Tucked away amid a host pledges in the Conservative platform is a promise to axe one of Parliament’s primary purposes.Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre announced Tuesday that under his government a referendum, not politicians, would decide if Canada needed to raise taxes. Poilievre would “ban” any new taxes or tax increases unless the Canadian public votes for them.
Liberal Leader Mark Carney says there is a realistic chance his economic plan could eliminate the federal budget deficit within five years, but that he refrained from putting the claim on paper because it is irresponsible to make assumptions about growth during U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade crisis.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has released his party’s costed platform, which Poilievre says includes an estimated $75 billion in tax cuts and $35 billion in new programs over the next four years. Poilievre claims that the Conservative platform will also save Canadians more than $56 billion between 2025-2029. Putting in place their programs will also require the Conservative government to...
Less than a week to go now before Canadians have their votes counted and a new government is declared. So what should we be watching for as the leaders hit the final days of their campaigns to woo voters. Bruce Anderson and Fred DeLorey are here with their thoughts on everything from post debate analysis, to advertising, to what to...
The Liberal leader has steered central banks and investment giants through successive crises, but guiding Canada through the Trump era would be the greatest test he’s faced
During the election campaign, we conduct a weekly survey of Canadians to track their voting intentions and gather their views on key federal political issues.
A new poll by Liaison Strategies for the National Ethnic Press and Media Council of Canada (NEPMCC), the industry association representing Canada’s non-official language newspapers, TV, radio, and online news media, finds the Liberals leading with 43% (no change) to the Conservatives 37% (no change). The rolling survey, conducted from April 19 to April 21, 2025, used interactive voice response...
The CTV-Globe and Mail/Nanos nightly federal election tracking conducted by Nanos Research surveys 1,200 Canadians aged 18 years and over three days (400 interviews each day). Respondents are all randomly recruited through a dual-frame (cell- and land-line) RDD sample using live agents. Three quarters of the sample are administered the questionnaire by telephone and one quarter is administered the same...
83% of our watchers expect a Liberal victory, compared to 86% last week. 44% expect a Liberal majority, the highest number we’ve seen to date.
Most think the debates did not affect Liberal support. A decent sized minority (44%) think Poilievre may have gained votes.
Liberal Leader Mark Carney says there is a realistic chance his economic plan could eliminate the federal budget deficit within five years, but that he refrained from putting the claim on paper because it is irresponsible to make assumptions about growth during U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade crisis.
Tucked away amid a host pledges in the Conservative platform is a promise to axe one of Parliament’s primary purposes.Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre announced Tuesday that under his government a referendum, not politicians, would decide if Canada needed to raise taxes. Poilievre would “ban” any new taxes or tax increases unless the Canadian public votes for them.
An estimated 7.3 million Canadians — a record — took advantage of advance polls and cast their ballots over the long weekend, according to Elections Canada.The non-partisan agency said based on its preliminary figures, that marks a 25 per cent increase from the 5.8 million electors who voted in advance during the 2021 federal election.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh has been campaigning in British Columbia – the province home to half of the party’s seats – since Friday. Asked repeatedly over the long weekend about spending some of the final days of the 2025 federal election in potentially at-risk ridings the party currently holds, Singh responded by stating who wouldn’t want to be enjoying the...
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has released his party’s costed platform, which Poilievre says includes an estimated $75 billion in tax cuts and $35 billion in new programs over the next four years. Poilievre claims that the Conservative platform will also save Canadians more than $56 billion between 2025-2029. Putting in place their programs will also require the Conservative government to...
Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives are promising $34-billion in new spending and $75-billion in tax cuts over the next four years. They would help fund these expenditures with $56-billion in spending reductions over the same period, the Conservatives say. The party’s 2025 election platform, released Tuesday, also shows the Conservatives are betting that economic growth from their policies will generate significant tax...
I want to begin by emphasizing that my headline is satirical. There is no particular reason to expect a second US civil war, even though this Canadian government report from Prime Minister Carney’s own department says, “U.S. ideological divisions, democratic erosion, and domestic unrest escalate, plunging the country into civil war.” The report received coverage in international media, including this...
In a leaders' debate that was supposed to be all about Pierre Poilievre and Mark Carney, Jagmeet Singh ended up stealing the spotlight. While logic would have dictated that Singh set his sights on Carney and win back some of the voters who had fled to the Liberals, he instead took his biggest swipes at Pierre Poilievre — often at...
Less than a week to go now before Canadians have their votes counted and a new government is declared. So what should we be watching for as the leaders hit the final days of their campaigns to woo voters. Bruce Anderson and Fred DeLorey are here with their thoughts on everything from post debate analysis, to advertising, to what to...
