Political News Canada

Britain’s scorching heatwaves are being driven by cleaner skies after pollution was stripped from the atmosphere, new research suggests.

Temperatures in Europe have warmed twice as much as the rest of the world since the 1980s, figures show, with the continent now 2.3C warmer than it was in the pre-industrial era. In the same period, the global average is 1.3C.

The steep temperature rise in western Europe has outstripped expectations and has left experts puzzled as to its cause and concerned about the increase in deadly heatwaves.

Now Spanish researchers and the Met Office have concluded that most of the extra heat experienced in Britain and Europe is linked to the fall in particle emissions in recent decades.

Canada and the U.S. remain far apart as negotiations toward a tariff deal continue ahead of U.S. President Donald Trump's latest deadline, according to sources.

The sources said the federal government does not believe a tariff deal is imminent because there are still major disagreements between the two sides, and they remain far apart on some issues that need to be resolved.

Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc briefed his provincial and territorial counterparts on the state of the negotiations on Friday. He held a separate briefing with members of the prime minister’s advisory committee on Canada-U.S. economic relations. The sources are familiar with the briefings but were not authorized to speak publicly.

Canada and the U.S. have ramped up trade talks after Trump threatened to slap a hefty 50 per cent tariff on hundreds of Canadian goods starting Aug. 19.

One source with knowledge of the talks said optimism on the Canadian side is eroding and the Americans are not budging from their latest offer. That offer includes a willingness to halve the sectoral tariffs on autos to 12.5 per cent, an offer that the Canadian side believes is not good enough, the source said.

While called a sovereign wealth fund, the Canada Strong Fund will use debt, rather than surplus revenues or resource wealth, to finance its activities.

Coincidentally, Carney was formerly part of a “Green Finance” task force that advised Britain’s Labour government on its National Wealth Fund, a public finance institution created in 2024.

The fund absorbed the former UK Infrastructure Bank, created in 2021, and was given £7.3 billion (C$13.7 billion) to invest in wealth-generating projects. This includes investments in high-risk industries like green hydrogen, carbon capture and battery gigafactories.

Officials said at the time that the fund would attract three pounds of private money for every one pound from the public purse.

The study reports that the National Wealth Fund’s losses have nearly doubled since the 2024 rebranding, reaching £152.2 million (C$288 million) last year. It has delivered a cumulative return of minus 24.9 per cent in two years of operation. It has also fallen short of the three-to-one private-to-public funding ratio it promised Britons.

Notably, the fund led a massive bailout of rural broadband provider Gigaclear earlier this year, costing taxpayers nearly £100 million (C$188 million).

Last month, KPMG Canada released the results of a survey of 275 Canadian manufacturers conducted in May, which found that 42 per cent of them have considered, or are currently considering, moving production south of the border. Eleven per cent said they’re thinking of moving their head offices to the United States.

A few weeks later, the Financial Post reported that Vancouver-based Interfor Corp., one of the world’s largest lumber producers, plans to “shift its corporate and functional support operations” from British Columbia to Georgia, largely due to Trump’s crippling 45 per cent tariffs on softwood lumber.

The National Post newsletter that doesn’t hold back, giving readers the unvarnished truth on media, politics and culture.

If these weren’t reasons enough to put Canada in the crosshairs, Prime Minister Mark Carney has shown little willingness to stand up to the bully next door. A year ago, he unilaterally removed most of the counter-tariffs imposed on American goods by his predecessor, only maintaining duties on steel, aluminum and automobiles to protect Canadian industry from similar U.S. tariffs.

It’s now apparent that this was a tactical mistake: Carney’s gesture of goodwill lost Canada a strategic bargaining chip, while failing to buy trade peace.

In about a month, investors will descend on Toronto to hear the prime minister make the case for Canada in an inaugural Canada Investment Summit—a worthy effort given the country’s extraordinary need for investment. However, one claim will be hard to make: that Canada has meaningfully reduced the red tape that’s kept a lid on growth.

