Ex-Conservative MP Matt Jeneroux has crossed the floor to the Liberals, Prime Minister Mark Carney says.

“I am honoured to welcome Matt Jeneroux to our caucus as the newest member of Canada’s new government,” Carney said in a social media post.

Jeneroux is now the third Conservative, after Nova Scotia MP Chris d’Entremont and Toronto area MP Michael Ma, to switch to Carney’s Liberals.

Jeneroux’s crossing brings Carney’s government to the cusp of a majority, with the Liberals now at 169 MPs in the House of Commons. Three byelections are set to be held in ridings previously held by the Liberals. If the Liberals regain all three seats, this would bring them to 172 MPs — the majority mark, but reliant on the Speaker to break tie votes.

The MP for Edmonton Riverbend since 2015, Jeneroux was the Conservative critic for supply chains, innovation, infrastructure, health and housing before announcing that he was resigning , just ahead of a crucial vote on the federal budget in the House of Commons.

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“It was not an easy decision, but it is, I believe, the right one,” he said at the time.

1:39
Conservative MP Matt Jeneroux resigns, 2nd to leave caucus this week

Jeneroux said he had hoped Canadians would “put their faith” in a Conservative government led by Pierre Poilievre in the last federal election, but added he has “great admiration” for his fellow MPs “on both sides of the aisle.”

Carney on Wednesday said Jeneroux is being appointed as the “special advisor on economic and security partnerships.”

“Matt’s leadership will contribute to strengthening Canada’s alliances and trade partnerships, advancing Canada’s leadership in global security cooperation, and building our strength at home,” Carney said.

2:35
Edmonton Riverbend MP Matt Jeneroux resigns from House of Commons

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After the COVID-19 pandemic,  ridership on Toronto’s buses, streetcars and subways struggled to rebound.

But it surged back in nearby cities.

Brampton, Mississauga and parts of Waterloo Region were among the suburbs that rapidly recovered from COVID-19, setting records for the number of passengers and struggling with overcrowding.

Then, the federal government put a cap on the number of international students who could study in Ontario. The move appears to be directly linked to suddenly plummeting ridership in those cities, which are now recording millions fewer rides.

“In 2024, federal policy changes reduced immigration inflows and began to affect ridership,” the City of Brampton wrote in a statement to Global News. “Demand slowed late in the year and declines continued into Spring and Summer 2025, resulting in a revenue shortfall.”

Mississauga, for example, saw its student ridership drop 24 per cent last year and its total number of riders fall by 10 per cent.

“A 10 per cent drop in ridership does seem significant,” Mississauga’s Miway transit director Maureen Cosyn Heath acknowledged. “Certainly, the policy change is an impact on that.”

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In Waterloo, Grand River Transit provided four million fewer rides in 2025 than it had the year before.

“Decreases in ridership were mainly due to reductions in the local student population,” a recent report from the agency explained.

The cap on international students was brought in by the federal government in January 2024 and then tightened. It’s been blamed by the Ontario government for financial struggles at provincial colleges as even overseas students who can get visas begin to stay away.

Cosyn Heath said the long-term impacts of the policy would mean Mississauga has to change how it plans its transit system, perhaps dropping or reducing its routes serving campuses or student housing.

“We’re aware that the changes on international students are going to have a permanent impact on us in the longer term,” she said. “So we revise our ridership projections, and then we pivot and shift to figuring out what new markets exist that we need to serve better.”

Brampton, too, said it would be “aligning service delivery with demand and long-term sustainability.”

Despite the short-term hit to transit ridership around Toronto, one transit expert believes it’s a bump in the road rather than an existential threat.

“Brampton was the transit success story of North America long before the international boom,” Jonathan English, principal at Infrastory Insights, told Global News.

“They experienced a 250 per cent ridership bump before international students arrived. Is it a significant drop? For sure. And will that have financial consequences? Definitely. But I think we need to keep it in perspective.”

In Mississauga, the transit agency is taking a pause to assess the impacts, but not scaling back. After increasing ridership hours, MiWay will freeze them for 2026 as it works out how to address a 10 per cent drop in travellers.

