🗳Canadians head to the polls April 28 as PM Mark Carney triggers a spring election

Canadians will head to the polls on April 28 after Prime Minister Mark Carney formally met with the Governor-General to dissolve the 44th parliament, bringing an end to the longest-running minority government in Canadian history.

Carney visited Gov. Gen. Mary Simon on Sunday one day before parliament was supposed to return after former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau prorogued it in January.

The April 28 date is the earliest possible day to send Canadians to the polls under the Elections Act, one day longer than the minimum 36 days required by law.

At the time of dissolution, the Liberals held 153 seats, the Conservatives held 120, the Bloc Quebecois had 33 seats, the NDP had 24, the Green Party held 2 seats and there were three independents.
#election #Carney
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Carney and Poilievre promise tax cuts on Day 1 of election campaign

Liberal Leader Mark Carney promised a "middle-class tax cut" by trimming one percentage point off the lowest income tax bracket.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre reiterated his promise of a tax cut on "work, investment, energy and homebuilding."

Poilievre also promised to repeal the carbon tax in its entirety — a move that goes further than Carney, who signed a directive after taking office that effectively removed the consumer carbon tax. However, the legislation remains in place and large emitters still pay a price on carbon.

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🇺🇸 U.S. border officials have caught more people with eggs than fentanyl this year

In the first two months of 2025, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) seized fentanyl on 134 occasions, down from 197 seizures in the same time frame in 2024. Meanwhile, CBP intercepted egg products on 3,254 occasions this January and February, compared to 1,508 occasions in the first two months of 2024.

A dozen eggs cost American consumers US$5.90 in February, almost double what it was in 2024. In Canada, the average price for a dozen eggs was C$4.89 (US$3.41) in January, making illegal imports tempting for travellers unaware of strict agricultural restrictions.

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🇺🇸 Carney says Trump waiting to see who becomes prime minister before agreeing to talk

Liberal Leader Mark Carney, who hasn’t talked to Donald Trump since taking office as Prime Minister, says he thinks the U.S. President is waiting for the outcome of the April 28 federal election before engaging with Ottawa.

Imagine being the Prime Minister of a major country and the U.S. doesn't even see you as a legitimate leader.
#US #Carney
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🗳Federal leaders' debates scheduled for April 16-17 in Montreal

The leaders of the main federal political parties will be invited to face off in mid-April — if they meet certain criteria, announced the Leaders' Debates Commission Monday.

The commission, a government agency created in 2018 to organize federal leaders' debates, said the French debate will take place April 16 at 8 p.m. ET and the English debate will be held April 17 at 7 p.m. ET.
#election
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🇺🇸 Danielle Smith asking Donald Trump to pause tariffs broke no laws, elections official says

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s request that U.S. President Donald Trump pause tariffs until Canadians elect a new federal government does not amount to electoral interference, Canada’s independent elections watchdog says.

Smith lamented in an interview with Breitbart that she fears Trump’s trade war with Canada is boosting the Liberals in the polls, hindering the Pierre Poilievre-led Conservatives’ chances, before revealing she has asked the Trump administration to pause tariffs until the federal election is over.
#Smith #US
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🗳🇨🇳🇮🇳 Canada says China and India may seek to meddle in election

China and India are likely to try to interfere in the Canadian general election on April 28, while Russia and Pakistan have the potential to do so, the country's spy service said on Monday.

Vanessa Lloyd, deputy director of operations at CSIS, told a press conference that hostile state actors were increasingly leveraging artificial intelligence to meddle in elections.
#China #India #election
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🇺🇸💊Canada not mentioned in U.S. threat assessment’s summary of fentanyl crisis

Fentanyl from Canada was not mentioned in a report released Tuesday outlining what the U.S. intelligence community considers the most serious foreign threats to the United States. The report said that last year, the U.S.-Mexico border was the main entry point for illicit drugs, often concealed in passenger vehicles and tractor trailers.

