The Conservative MP tasked with leading his party's efforts to convince Albertans to stay in Canada says he is concerned by reports of separatists going to Washington and offering up fresh water and oil in exchange for American support. Dane Lloyd said no one has the right to promise away Albertan resources and he will not condone any of the...
Liberals lead 46% to 28% as Conservative support reaches its lowest level in Liaison tracking since March 2025. Carney approval returns to 66%. The latest Liaison Strategies Weekly Federal Tracker shows the Conservatives at 28% among decided and leaning voters, their lowest support in the series dating back to March 2025. The Liberals hold at 46%, giving them an 18-point...
American officials have privately confided “concerns” with U.S. President Donald Trump’s aggressive stance towards Canada, MPs on the House of Commons’ foreign affairs committee were told Monday. Niall Cronin, the director general of Global Affairs Canada’s North America bureau, told MPs that Canada has a network of diplomats that spend a considerable amount of time arguing Canada’s side of the...
Jessica Fallis initially feared getting doors slammed in her face canvassing for Alberta’s New Democratic Party in Calgary-Shaw during the 2023 general election campaign that propelled the United Conservative Party to its second majority. But door-to-door canvassing for the NDP in the far south Calgary riding was a lot easier in the recent byelection, Fallis says. “Some of the [voters...
Revelations about talks in Washington where Alberta separatists suggested exchanging water and oil for U.S. support, and in Calgary where separatists met secretly with Republican strategists, have sparked an outcry from federalists – and a call for legislative change. Corey Hogan, Calgary’s lone Liberal member of Parliament, said on Sunday that Canada needs to consider overhauling its laws to address...
Liberals lead 46% to 28% as Conservative support reaches its lowest level in Liaison tracking since March 2025. Carney approval returns to 66%. The latest Liaison Strategies Weekly Federal Tracker shows the Conservatives at 28% among decided and leaning voters, their lowest support in the series dating back to March 2025. The Liberals hold at 46%, giving them an 18-point...
Canadian confidence is treading water. The Bloomberg-Nanos Canadian Confidence Index slipped to 50.45 from 51.80 four weeks earlier. Confidence in personal finances and job security remains comparatively resilient, but expectations for the broader economy and housing market have softened. The result is a public mood marked less by alarm than by caution: households are holding steady, yet doubts about Canada’s...
The Carney government’s proposed labour law reforms target a serious problem: the increase in disruptions to critical industries such as airlines, ports and railways. Ottawa is taking heat from labour advocates, but the changes are a sensible measure to rebalance the interests of federally regulated employers, employees, and the public. In recent years, Canada has seen an upsurge in labour...
Two Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) members based in Toronto have been removed from their military duties after being arrested on charges relating to kidnapping, organized crime and the theft of firearms and weapons, the Department of National Defence confirms. Sachintha Fernando and James Moreau were arrested on Aug. 11, 2026, according to Laura McIntyre-Grills, a spokesperson for DND. Both Fernando...
Tim Gitzel, 64, leans forward as he names mining companies Canada has lost. “Inco, Falconbridge, Noranda,” he says, counting off his fingers. “I can keep going. People say, ‘Oh wow, that’s too bad,’” says the chief executive of Cameco. Yet when the Saskatoon-based uranium giant flipped the script, acquiring 49 per cent of Westinghouse Electric, a legacy U.S. nuclear giant...
Separatists have been coy about how they’d work with Trump to dismantle Canada. Now they’re facing tough questions, and so they should. We’re lucky to live in a country where people can argue for ideas as radical as separatism. But our cultural politeness shouldn’t keep us from carving up such bad ideas, aggressively, in the public square...
It should come, perhaps, as no surprise that some in Alberta’s separatist movement are happy to sell out the province, swapping the authority of the Canadian government for domination by MAGA overlords in the United States. They do, after all, have no loyalty to Canada. But you’d think, in an ideal world, they’d have some loyalty to Alberta – and...
Let’s get a little dystopian. There is a non-zero chance that United States President Donald Trump tries to cancel the mid-term elections, wherein 100 per cent of the House and one-third of the Senate are up for election and re-election.
Pierre Poilievre has to feel robbed by the universe – and also like some cosmic gang of thugs keeps returning to make sure his pockets truly contain nothing but lint. He was supposed to be the next Prime Minister, with the 20-point lead and command on the public mood to prove it. Then everything exploded, the banker stepped neatly into...
