Michigan Senate candidate Mike Rogers has broken with U.S. President Donald Trump over his trade war with Canada as the Republican faces a tight race in a state hit hard by the tariffs. In a campaign ad posted on social media Wednesday, Rogers said people in Michigan "know that Canada is not our enemy." "We need to end this tariff...
The Liberal government says it will table legislation in the fall to indefinitely exclude people who solely suffer from mental illness from medical assistance in dying. Justice Minister Sean Fraser said there is a lack of consensus within the medical community on when mental illness is irremediable, and concern around a lack of access to mental health supports. "While there...
Canada's industry minister says Stelco Holdings Inc. cannot use the trade war to justify cutting jobs it committed to maintain when it bought the Hamilton, Ont.-based steel plant, particularly when the head of its U.S. parent company has publicly backed tariffs on steel. Mélanie Joly told reporters Wednesday that the chief executive of U.S.-based Cleveland-Cliffs has supported steel tariffs and...
The Canadian government has withdrawn its sponsorship of an anti-disinformation conference in Lithuania that feature panels talking about the United States as a foreign interference threat. Samantha Lafleur, a spokesperson for Global Affairs, said the government wasn’t comfortable with the framing of some of the panels and Canadian officials will still take part in the conference but will not chair...
President Donald Trump’s trade war against Canada is allowing Prime Minister Mark Carney to press the gas pedal on an industrial agenda that would have been deeply divisive just a few years ago. With no end to US tariffs in sight, the former central banker has focused on clearing obstacles to investment, including unwinding rules brought in by his predecessor...
“Toronto’s mayoral election is shaping up as a two-candidate race. Olivia Chow holds a citywide lead over Brad Bradford and draws her strongest support from Toronto-East York, where she exceeds 60%, while also leading in Scarborough. One in five report still being up for grabs. Beyond the ballot, nearly eight in ten residents say Toronto is their preferred place to...
The latest snapshot of the BC election by Mainstreet Research shows the BC Conservatives leading and quite likely in majority territory. Among decided and leaning voters, the BC Conservatives lead the BC NDP by just under 8 points, 44.7% to 37.2% with the Green at 11.2%, One BC at 5.7% and Centre BC Party at 1.1% rounding out the field.
It is hard to convey how thin a mandate the Parti Québécois has just won in Quebec, but I will try. With 28 per cent of the vote, the PQ’s popular vote share is the smallest for any winning party in any election, not just in the modern history of Canada but, as far as I can tell, in any...
Federal Defence Minister David McGuinty is reminding Albertans of billions of dollars in military spending and that a strong Canada includes a strong Alberta. His comments come as Albertans prepare to vote on Confederation in the Oct. 19 referendum. McGuinty, with Alberta Premier Danielle Smith standing beside him at Canadian Forces Base Edmonton, says the province is a national reminder...
The NDP's election campaign in British Columbia has moved on from the threat of Donald Trump's tariffs to focus on affordability issues. When NDP Leader David Eby called the snap election on Sept. 22, he said British Columbia needed a "firebreak" against Trump's economic attacks and Trump-style politics, which he said were threatening to infect the province. But Eby says...
Canada’s infrastructure is under growing pressure from floods, wildfires, severe storms, aging assets, and mismanagement. When roads close, ports are disrupted, or electricity systems fail, the consequences extend beyond physical damage. Businesses lose ready access to mar...
Last weekend, I was in Saint-Antoine-sur-Richelieu, Que., a pastoral village 60 kilometres southeast of Montreal, for my son’s wedding. As I had a few moments to explore the town, I crossed the street from the wedding venue to check out a local park flying the tricolour flag of the “Patriotes” of the 1837 rebellion. Beneath the flag was a plaque...
Mark Carney can breathe a sigh of relief. Monday’s election results in Quebec delivered a Parti Québécois minority government that will prove thorny to handle, but the prime minister escaped the worst-case scenario: a sovereigntist premier with a strong majority government.
Quebec Conservative Leader Éric Duhaime was perhaps the night's biggest winner
Four years ago, as the Coalition Avenir Québec rolled over the competition to win 90 of the National Assembly’s then 125 seats, the Parti Québécois looked like a spent force. The sovereigntist “party of a generation” had its worst election result since its founding in 1968 by René Lévesque – the ruffled, chain-smoking everyman who charmed baby-boomer francophones – taking...
Alberta separatists are fond of pointing to Quebec’s sovereignty movement as a model. If those guys can get so much by holding a knife to the throat of the rest of the country, goes their thinking, then why shouldn’t we do the same? It’s a lousy comparison overall, given the fundamental differences between Alberta and Quebec (such as, for e.g....
