Canadian patriotism on the rise since Trump's tariff threats, survey shows
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Hamilton Spectator
an hour ago
- Hamilton Spectator
Federal deficit could average $78B over 4 years, think tank warns
OTTAWA - The C.D. Howe Institute predicts Ottawa's recently announced spending plans — which include a much bigger defence budget — will drive its deficits markedly higher in the coming years. In a new analysis released today, the think tank says it expects Canada's deficit to top $92 billion this fiscal year, given Prime Minister Mark Carney's plan to meet NATO's defence spending target of two per cent of GDP. C.D. Howe says it expects deficit growth to slow after that but predicts deficits will still average around $78 billion annually over four years — more than double the level forecast by the parliamentary budget officer before the spring federal election. The Liberal government did not publish a spring budget this year and has said it will instead push the planned fiscal update to the fall. In addition to ramping up defence spending, Prime Minister Carney's Liberals recently pushed forward legislation to accelerate major project development and delivered a one-percentage-point cut to the lowest income tax rate. The C.D. Howe Institute accuses Ottawa of making costly commitments without showing the numbers to Canadians. This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 3, 2025. Error! Sorry, there was an error processing your request. There was a problem with the recaptcha. Please try again. You may unsubscribe at any time. By signing up, you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google privacy policy and terms of service apply. Want more of the latest from us? Sign up for more at our newsletter page .
Yahoo
21 hours ago
- Yahoo
Canada Day: How Canadian nationalism is evolving with the times — and will continue to do so
Tariffs imposed on Canada by the United States have fuelled a surge in nationalist sentiment that played a significant role in the outcome of April's federal election. Mark Carney's new Liberal government has signalled an interest in pursuing nation-building projects that hearken back to an earlier period in Canadian history. Economic, cultural and social policy in Canada has often served the purpose of building national unity to facilitate cohesion and collective action. But some commentators have cautioned Canadians to dampen their reinvigorated sense of pride in their nation. Read more: Those on the right view Canadian nationalism as an obstacle to neo-liberal economic policies while the left perceives it as irredeemably flawed. For people on the right, free trade and globalization are thought to produce the best economic outcomes, and nationalism obstructs those outcomes. But those on the progressive left argue that Canada was founded on racist policies and settler colonialism, so nationalism should be rejected because of this original sin. Read more: Both perspectives — and the public discussion of Canada's national identity more generally — remain mired in confusion over the nature of nations. As a political philosopher, I have worked to clear up this confusion by determining what nations are and how they evolve. In the 19th century, French scholar Ernest Renan outlined a definition of nation that has yet to be improved upon. For Renan, a nation consists of two things: the daily commitment of a people to continue to live and work together and a collective memory of a shared past together. In contemporary times, Irish social scientist Benedict Anderson described nations as 'imagined communities,' since the character of the nation is determined by the limits of the collective imagination of its citizens. These are subjective definitions of nations because they define national communities in terms of the identification of their members with the community. There are other, more common objective definitions of a nation involving identity, including shared ethnicity, religion or culture. But these definitions have long been criticized since many national identities transcend ethnicity, religion, culture or any other identity markers. A national community is distinct from a state. The state constitutes the formal political institutions of a society, while the nation is the community of people within that society who view each other as compatriots. This is why the phrase 'the people' is often used as a synonym for the national community. While some nations are stateless, in other cases, multiple nations co-exist within a single state. In Canada, there is the Québécois nation and many Indigenous nations within the Canadian nation. Although they are distinct, states and their governments will often build national identities around themselves to enable cohesion and collective action. Canada's national identity was systematically shaped by successive governments — from Confederation onward — to build the society that Canadians live in today. The character of a particular nation is not fixed. The beliefs, practices and culture of the people who choose to live and work together can be shaped into anything they collectively decide on. A nation can adopt new values, redefine its membership or have one of its definitive characteristics fade from prominence. Accordingly, there is no reason to think that moral failings of a national community's past must compromise it forever. A nation can, and sometimes does, recognize its past failures and become something better. A distinction is sometimes drawn between 'patriotism' and 'nationalism,' with the most famous being made by English social critic and novelist George Orwell. For Orwell, patriotism is devotion to a particular way of life without the desire to force it on other people, while nationalism denotes an impulse to seek power for one's nation. Patriotism, then, is a benign, ethical form of partiality to one's nation. Other thinkers have sought