Canadians have a simple question for anyone who wants to be the next prime minister: Will you scrap the carbon tax?
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stated he would keep the carbon tax, while Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has been clear he would “axe the tax.”
Liberal Party leadership hopefuls Chrystia Freeland and Karina Gould have made their positions known. Now only Mark Carney seems unable to present a clear position on the carbon tax.
OTTAWA — Canada remains steadfast in pushing ahead with its 2035 ban on internal combustion engines despite pressure from Canada’s auto industry and Donald Trump’s removal of the American EV mandates.
In a response to a question submitted to Environment Canada earlier this week on the status of Canada’s zero-emission vehicle mandates, a spokesperson implied the government has no interest in following suit with the United States.
In other words Liberals are looting the treasury.
More than half of Canadians describe themselves as “financially paralyzed” and nearly as many report insufficient funds to sustain their current standard of living, a new survey suggests.
A new Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) poll found that 55 percent of those surveyed reported feeling financially stuck while 48 percent said they lack the necessary funds to sustain their current living standard. An additional 29 percent said their finances are “in a constant state of chaos.”
Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne didn’t hesitate when asked which policies he worries could be reversed by the next government.
He often recounts stories about his role in helping to attract around $100 billion in public and private investment for a dozen or so projects that could form the backbone of a domestic electric vehicle (EV) supply chain.
A looming disaster?
Liberal leadership contender Karina Gould said Thursday the government she was a part of for years mishandled the affordability crisis and did not effectively respond to Canadians who were crying out for relief at a time of high inflation.
While criticizing the government’s approach to the cost of living, Gould also repudiated some of the government’s other major policies, namely the capital gains tax hike and upcoming increases to the carbon tax.
“We have to be honest about the fact that Canadians have lost trust in our party,” Gould told reporters shortly after submitting her final paperwork to run for the leadership at the party office in Ottawa.
Federal Liberals who argue they’ve put their vote-killing carbon tax controversy behind them, because their leading contenders for the party leadership are suggesting they’ll replace it with something else, are engaged in wishful thinking on steroids.
Hard-working, photogenic Goldman Sachs alumnus with more than a decade’s experience running two G7 central banks seeks new (short-lived?) role at the top of Canadian politics.
To Mark Carney’s supporters, the 59-year-old former governor of the Bank of England has the perfect CV to fill Justin Trudeau’s shoes as leader of the Liberal Party and prime minister of Canada. After graduating from Harvard and Oxford and spending 13 years as an investment banker, in which he simultaneously made a fortune and advised the African National Congress (ANC) in post-apartheid South Africa, he took over the Bank of Canada in 2008 at the age of 42. There, he successfully limited the country’s exposure to the global financial crisis by forcing his former investment banking colleagues to reserve more capital. In 2010, Time magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world.
In the new world order inaugurated in Washington this week, the unthinkable is suddenly plausible.
Following Donald Trump’s inauguration, Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, president of the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs, came out in support of building oil pipelines to the Pacific Coast.
That is an almost unbelievable coming from someone who was among the most prominent opponents of the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline that would have exported diluted bitumen from the oil sands in Alberta to a marine terminal in Kitimat, B.C., for transportation to Asian markets via oil tankers. The Enbridge project was killed by the Trudeau government in 2016 .
h/t DS
The City of Windsor has released a stern message as the federal government gets set to stop funding the Interim Housing Assistance Program for asylum claimants.
“We can’t fund this, and we won’t,” said Andrew Daher, city commissioner of human and health services.
He pointed out to media during a news conference that 846 departure notices were handed out by the government for January, February and March.
“About 191 of those folks have been taken care of in January, so we’re left with roughly 600 or so folks that are going to get a letter, it will be effective Feb. 3 and then March 3,” Daher said.
There’s about as much truth to Mark Carney being an outsider as there is to Christy Clark having never signed up for the Conservative party. Like Clark, who left a trail of evidence of her deceit, Carney’s now undeniable long-time interests in Liberal leadership and associations with members of the party have left a fluorescent trail of breadcrumbs, raising serious questions about Carney’s integrity overall and the reason he left Canada in the first place.
The federal government issued more than $4.1 million in penalties to employers violating the rules of the temporary foreign worker program in 2024, according to data from Immigration, Refugee and Citizenship Canada. This is a 55 per cent increase from the $2.67 million handed out in 2023.
Ottawa levied 154 fines against non-compliant companies over the last calendar year, averaging $26,917 per decision, according to the Star’s analysis of the data — almost double the $13,917 average in 2023.
“I want to let you in on a little secret,” says Chrystia Freeland in her video pitch to become the next leader of the Liberal Party of Canada. “Donald Trump doesn’t like me very much.”
This is, according to the person hoping to steer the country through the next fours years of Mr. Trump’s recalcitrant tumult, to her advantage. “I’m a tough negotiator,” she continues, noting her success in renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement during the first Trump term. “I know what we need to do to win that fight again.”
Justin Trudeau has already announced his stepping down as Canada’s prime minister. But for Joe Rogan, his exit can’t come quick enough.
In a recent episode of his Joe Rogan Experience podcast that featured outdoorsman Steven Rinella, Rogan, 57, called the outgoing prime minister every foul name under the sun.
Mark Carney scoops more caucus endorsements, including Steven Guilbeault
OTTAWA — Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault is adding his name to the caucus endorsements who have thrown their support behind Mark Carney in the race to replace Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Speaking to reporters in Montebello, Que., Guilbeault said that he has known Carney for many years and they both worked together on issues relating to climate change and the green energy transition with Carney’s role as special advisor to the United Nations.
This is not the endorsement Carney thinks it is.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has been under fire for apparently betraying Team Canada when it comes to the threatened tariffs from President Donald Trump.
But despite Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stoking Canada-Alberta divisions, the two leaders are remarkably in agreement on how best to approach the problem.
