Industry Minister Melanie Joly says the automaker Stellantis could be eligible for more taxpayer funds to support workers, if it agrees not to sell its Brampton, Ont. plant. “If it’s to save the plant, we would be actually doing what we’ve done with Ford, what we’ve done with Honda, and what we’ve done with Toyota, and what we’re willing to...
A fifth Canadian soldier has died from injuries he sustained in a fire last month at a military base near Wainwright, Alta., the Canadian Armed Forces said Saturday. The military said in a statement that Pte. William Douglas Dal Bianco died on Friday in Ontario, where he was receiving care after the Oct. 17 fire at Canadian Forces Base Wainwright...
Prime Minister Mark Carney says trade talks with the U.S. are making progress, but Ottawa won't accept a deal that doesn't allow for a viable auto sector. "Lots of people think that we should just go and take whatever deal," Carney said Saturday in Manila. "This government will not settle for a deal with the United States that is not...
Environment Minister Julie Dabrusin is being accused of lying by two of her predecessors for saying Canada is still committed to its Paris targets. Dabrusin is in Antalya, Turkey for COP31, the annual United Nations climate conference. In an interview with The Canadian Press before the trip, Dabrusin said Canada is "absolutely committed" to its Paris Accord climate commitments. It's...
Scott Colom never lost faith. After a week of ballot counting, the Democrat on Wednesday officially won a Mississippi Senate seat, making him the first Black person elected to statewide office since the Reconstruction era. "I had the courage to believe in Mississippi," Colom told supporters at his victory party. "I had the courage to understand that we can show...
How do Indigenous peoples in Canada view the progress made on reconciliation, their representation in government, and their role in the country’s future? Our latest survey explores these perspectives, revealing a mix of optimism, reservations, and differing expectations about the issues shaping Indigenous communities across Canada.
The standing of Canada’s main federal political parties did not vary much over the past three months, a new Research Co. poll has found. In the online survey of a representative national sample, 47% of decided voters across Canada (unchanged since a similar Research Co. poll conducted in August) would cast a ballot for the Liberal Party candidate in their...
One of the great failures of Canada’s parliamentary democracy, wrote Hugh Segal, “is the speed with which we discard leaders.” Losing leaders who lose elections, the respected scholar/staffer/senator wrote, means forgoing their “experience, judgement, constituency, and more textured understanding of the province, country, and body-politic.” Nobody better represented this tragedy for Segal than Robert Stanfield — “the best prime minister...
Adapt or die. That’s the challenge that Canada’s auto sector, and the hundreds of thousands of Canadian families who depend on it for a living, have been facing down for years. It’s why the Governments of Canada and Ontario poured billions of dollars into production subsidies and financial support for the sector over the past five years as it tried...
The Stellantis story is a mess. Who did what to whom, who said what to whom, who promised what to whom? The story keeps changing depending on who you ask. Bruce and Chantal try to sort it out. Plus there's a lot more, from Hoekstra to Plamondon to Lutnick on this week's Good Talk .
Quebec Premier Paul St-Pierre Plamondon is further distancing himself from the Canadian government in his first international outing since winning last month's provincial election. He suggested today that he was prepared to vote differently from Canada in the election for secretary-general of the Francophonie. St-Pierre Plamondon is in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, to attend a summit of the...
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?
In her final speech as Green Party leader, Elizabeth May told the House of Commons last week, she was “a fool to believe the Liberals. I have repented for being a fool. I see clear-eyed now.” “(Prime Minister Mark) Carney isn’t what I expected,” she told the Star during a two-and-half-hour conversation marking the end of her tenure. “A big...
Mark Carney is not the first prime minister to embrace an ambitious commitment about homelessness. He is not even the first prime minister to do so in the last 10 years. In 2017, Justin Trudeau's government released its national housing strategy. As part of a broader plan for housing, the Trudeau government set a goal of reducing "chronic" homelessness by...
Mark Carney has been prime minister of Canada for 20 months now and so far he has not become snarly with a single premier on any issue. Equally, no premier has stepped forward to bad-mouth the neophyte political leader. For Canada, where provinces possess significant power and always want more or, at the very least, more federal cash, this is unusual.
The framers of the American constitution did not lack for inspirations as they set about their work. They had read their Locke and Montesquieu. They had studied the histories of the Roman and Venetian republics. They were deeply committed to the idea of the sovereignty of the people. And atop their new republic, they put a king. The British monarchy...
