Union leader says he hopes premiers encourage feds to 'relentlessly pursue' CUSMA renewal. The day Oshawa, Ont., autoworkers have dreaded for months has arrived, as GM Canada is poised to cut a shift at the city’s plant, costing over a thousand workers their jobs. Up to 1,200 workers are expected to complete their final shift on Friday as the company...
The Trump administration has held covert meetings with fringe separatists from the oil-rich Canadian province as a rift deepens between Washington and Ottawa.
Conservative leader asks convention delegates to give him another shot. Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre's fate will be put to delegates at the party's convention in Calgary on Friday. While those around him are confident he can avoid being turfed, the leader's loyalists are doing all they can to ensure he easily clears this must-win vote. Poilievre has been busy working...
In remarks at Trump event, U.S. treasury secretary issues new message to Canada on looming trade talks. The Trump administration is once again ramping up its rhetorical pressure on Canada, with U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent issuing a fresh warning to Prime Minister Mark Carney over looming trade negotiations. Bessent was at an event in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday to...
With Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre set to face a leadership review in two days, many of his MPs are publicly voicing support for his direction over the party. Poilievre is set to face a mandatory leadership review in Calgary at the party’s national convention on Friday following last year’s federal election loss. According to the party’s constitution, if a leader...
This week, we surveyed Canadians on politics, government performance, and key national issues.
Concern about Trump/US relations is on the rise, up six points in four weeks. Jobs/the economy remains the top national issue of concern. There is a four-point gap between the Liberals and the Conservatives in ballot support. While Carney is ahead of Poilievre in the preferred PM by 28 percentage points.
Thousands of Conservatives will gather in Calgary this week with one key decision to make — to bolster or weaken their leader, Pierre Poilievre. Poilievre is the second leader of the modern Conservative party to face a leadership vote following an election defeat. Former prime minister Stephen Harper faced a review in 2005, after he lost the 2004 election to...
It’s always dangerous when a party leader has to reach three different audiences, each grading a different test. That’s what Pierre Poilievre faces Friday night. At the Conservative convention in Calgary, Mr. Poilievre’s speech will come just before delegates vote on his leadership. That’s normally when a leader plays to the room, hitting the notes the base wants to hear...
The commander of the navy says there's no reason — in circumstances outside of war — to arm Canada's fleet of coast guard ships. And Vice-Admiral Angus Topshee tells CBC News that in the event of a conflict, there are potential ways the civilian vessels can be quickly given the equipment they need to defend themselves.
Canadian companies are coming under fire over their ties to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement as U.S. President Donald Trump pursues a mass deportation campaign to expel vast numbers of immigrants. Canadian defence manufacturer Roshel and Vancouver-based companies Hootsuite and Jim Pattison Group are being raked publicly over their ties to the immigration enforcement agency -- especially in the wake...
Prime Minister Mark Carney’s well-crafted and eloquently delivered speech at Davos has been widely noted, and I want to start by offering some praise of my own. The Prime Minister is right to restate what many have said for years: Canada must become more self-reliant, less dependent and work with like-minded countries to advance our interests. Conservatives are, as always...
As an illustration of Canada’s relative irrelevance on the world stage, I always liked the story about external affairs minister Lester Pearson’s visit to president Dwight Eisenhower, an avid golfer. Pearson emerged from a meeting in disbelief that Ike hadn’t even heard of a pressing Canadian issue. “You’d think,” he muttered to an aide, “his caddie would have mentioned it...
Prime Minister Mark Carney’s speech at the Citadel of Quebec and the controversy it provoked gives us an opportunity to reflect on what is specific and even exceptional in our country’s history. I will argue here that, in judging Canada’s past, which Quebec nationalist circles reproach for conquest and assimilation, one must consider the tragic nature of universal history...
One of the more perplexing aspects of living through the Trump 2.0 era is knowing when to believe what the American president says. After all, it can be easy to dismiss a lot of what emerges from Trump: he is notoriously mercurial, seems highly persuadable and has a propensity to say some truly odd things. But part of learning to...
