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Aaron Wherry.What can we glean from the mandate letter the PM sent his ministers? Emerging from his cabinet's first"planning forum" — what previous prime ministers would have called a cabinet"retreat" — on Tuesday evening, Mark Carney told reporters that his ministers had all been given a single mandate letter.
"It reflects a unified mission," the prime minister said of...Standing outside Rideau Hall on Tuesday, Mark Carney said his new cabinet — the first real cabinet of his time as prime minister — was"purpose-built for this hinge moment." Carney has long been fond of thinking of this current moment as a hinge — even before its real depths were clear. The Hinge was the title of the book...In 2013, when he was running to unseat a Conservative government, Justin Trudeau said there were a"few very big things the prime minister of Canada needs to get right," one of which was"building a constructive working relationship with the president of the United States." That of course was long before the president of the United States was Donald...In his first news conference since Monday's election, Prime Minister Mark Carney did not shy away from some of the rhetoric and ambition that carried him through the campaign. Canada would be embarking, he said,"on the biggest transformation of our economy since the end of the Second World War." This country's"old relationship" with the United States was"over."...Carney's win caps a remarkable turn of events — and sets up the immense challenges ahead For the first time in nearly a century, two parties won more than 40 per cent of the vote. Shortly after 1 a.m. on Tuesday, Mark Carney walked onto a stage at the old Ottawa civic centre — the same hockey arena where John Turner was elected Liberal leader in 1984, the last time the Liberals tried to replace a...John Duffy, the late political strategist and author, began Fights of Our Lives, his lively and encyclopedic account of the federal campaigns that shaped this country, with a simple premise — one always worth returning to at moments like this."Elections matter," he wrote. Writing in 2002, Duffy was pushing back against what he saw as the lazy cynicism of...Platform published Tuesday didn't include commitment made earlier in the campaign. The Conservative Party has republished the English-language version of its platform after what it says was a"publishing oversight" resulted in the omission of a previous commitment to crack down on"woke ideology" in the public service and federal funding for university research. Earlier in the campaign, the Conservatives...During his campaign for the Conservative leadership in 2022, Pierre Poilievre said he would never pivot. "I am who I am," he said. To a great degree, that has held true — despite periodic suggestions from the commentariat that he should change course.New spending for defence, housing, infrastructure would mean higher deficits under Liberal plan. Liberal Leader Mark Carney framed his fiscal and spending plan on Saturday in terms of a crisis —"the biggest crisis of our lifetimes," as he put it. The United States is attacking Canada's economy and threatening Canadian sovereignty. The American president is"trying to fundamentally restructure...Thirty-seven years ago, inside a television studio in Ottawa, John Turner thrust an index finger at Brian Mulroney and warned that with one stroke of a pen Mulroney had reversed 120 years of national development and thrown Canada into the"north-south influence of the United States." "When the economic levers go, the political independence is sure to follow," Turner said.According to survey data released last week by Pollara, Canadians are evenly split on whether they want this federal election to result in"change" or"stability" — 46 per cent of Canadians want change and 45 per cent want stability. Among those who want change, 47 per cent say Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre would best deliver that change, while 2...In these disorienting days, Canadian leaders are responding in real time to a deeply uncertain world. On the day the president of the United States launched a global trade war, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith chose to look on the bright side. The United States, she wrote, had decided to"uphold the majority of the free trade agreement … between our...The Alberta premier thought it was a good thing — a top Conservative strategist begged to differ. The most controversial statement of the federal election so far was uttered before the campaign even started — not by a federal politician, but the premier of Alberta. In an interview taped on March 8 with a right-wing American media outlet, Danielle Smith...In ways no one could have understood at the time, June 16, 2015, turned out to be a momentous day for Canada and Canadian politics, the reverberations of which are only being fully felt now, nearly a decade later. In the moment, the day's most significant event might have seemed to be an announcement by the leader of the Liberal...There were far fewer hugs than in 2015. The 23rd prime minister was a hugger — possibly the huggiest in Canadian history. The 24th prefers a firm handshake, with his left hand on the other person's elbow. Each of Mark Carney's 23 ministers received some version of that greeting after they had sworn their oaths. Carney is very apparently a...Donald Trump has scrambled the playing board and rewritten the ballot question. Into this