Young voters are splitting up, and gender is the wedge. In countries around the world, young women are moving steadily left while young men are shifting toward conservative and nationalist parties.

In last year’s German elections, men aged 18 to 24 voted 27% for the far-right AfD while 35% of young women opted for the far-left Linke party. In Canada, the most likely left-leaning voters are women aged 18 to 24 (45%), while men aged 18 to 34 are the most right-leaning (33%). From Washington to Seoul to São Paulo, the most consequential political divide among voters under 30 is increasingly not race, class or geography. It is gender.

Do politicians start parades, or merely get in front of them? That’s a question Canadians might be asking this week, following news that the government was polling them on the issue of oil pipelines last fall — just days before Prime Minister Mark Carney announced an agreement with Alberta to explore building a new one to B.C.

Is Canada ready to surf a socialist wave? After the shock victories of three hard-left candidates in last week’s U.S. Democratic primaries, voters and their leaders may wonder whether our country could elect the likes of “democratic socialists” Darializa Avila Chevalier, Brad Lander and Claire Valdez. Chevalier is particularly radical: in a since-deleted X post she wrote “I forgot to get napkins so I just wiped my hand on the American flag behind me.” She also called for abolishing borders and founded an anti-Israel organization at Columbia University that demanded “the total eradication of Western civilization.”

Is there hope for the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA)? For over a year, Canada-U.S. trade talks have been testy at best, in a deep freeze at worst.

U.S. President Donald Trump mocked us as the “51st state,” put tariffs our steel, aluminum and autos, and claimed that America doesn’t need anything we’re selling. Prime Minister Mark Carney declared that Canada must reduce its dependence on the U.S., circled the globe inking foreign trade deals and became the darling of Davos for his vision of “middle power” alliances.

Leaders of the G7 are meeting this week in Évian-les-Bains, France, for their 52nd official summit. When the forum was created in 1975, amid the collapse of the Bretton Woods monetary system and oil shocks of the 1970s, it brought together the world’s industrial democracies to manage global crises. Over the following decades, it helped coordinate responses to challenges like the end of the Cold War, terrorism, climate change, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the war in Ukraine.

But the international community looks very different today. In 2026, the G7 finds itself operating in a “G-Zero” world – with no clear leader. The United States has retreated from its role as global policeman, instead pursuing an “America first” agenda that has isolated itself from its allies. At times, the group can seem less like a G7 and more like a G6+1.

This week, Prime Minister Mark Carney will announce a ban on social media for kids under 16 . There will be exemptions, and we haven’t seen the details yet, but Canadians should applaud this move. I believe in personal freedom but also in science, and in protecting kids from harm. And every day, we see more evidence of the damage social media does to children.

Mark Carney is usually good at speaking truth to power, but yesterday he failed. In an address to Jewish Canadians at Holy Blossom Temple in Toronto, he named the problem — rampant antisemitism — but failed to offer a solution. He failed to send a message to those causing the problem. And he failed to understand the nature of Canada itself.

Carney said that Canada was not founded on a “single creed, race, language, or faith.” That we “have held our differences in common, beginning — after a long period of struggle and oppression — with the French and English accommodation.” That “pluralism is the framework of our nation.”

Just two days after NASA unveiled plans for a permanent base near the Moon’s south pole, Blue Origin – one of the private companies hired to be part of the project – suffered a spectacular setback. On May 28, the Jeff Bezos-owned company’s test rocket exploded in Florida, badly damaging its launchpad, which could take years to repair. No one was injured, but the failure brought the company’s lofty ambitions and plans for the first-ever privately funded lunar landing mission crashing down to Earth.

Prime Minister John A. Macdonald famously described dealing with provincial leaders as “herding cats.” He was right on the money: like cats, premiers will purr loudly to get what they want but ignore you when it suits them. Or worse, lure you in and scratch you when you least expect it. But MacDonald knew how to cajole them, humour them and get his way, and ultimately triumphed in uniting the country we call Canada.

