United States President Donald Trump is privately musing about exiting the North American trade pact, people familiar with the matter said, injecting further uncertainty about the deal’s future into pivotal renegotiations involving the U.S., Canada and Mexico. The president has asked aides why he shouldn’t withdraw from the agreement, which he signed during his first term, though he has stopped...
Prime Minister Mark Carney said Wednesday he has heard from a number of world leaders offering condolences in the wake of Tuesday's deadly mass shooting in Tumbler Ridge, B.C. Police continue to investigate two attacks that left 10 people, including the suspect, dead in the tiny community in northeastern British Columbia. Here's a quick rundown of statements posted on social...
Prime Minister Mark Carney says flags on federal buildings will be flown at half-mast for seven days to honour the victims of Tuesday's deadly shooting in B.C. A visibly emotional Carney said Wednesday he has heard from leaders around the world offering condolences, including King Charles. "Parents, grandparents, sisters, brothers in Tumbler Ridge will wake up without someone they love,"...
Recruiting former Ontario NDP deputy leader Doly Begum and doctor Danielle Martin may be 'phenomenal politics,' but more will ride on whether they would get a greater voice at the table if elected. With the selection of two young, progressive women candidates in the upcoming Ontario byelections, strategists say Prime Minister Mark Carney is attempting to signal he hasn’t drifted...
The federal government plans to choose a number of “key strategic partners” from Canada’s defence sector to get special support and access to contracts under the new military industrial strategy that Prime Minister Mark Carney was scheduled to release on Wednesday, the Star has learned. Carney’s announcement will be postponed after Tuesday’s mass shooting a high school in Tumbler Ridge...
It has been more than a year since Abacus Data last measured American attitudes toward Canada, trade, and tariffs. To revisit these issues, Abacus Data conducted a national survey of 4,000 American adults from February 2 to 4, 2026, including an oversample in several northern and border states. The survey explored how Americans feel about the direction of their country...
Treason in the Air: Most Canadians Back Premier Eby’s Comment Over Alberta Separatists, Split on Premier Smith’s Retorts
School shootings are the most senseless, shattering event that can befall a community. A feeling of ultimate loss grips the entire nation. Political leaders often have nothing more to offer than their condolences, but people want more than that. They are looking for reassurance, empathy and a sense that someone will do something about it.
Details are emerging about a mass shooting in a northeastern B.C. community. Ten people are dead, including the suspect, and approximately 25 were injured. Here are key updates as they happen:
Prime Minister Mark Carney has cancelled his plans to travel to Halifax and Munich, Germany, following a deadly school shooting in British Columbia. Carney was to spend Wednesday afternoon in Halifax to announce the defence industrial strategy, before flying on to Europe for the Munich Security Conference. As news of the tragedy unfolded Tuesday evening, Carney's staffers said he was...
The GM plant in Oshawa often feels like a mythical place. Long-time residents in the region tell stories of a time when it was a hub of prosperity for tens of thousands of families. They say, when shifts would end, there were so many GM employees that some roads would become one-way streets so workers could drive home in an...
Prime Minister Mark Carney’s well-crafted and eloquently delivered speech at Davos has been widely noted, and I want to start by offering some praise of my own. The Prime Minister is right to restate what many have said for years: Canada must become more self-reliant, less dependent and work with like-minded countries to advance our interests. Conservatives are, as always...
When Stephen Harper was Prime Minister I wrote many columns warning about the influence that right wing Americans had on his political operation, and I spent many dreary hours trying to trace his connections south of the border. I now wonder if that was time well spent because, since the second election of Donald Trump, it has become clear that...
As a politician, federal Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre has many well-documented strengths. He is a relentless critic of the government he wishes to replace. He grew both his party’s vote share and parliamentary seat count in the last election, bringing the CPC to within spitting distance of victory. And who could blame him for still buzzing over an 87.4 per...
The former PM has devoted much of his post-political career to helping to empower right-wing political parties, but drew the line at threatening Canada’s existence. Stephen Harper came east to celebrate the 20th anniversary of something. While he was at it, the former Conservative prime minister—whether by design or coincidence—took on the task for his party of covering for the...
