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 Tonda MacCharles.
— Mark Carney’s trajectory is clear. And he’d like the rest of us to keep up, please. The prime minister has moved past denial, anger or bargaining when it comes to dealing with the unpredictable President Donald Trump, his royal court of enabling cabinet ministers, and trepidatious corporate America.
The Carney government says it does not view U.S. President Donald Trump‘s latest moves in the tariff dispute — which included for the first time an outright import ban on certain Canadian products — as a dramatic escalation that warrants an immediate response in kind by Canada. A senior Canadian government official, speaking Wednesday on a background-only basis, said the...
The U.S. president was optimistic but Prime Minister Mark Carney was cautious. Behind the scenes, a tentative agreement to end the Canada-U.S. trade war was crumbling during the final three days of negotiations, Tonda MacCharles writes. Not long before U.S. President Donald Trump’s deadline to slam more Canadian products last week with a new round of tariffs, Prime Minister Mark...
Mark Carney is spending political and state capital left, right and centre. Moving aggressively to reduce reliance on the unpredictable United States of America, to bolster national unity and, Carney says, to put Canada on a more prosperous path, the prime minister is on a tear.
Should questions about Alberta’s place in Canada be left only to Albertans? Or is it a national issue that should engage other Canadians, especially those with the skill to make a passionate argument for unity? Is that unwanted meddling?
On July 1, Prime Minister Mark Carney is expected to mark Canada Day with a speech in Edmonton invoking national unity as Alberta weighs its place in Canada. It’s not only Canada’s 159th birthday as a nation, overshadowed though it may be by the twin threats of emboldened separatist movements in Alberta and Quebec.
The Trump administration has explicitly opposed any such charges levied against the big streaming firms, most of which are U.S.-based giants. Broadcasters and online streaming giants will still have to pay a fee to support Canadian media production despite the Carney government’s declaration it would reverse course on the so-called “Netflix tax,” the Star has learned. Amid ongoing Canada-U.S. trade...
Prime Minister Mark Carney says hope is not a strategy when confronting global economic and security turmoil. It also won’t work to confront the twin national unity challenges in Alberta and Quebec that are fomenting. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, cornered by separatists in her party’s ranks, will host a referendum on whether the province should remain in Canada or begin...
Buried deep in the pages of a discussion paper released Friday is the announcement that the government is open to and seeking a report on the potential amalgamation of certain unnamed “key ports” in Canada and “divestiture” of others.
Prime Minister Mark Carney said it doesn’t hurt to have Conservatives travelling to the U.S. at a time when cross-border trade talks are on the rocks, but it doesn’t necessarily help either. Conservative MP Jamil Jivani, who has a personal friendship with U.S. Vice-President JD Vance, was on his second self-assigned mission to Washington again this week. His trip follows...
The federal Liberal government is looking at selling Canadian airports off to private owners saying it wants to streamline operations and passenger services, attract more business investment to Canada, and even direct possible proceeds into a national sovereign wealth fund. The morning after the spring economic update hinted at the government’s plans, Transport Minister Steven Mac
Former Conservative leader Erin O’Toole gave his successor Pierre Poilievre a heads-up last week he would join Mark Carney’s Canada-U.S. trade advisory council because, he told the Star, he agrees with a lot of Carney’s approach to the U.S., and he wanted no surprises. In his first interview since being named to the panel of outside expert business, investment and...
Prime Minister Mark Carney’s view that Canada’s “weakness” stems from its longtime close trade ties with the U.S. was mocked by the Conservatives Monday, and met skepticism by an Eastern premier who warned it will likely further anger the U.S. In a video message posted Sunday on YouTube, Carney said the U.S. “has fundamentally changed its approach to trade, raising...
The Conservative line of attack is questionable or inaccurate in several respects.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre does not expect his MPs to confront him with demands to step down at Wednesday’s caucus meeting, or any formal move to invoke caucus powers to trigger a secret ballot vote that could end his leadership, the Star has learned. A senior Conservative strategist and party insider, granted anonymity to speak freely, said last week’s surprise...
Dissatisfaction and worries about their future under Poilievre’s leadership has many questioning whether or not a bolder move to spark change is required. Up to 40 Conservative MPs are worried that they could lose their seats if Pierre Poilievre leads the party into the next election against Liberal Prime Minister Mark Carney, said two federal Conservative sources after the party...
