Prime Minister Mark Carney is set to attend two "Forever Canadian" rallies in Alberta this week, just ahead of the province's referendum. On Oct. 19, Albertans will vote on the whether to stay in Canada or hold a future separation referendum. There are also nine other questions involving constitutional and immigration issues. The "Forever Canadian" campaign, launched by Alberta’s former...
The Ottawa-based defence company Dominion Dynamics is partnering with Ukrainian robotics company Tencore to start building its ground-based drone vehicles in Canada as early as next year. The two companies signed a memorandum of understanding at a defence conference in Washington, D.C., today which outlines their plans to manufacture Tencore's Termit drone in Canada and install Dominion's software in the...
British Columbia NDP Leader David Eby says he and his wife donated the difference in costs after their children's daycare fell under the $10-a day program a couple years ago, but he declined to specify the amount. Eby says he and wife Cailey Lynch, a doctor, didn't need the daycare discount that has only reached a minority of parents in...
Canada’s new foreign influence registry was supposed to make it easier for the public to see who is trying to influence government on behalf of foreign interests, but more than two months after it was launched, barely any of the expected listings have materialized. Alongside the sparse registry, the rollout has also faced technical issues and privacy breaches, leaving current...
Canada, France, the United Kingdom and Australia expressed deep "regret" Tuesday over the postponement of Palestinian presidential and legislative elections. The votes were set to happen next month. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has delayed them until September 2027. In a media statement, Canada and its allies said the delay deprives Palestinians of the chance to vote and noted that elections...
The Liberals remain ahead in federal voting intentions, with 48.8% support among decided voters compared with 29.5% for the Conservatives and 11.1% for the NDP. Mark Carney is the first choice for prime minister among 60.7% of Canadians, followed by Pierre Poilievre at 20.9%. Concern about Donald Trump and Canada-U.S. relations ranks as the country’s leading national issue. Jobs and...
The opposition Conservative Party of BC has a slight edge over the governing BC New Democratic Party (NDP) in the provincial snap election campaign, a new Research Co. poll has found. In the online survey of a representative provincial sample, 44% of decided likely voters would support the BC Conservatives (+4 since a similar poll conducted in August), while 42%...
First of all, that title. Chrystia Freeland chose to call her new book “Unreliable Boyfriend” — the boyfriend in question being the United States — which puts the focus firmly on her role in managing Canada’s fraught relationship with Donald Trump’s America.
Prime Minister Mark Carney has built his political reputation on being the adult in the room — and a man at ease in the corridors of power. He’s a former central banker with friends in high places, a guy who understands how the world works, and, supposedly, a leader who can handle U.S. President Donald Trump. Article content But this...
Since 1992, the Trans Canada Trail has connected Canadians to each other and to nature, and it has been an economic and environmental asset for communities nationwide. Ongoing federal funding is critical to protect what Canada has already built.
Ontario is set to move parts of the province's northwest region to permanent daylight time in order to align with Manitoba.
Growing up in Huntsville, Ont., I learned early that community is not an abstract concept. It has faces and names. This was not simply something I observed; it was my lived experience. Months before my 16th birthday, determined to chart a path different from the one my parents had envisioned for me, I left home. I had no plan.
Canada’s infrastructure is under growing pressure from floods, wildfires, severe storms, aging assets, and mismanagement. When roads close, ports are disrupted, or electricity systems fail, the consequences extend beyond physical damage. Businesses lose ready access to mar...
The moment for voting approaches on the Alberta referendum, and the separatists, having seemingly largely failed to convince a critical mass of Albertans to adopt their millenarian view of the province’s place within Confederation, are now putting an awful lot of weight in an alternate way to make their case – namely, that this is all about leverage. Leverage, you...
It’s unlikely Mark Carney was aiming to relaunch a national immigration debate when he popped into the New York Times last month and mentioned in passing that Canada will “resume some controlled increase in the population” once the system is under control. But that, unsurprisingly, has been the result — with opposition MPs warning about Ottawa again letting in “too...
