A Canadian MP has arrived in Taiwan to meet President Lai Ching-te in defiance of a recent warning from China’s ambassador against further trips to the self-governed island by Parliamentarians from Canada. Beijing considers the democracy of 24 million people a breakaway province despite the fact China’s governing Communist Party has never ruled the territory since it took power more...
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says she’s open to a southern route — or one that runs along the Trans Mountain Expansion Project — for a potential pipeline that would transport oil from her province to the West Coast. Smith and Prime Minister Mark Carney announced Friday they’ve reached a deal on an industrial carbon price, a critical piece of their...
The prime minister’s comments about rebuilding an international order “out of Europe” hints at a bold insight and potential plan from a man who is emerging as an architect of the global reordering. No sooner were the words out of Prime Minister Mark Carney’s mouth than one French news magazine dubbed them “a breath of fresh air from Canada.” “It...
The RCMP wants one more Black Hawk helicopter to help it patrol the Canada-U.S. border — but the federal government’s own regulations are preventing one of its suppliers from bringing another one into the country. Canada’s federal police force is currently chartering three Black Hawks and has said it wants a fourth, according to court filings and parliamentary testimony reviewed...
Canadian aid groups are deliberating how to respond to American policies that block U.S. aid for virtually any group in developing countries that provides abortion, science-based sexual health information or LGBTQ+ advocacy. The rollback of feminist aid has those groups calling on Prime Minister Mark Carney to assemble a coalition of like-minded nations to defend sexual health programming. "People are...
The Ontario Progressive Conservatives continue to lead in provincial voting intentions, while the Ontario Liberals sit within striking distance, according to a new Leger survey of Ontarians.
A new Liaison Strategies survey shows Mayor Olivia Chow holding a 13-point lead over Councillor Brad Bradford among decided voters, while Torontonians express overwhelming frustration with traffic congestion and road construction coordination. If a mayoral election were held today among decided voters, Olivia Chow would receive 50% support, followed by Brad Bradford at 37% and another candidate at 13%. Among...
Alberta’s separatist sentiment has borrowed heavily on what you might call Quebec envy. But make no mistake, the direction it is taking now veers far from the well-worn Quebec separatist path. Though Alberta’s discontent in the federation goes back a long way, it was only in the past decade or so that it sharpened into a focus on getting Alberta...
The idea that Canada might one day join the European Union is having a moment. It’s not hard to see why. Canadians are looking for deeper ties with stable, liberal democracies which share our values and have strong institutions. EU membership for a North American country is fanciful but it’s just not in the cards. What we can do is...
A Canadian isolating in B.C. has presumptively tested positive for hantavirus after leaving the cruise ship affected by an outbreak of the Andes strain in recent weeks, B.C.'s top doctor said Saturday. Dr. Bonnie Henry, provincial health officer, said Saturday the patient started to develop mild symptoms, including fever and headache, two days ago. The individual was taken to hospital...
Bridge authority, Canadian government say opening tied to testing work. For months, Canadian officials have maintained that the long-awaited opening of the $6.4 billion Gordie Howe International Bridge connecting Detroit and Windsor, Ont., is dependent on various testing and commissioning tasks. But fresh comments from a Canadian cabinet member as well as two top U.S. officials suggests there is a...
Canada’s selection as home to the new Defence, Security and Resilience Bank affirms our country’s credibility with its allies and its leadership at a time when defence, security and economic resilience is critical. Nova Scotia was one of the first to raise our hand in support of Canada’s bid.
Prime Minister Mark Carney is quietly bringing-in sweeping reforms to the pesticides law, making it more difficult for the government to ensure that the air you breathe, the water you drink and the food you eat is safe from dangerous toxins. Buried in two omnibus financial bills are provisions that overhaul the Pest Control Products Act. They change the health...
What are voters to make of a political party that can’t properly manage a riding nomination? The Ontario Liberals are the latest to pose that question implicitly — and not for the first time — to the electorate. Nate Erskine-Smith, a departing federal Liberal MP and presumed candidate for the provincial party’s leadership, alleges all manner of skulduggery in the...
Prime minister says he hopes Albertans see a 'Canada that works.' On Friday morning in Calgary, Mark Carney and Danielle Smith shook hands, then signed and posed with official copies of an "implementation agreement for the Canada-Alberta memorandum of understanding," an eight-page document bound up in profound questions of climate change, resource development, economic sovereignty and national unity. "Today is...
Premier Danielle Smith is confident. On the pipeline deal with Mark Carney she believes she speaks for most Albertans
Smith may have set up this province for decades of economic gains
The “plan” to approve a pipeline, which was detailed by the federal and Alberta governments on Friday, is a perfect example, not of federal-provincial co-operation, but of why Canada can’t build infrastructure. Rather than being subject to market demand, the decision to build or not to build is being driven entirely by politics.
