Tuesday, October 7, 2025

Canada’s Politics and Government News Source Since 1989

Screen use is impacting child and youth mental health: time for action now

Opinion BY MICHELLE PONTI,STACEY BéLANGER

The federal government must bring Canada into alignment with emerging best practice. A clear and overdue first step would be to pass comprehensive digital safety legislation that establishes an independent regulator mandated with enforcement powers to protect the best interests of children and youth.

Labour stability is the missing link in Canada’s economic reboot

Opinion BY JULIAN KARAGUESIAN

There is a burnout crisis among LTC workers, trauma-informed workplaces are a solution

Opinion BY CAROLE A. ESTABROOKS AND JANICE KEEFE

Some ‘positives’ in the climate crisis

Opinion BY GEOFF STRONG,RICHARD VAN DER JAGT

Canadian foreign policy as performance art

Opinion BY NELSON WISEMAN

Innovation as deterrence: how Canada’s new NATO target can thrive in a tech-driven world

Opinion BY TRACEY FORREST,MICHAEL P.A. MURPHY,PAUL SAMSON

Carney’s so-called Combatting Hate Act is an attack on pro-Palestine expression

Opinion BY ARASH GHIASSI,RIAZ SAYANI

Why are Canadian political leaders so complacent about our poor performance on women’s representation in politics?

Opinion BY SHARI GRAYDON

Safe skies at risk: why ICAO should include Taiwan

Opinion

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addresses the UN General Assembly on Sept. 24. Photograph courtesy of the Office of the President of Ukraine

At the UN, Zelenskyy urges action to avert a world of war

Opinion BY LES WHITTINGTON

In his Sept. 24 UN General Assembly address, the Ukrainian president gave a stark warning about the collapse of international law.

Now is not the time for Zoom diplomacy

Editorial BY EDITORIAL

Emergency wait times are a threat to our health

Opinion BY ANDREW CADDELL

A peek into the Rock’s political race

Opinion BY TIM POWERS

The United States: calculating things to come

Opinion BY GWYNNE DYER

Reconciliation is the foundation for Canada’s future projects

Opinion BY KATHERINE KOOSTACHIN

Mark Carney and a call for meaningful reconciliation

Opinion BY CODY GROAT

Message to Carney: the safety of Indigenous women and girls is in the national interest

Opinion BY NDP MP LEAH GAZAN

Cultural agility is key in advancing reconciliation

Opinion BY ANNE HARDING

Canada’s exploding wealth inequality requires tax changes

Opinion BY RATNA OMIDVAR,SABINA VOHRA-MILLER

Climate collaboration with China serves Canada’s national interests

Opinion BY WENRAN JIANG

Is PM Carney abandoning women, girls, and queer people in his austerity agenda?

Opinion BY FAE JOHNSTONE

The Canadian Armed Forces is a shrinking tribe

Opinion BY SCOTT TAYLOR

Since winning office, Prime Minister Mark Carney, centre, pictured with Housing Minister Gregor Robertson, right, on Sept. 14, 2025, announcing the Build Canada Homes project, has announced major projects aimed at creating jobs and jumpstarting growth. But so far, the results have yet to materialize, and public patience is wearing thin. The Hill Times photograph by Andrew Meade

Time for PM Carney to deliver tangible results

Editorial BY EDITORIAL

Public opinion analysts say Canadians are not in a partisan mood—they want Mark Carney to succeed. Yet unlike in ordinary times, when politics fades in between elections, Canadians are paying close attention now because their economic livelihoods are at stake. For Carney, the time for promises is over. He must begin delivering tangible results—before it’s too late.