It didn’t take long for Elon Musk, one of President Donald Trump’s attack dogs, to stick his unwelcome nose into Canada’s domestic political drama. Shortly after the Parti Québécois’s election victory on October 5th, he endorsed Quebec independence and, to pour more gasoline on the fire, said Alberta and Saskatchewan should leave Canada too. Musk, who has Canadian roots, studied...
For decades, public discourse regarding Indigenous economies in Ontario has been framed through a narrow lens of dependency or isolated community-level initiatives. Our firm’s comprehensive report, Indigenous Economic Contribution Analysis of Ontario, changes that narrative entirely. By integrating Statistics Canada’s Indigenous Peoples Economic Account with provincial input-output models, new data show that Indigenous economic activity is a robust, widely distributed...
Enough is enough. It is not at all certain that the world can take two more years of United States President Donald Trump. A dangerous and possibly demented man occupies the most powerful office in the world, and he is increasingly using it to lash out at anyone who opposes him.
Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of last week’s provincial election in Quebec was not the threat of constitutional turmoil, or even separation—which does not feel imminent, for various reasons. It was the silence, from nearly all parties, concerning legislation aimed at driving Muslim women who wear a hijab from public life in the province. That isn’t the stated goal of...
If it has been said that the first job of a Canadian prime minister is national unity, it was easier in recent years to forget. Before this summer, it had been 30 years since a prime minister had to worry about a provincial referendum to secede. Before this week, it had been more than a decade since a prime minister...
Most Canadians don’t know much about the Singh decision. But if you’re the country’s Immigration Minister, you must. So it was alarming that Lena Metlege Diab seemed confused when she was asked about the seminal 1985 Supreme Court decision in an interview for a Radio-Canada podcast.
Parry Sound—Muskoka MP Scott Aitchison’s upcoming departure from the House of Commons reflects the greater malaise within Pierre Poilievre’s Conservative caucus. Aitchison, Huntsville’s former mayor, sees himself, like many MPs, as a doer. Few politicians want to sit back and watch others make big decisions. They want to be cabinet ministers; some want to lead the party, and dream of...
Globalization’s fans argue that populist movements of the left and the right use global trade as a whipping boy for the other big challenge liberal democracies confront, and one which is a lot harder to address: how to enjoy the economic growth that capitalism delivers while also distributing the fruits of that growth beyond the 1 per cent. How can...
The Supreme Court’s coming ruling has the potential to reignite separatism and quake the teetering balance between courts and government
In one of the most famous television commercials in Canadian history, a man puts an eraser to a stylized map of North America and removes the border between Canada and the United States. Aired during the 1988 federal election campaign, it was the Liberals’ way of protesting then-prime minister Brian Mulroney’s negotiation of the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement. They didn’t...
This is not the first time Albertans have been asked to vote on matters outside their jurisdiction. Five years ago, under United Conservative Party premier Jason Kenney, the province asked its citizens whether Section 36(2) of the Constitution Act, 1982 – the one committing the government of Canada to the “principle” of equalization payments – should be removed from the...
The Nobel Peace Prize is being announced Friday and Prime Minister Mark Carney is considered a contender. Can we imagine if it’s the Canadian who takes the award and not the man in the White House who has hardly let a week go by without sounding desperate for the honour? Donald Trump claims he has ended no fewer than eight...
These days I read product labels as carefully as I used to read liner notes. You’ll not get an “assembled in” or a “distributed in” Canada past me any more than you’d have got a “the band’s third bass player got legal rights to the name and this album’s even less live than any of its founding members” album past...
The FBI affidavit filed in the Tumbler Ridge investigation is a true punch in the gut — not just for anyone who read it, but for governments forced to recognize the sheer scope of all that apparently went wrong. Worse, it’s hard not to walk away with the sense that government doesn’t have the tools it needs to thwart all...
It is hard to convey how thin a mandate the Parti Québécois has just won in Quebec, but I will try. With 28 per cent of the vote, the PQ’s popular vote share is the smallest for any winning party in any election, not just in the modern history of Canada but, as far as I can tell, in any...
