Politics

Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives are ready to vote on President Donald Trump‘s so-called “Big, Beautiful Bill,” but they had to wait for House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries to wrap things up first. Jeffries, the Democratic leader, took to the House floor early Thursday morning to rail against the legislation he and other Democrats have warned will pull the social safety net from under millions of Americans and their children — and his speech lasted almost nine hours.Jeffries began speaking just after 5 a.m. Thursday, delaying the final vote in the chamber. According to ABC News, he picked apart the bill and some Republicans who voted for it, as stacks of binders sat next to the podium.“I’ve been given 15 minutes each on a bill of such significant magnitude as it relates t...

The C.D. Howe Institute predicts Ottawa’s recently announced spending plans — which include a much bigger defence budget — will drive its deficits markedly higher in the coming years. In a new analysis released Thursday, the think tank said it expects Canada’s deficit to top $92 billion this fiscal year, given Prime Minister Mark Carney’s plan to meet NATO’s defence spending target of two per cent of GDP.C.D. Howe expects deficit growth to slow after this year but predicts deficits will still average around $78 billion annually over four years — more than double the level forecast by the parliamentary budget officer before the spring federal election.But the report also considers this an “optimistic” scenario that takes into account “speculative savings” in the form of new revenues and cos...

Prime Minister Mark Carney is meeting with the heads of the Canadian auto industry as concerns mount over the ongoing impact of tariffs imposed by the U.S. The industry has been facing a 25 per cent tariff from the U.S. on the sector itself, as well as a 50 per cent duty on steel and aluminum, materials used in the manufacturing of vehicles.However, there are exceptions for components produced in the U.S.Carney will be meeting with representatives from the Canadian Vehicle Manufacturing Association, Ford Canada, Stellantis Canada and GM Canada during the talks on Wednesday. 5:31 Steel and aluminum measures announced to counter U.S. tariffs Bri...

Kimberly MacDougall lay in a hospital bed beside her injured husband, Stephen, as his final moments came. She and their two kids held him as he took his last breath.Stephen, 45, a service manager for a luxury automobile dealership, had been fighting to live for weeks in May 2021, but stopped struggling. She informed friends on social media that the man she loved, incredibly fit and with no prior health issues, wouldn’t make it.Outside the window of his intensive care room in Peterborough, Ont., an impromptu group of friends soon gathered to hold a vigil, in love and support.“I saw things nobody should see and I wasn’t equipped to deal with,” MacDougall remembered four years later. “I watched them use the paddles on him. I watched them bag him.”A rare adverse reaction to a COVID-19 vaccine ...

Former U.S. presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush delivered rare open criticism of the Trump administration — and singer Bono held back tears as he recited a poem — in an emotional video farewell on Monday with staffers of the U.S. Agency for International Development. Obama called the Trump administration’s dismantling of USAID “a colossal mistake.”Monday was the last day as an independent agency for the six-decade-old humanitarian and development organization, created by President John F. Kennedy as a peaceful way of promoting U.S. national security by boosting goodwill and prosperity abroad.Secretary of State Marco Rubio has ordered USAID absorbed into the State Department as of Tuesday.The former presidents and Bono spoke with thousands in the USAID community in a videoconference,...

As Canada prepares Tuesday to blow out 158 birthday candles, Alberta plans three days later to formalize rules making it easier to have an independence celebration of its own. Beginning Friday, Premier Danielle Smith’s United Conservative government is officially lowering the required threshold for citizens to initiate a provincewide referendum, including on separation.Mitch Sylvestre, CEO of the Alberta Prosperity Project, a non-profit group touring Alberta promoting independence, says he plans to apply to Elections Alberta that same day to start a petition under the new rules.The group aims to gather 177,000 signatures within 120 days to put the question on a ballot to voters: Do you agree the province of Alberta shall become a sovereign country and cease to be a province of Canada?“I wo...

Descrease article font size Increase article font size Prime Minister Mark Carney has called a byelection for the Alberta riding of Battle River-Crowfoot, where Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is expected to compete to regain a seat in the House of Commons. The byelection was called on Monday, two weeks after Damien Kurek, the Conservative MP for the riding, resigned to allow Poilievre to run.Election day will be Aug. 18.Poilievre lost his seat of Carleton in Ontario during the April federal election. He had represented the Ottawa riding for 20 years. 2:15 Premiers Houston, Ford blast Conservatives as Poilievre faces uncertain future ...

Federal and provincial leaders are working to dismantle internal trade barriers that push up the cost of goods and make it harder to do business within Canada. But anyone expecting all of them to be gone by tomorrow should read the fine print.Throughout the spring federal election campaign, Liberal Leader Mark Carney repeatedly vowed to “eliminate” interprovincial trade barriers and create “free trade by Canada Day.”The rhetoric has been at times confusing and the political scorecard on this one is hard to track.With July 1 just a day away, Carney’s government has passed its planned changes into law — but it’s more like the start of a conversation than the final word.“It’s a starting gun and it’s starting a lot more activity and work, which is honestly the really exciting part,” said inter...

President Donald Trump says he is not planning to extend a 90-day pause on tariffs on most nations beyond July 9, when the negotiating period he set would expire, and his administration will notify countries that the trade penalties will take effect unless there are deals with the United States. Letters will start going out “pretty soon” before the approaching deadline, he said.“We’ll look at how a country treats us — are they good, are they not so good — some countries we don’t care, we’ll just send a high number out,” Trump told Fox News Channel’s “Sunday Morning Futures” during a wide-ranging interview taped Friday and broadcast Sunday.Those letters, he said, would say, “Congratulations, we’re allowing you to shop in the United States of America, you’re going to pay a 25% tariff, or a 3...

Russia launched its biggest aerial attack against Ukraine overnight, a Ukrainian official said Sunday, part of an escalating bombing campaign that has further dashed hopes for a breakthrough in efforts to end the three-year-old war. Russia fired a total of 537 aerial weapons at Ukraine, including 477 drones and decoys and 60 missiles, Ukraine’s air force said. Of these, 249 were shot down and 226 were lost, likely having been electronically jammed.The onslaught was “the most massive airstrike” on the country since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, taking into account both drones and various types of missiles, Yuriy Ihnat, head of communications for Ukraine’s air force, told The Associated Press. The attack targeted several regions, including western Ukraine, f...