Alberta’s forthcoming referendum on independence is a clear and meaningful threat to Canada’s safety, integrity, and prosperity. But a few of the other questions on Premier Danielle Smith’s democracy-o-rama — ten ballots, all to be hand-counted, with mayhem all but guaranteed at this point — might be even more dangerous. That’s because they deliberately invite a particular conversation around immigration...
The Alberta referendum on separation is less than two weeks away and it appears most Albertans have decided they want to remain in Canada; not just by a simple majority but overwhelmingly. That’s a relief. Now those voters just have to turn out to cast a ballot. In a recent poll, 72 per cent of Albertans said they wanted to...
The Carney government’s proposed labour law reforms target a serious problem: the increase in disruptions to critical industries such as airlines, ports and railways. Ottawa is taking heat from labour advocates, but the changes are a sensible measure to rebalance the interests of federally regulated employers, employees, and the public. In recent years, Canada has seen an upsurge in labour...
Canadians now have disturbing proof that the referendums of 2026 and beyond are nothing like the ones that have come before. A Globe and Mail investigation into American involvement in Alberta’s looming referendum shows that the U.S. is far more than a spectator and confirms that its interest may not be entirely in keeping our federation intact.
Separatists have been coy about how they’d work with Trump to dismantle Canada. Now they’re facing tough questions, and so they should. We’re lucky to live in a country where people can argue for ideas as radical as separatism. But our cultural politeness shouldn’t keep us from carving up such bad ideas, aggressively, in the public square...
It should come, perhaps, as no surprise that some in Alberta’s separatist movement are happy to sell out the province, swapping the authority of the Canadian government for domination by MAGA overlords in the United States. They do, after all, have no loyalty to Canada. But you’d think, in an ideal world, they’d have some loyalty to Alberta – and...
Let’s get a little dystopian. There is a non-zero chance that United States President Donald Trump tries to cancel the mid-term elections, wherein 100 per cent of the House and one-third of the Senate are up for election and re-election.
Pierre Poilievre has to feel robbed by the universe – and also like some cosmic gang of thugs keeps returning to make sure his pockets truly contain nothing but lint. He was supposed to be the next Prime Minister, with the 20-point lead and command on the public mood to prove it. Then everything exploded, the banker stepped neatly into...
I wrote a book thirty years ago about the three questions posed by the great Rabbi Hillel more than two thousand years ago: “If I am not for myself, who will be for me? But if I am only for myself, what am I? And if not now, when?” I have returned to those questions on countless occasions since, and...
Donald Trump, we know, poses an existential threat to Canada. And Canada, proclaims Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, poses an existential threat to Quebec. On Monday, Quebecers will go to the polls to elect a new provincial government. They are, more than most of the rest of Canada, freaked out by the threat emanating from south of the border and supportive of...
As a former prime minister of Canada, staying silent on the upcoming referendum on Alberta secession is not an option. But I wish it were. I love my country, and I love my province. I do not wish to pit one against the other. I believe that is how most Albertans feel. Despite the efforts of a few on each...
Like many people, you may be under the impression that the Conservatives lost the 2025 election. Lately, however, that interpretation has come under challenge. According to this new interpretation, the Conservatives actually won. The country has a Conservative Prime Minister, and his name is Mark Carney. According to political scientist Stewart Prest, Mr. Carney heads “the most conservative Liberal government...
The first day of October was a big one for Alberta. At the same time an Alberta-born astronaut was getting launched into space, Mark Carney and Danielle Smith were unveiling plans for a new pipeline here on Earth. An even bigger day looms later this month, when the province votes on whether to hold an independence referendum, and that pipeline...
More than merely the loss of an able, fair-minded MP, it looks like the Conservative party's reach is ebbing
The news that Conservative MP Scott Aitchison will resign at the end of this year, which will make him the eighth MP to exit the Conservative caucus in one year, has roused the recurring question of just how much more Pierre Poilievre’s hold on his party’s leadership can endure. It’s like watching a frayed rope bridge swinging over a river...
It could have been worse for Pierre Poilievre — at least Scott Aitchison is not leaving the Conservative caucus to join Mark Carney’s Liberals. But Aitchison, a one-time leadership opponent of Poilievre’s who has represented Parry Sound—Muskoka for nearly seven years, is the kind of Conservative that Carney has been attracting. He’s a man over 50 in Ontario and polls...
