Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government is shuttering a trouble-plagued Arctic naval facility, two government sources say – a project from the Stephen Harper era that was originally conceived as a major demonstration of Canadian sovereignty in the North. The Nanisivik Naval Facility on northern Baffin Island was first promised in 2007 by the Harper government, but cost-cutting later resulted in...
Changes coming as Alberta MOU negotiations drag on. The Carney government is planning to propose changes to make it easier for natural resource projects — including pipelines — to be approved and built faster. Two federal sources say an announcement is planned for later this week that could shift the regulatory framework for all natural resource and federally regulated major...
Pierre Poilievre is set to address a conference of Canadian conservatives today as the Canada Strong and Free Network meets in Ottawa. The Tory leader is scheduled to give a keynote address just before noon. The annual event also features a fireside chat with former U.S. secretary of state Mike Pompeo.
Former Alberta premier Jason Kenney said those in favour of keeping Alberta in Canada need to “get their act together” and be more vocal in the face of a separatist movement campaigning to leave the country. With separatists in Alberta pushing to hold a referendum on independence in October, Mr. Kenney said the pro-Canada side within the province hasn’t gotten...
The RCMP has informed the Alberta government that there is no evidence the province’s separatist movement has been subject to foreign interference, according to the minister who oversees policing. Mike Ellis, Alberta’s Minister for Public Safety and Emergency Services, on Wednesday attributed this information to the RCMP’s deputy commissioner, noting the update landed before the government learned about an alleged...
A new Liaison Strategies survey of Quebec shows a close provincial race, with the Parti Québécois narrowly ahead of the Quebec Liberal Party among decided and leaning voters. If a provincial election were held today, the PQ would receive 32% of the decided and leaning vote, followed by the Liberals at 32%, the CAQ at 16%, the PCQ at 11%...
The Weekly Nanos Tracking is produced by the Nanos Research Corporation, headquartered in Canada, which operates in Canada and the United States. The data is based on random interviews with 1,000 Canadian consumers (recruited by RDD land- and cell-line sample), using a four-week rolling average of 250 respondents each week, 18 years of age and over. The random sample of...
The first international conference devoted to moving the world off of oil, gas and coal closed last week in Santa Marta, Colombia, where more than 50 nations agreed to hold a follow-up summit and strike a new global panel to draft a roadmap for phasing out fossil fuels. It was co-hosted by Colombia and the Netherlands, both middle powers, working...
A major Mexican trade mission to Canada launched Thursday, involving over 200 Mexican businesses, looking to expand commercial links during the two-day, two-city encounter that will include high-level talks on the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA). The mission begins in Toronto on Thursday before moving to Montreal. It is the largest that Mexico has ever sent to Canada, though it's a truncated...
Military grappling with how to stop airborne threats without disrupting civilian life or breaking the law. The Canadian military has quietly started deploying counter-drone systems around its major ports and air bases as it grapples with both the technology and the legalities of shooting down uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs), CBC News has learned. The idea is to prevent the kind...
Is Canada on track to meet its climate goals? The honest answer is “no,” and the really honest answer is that Canada’s climate goals will never be reached. They are folly and were designed by climate idealogues who had no concept of consequence, economic reality, or un...
The world is wracked by rising military and economic conflict. Yet we have few leaders competent to lead their nations through this maelstrom. Emmanuel Macron may be one but he is months away from retirement. New Japanese Prime Minster Sanae Takaichi may be another but has yet to be tested. Americans may soon be left in the hands of J.D...
Oh, goody. We now find out there WILL BE a meeting scheduled between Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and Prime Minister Mark Carney bright and early Friday morning in Ottawa. The news comes to your scribbler Wednesday afternoon.
Mark Carney was doing a fireside chat last fall in Toronto and the conversation rolled around to Canada’s advantages over the United States. “We have rule of law. That’s one of the big things,” Carney quipped, and his audience rewarded him with a huge laugh.
The scandal isn’t what’s illegal. The scandal is what’s legal. – Michael Kinsley What is so scandalous about a separatist group getting its hands on the Alberta voter list, including the names, addresses and phone numbers of nearly three million of the province’s citizens? Is it that the list appears to have been illegally obtained, and passed on to the...
