Carmakers repeatedly warned cabinet any permanent tariff on vehicles for the first time since 1964 would leave Canada without an auto industry. Records show industry lobbyists met with MPs and officials 53 times in a seven-week period prior to the collapse of trade talks: "There is no Canadian auto industry without the United States." READ MORE
Cabinet says it has no plans to mandate national digital identification despite budgeting billions to develop and test a digital ID system. The pledge came in reply to a Commons petition sponsored by Conservative MP Leslyn Lewis (Haldimand-Norfolk, Ont.): "Testing in stages, first in controlled environments, then in real world pilots, is standard practice." READ MORE
Contractors must use all-Canadian materials and supplies in costly renovations to the Prime Minister’s official residence, according to a federal notice. The manor house at 24 Sussex Drive “must be completed by Canadians for Canadians,” it said. READ MORE
One of the biggest federal spenders on consultants increased expenditures 10 percent above average last year, records show. The Department of Employment spent $998.5 million even as Prime Minister Mark Carney promised to cut spending on consultants by 20 percent: "I have a simple rule: spend less, invest more." READ MORE
Poet Shai Ben-Shalom writes: "You were a few seats away from me. Darkness camouflaged my staring at you. You seemed mesmerized, smiling whenever DiCaprio made his entry..." READ MORE
In 1937 Canada had a higher infant mortality rate than South Africa and Ireland. Until 1919 all national medical services were managed by the Department of Agriculture. Child deaths were such an inescapable horror in family life that Prime Minister John Thompson (1892-4) lost four of his nine children in infancy. Historian Mona Gleason documents the dawn of awareness that Canada’s infants could not be left to sicken and die in an expression of survival of the fittest: “Merely being small and young, in other words, required medical attention.” Small Matters: Canadian Children in Sickness and Health is a compelling social history that chronicles the country’s struggle towards the light. READ MORE
A federal memorial to Afghan War dead will be inscribed with an Algonquin land acknowledgement in the name of “supporting reconciliation,” says an internal memo. Veterans Affairs Minister Jill McKnight’s department would not say how many of the 2,229 Canadian casualties in Afghanistan including 158 killed in action were Algonquin: 'It's to recognize the Indigenous peoples on whose traditional territory the Monument stands.' READ MORE
I tell friends, never miss an opportunity to tell your family how much you love them, and how grateful you are that they’re part of your life. I think of Fabian every time I spot a camper on the highway – Fabian loved camping – or hear Eddy Murphy’s laugh. At home, I pass by the cemetery where he rests multiple times a day. A friend once told me, when you pass away nobody mourns you longer than family. It was a reality check. We were talking about work-life balance. Mine had been way out of balance for a long time.