Parliamentary Calendar

Senior deputy governor of the Bank of Canada Carolyn Rogers to talk in Toronto on Oct. 9

Podcast

The notwithstanding clause, and the Supreme Court’s big decision

List

The Hill Times’ Top 100 Lobbyists in 2025: lobbyists prepare for ‘significant reset’ as federal election begins

News

Conservatives seize on Liberals’ ‘law-and-order vacuum’ as Trump anxiety wanes, but ‘MAGA North’ comparisons still a concern, say strategists

Podcast

A wild week in politics

EDITORIAL CARTOON BY DE ADDER

de Adder’s Take: 10-01-2025

de Adder’s Take: 09-29-2025

de Adder’s Take: 09-24-2025

VIEW MORE EDITORIAL CARTOONS

Stories, Myths & Truths

BY Rose LeMay

Red Sky Performance dancers, pictured on Sept. 30, 2019, at the Honouring National Day for Truth and Reconciliation ceremony at the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau, Que. Values are not something that drop off the strategic list when times get tough. Values are the bedrock of the way we choose to be in the world, writes Rose LeMay. The Hill Times photograph by Andrew Meade

Reconciliation is a value, not a policy

Opinion BY ROSE LEMAY

When reconciliation is a value as well as a necessity in order to uphold Canada’s place in the world, then it doesn’t get bumped off the priority list in budgetary discussions. It retains its place, just as Indigenous Peoples retain their position as key partners in this country we call Canada.

Don’t pray in Quebec, but pray for Quebec

Opinion BY ROSE LEMAY

The premier in Quebec wants to outlaw prayer in public. It sounds like a Saturday Night Live sketch, but it isn’t.

A letter to American Democrats and Canadian liberals about the MAGA movement

Opinion BY ROSE LEMAY

‘Maple MAGA’ in Canada is a real thing, too. The movement that will break American democracy is also in our backyards.

Plain Speak

BY Tim Powers

Newfoundland and Labrador Liberal Premier John Hogan, left, Progressive Conservative Leader Tony Wakeham, and NDP Leader Jim Dinn are facing off in a provincial race. Photographs courtesy of Facebook and Wikimedia Commons

A peek into the Rock’s political race

Opinion BY TIM POWERS

Newfoundland and Labrador voters will go to the provincial ballot box on Oct. 14, but all is quiet on the polling front.

Want to tackle national pride? Give Canadian women’s rugby a try

Opinion BY TIM POWERS

As Canada’s senior women’s rugby squad heads into a World Cup final, the country can take a lesson from their passionate and disciplined approach.

A life worth learning from

Opinion BY TIM POWERS

Given his pedigree, Ken Dryden was arguably the smartest person in every room he ever entered, but he never behaved that way.

Inside Defence

BY Scott Taylor

Prime Minister Mark Carney spoke at the High-Level Segment of the International Conference for the Peaceful Settlement on the Question of Palestine and the Implementation of the Two-State Solution in New York on Sept. 22. Screenshot courtesy of CPAC

The Canadian Armed Forces is a shrinking tribe

Opinion BY SCOTT TAYLOR

With only roughly one in 684 Canadians serving in the regular forces, thinking that the country could mount any meaningful deployment to either Ukraine or Gaza on short notice is reckless.

CAF leadership lacks courage

Opinion BY SCOTT TAYLOR

It’s the responsibility of military brass to pound on the desks of their political masters to address shortcomings in the institution. Instead, they sugar coat the situation.

Future planning needed amid Canada’s defence budget boost

Opinion BY SCOTT TAYLOR

If we truly wish to provide a deterrent to Russian aggression, we need to learn from the ongoing war in Europe.

Copps' Corner

BY Sheila Copps

U.S. President Donald Trump, centre, flanked by U.S. Secretary of Health Robert Kennedy Jr., left, and Dr. Mehmet Oz, head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, talks about Tylenol, pregnant women, and autism on Sept. 22, 2025. But there is no conclusive evidence that using acetaminophen during pregnancy causes autism. Image courtesy of YouTube

Is America becoming a failed democracy?

Opinion BY SHEILA COPPS

How can you convince Americans that Tylenol is safe when the president says it isn’t? Again, the world is left wondering whether America is ruled by a madman who doesn’t believe in science, and would easily shut down all free and fair reporting if he could.

