The 2026 Nobel Peace Prize will be awarded early next month and Prime Minister Mark Carney’s name has entered the conversation about this year’s recipient, according to people placing wagers on Kalshi, the popular U.S. prediction market website. As of Monday afternoon, the 61-year-old became one of the favourites to be named the winner on Oct. 9 with around a...
With just hours to go before import bans on certain Canadian goods were set to take effect, U.S. President Donald Trump said Monday he thinks he can make a trade deal with Canada in the coming weeks. Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Trump said he thinks the Canadian side will contact him in the next three or four...
The latest Liaison Strategies Weekly Federal Tracker shows the Liberals leading the Conservatives by 17 points among decided and leaning voters, as Conservative support falls back below 30%. The Liberals are at 46%, up one point from last week, while the Conservatives are at 29%, down two. The NDP holds at 15%, followed by the Bloc Québécois at 6%, the...
The coming high-stakes byelection in Brantford-Brant South-Six Nations, Ont., was already expected to be a tough race for the Conservatives because of Prime Minister Mark Carney’s national popularity, but Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre’s move to appoint a candidate rather than nominating one through a contested election has made it even more “challenging,” says former Conservative MP Phil McColeman. “There’s this...
Canada's former top military commander considered resigning "several times" during his tenure in battles with the former Trudeau government over the sexual misconduct scandal, and the lack of commitment towards defence spending. Retired general Wayne Eyre's new memoir, Into the Breach: A Soldier's Journey, also peels back the curtain on the internal debate that took place over how to end...
The latest Liaison Strategies Weekly Federal Tracker shows the Liberals leading the Conservatives by 17 points among decided and leaning voters, as Conservative support falls back below 30%. The Liberals are at 46%, up one point from last week, while the Conservatives are at 29%, down two. The NDP holds at 15%, followed by the Bloc Québécois at 6%, the...
Canadian consumer confidence was little changed in late September. The Bloomberg Nanos Canadian Confidence Index stands at 50.88, compared with 51.72 four weeks earlier. Views of personal finances and job security improved modestly, with the Pocketbook Index rising to 54.67 from 53.75. At the same time, expectations for the economy and real estate market softened, with the Expectations Index remaining in neutral.
The former leader of the United Kingdom during the Brexit referendum says you can't compare that debate to Alberta's prospective split from Canada. David Cameron largely avoided talking directly about Alberta's separation debate when speaking at an energy leadership conference in downtown Calgary on Monday morning.
Ten New York Times reporters and editors interviewed Prime Minister Mark Carney of Canada for an hour last Wednesday at The Times’s office in Midtown Manhattan. It was the first interview Mr. Carney had given to The Times since becoming prime minister last spring. The journalists who participated were: Joseph Kahn, the executive editor; Kathleen Kingsbury, the opinion editor; Philip...
The return of Parliament and, especially, of Question Period last week underscores an urgent national problem: this country desperately needs a good opposition. Even one. Instead, we get sustained bile, messages hollered from the balcony, smear tactics, and scripted questions delivered with all the genuine passion of a hostage video. This is not just a token nod to the vital...
PARTI QUÉBÉCOIS LEADER Paul St-Pierre Plamondon has a dim view of the province he wishes to make a country. Quebec, he says, is at once threatened by creeping Islamism and a radical leftist cabal bent on prosecuting the nation-to-be for an array of purported crimes, racism chief among them. Aping internet trolls and MAGA Republicans, he has taken to labelling...
It’s easy to miss the holes in Canada’s social support systems until you really need that safety net. While many Canadians take pride in programs such as public health insurance or Employment Insurance (EI) benefits, the current reality often falls far short of their legacy reputations. EI benefits have been outdated for a long time. But now, as the U.S...
“Even when Trump moves on, another Trump will eventually come along. That is why it is better to truly break free and become independent, even if it means suffering for a while.” It’s a sentiment that has become ubiquitous among Canadians over the past year. It has bubbled up in coffeeshop chatter, in flags springing up on front lawns and...
Parliament is back with a substantive legislative agenda that reminds us: Democracy is nothing without accountability. For shame, then, that His Majesty’s Loyal Opposition is distracted by internal schisms and online echo chambers. This fall, Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives must gain a foothold. The party’s own MPs know it. Conservative deputy leader Melissa Lantsman told reporters, “This is not the position...
