Government considers changes to the Impact Assessment Act and the Fisheries Act, sources say. The government House leader confirmed on Thursday plans to change regulations and legislation in order to speed up the approvals of major resource projects. The confirmation comes following a report from CBC News, in which federal sources said the government plans to present proposals aimed at...
Prime Minister Mark Carney says his government will soon move forward with a plan to deal with 24 Sussex Dr., the long-standing residence of Canadian prime ministers that has essentially been shuttered for more than a decade because of its physical decline. The public-works department and the National Capital Commission, which manages official residences in the Ottawa region, are going...
Mark Carney will not allow senators to return to the Liberal caucus, a senior government official said Thursday, ending speculation on how the Prime Minister will handle the second chamber. His predecessor, Justin Trudeau, unilaterally expelled Liberal senators from the party’s caucus in 2014 in response to the Senate expense scandal. Once in government, Mr. Trudeau set up an arms-length...
Government ministers and opposition critics can add a new perk to their frontbench roles when the House of Commons moves back to Centre Block: desks. A mock-up of the proposed future House of Commons seating in Centre Block is on display in the Parliamentary precinct to allow Members of Parliament to comment on the design before it’s finalized.
New legislation will allow 14 exceptions, allowing greater flexibility to bypass cumbersome procurement system. The Liberal government is signalling its plans to give the newly created Defence Investment Agency (DIA) broad powers to ditch the routine process for the procurement of military equipment, and new authority that will extend into other areas of the economy. The details are contained in...
The research gauged the opinions among Canadians on military spending and defence cooperation. It explores whether Canada should change its defence budget in response to calls for higher NATO contributions.
A new Liaison Strategies survey of Quebec shows a close provincial race, with the Parti Québécois narrowly ahead of the Quebec Liberal Party among decided and leaning voters. If a provincial election were held today, the PQ would receive 32% of the decided and leaning vote, followed by the Liberals at 32%, the CAQ at 16%, the PCQ at 11%...
Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre had an opportunity to reinvigorate his party this week at one of Canada’s most important political networking conferences. Unfortunately for the part, he delivered an underwhelming speech that lacked vision, energy and real answers to the challenges facing Canada’s conservative movement.
There is still a chance, however remote, that Alberta Premier Danielle Smith comes to her senses and realizes the risks associated with a separatist referendum aren’t worth the rewards they offer to her political career. But I certainly wouldn’t bet on it, and I doubt Prime Minister Mark Carney will either. And while overt federal involvement in any separatist referendum...
'It’s a security concern for people like me who are in the public eye and who deal with angry constituents all the time,' says Alberta Senator Paula Simons of an Elections Alberta data leak that exposed the personal details of nearly three million people.
Canada’s unemployment rate rose 0.2 per cent in April as the country lost around 18,000 jobs and more people looked for work. Younger Canadians, though, saw unemployment rise by a larger margin than the overall rate, Statistics Canada shows as the rate for Canadians aged 15 to 24, rose by half a percentage point to 14.3 per cent.
Is Canada on track to meet its climate goals? The honest answer is “no,” and the really honest answer is that Canada’s climate goals will never be reached. They are folly and were designed by climate idealogues who had no concept of consequence, economic reality, or un...
The first international conference devoted to moving the world off of oil, gas and coal closed last week in Santa Marta, Colombia, where more than 50 nations agreed to hold a follow-up summit and strike a new global panel to draft a roadmap for phasing out fossil fuels. It was co-hosted by Colombia and the Netherlands, both middle powers, working...
The world is wracked by rising military and economic conflict. Yet we have few leaders competent to lead their nations through this maelstrom. Emmanuel Macron may be one but he is months away from retirement. New Japanese Prime Minster Sanae Takaichi may be another but has yet to be tested. Americans may soon be left in the hands of J.D...
Oh, goody. We now find out there WILL BE a meeting scheduled between Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and Prime Minister Mark Carney bright and early Friday morning in Ottawa. The news comes to your scribbler Wednesday afternoon.
Mark Carney was doing a fireside chat last fall in Toronto and the conversation rolled around to Canada’s advantages over the United States. “We have rule of law. That’s one of the big things,” Carney quipped, and his audience rewarded him with a huge laugh.
While experience has taught Canadians that Governors-General can only be assessed once they have a record in office, Mark Carney’s choice of former Supreme Court Justice Louise Arbour has prompted an overwhelmingly positive response. Carney only formally entered the political arena in January of last year but, overall, his political judgment has proved remarkably sound since he has become prime...