It’s bad form, in writing, to mix your metaphors. But this summer, speaking to an array of people in and around the Carney government, there were two I kept hearing used to describe how things work in Ottawa these days, both of them apt. One is the ancient parable of the blind men and the elephant. Each man touches a...
Previously, there was a 21-sitting-day waiting period after a trade agreement was tabled in the House of Commons before an implementation bill could be moved. Now, both can be tabled on the same day.
Supreme Court's landmark Singh decision led to establishment of Refugee Board. Refugee rights advocates say they are shocked that the federal immigration minister appeared to be unfamiliar with the landmark Supreme Court decision widely considered to be the cornerstone of the Canadian refugee protection system. In an interview with Radio-Canada, Immigration Minister Lena Metlege Diab was repeatedly asked about the...
Edmonton mother Salomy Abusalim is running out of excuses to give her son when he asks why his dad is still in Gaza. "This is killing me as a mom. I can't keep going on, lying to him," said Abusalim, whose husband has been trapped in Gaza due to bureaucratic difficulties. "My husband was starving, literally starving," she said. "For...
With less than two weeks to go until Alberta's referendum, the province's election administrator says more than 3,000 mail-in ballots have been returned with errors that make them invalid. Elections Alberta says some ballot packages were returned with either declaration forms missing, errors or issues with identification. But they say there's still time to submit the correct information via email.
The British Columbia Conservatives plan to repeal the province's no-fault auto insurance system, in a major policy proposal revealed by a leaked letter from the party's interim leader to lawyers and insurance executives. Lorne Doerkson says in the letter that if elected on Oct. 24, the Conservatives would bring in legislation to restore accident victims' rights to sue, under a...
Quebec's premier-designate says a referendum on sovereignty is not among his immediate priorities as he focuses instead on homelessness, government spending and attempting to sever the province's ties to the monarchy as his first acts in office. Parti Quebecois Leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon outlined his plans on Tuesday, one day after Quebecers chose to hand his party a minority government...
Fewer than 3 dozen submissions to registry received before deadline. Meetings between advocates of Alberta separation and American government officials don't have to be included in Canada's new foreign influence registry because they took place before the registry went into effect, says Canada's foreign influence watchdog. Speaking to reporters after appearing before a parliamentary committee on Tuesday, Anton Boegman said...
Outgoing Quebec Premier Christine Frechette has resigned as leader of the Coalition Avenir Quebec.
Prime Minister Mark Carney and Quebec's incoming opposition party leaders pledged Tuesday to work with the sovereigntist Parti Québécois as it prepares to form a government with a minority mandate. On his way into a cabinet meeting on Tuesday, Carney told reporters he spoke with Quebec premier-designate Paul St-Pierre Plamondon after Monday's provincial election. St-Pierre Plamondon has promised to call...
Leading figures in the push for Alberta separation are celebrating the election of Quebec premier-designate Paul St-Pierre Plamondon. Jeff Rath said Tuesday that St-Pierre Plamondon's election victory could change the political dynamic of Canada, especially since the premier-designate has already shown his willingness to support Alberta's separatist movement. "For the first time in Canadian history, we have a government in...
Tim Gitzel, 64, leans forward as he names mining companies Canada has lost. “Inco, Falconbridge, Noranda,” he says, counting off his fingers. “I can keep going. People say, ‘Oh wow, that’s too bad,’” says the chief executive of Cameco. Yet when the Saskatoon-based uranium giant flipped the script, acquiring 49 per cent of Westinghouse Electric, a legacy U.S. nuclear giant...
Quebec Sen. Richard Martel is back in the opposition caucus after joining the Conservative Senate group today. Sen. Leo Housakos, the opposition leader in the Senate, says Martel is a "natural fit" in a statement issued today. Martel left the House of Commons in July when Prime Minister Mark Carney appointed him to the Senate but had not identified which...
Prime Minister Mark Carney is returning to Turkey later this month as he seeks to boost trade and defence ties with a country with rising importance. Carney was in Turkey for the NATO summit in July, and his office says he will again visit the country from Oct. 21 to 23. He will start in Ankara to meet with President...
The Parti Québécois has won a minority government, completing a dramatic political comeback and paving the way for an eventual third sovereignty referendum. The party captured 59 seats after the votes were counted late Monday, falling short of the 64 needed to form a majority in Quebec's legislature. The Coalition Avenir Québec, which has governed the province for the past...
The federal government is turning up the heat on the U.S. owner of Stelco Holdings Inc. over impending layoffs at the Hamilton-based steel plant. Industry Minister Melanie Joly sent a letter to Stelco president Paul Simon on Monday laying out her "extreme disappointment" over the company's plan to lay off 500 workers in response to U.S. tariffs and other market...
