Politics

Descrease article font size Increase article font size Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland says she will deliver a fall economic statement sometime this year as the clock ticks down on the remaining days in the House of Commons for 2024. Freeland, who is also the Liberal government’s deputy prime minister, made the pledge in Toronto after announcing funding for the Canadian artificial intelligence firm Cohere.“I will deliver a fall economic statement this year,” Freeland said.The fall fiscal update is typically delivered as a stopgap between federal budgets, providing revised economic updates on Ottawa’s projections and accounting for newly announced items in the government’s spending plans.Delivering a fall economic statement is not a mandated...

Canada will appoint a new Arctic ambassador and set up two new diplomatic missions in Alaska and Greenland to boost its presence in the North as its seeks to increase its security posture against foreign threats and climate change, the government announced Friday. The new Arctic foreign policy also sets out plans for increased engagement with the United States and Nordic nations like Sweden and Finland, strengthening research security, and improved information sharing with local and Indigenous governments on developing security threats, including foreign interference.The policy is part of the government’s renewed focus on Arctic security, as actors like Russia and China further encroach on Canada’s sovereignty, and the North is increasingly identified as a potential security vulnerability....

By Kyle Duggan The Canadian Press Posted December 5, 2024 6:14 pm 1 min read Descrease article font size Increase article font size Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown said foreign interference did not tip the scales in the Conservative party’s last leadership race that installed Pierre Poilievre at the helm. Brown, who was a candidate for the leadership at the time, was summoned to a House of Commons committee to answer questions on the 2022 race after a report from a committee on national security cited Indian interference in an unspecified Conservative leadership campaign.“I don’t believe foreign intervention affected the final out...

By Jim Bronskill The Canadian Press Posted December 5, 2024 4:55 pm Updated December 5, 2024 4:56 pm 1 min read Descrease article font size Increase article font size The Liberal government has outlawed another 324 firearm varieties — guns it says belong on the battlefield, not in the hands of hunters or sport shooters. The move follows the May 2020 ban of 1,500 makes and models of firearms, a number that grew to more than 2,000 by November of this year as new variants were identified.The latest prohibition of ...

During an appearance on Fox News, Ontario Premier Doug Ford joked that president-elect Donald Trump’s tariff threats were belated retribution for the War of 1812 as the province continued a coordinated attempt to appeal to the American public. On Wednesday afternoon, Ford appeared in an interview with Fox News host Neil Cavuto to promote Ontario’s relations with the United States and position the province as a key trading partner.The interview was the latest in a string of appearances — including on BBC and a CNN show — the premier has taken part in.The Fox News sit-down took place after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau went to visit Trump at Mar-a-Lago, where the president-elect reportedly joked Canada should become the 51st state.“The president has a good sense of humour — and it’s a funny ...

Canada is set to release a new Arctic foreign policy aimed at boosting its diplomatic and security posture in the North to counter growing threats from foreign actors and climate change, the government announced Thursday. Foreign Minister Melanie Joly said the policy set to be released Friday will respond to the growing global threat environment, and Canada’s responsibility to protect its own Arctic sovereignty and the security of other Arctic nations, as well as the United States.“One thing is clear: the world is getting tougher, and conflicts that we are seeing in the world are linked,” she said. “Therefore, we need to be more robust in our response.”She said Friday’s announcement will be made alongside Defence Minister Bill Blair.The growing presence of Russia and China in the Arctic, w...

Edmonton Centre MP Randy Boissonnault told a parliamentary committee on Thursday that he came up with the term “non-status adopted Cree,” contradicting previous statements where he said an Indigenous researcher provided him with the identifier. The former cabinet minister’s office claimed in mid-November that the term was “explained to him by an Indigenous researcher” while Boissonnault, who was adopted, researched his family lineage.“It was an explanation of his adoptive family’s Indigenous history as they understood it at the time,” Alice Hansen, Boissonnault’s director of communications, wrote in a statement on Nov. 13.But at a House of Commons committee Thursday morning, Boissonnault said he created the term himself.“I came up with the term ‘non-status adopted Cree’ because I thought i...

By Staff The Canadian Press Posted December 3, 2024 4:28 pm Updated December 5, 2024 8:31 am 1 min read Descrease article font size Increase article font size Quebec’s health minister has tabled a bill that would force new doctors trained in the province to spend the first five years of their careers working in Quebec’s public health network. Doctors who enter the private sector or move outside the province within that period would face fines up to $200,000 per day.Health Minister Christian Dubé says his bill a...

Descrease article font size Increase article font size The Conservative party will attempt to topple Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government once again with their third non-confidence motion of the fall. The motion, which is expected to be tabled before the House of Commons on Thursday, is using past snippets of criticisms of Trudeau’s Liberals coming from the New Democratic Party.The text of the motion quotes NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh when he announced in September that his party was pulling out of the supply-and-confidence agreement with the Liberal government.“Whereas the NDP Leader said, ‘the Liberals are too weak, too selfish and too beholden to corporate interests to fight for people,’” the motion states in preamble and continues to as...

By Lisa Johnson The Canadian Press Posted December 4, 2024 4:49 pm Updated December 4, 2024 5:04 pm 1 min read Descrease article font size Increase article font size Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says she doesn’t believe she’ll need to invoke the Charter’s notwithstanding clause to shield her government’s transgender bills from legal challenges. The bills have passed third and final reading in the legislature and are set to become law.LGBTQ2 advocates say they’re moving quickly to file a legal challenge.One bi...