While National Newswatch does not keep an archive of external articles for longer than 6 months, we do keep all articles written by contributors who post directly to our site. Here you will find all of the contributed and linked external articles from Althia Raj.
Opposition parties banded together this week in a futile attempt to hear more expert testimony on Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Building Canada Strong Act, C-39, after dozens of witnesses warned MPs the bill is deeply flawed, and more than 100 individual Canadians and groups urged amendments or begged the government to change course on legislation that will impact labour rights...
Technically speaking, Prime Minister Mark Carney’s majority in Parliament will be tested in a series of byelections called for Dec. 7. The Liberals currently hold 173 of Parliament’s 343 seats, with six vacancies now up for grabs. Of the six ridings, three are in Quebec — where the Liberals hope to pick up a long-time NDP seat in Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie...
Monday evening, in what was once a Bank of Montreal, Prime Minister Mark Carney dined across from his guest of honour, the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, whom he seated next to former prime minister Stephen Harper. It is not the first time Carney has signalled close ties to Harper. In September...
As Conservative MPs gather for their weekly caucus meetings, some are attempting to read the tea leaves from last week’s Alberta referenda and British Columbia’s big Conservative win. Saturday, David Eby’s early election gamble — two years into his NDP government’s mandate — failed spectacularly. B.C. interim Conservative leader Lorne Doerkson won a majority after running a disciplined campaign and...
Monday, a trial begins in Vancouver whose outcome could significantly alter climate change policies across the country. A group of youth are taking the federal government to court for failing to adequately address climate change, arguing that their Section 7 Charter rights — to life, liberty and security of the person — have been breached.
Using her toughest words yet, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith decreed to United Conservative Party members Wednesday: get on the federalist train or get off the platform. No candidate, provincial board or constituency association board member would be permitted to publicly argue for anything other than a stronger Alberta within a united Canada, she said. But a parsing of Smith’s words...
“This bill has been subject to a wild disinformation campaign,” Liberal MP Shannon Miedema declared in the House of Commons last week. The Halifax MP accused opposition members of lying about Bill C-39, Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Building Canada Strong Act, telling them the bill does not do things it does.
Parry Sound—Muskoka MP Scott Aitchison’s upcoming departure from the House of Commons reflects the greater malaise within Pierre Poilievre’s Conservative caucus. Aitchison, Huntsville’s former mayor, sees himself, like many MPs, as a doer. Few politicians want to sit back and watch others make big decisions. They want to be cabinet ministers; some want to lead the party, and dream of...
Mark Carney can breathe a sigh of relief. Monday’s election results in Quebec delivered a Parti Québécois minority government that will prove thorny to handle, but the prime minister escaped the worst-case scenario: a sovereigntist premier with a strong majority government.
On the world stage, he dazzles. Prime Minister Mark Carney speaks eloquently about shared values of democracy, addressing climate change, fighting for human rights, and walks his talk of like-minded countries banding together to preserve the rules-based international order. Whether its penning an op-ed in the Financial Times to announce Partners for Multilateralism with the presidents of Brazil, Kenya and...
It’s a flight plan Prime Minister Mark Carney may come to wish he’d never filed. This week, Carney announced Canada would seek private investors for the country’s four largest airports — a measure that was floated in last fall’s budget, but faced no public consultations and was not part of the Liberals’ election platform.
It’s been a brand-defining characteristic of the Liberal Party of Canada for more than a decade, a wedge issue successfully deployed against the Conservatives in four federal elections, and a useful tool to mobilize voters in Ontario, B.C. and Quebec specifically, but the Grits’ advantage on climate change is at risk of being squandered by Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government...
Perhaps it is fitting that on a week when Canadians and Americans join together to remember the victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks — and TV networks recount stories of Gander residents opening their hearts and homes to stranded strangers, of Canadian firefighters and police officers arriving in New York to lend a hand, of the 158 Canadian soldiers...
Without fanfare or a news release, the Carney government gave notice over the long weekend that it plans to use its most controversial law to push through a pipeline to B.C.’s coast — a move that should concern us all. The Building Canada Act, also known as C-5, was given two days of study as it was rushed through Parliament...
