Live updates: Carney pitches funding boost for CBC, Radio-Canada as way to preserve national identity

respondent your questions nigh tariffs on bring on, cars

Carney calls Manning's comments about Western secession 'unhelpful'

Singh pledges to end agreements with countries that permit tax havens

Answering your questions about tariffs on produce, cars

Carney says building a 'ton' more housing needed to bring rent costs down

At Issue | Canada’s response to Trump’s global tariff assault

All 5 federal leaders make their case in Radio-Canada interviews

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Today, he instead framed the issue as a matter of federal spending, saying that the Liberal leader has announced additional spending “on top of an already morbidly obese government.”

“We can’t go on spending money we don’t have on things we don’t need,” said Poilievre.

“I will be cutting waste, bureaucracy, consultants, foreign aid and other unnecessary expenses to reduce taxes, debt and inflation,” he said.

A Conservative government will create a new criminal offence for intimate partner violence, leading to tougher sentencing, Pierre Poilievre announced in Trois-Rivières, Que., today.

A group of domestic violence survivors and advocates were standing behind the Conservative leader, and he thanked them for being there.

Poilievre said his government would default to “jail, not bail” for people accused of domestic violence. Those who do get bail would have to wear an ankle bracelet, with immediate imprisonment for breaches, he added.

He also mentioned a pledge to ensure first-degree murder convictions for anyone who kills an intimate partner or child, with no “downgrading” to a manslaughter conviction by claiming a crime of passion.

The plan also includes increased protections for victims of violent domestic crime, and Poilievre pledged to “lock up violent abusers longer to keep them away from women and children.”

At the Back Road Cafe, not too far from the Stellantis car plant that will be idle come Monday, there was a table full of guys having breakfast after playing hockey this morning. Some were fathers, sons and friends who have been playing together for more than 20 years.

Rod Gillen said there’s a lot of confusion and angst in the city right now because of the impact of the U.S. Tariffs on the auto industry here.

When I asked him what issues are important to him in this federal election, he said health care is one — but really, the overriding issue is the trade war.

"In Windsor, we're in the epicentre of the tariff war, so I think for me, that's the biggest factor. We need to try and resolve that," Gillen said.

His teammate John Rosa, a dual Canadian-American citizen who crosses the border for work, said he's an undecided voter. "You want someone with honesty and someone who is going to be a proud Canadian and fight for what we need and not what America needs," said Rosa.

At a nearby table, retired autoworker Mary Guilbeault was sporting an "Elbows Up" pin that she made herself. "We’ve got to support our country. It's a must," she said.

On his way into the restaurant was Wayne Ferguson, also a retired autoworker, sporting a red "Canada Is Not For Sale" baseball cap. "Because I don't like Trump," he stated.

Lynda Ferguson is no fan of the U.S. President either, and wants Canada's political leaders to take a strong stand. "I think they should give him everything they can … I have no problem with that," she said, even if it means things will get more expensive in Canada with retaliatory tariffs.

Ferguson’s daughter works at the Stellantis plant, so she’s off work as of Monday, and Ferguson’s son and son-in-law work in the industry too. “All of them will be affected,” she said.

Good morning. I’m a senior producer with the Parliamentary bureau’s digital team.

Carney faced a question in Montreal today about the news that his party has dropped another candidate, this time in the Edmonton area.

Party officials confirmed today that Rod Loyola is no longer the Liberal candidate for the new riding of Edmonton Gateway. The party didn’t say why, but the National Post reported on a video in which Loyola appears to be praising Hezbollah and Hamas at an anti-NATO protest in 2009.

Carney was asked whether his party’s selection process is sufficiently robust.

“In general terms I would say yes, but if there is a problem, it has to be fixed, and that is what we did,” he said in French.

Both the Conservatives and Liberals have dropped candidates since the campaign period began, for various reasons. The Conservatives have dropped four and the Liberals have dropped at least three.

It’s not unusual for parties to drop candidates at this stage of the campaign as things emerge about their past.

