U.S. Trade Rep. Jamieson Greer says he’s “given lots of proposals to the Canadians.” Prime Minister Mark Carney is facing growing criticism at home over stalled U.S.-Canada trade talks, and fresh comments from the Trump administration suggest his concessions have done little to move Washington. There hasn’t been “a lot” of movement in bilateral negotiations with Canada, U.S. Trade Representative...
Prime Minister Mark Carney is doubling down on Canada’s deal with the United States to open the delayed Gordie Howe International Bridge and insists toll revenue will not be shared “until all the debt is repaid.” “It’s not splitting the tolls of the bridge. It is an agreement for 15 years to split net revenues,” Carney said when speaking to...
The federal government intends to spend nearly $2 billion over the next four years on made-in Canada armoured vehicles, Prime Minister Mark Carney said Thursday. The planned addition of 190 armoured combat support vehicles will bring the Canadian Armed Forces' total fleet up to 550 vehicles, he said. The new vehicles will be used in training exercises at military bases...
The Carney government has sent a senior official from Canada’s embassy in Washington, to a Trump administration summit trying to rally allies behind a new U.S. campaign targeting left-wing groups it claims are a top terrorism threat. Canada is one of more than 60 countries attending the high-level counterterrorism meeting, Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand’s office confirmed Thursday, though it’s...
When Prime Minister Mark Carney stood alongside Alberta’s premier earlier this month to herald a plan for a new oil export pipeline, the news came with a massive taxpayer-funded caveat. In the absence of a private firm to build the proposed oil corridor, the pair confirmed, the federally owned Trans Mountain Corp. would lead the roughly $40-billion project.
The Calgary Stampede political circuit was focused on the two Ps: pancakes and pipelines. Plenty of the former were flipped while plans were laid for the latter. New data from the non-profit Angus Reid Institute finds majority support both for the long awaited proposal for a new pipeline from Alberta to B.C. (63%) and the less heralded announcement of a...
The federal political landscape endures, with the Liberals at 43.0 per cent among committed voters compared with 31.0 per cent for the Conservatives. Mark Carney remains the preferred choice for prime minister at 51.5 per cent. Jobs and the economy continue to be Canadians’ top national concern at 21.5 per cent, followed by cost of living at 12.0 per cent.
For many years, Elbridge Colby has been one of the loudest voices in Washington calling for America’s NATO allies to pay their “fair share” on defence, in order to allow the United States to pivot toward the growing challenge of China.
Everybody knows Pierre Poilievre has a favourite adviser, whose counsel and wisdom he values above all. That adviser’s name: Pierre Poilievre. Where once it was the Conservatives’ greatest asset, however, Poilievre’s love affair with Poilievre has become a liability according to some Tories, and morale within the party has sagged to new depths.
OTTAWA -- Prime Minister Mark Carney is defending his government's approach to the environment as parts of the country grapple with wildfires.
More than 850 active wildfires are burning across Canada, including in parts of Northern Ontario, where flames are tearing through structures, forcing residents to flee and sending smoke across the province. According to latest data from the province, there are 180 active wildland fires — 136 in Ontario’s northwest region, with 63 classified as out of control, and 44 in...
We lead two countries that do not have the luxury of relying on old orders of geography. Finland shares a border with a Russia that is waging a war of aggression against Ukraine and actively interfering in other societies instead of reforming its own. Canada shares the world’s longest land border with a United States that is reassessing its priorities...
If you’re Pierre Poilievre, you must be wondering, on some level, where everyone has been. Why are so many Tories suddenly complaining about the same personality you’ve had all along, and which they seemed to find so beguiling — or at least useful — when its most caustic bits were mobilized and sent into battle against Justin Trudeau’s prime ministership...
If the first rule of ransoms is that you don’t pay them, what to make of Mark Carney’s payoff to Donald Trump to open the Gordie Howe International Bridge? Make no mistake: Canada paid what amounts to a bribe. The Liberal government can dress it up as a “series of co-operative measures” regarding the governance of the new border crossing...
Raise a glass to Doug Ford, and most of his fellow premiers, for continuing to keep American liquor off our shelves. Because if there was somehow any doubt that we need to hold on to any sliver of leverage against Donald Trump, as trade negotiations heat up, it was erased by the way his hostage-taking of the Gordie Howe bridge...
Carney left cleaning up the economic mess from our former PM
There are, it is sometimes said, only six people in Canada who understand the equalization formula, and five of them are dead. This is not entirely a joke. Equalization – the system of federal transfers to provinces whose “fiscal capacity” is judged to be below the national average – has become so overloaded with political fixes over the years, in...