Police say Prince Edward Island's elections authority has asked them to investigate contributions made to the province's Progressive Conservatives last year. RCMP spokesperson Scott Ferris says Elections P.E.I. approached the police force in August. He said in an interview that investigators have been reviewing the file and it's not clear when they might finish.
The federal Liberal government has tabled new legislation to turn its Defence Investment Agency into a Crown corporation -- a major revamp of the plan created just months ago. Bill C-40 will create an entity called the "Canadian Corporation for Defence Investment," which will report to a new associate minister of national defence dealing with procurement. The federal government says...
Political party OneBC says former Conservative legislator Brent Chapman and his wife, Kerry-Lynne Findlay, have been subjected to a "torrent of threats and abuse from insiders." Chapman announced last month that he was joining OneBC to run as a candidate in the Oct. 24 election after Findlay resigned as the Conservative party leader amid a caucus revolt. But Chapman's name...
- Conservative members of Parliament are calling for a boost to Canadian diesel production to one million barrels per day as the price for the fuel continues to soar. Fuel prices have increased globally in recent months as wars in Iran and Ukraine impact world oil supplies. Statistics Canada reports diesel prices across the country in August were up between...
Canada’s federal political landscape remains relatively stable, with the Liberals maintaining a lead in national ballot support and a stronger overall party index than their competitors. Mark Carney continues to be the most widely preferred choice for prime minister. Economic issues remain Canadians’ foremost concern, while concern about cost-of-living pressures is on the rise.
Billed as one of the largest social programs in Canadian history, some patients of the national dental care plan are still facing significant barriers accessing care, or once they’re in the chair, being able to afford it.
Parti Quebecois Leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon had his work cut out for him after the 2022 election. His party won only three seats in 2022 and watched as the Coalition Avenir Quebec won a second majority government, presenting itself as a "third way" between federalism and sovereignty. Four years later, the leader of the separatist party was able to bring...
Former federal Conservative minister Chris Alexander says he is quitting the race to become the next mayor of Toronto as advance voting begins in the city's municipal election. Alexander says he decided to drop out after a recent poll showed he doesn't have a clear path to victory. The veteran politician and diplomat says he is not endorsing any other...
The committee has rewarded Carney’s style of coalition-building in the past. When the Nobel Committee announces the winner of the 2026 Peace Prize later this week, it will choose from 287 candidates, including 79 organizations. The list is top-secret, but it’s safe to assume at least one name is on it: Prime Minister Mark Carney. That would have sounded fanciful...
Canada plans to turn its new agency for speeding up purchases of military gear into a Crown corporation, three sources say – a transformation that will give the organization and chief executive Doug Guzman far more authority in decision-making. Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government created the Defence Investment Agency to streamline the procurement of military purchases worth $100-million or more...
Outgoing Conservative MP Scott Aitchison won’t say whether Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre should remain on as leader. In an interview with CTV’s Power Play with Vassy Kapelos on Monday, Aitchison was asked multiple times whether Poilievre should continue to lead the party, and he would not provide a direct answer.
Parliamentarians returned to Ottawa on Monday and Opposition MPs' had their sights trained firmly on the government's 243-page economic and labour bill. Prime Minister Mark Carney and Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre also squared off in question period Monday over whether the government has done enough to prioritize Canadian materials in its sweeping infrastructure agenda. Key to that agenda is the...
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith's office is distancing itself from one of her party presidents who met in Calgary with U.S. Republican strategists looking to assist the province's separation movement. Smith's spokesperson Sam Blackett, in a statement Monday, said the premier "is not affiliated with these individuals' activities and has no knowledge of these alleged meetings." Blackett added, "She also opposes...
Prime Minister Mark Carney will "play an active role" in setting the agenda for Ottawa's new AI advisory council. A spokesperson for the Prime Minister's Office says the new group, announced Friday, will take an "all of government" approach to advising on AI. The advisory council includes AI pioneer Yoshua Bengio, as well as a experts in economics, business and...
Defence Minister David McGuinty has a new chief of staff. Dana O’Born is set to take over at the helm of the office tomorrow. Several Liberal sources told iPolitics the news and soon after publication of our initial story, McGuinty’s confirmed O’Born would take over as chief of staff on Oct. 6. O’Born has spent the past ten years at...
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Republicans are entering the final month of the midterm campaign increasingly anxious that the $1 billion at their disposal may not be enough to fend off sweeping losses as the party reckons with President Donald Trump's unpopularity, persistent cost concerns and the fallout from the war in Iran.