unprecedented moment, enter Mark Carney. In the more gossipy corners of Ottawa, this has been a long time coming. At least as far back as the summer of 2012, an eager group of Liberals tried and failed to woo him. That same year, according to Carney...Canadians have taken Donald Trump's threats of trade action — now realized — very personally. Understandably and justifiably so. But the American president's treatment of Ukraine — not to mention his administration's larger withholding of foreign aid — demonstrates that Canada is far from alone. This United States administration is not concerned much with the welfare of other nations or...It is an exciting debate for accountants. Mark Carney, the presumptive favourite in the Liberal leadership race, says a government led by him would introduce a new budget"framework" that would"separate" the federal government's operating and capital budgets — drawing a distinction between spending that covers ongoing expenses for programs and services and spending that goes toward building and...Near the end of Tuesday night's Liberal leadership debate — the second and last time all four candidates will be on the same stage together before a winner is announced on March 9 — Justin Trudeau's would-be successors were asked how they would differentiate themselves from him. Chrystia Freeland, who until two months ago was Trudeau's most trusted lieutenant, initially...Donald Trump now seems to loom over everything — almost as overwhelmingly as the giant Canadian flag that loomed behind Pierre Poilievre at his"Canada First" rally last weekend. If not for Trump, it seems unlikely Poilievre would have been celebrating Flag Day so enthusiastically. For that matter, if not for Trump, it seems likely that this Flag Day —...Foreign interference report is just the start of a conversation about Canadian democracy The sensational foreign-interference saga that gripped Parliament Hill off and on for two years came to an unofficial end last month with the release of Justice Marie-Josée Hogue's final report. And between her relatively anticlimactic conclusion there are no"traitors" in Parliament and the incredible tumult that Donald Trump has since provoked, the commission's work could soon fade from memory...Trump is forcing Canadian leaders to grapple with what they can't control — and what they can The last few weeks may have at least buried any remaining notion that Canadian leaders can exert much control over the current president of the United States. Six-and-a-half years ago, when Trump's first administration imposed tariffs on steel and aluminum, the Conservatives declared that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was a"failure.""What is his plan to fix this tariff issue?"...Canadian sports fans might be persuaded to stop jeering the American national anthem. At least for the next 30 days. The trade war is off. At least for now. But that is of limited solace. And even if the next deadline somehow comes and goes without the resumption of hostilities, it's not clear when Canadians will again be able to...Donald Trump has ruptured the Canada-U.S. relationship. To what end? And what comes next? Addressing both Canadians and Americans on Saturday night, at one of the most fraught moments in the history of relations between Canada and the United States, Justin Trudeau reminded listeners of John F. Kennedy's words when the late American president addressed Parliament in May 1961.When Chrystia Freeland proposed raising taxes on capital gains last April, she pitched the change — and related promises to invest in dental care, school food programs and housing — in starkly moral terms."Before they complain too bitterly, I would like Canada's one per cent — Canada's 0.1 per cent — to consider this: What kind of Canada do...When three of Justin Trudeau's ministers came to the microphone set up in the lobby of the rustically palatial Château Montebello in western Quebec on Monday afternoon, the mood seemed to be one of relief. There may have even been a vague sense of achievement. In the waning days of his premiership, Trudeau had gathered his cabinet in Montebello for...It might seem like a distant memory now, but it's worth remembering that every major federal party ran in 2021 on a platform that included a consumer carbon tax. Nearly every single Liberal, NDP and Conservative MP who currently sits in the House of Commons — up to and including Pierre Poilievre, who now says Canada needs a"carbon tax...In January 2017, Donald Trump signed an executive order that banned immigration to the United States from seven Muslim-majority countries. Amid the turmoil that ensued, Justin Trudeau posted a message to Twitter. "To those fleeing persecution, terror & war, Canadians will welcome you, regardless of your faith," he wrote."Diversity is our strength #WelcomeToCanada."In an interview in December 2022, Justin Trudeau allowed himself to talk about legacy. He has typically avoided entertaining such stuff. But sitting in his West Block office a little more than two years ago, he spoke of"unfinished business" and a desire to"lock in what Canada is doing as an open, progressive, confident democracy." And when it was...On the day he finally conceded to the obvious, Justin Trudeau looked appropriately humbled. For maybe the first time, he looked older. And the affectation that often marked his public remarks seemed drained out of him."This country deserves a real choice in the next election and it has become clear to me that if I'm