The News Rundown

14 Liberal MPs pen letter to Carney raising concerns over environmental backslide

The CBC is reporting that over a dozen Liberal MPs are unhappy with Prime Minister Mark Carney's environmental rollbacks.
Carney signed a new agreement with Alberta Premier Danielle Smith last week that could see construction on an oil pipeline to the West Coast start as early as September 2027. It also includes a plan to increase Alberta's industrial carbon price, though at a slower pace than previously projected. We'll talk a bit more later on the pipeline, but how it relates to Carney's own caucus is very interesting as well.
Fourteen Liberal MPs sent a letter to the prime minister at the end of April, before the agreement with the Alberta government was even signed, to offer some recommendations — but also to express their unease with the situation.
Despite signing their names at the bottom of the letter, the MPs do not want to be publicly identified, stating that their approach is intended to be constructive and respectful. The 14 MPs come from across the country, including Quebec and British Columbia.
Specifically in response to the concessions being granted to Alberta, the elected officials reiterated the importance of “supporting the clean electricity regulations.” And more generally, they emphasized that “climate change remains the greatest threat of our time.”
So far, only former Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault — who left Carney's cabinet after the initial MOU Carney and Smith signed last fall — has publicly voiced his criticism of Carney's most recent proposals to weaken environmental regulations in order to attract an investor for a potential pipeline in Alberta. The rest of Carney's caucus has been rather quiet in the face of his moves which include potentially privatizing ports and airports, as well as restricting the rights of striking workers.
The Bloc Québécois is also aiming to use the few remaining weeks of the parliamentary sitting before the summer recess to convince Liberals who are sensitive to climate issues to speak out.
Bloc MP Patrick Bonin said in a French interview: “We will use all the parliamentary tools at our disposal to make the voices of those who haven't disappeared, who remain concerned about the climate crisis, heard.”
Bonin said he hopes more Liberals come forward publicly. “We obviously hope that there are people within the Liberals who will stand up and say, no, you were not elected on a platform that is essentially the agenda of the oil and gas companies, which is currently being implemented,” the Bloc environment critic said.
It's remarkable that this story flew under the radar, and yet a lot of other stories about Carney's policies that have not been popular have also been under-reported by the mainstream media this week, who seem to have been on holiday far longer than just the Victoria Day weekend.
Supplementals:

With most of the discussion this week focused around what’s going in Alberta and how Canada’s establishment knows what’s best, a huge story has been missed in relation to the CRTC and online streaming services.
The CRTC has announced that it will require online streamers to pay 15% of their annual Canadian revenues towards Canadian and Indigenous content.
Streamers like Netflix, Disney+, Spotify and others have been subject to an interim 5% levy but the CRTC announced that it would be increasing to 15%.
Upon news of the changes literally every large streaming company condemned the decision as “unprecedented, unnecessary, and discriminatory investment obligations”
What this means is that those companies will need to pay into Canadian content creation or else. We’ll talk about the or else, later.
The interim 5% as established in 2024 was put in place with the idea that the streaming providers would generate more than $25m annually in Canadian broadcasting revenues.
Large streamers are challenging the order and in the meantime payments are paused but the reaction has already been swift.
The Motion Picture Association or MPA in the United States put out a statement saying, “The Motion Picture Association strongly condemns the CRTC’s decision to impose unprecedented, unnecessary, and discriminatory investment obligations on American streaming services operating in Canada. This burdensome framework unfairly targets global streamers with requirements that directly violate Canada’s obligations under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).”
US Ambassador to Canada Pete Hoekstra also had harsh words. He said the decision “to triple the tax rate on leading streaming services is making a bad situation worse” and that the CRTC “is targeting and taxing U.S. companies, putting up new, discriminatory trade barriers, and worsening the investment climate for American businesses.”
It is important to remember that the idea of re-negotiating CUSMA comes due this summer and while a fair deal is what we all hope for, irritants like the CRTC decision could play a role in how that negotiation shakes out.
There is a thought amongst Trump deranged Canadians that we must do anything and everything to “fight back” against the United States but in reality what we must do is come to the negotiating table and negotiate honestly with the goal of getting the best deal without any of the histrionics seen over the last 18 months.
For those who believe that it’s just the President and his staff exerting influence, House Representative and House and Ways committee Chairman Jason Smith said, “Coordinated, unified legislative and executive branch activity is needed to stop Canada from furthering this harmful, costly attack on U.S. innovators… and to deter other nations from following suit.”
While the discussion looks like a tripling from 5% to 15% of the levy, what’s actually happening is that there’s a spending requirement that mandates large streamers direct at least 30% of their expenditure to “enhanced partnerships.”
Those “enhanced partnerships” exclude much of the existing spending by a company like Netflix since they require a Canadian hold the majority of the copyright.
Also, any shortfall below that 30% is located to the Canada Media Fund.
The CRTC with this will also require that 30% of expenditures be allocated to French language programming.
Streaming companies will also be expected to make the Canadian and Indigenous content visible to audiences who are not searching for it.
With this kind of decision made by the CRTC an interesting thing happens according to Michael Geist, who is the Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-Commerce Law at the University of Ottawa. He said, the reaction by the streaming companies is “no surprise, given that the CRTC basically treated the hundreds of millions they spend on production in Canada and the significant promotion of Canadian content around the world as irrelevant. Instead, they added millions in new expenditures, while Canadian broadcasters see their costs go down.”
The media is largely absent on this story and Culture Minister Marc Miller would only say that the government is reviewing the changes and assessing the impacts.
This is an about face since it was only a month prior that Miller publicly criticized the CRTC for moving too slowly on the same issues. The government wanted the regulator to act and now is saying that they need to take a step back and consider the moves.
Again, according to Geist there are four options.
First, a legal challenge.
Second, CUSMA negotiations could be put in jeopardy.
Third, streamers may reallocate some of their existing Canadian spending into mandated buckets to meet the requirements on paper.
Fourth, none of these changes come without consumer cost.
These options each have their own unique meaning to Canada and we need to answer these questions quickly.
Supplementals:

