The federal Liberals are teeing up Thursday's budget as the government's next step toward fixing long-standing problems facing Canada's economy. Budget 2026 will be the second tabled under Prime Minister Mark Carney. Budgets detail a government's expectations for economic growth and the projected pace of spending and borrowing. They're also political documents that can serve as a launching pad for...
Control of both chambers of the U.S. Congress will shift to the Democrats next year, after Tuesday's midterm elections saw a blue wave wash over even some of the most reliably Republican states. Here are some ways the change in the distribution of power in Washington could affect Canada. Tariffs When the Democrats take control of the House of Representatives...
Having just seen, in the U.S. midterm elections, the political price of a public struggling with the cost of living, the Carney government is expected to table an annual budget Thursday that seeks to reassure Canadians that Ottawa is here to help. The new fiscal blueprint is being packaged in advance as the vital next step in what Prime Minister...
A majority of Canadians want the country to accept fewer immigrants and temporary residents next year, according to a new Nanos Research survey commissioned by CTV News, as the country continues to grapple with immigration levels and their impact on housing, services and the economy. The survey found that 52.3 per cent of respondents believe Canada should accept fewer immigrants...
Many Canadians welcome the Democratic sweep of U.S. Congress, but have mixed views on whether voters' strong rebuke of President Donald Trump's administration will change their attitude toward America amid the ongoing trade war. Trump's punishing tariffs on Canadian goods, repeated musings about making Canada the 51st state and escalating tensions that include changing the name of Lake Ontario to...
A new Abacus Data survey conducted ahead of Thursday’s federal budget finds Canadians approaching Budget Day with significant concerns about their household finances and the country’s economic future. The rising cost of living remains the most important issue facing Canada, while Donald Trump and the United States are increasingly seen as the country’s greatest threat. Concern about artificial intelligence has...
The latest Nanos Weekly Tracking finds the Liberals at 45.4% in federal voting intentions, compared with 28.9% for the Conservatives. The NDP stands at 13.6%, followed by the Bloc Québécois at 7.4%, the People’s Party at 2.7% and the Greens at 1.9%.
Officially, Mark Carney’s government is saying that the Republicans’ stunning losses in the U.S. midterm elections are the Americans’ own business. But this government also knows that there’s a clear line connecting the midterms to the budget being unveiled in Canada on Thursday — and that’s the affordability crisis.
Ghana's head of state praised Canada this week for advocating against what he called a "rigged global system" that keeps African countries trapped by debt and mired in climate chaos. His comments come as Canadian officials confirm Ottawa will appoint a new Africa envoy, months after leaving the post vacant. "Canada has a favourable disposition towards the Global South," Ghana's...
Ontario Liberal leadership hopefuls are pitching themselves as the antidote to Premier Doug Ford in the final debate before voting begins with little disagreement between them, though several took different tacks on taxes. Navdeep Bains, Stephanie Bowman, Lee Fairclough and Dylan Marando say they are serious politicians at a serious time in an effort to contrast with Ford's folksy yet...
Canada’s telecommunications networks are critical national infrastructure. They connect our businesses, governments, emergency services and citizens. As we expand 5G, artificial intelligence, data centres and digital infrastructure, we must ask a fundamental question: are the networks connecting all of it secure?
By the standards of American elections, this was an earthquake. The two-party system is so entrenched, and American voters’ political identities so immovable, that shifts in the balance of power in any given election tend to be muted. So the Democrats’ gains last night are, in this context, historic. When all the votes are counted, they will probably emerge with...
Austin, Texas may have sounded like a street party as the results came in last night, but even in Canada, if you listened closely enough, you could almost hear the collective sigh of relief. Nobody who was rooting for a win by the Democrats wanted to trust the polls or the predictions of a “blue wave” after the traumatic experiences...
In his 2016 election campaign, Donald Trump made a remarkable observation. “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose supporters.” At a rally in Tennessee last month, he demonstrated that his attitude hadn’t changed. He told his audience, “I could say the stupidest things, and you clap.” Throughout the midterms campaign he...
