Bhagwant Sandhu is a retired director general from the federal government. Between 2002-21 he held senior roles in several departments, including Fisheries and Ocean Canada, Infrastructure Canada, Treasury Board Secretariat, and Public Works Canada. He has also held executive positions in the governments of Ontario and British Columbia.
Despite his conciliatory trip to New York, for the Conservative leader, the politics of permanent confrontation is colliding with an electorate craving reassurance.
Canadians should ask what remains after drawing investor dollars, and what is exchanged: wealth we still own, or a bigger ledger built on corporate subsidies and asset sales?
Trump just showed Canada what happens when a deal is built on a promise. The lesson is to build the leverage to be able to walk away.
Sovereign wealth funds and pension giants are getting a seat at the table at the September event. Seniors, renters, and Indigenous groups are not.
Three vacant ridings look like routine housekeeping. Read against Prime Minister Mark Carney’s year and half in office, and they look like something else.
The Gordie Howe Bridge deal shows how it works with the Trump administration. Dairy, alcohol, and CUSMA are next—unless Ottawa changes its approach.
In naming a low-key MP to lead the Alberta file, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre can turn a referendum fight into a conversation about what holds us together.
The risk isn’t another pipeline. It’s Ottawa becoming a high-stakes player in an energy market it once regulated at arm’s length.
The outgoing Liberal MP spent a decade building the perfect profile for political power. The federal and provincial Liberal parties, however, had other plans.
The stability that once underpinned North American economic integration is giving way to permanent strategic uncertainty.
As Washington increases pressure on Havana, Ottawa’s reticence to engage on the topic is exposing the limits of Canada’s claims to principled internationalism.
Foreign policy cannot rely on the automatic alignment of Western-led economic and security interests. Ottawa will confront conflicts between commercial access, defence commitments, and domestic political pressures.
The prime minister’s New York visit signals a push for industrial acceleration. But too often, social policy debates collapse into a single question: how does this improve our competitiveness?
A movement openly questioning the legitimacy of Confederation is being normalized as part of democratic discourse, while First Nations asserting their treaty rights are portrayed as procedural obstacles standing in the way of the people’s will.
The choice of governor general reflects a broader shift toward institutional discipline and away from standard political signalling.
Canada’s role in NATO finance risks locking in a defence-driven political economy that will be difficult to reverse.
