Politics

Large numbers of public servants working in the federal government’s three biggest departments aren’t following Ottawa’s three-days-per-week office work rule, federal data shows. The federal government’s latest remote work mandate, which took effect in early September, requires all staff employed under the Treasury Board to work on-site a minimum of three days a week. Executives are expected to work in the office four days a week.The Canadian Press asked for compliance rates from a number of federal departments, including the three with the largest workforces — the Department of National Defence, the Canada Revenue Agency and Employment and Social Development Canada.Of those three, Defence, which employs about 28,700 people, saw the lowest rate of compliance with the three-day rule, especi...

Ukraine’s leader will meet with President Donald Trump in Washington on Friday at a pivotal moment for his country, one that hinges on whether he can persuade Trump to provide some form of U.S. backing for Ukraine’s security against any future Russian aggression. During his trip to Washington, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s delegation is expected to sign a landmark economic agreement with the U.S. aimed at financing the reconstruction of war-damaged Ukraine, a deal that would closely tie the two countries together for years to come.Though the deal, which is seen as a step toward ending the three-year war, references the importance of Ukraine’s security, it leaves that to a separate agreement to be discussed between the two leaders — talks that are likely to commence Friday.As Ukrainian fo...

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Thursday declined to weigh in on U.S. President Donald Trump’s repeated calls to make Canada the 51st state, before Trump cut off the U.K. leader’s answer entirely during a joint press conference. Starmer was asked whether he or King Charles III was concerned about Trump’s rhetoric toward a Commonwealth member at the end of a visit to the White House that included multiple meetings on issues like trade and the war in Ukraine.The British leader said the topic of Canada did not come up during those talks and sought to highlight the historic friendship between the United Kingdom and United States.“I think you’re trying to find a divide between us that doesn’t exist,” Starmer said.After continuing with his answer for a moment, Trump interrupted with “that...

By David Baxter The Canadian Press Posted February 27, 2025 3:41 pm Updated February 27, 2025 4:10 pm 1 min read Descrease article font size Increase article font size Prime Minister Justin Trudeau rejected NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh’s call for the federal government to bar U.S. President Donald Trump from coming to Canada for the G7 summit this June. At an event in Montreal Thursday, Trudeau said he sees the idea of banning Trump as an “irresponsible” approach to governance and relationships with other nations. ...

U.S. President Donald Trump said Thursday that his threatened tariffs against Canada and Mexico are going ahead as per schedule and are set to hit both countries next week. “The proposed TARIFFS scheduled to go into effect on MARCH FOURTH will, indeed, go into effect, as scheduled. China will likewise be charged an additional 10% Tariff on that date,” Trump posted on his social media platform Truth Social on Thursday morning.Trump reiterated his claim that these tariffs were linked to the flow of fentanyl and migrants into the U.S. from both countries.According to Canadian federal data, less than one per cent of the fentanyl entering the U.S. comes from Canada.Data from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency shows that in January, fentanyl seizures at the Canada-U.S. border dropped ...

The threat of U.S. tariffs has put a renewed focus on easing internal trade in Canada, and some legal experts say different product labelling and packaging rules pose a big barrier. Canada’s Committee on Internal Trade is set to meet again on Friday to discuss ways to open up trade between provinces and territories.This comes as U.S. President Donald Trump is poised to impose sweeping 25 per cent tariffs on all Canadian goods next week.Among the measures the committee is seeking to act on is the “removal of regulatory and administrative barriers to the movement of goods in Canada.” 2:04 Trudeau, premiers discuss easing interprovincial trade barriers ...

As Canada braces for damaging U.S. tariffs, Canadians are split on who they think would be the best leader to take on President Donald Trump, new polling shows. More than quarter of Canadians (28 per cent) say Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is a tough negotiator who would get the best deal for Canada from Trump, according to an Ipsos poll conducted exclusively for Global News and published Thursday.Almost a quarter (23 per cent) said the same for Liberal leadership hopeful and former Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney, followed by 11 per cent for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.Fewer Canadians had the same opinion for NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh and former deputy prime minister and finance minister Chrystia Freeland, who both polled at seven per cent.At the same time, despite Poilievre b...

For years, Canada has been under pressure from NATO allies to hit the military alliance’s target of spending at least two per cent of GDP on defence — something experts say cannot be done with the flick of a switch. Yet that pressure has only grown under the new Trump administration in the U.S.Last week, the White House said it expects all NATO allies to be meeting the two per cent target by June, when leaders gather at the Hague for the alliance’s annual summit.Experts who study Canadian defence and financial policy used words like “impossible” and “not realistic” when asked if hitting that June deadline was feasible.“You’re talking about increasing our defence spending by almost 50 per cent,” said Stephen Saideman, the Paterson Chair of International Affairs at Carleton University and di...

Three parties reached a deal on Thursday to form a new centrist Austrian government, two weeks after a far-right party that won an election in September failed to put together an administration. The conservative Austrian People’s Party, the center-left Social Democrats and the liberal Neos agreed on a program for a coalition after what Christian Stocker, who is expected to become chancellor, called “perhaps the most difficult negotiations on a government in the history of our country.”Three weeks ago, the country’s politicians broke a post-World War II record of 129 days to form a new government that dated to 1962. Migration, the economy and extremism “The challenges are historic and far-reaching,” said Stocker, the new People’s Party leader, pointing to the ong...

Thousands of U.S. Agency for International Development workers who have been fired or placed on leave as part of the Trump administration’s dismantling of the agency are being given a brief window Thursday and Friday to clear out their workspaces. USAID placed 4,080 staffers who work across the globe on leave Monday. That was joined by a “reduction in force” that will affect another 1,600 employees, a State Department spokesman said in an emailed response to questions.USAID has been one of the biggest targets so far of a broad campaign by President Donald Trump and the Department of Government Efficiency, a project of Trump adviser Elon Musk, to slash the size of the federal government. The actions at USAID leave only a small fraction of its employees on the job.Trump and Musk have moved s...