Bloc Québécois to focus on local issues — not blocking Carney’s majority — in Terrebonne. Bloc Québécois House Leader Christine Normandin dismissed the idea that her party may be the one to block Prime Minister Mark Carney’s path to forming a majority government in a crucial byelection held in the suburbs of Montreal next month. “The idea of halting a...
Canada’s political landscape is settling into a clearer hierarchy. The latest Nanos tracking shows the Liberals consolidating their advantage, stretching their national ballot lead well into double digits over the Conservatives. What was once competitive has become asymmetrical. The gap is reinforced by leadership preference, where Mark Carney commands a striking margin over Pierre Poilievre, reaching a new high and...
DND says country placed 'caveat' on U.S. intelligence-sharing for small-boat strikes. The Department of National Defence says it has safeguards in place to prevent intelligence from being shared with elements of the U.S. military that have carried out numerous lethal strikes on small boats in the Caribbean. In a statement to CBC News, the department said that intelligence gathered during...
Road closures are in place in Toronto’s downtown core after police say someone discharged a firearm at the U.S. Consulate early Tuesday morning.
Ottawa's decision to let TikTok remain in Canada -- now with more security guarantees from the Chinese-owned firm -- reverses its previous decision to ban the company over national security concerns. The federal government banned TikTok from operating and having a physical presence in Canada in 2024, then recently asked the Federal Court to set aside the order to permit...
At the beginning of 2025, when Mark Carney formally entered politics, only a minority of Canadians could recognize him. He was known in elite and policy circles, but to most voters he was still more idea than person, more résumé than brand. That matters, because political brands are not built all at once. They form gradually, as people absorb cues...
The ballot trend continues to favour the Liberals as they open up a 13 point advantage over the Conservatives. On the preferred Prime Minister tracking Carney now holds a commanding 35 point advantage. Carney preferred PM advantage hits new high.
Running 1 candidate in 3 upcoming races would cede a spending advantage to Liberals. Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet is laughing at the idea of fielding "fake" candidates in Toronto — even if it means ceding a financial advantage to the Liberals in a tight Montreal-area byelection. "We at the Bloc Québécois are funded by citizens, out of pure conviction...
Calgary Chamber of Commerce head says organization’s inbox inundated with concern. Ongoing discourse around the prospect of Alberta separation is emerging as a top concern for Calgary businesses, half of whom say the debate is already impacting the local economy, a new Calgary Chamber of Commerce survey suggests. In a survey the chamber released Monday, 28 per cent of respondents...
Monday is the 250th anniversary of Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations. Smith is probably the best-known and least-read economist, which explains why he is so often misunderstood. For example, if you google “Father of Capitalism,” Smith’s name pops up, but neither his Wealth of Nations nor The Theory of Moral Sentiments uses the word “capitalism.” He did not preach the...
This past week, a New York Times columnist argued that a Canadian-led change to norms of international governance called Responsibility to Protect was now a “weak spot” that risks being exploited by today’s aggressors. The Responsibility to Protect was described by historian Martin Gilbert as “the most significant adjustment to sovereignty in 360 years.” It holds that when a government...
Mark Carney repeatedly says he is prime minister of a new government, not simply a continuation of Justin Trudeau’s decade leading Liberals in power. New polling from the Pollara Strategic Insights firm suggests that more Canadians are buying the “new” title than those who don’t, especially among those who voted Liberal last year. Pollara shared the results exclusively with the...
It is progress that the Prime Minister’s Office is now letting Canadians know when Mark Carney speaks with President Donald Trump, but it would be much better if the read-out that followed didn’t subtract from the sum of human knowledge.
On March 9, the Honourable Wayne Long, Secretary of State for Financial Institutions, tabled the certificate of nomination in the House of Commons to ask members of Parliament to approve Annette Ryan as the next Parliamentary Budget Officer of Canada. Ms. Ryan, who currently serves as a deputy director at the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre, or Fintrac, is...
Three Toronto-area synagogues were hit by gunfire in the span of one week last week. No one was obtuse enough to express “shock.” These acts are not shocking when one Toronto synagogue has been vandalized 10 times in 18 months. When swastikas were spray-painted on three Jewish-owned businesses in Montreal – and on a synagogue in Winnipeg, and two in...
TORONTO—For the last week or two, any time the federal government has tried to explain what this country’s position actually is towards India, we haven’t come off looking great. There is a very simple explanation for this incoherence, but there is also a more alarming one, and I think that one is worth spending a minute thinking about. First, let’s...
