These are the 30 most read items on National Newswatch, from the last seven days.
Prime Minister Mark Carney's cabinet is due for an overhaul, say several Liberal MPs, cabinet staffers, and political insiders, and a potential shift to a majority government would significantly change the political dynamics and would likely be reflected in cabinet. As the Liberals surge to a comfortable double-digit lead in public opinion polls and edge closer to majority territory with...
Ahead of the Liberal Party’s national convention next month, members of its youth wing are urging candidates for national chair of their body to remain independent from government, warning against treating the role as a stepping stone to high-profile Hill jobs. Speaking with The Hill Times on a not-for-attribution basis, supporters of the third-party “Young Liberals for Change” pledge say...
The Liberal leadership front-runner is vying for the the Ontario party’s nomination. Make way for the Nate juggernaut. That’s the message from the apparent front-runner in the Ontario Liberal leadership race to rivals hotly contesting the party’s nomination in Scarborough Southwest.
As the Supreme Court hears arguments on the notwithstanding clause’s role in Canada, some Liberal party members are arguing for using the federal government’s nuclear option, disallowance, which can invalidate any provincial laws, including those that use the clause to bypass the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. When they gather in Montreal for their national convention on April 9, Liberals...
Liberals lead everywhere except Saskatchewan and Alberta and the gap has closed there. A few weeks shy of the first anniversary of the election of a Mark Carney led government finds the country broadly endorsing his leadership. Our latest Spark Insights national survey (4000, online, field work between March 22-26, 2025) finds Liberal support at 46% compared to 30% for the Conservatives.
Sovereign wealth funds will want to invest in new oil pipeline, Smith says. The first set of deadlines included in the energy and climate deal struck between Prime Minister Mark Carney and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith are not expected to be met, showing early challenges with the agreement that includes pursuing a new export pipeline from Alberta to the West...
Amid the howling winds of the Sweet Grass Hills lies Border Road, a 14-kilometre ribbon of manicured gravel stretching between the United States and Canada. The shared road is on the Montana side, but Alberta maintains it. North of the road lives Ross Ford. On the south, it's Roger Horgus.
Premier Danielle Smith's parliamentary secretary for constitutional affairs is encouraging Albertans to sign a petition that calls for a vote on separation from Canada. Jason Stephan, a United Conservative Party legislature member, penned his opinion for the online conservative media outlet "Western Standard." In it, Stephan argues signing the petition to have a referendum on separation is different from signing...
As soon as he stepped inside the café, Charles Milliard began turning heads. Among those enjoying their coffee who spotted the new Quebec Liberal Party leader as he made his way through Café Hubert Saint-Jean, located in the province’s Eastern Townships, was Normand Duval.
The union representing staff at Global Affairs Canada says the foreign service is laying off dozens of its most skilled diplomats, while asking other envoys moving across continents to wait months for their personal items. The cuts come as Global Affairs Canada sets out its plans to meet budgetary belt-tightening requirements laid out by Prime Minister Mark Carney last year...
Sunday's coronation won't revive a dead federal party, but his extremist agenda will absolutely tank their provincial success stories. Pundits love to overcomplicate politics, but the math for this Sunday’s NDP leadership vote is painfully simple. For Avi Lewis to be denied a first-ballot victory, the other four candidates on the ballot need to somehow scrape together 50% plus one...
Filmmaker Avi Lewis has been elected as the NDP's new leader, defeating his four rivals on the first ballot with nearly 40,000 votes, from almost 71,000 ballots cast. This victory signals a shift toward the party pushing big, unabashedly left-wing policies like government-owned and operated grocery stores as grassroots members pushed for change after a devastating election result last year...
Former Alberta premier Jason Kenney is taking up the Canadian cause as he's set to participate in two debates about separatism against a lawyer pushing for the province to go its own way. The first debate will take place in Edmonton in May at a member's only conference put on by Civitas Canada, a conservative non-profit organization.
After more than a decade of plodding progress, Canada has officially hit the NATO spending target of two per cent of GDP set during the Wales Summit of 2014. According to data in the NATO Secretary-General’s annual report released this morning, Canada spent more than $60 billion on defence in 2025 – an amount that adds up to two per...
Group of Seven foreign ministers met on Friday in France to discuss the Russia-Ukraine conflict, with deep divisions apparent over the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran, following U.S. President Donald Trump’s repeated complaints that America’s allies have ignored or rejected requests for help in the military operation and in confronting Iran’s retaliatory attacks, including the closure of the Strait of Hormuz...