American streets are being patrolled by murderous secret police. The constitutional order and the division of powers have broken down. Some major media outlets have become sycophantic devotees of the ruling party, and others are following suit. A sitting U.S. president has amassed billions of dollars in ill-gotten gains from brazen and scuzzy quid pro quos.
In the end, Canada didn’t have to interfere in the 2026 midterms to register our preference for an outcome. Americans did it for us. To compare the reasons for Tuesday’s midterm election result to any previous midterm election result is as pointless as comparing Donald Trump’s presidency to any previous presidency. Yes, there are statistics and charts and local issues...
Prime Minister Mark Carney has just called six byelections for early December. The results could have a determining effect on Pierre Poilievre’s future as Conservative leader. They could also provide the first clues as to whether the belligerent tone of the minority Parti Québécois government is finding favour with voters.
Mark Carney doesn’t seem like much of a prankster, but you could forgive Liberals who supported Justin Trudeau’s policies for feeling as if the prime minister is endlessly pulling their collective leg. Changes of direction are everywhere. The consumer carbon tax is gone. A new oil pipeline is on the way and major resource-development projects are on track to receive...
Watching the governor of the Bank of Canada field questions from MPs at the House of Commons finance committee was like viewing an episode of Star Trek: Next Generation, in which Jean-Luc Picard grapples with the Prime Directive. This general order prohibits Starfleet personnel from interfering with the natural development of primitive alien civilizations.
Opposition parties banded together this week in a futile attempt to hear more expert testimony on Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Building Canada Strong Act, C-39, after dozens of witnesses warned MPs the bill is deeply flawed, and more than 100 individual Canadians and groups urged amendments or begged the government to change course on legislation that will impact labour rights...
Around the world, borrowing costs are rising, growth is only middling, economic risks are tilted to the downside and, after six years of global shocks, most countries’ fiscal buffers are depleted. The IMF’s recent conclusion from all this is that governments need to rein in their spending and borrowing. This week’s federal budget should not take the view that Canada...
Winston Churchill once said that history would be kind to him because he intended to write it. And he did, producing 13 volumes of memoirs over the course of his long life. More than a decade after leaving the Prime Minister’s Office, Stephen Harper’s memoirs have finally landed with a thump — all 656 pages of them.
It truly is quite astonishingly hypocritical that the same people who have made careers railing against the way Alberta is under-represented by population in the Senate seem to get quite huffily defensive over the tabling of new electoral districts that would leave urban Albertans meaningfully under-represented compared to rural ones. Earlier this year, Alberta’s Electoral Boundaries Commission unveiled a new...
With Americans heading to the polls for their midterm elections, it feels like Thursday’s federal budget is getting a lot less media attention than usual. Ottawa might not mind this: every time U.S. President Donald Trump twitches, Prime Minister Mark Carney’s popularity rises. But while Washington commands the headlines, Canadians should check out the creeping sea of red ink below...
Prime Minister Mark Carney is returning at this writing from the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in St. John’s, Antigua and Barbuda, where his participation continued a long tradition in which Canada has not merely attended Commonwealth meetings but helped shape the organization’s evolution. “As Canada charts its path forward in this new world, we look to our fellow...
In general, so long as it’s legal and not hurting anyone, I think people should be allowed to spend their money on what they want to spend it on. But how much money should be allowed to affect the democratic process sits uncomfortably alongside that preference of mine. A system in which everyone has one vote, but one person can...
I am not, it should be acknowledged, an expert on the merits of frontier AI models. I am, however, a reasonably seasoned observer of government ministers proclaiming solemnly that they have just made a very prudent investment of taxpayers’ money, on the most favourable of terms, as AI minister Evan Solomon did this past weekend. Sometimes it works out: the...
In the spring of 2024, nine months before he formally entered politics, Mark Carney made a couple of public appearances to discuss the state of the Canadian economy and the possible paths forward.
