Carney, Poilievre spar over whether consumer carbon tax is really dead

Another day in the books

We’re wrapping up this live page shortly, so here’s a quick recap of the day’s events.

• Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre announced that he’ll commit to five asks from the Canadian oil and gas industry, including speeding up project approvals, scrapping the emissions cap and ending the industrial carbon tax.
• Liberal Leader Mark Carney didn’t announce anything new, instead reiterating his party’s plan to improve affordability. He took questions about tomorrow’s expected tariffs from the U.S. and about Liberal candidate Paul Chiang’s decision to resign.
• The two front-runners also sparred over whether the consumer carbon tax is really dead.
• NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh announced that the party would ban private companies from buying health-care clinics in Canada, framing it as a blow to Donald Trump and as a way to protect universal public health care in this country.
• Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet spoke about U.S. qualms with Quebec’s Bill 96, an expansion of the province’s language laws, and accused the country of asking Quebecers to sacrifice their language in order to do business with Americans.

With Trump’s “Liberation Day” tomorrow — the president is set to announce a 20 per cent reciprocal tariff on all countries that have imposed retaliatory duties on the U.S. — here’s a story about bipartisan efforts in the U.S. Senate to oppose levies against Canada.

Until then!

Carney and Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum talk trade and sovereignty

In a statement Tuesday afternoon, Carney’s office said he’d spoken with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum.

Both Canada and Mexico’s auto sectors are closely intertwined with the U.S.

President Donald Trump confirmed last week the “global” tariffs he’s announcing tomorrow will include levies on cars and car parts made outside the States.

According to the statement from Carney’s office, he and Sheinbaum discussed increasing trade between Canada and Mexico and “emphasized the importance of safeguarding North American competitiveness while respecting the sovereignty of each nation.”

He called it a “productive call” but was light on other details.

B.C. lumber industry bracing for tariff news tomorrow

I’m a senior reporter for CBC National News based in Vancouver. B.C.’s lumber industry is bracing for more bad news ahead of tomorrow’s tariff announcement. The industry is already subject to duties — any new tariffs would be on top of those already in place.

John Brink owns Brink Forest Products, which exports value-added lumber products called finger joints. He’s been in the lumber industry for more than 60 years, and he’s worried that additional levies will force small- and medium-sized businesses to close up shop in northern B.C.

The uncertainty couldn’t happen at a worse time for the lumber industry here. Many big mills have already closed up shop and moved south, where trees are grown on plantations, and transportation and labour costs are considerably less expensive than in Canada. In the last decade, forestry giant Canfor closed 10 of its 13 B.C. mills.

Feelings of angst in Canada’s tomato capital

Hi there from Leamington, Ont., known as Canada’s tomato capital. This part of the province is a major hub for the country’s greenhouse sector. They grow a lot of cucumbers, peppers and tomatoes in sprawling greenhouses here, and most of those products are exported to the U.S.

In this sector, the Canadian companies are actually the importers of record, meaning they pay the tariffs imposed by the U.S. They intend to pass those costs along to their U.S. customers, who will pass it along to consumers. But if the vegetables get too expensive, demand could drop.

Richard Lee is executive director of Ontario Greenhouse Vegetable Growers, and he told me today his members are feeling one emotion above all: “angst.”

Among the questions he��’s getting are, “How are we going to survive?” and “What other options do we have?”

Lee said approximately 35,000 people work in and are connected to the greenhouse sector in Ontario alone. British Columbia also has a big industry. Many workers come from other countries for the harvest season.

Given the federal election now underway, he says he wants to see leadership from Ottawa, and he says his sector wants enhancements to existing business risk management programs. Lee said revenue from retaliatory tariffs should support businesses so they “can be made whole to sustain the brunt of this trade war.”

He is anxiously awaiting news from the White House on what might happen in the days ahead.

Quebec’s language law enters the conversation

Hi, I’m a reporter in Montreal.

Quebec’s latest language law, commonly known as Bill 96, is in the campaign spotlight after it was identified today by the Trump administration in its annual list of global trade barriers.

Politicians in Quebec are defending it and pushing back on any suggestion that the French language regulations could become a bargaining chip in a trade war.

Jean-François Roberge, the province’s minister for the French language, spoke to reporters about it at the Quebec National Assembly.

Carrying an infographic that showed two different bottles of soap, one with only an English description, “soap,” and the other with both a French and English version “soap – savon” — a labelling requirement that was specifically mentioned in the U.S. report — Roberge said the province’s law is entirely reasonable.

“There’s nothing excessive about it,” he said.

Roberge said Quebec’s language laws, though they may present an extra hurdle to some businesses that want to sell products in the province, are “non-negotiable.”

