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Carney campaigns in Ottawa as NDP condemns Liberal candidate's words

Carney campaigns in Ottawa as NDP condemns Liberal candidate's words

Yahoo30-03-2025

OTTAWA — Liberal Leader Mark Carney is in Ottawa today meeting with a local family in an event closed to media.
The NDP, meanwhile, is denouncing comments made by a GTA-based Liberal candidate about a Conservative candidate who had a bounty placed on him by Hong Kong police last December.
The Toronto Association for Democracy in China says in a news release that Liberal candidate Paul Chiang told a Chinese-language newspaper at a news conference three months ago that everyone at the event could claim the bounty on Conservative Joe Tay if they turned him in.
Speaking in Port Moody, B.C. alongside Leader Jagmeet Singh, NDP MP Jenny Kwan condemned Chiang's words but did not explicitly call for him to step out of the race.
She said Canadians need to stand together against hostile foreign governments and the NDP is the only party that takes foreign interference seriously.
The Liberal party did not immediately respond to a request for comment but Chiang apologized Friday for his words, calling them "deplorable."
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 30, 2025.
Alessia Passafiume, The Canadian Press

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In victory and defeat, Marc Garneau 'was Captain Canada'
In victory and defeat, Marc Garneau 'was Captain Canada'

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In victory and defeat, Marc Garneau 'was Captain Canada'

OTTAWA — Meili Faille couldn't believe her ears when she heard the news. Marc Garneau, the first Canadian to have visited space, was preparing to run against her in the 2006 election. A few weeks later, she won. And Garneau never forgot it. Twenty years ago, the Bloc Québécois MP at the time held sway in Vaudreuil—Soulanges. This riding, located on the west side of the island of Montreal, near the Ontario border, had elected Faille in 2004 following the sponsorship scandal. In a riding where former NDP Jack Layton grew up, having a separatist represent a bilingual and multicultural community was an odd fit. 'We had an incredible team on the ground. We were dedicated to the community… Honestly, I didn't even count the number of events I attended at the time, it was every single day,' Faille recalled in an interview with National Post. But then, the race was shaken up by then prime minister Paul Martin. Garneau, the then-president of the Canadian Space Agency was not launching his shuttle into space, but rather into the political sphere. 'Marc Garneau, I am convinced, will be a star in the parliamentary firmament,' said Martin at the time. He was not. Faille easily beat him by more than 9,000 votes in 2006, when the Conservatives took power. Garneau was a neophyte who went so far as to predict that the Bloc would disappear, 'like dinosaur,' when he launched his political career. 'Marc Garneau was Canada, Canada, and simply Canada. It was his image. He was a Canadian figure. I mean, in the midst of the sponsorship scandal, it was a no-win situation for him,' Faille said. 'Basically, he was not able to convince people that he could prioritize Quebec positions over federal positions,' she added. 'He was captain Canada.' His relationship with Quebec was not always easy. 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'He was so serious and took everything so seriously, to get him to loosen up a little bit was very difficult. Rarely did he take time to laugh and smile,' said his former liberal colleague MP Judy Sgro. Even Faille was shaken. During his first election in 2008, Garneau ran into Faille, who had just defeated another star candidate: former Conservative senator and cabinet minister Michael Fortier. The two exchanged pleasantries and ended up sitting together in opposition for three years, before Faille lost her seat in 2011. 'He was a good man. Listen, we weren't in the same political family, but we respected each other. Marc was very nice,' said Faille. In 2007, after then leader Stéphane Dion refused to allow Garneau to run in a byelection in Outremont against the NDP's Thomas Mulcair, Garneau left politics. He had previously supported Michael Ignatieff in the leadership race that Dion won and many Liberals suggested at the time that the two men weren't necessarily the best of friends. 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The party wanted him to succeed. Marc Roy, a longtime Liberal collaborator from the Chrétien and Martin era, was sent by the party to evaluate the star candidate. 'We needed to help him,' Roy told us. As an astronaut, Garneau gave hundreds of interviews without any problem. In politics, it was different. 'Let's just say he's come a long way, like any politician, but it was a learning curve for him,' said Roy who later went on to become his director of communications and chief of staff while he was minister of Transports. In 2008, Garneau won the election and spent 14 years on the Hill. Roy saw firsthand his boss's dedication and why he would never lose another election. For example, Garneau left Montreal on a Saturday morning by train to visit Marc-Garneau School in Trenton, Ont., and returned home the same day. He also met with the residents of Lac-Mégantic at a very emotional town hall meeting following the 2013 train derailment that destroyed the town. 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National Post atrepanier@ Marc Garneau, first Canadian in space and former federal minister, dies at 76 In Quebec, opposition mounts against a pipeline project that doesn't exist Get more deep-dive National Post political coverage and analysis in your inbox with the Political Hack newsletter, where Ottawa bureau chief Stuart Thomson and political analyst Tasha Kheiriddin get at what's really going on behind the scenes on Parliament Hill every Wednesday and Friday, exclusively for subscribers Sign up here. Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark and sign up for our newsletters here.