It is the job of the columnist to pull a bunch of disparate stories together and find the common theme that links them all. If you’re feeling particularly ambitious, you could even try and create an entire grand narrative out of all the various little data points. I don’t think the recent wave of elections and referendums in this country...
On Thursday, the Carney government released a paper outlining its security policy framework, a long-awaited exposition of its view on how to protect Canadians in this troubled world. It needs to be carefully considered by Canadians, as it portrays a country very different from the internationalist-minded, human-rights-conscious, effective diplomatic participant that Canada has been for countless decades; a country that...
The United States and the world, including Canada, face two more years of Donald Trump’s presidency. It could very easily be the most dangerous time in recent history, depending on how the most iconoclastic and belligerent president in American history approaches his last years in office.
Technically speaking, Prime Minister Mark Carney’s majority in Parliament will be tested in a series of byelections called for Dec. 7. The Liberals currently hold 173 of Parliament’s 343 seats, with six vacancies now up for grabs. Of the six ridings, three are in Quebec — where the Liberals hope to pick up a long-time NDP seat in Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie...
François-Philippe Champagne says he often drops a real-world reminder into discussions he’s having with colleagues on the big decisions that loom before Mark Carney’s government these days. Call it the “mom test.” “I say: ‘I’m not sure my mother would understand what you just said,’ ” the finance minister explains. “I use that at cabinet. I’ve used that at caucus...
Monday evening, in what was once a Bank of Montreal, Prime Minister Mark Carney dined across from his guest of honour, the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, whom he seated next to former prime minister Stephen Harper. It is not the first time Carney has signalled close ties to Harper. In September...
Tuesday’s election in Israel will take months of intense bargaining between all of the more than ten parties now to be represented in the Knesset (Parliament), before the composition of the government and the prime minister are identified. The threshold in the popular vote required to elect a legislator is 3.25 per cent of the...
When Michel Pottier and his wife decided a year ago to move from Maine to his hometown of Halifax, they did their best to plan ahead and play by the rules. Pottier made arrangements to transfer his job to Canada. His American-born wife, Lindsey Jade Higgins, applied for spousal permanent resident status.
Since late 2022, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has relied heavily on mansion fundraisers to court billionaires, business dynasties, and television personalities, while Prime Minister Mark Carney and his ministers have drawn developers, investors, and former politicians since his Liberal leadership bid in early 2025.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says sweeping Democrat wins in the U.S. midterm elections prove her province was on the right path in the cross-border trade war. "It is a vindication of our approach when it comes to tariffs," Smith told the house during question period Wednesday. "We always have objected to tariffs. W
Beijing and Ottawa are extending a January agreement to provide Chinese market access to Canadian imports in exchange for Canadian market access for Chinese steel and aluminum. The news comes as one of China's most important officials prepares to visit Vancouver and Prime Minister Mark Carney plans to return to China later this month. In March, China dropped tariffs on...
Federal Energy Minister Tim Hodgson accused the Tories Wednesday of peddling "conspiracy theories" as they asked questions about who the Liberals are seconding to work at the government's major projects office. For the second straight day, Conservatives pressed the Liberals for details of the arrangements. They accused the government of not being transparent about where those employees are being seconded...
Canada-U.S. trade minister says strategy unchanged after Republican midterm losses. A senior Democrat says his party will work to end U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs on allies, including Canada, when it takes control of Congress next year. "We want to have free and fair trade with Canada like the rest of the world. So that's going to be very much...
The Liberal government's push to diversify trade won't change direction now that Democrats are preparing to take control of both houses of Congress following Tuesday's midterm elections, Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc said Wednesday. LeBlanc said recent talks with U.S. President Donald Trump's administration have been productive and he looks forward to speaking more with his American counterparts in the...
The fallout from the Democrat tsunami that crashed over the U.S. Congress was swift on Wednesday, after American voters rejected President Donald Trump's turbulent second term with a midterm election blowout. In a stinging rebuke of the second Trump administration, Democrats flipped long-held Republican Senate seats in Texas, Maine and South Carolina. The blue wave also washed over House seats...
