What to make of PM Carney's visit to the Calgary Stampede?
Political commentator Scott Reid speaks about Carney's appearance at the Calgary Stampede and how Albertans are feeling.
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Winnipeg Free Press
2 hours ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Ex-fighter jet pilot Stephen Fuhr is on a mission to change how we arm the military
OTTAWA – Not that long ago, former air force fighter pilot Stephen Fuhr was just one among many voices in Canada complaining about the way the federal government makes big defence purchasing decisions. At no point, he said, did it occur to him that he would wind up in his current position – as the prime minister's point person for fixing Canada's sclerotic military procurement system. 'I find it very ironic that I was one of many that complained … why does it take so long?' said Fuhr, 59, in an interview with The Canadian Press. Fuhr knows first hand how the state of Canada's military procurement system feels to people on the ground – how byzantine government rules make vital equipment purchases move at molasses speed, leaving soldiers and pilots without the tools they need to fight a modern conflict. The once-prominent critic of former prime minister Stephen Harper government's management of defence – notably the original F-35 stealth fighter procurement process – is stepping up to change how the system works. Prime Minister Mark Carney named Fuhr secretary of state for defence procurement on May 13, giving him a new, narrowly focused junior role in cabinet. The Carney government's focus on reforming defence procurement is happening as new threats emerge on the world stage – and as Canada and other NATO allies come under heavy pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump to ramp up defence spending by a staggering amount. Canada is also looking for ways to bolster its domestic defence industry and partner more with Europe as it pivots away from a more isolationist and protectionist United States. For the first time in a long time, the military is a core government priority. 'I feel good about it,' Fuhr said. 'Canadians are supportive of us being more involved in defence spending. There's a big opportunity for our industries and businesses in defence and being able to pull our weight on the world stage with our defence relationships.' It's also a moment of uncertainty – for Carney's government, for Canada and the world. Fuhr's background in the air force trained him to prepare for the unexpected. On Sept. 11, 2001, when terrorists hijacked airliners and crashed them into major U.S. buildings, Fuhr was in Inuvik, where he was flying a CF-18 on force-projection exercises. He spent the security crisis patrolling the Arctic skies as events unfolded south of the border, then was sent to CFB Comox on Vancouver Island, where he was kept on alert until Canada relaxed its air defence posture. 'It was pretty surreal,' he said. 'In the moment, we don't know if there's more. We just know these airplanes are coming and they have to land somewhere.' He was in the Royal Canadian Air Force for two decades and at one point was in charge of overseeing all of Canada's CF-18 Hornets. Formerly a conservative-inclined voter, he made the jump into federal politics with the Liberals a decade ago after becoming frustrated with the contentious F-35 purchase. Fuhr warned that the cost of the deal was doomed to explode and that the process had gone awry. He was right: the budget for the F-35 purchase has since ballooned and Ottawa is conducting a review of the project in response to the Trump administration's trade chaos. Still, Fuhr shrugs off the idea that he would chime in with his opinions about the F-35 at the cabinet table. 'My strong opinions are 10 years old, and a lot has changed in 10 years,' the Kelowna MP said. But he could end up helping to decide how the next big-ticket items roll out. Carney made numerous defence commitments in the spring election. One of them was a promise to establish a new defence procurement agency to speed up equipment purchases for the military, and that agency falls under Fuhr's mandate. The party's election platform pledged legislative changes to 'expand risk-based approaches' to purchasing approvals, 'centralize expertise from across government' and 'streamline the way we buy equipment for the military.' Canada's military has suffered from peacetime budget woes under governments of various stripes since the Cold War ended. Major items of military equipment are nearing the end of their usable lifespan and new purchases are moving slowly through a risk-averse and slow-moving bureaucracy. For the past half century, military purchasing decisions tended to involve multiple government departments. Carney's plan for this new agency would create one main point of contact, as in wartime. 'We're trapped outside the technology cycle, which is a really difficult place to be, and we have to get it done faster. It has to be more organized. It has to be easier for industry,' Fuhr said. Canada, in other words, is pushing for a military comeback. Fuhr is fresh off of a comeback of his own. He became a Liberal MP in 2015, when he rallied support from unlikely corners like the local Green Party, whose candidate stepped down to endorse Fuhr. A former chair of the House of Commons defence committee, he's been around the political block. But he was defeated in 2019 by Conservative Tracy Gray. He didn't run in 2021 but returned to the ballot in April, and this time he defeated Gray. This isn't the first time the government has tried to reform procurement. It's also not the first time there's been a cabinet-level position tied to procurement. The Harper government tapped Julian Fantino as associate minister of defence to overhaul procurement, and Justin Trudeau's Liberals promised multiple defence procurement reforms in the 2015 and 2019 elections. Neither government moved the needle much – and both failed to spend enough to address the Canadian Armed Forces equipment gap. Fuhr insisted it's different this time. 'If it was ever going to happen, it's going to happen now,' he said. He said Canada has to make a major 'lift' to meet its alliance defence commitments and Carney 'wants to get it done.' When asked what he brings to the role, Fuhr pointed not to his time in the air but to his work on the ground with the military and his family's aerospace business, SkyTrac Systems, which they eventually sold. 'I know what it's like for industry to try and get involved in defence procurement because I lived that life for a while,' he said. 'I bring a well-rounded skill set, not just I flew airplanes.' Fuhr might be out of the military but he can't stay out of the skies. Monday Mornings The latest local business news and a lookahead to the coming week. Right up until he decided to run for office again, he was testing and certifying pilots on instrument ratings, ensuring they can fly by instruments alone. The retired air force major in his spare time flies a Vans RV8, an kit-built two-seater aircraft he purchased several years ago. The small, low-wing recreational craft is painted to look like a fighter jet – he even has a shark mouth painted on the nose of the plane. He may not have much time to get up in the air this summer. He'll be in and out of meetings with officials drafting up blueprints for the new procurement agency, sorting out its size and scope. This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 6, 2025.