Asked about it during a stop in Winnipeg, Liberal Leader Mark Carney said he would protect the controversial language law.

“At the beginning of my leadership campaign, I said never would we negotiate with the United States about issues that affect the French language and culture, and supply management,” he said.

“That will never be on the table.”

You can read a deeper dive about Bill 96’s appearance on the campaign trail today here.

‘Biological clock’ comment ticks some people off

Yesterday, Poilievre referenced fertility while talking about housing, saying that the Conservatives “will not forget that 36-year-old couple whose biological clock is running out faster than they can afford to buy a home and have kids.”

The comment made the rounds online, with some calling his use of the term “biological clock” outdated. Singh, asked for his thoughts on the incident, said, “I don’t think any woman wants to hear Pierre Poilievre talking about their body, period.”

Other commentators have defended Poilievre’s comments, including Amanda Galbraith, a partner at Oyster Group and frequent contributor to CBC’s Power and Politics.

She wrote on X that the party leader was acknowledging “the truth” that some young women “have had a hard time balancing making a life, a career and having kids. That we wait to have a family until we can ‘afford it.’”

“This is a huge issue. It’s one our government should care about and solve.”

Trump warns Republicans to get in line on tariffs

At risk of being repudiated in Congress, Trump has issued a warning to Republicans: support my Canada tariffs.

The president posted a message on his social media site weighing in on an anticipated Senate vote on his cross-border tariffs.

“Don’t let the Democrats have a Victory,” Trump posted.

“It would be devastating for the Republican Party and, far more importantly, for the United States. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”

The Senate will vote, likely by tomorrow afternoon, on a resolution to condemn Trump‘s declaration of a national emergency involving fentanyl from Canada.

The vote is mainly symbolic. The resolution is extremely unlikely to pass the House. In addition, it would not have enough votes to override a likely Trump veto and, even then, it only involves a fraction of Trump’s tariffs.

Yet it could still be a political embarrassment — and an unwanted distraction, just as Trump proceeds with his tariff policy this week.

The resolution appears to have the support of a few Republicans and could potentially pass the Senate, a chamber Trump’s party controls.

Private sector creep into health care won’t fly, says Singh

The NDP is promising to ban U.S. companies from buying health-care facilities in Canada. Speaking in Edmonton today, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh framed the promise as both a blow to U.S. President Donald Trump and a move to protect our universal public health-care system.

He added that an NDP government would enforce the Canada Health Act to end privatization, and criticized his opponent Mark Carney in particular, suggesting that cuts to health care are on the table with a Liberal government.

Carney has said he’ll rein in government spending and has said his government would evaluate some programs to see how well they’re working, but hasn’t said which ones.

“I want Canadians to know that we are going to fight with every ounce of our being, with every fibre of our being, to keep our health-care system not just universal and public, but also to strengthen it, to improve it,” said Singh.

Some Canadian and American private equity firms have bought medical clinics that offer day surgeries, MRI scans and cataract surgeries outside of a hospital setting.

My colleague Kate McKenna says the NDP could enforce the Canada Health Act by withholding transfers to provinces not in alignment with its principles, but called this a “politically difficult move” — because it means withholding cash from provincial health-care institutions.

The death of North America’s first carbon tax

Hi, I’m a journalist based in Prince George, B.C.

This morning, British Columbia joined the federal government in repealing its carbon tax after a late-night legislative session that ended at 1:30 a.m. PT aimed at fast-tracking the policy.

B.C. was actually the first jurisdiction in North America to introduce widespread carbon pricing through a consumer tax, in 2008. The policy was popular for years, surviving left- and right-leaning governments.

But Premier David Eby says it became “toxic,” in part because of Poilievre’s successful “axe the tax” campaign at the federal level. The messaging was picked up by the Conservative Party of B.C., which nearly unseated the NDP in last year’s provincial election.

Eby says B.C. will now focus on industrial emitters.

What about gas prices?

With the removal of the carbon tax today, one expert says there will be some cost savings passed on to consumers almost immediately.

Andrew Leach, an energy and environmental economist at the University of Alberta, said the cancelled tax will be felt most immediately at the gas pump.

The price on pollution for gasoline translated to a cost of about 17.6 cents per litre up until today. Leach said it’s likely that amount will come off within a matter of days, and data from gaswizard.ca, shown in the graphic above, appears to bear that out.

“It is a point-of-sale charge … so you should see it come off almost instantly,” Leach told our colleague Abby Hughes.

If gas prices dropped by 17.6 cents a litre as a result of the tax coming off, you’d save about $8.80 when filling a car with a standard 50-litre gas tank.

You can read more about how the end of the carbon tax could impact your pocketbook here.