Hours after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to end “a whole civilization” in Iran with a deadly bombing planned today, Prime Minister Mark Carney urged “all parties” in the Middle East crisis to respect international law on war and humanitarian protections. Responding to media questions about Trump’s threat against Iran that warned “a whole civilization will die tonight, never to...
First on the Joe Rogan Experience and next on Steve Bartlett’s Diary of a CEO, the Conservative leader fleshed out his political thinking in ways he rarely does in Canada. Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre — a longtime critic of mainstream media in Canada — has for the second time in a row urged Canadians to give him a good listening...
Mark Carney’s government is in talks with Saskatchewan towards reaching an energy deal that could fast-track federal approvals of that province’s uranium mining projects, speed development of small modular nuclear reactors and build out its energy grid, the Star has learned. Much as it did with Alberta, the federal government is negotiating with Premier Scott Moe’s government to develop a...
Canada should align its trade and labour regulations with three of its “like-minded” anglophone allies excluding the U.S., says Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre. Speaking in London at the Institute of Directors, a British business group, Poilievre on Tuesday revived an idea previously embraced by past Conservative leaders that Canada should strengthen its ties with its Anglosphere cousins that share the...
In a wide-ranging speech, the Conservative leader set out important markers for the kind of co-operation he is willing to offer to the Liberal government. Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre says U.S. President Donald Trump is “wrong” to attack Canada on trade and security, and is offering to work “constructively” with Prime Minister Mark Carney to advance Canadian interests. In a...
But new details on the backroom machinations behind that move reveal contradictions in what has been publicly revealed so far. On Wednesday, Edmonton MP Matt Jeneroux became the third Conservative to join the ranks of Mark Carney’s Liberals, ending speculation over whether the longtime MP would leave politics altogether or cross the floor to the government benches. But new details...
Conservative MP Jamil Jivani has returned from Washington criticizing Canada’s tariff deal with China and questioning why Ottawa is lagging Mexico in trade talks, following a mission to the United States that both he and the Liberals are keeping under wraps. In an op-ed published in the National Post on Sunday, Jivani wrote that he met last week with U.S...
At times it is uncanny. It’s not just that Prime Minister Mark Carney’s tight-ship governing style is an abrupt break from that of his Liberal predecessor, Justin Trudeau. It’s that it is remarkably reminiscent of another modern prime minister’s — namely his Conservative predecessor, Stephen Harper. Mark Carney’s Rolodex is a trove of some of the most powerful political, business...
Prime Minister Mark Carney’s response to Doug Ford’s criticism of Ottawa’s deal to reduce tariffs on Chinese EVs: he’s out to build the auto industry of the future, not the past. “Remember, this is a market that is the auto sector, which is evolving very rapidly,” Carney told reporters at a news conference. “We don’t want to be competitive in...
Mélanie Joly — the lawyer and former foreign affairs minister now industry minister on the economic front lines of a trade war — talked tough all fall. She threatened to sue Stellantis after it halted Canadian auto production plans in Brampton. She warned a British mining giant poised to take over one of Canada’s last big diversified mining companies that...
U.S. President Donald Trump wants the relationship with Canada to be one of “dependence” on the United States, and is not talking about ripping up the trilateral free trade pact but renegotiating it, says Prime Minister Mark Carney. In a pair of French-language interviews marking the year’s end, Carney revealed for the first time details of his private conversation earlier...
Prime Minister Mark Carney says Canada will bid to host a 2028 summit of 90 francophone states and governments in the nation’s capital, a pitch that comes at a time of billions in cuts to foreign aid for an event that could be staged against the backdrop of a language-sensitive debate on Quebec sovereignty. Speaking mostly in English at a...
Conservative MP Matt Jeneroux spoke by phone with Prime Minister Mark Carney and told him he was vacating his seat before publicly announcing a bombshell resignation that cast further doubt on Pierre Poilievre’s grip on the Tory caucus, according to two sources with knowledge of the situation. The Carney-Jeneroux phone call came at the height of a political drama that...