The government has made some headway on speeding up approvals for big, capital-intensive projects. But it’s done little to reduce the red tape that bogs down the broader regulatory system that dampens investor interest.

The Red Tape Review was intended to fix this. But a year after its launch, the federal government has little to show for it. Even with a polished sales pitch, three shortcomings of the government’s efforts will be hard to overlook.

At the risk of sounding churlish, the federal government’s new $34-million investment in climate change adaptation programs feels more like an insult than a gift.

Not that the money isn’t needed. I’m sure Halifax is thrilled to receive $800,000 to install cooling measures in parks during stretches of extreme heat. Ditto for the $1-million cheques going to flood mitigation measures in Quebec’s Kanesatake Lands and Fort Qu’Appelle, Sask.

These sprinklings of cash will no doubt be welcome, but they seem a laughable pittance when you consider the government’s top priority: fast-tracking construction of another pipeline from the Alberta oilsands to the BC coast. For all of Prime Minister Mark Carney’s talk of “decarbonized oil,” make no mistake, if additional oil is extracted from the oilsands, it will add to the world’s carbon pollution load when it is burned. And that same pollution is causing record-hot temperatures and catastrophic fires here at home and worldwide.

One of the most contentious discussions in these trade talks has been dairy quotas. In Canada, dairy is one of the most protected corners of Canadian trade policy. Reuters reports that talks continue between the two sides, but no details or agreements have been made, as yet.

For Canadian consumers, it's clear: Until Ottawa or the dairy sector says otherwise, there is no reliable basis for predicting whether milk, cheese or cream prices would move, in either direction.

A new law that aims to prevent foreign interference in federal elections passed June 18, creating new restrictions on voter data usage, fundraising and leadership races.

Experts say Bill C-25 touches on many important issues in Canadian elections, but also does not do enough to address foreign interference concerns.

“In almost every respect, the bill could have gone farther,” said Lori Turnbull, a professor of political science at Dalhousie University who specializes in electoral systems.

“It ended up being … low-hanging fruit … these were things that a lot of the parties could agree to.”

Ever wonder how billionaires keep getting bailed out?

How the politically well-connected always seem to get their way?

And those closest to the Liberal Party magically receive taxpayer money whenever they need it most...

Even after building 2,000 condos that just won't sell.

As U.S. President Donald Trump’s Aug. 19 deadline approaches, Prime Minister Mark Carney is making concessions to keep looming tariffs at bay. This could prove to be a defining moment in deciding the fate of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, for the choices are stark: appeasement or defiance, with little room to maneuver in-between.

The Globe and Mail has reported that a deal may be in the making in which the U.S. lowers – but does not remove – duties on steel and aluminum and perhaps autos and forest products. In exchange, Canada would remove retaliatory tariffs on autos and take action on other U.S. irritants such as alcohol and dairy.

The devil is in the details, and the haggling over tariff rates and quotas, but there can be little doubt that Canada is going to have to concede a lot before the President and his tariff-hungry team are mollified.

Mark Carney’s teleprompter quit during a housing announcement in Toronto on Wednesday, and the prime minister used the pause to take a shot at Donald Trump.

“I would like to inform you that the teleprompter has ceased to function,” Carney said. “Unlike a certain world leader, I do not view this as a conspiracy.” The crowd laughed.

Carney did not name Trump, however, last September, the U.S. president’s teleprompter failed during his address to the United Nations General Assembly, and he said afterward that he had been sabotaged.

Though negotiators had expressed concern that Trump was running low on final warnings, the White House has assured that there were more in reserve. "We are prepared to open our strategic reserve of final warnings," said one official. "No one wants to get down to a third-to-last warning, which includes a strongly-worded letter. But President Trump isn't afraid to unleash it."

At publishing time, Trump had announced that Iran had agreed to fresh negotiations and so was now back to its fourth-and-a-half-to-last chance.

Internal government polling found Canadians want grocery prices lowered—not another rebate—as food experts say Ottawa’s cash handout won’t solve the affordability crisis.

