Politics

By Catherine Morrison The Canadian Press Posted January 13, 2025 5:23 pm 1 min read Descrease article font size Increase article font size The federal government has paused an incentive program that offered Canadians rebates of up to $5,000 when buying or leasing electric vehicles. In an update on its website, Transport Canada says the Incentives for Zero-Emission Vehicles (iZEV) Program has been paused as “funds have been fully committed.”The department says more than 546,000 vehicles have been sold or leased with incentives through the program since it began in 2019. ...

The federal body established to protect Canada’s electoral process will be monitoring the Liberal Party of Canada’s leadership campaign for possible foreign interference as the race to replace Justin Trudeau gets underway. The Security and Intelligence Threats to Election Task Force (SITE) was established in 2019 and includes representatives of CSIS, the RCMP, Global Affairs Canada and the Communications Security Establishment, the country’s signals intelligence agency.Since May 2023, SITE has been active for the 10 byelections that have occurred and tasked with producing public reports about observations of any foreign interference directed at these votes, and Nathalie Drouin, deputy clerk of the Privy Council, said it would do so again.The announcement comes amid concerns that foreign in...

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, fresh off a weekend visit with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, says if Ottawa uses an energy embargo to combat Trump’s promised tariffs, it would spark a “national unity crisis.” “Oil and gas is owned by the provinces, principally Alberta, and we won’t stand for that,” Smith told reporters in a virtual news conference Monday.Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly hasn’t ruled out an energy embargo in response to Trump’s promise to impose punishing 25 per cent tariffs on Canadian products.Smith said the federal government shouldn’t be making “empty threats,” and it’s not Joly’s call to make. 1:57 Alberta Premier Danielle Smith visits Trump at Mar-a-Lago ...

Millions of Canadians will receive the year’s first carbon rebates from the federal government this week. January payments of the Canada Carbon Rebate will go out on Wednesday to Canadians in eight provinces: Alberta, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward Island and Saskatchewan.The tax-free rebates return 90 per cent of the revenue collected by Ottawa from the federal carbon price levied to households in these provinces.Canada Revenue Agency says the payments are meant to help eligible individuals and families offset the cost of the federal pollution pricing.British Columbia, Quebec and Northwest Territories have their own carbon pricing system for consumers, so residents there don’t receive the federal payment. Yukon and Nunavut use the f...

The NDP wants to stop critical mineral exports to the United States in response to Donald Trump’s threat of tariffs on Canada, party leader Jagmeet Singh said Monday. “I’m calling on all political leaders to support turning off the taps on those critical minerals. Let’s stop the flow of those critical minerals into the States. There’s no quicker way to get Donald Trump to back away from tariffs,” Singh said while speaking to reporters in Ottawa.The U.S. is Canada’s top destination for critical mineral exports, according to data from Natural Resources Canada. In 2023, Canada exported 59 per cent of its mineral exports to the U.S.The total value of the critical minerals trade with the U.S. was $38.2 billion, a drop of 10 per cent from 2022, with $29.8 billion of that made up of Canada’s crit...

By Staff The Canadian Press Posted January 13, 2025 7:37 am 1 min read Descrease article font size Increase article font size As a race to elect a new Liberal leader quickly approaches, a high-profile candidate appears set to throw their hat into the ring. Former Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney is expected to launch his bid to replace Prime Minister Justin Trudeau after signalling plans through his campaign team.Former B.C. premier Christy Clark has said she is also debating whether to put her name forward, telling CBC Radio’s “The House” she was “very seriously” considering it last week, but that she was disappointed with ...

As the federal Liberals prepare to choose Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s successor, another Liberal leadership race is getting underway in Quebec this week. The stakes are high for the Quebec Liberals, who have been in the political wilderness for years, with dismal polling among francophone voters. Candidates and observers say the party needs to broaden its appeal beyond Montreal if it’s to have any chance of forming government in the 2026 provincial election.The campaign will unfold in the shadow of the race taking shape in Ottawa. And with Trudeau’s former Quebec lieutenant, Pablo Rodriguez, the likely front-runner, the Quebec Liberals will have to set themselves apart from a federal party in turmoil.“Let’s face it,” said political analyst Karim Boulos. “It’s not a great time to be a L...

Canadians hoping plans for high-frequency rail between Toronto and Quebec City would move forward this year will instead see further delays — and the prospect of a federal election makes the timeline more uncertain than ever. Late last year, the federal government requested an extension on bids to build the rail corridor in a move that could push back selection of a private partner by several months beyond the initial deadline near the end of 2024.The holdup marks a minor setback to a project slated to span more than a decade. But while some observers worry the postponed proposal bodes ill for the pricey enterprise, others fret the whole undertaking could be thrown into limbo with a potential change in government around the corner following the prime minister’s planned resignation.Selectin...

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says talk of Canada becoming the 51st state is a distraction from more pressing threats of U.S tariffs on Canada and their likely impact. In an interview that aired Sunday on MSNBC, he says Canada is ready to respond with retaliatory tariffs should president-elect Donald Trump follow through with a threat to impose 25 per cent across-the-board tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico when he takes office next week.Trump has also referred to Canada as the “51st state,” a notion federal cabinet ministers initially played off as a joke but now appear to be taking more seriously.Appearing on “Inside with Jen Psaki,” Trudeau said Canadians need to take Trump’s expansionist rhetoric seriously, and that there is a certain amount of “flattery” in Trump seeing how gre...

Descrease article font size Increase article font size Alberta Premier Danielle Smith spent Saturday night at Mar-a-Lago in Florida with U.S. president-elect Donald Trump. In a statement on X, Smith said she had the opportunity to meet Trump at the resort and then at his golf club on Sunday morning.“We had a friendly and constructive conversation during which I emphasized the mutual importance of the U.S. – Canadian energy relationship, and specifically, how hundreds of thousands of American jobs are supported by energy exports from Alberta,” Smith wrote in the statement.“I was also able to have similar discussions with several key allies of the incoming administration and was encouraged to hear their support for a strong energy and security r...