After a few days of plaudits for sounding more mainstream, Poilievre reminds everyone he is a climate denier, and lacks an understanding of the global marketplace. The Trump administration has dented, but not ended, the drive towards emissions reduction. Capital investments in energy were expected to hit $3.3 trillion in 2025. Of every 3 dollars invested, 2 were going to...
Donald Trump’s third Gulf war will almost certainly decide the fate of his presidency and the Republican Party in the November congressional elections. As the conflict widens under the hardline leadership of Mojtaba Khamenei—the son and successor to Iran’s longstanding supreme leader—the humanitarian and global economic fallout are devastating. In an ironic twist, this colossal disaster may have just handed...
Prime Minister Mark Carney’s response to war in the Middle East has so far seemed hasty, morally queasy, intellectually convoluted and—attempts at clarification, notwithstanding—continues to be deeply disappointing to many Canadians. His first statement, within hours of the beginning of hostilities, stopped just short of full-throated support for the United States-Israeli campaign, surprising from a prime minister who lectured the...
In the world of global diplomacy, the distance between a targeted mission and a regional conflict is often measured in days. For those of us who have lived and worked in the Middle East, watching the current escalation is not just a matter of tracking headlines. It is a visceral experience. My stomach is in knots because I know what...
The clearest attempt at a line of demarcation during Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre's speech on Canada-United States relations was an apparent rejoinder to Prime Minister Mark Carney's insistence that a "rupture" has occurred. Quoting a John F. Kennedy hymn about the geography, history, economics and necessity that have brought Canada and the U.S. ever closer, Poilievre said the former president's...
More than two decades ago, the United States invited Canada to join in a new Middle Eastern misadventure. The invitation was premised on a big lie about Saddam Hussein’s supposed weapons of mass destruction. Prime Minister Jean Chrétien declined to participate. It’s not that he foresaw the disaster to come — but he had a team of good advisers, as...
I’ve covered a few wars, in the Balkans and the Middle East, and I’ve seen plenty of military officers (including senior Americans) explain how things are unfolding on the battlefield. In my experience they’re invariably professional, cool and calm. What they’re not is what the U.S. “secretary of war,” Pete Hegseth, displayed this week in a couple of briefings on...
Liberals leading in most parts of the country and in every demographic group. When you hear that Pierre Poilievre and the Conservatives don’t want an election anytime soon, it might be due to the polling.
Let’s peek in on Mark Carney’s Iran war foreign-policy update, beamed to us all the way from Australia. Mr. Carney supported U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran in a statement issued Saturday, and he still does, now in a different way, because the U.S and Israel probably did not act in keeping with international law, which is unfortunately part of...
Few decisions are more important for a Canadian prime minister than whether to support the United States on matters of war and peace. With such decisions, legacies can be made and unmade. Jean Chrétien offers a prime example. He’s been dining out on his refusal to join George W. Bush’s coalition of the willing in the Iraq war for decades...
No one will accuse Mark Carney of being a populist politician. But as he nears the one-year mark as prime minister, we’ve been getting some insights into how Carney is juggling the personal relations he has to manage on the world stage and also at home. It isn’t often that politicians go into that kind of detail, so Carney’s lessons...
In almost any context, one of Prime Minister Mark Carney’s major problems — and it’s one that he inherited, in fairness to him — is the state of the Canadian Armed Forces. Our military is too small to do all the jobs we need it to do. It lacks critical capabilities necessary for survival on the modern battlefield. Manpower shortages...
After a humiliating election defeat, multiple defections from his caucus and a widening lead in the polls for Mark Carney’s Liberals, Pierre Poilievre has finally decided to make some changes. He debuted the new look at a recent speech at the Economic Club of Canada, one in which he cited the writings of Marcus Aurelius, name-checked Pierre Trudeau in a...
One of the many things that could be said of the rules-based world order is that it was designed so that countries — including middle powers — would not have to rely on their wits, in the manner of a Hobbesian geopolitical Hunger Games, to survive in the face of hegemonic aggression. “The world will always be driven by great...
Prime Minister Mark Carney plans to travel to Norway on Friday to observe the Norwegian-led NATO Cold Response exercise above the Arctic Circle. Cold Response is run by NATO every two years and involves about 25,000 troops from 14 nations training together to perform land, air and sea operations in Arctic conditions. Canada, the United States, the U.K., Germany, Netherlands...
The Liberal government has nominated a senior official from the national financial intelligence agency as Ottawa's next fiscal watchdog. Wayne Long, secretary of state for financial institutions, tabled a nomination Monday asking MPs to approve Annette Ryan to take on the currently vacant role of parliamentary budget officer. The nomination is for a seven-year term.