Canada’s upcoming federal budget will earmark more money to address homelessness, including funds for supportive housing, as cities struggle with encampments and growing unsheltered populations. Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government has said improving affordability and stimulating growth will be top priorities of the spending plan, which will be presented Thursday. Tackling the country’s homelessness problem will be a focus, said...
Publicly, Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government is taking a cautious approach to the U.S. midterms election result. But privately, it’s buoyed and relieved. Following a decisive Republican defeat in the House and Senate on Tuesday night, Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc told reporters on Parliament Hill the election results change nothing in Canada’s approach to trade talks with the White...
Deal means tariffs on agricultural and seafood products paused until end of 2028. The federal government announced on Wednesday that China will extend its soon-to-expire tariff-free treatment for some Canadian agricultural and seafood products for another two years. After Prime Minister Mark Carney's January trip to Beijing, China struck a deal with Ottawa that saw it pause its 100 per...
Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew is calling on U.S. politicians to work to remove tariffs on Canada and end the war with Iran after resounding Democratic party wins in the midterm elections. On social media, Kinew congratulated Democrats for "absolutely dominating Trump" in Tuesday's vote. The party took control of both houses of Congress and flipped long-held Republican Senate seats and...
Ontario Premier Doug Ford says he was "doing cartwheels" after the Democrats took control of the House of Representatives and the Senate in the U.S. midterm elections. Ford says the trade war is not over, but he is buoyed by the rebuke of U.S. President Donald Trump by the American electorate. He says he has directed his cabinet to head...
Wednesday in northern British Columbia, prompting two area hospitals to declare Code Orange protocols to deal with the mass-casualty event. First responders were called to the scene along Highway 39, south of the community of Mackenzie, where police say about 20 people were hurt, some seriously, after the bus left the roadway. The B.C. Highway Patrol says officers were called...
Quebec Premier Paul St-Pierre Plamondon says his government will launch a diplomatic offensive south of the border following the U.S. midterm elections. St-Pierre Plamondon believes there's a better chance to find ways to resolve the trade war after an election in which the Democrats regained control of Congress. He believes Canada and Quebec will have an easier time finding allies...
Political watchers in Atlantic Canada say the Democrats' sweeping midterm election victory in the United States likely won't provide immediate relief from tariffs. The trade war with Canada became a ballot-box issue in several races in states along the border. In Maine, which borders New Brunswick and Quebec, Democrat Troy Jackson unseated long-standing incumbent Republican senator Susan Collins.
Proposal to batch order of up to 12 subs raises questions about economic benefits. Canadian negotiators have proposed to break up the purchase of Type 212CD submarines from Germany into two batches with a guaranteed upfront buy of eight boats and a proposal to acquire another four in the future, CBC News has learned.
While Canada and the U.S. remain embroiled in an extended trade war, U.S. President Donald Trump suffered a huge domestic blow Tuesday, as the Democrats swept the midterm elections, taking control of both the Senate and the House of Representatives. The vote saw several long-held Republican states flip to the Democrats in a major rebuke of the president and his...
A former Royal Bank of Canada employee has been found guilty of three criminal charges after opening fraudulent accounts and viewing the personal banking information of Prime Minister Mark Carney. Ibrahim El-Hakim, who worked at a downtown Ottawa bank branch, was recruited by someone he believed "to be associated with organized crime," says an agreed statement of facts in the...
The Carney government’s Major Projects Office (MPO) is borrowing workers from financial institutions, energy companies and construction firms, but it won’t disclose which companies are involved or how much of the salaries those private firms are covering
U.S. President is weakened, but still holds lots of executive power and can veto Democrat bills. A thumping, a shellacking, maybe even a disaster: there's no shortage of strong words you could choose to describe the midterm defeat that American voters just handed to U.S. President Donald Trump and his Republican Party. The Democrats will take control of both the...