The leaders of Alberta’s separatist movement spent years organizing their way into de-facto control over Alberta’s governing party, and with it the ability to direct the terms of their own referendum petition. They collected many tens of thousands of signatures, raised untold (and unknown) amounts of money and were preparing for a public vote this fall. And now, thanks to...
A network of inauthentic YouTube accounts that were portraying themselves as homegrown Albertans have spent months pushing for Alberta secession and American annexation, an incident report from the Canadian Digital Media Research Network and the Media Ecosystem Observatory found. The network has racked up nearly 40 million views by "exploiting genuinely-held grievances and repurposing them to advance narratives that normalize...
Carney says he's meeting Danielle Smith in Ottawa this week but doesn't tell Smith
Last summer, B.C.’s seniors advocate issued a report on the state of long-term care in the province. For many, it was a terrifying read. Dan Levitt found that the number of seniors languishing on wait lists for publicly subsidized long-term care had more than tripled in nine years – from 2,381 in 2016 to 7,212 in 2025. Yes, a 200-per-cent...
It must have been tempting for Prime Minister Mark Carney to appoint an absolute blockhead as the new parliamentary budget officer. Instead, in Annette Ryan, he has installed a 30-year public service veteran with Finance Department experience who has probably seen it all when it comes to juggling the numbers and concealing errors.
When the rare and relatively unfettered opportunity arises, it might be tempting for a prime minister to use the selection of a governor general to do something splashy or exciting or unconventional, like choosing a hockey player or an astronaut. And there is nothing inherently wrong with excitement or novelty. But this is perhaps not a moment for indulging in...
If it’s Tuesday, this must be Belgium . If you’re old enough to remember this 1969 film, where a busload of hapless tourists barrel across Europe on an 18-day tour of nine cities, you probably voted Liberal in the past election, like most of Canada’s baby boomers. And you’re probably happy with the way things are going so far. But...
In this province, there’s a significant group of extremists who don’t believe laws apply to them. The extent of this destructive, dangerous nihilism is revealed with the appalling misuse of data by a separatist-linked group that exposes detailed personal information of 2.9 million Albertans. The separatists continue to ridicule the authorities while Elections Alberta investigates the massive data flip from...
The Alberta separatism movement is caught up in yet another controversy and its credibility has been blown to bits. Last week it was revealed that an affiliated group had somehow got its hands on the complete list of registered voters — all 2.9 million of them with their names, addresses, phone numbers and electoral districts — and put them up...
Like hungry wolves, opposition MPs look to isolate and target the weakest, the most awkward or the most bumbling in the ministerial herd. The Conservatives are currently launching coordinated attacks on Lena Diab, the immigration minister. In an unsentimental social media post, the party’s immigration critic, Michelle Rempel Garner, called for the minister to be fired , after her department...
If anyone in Canada was sleepwalking toward the prospect of an Alberta independence referendum, events over the last few days should be enough to jolt anyone awake. A massive data breach of Alberta voter information, published by a pro-independence outfit called The Centurion Project, has sparked an RCMP investigation and some hurried efforts by the Alberta government to check whether...
Elections Alberta could have known more than a month ago that there was a violation of the province’s voter file, exposing the personal data of 2.9 million electors in the province to unknown numbers of bad actors. They could have known because I warned them – or, rather, I tried to. I reported an anonymous tip. I got a call...
The absence of a visible leader of the Democrats will help, not hurt Democratic Party chances in the midterms.
The Liberals' $25-billion 'sovereign wealth fund' proves Mark Carney thinks governments should allocate Canada's capital
So far, there's been a lot more talk than action, and, for a guy who campaigned on rebuilding this country so it could confront existential threats to our sovereignty, more speed would be better. I suspect even the prime minister would agree.
Breaking my rule of never quoting myself, but those lines are from a column of mine from February 2017, one month after Donald Trump’s first inauguration. Since then, American democracy has experienced the respite of four years of Joe Biden, which not so much reinstated normal working conditions in journalism and comedy as slowed the slide of both towards the...
Much has been said since March about how Avi Lewis has finally and fully landed in the family business, following in the footsteps of his father, Stephen, and his grandfather, David, who also were leaders for the New Democrats. But Lewis has always been in a family business. His mother, Michele Landsberg, wrote for this paper for more than 2...
