Good morning. The Coalition Avenir Québec is celebrating a new leader while the federal Liberals are focused on today’s by-elections. More politics below, along with Hungary’s election and U.S.-Iran ceasefire talks. Let’s get to it.
Prime Minister Mark Carney greets his wife Diana Fox Carney as he arrives to speak at the Liberal national convention in Montreal on April 11.Christinne Muschi/The Canadian Press
TOP STORY
Canadian politics at play
The latest: In a Saturday speech to the Liberal party’s convention, Prime Minister Mark Carney laid down markers for his plans in the coming months – including indications of shifting into a new gear for a potential majority government. More specific details will follow in the spring economic update, expected within weeks. But first, the Liberals are focused on today’s by-elections.
Context: Last April, voters delivered Carney a minority mandate with 169 out of 343 seats. Three of those seats are now vacant and five Opposition MPs crossed the floor to join the Liberal caucus. The party is widely expected to win two seats in the by-elections, which would bring their total in the House to 173 – a clear majority. The result in the Terrebonne by-election is less certain.
Meanwhile in Quebec: The Coalition Avenir Québec has chosen former minister Christine Fréchette to be its next leader, anointing her the province’s next premier, replacing François Legault. Fréchette is promising to breathe new life into a party with just months to go before a provincial election scheduled for October.
What’s next: After the by-elections wrap up today, winning a majority would reshape Carney’s government operations. With defections from other parties, the caucus could grow even further, with as many as eight more opposition MPs being courted to cross the floor, three Liberal sources told The Globe and Mail.
Opinion: The week we learned that anyone can come and anyone can go.
People pass in front of a pro-government political mural on April 12, in Tehran, Iran.Majid Saeedi/Getty Images
World
Trump orders blockade of Strait of Hormuz
The latest: U.S. President Donald Trump said yesterday that the U.S. Navy would “immediately” begin a blockade of ships entering or leaving the Strait of Hormuz, after Iranian ceasefire talks in Pakistan ended without an agreement or next diplomatic steps in sight. U.S. Central Command announced that it will blockade all Iranian ports beginning Monday at 10 a.m. ET.
Context: The face-to-face talks in Islamabad ended early Sunday and were the highest-level negotiations between the long-time rivals since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
What’s next: Neither delegation indicated what will happen after the ceasefire expires on April 22. Pakistani Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said his country will try to facilitate a new dialogue in the coming days.
Elsewhere: Bombing across the Middle East calmed over the past day except in Lebanon, where Israeli air strikes killed an infant girl during her father’s funeral, who was also killed by Israel last week.
Opinion: By deliberately targeting water, warring factions in the Persian Gulf have weaponized thirst.
Barry Hertz looks at how five new Canadian films are defying expectations.Illustration by Daria Lada
How We Live
Elbows up at the box office
The latest: So far, 2026 has already delivered five English-language Canadian films that have crossed the $300,000 mark at the domestic box office: Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie ($1.32-million), the supernatural thriller Undertone ($1.1-million), the animated Charlie the Wonderdog ($710,000), the hockey drama Youngblood ($500,000) and the horror flick Whistle ($309,000).
What’s next: These five films are very different from one another, writes Barry Hertz, but look a little closer, and a few unifying threads emerge. Each new box-office breakthrough offers its own crucial set of lessons for the Canadian film industry to succeed. And just in time for National Canadian Film Day on April 15.
Hungary
Orban swept out of power in Hungarian election
The latest: Hungary’s opposition Tisza movement scored a landslide election victory, ending populist Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s 16 years in power. The country cast ballots Sunday in what is seen as Europe’s most consequential election this year, setting a record turnout in a vote that unseated the ally of Washington and Moscow.
What’s next: The final tally won’t be known for a few days but if the result holds up it will be a remarkable win for Peter Magyar, the ex-diplomat who founded Tisza two years ago after breaking with Orban’s Fidesz.
Health
New cancer research highlights risks for young adults
The latest: Research published today in the Canadian Medical Association Journal shows that people who’ve been treated for cancer as young adults are twice as likely as their peers to develop new tumours years later. The Alberta study reinforces the need for better screening of an often-forgotten cohort.
What’s next: Young adults don’t have the same level of support across Canada when it comes to screening cancer survivors. Work is under way to develop a high-risk breast cancer screening program in Alberta, which is one of several Canadian jurisdictions lacking such programs.
Bookmarked
- Investigation: The arrest of a competitor for attacks on GFL executives’ homes underscores the cutthroat nature of construction contracts.
- From the weekend: At Coachella, Justin Bieber, Justin Trudeau and Katy Perry search for relevancy.
- For your finances: Have investors forgotten how to panic?
- For your relationships: In a busy, disconnected world, people are getting inventive with their social lives.
- Conversation starter: We need to embrace the art of diplomacy, not the art of the deal, says former Liberal Party leader Michael Ignatieff.
The Quote
For whatever reason, I gravitate often to these very dark subjects. And I don’t know why. But I think people who know me from my writing and then meet me are sometimes taken aback that I’m not all doom and gloom.
— Patrick Radden Keefe, author
In his new book London Falling, Patrick Radden Keefe has written his most intimate true story yet. The new investigation is of the death of Zac Brettler, a 19-year-old British teenager who mysteriously fell to his death in the Thames River from a luxury fifth-floor apartment balcony.
The Shot
The crew of Artemis II, from left, Jeremy Hansen, Christina Koch, Victor Glover and Reid Wiseman in their first public appearance after their mission around the moon on April 11, at Ellington Field in Houston.Michael Wyke/The Associated Press
All four astronauts from the Artemis II voyage were looking healthy and happy after being reunited with family members following a successful splashdown. The act of going to the moon has been restored to the repertoire of human experience, writes Ivan Semeniuk.