Alberta's Smith calls for reset with Ottawa after Carney victory
Investing.com -- Alberta Premier Danielle Smith responded to Prime Minister Mark Carney and the Liberals' election win with a call for 'meaningful action' from Ottawa and a warning that Alberta will no longer accept federal interference in its economy. In a statement posted to X on Tuesday, Smith said her government would not allow 'the status quo to continue.'
While she extended congratulations to Carney, Smith used her message to make clear that frustrations in Alberta remain unresolved after another Liberal-led administration was returned. She urged the new prime minister to 'reset the relationship between Ottawa and Alberta' and cautioned that her province would explore new ways to assert its position within Confederation.
Citing a 'decade's punitive taxation and anti-resource policies,' Smith accused the federal government of weakening national unity and obstructing Alberta's energy industry. 'Albertans are proud Canadians… but we will no longer tolerate having our industries threatened and our resources landlocked by Ottawa,' she wrote.
Smith voiced strong praise for Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre, calling him 'a true friend of Alberta' whose campaign had made empowering the province 'a cornerstone.' She said his proposals had helped shape the national debate and energize a movement for change.
Looking ahead, Smith announced a special caucus meeting for this Friday, after which more details will be shared about Alberta's future positioning. She said the province would begin a process that allows Albertans to 'assess various options for strengthening and protecting' their interests.
Related articles
Alberta's Smith calls for reset with Ottawa after Carney victory
Carney reaffirms campaign agenda, warns of U.S. pressure in victory speech
Election Day: Carney, Poilievre battle for Canada's future
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
37 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Trump neutered Justice Department watchdogs that were there to prevent politically motivated prosecutions
Donald Trump's DOGE-ification of the federal government added a key team at the Department of Justice to its list of victims in a pair of moves that greased the wheels for his adminsitration to use the agency to go after Democratic members of Congress. The Justice Department's public integrity section (PIN) underwent a series of key changes this year at the direction of Trump-appointed Attorney General Pam Bondi, who has overseen the agency as it charged a Democratic member of Congress, Monica McIver, with assault after she was repeatedly confronted by ICE agents during a legally permitted congressional oversight visit to a detention facility in Newark. McIver's charging is one of several instances where the Trump-led Department of Justice has brazenly defied the tradition of independence from the White House that agency officials typically follow. Under Bondi's leadership, the agency has quickly transitioned into an arm of the White House, focused on the president's priorities and willing to target his political enemies. Other targets of that trend have been a Milwaukee judge, arrested and charged with allegedly preventing immigration authorities from arresting a man outside of her courtroom by leading him out a back entrance after his hearing concluded, and Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland resident who was deported to a hellish prison in El Salvador in violation of a court ruling. Abrego Garcia was charged with trafficking migrants last week after the federal government relented in a weeks-long battle with the courts and returned him to the United States. A federal prosecutor in Tennessee, Ben Schrader, resigned over his concerns that the charges were filed for political reasons, according to ABC News. McIver's charging shortly followed the agency-wide suspension of a rule which previously required prosecutors to obtain approval from the PIN before members of Congress could be criminally charged — a safeguard previously in place to prevent targeting of the administration's political opponents on spurious charges, Reuters reported. McIver was charged with assault after being involved in a scuffle with ICE agents outside of a Newark detention facility; video shows her making physical contact with an agent, but possibly by accident. The agency has not released an explanation for why agents engaged in a scuffle with McIver at the scene at all, given that the agency is, by law, prohibited from using its funding in any way to prevent members of Congress from conducting oversight visits. Newark's mayor, Ras Baraka, was arrested at the scene. The Independent reached out for comment regarding the suspension of the rule regarding criminal cases which involve members of Congress, and to inquire about any other reductions to the PIN division's responsibilities. As part of staff reductions across the whole of the federal government, the PIN team was also hit. The decision of federal prosecutors to drop an investigation into New York's Democratic mayor sparked a wave of resignations at the division, with departing attorneys having been asked to give the order to end the probe after federal prosecutors in New York refused. What followed was a gutting of the PIN section, which is now a fraction of its former size, according to multiple reports, and no longer handling cases directly. Just five prosecutors were directly assigned to the division by mid-March, down from 30. The suspension of the rule in May and the other reported erosions of PIN's authority marks a serious reduction in a key safeguard that the agency implemented in 1976 after the Watergate scandal. At the time, another Republican president leaned on the Justice Department to influence an investigation into a break-in at the Democratic Party's headquarters and the extent of the Oval Office's knowledge of the plot. Donald Trump, in an executive order, directed Bondi to review all DOJ teams with 'civil or criminal enforcement authority ' and identify whether individual divisions were, by Trump's standards, used for political purposes by the Biden administration. Biden officials have denied any weaponization of the DOJ, with prosecutions of the president's son Hunter and a Democratic senator from New Jersey as evidence to point to. The stated purpose of that executive action was to end the 'weaponization' of the Justice Department and other agencies. But over the course of six months, the DOJ's greatest tool for preventing that possibility has all but vanished. Sheldon Whitehouse, a Democratic senator from Rhode Island, wrote to Bondi in March about the dismantling of the PIN division, but his office has not released a statement on the matter since. The DoJ issued no public statement in response. 'Certain political appointees in this Department of Justice have already proven they put President Trump's political interests over their duties as prosecutors and as lawyers. Multiple Public Integrity Section attorneys resigned rather than endorse then-Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove's unethical quid pro quo in dropping the case against New York City Mayor Eric Adams,' wrote the senator. He added: 'If the Trump administration's goal was to encourage corruption and abuse of office, it is hard to know what it would do differently.'