PIERRE POILIEVRE GAMBLED with his political future—and won—at the Conservative Party of Canada convention in Calgary two weeks ago. Delegates, who gathered under unseasonably warm January skies courtesy of a timely Chinook, were asked whether to grant their leader a vote of confidence. Late that Friday night, the verdict was delivered: 87.4 percent of those who cast a ballot voted...
"Question period is broken," Liberal MP Corey Hogan told the House of Commons last week. In fairness to the current state of question period — and those responsible for it — this is hardly a new complaint. One could spend a long time discussing how Parliament's daily airing of grievances came to be the way it is or who has...
Donald Trump’s threat to prevent the opening of the new Gordie Howe International Bridge unless Canada compensates the United States is but the latest chapter in a series of irrational threats and unjustified punitive measures he has inflicted on our country. Never mind that Canadian taxpayers paid $6 billion for the bridge, which is why there will be a toll...
As Albertans await some clarity from the premier as to whether she’s prepared to champion the cause of Confederation or take on the separatists in any meaningful sense, it falls to others to take up the mantle of national unity.
The prospect of Alberta leaving Canada is such a hot topic that the other potential “leavers” have been overlooked.
We’re becoming familiar with the Alberta government’s give-me-this-or-else demands. The latest one is flimsier than most: it’s based on a falsehood and it amounts to threatening to punch yourself in the face if you don’t get your way. Still, it bears attention because it points to a fundamental flaw in the Alberta separation project, which can no longer be dismissed...
Elections, like the flu, can sneak up on you. They may also be contagious. Not even one year since both men won their own elections, Mark Carney and Doug Ford have reportedly been chatting about another federal election this year.
The Canadian government’s response to the 20-year sentence imposed on Hong Kong publisher Jimmy Lai is the first test of the government’s new “pragmatic engagement” with China. The early signs are that Ottawa is broadly in favour of the pursuit of justice, as long as it doesn’t hamper its trade policy.
In December 2004 I was sitting in the Official Opposition Leader’s Office and the holder of that office, Stephen Harper, walked in. We were working on an election platform because we expected Paul Martin to spring an election quickly after Peter MacKay and Harper merged their respective parties into the Conservative Party of Canada.
Retired general Wayne Eyre, Canada’s former chief of the defence staff, says this country’s security and sovereignty would be best protected if we possessed our own nuclear weapons and the delivery systems to fire them at whatever targets we deemed in need of vaporization. He didn’t recommend starting a program at once, but said it would be the only real...
Canada stands at a pivotal moment in its AI journey. New research from Strand Partners, conducted on behalf of AWS Canada, reveals that 650,000 Canadian businesses have embraced artificial intelligence—a 33% increase year-over-year that outpaces the global adoption of the internet. With one business adopting AI every three minutes, the momentum is clear. Yet the choices we make today –...
A rogue ambassador to the United States, a new office in Washington for the “Commonwealth of Alberta,” another Mark Carney world tour: we’re just over a month into 2026, and already Canadian diplomacy is headed madly off in all directions. Let’s start with Conservative MP Jamil Jivani, who last week heeded a call that apparently he alone could hear and...
For the first time since his defeat a decade ago, Conservative prime minister Stephen Harper took centre stage this week with a refreshing show of bipartisanship and a call for national unity — a message the country and his party needed to hear. The occasion was Harperpalooza or Harperfest as some Conservative staffers referred to the celebrations, a week’s worth...
The cause was given an exception boost this week. The last week has been a turning point for the Conservative Party of Canada. Its devotees observed the 20th anniversary of the coming to office of Stephen Harper at the head of a reconstructed Conservative party that merged the old Progressive Conservatives and the Canadian Alliance/Reform Party. Stephen Harper thus became...
The whole co-operation initiative was obviously a distasteful task to Pierre Poilievre, one that circumstances and strategists have foisted upon him. When he went to meet Prime Minister Mark Carney on Wednesday to talk about it, his opposite number appeared equally sincere. This was a week when talk of co-operation seemed to be breaking out all over Ottawa. But the...
Former prime minister Stephen Harper spoke at an event earlier this week marking the 20th anniversary since forming his Conservative government. The Political Pulse Panel reviews Harper’s comments on Canada’s relationship with the U.S., and his urging for co-operation among all parties amid America’s aggression.
It is doubtful any country has ever been in quite the national security dilemma Canada now finds itself in: with so much land and so few people to defend it; wedged between two expansionist superpowers, one of which was until very recently our best defence against the other, but which has since become more or less aligned with it. The...
