After brief retirement, Sean Fraser is MP-elect for Central Nova
In an interview with Tom Murphy, Fraser talks about what the results say about the mood of Canadians and what will be different about the new Liberal government.
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Toronto Star
31 minutes ago
- Toronto Star
After Trump threat, Canada cancels digital services tax. What was it — and why is it gone?
The Liberal government cancelled the digital services tax after a call between Carney and Trump on Sunday. Evan Vucci/Associated Press
an hour ago
Is Canada now free of internal trade barriers? Not yet, says expert
Federal and provincial leaders are working to dismantle internal trade barriers that push up the cost of goods and make it harder to do business within Canada. But anyone expecting all of them to be gone by tomorrow should read the fine print, experts say. Throughout the spring federal election campaign, Mark Carney as Liberal leader repeatedly vowed to eliminate interprovincial trade barriers and create free trade by Canada Day. The rhetoric has been at times confusing and the political scorecard on this one is hard to track. With July 1 just a day away, Carney's government has passed its planned changes into law — but it's more like the start of a conversation than the final word, says internal trade expert Ryan Manucha. It's a starting gun and it's starting a lot more activity and work, which is honestly the really exciting part, said Manucha. If any of this was easy, it would have been done. Manucha writes on the topic for the Macdonald-Laurier Institute think-tank and authored the book Booze, Cigarettes, and Constitutional Dust-Ups: Canada's Quest for Interprovincial Trade . When I'm advising governments, I say, 'Don't think of this as a light switch, ' he said. We are changing the way that everyone approaches the concept of regulation and risk here, and so it's going to take some time. The rush to break down internal barriers to trade comes in response to U.S. President Donald Trump's tariff war with Canada. One study estimates that existing internal trade hurdles cost the economy some $200 billion a year. Manucha said Canada has talked about this problem for decades but is only addressing it seriously now — and it would never have happened had we not had Trump. He said the introduction of the Carney government's bill on internal trade was incredible to see because the idea was just an academic theory maybe even as little as eight months ago. Bill C-5, the omnibus bill that reduces federal restrictions on interprovincial trade and also speeds up permitting for large infrastructure projects, became law on June 26. An analysis of the law by McMillan Vantage says that this legislation would not achieve the elimination of all internal trade barriers. Provinces hold power When Carney made his campaign promise, he was talking about cutting red tape put up by the federal government — not the rules set by the provinces, which have the most authority in this area. The prime minister described this effort as a sort of quid pro quo with the provinces. We're getting rid of a bunch of duplicative federal regulations. We're going to have a principle of one project, one review — and in exchange, they're going to agree to eliminate all the barriers to trade and labour mobility, Carney said at a rally in Kitchener, Ont., on March 26. The federal government committed that we will sweep away all of our impediments by Canada Day. Free trade by Canada Day. WATCH | Why are provincial trade barriers still a thing? Début du widget Widget. Passer le widget ? Fin du widget Widget. Retourner au début du widget ? Why are provincial trade barriers still a thing? More interprovincial trade is being touted as one potential countermeasure to U.S. President Donald Trump's tariff threats, but complicated barriers stand in the way. CBC's Ellen Mauro breaks down why free trade within Canada is so difficult and what needs to happen to get more goods flowing across the country. But Canada's internal trade barriers won't all be eliminated by then — not even all the federal ones. Canada's supply management system for dairy products, which sets provincial production quotas, will remain in place. Quebec also retains language requirements that will stay in place. Credit unions have complained that the new law does not break down barriers to their expansion into multiple provinces. Nova Scotia reducing trade barriers with 5 provinces (new window) But just how many federal barriers does the bill eliminate? That's hard to sort out. A lot of the details will have to wait until regulations are drafted — a process that will involve consultations with affected industries. I don't really know what this legislation could end up doing because a lot of veto power, a lot of discretion still rests with the regulatory authorities, Manucha said. According to the text of that legislation, it would seem like meat inspection would come off. Is [the Canadian Food Inspection Agency] really going to allow for interprovincial trade and inspection of meat coming from non-federally licensed abattoirs? I don't know. Lack of consensus There is no comprehensive list of existing internal trade barriers. Even some lobby groups have told parliamentarians they don't know how many barriers their own industries face. There isn't even consensus on what all counts as a trade barrier. In the provincial legislation in Ontario, they're talking, for many occupations, [of] having a 30-day service standard for how long it'll take for credentials to be recognized, Manucha said. Nova Scotia, meanwhile, is on the 10-day turnaround time. That's less than a third. Can you call the 30-day versus 10-day a trade barrier? Internal Trade Minister Chrystia Freeland, who has repeatedly stated that most of the barriers are at the provincial level, testified to the Senate that she will meet with her provincial counterparts on July 8 to discuss next steps. One major obstacle is in Freeland's crosshairs: Canada's patchwork of interprovincial trucking regulations. One of three areas that I will be putting on the agenda at that meeting is trucking, she said on June 16. It should be a lot easier than it is to drive a truck from Halifax to Vancouver. We need to get rid of conflicting requirements. Kyle Duggan (new window) · The Canadian Press