The scandal isn’t what’s illegal. The scandal is what’s legal. – Michael Kinsley What is so scandalous about a separatist group getting its hands on the Alberta voter list, including the names, addresses and phone numbers of nearly three million of the province’s citizens? Is it that the list appears to have been illegally obtained, and passed on to the...
The leaders of Alberta’s separatist movement spent years organizing their way into de-facto control over Alberta’s governing party, and with it the ability to direct the terms of their own referendum petition. They collected many tens of thousands of signatures, raised untold (and unknown) amounts of money and were preparing for a public vote this fall. And now, thanks to...
A network of inauthentic YouTube accounts that were portraying themselves as homegrown Albertans have spent months pushing for Alberta secession and American annexation, an incident report from the Canadian Digital Media Research Network and the Media Ecosystem Observatory found. The network has racked up nearly 40 million views by "exploiting genuinely-held grievances and repurposing them to advance narratives that normalize...
Carney says he's meeting Danielle Smith in Ottawa this week but doesn't tell Smith
Last summer, B.C.’s seniors advocate issued a report on the state of long-term care in the province. For many, it was a terrifying read. Dan Levitt found that the number of seniors languishing on wait lists for publicly subsidized long-term care had more than tripled in nine years – from 2,381 in 2016 to 7,212 in 2025. Yes, a 200-per-cent...
It must have been tempting for Prime Minister Mark Carney to appoint an absolute blockhead as the new parliamentary budget officer. Instead, in Annette Ryan, he has installed a 30-year public service veteran with Finance Department experience who has probably seen it all when it comes to juggling the numbers and concealing errors.
When the rare and relatively unfettered opportunity arises, it might be tempting for a prime minister to use the selection of a governor general to do something splashy or exciting or unconventional, like choosing a hockey player or an astronaut. And there is nothing inherently wrong with excitement or novelty. But this is perhaps not a moment for indulging in...
If it’s Tuesday, this must be Belgium . If you’re old enough to remember this 1969 film, where a busload of hapless tourists barrel across Europe on an 18-day tour of nine cities, you probably voted Liberal in the past election, like most of Canada’s baby boomers. And you’re probably happy with the way things are going so far. But...
In this province, there’s a significant group of extremists who don’t believe laws apply to them. The extent of this destructive, dangerous nihilism is revealed with the appalling misuse of data by a separatist-linked group that exposes detailed personal information of 2.9 million Albertans. The separatists continue to ridicule the authorities while Elections Alberta investigates the massive data flip from...
The Alberta separatism movement is caught up in yet another controversy and its credibility has been blown to bits. Last week it was revealed that an affiliated group had somehow got its hands on the complete list of registered voters — all 2.9 million of them with their names, addresses, phone numbers and electoral districts — and put them up...
Like hungry wolves, opposition MPs look to isolate and target the weakest, the most awkward or the most bumbling in the ministerial herd. The Conservatives are currently launching coordinated attacks on Lena Diab, the immigration minister. In an unsentimental social media post, the party’s immigration critic, Michelle Rempel Garner, called for the minister to be fired , after her department...
If anyone in Canada was sleepwalking toward the prospect of an Alberta independence referendum, events over the last few days should be enough to jolt anyone awake. A massive data breach of Alberta voter information, published by a pro-independence outfit called The Centurion Project, has sparked an RCMP investigation and some hurried efforts by the Alberta government to check whether...
Elections Alberta could have known more than a month ago that there was a violation of the province’s voter file, exposing the personal data of 2.9 million electors in the province to unknown numbers of bad actors. They could have known because I warned them – or, rather, I tried to. I reported an anonymous tip. I got a call...
The absence of a visible leader of the Democrats will help, not hurt Democratic Party chances in the midterms.
The Liberals' $25-billion 'sovereign wealth fund' proves Mark Carney thinks governments should allocate Canada's capital
So far, there's been a lot more talk than action, and, for a guy who campaigned on rebuilding this country so it could confront existential threats to our sovereignty, more speed would be better. I suspect even the prime minister would agree.
Breaking my rule of never quoting myself, but those lines are from a column of mine from February 2017, one month after Donald Trump’s first inauguration. Since then, American democracy has experienced the respite of four years of Joe Biden, which not so much reinstated normal working conditions in journalism and comedy as slowed the slide of both towards the...