When Kerry-Lynne Findlay abruptly resigned as leader of the Conservative Party of British Columbia last Sunday, B.C. Premier David Eby’s New Democrats were almost certainly popping champagne corks. After less than four months of Findlay’s tenure — marked by bizarre backroom machinations, hard-right staff hirings and a catastrophic exodus of 14 MLAs — the official opposition looked broken. With a...
There’s a certain water-is-wet quality to noting the furious pace of Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government. The busyness feels less like a byproduct than a self-conscious mission statement, even a dare: this is how we roll, so keep up or get left behind. Even by those standards, the past two weeks have been frenetic. There was the investment summit in...
After a year of threatening to seize Greenland by force, Donald Trump has inked a deal to extend indefinite American influence over the autonomous Danish territory. It’s “a dream come true for the United States of America,” the president posted on social media this week. A day earlier, Prime Minister Mark Carney made his own announcement: Canada would be joining...
We’ve known for months that Canada’s Armed Forces have done some thinking about the admittedly remote possibility that Donald Trump’s United States might launch some kind of military action against this country. Anonymous government officials told the Globe and Mail back in January that the military had modelled a “hypothetical” U.S. invasion, apparently for the first time in a century...
Prime Minister Mark Carney says he has a “very clear mandate” from the April 2025 election. Reinforced by floor crossings and byelection victories, Carney’s majority gives his government the right to pass the Building Canada Strong Act, a sweeping 246-page bill dealing with major projects, environmental assessments and federal labour law. It’s true that we need new ports, rail corridors...
Thanks to the New York Times, Canada now knows that Mark Carney was preparing for the risk of military action arising out of Donald Trump’s 51st-state threats. That’s a major acknowledgment for the prime minister to make — perhaps one that he might have shared first with Canadians?
The province of British Columbia is having an election, barely two years after the last. There is, it is commonly acknowledged, no pressing matter in the public interest that obliged Premier David Eby to call it. He has called the election now, two years before its scheduled date under the province’s fixed-election-date law, for one reason only: to take advantage...
“Our people hate trade deals. Like, they f—king hate them. Do you understand?” The morning meetings between the prime minister’s top advisers were sometimes punchy affairs. But it was also where the government was connected to the political party guiding said government. The verbatim(ish) quote above was the kind of thing said by the person tasked with reporting what the...
It’s hard to imagine a country as large and as resource-rich and as intelligently populated as Canada having made such a small footprint on the world stage for so long. But until now, until these transformational times for our country, that’s been generally the case all the way since 1867. Dwarfed by the powers of Great Britain, which controlled Canada’s...
I would like to play poker for money against the people who still believe what Donald Trump and Pierre Poilievre say, because I doubt they can tell a spade from a diamond, a deuce from a Queen. As support for both Trump and Poilievre has diminished — they both have approval ratings of 32 per cent — I am starting...
The Conservative Party of Canada lost the last federal election because they couldn’t put enough distance between themselves and US President Donald Trump, and they seem very determined to lose the next one for the very same reason. Time and time again, they’ve been given opportunities to show their solidarity with Canada and their disdain for Trump and his movement...
Every September, the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) high-level week converges on New York City. The week was once largely confined to the General Assembly. While the general debate remains its centrepiece, high-level week now also involves tens of thousands of delegates, observers, lobbyists, advocates, critics, enthusiasts, and hangers-on meeting in countless venues. There is “pre-HLW”, “post-HLW”, main meetings, side...
Are there lessons for Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre in this past weekend’s implosion of the short-lived leadership of the British Columbia Conservative Party’s Kerry-Lynne Findlay? Findlay, a former caucus colleague of the federal leader, lasted four months in her role before her Sept. 20 self-sendoff. From the outside, her approach seemed to be one fuelled by constant conflict, rage farming...
Mark Carney was in the room when two starkly different visions of the world order were laid before the United Nations General Assembly. One came from the secretary-general of the UN, António Guterres. The other came from Donald Trump.
B.C. Premier David Eby’s snap election call Tuesday may go down as a cynical but savvy decision that kept his government in power for another four years. Or it will be judged as a too-cute-by-half move that disastrously misjudged the mood of the electorate, leading to one of the most epic political blunders in the province’s history. Almost at the...
The statement that NDP Leader Avi Lewis posted on X on the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur deserves to be reproduced in its entirety, in order to fully appreciate its malignancy and reckless stupidity. “Tonight Yom Kippur begins, the most sombre moment of the Jewish calendar,” Mr. Lewis wrote. “It’s a time of atonement – a time to grieve those...