Is this it? Is this all a galaxy brain in control of a government within sight of 50 per cent in the polls can offer in the midst of a crisis? A bit of a nip here, a bit of a tuck there, but all-in-all keeping Canada on the same rotten economic trajectory?
There were several rounds of chatter over the summer and into the fall about whether the honeymoon was over for Prime Minister Mark Carney – and if not yet, when that moment would come. Elbows sagged; President Donald Trump went on blowing up like a puffer fish; tariffs were carving up certain sectors of the economy and regions of the...
It’s alarming that Prime Minister Mark Carney, citing China as a “strategic partner,” has agreed to a secret deal on co-operating with Chinese police, given the highly controversial nature of these agreements in the past.
More than two-thirds of Canadians support banning access to social media and AI chatbots for children under 16, a new poll indicates. Seventy per cent of respondents to the Leger poll said they support age restrictions for social media like Instagram and TikTok, and nearly the same number, 69 per cent, support restricting AI chatbots like ChatGPT. "Concern from Canadians...
Ottawa is not yet considering bringing forward legislation to reinstate news content on Facebook and Instagram, as Canadian Identity Minister Marc Miller said he still wants to push Meta Platforms Inc. in ongoing negotiations.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is criticizing the Opposition for not telling her about a massive privacy breach at a meeting attended by one of her caucus staffers. Smith says the United Conservative Party caucus staffer didn't realize a database shown at the virtual meeting three weeks ago involved a privacy breach with the personal information of three million Alberta voters.
Prime Minister Mark Carney said Wednesday he will "take into account" the advice of an independent advisory body to fill a number of vacancies in the Senate — though he didn't say explicitly how that will impact his decisions on appointments. Former prime minister Justin Trudeau upended 150 years of Canadian parliamentary tradition when he dumped Liberal senators, named Independents...
Moscow's influence scheme is covert, while Trump-aligned meddling is overt and public. A year ago, weeks after the Carney Liberals won the last federal election, the website albertaseparatist.com sprang up, accompanied by similarly named TikTok and YouTube accounts. Article headlines included “The case for sovereignty over statehood” and “Ottawa’s piggy bank wakes up” — but these sites don’t appear to...
Malaysia's high commissioner in Canada says she is skeptical about Prime Minister Mark Carney's push to have middle powers band together against the great power of the world's dominant nations. Shazelina Abidin told the Canadian Global Affairs Institute's annual trade conference in Ottawa on Tuesday that Carney's speech at the World Economic Forum was profound, not because of its content...
German submarine maker TKMS says it has reached an agreement with General Dynamics Mission Systems-Canada on setting up an undersea research centre in Canada. It's part of TKMS's bid on the federal government's lucrative contract to supply the Royal Canadian Navy with a fleet of new submarines.
Airbus Canada has signed a deal to supply AirAsia with a massive order of 150 of its Canadian-made A220 jets in a multibillion-dollar coup for Quebec’s aviation industry. The agreement with the low-cost Malaysian airline marks the largest single firm order for the narrow-body planes — assembled north of Montreal in Mirabel — in the manufacturer's history. It also underscores...
Prime Minister Mark Carney says he isn’t in any rush to make a decision on access to medical assistance in dying for people whose sole condition is mental illness, after reports the federal government is prepared to table legislation to pause the expansion based on committee recommendation. Eligible Canadians have had access to MAID since 2016, with amendments made to...
The Bank of Canada is weighing whether to spell out how it responds to supply shocks in its monetary policy framework, including how much emphasis it places on the strength of the economy when tackling inflation.
A Canadian Trump critic has launched a lawsuit to stop the U.S. Department of Homeland Security from “unlawfully” obtaining his personal information from Google. The Canadian citizen, who uses an online pseudonym to protect his privacy, regularly goes on social media sites like X to share strongly-worded criticisms of U.S. President Donald Trump and his administration’s policies. After he posted...
The head of the International Energy Agency (IEA) said the world “has not yet completely understood” the major economic and political implications of the war in Iran, as Fatih Birol repeated earlier comments that the war and ongoing closure of the Straight of Hormuz represents the “largest energy crisis in history.” Speaking in Ottawa at a fireside chat with Tim...
OTTAWA -- Federal and provincial watchdogs say OpenAI failed to respect Canadian privacy laws when training its artificial intelligence-powered ChatGPT chatbot.