An Ontario Liberal nomination race that has seen some candidates trade jabs and question others' community bona fides is set to culminate Saturday with members selecting their pick for an upcoming byelection. The riding of Scarborough Southwest is vacant provincially, after the former representative successfully made the jump to federal politics. A byelection has not yet been called, but the...
Louise Arbour recommended in 2022 stripping military of power to prosecute sexual offences. On the same day the prime minister named Louise Arbour as Canada's next governor general, the Liberals voted to restore proposed legislation to move ahead with Arbour's key recommendation for the country’s military. The bill before parliament would put into law Arbour's 2022 recommendation to strip the...
Not even the head of the German military’s Cyber and Information Domain Service (CIR) is immune to getting those irritating phishing emails that tell you the anti-virus protection you never signed up for is about to expire. You would think hackers would be a little more sophisticated — given the potential target. Vice-Admiral Thomas Daum said he deleted three of...
Defence Minister David McGuinty said he will unveil the Liberal government's plans for the military's Snowbirds aerobatics fleet later this month, and Canadians can "rest assured" its future is secure. That follows accusations from the Opposition Conservatives that the Liberals are concealing plans to halt Snowbird aerial performances starting next year. "On May 19, I will be in Moose Jaw...
Conservative leader says he won't listen to 'the club of liberal elites' in Ottawa who say he needs to change. Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre made the case for his continuing leadership to party faithful Thursday, saying he will keep fighting the Liberals even after party turbulence on his watch helped deliver Prime Minister Mark Carney a majority government. Speaking at...
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith's office says she has been granted security clearance to receive briefings from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service. Smith's office is providing few details but says the clearance allows her to be briefed on national security issues.
Former Alberta premier Jason Kenney says reports that Alberta separatists are targeting and spreading his personal information has prompted him to alter his security but won't stop him from speaking out. "I'm not someone to live in fear," Kenney said Thursday in a phone interview from Ottawa. "In fact, it only encourages me to double down on however I can...
Nova Scotia's premier is crediting a change in federal leadership for renewed traction in the province's pursuit of offshore oil and gas development. Tim Houston said Thursday morning that former prime minister Justin Trudeau essentially forced the province to shelve an offshore oil and gas exploration project a few years ago, but current Prime Minister Mark Carney is supporting the...
Alberta's elections agency said Thursday it believes 568 people accessed a voter list at the heart of a massive privacy breach involving a separatist group. The group, called the Centurion Project, had made a publicly accessible database featuring the names and addresses of nearly three million Alberta voters. The website was shut down last week after Elections Alberta secured a...
The federal government’s plans to fast-track permanent residence applications for temporary workers in limbo failed to meet the expectations created by what one opposition MP and immigration experts called “misleading” messaging from the minister. On May 4, Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) announced that it would fast-track permanent residence applications for up to 33,000 temporary workers already living in...
The summer of 2026 could be Canadians’ last chance to see the Royal Canadian Air Force’s iconic Snowbirds aerobatic team for years, a Conservative MP says. Conservatives warn the federal government is preparing to pause or cancel the Snowbirds program in 2027, despite spending tens of millions of dollars in recent years to keep the aging aircraft flying into the...
Pierre Poilievre urged conservatives to keep fighting for the country in a speech at a conference in Ottawa this afternoon. The Tory leader spoke at the Canada Strong and Free Network, an event that's billed as the country's largest gathering of the conservative movement. Poilievre told the crowd of about 500 people that the Conservatives have won the debate on...
OTTAWA -- The federal privacy watchdog says there have been more than 42,000 breaches at the Canada Revenue Agency since 2020 as a result of people gaining unauthorized access to, or modifying, taxpayer information.
Louise Arbour will be sworn in as Canada's next governor general on June 8. Prime Minister Mark Carney announced on Tuesday the retired Supreme Court justice will replace Mary Simon, who became Canada's first Indigenous viceregal in 2021. Arbour, an accomplished former jurist, is fluently bilingual, and has also previously served as UN human rights commissioner and chief prosecutor at The Hague.
The government estimates that implementing a co-pay from asylum seekers and refugee claimants for some health care services will cut public costs by about $140 million. To address a soaring price tag for the Interim Federal Health Program, the government introduced the new co-pay on May 1 for supplementary and prescription health coverage.
The Ontario government is moving ahead on a cost-sharing agreement worth up to $300 million to advance the construction of a new nuclear generating station at the Bruce Power site in Kincardine, Ont., CP24 has learned. The deal between the Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO) – the Crown corporation responsible for operating Ontario’s electricity market – and Bruce Power would...
Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government is shuttering a trouble-plagued Arctic naval facility, two government sources say – a project from the Stephen Harper era that was originally conceived as a major demonstration of Canadian sovereignty in the North. The Nanisivik Naval Facility on northern Baffin Island was first promised in 2007 by the Harper government, but cost-cutting later resulted in...
Changes coming as Alberta MOU negotiations drag on. The Carney government is planning to propose changes to make it easier for natural resource projects — including pipelines — to be approved and built faster. Two federal sources say an announcement is planned for later this week that could shift the regulatory framework for all natural resource and federally regulated major...
A major Mexican trade mission to Canada launched Thursday, involving over 200 Mexican businesses, looking to expand commercial links during the two-day, two-city encounter that will include high-level talks on the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA). The mission begins in Toronto on Thursday before moving to Montreal. It is the largest that Mexico has ever sent to Canada, though it's a truncated...
Former Alberta premier Jason Kenney said those in favour of keeping Alberta in Canada need to “get their act together” and be more vocal in the face of a separatist movement campaigning to leave the country. With separatists in Alberta pushing to hold a referendum on independence in October, Mr. Kenney said the pro-Canada side within the province hasn’t gotten...
The RCMP has informed the Alberta government that there is no evidence the province’s separatist movement has been subject to foreign interference, according to the minister who oversees policing. Mike Ellis, Alberta’s Minister for Public Safety and Emergency Services, on Wednesday attributed this information to the RCMP’s deputy commissioner, noting the update landed before the government learned about an alleged...
Military grappling with how to stop airborne threats without disrupting civilian life or breaking the law. The Canadian military has quietly started deploying counter-drone systems around its major ports and air bases as it grapples with both the technology and the legalities of shooting down uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs), CBC News has learned. The idea is to prevent the kind...
More than two-thirds of Canadians support banning access to social media and AI chatbots for children under 16, a new poll indicates. Seventy per cent of respondents to the Leger poll said they support age restrictions for social media like Instagram and TikTok, and nearly the same number, 69 per cent, support restricting AI chatbots like ChatGPT. "Concern from Canadians...
Ottawa is not yet considering bringing forward legislation to reinstate news content on Facebook and Instagram, as Canadian Identity Minister Marc Miller said he still wants to push Meta Platforms Inc. in ongoing negotiations.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is criticizing the Opposition for not telling her about a massive privacy breach at a meeting attended by one of her caucus staffers. Smith says the United Conservative Party caucus staffer didn't realize a database shown at the virtual meeting three weeks ago involved a privacy breach with the personal information of three million Alberta voters.
Prime Minister Mark Carney said Wednesday he will "take into account" the advice of an independent advisory body to fill a number of vacancies in the Senate — though he didn't say explicitly how that will impact his decisions on appointments. Former prime minister Justin Trudeau upended 150 years of Canadian parliamentary tradition when he dumped Liberal senators, named Independents...
Moscow's influence scheme is covert, while Trump-aligned meddling is overt and public. A year ago, weeks after the Carney Liberals won the last federal election, the website albertaseparatist.com sprang up, accompanied by similarly named TikTok and YouTube accounts. Article headlines included “The case for sovereignty over statehood” and “Ottawa’s piggy bank wakes up” — but these sites don’t appear to...
Malaysia's high commissioner in Canada says she is skeptical about Prime Minister Mark Carney's push to have middle powers band together against the great power of the world's dominant nations. Shazelina Abidin told the Canadian Global Affairs Institute's annual trade conference in Ottawa on Tuesday that Carney's speech at the World Economic Forum was profound, not because of its content...
German submarine maker TKMS says it has reached an agreement with General Dynamics Mission Systems-Canada on setting up an undersea research centre in Canada. It's part of TKMS's bid on the federal government's lucrative contract to supply the Royal Canadian Navy with a fleet of new submarines.
Airbus Canada has signed a deal to supply AirAsia with a massive order of 150 of its Canadian-made A220 jets in a multibillion-dollar coup for Quebec’s aviation industry. The agreement with the low-cost Malaysian airline marks the largest single firm order for the narrow-body planes — assembled north of Montreal in Mirabel — in the manufacturer's history. It also underscores...
The U.S. military said Thursday that it intercepted Iranian attacks on three Navy ships in the Strait of Hormuz and "targeted Iranian military facilities responsible for attacking U.S. forces."