The speech heard round the world has had much impact. Mark Carney’s message to Canadians and everyone else has been widely quoted, lauded, analyzed, criticized and described as the most important speech on Canadian foreign policy since Louis St Laurent’s Grey Lecture at the University of Toronto in 1947. In discussing the speech this week with Ben Rowswell, former Canadian...
Every day, it seems, Donald Trump wields his presidential powers to undermine the Western alliance. Within the past week or so he has threatened new tariffs against Canadian aircraft exports, against South Korea and against any country (but principally Mexico) that sells oil to Cuba. And of course, there was his threat in January to annex Greenland and to tariff...
For decades, Canada has been using a secret, expansive, junk-ridden database of suspected terrorists, operated by the United States government. Known as Tipoff U.S./Canada — or TUSCAN — it serves as a form of no-fly list. Only this one is easier to be added to and harder to get removed from.
Canada would like to see NATO’s new Arctic Sentry mission become permanent as part of a greater focus on the north for the Western alliance, Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand says. NATO announced Wednesday it has launched this mission to strengthen its presence in the Arctic as part of an agreement to defuse severe tensions within the alliance prompted by...
Carney has said he would enforce ICC warrant if Israeli PM came to Canada. Online flight trackers show that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu flew hundreds of kilometres through Canadian airspace on his way to meet U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday — despite Prime Minister Mark Carney previously saying he would honour an arrest warrant issued by the International...
Arviat, a small Nunavut community located along the western shore of Hudson Bay, will be the home of the first Inuit-led university in Canada's Arctic, CBC News has learned. The location of the main campus will be formally announced at Rideau Hall in Ottawa on Wednesday afternoon during an event hosted by Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami (ITK), the national organization representing...
Conservative House Leader Andrew Scheer says he believes the Liberals are having conversations “in good faith” with his party to get legislation passed in the House of Commons, though he wouldn’t say whether the spirit of co-operation is spurred by efforts to avoid an election. “I believe the conversations are being held in good faith,” Scheer said in an interview...
OTTAWA -- The Conservatives introduced a motion Tuesday calling on the government to bar non-citizens convicted of serious crimes from making refugee claims.
The billionaire owner of a bridge connecting Michigan with Canada met Howard Lutnick, the U.S. Secretary of Commerce, on Monday hours before President Trump lambasted a competing span, in the latest flashpoint in the deteriorating relationship between the United States and Canada. Matthew Moroun is a Detroit-based trucking magnate whose family has operated the Ambassador Bridge between Detroit and Windsor...
The federal government may name the winner of the heated competition to supply the navy with a fleet of new submarines as soon as this year. Stephen Fuhr, secretary of state for defence procurement, says Ottawa will "probably" announce a winner this year -- and declared the vessels will be in the water by 2032. He made the comments today...
Ontario Premier Doug Ford says Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre may have secured the overwhelming support of his party in a recent leadership vote, but cautioned that elections are not won on the convention room floor. Poilievre secured 87 per cent of the delegates in Calgary last month at the party's convention, pulling in more than what former prime minister Stephen...
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says "significant" deficits are in store for her province as it tries to grapple with low oil prices. The government's new budget is set to be unveiled later this month, and Smith says it's going to be a "tough" one. The premier told RED FM Calgary this week that she has ruled out tax hikes and...
Conservative MP Mike Dawson says he can't "in good conscience" accept the pay raise members of Parliament are supposed to get in April because it's unfair when Canadians are struggling to keep up with the rising cost of living. MPs are set to receive a 4.2 per cent raise on April which the New Brunswick MP says is "frankly distasteful."
Prime Minister Mark Carney said Donald Trump's threat to stall the opening of the Gordie Howe International Bridge will be resolved following a call with the U.S. president Tuesday. "I explained that Canada paid for the construction of the bridge — $4 billion — that the ownership is shared between the state of Michigan and the Government of Canada," Carney...
Prime Minister Mark Carney intends to deepen defence ties and attract new business investment when he travels to Germany this week, according to government officials. Carney will depart for the Munich Security Conference on Wednesday, becoming the first Canadian prime minister to attend the conference since Justin Trudeau in 2020. More than 60 heads of state and government leaders are...