Danielle Smith — not satisfied with dragging her province through an illegitimate referendum on independence — has now decided to endanger democracy itself in Alberta to serve her own venal ends. It would almost be funny if it wasn’t so dangerous. There genuinely seems to be no bottom Smith won’t merrily dig through as she tries to become the first...
It’s a “subterfuge.” The Carney government is “fibbing,” even “lying,” or at any rate playing a “numbers game.” It is “cooking the books.” What has provoked this torrent of accusations of governmental deceit? Why, the recent federal budget, of course. And quite rightly, too: all those hundreds of billions of dollars in borrowing stowed away off-budget, those suddenly and mysteriously...
It should come as no surprise that Mark Carney’s government — the most corporate one we’ve seen in some time — is reaching into the private sector for executives to help get its major national projects off the ground. All of those who have complained for years that Ottawa should be run more like a business are certainly seeing those...
Since the federal election in April 2025, Pierre Poilievre has lost eight caucus members through a combination of resignations and floor crossings, including Parry Sound-Muskoka MP Scott Aitchison, who will officially resign his seat by the end of the year. The Conservatives have lost all seven by-elections in the 45th Parliament, apart from the one Poilievre won himself, Battle River-Crowfoot...
Canada’s ability to build faster depends not only on approving major projects, but also on whether the regulatory system allows businesses to produce the materials, components, and technologies those projects require.
The federal Liberals' gamble on EV subsidies has been a tax on the government’s ignorance, billed to long-suffering taxpayers
I spent budget day running between two events. In the afternoon I was moderating a panel at SaaS North. In the evening I rushed to a KPMG alumni event, which was either horribly scheduled or perfectly scheduled, depending on how you feel about a room full of accountants on budget night.
Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government has taken the unusual — if not unprecedented — step of not defending its federal jurisdiction before the Supreme Court, deciding instead to abide by an Alberta Court of Appeal ruling that found its updated environmental-impact assessment law still unconstitutional. “It’s totally flabbergasting,” said Anna Johnston, a staff lawyer at West Coast Environmental Law. “They...
Prime Minister Mark Carney’s second budget came down last week, and one overriding criticism seems to be that the lead was buried. Though both the prime minister and Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne set the frame as “masters of our destiny,” critics have complained it is not obvious that they connected enough dots for people to feel that way. That may...
For all the talk about how the Liberal government has been trying to “kill” the oil and gas industry, it sure seems to be thriving these days. In the third quarter alone, Canada’s four biggest oilsands companies raked in over $12.6 billion in profits, more than triple what they generated over the same period in 2025. Much of this is...
LAST YEAR, KÉMY ADÉ, a post-doctoral research fellow and guest teacher at McMaster University, applied for permanent residence to Canada. Her application made her, in the words of her immigration lawyer, “a prime candidate.” Adé is a health scientist specializing in immunology of aging—precisely the highly skilled immigrant Canada competes to attract.
Prime Minister Mark Carney has a problem. He promises that Canada can become more economically independent. He wants to accelerate major projects and expand energy exports. He's pledged to build housing for the homeless, pipelines for petroleum, and army bases in the Arctic. All good things, all long overdue, and all projects that could, at first blush, bring Canadians together...
On Friday afternoon, which is the unofficial time for governments everywhere to publish information they hope no one will pay much attention to, Canada’s federal government came out with some news: It has decided to again loosen restrictions on the hiring of low-wage temporary foreign workers. The government didn’t frame it quite like that, of course. Instead, it announced what...
When Mark Carney entered the Liberal leadership race in January 2025, he was seen as smart and polished. But he wasn’t a politician, we thought. He had never knocked on doors for a living, nor had he sat through Question Period. He was a former banker, a technocrat, and a businessman who spoke in basis points. Next to Conservative leader...
Did the U.S. just leave Canadian Conservatives behind? Americans just voted out the Republican hatred and corruption. “We saw historic firsts—for Gay, Black, Hispanic, Indigenous, Muslim, and Palestinian representatives. It was a total rejection of the MAGA war on ‘Woke’” wrote former NDP MP Charlie Angus in his Substack on Nov. 5. Hungary, Serbia, and Brazil all had “Trump-like” governments...
When he’s the incumbent, he’s a loser. He lost the House in his first mid-term outing in 2018, lost the Presidency in 2020, and the Senate, the House and a half dozen Governors in 2026. The best thing that could happen for the Republican Party is if Trump spent the next couple of years being less of a lightning rod...
