Latest news with #SpeechFromTheThrone
Globe and Mail
6 days ago
- Business
- Globe and Mail
The Throne Speech: nice staging, crummy dialogue
This week's Speech from the Throne was a brilliant bit of theatre. Former prime ministers and governors-general mingled. King Charles III and Queen Camilla arrived in a horse-drawn carriage. Inviting the King himself to open Parliament sent an unmistakable message: This is not the 51st state and never will be. We have our own practices and traditions, founded on centuries of history. Anyone who thinks that all that separates us is a line on the map has another think coming. The speech itself was a different matter. It was billed as a 'bold, ambitious plan' for a 'bold, ambitious, innovative country.' What issued from the King's lips was anything but. Apart from promises to tear down provincial trade barriers and speed up big projects – changes that just about everyone agrees are needed – it was a stand-pat, status-quo document that offered next to nothing in the way of serious change. Nothing about reviving Canadian democracy, which continues its steady slide toward a centralized, presidential system where Parliament is an empty formality and its members spineless drones. Nothing about solving Canada's limp economic productivity and stagnating standard of living. No talk of reforming or simplifying the tax system, laden as it is with politically motivated breaks, incentives and loopholes. In fact, the new government of Prime Minister Mark Carney went out of its way to underline what it will not change. It won't touch child care and pharmacare, two costly programs introduced under Justin Trudeau's government. It won't touch supply management, the archaic system of production quotas and import controls that keeps the price of eggs, milk and chicken way higher than they should be and gives the Trump White House a club to beat us with. It will 'protect' the CBC, which desperately needs reform to match the fast-changing media landscape but will get heaps more money instead. It will leave 'transfers to provinces, territories or individuals' untouched. Many of the plans announced in the speech are things that Ottawa was already doing before Mr. Carney came around. Tightening up the immigration system to control the number of temporary workers and international students? The Trudeau government was doing that. Spending more on national defence? The Trudeau government was doing that, if belatedly and reluctantly. Working to increase the supply of housing that Canadians can afford? Same. Except Mr. Carney has said he will 'get the government back in the business of building' as a developer and a provider of subsidized loans. The price tag promises to be staggering. But that does not seem to worry Mr. Carney. If Mr. Trudeau was free with the public's money, the new Prime Minister promises to be positively bounteous. We don't know exactly how bounteous in the absence of a budget, which the government will not produce till the fall, but raising defence spending to the rising standards of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization will alone cost tens, ultimately hundreds, of billions. Add in the costs of supplying housing, defending industries hit by the trade wars and everything else on the government's plate and we are talking real money. Where will it come from? Not from higher taxes. Perish the thought. The government boasted in the Throne Speech that, to the contrary, it is bringing in a middle-class tax cut and eliminating the GST for first-time homebuyers on places that go for less than $1-million. No, like every other government under the sun, it says it will save money by 'cutting waste,' 'ending duplication' and 'deploying technology.' Oh, and it will move capital spending to a separate set of books, making it easier to balance the operating budget – a brazen bit of trickery brought to you by the former head of two central banks. The government calls all this the 'new fiscal discipline.' As Mr. Carney surely knows after years of studying government finances, however, it is a fiscal fantasy – absurdly unrealistic and blatantly dishonest. A government that prides itself on standing up to Donald Trump is doing just as he does: telling the public they can have tax cuts and big spending at the same time. The speech that the King read this week set off on a rousing note. 'We must be clear-eyed: The world is a more dangerous and uncertain place than at any point since the Second World War. Canada is facing challenges that are unprecedented in our lifetimes.' Many Canadians, it continued, are feeling anxious. 'Yet this moment is also an incredible opportunity. An opportunity for renewal. An opportunity to think big and to act bigger. An opportunity for Canada to embark on the largest transformation of its economy since the Second World War.' So true. Sadly, there was little evidence of transformational thinking in this nicely staged but vapid opening act of the Carney era.
CBC
27-05-2025
- General
- CBC
King Charles highlights Liberal government priorities during throne speech
King Charles, alongside Queen Camilla, delivered a historic speech from the throne Tuesday, using the platform to outline Liberal government priorities for the parliamentary session ahead. Charles praised Canada as a force for good that would remain 'strong and free' despite changing international relationships.
RNZ News
27-05-2025
- Business
- RNZ News
King Charles expresses love for 'strong and free' Canada
By David Ljunggren , Reuters Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney claps after King Charles III delivered the Speech from the Throne during the opening of the 45th Parliament of Canada at the Senate of Canada in Ottawa on May 27, 2025. Photo: AFP / Pool / Blair Gable King Charles, speaking during a symbolic visit to show support for Canada at a time it has faced annexation threats from US President Donald Trump, on Tuesday (Canadian time) expressed his love for the country, which he described as "strong and free". Charles, Canada's head of state, is the first British monarch in almost 70 years to preside over the opening of the Canadian parliament. In a speech in the Senate, Charles referred to "the country that Canadians and I love so much" but made no direct reference to Trump, who has imposed tariffs on Canadian exports and muses about turning Canada into the 51st US state . "The True North is indeed strong and free," Charles said, referring to the Canadian national anthem. The speech outlining the government's plans for the next session was largely written by officials working for Prime Minister Mark Carney. But Charles was responsible for the comments about his love for Canada. "Every time I come to Canada ... a little more of Canada seeps into my bloodstream and from there straight to my heart," said the monarch, who is accompanied by his wife Queen Camilla. King Charles III and Queen Camilla arrive to lay a wreath at The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the National War Memorial in Ottawa, Canada on May 27, 2025. Photo: AFP / Andrej Ivanov Charles, who joked and laughed with Carney before the speech, wore the Order of Canada around his neck. He and Camilla were driven to the Senate in a horse-drawn carriage, escorted by 28 riders from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and cheered on by flag-waving onlookers. Charles then inspected an honour guard, all clad in bright red uniforms. An Ipsos Reid poll released on Tuesday for Global News found that 66 percent of respondents believed Canada's relationship with the monarchy was useful because it helped set the nation apart from the United States, up from 54 percent in April 2023. In the speech, the government reiterated its belief that Canada needs to agree a new relationship with the US and look for more reliable trading partners. The warm welcome for the royal couple contrasted with a visit to Australia last October, when an Indigenous senator heckled Charles in Parliament House, accusing him of "genocide". Australia has long debated the need to keep a distant monarch. A 1999 referendum in Australia on becoming a republic lost with 55 percent of voters opposed. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and much of his centre-left Labor party support the republican cause. The monarchy is not generally a major factor in Canadian daily life, even though coins and bank notes feature the monarch's head and the country is defended by the Royal Canadian Air Force and the Royal Canadian Navy. A poll from the non-profit Angus Reid Institute released on Tuesday showed 83 percent of Canadians say they were indifferent or did not care about the monarch's historic visit. -Reuters
CNN
27-05-2025
- General
- CNN
King Charles tells Canada it faces ‘critical moment' as Trump pushes 51st state claim
King Charles III delivered the ceremonial Speech from the Throne in the Canadian Senate. The address marks only the second time in Canadian history that the reigning sovereign has opened parliament, and the third time that the British monarch has delivered the address.
CNN
27-05-2025
- Business
- CNN
King Charles tells Canada it faces ‘critical moment' as Trump pushes 51st state claim
King Charles III delivered the ceremonial Speech from the Throne in the Canadian Senate. The address marks only the second time in Canadian history that the reigning sovereign has opened parliament, and the third time that the British monarch has delivered the address.