While we prognosticators are always cautioned to be wary of absolute, unqualified predictions in politics — especially in this era of “anything’s possible” — it is as safe as it can possibly be to say at this writing that Pierre Poilievre will be confirmed as leader of the Conservative Party at its convention in Calgary later this week. Poilievre will...
Mark Carney’s Davos speech appears to have caught Canadians’ attention. The Angus Reid Institute has a new poll out showing him with a 60-per-cent “positive” rating (to 34 per cent “negative”), up eight points since December. Spark Insights has him at 61 per cent. And Pierre Poilievre? Just 36 per cent rate him positively, according to Angus Reid; 39 per...
Later this week, Conservatives will gather in Calgary for their national convention, where Pierre Poilievre faces a mandatory leadership review on January 30. He is widely expected to win easily. The more interesting challenge the Conservatives face, however, is how to grow beyond the coalition they have today.
My mother was an amateur historian. Her love of history came from living in Quebec City in her youth, not far from the Plains of Abraham. In her back yard, there were cannon balls and musket shells from the French and British who fought in September 1759. She loved Quebec City, and believed it was an example to the rest...
The French have a whole vocabulary for a blunder — faux pas, gaffe, bévue — which may be why English borrows the words. And they are quick to spot them. They showed it when Prime Minister Mark Carney hugged Bonhomme, the Québec Winter Carnival mascot.
Canada is making a costly mistake in managing its relationship with the United States. Mark Carney’s Davos speech, widely praised abroad, is the clearest recent example. Canadians have been rattled by the aggressive approach the Trump administration has taken over the past year. There is no question that Canada needs to diversify trade and take concrete steps to protect its...
Much of this week and next week will see Conservative Party partisans gathering in Calgary at the party convention and in Ottawa to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Stephen Harper’s election and swearing-in as Canada’s 22nd prime minister. These will be two weeks for Canada’s conservative movement, filled with reflections on past successes and examining today’s challenges. Much of the...
I regret to inform you that it is necessary to pay attention to Steve Bannon because he has plans for Canada and, unfortunately, he has repeatedly shown that he can make bad things happen. Bannon will go down in history as the man who discovered the power of the “sh*tpost,” and who showed that an online army of incels and...
FOR MY PARTY—the Conservative Party of Canada—2025 was an annus horribilis. We suffered a string of strategic missteps, failed to break through to voters on the issues that dominated the national conversation, and paid the price in both public confidence and political momentum. I won’t revisit every episode here, but we must acknowledge the reality of a very difficult year...
Prime Minister Mark Carney has had a busy week. A major international speech at Davos that garnered plaudits around the world. An address to the nation designed to rouse Canadian patriotism and rebut U.S. President Donald Trump. An announcement of GST relief to steal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre’s thunder on affordability, one week before Poilievre faces a leadership review vote...
WHAT IF, IN THE RUINS of the liberal international order, the world is spiralling back not to the fascist 1930s, not to the gunboat imperialism of the late nineteenth century, but all the way back to the rule of warrior princes, and their predatory cliques, in early modern Europe?
Canada’s outgoing ambassador to the United States, Kirsten Hillman, had to politely remind Americans over the weekend that Alberta separatism is a domestic issue and not something that Donald Trump’s people should be encouraging. Hillman was on the CBS TV show “Face the Nation” when she was asked about comments last week from U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who said...
There is a reason why the United States and Canada consider China a “non-market economy.” Beijing, rather than market forces, determines production and prices. Since China joined the World Trade Organization in 2000, it has been able to access Western markets, without offering reciprocal access. A very good case study is currently before the Canadian finance minister, François-Philippe Champagne.
In 1935, American author Sinclair Lewis published It Can’t Happen Here, a dystopian novel about the rise of a populist demagogue named Berzelius “Buzz” Windrip, who becomes the U.S. president after cultivating a cult following for his nationalism, anti-elitism, and quixotic promises. Windrip was fixated on restoring domestic production of material goods and hated the press.
The old world is dying and a new era of global instability beckons. But first, the groceries. "For many Canadians, the cost of groceries and everyday essentials has been too high for too long. They need more support now," Prime Minister Mark Carney conceded on Monday morning, speaking at a grocery store in Ottawa, almost exactly a week removed from...