“You’re not going to see service cuts unilaterally across the system as a result of one pocket of our ridership,” Cosyn Heath said.

English said that’s the right approach, urging cities to ensure service improves to attract new riders who aren’t as reliant on transit as students might be.

“It’s hard to change routes before ridership data comes in. Now the ridership data has come in and there is an opportunity for the systems to respond — and they need to respond,” he said.

“Are some routes going to permanently or, for the foreseeable future, have less ridership? Absolutely… but overall the cities continue to grow, people continue to travel to work, to play, to school, so the key goal has to be here ot make sure we maintain a basic quality service level.”

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“Late Show” host Stephen Colbert on Tuesday night called CBS’s denial of his claim that it blocked the broadcast of his interview with Texas state Rep. James Talarico “crap” — and urged the network and its parent, Paramount Skydance, to stand up to the “bullies” in the Trump administration.

Colbert’s broadside came hours after CBS issued a statement on the controversy.

The host, whose show will end in May as it was canceled by CBS, held up a printed copy of the network’s statement about Talarico’s interview during his show Tuesday night and said, “I don’t even know what to do with this crap.”

He then pulled a plastic doggy bag from behind his desk, picked up the statement, tied a knot, and mimed throwing it away before cutting to commercial.

The controversy is the latest flap to spark speculation that CBS is currying favor with the Trump administration as Paramount makes a hostile tender bid for Warner Bros Discovery. If WBD’s shareholders accept Paramount’s bid, the federal government regulators would need to sign off on the deal.

Colbert had invited Talarico, who is running in the Democratic primary for a U.S. Senate seat from Texas, to appear on the “Late Show” for Monday night’s broadcast.

But early in that night’s show, Colbert said to his studio audience that CBS’ lawyers had told him “in no uncertain terms … that we could not have him on the broadcast.”

Colbert said the lawyers wanted to avoid running afoul of new guidance by the Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr that suggests broadcast talk shows could be required to abide by the so-called equal time provision requiring broadcasters to give political candidates equal coverage if their opponents appear on air.

Colbert noted that he had put Talarico’s interview on the “Late Show” YouTube channel — the video has been seen more than 4.4 million times.

CBS, in its statement on Tuesday afternoon, denied Colbert’s main allegation that it had barred the interview from being aired.

“The Late Show was not prohibited by CBS from broadcasting the interview with Rep. James Talarico,” the network said.

“The show was provided legal guidance that the broadcast could trigger the FCC equal-time rule for two other candidates, including Rep. Jasmine Crockett [D-Texas], and presented options for how the equal time for other candidates could be fulfilled,” CBS said.

Colbert scoffed at the statement during Tuesday’s show.

“They know damn well that every word of my script last night was approved by CBS lawyers who, for the record, approved every script that goes on the air,” Colbert said.

“In fact, between the monologue I did last night, and before I did the second act talking about this issue, I had to go backstage,” he said.

“I got called backstage to get more notes from these lawyers. Something that had never, ever happened before, and they told us the language they wanted me to use to describe that equal time exception, and I used that language,” Colbert said. “So I don’t know what this is about.”

Colbert went on to say that he wasn’t “mad” at the network and does not want an “adversarial relationship.”

“I’m just so surprised that this giant global corporation would not stand up to these bullies,” he said.

“Come on. You’re Paramount. No, no, no, you’re more than that. You’re Paramount+,” Colbert cracked. “And for the lawyers to release this [statement] without even talking to me is really surprising.”

The host also noted that there has long been “a very famous exception to” the equal time rule, “and that exception included talk shows, interviews with politicians.”

“We looked, and we can’t find one example of this rule being enforced for any talk show interview, not only for my entire late-night career, but for anyone’s late-night career, going back to the 1960s,” he said.

Colbert said that Carr has “not gotten rid of” that exception for talk-show hosts “yet.”

“But CBS generously did it for him and told me, unilaterally, that I had to abide by the equal time rules, something I have never been asked to do for an interview in the 20 years of this job,” he added.

“Now, that decision, I want to be clear, is their right, just like I have the right to talk about their decision on air last night,” Colbert said.

Paramount did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.

