Last week saw the Conservatives drop five candidates over comments they had made in the past, while three Liberal candidates were dismissed or resigned for the same reason.
The dismissals took place ahead of the April 7 deadline for candidates to register to run in the federal election.
If parties find past comments from candidates that may be problematic to their campaign and want to drop them, they will be unable to register replacements after April 7.
Denmark is the latest country to introduce military conscription for women. On March 25, Copenhagen announced that young women who turn 18 after July 1 of this year could be drafted by national lottery starting in January 2026 if the military does not attract enough volunteers. The measure is being put into place two years earlier than planned amid rising geopolitical tensions in Europe.
Around 25% of voluntary recruits are currently women, according to the Danish Armed Forces. Compulsory military service, which was already in place for men, lasts between four and 12 months, depending on what recruits decide to do after their three-month basic training.
The Ukrainian Canadian Congress is urging Canada to establish its own nuclear weapons program, arguing that the country needs to protect itself from both Russian aggression and potential threats from the United States.
Blacklock’s Reporter says the organization released a National Policy Guide this week recommending that Canada develop an independent nuclear deterrent.
If they can be used against Ottawa I’m in.
h/t XC
The US began collecting a 10% “baseline” tariff on all imports on Saturday as President Donald Trump urged Americans to “hang tough” after market turmoil.
The UK and France are among hundreds of countries impacted and its leaders have said nothing is off the table. While China, which has been hit the hardest by President Trump’s tariffs, announced a significant retaliatory response.
All three major stock indexes in the US plunged more than 5% on Friday, with the S&P 500 dropping almost 6%, capping the worst week for the US stock market since 2020.
As was widely predicted, including in this column, U.S. President Donald Trump’s initial brinkmanship remarks about Canada and tariffs were his usual shock and awe technique for commencing negotiations. At his “Liberation Day” ceremony on the White House lawn on Wednesday, almost no new tariffs were proposed for Canada and his only direct references to Canada were about our exorbitant and antediluvian supply management measures that cushion the incomes of a large number of Canada’s farmers with artificially inflated prices. This has been a particular bugbear of People’s Party Leader Maxime Bernier and a ludicrous anomaly that we should not have needed the president of the United States to highlight for us. The best way to deal with farm income insufficiencies is direct income supplements to the farmers, not forcing the entire population to overpay for what they put on their breakfast table.
AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Creepy! @fancypants_s https://t.co/dmtkdJoNIQ
— Auntie Polly (@auntie_polly) April 5, 2025
h/t Auntie Polly
The prime minister will declare an end to globalisation and admit that it has failed millions of voters as the fallout from President Trump’s tariffs reverberates around the world.
In his first significant intervention since the United States imposed sweeping charges on imports, Sir Keir Starmer will say tomorrow that the seismic global economic effects prove the government must “move further and faster” to boost growth with supply-side reforms.
NEW: UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer to declare that globalization has failed, plans to show that he understands President Trump’s tariff decision.
The announcement is set for Monday, according to The Times.
“Globalisation doesn’t work for a lot of working people. We don’t… pic.twitter.com/oYhqyG29m3
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) April 5, 2025
Carney is a globalist profiteer who carries water for the folks that shipped your jobs out of the country and imported cheap labour to depress wages and impoverish your family.
Carney is so despicable that he will keep Canada’s oil in the ground so he and his pals can exploit the “energy transition” for personal gain.
Carney has also invited fellow globalist predator Mark Wiseman of the Century 100 Initiative to assist in Canada’s destruction through mass immigration.
Carney is your enemy not Trump.
Black man drives through restaurant after they refuse to serve him wings at closing time. pic.twitter.com/VaEN9OeRba
— Libs Hate Us (@LibsHateUs) April 4, 2025
As geopolitical friction between Canada and the United States intensifies, particularly on the trade front, the real battleground may not be in boardrooms or policy circles – it may be in grocery aisles across the country.
Finland’s government on Tuesday, April 1st, announced plans to begin withdrawing from the 1997 Ottawa Treaty which bans the use, production, and transfer of anti-personnel landmines.
Prime Minister Petteri Orpo stated that the “fundamentally changed security environment in Europe” prompted the decision and emphasized the need to boost national defense, particularly as Finland shares a 1,340-kilometre border with Russia.
“We propose that Finland starts to prepare for withdrawal from the Ottawa agreement,” Orpo said. Finland’s parliament must approve the move, which would come into effect six months after ratification.
Such a dopey idea could only be hatched in Ottawa.
After ending his party’s supply-and-confidence agreement with the Liberals in September 2024, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh consistently voted against the Conservatives’ confidence motions that sought to bring down the minority government.
“We’re not going to let [Conservative Leader] Pierre Poilievre tell us what to do,” Singh said on Sept. 19 ahead of the tabling of the first of several such motions by the Tories.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent made it clear in an interview with CNN that the era of trade imbalances is over, and under President Trump, the U.S. will no longer tolerate unfair treatment.
During a discussion with CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, Bessent confidently explained the administration’s position on tariffs and trade policy, signaling that Trump’s economic strategy is deliberate and well thought out.
h/t DS
Arrest made after man ‘barricaded’ himself in Parliament Hill’s East Block, say police
Ottawa police say one man has been arrested after an hours-long lockdown on Parliament Hill.
“The barricaded man call at East Block has ended without incident. One man is in custody,” Ottawa police said in a social media post shortly before 11 p.m. ET on Saturday. The post also said the criminal investigation is ongoing and an update will be provided in the morning.
There was no immediate word on charges.
Vibrant diversity strikes again.
It is many years since I clambered into a cage in Cambridge’s King’s Parade for Amnesty International and stared glumly through the bars at a photographer who snapped me for the front page of the student paper. On that drizzly, damp day, we were trying to draw attention to the plight of prisoners in authoritarian countries where people could be thrown into jail for no reason, except to deter other critics of the regime, and denied their basic human rights.
In the past few days, I’ve found myself wondering what that idealistic young student would have thought if you’d told her that, 40 years in the future, she would be writing about a woman thrown into jail in our own country largely to act as a warning to others. A widely-respected and adored childminder described by one parent as “the kindest British person I’ve met”, a mother of two children (one living, one dead), a carer to a sick husband, by whose side she also appeared in his role as a Tory councillor.