If Mark Carney – the charming, meticulous, and sometimes prickly economist – lands the job of steering through a crisis, it wouldn't be the first time
With just days to go before election day and millions of Canadians already having voted, both the Liberal and Conservative parties have finally dropped their full platforms. And the two are as different in substance, structure and style as the two campaigns — for better and worse. Substance-wise, the Liberals offer a slew of big-ticket items: a $5 billion Trade...
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre released his Conservative Plan for Change today to lower food and housing costs, stop crime and bring home jobs to put Canada First. The choice could not be clearer – a fourth Liberal term with Mark Carney that will add even more debt than Justin Trudeau’s budget, or a new Conservative government that over the next...
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre announced today that his new Conservative Government will build 2.3 million homes over the next five years. And unlike Mark Carney, who followed the old Trudeau playbook and just plucked a number out of thin air, Poilievre has an actual plan to get it done. Poilievre’s plan will get gatekeepers out of the way to speed...
This election comes at a time of crisis. President Trump is trying to fundamentally reshape the international trading system and, in the process, he’s rupturing the global economy. With Canada, he has been even more direct and aggressive: he is trying to break us so America can own us. Unlike the Conservatives who will slash public services, a Mark Carney...
This election comes at a time of crisis, as President Trump threatens Canadian jobs, businesses, and our way of life. In the face of these threats, Mark Carney has a plan to build a stronger economy and a Canada you can afford. In Atlantic Canada, the Confederation Bridge and ferries are critical to connecting residents and businesses. To make these...
In the first federal budget after the election, Jagmeet Singh says the NDP will move fast to bring down grocery bills—starting with price caps on essentials and tough rules to stop CEOs from jacking up prices just because products are made in Canada.
Today, Jagmeet Singh unveiled the NDP’s costed campaign commitments—laying out a plan to stand up to protect working and middle-class Canadians from the effects of Trump’s trade war, fight corporate greed, and protect what makes Canada, Canada. The NDP plan, Made for People. Built for Canada, takes on the big challenges—from climate and reconciliation to defending democracy. But Singh made...
I want to begin by emphasizing that my headline is satirical. There is no particular reason to expect a second US civil war, even though this Canadian government report from Prime Minister Carney’s own department says, “U.S. ideological divisions, democratic erosion, and domestic unrest escalate, plunging the country into civil war.” The report received coverage in international media, including this...
In a leaders' debate that was supposed to be all about Pierre Poilievre and Mark Carney, Jagmeet Singh ended up stealing the spotlight. While logic would have dictated that Singh set his sights on Carney and win back some of the voters who had fled to the Liberals, he instead took his biggest swipes at Pierre Poilievre — often at...
If Mark Carney – the charming, meticulous, and sometimes prickly economist – lands the job of steering through a crisis, it wouldn't be the first time
With just days to go before election day and millions of Canadians already having voted, both the Liberal and Conservative parties have finally dropped their full platforms. And the two are as different in substance, structure and style as the two campaigns — for better and worse. Substance-wise, the Liberals offer a slew of big-ticket items: a $5 billion Trade...
In a federal election increasingly defined by U.S. President Donald Trump, the future of Canada is on the ballot. However much Canadians have respected and admired America, we have no desire to be Americans. This reawakening is driving a surge of citizen patriotism and a renewed commitment to guard our national identity — and it is presenting a political challenge...
If you’ve followed our polling during this campaign, you’ll know we’ve gone beyond the usual vote intention numbers. Yes, we track the horserace. But to really understand where this election is going—and why—we’ve asked Canadians more questions than any other pollster: about what they care about, what they fear, what they hope for, and what they believe. And what’s emerged...
Canada’s federal political party leaders took to a Montreal stage on April 16th and 17th to contrast their views, in French and English, on the core issues defining this campaign ahead of the April 28th election. Unfortunately, the exchanges between the candidates had to compete for attention with the drama surrounding the Leaders’ Debate Commission and its (mis)handling of the...
In marketing, as in politics, the “brand” is often a persona built over years, even decades.At a certain point, the persona isn’t just a strategy — it’s an operating system. The rewards are immediate and obvious when a politician is applauded for cutting down, for exposing flaws, for pointing the finger. Accusation is currency; outrage buys airtime.
Donald Trump remains a top concern of Canadians heading to the polls for the April 28 federal election, a recent survey by Nanos Research reveals. Rightly so. The U.S. president has repeatedly attacked Canada’s sovereignty, mocked our nation with “51st state” rhetoric and disrupted our economy with erratic tariffs threats. All federal political parties have proposed ways to fight these...
