Alberta’s Smith decries ‘federal interference’ ahead of premiers’ meeting
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says she believes every Canadian premier is frustrated with what she calls “federal interference” into provincial affairs. Smith is on her way to Winnipeg for a three-day meeting of provincial and territorial premiers. She is also fresh off a meeting with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who was in Alberta on Friday […]
As NATO firms up military spending target, Canada is trying to broaden what counts: sources
Canada has quietly and consistently lobbied major NATO allies for months to expand the definition of what it can include under the military alliance’s defence spending benchmark, defence and government sources have told CBC News. The notion of being able to include what the country spends on space, cyber and artificial intelligence (AI) research has […]
Pro-Beijing groups claim credit for helping Olivia Chow win Toronto mayoralty. She says she was unaware
Two prominent community groups aligned with the Chinese government supplied numerous volunteers to the effort, a letter from one of the groups claims As Olivia Chow campaigned successfully to become Toronto’s new mayor, she received some unsolicited help from controversial sources. Two prominent community groups aligned with the Chinese government — including one that allegedly […]
The Conservatives won 30 of 34 ridings in Alberta in the last election. If that is the only thing you knew, you’d expect the addition of three more ridings to the province to benefit the Conservatives more than anyone else. And that’s very much the case. The new boundaries have plenty of good news for […]
Read MoreThe patrol planes Bombardier Inc. hopes could replace aging Canadian military aircraft will have a price “competitive” with that of jets from rival Boeing Inc., the Montreal-based company says. The business jet maker joined forces earlier this year with U.S.-based General Dynamics on a surveillance aircraft with submarine-hunting technology. Both partners are calling on the […]
Read MoreJust over half of Canadians believe the federal Liberals and Conservatives need new leaders heading into the next federal election, according to a new Nanos Research poll. The poll, conducted for The Globe and Mail, found 53 per cent of respondents were in favour of Justin Trudeau being replaced as Liberal Leader, while 51 per […]
Read MoreProvincial and territorial premiers are kicking off a three-day meeting in Winnipeg today in which the chaos in Canada’s health care systems will be front and centre. They’re gathering to discuss how to use $46 billion in new health funding that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau offered in February, in exchange for provinces and territories committing […]
Read MoreAds promoting Canada’s 150th anniversary celebrations, annual budgets and outreach to veterans were among the biggest items in the federal government’s social media ad spending over the past seven years, a CBC News analysis shows. CBC queried some federal departments after obtaining a document listing expenses by department. The document was produced in response to […]
Read MoreHeritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez says he won’t be pushed around by Google and Facebook in the ongoing fight over C-18, the Online News Act. “They’re superpowers. They’re huge. They’re rich, powerful. Lots of big lawyers. They can be intimidating,” Rodriguez told reporters this week at a news conference convened to announce that the federal government […]
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Tech giants play game of chicken with Canada
Question: Would a Meta or Google executive steal a paper from the corner newspaper box if they found it had been left open? That’s effectively what they’ve been doing on an industrial scale. Google takes Canadian news content for free, and distributes it on its platform. The company then charges for its ads. (About 80 […]
Our political leaders need to smarten up
If you asked elected officials for a list of reasons why they ran for public office, publicly begging a famous musician probably isn’t high on the list. And yet, there was Prime Minister Justin Trudeau doing just that the other day, tweeting at Taylor Swift about her 2024 Eras tour and its lack of Canadian […]
Don’t let this picture fool you. In Danielle Smith’s Alberta, Justin Trudeau is the black-hatted villain
When Prime Minister Justin Trudeau turned up at the annual Calgary Stampede on Friday, he was wearing his annual good-guy white cowboy hat. But for many Albertans, Trudeau is forever the bad guy in the black hat, the Snidely Whiplash of Alberta politics who, politically speaking, evicts widows and ties people to train tracks. He’s […]
Trudeau, Ford roll the dice on electric vehicles with our cash
With Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Ontario Premier Doug Ford throwing our money at Volkswagen Group and Stellantis-LGES to build electric vehicle battery plants in Ontario, it’s probably a bad time to mention Volkswagen is cutting back on the production of EV vehicles in Germany, due to “strong customer reluctance in the electric vehicle sector.”