“Where are the girls? Where are the girls?” It was the first thing economist Armine Yalnizyan said to my colleague Susan Delacourt and me outside the budget lockup on Thursday. “You look at the front cover, it’s electricity,” she noted of the photo of transmission lines on the printed budget. “You look inside, where are the humans? All of the...
Prime Minister Mark Carney says he will participate in an upcoming group photo with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the APEC summit out of respect for the host, Chinese President Xi Jinping. "Yes, I will participate in the photo out of respect for the host. We’re in Asia," Carney said, speaking in Manila, the Philippine capital, which is one stop...
Manitoba NDP members are meeting in Winnipeg this weekend at the party's annual convention as it prepares for next year's general election. Federal NDP Leader Avi Lewis is set to speak this morning, and Premier Wab Kinew scheduled to give a speech at a gala fundraiser in the evening. Kinew said Friday that his party has $3.5 million in campaign...
Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government is using debt in a way that breaks with long-standing budgeting trends, a move supporters see as a needed and novel way to spur growth but one critics view as a risky gamble that will saddle Canadians with higher borrowing costs. For decades, the most important number revealed on budget day was the size of...
Stelco's American parent company has pledged to recall 175 temporarily laid-off steelworkers and repay their lost wages after weeks of federal pressure, including threats of legal action and the prospect of an investigation into anticompetitive conduct. Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. said Friday it had secured enough customer commitments to restart finishing operations at Stelco's Hamilton plant, with all affected employees to be...
Prime Minister Mark Carney and his Philippine counterpart have concluded talks for a free-trade agreement, which is expected to be formally signed next year. "A ship that stays in the harbour is safe, but that's not what a ship is for. And it takes a leader to take the ship out of the harbour into choppy waters and reach a...
Prime Minister Mark Carney says Canada will not waiver in its support of NATO allies, as European leaders express concern at Russia seeking a reordering of continental security in negotiations with Ukraine. "There's no way that Canada as a NATO member is going to walk away from any other NATO member -- ever," Carney said at a news conference Saturday...
Prime Minister Mark Carney has arrived in the Philippines for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit. Carney's visit to the capital Manila comes as he looks to finalize a trade deal with the Philippines and another with the wider ASEAN group of 11 countries. He is set to meet with Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in Manila. Vina Nadjibulla...
All flights in the United States are grounded due to “extraordinary circumstances,” the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced Friday. The FAA issued the ground stop after a “communication issue” impacting all U.S. Air Route Traffic Control Centers," U.S. Transport Secretary Sean Duffy said in a social media post. This is the first nationwide ground stop since January 2023 when...
Prime Minister Mark Carney will create a formal conflict of interest “screen” because of his friendship with the head of Telesat, the Star has learned, following pressure from opposition Conservatives over the Canadian company’s $2.3-billion contract with the federal government. It’s the latest example of the prime minister juggling how to govern while facing scrutiny over his extensive corporate ties...
Days after Prime Minister Mark Carney said it isn't necessary to impose a tax on big tech companies, his office won't clarify if that means financial contributions from streamers are off the table entirely. Carney made the comments at a press conference in Montreal Tuesday, in response to a question about a CRTC-mandated requirement for streamers to pay a percentage...
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says she plans to call officials in her United Conservative Party who are refusing to sign a pledge to stop advocating for separatism. Smith says it's not an issue of free speech and that she wants the party to work as a team to win next year's general election. Some party officials have refused to sign...
A day after threatening to sue Stellantis to recoup federal cash given to the automaker, Industry Minister Mélanie Joly says she's still hopeful she can prevent the company from selling its Brampton, Ont., assembly plant to Roshel. Joly said Ottawa is "still in solution mode to prevent the sale," which includes working with the Ontario government and the union representing...
Government issued company a notice of default of a 2022 federal funding agreement. Automaker Stellantis says it will pay back $24 million in federal subsidies after it announced plans to sell its Brampton, Ont., assembly plant — but Industry Minister Mélanie Joly says the company owes far more than what it is offering. The company announced Monday that it plans...
There is new evidence that a Soviet spy who defected to Britain in the early 1980s played a key role in helping Canada unravel the mystery of a mole who passed secrets to Russian intelligence. The recently published book Redwood, by journalist and author Ben Macintyre, tells the story of Vladimir Kuzichkin, who agreed to defect in the hope that...
