Carney to visit Tumbler Ridge on Friday

Good evening, readers.

We start today with news that Prime Minister Mark Carney will visit Tumbler Ridge, B.C., to attend a vigil on Friday.

The Prime Minister’s Office says Carney was invited by the town’s mayor and that he has invited all other federal party leaders to join him.

Nine people, mostly children, were killed in the mass shooting Tuesday.

B.C. Premier David Eby and federal Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree are currently in the small northern B.C. town of about 2,700 people.

The Canadian Press has this one.

*The Confederation Building is pictured through a window of West Block on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Tuesday, April 16, 2024. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press)*

CBC News is reporting that a Conservative MP who went public with his intent to refuse a pending parliamentary pay increase was called out by the party whip in front of his colleagues and heckled as he tried to defend his decision.

In a letter to the House of Commons clerk that was made public Tuesday, New Brunswick Conservative MP Mike Dawson said he wanted his pay frozen because he couldn’t in good conscience accept an increase while many working people are struggling to get by.

That letter has not gone over well with some of his fellow Conservative MPs, who are now facing uncomfortable questions from their own constituents about why they are willing to accept a roughly $10,000 salary increase set to take effect in April.

The party’s whip, MP Chris Warkentin, reportedly called Dawson out from the front of the room during a caucus meeting on Wednesday.

*Prime Minister Mark Carney and United States President Donald Trump speaks before the FIFA World Cup draw at the Kennedy Center, in Washington, Friday, Dec. 5, 2025. (Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press)*

Looking south, leaders of a right-wing group pushing a conservative Canadian province to secede and form a new nation say they have been meeting with Trump administration officials to discuss how their radical plan can benefit the U.S.

In three separate, highly unusual meetings with officials from the State Department, they’ve discussed the logistics of Alberta breaking off from Canada, including switching over to U.S. currency and border security, NBC News reports.

The Alberta Prosperity Project seek to place a referendum on separating Alberta from the rest of the country on the ballot this year. They said a fourth meeting with Trump administration officials in Washington, D.C., is tentatively planned in the coming weeks to further discuss a transition process should their effort prove successful.

*Minister of Public Safety Gary Anandasangaree speaks to reporters ahead of a cabinet meeting on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, on Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025. (Spencer Colby/The Canadian Press)*

iPolitics takes a deep dive into Bill C-12, the government’s border bill which could pass through the Senate later this month.

The bill aims to tighten immigration enforcement and manage security and fraud concerns, while combatting transnational crimes.

The government’s first border bill, C-2, was widely panned as opening the door for excessive government overreach.

C-12 was supposed to address those concerns, but it remains controversial amongst refugee advocacy and civil liberties groups.

*Medical tools are pictured in an exam room at a health clinic in Calgary. (Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press)*

Back in Ottawa, the Parliamentary Budget Officer says spending on health services for asylum claimants, refugees and others covered under the federal interim health program will hit $989 million this year before rising to $1.52 billion by 2029-30.

But a new new co-payment plan is expected to recoup $126.8 million in savings in 26-27, as our newest teammate Sydney Ko reports.

Comings and Goings: John Paul Gamage joins StrategyCorp, Ya’ara Saks joins Sussex Strategy Group, Leif Carlson promoted at Cereals Canada

Hill Movers: Matthew Nicholas Schwarze joins the PMO as a research coordinator

In Other Headlines

Internationally

Secretary of State Marco Rubio is leading a large U.S. delegation this week to the Munich Security Conference where increasingly nervous European leaders are hoping for at least a brief reprieve from President Donald Trump’s often inconsistent policies and threats that have roiled transatlantic relations and the post-World War II international order.

A year after Vice President JD Vance stunned assembled dignitaries at the same venue with a verbal assault on many of America’s closest allies in Europe, accusing them of imperiling Western civilization with left-leaning domestic programs and not taking responsibility for their own defense, Rubio plans to take a less contentious but philosophically similar approach when he addresses the annual gathering of world leaders and national security officials Saturday, U.S. officials say.

The State Department’s formal announcement of Rubio’s trip offered no details about his two-day stop in Munich, after which he will visit Slovakia and Hungary. But the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to preview the trip, said America’s top diplomat intends to focus on areas of cooperation on shared global and regional concerns, including in the Middle East and Ukraine as well as China, an economic powerhouse seeking to take advantage of the uncertainty in U.S.-European ties.

AP reports.