The public servant leading the transition away from the federal government's error-prone Phoenix pay system says he's stepping down because the team no longer needs him. Alex Benay, associate deputy minister at Public Services and Procurement Canada, says in a LinkedIn post the backlog of Phoenix cases older than a year and the overall queue of complaints are at their...
An air bubble of about half a billion barrels of oil is set to wreak havoc on global economies. For every day the war in the Middle East drags on, the crisis in energy markets deepens. The price of everything from gas and oil to jet fuel and plastics is rising sharply. That crisis is set to get dramatically worse...
The MP representing Tumbler Ridge, B.C., has described how a 12-year-old girl heroically tried to save two classmates shot in the mass killing in the community last month. Bob Zimmer told Tuesday's National Prayer Breakfast in Ottawa that the girl, named Christina, had dragged both Abel Mwansa Jr. and Maya Gebala under a table after both of the 12-year-olds were...
Conservatives are calling for resignation of current minister and 2 predecessors. Justice Minister Sean Fraser, who was in charge of immigration during some of the years Auditor General Karen Hogan found instances of fraud in Canada's international student program, said with hindsight, he would have acted sooner to fundamentally change it. The Opposition Conservatives have been calling for his resignation...
MP Michael Ma, who left the Conservatives to join the Liberals, has apologized after appearing to cast doubt on reports of human rights abuses in China. Ma said he regretted making a mistake with his remarks, while pointing out that he had referred to the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, and not Xinjiang, where the Communist government has been accused...
P.E.I. Premier Rob Lantz says the RCMP have been alerted about a former cabinet minister's possible conflict of interest involving a permitting issue for a Summerside golf course. On Saturday, Lantz removed Gilles Arsenault as economic development minister, saying the minister had shown poor judgment when he was environment minister. The next day Lantz suspended Arsenault from the Progressive Conservative...
Contrary to popular belief, the choice made by voters in the Montreal-area riding of Terrebonne in the April 13 byelection will have major implications on moving bills forward in the House of Commons. The rules of procedure in the Commons mean that, in this current Parliament, the magic number allowing a government to have a free hand is not 17...
Pipeline operator Enbridge Inc. hasn’t ruled out helping build a new oil pipeline from Alberta to the British Columbia coast under the right regulatory conditions, the company’s top executive said.
Style advisor Dale Olsen says he doesn't distinguish between party colours, but he doubts British Columbia Premier David Eby is well qualified to act as the fashion police. Eby thrust political attire onto the agenda this month when he dressed down Opposition legislature member Gavin Dew for wearing a grey hoodie as he voted remotely on a private member's bill...
Oil pipeline system connecting Alberta to West Coast was previously expected to fill up by 2027 or 2028 The Trans Mountain oil pipeline system is expected to operate at full capacity in April and into May as a result of energy disruptions caused by the war in the Middle East. The pair of pipelines transport oil from Edmonton to a...
Alberta Liberal MP Corey Hogan says the Keystone XL pipeline is being used as leverage in the federal government’s ongoing trade talks with the U.S. “I can tell you that Keystone XL and the energy security it would provide the United States has always been one of the cards that Canada has in our deck as we start thinking about...
Thousands of refugee claimants already in the system awaiting a hearing will have their asylum claims terminated under new eligibility criteria that are applied retroactively in a law that has just taken effect. Under the Strengthening Canada’s Immigration System and Borders Act, which received royal assent Thursday night, anyone who first arrived in Canada after June 24, 2020, will not...
The Hill Times spoke with political insiders over the last month to nail down the list of people who are leading and influencing federal government policy and shaping public opinion this year. Here is our Top 100 Most Influential People in Government and Politics in 2026, organized by politicians, pollsters, political influencers, staffers, public servants, and media.
Former Ontario NDP deputy leader Doly Begum says she spoke with Prime Minister Mark Carney before deciding to run for the federal Liberals, crediting him with an ability to unite people from across the political spectrum. Ms. Begum, who has previously criticized the federal government over its Middle East policy, was elected in the east Toronto riding of Scarborough Southwest...
Except for the ill-conceived public campaign to get well-known commentator Don Cherry installed as a member of the Order of Canada, the Conservatives look like they have carved out a few positive weeks for themselves. It’s better than the abysmal fall and early winter that left many Conservative supporters in a foul mood, and Leader Pierre Poilievre constantly having to...