Democrats won control of both chambers of Congress, delivering a decisive rebuke of Republican governance in Washington and ushering in a new era of congressional resistance to President Donald Trump. Tuesday's midterm elections laid bare voters' deep frustrations over high prices, the Iran war and concerns over government corruption. Democrats routed their rivals across the map, flipping states that have...
Maine Democrat Troy Jackson has ousted longtime Republican incumbent Susan Collins to cap a U.S. Senate race that was, in part, shaped by the trade war between Canada and the United States. It added to a blue wave that propelled the Democrats to take control of the Senate and punished allies of President Donald Trump. "We have to stand up...
Former federal Conservative cabinet minister Tony Clement is considering a comeback in the riding he once represented, the Star has learned. Clement did not seek re-election as the MP for Parry Sound—Muskoka in 2019 after resigning from the Conservative caucus over a sexting scandal.
A formal petition signed by some members of the P.E.I. Progressive Conservative Party is calling for a vote on Premier Rob Lantz's leadership. Lantz secured his position as party leader and premier following a leadership contest win in February over Mark Ledwell with 53.1 per cent of the vote. Martie Murphy, a longtime member of the party, said the petition...
President Donald Trump’s top trade adviser has been privately urging him to resolve a sweeping tariff fight with Canada, as both sides inch back to the negotiating table. U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer is eager to lower the temperature between the two countries and has been pushing Trump to return to negotiations, said three people with knowledge of his approach...
After a year-and-a-half marked by defections, resignations and sagging poll numbers, Pierre Poilievre is staring down yet another challenge. Can the Conservatives hold onto a seat that his party has held for the past 18 years?
Prime Minister Mark Carney says Russia will not be allowed to compete at next month's world junior hockey championship in Alberta. Carney, speaking in Antigua at the Commonwealth Summit, said Russian and Belarusian athletes will not be permitted to represent their countries in Canada as long as the war in Ukraine continues. "While Russia and Belorussia (sic) are supporting this...
Prime Minister Mark Carney says "more intense" trade negotiations with the United States have started since his call with President Donald Trump last weekend. "We've made progress but we haven't finished," Carney told reporters Tuesday in St. John's, Antigua and Barbuda. Carney said some of Canada's "red lines" have been taken off the table, including language, culture and Canada's ability...
The Liberal government’s upcoming budget will include the $600 million investment in Canada’s cultural sector, but it will not outline how the money will be allocated, according to a source familiar with the matter. The source, granted anonymity by The Wire Report to speak freely, said cultural stakeholders have been told $600 million will be “committed” in Budget 2026, but...
WASHINGTON (AP) -- For a decade, the political map has been largely stagnant, locked into the same half-dozen or so political backgrounds, reflecting a polarized, evenly divided country. On Tuesday, voters took a wrecking ball to that map, electing Democrats in states that were long considered reliably Republican.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Donald Trump reacted Wednesday to Republicans' midterm election losses by showing off the White House ballroom he's building as he demonstrated the kind of detached behavior that voters around the country said was a key reason they opted to punish his party.
MADISON, Wis. (AP) -- Democrats in Texas took control of the state House after historic wins for governor and U.S. Senate, part of a series of sweeping gains nationwide in Tuesday's elections that shifted the balance of power across several battleground and Republican-leaning states.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Sen.-elect Abdul El-Sayed told The Associated Press on Wednesday that Michigan voters had rejected "a hateful, spiteful campaign" after months of Republican attacks on his Muslim identity in one of the nation's most closely watched Senate races.
Ghana's head of state praised Canada this week for advocating against what he called a "rigged global system" that keeps African countries trapped by debt and mired in climate chaos. His comments come as Canadian officials confirm Ottawa will appoint a new Africa envoy, months after leaving the post vacant. "Canada has a favourable disposition towards the Global South," Ghana's...
The fallout from the Democrat tsunami that crashed over the U.S. Congress was swift on Wednesday, after American voters rejected President Donald Trump's turbulent second term with a midterm election blowout. In a stinging rebuke of the second Trump administration, Democrats flipped long-held Republican Senate seats in Texas, Maine and South Carolina. The blue wave also washed over House seats...