I wrote a book thirty years ago about the three questions posed by the great Rabbi Hillel more than two thousand years ago: “If I am not for myself, who will be for me? But if I am only for myself, what am I? And if not now, when?” I have returned to those questions on countless occasions since, and...
Donald Trump, we know, poses an existential threat to Canada. And Canada, proclaims Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, poses an existential threat to Quebec. On Monday, Quebecers will go to the polls to elect a new provincial government. They are, more than most of the rest of Canada, freaked out by the threat emanating from south of the border and supportive of...
As a former prime minister of Canada, staying silent on the upcoming referendum on Alberta secession is not an option. But I wish it were. I love my country, and I love my province. I do not wish to pit one against the other. I believe that is how most Albertans feel. Despite the efforts of a few on each...
Like many people, you may be under the impression that the Conservatives lost the 2025 election. Lately, however, that interpretation has come under challenge. According to this new interpretation, the Conservatives actually won. The country has a Conservative Prime Minister, and his name is Mark Carney. According to political scientist Stewart Prest, Mr. Carney heads “the most conservative Liberal government...
The first day of October was a big one for Alberta. At the same time an Alberta-born astronaut was getting launched into space, Mark Carney and Danielle Smith were unveiling plans for a new pipeline here on Earth. An even bigger day looms later this month, when the province votes on whether to hold an independence referendum, and that pipeline...
More than merely the loss of an able, fair-minded MP, it looks like the Conservative party's reach is ebbing
The news that Conservative MP Scott Aitchison will resign at the end of this year, which will make him the eighth MP to exit the Conservative caucus in one year, has roused the recurring question of just how much more Pierre Poilievre’s hold on his party’s leadership can endure. It’s like watching a frayed rope bridge swinging over a river...
It could have been worse for Pierre Poilievre — at least Scott Aitchison is not leaving the Conservative caucus to join Mark Carney’s Liberals. But Aitchison, a one-time leadership opponent of Poilievre’s who has represented Parry Sound—Muskoka for nearly seven years, is the kind of Conservative that Carney has been attracting. He’s a man over 50 in Ontario and polls...
It’s bad form, in writing, to mix your metaphors. But this summer, speaking to an array of people in and around the Carney government, there were two I kept hearing used to describe how things work in Ottawa these days, both of them apt. One is the ancient parable of the blind men and the elephant. Each man touches a...
Until Mark Carney came along, the Liberals never had a prime minister from the province of Alberta. Mr. Carney was born in 1965 in the Northwest Territories and spent his first six years there. But his formative years – the next 12 – were lived in Edmonton. Young Mark delivered the Edmonton Journal newspaper. His father Bob was a deputy...
Less than a week before the October 5th Quebec general election, the Parti Québécois (PQ) remains clearly ahead in the polls and, according to recent seat projections, has a shot at winning a majority of the National Assembly’s 127 seats with only around 30% of popular support. This outcome is likely despite the fact that a large majority of Quebecers...
These are unusual times. There’s a trade war on, given special intensity by Donald Trump’s threats to use “economic force” to bend Canada to his will. To counter the U.S. administration’s crude attempts to divert capital south of the border, governments across the country are mobilizing resources in ways they might not otherwise contemplate. A sort-of wartime economy, fit for...
Mark Carney has managed to fashion a surprisingly workable peace with provincial premiers. But it’s hard to imagine that peace will reign across the land after next week’s Quebec election. The Parti Québécois is about to take power again, for the first time in more than a dozen years, and it’s not just the possibility of an eventual referendum on...
For Prime Minister Mark Carney, yesterday was the sort of day he might look back on fondly from the other side of his political honeymoon. As he stood in Vancouver and announced that LNG Canada is moving forward with its $33 billion Phase 2 expansion project in Kitimat, B.C., Carney’s approval rating had just hit a new high of 6...
There is no shortage of commentary across multiple media platforms on the subject of U.S. President Donald Trump as a bully. Indeed, reading the stream of entries, it is fair to say there is a strong consensus that this is what and who the man is. Whatever his origin story, whatever he endured as a child (and there is plenty...
B.C. NDP Leader David Eby is a shrewd, confident competitor. He will challenge anyone currently suffering from a stomach virus to a hot-dog-eating contest. He will dare any chess champion to a tournament when they are sleeping. Mr. Eby will tackle a bear in a cage (from the outside, without actually touching the bear), or wrestle any and all comatose...
