Even if Prime Minister Mark Carney secures a slim majority through more floor-crossings and upcoming byelection wins, the governing Liberals could still call an early election this year in an effort to obtain a stronger mandate to deal with challenges such as the ongoing trade war with the United States, say pollsters. “The longer they wait for an election, the...
A U.S. Representative for Michigan is pledging more pushback in Congress to U.S. President Donald Trump’s “chaotic” tariffs, after the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday struck them down. In an interview on CTV Question Period Sunday, Debbie Dingell told host Vassy Kapelos that Trump’s tariffs are destroying long held U.S. relationships, including with Canada. “I want to be clear that...
Donald Trump's erratic tariffs threats continued Saturday with a pledge to increase his new worldwide tariff to 15 per cent, a day after the Supreme Court quashed the U.S. president's favoured tariff tool. "During the next short number of months, the Trump Administration will determine and issue the new and legally permissible Tariffs, which will continue our extraordinarily successful process...
The High Commissioner of India to Canada says India “will take action” depending on the outcome of a court case involving four Indian nationals accused of murder in the killing of a prominent Sikh activist in British Columbia. Dinesh Patnaik said both countries are on “same page” that “if there is any evidence we have, we will give it to...
New Ipsos polling suggests Canada is more united today than it was seven years ago, despite louder political rhetoric around separatism, particularly in Alberta. The data, drawn from the same Confederation Stress Test survey that previously examined separatist voting intentions, indicates that several measures that were rated as high have eased since 2019.
Nanos conducted an RDD dual frame (land- and cell-lines) hybrid telephone and online random survey of 1,009 Canadians, 18 years of age or older, between January 31st and February 4th, 2026 as part of an omnibus survey. The margin of error for this survey is ±3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
Over the past year, Canadians have lived through a steady drumbeat of U.S. tariff threats, economic pressure, and political tension. For some, it fades into the background. For others, it shows up every time they tap their debit card. In our latest research, I wanted to understand not just what people think about trade policy, but how this stretch of...
The walls of Parliament shook this week with yet another floor-crossing of Edmonton MP Matt Jeneroux to join Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Liberal caucus. This wasn’t just a procedural shift in the halls of Parliament, it is a stark symbol of a new, unsettling reality in Conservative politics. While floor-crossing is a historical reality and, let’s be honest, Liberals have...
As the world marks four years since Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Tuesday, analysts say Moscow has contributed to global instability that will force Canadians to spend more -- and more quickly -- to defend their territory. "People need to understand why defence is extremely important right now, and why we're going to have to make sacrifices...
Veterans and their advocates are urging the Carney Liberals to change course and amend a bill before the House of Commons to remove sections that they say unfairly target people who served Canada. Buried inside the more than 600-page Budget Implementation Act are sections that would, advocates say, retroactively amend a law that governs how veterans’ benefits are calculate
While the terrible tragedy at Tumbler Ridge prevented Prime Minister Mark Carney from attending this year’s Munich Security Conference, echoes of his recent Davos speech could be heard throughout the meeting halls, hallways, and bars of the Bayerischer Hof Hotel. I was there again this year as a Canadian parliamentarian and Senate committee chair, so some of those conversations were...
Politics is a business of addition but this week New Democrat leadership candidates demonstrated they’re focused on subtraction. Gone are the prospects of forming a government. Former leader Jack Layton’s 2011 orange wave, with 103 seats and a presence in every region of the country, may go down as the unfulfilled beachhead.
George Orwell’s dystopian vision of the future, 1984, was supposed to be a warning about the dangers of dictatorship and the loss of objective truth, not a guidebook on how to achieve it.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday issued a rare rebuke against a White House that has otherwise seemed unbound by law, nixing Donald Trump’s tariffs via statement of fact: “The President enjoys no inherent authority to impose tariffs during peacetime.” Revel in this rare bit of good news, Canada — but not for too long. This, for Trump, is a...
It doesn’t take much to see how badly Premier Danielle Smith’s broadside against immigrants in Alberta could go.
On Friday, ahead of the big Canada-Finland hockey game, friend-of-the-Donald Wayne Gretzky was asked, and not for the first time, to say something – anything – about the pain caused by his pal’s actions against our country. Acknowledge some truths about who’s to blame. Say whose side he’s on. A couple of sentences, tops. It wasn’t much of an ask...
When Mark Carney announced Wednesday that Edmonton Conservative MP Matt Jeneroux would cross the floor to join his government, I thought of two recent rumours from the backrooms of Ottawa. The first rumour spread in November, when Nova Scotia MP Chris d’Entremont let slip that he was thinking about crossing the floor to the Liberals. When Conservative Deputy Leader Andrew...