Poilievre was asked about his party’s vetting process yesterday.

“We have a zero tolerance for anyone who acts unacceptably,” Poilievre said.

The parties have until 2 p.m. ET on Monday to finalize their nominated candidates. Elections Canada will publish the official list of nominees on Wednesday.

Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet was asked this morning about public polling that suggests his party is bleeding support to the Liberals, despite Carney making several notable gaffes in Quebec during the early days of the campaign.

Blanchet mostly brushed off the question, saying his goal is to prevent a Liberal majority and possibly hold the balance of power in a minority government.

“In 2019 and 2021, the Bloc Québécois completed the campaign much higher than it started it, and the result both times was that we prevented the Liberals from having a majority government. Let’s do the same in 2025,” Blanchet said.

And if the Bloc fails to regain the support it has potentially lost in recent months?

“We will discuss that after the election. I intend to succeed,” Blanchet said.

Carney says building a 'ton' more housing needed to bring rent costs down

Asked during a campaign stop in Montreal on Friday about rising rent prices and what he would do to protect tenants and make their lives more affordable, Liberal Leader Mark Carney said doubling the number of housing units being built across the country will bring prices down.

While homebuilding has been a major theme of the campaign so far, there hasn’t been much discussion about rent or how to make housing more accessible to those who rent.

One reporter in Montreal pushed Carney on this today, asking what the Liberal plan is to protect tenants and improve affordability for renters across the country.

Carney’s answer circled back to his recently announced housing plan, which aims to double Canada’s rate of residential construction to 500,000 homes per year.

“We are not going to solve these issues in Montreal, in Quebec, across the country, unless we build a ton more housing,” said the Liberal leader.

“All of that will help shift the balance — not overnight — but in a way that’s going to make a true difference,” he said, adding that it will be up to municipalities to set rent levels on any new builds that emerge from that program, should he be elected.

Carney, who has characterized his French as a “six out of 10,” has made some Quebec-related gaffes in recent weeks — like mistakenly saying that the 1989 Polytechnique massacre occurred at Concordia University, and last night calling Quebec a “distinct society” when it’s now seen as more appropriate to refer to it as a nation.

The Liberal leader tried to smooth over that last point today, saying that Quebec is “both a distinct society and the Quebec people [are] a distinct nation within Canada. One does not negate the other.”

One reporter also pressed Carney on French protectionism, asking whether boosting funding to Radio-Canada is really the only way to protect French culture in Canada. Carney suggested that more plans are in the works.

“Other initiatives will be announced by our government,” the Liberal leader said, noting that Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault will be working on efforts to strengthen Canadian and Quebec identity. “But right now, this is a major announcement, a major initiative … and we really want to focus on that.”

Liberal Leader Mark Carney, during a stop in Montreal Friday, said if elected prime minister he would boost funding for the public broadcaster by $150 million per year and make it statutory, meaning any future changes to funding would have to be voted on by Parliament.

The funding will be statutory, meaning that Parliament — rather than cabinet — will need to approve any future changes to funding, Carney said.

The plan also includes strengthening the public broadcaster’s local news presence across the country, including in remote and rural areas, and giving it “the tools and resources necessary to play a greater role in protecting and promoting our country.”

Carney framed the funding increase as a way to promote Canadian culture that “might otherwise get buried by the avalanche” of American culture.

From Éric:

“The Liberals would be highly likely to win the most seats, and very likely a majority government, if an election were held today. The party could win 200 seats or more for the first time in its history on current polling numbers.

“The Conservatives would form a sizable opposition, while the Bloc and NDP would see their seat holdings significantly reduced.”

Canadian and U.S. Stock markets continue to be roiled by Trump's tariff plans, which sent several prominent indexes nosediving this morning.

The S&P/TSX composite index opened down more than 2.5 per cent.

In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average dropped 2.6 per cent; the S&P 500 fell nearly three per cent; and the Nasdaq opened down more than three per cent.

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