Until recently, I had never heard of Charlie Kirk

Opinion BY SHEILA COPPS

Those of us who were ignorant of Charlie Kirk expected that his background would back up the posthumous honorifics. Instead, what we see is the story of a man who went out of his way to sow division based on race, gender, and religion.

Fifty years of friendship, still going strong

Opinion BY SHEILA COPPS

Every September, for the past several years, I have been getting together with women who played on my high school basketball team a half-century ago.

Impolitic

BY Susan Riley

Prime Minister Mark Carney appears to be following a different course. And, so far, it is winning him popular support. Rather than engaging in a constant game of one-upmanship, making new enemies and fuelling old divisions, he is getting things done—getting things launched, at least, writes Susan Riley. The Hill Times photograph by Andrew Meade

Mark Carney and the politics of subtlety

Opinion BY SUSAN RILEY

Mark Carney appears open to changing details, if not his overall direction, in the face of pushback, and that direction is not dictated by ideology, but by pragmatism. But he is hard to read.

Canada’s leading AI-generated politician is back

Opinion BY SUSAN RILEY

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is unlikely to offer any serious, fact-based critiques of the government’s shortcomings. He’s a glib man, playing in the shallows, following a shop-worn script. Always has been, always will be.

Prime Minister Mark Carney enters The Office of the Prime Minister in downtown Ottawa on Aug. 6, 2025. The Hill Times photograph by Andrew Meade

In the midst of a national climate crisis, Carney’s government falls silent

Opinion BY SUSAN RILEY

The words ‘climate change’ have barely passed Carney’s lips, nor did they feature in communiqués from June’s G7 summit in Alberta. It has been left to premiers, mayors, and Indigenous leaders to hold press conferences, comfort evacuees, and highlight the frightening reality of more intense, more widespread, more merciless fires.

Canada & The 21^st Century

BY David Crane

Prime Minister Mark Carney, right, and Indonesian President Prabowo Sugianto signed a trade agreement between the two countries in Ottawa on Sept. 24, 2025. The Hill Times photograph by Andrew Meade

Carney’s push to expand Canada’s exports to other countries won’t be easy

Opinion BY DAVID CRANE

Canada has spent much of its history seeking to cement close ties with the U.S. while failing to seek opportunities elsewhere. We’ve failed to develop the Canadian-controlled firms with the scale and scope to serve world markets with unique products and services.

Carney still has to tell us what kind of economy he’s trying to create

Opinion BY DAVID CRANE

What we need from the Carney government is a clear strategy to build up investments by the public and private sectors in the economy of the future, one based on increased investment in intangible assets and one where a large share of these assets is owned and controlled by Canadian corporations.

On affordable housing, Ottawa should support bottom-up initiatives, not impose top-down solutions

Opinion BY DAVID CRANE

This is a moment of opportunity. Former Vancouver mayor Gregor Robertson should listen to former Toronto mayor David Crombie. Cities are where things actually get done. And solving the afforable housing crisis is surely something that must be done.

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Post-partisan Pundit

BY Gerry Nicholls

Prime Minister Mark Carney announced the Build Canada Homes project in Nepean, Ont., on Sept. 14, 2025. The Hill Times photograph by Andrew Meade

For Carney, it’s all about the economy

Opinion BY GERRY NICHOLLS

Mark Carney realizes that, for the average voter, economics trumps everything else, including the environment. But he has his work cut out for him.

Carney’s Trump problem

Opinion BY GERRY NICHOLLS

By putting his elbows down, Mark Carney could end up paying a political price.

Poilievre needs issues that cut

Opinion BY GERRY NICHOLLS

To win the next election, the Conservative leader doesn’t have to be liked; he just needs to get people to agree with him.

Harris

BY Michael Harris

Prime Minister Mark Carney, left, and U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House on May 6, 2025. It's possible that Trump’s lies, eccentricities, and dubious policies stem from a malignant narcissist’s ego. But there's another possibility and it was raised by health-care professionals in a letter to The New York Times, writes Michael Harris. Photograph courtesy of Daniel Torok, official White House photographer

Maybe it’s time to take a look at Trump’s mental health

Opinion BY MICHAEL HARRIS

The examination should be conducted by a team of mental health experts interested in medical facts, not facetious glad-handing for the president.