Prime Minister Mark Carney’s signature grocery rebate is falling flat with Canadians, as internal Privy Council Office polling found most believe the cash handout won’t solve the country’s affordability crisis and want Ottawa to bring grocery prices down instead.

When does hate become terrorism? Answer: when it is orchestrated, repeatedly, to sow fear, cause chaos, and undermine society. One hateful act can be the work of a vengeful madman; a series of hateful acts, against the same community, conducted in a similar manner, constitute terrorism.

That is what Jews in Canada face today. Since October 7, 2023, B’nai Brith Canada has documented nearly 5,800 total incidents in 2023 and a record 6,800 incidents throughout 2025. By today’s stats, that’s one hate crime for every 487 Jewish residents. Jews are 22 times more likely to be the victim of a hate crime than non-Jewish Canadians

Even more households are falling behind on their supersized mortgage payments. Canadian Bankers Association (CBA) data shows the mortgage arrears rate climbed in May. Mortgages at least 90 days past due have more than doubled since 2022, pushing the rate just shy of a decade high. New mortgage originations are also failing to offset outflows, already wiping out most of 2020’s low-rate growth.

The mortgage arrears count rose 2.3% to 14,061 in May, up 27.2% from last year and the most since 2014. However, annual growth is the detail worth paying attention to, as only one month in the past decades has been bigger (August 2024).

This growth rate was last consistently seen between 2008 and 2010, and is rare outside of a recession.

Looks like it's payback time The libs will reward him for his hard work. I cannot imagine how betrayed many of the ndp voters must feel looking back on how badly he sold out the party

MISSISSAUGA, Ont. -- The number of shootings has nearly doubled in Peel Region, west of Toronto, in the first six months of 2026, when compared to the first half of 2025.

“Our shootings are up this year,” acknowledges Nick Milinovich, the region of 1.7 million people’s deputy police chief, who adds “the reason for that increase is absolutely connected to extortions, organized crime and the international drug trade.”

In the first six months of this year, there have been 103 shooting incidents in Mississauga and Brampton, Ont., involving a firearm being discharged.

By comparison, in the first six months of 2025 there were 58 shooting incidents in the two cities located in Peel Region.

“We have a team (of officers) exclusively assigned to remove firearms off of the streets and it’s not uncommon for them over the course of a weekend to recover three or four illegal firearms that have entered Canada from the United States,” says Milinovich.

Internal federal research found one in five Canadians skipped meals in the past six months, while nearly half bought less meat, dairy or fresh produce because of rising food costs.

Runaway food prices are driving Canadians to skip meals and abandon healthy eating, according to internal Agriculture Canada research, as Ottawa’s own data show the average household can no longer afford to follow Canada’s Food Guide.

An internal report, Survey On Consumer Perceptions Of Food: Wave VII, found 71 per cent of Canadians changed their food purchasing habits over the past year because of rising prices, according to Blacklock’s Reporter.

Suffice to say, soaring grocery prices are forcing Canadians to go hungry.

July 29, 2026 – Renewed concern about a changing climate is pushing environmental issues back onto Canadians' political radar and creating thorny challenges for Prime Minister Mark Carney and the governing Liberals.

New data from the non-profit Angus Reid Institute finds that, as wildfires burn across Canada, the U.S. and Europe, the proportion of Canadians choosing climate change as a top concern has risen from 14 to 21 percentage points – a fifty per cent increase – in four months.

The political consequences of this are evident. While the Liberals continue to lead the Conservatives in federal vote intention, their advantage has narrowed to four points, as one-in-six of those who voted Liberal in 2025 now say they would support the NDP (15%). Among these Liberal-to-NDP switchers, climate change ranks as a top concern for half – twice the number among those who remain with Carney's party (50% to 27%, respectively).

In a matter of weeks, we might find out just how eager Mark Carney really is to sell off our airports.

We should also get a better sense of which other Canadian assets foreign investors want.

That is, if we’re able to peek behind closed doors as top figures in global finance gather in Toronto, for what could be a defining moment in Carney’s attempts at nation-building.