The Trump administration has linked its punishing tariffs on Canada to Ottawa’s inability to stop the flow of fentanyl, which it says has risen massively in recent years.
#US
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Poilievre addresses lack of security clearance, says he won’t commit to ‘oath of secrecy’

Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre responded yet again to new questions about his lack of security clearance, saying he had a security clearance as a cabinet minister in former Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s cabinet and that he would not commit to an “oath of secrecy” imposed by the Liberal government that would accompany getting cleared now.
#Poilievre
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💸 Canada freezes Tesla’s $43-million rebate payments, bars it from future rebates because of tariffs

Canada has frozen $43 million in payments to Tesla pending a line-by-line investigation into its last-minute surge in EV rebate claims made on the final weekend of the government program.

The American EV maker run by U.S. presidential adviser Elon Musk will also be excluded from all future EV rebate programs as long as tariffs are in place, Transport Minister Chrystia Freeland said in a statement.
#US
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Former NDP leader Tom Mulcair tells Canadians not to vote NDP

After years of bristling at the idea of “vote splitting,” former NDP leader Tom Mulcair has effectively warned NDP supporters not to split the vote in the 2025 election.

Mulcair warned that the threat of U.S. President Donald Trump is too dire for Canadians to vote for third parties, and that the coming election should be a race “between the Liberals and Conservatives.”

If you can’t seriously say you’re going to form a government that can take on Trump, then get out of the way and let the only real contenders have at it.

#election #US
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🇨🇳 China’s ambassador calls for more trade with Canada amid U.S. trade war

Beijing’s ambassador to Canada says China is interested in stepping up trade with Ottawa, arguing the U.S. is pursuing a trade war that will hurt the global economy.

Wang Di says Washington should not force Canada to choose between the U.S. and China.

The international community should stand up together against this kind of behaviour.

Wang was speaking on the sidelines of a trade-promotion event today hosted by the Chinese embassy in Ottawa.
#China #US
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🇪🇺🇨🇳 Mark Carney rejects boosting trade ties with China, points to Europe

Liberal Leader Mark Carney Wednesday rejected accusations from his Conservative rival that he’s beholden to Beijing and said he thinks Canada’s trade-diversification strategy should prioritize boosting commerce with “like-minded countries” in Europe instead of China.

We want to diversify with like-minded partners. That’s why I went to Europe in my first days as Prime Minister. There are partners in Asia with whom we can build deeper ties. But the partners in Asia that share our values don’t include China.

#EU #China
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Canada will react to Trump's 'attack' soon, could impose tariffs, says Carney

Canada will soon respond to new tariffs on imported vehicles announced by U.S. President Donald Trump and could impose retaliatory measures against the United States, Prime Minister Mark Carney said on Wednesday.

Carney said Trump's move was "a direct attack" and told reporters he would be convening a high-level cabinet meeting on Thursday to decide on a response.
#US #Carney
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Poilievre pledges to keep Radio-Canada alive after 'defund the CBC' promise

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre committed to preserving Radio-Canada services across the country in a Quebec platform released on Wednesday evening.

Poilievre has already promised to “defund the CBC,” and it would require legislative changes to keep one half of the public broadcaster in existence.
#Poilievre #Quebec
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Airline demand between Canada & US collapses, down 70%+

#US
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The old relationship we had with the United States—based on deepening integration of our economies and tight security and military cooperation—is over.

#Carney #US
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🇺🇸 Ford says he and Carney agreed not to impose counter measures till April 2

Ontario premier Doug Ford on Thursday told reporters he had just spoken to Prime Minister Mark Carney and the two men agreed not to impose counter measures against U.S. imports until April 2.
#US #Ford #Carney
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Top Conservative strategist says Poilievre needs to urgently pivot or he will lose

Kory Teneycke, one of the country's top Conservative strategists who just helped Ontario Premier Doug Ford win a sizable majority government, says Pierre Poilievre urgently needs to make a pivot and start talking more about the issue voters care about most — the U.S. threat — or he risks losing the federal election.
#Poilievre
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🪖Canadian general who recommended F-35 deal now calls for purchase of other jets

The air force general who recommended Canada buy the F-35 fighter jet now says the purchase should no longer go forward as planned because the U.S. has become so untrustworthy.

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