Early voting in the Texas Democratic primary began Tuesday. Talarico is in a close contest against Rep. Jasmine Crockett. The winner will face the victor of the Republican primary between Sen. John Cornyn and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.

Democrats have not won a statewide race in Texas since 1994.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre on Tuesday distanced himself from Jamil Jivani’s claim that Canadians are throwing an “anti-American hissy fit” over U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs and sovereignty threats, saying the Conservative MP “speaks for himself.”

Jivani travelled to Washington earlier this month to meet with his college friend, Vice President JD Vance, and other Trump administration officials in what he described as an attempt to “build bridges” between Canada and the U.S.

After he returned to Canada, Jivani told U.S. right-wing news site Breitbart that Canadians would be “shooting ourselves in the foot if we continue this anti-America hissy fit” and urged Prime Minister Mark Carney to work with him and the White House on resolving the trade dispute.

Poilievre told reporters in Ottawa he has spoken to Jivani about his trip and subsequent comments.

“My message (to him) is that Canadians are understandably upset about the tariffs and the comments that President Trump has made, and that we need to focus on what we can do here at home,” he said.

“He speaks for himself, and I speak for the party.”

Jivani represents a central Ontario riding that Poilievre acknowledged has been “disproportionately impacted” by Trump’s auto tariffs. The riding includes parts of Oshawa, home to General Motors’ assembly plant that recently cut a shift and laid off some 500 employees — a move expected to affect upward of a thousand workers across the supply chain.

2:25
Carney suggests Poilievre remove his ‘fingers from his ears’ when it comes to Canadian auto workers

GM has signalled intentions to follow automakers like Stellantis and shift its production to the U.S., a key goal of Trump’s tariff policies.

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“I think that it’s necessary for all MPs to use all the connections and work that they can in order to overturn the tariffs and protect Canadian jobs,” Poilievre said. “So I encourage all MPs to fight the tariffs and stand up for Canada.”

Global News reported earlier this month that some member of the Conservative caucus were upset with what they viewed as Jivani’s “freelance” diplomacy with the Trump administration.

It’s also not clear if Jivani’s trip was sanctioned by Poilievre’s office, which has not responded to questions about his U.S. travels.

Jivani is not the party’s “shadow minister” for foreign affairs, international trade or Canada-U.S. trade.

Jivani said earlier this month he had “productive” meetings with Trump’s administration. He said on social media that he met with representatives of the White House and U.S. State Department and that the president asked him to pass along a message — to tell Canadians he loves them.

In a video posted to social media, Jivani said he expects criticism from “frothing, elbow-waving anti-American activists” but he thinks Canadians want someone willing to “cut through all the posturing” to deliver results.

He later described his meetings with American officials and lawmakers as “very productive, promising and positive.”

“I’m feeling hopeful and optimistic that we can get something really good done for Canadian workers and businesses,” he said. “Might take some time, but I really believe that the doors are open here.”

That later video came days before Trump threatened to block the opening of the Gordie Howe International Bridge between Ontario and Michigan in a social media post that complained about Canada treating the U.S. unfairly on trade and other issues.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford told reporters Tuesday he was happy to see Jivani go to the U.S. but that he disagreed with his recent comments.

“I don’t call it a hissy fit,” Ford said. “What I call (it) is making sure that we communicate with the American people.

“No one would even know who Jamil Jivani was unless I hired the guy in my office,” Ford added, referring to the fact that Jivani once worked as an adviser to his government. “I didn’t know him from a hole in the ground.”

—with files from Global’s Alex Boutilier and the Canadian Press

&copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

B.C.’s Finance Minister, Brenda Bailey, has delivered the 2026 budget.

Here are five things you need to know.

Bailey has promised there would be years of declining deficits, but first it is projected to spike by a hefty 38 per cent to a record $13.3 billion next fiscal year, compared with an updated forecast for the current year of $9.6 billion.

While the deficit is forecast to increase $3.7 billion year on year, Bailey said a “guiding principle” was that the deficit would decrease “over time,” with the ongoing impact of structural changes such as the tax increase and public sector cuts.