There has been a weightlessness to the Liberal campaign in the past two days, as if their internal polling shows the election is in the bag
Is Alberta heading for separation?Well, no. The numbers just aren’t there.
Unlike either Justin Trudeau or Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre, Carney has extensive economic and business experience. Former B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell wrote an op-ed last week that was highly critical of Prime Minister Mark Carney.
Back in mid-February, more than a month before the federal election was called and just as Mark Carney was beginning to close the longstanding polling gap between Liberals and Conservatives, I filed a column on how elections are defined by two things: are context and contrast. It’s a theme worth revisiting one week from Election Day. In the case of...
Liberal candidate Bruce Fanjoy is running against Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre who has a national profile as both party leader and a potential prime minister. Fanjoy’s answer has been old-fashioned hard work, based on the notion that all politics is local.
Switch voters will likely find the prospect of adding a quarter-trillion dollars to the national debt a haunting prospect
Over the years, as an immigration lawyer I’ve had the privilege of representing countless newcomers to Canada — refugee claimants, permanent residents and future citizens. And if there’s one thing these clients share, it’s a deep commitment to following the law.
Many experts have voiced that this election is one of the most important for this country, and it’s hard to disagree. Canadians seem to be more involved this election, if everyday chitchat is a measure of their involvement. As a quick recap: United States President Donald Trump is threatening funding to American universities to force them to stop being so...
What a difference a few years and the election of Donald Trump makes. It seems like only yesterday that loud voices were calling for the cancellation of Canada Day due to our country’s shameful past. Fast forward to today and it seems that everyone is trying to outdo themselves in the patriotism department: buying Canadian; flying the flag; and chastising...
With just one week to go, the 2025 federal election has become something no one fully expected even a few months ago: a referendum on how much risk Canadians are willing to take in a world turned upside down.
It’s the morning after election night and it is the tale of two profoundly different worlds.For one, no day more glorious. Power. A flurry of transition memos. Endless congratulatory phone calls.
In unveiling his party’s full platform Saturday morning, Mark Carney released a strange plan for strange times: A protectionist plan to return Canada to the world stage. The costed platform document, released after Canadians have already begun voting, sets the stakes in its second sentence: “Our sovereignty is under threat.” In response, Carney wants to open markets, integrate with our...
The comedian Robin Williams famously likened living in Canada to “living in a really nice apartment over a meth lab”, a line that was much funnier when the dealer down below didn’t get high on his own supply and suddenly start threatening to expand his operations into your home. Given this recent twist in our bilateral dynamic, the punditry plotline...
During Thursday night’s English-language leaders’ debate, Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre told Liberal Leader Mark Carney that “We need a change, and you, sir, are not a change.” He’s right on the first part, but wrong on the second. For more than two years, while Justin Trudeau occupied the Prime Minister’s Office, national and regional public opinion polls consistently revealed...
The first thing people ask me when I give a talk or an interview about my book “Ripper: The Making of Pierre Poilievre” is what the title means. The answer is easy: at the beginning of the COVID pandemic, New York Times columnist David Brooks wrote a piece saying there are two kinds of politicians, “rippers” and “weavers.” Rippers are...
Mark Carney the Rookie Politician would like you to know that Mark Carney the Experienced Central Banker is a serious person. The kind of man forged in the crucible of molten global crises, whether of the global financial or post-Brexit variety. In short, Carney wants Canadians to agree that he alone is able to take on the volatility that is...
An estimated 7.3 million Canadians — a record — took advantage of advance polls and cast their ballots over the long weekend, according to Elections Canada.The non-partisan agency said based on its preliminary figures, that marks a 25 per cent increase from the 5.8 million electors who voted in advance during the 2021 federal election.
Mothers of Canadian children stranded while attempting to flee the harrowing Sudanese Civil War say Ottawa isn’t moving to help clear the roadblocks that would provide them with a pathway to enter the country.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh has been campaigning in British Columbia – the province home to half of the party’s seats – since Friday. Asked repeatedly over the long weekend about spending some of the final days of the 2025 federal election in potentially at-risk ridings the party currently holds, Singh responded by stating who wouldn’t want to be enjoying the...
Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives are promising $34-billion in new spending and $75-billion in tax cuts over the next four years. They would help fund these expenditures with $56-billion in spending reductions over the same period, the Conservatives say. The party’s 2025 election platform, released Tuesday, also shows the Conservatives are betting that economic growth from their policies will generate significant tax...
Canada’s Conservative Party is promising to run smaller deficits than the incumbent Liberals as it bets heavily on tax cuts and deregulation spurring an economic boom, especially in the country’s energy sector.
