CTV National News: Frustrations over tolls to cross Confederation Bridge
Frustration is growing over a lack of a firm timeline for when the federal government will drop tolls at the Confederation Bridge. Maria Sarrouh has more.
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National Post
18 minutes ago
- National Post
Letters: Decoding Mark Carney. Wink wink, nudge nudge
This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Readers comment on the PM's penchant for winking, the demise of the Digital Services Tax, milking the government for support, and more in the letters to the editor Mark Carney winks during a press conference in Ottawa in a file photo from Jan. 23, 2013. Photo by Sean Kilpatrick / The Canadian Press THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS Enjoy the latest local, national and international news. Exclusive articles by Conrad Black, Barbara Kay and others. Plus, special edition NP Platformed and First Reading newsletters and virtual events. Unlimited online access to National Post. National Post ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. Support local journalism. SUBSCRIBE FOR MORE ARTICLES Enjoy the latest local, national and international news. Exclusive articles by Conrad Black, Barbara Kay and others. Plus, special edition NP Platformed and First Reading newsletters and virtual events. Unlimited online access to National Post. National Post ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. Support local journalism. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Justin Trudeau was a master at not answering even the most direct of questions. Mark Carney, on the other hand, appears to answer questions put to him, but always with subtle qualifications that border on disingenuity. For instance, Carney says he will make Canada an energy super power but without committing to building the pipelines or lifting emission caps that have frustrated this ambition for the past 10 years. Now, Canadians have to decode the meaning behind the prime minister's apparent fondness for winking, rather than saying what he really means, believes or thinks. Monty Python's 'Candid Photography' sketch (perhaps better known as the 'Nudge Nudge' sketch) only too well demonstrates the miscommunication that happens when gestures and innuendo replace saying what you really mean. Nudge, nudge, wink, wink, know what I mean? This newsletter tackles hot topics with boldness, verve and wit. (Subscriber-exclusive edition on Fridays) By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again Paul Clarry, Aurora, Ont. So the prime minister is a winker. This unfortunate habit has been on display frequently, according to reporter Joseph Brean. But this is not the only ocular problem Mark Carney has. There is of course the myopic capitulation he immediately reverts to if any policy offends Donald Trump. The tough guy 'tariff-matching-tariff' position meekly dissolves to secretly removing most of these tariffs. Our winking wonder was elected on the basis that he would stand up for Canada against Trump. There is precious little evidence of this. Marty Burke, Guelph, Ont. So much for 'elbows up.' Faced with pushback from President Donald Trump on the Digital Services Tax, Prime Minister Mark Carney folded like a cheap beach chair. Next on Trump's agenda will be getting Carney to remove preferential treatment to the dairy industry, which is especially beneficial to that industry in Quebec. Canada's protective supply management system always proves a stumbling block in any trade negotiations with America. Having Carney, a former banker, dealing with Trump, who perfected 'The Art of the Deal,' definitely puts Canada at a serious disadvantage in any trade negotiations. To think that Carney portrayed himself as the best person to negotiate with Trump during the election campaign. Trump is now in complete control, extracting whatever he wants from the prime minister, whose elbows are definitely down now. It would seem to me that the U.S. is being hypocritical in its complaints about Canada's supply management of dairy products. This advertisement has not loaded yet. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Canada does interfere with a full free market in dairy by limiting supply in order to support a healthy indigenous food supply chain. However the U.S. government uses other means to support its dairy industry. It sets minimum prices, it insures farmers from rising feed prices, and it buys surplus dairy products and gives them to institutions or warehouses them. This contributes to oversupply and what is in essence income supports for farmers. American farmers therefore have surplus production with which they want to flood the Canadian market. Is it not hypocritical for the U.S. to claim it must keep out certain imports to protect essential industries but not to recognize its trading partner's reciprocal rights? Isn't having domestic production of food the most essential of industries? Morris Sosnovitch, Toronto It is well-known that Prime Minister Carney has a remarkable resumé of career achievement, but one wonders if he has ever had a negotiating experience like the one he is currently facing with President Donald Trump. Giving in on the Digital Services Tax so that negotiations may proceed is like handing over your gambling chips to the casino without even getting a chance to put them on the roulette wheel. One wonders, then, why Tasha Kheiriddin suggests a further concession on supply management is inevitable and even desirable. One can only hope that nothing will be given up until every last cow has been milked. Sometimes the best negotiating tactic is not to negotiate at all. Patrick McKitrick, Burnaby, B.C. I am a retired member of the Law Society of Ontario (LSO) and read Emma Jarratt and Robert Cribb's article with great interest. In my day (I was called to the bar in 1986), lawyers in Ontario were trained by the LSO (then the Law Society of Upper Canada) to the highest ethical standards — i.e. full, true and open disclosure. To learn that the LSO no longer applies that standard to itself, vis-à-vis inquiries by the public of its own members, is totally appalling. 