Conservative MP Dean Allison called a news conference last week to give the media an update on his inquiry into the COVID-19 vaccine. If you’re like me, you’re probably thinking: There’s an inquiry into the COVID-19 vaccine? Why? Mr. Allison was accompanied by a couple of supporters: The husband-and-wife team of Shawn and Theresa Buckley, who run the Covid Testimony...
The 114th Calgary Stampede has come and gone, along with its performative, clichéd pancake-flipping political festival. But this year, one visitor mattered: Prime Minister Mark Carney – or rather, how Albertans would receive him. A lot is riding on the prime minister’s rapprochement with Albertans, and the vast majority of Canadians are hopeful that progress is being made and that...
As sure as summer is upon us, so are the regular tribulations of the federal Conservative Party in opposition. When the federal Conservatives sit in opposition and trail the Liberals in the polls, chances are whoever the leader is not living their best life. Step forward, Pierre Poilievre, it is your turn for a pummelling. Unfortunately for Poilievre, he tends...
The latest agreement between our government and the Trump administration to allow the opening of the Gordie Howe bridge that links Windsor and Detroit is just the latest in a long saga. After much delay and dithering, the bridge was scheduled to be open for business on June 15, 2026, after a planned ribbon cutting on June 12. The plan...
One observer said on CUSMA, Canada has to propose something that allows Trump to take the credit ‘without doing something that’s bad’
“Nice bridge you got there,” the thugs said. “It’d be a shame if something happened to it.” That’s not a verbatim transcript of what U.S. President Donald Trump’s operatives told Prime Minister Mark Carney about the Gordie Howe International Bridge, but it might as well have been. The U.S. President just shook down this country, refusing to allow the opening...
The Gordie Howe International Bridge should have been the easiest file in Canada-U.S. relations. Canada paid roughly $6.4 billion to build the bridge. Michigan received a new international crossing, customs facilities and a direct Interstate 75 connection without paying the construction bill. American workers, contractors and steel producers benefited. Automakers gained a badly needed alternative to the aging Ambassador Bridge...
Prime Minister Mark Carney’s charm—and that, he has in abundance—may be wearing thin with some Canadians. His recent enthusiastic endorsement of another oil pipeline, intended eventually to carry another 100 million barrels a day of Alberta oil to foreign buyers, will surprise only those who have not been paying close attention. Carney has shredded most of Justin Trudeau’s green policies...
Prime Minister Mark Carney has a plan to “modernize” the Senate. If this sounds familiar, it’s likely because his predecessor, Justin Trudeau, said the same thing 11 years ago. Trudeau’s reform measures sought to eliminate partisanship from Senate appointments—or at least to create this appearance—Carney is bringing back partisan appointments. While proponents of democracy and political equality are likely not...
Sandwiched between 25 other news releases last week — from the prime minister’s NATO trip, to his lunch with Saudi Arabia Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman — the man the CIA believes ordered the assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi — Mark Carney moved to drown out the opposition voices he’s encountered in the Senate. In a statement Tuesday, Carney announced...
“O Canada” was played in Saudi Arabia this week for the first time in 26 years. That quarter-century silence tells the real story behind Mark Carney’s visit to Jeddah. The last Canadian prime minister to visit Saudi Arabia was Jean Chrétien, in 2000, during a 12-day Middle East tour driven by a very different ambition: to reinforce Canada’s role as...
Prime Minister Mark Carney’s way of communicating and branding things is so distinct that some choice Carneyisms have crept into everyday Canadian speech over the year and a half he’s been a daily national presence. We don’t have plans or policies in this country right now – everything is a strategy. Public money purportedly luring private investment is, of course...
Serious times call for serious politics. That means serious leaders offering serious solutions. If all this sounds like a campaign slogan for the establishment, you’re probably right. But its rising resonance may well prove the unravelling of the conservative populist rage that has been driving politics in Canada, the United States and Europe.
Mark Carney is committing enormous sums of public money with little explanation, in ways that neither Justin Trudeau nor most other prime ministers before him could have gotten away with. It can be easy to look past, because of the financial gravitas that Carney carries.
Federal Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre provoked a backlash this week with an ill-advised comment on the outcome of the race for the leadership of the B.C. party of the same name. At a party event in Calgary, Poilievre took note of the presence of the new leader of the B.C. Conservatives, Kerry-Lynne Findlay, hailing her as the “future premier of...