An outspoken Conservative ethics critic was threatened with eviction from his taxpayer-subsidized apartment over allegations of unpaid rent, Global News has learned. In 2023, Minto Apartment Limited Partnership – owners of an apartment building just steps from Parliament Hill – asked the Landlord and Tenant Board to intervene after it said Conservative MP Larry Brock failed to pay $16,4129.23 in...
Canadian domestic extremists are using the federal election to amplify “corrosive” narratives around democracy, immigration and conspiracy theories, a new report suggests.The Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD) found Canadian extremists are capitalizing on the deteriorating relationship between Canada and U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration t
Pierre Poilievre’s populist message was resonating until Trump’s antagonism pushed Canadians toward a former central banker
If there is such a thing as the luck of the Irish, then Mark Carney, until recently an Irish passport holder, seems to have it in spades. Canada’s ruling Liberal Party, which the former governor of the Bank of England and the Bank of Canada now leads, was riding to almost certain defeat in next week’s Canadian general election, sitting...
A new U.S. government portal lets anyone report a health-care provider — including Canadian ones — for allegedly “chemically or surgically mutilating children.”
While Liberal Leader Mark Carney may be Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre’s main rival this election, Bruce Fanjoy could be considered his second.
For most of this campaign, one story has dominated: Donald Trump. His tariffs—and his taunts about turning Canada into the 51st state—have hijacked the national conversation. We’ve also heard about jobs, inflation, taxes, and crime. And rightly so. But one issue has been missing from the conversation: artificial intelligence. AI is the third rail of this election—vital to our future...
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has spent the last two and a half years courting the support of blue-collar Canadians and shifting his party’s positions to embrace pro-worker policies. Now he’s hoping to enjoy the fruits of his labour.
Too late to change minds about leader, but party can campaign on change: pollster. The Conservatives are using the final week of the election campaign to run advertisements where older men are telling other older men to vote for the party — a closing argument that would have been unthinkable only months ago, political advertising experts say. In new television...
The race to form Canada’s next government is now tighter than ever as the federal election campaign enters its final week, a new poll suggests. The latest Ipsos poll conducted exclusively for Global News found the Liberals are still in the lead, but are now just three points ahead of the Conservatives, who continue to gain momentum in the home...
Liberal Leader Mark Carney has pledged to cut Confederation Bridge tolls by more than half and reduce the cost of Northumberland Ferries fares by at least 50 per cent.Carney made the announcement during a campaign stop Monday in Charlottetown, speaking at a news conference at the University of Prince Edward Island's medical school.
“The Trumpy hectoring of people, the slogans, the big rallies — like it all just seems like so Trump. And people are not loving Trump right now in Canada,” said Kory Teneycke, a key figure in conservative Canadian politics who directs campaigns. “(Poilievre’s) style and his approach to politics certainly channel a lot of Trump. It’s like a cheap karaoke...
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has thrown his weight behind withholding federal funding from Canadian universities who don’t do enough to fight antisemitism. Speaking in French at a news conference in British Columbia on Sunday, Poilievre said public funds should not be used to support hate.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said Monday his party will release its costed platform on Tuesday, giving voters a sense of what a government led by him would do and where it would cut to pay for it all. The platform release comes the day after advance polls close and less than a week before election day. Poilievre is the last...
Canada's political leaders are remembering Pope Francis as a humble leader with a deep moral obligation and the spiritual courage to help the world's most vulnerable."Today, the world lost a man who profoundly touched the lives of billions of people," Prime Minister Mark Carney said during a campaign stop in Charlottetown on Monday.
A Conservative candidate critical of Hong Kong laws is the target of a “transnational repression operation,” Canada’s election interference task force said on Monday.
There were multiple complaints the worker was trying to sway voters in the Toronto-area riding of King—Vaughan to cast a ballot for the Conservative candidate, the Star has learned. An Elections Canada poll worker has been reassigned after multiple complaints she was trying to influence voters in the Toronto-area riding of King—Vaughan to cast a ballot for the Conservative candidate...
Two hours after sunrise on Easter Sunday, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre made a campaign stop at a grocery store in Surrey, B.C., to criticize the price tag of the Liberals’ election platform, which would cost Canadian taxpayers $130 billion in spending. “Mark Carney is worse than Justin Trudeau,” said Poilievre, standing in the produce aisle of a Fruiticana store to...
Conservative leader noncommittal about what he would do with Liberal firearms policy. Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre dodged questions Sunday about whether he would repeal the federal government's handgun ban, a measure brought in to tamp down on the diversion of legal firearms into the hands of bad actors. Poilievre hasn't said much during this campaign about what he would do...
