Prime Minister Mark Carney promised a swift, businesslike reboot of a Canadian economy battered by a decade of overspending and regulatory overreach. Yet just over two months into his term, his public statements are often hedged or shrouded in ambiguity and his policy direction remains unclear.
For months, Prime Minister Mark Carney has spoken about making Canada an energy superpower. He said it on the campaign trail, mentioned it again in an interview with CTV news in May, and dropped it again last weekend at the Calgary Stampede. While he usually inserts the qualifier of “both clean and conventional energy,” in an interview Saturday he stated that it’s “highly, highly likely” that at least one oil pipeline will make the government’s list of national strategic infrastructure projects.
It’s not the first time Ontario Premier Doug Ford has talked this way.
He’s done it before.
He’s done at times when he wants to make clear what he will do if push comes to shove.
What if Prime Minister Mark Carney ends up being more talk than walk?
Sure he won’t.
EVs are almost comically unsuited to a vast, cold country like Canada.
Justin Trudeau’s legacy is alive and well in Mark Carney’s iteration of Canada’s Liberal Party. While the former PM’s deeply unpopular carbon tax may have been scrapped, his spirit of phony solutions to the ‘climate-change crisis’ prevails.
Across the border, US president Donald Trump has nixed any attempts at electric-vehicle (EV) mandates, saying, ‘electric cars are fine, but not everyone should be forced to own one’. By contrast, the Canadian Liberal Party has maintained its plan to ensure 20 per cent of new passenger vehicles sold in 2026 are either battery-powered or plug-in hybrid models. It intends to increase that number to 60 per cent by 2030, and to 100 per cent by 2035.
OTTAWA — The premiers of Alberta and Ontario both said at a meeting Monday that they are cautiously optimistic that Prime Minister Mark Carney will successfully get a new oil pipeline built in Canada. But Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said the planning should not be limited to just one.
Meeting with her Ontario counterpart in Calgary, Smith said Alberta crude oil should have access to a “growing share” of pipelines. “I’m of the view there’s probably room for more than one pipeline, probably several.”
Environment group warns against repealing federal EV mandate
An environmental think tank is warning the federal government against repealing its electric vehicle mandate, instead suggesting that politicians should be helping to put more EVs on the road.
In a statement published Friday, Clean Energy Canada gave three recommendations to the federal government to help deliver affordable EVs to Canadians for less than $40,000.
The group, based out of Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, said Ottawa should retool its EV mandate by revisiting its near-term targets to help the auto sector “weather this temporary storm” of slumping EV sales.
It’s not always the unexpected that gets governments in trouble — often enough it’s their own bad judgement, poor timing or general clumsiness that gets in the way. But the unanticipated does happen a lot.
Parties and politicians put time and effort into concocting a set of policies aimed at winning votes by proposing remedies to problems identified as occupying top rungs of current voter concern. If they’re lucky they get elected, presumably intending to put those policies into effect at the earliest opportunity. Then the world shifts and pulls the rug from under them.
Prime Minister Mark Carney’s tight-lipped approach to climate change is causing some environmental groups to question his leadership, while others say it’s too early to judge the new PM whom they say has room to live up to election pledges addressing Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions.
Since entering the Prime Minister’s Office, Carney (Nepean, Ont.) has rarely spoken about the climate. Instead, the former banker has continued to focus on economic development, sticking to what secured his ticket to office as voters flocked behind the new Liberal leader’s message of securing Canada’s future and diversifying trade relationships in response to American tariff threats. But Carney’s silence on the subject isn’t alarming to all environmental advocates—some say Carney’s record on climate prior to taking public office, coupled with “welcome” campaign commitments, suggest strong policies could be advanced when the House returns this fall.
Fellow Eco-Nutz seem happy enough with Carney so far. Not a good sign for the real world.
It should be evident to Albertans that the province is on a collision course with the federal Liberal government, driven by a fundamental disagreement: will Alberta and Western Canada be allowed to fully develop its hydrocarbon endowment, or will that economic value be lost in pursuit of the climate policy known as “net zero”?
This collision is inevitable and imminent. Net zero is difficult to reconcile with growing, or even sustaining, existing hydrocarbon production in Canada.
Sometimes you get the impression the Liberals want Alberta gone.
With U.S. tariffs on steel, aluminum and light-duty vehicles continuing to batter the Canadian automobile industry, the CEOs of Canada’s big three automakers are asking for a break.
They met with Prime Minister Mark Carney this week to lobby for the elimination of the Liberal government’s zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) mandate. Maintaining it, they say, will cripple their companies and put thousands of jobs at risk.
Premier Doug Ford is stampeding west to promote pipelines.
Ford will be at the Calgary Stampede on Monday and is to sign a memorandum of understanding with Alberta Premier Danielle Smith to build new energy and trade infrastructure.
“I’ve never seen a country more united. I’m going to be flying out to see Premier Smith and we’re going to have a great conversation about building pipelines right across our great country,” he told reporters two weeks ago.
Europe’s economy is buckling under the pressure of climate regulation. Now the European Commission has signaled it may gradually revise its targets.
The industrial math in Germany is unforgiving. Electricity prices for industry are up to 300 percent higher than in the United States. Even France, with its nuclear-backed energy mix, faces double the industrial electricity costs compared to American competitors.
The economic pain is reflected in the data. The Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) for the construction sector in the eurozone — an early indicator of economic sentiment — fell to 45.6 in May. The PMI for manufacturing dropped to 49.5 in June. Any figure below 50 signals contraction.
Climate change deindustrialization will bankrupt Europe — and not actually impact climate change. – Small wonder Carney wants closer ties to the EU.
When Prime Minister Mark Carney met with automotive sector CEOs Wednesday about U.S. trade negotiations, one of the key issues the industry said they wished to discuss was the government’s zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) mandate.
The mandate requires a certain percentage of light duty vehicles — passenger cars, SUVs and trucks — that are sold to be either fully electric vehicles or plug-in hybrids, starting with 20 per cent in 2026 and rising to 100 per cent by 2035.
Brian Kingston, president and CEO of the Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers’ Association, told CBC News on the way to the meeting that “the targets that have been established cannot be met” given current market forces.
CBC pushing the LPC green-scam.
OTTAWA — The environment ministers of two of Canada’s biggest provinces are calling on the Liberal government to scrap a host of Trudeau-era environmental and climate policies, saying the policies are holding the country back from meeting its economic potential.
Alberta Environment Minister Rebecca Schulz and Ontario Environment Minister Todd McCarthy said in a letter to federal counterpart Julie Dabrusin that the new, Mark Carney-led Liberal government will need to ditch Justin Trudeau’s net-zero agenda if it hopes to meet its promise to make Canada an energy superpower.
The Canadian government has made electric vehicles (EV) a priority over the last few years, with sizable funding for battery factories, a rebate program to improve affordability, and a mandate to phase out the purchase of new gas-powered vehicles by 2035.
But with the U.S. government signing resolutions blocking a similar EV mandate in California and some 17 other states, coupled with continued issues related to affordability, Ottawa’s plan could be facing increasing obstacles.
