Politics

A township in Ontario is moving to remove permanently affixed American flags from municipal facilities, citing growing tensions with the U.S. over trade and political relations. Council voted 4-3 on Tuesday directing staff to take down the flags, though the decision still requires final approval from the township council on Feb. 24.During the meeting, Coun. William Reilly questioned why the American flag remains up year-round at the West Lincoln community centre while Ontario’s provincial flag is absent.“We have an American flag that seems to be fixed in our community centre and we don’t even have an Ontario provincial flag that’s up even one day a year,” Reilly said. “I feel disrespected by our American neighbours. It kind of strikes a nerve that here we are in our country, in our facilit...

If Canada is hit by sweeping, broad-based tariffs from U.S. President Donald Trump, the hit to the Canadian economy could be permanent, Bank of Canada governor Tiff Macklem is warning. Speaking to the members of the Mississauga Board of Trade and the Oakville Chamber of Commerce on Friday, Macklem said the shock from the tariffs would be very different from the economic downturn caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.“In the pandemic, we had a steep recession followed by a rapid recovery as the economy reopened,” Macklem said. “This time, if tariffs are long-lasting and broad-based, there won’t be a bounceback.”Macklem said while Canada could recover part of the growth, the damage would be long-lasting.“We may eventually regain our current rate of growth, but the level of output would be permanen...

By The Staff The Canadian Press Posted February 21, 2025 12:51 pm 1 min read Descrease article font size Increase article font size Rob Lantz has been sworn in as the 34th premier of Prince Edward Island. He takes over from Dennis King, who resigned today after leading the province since 2019.Lantz had been education minister in the Progressive Conservative government. Get daily National news Get the day's top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day. He served briefly as party leader in 2015 but resigned after fa...

For the second time, Liberal leadership candidate Ruby Dhalla has asked the party to provide a “personal translator” for the upcoming federal French language debate, a week after her first request was denied. The request also comes as she is calling a recent media report “fake news” over questions about whether there has been Indian foreign interference in her campaign.In an interview with Global News, Dhalla said she made a new request a week ago for a “personal translator” but has yet to hear back from the party.Caucus members say it is “essential” for anyone who wants to lead the party – and become prime minister – to be able to speak directly with Canadians in both official languages.“I do not believe that having a language barrier, if you want to call it that, should prevent me from c...

If U.S. President Donald Trump imposes tariffs on Canadian goods as he’s repeatedly threated to do, experts say Canada has a strong case to challenge it under the Canada-U.S.-Mexico free trade agreement. The question, though, is how quickly any decision may come through the process — and more importantly, whether the U.S. would respect any decisions from the outcome.“A rules-based system is only as good as the willingness of the government who’s subject to it, to comply with it,” said Wendy Wagner, a partner at Gowling WLG.The free trade agreement is a nation-to-nation agreement, so there’s no one else to appeal to if a country decides not to respect a decision.America’s past performance on adhering to trade decisions has been mixed. Areas of contention include complicated measures such as...

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau reaffirmed Canada’s position that Ukraine “must” be included in negotiations to end Russia’s full-scale invasion during a call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Thursday, the Prime Minister’s Office said. The call was held days after the U.S. held a first round of bilateral talks with Russian officials about ending the war, and as U.S. President Donald Trump increasingly attacks Zelenskyy — rhetoric the White House has refused to walk back.“Prime Minister Trudeau reiterated that Canada will always stand in defence of Ukraine and emphasized that there can be no sustainable peace in Europe without security for Ukraine,” a readout of the call provided by the PMO said.“The leaders stressed that any peaceful end to the conflict must include Ukraine at...

The White House said Thursday that it expects all NATO members to be spending at least two per cent of their GDP on defence by the alliance’s next summit — four months from now. The demand further ramps up pressure on allies like Canada — which has long missed the spending target and doesn’t plan to meet it for another seven years — from U.S. President Donald Trump, who is pushing for drastic defence spending increases and reducing reliance on U.S. security.“The fact that we are going to enter into a NATO summit this June with a third of our NATO allies not meeting the two per cent minimum — a commitment they made a decade ago … that’s unacceptable,” Trump’s national security advisor Mike Waltz said at a press conference at the White House.“President Trump’s made that clear. The minimum ne...

By The Staff The Canadian Press Posted February 20, 2025 2:37 pm Updated February 20, 2025 2:40 pm 1 min read Descrease article font size Increase article font size Prince Edward Island Premier Dennis King says he will resign as premier and leader of the Progressive Conservative party effective Friday at noon. King, 53, told reporters today that his decision is in the best interest of his family, the government and the people of P.E.I., adding that he is in good health. Get dai...

Canada is listing seven transnational criminal organizations, including multiple drug cartels, as terrorist entities under the Criminal Code, the public safety minister announced on Thursday. The move was one of the measures the government vowed when U.S. President Donald Trump agreed to a 30-day reprieve from the imposition of sweeping tariffs earlier this month, along with last week’s appointment of a fentanyl czar.Under the designation, law enforcement such as RCMP and local police will have more authority and powers to “follow the money and to look and see how criminal cartels are using sophisticated laundering tactics.”“To rid Canada of this scourge, our government will ensure law enforcement has every tool available to dismantle and disrupt the operations of these organizations in ou...

U.S. President Donald Trump has branded himself as royalty. On Wednesday, Trump was celebrating his administration’s order to halt the congestion pricing tolls in New York City, which lessen traffic and fund mass transit by making people pay to drive into Manhattan’s core.Trump likened himself to a king in a post on his social media platform, Truth Social, celebrating the move to terminate federal approval of the congestion pricing program.“CONGESTION PRICING IS DEAD. Manhattan, and all of New York, is SAVED,” Trump wrote, adding, “LONG LIVE THE KING!” A screenshot of U.S. President Donald Trump’s Truth Social post. @RealDonaldTrump / Truth Social The official White House social media account on X shared Trump’s quot...