There's just a week left in this election. This time next Monday, we will be getting ready to vote. At the outset, I wrote about the economic question at the heart of this election. The issue, as I saw it then, was how best to deal with U.S. President Donald Trump. But embedded in that question is a deeper one...
Secretary of State Marco Rubio unveiled a massive overhaul of the State Department on Tuesday, with plans to reduce staff in the U.S. by 15% while closing and consolidating more than 100 bureaus worldwide as part of the Trump administration's "America First" mandate.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is defending himself against a second assertion that he shared classified material through an unapproved and unsecured network -- this time taking airstrike information from a military communications channel and sharing it in a chat with his wife, his brother and others.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a Tuesday speech that the ongoing tariffs showdown against China is unsustainable and expects a "de-escalation" in the trade war between the world's two largest economies.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The infighting and backstabbing that plagued President Donald Trump's first term have returned as a threat to his second, with deepening fissures over trade, national security and questions of personal loyalty.
Pope Francis, whose nearly 12-year papacy ushered in a more open, welcoming Catholic Church that prioritized empathy for the poor and disenfranchised — including Indigenous victims of Canada's church-run residential schools — has died at 88, the Vatican said in a video statement Monday. "Dear brothers and sisters, it is with profound sadness I must announce the death of our...
Meta Platforms Inc. faces a historic antitrust trial beginning Monday that could force the tech giant to break off Instagram and WhatsApp, startups it bought more than a decade ago that have since grown into social media powerhouses.
China announced Friday that it will raise tariffs on U.S. goods from 84 per cent to 125 per cent -- the latest salvo in an escalating trade war between the world’s two largest economies that has rattled markets and raised fears of a global slowdown. While U.S. President Donald Trump paused import taxes this week for other countries, he raised...
A helicopter broke apart in midair Thursday and crashed upside-down into the Hudson River between Manhattan and the New Jersey waterfront, killing a family of Spanish tourists, including three children in the latest high-profile aviation disaster in the U.S., officials said. Mayor Eric Adams said the flight began at a downtown heliport around 3 p.m. and that the dead had...
NEW YORK (AP) -- President Donald Trump has launched tariff wars with nearly all of America's trading partners. And there's no end in sight.
On March 11, China concluded its annual 'Two Sessions' — a pair of legislative and advisory meetings focused on Beijing's economic priorities for the year ahead. The slew of macroeconomic measures announced at those meetings are now taking on heightened significance amid the escalating U.S.–China trade war.
The reciprocal tariffs announced by U.S. President Donald Trump on April 2 – what he referred to as “Liberation Day” – hit Southeast Asian economies particularly hard. While they and others received a brief respite in the form of a 90-day pause, with a universal lowered reciprocal tariff of 10 per cent, tariffs on goods from China spiked to 14...
A collection of SubStack publishing within Canadian public affairs.
This will be a very short post on the access-to-information election promises of the five main political parties. That’s because there’s nothing to write about.With the release of the last platform today (Conservative), no party is committing to reforming the dysfunctional Access to Information Act, other than reciting cheap bromides. Some aren’t even offering bromides.
Is it time I admit defeat, pull up my tent and go home? For 30 years I have advocated for reductions to Canada’s military spending, and it keeps rising and rising. Now it’s reached the point where Canada is the 6th highest in actual dollars within NATO (after USA, Germany, UK, France, Poland). Responding to expensive plans to increase military...
Last fall, before the Trump shitstorm, advisers to the prime minister saw the black clouds gathering to the south. The new president had not yet been sworn into office, but it was clear Canada was in the crosshairs.
The tension rises and the drama builds. The results have been trickling in all night — first it was too early to call, then it was too close to call. But, finally, the networks are ready. The anchor cuts off whoever is speaking and says “we’re ready to make a projection.”
Less than a week to go now before Canadians have their votes counted and a new government is declared. So what should we be watching for as the leaders hit the final days of their campaigns to woo voters. Bruce Anderson and Fred DeLorey are here with their thoughts on everything from post debate analysis, to advertising, to what to...
Zain Velji and Stephen Carter talk political ads, platforms, and predictions. With more unsolicited advice for the campaigns than you can shake a Kory Teneycke at. Are party platforms still relevant? Why are everyone's ads so bad right now? And should you contact your doctor if the urge to vote conservative lasts more than 4 hours? Annalise does her best...
It’s been hotly debated by scholars and advocates for decades: do we need to change the way we elect governments in this country? On April 28th, there will be 91 candidates on the ballot in the riding of Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre. It will be the longest ballot in Canadian election history. Of 91 candidates, 85 are independent protest candidates...