The Hill
an hour ago
- The Hill
Canada plans to hit NATO spending target early and reduce reliance on US defense, Carney says
TORONTO (AP) — Canada will meet NATO's military spending guideline by early next year and diversify defense spending away from the United States, Prime Minister Mark Carney said Monday, asserting that Washington no longer plays a predominant role on the world stage. The announcement means Canada will achieve NATO's spending target of 2% of gross domestic product five years earlier than previously planned. 'Our military infrastructure and equipment have aged, hindering our military preparedness,' Carney said. 'Only one of our four submarines is seaworthy. Less than half of our maritime fleet and land vehicles are operational. More broadly, we are too reliant on the United States.' According to NATO figures, Canada was estimated to be spending 1.33% of GDP on its military budget in 2023, below the 2% target that NATO countries have set for themselves. Canada previously said it was on track to meet NATO's target by the end of the decade. 'Our goal is to protect Canadians, not to satisfy NATO accountants,' Carney said in a speech at the University of Toronto. Canada is about to host U.S. President Donald Trump and other leaders at a summit of the Group of Seven leading industrialized nations in Alberta on June 15-17, and before the NATO summit in Europe. NATO allies are poised to increase the commitment well beyond the 2% target. NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said last week that most U.S. allies at NATO endorse Trump's demand that they invest 5% of gross domestic product on their defense needs and are ready to ramp up security spending even more. 'We are meeting 2%. And that is the NATO target as it is today,' Carney said at a later news conference. 'We will need to spend more.' He said there will be discussions on the increased spending amount and its timeline at the NATO summit. Carney has said he intends to diversify Canada's procurement and enhance the country's relationship with the EU. 'We should no longer send three-quarters of our defense capital spending to America,' Carney said in a speech at the University of Toronto. 'We will invest in new submarines, aircraft, ships, armed vehicles and artillery, as well as new radar, drones and sensors to monitor the seafloor and the Arctic.' Canada has been in discussions with the European Union to join an EU drive to break its security dependency on the United States, with a focus on buying more defense equipment, including fighter jets, in Europe. Carney's government is reviewing the purchase of U.S. F-35 fighter jets to see if there are other options. 'We stood shoulder to shoulder with the Americans throughout the Cold War and in the decades that followed, as the United States played a predominant role on the world stage. Today, that predominance is a thing of the past,' Carney said in French, one of Canada's official languages. He added that with the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the United States became the global hegemon, noting that its strong gravitational pull became virtually irresistible and made the U.S. 'our closest ally and dominant trading partner.' 'Now the United States is beginning to monetize its hegemony: charging for access to its markets and reducing its relative contributions to our collective security,' Carney said. Carney later said at the news conference that it was 'understandable' that the U.S. is providing a lower degree of security. 'So we are stepping up,' he said. Trump's calls to make Canada the 51st U.S. state have infuriated Canadians, and Carney won the job of prime minister after promising to confront the increased aggression shown by Trump. The prime minister said 'a new imperialism threatens.' 'Middle powers compete for interests and attention, knowing that if they are not at the table, they will be on the menu,' Carney said during his speech. Carney said the long-held view that Canada's geographic location will protect Canadians is increasingly archaic. European allies and Canada have already been investing heavily in their armed forces, as well as on weapons and ammunition, since Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
GST relief on new homes could save 1st-time buyers up to $240 on mortgages: report
OTTAWA — A new analysis says first-time Canadian homebuyers could save up to $240 on their monthly mortgage payments through the federal government's proposal to waive the sales tax on new builds. Desjardins Economics says in a new report that the impact on housing affordability will be "particularly strong" for buyers in Canada's more expensive markets, like Toronto and Vancouver. The Liberal government has tabled legislation to eliminate the GST portion from new home sales of up to $1 million for first-time buyers, which works out to as much as $50,000 off the cost of a new build or substantially renovated unit. For homes sold above $1 million, the GST relief is phased out as the price tag nears $1.5 million. But Desjardins also cautions that the policy could drive up demand for housing, which in the near-term could push up home prices if not coupled with other efforts to boost supply. Parliament has yet to pass the legislation, which the Liberals introduced alongside the government's pledge to cut income taxes starting July 1. This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 9, 2025. Craig Lord, The Canadian Press Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
