“Canadian Politics”

OTTAWA — Despite hundreds of millions of dollars of investments since a devastating 2017 audit, the Canada Revenue Agency’s call centres are still plagued with worsening reliability and accuracy problems as agents give wrong information as often as 87 per cent of the time.

That’s according to a new report by Auditor General Karen Hogan published on Tuesday. The audit found that Canadians are waiting far too long on hold to speak to an agent and, when they get through, they often receive inaccurate general information.

FLAT TAX TIME!

OTTAWA—Under fire over Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre’s criticism of the RCMP senior leadership as “despicable,” the Opposition leader’s office instructed Conservative MPs on Monday to reinforce a more positive message about the nation’s police force.

Talking points sent to Conservative MPs who may face public or media questions about Poilievre’s controversial remarks were obtained by the Star by a confidential source.

A “confidential source”, The Star, The Globe and the NatPo all have anti-Poilievre pieces.

“Conservatives used to respect precedent.”

That was the mocking response from Canada’s leading journalist of judicial supremacy, Andrew Coyne, to legal scholars who raised the alarm recently over the Liberal government’s proposal to limit what remains of parliament’s power by inviting the courts to invent new limits of legislatures’ use of the notwithstanding clause. Apparently, the traditional scope of parliamentary sovereignty is one precedent that Coyne is willing to abjure.

Public approval of Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government appears to be on a steady decline as polls now show the Conservatives lurching back towards a competitive stance against the Liberals.

A new Postmedia-Leger poll tracked the Liberals at 44 per cent, against 38 per cent for the Conservatives.

OTTAWA—Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is good at retail politics. Other parties may decry his slogans and three-word mantras, but a note of caution needs to be sounded.

KISS is the basic mantra of any successful politician. It may sound a little condescending because in long form, it reads ‘keep it simple, stupid’. For marketing reasons, the last ‘s’ needs to be replaced because voters are definitely not stupid.

But a simple message is one that resonates. When Poilievre coined the phrase “Axe the Tax” in relation to carbon pricing, it mattered little that the fiscal instrument was supposed to be a price on pollution.

Between September 26 and October 1, 2025, Abacus Data surveyed 1,504 Canadian adults on the state of federal politics. With Parliament back in session and economic anxieties simmering, this snapshot reveals a political landscape that is fiercely competitive and one where both major parties are digging in for a battle over economic credibility and leadership trust.

At the topline, little has shifted, but beneath the surface, rising pressure on affordability, mixed views of the Carney government, and some regional softness for both parties are shaping a dynamic fall political environment.

Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre has posted a letter on social media asking the federal government to “immediately” scrap “Liberal bail” and is urging the Prime Minister Mark Carney to vote for a Conservative motion that will rapidly pass the Jail Not Bail Act.

“C-242 (Jail Not Bail Act) repeals the failed Liberal ‘principle of restraint,’ strengthens bail for major violent and organized crimes like extortion and home invasion, requires judges to consider an accused’s criminal history and stops prolific offenders from vouching for other criminals,” the letter addressed to Carney said.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre says the federal Liberals must either heavily amend their border bill or introduce a new piece of proposed legislation if they want support to pass it into law.

“We’ve told Liberals that their current Bill C-2 will not pass unless they remove the violations of Canadians’ individual freedoms and privacy,” Poilievre said in an interview with CBC News.

“We don’t think that law-abiding Canadians should lose their liberty to pay for the failures of the Liberals on borders and immigration.”

Every political party that earned the right to sit in the current House of Commons — even the winning Liberals — emerged from this year’s election with a dose of humility.

Sure, the Liberals were spared the drubbing that had seemed imminent at the beginning of the year, but just how far they fell beforehand and their failure to win a majority should be staying top of mind. The Conservatives were denied the easy win they expected. The New Democrats, the Bloc Québécois and the Greens all lost seats.

Elizabeth May: Where is the “brainy and thoughtful’ Mark Carney who warned the world of the dangers of climate change?

When anyone hears Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre talk about climate, one could wish he would read a book on the subject, or even the Cole’s Notes version. On the other hand, listening to our prime minister, one could wish he would read his own book.

On page 273 of his 2021 book “Values,” he wrote: “The carbon budget to limit temperature rises to below catastrophic levels is rapidly being exhausted. If we had started in 2000, we could have hit the 1.5 C objective by halving emissions every 30 years. Now, we must halve emissions every 10 years. If we wait another four years, the challenge will be to halve emissions every year. If we wait another eight years, our 1.5 C carbon budget will be exhausted.”