Trending

These are the 30 most read items on National Newswatch, from the last seven days.

‘Rushed return’: with Liberals now in a majority, former cabinet staffers and past Grit MPs ‘want back in’

‘Rushed return’: with Liberals now in a majority, former cabinet staffers and past Grit MPs ‘want back in’

Former B.C. Liberal MP John Aldag wants his party to begin nominating candidates as soon as possible so they can start campaigning and fundraising for the next election. A significant number of exempt ministerial and MP staffers who left in 2024 expecting a Liberal defeat are now returning to Parliament Hill, as the party now holds a majority and Prime...

Meet the man turning Canada’s defence procurement upside down

Meet the man turning Canada’s defence procurement upside down

Eliot Pence of Dominion Dynamics is using venture capital to build military equipment he hopes the government will one day buy. When Eliot Pence needed a name for the high-tech drone factory he has established in an Ottawa industrial park, he turned to what some might consider an unlikely inspiration: the swashbuckling coureur des bois of Canada’s past.

Prime Minister Mark Carney announces Canada's 1st sovereign wealth fund

Prime Minister Mark Carney announces Canada's 1st sovereign wealth fund

Prime Minister Mark Carney announced the country's first national sovereign wealth fund on Monday, pitching it as a way for Canadians to invest in nation-building projects. Carney said the Canada Strong Fund will invest in major Canadian industrial projects in areas such as energy, infrastructure, mining, agriculture and technology. The prime minister said the federal government will put up funds...

Ford in Freefall; Ontario Liberals Lead PCs

Ford in Freefall; Ontario Liberals Lead PCs

The latest Liaison Strategies survey for Ontario shows the PCs trailing the Liberals by 2 points. It is the first time the PCs have trailed since Liaison began its monthly tracking series of Ontario. The PCs led by Doug Ford would garner 36% of the decided and leaning vote compared to the Ontario Liberals at 38%. The Ontario NDP sits...

State of 24 Sussex 'an embarrassment,' says Carney - PM says he wants to see his successors return to official residence

State of 24 Sussex 'an embarrassment,' says Carney - PM says he wants to see his successors return to official residence

PM says he wants to see his successors return to official residence. The state of 24 Sussex Drive is "an embarrassment," says Prime Minister Mark Carney, who suggested he wants a decision made about the future of the derelict residence meant for Canada's prime ministers. "You're not going to see me at 24 Sussex, but I would like to see...

Max Fawcett's beef with Poilievre (and me)

Max Fawcett's beef with Poilievre (and me)

My March podcast interview with Pierre Poilievre drew a lot of attention, but one of the sharpest responses came from Max Fawcett, an award-winning Calgary journalist who’s been sharply critical of the notion that the West’s resource sector is singled out for mistreatment. Max just flat cancelled his subscription to this newsletter, and tore a strip off me on Bluesky...



Conservative MP Jamil Jivani returns to Washington to meet with U.S. trade rep

Conservative MP Jamil Jivani returns to Washington to meet with U.S. trade rep

Conservative MP Jamil Jivani was back in Washington on Wednesday with a handful of Tory colleagues for a meeting with Canadian business interests and United States Trade Representative Jamieson Greer. Canadian Ambassador Mark Wiseman was also in attendance. The event was hosted by the American Chamber of Commerce in Canada and happened as Greer has been claiming that Canada has...

Ottawa announces planned defence bank to be headquartered in Canada

Ottawa announces planned defence bank to be headquartered in Canada

Canada has been selected to host a multinational bank to provide "long-term, low-cost financing" for defence projects by NATO members and allies, the federal government said Wednesday. The Globe and Mail newspaper first reported the decision following the end of multinational negotiations earlier Wednesday that were hosted in Montreal. A news release issued late Wednesday says the defence bank will...

I talked to Liberal insiders about Carney’s cabinet. It seems a shuffle can’t come soon enough

I talked to Liberal insiders about Carney’s cabinet. It seems a shuffle can’t come soon enough

The time is coming for Prime Minister Mark Carney to overhaul his cabinet, and everyone in Ottawa has some idea how he might do it. Picking a cabinet is an increasingly difficult task. Prime ministers must ensure various regions, languages, identities, genders, loyalties and competencies are represented fairly. You need politicos, communicators and managers, and you need to instil the...

