Carney stayed overnight at Ford's Muskoka cottage ‘chatting in front of the fireplace'
Carney was in cottage country Monday and for the first half of Tuesday to hold meetings with Canada's premiers to discuss interprovincial trade and tariffs from the United States.
After the first day of meetings, Ford invited his fellow premiers and their immediate family for an intimate meal at his cottage, which is located a short drive from the Deerhurst Resort, where the main conference is taking place.
Quebec Premier Francois Legault described the property, with a wink, as a 'very nice, small chalet.'
Get daily National news
Get the day's top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day. Sign up for daily National newsletter Sign Up
By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy
Ford added, 'I have a little shack up the street there.'
The premier's staff said Ford and his guests ate seasonal vegetables, potatoes, salad, chicken and steak, as well as a cake to celebrate British Columbia Premier David Eby's birthday.
Story continues below advertisement
Carney, who arrived in the area late on Monday, then agreed to stay over at the Ford family cottage, the premier said.
'So, full disclosure, the prime minister stayed at my place,' Ford said. ' We had dinner, we were up till 12:30 at night, chatting in front of the fireplace, solving all the world's problems.'
Praising the prime minister, he added: 'He's playing clean up right now. We're going to be there to support him. But he's a very good man. He's off to a good start.'
The three days of meetings in Muskoka have been dominated by the question of tariffs from U.S. President Donald Trump, who has promised to add a 35 per cent levy to Canada on Aug. 1.
While the country's premiers and prime minister agreed on the importance of working together to reduce internal trade barriers and the need for Ottawa to negotiate a good deal, they outlined few concrete takeaways from their meetings on Tuesday afternoon.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Global News
4 hours ago
- Global News
‘Tech is booming': Canada's first quantum computing hub boots up in southern Alberta
Businesses in southern Alberta are getting the chance to try out a publicly accessible supercomputer. A quantum computing hub, created by SuperQ Quantum Computing, recently opened at the Tecconnect innovation centre at Economic Development Lethbridge. SuperQ founder Muhammad Khan says the platform called Super is web-based and, similarly to ChatGPT, allows users to ask about complex real-world problems in plain English and come up with all possible solutions simultaneously. Problems could include supply chain bottlenecks or manufacturing inefficiencies. 'The way it does it is by combining classical computing with quantum computing and doing all the complexity stuff under the hood,' Khan told The Canadian Press in a recent interview. 'Classical computing is what we use everyday on our computers, on our laptops. 'Classical computing would take one route, and if it fails, it comes back and takes another route. Whereas quantum computing takes all the possible routes at the same time. And as a result, it is able to figure out the maze a lot faster.' Story continues below advertisement Businesses in the city southwest of Calgary can trial the technology by asking questions like how to find efficient delivery routes or how to schedule staff to minimize overtime, Khan said. Get breaking National news For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen. Sign up for breaking National newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy Super is to eventually be made available to the broader public by licence. The Lethbridge Super hub is the first in a series of planned networks worldwide. Other locations are set to be established elsewhere in Canada, the United States, Europe, India and the United Arab Emirates. Khan said setting up the platform's nucleus in Lethbridge is a full-circle moment. 'I have a deep affection for Tecconnect as my entrepreneurial journey started there,' Khan said, adding the centre has helped facilitate emerging technologies in Alberta and Canada. 'That appetite to promote emerging technologies with a business focus is something that is not very common. And if you go to the big centres, it's hard to bring about these programs.' Renae Barlow, vice-president of entrepreneurship and innovation at Economic Development Lethbridge, said emerging technologies, such as Tecconnect, can keep businesses competitive. Local teams are offering workshops and training to help companies learn more about the platform, she said. 'Having businesses understand why it's important for them to integrate this (technology) and to be on the leading edge and to really create that competitive advantage is what we wanted for our southern Alberta businesses,' Barlow said. Story continues below advertisement 'To understand that this actually puts them ahead.' Khan said some businesses in telehealth have also reached out about using the platform to build artificial intelligence doctors. 'Their human doctors couldn't keep up with the demand,' he said. 'So that was done, but then the question was, 'How do you increase the accuracy of those AI clinicians?' And this is where we came in, and the Super platform came in to take those AI models to the next level.' Barlow said there's been other interest in things like understanding global markets and even determining nutritional values for cattle. The hub is also getting noticed by government officials. Nate Glubish, Alberta's minister of technology and innovation, highlighted the hub on social media. 'Alberta tech is booming,' he said.