While Canada and the U.S. remain embroiled in an extended trade war, U.S. President Donald Trump suffered a huge domestic blow Tuesday, as the Democrats swept the midterm elections, taking control of both the Senate and the House of Representatives. The vote saw several long-held Republican states flip to the Democrats in a major rebuke of the president and his...
U.S. President is weakened, but still holds lots of executive power and can veto Democrat bills. A thumping, a shellacking, maybe even a disaster: there's no shortage of strong words you could choose to describe the midterm defeat that American voters just handed to U.S. President Donald Trump and his Republican Party. The Democrats will take control of both the...
Democrats won control of both chambers of Congress, delivering a decisive rebuke of Republican governance in Washington and ushering in a new era of congressional resistance to President Donald Trump. Tuesday's midterm elections laid bare voters' deep frustrations over high prices, the Iran war and concerns over government corruption. Democrats routed their rivals across the map, flipping states that have...
Public support for immigration in Canada has dropped sharply in recent years amid rising concerns about the cost of living and economic insecurity. Using Canadian election survey data dating from 1988, we find that people who feel economically insecure are more likely to hold negative views of immigration. This link has become stronger since 2019. Negative attitudes toward immigration also...
In July 2026, legal scholars from across the country met at the University of Calgary’s School of Public Policy to discuss Rainer Knopff and Ted Morton’s seminal book, The Charter Revolution and the Court Party, 25 years after its publication. The result of that conference is this series of eight essays compiled and published by the Macdonald-Laurier Institute. To listen...
Canada’s new National Security Strategy and the Canada–EU summit in Montreal show how Ottawa plans to turn strategic autonomy into real partnerships. Yet a bet on Europe alone won’t deliver the resilience Canada needs, writes Vina Nadjibulla. With Japan, South Korea, Australia and Taiwan central to critical minerals, semiconductors and defence production, she calls on the upcoming foreign policy strategy...
A collection of SubStack publishing within Canadian public affairs.
Six years ago, a Burlington-made camera turned up on Turkish drones in the war over Nagorno-Karabakh, and Ottawa shut off arms exports to Turkey.
Prime Minister Mark Carney’s ad-lib brought down the house at Thursday night’s Forever Canadian rally in Calgary. “They’re a little touchy down there at the moment,” he added, to roars from a crowd of about 5,000.
RCMP officers who responded to the April 2020 mass murders in Nova Scotia will receive bravery medals from Governor General Louise Arbour. An announcement is expected “imminently,” says an Arbour spokesperson. The medals follow 23 awards for excellence quietly distributed last year by RCMP Commissioner Mike Duheme to RCMP members and employees who managed the grisly incident, in which 2...
Greetings, you curiouser and curiouser Herle Burly-ites. Cast your minds back, only to mid-September. The Conservative Party of British Columbia is in complete disarray. 13 MLAs either quit caucus or had been expelled by then-Leader, Kerry-Lynne Findlay. Findlay herself, then resigns. Lorne Doerkson is named interim leader. NDP Premier David Eby calls a snap early election to cash in on...
In the wake of the Democratic sweep of the U.S. midterms, we take a deeper look at the factors that got us here, from Iran to data centres. We also examine what could come next from a rejected Republican Party and a blue Congress.
Aquaculture was designed to relieve pressure off of the world's fish supply. Instead, it's compromised it. Small fish are farmed, cooked, and grounded into fishmeal at the more than 1400 fishmeal factories across the world - nine of which are located in Canada. The conditions inside and around these factories and boats threaten communities, local economies and dozens of lives...
Donald Trump and his Republicans were crushed last night. Crushed in the House. Crushed in the Senate. The Democrats now control Congress and Trump is left as a lame duck. Everything changed last night but what will it mean? Our regular guide to the ups and downs of U.S. politics, Keith Boag is with us again on the morning after...