The future of Canada-U.S. trade talks depends on how Canada’s review of its decision to buy U.S.-made F-35 fighter jets turns out, says President Donald Trump’s ambassador to Canada. Pete Hoekstra told a conference hosted by the Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters on Wednesday that it will not be easy to restart the now-stalled trade talks, and urged Canada to “harmonize”...
Where Carney was once in nearly a 24/7 texting-back-and-forth relationship with Trump, the prime minister and the president have had no contact on trade since the APEC summit in Korea, his office confirmed to the Star Friday. Prime Minister Mark Carney and his team are so over it. From scampering in search of meetings with President Donald Trump and top...
Mark Carney’s minority Liberals survived a second budget-related confidence vote on Friday, the day after easily defeating an earlier Conservative attempt to reject the budget as the Pierre Poilievre-led party grappled with another looming caucus departure from their ranks. The House of Commons voted 307 to 30 to defeat a Bloc Québécois motion that called on MPs to reject a...
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...
The Opposition leader’s office instructed Conservative MPs on Monday to reinforce a more positive message about the nation’s police force. Under fire over Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre’s criticism of the RCMP senior leadership as “despicable,” the Opposition leader’s office instructed Conservative MPs on Monday to reinforce a more positive message about the nation’s police force. Talking points sent to Conservative...
It was a token of thanks that was not intended to be cheeky. But it may have won Prime Minister Mark Carney that round of face-to-face talks with U.S. President Donald Trump in Washington on Tuesday. Trump and Carney last met at the United Nations more than two weeks ago, hours after Trump’s tirade against the UN at the General...
The chummy Washington trip that saw Mark Carney dine with Vice President JD Vance and his family, and Dominic LeBlanc, Mélanie Joly and other top PMO advisers stay up smoking cigars with Howard Lutnick into the wee hours, left Canadian lumber representatives fuming. They say Donald Trump’s tariffs are crushing them yet didn’t even warrant a mention in the Oval...
More than 700 requests flooded in from foreign leaders, CEOs, company representatives and others who want to meet with the prime minister. More than 700 requests flooded in from foreign leaders, CEOs, company representatives and other groups who want to meet up with or invite Prime Minister Mark Carney to attend events in New York City on the sidelines of...
If there is a Carney “doctrine” taking shape more than 100 days into the prime ministership of Mark Carney, maybe it is this: get it done, and damn the details. A few short months ago, Carney was blunt: “I am a pragmatist above all. So when I see something that’s not working, I will change it.”
The hustle is on. U.S. President Donald Trump says Canada will soon pay a lot of money in tariffs if it cannot reach a speedy trade deal, and faces a $71 billion entry fee to join the “Golden Dome” missile defence project as he claimed Prime Minister Mark Carney wants — or it could choose the no-cost option of becoming...
Prime Minister Mark Carney’s G7 summit is designed to find common ground and bridge — if not downplay — differences with a U.S. president viewed by many of the guests as disruptor-in-chief of the world’s economic prospects. With that in mind, as the Star reported last Saturday, organizers of the Kananaskis meeting are not working to produce a joint communiqué...
Prime Minister Mark Carney, in unveiling $9 billion in new defence spending, revived tough talk against the United States Monday, describing America as hustling its allies to pay now or risk losing their ability to sell products to American consumers. Speaking in Toronto, Carney did not use words like “grift” or “hustle” but he also did not mince words when...
The Charlevoix curse looms over Prime Minister Mark Carney as he gets ready to host leaders of the so-called Group of Seven major western economies. Carney’s decision to invite India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the G7 amid an ongoing RCMP investigation into Modi’s government’s alleged role in the assassination of a Canadian citizen has stirred sharp criticism at home...
President Donald Trump’s envoy to Canada says some level of American tariffs on Canadian products is the new normal, holding out only slim hope that direct talks between Trump and Prime Minister Mark Carney could see them lifted entirely. U.S. Ambassador Pete Hoekstra said in an interview with the Star that the president and U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick are...
Justice Minister Sean Fraser says the federal duty to consult and engage Indigenous people on major nation-building projects does not amount to granting those communities a veto. After the Assembly of First Nations (AFN) warned Prime Minister Mark Carney he must secure Indigenous Peoples’ consent to his plans to expedite massive infrastructure projects, citing the United Nations Declaration on the...