With less than three weeks to go before the New Democrats choose their next leader, Avi Lewis holds a towering fundraising advantage over his chief rivals, making him the odds-on favourite to win the contest. Filings to Elections Canada show that Lewis has raised $1,229,484 from 10,407 contributors, giving him a greater than two-to-one edge over his nearest competitor, Edmonton...
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre says his party will focus on affordability and the cost of living in three critical byelections happening next month. “We will be running candidates on the platform of making Canada affordable at home and stronger at home,” Poilievre said while speaking to reporters on Parliament Hill on Monday. “We think that the number 1 issue in...
As the federal government seeks to bolster its domestic defence industry, Industry Minister Melanie Joly announced more than $900 million for defence innovation in Canada, including money for drone technology with Bombardier. Joly made the announcement in Ottawa on Monday at the National Research Council (NRC), alongside National Defence Minister David McGuinty and Secretary of State (Defence Procurement) Stephen Fuhr...
Opposition parties from across the political spectrum are demanding clarity from the Liberal government on its position on the U.S.-Israel war on Iran as they prepare for a debate in the House of Commons Monday evening. The Prime Minister's Office has said Mark Carney won't be taking part in a take-note debate about the conflict and its impact on Canadians...
Oil prices continued to soar on Monday as the Iran war intensified, threatening production and shipping in the Middle East and pummeling financial markets. The price for a barrel of Brent crude, the international standard, surged to as high $119.50 per barrel early in the day but later was trading above $101 per barrel, up 9%. West Texas Intermediate, the...
The federal government is expected to nominate senior public servant Annette Ryan as the next Parliamentary Budget Officer, two sources say. The move would be a rejection of the advice from the Conservative Party, which had called for the person who recently acted as interim PBO to be hired permanently.
The Canadian government will face questions about its “confusing” stance on the Iran war when the House of Commons hosts a debate on the conflict tonight, according to former foreign affairs minister Lloyd Axworthy. “It’s still not clear about where Canada stands on the fundamental issue of the rule of law, which says aggression is an international crime,” Axworthy told...
Mark Carney’s government is slated to announce new investments Monday to strengthen Canada’s defence industrial capabilities, and part of the press briefing is expected to focus on Quebec’s flagship Bombardier. “The announcement will also contain positive elements for Bombardier, reflecting our continued contributions to Canada’s defence and aerospace capabilities,” the company said in a message sent to press agencies...
Liberals will need to win all 3 races to secure thin majority government. Prime Minister Mark Carney has called byelections in the Toronto ridings of University-Rosedale and Scarborough Southwest and the Quebec riding of Terrebonne — races the Liberals will want to win to secure a thin majority government. The byelections will be held on April 13, according to a...
Some Liberal MPs told The Hill Times that Prime Minister Mark Carney should have consulted his caucus before declaring Canada's support for the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran. But B.C. Liberal MP Parm Bains says he's received positive feedback from Iranian-Canadians in his riding. Prime Minister Mark Carney declared his support for the deadly American-Israeli attack on Iran shortly after it...
Library and Archives Canada is planning deep cuts to its access to information division that will put at risk its ability to comply with access and privacy laws, the department has acknowledged in a document. The archives, or LAC, is the central storing house for historical records from across the federal government and is widely used by researchers and journalists...
Liberal House leader Steven MacKinnon says Prime Minister Mark Carney's government has proposed to debate the turmoil in the Middle East on Monday evening, following a weekend meeting of ministers that discussed the issue. Steven MacKinnon, who is also transport minister, said in a Sunday post on X the government has proposed to opposition parties that a debate on the...
Advocates are raising concerns about how job cuts will affect public servants in equity groups -- something the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat says it's not tracking. The federal government has committed to cutting the number of public service jobs by about 40,000 from a 2023-24 peak of 368,000 as it looks to find savings. Departments and agencies across the...
New Democrat membership hits 100k as race to replace Jagmeet Singh culminates with convention March 29. New Democrats can begin casting their vote online and by mail today for a new federal leader, with five candidates vying for the job to replace Jagmeet Singh. The NDP says its membership has increased to approximately 100,000 people, up from 60,000 in September...
A majority of Canadians say they want Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor removed from the line of succession to the British throne, a new poll shows. The poll, released Monday by Angus Reid Institute, shows an overwhelming 84 per cent of Canadians say they are in support of the move. The survey was conducted online from Feb. 24 to 26 among a randomized...