Secrecy, allegations cloud B.C. Conservative leadership race ahead of vote

The committee organizing the leadership race for the B.C. Conservatives says it doesn’t have enough credible evidence to take action against a candidate after a media report said she was accused of wrongdoing in the last federal election.
The leadership campaign for Kerry-Lynne Findlay said earlier this week that the allegations are false and the “unproven and anonymous” claims were leaked to the media at the most politically damaging moment possible.
Findlay has a news conference scheduled for Monday and is one of five candidates on the ballot to replace John Rustad as voting starts on Saturday.
A statement from the Commissioner of Canada Elections’ office says it is aware of the report about Findlay but it doesn’t confirm receiving a complaint or initiating an investigation because of confidentiality provisions in the federal Elections Act.
The statement from the leadership race’s organizing committee says Findlay has “not provided any substantive response or co-operated” and it has reached out to investigators from the commissioner’s office, but has received no response.
The organizing committee says its “goal is to provide the membership with as much information as possible and to act in the party’s best interests.”
CJDC-TV News reports on the matter with a bit more sensationalism: "A cloud of secrecy and alleged misconduct was hanging over the leadership race Friday, just one day before members are set to vote on the party’s next leader."
However, Findlay’s campaign is pushing back. Campaign manager Chris Dyson says the candidate denies the allegations and has not received any formal notice of an investigation from Elections Canada. Dyson said, “We believe that the allegations are a political hit piece on Ms. Findlay, a former federal cabinet minister and practicing lawyer, at a most sensitive juncture, the day before ballots are issued.”
Sources within the party tell CJDC-TV News, there was concern that removing a candidate at this stage could cause significant divisions within the Conservative caucus, potentially destabilizing the party.
Voting is set to begin Saturday with the new leader being declared at a convention on May 30. BC Conservative Party members will begin casting ballots for the next leader. Their choice will determine whether the BC Conservatives become a disciplined government-in-waiting or another coalition slowly collapsing under the weight of its own contradictions. British Columbia already feels unsteady.
Housing costs spiral higher while families wonder whether their children will ever own a home. Emergency rooms close without warning. Violent crime rises while public confidence falls. Deficits expand, major projects stall, and even the most basic assumptions about property and public order feel less secure than they once did. Recent polling reflects that erosion of confidence, with Leger placing the NDP at 44 percent and the BC Conservatives at 40 percent among decided voters while a majority of British Columbians say the province is on the wrong track.
With this leadership race, which the media has barely touched, we will see if BC will finally have a true contender for Premier, and one who can fix the problems that David Eby has gotten us into.
Supplementals:

