📊 Liberals would be tied with Conservatives with Carney as leader: poll

A Leger survey suggests a Carney-led party would boost Liberal support by six points to 37 per cent, putting them in a dead heat with the Tories.

The poll says the Liberals are currently at 31 per cent support, Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives are still riding high in majority territory at 40 per cent and Jagmeet Singh’s New Democrats are trailing far behind at 14 per cent.

No wonder the Liberals did everything they could to avoid an early election.

🍁 Maple Chronicles

🇨🇦 5 former prime ministers say fly the maple leaf on Saturday to stand up to Trump

All of the country's living former prime ministers are asking Canadians to fly the red maple leaf this weekend in a huge display of national pride.

Joe Clark, Kim Campbell, Jean Chrétien, Paul Martin and Stephen Harper have jointly written an open letter, telling Canadians to "show the flag as never before" as the country contends with "threats and insults from Donald Trump."

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💊Former RCMP deputy commissioner Kevin Brosseau is Canada's new 'fentanyl czar'

On Tuesday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s office announced that former RCMP deputy commissioner Kevin Brosseau will be taking on the job of working with Canada’s law enforcement agencies and their U.S. counterparts to eradicate the “scourge of fentanyl.”

Trudeau promised to appoint a fentanyl czar last week amongst a slew of measures meant to reinforce the Canada-U.S. border in exchange for a 30-day reprieve on U.S. tariffs.

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💸 Canadians expect they will need $1.54M to retire, BMO survey finds, amid inflation pressures

A majority of Canadians are worried they will not have enough money to retire because of inflation, a new survey from BMO has found, with respondents on average expecting they will need $1.54 million to retire.

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Defence Minister Bill Blair says Canada working hard to meet NATO spending target

Defence Minister Bill Blair says Canada is making significant efforts to accelerate its defence spending to reach the two per cent target it has committed to as part of NATO.

The minister is in Brussels for meetings with NATO allies and the Ukraine Defence Contact Group.

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🇺🇸 All 13 premiers travel to Washington to mitigate Trump’s tariff threats

Somehow this feels like admitting defeat.
#US
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Legault calls for export tax on aluminum if U.S. follows through on tariffs

Quebec Premier François Legault called for an export tax on Canadian aluminum to the United States, in retaliation to President Donald Trump's 25 per cent tariffs on steel and aluminum, during his visit to Washington with Canada's 12 other premiers on Wednesday.

Legault also said he would only want Canada to impose counter-tariffs if the U.S. does in fact enact the 25 per cent tariffs, scheduled to take effect March 12, and that he would prefer to get Trump to back off of his threats altogether instead.
#US
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Get ready for an early federal election, NDP tells candidates in an internal memo

The NDP's national campaign director has sent a memo to all candidates and campaign staff warning them to be prepared for a snap federal election as early as March 10.

Well, even if that happens, the NDP has lost the momentum. At the end of 2024, they could have outpaced the Liberals. Now that the Liberals are shaking things up, the NDP is sliding down the rankings again.

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🇺🇸 Former intelligence adviser fears Trump may leverage intel sharing against Canada

Vincent Rigby, former top intelligence adviser to PM Justin Trudeau, says he fears the U.S. might put intelligence sharing on the table in talks about the state of Canada’s defence spending.

We hear so much about defense spending and two per cent, and what the U.S. may or may not do if we don’t step up to plate. I’m afraid at one point, intelligence is going to be used as a negotiating tool.

#US
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Most Canadians think listing pronouns is not helpful or 'encourages stereotypes': poll

Did we actually need a poll for that?

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Clearly we have to do more, we have to ramp up defense spending because we know we cannot protect ourselves four or five years from now if we don’t. And also we need to ramp up defense spending because it is clear that the U.S., rightly, requires us to do more here on the European side and the Canadian side of NATO. It’s only fair, it’s only sensible.

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte.

It’s happening. The U.S. is tired of taking on the financial burden of NATO.

The government should start looking into adjusting the budget to find money for growing military spending.
#NATO #US
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Carney says he may call early election if he becomes prime minister

Former central banker Mark Carney opened the door to an early election call if he is elected by Liberal members to replace Justin Trudeau as party leader and prime minister in a March 9 leadership vote.

If elected, Carney said he would have to decide whether to recall Parliament to pass an emergency relief package in the event U.S. tariffs are imposed in March, or seek a fresh mandate from Canadians to negotiate with the Trump administration.

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Ford's Washington trip sparks controversy amid Ontario election

Ontario Premier Doug Ford is under fire for his recent trip to Washington, D.C., during the snap provincial election. The Ontario NDP has accused Ford of using the visit for partisan purposes, despite the Integrity Commissioner initially clearing it as urgent government business.

A campaign video featuring the trip raised eyebrows, prompting the NDP to file a complaint. Though the video was edited to remove the PC logo and slogan, critics argue it was too little, too late.
#Ontario #US #election
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🛢B.C. company cancels plans to build oil refinery for fuel exports to Asia

A B.C.-based company has cancelled its proposal to build a West Coast refinery designed for exporting finished petroleum products to Asia.

Pacific Future Energy sought to transport bitumen from Alberta’s oil sands to northwestern British Columbia for refining. The idea was to load refined petroleum products such as diesel, gasoline and jet fuel onto Asia-bound tankers.
#BritishColumbia #Alberta #energy
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Canada enforces diversity disclosure rules for financial institutions

The Canadian government has introduced new regulations requiring federally regulated financial institutions to disclose the diversity of their boards and senior management.

This stands in stark contrast to recent trends in the U.S.

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Trump says auto tariffs to come ‘around April 2’

U.S. President Donald Trump said Friday that he planned to unveil tariffs on imported cars around April 2. About 50 per cent of the cars sold in the United States are manufactured within the country. Among imports, about half come from Mexico and Canada.
#US
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B.C. landlord says he had no idea ‘Canada’s largest drug superlab’ was on his property

The property owner where Canada’s largest drug superlab was discovered last year says he was just the landlord.

Michael Driehuyzen says he purchased the property in Falkland, B.C., with savings from his employment.

Driehuyzen is now fighting the provincial government’s attempt to seize the property, which has an assessed value of $938,000.
#BritishColumbia
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❗️Ottawa boosts immigration officers’ ability to cancel visitor visas, travel permits

Canadian immigration officers have been given broader powers to cancel travel permits and visitor visas under new rules designed to bolster border security and clamp down on fraud.
#immigration
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💸 Ottawa ends funding for national advisory committee on unmarked residential school graves

Shouldn't this have happened a year ago when it came to light that no evidence was found?

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