Hello, welcome to Politics Insider. Let’s look at what happened today.
Prime Minister Mark Carney announced a new auto strategy – one that aims to both bolster the sector and reduce greenhouse-gas emissions.
Key planks of the plan include incentives to buy electric vehicles, new regulations for tailpipe emissions, investments in a Canada-wide EV charging network, and the scrapping of EV sales mandates.
The efforts are meant to reinforce the country’s auto industry and encourage electrification at a time of trade upheaval, transportation reporter Eric Atkins writes.
Mr. Carney made the announcement at an auto parts factory owned by Martinrea International Inc. Ten months ago, U.S. President Donald Trump applied 25-per-cent tariffs on the non-American content of Canadian-made cars.
“U.S. tariffs have undermined a bargain that has existed for as long as I have been alive,” Mr. Carney told reporters at the announcement.
He added his goal is to remove all auto tariffs in the review of the United States-Mexico-Canada trade agreement. At the same time, he also said, “we have to look after ourselves.”
Also today, Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree told MPs that the government will establish safeguards to make sure that Chinese EVs do not have “the capability to transmit information” to Beijing.
Last month, Mr. Carney signed an initial trade agreement that reduced tariffs on 49,000 Chinese EVs in exchange for China lowering tariffs on Canadian canola and other products.
Ottawa bureau chief Robert Fife has more on Mr. Anandasangaree’s appearance at the procedure and House affairs committee here.
Prime Minister Mark Carney tours an auto-parts plant in Woodbridge, Ont., on Thursday.Eduardo Lima/The Canadian Press
What else is going on
Several Toronto police officers charged in organized crime and corruption probe: York Regional Police investigators allege that some of the officers unlawfully accessed and funnelled private information to members of an organized crime group.
Harper warns of Trump threat, calls for reciprocal tariffs in gala speech: Former prime minister Stephen Harper also warned Canada against blaming all of its economic pressures on Donald Trump, noting that past government decisions are also to blame.
Canada’s 5% NATO pledge to add $63-billion to deficit over next decade, budget watchdog says: A report from interim Parliamentary Budget Officer Jason Jacques says meeting the defence spending target of 3.5 per cent of GDP within 10 years could cost about $33.5-billion in additional spending annually until 2035-36.
B.C. to rewrite law to limit U.S. tribal groups’ influence on environmental assessments: In the wake of a 2021 Supreme Court of Canada decision, U.S. tribal entities have sought to intervene in a B.C. port expansion, mining projects, forestry work and the provincial school curriculum.
Supreme Court produces fewer rulings than in past years: The Supreme Court decided 45 cases in 2025. In the eight full years that Chief Justice Richard Wagner has been leading the top court, the annual average is 53 judgments, compared with an annual average of 72 decisions in the previous eight years.
On our radar
Quote of the Day
“Anyone that’s promoting Canada, that’s good. You know, the Prime Minister always encourages premiers and ministers to go down and continue to work with our colleagues south of the border, no matter if it’s a governor or senator or congresspeople or part of the administration. I think we have to continue on with the pressure, so the more people they can get down there and have a conversation, all the power to you.” – Ontario Premier Doug Ford, on Conservative MP Jamil Jivani travelling to Washington.
Question period
Mr. Carney unveiled a new auto strategy today. As of the latest available data (2024), how many vehicles were registered in Canada?
Scroll to the bottom of this newsletter for the answer.
Perspectives
The overlooked story of Canada’s politics: The luck of the Liberals
We analyze the entrails of elections ad infinitum, but all too often we overlook the mundane but most important factor. Who got the breaks? Over the last century, it’s most often been the Liberals.
— Lawrence Martin, public affairs columnist
For ICE and the Trump administration, the violence is the point. And it’s backfiring
This orgy of violence is deliberate. It is meant to show that the Trump administration is serious about ridding the United States of “drug dealers, criminals, and rapists.”
— Ian Buruma, author of Spinoza: Freedom’s Messiah
In doctors’ waiting rooms, we see what vital civic spaces should offer
What sets in while in the waiting room – beyond a shared contempt over the general tardiness of our health care system’s function – is an implicit realization that we are each made of the same fragile constituency: of flesh and bone, mind and muscle. Which all, in some way or another, inevitably falter.
— Arjun Sharma, University Health Network physician
Go deeper
- Follow along for our stories on Canada-U.S. relations as news develops
- Get the latest insight and analysis from our political opinion writers
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The answer to today’s question: Statistics Canada reports that there were 26,787,718 road motor vehicles registered in the country as of 2024, which are the latest available data.