Hello, welcome to Politics Insider. Let’s look at what happened today.
Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand says Canada is taking a step-by-step approach to normalizing relations with India, focusing first on ending New Delhi’s interference in Canadian affairs and then on a longer-term goal of freer trade.
Robert Fife reports that Anand wrapped up a trip to India today, where she met with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, her Indian counterpart, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, and the country’s business leaders.
At a news conference in Mumbai, Anand said she was forceful in her meeting with Modi and top Indian politicians, stressing the importance of respecting Canada’s sovereignty and not engaging in violent and illegal acts.
“The relationship between our countries is one we are taking step by step. That approach begins with a focus on security and domestic public security in Canada,” she said in a callback with Canadian reporters.
“This has been top of mind for me in every conversation, and I never hesitate to raise the importance of it.”
The government of Prime Minister Mark Carney has been working with that of India to repair relations after a significant diplomatic rupture in 2023, when then-prime-minister Justin Trudeau publicly accused the Indian government of playing a role in the killing of Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Surrey, B.C., earlier that year.
Relations were further fractured in October, 2024, when the RCMP announced they had clear evidence that Indian government agents had been linked to homicides, extortion and other violent activities in Canada. Ottawa followed up by expelling India’s high commissioner and five other diplomats.
In other news, the Bloc Québécois has announced 18 demands ahead of the release of the minority Liberal government’s federal budget, listing six as non-negotiable.
Bill Curry reports that Jean-Denis Garon, the party’s finance critic, released the list today during a news conference on Parliament Hill.
The six requests the Bloc says must be met include implementing an $11.6-billion increase in federal health transfers to the provinces over five years; extending the 2022 decision to boost Old Age Security benefits by 10 per cent to people 75 and older to those aged 65 to 74; providing Quebec with $814-million tied to Ottawa’s decision to end the federal fuel charge; launching new interest-free loans of as much as $20,000 for first-time homebuyers; increasing social housing transfers by $1.4-billion a year; and creating a new provincial transfer program for infrastructure.
Garon told reporters the Bloc’s support for the budget will be “difficult to obtain” based on where things stand at the moment.
Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand speaks during an interview in Mumbai, India, on Tuesday.Francis Mascarenhas/Reuters
What else is going on
Canada signs non-binding AI deal with UAE: The agreement with the United Arab Emirates will explore investment opportunities related to artificial intelligence, with an eye to attracting capital from the Middle Eastern country to build data centres in Canada.
Canadian Nobel Prize winner Peter Howitt on building the economy through `creative destruction’: It was a prompt and persistent Swedish reporter who alerted Peter Howitt to the fact that he’d won the Nobel Prize for Economics, before the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences managed to reach him with the news.
Prime Minister Mark Carney’s climate vision to deprioritize emissions targets: The new “climate competitiveness strategy” the government is aiming to release before the end of this month will see shift to a focus on ways to reap economic advantage from the global transition toward low-carbon energy.
Federal agency failed to track `forever chemicals’ in Newfoundland town’s water, residents say: The town of Torbay is one of dozens of sites near airports and military bases where firefighting foams laced with polyfluoroalkyl substances leached into the groundwater and, in some cases, contaminated the drinking water of nearby property owners.
On our radar
On a break: Both the Commons and the Senate are not sitting this week.
Prime Minister’s Day: Mark Carney departed the Egyptian city of Sharm el-Sheikh where he had attended a Middle East peace meeting and returned to Ottawa.
Party Leaders: With the House of Commons on a break, Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet is on a tour of the Laurentides and Lanaudière regions through Thursday with a stop today in the municipality of Notre-Dame-de-la-Merci. Green Party Leader Elizabeth May has no public events on her calendar. No schedules for Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre or NDP Interim Leader Don Davies.
Election day in Newfoundland and Labrador: Voters go to the polls today for a provincial election. The Liberals are seeking re-election after governing the province since 2015. As the campaign began, the Liberals held 19 of 40 seats, and the Progressive Conservatives held 14.
Ford and Carney to meet: Ontario Premier Doug Ford will be meeting with Prime Minister Mark Carney in Toronto on Thursday. Ford revealed the point in his schedule today during remarks to the Empire Club of Canada in Toronto. He also asked broadcaster Ben Mulroney, host of a fireside chat in which he participated, whether Mulroney would ever run to be Toronto mayor. “We need something going down there,” said Ford. Mulroney said municipal politics is the closest to his heart, but he would not run now. “I would like to, very much, one day,” he added.
Ministers on the road: In Brussels, National Defence Minister David McGuinty will attend a Wednesday meeting of North Atlantic Treaty Organization defence ministers followed by a meeting of the Ukraine Defence Contact Group coalition of countries providing military support to Ukraine. Also Wednesday, Industry Minister Mélanie Joly is addressing the Fredericton Chamber of Commerce. Justice Minister Sean Fraser is hosting a meeting of federal-provincial and territorial justice and public-safety ministers in Kananaskis, Alta., on Thursday and Friday.
Quote of the Day:
“I have some anxiety and I think it’s just born of repeated experience being in British Columbia. Because Ottawa is in Ontario, it’s beside Quebec, those provinces are often front of mind. So my anxiety as a British Columbian, as a Western premier is that we have to be way more aggressive to make sure that we get our message heard‚” B.C. Premier David Eby, at a news conference today in Burnaby, on the need to remind the federal government of B.C.’s existence amidst the province’s concerns about U.S. tariffs on softwood lumber.
Question period
Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand concluded a trip to India today as Canada and India work on their relationship. When did Canada and India first establish diplomatic relationships?
Scroll to the bottom of this newsletter for the answer.
Perspectives
Is Carney willing to play the Keystone card?
Mr. Carney’s government clearly sees the Keystone XL proposal as a lever to make a deal with Mr. Trump. Natural Resources Minister Tim Hodgson made that pretty clear in an appearance before the Senate last Thursday, when asked why the government would approve a pipeline that does nothing to diversify exports away from the U.S.
— Campbell Clark, Chief Political Writer
Donald Trump was the essential ingredient of the Gaza ceasefire
How? And why now? What convinced Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to sign onto a peace deal where the “day-after” plan – of demilitarization of the Gaza Strip, of the destruction of Hamas’s terror tunnels, of transitional government by Palestinian technocrats – is hardly guaranteed, particularly with the professed goal of “destroying Hamas” yet incomplete? And why would Hamas agree to a ceasefire deal where they give up all their hostages at once, agree to forfeit their weapons, their infrastructure, and their power, and only then see the IDF withdraw completely from Gaza?
— Robyn Urback, Columnist
Canada is right to re-engage India. And Canadians support that
For two years, the Canadian conversation about India has been dominated by headlines on foreign interference, diaspora tensions and student visas. Those issues are real and must be addressed through law enforcement co-operation and clear red lines. But when they become the whole story, we miss the bigger picture of what’s at stake for Canada’s prosperity and security.
— Vina Nadjibulla, vice-president of research and strategy, Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada
Go deeper
- The Decibel: Globe columnist Andrew Coyne is on The Globe and Mail podcast to discuss the legal conflict over the notwithstanding clause.
- Follow along for our stories on Canada-U.S. relations as news develops
- Get the latest insight and analysis from our political opinion writers
- Take a look at the history of immigration reporting and great political scandals from A Nation’s Paper, a book about The Globe and Mail’s role in Canadian history
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The answer to today’s question: Diplomatic relations between the two countries were established in April, 1945, with John Doherty Kearney named as high commissioner in 1946, presenting his credentials in 1947 and serving in the post until 1949, when he went on to serve as an ambassador to Argentina.