Sandwiched between 25 other news releases last week — from the prime minister’s NATO trip, to his lunch with Saudi Arabia Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman — the man the CIA believes ordered the assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi — Mark Carney moved to drown out the opposition voices he’s encountered in the Senate. In a statement Tuesday, Carney announced...
British Columbia Premier David Eby, had, in U.S. President Donald Trump’s words, “no cards” to play during contentious pipeline talks, but he walked away this week with a winning hand, leaving Prime Minister Mark Carney and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith with successes to boast of, but with major political wounds, too. When Carney and Smith signed a memorandum of understanding...
How far will Canada’s prime ministers go to avoid headlines with a multimillion-dollar figure attached to the words “24 Sussex Drive”? Embarrassingly far.
As the Carney government wraps up the parliamentary sitting this week, political watchers may be forgiven for thinking they’ve entered a time warp. Opposition MPs — Conservatives prominently among them — stood in the House of Commons, sounding the alarm over Liberal attempts to shut down debate, halt committee studies, block witnesses and stop amendments. The government’s moves were an...
The Carney government shut down a committee study Monday on a financial bill that includes sweeping changes to Canada’s pesticides law by allowing cabinet to overrule any pesticide ban the health minister imposes for being too toxic to the environment. The Liberals blame the Conservatives for filibustering the committee — which they have. But the Grits are impatient, want to...
A non-verbal 11-year-old girl who has cerebral palsy, epilepsy and severe scoliosis that is repositioning her organs could be the face of the Carney government’s recent cuts to refugee and asylum-seekers’ care. The girl and her mother — who will be identified here as “Emma” and “Olivia,” because Olivia fears using their real names will put them in danger —...
Perhaps, we’ll soon call it Mark Carney’s democratic deficit. The prime minister has a penchant for centralizing power — one explored a few times in this column — and now the edict to his Liberal MPs is that he does not want to be challenged. Over the course of several caucus meetings now, Grit MPs report Carney lashing out at...
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...
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.
Prime Minister Mark Carney plans to make it easier to kill off endangered species, pollute waterways and risk human health, all in the name of fast-tracking private-sector development projects. For a prime minister who dismissed progressive Liberal MPs’ concerns over spending on child care, health care and pharmacare during a caucus meeting this week, Friday’s announcement on streamlining infrastructure project...
If one thing is clear from Prime Minister Mark Carney’s economic update this week, it’s that he’s taking progressive voters for granted. Headlines like “A Canada for All” sound nice. As do statements like: “the government is protecting the essential social programs that give Canadians a fair chance to get ahead — child care, dental care, and pharmacare.”
If U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration hoped to strengthen Canada’s hand in trade talks, it could hardly have done a better job. This week, the U.S. deputy trade representative Rick Switzer told the Council of Foreign Relations that Prime Minister Mark Carney is guilty of “political malpractice” for pitting himself politically against the president, that he’s driven by his “ego,”...
As political weeks go, Prime Minister Mark Carney couldn’t have asked for a better one. Fresh from the Liberals’ convention where he was fêted as the party’s new Messiah, his candidates won all three byelections Monday by larger percentage margins than in last spring’s general election.
Prime Minister Mark Carney plans to follow in Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre’s footsteps and strip the ability of his party’s members across the country to weigh-in on his leadership should he fail to win the next election. It’s the latest demonstration of Carney’s grip on the Liberal party, which was on full display Friday during the Grits’ national convention in...
With one warm floor-crossing welcome, Prime Minister Mark Carney challenged Wednesday what it means to be a Liberal, gave his primary opponent a big wake-up call, and planted the seeds for simmering caucus discontent. A day before Liberals gather in Montreal for their biennial convention — Carney’s first as leader — the prime minister embraced four-term Sarnia—Lambton—Bkejwanong Conservative MP Marilyn...
Down the street from the House of Commons, a parliamentary crisis unfolds. This drama doesn’t involve misconduct; the fate of Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government doesn’t hang in the balance. Most visibly, it’s a clash between senators who believe their duty is to act — to fully study government legislation and recommend changes — and others who believe they shouldn’t...
