Mark Carney, Pierre Poilievre to partake in competing Calgary Stampede events
Carney, who strolled the Stampede grounds on Friday night, is scheduled to attend a pancake breakfast this morning and host a party fundraiser later in the day.
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National Post
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Stephen Fuhr wants to change how we arm the military: Canada is 'trapped outside the technology cycle'
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. Article content 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. Article content Article content 'I find it very ironic that I was one of many that complained … why does it take so long?' said Fuhr, 56, in an interview with The Canadian Press. Article content Article content 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. Article content 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. Article content 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. Article content 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. Article content Article content 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. Article content Article content For the first time in a long time, the military is a core government priority. Article content '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.' Article content 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. Article content 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. Article content 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.
CBC
2 hours ago
- CBC
Danielle Smith and Doug Ford to sign agreements in Calgary today
Social Sharing The premiers of Alberta and Ontario will meet in Calgary today to sign two new memorandums of understanding. Danielle Smith's office said she and Doug Ford will sign agreements on energy priorities, trade and interprovincial co-operation. The pair were together at a roundtable in Calgary on Sunday, with Ford posting on X, formerly known as Twitter, that they discussed how to build new pipelines, as well as rail lines to export Canadian critical minerals and energy. Smith bumped into Prime Minister Mark Carney at the Calgary Stampede on Saturday. When she told Carney about the documents she and Ford would be signing, she told him it would be "so great if we didn't have net-zero [carbon] rules." Ford signed a memorandum in May with Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew to boost the movement of goods and labour between the two provinces. "The best way to protect Canadian workers from tariffs and economic uncertainty is to build the infrastructure that will get our resources to new markets," Ford said Sunday in a post on social media, along with photos from his roundtable with Smith. Smith is also scheduled to be at the Premier's Stampede Breakfast early Monday, which will be outside McDougall Centre, where her meeting with Ford will take place later in the day. 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 existing internal trade hurdles cost the economy some $200 billion a year. Throughout the spring federal election campaign, Carney repeatedly vowed to "eliminate" interprovincial trade barriers and create "free trade by Canada Day." In recent months, Smith has called for Carney to abolish several federal policies and programs, including a proposed greenhouse gas emissions cap, net-zero electricity grid regulations and the West Coast tanker ban.
National Post
2 hours ago
- National Post
FIRST READING: The remarkably few elbows Carney has thrown at Trump
Article content First Reading is a Canadian politics newsletter curated by the National Post's own Tristin Hopper. To get an early version sent directly to your inbox, sign up here. Article content TOP STORY Article content Prime Minister Mark Carney won the election in April thanks in part due to his promise to take a hard line with the United States. Carney declared during the campaign that Canada's highly integrated 'old relationship' with the U.S. was over. Polls showed at the time that among Liberal voters, their top motivation in voting for Carney was their idea that he would be an effective counterweight against U.S. President Donald Trump. One Ipsos poll from April 13 found that voters saw Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre as likely to 'roll over and accept whatever Trump wants,' while trusting Carney to be 'a tough negotiator who would get the best deal for Canada.' Article content Article content So it's a little weird that Carney's premiership has largely been marked by deference to Washington. Two months in, the Carney government has not materially opposed the U.S. agenda in any meaningful sense. Article content But Carney has overseen the first time in history that a Canadian government has seemingly promised to rescind House of Commons legislation just because the U.S. president complained about it in a social media post. Article content That would be the Digital Services Tax Act, which was made law in Canada last June following a 'yea' House of Commons vote of 175 to 144. But it only took a press release for the Carney government to reverse all of that as a sop to Washington. Article content Article content The spur was a Truth Social post by Trump, in which he said he was immediately suspending all Canadian trade negotiations because of the tax, which he called an 'attack on our Country.' Article content Article content Within two days, the Carney government unilaterally pledged to do what Trump wanted: Collection of the tax would stop immediately, and the Digital Services Tax Act would be repealed as soon as possible. Article content Here's how White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt summed up the move in a recent press conference: 'It's very simple. Prime Minister Carney and Canada caved to President Trump and the United States of America.' Article content Until recently, the most conspicuous example of a prime minister kissing up to the American leader was usually cited as the time in 1985 when Brian Mulroney publicly sang When Irish Eyes Are Smiling to then U.S. president Ronald Reagan. Justin Trudeau and Barack Obama were also known to praise one another, with Trudeau calling his U.S. counterpart 'a man of both tremendous heart and tremendous intellect.' Article content But Carney takes the tactic to a whole new level. In the two times he's personally met with Trump, he's made a point of delivering an extended paean to the U.S. leader in front of news cameras. The most recent example came at the G7 summit in Alberta, where Carney wished Trump a happy birthday before declaring that the Canadian-hosted summit was 'nothing without U.S. leadership, and your personal leadership.' In a May meeting at the White House, Carney called Trump a 'transformational president' who was 'securing the world.' Article content The first major piece of legislation tabled by the re-elected Liberal government was Bill C-2, the Strong Borders Act. The bill codified a package of border security measures pledged to Trump in February as part of an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to stave off a trade war. Article content This includes a promised crackdown on fentanyl trafficking, as well as tighter controls on immigration, particularly in the realm of fraudulent asylum claims. Article content There are good reasons for Canada to pass a border security bill, but the Liberals have been quite open about the fact that their newfound interest in border security has been a direct reaction to Trump. Article content In a House of Commons defence of Bill C-2, Liberal MP Kevin Lamoureux said, 'members will recall that the criticism being levelled by the President of the United States toward Canada was about the issue of fentanyl, of our borders not being secure.' Article content Probably the most conspicuous anti-American policy turn taken by the Carney government has been its attempts to substitute Canada's close relationship with the U.S. in favour of a close relationship with the European Union. This has been most notable in the realm of defence, with Carney pledging vast increases to Canadian military spending while striking a new European military alliance that will include Canadian participation in the ReArm Europe program. Article content Federal literature has made clear that they're doing this to 'diversify Canada's defence partnerships beyond the United States,' but the tack is pretty much in line with what the United States has been begging Canada to do. Article content U.S. politicians of both major parties have long bemoaned Canada's lacklustre contributions to the likes of both NATO and NORAD, with senior members of the Trump White House often citing low defence spending as one of their main grievances against Canada. Article content In fact, NATO's recent decision to raise their military spending benchmark to five per cent of GDP (a move that Canada swiftly agreed to), was hailed by Trump as a major victory for U.S. foreign policy. Article content During the federal election, Carney was quite forceful in outlining the need for 'countermeasures' against U.S. tariffs. After Trump hit the Canadian auto sector with a round of tariffs in early April, Carney immediately retaliated with what he described as 'purpose and force.'