Annual gatherings of the great democracies in the age of Donald Trump have acquired a certain … rhythm. There is the meeting that takes place before the President arrives, when all is as it usually is between world leaders of the same broad ideological hue: convivial open sessions, chummy photo-ops, urgent side-conferences. Then there is what happens after he gets...
When Elon Musk bought Twitter in 2022, he promised to restore its commitment to free speech, eliminate its progressive bias and otherwise preserve its role as the “de-facto public square.” Instead, as anyone who has had the misfortune of spending time there knows, he turned it into a right-wing echo chamber — one increasingly populated with spam, crypto scammers and...
Canada’s minister of energy and natural resources told a room of chiefs on Thursday that in his mind “there is no good way to build major projects without First Nations partnership and leadership.” Amid tension over Prime Minister Mark Carney’s promise to meaningfully consult Indigenous communities, while also angling to expedite approvals for new major energy and infrastructure projects in...
The U.S. Treasury last year swelled with revenue from President Donald Trump's double-digit taxes on imports from almost every country on earth. But the money dried up after the Supreme Court struck down the biggest and boldest of Trump's tariffs in February. The question now is: Can the president's trade team make good on its promise to replace the lost...
Ambassador Pete Hoekstra is the unabashed defender of the president in a country where tariffs and 51st-state talk are wildly unpopular
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has been thinking big — very big — as plans advance to build a new West Coast oil pipeline. To her, growing oil production in her province to fill that million-barrel pipe isn’t a sufficient ambition. She’s staked a target to double Alberta oil production to eight million barrels a day in as little as a...
The United States took one step closer to abandoning the practice of changing the clocks every spring and fall, raising the question: how would such a move down south impact Canada? This week, the U.S. Congress voted in favour of a bill that would put an end to twice-yearly time change and stay on daylight saving time year-round. The bill...
A handful of federal ministers are expected to address hundreds of First Nations chiefs as they gather in Ottawa today. They'll be speaking in front of the Assembly of First Nations' annual general meeting about public safety, the economy and natural resources development and social services for communities. The Assembly of First Nations is a national advocacy body that takes...
An internal government audit of Canadian diplomatic missions in the U.S. completed late last year found staff faced safety risks and problems with accessing health care -- more than a year after a union flagged those same issues. "U.S. cities present security risks related to street crime, protests, the widespread presence of firearms, and broader social crises such as substance...
Prime Minister Mark Carney has no intention of reviving a Liberal caucus in the Senate but is prepared to beef up Conservative ranks in the upper chamber, said the government’s representative in the Senate, Pierre Moreau. In an interview with National Post, Moreau said that he has been in discussions with Carney’s office for some time about the new Senate...
A judge has extended a special court order freezing the assets of a prominent Alberta separatist as part of an ongoing trust fund dispute with a First Nation. Last week, Justice Michael Marion in Calgary granted a temporary injunction freezing up to $8.5 million in assets held by Jeffrey Rath. It's part of an ongoing legal battle between Rath and...
As President Donald Trump's administration continues to erode allies' trust, a new poll says the Canadians surveyed who say they hold a favourable view of China now outnumber those who say the same of the United States. Recent polling by the Pew Research Center found Trump receiving mostly negative ratings from countries around the world. Today, the agency released new...
The US and Canada are presenting different accounts of a profit-sharing deal President Donald Trump agreed to that permits a new bridge connecting Michigan and Ontario to open later this month. The White House and the government of Prime Minister Mark Carney last Friday announced an agreement to open the Gordie Howe International Bridge after the US delayed it. Canada...
The federal government will not accept any new applications this year from people who want to sponsor their parents and grandparents to come to Canada as permanent residents under a program meant to promote family reunification. The Immigration Department said the change is part of an effort to responsibly manage the system and reduce wait times. In a statement posted...
What was supposed to be the start of Premier Tim Houston's speaking tour to chambers of commerce across Nova Scotia ended up with him requiring a police escort. Houston was in Wolfville, N.S., on Wednesday where he was addressing the Annapolis Valley Chamber of Commerce at Acadia University about his vision for the province's economy. When Houston first arrived at...
CHARLOTTETOWN -- The leader of Prince Edward Island's Liberals has stepped down after another unsuccessful bid to win a seat in the legislature.
A week after Prime Minister Mark Carney announced his first picks for the Red Chamber, the federal government has named almost a dozen people to its Independent Advisory Board for Senate Appointments. In 2016, the previous Liberal government created the independent advisory board to provide non-binding recommendations on Senate appointments to the prime minister. Under the Carney government, the board...