This weekend, the U.S. paused its participation in an organization most Canadians have likely never heard of: the Permanent Joint Board on Defence. It was established in 1940, following U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s pledge that the U.S. would defend Canada if it were attacked, and Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King’s promise that “enemy forces should not be able to pursue their way, either by land, sea or air to the United States across Canadian territory.” The board met some 42 times during the Second World War and most recently convened every six months — until now. Read more

Prime Minister Mark Carney is avidly wooing the west — but will his own caucus trip him up? Last Friday, Carney met with Alberta Premier Danielle Smith to reassure her that Ottawa’s got her back on a second bitumen pipeline from Alberta to Canada’s West Coast. After the tête-à-tête Smith said, “This morning I said ‘if’ a deal gets signed, and afterwards I said ‘when’ a deal gets signed,” describing it as “an indication of my improved level of confidence.”  Read more here

If it’s Tuesday, this must be Belgium. If you’re old enough to remember this 1969 film, where a busload of hapless tourists barrel across Europe on an 18-day tour of nine cities, you probably voted Liberal in the past election, like most of Canada’s baby boomers. And you’re probably happy with the way things are going so far. But you may not have expected Prime Minister Mark Carney to rack up quite so much time across the pond.

Congratulations, Canada! On Monday, our nation joined an exclusive club: countries with sovereign wealth funds. Norway, Kuwait and other resource-rich nations have long tapped royalties and budget surpluses to fund investment vehicles: in this era of geopolitical uncertainty and an erratic neighbour, Prime Minister Mark Carney thinks it’s time Canada does the same.

Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Sunday video was a master class in crisis communications. He reminded Canadians of his credentials managing tough times. He described the urgent challenges Canada faces. He explained what he is doing to tackle them. He promised not to “sugarcoat” anything. He appealed to Canadians’ patriotism. And he promised to keep us posted: bookmark this YouTube channel for the next episode. 

Lots of ink has already been spilled on the impact of Prime Minister Mark Carney’s historic majority: the implications for the Liberal agenda, for House of Commons committees, and for the country. But one byelection matters more than the others: the riding of Terrebonne, which saw Liberal candidate Tatiana Auguste score a victory in traditional Bloc Québécois territory with a 731-vote margin, and which could reshape politics in both Quebec and Ottawa.

Prime Minister Mark Carney has secured the first Liberal government since 2019. That’s right — in case you hadn’t noticed, Canada has been operating under minority governments for seven years. Two were won by Justin Trudeau in 2019 and 2021, one by Carney in 2025. Trudeau’s minorities necessitated significant compromise with the NDP; from 2021 until the fall of 2024, he was bound by a supply and confidence agreement with then NDP leader Jagmeet Singh, who extracted a series of concessions on childcare, dental care, and pharmacare.

Last month, Bill C-12, the Strengthening Canada’s Immigration System and Borders Act received royal assent. The law gives the Minister of Immigration, Lena Diab, the power to pause applications “in the public interest.” It also retroactively bars persons with expired one-year permits (such as student visas, or temporary work permits) from subsequently filing refugee claims, as they can now do when other avenues to permanent residency are closed. It also eliminates the loophole whereby persons who enter the country illegally and remain undetected for 14 days can also file a refugee claim, under the Canada-U.S. Safe Third Country Agreement.

It’s back to the future for the NDP — and then some. Last weekend the party elected 58-year-old filmmaker Avi Lewis as party leader. During his campaign, Lewis pledged to impose a wealth tax, stop oil and gas exploration, implement national rent control, and set up public grocery stores. Ed Broadbent, the NDP leader who wanted to nationalize banks back in the 1970’s, would be proud.

Has the war in Iran torpedoed a federal election in Canada? Just two weeks ago, speculation abounded that Prime Minister Mark Carney might call a vote to capitalize on sky-high polling numbers and his desire for a majority mandate. But 10 days into Operation Epic Fury, the likelihood of Canadians going to the polls this spring has radically diminished.

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The conflict may be happening half a world away, but it involves key allies, the United States and Israel. Violence has spilled over here at home, with shots fired at synagogues and the U.S. consulate in Toronto. Oil prices are soaring, which benefits Alberta but hurts consumers. The entire situation demands that our government govern rather than campaign.

Canada’s defence industry got a $6.6 billion boost Tuesday, as Prime Minister Mark Carney formally unveiled Ottawa’s new Defence Industrial Strategy. The plan promises to create 125,000 new jobs over 10 years and award 70 per cent of defence contracts to Canadian companies, through a “Build-Partner-Buy” framework that prioritizes domestic industry. It is part of the government’s plan to increase Canadian military spending to five per cent of GDP by 2035, in line with NATO targets.