WINNIPEG — Federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said Thursday he supports Manitoba’s request for an exemption from the federally imposed carbon tax.
“The fact is that Manitoba produces a phenomenal amount of green energy through its hydroelectricity, and a carbon tax will come nowhere near the environmental benefit of expanding that energy,” Poilievre told reporters following a meeting with Premier Wab Kinew at the legislature.
I owe my old friend Kamil a debt he knows nothing about.
Kamil was a truck driver. In fact, he was a darned good one. He immigrated from Eastern Europe, married a lovely lady from Newfoundland and started a family in Mississauga.
Lax membership criteria in major political parties, such as allowing international students and foreign nationals to join, leave Canada vulnerable to foreign interference and could potentially impact the selection of prime ministers, a recent study says.
“Foreign actors could also influence the selection process of party leadership, and hence the prime ministership, simply by purchasing party memberships that hand out ballots in leadership races without verifying the identities of new members,” said the study “Beyond General Elections“ published by Sage Journals on March 18.
A new poll indicates 51 per cent of Canadians support banning the social media app TikTok, after a U.S. bill aiming to do just that passed in the House of Representatives.
Canada has ordered its own national security review of TikTok, something the Liberal government revealed following passage of the U.S. bill earlier this month.
Canada’s China class will ensure that TikTok is not banned.
OTTAWA – Quebec MP Anthony Housefather remains undecided on his future more than a week after a House of Commons motion on Israel and Gaza left him questioning whether he will remain in the Liberal party.
And Prime Minister Minister Justin Trudeau isn’t saying if he has even been talking to Housefather to try and keep him in the fold.
Trudeau dodged the question today, saying only that he has spoken to Housefather many times over the years and that he is proud to head a caucus where multiple viewpoints are heard and reflected.
… Lawyer Elizabeth Kim, who only works on immigration refugee cases, said it can take anywhere from six months to two years, from the beginning of the process to a decision. She called it a “last resort” to apply, and said lawyers often look to see if other options exist.
“If your goal is to remain in Canada, the last thing you want to do is take the course of action that’s going to give you a removal order automatically issued,” Kim said.
She said there appears to be a misunderstanding that people applying for asylum would simply prefer to stay in Canada. Instead, she said it’s that they cannot return to their home.
“I personally haven’t seen a lot of meritless claims where they’re just looking to [stay in Canada]. I don’t think I’ve seen any,” Kim said.
After a year of declining poll numbers, failed resets and embarrassing scandals, Justin Trudeau’s government is now experiencing a slow-motion collapse, a kind of political “slow heat death”.
Usually, leaders who have stayed in power for nearly a decade, as Trudeau has, can look forward to leaving behind a legacy in the form of a signature policy that will endure beyond their own political lives. But the Canadian PM may not even have that, because on 1 April Canada’s federal carbon tax is set to increase, and what had been a relatively uncontroversial measure when it was introduced nearly five years ago has become nothing short of a political firestorm.
Canadian small businesses say they are suffering under the federal carbon tax program and are calling on the government to stop the tax hike planned for April 1.
“Small businesses are being crushed by rising costs on all fronts, and the upcoming April 1 carbon tax increase will only add salt to the wound,” said an email statement to The Epoch Times from Jasmin Guenette, vice president of national affairs for the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB).
PM Trudeau is hiking his carbon tax up to 17¢/litre of gasoline, 21¢/litre of diesel & 15 cents/cubic metre of natural gas April 1
Costing us more to drive, eat food & heat our homes
🚙 $12
🛻 $18
🚛 $200
🏠 $439🚨Average Alberta families will be out $911 NET, with rebates pic.twitter.com/vlELm0ESP6
— Kris Sims (@kris_sims) March 28, 2024
Canada’s Chief Electoral Officer Stéphane Perrault says he doesn’t have the authority to investigate whether some donors were encouraged to provide campaign contributions in the 2021 election to candidates favoured by China – donations for which they allegedly received a tax credit from the federal government.
Lawyers for the public inquiry into foreign interference pressed Mr. Perrault Thursday on a report by The Globe and Mail in February, 2023 that outlined a funding scheme to help elect politicians who would be uncritical of China.
The astronomical cost of rentals in Canada these days has forced Canadians to resort to desperate measures amid the rising cost of living.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau took to social media to preview what lies ahead for the nation’s renters.
The federal government is clearly worried about the onslaught of criticism of its newly introduced Bill C-63, the Online Harms Act. That criticism has come from all corners, including civil society groups like the Canadian Civil Liberties Association and the Canadian Constitution Foundation¸which I work for.
Academics have warned about amendments to the Criminal Code and Canadian Human Rights Act chilling speech, and about the expansive search powers for the proposed “Digital Safety Commission.” Thousands of regular citizens have written to their Members of Parliament asking them to stop and fix the bill.
It speaks to the seriousness of the situation that the Bank of Canada is not so much taking the gloves off as slipping lead into them.
Senior deputy governor, Carolyn Rogers, came as close to wading into the political arena as any senior deputy governor of the central bank probably should in her speech in Halifax this week .
But she was right to sound the alarm about a subject — Canada’s waning productivity — on which the federal government’s performance has been lacklustre at best.
As a classical liberal who believes in individual liberty, the pursuit of happiness, secular democracy, rule of law, social equality, free trade, fiscal responsibility, and a strong national defence, I was politically homeless in Canada long before cancelling my Laurier Club membership and leaving the Liberal Party in October 2023.
I have to say that watching the recent fiasco in the House of Commons with respect to the subtle (maybe not too subtle) shift in Mideast policy makes it embarrassing enough to be a Canadian, but the government’s mishandling of the economy and fiscal policy is beyond the pale — declining real per-capita incomes in Canada year in and year out.
If not for the tight trading ties with the United States and the good fortune of a rich endowment of resources, the Canadian economy would be in perennial recession.
The federal government is calling on banks, credit bureaus, landlords and financial technology firms to include rent payments in credit scores in a bid to help Canadians secure better mortgage rates. But officials say they won’t yet enforce the practice, and one critic expects the move will have little impact on affordability.
… It’s a move that David Hulchanski, a housing expert at the University of Toronto, sees as relatively toothless. Along with the voluntary nature of implementation, he noted that credit scores were less pervasive of a barrier to homeownership than the sheer cost of homes today compared with income levels.