Mark Carney’s speeches last week in Davos and Québec City should be read as a single argument. One addresses the world, the other our nation, but together they articulate a governing credo that seeks to integrate Canadian foreign and domestic policy more tightly than at any time since the early Cold War. Carney’s starting point is blunt. The postwar order...
A few months ago, the PM spoke of sacrifice as Canada realigned around new priorities. The same theme popped up in a Globe and Mail story last week about planning work at Canadian Defence HQ about how to resist, via an insurgency, an American attack. The key line to me in that story was this: 'Conscription has been ruled out...
Prime Minister Carney delivered a very good speech this week in Davos and Canadians should be proud of it. His speech was well received at home and abroad for both its content and its measured delivery. I know this personally because I have heard from friends from inside and outside of Canada. In fact, I was in Mexico for a...
Politicians rarely say anything very interesting in speeches. At most, there might be a kernel of news slipped in between the banalities and outpourings of self-congratulation.
Months ago, as Prime Minister Mark Carney was embarking on his marathon negotiations with the U.S. government, he indicated that he preferred dealing with trade and security as a package. In practice, the paths that have developed seem to be trade talks that focus on tariffs and security decisions that focus on a significant increase in defence spending. For the...
Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe says he would have used different words to describe the changing global trade landscape than Prime Minister Mark Carney did on his recent trip to China. During his trip earlier this month — the first visit to China for a Canadian prime minister in eight years — Carney said during a meeting with Chinese Premier Li...
OTTAWA -- Ontario Premier Doug Ford and New Brunswick Premier Susan Holt both say they agree with Prime Minister Mark Carney's suggestion this week that "almost nothing" is normal right now with the United States.
TORONTO -- Doug Ford's Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario has banned media from its upcoming convention for the first time since he became the premier in 2018.
Ottawa and Seoul have signed a memorandum of understanding intended to bring South Korean auto manufacturing and investment to Canada, according to a document reviewed by The Globe and Mail. The MOU stems from the Asian country’s campaign to win a multibillion-dollar contract to build up to 12 submarines for the Royal Canadian Navy.
The union representing employees at the Canadian Food Inspection Agency says staff have been told there will be 1,371 agency jobs cut as part of the government's cost-cutting exercise. The Agriculture Union says it "categorically denounces" the cuts, which it says point toward a "looming food safety crisis" in Canada.
The Liberal government has chosen Anton Boegman, a former chief electoral officer of British Columbia, to administer the planned federal foreign influence transparency registry. Boegman's proposed appointment is subject to approval by resolution of the House of Commons and Senate following consultation with opposition parties and Senate leaders. Simon Lafortune, a spokesman for Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree, says the...
The Bank of Canada held its benchmark interest rate steady Wednesday and forecasts a gradual economic recovery from the U.S. tariff shock. The policy rate remains at 2.25 per cent after the central bank’s first decision of the year. Economists had widely expected the hold.
The petulance displayed by the U.S. ambassador to Canada is exactly what you might expect from Pete Hoekstra if he had just been informed that Canada intends to spend half the money earmarked for new F-35 fighter jets on the rival Swedish Gripen. Hoekstra apparently skipped the class on diplomacy being about saying the nastiest thing in the nicest way...
In Davos, Switzerland, Prime Minister Mark Carney mapped out a new path for Canada’s foreign policy, but a union representing Canadian diplomats says that work will be threatened by cuts in the foreign ministry. Carney’s (Nepean, Ont.) Jan. 20 World Economic Forum speech has garnered international attention and praise as he trumpeted a coalition of middle powers in a time...
Carney's gains appear to be entirely at the cost of the NDP and the Bloc Québécois, whom Enns say have effectively 'disappeared.' Canada’s Liberals have received another boost in voter support after Prime Minister Mark Carney’s recent tour to China and Davos, Switzerland, with nearly half of Canadians now saying they would likely vote Liberal if a federal election were...
Thousands of employees at Global Affairs Canada have been issued notices warning they may lose their jobs, months before a foreign policy review is completed to give the department updated priorities. Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand said the department has the broad outlines of Canada's foreign policy which can shape staffing priorities, but the diplomats union says the cuts at...