Trump goes after late-night comedy, and it’s not funny

Opinion BY MICHAEL HARRIS

One by one, individual by individual, and institution by institution, the man who once promised to protect free speech is systematically burning it down.

Charlie Kirk’s murder: what has gone wrong in America?

Opinion BY MICHAEL HARRIS

The rash of more recent shootings is partially explained by a deadly change in U.S. politics. There was a time when political opponents were just that: competitors seeking political power with different ideas of what to do with it. But that is no longer the case.

Harris

BY Gwynne Dyer

Portland, Ore., residents protest the U.S. president’s deployment of troops to the city to ‘protect’ an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility on Sept. 28. Screenshot courtesy of YouTube/KPTV Fox 12

The United States: calculating things to come

Opinion BY GWYNNE DYER

I’d be less confident about saying ‘no’ to an American civil war than I was in the old Soviet Union because there I couldn’t figure out how people would choose sides. In the U.S., unfortunately, I can.

Unpacking Ukraine’s winning prospects, Flamingos and all

Opinion BY GWYNNE DYER

The missiles even things up a bit in the David-and-Goliath war against Russia, but the Ukrainian army has been retreating all year.

Is it too late for a Palestinian state?

Opinion BY GWYNNE DYER

For the first time, big Western countries are recognizing the state, but it is not unified and it still controls no territory.

Need to know

BY Les Whittington

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addresses the UN General Assembly on Sept. 24. Photograph courtesy of the Office of the President of Ukraine

At the UN, Zelenskyy urges action to avert a world of war

Opinion BY LES WHITTINGTON

In his Sept. 24 UN General Assembly address, the Ukrainian president gave a stark warning about the collapse of international law.

Waiting for the truckers to come back

Opinion BY LES WHITTINGTON

A great deal has changed in federal politics in a few months, but Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre? Not so much.

Is Canada ready for the nation-defining challenges ahead?

Opinion BY LES WHITTINGTON

If we are going to succeed in the historic task of reinventing our economic culture, it will take hitherto unknown co-operation, compromise, and good-faith bargaining.

Bad & Bitchy

BY Erica Ifill

There is a lack of substance about breaking down systemic barriers for the more equitable economic advancement Prime Minister Mark Carney is pursuing, writes Erica Ifill. The Hill Times photograph by Andrew Meade

Carney is failing to make the grade

Opinion BY ERICA IFILL

The prime minister is doing well on the leadership front relative to his opponents, but his early stats on community outreach, combatting fascism, and Indigenous reconciliation are poor.

Strikes on Iran a Middle East déjà vu

Opinion BY ERICA IFILL

All of this political theatre, and they didn’t even destroy the uranium they pretended to seek. What a waste of time, money, and military resources.

Loophole Liberals making an ignominious power grab

Opinion BY ERICA IFILL

Bill C-5 is environmental racism, which this current government has no problem with committing since it can steamroll any study or assessment that proves as much.

Another Perspective

BY Bhagwant Sandhu

Prime Minister Mark Carney should stop equivocating and act decisively by demanding a credible path for an immediate two-state solution, and voting for Palestine’s ascension to full UN membership, writes Bhagwant Sandhu. The Hill Times photograph by Andrew Meade

Gaza is testing Canada’s moral compass, and Carney’s credibility

Opinion BY BHAGWANT SANDHU

As the UN debates Palestinian statehood on Sept. 22, the prime minister must decide whether to shape the conversation or to keep equivocating.

No place for Poilievre’s old politics against Liberal centre-right pivot

Opinion BY BHAGWANT SANDHU

With the Carney Liberals occupying the centre-right, the Conservatives face a hard question: evolve to lead a changing Canada or stay stuck in a political cul-de-sac of grievance and nostalgia.