But even that does not change the fact that the deficit remains stubbornly high — under the budget’s three-year plan, it would be $11.4 billion in the 2028 fiscal year.

B.C.’s debt is going to continue to grow, with no cuts in the budget this year.

The cost of servicing programs like child welfare, social assistance, and pharmacare is rapidly escalating.

“The cost to providing care is increasing,” Bailey said in the budget.

“Our government has been working hard to make sure that British Columbians can access the care they need, when they need it. A lot of progress has been made.

“This summer will welcome the very first class of medical students to the new SFU Medical School in Surrey. And in the year ahead, we expect to break ground on the school’s permanent home.”

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Bailey said more British Columbians are getting a family doctor, which is in addition to the hundreds of maintenance and renovation projects to modernize and upgrade hospitals throughout B.C.

“These projects represent the largest investment in health care infrastructure in B.C. history,” she said.

“But we know there is still much more to do. We must remain focused on protecting what we’ve built and delivering better, faster health care for people. This spring, as part of a national pharmacare agreement, B.C. will provide enhanced public coverage for both menopausal hormone therapy and a wide range of diabetes medication and devices. We are also continuing to fund in vitro fertilization treatments so people can start a family.”

Bailey said a comprehensive review of health authorities has identified administration duplication and redirected savings to the front lines of health care. She said that since the review began, 1,100 administrative positions have been eliminated, closed or left vacant, with those savings to be invested in frontline patient care.

B.C. will pace infrastructure projects “carefully,” Bailey said, to deliver them efficiently without driving up costs.

The completion or construction of some long-term care homes will be delayed, along with phase two of Burnaby Hospital.

There are delays to seven long-term care projects from Abbotsford to Fort St. John, as well as the second phase of Burnaby Hospital and Cancer Care, and student housing at the University of Victoria.

“Our priorities are clear,” Bailey said. “Protect and improve core public services that people rely on, like health care and education. Keep B.C., one of the lowest taxed provinces for middle and working class families. Reduce the deficit responsibly over time while protecting what’s working.”

She said three steps will help the province achieve this — make the public sector leaner, pace infrastructure projects carefully and make changes to generate revenue, while taking action to grow the economy and secure the long-term impact of major projects.

Bailey said growth in B.C. has not kept pace with the cost of delivering public services, therefore, the province needs to rebuild a stable and sustainable revenue base.

“People earning under $149,000 will continue to pay the lowest personal income taxes in the country,” she said.

“Budget 2026 includes a change to the first income tax bracket of about half a percentage point. We’ll offset the extra costs for lower-income earners by increasing the B.C. tax reduction credit.

“We’re also updating some household-related taxes, some housing-related taxes; those with homes above $3 million in value will be asked to contribute a little more. The property tax deferment program is being changed to help those who need it most, and the vast majority of homeowners don’t see a change.”

The tax rate on the lowest bracket is being increased by 0.54 per cent, with government staff saying 60 per cent of tax filers will face higher bills, and the average taxpayer will be hit with a $76 hike.

The budget says increasing the bottom tax rate to 5.6 per cent means a maximum impact of $201 on people earning more than $140,000 without additional credits, while credits for some lower earners are being raised.

B.C.’s 2026 budget expands the province’s PST tax base to include professional services, such as accounting and bookkeeping, architectural, geoscientist and engineering services, commercial real-estate fees and security and private investigation services.

Bailey said that this change generally aligns B.C. with how other provinces apply sales taxes to these services.

PST exemptions will also be removed from some goods and services such as clothing repair materials, services related to clothing and footwear, basic cable television and landline telephone services.

Bailey said that expanding the tax to these services is generally consistent with how tax applies to these services in most provinces.

The Greater Vancouver Board of Trade is giving this budget a ‘D’ rating.

–with files from The Canadian Press

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Ontario Premier Doug Ford says he was inundated with calls from students over the weekend, worrying about his government’s decision to raise tuition fees and cut OSAP grants, saying he couldn’t fight against post-secondary leaders any longer.

Last week, the government confirmed it would allow colleges and universities to raise tuition fees by two per cent a year and substantially scale back the grant funding available to students.

