As Carney pivots trade from U.S., here are some of Canada's new deals - Yahoo! Finance Canada

Once an economic hinge connecting a young Canada from east to west, Thunder Bay is again finding itself at the center of a national effort to strengthen the country’s economic independence. As head of the local Chamber of Commerce, Charla Robinson attends her share of ribbon cuttings and mundane company announcements in Thunder Bay, a Canadian city of more than 100,000 on the western shore of Lake Superior. But at one such event in September, she cried. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney had come to the Alstom manufacturing plant on the edge of town to announce a new deal: Thunder Bay would be part of a national project to build a new fleet of Canadian passenger railcars. For more than 20 years, Ms. Robinson had been pushing, in one form or another, for a Canadian-built rail project at the sprawling plant, one that manufactured Hawker Hurricane fighter planes during World War II. Now, thanks in part to a rupture between Canada and the United States, she will finally see it happen. “The surprise was we’re building it in Canada, all the way through. That was like, holy smokes. We’re finally doing it,” she says. “Properly.”There is something fitting about that happening here.

The 20th annual Cape to Cabot road race is taking place tomorrow. The grueling 20 km trek sees participants running from one historic landmark to another: From Cape Spear to Cabot Tower on top of Signal Hill. The race starts at 8 a.m., and because of that there are a few related road closures in St. John’s. Between 7:45 and 11a.m. there will be numerous road closures along the route. A full list can be found online at VOCM dot com. Expect traffic impacts from 7:45 a.m. to 11 a.m. on routes including Blackhead Road, Southside Road, Water Street, Harbour Drive, Duckworth Street, Temperance Street and Signal Hill Road.

On Monday, Albertans vote on whether to stay in Canada or hold another binding referendum on quitting Canada. If the vote goes as polls suggest, a majority of Albertans will mark an X to stay in Confederation, and Premier Danielle Smith has said if that’s so, she expects everyone to accept it and move on. Leaders of the independence movement contest that. And political watchers are divided about whether separation — previously a fringe sentiment — will now be a prominent, permanent feature of Alberta’s political landscape, as in Quebec. Julian Castro-Rea, a political-science professor at the University of Alberta who studies the separation debates in Quebec and Alberta, believes as long as Alberta feels alienated from the Canadian capital — feeling that Ottawa benefits from Alberta’s resource economy without giving back — the movement will have fuel. “Even if the referendum is lost, the westernization will still be around, because it’s kind of a way which, traditionally, Albertans have related to the rest of Canada,” says Castro-Rea, who believes western alienation may remain indefinitely. Story continues below advertisement

It’s no secret the long-held Canadian consensus on immigration has fractured — pulled apart by a rapid increase in new arrivals post-pandemic and growing affordability challenges. Now, that fracture is starting to show up at the ballot box. The Parti Québécois won a minority mandate in Quebec on a platform that included promises of tighter immigration controls, which the party linked to protecting French culture and easing pressure on public services and housing. And when Albertans head to the polls Monday to vote on whether to hold a future referendum on separation from Canada, they’ll also be answering five separate questions on immigration being pushed by the government of Alberta Premier Danielle Smith. Those questions include:— Should the province should have more say over economic immigration?— Should provincially funded services should be restricted to citizens, permanent residents and those with “Alberta-approved” immigration status? Story continues below advertisement