CBC
2 hours ago
- CBC
Amid tariffs and falling sales, is Canada's EV mandate doomed?
Social Sharing With U.S. tariffs on steel, aluminum and light-duty vehicles continuing to batter the Canadian automobile industry, the CEOs of Canada's big three automakers are asking for a break. They met with Prime Minister Mark Carney this week to lobby for the elimination of the Liberal government's zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) mandate. Maintaining it, they say, will cripple their companies and put thousands of jobs at risk. Carney cancelled Canada's digital services tax last weekend to keep trade negotiations going with the U.S. Could the ZEV mandate also be removed to help an auto industry bleeding from the trade war? And what would that mean for Carney politically if he did so? The mandate requires the number of new ZEVs sold in Canada to hit 20 per cent by next year, 60 per cent by 2030 and 100 per cent by 2035 in order to help the country hit its emission-reduction targets. Brian Kingston, president and CEO of the Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers' Association, who was at the meeting with Carney, said the electric vehicle mandate just can't be met as it stands. Kingston and other industry players say U.S. tariffs have led to a significant drop in the number of vehicles Canada exports, putting immense pressure on the industry. According to Statistics Canada, the number of light-duty vehicles exported to the U.S. in April was down 23 per cent over the previous year. Flavio Volpe, the president of Automotive Parts Manufacturers' Association, told CBC News that while Canada imports about $80 billion worth of automobiles and parts from the U.S. each year, it exports about 85 per cent of the light-duty vehicles that roll off the line. Many of those are plug-in hybrids or electric, but the market for those vehicles in the U.S. is declining just as it is in Canada. Killing the U.S. ZEV mandate In January, U.S. President Donald Trump eliminated his country's ZEV mandate that would have required half of all new vehicles to be electric by 2030. A White House statement said the mandate was scrapped in order to "promote consumer choice." The passage of Trump's "big, beautiful bill" further hit the U.S. ZEV market by killing the $7,500 electric vehicle tax credit by the end of September. That credit was supposed to remain on the books until 2032. Canada had its own ZEV rebate. That program offered up to $5,000 toward the purchase of a new electric car and up to $2,500 on the purchase of a new plug-in hybrid. While it was supposed to stay in place until March, it was paused in January when it ran out of funding. In April, the sale of zero-emission vehicles in Canada sat at only 7.5 per cent — a 28.5 per cent decline over April 2024. With exports and sales down and no rebate in place, manufacturers say there is just not enough demand to hit the 20 per cent target next year. Competing concerns Christopher Cochrane, the chair of the University of Toronto's political science department, says Carney is wedged between his environmental ambition and the need for an industrial policy that will keep people employed and protect the auto industry. But if Carney decided he needed to end the EV mandate, Cochrane said, he might have a window of opportunity. "He has a coalition of people built not on any particular agreement with him, but built on a common disagreement with what they see as the main alternative — and that did give him the policy leeway to do things like get rid of the carbon tax," he said. But he said it isn't easy to navigate the environmental and economic concerns from within his own party. "The risk, longer term, is that he starts to erode and blow up that coalition," Cochrane said. "But right now I think he's still in pretty good shape." Fudging it Adam Chamberlin, an assistant professor in the Telfer School of Management at the University of Ottawa, said Carney likely doesn't want to frame any decision as the end of EV mandates. "So 2035 maybe becomes 2036 or 2037, and the other interim goals for 2030 become 2031 or 2032," Chamberlin said. "I think it's that kind of a fudge that we're going to see." Volpe says that just because the U.S. wants to abandon its EV ambitions, that doesn't mean Canada should follow suit. He says an electrified car market plays to Canada's strengths as a country with rich reserves of critical minerals, a sophisticated science and technology sector, a well-established supply chain and an ample supply of electricity. WATCH | Why experts think the future is still electric: Road to EV adoption: Why experts think the future is still electric 10 months ago Duration 5:47 Recent headlines have suggested that consumers are losing interest in electric vehicles, but a closer look at the trends tells a different story. CBC's Nisha Patel breaks down where we're at in the EV transition and why experts say the future is still electric. "The rest of the world continues down the march [of electrification] undaunted," Volpe said. "We need to make sure that as that [U.S.] market wakes up, we're first ones to access it." Volpe says any penalties for not meeting the ZEV mandate should be halted and it should be adjusted to better line up with "market realities." He wants the federal government to reintroduce the EV rebate and expand it to include conventional hybrids, which he said would build support for EVs. The government said it plans to introduce a new rebate program, but that hasn't happened yet. Volpe also wants the federal government to help identify the electric cars that Canadians want, and help factories retool to meet that demand.