Global News
5 hours ago
- Global News
500K young Catholics flock to Rome for Holy Year, Await Pope Leo XIV
Hundreds of thousands of young Catholics poured into a vast field on Rome's outskirts Saturday for the weekend highlight of the Vatican's 2025 Holy Year: an evening vigil, outdoor slumber party and morning Mass celebrated by Pope Leo XIV that marks his first big encounter with the next generation of Catholics. Leo will surely like what he sees: For the past week, bands of young Catholics from around the world have invaded the area around St. Peter's Square for their special Jubilee celebration, in this Holy Year in which 32 million people are expected to descend on Rome to participate in a centuries-old pilgrimage to the seat of Catholicism. The young people have been traipsing through cobblestoned streets in color-coordinated t-shirts, praying the Rosary and singing hymns with guitars, bongo drums and tambourines shimmying alongside. Using their flags as tarps to shield them from the sun, they have taken over entire piazzas for Christian rock concerts and inspirational talks, and stood for hours at the Circus Maximus to confess their sins to 1,000 priests offering the sacrament in a dozen different languages. Story continues below advertisement On Saturday, they began arriving at the Tor Vergata field on the eastern flank of Rome for the culmination of their Jubilee celebration — the encounter with Leo. After walking five kilometers (three miles) from the nearest subway station, they passed through security checks, picked up their boxed meals and set up camp, backpacks and sleeping bags at the ready and umbrellas planted to give them shade. Leo, who was elected in May as the first American pope, was flying in by helicopter Saturday evening to preside over the vigil and a question-and-answer session. He was then returning to the Vatican for the night and coming back for a popemobile romp and Mass on Sunday morning. A mini World Youth Day, 25 years later Get breaking National news For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen. Sign up for breaking National newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy It all has the vibe of a World Youth Day, the Catholic Woodstock festival that St. John Paul II inaugurated and made famous in 2000 in Rome at the very same Tor Vergata field. Then, before an estimated 2 million people, John Paul told the young pilgrims they were the 'sentinels of the morning' at the dawn of the third millennium. Officials had initially expected 500,000 youngsters this weekend, but Leo hinted the number might reach 1 million. 'It's a bit messed up, but this is what is nice about the Jubilee,' said Chloe Jobbour, a 19-year-old Lebanese Catholic who was in Rome with a group of more than 200 young members of the Community of the Beatitudes, a France-based charismatic group. Story continues below advertisement She said, for example, it had taken two hours to get dinner Friday night, as the KFC was overwhelmed by orders. The Salesian school that offered her group housing is an hour away by bus. But Jobbour, like many here this week, didn't mind the discomfort: It's all part of the experience. 'I don't expect it to be better than that. I expected it this way,' she said, as members of her group gathered on church steps near the Vatican to sing and pray before heading out to Tor Vergata. There was already one tragedy before the vigil began: The Vatican confirmed that an Egyptian 18-year-old, identified as Pascale Rafic, had died while on the pilgrimage. Leo met Saturday with the group she was traveling with and extended his condolences to her family. The weather has largely cooperated: While Italian civil protection crews had prepared for temperatures that could have reached 34C (93F) or higher this week, the mercury hasn't surpassed 30C (85F) and isn't expected to. Romans inconvenienced, but tolerant Those Romans who didn't flee the onslaught have been inconvenienced by the additional hordes on the city's notoriously insufficient public transport system. Residents are sharing social media posts of outbursts by Romans angered by kids flooding subway platforms and crowding bus stops that have complicated their commutes to work. Story continues below advertisement But other Romans have welcomed the enthusiasm the youngsters have brought. Premier Giorgia Meloni offered a video welcome, marveling at the 'extraordinary festival of faith, joy and hope' that the young people had brought to the Eternal City. 'I think it's marvelous,' said Rome hairdresser Rina Verdone, who lives near the Tor Vergata field and woke up Saturday to find a gaggle of police congregating outside her home as part of the massive, 4,000-strong operation mounted to keep the peace. 'You think the faith, the religion is in difficulty, but this is proof that it's not so.' Verdone had already made plans to take an alternate route home Saturday afternoon, that would require an extra kilometer (half-mile) walk, because she feared the 'invasion' of kids in her neighborhood would disrupt her usual bus route. But she said she was more than happy to make the sacrifice. 'You think of invasion as something negative. But this is a positive invasion,' she said.
Canada News.Net
6 hours ago
- Canada News.Net
Ottawa joins growing global push for Palestinian statehood
TORONTO, Canada: In a landmark policy shift, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney announced this week that Canada will officially recognize a Palestinian state during the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly in September 2025. The decision aligns Canada with a growing number of Western nations moving to respond to the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza and reframe the global approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Carney convened a special Cabinet meeting to deliberate on the crisis in Gaza, following recent discussions with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who made a similar commitment earlier in the week. "The level of human suffering in Gaza is intolerable," Carney said. "Canada cannot remain a bystander. The international community must act to preserve the prospect of peace." According to Carney, Canada's recognition will be conditional. The Palestinian Authority must commit to holding free and fair general elections in 2026, with Hamas excluded from participation, and begin a process of demilitarizing the future Palestinian state. "Much has to happen before a viable democratic state can be established," he acknowledged. "This will not be easy or immediate — but the alternative is continued despair and endless conflict." The announcement comes amid mounting international outrage over the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza. Global leaders face increasing domestic and diplomatic pressure as images of hunger and devastation continue to emerge. Carney said he had also spoken with French President Emmanuel Macron, whose government declared last week that France would become the first G7 nation to recognize Palestine this September. The cascade of recognitions marks a notable shift in Western policy. Starmer warned on July 29 that the United Kingdom will move forward with recognition unless Israel agrees to a ceasefire, takes tangible steps to alleviate conditions in Gaza, and re-engages in meaningful peace efforts. "The window for a two-state solution is rapidly closing," Starmer said. Carney echoed this concern, warning that developments on the ground — including ongoing Israeli settlements, land seizures, and civilian deaths — are making a negotiated resolution increasingly remote. "We must not allow the facts on the ground to harden into a permanent reality," he said. "Canada is working with like-minded nations to keep alive the only viable path to peace: two states living side by side in security and dignity." Israel's current government, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, firmly opposes the two-state solution, citing both nationalist and security concerns. In response, many Western nations are now bypassing Israel's consent and moving unilaterally toward recognizing Palestinian statehood. Though largely symbolic in immediate effect, Canada's recognition will carry diplomatic weight. It follows the lead of more than 140 countries, including a growing number in Europe. France's announcement last week made it the first significant Western power — and the most prominent EU member — to formally endorse Palestinian statehood. Canada has historically supported the idea of a Palestinian state existing peacefully alongside Israel, but has previously insisted that recognition should result from a negotiated settlement. Carney's decision signals that Ottawa now sees direct recognition as a tool to revive meaningful negotiations rather than waiting for them.