Saudi Arabia sharpened its warnings to Iran early Monday, telling Tehran it would be the "biggest loser" if it continues to attack Arab states. The Saudi statement came after a new drone attack apparently targeted its massive Shaybah oil field. The kingdom dismissed comments by Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on Saturday that Iran had halted its attacks on Gulf Arab...
Police and political leaders gathered outside a North York synagogue Sunday morning, vowing a “relentless” investigation and stronger protections for Jewish communities after gunfire struck two GTA locations this weekend. The update came just over 24 hours after bullets tore through the front doors of Shaarei Shomayim synagogue near Bathurst Street and Glencairn Avenue. The incident was one of two...
Wide leads in Quebec, Ontario, Atlantic and BC. But the numbers have tightened, a lot, in Alberta and Saskatchewan. PM Carney's travels to market Canada is one reason why. In an election held now, 46% would cast a ballot for the Carney Liberals, and 31% say they would vote for Poilievre’s Conservatives. The Liberals have opened up a large lead...
United States President Donald Trump’s efforts to reset how pharmaceutical firms negotiate drug prices with his government—and the consequences for countries including Canada—were recently discussed at an in-person meeting between pharmaceutical representatives, Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc, Health Minister Marjorie Michel, and Janice Charette, the newly appointed chief trade negotiator to the U.S.
The decades-long debate over whether Canada should create a CIA-style foreign spy agency has been coloured by pressure from allies, budgetary restraint and internal federal rivalries, a new study reveals Much of the discussion about Canada's foreign intelligence aspirations has taken place -- fittingly perhaps, given the subject matter -- in classified memos and behind closed doors in the halls...
It's clear U.S. president still wants territory due to its 'geopolitical location': Gov. Gen. Mary Simon. Although U.S. President Donald Trump's interest in taking over Greenland appears to have faded — at least publicly — Canada's Governor General says concern remains that the fight over the semi-autonomous territory isn't over yet. "Even though the threat has kind of gone to...
Plan formerly known as 'just transition' limited to previously announced policies. The Carney government's plan to protect jobs in the energy sector amounts to a list of existing policies that critics say aren't focused enough on those at risk of losing work. Previously called the 'just transition,' the new federal sustainable jobs action plan offers little in the way of...
Recently revised directive adds flash drives, smart watches to searchable devices. United States customs officers conducted a record number of searches of electronic devices last year of people travelling to the U.S., and a recent update to its directives adds new devices such as smart watches, SIM cards and flash drives to the list of things subject to search. Officers...
Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe says Canada needs to separate its trade talks from its national security concerns when dealing with certain countries if it is serious about diversifying trading partners beyond the United States. Moe joined Prime Minister Mark Carney this week on the first leg of his Indo-Pacific trade tour to India, Australia and Japan. In India, Carney signed...
Valdez, Canada's Minister for Women and Gender Equality, will highlight Ottawa's commitment to gender equality and share best practices with international partners. This year's priority theme for the session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women focuses on strengthening access to justice for women and girls through inclusive legal systems and the removal of discriminatory laws and...
Edmonton driving the numbers, according to Abacus Data. The Conservative Party continues to hold the majority favour in what tends to be reliably-blue Alberta, but it has lost some support to the gain of the Liberals, according to a new poll. The Abacus Data poll suggests the Conservatives boast a 51-per-cent share of the intended vote in the province. That...
Jamil Jivani, a Conservative rookie member of Parliament, follows an American playbook to win over young men on college campuses. Jamil Jivani, a Canadian lawmaker who bonded with JD Vance at Yale Law School and delivered a Bible reading at his wedding, arrived at the University of Calgary on a recent winter evening — the latest stop on his tour...
Some New Democrats are worried the party could be wiped out in Quebec as its only MP in the province signals a possible exit, sources say. With Montreal-area MP Alexandre Boulerice “seriously” considering a jump to provincial politics, Quebec New Democrats fear they may not be able to hold on to the Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie seat he’s held since 2011, according...
PHOENIX (AP) -- The Republican leader of Arizona's state Senate said Monday he has handed over records related to the 2020 presidential election to the FBI in the latest sign that the Trump administration is acting on the president's longstanding falsehoods about a race he lost to Democrat Joe Biden.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Donald Trump promised that 2026 would be a bumper year for economic growth, but instead it has kicked off with job losses, rising gasoline prices and more uncertainty about America's future.