HAYES, Va. (AP) -- U.S. Rep. Rob Wittman may have spent nearly two decades in Congress, but the Republican is emphasizing the humbler parts of his resume while running for another term this year. His advertisements talk about his work in a tomato cannery and on a fishing boat, and how he commutes to Washington from the same modest home...
Republican U.S. Sen. Susan Collins distanced herself from President Donald Trump during her first Maine Senate debate with Democrat Troy Jackson, arguing she has maintained her political independence by repeatedly voting against Trump's agenda and saying that she's "not exactly his favorite senator."
BALTIMORE (AP) -- President Donald Trump on Tuesday touted a $3.7 billion investment by the military technology company Anduril to build components for nuclear-powered submarines at a Baltimore-area shipyard.
Prime Minister Mark Carney is returning to Turkey later this month as he seeks to boost trade and defence ties with a country with rising importance. Carney was in Turkey for the NATO summit in July, and his office says he will again visit the country from Oct. 21 to 23. He will start in Ankara to meet with President...
Canada and the European Union plan to link next-generation payment systems to enable faster cross-border transactions, according to a draft joint statement prepared for a summit between Ottawa and Brussels later this month. This will help remove obstacles to business and investment between the two jurisdictions, according to the statement, an early version of a summit communiqué that was viewed...
A pilot stabbed another pilot and then apparently tried to crash to aircraft carrying dozens of Israelis on Wednesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. Passengers and crew staged a dramatic intervention to subdue the attacker and the plane eventually made an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia. The FlyDubai flight travelling from the United Arab Emirates to Israel landed safely after...
Prime Minister Mark Carney appealed to common values like democracy and reliability when he called for deeper trade and defence ties at the European Parliament earlier this month. But some experts say with the rise of far-right parties on the continent, key European allies may not always share those values — and Canada should keep that possibility in mind as...
One of U.S. President Donald Trump's trade advisers is threatening repercussions for Canada if it "interferes" in the upcoming midterm elections — though it's not clear what he anticipates the country would do to impact the vote. Peter Navarro, who has lashed out at Canada in the past, made these latest remarks during a talk at an economic conference in...
Amid U.S. President Donald Trump’s on-again-off-again trade war, trade diversification has been the talk of the town. But for a country like Canada, which has long felt the gravitational pull of the enormous U.S. market, diversifying trade will be no easy feat. It also shouldn’t be the goal in and of itself. As the first part of the IRPP’s new...
Canada’s aim to diversify and grow its exports will inevitably mean a significant focus on building deeper and more beneficial linkages with the Asia-Pacific. In this report, we show that Canada’s diversification challenge cannot be fully solved by merely substituting one large market with many small ones, nor by assuming that supply chains can quickly or easily be re-wired. To...
Canada has spent thirty years pretending that internal free trade can be achieved through polite first ministers’ meetings, press conferences, action plans, and the creation of agencies.
A collection of SubStack publishing within Canadian public affairs.
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...
Prime Minister Mark Carney has finally charted a course out of the morass that is 24 Sussex Drive, the official residence of Canada’s prime ministers since 1951. Carney’s June announcement of a private-sector competition to “modernize” the decrepit building, abandoned in 2015 and later put into mothballs, was welcomed by heritage advocates as an end to a political impasse. A...
Artificial intelligence has moved from a promising general-purpose technology to an increasingly consequential layer of economic, social and public infrastructure. It is already raising productivity, expanding access to expertise, accelerating scientific discovery and creating new ways to deliver services. At the same time, AI systems are implicated in fraud, manipulation and cyberattacks and unreliable results and misinformation. The most capable...
The PQ win the Quebec election with a promise to call a referendum at some point in their mandate. What does this do to Canada's united approach against Donald Trump? And what signal does it send to Alberta voters as they edge closer to their referendum later this month? Rob Russo and Althia Raj are here to discuss.
David Herle, Scott Reid, Jordan Leichnitz, and Kory Teneycke provide insights on the latest in Canadian politics.
With the election of the Parti Québécois in Quebec Monday night, it's the first time in twelve years that Canada will have a separatist government in power. Over the course of the campaign, the party's leader, Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, made clear some of the fights he could take up with Ottawa, over issues like immigration. He also vowed to hold...
Paul St-Pierre Plamondon has been voted in as Quebec's newest Premier. His party, Parti Québécois, secured their minority government on Monday night's election with 59 seats, up from three seats back in 2022. Among his plans for the province, he eyes holding a referendum in a push to separate Quebec from Canada. And although Plamondon promised to wait until US...
