Canada
No ‘traitors’ in Parliament, but foreign interference is an ‘existential’ threat: Hogue
“There are legitimate concerns about parliamentarians potentially having problematic relationships with foreign officials, exercising poor judgment, behaving naively and perhaps displaying questionable ethics,” Hogue wrote. “But I did not see evidence of parliamentarians conspiring with foreign states against Canada. While some conduct may be concerning, I did not see evidence of ‘traitors’ in Parliament.”
Abacus Data Poll: Conservative lead drops, but Liberals still 21-points behind
If an election were held today, 43% of committed voters would cast a ballot for the Conservatives, 22% would vote Liberal, and 18% would support the NDP. The Bloc Québécois sits at 9% nationally, while the Greens are at 5% and the People’s Party at 3%, with no measurable support going to other parties.
Most Canadians don't believe Liberals will dump carbon tax: poll
People who have voted Liberal in the past strongly prefer leadership contender Mark Carney, according to a new Postmedia-Leger poll, but Canadians at large remain unconvinced that any new leader will dump the Liberals’ unpopular carbon tax.
Singh open to talking Trump tariff supports, but still plans Liberal topple
Singh called on the Liberals to present a worker support plan to opposition leaders and then recall Parliament, which is currently prorogued until March 24, to pass legislation.
Canadian abortion group says it may have to shutter after losing government funding
Abortion Care Canada says it had sought $1.3 million from the federal government's Sexual and Reproductive Health Fund for the next fiscal year but will get nothing, despite having received about $2.2 million in total since the fund was established in 2021.
The Provinces
As Election Kicks Off, Ontario PCs lead by 23: Why Doug Ford is well positioned to be re-elected.
Tthe Ontario PC Party is in a solid position to be re-elected for the third time as Ford’s personal numbers and his government’s approval rating have improved since December. In this report, we explore the reasons for this conclusion by looking at several key indicators we will track throughout the election.
Doug Ford visits lieutenant-governor to dissolve legislature for early Ontario election
The Lieutenant Governor of Ontario has accepted Premier Doug Ford's ask to dissolve the legislature for an early election that will officially begin on Wednesday.
Liberals’ Bonnie Crombie chooses riding as Doug Ford readies early Ontario vote
Crombie told Global News Radio 640 Toronto Tuesday she will run in Mississauga East-Cooksville — a riding held by Kaleed Rasheed, a former Progressive-Conservative (PC) minister who left the party in 2023 over a Greenbelt-adjacent scandal.
Quebec steps up plans to draft a constitution
Premier François Legault adjusted his cabinet on Tuesday, handing Justice Minister Simon Jolin-Barrette the job of drafting a first constitution for Quebec
New bill will require Quebec newcomers to adopt 'common culture,' minister says
Quebec’s immigration minister says newcomers to the province need to embrace the “common culture," as the government looks to put Quebec identity back at the forefront of the political agenda. The Quebec government will table a new bill Thursday on the integration of immigrants, which will require newcomers to adhere to Quebec values like gender equality and secularism.
B.C. Green Party Leader Sonia Furstenau stepping down
Sonia Furstenau has stepped down as leader of the B.C. Green Party but neither of the elected Green members are interested in taking over the top job. That means the new leader — to be chosen after a race planned for September — will have to come from outside of the legislature where the Greens are currently the third party.
Elsewhere
Trump wants Greenland, but Greenlanders want independence
U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly said that America needs to take control of Greenland from Denmark for, in his words, “international security.” But as Henry Ridgwell reports from the Arctic island, the global attention is driving a desire among many native Greenlanders to determine their own political future.
Executive Order 14148 of January 20, 2025
For those interested in reviewing, here is President Trump's "DEI" executive order. Click through to the read the full text of the specific Biden-era orders that were rescinded: Purpose and Policy. The previous administration has embedded deeply unpopular, inflationary, illegal, and radical practices within every agency and office of the Federal Government. The injection of ``diversity, equity, and inclusion'' (DEI) into our institutions has corrupted them by replacing hard work, merit, and equality with a divisive and dangerous preferential hierarchy. Orders to open the borders have endangered the American people and dissolved Federal, State, and local resources that should be used to benefit the American people. Climate extremism has exploded inflation and overburdened businesses with regulation.
Media
CBC's new CEO says cutting government funding would 'cripple' English and French services
CBC/Radio-Canada's English and French services share many resources, such as buildings. Bouchard says a $1 billion hit to the former would have serious effects on the latter. "If we are imagining that we are going to go forward with only French, the math just doesn't work. There's a serious risk that it will, in fact, cripple not only the English services, but also the French service," she said.
Science and tech
From ChatGPT to Gemini: how AI is rewriting the internet
How do these large language model (LLM) programs work? OpenAI’s GPT-3 told us that AI uses “a series of autocomplete-like programs to learn language” and that these programs analyze “the statistical properties of the language” to “make educated guesses based on the words you’ve typed previously.”
1,156 Questions Censored by DeepSeek
Today we’re publishing a dataset of prompts covering sensitive topics that are likely to be censored by the [Chinese Communist Party]. These topics include perennial issues like Taiwanese independence, historical narratives around the Cultural Revolution, and questions about Xi Jinping. We'll encounter refusals very quickly, as the first topic in the dataset is Taiwanese independence. These canned refusals are distinctive and tend to share an over-the-top nationalistic tone that adheres strictly to CCP policy.
The Calendar
- Halifax - Health Min Mark Holland and Mental Health Min Ya'ara Saks meet with provincial and territorial counterparts.
- 0800 ET: Montreal - Environment Min Steven Guilbeault speaks at the Ouranos Symposium.
- 0915 ET: Ottawa - PACIFICCan Min Harjit Sajjan speaks the Ready 2025 Conference.
- 1000 ET: - LPC MP Terry Duguid makes a funding announcement
- 1030 ET: Sudbury, ON - LPC MP Marc Serré and Viviane Lapointe make a funding announcement.
- 1100 ET: Ottawa - PM Trudeau attends a virtual meeting of provincial and territorial premiers.
- 1100 ET: Ottawa - Crown-Indigenous Affairs Min Gary Anandasangaree speaks at the National Indigenous-Federal-Provincial-Territorial Meeting on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls and 2SLGBTQI+ People
- 1130 ET: Edmonton - Labour Min Steven MacKinnon makes a funding announcement
- 1230 ET: Calgary - Energy and Natural Resources Min Jonathan Wilkinson makes a funding announcement
- 1600 ET: Washington - Foreign Affairs Min Melanie Joly meets with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
- 1900 ET: Repentigny, QC - BQ Leader Yves-François Blanchet and BQ MP Monique Pauzé speak about the environment.
Issued this day ...
… in 2024. Sc 3412 Black History Month: Mary Ann Shad.
Canada Post: “Mary Ann Shadd (1823-93), founder of the Provincial Freeman, was North America’s first Black female newspaper publisher. Born to free parents in Wilmington, Delaware (then a slave state), she moved to Windsor, Canada West (now Ontario), where she established a racially integrated school in 1851, followed by the Provincial Freeman in 1853.
Initially keeping her name off the masthead to avoid bias against a female editor, Shadd used the newspaper to encourage Black immigration to Canada, promote integration into white society and inform readers of the realities of Black life in Canada West, including discrimination and segregation.
In addition to her work as an educator, publisher and abolitionist, she advocated for women’s rights. During the American Civil War, she returned to the United States to help recruit soldiers for the Union Army and later studied at Howard University, becoming the second Black woman in the U.S. to obtain a law degree. She continued to fight for equality for Black people and women’s rights for the rest of her life. In 1994, Shadd was designated a national historic person in Canada.”