U.K., Japan and Italy are partners in multibillion-dollar program. Defence Minister David McGuinty is expected to announce in the United Kingdom next week that Canada will play a role in an international program to build the next generation of stealth fighter jets, CBC News has learned. Canada has reached a deal to join the Global Combat Air Program as an...
First Nations chiefs say they'll oppose any actions by federal and provincial governments to expedite major projects that would undermine their rights and environmental protections. They passed two resolutions at the Assembly of First Nations annual general meeting in Ottawa on Wednesday confirming that stance and committing the AFN to opposing legislation or policies that dilute their rights or undermine...
The federal Conservatives outspent the Liberals almost two to one last year despite losing the general election to Mark Carney’s incumbent party, which won a fourth consecutive campaign. Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre’s party also ended the year in debt, even as it raised a record $48.4-million from supporters in 2025. The Liberals, meanwhile, ended the year with no debt, after...
The Bank of Canada is holding its policy rate at 2.25 per cent and says that it expects the Canadian economy to improve, despite flatlined growth over the past 18 months. But there are big caveats. Although the economy is showing signs of improvement and inflation is easing, the BOC’s new monetary policy report released today warns that uncertainty driven...
The federal government has gone from a C student to top of the class in its work to advance internal trade between provinces, says the Canadian Federation of Independent Business. In the federation's latest annual report card on internal trade, the federal government jumped to an A-plus from the C grade it got in 2025. The report card released Wednesday...
A court case involving a prominent Alberta separatist who had his assets frozen is set to move forward today. Last week, Justice Michael Marion in Calgary granted an interim injunction freezing up to $8.5 million in assets held by Jeffrey Rath. That injunction is set to be reviewed as part of a legal battle between Rath and Tallcree First Nation...
First Nations leaders attending the Assembly of First Nations annual general meeting in Ottawa today are expected to debate the terms of an upcoming meeting with Prime Minister Mark Carney and the premiers and territorial leaders. In her opening remarks to the gathering Tuesday, Assembly of First Nations National Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak said a planned meeting this fall between...
New polling says favourability for Lewis and vote intention for NDP remain flat. NDP Leader Avi Lewis spent the first 100 days at his party's helm outside of Parliament, and isn't looking for a seat any time soon. But since his election in March, the seatless leader also appears to have made little headway in making a name for himself...
A senior Trump administration official is publicly criticizing the idea of a collective “middle powers” strategy among American allies and partners, warning it is a “distraction” that could cost them “time, money and political capital.” In a series of posts on X on Tuesday, Elbridge Colby, the U.S. Undersecretary of Defence for Policy, also pushed back on the idea that...
Prime Minister Mark Carney is playing down the amount of toll profits Canada will share with the United States under a new deal to open the Gordie Howe International Bridge, but his government is so far making no commitment to release the text of the arrangement. The new Windsor-Detroit crossing, along one of Canada’s most important trade corridors, is set...
'There’s a fairly narrow bandwidth that the government is working on internationally,' says Lloyd Axworthy, but other past officials disagree that the PM's method is a 'radical departure,' calling it a 'wonderful opportunity.' Former Liberal top diplomat Lloyd Axworthy says Prime Minister Mark Carney is forgoing consultation in his approach to foreign policy, and that his method is diminishing the...
Hamilton is expected to vote today on whether to become the first city in Canada to put a temporary pause on new data centres. The moratorium vote comes as local lawmakers across the country wrestle with the noise, energy and water concerns around a new wave of data centres powering the boom in artificial intelligence. Backers of Hamilton's proposal say...
An Alberta court has temporarily frozen up to $8.5 million in assets held by one of the province's most recognizable separatist leaders. Justice Michael Marion granted an interim injunction last week preventing Jeffrey Rath and his law firm from transferring the assets until a Wednesday hearing. It's part of an ongoing legal battle between the Tallcree First Nation and Rath...
A former federal politician denies trafficking any firearms but acknowledges he illegally transferred three guns, after police seized hundreds of weapons from his western Manitoba home last week.
Amid anemic poll numbers and messy public infighting, some Conservatives worry that fundraising numbers are also taking a hit as Pierre Poilievre struggles to keep his party together. The Conservatives have long maintained a fundraising advantage over the Liberal Party, while in government and on the opposition benches. That edge is a point of pride for the Conservative Party, which...
For many years, Elbridge Colby has been one of the loudest voices in Washington calling for America’s NATO allies to pay their “fair share” on defence, in order to allow the United States to pivot toward the growing challenge of China.