“What grade would you give Trump for his first year, overall?” That’s the question the Angus Reid Institute asked 1,612 Canadians, in a poll conducted late last month. Two-thirds of respondents gave U.S. President Donald Trump an F. Another 8 per cent gave him a D. Just 6 per cent gave him an A. But breaking down the results by...
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Friday that President Donald Trump exceeded his authority by using emergency powers to implement tariffs. Our Pulse Panel is here to offer their perspectives on what this ruling signifies for both Canada and the future of CUSMA.
In his celebrated speech to the World Economic Forum at Davos, warning middle powers of the perils of integration with predatory great powers, the Prime Minister also warned against one “understandable” response: each country retreating within its own borders, supplying critical needs domestically, in the search for “strategic autonomy.” “A world of fortresses will be poorer, more fragile, and less...
As he looks to rebuild Canada’s military, Prime Minister Mark Carney has surely been thinking of C.D. Howe. Howe became William Lyon Mackenzie King’s “minister of everything” at the outset of the Second World War, when “few thought of Canada as an industrial power,” as he later wrote. He believed not only that Canada could industrialize but also that the...
“Some of you – and I salute you – have been Liberals your whole life,” Prime Minister Mark Carney said to the crowd at the Liberals’ holiday party in December. “Others, like me, are new to politics. I’m not a politician.” And then, responding to someone on his right he said: “I am now, yes, you’re right.” “Some may have...
Canadian politics rarely turns on a single riding. This time, it might. With Edmonton MP Matt Jeneroux crossing the floor to join Mark Carney’s Liberals, the government now sits at 169 seats. In a 343-seat House of Commons, 172 is the majority threshold. There are three vacancies. Two - University—Rosedale and Scarborough Southwest - are Liberal strongholds and, barring an...
Our trailblazing Prime Minister was at the podium in Montreal. “Over the last few decades,” Mark Carney said, “Canada has neither spent enough on our defence nor invested enough in our defence industries.” That has to change, he added, setting out plans for far more domestic spending on military hardware because “the assumptions that defined decades of Canadian defence and...
Prime Minister Mark Carney leapfrogged his way closer to a majority Wednesday when Alberta MP Matt Jeneroux joined the Liberal ranks, saying the moment called for “steady leadership” and leaving Pierre Poilievre’s dispirited Conservatives wondering if more blows are coming and who might be next. They have reason to worry. Several sources, both Liberals and Conservatives, who were granted anonymity...
Two weeks ago, Mark Carney and Pierre Poilievre met in the prime minister's Parliament Hill office in an apparent attempt to find common ground on the government's legislative agenda. "My message to him is to work with us," Poilievre told reporters afterwards. Perhaps Carney took that message more literally than Poilievre intended.
By now, nearly everyone has had a whack at Conservative MP Jamil Jivani’s bizarre solo diplomatic mission to Washington. It was never clear what the trip was supposed to accomplish. Mr. Jivani does not represent the government of Canada; he does not even represent his own party. There was nothing he could offer the Americans, and nothing they could offer...
If you find yourself in a hole, stop digging. That’s known as the “First Law of Holes,” and it’s wisdom the caucus colleagues of Conservative MP Jamil Jivani desperately need to familiarize him with before he digs any deeper into the political hole they’ve all found themselves in. It was bad enough that he decided to freelance a trip down...
Prime Minister Mark Carney’s January address to the World Economic Forum called for Canada to join with other middle powers in following a path that is both principled and pragmatic. He argued that we are witnessing a rupture in the rules-based international order, and must rethink how we engage with the world. Our fundamental assumptions about Canada’s place in the...
The sight of David McGuinty as a silent presence at the prime minister’s announcement Tuesday of a new defence industrial strategy was a reminder that, while that government purports to be a team, it is really a confederation of warring tribes. The defence minister is ostensibly the lead author of the plan, but it seems to have been hijacked by...
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre was like Oprah handing out free cars when he named his shadow cabinet last May. More than half of the Conservative caucus got a role; it’s possible that the guy who vacuums the rugs in MPs’ offices was accidentally named shadow minister for small business for a brief moment during the flurry of appointments. But notably...
For generations, Canada lived under a durable assumption: integration guarantees security. We carried the flag for multilateralism in the postwar period, embedding ourselves in alliances, supply chains and global markets, confident that economic openness and collective defence would reinforce our sovereignty. By and large, that strategy helped Canada prosper. But in today’s volatile world, it no longer holds.
