In the news today: Champagne to announce leadership intentions

Here is a roundup of stories from The Canadian Press designed to bring you up to speed…

Champagne to announce leadership intentions today

Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne plans to reveal his intentions for the Liberal leadership race today.

So far, Ontario MP Chandra Arya and former Montreal MP Frank Baylis are the only two to officially join the contest.

Read More:

• Liberal leadership race: A look at the potential candidates
• Liberals start gathering signatures for potential leadership bids
• Elections task force watching Liberal race for signs of foreign interference

However, The Canadian Press confirmed that former finance minister Chrystia Freeland will announce her bid in coming days, and former Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney and former B.C. premier Christy Clark are also expected to run.

Heritage Minister Pascale St-Onge says it’s really important the next leader of the Liberal Party speak both fluent French and English.

St-Onge says the Liberal government has worked for a decade to promote French and she doesn’t see the party or the country moving backwards.

Here’s what else we’re watching…

Carney hints at interest in Liberal leadership job

Mark Carney went on late-night television in the U.S. Monday to talk Trump, tariffs and carbon tax, but played coy on any plans to seek the Liberal leadership.

The former Bank of Canada and Bank of England governor appeared on “The Daily Show” with Jon Stewart for a 20-minute sit-down interview.

On the issue of president-elect Donald Trump’s suggestion that Canada become the 51st state, Carney and Stewart joked about the two countries being a dating couple that had hit a rough patch.

Carney said statehood is not going to happen but the U.S. and Canada can be “friends with benefits,” generating a roar of laughter from the crowd.

On Trump’s threat of tariffs, Carney said Canada needs to prepare for a trade dispute like it did the last time Trump was in office.

CBC needed with Musk ‘meddling’: heritage minister

Elon Musk’s increasing “meddling” in politics and recent changes at Meta to eliminate fact-checking make Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre’s promise to defund the CBC even more consequential, said Heritage Minister Pascale St-Onge.

She said the issue isn’t about left or right-wing politics, or “even if you like the CBC or not.”

A supporter of incoming U.S. president Donald Trump, Musk has become an increasingly controversial and political figure in recent years, particularly since buying Twitter and rebranding it as X. Musk has also recently waded into Canadian politics, attacking Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and praising Poilievre.

“What we’ve been witnessing in the past few weeks is a guy, a billionaire that owns a very influential platform, meddling in other countries’ elections and politics, and he’s doing it in Canada,” St-Onge said.

School support worker strike begins in Edmonton

Education support workers gathered under pitch-black pre-dawn skies in Edmonton and nearby communities Monday to go on strike in a wage dispute with their employers.

The workers, bundled in coats and scarves while holding up signs and placards, demanded what they call livable wages from the Edmonton Public School Board and Sturgeon Public School Division.

School support workers include education assistants, cafeteria workers and administration staff.

The Canadian Union of Public Employees says some 3,000 staff were off the job in Edmonton.

Finance Minister Nate Horner has accused CUPE of being misleading, saying the union has accepted similar offers for thousands of workers across Alberta doing the same jobs as those in Edmonton.

Ecotour bears not predisposed to conflict: study

Grizzly bears that visited ecotourism areas along a river on the province’s central coast were less likely than others to encounter conflict with people in communities downstream, a new study by British Columbia-based researchers has found.

Jason Moody with the Nuxalk Nation’s fisheries and wildlife program said the research shows ecotourism done right is not a driving factor in conflict between bears and humans.

“The findings were pretty clear that if you’re viewing bears in the right way … (it) does not predispose them to bear-human conflicts later on,” said Moody, who contributed to the study and runs an ecotour operation based in Bella Coola.

Stories, songs and dances passed down through generations show the Nuxalk and other First Nations along B.C.’s coast have long coexisted with bears, he said.

But Moody said human activity, particularly in combination with poor salmon runs, has increasingly pushed grizzly bears into conflict with people.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 14, 2025.

The Canadian Press