Alberta and Ottawa just did something nobody expected, and it actually matters. For years, the story of Canadian climate policy has been a familiar one: Ottawa sets ambitious targets, Alberta pushes back, and the country lurches forward with neither the unity nor the urgency the moment demands. Today, that story finally has a new chapter.
The Political Pulse panel breaks down Prime Minister Mark Carney’s energy agreement with Alberta – and the political compromises that come with it.
Good news from the West: the prospect of a referendum on independence for Alberta this fall continues to collapse under the weight of its own absurdities and contradictions.
Two questions burn at the top of Canada’s economic agenda: how to accelerate growth, and how to mobilize the capital to fund it. Increasingly, the answer to both hinges on something we have long taken for granted: electricity. More and more, Canada’s economic agenda is pinned to projects that require abundant, cheap and low-carbon electricity. Critical minerals mining and processing...
In January, Prime Minister Carney gave a speech in Davos that went viral with its stark honesty about a rupture in the world order. From the campaign trail to his first year in office, Carney has consistently described the challenges Canadians face as a hinge moment for the country, a turning point requiring dramatic change. And that was before the...
The recorded history of Canada stretches back more than 500 years; the unrecorded history, many thousands. It is one of the world’s oldest continuously existing democracies, with a Constitution whose principal features – monarchical, federal, parliamentary, with an independent judiciary and (ahem) an unelected Senate – have remained unchanged since 1867.
For the last torrid year in Alberta politics, so much seemed to be building toward a separation referendum this fall. Premier Danielle Smith eased the rules repeatedly for a pro-separatist petition to succeed. Right before a court first ruled against petitioners in December because of constitutional issues, her government rewrote a law to make that moot. She scheduled a series...
In the United States, the life expectancy is 78.4 years. In Canada, it’s 82.2. That would be a good statistic to insert into a response to America’s Canada-trashers, like Ambassador Pete Hoekstra or Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. A line like: “Dear Americans, if you want to live several years longer, move to Canada.” It’s a telling statistic. In the debate...
Civil liberties groups, legal experts and the Canadian Chamber of Commerce have been sounding the alarm for months on the privacy and cybersecurity issues contained in the Carney government’s Lawful Access Act, or Bill C-22. In a not-so-surprising twist, American lawmakers have now also added their voice to those warning about the bill.
Various experts have been assuring the public over the past several weeks that the risk of a major hantavirus outbreak is low. This is a known virus, they say, unlike the novel coronavirus first observed in 2019. It doesn’t pose pandemic potential, they say, because this Andes variant requires prolonged close contact to be transmitted from human to human.
A sense of inevitability has set into the public mood in Alberta, as it seems that a referendum on independence is going to happen this fall, in spite of a cascading series of dubious events. It shouldn’t be this way—no separatist party won an election on a clear mandate for a referendum, so there is no democratic legitimacy for one...
Americans are impatient with their chaotic President. For a shockingly long time, they seemed willing to shrug off his juvenile framing of complex issues. Some winced, many looked away. Millions marched, and the rest of the world wondered why it wasn’t millions more. Trump will never stop being Trump. But he’s got fewer cards. He’s spending billions on a war...
Perhaps the most attention-grabbing criticism of the Carney government's proposed changes to environmental regulations and permitting has come not from across the aisle, but from within the Liberal caucus — and is being framed as a comparison with the last Conservative prime minister. "This goes beyond what [Stephen] Harper proposed when he was in power," Steven Guilbeault, the former environment...
The controversy over Louise Arbour’s appointment as Governor-General is unusual in that both sides cite the same set of facts. She’s a former Supreme Court justice, say her supporters, a former international war-crimes prosecutor, and a former UN high commissioner for human rights, among a long list of other offices and laurels. Exactly, say her opponents: a bona fide member...
As Mark Carney often reminds us, he is not, as he puts it, “a career politician.” In many ways, that is a good thing. After two decades of rancorous, often toxic uber-partisanship, Carney’s no-nonsense, low-key approach is a welcome relief and reassuring to Canadians who have been deeply unnerved by Donald Trump’s ongoing attacks on our country.
On the recent anniversary of the April 2025 election that confirmed Mark Carney and the Liberals as Canada’s government, there were many analyses offered on what the year had achieved and what the next one might hold. But few people took a closer look at what the first year of Carney’s tenure has meant to the Official Opposition, the Conservative...