To the group of masked white-nationalist cowards who trespassed on the Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation to strike fear into the hearts of people living there: we can only hope the full force of the law catches up to you in short order. It should happen quickly. The group of flag-waving thugs with their white face masks and black uniforms...
Chief Justice Richard Wagner says Canada's democratic institutions need protection in the face of unrelenting pressures. Wagner said in a speech today the world feels increasingly uncertain due to deepening polarization, the non-stop pace of events and the rapid emergence of artificial intelligence. He said when seas grow rough an anchor keeps a vessel from drifting, and democratic institutions play...
Quebec's business community is taking notice as polls show the Parti Quebecois seizing a firm lead with the provincial election in full swing. PQ Leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon has pledged to hold a referendum within his first mandate, though not before U.S. President Donald Trump leaves office. Sebastien Lachaine, Quebec director at lobbying firm Sussex Strategy, says the uncertainty heralded...
Since assuming office a year and a half ago, Prime Minister Mark Carney has repeatedly promised that his government would “build Canadian and buy Canadian.” But American-controlled multinational corporations have dominated the most lucrative federal contracts under Carney’s leadership, a Toronto Star analysis of government data shows. The share of government contract dollars going to U.S. companies also increased...
Parliamentarians are back in Ottawa where debate is set to continue on the government's 243-page economic and labour bill, with plans to introduce legislation focused on national defence and security procurement. The government's key piece of economic legislation, Bill C-39, proposes measures to create a one-year timeline for federal project decisions, create zones of "national interest" where certain projects are...
Internal evaluations reveal gaps in winter soldiering, medical prep and equipment. A series of internal Department of National Defence documents suggest Canadian troops were ill-prepared and occasionally ill-equipped for the harsh conditions they faced last winter during a major training exercise with American forces in Alaska. The evaluation reports, obtained by CBC News, show the military has a lot to...
With the federal budget coming later this fall, some lobbyists and stakeholders are raising concerns about the limited access to senior cabinet ministerial and PMO officials, blaming “risk averse” staffers who fear for their ministers’ ouster in a future cabinet shuffle. “The stakes are high. Perhaps the ministerial offices are thinking, ‘Wait a minute, we don’t want to make a...
Voters in Quebec's 127 ridings are heading to the polls today to choose a new provincial government. The Parti Quebecois appears to be in the driver's seat heading into an election that comes at the end of two straight Coalition Avenir Quebec majority governments. PQ Leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon is facing off against a large field that includes CAQ Leader...
'I don't want to give Canadians a tax cut,' Florida governor says as he pushes to end property taxes for some. Florida voters are weighing whether to scrap residential property taxes and the state's governor has a solution to that potentially huge revenue loss: tax Canadians more. Canadians who own property in Florida describe the threats to shake them down...
British Columbia NDP Leader David Eby says his party will introduce a new tax bracket for those who earn $1 million or more to help pay for health care, if re-elected. The leader made the announcement Sunday, while campaigning in Comox on Vancouver Island, after he toured ridings in southern British Columbia ahead of the Oct. 24 election day. Eby...
Canadian farm and seafood producers are anxiously hoping for a decision, in the weeks ahead, on whether China will extend temporary tariff rollbacks granted earlier this year during Prime Minister Mark Carney’s diplomatic reset with Beijing. Next month, Mr. Carney is expected to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit and take stock of how...
Canada’s financial crimes agency wiped out the supplier names in 100 contracts worth more than $26.7-million over the last five years—the only government agency to do so without providing justification—raising questions about the organization’s compliance with government rules and oversight mechanisms. A Hill Times analysis of the government’s contracting database reveals that, since 2021, three federal organizations—Financial Transactions and Reports...
Espionage is a deadly serious and generally misunderstood business, and it's critical for Canadian politicians thinking about starting a foreign spy service to decide "with their eyes wide open," a new study says. "Virtually no Canadian knows how espionage is actually done," says the paper by former Canadian intelligence officials Alan Barnes and Geoff St. John. "Romantic, facile notions predominate...
Energy and Natural Resources Minister Tim Hodgson is promising the new Pacific Link oil pipeline to the West Coast will get built, regardless of potential future market shifts and geopolitical changes. On Thursday, Prime Minister Mark Carney and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith announced the Pacific Link pipeline will be the first officially designated national interest project under the Building Canada...
