In the news today: All eyes on Freeland now that Carney is in

Politics watchers will be waiting to hear what Freeland has to say next, as she’s widely expected to launch her own bid soon.

The former finance minister is also expected to come out against consumer carbon pricing — a key policy of her own Liberal government.

Potential candidates have less than a week left to decide if they will enter the race.

Here’s what else we’re watching…

Joly met with U.S. politicians amid tariff threat

Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly will provide an update on Canada’s efforts to stop punishing U.S. tariffs this morning following meetings in Washington on border security, trade and investment Thursday.

Joly spent the day meeting with both Republicans and Democrats including Senate Majority Leader John Thune, South Carolina Sen. Lindsay Graham, New Hampshire Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, and Idaho Sen. James Risch.

The meetings came days before incoming president Donald Trump takes office and his vow to impose 25 per cent tariffs on all products coming into the United States from Canada and Mexico.

Energy and Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson was also in Washington this week and said Thursday that the plan for Trump’s tariffs is unclear, even among Republican senators and congresspeople.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau met with premiers in Ottawa Wednesday to discuss the country’s response to Trump’s tariff threat.

Tech companies look to Europe amid prorogation

Canadian tech companies say they are patching together their own standards, mostly borrowed from European laws, to guide them through the limbo of prorogation.

When Prime Minister Justin Trudeau prorogued Parliament until March 24, that automatically wiped tabled cybersecurity, privacy, artificial intelligence, data and online harms bills from the agenda.

Tech companies which had eagerly been watching them wind through Parliament were then faced with the reality that for these bills to become law, they would have to be reintroduced and go through readings and debate once more or be reinstated at their previous stage through unanimous consent of the House or a motion to that effect.

While companies wait for Parliament to reconvene and then decide which bills to revive, many say they are choosing the most advanced and strict international regulations to abide by.

In most cases, those regulations come from Europe.

Ontario town wages legal battle over Pride month

When Douglas Judson asked the Township of Emo to declare June as Pride month and display a rainbow flag for a week in 2020, he never imagined the request would turn into a years-long legal dispute that still has no end in sight.

But the town’s refusal to proclaim Pride month has made the northwestern Ontario community of around 1,300 people, near the Minnesota border, a front line in the battle for LGBTQ+ rights.

Every June, rainbow flags are raised in municipalities across the country in recognition of Pride month and to show support for the LGBTQ+ community. As a gay man, Judson said he thought it would be nice if the town where he grew up also offered that recognition.

But things didn’t go as he hoped.

On May 12, 2020, a motion before the township council to declare Pride month was defeated in a 3-2 vote. Borderland Pride, an organization that operates in northwestern Ontario and northern Minnesota, and the Township of Emo have been locked in a human rights and legal battle ever since.

The married cast behind ‘Virginia Woolf’

Being married is not a prerequisite to portraying the tortured couples at the heart of “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf” but Paul Gross and Martha Burns certainly see the advantage of being able to draw on their own longtime union in order to inhabit the stormy characters.

The veteran stage and screen stars each credit an unspoken shorthand with helping them prepare for a new spin on the fiery duo of George and Martha for a Canadian Stage production that starts previews on Saturday and formally opens Jan. 23.

Not to suggest they share so much in common with the explosive couple, who have come to epitomize marital toxicity and dysfunction in the decades since Edward Albee’s 1962 masterpiece hit the stage.

During a rehearsal break, Burns and Gross sat shoulder-to-shoulder on a damask sofa, chuckling over whether their decision to share the stage was a good one.

Gross agrees, citing “a real shortcut” that negates any need for “long conversations about what a long relationship is like” and easy access to the emotions and interpersonal dynamics that come with a decades-long partnership.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 17, 2025.

The Canadian Press

by Canadian Press

In the news today: All eyes on Freeland now that Carney is in

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