Prime Minister Mark Carney has spent the last year and a half asking Canadians to embrace his “Canada Strong” agenda. We’ve all heard the slogans: Build more. Invest more. Approve projects faster. But while much of his plans depend on state action, they also require attracting private capital — and in some cases, trading on the value of public assets...
Stelco Holdings Inc. says it plans to idle part of its Hamilton plant in order to "ensure the survival" of the company, as U.S. tariffs squeeze its sales. Stelco says the decision will impact up to 500 employees. In a memo obtained by CBC News on Monday, the company says it will indefinitely idle its cold-rolled and coated operations at...
The FBI and RCMP are offering a US$1 million reward for information leading to the arrest of Satinderjeet Singh, also known as Goldy Brar, who was charged back in July for the 2023 assassination of Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Surrey, B.C. “Singh should be considered armed and dangerous,” Patrick Grandy, who is the assistant director in charge with...
Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand is promising more funding to support Ukrainians who make it home after being abducted by Russia. Anand announced the funding today in Toronto at a conference where Ukrainian youth and a former prisoner of war have shared harrowing stories of Russian captivity. Anand says Canada is providing $863,000 in new funding to support civil society...
Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand is co-hosting a global conference in Toronto on the plight of Ukrainian children abducted by Russian officials. In 2024, the Trudeau government co-launched with Ukraine an international coalition of nations committed to finding and returning Ukrainian children abducted by Russia since it began its full-scale invasion in 2022. Ukrainian authorities cite what they say
Ottawa’s request for the CRTC to review mandatory Cancon payments for online streamers represents “political interference” and risks the regulator’s independence, according to a challenge received by the commission. Last week, John P. Roman submitted a Part 1 application, a copy of which has been obtained by The Wire Report, questioning the legality of the Liberal government’s handling of CRTC...
U.S. President Donald Trump has asked Chinese President Xi Jinping if he wanted to buy weapons from the United States, the U.S. ambassador to China said. David Perdue said Trump raised the prospect of the arms sales from the U.S. to its ascendant geopolitical rival, an unlikely offer that if consummated would upend generations of U.S. policy toward China and...
The United States and China released Monday reciprocal lists of products worth about US$30 billion each that will see tariff cuts, from American hair products to Chinese toys, in a deal expected to boost bilateral trade. The details came days after Chinese President Xi Jinping met with U.S. President Donald Trump in Washington in his first state visit to the...
Parliamentarians need to independently investigate whether Russia used sonic weaponry against Canadian diplomats in Cuba, where they were allegedly helping U.S. intelligence agencies, and how the diplomats were subsequently treated by Ottawa, former Canadian spies and high-level security officials say. The Globe and Mail reported Saturday that, according to a source, a Canadian diplomat was sharing intelligence with American spies...
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and Ontario Premier Doug Ford are set to share the stage in Calgary today to talk energy. The leaders will be in the city's downtown to talk about how to best get Canada's natural resources to market in a world of fluctuating politics and conflicts.
British Columbia NDP Leader David Eby says his government would bring down the multibillion-dollar deficit year-over-year if elected by growing the economy and cutting what he called wasteful spending. He made the pledge while campaigning in Prince Rupert, B.C., where he announced that government would double the export of critical minerals and expand the local port to make it the...
The Quebec election campaign is entering its final stretch. Leaders have a week left to pitch to voters ahead of election day on Oct. 5. Voters can vote early today from 9:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. on the second and final day of advance polling. Those who attended advance polls on Sunday told issues such as health care, the economy...
A British Columbia municipal leader says the snap provincial election at the end of October is a "party foul" that is already soaking up staff and attention from city and town elections already scheduled for Oct. 17. Cori Ramsay, a former Union of British Columbia Municipalities president who is running for council in Prince George, says the chief election officer...
The British Columbia Conservative Party is promising -- if they are elected to form government on Oct. 24 -- that it "will never raise taxes" on residents, interim Leader Lorne Doerkson said. Doerkson made the announcement Sunday during a campaign stop in Surrey, B.C. It was the first official promise from the party after New Democrat Leader David Eby called...
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is pitching a plan to cut federal taxes on diesel fuel and help ensure Canada has affordable supplies of the fuel in the future. Poilievre says Canada already produces enough diesel to meet national demand, but transportation bottlenecks leave some regions dependent on U.S. imports. He proposes eliminating all tax on diesel sales until at least...