Ontario’s premier is prompting Canadians and its prime minister to “not buckle” when it comes to Donald Trump’s threats concerning blocking the Gordie Howe bridge from opening. “This is not the time to rollover and let President Trump take advantage of us,” Doug Ford said Tuesday morning while addressing the threat. “Why did he [Trump] fast-track it [the bridge] in...
Ontario Premier Doug Ford says that the possibility of an early federal election has “come up” in conversations with Prime Minister Mark Carney and his fellow premiers but he is downplaying its significance. Ford made the comment to reporters at Queen’s Park on Tuesday. His response comes in the wake of a report in the Globe and Mail which, citing...
Foreign diplomats in Ottawa are applauding the vision of Canada’s foreign policy direction outlined by Prime Minister Mark Carney in his Davos address, but they’re coming to different conclusions about how it will get implemented.
Bell Canada and SAP Canada have signed a deal to jointly develop a Canadian‑operated cloud solution aimed at serving Canadian governments and regulated industries that require strict control over sensitive information. Under a memorandum of understanding, the companies will establish a fully Canadian-isolated cloud alternative intended to help ensure sensitive government, citizen and organizational data remain within Canada. The partnership...
Seventy-one per cent of Canadians agree with B.C. Premier David Eby’s recent statement that “to go to a foreign country and to ask for assistance in breaking up Canada, there’s an old-fashioned word for that, and that word is treason,” according to a new poll from Canada Pulse Insights.
Prime Minister Mark Carney is heading to Germany later this week for the world's top security conference, as Canada works to update its own defence policy. Carney's office says he will leave for Munich Wednesday, and be in Germany until Sunday.
The federal government recorded more than 2,600 cases of employee misconduct and wrongdoing last year, resulting in at least 145 terminations and 783 suspensions without pay. The misconduct and wrongdoing allegations run the gamut from sleeping on duty to sexual harassment, racial discrimination, workplace violence, privacy breaches, timesheet fraud, inappropriate social media posts and the theft of government property like...
A decade after the Department of National Defence pledged to fix systemic inequities facing military reservists, a new report from the Canadian Forces ombudsman concludes that little has changed — leaving ill and injured Primary Reserve members navigating a fragmented system marked by delays, confusion and unequal treatment. In the report — titled Marking Time: A Decade of Stalled Progress...
In an effort to address range anxiety and get more drivers into electric vehicles, the federal government is committing to fund and further expand the country's EV charging infrastructure. The ministers of the environment, energy and transport are expected on Tuesday to announce $84.4 million in funding for more than 8,000 new chargers across the country. Another $5.7 million will...
The Conservatives on Tuesday introduced a motion calling on the government to bar non-citizens convicted of serious crimes from making refugee claims. The motion also calls on the government to prevent asylum claims from people whose cases are still working their way through the courts. The motion is related to an explosion in extortion-related crimes. British Columbia Premier David Eby...
Despite an ongoing review, Ottawa made payments related to the acquisition of more U.S.-built fighters jets. Ottawa has started to make payments for key components for 14 additional U.S.-built F-35s, even as the Carney government has been reviewing future fighter-jet purchases in the context of trade tensions with Washington, sources have told CBC News. The money for these 14 aircraft...
Conservative MP Jamil Jivani has returned from Washington criticizing Canada’s tariff deal with China and questioning why Ottawa is lagging Mexico in trade talks, following a mission to the United States that both he and the Liberals are keeping under wraps. In an op-ed published in the National Post on Sunday, Jivani wrote that he met last week with U.S...
President says he won't allow opening until U.S. 'is fully compensated for everything we have given' Canada. U.S. President Donald Trump is threatening to block the opening of the Gordie Howe Bridge, poised to become the newest border crossing between Windsor, Ont., and Detroit. "I will not allow this bridge to open until the United States is fully compensated for...
Prime Minister Mark Carney and Ontario Premier Doug Ford have discussed the possibility of an early federal election in casual conversations about the importance of a majority mandate to deal with uncertain economic times, according to three sources. The sources said the Progressive Conservative Premier, who has forged a close relationship with the Liberal Leader, offered his opinion that the...
The federal Liberal government is rejecting a call from the Opposition Conservatives to grant a tax reprieve on severance packages for laid-off General Motors workers in Ingersoll, Ont. Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre sent a letter Sunday to Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne calling for an exemption to the withholding taxes applied to severance pay. Champagne's office flatly rejected the call Monday...