The political ground in Alberta could shift radically in the next few days. Premier Danielle Smith will finally have a weapon to slap down separatism. The separatist leaders, meanwhile, are also doing an excellent job of slapping down separatism. A pipeline and economic deal with Ottawa is widely expected.
Commenting on the trucker convoys that took place in 2022 in Ottawa and Coutts, Alta., prominent security analyst Wesley Wark said, “I think the history of the Freedom Convoy has really not settled into the Canadian consciousness.” “It may be some time before we really figure out for ourselves what was involved here, what was at stake,” Wark, a senior...
British Columbia Premier David Eby says the federal government is rewarding Alberta for "bad behaviour" by agreeing to push for a new bitumen pipeline to the West Coast. Prime Minister Mark Carney and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith signed an "implementation agreement" to advance a West Coast pipeline to Ottawa's major projects office by July 1. The new agreement commits both...
Since gas prices started climbing in March, Sarah Bradley has found herself bargain hunting across multiple grocery stores in Montreal. "Before, I'm a one-stop shop person," she said. "Now I think twice. I'm like, OK, do I need that from IGA or can I find it somewhere else for cheaper? "It's insane," she said of the cost of filling up...
Prime Minister Mark Carney and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said Friday they're eyeing a fall 2027 start date for construction of a new bitumen pipeline to the West Coast. It's part of a plan to accomplish the remaining steps of the landmark energy deal they signed last fall. There is to be a new scheme for carbon emissions pricing in...
Mark Carney says Canada can become an energy superpower, given its potential in oil, gas, electricity, solar, and wind. But as we are seeing now, to get there, some old promises need to change. Is that price too high? Is the Liberal Party's unity at stake? Just some of the questions and one of the issues for Chantal and Bruce...
The national chief of the Assembly of First Nations says proposed changes to major project development rules "are not acceptable" and risk trampling on the rights of First Nations. The federal government is proposing giving authority to review interprovincial pipelines and transmission lines, and offshore renewable energy projects, to the Canada Energy Regulator instead of the Impact Assessment Agency of...
Virtual private network service NordVPN says it could pull out of Canada over the federal government's proposed lawful access bill. NordVPN says it is reviewing the bill and would consider leaving Canada if the bill requires it to compromise its privacy protections. Earlier this week, The Globe and Mail reported that the encrypted messaging service Signal said it would leave...
Liberal MP Nate Erskine-Smith is asking supporters for advice on what his next steps should be, with his potential bid to become Ontario Liberal leader in doubt following a nomination loss. Erskine-Smith was vying to represent the provincial party in the upcoming Scarborough Southwest byelection but lost a nomination race last weekend. He had said he wanted to run in...
Scores of former senior Canadian diplomats are calling for Prime Minister Mark Carney to issue "robust" sanctions on Israel over deteriorating conditions in the Palestinian territories and Lebanon. In a letter sent to media outlets, the former diplomats also call on the federal government to review Canada's trade agreement with Israel and issue a notice that a strategic partnership agreement...
OTTAWA -- The Supreme Court of Canada has recognized intimate partner violence as a distinct legal basis for pursuing civil damages.
Alberta’s chief electoral officer Gordon McClure says he accepts a court’s ruling overturning his decision to authorize an Albertan to gather signatures for a proposed independence referendum. Boxes containing sheets with potentially hundreds of thousands of signatures supporting a separation referendum remain locked in a secure Elections Alberta facility, and employees will not count or verify those signatures for now...
Former Liberal environment minister Stéphane Dion says Ottawa’s recent proposal to streamline major project reviews—which some environmentalists say could result in “the most consequential change to the fabric of Canadian environmental law in a generation”—is the latest in a trend of “backlash against climate policies.” “There is the sense that we went too far,” said Dion in an interview with...
Defence Minister David McGuinty declined to say whether Canada would continue sending warships through the Taiwan Strait, weeks after China’s ambassador warned doing so would damage a new strategic partnership Prime Minister Mark Carney has struck with Beijing. Mr. McGuinty cited operational security as a reason for not answering. “Those are operational questions, security questions – I don’t get into...
As Canada enters free trade talks with U.S., these charts show Canada’s impact on booze trade. As we head into the Victoria Day long weekend, one of the busiest booze-buying weekends on the calendar, it's the second year where most Canadians are without access to American labels. When Canadian liquor stores pulled American products from shelves in early 2025, it...
Prime Minister Mark Carney and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith are to meet today in Calgary, where they're expected to announce an agreement on the future of industrial carbon emission pricing in the province. A source with knowledge of the discussions has said the leaders are expected to reveal a plan for Alberta to raise its emission price to $130 per...