As Canada plans an ambitious expansion of defence and economic activity in the Arctic, regional experts are asking whether it has enough diplomats to build the ties it wants in the North. "The Arctic is a geopolitical hot spot," said Natan Obed, president of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami. "The (Global Affairs) department does not have huge bench strength when it comes...
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith's counterparts across the country are keeping their cards close to their chest on where they stand on the major constitutional reforms Smith is sending to a provincewide vote next month. Smith's four proposals, three of which would likely require the support of seven legislatures representing over half of Canada's population (known as the 7/50 rule) and...
A former New Brunswick premier says a newly proposed single economy for Atlantic Canada is needed to save a region he described as a "burning platform." Frank McKenna, who served as Liberal premier from 1987 to 1997, made the comment as a panel of business leaders said the four Atlantic provinces should work together on economic transformation. The Atlantic Economic...
German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul says his country wants more liquified natural gas (LNG). In an interview with CTV Question Period airing Sunday, he told host Vassy Kapelos that “of course” there’s a market for more Canadian LNG in Europe. “We do have to diversify, not only because this Russian war against Ukraine, but also with regard to the situation...
Environmental groups are sounding the alarm on the federal government’s Building Canada Strong Act as an “astonishing undermining of environmental law,” saying it gives cabinet the authority to approve virtually any project—across the country—regardless of its environmental impacts. “The package of changes to environmental law over the last year-and-a-half … since this government first tabled the Building Canada Act has...
Bill C-39 proposes to amend controversial portion of the Canada Labour Code. Though organized labour is pushing back against the Carney government's latest major projects bill — which aims to amend a controversial portion of the Labour Code — Jobs Minister Patty Hajdu says unions will have new leverage, not less, under the proposal. "It's meant to provide, first of...
British Columbia Conservative Leader Lorne Doerkson admits to some frustration in the starting days of the provincial election but now says his party is "ready to rock." Doerkson, who had the job just hours before the NDP called an election, concedes he's been "a little bit busy" but said he couldn't pass up an invitation to the B.C. Lions match...
Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand has put "strategic autonomy" at the forefront of Canada's address to the United Nations General Assembly today. Anand's speech echoes Prime Minister Mark Carney's quest for middle powers to work together by forging deeper ties. She says Canada supports the International Criminal Court, amid Washington's quest to dismantle the institution and while critics argue Canada...
B.C. Conservative Party Leader Lorne Doerkson estimates he's said 100 times in the last few days that he's open to advice on how to change the provincial government, and he got some of that in a meeting with Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe and former B.C. premier Christy Clark. Doerkson, who had the job just hours before the NDP called an...
The Prime Minister drops a news nugget in an interview in New York -- and, not surprisingly, it makes headlines. How surprised should we be that he's asked for a risk assessment on US troops crossing into Canada? Especially in these times? Chantal and Bruce are here for that, plus a lot more, in this week's Good Talk.
The woman who came within a whisker of the B.C. Conservative Party leadership will be running for the party in the Oct. 24 provincial election in the riding in West Vancouver-Capilano. Caroline Elliott lost to Kerry-Lynne Findlay in May in the final run-off to the leadership race, with official results showing her just two per cent behind the winner. Findlay...
A Canadian diplomat was sharing intelligence with American spies in Havana and Canadians were using satellite equipment brought into Cuba by the United States when officials from both countries began experiencing debilitating symptoms caused by alleged sonic attacks linked to Russia, The Globe and Mail has learned. Two sources tell The Globe that Canada and the United States were working...
Interim B.C. Conservative leader Lorne Doerkson was spotted alongside former Liberal premier Christy Clark at a B.C. Lions football game on Friday night. Doerkson has had no public events or news conferences since a provincial election was called on Tuesday. He has been interim Conservative leader since Sunday, after the resignation of Kerry-Lynne Findlay.
Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand is set to address the United Nations General Assembly today. Anand has said her speech will touch on support for Ukraine, the Middle East and Arctic sovereignty. She said it will also touch on the middle-power strategy Prime Minister Mark Carney outlined at the start of this year. On Friday, Anand said Canada does not...
As European leaders warn that Russia may increase its so-called hybrid attacks against NATO member countries, German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul insists that no members of the defensive alliance want to escalate tensions. The comments come as debate grows among European countries about how best to label and respond to increasing Russian-backed operations on the continent. In an interview airing...
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Donald Trump is announcing a new $15 billion steel plant in Iowa being built with backing from an Indian conglomerate, creating what the White House says will become the largest steel plant in U.S. history.
The Trump administration on Monday released new fuel economy standards that relax regulatory requirements for automakers to control pollution from gasoline-powered cars and light trucks.