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is shuffling his deck, sending Elon Musk-style letters to his shadow ministers asking them to prove their worth. Monday’s email was referred to by one Conservative as “DOGE-like” — a reference to Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency,” which sent emails to U.S. federal government workers last year demanding that they list their past week’s accomplishments or...
Federal Liberals, who hoped the government’s pipeline pact with Alberta was a public relations effort that would never see the light of day, should brace for its approval — including, possibly, with public money. Three Liberals privately suggested to the Star that Prime Minister Mark Carney may put federal money behind a new pipeline to the west coast — despite...
With the easy part over, newly minted NDP Leader Avi Lewis knows his real challenge is just beginning. He inherits a divided party, a split Parliamentary caucus and provincial wings opposed to his agenda. The Alberta and Saskatchewan parties want nothing to do with him. Saskatchewan’s NDP Leader Carla Beck wrote to tell him Saturday that she won’t meet with...
Standing in front of a massive pipe organ at Winnipeg’s Knox United Church on Thursday evening, NDP scion Avi Lewis was preaching to the converted. It was the eve of the party’s leadership convention, one that party members believe could seal the NDP’s fate. Will the next leader revive a nearly moribund federal party by inspiring new and past voters...
Several years ago, a cabinet minister seated next to me at an Ottawa dinner, leaned in. The chatter around the table was the NDP’s particularly biting criticism of the Trudeau government that day. “I don’t mind,” the minister whispered in my ear. “They keep us honest.” This minister believed pressure from the NDP kept the Grits true to their values...
“Let the party begin.” That’s how Mark Carney started his first press conference after being sworn in as Canada’s 24th prime minister, on March 14, 2025, after a whirlwind leadership contest.
Light is being cast on two measures the Liberal government hoped to pass with little scrutiny this week but public outcry many not be loud enough for Prime Minister Mark Carney to change course. The first is on the extraordinary powers the Star first raised concerns about back in December. Hidden in the government’s 600-page budget bill is a measure...
Politics is a business of addition but this week New Democrat leadership candidates demonstrated they’re focused on subtraction. Gone are the prospects of forming a government. Former leader Jack Layton’s 2011 orange wave, with 103 seats and a presence in every region of the country, may go down as the unfulfilled beachhead.
Prime Minister Mark Carney leapfrogged his way closer to a majority Wednesday when Alberta MP Matt Jeneroux joined the Liberal ranks, saying the moment called for “steady leadership” and leaving Pierre Poilievre’s dispirited Conservatives wondering if more blows are coming and who might be next. They have reason to worry. Several sources, both Liberals and Conservatives, who were granted anonymity...
Canada’s political parties are in cahoots. The Liberals, Conservatives and New Democrats are attempting to grant themselves the right to do what they want with your personal information — without your knowledge or third-party oversight.
For the first time since his defeat a decade ago, Conservative prime minister Stephen Harper took centre stage this week with a refreshing show of bipartisanship and a call for national unity — a message the country and his party needed to hear. The occasion was Harperpalooza or Harperfest as some Conservative staffers referred to the celebrations, a week’s worth...
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre’s team feared the surprise of another floor crossing MP last Friday, but losing a member to the Liberals now might be a blessing in disguise. Handing Prime minister Mark Carney’s Liberals a working majority would give the Conservative leader some much needed breathing room.
After a campaign-style speech, heavily borrowed from the Conservatives’ best hits of the 2025 election, Pierre Poilievre secured the leadership of his party with a resounding 87.4 per cent of the delegate vote. Now, the party must wrestle with the question of what comes next.
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...
The quarterly payments will increase by 25 per cent over the next five years. Prime Minister Mark Carney will try to reset his domestic agenda Monday with an affordability announcement that will include generous top-ups to the GST credit this summer, impacting approximately 12 million Canadians, the Star has learned. Carney is set to announce that the quarterly GST payments...
Prime Minister Mark Carney sought to insulate himself from criticism in a speech to the World Economic Forum this week, that was praised for being cleared eyed about the shifting world order, but that also signalled a shift away from an era of principled foreign policy.