Last weekend, I was in Saint-Antoine-sur-Richelieu, Que., a pastoral village 60 kilometres southeast of Montreal, for my son’s wedding. As I had a few moments to explore the town, I crossed the street from the wedding venue to check out a local park flying the tricolour flag of the “Patriotes” of the 1837 rebellion. Beneath the flag was a plaque...
Mark Carney can breathe a sigh of relief. Monday’s election results in Quebec delivered a Parti Québécois minority government that will prove thorny to handle, but the prime minister escaped the worst-case scenario: a sovereigntist premier with a strong majority government.
Quebec Conservative Leader Éric Duhaime was perhaps the night's biggest winner
Four years ago, as the Coalition Avenir Québec rolled over the competition to win 90 of the National Assembly’s then 125 seats, the Parti Québécois looked like a spent force. The sovereigntist “party of a generation” had its worst election result since its founding in 1968 by René Lévesque – the ruffled, chain-smoking everyman who charmed baby-boomer francophones – taking...
Alberta separatists are fond of pointing to Quebec’s sovereignty movement as a model. If those guys can get so much by holding a knife to the throat of the rest of the country, goes their thinking, then why shouldn’t we do the same? It’s a lousy comparison overall, given the fundamental differences between Alberta and Quebec (such as, for e.g....
Alberta’s forthcoming referendum on independence is a clear and meaningful threat to Canada’s safety, integrity, and prosperity. But a few of the other questions on Premier Danielle Smith’s democracy-o-rama — ten ballots, all to be hand-counted, with mayhem all but guaranteed at this point — might be even more dangerous. That’s because they deliberately invite a particular conversation around immigration...
Operational spending review comes as expenses grow for salaries, equipment. The Canadian military is on the verge of another round of internal belt-tightening, despite an enormous influx of cash from the federal government, CBC News has learned. It appears to be a combination of past and current budget initiatives colliding with the expectations and demands associated with the gush of...
Roughly 310 advance polling stations open across Alberta today in a historic vote on the province's place in Canada. Albertans are to begin marking an X on ballots listing 10 questions. The first nine focus on Canada's Constitution and immigration.
The leaders of British Columbia's three major political parties will pitch their plans to business leaders in Vancouver with less than two weeks to go before the provincial election. NDP Leader David Eby, Conservative interim leader Lorne Doerkson and Green Party Leader Emily Lowan are slated to speak at an event this afternoon hosted by the Greater Vancouver Board of...
Two former premiers who were on the opposite ends of the political spectrum in Alberta will unite today to keep the province from quitting Canada. Jason Kenney and Rachel Notley are set to speak at an event in the province's capital. The Edmonton Chamber of Commerce is hosting them.
British Columbia NDP Leader David Eby took aim at the premier next door while campaigning in this month's election, promising not to implement what he called the "U.S.-style privatization" of health care. Eby told a group of supporters asking him questions in Delta on Monday that Alberta's United Conservative Party government made vague promises about protecting public health care, but...
Prime Minister Mark Carney is using Thanksgiving Monday to deliver a direct message to Alberta voters: choose unity and prosperity. With one week to go before a consequential referendum on Alberta’s future in Canada, Carney is making one of his strongest appeals yet for the province to remain part of the country. In a video message released to social media...
France's new ambassador in Ottawa says her country is open to working closer with Canada on defence procurement, despite its push for Europe to develop a fully autonomous arms industry. "In the defence sector and in other equally strategic sectors, France advocates for a European preference in procurement," French Ambassador Helene Farnaud-Defromont said in a French-language interview. "The ideal for...
International Trade Maninder Sidhu is in India this week as the two countries look to reach a free-trade agreement by the end of the year. Sidhu is set to make stops in Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru during his visit. He is being joined by almost 300 delegates representing businesses and exporters from across Canada. A Global Affairs Canada news release...
Conservative leader plans to meet with American business leaders. Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre will travel to Detroit on Tuesday to lobby U.S. business leaders for an end to cross-border tariffs impacting Canadian manufacturing, his office announced Monday. His trip to the Motor City comes as trade frictions continue to impact key Canadian sectors, including automotive, steel, aluminum, and forestry.
