Politics

A key portion of NATO members’ new pledge to spend at least five per cent of their GDP on defence includes up to 1.5 per cent committed to infrastructure and other defence-related investments — and it’s broadly defined. Prime Minister Mark Carney said Wednesday after endorsing the spending plan at The Hague during the annual NATO leaders’ summit that critical minerals projects and other areas where Canada is already spending money could help reach that 1.5 per cent.“We’re going to do a more proper accounting of that,” he said. “We have to show that, and we have to be deliberate and strategic about it.”Defence and economic policy experts agree that the NATO agreement is broad enough that it affords allies a lot of wiggle room to justify certain projects as being defence-related. Sto...

Descrease article font size Increase article font size It’s been more than four and a half decades, but an intersection known in popular myth as Canada’s coldest and windiest is finally reopening to pedestrian traffic. The iconic corner of Portage Avenue and Main Street in Winnipeg opens to foot traffic Friday morning, after a long and tumultuous journey, with plenty of controversy, leading up to this point.Portage and Main has played host to some key parts of the city’s history, from indelible moments during the deadly Winnipeg General Strike of 1919, to the Winnipeg Jets signing future Hall of Famer Dale Hawerchuk there in 1981. Looking west on Portage Avenue prior to the opening of the Portage and Main...

By Alessia Passafiume The Canadian Press Posted June 26, 2025 4:38 pm 1 min read Descrease article font size Increase article font size The Senate has passed C-5, the Liberal government’s controversial major projects bill. The legislation gives Ottawa the power to fast-track projects intended to boost the national economy by sidestepping environmental protections and other legislation.While the bill passed without amendments, a handful of senators attempted to persuade their colleagues to include language about respecting Indigenous rights.The politically charged legislation has angered Indigenous and environmental groups who ...

A Senate spokesman says Sen. Patrick Brazeau is recovering after a “dizzy spell” made him “briefly lose consciousness” Wednesday during debate in the Senate on the government’s major projects bill. The 50-year-old Independent senator rose to speak before falling sideways to the floor just after 4 p.m. yesterday. Get breaking National news For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen. The Senate spokesman says Brazeau was taken to Ottawa’s Civic Hospital and returned home later that evening.The spokesman says Brazeau is “recovering and in good spirits.” Trending Now Brazeau was alert when paramedics came to help him in the Senate chamber T...

A longtime B.C. MLA who was barred from running for the Conservative party in the April federal election said the Tories need to do a deep dive into their nomination processes — but he has little faith that will happen. Michael de Jong said too much power has been centralized with the party’s leadership in Ottawa and he’s not alone in feeling frustrated with the way nominations were run.But he said the party’s leadership has shown little willingness to acknowledge fault.Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre told a podcast this week that the party’s support in the April 28 election “didn’t actually come down that much” compared to January, when it was projected to sweep to a huge majority. 2:10 B...

Canada joined its NATO allies on Wednesday in agreeing to a new defence spending target of five per cent of GDP — but the details are more complicated. Members of the alliance will have until 2035 to reach the new spending goal, for one thing. And the five per cent is being split into two categories: “core defence requirements” and broader defence-related infrastructure and industry.Speaking to reporters at The Hague at the NATO summit, Prime Minister Mark Carney expressed confidence that Canada will achieve its new objectives after lagging behind the alliance’s spending goals for years.“We’ve arrived at this summit looking forward with a plan to help lead with new investments to build our strength,” he said.“The investments we’re making in defence and security, broader security, given the...

By Nick Murray The Canadian Press Posted June 25, 2025 2:20 pm 1 min read Descrease article font size Increase article font size Canada’s elections commissioner says she has no evidence the result of the federal election in April was affected by foreign interference, disinformation or voter intimidation. In a preliminary report Wednesday, Commissioner Caroline Simard says her office received more than 16,000 complaints about the spring campaign which ended on April 28.That number is seven times the number of complaints received in the 2019 and 2021 elections. ...

The Liberal government will table a bill this fall introducing stricter bail conditions and sentencing for some crimes, particularly those involving organized crime, human trafficking, home invasion and car theft, Justice Minister Sean Fraser said in an interview. “It’s perhaps obvious, given the tenor around the criminal justice system, that reforms are in order,” Fraser told The Canadian Press.The government will consider including additional reforms but “at minimum” will implement the crime policies the Liberals promised during the spring federal election, Fraser said.Fraser was named justice minister by Prime Minister Mark Carney in May, following an election campaign which saw Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre blame the Liberals for a wave of violent crime.In their campaign platfor...

By Kyle Duggan The Canadian Press Posted June 25, 2025 7:34 am Updated June 25, 2025 8:01 am 1 min read Descrease article font size Increase article font size Prime Minister Mark Carney’s controversial major projects bill could be in for a speedy trip through the Senate this week. Bill C-5 will be introduced at first reading in the upper chamber Wednesday after it was fast-tracked through the House of Commons and underwent a rare pre-study by the Senate.A programming motion adopted by the chamber fi...

NATO leaders are meeting to debate whether to more than double the alliance’s defence spending target. Prime Minister Mark Carney is among the leaders around the table at the annual leaders’ summit in The Hague, where a proposal is being discussed to increase the target to five per cent of annual GDP, up from the current two per cent.NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte’s proposal would break that into two parts. The first 3.5 per cent would be for core defence needs such as jets and weapons, while the remaining 1.5 per cent would be on defence-adjacent investments including infrastructure and cybersecurity.Before the official meeting of the North Atlantic Council, Carney held bilateral meetings with the prime minister of New Zealand, Christopher Luxon, and the prime minister of Estonia, Kris...