'The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars. But in ourselves.' Beverley A. Batten Simpson, Aurora, Ont. Jamie Sarkonak argues that Canadians are right to embrace a melting-pot immigration model because we're losing a shared sense of what it means to be Canadian. It's an understandable impulse — we all feel safer among the familiar. But that kind of thinking applies a double standard. Most people want to stay true to themselves — yet the melting pot metaphor implies others should give that up and conform. That's a contradiction: I get to be me, but you have to be more like me? That's not unity — it's the erasure of the identity of the other. Actually this tension between individual rights and collective identity has shaped Canada since Confederation. Quebec prioritizes collective values; the rest of Canada leans toward individual rights in the British tradition. That clash plays out in debates over private versus public — health care, education and religious freedom. And over safe injection sites, hate speech, MAID, and more. Canada thrives not when we all blend into sameness, but when we make space for difference. A shared identity doesn't mean uniformity — it means embracing diversity without demanding assimilation. Unity through individuality is what makes us strong. Desiring conformity is a tempting illusion — but realizing it undermines the very public good it claims to protect. Individuality is not the enemy of community; it's its foundation. Beware what you wish for. You might get it — and lose yourself. Being true to yourself is the best thing you can do for Canada. If Canadian gas exports do 'supplant other sources of gas from Russia, Eurasia and the Middle East' that would be an ethical win, even if it isn't an emissions win. When purchasers buy from Canada instead of Russia, they get the added benefit of not funding the invasion of Ukraine. The BBC recently reported that since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, it has made three times as much money by exporting hydrocarbons than Ukraine has received in aid from its allies. Scott Newson, Nanaimo, B.C. It's true, I guess, Canadians got a tax break thanks to Mark Carney fulfilling an election promise, but it doesn't really feel like Ottawa is giving Canadians much of anything. It reminds me of the feeble GST holiday the Liberals gave us last Christmas. While any break is appreciated, Carney's largesse was actually predated by the tax break Donald Trump provided Canadians several days earlier. At the president's insistence and with no hint of disappointment, or winks, Carney axed another Trudeau misnomer by dicing the digital sales tax. To be fair, Ottawa had no choice but to sacrifice the tax if it had any hope of rejuvenating trade talks with the U.S. Now, if Donald Trump could only use his strong-arm tactics as the impetus to start dismantling Canada's supply management cartels. If successful, he will have done more to reduce Canadian taxes since being elected six months ago than two Liberal governments have done since 2015. Paul Baumberg, Dead Man's Flats, Alta. Re: New Ranger rifles bleed red dye in the rain — David Pugliese, July 3 (print) Defence officials say it will be up to taxpayers to cover the cost of replacing the stocks on the 6,800 new rifles for the Canadian Rangers, which are dripping red dye in the rain. It's estimated that could cost as much as $10 million. A coat of varnish would likely be cheaper. Charles Hooker, East Garafraxa, Ont. With the collapse of the postwar global order, Canada scrambles to redefine itself on the world stage. Mostly this is about trade and military buildup. But there's a critical factor that's been absent from news cycles, and that's our role to fill the chasm left by the abandonment of the U.S. in the arena of global development. Too often foreign assistance is met with platitudes about spending the money here, and our needs come first. But this simplistic notion is blind to the fact, as we've seen all too clearly in the past few years, that Canada doesn't exist in a self-sufficient vacuum. What happens around the world has a direct impact on our economy and indeed our very health. Helping the development of emerging countries into robust trading parters, with stable democratic leadership and the capacity to fight emerging diseases, is to our own benefit. The alternative is to push these states into the arms of hostile regimes. Along with a greater military presence in the world, it's critical that Canada also adopts a greater humanitarian stance through foreign assistance. Nathaniel Poole, Victoria, B.C. I was a young woman on the streets of Tehran on Sept. 8, 1978 — the day of the Jaleh Square massacre, known in Iran as 'Black Friday.' Thousands of peaceful demonstrators, many of them students, had gathered to protest the Shah's brutal rule, not knowing that martial law had been declared the day before. They were chanting for freedom, demanding the end of a dictatorship. I was on my way to join them. Before I could reach the square, a close friend of mine stopped me. He had just witnessed the carnage. 'They're killing everyone,' he said, his voice shaking. 'Bodies are piled up. There's blood everywhere.' The military had opened fire on unarmed civilians. As many as 100 were slaughtered that day, and more than 200 injured. I was devastated — not just by the scale of the bloodshed, but by the cold command with which it was carried out. That moment was a turning point for millions of Iranians. It was part of what led to the fall of the Shah's dictatorship. We rose up and succeeded in removing a tyrant. Yet now, Reza Pahlavi — the son of that same dictator — appears determined to betray the aspirations of the very people who ended his father's reign. By refusing to denounce his father's crimes and positioning himself as a leader-in-waiting, Reza Pahlavi is not merely out of step with Iran's democratic aspirations, he is actively working to undercut them, promoting another version of authoritarianism — dressed up in royalist nostalgia. There is a clear alternative. Millions of Iranians support the vision of a secular, democratic, non-nuclear republic as laid out in the Ten-Point Plan proposed by Maryam Rajavi, president-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran. It calls for gender equality, religious freedom, the abolition of the death penalty, and a future without dictatorship — whether monarchical or theocratic. We must stand unequivocally with the Iranian people — not with those who would resurrect past tyrannies. Sara Fallah, International Coalition of Women against Fundamentalism, Toronto National Post and Financial Post welcome letters to the editor (250 words or fewer). Please include your name, address and daytime phone number. Email letters@ Letters may be edited for length or clarity.