Questions are swirling over who knew — and for how long — that the personal information of millions of Albertans was openly available for all to see on the website of an Alberta separatist group. Now, Jason Kenney says he’s considering legal action after his address was allegedly shared at a meeting by the separatist group — which is run...
When it comes to the federal government’s plan to recruit upwards of 100,000 more people into the trades, there stands one demographic likely to benefit the most. Men, and more specifically, young men. Those inside Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government say the pledge, announced last week as part of the spring economic update, reflects commitments he has made around building...
Thirty-one per cent of government bills during this Parliament had a recorded vote at third reading in the House, compared to 66 per cent in the 44th Parliament and 47 per cent in the 43rd Parliament. During the current Parliament, MPs have been less likely to stand to cast their vote on government legislation to send it off to the...
The results of an investigation into whether OpenAI's ChatGPT adheres to Canada's privacy laws will be made public this morning. The federal privacy commissioner and his counterparts in Quebec, British Columbia and Alberta launched their investigation back in 2023 to probe the artificial intelligence company. At the time, the privacy watchdogs said they had received a complaint that the company...
Carney government wants to quickly pick a new fleet of detection aircraft with high Canadian content. The primary military threat facing Canada comes from hypersonic or cruise missiles arriving from the north, the sea or even space, launched by adversaries such as Russia or China, according to the Canadian Armed Forces. To defend itself, the government of Canada wants to...
more intensive security screening process to protect its grid — but a labour arbitrator has found Hydro One's national security background checks were "intrusive" and "unreasonable." The decision comes as Canada's intelligence agencies have increasingly warned that critical infrastructure in Canada is vulnerable to attack from foreign states, and that private companies need to take national security and insider threats seriously.
Canadians across most of the country will hear the shrill screeching siren of the public alerting system today. A test message and tone from Alert Ready will be broadcast on television, radio and compatible wireless devices. Test messages will be issued in nearly every province and territory except Quebec and Saskatchewan at specific times between morning and early afternoon, with...
Prime Minister Mark Carney acknowledged that the Canadian auto industry is facing “challenges” due to U.S. tariffs. His comments come amid reporting from a Japanese outlet that Honda is indefinitely suspending plans to build a $15 billion electric vehicle plant in Ontario. “There are challenges with the U.S. tariffs, unjustified tariffs in the auto sector,” Carney said to reporters on...
Alberta's United Conservative Party caucus says staff attended a meeting to discuss how to access a website that's now the focus of investigations into a massive breach of personal data. The caucus says in a statement that staff regularly attend meetings of political interest and, in this case, organizers told them the database was obtained legally. The database contained the...
REGINA -- A Saskatchewan Opposition NDP member is now sitting as an Independent.
Arbour has overseen public inquiries, UN agencies and the International Criminal Tribunal at The Hague. Former Supreme Court Justice Louise Arbour is perhaps Canada's most accomplished jurist, having served in a number of highly influential roles both at home and abroad that sometimes earned her criticism for the principled positions she took. Born to a low-income, single-parent family in Montreal...
2019 report urged greater transparency from Canada's viceregal expense program. Prime Minister Mark Carney says he will look into an expense program under which former governors general billed the government more than half a million dollars last year. The program, which launched in 1979 and has been shrouded in secrecy, allows each former governor general to bill up to $206,04...
Premier David Eby says neither the RCMP nor Canada's spy agency have ever raised concerns about his cabinet or caucus, after Vancouver's ex-mayor said a minister was being investigated for collaborating with China's government. Eby says he has "had multiple briefings with CSIS, with the RCMP" and none pointed to any concerns about any member of the government, and if...
Any attempt by Alberta to separate from the rest of Canada must follow the strict rules set out by the Clarity Act, Prime Minister Mark Carney said Tuesday, while making the case that he can stop the secessionist push by demonstrating that the federation works. On Monday, the leaders of Alberta’s separatist movement said they had gathered enough signatures to...
REGINA -- The Saskatchewan government is launching a postcard survey to determine next steps on a possible social media ban for children.
QUEBEC -- Quebec Premier Christine Frechette intends to renew the Charter's override clause to protect one of the province's French-language laws from court challenges.
Carney picks a francophone with a long legal resume to serve as the King's representative in Canada. Prime Minister Mark Carney has named former Supreme Court justice Louise Arbour as Canada's next governor general. Carney is picking a francophone with a long legal resume that includes stints prosecuting war crimes in Rwanda and Yugoslavia and serving as the UN human...