Canada's premiers are set for two days of huddling in the nation's capital with the economy, affordability and trade expected to be high on the agenda. The premiers meet with Prime Minister Mark Carney on Thursday, and will want to show a united "Team Canada" front as trade tensions rise again with Canada's largest trading partner.
Government officials are in talks with tech giant Meta about restoring news to Facebook, as the Online News Act – which prompted the tech giant to end access to journalism on its platforms – is put on the table as part of trade negotiations with the United States. Meta Platforms blocked all news from Facebook and Instagram in 2023, in...
India has long viewed Canada as the “younger brother” of the United States, slow to approve foreign investment and major projects, but this perception is changing under Prime Minister Mark Carney, the Indian high commissioner to Canada says. Ottawa and New Delhi are preparing to launch talks on a comprehensive trade deal as the Prime Minister makes plans for a...
NDP leadership hopefuls Heather McPherson and Rob Ashton are stressing their differences from social activist Avi Lewis as the party’s leadership race hits a critical juncture. Both campaigns told National Post that the two candidates are aligned on several of the race’s top issues, including the federal NDP’s relationship with provincial wings, the role of labour unions in the party...
The federal government has proposed former British Columbia chief electoral officer Anton Boegman as head of the newly created Foreign Influence Transparency Registry, two sources say. Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree told reporters Tuesday that he has sent a letter to recognized opposition parties and to Senate groups, recommending the government’s choice for commissioner. The government is supposed to consult...
Prime Minister Mark Carney plans to make a potentially important visit to India in the next couple of months, government officials have confirmed, as Canada continues efforts to diversify trade, attract investment and mend international fences. While government officials emphasize that the trip hasn’t been finalized and wouldn’t necessarily mean any deals if it occurs, the intensity of the planning...
The decision to cull more than 300 ostriches at a B.C. farm last November cost the federal government more than $6.7 million across three agencies, according to newly released data. After Universal Ostrich Farm, located near Edgewood, B.C., reported it had lost dozens of birds following an avian flu outbreak in late 2024, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) ordered...
Mark Critch says he's wondered what would happen if U.S President Donald Trump actually visited the countries he planned to invade. So he flew to Greenland to find out.
Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand said Canada's "principled pragmatism" in foreign policy will be on full display next week in Greenland when she opens Canada's new consulate in the Danish territory with Inuit representatives attending and a coast guard vessel in the background. "We will continue to be principled and we will be pragmatic at the same time," Anand told...
CALGARY -- Alberta country music star Paul Brandt won't divulge his stance on the ongoing separatist movement in the province.
Alberta's judges are calling for respect days after Premier Danielle Smith said she wishes she could "direct" them. The province's three chief justices say in a rare public statement that democracy only functions when all three branches of government operate independently and respect each other's role. "It ensures judges can make decisions based solely on the law and evidence presented,"...
Thousands of electric vehicles from Chinese automakers can enter Canada this year at new low tariff rate
OTTAWA -- Prime Minister Mark Carney says Holocaust Remembrance Day is a moment to remember the consequences of ignorance and hatred.
Prime Minister Mark Carney is standing by his speech at the World Economic Forum last week, despite claims from U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration that he “aggressively” walked back some of his comments during a phone call. “To be absolutely clear, and I said this to the president. I mean what I said in Davos,” Carney said to reporters on...
Surrounded by global elites and influencers, Mark Carney stepped on the global stage and crystallized what many had been thinking: it’s time to accept that the world order of the last 80 years has dramatically and permanently changed. It’s a “rupture,” Carney told the World Economic Forum audience at Davos, Switzerland on Jan. 20, “not a transition.” The “rules-based international...
Ontario Premier Doug Ford appears to have had a change of heart when it comes to the federal government’s auto strategy after hearing more about it from federal officials. “I also want to thank Minister (Mélanie) Joly for coming up with a great auto strategy that the minister has put together that we’re going to be part of,” Ford said...
Petition drives calling for a referendum on Alberta separating from Canada have been held across the province in recent weeks, everywhere from small communities and rural halls, and now to Calgary for the first time. Outside the Big Four Roadhouse at a signing event in Calgary, a lineup formed as people waited to add their names to the petition.