Prime Minister Mark Carney is heading to a major summit of southeast Asian leaders as the ongoing Rohingya refugee crisis shows no sign of easing. Randeep Sarai, Canada's secretary of state for international development, said the federal government is not abandoning the nearly one million Rohingya people expelled from Myanmar into Bangladesh.
Russian hockey federation president Vladislav Tretiak is threatening to seek compensation from Canada and push for the relocation or cancellation of next month's world junior championship in Alberta if Russia is barred from competing. The warning comes after Ottawa confirmed Wednesday that Russian players would not be permitted to compete, even if they already hold valid Canadian visas, despite last...
Industry Minister Mélanie Joly says Ottawa is prepared to sue Stellantis to return the "hundreds of millions of dollars" the automaker received as part of a federal funding agreement after the automaker signed a deal to sell its Brampton, Ont. assembly plant to defence contractor Roshel. The federal government served Stellantis with a notice of default on the funding agreement...
One of David Eby's former top lieutenants said he came across as inauthentic during the BC NDP's failed election campaign, calling last month's crushing defeat a "harsh judgment" on the outgoing premier's leadership and his decision to call the snap vote. Brenda Bailey, who served as finance and jobs minister under Eby, delivered her post-mortem on the Oct. 24 election...
Industries in Canada's agriculture sector are divided on whether a free trade deal with the Mercosur group would benefit the country as Canada and the South American trading bloc look to strike a deal by year's end. Representatives from the Canadian Cattle Youth Council gathered on Parliament Hill last month to warn that a free trade deal with Mercosur could...
Industry Minister Melanie Joly’s most senior staff and a top aide in Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Office met with armoured vehicle maker Roshel in advance of its announced purchase of the Stellantis Brampton assembly plant. According to filings in the federal lobbying registry, four top aides in Joly’s office met with Roshel in September and August. The records show both...
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang resigned Thursday after his extramarital affair raised national security concerns. The company named Colette Kress as interim CEO. She is the current executive vice president and chief financial officer. Huang faced growing calls to resign after his affair with an alleged Chinese spy. Late Wednesday, media reports said Huang had another extramarital affair with an Nvidia...
'It's a betrayal of the workers as it is a betrayal of the obligations to Canada,' Carney said. Prime Minister Mark Carney said on Thursday that he had been informed of "some aspects" of Stellantis's plan to sell a Brampton, Ont., auto plant to Canadian armoured vehicle maker Roshel Inc. before the deal was announced by the automaker earlier this...
NDP Leader Avi Lewis has received RCMP protection for weeks, the Star has learned, becoming the latest Canadian political leader grappling with security concerns. Lewis was observed by the Star on at least three occasions last week being escorted by officers in Ottawa. He was seen with up to three non-uniformed security personnel, both within and outside the Parliament Hill...
Prime Minister Mark Carney heard from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy Thursday about the state of negotiations with Russia as the two discussed continental security with European leaders. "Security guarantees are a European responsibility, with Canada, with the United States. So there are tiers for security guarantees," Carney said in French at the start of the European Political Community summit in...
More than 60 per cent of First Nations people who responded to an exclusive survey said they back Prime Minister Mark Carney's efforts to ramp up natural resource production, suggesting widespread support for Ottawa's plans to build major projects as a way to grow the economy. In a Postmedia-Leger poll of Indigenous Canadians, 63 per cent of respondents said they...
Canada's finance minister says Ottawa is investing in energy infrastructure to create a foundational base for the new technologies that will power the 21st century economy. Francois-Philippe Champagne told a group of business people in Halifax this morning that history has shown economies with plenty of energy resources do better in the long run. He said the world is moving...
Somewhere during the next nine days, as he travels across two oceans and two continents to meet with leaders from 132 countries, Mark Carney will sign a pair of potentially important free-trade agreements and, with any luck, mend Canada’s strained trade ties with the U.S., and call it a day. Along the way, the prime minister may even sleep.
Industry Minister Melanie Joly is set to hold a four-way meeting Thursday with automaker Stellantis, the union representing its more than 9,000 workers in Canada, and representatives of the Ontario government. The discussions in Toronto come days after Stellantis announced it was selling its Brampton, Ont. assembly plant to Canadian armoured vehicle manufacturer Roshel for an undisclosed amount. More than...
Industry Minister Melanie Joly's office is disputing media reports that characterized the federal government as having played an active role in negotiations that led to automaker Stellantis selling its Brampton, Ont. assembly plant to defence contractor Roshel. Mathis Denis, a spokesperson for Joly's office, said Wednesday evening that reporting that Joly "was involved in the deal is false." "The minister...