The Canada Investment Summit, taking place on Sept. 14 and 15, has flown under the radar for many Canadians since the Prime Minister announced plans for it last spring. But that certainly hasn’t been the case on Bay Street.

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Hate absolutely has a place in Canada. It is accepted by virtue of our collective indifference – by the way our leaders refuse to define it in precise terms. Hate has a place in Canada when the Prime Minister’s signature address on antisemitism clings desperately to anodyne generalities, lest the hate that fuels that antisemitism turn on him politically – or worse.

Hate has a place in Canada when two locations of the same Jewish bakery in Toronto, Kiva’s Bagel Bakery, are attacked with gunfire and vandalism in one weekend, and no one can remember how many similar incidents that amounts to since the war in Gaza first began. We lost count somewhere between the third shooting at a Jewish girls’ school and the 10th time a single Toronto synagogue was vandalized.

Canada’s population decline may just be a distant memory after the data is updated. In June, Statistics Canada’s (StatCan) population estimate contained a stark warning that its data will see an unusually large revision. CIBC economists expect the revision will be large enough to reverse the reported declines and expose a new problem—Canada’s job numbers may be worse than reported, and there’s no longer an excuse for poor economic growth.

He pretends the technology is a serious response to the climate crisis. Here’s the reality.

For years now, the governments of Alberta and Canada have talked up the method as means to get “more low-risk, low-cost and low-carbon Canadian energy to market while fighting climate change.” Federal Energy Minister Tim Hodgson has said CCUS will help make Canada “a clean energy superpower.” Five oilsands producers hail CCUS as an “environmental innovation” or “proven technology.”

But that’s not what the scientific and economic record says. Study after study catalogues a history of high costs, serious risks, geological side effects and broken promises. Most high-profile projects have faced shutdowns, leaks or technical snafus.

In a recent paper, two oilpatch veterans delivered a familiar verdict: “Despite extensive funding and research, carbon capture technologies have failed to deliver scalable, cost-effective, or operationally robust outcomes.”

The Tyee is supported by readers like you Join us and grow independent media in Canada CCUS is turning out to be a perfect example of what the social critic Jacques Ellul called the “technological bluff.”

They can be flown from thousands of miles away and support two-way communication through an embedded speakerphone, allowing the company’s response team to “engage verbally with a threat, or communicate to teachers and school staff”, Campus Guardian Angel’s website stated.

“This allows our team in our ops center to communicate to law enforcement officers verbally with messages such as ‘follow me and I’ll take you to the suspect’ or ‘open the door and we’ll go in to clear the room and tell you what we see,’” the company said.

The drones can remain airborne for about eight minutes on a single battery charge and operate at 900 MHz. According to the company, they can fly through windows that are not coated with ballistic film, using a front lance to break through. They are also equipped with sirens and can drop air poppers that create a loud bang.

Additionally, the drones carry a pepper launcher capable of firing pepper balls at a shooter and can also be used to deliver kinetic energy strikes against a confirmed attacker in an attempt to “greatly degrade or incapacitate” them.

The company said its goal is to “escalate the effects in waves of 3 or 4 drones, keeping the shooter occupied until he/she can be apprehended by authorized responders”.

In a recently published report, Desjardins deputy chief economist Randall Bartlett, said the new commitments add $40 billion in extra spending over the next decade, beyond what was announced in the last fiscal update in April.

“A lot of it seemed to be from previous envelopes, but some of it doesn’t all seem to be accounted for,” he said.

Bartlett pointed out his estimate of unaccounted spending is based on incomplete information, because the federal government has not been transparent on how it plans to pay for these measures.

For example, when it comes to financing a new pipeline project, it’s not immediately clear how much of the funding burden will be placed on the federal government through the federally owned Trans Mountain Corp., compared to the Alberta government.

“I think that lack of transparency is very concerning because it all points to high and rising debt levels, and I’m not really sure what sort of restraint outside of reductions to the public service are being shown right now, and what sort of analysis is going into funding these projects,” he said.