Some Liberal MPs and former senior Liberals say Liberal MP Angelo Iacono’s second job doesn't pass the 'smell test,' but the Montreal-area MP says he only accepted the position after consulting the federal ethics commissioner. Liberal MP Angelo Iacono’s second job as a strategic adviser at a Montreal law firm is raising questions about perceived conflict of interest among some...
Liberals lead by 16 points. Poilievre is at 32% favourable and 55% unfavourable, while Lewis improves to 35% favourable without lifting the NDP above 15%. The latest Liaison Strategies Weekly Federal Tracker finds the Liberals at 45% and the Conservatives at 29% among decided and leaning voters, a 16-point Liberal lead. The Conservative vote has edged up from last week's...
Mark Carney thanked U.S. President Donald Trump for "his leadership toward securing an energy ceasefire" between Ukraine and Russia, the Prime Minister's Office said on Sunday. But on the same day, Carney also expressed to Ukraine's leader that Trump's new diesel supply agreement with Russia undermines Canada's efforts to end the war in Europe. Trump posted on his Truth Social...
Lourenco Goncalves also says he's open to selling the Hamilton-based steelmaker. The CEO of the American company that owns Hamilton-based steelmaker Stelco says he's prepared to fight the Canadian government in court to preserve Stelco's plan to lay off hundreds of workers. Speaking Sunday on CBC's Rosemary Barton Live, Cleveland-Cliffs CEO Lourenco Goncalves disputed the government's characterization that the company...
Prime Minister Mark Carney spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Sunday and criticized U.S. President Donald Trump's new diesel fuel supply agreement with Russia. The Prime Minister's Office said the two leaders discussed Trump's agreement with Russia, announced Friday, that secures the supply of millions of tonnes of diesel fuel to the United States. "The prime minister was clear...
Former Alberta premier Jason Kenney is calling on Albertans to vote in next week’s referendum on separation in large numbers, and to deliver a decisive result for the federalist side. “I’m concerned about turnout, because the lower the turnout, the better for the separatist side,” Kenney told CTV Question Period host Vassy Kapelos in an interview airing Sunday. “If turnout...
Canada's ambassador to Saudi Arabia says the embassy in Riyadh remains open for Canadians who are in need of consular assistance, following deadly Houthi strikes against the international airport in Riyadh. Ambassador Jean-Philippe Linteau says in a video posted on Sunday that anyone in Riyadh who encounters military debris should walk away and contact authorities, and not post about it...
Albertans can start trekking to the polls this week to have their say on whether it's time to look at quitting Confederation. Advanced polls for the Oct. 19 referendum are set to open Tuesday, and if requests for mail-in ballots are any indication, there could be a record turnout. Officials at Elections Alberta say they're ready. "We've completed scenario planning...
Treasury Board President Shafqat Ali stopped short of a direct answer when asked at an Oct. 8 news conference on the Hill whether Ottawa’s drive for reduced red-tape assumes fewer federal public servants will be needed to grant approvals, carry out inspections, and handle other regulatory work. When the question turned to staffing, Ali (Brampton-Chinguacousy Park, Ont.) spoke instead about...
France's new ambassador to Canada says her country admires the Carney government's response to "extremely radical" American demands and is calling for swift action to boost Canada's strategic ties with Europe. "My mission is very clear. It's to work toward making France one of Canada's closest allies in Europe, in each field, in every sector," French Ambassador Helene Farnaud-Defromont told...
Province's voters to cast ballots on several issues, including separating from Canada. Prime Minister Mark Carney is expected to be in Alberta in the coming week, as the days tick down to a crucial referendum vote on Oct. 19, CBC News has learned. Voters will cast their final ballots on a number of issues, including the key question of separating...
Some families and friends across Alberta are set to gather for a Thanksgiving meal this weekend with the hope that the only thing that gets roasted is the turkey. Sarah Batchelor says politics will be off the dinner table at her home in Airdrie, a city north of Calgary, so her loved ones don't end up arguing with one another...