PORTLAND, Maine (AP) -- Republican U.S. Sen. Susan Collins says she has a benign essential tremor, disclosing the longtime health condition for the first time in her decades-long political career as she seeks reelection in one of this year's toughest Senate races.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio discussed "efforts to achieve a durable peace in the Middle East" in talks at the Vatican on Thursday aimed at easing tensions following U.S. President Donald Trump's criticisms of Pope Leo XIV.
DETROIT (AP) -- For years, Michigan Republicans had circled 2026 as their chance to regain power in the swing state where Democrats hold all statewide offices and both U.S. Senate seats. Now, doubts are creeping in.
Malaysia's high commissioner in Canada says she is skeptical about Prime Minister Mark Carney's push to have middle powers band together against the great power of the world's dominant nations. Shazelina Abidin told the Canadian Global Affairs Institute's annual trade conference in Ottawa on Tuesday that Carney's speech at the World Economic Forum was profound, not because of its content...
The head of the International Energy Agency (IEA) said the world “has not yet completely understood” the major economic and political implications of the war in Iran, as Fatih Birol repeated earlier comments that the war and ongoing closure of the Straight of Hormuz represents the “largest energy crisis in history.” Speaking in Ottawa at a fireside chat with Tim...
Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon says the potential pipeline expansion project U.S. President Donald Trump approved last week is a positive sign of “cross-border communication” and co-operation, after more than a year of tension stemming from the trade war. Last week, Trump signed an order authorizing the Bridger Pipeline Expansion, a proposed project that would revive portions of the cancelled Keystone...
Prime Minister Mark Carney says his government will contribute $270 million to help Ukraine secure critical military capabilities in its defence against Russia’s full-scale invasion. Carney made the announcement in Armenia on Monday, where he is meeting with world leaders during the European Political Community summit, a gathering focused on strategic co-operation in politics, security and infrastructure. The money will...
Prime Minister Mark Carney is headed to Armenia on Saturday for a visit his office says is framed around Ukraine's defence and drumming up more trade and investment in Europe. Jean-Francois Ratelle, an international studies professor at the University of Ottawa who specializes in the Caucasus region, said it's disappointing that the visit doesn't seem to be aimed at continuing...
Canada’s declining productivity and weak competitiveness are increasingly tied to structural barriers that limit competition in domestic markets. One of the most consequential – and overlooked – of these barriers lies in public procurement. Accounting for 13.4 per cent of GDP, or roughly $350 billion annually – government purchasing should exert strong downward pressure on costs and expand opportunities for...
A collection of SubStack publishing within Canadian public affairs.
If you want to sound wise these days, just blame the crazy state of the world on polarization. If you want to sound really wise, say that fighting polarization needs to be part of the political agenda and be sure to blame social media and Donald Trump (although not necessarily in that order) for the current chaos. Despite it being...
An F-35 crash in Alaska should give shivers to Canada’s military. The pilot survived thankfully, but the $200 million plane was completely destroyed.
By now, most of you reading this column are aware of Prime Minister Mark Carney’s announcement earlier this week that the government is launching a sovereign wealth fund (entitled the Canada Strong Fund). There is, in theory, nothing wrong with such an idea. Indeed, the logic behind such a fund is quite sound.
At Issue this week: Will Carney’s move to speed up natural resource project approvals — including pipelines — soothe separatist sentiment in Alberta? Plus, reports Honda might abandon its EV battery plant plans and the growing push for a youth social media ban in Canada.
On the week where Alberta separatists should have been celebrating a major milestone on their quest to split the country apart, they are instead facing a police investigation and the anger of people across the political spectrum. Separatist group the Centurion Project released the names, addresses and phone numbers of all eligible voters in the province during a political recruitment...
As Canada gears up for soccer's most exciting time, we can't help but notice the dark cloud that looms over the World Cup. The current geopolitical reality on the global scale - whether it's the Iran-US/Israel war, the violent fallout after the death of Mexican drug lord El Mencho, immigration crackdowns throughout the US - has stirred real safety concerns...
U.S. Ambassador Pete Hoekstra pulls back the curtain on why Canada-U.S. trade talks fell apart in October: Danielle Smith keynotes the Canada Strong and Free conference in Ottawa, and the separatism question walks in with her: The childcare agreements that helped define the Trudeau era are coming up for renewal. Carney keeps citing them. Now he has to fund them...