having to fight internal...The 29th ministry since Confederation now has some new members — individuals who could one day become vital or important ministers of the Crown. But the only minister who currently matters is the prime minister And unless or until the question of the prime minister's future is answered, not much else matters. The shuffle that was executed on Friday was...Back in 2018 — after her star turn as the minister who took on Donald Trump — Chrystia Freeland was, in Justin Trudeau's words,"exactly the right person to do what she's doing.""Quite frankly, there probably isn't a day that goes by where I don't thank my lucky stars for having been able to convince her to leave her...One afternoon earlier this month, Charlie Angus stood in the House of Commons to lament."Mr. Speaker, I always say what a great honour it is to rise in a House such as this, chosen by the people of Timmins—James Bay," the NDP MP said."But I have to say that I am less and less proud every time I...The coming of winter in Ottawa could persuade even the most patriotic Canadian to think about following the geese south. But it was the threat of economic havoc that sent the prime minister to Florida on Friday to meet Donald Trump at the president-elect's private club and personal palace.If there's one thing Canada's premiers have always agreed on, it's that the federal government needs to respect provincial jurisdiction. If there's a second thing they now agree on, it's that the federal government should spend substantially more on national defence — not least because doing so might appease the...Singh wants a 'war room,' Poilievre wants to kill the carbon tax and Trudeau wants to fight fire with facts. Canadian political leaders can't control the fact that Donald Trump will be the next president of the United States. Neither can they stop him from threatening to take illogical steps that could hurt American businesses and consumers almost as much...The Conservative leader's office keeps a tight grip on what caucus members say and do. Who poses the greater threat to the free speech of Conservative MPs — the Speaker of the House of Commons or the leader of the Conservative Party? In a fundraising appeal this week, the Conservative Party told its supporters that it was Speaker Greg Fergus...All around the world, persistent inflation is taking down governments. If the political and public policy challenges posed by inflation were easy to overcome, more governments would have done so by now. Instead, recent elections have shown the current moment to be, in the words of the Financial Times' John Burn-Murdoch,"arguably the most hostile environment in history for incumbent...When a public backlash compelled Ontario Premier Doug Ford to abandon his use of the notwithstanding clause to end a labour dispute in 2022, it was possible to believe the tide had turned back against the Charter of Rights' escape hatch — that political leaders would again have to think twice before trying to sidestep a court's conclusion that the...For Canadians, American democracy is a spectator sport, a source of eternal concern and a measuring stick — a spectacle we regard with a mix of fascination, inspiration, fear and powerlessness, all the while defining ourselves by how we compare.He surely would reject any such comparison but, in a recent interview, Justin Trudeau briefly sounded just a little bit like Richard Nixon. Taking part in an conversation with Village Media, the prime minister fielded questions about the dissent within his caucus and his party's descent in the polls. He was also asked about the"F--k Trudeau" flags that have...Trudeau's Liberals are trying to save the Canadian consensus on immigration — and their legacy Polling shows Canadians' enthusiasm for immigration may be cooling off. Reports about the death of Canada's immigration consensus have arguably been exaggerated. But there are warning signs — both for the public's attitude toward immigration and for the Trudeau government's legacy. The clearest evidence that the consensus is in some danger can be found in polling conducted by the Environics...Trudeau and the Liberals are burning time on themselves that they can't afford to waste The PM blamed the 2011 election result on the party's inward turn — he wasn't wrong. When Justin Trudeau became leader of the Liberal Party of Canada on April 14, 2013, he took the helm of a caucus of 35 MPs — the smallest contingent in the party's history. Twenty-four of those MPs had endorsed him during the leadership campaign...Nine years ago this fall, the leaders of the three major federal parties at the time gathered on a stage in Toronto for a debate on foreign policy. The resulting discussion seems a bit quaint now. The topics covered — Canada's contribution to the fight against the Islamic State, a refugee crisis in Syria, the Conservative government's anti-terror laws —...Some amount of parliamentary gamesmanship is to be expected whenever and wherever MPs gather. But some days it's hard to look at the games being played and see how anyone — least of all Canadians — could be said to be winning. The Conservative Party sent a fundraising appeal to supporters last week under the subject line,"Liberal corruption PARALYZES Parliament."Some amount of conflict is inherent to democracy — particularly so in a political system that prominently features His Majesty's Loyal Opposition. And hyperbole has probably existed for as long as humans have been able to communicate. But has