Calgary Herald
7 hours ago
- Calgary Herald
Seatless Poilievre rustles up leadership support among Stampede faithful
Article content He may have been rejected by voters in his own Ottawa riding but a Saturday evening Stampede week audience seemed ready to put Pierre Poilievre back in the Conservative leadership saddle. Article content The sold-out barbecue crowd courted by Poilievre at Heritage Park ended a day of political glad-handing among urban cowpokes by all the federal leaders and their provincial counterparts. Article content Article content Article content Article content In a campaign-style speech not unlike those he delivered last April ahead of the federal election lost by his Conservatives, Poilievre made his argument that he remains his party's best hope at the helm — and the 1,200 who gathered for beef and politics seemed receptive. Article content 'We don't back down and we don't run away when things get hard — we dust ourselves and get back in the saddle,' he told his supporters who delivered two standing ovations. Article content Poilievre wasted little time in taking shots at his nemesis, Prime Minister Mark Carney, by noting his shakiness earlier in the day flipping pancakes at a Stampede breakfast. Article content 'He couldn't figure out whether his elbows were up or down,' said Poilievre, digging on accusations Carney's decision to honour a demand by U.S. President Donald Trump that Canada drop a digital service tax. 'With his great talks with Trump, he's had much experience flip-flopping.' Article content Article content Poilievre avoided any words directly sympathetic to a separatist movement in Alberta but did suggest Albertans disillusioned with Ottawa have reason to be. Article content 'I'll use the platform of leader of the opposition to amplify the legitimate demands of western Canada to end the unfair treatment,' he said. Article content 'The era of Ottawa telling Alberta to pay up and shut up must end once and for all.' Article content Poilievre is bidding for a return to Parliament as he campaigns in a byelection in the solidly Tory seat of Battle River-Crowfoot, which will be held Aug. 18. Article content While he's expected to easily prevail there, his standing in the rest of the country is far less certain. Article content A Nanos Research poll conducted in late June suggests the ruling Liberals under new PM Carney lead the Conservatives by 14 percentage points. Article content Carney's lead as a preferred leader is even more pronounced in the survey with respondents choosing him over Poilievre by 29 points. Article content The knives among party operatives aren't yet out publicly for Poilievre but that could change if he continues to badly trail Carney in the fall, said Mount Royal University political scientist Duane Bratt. Article content And the Alberta byelection widely considered a shoo-in to return Poilievre to the House of Commons promises to be a political minefield in a national context, he said. Article content The one-time Tory leader will be walking a tightrope where the path he navigates could alienate party supporters with separatist leanings in Alberta and elsewhere, said Bratt. Article content 'What matters is not so much the election result, it's going to be his campaign that's happening during a debate about Alberta's place in Canada,' he said. Article content 'How does he not hurt himself in the rest of the country, what's his views on greater taxation powers for Alberta, on immigration in Alberta and on constitutional change?' Article content Article content In effect Poilievre, he said, will be spending much of his summer campaigning for both a seat in Parliament and his own job as Conservative leader. Article content And his running in one of the safest Conservative seats in the country — won last April with 83 per cent of the vote by Tory Damien Kurek, who's since signed on with a government relations and lobbying firm — produce optics of weakness, said Bratt. Article content But some of those who attended the Conservative party barbecue fundraiser said they don't foresee Poilievre being replaced by anyone else. Article content 'I can't see the party dumping him — he's been successful in a strange political environment,' said former conservative radio talk-show host Dave Rutherford. Article content He noted that despite the electoral loss the party under Poilievre increased its vote count by 2.5 million and added 25 seats to its caucus. Article content But he agreed Poilievre will have to balance his required support for a united Canada with an often separatist-leaning Conservative base in Alberta. Article content Article content Article content On Saturday morning, Carney flipped flapjacks at a Stampede breakfast in the city's northeast and admitted his skills were rusty. Article content 'I'm here all day until I get it right,' said Carney. Article content Premier Danielle Smith also attended the breakfast and playfully chided Carney on his pancake-handling technique. Article content She also told him she would soon be signing a memo of understanding with Ontario Premier Doug Ford on energy, priorities and trade. Article content 'It'd be so great if we didn't have (carbon) net-zero rules,' she told the prime minister, who walked the Stampede grounds Friday evening.