Marc Garneau died after 'short but very difficult battle' with cancer, former staffer says
Marc Garneau died after 'short but very difficult battle' with cancer, former staffer says

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Marc Garneau died after 'short but very difficult battle' with cancer, former staffer says

Marc Garneau died this week after being diagnosed with two types of cancer earlier this year, his former staffer says. The first Canadian to travel to space and former cabinet minister died on Wednesday. He was 76. Marc Roy, Garneau's former chief of staff, told CBC's Power & Politicsthat the former minister had been diagnosed with lymphoma and leukemia earlier this year. "He fought a short but very difficult battle with two very rare types of cancer," Roy told host David Cochrane. "Although his diagnosis was only a couple of months ago, he was well until four or five weeks ago. So it went very, very quickly … it's a very, very tough loss." Roy said Garneau only shared his diagnosis with a small circle that agreed to respect his wish for privacy. "[It was] something he wanted to keep with his family so he could concentrate on his time with his family and not distract his family by the attention it could have gotten," Roy said. WATCH | It's a tragic loss,' says former chief of staff: Beyond his legacy as an astronaut, Garneau held a number of federal cabinet positions since 2015, including in transport and foreign affairs. Roy said Garneau was "tremendous" to work for as he reflected on his time in politics. "It's a huge loss to government. I think that his years in Ottawa are filled with many contributions to improving safety and expanding policy. I think he will be remembered for that for decades to come," Roy said. The House of Commons held another moment of silence for Garneau on Thursday and MPs took time to pay tribute to their former colleague. "He reminded us that Canadians can dream big, that we could aim for the stars quite literally," Government House leader Steve MacKinnon said. "He became a powerful symbol of the achievement and the accomplishment of this great country of ours." Like MacKinnon, other MPs reflected on how Garneau inspired Canadians. "Mr. Garneau, the future will always be inspired by your life, which was so inspiring for all Canadians," Conservative MP Gérard Deltell said in French. WATCH | Garneau's 'extraordinary ride': Bloc Québécois MP Rhéal Fortin said Garneau paved the way for other Canadians to journey to space, including Chris Hadfield and Julie Payette. "He showed us the way to the stars," Fortin said in French. Fighting back tears, Green Party Leader Elizabeth May said it was hard to say goodbye to "someone who was unfailingly kind [and] unfailingly respectful." "We've lost a very great human being, and to his entire family: my deepest condolences and sympathy — and know that in that space where he looks down at planet Earth now, I think it's a place called heaven."

Trump's 'big, beautiful' budget bill could cost Canadians billions
Trump's 'big, beautiful' budget bill could cost Canadians billions

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Trump's 'big, beautiful' budget bill could cost Canadians billions

A small, obscure section buried in U.S. President Donald Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act could cost Canadians and Canadian companies billions of dollars, CBC News has learned. Moreover, it could hand Prime Minister Mark Carney's government yet another political hot potato from south of the border — forcing it to choose between scrapping Canada's digital services tax (DST) or risk the U.S. imposing a new withholding tax on the income Canadians, Canadian companies and pension plans receive from investments in U.S. securities. While it still has steps to go before becoming law, the provision has Canadian experts worried. "This is building a nuclear option into a tax treaty that has lasted for 80 years between Canada and the U.S," said David Macdonald, senior economist with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. "Just like the U.S. is totally willing to blow up the international trade order, they're totally willing to blow up international tax rules." 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The timeline for the legislation is in flux and Section 899 could still get dropped from the bill or be amended. If, however, Section 899 becomes law, it could hit Canadians in different ways. For example, the U.S. currently imposes a 15 per cent withholding tax on dividends Canadians receive from U.S. companies. Under tax treaties, however, an equivalent tax credit from the Canadian government generally offsets the withholding tax. If the measure becomes law and the Trump administration designates Canada as a country with discriminatory taxes, a new five per cent withholding tax would go into effect. That tax would increase by five percentage points per year to a maximum of 20 per cent. It is not known if Canada would adjust its tax credits to offset such a tax. Max Reed, a cross-border tax lawyer with Polaris Tax Counsel, said the potential impact could be wide ranging. "It's definitely going to be in the billions, maybe tens of billions," he said. 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U.S. Internal Revenue Service figures show that in 2022, the U.S. withheld $2.9 billion US in tax on $108.5 billion US worth of income from a variety of U.S. sources for Canadian residents and companies. The IRS said $261.4 million US was withheld from individual Canadian residents while $1.22 billion was withheld from companies and $1.24 billion US under the category of Canadian "withholding rate pools (general)." Of the sources of U.S. income received by Canadians, the IRS said $31 billion US was from dividends — half of which went to Canadian corporations. David Pierce, vice-president of government relations for the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, said the chamber began getting worried messages from Canadian businesses once Trump's tax reform bill passed the House of Representatives. "I think the attention and the awareness of it really grew from what was a small subset of companies, now right across the economy — from financial to pensions to, you name it," Pierce said. "They're all very concerned at what this means for average Canadians in your retirement savings and how this would be applied should, of course, it become law." Pierce said the potential cost of Section 899 far outweighs revenue the Canadian government collects from the DST, a tax his group has opposed from the outset. He said the Canadian government should pause the next DST payment scheduled for June 30 and consider getting rid of the tax in negotiations with the U.S. "The concern is that when the U.S. administration makes allegations of Canada's trade practices, they can cite the DST and that's a talking point that rings true not just for Republicans, but also Democrats, in the United States," said Pierce. "That strengthens their hand. It's not strengthening our hand at the bargaining table." Macdonald says the proposed withholding tax would hit hard. "It would have major impacts on Canadian companies, Canadian investors in the U.S — they'd be downright punitive," said Macdonald. 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