The German auto industry is keen on expanding its presence in Canada and is in the midst of discussions, Berlin’s economic minister says. Katherina Reiche, Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy, said the Canadian auto sector strategy laid out by Prime Minster Mark Carney last week “is very attractive” for Germany. “I can’t go into detail, but please take the...
Amid ongoing debate about provincial sovereignty, most Albertans would vote to stay in Canada, according to a new survey from the Angus Reid Institute. Fewer than three in 10 Albertans, 29 per cent, said they would vote for separation if a referendum were held today. Most of those respondents said they are leaning toward that position rather than firmly committed...
U.S. Vice President JD Vance's team posted and then deleted a message on social media about the Republican's visit to a memorial paying tribute to early 20th century Armenians killed by the Ottoman Empire.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Under questioning from Democrats Tuesday, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick acknowledged that he had met with Jeffrey Epstein twice after his 2008 conviction for soliciting prostitution from a child, reversing Lutnick's previous claim that he had cut ties with the late financier after 2005.
PORTLAND, Maine (AP) -- Republican Sen. Susan Collins announced her reelection bid Tuesday, betting that she can hold onto her coveted Maine seat despite a renewed Democratic effort to oust her in a race that could determine control of the U.S. Senate.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Americans' hope for their future has fallen to a new low, according to new polling.
Foreign diplomats in Ottawa are applauding the vision of Canada’s foreign policy direction outlined by Prime Minister Mark Carney in his Davos address, but they’re coming to different conclusions about how it will get implemented.
President says he won't allow opening until U.S. 'is fully compensated for everything we have given' Canada. U.S. President Donald Trump is threatening to block the opening of the Gordie Howe Bridge, poised to become the newest border crossing between Windsor, Ont., and Detroit. "I will not allow this bridge to open until the United States is fully compensated for...
Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand is calling on China to release Hong Kong publisher Jimmy Lai after he was sentenced to 20 years in jail today under a sweeping national security law. Canada joins numerous peers, including the United States and the European Union, in condemning Beijing for the sentence imposed under a law used to crack down on Hong...
Jimmy Lai, the pro-democracy former Hong Kong media tycoon and a fierce critic of Beijing, was sentenced to 20 years in prison in one of the most prominent cases prosecuted under a China-imposed national security law that has virtually silenced the city's dissent.
Former cabinet minister Chrystia Freeland says when it comes to the U.S. and its relationships with other countries on the world stage, it needs to "get their act together." Since his 2025 inauguration, U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened several countries, including Canada, with annexation and tariffs on goods, creating an ongoing trade war. Freeland, fresh off her January resignation...
Since the legalization of medical assistance in dying (MAiD) in 2016, the federal government has created certain safeguards and regulatory mechanisms – including data collection – to ensure that people don’t request death because they lack access to care, including palliative care.
A collection of SubStack publishing within Canadian public affairs.
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...
The RCMP has handed out 23 awards for excellence to officers and employees in Nova Scotia for their performance during the April 2020 mass murders, in which a gunman impersonating a Mountie murdered 22 people in cold blood.
Library and Archives Canada (LAC) gets a lot of flak for its processing of Access to Information Act (ATIA) requests, especially for its long delays to respond. But lately they’ve been doing a few things right.
Really? Donald Trump now says he will refuse to allow the multi-billion-dollar new bridge between Canada and the U.S. to be opened. That's the bridge Canada paid for, and Trump heralded just a few years ago. It's the latest twist in the trade war, and it's just one of the stories we focus on today with Althia Raj and Rob...
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The federal government recently announced that it is scrapping the zero emissions vehicle mandate – brought in by the Trudeau government in 2022. Zero emissions vehicles such as EVs were supposed to make up 20 per cent of all new car sales this year, increasing to 100 per cent by 2035. This is the latest Trudeau-era climate policy that Prime...
The final remaining agreement constraining U.S. and Russian nuclear weapons expired last week. The New START treaty was established by President Barack Obama and his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev in 2010. And since then the treaty has governed much of the global landscape concerning nuclear weapons and non-proliferation. Reporting suggests both sides remain in talks. Yet as the U.S. threatens...
