Author: Troy Patterson

French President Emmanuel Macron named key ally Francois Bayrou as his fourth prime minister of 2024 on Friday, but the scale of the challenge facing the veteran centrist was immediately clear as the Socialist Party refused to join his coalition government. Bayrou, 73, gave a sober assessment of whether he could tame a hung parliament that ousted his predecessor, Michel Barnier, just last week.“It is a long road, everyone knows that,” he told reporters. “I am not the first to take a long road.”France’s festering political malaise has raised doubts about whether Macron will complete his second presidential term until…

Amid the ongoing Canada Post strike, federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon announced Friday that he is asking the Canada Industrial Relations Board (CIRB) to order workers back on the job if it agrees with his determination there is an “impasse” in negotiations. If the CIRB agrees, MacKinnon says the labour relations board would order Canada Post and all employees represented by the Canadian Union of Postal Workers to resume operations and extend the terms of the existing collective agreements until May 2025.“Not only have the parties been unable to show any progress towards an agreement, the federal mediator has now…

Descrease article font size Increase article font size Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe has officially called for a federal election. The news comes Thursday in an interview with Global News, where Moe discussed the potential tariffs coming from U.S. president-elect Donald Trump when he is in office.“We have just heard today that the federal government may be looking at export tariffs on oil, potash and uranium,” Moe said. “Export tariffs on our own products. So taxing Canadians on products that we are exporting, which is exactly as ridiculous as it sounds.“It’s a betrayal of those that work in the industry. Get…

After decades of friction, Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador have reached a new tentative deal over the long-standing issue of energy. Quebec Premier François Legault met with his Newfoundland and Labrador counterpart Andrew Furey in St. John’s on Thursday in what could be the end to the dispute over the Churchill Falls hydroelectricity plant in Labrador.“Today everything changes for Newfoundland and Labrador,” Furey said. “Today after more than 50 years of a lopsided agreement that has been such a contentious point for Newfoundland and Labrador, we finally have a new deal on the table for Churchill Falls with Quebec.“We are…

Six months after Naheed Nenshi replaced her as leader of the Alberta NDP, former premier Rachel Notley announced she will be resigning from her role as MLA for Edmonton Strathcona. Notley revealed her plans in a social media post on Thursday. She said it is with “mixed feelings” that she plans to send a letter to the Speaker of the Alberta Legislative Assembly to advise she intends to resign effective Dec. 30.“It was last January this year when I announced I would be stepping down as leader of Alberta’s NDP,” Notley wrote. “I was excited and proud to see our…

By Staff The Canadian Press Posted December 12, 2024 8:38 am Updated December 12, 2024 9:21 am 1 min read Descrease article font size Increase article font size Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is set to announce today steps the province plans to take to shore up security at the Canada-United States border. It comes after incoming U.S. president Donald Trump pledged to impose 25 per cent tariffs on all Canadian and Mexican imports on his first day back in office in January.Trump has said the tariffs would remain in place until the countries put an end to illegal immigration and…

President Joe Biden is commuting the sentences of roughly 1,500 people who were released from prison and placed on home confinement during the coronavirus pandemic and is pardoning 39 Americans convicted of nonviolent crimes. It’s the largest single-day act of clemency in modern history. The commutations announced Thursday are for people who have served out home confinement sentences for at least one year after they were released. Prisons were uniquely bad for spreading the virus and some inmates were released in part to stop the spread. At one point, 1 in 5 prisoners had COVID-19, according to a tally kept…

Vancouver city council has voted to explore ways to make the municipality a “Bitcoin-friendly city.” The motion approved Wednesday won’t mean the city is investing or accepting payment in cryptocurrency any time soon, but will instead direct staff to look into those possibilities.The proposal passed along party lines with Mayor Ken Sim, who proposed the initiative, and his ABC Vancouver councillors in support, and two Green councillors opposed.Thirty-four people signed up to speak to the motion, many of them enthusiastic supporters of the technology. 1:55 Vancouver mayor’s ‘bitcoin-friendly’ city motion In an interview with Global News before the vote Sim,…

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau shared an “overview” of the federal government’s plan to strengthen border security with Canada’s premiers and discussed potential responses to tariffs threatened by U.S. president-elect Donald Trump during a meeting Wednesday, federal officials said. Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc told reporters in Ottawa that the border plan was still being finalized, and would incorporate suggestions from the premiers during the meeting, the second one held since Trump’s threat to impose 25 per cent tariffs on Canadian imports. He said details would be shared with the incoming Trump administration and Canadians “in the coming days.”“We shared the…

FBI Director Christopher Wray told the bureau workforce Wednesday that he plans to resign at the end of President Joe Biden’s term in January, an announcement that came a week and a half after President-elect Donald Trump said he would nominate loyalist Kash Patel for the job. Wray said at a town hall meeting that he would be stepping down “after weeks of careful thought,” three years short of the completion of a 10-year term marked by high-profile and politically charged investigations, including that led to two separate indictments of Trump last year.Wray’s intended resignation is not unexpected considering that…