At the same time, funding for the sector will increase to roughly $7 billion per year, after thousands of layoffs and hundreds of program cancellations across the post-secondary sector.

“I got a lot of calls from students about OSAP and they were interesting calls, and I returned every one with a standard statement,” Ford told reporters. “It wasn’t hundreds, it was thousands.”

Ford said he had tried to tell students that keeping fees frozen “wasn’t sustainable any longer” and that he had spent years fighting to maintain his freeze.

“I just wish the students knew how hard I fought,” the premier said. “When I first came into office, I knocked the tuition down 10 per cent and under massive pressure from the heads of the colleges and universities, I refused to increase tuition.”

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From September, colleges and universities will be able to increase fees by two per cent annually for the next three years. After that, they will increase by either two per cent or an average of the rate of inflation — whichever is lower.

After fees were frozen by Ford in 2019, colleges and universities increasingly turned to international students to deal with revenue issues, with roughly one-third of total college revenue coming from international students.

When the federal government capped the number of international students at the beginning of 2024, that revenue stream dried up. Colleges, in particular, felt the brunt of it, laying off more than 8,000 staff and closing campuses.

“It’s just not sustainable, and the sector was telling me it’s not sustainable; it would mean closing down colleges and universities,” Ford said. “I think it was accepted by the general public because they’re paying the bills.”

At the same time, the government is also overhauling how student loans and grants work — shifting from offering large grants to an approach which requires students to repay more.

The current proportion is about 85 per cent grants to 15 per cent loans, the government said, but starting this fall, students will receive a maximum of 25 per cent of their OSAP funding as grants.

Ford said he thought that approach might make students work harder.

“I believe that students will focus and be more accountable if they have investments into their education, if their parents have investments in their education, they’re going to focus on it, they aren’t going to drop out,” he said.

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A shooter unleashed a flurry of bullets during a Rhode Island youth hockey game, killing two people and injuring three others, in an attack that was cut short when a spectator stepped in to help stop the tragedy, authorities said.

Investigators had spoken to nearly 100 witnesses as of Monday evening as they attempt to piece together what happened earlier that afternoon inside the Dennis M. Lynch Arena in Pawtucket, a few miles outside Providence.

Pawtucket Police Chief Tina Goncalves said Monday that the shooter died from an apparent self-inflicted gun wound, though authorities are still investigating.

Goncalves credited an unnamed “good Samaritan” who intervened, bringing the attack “to a swift end.” She did not provide details.

It is not entirely clear what precipitated the shooting, who was targeted or why.

The game was livestreamed by LiveBarn, a streaming platform for youth sporting events, whose videos have been shared on social media showing players on the ice as popping sounds are heard. Chaos quickly unfolds as players on benches dive for cover, those on the ice frantically skate toward exits and fans flee their seats.

2:46
Video captures chaos inside Rhode Island ice rink during shooting that killed 2

LiveBarn’s social media account has been issuing warnings to those who shared the video that they do not have permission to do so. An email to LiveBarn seeking comment was sent Tuesday.

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“It appears that this was a targeted event, that it may be a family dispute,” Goncalves said. Authorities said both people who died were adults but have not released the identities of the victims.

Goncalves identified the shooter as Robert Dorgan, who she said also went by the name Roberta Esposito, who was born in 1969.

Dorgan was an active employee at General Dynamics Bath Iron Works, a ship building in Bath, Maine, that contracts with the U.S. Navy, David Hench, a spokesperson for the shipyard, said Tuesday. Hench did not immediately respond to questions about Dorgan’s job title or how long Dorgan worked at the shipyard.

Monday’s shooting came nearly two months after Rhode Island was rocked by a shooting at Brown University that left two students dead and wounded nine others, as well as a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor. Authorities later found Claudio Neves Valente, 48, dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound at a New Hampshire storage facility.

“Our state is grieving again,” Rhode Island Gov. Dan McKee said in a statement. “As governor, a parent, and a former coach, my heart breaks for the victims, families, students, and everyone impacted by the devastating shooting at Lynch Arena in Pawtucket.”

Associated Press writer Patrick Whittle contributed to this report from Portland, Maine.

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