In a letter obtained by CBC News, Stelco Inc. says it is compliant with employment commitments. Hamilton-based steelmaker Stelco says it will proceed with hundreds of layoffs, despite threats of legal action from the federal government. In a letter obtained by CBC News, Stelco Inc., which is owned by Ohio-based Cleveland Cliffs, says it rejects allegations from Ottawa that it...
The former Quebec premier who oversaw passage of Canada's first-ever medically assisted dying law says he now feels conflicted after seeing how far the practice has progressed since then. Quebec's National Assembly passed the law in 2014 outlining conditions under which terminally ill patients could formally request medical assistance in dying (MAID).
Prime minister, premiers rejected Musk's calls for provinces to separate from Canada When Elon Musk called for Quebec, Alberta and Saskatchewan to separate from Canada earlier this week, it may have been nothing more than the trillionaire engaging in some anti-Canadian trolling. But it's also possible, according to one Musk observer, that the Tesla and Space X CEO had something...
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith was definitive Friday when asked whether she’d commit to not holding another referendum on Alberta separation should a majority of Albertans vote to remain in Canada on Oct. 19. “Not as long as I’m premier,” Smith told CBC News’ chief correspondent Adrienne Arsenault during a one-on-one interview in Calgary. The premier’s line in the sand comes...
President Donald Trump said that he has struck a deal to obtain diesel from Russia, a stunning reversal of years of U.S. pressure on Moscow over its war with Ukraine and an attempt to address high fuel prices ahead of the U.S. midterm elections. Trump said on social media on Friday that he struck the deal with Russian President Vladimir...
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is calling on Ottawa to sue Stelco's American owner as part of a five-point plan aimed at protecting Canada's struggling steel industry. Poilievre was in Burlington, Ont. on Friday, speaking at a site overlooking Stelco's operations across Hamilton Harbour. The steelmaker began issuing layoff notices this week after announcing plans to lay off up to 50...
Quebec premier-designate Paul St-Pierre Plamondon is asking his team to stay mobilized as the party is set to form a minority government. He told Parti Quebecois members that they should be ready for another election campaign, even if it's not in the short term. St-Pierre Plamondon invited all his party's 127 candidates to a postelection meeting at a hotel in...
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said Friday he will be in Alberta next week to deliver a speech on Canadian unity ahead of the province's referendum on separation. The House of Commons will be on a break next week after MPs head back to their ridings for the Thanksgiving weekend. Poilievre told a press conference in Burlington, Ont., on Friday he...
Quebec's former culture minister is apologizing for attending a Parti Quebecois election night gathering as his own party suffered a crushing defeat. The Coalition Avenir Quebec expelled Mathieu Lacombe from the party after La Presse reported Thursday that he'd attended the PQ gathering in Montreal. Outgoing Premier Christine Frechette also removed Lacombe from her cabinet. While the PQ won Monday's...
Kimberly Guilfoyle has resigned as ambassador to Greece and says she'll vigorously defend herself against allegations of improper and possibly illegal conduct. Trump's new White House press secretary, Katie Zacharia, dropped the news during a brief first press conference.
President Donald Trump's diesel deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin has been criticized by both Republicans and Democrats as fueling Russia's war against Ukraine, violating existing U.S. laws and drawing the U.S. closer to Russia. It joins a growing list of instances where the president has sided with Putin, often at the expense of Ukraine -- and U.S. interests...
Federal agents searched Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar's Washington, D.C. home on Monday, only three weeks before the frequent target of President Donald Trump's criticism stands for reelection in her congressional district in Minnesota.
Archbishop Timothy Broglio, who oversees the Catholic Church's pastoral services to Catholics in the U.S. military, is condemning the proposed livestream of the firing squad execution of Nidal Hasan.
Canada, France, the United Kingdom and Australia expressed deep "regret" Tuesday over the postponement of Palestinian presidential and legislative elections. The votes were set to happen next month. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has delayed them until September 2027. In a media statement, Canada and its allies said the delay deprives Palestinians of the chance to vote and noted that elections...
Mark Carney thanked U.S. President Donald Trump for "his leadership toward securing an energy ceasefire" between Ukraine and Russia, the Prime Minister's Office said on Sunday. But on the same day, Carney also expressed to Ukraine's leader that Trump's new diesel supply agreement with Russia undermines Canada's efforts to end the war in Europe. Trump posted on his Truth Social...