any Canadian politician in recent memory embraced rhetorical conflict as enthusiastically as Pierre Poilievre?For a few weeks in June, concerns ran high on Parliament Hill about unnamed MPs or senators possibly being compromised, perhaps even consciously, by foreign states — fears raised by a startling but opaque report by the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians."We cannot and must not remain indifferent in light of such a revelation," Bloc Quebecois MP...When the going gets tough, political leaders sometimes feel the need to get going. And the scramble for safer ground is not always elegant. So it was for NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh when he tried last week to put some distance between himself and the Liberal government's carbon pricing policies. Speaking to reporters in Montreal, Singh offered two thoughts...In the summer of 1978, against his top political strategist's advice, Pierre Trudeau called a full slate of byelections to fill 15 vacancies in the House of Commons, including seven seats the Liberals had won in the previous election. As recounted in John English's Just Watch Me, the Liberal Party's own pollster said the governing party's chances"ranged from slim...Standing by the docks in downtown Nanaimo, B.C., on Monday morning, Liberal MP Alexandre Mendes told Radio-Canada she came to this week's Liberal caucus retreat with a message from her constituents:"dozens and dozens" of them were"adamant" the Liberal Party needed a new leader. Speaking later to CBC's Power & Politics, Mendes said it was hard to pinpoint a...In early July, as the Liberal caucus was still reeling from the party's unexpected byelection loss in Toronto-St. Paul's, Liberal caucus chair Brenda Shanahan dismissed calls for a special meeting of Liberal MPs to discuss the state of the party and the government. Such a meeting was not possible, Shanahan told MPs, due to"scheduling logistics." Two months later, Liberal...So the answer to the question of how much longer the Liberal-NDP deal would last turned out to be"not much." "Today, I notified the prime minister that I have ripped up the supply-and-confidence agreement," NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh announced in a pre-recorded video posted online Wednesday afternoon.On Thursday, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre made a great show — he even wrote a letter — of calling on NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh to walk away from the NDP's supply-and-confidence agreement with the Liberal government. Poilievre alleged that Singh was sticking with the deal so that he could become eligible for a parliamentary pension (Poilievre qualified for an MP...John A. Macdonald once assured the pre-Confederation Legislative Assembly of Canada that an appointed Senate, then under consideration, would"never set itself in opposition against the deliberate and understood wishes of the people." It's important to note what Macdonald said immediately before those words.As another Canadian summer brings another round of natural disasters — wildfires in British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba and Newfoundland, flooding in Toronto and Quebec — there is a risk of the political responses to these calamities becoming rote. Thoughts and prayers are offered. An official response is mounted. Support for reconstruction is promised. And then the political discussion moves on.No matter who leads them into the next election, Liberals still need to think about governing On Monday, Justin Trudeau was still standing. As he stood on the floor of the Goodyear factory in Napanee, Ont., Trudeau had been prime minister for eight years and 282 days — one day more than Brian Mulroney, who recently was hailed as a giant of Canadian politics. Having also recently passed Sir Robert Borden, who saw the country through...There is cross-partisan agreement on at least one thing in Ottawa: last week's meeting of the House of Commons committee on the status of women was an embarrassing spectacle. The only real debate is over who should feel the most embarrassed. Officially, last week's committee meeting was held so that MPs could hear from three witnesses on the topic of...The epidemic of opioid addiction is a real problem. And there is a real difference of opinion between Liberals and Conservatives about how the federal government should be responding to that crisis. But there is also a lot of noise. With drug addiction already a hard issue to solve, partisan politics tends to make it even harder.On Sunday afternoon, Justin Trudeau praised Joe Biden as an American patriot."He's a great man," the prime minister wrote on social media,"and everything he does is guided by his love for his country." That sentence could be read broadly as expressing admiration for Biden's career of public service. It also could be read as praise specifically for the...We had good reasons to worry about our political culture even before the Trump shooting The attempted assassination of Donald Trump has led, inevitably and justifiably, to calls for reflection on the state of Canada's political culture. But such calls for reflection predate the latest outbreak of political violence in the United States."The level of threats and misogyny that I'm subject to, both online and in person, is such that I often fear going...Every Saturday, Peter Mansbridge provides thoughtful takes on this week's news stories. 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