Bill C-22 proposes to help police investigate online cases. A Liberal government bill that proposes giving police and spies easier access to information during investigations has fallen into the crosshairs of U.S. tech giants and two American congressional committees, threatening to become the latest irritant in the Canada-U.S. relationship. The bill, this government’s second attempt at passing lawful access legislation...
Internal review found the activity violated intelligence-gathering rules. The military reprimanded soldiers after they raised concerns about an order to monitor Canadians' online activity during the COVID-19 pandemic, CBC News has learned. But the military’s top lawyer later warned of risks associated with this kind of monitoring, and a review found it violated the rules, according to internal documents viewed...
Defence Minister David McGuinty said Canada could contribute a vessel, demining assistance or satellite imagery if a mission to secure the Strait of Hormuz proceeds. Mr. McGuinty, who wrapped up a defence and trade visit to the United Arab Emirates and Qatar on Thursday, said a condition of this support would be “a durable cessation” of hostilities in the vital...
Conservatives are questioning why CBC is funding a spoof program that used false pretences to lure high-profile people accused of downplaying the damage caused by residential schools into sitting for interviews. Several current and former Conservative politicians have gone on social media to denounce the production "Northland Tales." The show is being produced for CBC and APTN. The show is...
The Carney government is putting a new emphasis on diplomacy with Persian Gulf countries -- one that goes beyond seeking investments in Canada to arrangements touching on defence and artificial intelligence. Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand made trips to both Oman and Qatar this week, while Defence Minister David McGuinty was in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. Prime Minister...
U.S. pointing to agricultural tax exemptions as justification for countervailing duties. The U.S. is about to slap countervailing duties on fresh mushrooms grown in Canada, as Canadian growers warn of broader risks to the farming sector on both sides of the border. A U.S. Commerce Department fact sheet released this week and shared with CBC by the Canadian Mushroom Growers'...
Prime Minister Mark Carney announced his government’s plan to double the capacity of Canada’s electricity grid by 2050, in part by potentially rolling back Trudeau-era regulations for clean electricity in a move that environment experts call “a huge betrayal.”
Prime Minister Mark Carney and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith say they'll be in Calgary on Friday to announce the next step in their landmark energy pact. Carney says it will feature an implementation agreement on industrial carbon pricing and advance a potential new pipeline. Neither he nor Smith shared more details, but the premier told the legislative assembly it would...
Prime Minister Mark Carney said on Thursday his government is open to selling public assets if the proceeds could help fund new infrastructure. The November federal budget and April spring economic statement both mentioned exploring new ownership options for the country's federally owned airports. As first reported by the Toronto Star, a transport ministry discussion paper published last week on...
The best place for Alberta to be is in Canada, Prime Minister Mark Carney said Thursday after a judge's decision to throw out a separatist petition in the province. "Certainly a Canada that works, which is what we're pursuing," Carney told reporters. "I think the evidence — well — others will judge."
Prime Minister Mark Carney unveiled Canada's long-awaited new electricity strategy Thursday, placing a heavy emphasis on expanding the role of natural gas in powering the grid as he seemed to distance the government from its 2030 Paris climate commitments. The new strategy looks to double Canada's electricity grid by 2050 and would adjust the clean electricity regulations to provide more...
The federal government’s proposal to legally allow projects to go ahead even if they result in an entire species going extinct is directed at projects, such as ports and pipelines, that jeopardize the existence of the endangered southern resident killer whale population, several sources told the Star Wednesday.
Secure messaging service Signal, which uses end-to-end encryption, is warning it would withdraw from Canada if asked to compromise its users’ privacy under Bill C-22, Ottawa’s proposed lawful access legislation. In an interview, Udbhav Tiwari, Signal vice-president of strategy and global affairs, said the company has deep concerns about measures in the bill, including its potential to introduce security vulnerabilities...
China's Xi Jinping warned President Donald Trump on Thursday that the two countries could clash over Taiwan if the issue was not handled properly, an unusually harsh admonition that stood in contrast to the American leader's praise for his counterpart. The exchange at a highly anticipated summit in Beijing underscored just how far apart Trump and Xi remain on thorny...
About half of Ontarians say their impression of Premier Doug Ford has worsened in recent months and 56 per cent believe the province is headed in the wrong direction, according to a new Postmedia-Leger survey. Barely over a third (36 per cent) of Ontarians surveyed believe the province is headed in the right direction.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) -- Even as Democratic officials fight the effort in court, the Trump administration has run millions of voter registrations through government databases to determine their eligibility in a process that critics worry could end up purging valid voters from the rolls before the November elections.
