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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....

British Columbia Premier David Eby said Monday that his government won’t launch its anti-tariff digital ad campaign in the U.S. this month as previously promised, and will wait until its communication strategy is “aligned” with Ottawa. Eby said the ads, which were meant to protest rising U.S. tariffs on softwood lumber, were raised during a meeting he convened in Vancouver on the future of the forestry sector with federal government ministers.Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc and Housing Minister Gregor Robertson were among the ministers present for the summit.“One of the things that I heard Minister LeBlanc say is that for his side, he wanted an integrated approach between the federal and provincial government,” the premier told reporters after the meeting.“That means that going ...

The former Bloc MP who lost her Quebec riding by a single vote is taking the matter to the Supreme Court of Canada. Nathalie Sinclair-Desgagné says she will appeal a recent Quebec Superior Court decision that rejected her request for a new election in the Montreal-area riding of Terrebonne.She had challenged the result after a Bloc voter revealed that her special ballot was not counted and instead returned to her because of an error in the address on the envelope provided by Elections Canada. 0:57 Blanchet calls for new vote in Terrebonne after ballot error creates tie Trending Now But a judge ruled last week that the mistake wa...

Industry Minister Mélanie Joly said Monday that the federal government is launching a formal dispute resolution process under its contracts with Stellantis over the automaker’s decision to move production from its Brampton, Ont., plant to the U.S. Joly provided the update on the government’s efforts as she faced questions at the House of Commons industry committee on whether the contracts included definitive protections for Canadian autoworkers.“Before the close of business, the government will take the next step under the contracts to recover Canadian taxpayers’ money,” she told the committee.“This means that we will start the 30-day period of the formal dispute resolution process in order to bring back production at the Stellantis Brampton facility.”She added in French: “These actions ar...