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During the past year, media usually oblivious to North American developments focused on increasing tension among the NAFTA partners. In March 2005, after Ottawa's decision not to join the Ballistic Missile Defence (BMD) program, Time columnist Stephen Handelman wrote, "Canada's stock seems be hovering at North Korea level in Washington." U.S. demands on passports, the Senate's vote to keep the border shut to Canadian cattle, alleged American gun trafficking and, above all, Washington's efforts to evade the NAFTA ruling on softwood lumber led to a Canadian tsunami of righteous indignation. While former Foreign Minister Lloyd Axworthy urged Canadians to consider...

The Insurance Brokers Association of Canada (IBAC) has voiced its support of the Conservative Party's recent platform announcement, which outlined a decision to maintain current regulations regarding banks and insurance. IBAC says it is urging other party leaders to follow suit with Stephen Harper on this issue so that "fair and healthy competition" within the insurance industry can be maintained. The banks, represented by the Canadian Bankers Association, have been lobbying to have increased powers within the insurance market and aggressively seeking permission to use their immense branch network to directly market insurance. IBAC says this move would "quash healthy...

VANCOUVER, January 13, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Desperate to prove the existence of the Conservative party’s “hidden agenda” of principled social conservatism, the Liberals have lashed out at a Vancouver Chinese Canadian organization, the Canadian Alliance for Social Justice and Family Values Association (CASJFVA). Harper spoke at a fundraising dinner for the CASJFVA in March with Conservative MPs Art Hanger and John Duncan, and Richmond Conservative candidate Darrel Reid. Not included in the Liberal party media release is mention of Senator Anne Cools who was also in attendance along with Brian Rushfeldt, head of the Canada Family Action Coalition. Labeling it...

TORONTO -- Conservative Leader Stephen Harper is moving the markets as Canadian investors bet on what he'll do if he beats the Liberals in the Jan. 23 election. With polls suggesting his party is headed toward a possible majority government, investors are rolling the dice once more on the on-again-off-again prospect that the country's Big Six banks finally will be allowed to pursue mergers. Shares of Bank of Montreal -- the most obvious takeover target if Ottawa endorses consolidation -- jumped 77 cents yesterday to close at $68.60 on the Toronto Stock Exchange, a day after reaching a 52-week high....

TORONTO -- The RCMP and Canada Border Services Agency stopped about $450 million in ecstasy from hitting Toronto streets by seizing 4,500 kilograms of the chemical used to make the drug. The agencies launched a four-month probe after border agents in Vancouver spotted an unusual shipment of water chestnuts from China, said spokesperson Faith St. John. After the agency marine unit received paperwork from the port in China in September, St. John said agents were watching for a shipment of 1,000 cartons of water chestnuts destined for Toronto. They also contacted the RCMP. When the shipment arrived, 116 of those...

OTTAWA (CP) - Conservative Leader Stephen Harper is saying "No" to Kyoto, "Maybe" to missile defence, and "Sort of" to aboriginals. And that has Liberals shouting: "We told you so." Harper signalled Thursday that he would turn his back on the Kyoto climate-change accord and renegotiate a recent $5-billion federal-provincial deal with natives. And he left the door open to joining the controversial U.S. missile defence system, while promising to hold a free vote in Parliament before signing on. The Liberals, who have been painting Harper as a pro-American, right-wing extremist, jumped on his statements. Environment Minister Stephane Dion said...

Hamilton Liberal cabinet minister Tony Valeri more than doubled his money in three months when he flipped a property next to his home to the son of a prominent businessman with ties to the Liberal party. Valeri, Liberal MP for Hamilton East-Stoney Creek, purchased the property on Ridge Road along the escarpment in upper Stoney Creek for $225,000 last April. Three months later, Valeri sold the property for $500,000 to John Ng, son of Joe Ng, whose Hamilton-based engineering company has been a longtime supporter of the Liberals at the federal and provincial levels. Valeri, who was Government House Leader...

PORT HARDY, B.C. (CP) - NDP Leader Jack Layton, who's campaigning as the defender of public health care, had surgery at a private clinic in the 1990s, The Canadian Press has learned. Layton had hernia surgery at the Shouldice Hospital, a private facility in the Toronto suburb of Thornhill, while he was serving as a Toronto city councillor. The NDP leader said he wasn't aware the clinic was private when he went for his surgery in the mid-1990s. "It's just part of the system," Layton said in an interview. "The doctor says, 'Go there.' You pay with your (Ontario health)...

Prime Minister Paul Martin and Conservative Leader Stephen Harper are accusing each other of "failed" and "wrong" efforts to defend Canada's interests in dealings with the United States. In a French-language debate expected to focus on national unity, it was ironically the Canada-U.S. issue that provoked the sharpest barbs between the two men who would be prime minister when voting is all over on Jan. 23. Martin slammed Harper for an appearance on U.S. television a few years ago, in which he said Canada had been wrong in its reaction to the U.S.-led war on Iraq. "A prime minister's role...