PM Carney names former minister Wilkinson as next ambassador to the EU

PM Carney names former minister Wilkinson as next ambassador to the EU

Prime Minister Mark Carney named former cabinet minister Jonathan Wilkinson on Thursday as the next ambassador to the European Union. Wilkinson confirmed the news in a post to X after sources close to Wilkinson confirmed the new role to CTV News. The appointment has been speculated upon since as early as last September. In a letter posted online, Wilkinson said...

338 Sunday Update: Conservatives Losing Ground. Not a Liberal surge - that came last winter - but a steady erosion of CPC support is widening the gap.

338 Sunday Update: Conservatives Losing Ground. Not a Liberal surge - that came last winter - but a steady erosion of CPC support is widening the gap.

Fresh off a by-election sweep and a newly formed (if thin) majority in the House of Commons, the federal Liberals have increased their lead over the Conservatives in recent days—not because Liberal support has surged, but because the Conservatives have slipped further back in the aggregate. In our latest episode of The Numbers (recorded Thursday morning), Eric and I discussed...

These voters are mad — and they’re wondering where their floor-crossing MP has gone

These voters are mad — and they’re wondering where their floor-crossing MP has gone

The sign on the door says “closed” and Jamie Morningstar is not happy. Clutching an envelope of income tax papers, he’s come for help to the constituency office of local MP Marilyn Gladu, who two weeks ago stunned the populace — and Parliament — by jumping from the Conservatives to Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Liberals.

Trump's trade czar says U.S. looking to work with Canada on energy: sources

Trump's trade czar says U.S. looking to work with Canada on energy: sources

United States Trade Representative Jamieson Greer told Canadians looking for insights into the future of bilateral trade this week that "America First" is policy, not a slogan, and they should not expect a return to the way things were. Sources who attended a roundtable with U.S. President Donald Trump's trade czar in Washington on Wednesday told The Canadian Press that...

Prime Minister Mark Carney promises 'good news' in spring economic update

Prime Minister Mark Carney promises 'good news' in spring economic update

Prime Minister Mark Carney says the Liberals are "good fiscal managers" — and he'll have the chance to prove it when the federal government tables its spring economic update Tuesday afternoon. The federal government typically tables mid-year updates between annual budgets to revise its economic and fiscal projections. These updates can include new spending and are sometimes referred to as...

Carney says his stance on Iran war shifted as Trump's goals 'evolved'

Carney says his stance on Iran war shifted as Trump's goals 'evolved'

Canada's initial position supporting Washington's war in Iran shifted over the subsequent days as U.S. President Donald Trump's objectives became more clear, Prime Minister Mark Carney told The Canadian Press. "The scale of what the objectives were, or the clarity about what the objectives were, were not there at the start and have arguably evolved over time," Carney said in...

Liberals on better-than-expected ground, plan to spend billions on skilled trades in economic update

Liberals on better-than-expected ground, plan to spend billions on skilled trades in economic update

Projections put deficit $11.5B lower than November budget. Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne's spring economic update finds the Liberal government sitting in a better-than-expected position — driven by a resilient economy and surging oil prices — which it's using to justify billions in new spending to train up tens of thousands of skilled workers and set up a sovereign wealth fund...

Shell invests $22 billion in Canada's oilpatch and more deals could be coming

Shell invests $22 billion in Canada's oilpatch and more deals could be coming

'The tide is definitely changing here,' says analysts as foreign interest grows. After selling off a large chunk of its Canadian assets nearly a decade ago, U.K.-based energy giant Shell is now expanding its operations in Alberta and British Columbia by acquiring Calgary-based ARC Resources for $22 billion. It is the latest in a series of deals in the Canadian...

The long and whining road of Nate Erskine-Smith’s Liberal leadership bid

The long and whining road of Nate Erskine-Smith’s Liberal leadership bid

Nate Erskine-Smith is a politician in a pickle of his own making. Once again, he pines to be premier. Now, he has a four-step plan to get there.



Lower-than-forecasted deficit, new affordability measures expected in spring fiscal update

Lower-than-forecasted deficit, new affordability measures expected in spring fiscal update

Finance minister says economic resilience and affordability are priorities. Finance experts predict Tuesday's spring economic update will contain a number of new economic measures aimed at tackling affordability and the wider economic challenges of the country, and they expect the update will show a smaller-than-forecasted deficit. "That'll be the headline number that will likely get a lot of attention," said...

Mark Carney’s honeymoon is ending – just not in the way most people expected

Mark Carney’s honeymoon is ending – just not in the way most people expected

There were several rounds of chatter over the summer and into the fall about whether the honeymoon was over for Prime Minister Mark Carney – and if not yet, when that moment would come. Elbows sagged; President Donald Trump went on blowing up like a puffer fish; tariffs were carving up certain sectors of the economy and regions of the...