Firing Line

Danielle Smith says she will put her own separation-related referendum question to Albertans in October

This past Thursday Premier Smith addressed the province in a Prime Time spot providing clarity on what is to happen going forward in relation to the Alberta independence movement.
She highlighted what we did last week: About 700,000 people signed petitions either to hold a referendum to leave Canada or to signify support for remaining in Canada.
As such alongside the other referendum questions on October 19th the province will ask: The question: “Should Alberta remain a province of Canada or should the Government of Alberta commence the legal process required under the Canadian Constitution to hold a binding provincial referendum on whether or not Alberta should separate from Canada?”
As a reminder, last week we discussed the Forever Canada petition and why initially Thomas Lukaszuk wanted a referendum. In short, his application asked for a referendum because at the time law prohibited two petitions asking the same or similar questions. He figured if he could get out in front with enough of a signature drive it would prevent an independence petition from going forward. His petition garnered about north of 400,000 signatures while the independence petition garnered just a bit more than 300,000.
With that the Premier also said that she would not have (in her view) “a legal mistake by a single judge silence the voices of hundreds of thousands of Albertans.”
Citing the time it would take to appeal and get a similar question on the ballot a middle of the road decision was taken instead.
Many people were wondering if Smith would simply ask the Forever Canada question, ask the independence question from Stay Free Alberta, or do something else.
This middle of the road approach was not anticipated in the media or by those who support Alberta independence.
The middle of the road approach has angered a portion of those who are pushing for independence to the point that some, an unknown amount as of today, feel Danielle Smith should be replaced as UCP leader.
What would happen after that is anyone’s guess but presumably they would install a separatist leader, change the legislation, and just charge forward hoping that eyes in the international community would recognize Alberta as an independent state in the likelihood of a successful vote.
Smith is staying true to her own stated libertarian policies that respect citizen referenda. She also came out strongly as somebody who wants Alberta to remain in Canada.
She detailed her view in how Canada is “very different” from the United States being a “decentralized federation composed of very unique and diverse provinces left to govern themselves in almost all matters.”
She admitted that Ottawa had moved towards a more American style system and she rejects attempts to do so and calls on all provincial leaders and MPs to do the same.
She highlighted the Alberta Sovereignty Act, litigation on energy policy, firearms, policing, and many other things where provinces should in her words “govern themselves with minimal federal interference.”
She cited what she sees as wins including the about-face by the Carney government on “pipelines being a national imperative”, the NDP being electorally annihilated, and “Prime Minister Mark Carney, adopt[ing] most of Alberta’s positions on energy and resource development.”
This podcast knew Danielle Smith was committed to Canada and after this speech anyone who feels Danielle Smith is a separatist should check themselves.
This is what the federalist approach should sound like, instead the media has been incredibly hostile.
Former BC Premier Christy Clark while on CTV said, “If this should succeed, Danielle Smith will go down as probably the worst premier Canada has ever had. If it fails, she'll go down as someone who got lucky and got out of there with their skin intact and certainly still isn't qualified to be the premier of a province.”
Other commentators like Andrew Coyne who frequently appear on CBC’s at Issue Panel suggested that there is no “legal process required under the Canadian Constitution” to hold a “binding referendum” on separation.
This tone was rather persistent throughout the media and highlights what the ongoing problem will be.
In general there has been a suggestion that Smith should just kick the “separatists” out and carry on with governing effectively ignoring them.
Calgary Confederation MP Corey Hogan who is a Liberal said that Smith’s internal political problems have become a national crisis.
Overall nuance has been lost by the media and some political types and this all has the potential to become incredibly dangerous, but more on this later. Now let’s look at what some others had to say.
Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre said that while has a role to play in convincing those in Alberta to not leave Canada, he said the Prime Minister needs to keep the country together.
He said, “It is possible for two things to be true. One is that Canada should stay united. It’s the greatest country on Earth. It’s given us incredible blessings as individuals and as a people. There are very legitimate grievances that Albertans harbour, and that we can and should fix those grievances.”
He also said that all of his MPs and himself will be campaigning for unity this summer.