The framers of the American constitution did not lack for inspirations as they set about their work. They had read their Locke and Montesquieu. They had studied the histories of the Roman and Venetian republics. They were deeply committed to the idea of the sovereignty of the people. And atop their new republic, they put a king. The British monarchy...
DODGE CITY, Kan. (AP) -- Jose Del Real looked over the crowd from the stage in a park, at hundreds of his neighbors with furious signs tucked under their arms, voicing their anger at immigration agents who had descended on their town and started rounding up their friends and family. His daughters, in the front row, were crying.
NEW YORK (AP) -- When Democrats take over Congress in January, one of their many oversight targets will be Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whose overhaul of longstanding vaccine guidance and cuts to medical research over the past two years have drawn fiery criticism. Some high-ranking lawmakers have suggested impeaching him.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Rep. Richard Hudson wanted a triumphant return to Capitol Hill this week after steering Republicans to another majority. Instead, the North Carolina Republican is facing the reality that he and dozens of colleagues will soon clear out their offices.
Russian hockey federation president Vladislav Tretiak is threatening to seek compensation from Canada and push for the relocation or cancellation of next month's world junior championship in Alberta if Russia is barred from competing. The warning comes after Ottawa confirmed Wednesday that Russian players would not be permitted to compete, even if they already hold valid Canadian visas, despite last...
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang resigned Thursday after his extramarital affair raised national security concerns. The company named Colette Kress as interim CEO. She is the current executive vice president and chief financial officer. Huang faced growing calls to resign after his affair with an alleged Chinese spy. Late Wednesday, media reports said Huang had another extramarital affair with an Nvidia...
Prime Minister Mark Carney said he will raise concerns about foreign interference in Canada when he meets next week with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Carney and Xi are expected to meet in person at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Shenzhen, China. "The advantage of these meetings is you can raise issues directly and frankly," Carney told a press...
Chinese authorities blocked attempts by the Canadian Embassy to visually commemorate the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre for the last two years, CBC News has learned. The second incident came just months after Prime Minister Mark Carney's trade trip to Beijing, where he touted improved relations with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog said Saturday night that he was giving opposition candidate Gadi Eisenkot the first opportunity to form a governing coalition following elections on Oct. 27. Eisenkot, a former military chief who ran as the main challenger to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, is now a step closer to ousting Israel’s longest-serving premier. He has up to six weeks...
As Prime Minister Mark Carney sets out on a four-summit swing from Dublin to Manila, Phnom Penh and Shenzhen, Vina Nadjibulla looks at what Canada has gained in the Indo-Pacific over the past year and what it now risks. Relations with Beijing have stabilized, but she argues that steadier ties with China must not lead to new dependencies. In Southeast...
A collection of SubStack publishing within Canadian public affairs.
Chris Ragan: Thank you. We can come back to the investment focus, which I think is important. We can talk about the games being played in an accounting sense, which are also important and not a good thing. But let me begin with the question of prudence. My sense is that this budget is kind of prudent, kind of not...
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.
Canadians have heard a lot about Mark Carney’s push to diversify trade. A quieter effort is underway in national security. Ottawa is deepening intelligence ties beyond the Five Eyes as it rethinks how much it can rely on Washington’s assessments. On this week’s Sage Podcast, Edward Greenspon and Allan Gregg are joined by Jody Thomas, Canada’s former national security and...
As the federal government and U.S. automaker Stellantis duke it out publicly over money, jobs and breaches of contracts, it’s raised a lot of questions about what’s going behind the scenes. CBC Senior reporter Janyce McGregor walks us through the fallout, then Brian Kingston of the Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers Association responds to whether the government could have stopped the sale...
Two more elections, two more nations choose moderation. But are these really the winds of change, or just a passing breeze? Former Canadian ambassador to Israel Jon Allen joins Peter Donolo and Jeremy Kinsman to examine Gadi Eisenkot's difficult path to forming a government following Benjamin Netanyahu's electoral setback. They discuss Israel's deteriorating relationship with Washington and whether a change...
At Issue this week: Industry Minister Mélanie Joly is 'fed up' with Stellantis for selling its Brampton assembly plant, but can she do anything about it? Prime Minister Carney skips the UN climate conference. And Quebec pursues its own U.S. trade talks.
