The average Canadian family last year spent more on paying taxes than for the basic necessities of shelter, food and clothing combined, according to a new study by the Fraser Institute.
A family with an average income of $112,111, the report by the fiscally conservative think tank says, spent $50,721 or 41.9% of its income on taxes in 2025 compared to $43,657, or 36%, for shelter ($27,686), food ($13,249) and clothing ($2,722).
OTTAWA — A new report from a prominent Ottawa attorney has concluded that Luc Sabourin — the Canadian border intelligence whistleblower who says he was threatened at his Gatineau home by a Sinaloa cartel-linked gangster and later pressured out of his career after refusing an order to destroy roughly 1,000 foreign passports — faced “a pattern of workplace conflict and retaliation.” And his case remains unresolved, the report finds, for a reason that should alarm every Canadian: the independent oversight body Parliament created in 2024 to investigate exactly such allegations has still not been brought into force.
Related …
Canadian Border officers storm international student hunger strike, checking papers … wagging fingers, going home
‼️MAJOR BREAKING
Huge immigration crackdown in Calgary yesterday as CBSA RAIDS international student protest
Punjabi media is FREAKIN’ out!
This is why we LOVE Alberta! pic.twitter.com/0ssje0RW1C
— Tablesalt 🇨🇦🇺🇸 (@Tablesalt13) August 13, 2026
h/t handy n handsome
Canada’s chicken market is sending a signal that Ottawa can no longer afford to ignore: supply is not keeping pace with demand.
Chicken Farmers of Canada reported this week that production during the first four months of 2026 was 5.6 per cent higher than during the same period last year. That sounds reassuring. But the same organization also acknowledged that underproduction remained a challenge, while wholesale prices for whole birds and legs reached record levels.
On the prairies, progress is measured by simple, tangible work: whether the fence got mended, whether the crop came in and whether the next generation is better off than the last.
From that vantage point, watching Ottawa feels like looking into an ecosystem entirely obsessed with its own reflection. Pundits track every minor polling shift, dissecting Liberal policy moves, endlessly speculating about Conservative infighting and seem to care more about Washington than our own challenges. It makes for lively political theater in the capital, but it misses the fundamental question Canadians across the country are asking: Is Canada actually in better shape?
CALGARY — One Liberal MP, Shaun Chen has some questionable travel expenses that show him traveling from Toronto to Ottawa on the same date TikTok clips show him in China.
Chen, the current MP for Scarborough North, announced he would be retiring from his role on Monday, though this will not take effect until Saturday.
Former Liberal transport minister Omar Alghabra is defending his inclusion on—and the mandate of—the government’s new anti-hate advisory council after renewed criticism over its perceived lack of urgency from opposition critics and American officials.
“If people have criticisms of the council, its function, or even [my membership], that’s fine, but to use slander and falsehoods … it’s beneath the office that they possess and the seriousness of the issue,” Alghabra said in an interview with The Hill Times last week, calling Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre’s (Battle River–Crowfoot, Alta.) allegation that he lobbied on behalf of a terrorist group “absurd … political gamesmanship.”
Recently the Food Professor, or Sylvain Charlebois, has pointed out the lack of innovation in the Canadian dairy industry — which he says has partly been caused by the lack of Canadian sovereignty in the industry, with many of its processors having become internationally owned.
OTTAWA — Conservative immigration critic Michelle Rempel Garner reiterated her call Tuesday for the Liberal government to amend the Criminal Code to put an end to “candy sentences” that she says allow immigrants who commit crimes to avoid deportation.
Speaking to reporters in Ottawa, the longtime Conservative MP argued that a slew of recent headlines detailing how non-Canadians charged with various crimes but received reduced sentences so as to avoid deportation proceedings was “insane and disgusting.”
Rents in Canada are so high that minimum-wage earners have to allocate much of their full-time work hours to cover the average cost an apartment, thereby jeopardizing their push for financial independence, according to a new report by Zoocasa Realty Inc.
“Financial independence and stable housing have long been seen as markers of adulthood, but for many young Canadians, these milestones are slipping out of reach,” the report released on Aug. 10 said.
The Roman Catholic Military Ordinariate of Canada says the military’s prayer ban at official events undermines the principle of state neutrality on religion and may violate the Charter in several ways, including by requiring chaplains to avoid mentioning God or using faith-specific language when delivering mandatory “spiritual reflections.”
The concerns were noted in a recent statement by Bishop Scott McCaig, who serves as Military Ordinary of Canada, the authority that oversees Catholic ministry and spiritual needs in the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF).
Pic courtesy – The Chaplain Kit
The Carneys are living their best vacation lives in Tuscany. And back home, some of us are again debating a prime minister’s vacation choices. Or not so much debating as, mostly, kvetching, in roughly equal parts about the vacation itself and about anyone who would be so gauche and unworldly as to question the vacation. “Lots of Canadians go to Caribbean all-inclusives, right? So why shouldn’t the PM go to Tuscany?”
Is Carney pulling a Trudeau(Aga Khan Vacation)?? Carney is in Tuscany,the very same place his Brookfield buddy Bruce Flatt has a residence and has been scrutinized for having political figures there. pic.twitter.com/GJQXwUJC86
— Bradshaw (@myabradshaw78) August 11, 2026
h/t Mauser
OTTAWA – I joined Brian Lilley for a wide-ranging conversation that started with the machinery of Beijing’s foreign influence in Canada and Conservative leadership politics, then moved into MP Larry Brock’s departure and Brian’s explosive scoop: Brock disclosed to his party leaders that Mark Carney’s party had dangled a judicial appointment before him amid Carney’s floor-crossing campaign.
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Massive scandal brewing here… Liberal MP Shaun Chen is resigning because he’s unable to travel from Scarborough to Ottawa to represent his constituents. Yet, he visited China twice this year and was rubbing elbows with CCP propagandists…but wait, there’s more. Allegedly, he… https://t.co/Zb19mI2gBh
— Nita Kang (@NitaKang) August 11, 2026
h/t Hermes
In late July, a Canadian woman of Chinese descent was arrested in Belgium on serious charges of espionage for China while serving as an intern with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Canadian media have identified the woman as Biwei Zhang, also known professionally as Claire Zhang or Catina Zhang.
Reportedly born in China, she later became a naturalized Canadian citizen. Zhang has a background in systems engineering, computer science, and economics. Before starting her internship at NATO’s Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE) in Mons, Belgium, in July 2025, Zhang worked at the Canadian Space Agency and Statistics Canada.
It will not get better.
Canada has to purge the nation of incompatible cultures that have been embedded in sensitive positions and that won’t happen without annexation by the US.
OTTAWA — Five weeks after a Liberal majority shelved a parliamentary probe of Prime Minister Mark Carney’s British Columbia condo bailout, opposition MPs have taken the same questions to an independent officer of Parliament, asking Canada’s lobbying commissioner to investigate whether people with access to senior Liberals helped shape the $1.5-billion program.
After a Canadian national working as a NATO intern in Belgium was arrested on suspicion of espionage, Prime Minister Mark Carney said Canadian officials have been involved from the start.
“Any time you have a situation, you should take stock and take lessons from this,” Carney said in response to questions from reporters on Aug. 5.