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) -- U.S. Rep. Julia Letlow advanced to a runoff in Louisiana's Republican Senate primary Saturday, capitalizing on the power of President Donald Trump's endorsement in another attempt to purge his party of people he views as disloyal. State Treasurer John Fleming came in second to join her in the next round of voting.
NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy is fighting for his political life in Louisiana's Republican primary on Saturday as he faces a challenge backed by President Donald Trump, the latest attempt by the president to purge the party of politicians he views as disloyal.
DENVER (AP) -- Colorado Gov. Jared Polis on Friday commuted the sentence of election conspiracy theorist Tina Peters following pressure from President Donald Trump, the latest instance of the president using his powers to reward those who echoed his baseless claims of mass fraud as the cause of his 2020 loss.
A Canadian MP has arrived in Taiwan to meet President Lai Ching-te in defiance of a recent warning from China’s ambassador against further trips to the self-governed island by Parliamentarians from Canada. Beijing considers the democracy of 24 million people a breakaway province despite the fact China’s governing Communist Party has never ruled the territory since it took power more...
The prime minister’s comments about rebuilding an international order “out of Europe” hints at a bold insight and potential plan from a man who is emerging as an architect of the global reordering. No sooner were the words out of Prime Minister Mark Carney’s mouth than one French news magazine dubbed them “a breath of fresh air from Canada.” “It...
Scores of former senior Canadian diplomats are calling for Prime Minister Mark Carney to issue "robust" sanctions on Israel over deteriorating conditions in the Palestinian territories and Lebanon. In a letter sent to media outlets, the former diplomats also call on the federal government to review Canada's trade agreement with Israel and issue a notice that a strategic partnership agreement...
Defence Minister David McGuinty declined to say whether Canada would continue sending warships through the Taiwan Strait, weeks after China’s ambassador warned doing so would damage a new strategic partnership Prime Minister Mark Carney has struck with Beijing. Mr. McGuinty cited operational security as a reason for not answering. “Those are operational questions, security questions – I don’t get into...
The Carney government is putting a new emphasis on diplomacy with Persian Gulf countries -- one that goes beyond seeking investments in Canada to arrangements touching on defence and artificial intelligence. Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand made trips to both Oman and Qatar this week, while Defence Minister David McGuinty was in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. Prime Minister...
Coal is often treated as a relic of the past – dirty, declining, and politically toxic. Yet globally, it remains indispensable, the backbone of electricity systems in Asia and the primary input for global steelmaking.
When the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms came into force in 1982, many warned that it would undermine the foundations of Canada’s system of parliamentary democracy and usher in a new age of judicial supremacy. For a time, those concerns appeared overstated. Canadian courts exercised a degree of restraint, and the basic contours of Westminster parliamentary governance remained intact...
A collection of SubStack publishing within Canadian public affairs.
“Despite the ongoing conflict between Hezbollah and Israel which has resulted in thousands of deaths and injuries…Lebanon moved forward with the ban on antipersonnel landmines,” said the Ottawa-based group Mines Action Canada in a statement, celebrating the new addition.
Canada’s privacy laws are supposed to protect ordinary citizens from unwarranted intrusions into their personal lives. But they can also protect pedophiles. Dead pedophiles. Dead pedophiles from America.
If you want to sound wise these days, just blame the crazy state of the world on polarization. If you want to sound really wise, say that fighting polarization needs to be part of the political agenda and be sure to blame social media and Donald Trump (although not necessarily in that order) for the current chaos. Despite it being...
Why can’t Canada get big things built? Can Carney cut delays without cutting corners? Is Ottawa finally admitting there’s a problem? In this episode of the Sage podcast, Donald Wright and Janet Annesley join hosts Edward Greenspon and Allan Gregg to talk about one of Canada’s hardest policy questions: why is it so difficult to get major projects built? As...
Louise Blais returns for a special episode on CUSMA, joining Peter Donolo and Jeremy Kinsman to unpack the next phase of North American trade negotiations. Now serving as Québec's trade representative, Louise explains why the July 1 review date is not a cliff edge, but a critical moment to assess where the agreement is working and where pressure is building...
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and Prime Minister Mark Carney have made another stride in their important MOU: A new carbon pricing agreement that is far less than the targets set by Justin Trudeau. Is the deal enough to calm down separatists? Could it anger environmentalists within Carney's team? Ottawa bureau chiefs Tonda MacCharles of the Toronto Star and Stuart Thomson...
Mark Carney says Canada can become an energy superpower, given its potential in oil, gas, electricity, solar, and wind. But as we are seeing now, to get there, some old promises need to change. Is that price too high? Is the Liberal Party's unity at stake? Just some of the questions and one of the issues for Chantal and Bruce...