Prime Minister Mark Carney spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Sunday and criticized U.S. President Donald Trump's new diesel fuel supply agreement with Russia. The Prime Minister's Office said the two leaders discussed Trump's agreement with Russia, announced Friday, that secures the supply of millions of tonnes of diesel fuel to the United States. "The prime minister was clear...
Canada's ambassador to Saudi Arabia says the embassy in Riyadh remains open for Canadians who are in need of consular assistance, following deadly Houthi strikes against the international airport in Riyadh. Ambassador Jean-Philippe Linteau says in a video posted on Sunday that anyone in Riyadh who encounters military debris should walk away and contact authorities, and not post about it...
France's new ambassador to Canada says her country admires the Carney government's response to "extremely radical" American demands and is calling for swift action to boost Canada's strategic ties with Europe. "My mission is very clear. It's to work toward making France one of Canada's closest allies in Europe, in each field, in every sector," French Ambassador Helene Farnaud-Defromont told...
The federal government’s internal accountability regime continues to grow more complex. Public service leadership is detached from policy implementation and socialized to avoid risk. Public servants should be evaluated on the rules they remove and services delivered. Those with delivery experience should be rotated periodically into roles that establish internal processes and policies. Improving the federal accountability regime requires simplifying...
Amid U.S. President Donald Trump’s on-again-off-again trade war, trade diversification has been the talk of the town. But for a country like Canada, which has long felt the gravitational pull of the enormous U.S. market, diversifying trade will be no easy feat. It also shouldn’t be the goal in and of itself. As the first part of the IRPP’s new...
Canada’s aim to diversify and grow its exports will inevitably mean a significant focus on building deeper and more beneficial linkages with the Asia-Pacific. In this report, we show that Canada’s diversification challenge cannot be fully solved by merely substituting one large market with many small ones, nor by assuming that supply chains can quickly or easily be re-wired. To...
A collection of SubStack publishing within Canadian public affairs.
RCMP officers who responded to the April 2020 mass murders in Nova Scotia will receive bravery medals from Governor General Louise Arbour. An announcement is expected “imminently,” says an Arbour spokesperson. The medals follow 23 awards for excellence quietly distributed last year by RCMP Commissioner Mike Duheme to RCMP members and employees who managed the grisly incident, in which 2...
Prime Minister Mark Carney has finally charted a course out of the morass that is 24 Sussex Drive, the official residence of Canada’s prime ministers since 1951. Carney’s June announcement of a private-sector competition to “modernize” the decrepit building, abandoned in 2015 and later put into mothballs, was welcomed by heritage advocates as an end to a political impasse. A...
Artificial intelligence has moved from a promising general-purpose technology to an increasingly consequential layer of economic, social and public infrastructure. It is already raising productivity, expanding access to expertise, accelerating scientific discovery and creating new ways to deliver services. At the same time, AI systems are implicated in fraud, manipulation and cyberattacks and unreliable results and misinformation. The most capable...
I received a number of letters this week from loyal Bridge listeners and viewers on two topics worth exploring. From Albertans worried about being "stressed out" by the referendum in their province and what it may mean for them and the country. And from British Columbians with related concerns about the upcoming BC election and the impact it may have...
There are just a few days left until Alberta’s referendum on separation (and more). If the vote goes through, it won't redraw the country’s borders overnight, but it could give Premier Smith a mandate to pursue the next vote where Alberta could actually separate.
It's hard to think of a time in the modern age when relations between the U.S. and Canada were at a lower point. Since U.S. President Donald Trump started the trade war, tensions have risen, while Canadian's opinion of our neighbour to the south have fallen. While some politicians and commentators south of the border have taken aim at Canada...
The richest man in the world says Alberta and Saskatchewan should pick up their stuff and get out of Canada, presumably to join the United States. This is after Quebecers elected a separatist government in their provincial election. It's been quite a week on all that, and Bruce and Chantal are here to discuss.