Conservatives gain ground in new poll, but Canadian politics is in a 'holding pattern'

Conservatives gain ground in new poll, but Canadian politics is in a 'holding pattern'

A Postmedia-Leger poll published this week shows the Conservatives narrowing the gap slightly on the Liberals, but satisfaction with Prime Minister Mark Carney’s performance remains high among Canadians overall. Forty-eight per cent of Canadians said they support the Liberals, compared to 37 per cent for the Conservatives, when asked which political party they would vote for if a federal election...

Senator says growing list of vacancies signals 'the end of an era' for independence

Senator says growing list of vacancies signals 'the end of an era' for independence

Senators say they're concerned about the growing list of vacancies in the upper chamber, as the appointment process for new members remains unclear. There are currently nine vacant seats in the Senate, with six more senators due to retire by the end of 2026. Prime Minister Mark Carney has not appointed any senators since taking office last spring.

Canada won't be 'chasing a small deal' to get U.S. tariff relief, Carney says

Canada won't be 'chasing a small deal' to get U.S. tariff relief, Carney says

Prime minister points to other countries he suggests are unhappy with agreements reached with U.S. Prime Minister Mark Carney says Canada and the U.S. could resolve the ongoing tariff dispute within "days" if the U.S. side had the "bandwidth and the inclination to go through with it." The U.S. has maintained hefty import levies on a number of Canadian goods...

Conservative MP in Kitchener, Ont., says Liberals tried to convince her to cross the floor

Conservative MP in Kitchener, Ont., says Liberals tried to convince her to cross the floor

MP Kelly DeRidder described details of a phone call she received from Liberals in social post. An Ontario Conservative MP says she will not be crossing the floor anytime soon, despite an attempt from the Liberal Party to poach her. Kitchener Centre MP Kelly DeRidder says she got a phone call from the Liberal Party, trying to convince her that...

Defence chief set to pitch ‘options’ for massive troop surge as military strains under its own limits

Defence chief set to pitch ‘options’ for massive troop surge as military strains under its own limits

Gen. Jennie Carignan will present strategies to drastically expand CAF, but current targets remain elusive. The Liberal government will soon be asked to consider options to drastically increase the size of the Canadian military, says the country’s top military commander. Gen. Jennie Carignan, the chief of the defence staff, told CBC News in a recent interview that she’s finalizing a...

Canadians should brace themselves for possibly extreme measures from Trump

Canadians should brace themselves for possibly extreme measures from Trump

No Canadian prime minister has ever faced a more difficult relationship with an American president than Prime Minister Mark Carney does with Donald Trump.

Pierre Poilievre needs to start pissing downwind

Pierre Poilievre needs to start pissing downwind

It’s official. The Great Pierre Poilievre Tone Experiment of early 2026 is over. After donning the mantle of the reasonable, Poilievre is back to his natural pugilistic self. And so is his team, with House Leader Andrew Scheer now accusing the (checks notes) National Post of being in the tank for the Liberals for the crime of (checks notes again)...

Carney says there's only 'one negotiator' with the U.S. after Conservative MP's latest trip to Washington

Carney says there's only 'one negotiator' with the U.S. after Conservative MP's latest trip to Washington

Jamil Jivani returned to the U.S. capital this week to carry 'the Conservative party's Team Canada message.' Prime Minister Mark Carney dismissed Conservative MP Jamil Jivani's recent trade trip to Washington D.C., saying on Thursday that Jivani can go where he wants, but he won't learn anything Carney doesn't know already. "It has not been our experience that people have...

Trump approves major Canada-U.S. oil pipeline expansion project

Trump approves major Canada-U.S. oil pipeline expansion project

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says a key approval for a cross-border oil pipeline project to deliver more of the province's crude to the United States is coming after years of advocacy from her government. U.S. President Donald Trump has signed a presidential permit authorizing the Bridger Pipeline expansion, considered a partial revival of the Keystone XL pipeline project. The Keystone...

Trump authorizes new pipeline from Canada to U.S. Live updates here.

Trump authorizes new pipeline from Canada to U.S. Live updates here.

‌U.S. ‌President Donald ‌Trump on Thursday signed ​an ​order ‌authorizing ⁠the Bridger Pipeline’s proposed ⁠project to transport ⁠Canadian crude ​from ‌the U.S.-Canada ⁠border to ⁠Wyoming.