Here's what we have to put up with in Canada during an election campaign from the anti-American Liberals.

I’ve written that, before any couple starts to plan a honeymoon vacation to Europe, they should visit Quebec. That goes for a lot of other would-be world travellers, too. In Quebec, we have what amounts to a foreign country—a slab of continental Europe—right on our doorstep. Quebec City is the most historic and beautiful capital in our country, the Gaspe is marvelous, and the Laurentians magnificent. Yet, since the currency is the same no one will gyp you, drinking the tap water won’t make you sick, and if they can, and many can’t, Quebecers will speak to you in your...

The campaign is coming up and its coming quickly. Blogging has become the new medium for getting the message out and, more importantly, getting it past the filter. Blogging Tories is a grassroots organization of Conservative Party supporters that do not hesitate to express their opinions, point out media bias, and hold the Liberals and the NDP to account. They do this without compensation and thus their message comes from the strength of their beliefs. Blogging Tories is the case-study of grassroots activism. In fact, as I have noted before, there seems to be more Canadian conservative-minded bloggers in the...

OTTAWA, April 11, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The official estimate of the crowd given by March for Marriage organizers at the huge rally before Parliament on Saturday was 20,000. RCMP confirmed the number at more than 15,000. While the national broadcaster CBC went with the police estimate of 15,000, much of the biased Canadian media reported 4000 attendees, a falsehood demonstrating a bias beyond even a mediocre attempt at fair and balanced coverage. Among the speakers were Official Opposition Leader, Stephen Harper, former Alliance Leader Stockwell Day, and about another dozen Conservative MPs. Liberal MP Pat O'Brien was also present along...

The spectacle of Paul Martin abandoning his principles in order to hold onto power would be pathetic if it weren't so infuriating. The prime minister has made a multi-billion-dollar lurch to the left, in a deal with the New Democrats to rewrite the two-month-old federal budget. Can Martin really think this is good for the country? Putting Liberal interests ahead of Canadians' interests is what got the Natural Governing Party into this mess. Now they're doing it again. At least this time it's in the open. But how can he justify adding $4.6 billion over two years to social spending?...

We need your help to topple the corrupt liberal government. Chuck Cadman (an independent from the Surrey, BC riding) holds a crucial deciding vote in the Non-Confidence Motion that will arise in the next few weeks. In an appearance on CBC Newsworld moments ago he stated that his decision will be based on the majority of emails that he receives from his riding, and at this moment he is undecided. Please email him and DEMAND AN ELECTION!!!

About 5,000 subscribers to a Canadian conservative Web site were told "YOU WILL DIE SHORTLY" in a massive spam attack. The threats have angered the site's operator, who has gained attention for advancing an anti-abortion resolution at this week's Conservative party convention. Connie Wilkins, co-owner of the site Free Dominion: The Voice of Principled Conservatism, said the chaos began on Monday after CBC NewsWorld broadcast an interview with her. Someone hacked into the site's server and used its software to send the e-mails, six times each, to everyone in the database. "I know that a lot of people disagree with...

FEDERAL GRITS will be asked to support legalizing prostitution when they gather for their convention in Ottawa next week, Sun Media has learned. A resolution prepared by Young Liberals calls for the removal of the Criminal Code offence of communicating for the purposes of sex in return for money. 'IT'S A GREAT IDEA' "The sex trade is a profession central to the subsistence of many Canadian citizens" and the fear of being charged drives hookers into "dangerous and harmful locations," the resolution reads. If passed by Liberal delegates, it would urge the federal government to remove Section 213 of the...

The Globe and Mail is the northern equivalent to the New York Times, and the CBC gets 1 billion of the taxpayer's hard-earned money per year to spew anti-American, pro-liberal, agenda driven news. The budget is coming out this week and the liberals intend to increase the funding for the CBC by millions of dollars. HELP!!

OTTAWA -- The CBC will get a multimillion-dollar boost when the federal budget is tabled Wednesday, CP has learned. The extra cash will be enough to restore local programs, notably regional newscasts, a senior government source said on condition of anonymity. Local supper-hour newscasts were slashed in 2000 amid deep budget cuts. Staff were laid off across Canada and more than 200,000 viewers tuned out when hour-long regional evening newscasts were shortened. Critics assailed the CBC's effort to replace the popular local newscasts with Canada Now, a Vancouver-based show that includes regional inserts. CBC president Robert Rabinovitch recently outlined a...

Visual effects specialists Artem have completed work on a groundbreaking two-part special that explores the journey from conception to birth from the human foetus’ point of view. To be broadcast as 'Life Before Birth' on Channel 4 (featuring poetry from Roger McGeogh) in March and as 'In The Womb' on National Geographic in April, the special follows the bewildering transformation of a fertilised egg on its way to becoming an individual person. Advances in 3D scanning have revealed that the behaviour of the growing foetus is much more complex and advanced than ever previously imagined. During its nine-month gestation, it...