The Canadian Security Intelligence Service is shaking up its hiring process to meet operational needs, internal emails show — a signal the service continues to face recruitment issues. CSIS brought in a suite of changes earlier this year to "meet operational needs and emerging demands," according to documents obtained by CBC News through an access to information request.
Canada's fisheries minister says France has not issued a new snow crab licence off Newfoundland, despite a surprising promise last month by French President Emmanuel Macron. Joanne Thompson said Friday evening that the Canadian government has been in contact with French officials to confirm they had not issued a new license, after news outlets including franceinfo and Radio-Canada reported Macron...
The pitch began with a prayer. On an afternoon in late January, Mitch Sylvestre, the leader of Alberta’s most prominent separatist organization, gathered with three of his lieutenants in a boardroom not far from the executive hangars at the Calgary International Airport, where private jets shuttle in and out of the city away from prying eyes. It was a few...
Both sides in trade dispute have been 'needless, pointless and childish,' says one retiree. On the most elite stage in the world of competitive dairy, a Canadian teenager and her "favourite cow" scored two major wins while on U.S. soil. Never heard of competitive dairy? Let me assure you, it's a really big deal. One win — let alone two...
Quebec elections are always interesting, but Monday's vote carries with it all kinds of questions about what the future holds for the province and the country. Bruce and Chantal tackle that and also the latest moves by Donald Trump that show just how much trouble he may well be in with his presidency.
Briefing notes outline potential fiscal shocks, population outflows, head office exodus. Internal federal documents offer insights into how Ottawa is assessing the economic fallout from the possibility of Alberta separating from Canada and becoming an independent state. The documents from Finance Canada and the Justice Department also shed light on the consequences being considered from the uncertainty caused by Alberta...
Former Conservative prime minister Stephen Harper cautioned against the prospect of Alberta separation in a column Friday, writing that even voting just to "send a message" would represent a fraught approach. "No one will be surprised to learn that I am against separation. That would involve much risk and be extremely difficult to bring about," Harper wrote in the Calgary...
The federal government should “re-evaluate” the Alto high-speed rail project and instead consider improving the VIA Rail, say opposition MPs, as Canada’s budget watchdog warns good project management will be “essential” to avoid cost overruns after a recent report found the build alone could cost up to $113-billion—roughly 25 per cent more than the government’s initial calculations. Parliamentary Budget Officer...
Prime Minister Mark Carney sat down one-on-one with Harvard Media News in Fort McMurray following Thursday’s announcement of a major new pipeline project.
Prime Minister Mark Carney has a new national council on artificial intelligence meant to provide the government with guidance for its AI strategy and on making the technology safer. A news release from the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) on Friday outlined the formation of the Prime Minister's National Council on Artificial Intelligence, which looks to convene public and private stakeholders...
It's been a relatively quiet decade in Alberta's oilsands, but the federal and provincial governments believe a new West Coast pipeline coupled with policy shifts might help turn up the volume. Prime Minister Mark Carney was in Fort McMurray, Alta., this week to announce the first proposal to be deemed in the national interest under legislation passed last year: the...
Canadian actor and philanthropist Michael J. Fox says despite current trade tensions, the Canada-U.S. relationship is “doomed to success.” “We’re so alike. Culturally. I mean, there are key differences based on our origin stories and things like that, and you can find ways that we’re different,” Fox said in an exclusive broadcast interview with CTV News in Ottawa. “But in...
Quebec Conservative Party Leader Eric Duhaime admitted to using artificial intelligence to write his latest book. Duhaime told reporters Friday morning that he used AI as "a tool among others" to write the book, titled Destination Autonomie, which was published in April. Duhaime, who previously worked as a columnist and radio host, said he used AI to structure his thoughts...
Canada and its fellow industrialized countries in the G7 agreed Friday to release 100 million barrels of oil and fuel products in the coming weeks. The pledge includes the release of "substantial" amounts of diesel after prices for the fuel recently hit record highs in the United States. U.S. President Donald Trump's war in Iran and Russia's war with Ukraine...
Liberal MP Salma Zahid says she's concerned about escalating violent rhetoric directed at MPs -- including the leader of another party. In August, a man was filmed setting vehicles on fire outside Zahid's home in the Toronto suburb of Scarborough in what police believe was an arson attack. Zahid says she now has 24-7 security at her home and she...