Prime Minister Mark Carney revealed his government’s Defence Industrial Strategy (DIS) Tuesday, including plans to spend more than 6 billion additional dollars transforming the Canadian Armed Forces into a modern self-sufficient military force. Carney said the plan’s primary role will be to defend Canada and Canadian sovereignty. But it will also meet NATO obligations with like-minded allies and allow Canada...
Embedded in the marquee numbers of the Defence Industrial Strategy Prime Minister Mark Carney unveiled on Tuesday was a long-unfathomable message: the United States is no longer a reliable ally, but a potential kinetic enemy. “The assumptions that defined decades of Canadian defence and foreign policy have been turned upside down,” Mr. Carney said at the DIS unveiling in Montreal...
Canada’s defence industry got a $6.6 billion boost Tuesday, as Prime Minister Mark Carney formally unveiled Ottawa’s new Defence Industrial Strategy. The plan promises to create 125,000 new jobs over 10 years and award 70 per cent of defence contracts to Canadian companies, through a “Build-Partner-Buy” framework that prioritizes domestic industry. It is part of the government’s plan to increase...
Canada's defence industry plan could draw U.S. pressure as Ottawa shifts contracts to Canadian firms. The ink isn't even dry on Canada's new defence industrial strategy, and there are already uneasy rumblings from Washington. The objections are not aimed at Canada — at least not yet — but they could eventually spill across an already strained border. A week ago...
The majority of Canadian exports will remain exempted from Donald Trump's new 10 per cent global levy, as the U.S. president pivots after the Supreme Court dealt a blow to his plans to realign global trade. A fact sheet from the White House said the latest tariff will not hit goods compliant under the Canada-U.S.-Mexico agreement on trade, known as...
What amounts to an oil blockade poses unprecedented threat to the ruling party's grip. The government of Canada says it is still thinking about whether to send humanitarian aid to Cuba, as the island confronts a looming disaster under an American oil embargo that is, in practice, a full blockade. "Canada is monitoring the situation carefully and is concerned about...
The diplomat Canada has posted to Greenland says the new consulate should lead to "concrete" gains for Canadians, while locals urge Ottawa to expand existing trade and cultural ties with the Danish territory. "This just kicks things into a new phase, a more intensive phase, being on the ground and having presence," said Julie Croteau, Canada's acting consul in Greenland's...
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says her government isn't sure how much it might save if referendum questions proposing restrictions to social services for some newcomers are approved in the fall. Smith announced in a TV address Thursday that her United Conservative Party government is putting nine questions to a provincewide referendum on Oct. 19. They include proposals to restrict social...
Alberta's Opposition NDP says Premier Danielle Smith is stoking hatred by blaming her government's financial "mismanagement" on newcomers. Smith announced in a TV address Thursday night that her government is putting nine questions to a provincewide referendum on Oct. 19. They include proposals to restrict social services from some immigrants and to open up Constitutional negotiations on abolishing the Senate...
The Supreme Court on Friday ruled that President Donald Trump violated federal law when he unilaterally imposed sweeping tariffs across the globe, a striking loss for the White House on an issue that has been central to the president’s foreign policy and economic agenda. The decision is arguably the most important loss the second Trump administration has sustained at the...
A new poll in the United States has Americans being told that there's a real chill from Canadians about their southern neighbours, and the word "hate" is used. Feelings are strong, but that strong? Bruce and Chantal on that, plus Alberta calls for a referendum on October 19th, but no question yet on separation. Plus more on leadership challenges for...
Months after Canada’s federal election, the funding sources for some prominent third-party advertisers remain a mystery. Experts say the political influencers are increasingly finding ways to sidestep election advertising regulations, and in some cases strategically choosing non-compliance.
A new poll finds two-thirds of Canadians are solidly behind Prime Minister Mark Carney’s efforts to transition away from a Trump tariff-impacted economy towards new opportunities and ventures. The same poll also finds Canadians remain patient with the pace of his provincial and regional infrastructure agenda and are inspired by his international leadership. The CityNews/Canada Pulse Insights poll shows 6...
Spending included $3M for 'Choose Canada' campaign last fall. The federal government reallocated its advertising budget after Prime Minister Mark Carney's new cabinet was sworn in last year, recently disclosed figures show, shifting its priorities to patriotic and economic messages and purchasing pricey television airtime during major sporting events like the Super Bowl and Winter Olympics. The Treasury Board Secretariat's...
India's envoy to Ottawa says Canada could sign a comprehensive trade deal with New Delhi within a year -- despite the fact that trade talks between the two nations have stalled multiple times since they started in 2010. Ahead of Prime Minister Mark Carney's anticipated visit to India, High Commissioner Dinesh Patnaik said Thursday a 12-month timeline isn't overly ambitious...