Prime Minister Mark Carney released a video in the Library of Parliament making the case for Alberta to remain. He said, "Canada is working in a spirit of co-operative federalism to make the country better… We're renovating the country as we go. And Alberta being at the centre of that is essential.”
He also said that Alberta is essential to making Canada better.
A campaign to stay in Canada has already begun. Now one may say that the media, federal government MPs, and even the Alberta NDP are leading that charge. The reality though is that so far the Alberta NDP has used the situation to score political points.
He said, “We cannot be fooled by Danielle Smith’s sweet words following her deliberate decisions to put our country at risk just so she can try and save her job.”
You’ll note that this sounds a lot like what the media has been saying. Instead we have to look at those who are actually wanting to convince people on the merits of Canada without taking shots at the government.
This is where former Alberta Premier Jason Kenney alongside former MLA and Finance Minister Travis Toews comes in. They’re joined by former federal MP Monte Solberg and independent journalist Jen Gerson.
Does that name sound familiar? Yep. This is exactly the connection that was missing when Gerson’s name popped up a few weeks back with regard to the electors list data breach.
Gerson was looking into data provided to the Centurion Project’s David Parker by the Republican Party of Alberta. David Parker was involved in the removal of Jason Kenney as Premier. Link complete. This connection and their third party group speaks volumes.
They say their purpose is “to unite Albertans who want to protect Alberta’s future, defend our prosperity, and keep Alberta strong within a united Canada — while motivating every Albertan who believes in staying in Canada to show up, speak out, and vote.”
Now contrast this to the lack of a campaign (so far) on the independence side. So far the independence movement is primarily online and a single defining voice outside the petition originators has not yet emerged. Independence supporters should be worried since the media use the caricature of lawyer for Stay Free Alberta Jeffrey Rath and any mis-steps by the movement against them.
Both sides need to move the needle on the 15 to 20% who are presently on the bubble and could vote one way or the other depending what poll you believe. You do this by speaking to those in the middle not those already committed to independence or those remaining in Canada.
Pollster Janet Brown while talking in an interview with Air Quotes media said that everyone first must commit to doing no harm. She also said that those in the middle are the ones who must be spoken to. She believes that those who want to remain in Canada don’t have a message for them and those who are set to support independence don’t have a message for them either.
What this means is that somebody, a party, a third party group, or some yet to be known movement has to move that 15-20% and figuring out how to communicate to them.
Danielle Smith also struck this tone in her address she said, “I wish to speak with those of you who already agree with me that Alberta should remain in Canada. Let us guard against the trap of using division and demonization tactics against our fellow Albertans with whom we disagree on this matter. The vast majority of those advocating for separation love our province profoundly. Many are also proud Canadians that have simply lost hope that their families can flourish within Canada. So instead of attacking these loyal Albertans, let’s work together to restore hope in their country again.”
The media in their quest to highlight fireworks seems to forget this point and the middle that can be moved and specifically be moved without division and demonization.
If division and demonization is used by the media or any groups it just risks further polarizing the debate. The media misses this point and it’s why the media is on the precipice of creating a dangerous situation in the province.
Supplementals:

Quote of the Week

“I wish to speak with those of you who already agree with me that Alberta should remain in Canada. Let us guard against the trap of using division and demonization tactics against our fellow Albertans with whom we disagree on this matter. The vast majority of those advocating for separation love our province profoundly. Many are also proud Canadians that have simply lost hope that their families can flourish within Canada. So instead of attacking these loyal Albertans, let’s work together to restore hope in their country again.” - Alberta Premier Danielle Smith on what those looking to remain in Canada need to do.

Word of the Week

nuance - a subtle distinction or variation

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Show Data

Episode Title: Restoring Hope
Teaser: Liberal MPs are unhappy with Carney’s environmental policies, the CRTC is forcing streamers to pay even more tax, and the BC Conservative leadership race concludes soon to little fanfare. Also, Danielle Smith will bring her own referendum to Albertans.
Production Code: WC-469-2026-05-23
Recorded Date: May 23, 2026
Release Date: May 24, 2026
Duration: 1:02:45
Edit Notes: Patrick cough at start

Podcast Summary Notes

Duration: XX:XX