals will hold right-wing policy views that are incompatible with the government’s social policy positions have not yet recognized what’s going on. They rightly perceive that Sarnia Member of Parliament Marilyn Gladu has held views on abortion, same-sex marriage, vaccination mandates and other policies that are counter to what...
Unhappy Conservatives shouldn’t defect to Carney’s Liberals — they should replace Poilievre
It’s like déjà vu all over again. Yet another Conservative MP, uncomfortable with the direction of the party or doubtful about its electoral prospects, has decamped to the Liberals. The fourth floor crossing from the CPC in six months — with more MPs reportedly considering the move.
Carney has no apologies to make for winning over yet another MP. Even Marilyn Gladu
It seems there’s a cross-party freakout over the fact that Conservative MP Marilyn Gladu has crossed the floor of the Commons to join the Carney caucus. Conservatives are outraged that Gladu would turn her back on the party under whose banner she was elected no fewer than four times.
Gladu's betrayal invites a revolt beyond the ballot box
With a speed that lightning metaphors would insult, your National Post’s comment section has already published a couple of items about Wednesday’s shock defection to the Liberals of Sarnia MP Marilyn Gladu, who had been re-elected to the House of Commons as a Conservative less than a year ago. These pieces establish that Gladu was one of the most radical...
Marilyn Gladu’s floor-crossing reveals more about Poilievre than his podcast interviews
A podcast can show you a side of someone but a floor-crossing tells you something deeper about the mood inside a caucus. When Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre sat down with Joe Rogan for a long, wide-ranging interview, even critics had to admit he came across differently. The usual edge wasn’t there. No constant jabs at Prime Minister Mark Carney, even...
Mark Carney will get his majority. Now what?
After 12 months, five floor crossings and one Liberal convention this weekend in Montreal, Mark Carney is going to get his majority government. If the Liberals win the three byelections scheduled for next week, and they should, they’ll have 174 seats, enough to pass legislation without relying on the Speaker of the House of Commons or support from another party...