The NDP leadership candidates began the final official debate with a general acknowledgment they agree on policies, but have different visions for how to achieve their most existential goal -- rebuilding the party. At the close of the debate, each candidate was asked if they are running to rebuild the party or become the prime minister. Four of the five...
The federal government has updated its travel advice for the United States, urging First Nations people to carry a passport in addition to a status card when crossing the border. Before this week, the government website said First Nations people could "freely" enter the United States for the purposes of employment, study, retirement, investing or immigration. As of Thursday, the...
The Alberta government intends to hold a referendum on immigrants’ status, their access to social services and federal influence over provincial laws and services in October this year. In a televised address on Thursday night, Premier Danielle Smith outlined upcoming budget deficits amid crashing oil prices and what she says is “out-of-control” immigration. Smith cited previous “disastrous” federal open border...
But new details on the backroom machinations behind that move reveal contradictions in what has been publicly revealed so far. On Wednesday, Edmonton MP Matt Jeneroux became the third Conservative to join the ranks of Mark Carney’s Liberals, ending speculation over whether the longtime MP would leave politics altogether or cross the floor to the government benches. But new details...
Last year the U.S. shipped $337.9 billion in goods to Mexico, or 15.5% of total American exports
OTTAWA -- Ottawa is now well into its overhaul of defence procurement and will soon give the agency at the centre of its strategy more authority to ramp up the domestic defence sector and rearm the military, MP Stephen Fuhr told The Canadian Press.
The federal government is bringing law enforcement and financial institutions together to fight extortion operations targeting Canadian businesses and households. Finance Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne was in Mississauga, Ont., on Thursday to announce a suite of new initiatives he said will make it easier for police to "follow the money" and disrupt criminal networks. Champagne said organized crime is making Canadians...
The former deputy leader of the Conservative Party of Canada has a message for any other party members who are considering crossing the floor, after MP Matt Jeneroux announced he would join the Liberal caucus: “Get it over with. Don’t draw this out.” Former Conservative cabinet minister Lisa Raitt told CTV Your Morning on Thursday that the party is rife...
Eight months after downgrading the air fleet readiness target, the Liberal government’s Defence Industrial Strategy is promising new ambitious goals for serviceability in the next 10 years. As part of the much-anticipated strategy, Canada has pledged to raise air fleet serviceability to 85 per cent, as well as 75 per cent for maritime and 80 per cent for land fleets...
It’s not just about the trade war. Nearly half of America’s neighbors to the north now think the U.S. is a bigger threat to world peace than Russia. It’s the world’s most awkward breakup. More than a year after U.S. President Donald Trump casually joked about absorbing Canada and repeatedly threatened debilitating tariffs on its goods, many Canadians are convinced...
Ottawa will provide $50 million to help build the first Inuit-led university in Canada and more than $170 million for tuberculosis elimination, food security, and child and family supports in Inuit communities, CBC News has learned. Indigenous Services Minister Mandy Gull-Masty is scheduled to make the announcement in Kuujjuaq, Que., on Thursday afternoon at a meeting with the Makivvik Corporation...
5 hopefuls take the stage as party looks to both rebuild and prove its relevance. When the five NDP leadership candidates take the debate stage on Thursday, they will face two challenges — convincing Canadians the party is still relevant, and then rebuilding it. "We don't know when the next election will be, it could be a few months away...
Earlier this morning, unmarked police vehicles were seen arriving at Sandringham Estate in Norfolk, where Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor has been living. He was arrested by Thames Valley Police - but while we know they are carrying out searches in Norfolk and Berkshire, we do not know where Andrew was arrested. In most cases suspects are held for 12 or 24 hours...
The minister in charge of Canada-U.S. trade said he will be sitting down with U.S. President Donald Trump's trade czar in the coming weeks to discuss the looming review of the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement. Dominic LeBlanc on Wednesday said he spoke with U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer on the phone after he told "Fox Business" last week that Canadians had barriers...
Democrats are demanding correspondence between a billionaire bridge owner and U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick as part of their investigation into President Donald Trump's threat to stall the opening of the Gordie Howe Internaitonal Bridge. "President Trump's wealthy donors should not be holding secret meetings with administration officials to influence economic and foreign policies that have real impacts on the...
OTTAWA -- The Liberal party's decision to hold closed-door fundraisers under Prime Minister Mark Carney's leadership is being criticized by experts in political ethics, with one calling the move a "step back."