Nearly nine months after being elected federally, Conservative MP Chak Au has submitted his resignation from his other job as a municipal councillor in Richmond, B.C. His resignation will take effect Feb. 1. Mr. Au has served as a city councillor since 2011, and was elected as a member of Parliament for the British Columbia riding of Richmond Centre-Marpole in April.
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar said Thursday she is running for governor of Minnesota, promising to take on President Donald Trump while unifying a state that has endured a series of challenges even before the federal government's immigration crackdown.
A federal appeals court ruled late Wednesday that the Trump administration acted illegally when it ended legal protections that gave hundreds of thousands of people from Venezuela permission to live and work in the United States.
DENVER (AP) -- Donald Trump lost his bid for reelection in 2020. But for more than five years, he's been trying to convince Americans the opposite is true by falsely saying the election was marred by widespread fraud.
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- Democratic U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar blamed President Donald Trump for threats to her safety on Wednesday, one day after she was accosted and squirted with liquid at an event in Minneapolis.
Canadian companies are coming under fire over their ties to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement as U.S. President Donald Trump pursues a mass deportation campaign to expel vast numbers of immigrants. Canadian defence manufacturer Roshel and Vancouver-based companies Hootsuite and Jim Pattison Group are being raked publicly over their ties to the immigration enforcement agency -- especially in the wake...
In remarks at Trump event, U.S. treasury secretary issues new message to Canada on looming trade talks. The Trump administration is once again ramping up its rhetorical pressure on Canada, with U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent issuing a fresh warning to Prime Minister Mark Carney over looming trade negotiations. Bessent was at an event in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday to...
Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand said Canada's "principled pragmatism" in foreign policy will be on full display next week in Greenland when she opens Canada's new consulate in the Danish territory with Inuit representatives attending and a coast guard vessel in the background. "We will continue to be principled and we will be pragmatic at the same time," Anand told...
Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand said Canada's "principled pragmatism" in foreign policy will be on full display next week in Greenland when she opens Canada's new consulate in the Danish territory with Inuit representatives attending and a coast guard vessel in the background. "We will continue to be principled and we will be pragmatic at the same time," Anand told...
In cutting China deal and deriding economic coercion, prime minister opts for ‘hardball’ approach as crucial trade talks loom
Prime Minister Mark Carney’s visit to China will stand as one of the most consequential moments in Canada’s foreign policy. It not only reframed Canada’s relationship with China but also signalled a fundamentally new approach to how Ottawa intends to navigate a more fragmented, contested and uncertain world. On the bilateral front, the trip produced three tangible outcomes: a new...
A collection of SubStack publishing within Canadian public affairs.
The RCMP has handed out 23 awards for excellence to officers and employees in Nova Scotia for their performance during the April 2020 mass murders, in which a gunman impersonating a Mountie murdered 22 people in cold blood.
Library and Archives Canada (LAC) gets a lot of flak for its processing of Access to Information Act (ATIA) requests, especially for its long delays to respond. But lately they’ve been doing a few things right.
A thorough media scan reveals practically no discussion about this important escalation, which would put Canada among only a few Western navies (the United States, the United Kingdom, and France) that operate submarine-launched land-attack weapons.
Election vibes are back on Parliament Hill as Prime Minister Mark Carney rides a post-Davos bump and Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre prepares for a critical leadership review. Government House Leader Steven MacKinnon joins Playbook Canada to discuss playing nice in the House, election speculation and floor crossers.
After an unremarkable blow in last year's federal election - at both the national and riding level - all eyes will be on Conservative Leader, Pierre Poilievre's leadership abilities during the Conservative Party Convention in Calgary.
Over the last few weeks, the Trump administration has explicitly or implicitly borrowed from the Nazi tradition on social media. Specific passages or iconography from the Third Reich have been repurposed in the context of the government’s own legislative program today. The adoption of these extreme symbols, dog whistles and phrases is part of a re-mainstreaming of fascist and Nazi...
It's a big week for Conservatives. On Friday night in Calgary Pierre Poilievre gets the verdict from his party membership -- a leadership review vote will determine his future. Rob Russo and Althia Raj have their thoughts on that.
