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As Prime Minister Mark Carney looks to sell Canadians on his first-ever budget — one that he’s billed as containing both once-in-a-generation capital spending projects and austerity measures — Liberals say he picked the right salesperson for the job. Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne takes the spotlight Tuesday to present the Carney government’s first fiscal blueprint — a document delayed by half a year during the ongoing tariff war with the country’s closest trading partner.That tariff battle threatens the country’s economy and forms the backdrop of the entire budgetary plan.Champagne will be engaging in down-in-the-weeds discussions with his former bank governor boss — a politician famous for his focus on policy details over politics — while also selling Main Street on what co...

Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government is getting ready to table its first budget this week — one that will be markedly different from budgets of the past. “This one is important for a bunch of reasons that might actually be unique to this particular circumstance,” said Sahir Khan, vice-president of the Institute of Fiscal Studies and Democracy at the University of Ottawa.This budget is the Liberals’ first fiscal update in almost a year and the first summary of Carney’s agenda since the party released its spring election platform.Since then, key Canadian industries have taken a sharp hit from the trade war with the United States. A weaker economy means lower revenues for government.Add to that a handful of tax cuts and a substantial increase in defence and infrastructure spending, and Ott...

Ontario Premier Doug Ford says Prime Minister Mark Carney called him from his trip to Asia “a couple of times” to ask him to immediately pull his anti-tariff commercial, after it led to a breakdown in U.S.-Canada trade talks. Carney said this weekend he told Ford not to run the $75-million ad campaign, which quoted former president Ronald Reagan, and apologized to U.S. President Donald Trump for its airing.Ford indicated on Monday that Carney had made it clear to him he wanted the commercial pulled as quickly as possible, but refused to get into the details of their conversation.“I’m not going to go back and forth and (I) have a different record of recollection of our conversation,” Ford said. “People don’t need that, they want to move forward to get a deal to protect jobs and protect the ...

Here is a day-by-day chronology of the controversy over Ontario’s advertising campaign against U.S. tariffs on Canadian goods: Tues., Oct. 14: The office of Ontario Premier Doug Ford says the province will spend $75 million to broadcast an anti-tariff ad in the United States using video of an address by former U.S. president Ronald Reagan, who said in 1987 that in the long run, “such trade barriers hurt every American worker and consumer.”Tues., Oct. 21: A day after the ad airs during a broadcast of a baseball playoff game won by the Toronto Blue Jays, U.S. President Donald Trump says he saw the commercial, adding “if I was Canada I’d take that same ad also.”Thu., Oct. 23: The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute says the ad misrepresents Reagan’s remarks and that Ontario di...

The spectre of a trade war and slowing economic growth will hang over Ottawa Tuesday as Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government presents its first federal budget. Finance Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne will present the budget on Tuesday, with experts projecting the government’s deficit skyrocketing this year.The tabling of the budget will come as an Ipsos poll conducted exclusively for Global News found 42 per cent of respondents want the budget to prioritize helping with the increasing cost of everyday expenses.That number far outpaced Carney’s stated priorities for transforming the Canadian economy — including investing in the Canadian military and national defence (15 per cent), funding major projects and infrastructure (15 per cent), and even measures to mitigate the impact of U....