Doug Ford and Justin Trudeau got squeezed in a multibillion-dollar bidding war they couldn’t afford to lose
It was the deal — a very big $16-billion deal — they couldn’t refuse. Doug Ford and Justin Trudeau didn’t just come together because it was smart politics or sage economics. For there is no great glory in good government — not when critics accuse you of giving away the store. So why did the […]
Rule by the second-place: the coming crisis of legitimacy in federal politics
Then again, maybe the Liberals do need to worry. No doubt there were plenty of sighs of relief in government circles after those four by-elections last month, where the party not only held onto the seats it had but increased its share of the popular vote. But since then there have been a spate of […]
U.S. Supreme Court is off on a frolic of its own and Biden should reform it
In the midst of the United States’ 247th celebration of its independence last week, it’s worth marvelling at the incredible success of a nation founded on the ideals of a group of courageous 18th century revolutionaries. But as we do, let’s not paper over some pretty serious cracks that have emerged in those 247 years. […]
Today in Canada’s Political History: Harry Truman arrives in Ottawa
U.S. President Harry S. Truman arrived in Ottawa on this date in 1947 for a two-day visit. He was in Canada’s capital for talks with Prime Minister Mackenzie King and other Canadian officials. And speaking of PM King, in a move that was shameful, even for him, poor Truman had to sit through the unveiling […]
CBC’s damning retraction of an unsubstantiated non-scandal in Alberta
CBC News cried “uncle” yesterday in its long-running quarrel with Alberta premier Danielle Smith, as you may have read in your National Post. In January, a story from the network claimed that some member of the new premier’s staff had sent emails directly to Crown prosecutors ordering them to let up on COVID rulebreakers. This […]
Two Trudeau ministers seem awfully uncomfortable with euthanizing the mentally ill
Governments normally like to trumpet the progress of their legislation, yet the latest ministerial update on the extension of the medical assistance in dying (MAID) law, to cover people with mental disorders, was delivered with all the amplification of a tin whistle. The federal government’s response to the February report by the special MAID joint […]
Grievance politics is radicalizing men on a global scale. And those men aren’t hiding behind memes or pseudonyms anymore — they’re out, emboldened, killing for their cause in broad daylight. Consequently, the safety of women and trans and queer communities are under threat now as never before.
Read MoreSeveral years ago, legendary Washington Post editor Marty Baron came to Ottawa to speak at Carleton University about the future of journalism. At a dinner later, Baron was talking about how he had little patience with journalists who kept lamenting how the old days were better. One of the guests, with his own illustrious career […]
Read MoreI recall growing up in Calgary in the late-1950s when a neighbour began digging a bomb shelter. He wasn’t the first and wouldn’t be the last. Clearly, the Soviet Union had designs on world domination, and vehicles like the movie industry or arms suppliers were quickly forced to respond. Nikita Khrushchev was the Soviet leader, […]
Read MoreI can’t remember the last time immigration featured prominently in national political debates in Canada. This doesn’t mean that all Canadians hold decidedly pro-immigration attitudes. The lack of friction on the issue, in my view, is more likely the result of an elite-consensus on the value of immigration than a reflection of public opinion. We […]
Read MoreFor months now, conservative pundits and politicians have heralded the so-called “Alberta model” as the best way to address Canada’s ongoing opioid crisis and its devastating impact on families and communities across the country. Safe supply, they argued, had simply made the problem worse; Alberta’s decision to prioritize recovery over harm reduction was a better […]
Read MoreCanada’s third Prime Minister, Sir John Abbott, led the nation from the Senate. A former Mayor of Montreal, he had been first elected to the House as a Tory in 1880. Abbott served in the Commons until 1887 when on the advice of Sir John A. Macdonald, he was sent to the Red Chamber. Upon […]
Read MoreWhen I was Canada’s Ambassador to NATO from 2015 to 2018, in the lead-up to every annual meeting of leaders, my colleagues and I would joke that the summit was yet another “inflection point” for NATO. We would even gain points when a leader of an allied nation happened to use those words in a […]
Read MoreIt’s no secret that Canada and the United Kingdom have a very special relationship. I’ve worked closely over the past few years with members of the Canadian House of Commons to challenge big tech companies over data rights and user privacy. Our common values, shared history, and strong economic ties means that our relationship often […]
Read MoreEven more spectacularly than anticipated, the federal government’s attempts to become world leaders in rescuing journalism have not only collapsed but pushed the nation’s private sector news industry to the edge of an economic abyss. It is difficult to recall a more complete public sector failure than that which Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez has engineered […]
Read MoreBritish Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was at 10 Downing Street on this date in 1986 preparing for her trip to Canada to visit Expo in Vancouver and hold talks with Prime Minister Brian Mulroney. As part of her preparations, she granted an interview to the CBC. The reporter asked her to give her overall assessment […]
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