The Supreme Court on Friday turned away an attempt to use a new Missouri congressional map backed by President Donald Trump, potentially putting an end to a long-running legal dispute as absentee voting is underway in the midterm elections.
The Trump administration on Friday appeared to ramp up its use of U.S. government-funded political advertisements promoting President Donald Trump, airing its second TV ad in three days while expanding its spending on the first to at least $443,000.
Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand is co-hosting a global conference in Toronto on the plight of Ukrainian children abducted by Russian officials. In 2024, the Trudeau government co-launched with Ukraine an international coalition of nations committed to finding and returning Ukrainian children abducted by Russia since it began its full-scale invasion in 2022. Ukrainian authorities cite what they say
U.S. President Donald Trump has asked Chinese President Xi Jinping if he wanted to buy weapons from the United States, the U.S. ambassador to China said. David Perdue said Trump raised the prospect of the arms sales from the U.S. to its ascendant geopolitical rival, an unlikely offer that if consummated would upend generations of U.S. policy toward China and...
Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand has put "strategic autonomy" at the forefront of Canada's address to the United Nations General Assembly today. Anand's speech echoes Prime Minister Mark Carney's quest for middle powers to work together by forging deeper ties. She says Canada supports the International Criminal Court, amid Washington's quest to dismantle the institution and while critics argue Canada...
- Vietnamese President To Lam and Prime Minister Mark Carney have upgraded the ties between their two nations to a strategic partnership. In an address on Parliament Hill today, Lam said it's time to go beyond a 2017 pact that covered investment, defence and academia, and to forge deeper ties with longer-term goals. Lam told MPs, senators and diplomats that...
Canada’s former ambassador to the United States is urging Canadian business leaders to prepare for a lasting shift in the country’s economic relationship with its largest trading partner, rather than assuming things will eventually return to the way they were. “I think we need to find a new path,” said Kirsten Hillman in Banff, Alta., on Thursday. Her remarks came...
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...
As prospective Canadian homebuyers and renters struggle to gain a foothold in one of the least-affordable housing markets in the developed world, housing affordability has become one of the top concerns across the country. Canada’s housing crisis is largely a function of burdensome municipal rules that constrain supply and inflate prices. Meanwhile, misaligned incentives constrain local officials’ willingness to make...
When Xi Jinping’s plane touches down at Joint Base Andrews this week, Donald Trump intends to be there to meet it. Protocol dictates that American presidents do not usually greet foreign leaders at the airport; they receive them at the White House. The last exception occurred when President Barack Obama met Pope Francis at Andrews in 2015. The unusual gesture...
A collection of SubStack publishing within Canadian public affairs.
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...
The RCMP commissioner has warned the Carney government that proposed reductions in security measures for the modernization of the official residence at 24 Sussex Drive will “result in an increased overall security risk,” says an internal document. The RCMP has been meeting with senior government officials since 2025 to discuss trimming the estimated bill for hardening the property against attacks...
At Carney’s invitation, the world’s biggest institutional investors are arriving in Toronto to look over opportunities to invest in Canada — opportunities that may not yet be ripe for their taste. About 300 chief executives and senior managers gather Monday evening and Tuesday at the Four Seasons in Toronto. Between them they manage $120 trillion in assets, fifty times the...
Another week that had observers scratching their heads over Donald Trump. The US President gives the Chinese President a red-carpet welcome, then offers Vladimir Putin a seat at an upcoming G20 meeting. Drt Janice Stein tries to make sense of those moves, plus what to believe concerning stories about what Benjamin Netanyahu knew about October 7th before it happened.
Opposition to Bill C‑39 has been portrayed as a battle between new investment and environmental protection and between collective bargaining rights and warding off strikes in essential economic services. But its most consequential changes may be the ones attracting the least attention.
Minister MacKinnon lays out why Ottawa the agenda is necessary as he pushes back on privatization claims and comparisons to Ontario premier Mike Harris’ sale of the 407. He explains how Bill C-39, the Building Canada Strong Act, changes federal labour disputes, and David presses him on whether it amounts to the end of the right to strike. They also...
If you’ve got a majority government with two years left and an unpopular record to defend, calling a snap election might not seem like a great idea. But it did to B.C. Premier David Eby. Brian is joined by B.C. politics columnists Vaughn Palmer (Vancouver Sun) and Les Leyne (Victoria Times-Colonist) to try to find method in Eby’s seeming madness...