China Offshore Oil Engineering Co., Ltd. made LNG Canada's first 2 processing units now in operation. LNG Canada will once again use Chinese steel for the "specialized fabrication capability" it says it requires for its $33-billion Phase 2 expansion project in Kitimat, B.C. When the proposed expansion led the list of early projects referred to the new federal Major Projects...
One of the most influential voices on Alberta separatism is not a politician or even a clearly-identified person at all, but a combination social media account and merchandise line that is among the independence movement’s breakout stars. The RiseOfAlberta account was created in the spring of 2025 and describes itself as “accelerating Alberta’s journey towards independence.” Since then it has...
For Michelle Tietjens, the pain of loss often hits hardest at the start of each day, when the realization dawns all over again that she'll be facing it without her husband.
The shrapnel hit Army Lt. Col. Arturo Lincon's body like shattered glass.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- On a sunny, cloudless morning on March 1, the day after President Donald Trump started the war against Iran, Chief Warrant Officer 3 Robert Marzan was coordinating critical Army supplies out of Port Shuaiba in Kuwait.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Sipping tea from beer mugs with his coworkers, Kyle Bos listed the ways his life is changing.
Canada and the European Union plan to link next-generation payment systems to enable faster cross-border transactions, according to a draft joint statement prepared for a summit between Ottawa and Brussels later this month. This will help remove obstacles to business and investment between the two jurisdictions, according to the statement, an early version of a summit communiqué that was viewed...
A pilot stabbed another pilot and then apparently tried to crash to aircraft carrying dozens of Israelis on Wednesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. Passengers and crew staged a dramatic intervention to subdue the attacker and the plane eventually made an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia. The FlyDubai flight travelling from the United Arab Emirates to Israel landed safely after...
Prime Minister Mark Carney appealed to common values like democracy and reliability when he called for deeper trade and defence ties at the European Parliament earlier this month. But some experts say with the rise of far-right parties on the continent, key European allies may not always share those values — and Canada should keep that possibility in mind as...
One of U.S. President Donald Trump's trade advisers is threatening repercussions for Canada if it "interferes" in the upcoming midterm elections — though it's not clear what he anticipates the country would do to impact the vote. Peter Navarro, who has lashed out at Canada in the past, made these latest remarks during a talk at an economic conference in...
U.S.-Canada relations, already tense, are likely to deteriorate further after the United States went ahead early Tuesday with a decision to ban nearly $1 billion worth of Canadian imports, including alcoholic beverages, dairy products and motorcycles. The ban amounts to barely a ripple in $880 billion worth of a two-way annual trade between the two northern neighbors. But it marks...
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...
Canada has spent thirty years pretending that internal free trade can be achieved through polite first ministers’ meetings, press conferences, action plans, and the creation of agencies.
The visibility of Indigenous women in business can seem like a relatively new story, but it is not. Indigenous women have been leading in business and trade for centuries across North America. However, Indigenous women became disconnected from these responsibilities when the Crown imposed a sex-based hierarchy with the Gradual Enfranchisement Act of 1869. Under that act a First Nations...
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...
Zelenskyy of Ukraine says Putin of Russia has told his military leaders to ignore the "rules of war". If that's true what does it mean and what could happen as a result? Dr. Janice Stein of the Munk School at the University of Toronto is here with her latest Monday analysis of our changing world, with today's focus on the...
Canada has entered a revealing political month: elections in Quebec and B.C. and an Alberta referendum will help us understand the political sociology of the country and where we are headed. We will learn the answers to such out-of-the-ordinary questions as: how long can Captain Canada portrayals remain a potent political force; can we end up with a multi-slice pizza...
Quebec elections are always interesting, but Monday's vote carries with it all kinds of questions about what the future holds for the province and the country. Bruce and Chantal tackle that and also the latest moves by Donald Trump that show just how much trouble he may well be in with his presidency.
On Monday, Quebecers will head to the polls for a pivotal election that could see a sovereigntist party running the province. Catherine Cullen brings you up to speed on all the key players with The Writ’s Éric Grenier. Then, the House Party crew — Radio-Canada’s Daniel Thibeault and CBC’s Jason Markusoff — discuss how big a challenge Carney could face...