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.
CBC
8 hours ago
- CBC
Winnipeg memorial site for Flight PS752 victims 'a powerful step' toward justice: family members
Social Sharing Canadians who lost loved ones when a passenger plane was shot down in Tehran in 2020 say a new memorial site in Winnipeg is a powerful step toward honouring the lives of their loved ones. A memorial site featuring a stone wall with the names of 176 people onboard Flight PS752 was unveiled in south Winnipeg at Scurfield Park on Saturday. Fifty-five Canadian citizens were killed, including eight from Winnipeg's Iranian community. Kourosh Doustshenas, president and founder of the Association of Families of Flight PS752 Victims, says it's the first memorial to be erected in honour of Flight PS752 victims anywhere in the world. Doustshenas lost his fiancée, Dr. Forough Khadem, when Flight PS752 was shot down moments after takeoff from Tehran's international airport on Jan. 8, 2020. It was brought down by two Iranian surface-to-air missiles launched by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. "Still, every day, I live thinking about her, and everything I do is in her honour," Doustshenas told host Nadia Kidwai during a Saturday interview with CBC Radio's Weekend Morning Show. "She could have done so much more in the world, and it's been taken so soon." Doustshenas says Scurfield Park was also chosen as the site for the new memorial because a family of three who were on Flight PS752 — Mohammad Mahdi Sadeghi, Bahareh Hajesfandiari and their daughter, Anisa Sadeghi — had lived across the street. "We decided that's the right place to do it," Doustshenas said. Liberal MP Terry Duguid, who represents Winnipeg South riding, said the tragedy "hit close to home," and he lived two blocks away from the Sadeghi and Hajesfandiari family. "This is not abstract for us. We lost neighbours, we lost friends," Duguid said. Duguid read a statement on behalf of Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand, offering condolences to the families and reiterating the federal government's commitment to challenging Iran at the International Court of Justice and the International Civil Aviation Organization. "The path to justice is long, but justice will prevail and all of us will be there with you on that important journey," Duguid said. Many family members at the memorial unveiling in Winnipeg on Saturday had travelled from Richmond Hill, Ont., which lost 44 community members on Flight PS752. Richmond Hill Mayor David West said it was the largest mass loss of life in a single day in the city's history. "Through this first memorial, we honour the past, we support the present, and we shape a more just future," West said during the ceremony, adding Richmond Hill is also working toward establishing a permanent memorial for the victims. Azadeh Heidaripour flew in from Richmond Hill to honour the life of her 21-year-old son Amir Moradi, who was a student at Queen's University in Kingston, Ont. "It's really hard to see your only child's name here," Heidaripour said. "My life has two parts. One part before this tragedy, and one part after. I lost all my hope, I lost my future. I lost everything," she said. She said she and her husband had been visiting Iran with Amir, but he flew back to Canada two days ahead of them. Heidaripour said that she has bonded with other parents who lost their children on Flight PS752 and they are working together to demand answers and get justice for their loved ones. "We need to find out what happened to our kids, why they are not here," she said. Richmond Hill resident Hamed Esmaeilion, who is a board member with the Association of Families of Flight PS752 Victims, said he has lived through "2,000 days of pain" since his wife Parisa Eghbalian and nine-year-old daughter Reera Esmaeilion were killed onboard. He said he has dedicated the rest of his life to keeping their legacy alive. "We promised ourselves, we promised all these victims that we'll go to the end of this journey," Esmaeilion said. Maral Gorginpour, who is also an association board member, lost her husband Fareed Arasteh just days after they were married. She flew in from Toronto to see his name etched into the memorial's stone. "It was an emotional moment," Gorginpour said. In a speech at the memorial unveiling, association president Doustshenas said the site will serve many needs for grieving community members, as "a place of reflection, of remembrance and of resistance." He said that every day since he lost his fiancée has been filled with pain, but also a driving purpose to keep her memory alive and seek accountability from the Iranian regime. "Let this place serve as a reminder that we will not rest until justice is done. We will not allow truth to be buried and we will never allow the memory of our loved ones to fade without seeking justice," Doustshenas said. "The unveiling of this permanent memorial site here in Winnipeg is a powerful step in fulfilling that promise," he said.