Hidden in the federal government’s 634-page omnibus bill C-15, the Budget Implementation Act, is a measure that has so far escaped scrutiny. Under the pretext of regulatory efficiency, Prime Minister Mark Carney plans to grant cabinet ministers the power to exempt any individual or company from any federal law on the books — except for the Criminal Code — for...
Whether he intended to or not, Prime Minister Mark Carney cast aside a tenet of the Liberals’ brand last Thursday when he signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Alberta that jeopardizes the Grits’ work addressing climate change. For more than two decades, the Liberal Party of Canada told voters that it was the party that not only cared about...
The CBC story landed with a thump on Monday afternoon: Prime Minister Mark Carney’s memorandum of understanding with Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, it suggested, would include a carve-out for her province on clean electricity regulations. Canadian Identity and Culture Minister Steven Guilbeault was stunned.
Watching former Conservative leader Andrew Scheer and long-time Conservative MP Scott Reid run from the back of the room to their seats in the House of Commons Monday, claiming their voting app didn’t work, recalled Nova Scotia floor-crossing MP Chris d’Entremont’s depiction of Pierre Poilievre’s party as a “frat house.” The way Poilievre ran the party, d’Entremont told the CBC...
Does Prime Minister Mark Carney want to build a new pipeline to the West Coast, or is he buying time and expecting Indigenous communities and the NDP government in British Columbia to oppose it for him? Ask federal Liberals that question and you get different answers. MPs, who were briefed about an upcoming memorandum of understanding with Alberta Premier Danielle...
Just like in a game of chicken, Prime Minister Mark Carney stared down the opposition unafraid of a collision, and on Monday the opposition blinked, swerving at the last minute to avoid sending Canadians to the polls again, and signalling to the Grits they could be dealt with this way. None of the opposition parties wanted to lend Carney their...
Billed as an immediately necessary measure that would unlock investment and spur economic growth, Prime Minister Mark Carney’s signature piece of legislation, Bill C-5, the Building Canada Act, was rushed through Parliament last June — amid outcries from the NDP, the Bloc Québécois and the Green Party — for apparently no good reason. The bill, which grants cabinet the power...
Former Conservative leader Andrew Scheer insisted Friday that no one is interested in palace intrigue. But after his party saw a floor crosser, a resignation, allegations of bullying and threats levied against MPs, and rumours of more Conservative caucus dissenters now too afraid to make a move, who isn’t interested? Ottawa hasn’t seen this kind of daytime soap opera since...
Canada’s chaotic minority Parliament is at a critical juncture as Mark Carney’s Liberals scramble to lure more Opposition floor-crossers to secure support for the budget’s passage, and the Conservatives, reeling at Tuesday’s loss of an MP, struggle to frame themselves as the government-in-waiting. Political tribalism and parliamentary shenanigans were on display all day, starting first thing Wednesday morning when a...
Two days after he was sworn-in as prime minister, Justin Trudeau arrived at the Lester B. Pearson Building in Ottawa to a crowd of cheering public servants. The unusual scene in the lobby of the Foreign Affairs Department was described as a “rock-star reception,” one that, for some, confirmed Liberal sympathies within the public service; and for others were an...
It’s time to admit our Charter rights are under attack. Too many premiers are testing citizens’ willingness to accept gross power grabs, the targeting of vulnerable groups for political purposes, the weakening of groups they dislike, by invoking the notwithstanding clause.
Prime Minister Mark Carney needs friends. Not the diplomatic and commercial kind he’s already pursuing with new trade partnerships around the world.
The uprising against Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre may have officially begun. Just three months before Poilievre’s leadership review in Calgary, Stephen Harper’s former spokesman is letting it be known that knives should be out.
Political coverage is often focused on the most outlandish behaviour, when behind the scenes many MPs are trying to make Canada a safer, healthier, fairer, more just place. On this Thanksgiving weekend, here is a palate cleanser from all the toxicity, a highlight of some proposals from politicians, most of whom are members of Parliament whose names were chosen through...