BREAKING: Alberta’s Independence question results are in

OpinionThe Alberta Referendum is a warning shot Ottawa cannot afford to ignore. Alberta ReferendumImage courtesy of ChatGPTPublished on:20 Oct 2026, 11:26 amLoading content, please wait...

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Many Canadian businesses expect inflation to hold above three percent for the next two years, and about half of them intend to push cost increases stemming from tariffs and the Middle East conflict onto customers, according to the Bank of Canada’s Business Outlook Survey released Monday. University of Calgary economist Trevor Tombe, in The Hub, argued Canada’s headline inflation rate already understates the squeeze on households. Annual inflation reached 3.1 percent in September, up from three percent a month earlier, with energy costs tied to the Iran and Russia-Ukraine wars accounting for most of the increase. The central bank reported that overall business sentiment improved in the third quarter, but most of its interviews predate the collapse of Canada-U. S. trade talks and Ottawa’s new counter-tariffs.

A Conservative supply motion asking the House to formally declare that Canada is in an affordability crisis, and that the Liberals have held power for 11 years, comes to a recorded vote this afternoon immediately after Question Period. It is the sole item of government business on today’s agenda. No bills are called for debate, no new legislation is being introduced, and no private members’ business is listed. The vote was first deferred on October 8 and deferred again by an order adopted Monday, so today’s sitting is less a day of debate than a day of putting names on the record ahead of the next opposition day on Thursday. The motion, moved by Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre (Battle River—Crowfoot) and seconded by Amanpreet Gill (Calgary Skyview), is short. It asks the House to “officially recognize that: (a) the Liberals have been in power for 11 years; and (b) Canada is in an affordability crisis.” The recorded division will be taken at the expiry of the time provided for Oral Questions, pursuant to the order made Monday, October 19.

Every election, I consider whether I’m voting for a candidate — or against one. My dream is to hopefully fill in the bubble beside the name of someone exciting. Instead, I often find myself drearily choosing someone okay (I guess) to block someone I can’t stand. The upcoming Toronto mayoral election is a case in point. The two front-runners each have a caricaturish portrait of the city. The incumbent, Olivia Chow, lives in a shimmery mirage where Care Bear stares transform traffic jams into affordable homes. Her challenger, Brad Bradford, lives in an apocalyptic hellhole where rats keep trying to gnaw his leg off. The rest of us watch as this once-shiny city dulls, made sticky by a spiderweb of problems. We need sophisticated, strategic ideas, and have been given a choice between cops and school lunches.

The B. C. Conservatives went into this snap election trying to sell voters on a more moderate version of their party under interim leader Lorne Doerkson. But far-right ideas have still popped up on the campaign trail and provided fuel for the NDP to mount attacks.