The federal government has tabled details of how it plans to cut billions of dollars from programs that support science, tourism, harbour improvements, journalism, foreign aid, and even the development of a Canadian-made lunar rover module.
The cuts are detailed in hundreds of pages of departmental plans tabled in the House of Commons last Friday as MPs were preparing to return to their ridings for March break week.
The Liberal government is making a second attempt to establish a legal regime that would allow security agencies to more easily identify users of cellphone and internet services and access certain account data.
Law enforcement has welcomed the move as necessary to conduct investigations in the modern world, while civil liberties advocates are raising privacy concerns.
Ever since that fateful day 2,000 years ago when Judas Iscariot sold out his friend for 30 pieces of silver, switching sides and joining the enemy camp has had a bad name.
Indeed, the names of those who do so, like Benedict Arnold during the American Revolution and Vidkun Quisling in Nazi-occupied Norway, have become shorthand for treachery.
It is in Canada’s interests to militarily support an end to Iran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. Doing so would reaffirm the credibility of the West’s military alliances, and, more importantly, slow down global nuclear proliferation by showing Tehran that economic blackmail doesn’t work.
To understand why Ottawa must get involved, it is helpful to step back and remember the broader context of this war.
The Supreme Court of Canada has agreed to hear a challenge against the Liberal government’s ban on around 2,500 types of what it calls “assault-style” firearms.
On March 19, the top court granted leave to hear an appeal challenging the federal ban on firearms that Ottawa classifies as suitable only for military use, rather than for hunting or sport shooting.
The Liberal government leaned further into its emerging leadership role among the world’s middle powers, with Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand telling a London audience that now is the country’s time to lead internationally.
Making the keynote address at the 2026 Chatham House Global Trade Conference on Thursday, Anand said that a country’s greatness stems not just from its domestic successes, but in providing leadership that benefits the world.
The federal government, which has twice lost its legal argument that its use of the Emergencies Act to end the Freedom Convoy protests in early 2022 was justified, is now asking for leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada.
The high court may or may not decide to hear it, but it it does, past comments by Supreme Court Chief Justice Richard Wagner condemning the Freedom Convoy will raise the question of whether he can be objective.
Defence Minister David McGuinty said he did not know about a strike on an air base in Kuwait where members of the Canadian Armed Forces were stationed until after it was first reported by a media outlet.
“No, I didn’t know about it before La Presse reported on it,” McGuinty said Thursday in a response to a question about whether he knew about the strike before the story was published, in a press conference in Kitchener, Ont.
That inspires confidence.
Let’s talk for a moment about the scale of Canada’s ambition and how it compares to the scale of what we can plausibly achieve.
Last week, Prime Minister Mark Carney announced major plans for Arctic infrastructure. Much of the $35 billion budgeted for them will be used to expand and upgrade existing military facilities; these, in theory, will increase the Canadian Armed Forces’ capacity to respond quickly and in strength to any crisis.
Every day is Al Capone’s vault day with these two.
Heavy social media use has contributed to a stark decline in well-being among young people, with the effects particularly worrying in teenage girls in English-speaking countries — including Canada — and Western Europe, according to the World Happiness Report 2026 published Thursday.
The annual report, published by the Wellbeing Research Centre at the University of Oxford, also found that Finland is the happiest country in the world for the ninth year in a row, with other Nordic countries such as Iceland, Denmark, Sweden and Norway ranking among the top 10 countries.
Sunny ways, my friend, sunny ways. @fancypants_s https://t.co/guuBfFr94h
— Patti Jo (@TheSupeHero) March 19, 2026
h/t Patti Jo
Americans will soon catch a glimpse of something North American politicians once tried to keep far away: cheap Chinese electric vehicles.
As Canada begins importing the EVs, U.S. residents in border cities like Detroit and Buffalo, New York, may see their northern neighbors at the wheel. Or American tourists visiting Canada may experience brands like Xiaomi, Leapmotor and BYD when taking a ride-share.
It’s a situation that the U.S. and Canada sought to avoid for years, worried that the introduction of China’s low-cost, high-tech EVs would undermine domestic automakers and lead to Chinese surveillance. But President Donald Trump’s 25 percent tariff on Canadian autos and auto parts has scrambled the North American auto market.
This is the supposedly superior Chinese self-driving technology of the BYD Han. 🤡
The car has been going round and round at the airport for hundreds of laps nonstop. 😅😂
The driver keeps pressing the brakes, but nothing happens. 😱 https://t.co/mkiAAPQSD6 pic.twitter.com/8Ogp55Xp9E
— Pseudo Prophet (@Pseudo_Prophet_) March 17, 2026
There was never any question what Prime Minister Mark Carney thought about the Freedom Convoy protesters in Ottawa. In a Globe and Mail op-ed published on Feb. 7, 2022, the “Ottawa resident and former governor of the Bank of Canada and the Bank of England” wrote that the convoy was “terrorizing” people, that women were being forced to “flee abuse,” and that the elderly were “afraid to venture outside their homes.” He accused the organizers of “blatant treachery” and “sedition,” and proposed the government respond by “choking off the money.”
The European liberal political family is urging EU leaders to form a pact with Japan, Canada, and South Korea to deter U.S. President Donald Trump and China from exerting undue pressure on trade partners, according to a paper seen by POLITICO.
In what is dubbed a “Geoeconomic Deterrence Pact” addressed to EU leaders ahead of a summit in Brussels on Thursday, the liberal Renew Europe group in the European Parliament asks the Commission “to identify and negotiate joint export control agreements” by the end of 2026. The paper will be published late Wednesday and sent to EU leaders.
Prime Minister Mark Carney of Canada became a diplomatic celebrity after delivering an electrifying speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, declaring that President Trump had permanently ruptured the rules-based world order.
He told the leaders to put their nations’ interests first, not placate Mr. Trump and form new alliances.
Mr. Carney has crisscrossed the globe — this year he has already circled the world twice — seeking to heed his own message by forging relationships with countries that will make Canada far less dependent on the United States.
The CBC is a huge waste of money. Nearly nobody is watching it and journalists should not be paid by the government.
With former employees testifying before a Parliament Hill committee, it’s easy to get lost in the drama.