DETROIT (AP) -- For years, Michigan Republicans had circled 2026 as their chance to regain power in the swing state where Democrats hold all statewide offices and both U.S. Senate seats. Now, doubts are creeping in.
Five months ago, President Donald Trump was stinging from one of the first political defeats of his second term as Republican state senators defied him on redistricting in Indiana. Now he has proved he can still punish wayward party members after he endorsed a slate of challengers who defeated almost every one of the lawmakers he wanted to dislodge.
ATLANTA (AP) -- The Department of Justice is seeking the names of every person who worked in the 2020 election in Georgia's Fulton County, a Democratic stronghold that Donald Trump has long accused of widespread voter fraud he says cost him victory against Joe Biden in the state that year.
U.S. forces on Monday launched an effort to guide commercial ships through the Strait of Hormuz, where hundreds have been stuck since the Iran war began.
Malaysia's high commissioner in Canada says she is skeptical about Prime Minister Mark Carney's push to have middle powers band together against the great power of the world's dominant nations. Shazelina Abidin told the Canadian Global Affairs Institute's annual trade conference in Ottawa on Tuesday that Carney's speech at the World Economic Forum was profound, not because of its content...
The head of the International Energy Agency (IEA) said the world “has not yet completely understood” the major economic and political implications of the war in Iran, as Fatih Birol repeated earlier comments that the war and ongoing closure of the Straight of Hormuz represents the “largest energy crisis in history.” Speaking in Ottawa at a fireside chat with Tim...
Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon says the potential pipeline expansion project U.S. President Donald Trump approved last week is a positive sign of “cross-border communication” and co-operation, after more than a year of tension stemming from the trade war. Last week, Trump signed an order authorizing the Bridger Pipeline Expansion, a proposed project that would revive portions of the cancelled Keystone...
Prime Minister Mark Carney says his government will contribute $270 million to help Ukraine secure critical military capabilities in its defence against Russia’s full-scale invasion. Carney made the announcement in Armenia on Monday, where he is meeting with world leaders during the European Political Community summit, a gathering focused on strategic co-operation in politics, security and infrastructure. The money will...
Prime Minister Mark Carney is headed to Armenia on Saturday for a visit his office says is framed around Ukraine's defence and drumming up more trade and investment in Europe. Jean-Francois Ratelle, an international studies professor at the University of Ottawa who specializes in the Caucasus region, said it's disappointing that the visit doesn't seem to be aimed at continuing...
Canada’s declining productivity and weak competitiveness are increasingly tied to structural barriers that limit competition in domestic markets. One of the most consequential – and overlooked – of these barriers lies in public procurement. Accounting for 13.4 per cent of GDP, or roughly $350 billion annually – government purchasing should exert strong downward pressure on costs and expand opportunities for...
A collection of SubStack publishing within Canadian public affairs.
If you want to sound wise these days, just blame the crazy state of the world on polarization. If you want to sound really wise, say that fighting polarization needs to be part of the political agenda and be sure to blame social media and Donald Trump (although not necessarily in that order) for the current chaos. Despite it being...
An F-35 crash in Alaska should give shivers to Canada’s military. The pilot survived thankfully, but the $200 million plane was completely destroyed.
By now, most of you reading this column are aware of Prime Minister Mark Carney’s announcement earlier this week that the government is launching a sovereign wealth fund (entitled the Canada Strong Fund). There is, in theory, nothing wrong with such an idea. Indeed, the logic behind such a fund is quite sound.
The Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act, passed in 1964 and 1965 respectively, marked the beginning of multi-racial democracy in the United States. But in the decades since, those achievements have been steadily contested. Just days ago, The U.S. Supreme Court dealt yet another blow to the Voting Rights Act with a decision regarding the Louisiana congressional map. Many...
A lot of the housing conversation goes towards first-time home buyers...but what about second-time? Or those looking to downsize? A clogged-up housing market is a problem that affects Canadians in all life stages.
Watching some US television today after yesterday's European summit has left some commentators asking about a major Canadian role in a post America world. Plus a weekend article in the Toronto Star was, and still is, a real talker. It asked whether Mark Carney was drifting away from some of the Liberals who had helped him win the leadership and...