Quebec Liberal Leader Charles Milliard says he won't reinstate Marwah Rizqy in his party's caucus.
Three Conservative sources, two of whom are former MPs, say a damning quote is making the rounds in their circles after a third Tory joined the Liberal caucus: 'Pierre Poilievre has become the Justin Trudeau of the Conservative Party,' says one former MP. Alberta MP Matt Jeneroux is now the third Conservative to cross the floor to the Liberals in...
An armed man was shot and killed after entering the secure perimeter of Mar-a-Lago, President Donald Trump's resort in Palm Beach, Florida.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Donald Trump said Saturday that he was raising the global tariff he wants to impose to 15%, up from 10% he had announced a day earlier.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The late Rev. Jesse Jackson will not lie in honor in the United States Capitol Rotunda after a request for the commemoration was denied by the House Speaker Mike Johnson's office due to past precedent.
The High Commissioner of India to Canada says India “will take action” depending on the outcome of a court case involving four Indian nationals accused of murder in the killing of a prominent Sikh activist in British Columbia. Dinesh Patnaik said both countries are on “same page” that “if there is any evidence we have, we will give it to...
What amounts to an oil blockade poses unprecedented threat to the ruling party's grip. The government of Canada says it is still thinking about whether to send humanitarian aid to Cuba, as the island confronts a looming disaster under an American oil embargo that is, in practice, a full blockade. "Canada is monitoring the situation carefully and is concerned about...
The Supreme Court on Friday ruled that President Donald Trump violated federal law when he unilaterally imposed sweeping tariffs across the globe, a striking loss for the White House on an issue that has been central to the president’s foreign policy and economic agenda. The decision is arguably the most important loss the second Trump administration has sustained at the...
Earlier this morning, unmarked police vehicles were seen arriving at Sandringham Estate in Norfolk, where Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor has been living. He was arrested by Thames Valley Police - but while we know they are carrying out searches in Norfolk and Berkshire, we do not know where Andrew was arrested. In most cases suspects are held for 12 or 24 hours...
Prime Minister Mark Carney is facing mounting calls to speak out against the United States for widening its restrictions on fuel reaching Cuba, or to send aid to the country. For more than a year, Global Affairs Canada has warned travellers of "shortages of basic necessities, including food, medicine and fuel" across most of Cuba. In January, the island lost...
From a snail in a bottle of ginger beer to cannibalism to revoking a liquor licence for helping fellow Jehovah’s Witnesses, many seminal law school cases are remembered for their extraordinary facts (Hutchinson 2010). Every so often, however, a case prescribes a legal test that is equally memorable, even when the facts of the case are not. The Supreme Court...
Canada’s first-ever Defence Industrial Strategy (DIS) marks a genuine shift in how Ottawa thinks about sovereignty, security, and economic resilience. After decades of treating defence procurement as a back-office function, the government is now framing it as strategic statecraft — linking military readiness, industrial policy, innovation, and economic security. The creation of a Defence Investment Agency and the adoption of...
A collection of SubStack publishing within Canadian public affairs.
Cuba has been plunged into darkness. Schools, hospitals and essential services are hit by rolling 12-hour blackouts. Foreigners, including Canadians, have fled. Even worse, infant mortality is climbing.
Lisa Banfield, common-law wife of the man who meticulously slaughtered 22 people six years ago, recently published a memoir of her life-on-eggshells with a controlling killer.
The head of Ottawa’s public service got an earful from the federal information commissioner about the dismal state of access to information – the sign of a growing rift between the Liberal government and Parliament’s watchdog on transparency. At a Nov. 12 meeting, Caroline Maynard presented Michael Sabia, clerk of the Privy Council, with statistics detailing the deterioration of the...
Once again, Prime Minister Mark Carney has convinced a Conservative to cross the floor and join his Liberal Party — the third MP to do so in just a few months. And it comes as Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre tries to manage the fallout from a caucus member’s trip to Washington. The National Post's Stuart Thomson and the Globe and...
A new poll in the United States has American's being told that there's last chill by Canadians about their southern neighbors and the word "hate" is used. Feelings are strong but that strong? Bruce and Chantal on that plus Alberta calls for a referendum on October 19th but no question yet on separation. Plus more on leadership challenges for the...
Mark Norman, formerly Canada's second-highest ranking military officer, weighs in on the government's new plan to build up Canada's defence industry.
At Issue this week: Conservative MP Matt Jeneroux walks back his decision to leave politics, but decides to join the other team. The NDP gets closer to choosing its next leader. And Dominic LeBlanc goes on a trade mission to Mexico.