Canada News.Net
2 hours ago
- Canada News.Net
Canada Day: Symbols take centre stage in debates about Canadian nationalism
The recent resurgence of Canadian nationalism is a response to explicit threats made by United States President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly expressed his desire to make Canada the 51st American state. Canadian flag sales have skyrocketed, informal and formal boycotts of American goods are continuing and Canadians are being urged to stay home and spend their vacation dollars domestically. Even in Quebec, pro-Canadian sentiments are evident. Canadian nationalism is back. Yet only a decade ago, the newly elected Justin Trudeau labelled Canada the first "post-national nation" in an interview with The New York Times. In essence, the prime minister suggested, Canada was moving beyond nationalism to some new phase of social identity. Nationalism, like a step in the launch of a spacecraft, would be jettisoned now that it was a vestigial and outdated feature of Canadian society. As we argue in a recently presented paper to be published soon, Canadians are nowhere near either a homogeneous, popularly held identity, nor are they "beyond nationalism" as if it were an outdated hairstyle. Instead, Canadian steps toward a united, widely held nationalism continue to be stymied by both substantial constitutional issues (Quebec, western alienation, Indigenous aspirations to self-determination) but also by battles over banal symbols of national identity. Canadians are, in the words of journalist Ian Brown, "a unity of contradictions." In his influential book, Banal Nationalism, British social science scholar Michael Billig highlighted the role of symbols like stamps, currency and flags to identify barely noticed transmitters of national consciousness. Writing in 1995, at a time of ethnic nationalist resurgence in the former Yugoslavia, Billig contrasted the understated, reserved nationalism of citizens of established states like Canada with the dangerous, passionate expressions of nationalism in the Balkans. This genteel nationalism is barely noticed much of the time, but proposals to alter national symbols arouse debate - like during the great Canadian flag debate of the mid-1960s - and expose deep emotional attachments. Canadians, too, are nationalists. But they're also citizens of a liberal democracy where nationalistic narratives compete to define and unite the nation. Societies evolve and generational change can lead to new symbols reflecting changing values. The historical episodes of discontent pertaining to national symbols show how Canadian society has evolved since its drift away from Britain after the Second World War. During the flag debate, Liberal Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson said Canada needed a new flag that would present a united nation rather than a confusing amalgamation of different people. Conservative Leader John Diefenbaker, on the other hand, argued Canada should be "all Canadian and all British" during the debate, adding that any Canadian who disagreed should "be denounced." The leaders could not agree, with Diefenbaker opting for something like the status quo and Pearson for a complete redesign that would represent all Canadians, regardless of national heritage. In a 1964 La Presse article on the debate, columnist Guy Cormier crudely voiced Quebec's concerns that Pearson's handling of the flag debate was an attempt to "artificially inseminate" his agenda on the province. The Philadelphia Evening Bulletin reported on the debate, declaring that "tinkering with a nation's flag is sort of like playing volleyball with a hornets nest." As Canada became increasingly more multicultural in the 1980s, another symbol became the centre of controversy. A Sikh entering the RCMP wanted to be able to wear a turban instead of the traditional Stetson. Despite government and RCMP support, public opinion was mixed. Racist lapel pins were sold with the message "Keep the RCMP Canadian" as some argued the old uniform should remain and that new recruits should adapt to it. While few Canadians knew much about the design and history of the RCMP uniform, almost all Canadians consider it an iconic representation of Canada. Changes to it represent a threat to some, inclusion for others. Changes to O Canada, the national anthem, have been proposed over the past decades. Recently, a more inclusive version was drafted, changing "in all thy sons command" to "all of us command." Conservative MPs and some television pundits argued the change wasn't necessary and the anthem doesn't belong to a political party. Opponents argued that most people aren't offended by the anthem's lyrics, the anthem wasn't broken and was not in need of fixing. Ultimately, the change was made, with great praise from some and vexation from others. Removing images of the late Terry Fox in 2023 from the Canadian passport, a document few think about until checking its expiry date before a vacation, caused significant uproar. Other images from Canadian history were also removed, but Fox's removal was most notable since he was someone most Canadians consider the embodiment of a Canadian hero. The response to these changes ranged from mild - with those arguing that Canada needs more Terry Fox, not less, - to furious, as some accused Trudeau of being out of touch with Canadians and a "fault finder-in-chief." Far from trivial, these arguments over national symbols reveal how deeply some Canadians are attached to them. The nature of Canadian identity and nationalism will continue to be dated and contested. In that respect, Canadians are no different than the citizens of any other country.