ATLANTA (AP) -- Battery company SK Battery America Inc. laid off nearly 1,000 workers at a manufacturing plant northeast of Atlanta on Friday amid automakers' changing electrification plans and uncertain consumer demand for EVs.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) -- Israeli warplanes pounded Beirut and Tehran on Friday as Iran launched another wave of retaliatory strikes against Israel and Gulf countries. There was no sign of the war letting up on its seventh day, as U.S. President Donald Trump appeared to rule out negotiations with Iran and called for its "unconditional surrender."
DND says country placed 'caveat' on U.S. intelligence-sharing for small-boat strikes. The Department of National Defence says it has safeguards in place to prevent intelligence from being shared with elements of the U.S. military that have carried out numerous lethal strikes on small boats in the Caribbean. In a statement to CBC News, the department said that intelligence gathered during...
Oil prices continued to soar on Monday as the Iran war intensified, threatening production and shipping in the Middle East and pummeling financial markets. The price for a barrel of Brent crude, the international standard, surged to as high $119.50 per barrel early in the day but later was trading above $101 per barrel, up 9%. West Texas Intermediate, the...
The Canadian government will face questions about its “confusing” stance on the Iran war when the House of Commons hosts a debate on the conflict tonight, according to former foreign affairs minister Lloyd Axworthy. “It’s still not clear about where Canada stands on the fundamental issue of the rule of law, which says aggression is an international crime,” Axworthy told...
Saudi Arabia sharpened its warnings to Iran early Monday, telling Tehran it would be the "biggest loser" if it continues to attack Arab states. The Saudi statement came after a new drone attack apparently targeted its massive Shaybah oil field. The kingdom dismissed comments by Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on Saturday that Iran had halted its attacks on Gulf Arab...
The United States and Israel do not have a "blank cheque" in their bombing campaign in Iran, and are still bound by international law, Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand said on Friday, as the war in the Middle East approaches the seven-day mark.
On October 9, 2025, the Quebec government, through Minister of Justice Simon Jolin-Barrette, tabled Bill 1, entitled the Québec Constitution Act, 2025, in the National Assembly. This unilateral action was taken against the backdrop of a deadlock in the multilateral process of negotiating amendments to the Canadian Constitution and reflects a recent trend toward constitutional unilateralism that is developing not...
Canada’s criminal justice system is failing its most basic test: keeping the public safe. A new report from the Macdonald-Laurier Institute reveals rising crime, falling clearance rates, and a bail system widely seen as broken. The result is a struggling justice system increasingly derailed by delays and struggling to deliver safety or accountability – eroding the trust of the Canadians...
Canada’s economic landscape is profoundly changing. A shifting trade environment, global efforts to reduce emissions and other structural trends are reshaping industries and job requirements. With these shifts, opportunities arise, but so do uneven risks and impacts. Certain communities are disproportionately susceptible to the workforce disruption these changes will bring. In this Policy Brief, we focus on mass layoffs and...
A collection of SubStack publishing within Canadian public affairs.
For a moment there, it looked like Mark Carney would be the torchbearer for countries opposed to Trump’s big power politics. Now, not so much. In fact, it seems Prime Minister Carney is ready to embrace the “end of the international rules-based order” rather than oppose it – thanks to the confusing and contradictory statements by the Canadian government following...
On Thursday, the Liberal government finally got around to asking ordinary Canadians how to fix the country’s premier transparency law, the Access to Information Act. The Act, dating from 1983, empowers citizens to hold governments to account through requests for internal information.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei was a monster. For close to thirty years, he presided over a police state that violated human rights at home and exported terror to the world. Now he is dead, crushed by the American assault on Iran that flattened his compound and sparked a regional war. From Tehran to Toronto, thousands of Iranians are celebrating...
John Baird, Canada’s former foreign minister, joins Steve to discuss the war in Iran, whether Canada should support it, PM Mark Carney’s evolution on reacting to this war, and if it could turn out like another Iraq or Libya. They then discuss the internal deliberations within the federal government when a war breaks out, how decisions are made to support...
AI chatbots are encouraging violence, social media is hurting kids, and Ottawa is still trying to figure out how to regulate the harms of the internet after two very public failed attempts. Host Noor Azrieh and Taylor Owen, professor and member of the federal task force on AI and online safety, dig into the federal government’s latest Online Harms push...
Two years ago, then-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told parliament there was credible evidence that the Indian government was involved in the killing of a Canadian citizen, sparking a national discussion about trans-national repression, and creating serious tension between Canada and India.
His father, mother, and wife were among those killed in the opening moments of the Iran War. Now he's the new Supreme Leader - will his term be all about revenge? That's how we start this week's commentary from Dr. Janice Stein of the Munk School at the University of Toronto.