With a successful election and a high-stakes trip to Washington behind him, Prime Minister Mark Carney is grappling with a tangle of considerations and big decisions as he launches his first governing mandate for Canada’s incoming minority Parliament.
Prime Minister Mark Carney says his goal in meeting with President Donald Trump is to achieve a new comprehensive economic and security deal with the United States. Insiders say the first order of business is less ambitious: get the tariffs lifted.
U.S. President Donald Trump, the elephant in the room of the 2025 Canadian election, agreed to meet Prime Minister Mark Carney in the days ahead after calling to congratulate the Canadian leader who squeaked through with a minority win, not the “strong mandate” Carney sought for their looming trade negotiation. The congratulatory call from Trump came around midday, as Carney...
The federal Conservatives are funnelling resources into Pierre Poilievre’s local campaign, shoring up volunteer support in the leader’s Ottawa-area riding over concerns that winning his seat is not guaranteed, the Star has learned. One Conservative source involved in Poilievre’s campaign told the Star that the leader appears to be in trouble in Carleton, the sprawling riding Poilievre has held since...
The stakes for Carney, for the Liberals fighting for a fourth term, and for the country with Donald Trump’s eyes on Canada’s resources and sovereignty, couldn’t be higher.
Canada could be on the lower end of U.S. President Donald Trump’s threatened global tariffs next week, the Star has learned. Nothing, however, is guaranteed until Trump decides ahead of his April 2 deadline — which he’s dubbed “liberation day” for America — and no government officials are taking any assurances for granted, sources said.
Canadians will decide their next government, Carney said at a Friday news conference, adding any trade talks will only come after the U.S. president shows respect for Canada’s sovereignty.
The prime minister’s call to review the purchase of U.S.-made fighter jets could hint at what Carney has set in motion after meeting with European leaders earlier this week, sources told the Star. In an effort to pivot away from Canada’s overreliance on the U.S., Prime Minister Mark Carney is looking to Europe to build new security alliances and a...
Mark Carney marked his debut as Canada’s 24th prime minister by killing the Trudeau-era consumer carbon tax, paring back his governing cabinet, and promising a more businesslike approach to U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade war. A rare unelected prime minister, Carney took up the top political office of the country after Justin Trudeau officially resigned Friday, ushering in new federal...
On top of threatened U.S. tariffs, China has brought down another hammer on many Canadian farm and seafood exports, hitting them with a “double trade war” that industry leaders say will slam Canadian producers. In response, B.C. Premier David Eby called on Ottawa to drop its tariff fight against China, saying Canada got nothing out of trying to align trade...
Canada offered to delay its second phase of counter-tariffs against the U.S. if Donald Trump drops tariffs on all Canadian products — not just in the auto sector — that are covered by and comply with the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Free Trade Agreement, the Star has learned. High-stakes talks continued between Canadian and U.S. officials with no word about whether there would...
Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly responded in part to the U.S. president’s claims by saying the U.S. is a “net exporter” of illegal fentanyl, guns and migrants to Canada.
U. S. President Donald Trump now says he will slap 25 per cent tariffs on all auto imports on April 2, accusing European countries — as he has Canada — of “unfair” trade practices. Trump’s latest trade comments, along with a surprising attack on the legitimacy of Ukraine’s president and assertion that Ukraine needs new elections, capped off several days...
U.S. President Donald Trump’s annexation threats should be met with determination to preserve this country’s independence at any cost, says former prime minister Stephen Harper. Speaking Tuesday in Ottawa at the launch of his latest history book, “Flags of Canada,” Harper welcomed a surge in Canadian nationalism including, he said, from the current Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
American President Donald Trump raised a long list of complaints against Canada and said the Canada-U.S. boundary could disappear when he spoke with the prime minister Monday, according to details Justin Trudeau revealed behind closed doors on Friday, the Star has learned. The Star first broke news that Trudeau told a group of nearly 200 business, industry and union leaders...
Keep calm, Canada. And bring it on. U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff threat has galvanized a political shift in Canada, sparking not just impassioned public displays of patriotism in the True North but also forcing Liberals and Conservatives to reframe their electoral pitches with a strong dose of nationalism as they seek to replace Justin Trudeau.