to explain how national identities and communities can be cultivated in an ethical way, described by Israeli philosopher Yael Tamir as 'liberal nationalism.' The liberal nationalist, according to Tamir, seeks to construct a national identity that adopts the correct ethical values. They hope to harness the energy of nationalism to build a nation committed to liberty, inclusivity and progress. In 1867, George-Étienne Cartier described the Canadian identity that he and the other Fathers of Confederation sought to create as a 'political nationality.' He viewed Canadian identity as being defined by shared principles rather than language or ethnicity. More than 150 years later, political theorist Michael Ignatieff made a similar distinction between ethnic and civic nationalism. In an ethnic nation, citizens identify with each other because they belong to the same ethnic, religious or cultural community. Meanwhile, in a civic nation, the people unite behind certain civic principles, like a commitment to democracy. Cartier's concept of a political nationality was crucial to making sense of the political experiment that was Confederation. Having mostly abandoned their efforts to assimilate the French-Canadians, the British settlers in North America would now join with them to build a new national identity instead. In his recent book, historian Raymond Blake explains how Canada's post-Second World War prime ministers, through their speeches and public statements, reshaped Canada's national identity. Read more: Up through Louis St-Laurent, various prime ministers would refer to the 'deux nations' origin of Canada as inspirational. British and French settlers had come together despite their differences to build a new society together, they pointed out. As time went on, it became clear this definition of Canada's national identity wasn't nearly inclusive enough, making no mention of Indigenous Peoples. The multicultural character of Canadian society was increasingly acknowledged by the government and Canadians at large until it was central to Canada's identity. Canada's national narrative has been reframed in recent years to recognize Indigenous Peoples as one of the three founding pillars of Canadian society. This evolution exemplifies exactly the change citizens should expect in a national community. This transformation in Canadian national identity shows that national communities can change over time — including, perhaps, in response to U.S. President Donald Trump's threats against Canada. In the end, Canadians decide what sort of nation they want to inhabit. Canada's political nationality has proven more resilient than even some of its founders might have anticipated, but not for lack of effort. There will always remain the work of building a better nation — and it's work worth doing. This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit, independent news organisation bringing you facts and trustworthy analysis to help you make sense of our complex world. It was written by: Eric Wilkinson, University of British Columbia Read more: Boycotting U.S. products allows Canadians to take a rare political stand in their daily lives Trump's tariff threat is a sign that Canada should be diversifying beyond the U.S. Why Gordie Howe's elbows are Canada's answer to Donald Trump Eric Wilkinson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Fast Company
a day ago
- Fast Company
China's Huawei Technologies must face fraud and racketeering charges, says U.S. judge
A U.S. judge has ruled that China's Huawei Technologies, a leading telecoms equipment company, must face criminal charges in a wide reaching case alleging it stole technology and engaged in racketeering, wire and bank fraud and other crimes. U.S. District Judge Ann Donnelly on Tuesday rejected Huawei's request to dismiss the allegations in a 16-count federal indictment against the company, saying in a 52-page ruling that its arguments were premature. The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The U.S. accuses Huawei and some of its subsidiaries of plotting to steal U.S. trade secrets, installing surveillance equipment that enabled Iran to spy on protesters during 2009 anti-government demonstrations in Iran, and of doing business in North Korea despite U.S. sanctions there. During President Donald Trump's first term in office, his administration raised national security concerns and began lobbying Western allies against including Huawei in their wireless, high-speed networks. In its January 2019 indictment, the Justice Department accused Huawei of using a Hong Kong shell company called Skycom to sell equipment to Iran in violation of U.S. sanctions and charged its chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, with fraud by misleading the HSBC bank about the company's business dealings in Iran. Meng, the daughter of Huawei's founder, was arrested in Canada in late 2018 on a U.S. extradition request but released in September 2021 in a high-stakes prisoner swap that freed two Canadians held by China and allowed her to return home. Chinese officials have accused the U.S. government of 'economic bullying' and of improperly using national security as a pretext for 'oppressing Chinese companies.' In their motion to dismiss the broad criminal case, among other arguments Huawei's lawyers contended that the U.S. allegations were too vague and some were 'impermissibly extraterritorial,' and do not involve domestic wire and bank fraud. The biggest maker of network gear, Huawei struggled to hold onto its market share under sanctions that have blocked its access to most U.S. processor chips and other technology. The limits led it to ramp up its own development of computer chips and other advanced technologies. The company also shifted its focus to the Chinese market and to network technology for hospitals, factories and other industrial customers and other products that would not be affected by U.S. sanctions.