In the weeks after Donald Trump lost to Joe Biden in 2020, the people that Trump appointed to run the Department of Justice, cybersecurity agencies and intelligence departments all said the same thing -- the election was fair, legitimate and free of major fraud or foreign interference.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Donald Trump is set to address the nation on Thursday night on topics he said will include elections and voting machines, suggesting he is likely to revisit some of the unproven claims he has previously made about Republican losses, particularly his own in 2020.
When major disasters strike, Americans are routinely waiting weeks -- or even months -- to receive presidential approval for aid. And if they live in a state that didn't support President Donald Trump, chances are greater that aid will denied.
Ambassador Pete Hoekstra is the unabashed defender of the president in a country where tariffs and 51st-state talk are wildly unpopular
The Carney government has sent a senior official from Canada’s embassy in Washington, to a Trump administration summit trying to rally allies behind a new U.S. campaign targeting left-wing groups it claims are a top terrorism threat. Canada is one of more than 60 countries attending the high-level counterterrorism meeting, Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand’s office confirmed Thursday, though it’s...
An internal government audit of Canadian diplomatic missions in the U.S. completed late last year found staff faced safety risks and problems with accessing health care -- more than a year after a union flagged those same issues. "U.S. cities present security risks related to street crime, protests, the widespread presence of firearms, and broader social crises such as substance...
A senior Trump administration official is publicly criticizing the idea of a collective “middle powers” strategy among American allies and partners, warning it is a “distraction” that could cost them “time, money and political capital.” In a series of posts on X on Tuesday, Elbridge Colby, the U.S. Undersecretary of Defence for Policy, also pushed back on the idea that...
U.S. President Donald Trump said Monday that the United States is “reinstating” a blockade on Iran in the Strait of Hormuz and will charge ships for safe passage, after another heavy exchange of fire threatened negotiations aimed at ending the war. He said on social media that Iranian ships will no longer be able to travel through the strait and...
Resource projects in Canada – including mines, pipelines, and energy infrastructure – often require engagement with affected First Nations before they can proceed. When consultation is mishandled or ignored, the consequences extend well beyond regulatory delays: projects can face costly litigation, years of uncertainty, lost investment, or even cancellation. Billions of dollars of economic activity and thousands of jobs can...
This October, Canada faces both an Alberta referendum that could catalyze an unprecedented independence vote in that province and a provincial election that could do the same in Québec for the third time in 50 years. As a result, the word “sovereignty” has again entered our national, daily political discourse. As it happens, sovereignty is one of the most frequently...
A collection of SubStack publishing within Canadian public affairs.
Peter Nicholson: Thanks, Chris. Since the events of July 2 we have quite a bit more information on the agreement between Canada and Alberta over the rules that are going to govern both the pipeline and oil sands production developments. I think there is a growing recognition that a pipeline shouldn’t be a “field of dreams” – that it is...
Prime Minister Carney has made clear from the outset of his time in office that without a commitment to implement the Pathways carbon capture and storage (CCS) project, there would be no new bitumen pipeline to the B.C. coast. The expectation was formalized in the Nov. 27 Alberta-Ottawa MOU and the May 15 Implementation Agreement. The oil sands industry has...
An Indigenous couple’s remains, repatriated to Canada six years ago, have yet to find a final resting place because their “spiritual belongings” are being held by museums in the United Kingdom. Six objects associated with Demasduit and Nonosabasut, among the last of the Beothuks of Newfoundland, are being retained by the National Museums Scotland and by the British Museum. Thanks...
We’ll admit it when we might have been wrong — and the results of Monday’s byelection in Prince Edward Island suggest we might have been a bit too skeptical of a Narrative Research poll that put the PEI Greens in the lead. So, we start with some mea culpas, and a discussion of whether the Cornwall—Meadowbank could be the proverbial...
Playbook Canada launches a special summer series on Alberta’s fight with Ottawa. First up, Martha Hall Findlay. The Alberta government has asked the University of Calgary’s School of Public Policy to produce a study on the economic and fiscal consequences of separation. Hall Findlay is leading the project, and she had lots to say about the October referendum and the...
Cyclospora: it's a microscopic organism found in water, but can spread to food-- especially produce. Found most commonly in wet and warm climates, it can travel into your grocery store through things like imported lettuce, raspberries, carrots, or more. And once you catch it, it causes some 'explosive' problems. Right now, more than half of US states-- with Michigan seeming...
Recently, in the U.S., there’s been a wave of self described democratic socialists running for and winning elected office. There is the improbable case of Zohran Mamdani who won his New York mayoral campaign. But there are other high profile races where establishment incumbents are being unseated by much younger insurgents. From Denver to New York, Washington D.C. to Seattle...
