Rewriting the rules – iPolitics

We’re starting tonight’s newsletter at the shakeup happening in the upper chamber.

Richard Martel is leaving the Conservative caucus after being named to the Senate, as Prime Minister Mark Carney makes his first picks to the Upper Chamber.

Martel was one of four appointments announced on Tuesday, alongside Tom Pitfield, Carney’s former principal secretary. Rodney Ouellette of New Brunswick and Manitoba’s Geeta Tucker are also headed to the red chamber.

The Globe and Mail first reported news of Pitfield’s appointment.

In a statement, Carney said he was modifying the existing criteria for Senate appointments by dropping the non-partisanship requirement and prioritizing candidates with “expertise in key Canadian strategic industries, regulatory frameworks, and emerging social and economic affairs.”

He said removing the non-partisanship rule recognizes the “valuable contributions made by Canadians who have chosen to serve in elected office or in other partisan roles, including knowledge of the governing and legislative processes, which will contribute to a stronger, more effective Senate.”

Marco Vigliotti has more.

TKMS CEO Oliver Burkhard speaks at a news conference, as Ambassador of Germany to Canada Tjorven Bellmann, right, listens, on Monday, July 6, 2026. Germany’s TKMS has been chosen as the preferred bidder to supply the navy’s next fleet of submarines, over South Korea’s Hanwha. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang

Also, the CEO of the German defence firm that was named the preferred bidder in the competition to build Canada’s next fleet of submarines this week said negotiations to formalize the contract will move quickly.

Germany’s TKMS took a brief moment to celebrate after the announcement Monday but CEO Oliver Burkhard said the real work is now about to begin.

Prime Minister Mark Carney said Canada’s new Defence Investment Agency will lead the negotiations with the submarine maker as the two sides nail down the details of the final cost, delivery schedules and industrial benefits. As he announced the next phase of the country’s largest-ever military procurement project in Halifax on Monday.

Carney said the talks could take somewhere between six and 18 months.

Burkhard said he’s hopeful things could move faster.

The Canadian Press got this one.

*A SeaBus travels across Burrard Inlet as gantry cranes tower above container ships being unloaded and loaded at port, in Vancouver, on Thursday, Feb. 10, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck*

Meanwhile, Canada’s merchandise trade surplus increased to $4.2 billion in May, the largest surplus in four years, as exports rose to a record high, Statistics Canada said Tuesday.

The agency said the result compared with a surplus of $3.4 billion in April, which was revised from its initial reading of $2.7 billion.

BMO senior economist Robert Kavcic said Canadian trade surpluses can come and go quickly with swings in oil prices.

“This is probably the high watermark for now,” he said. “Still, net exports look to add firmly to growth in Q2, another data point that suggests the Canadian economy has snapped out of its two-quarter funk.”

Total exports gained 0.9 per cent in May to post the fourth consecutive monthly increase and rise to a record $77.1 billion.

The increase came as exports of metal ores and non-metallic minerals rose 16.1 per cent, boosted by higher sulphur exports and new shipments of gold ores and concentrates to China.

CP’s got this one too.

In Other Headlines

Internationally

Elsewhere, the French far-right leader Marine Le Pen’s 2027 presidential bid is hanging in the balance as she was sentenced to wear an electronic ankle tag after being found guilty of embezzling European parliament funds.

The Paris court of appeal upheld Le Pen’s ⁠conviction ⁠but shortened her ban ⁠on running for elected office, potentially reopening a narrow path for the far-right leader ‌to stand ‌in the 2027 presidential race.

However, ‌the court also handed Le Pen a three-year jail term, with two years suspended and one year spent under house arrest in which she must wear an electronic ankle tag for monitoring. This could make a presidential campaign politically ⁠and logistically difficult.

Le Pen, who heads the anti-immigration the National Rally (RN) party, has previously suggested she would not run if she were handed an adjusted custodial sentence in which her movements were restricted or she had to wear an electronic tag.

The Guardian has more.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth invited Pastor Doug Wilson to give a sermon at the Pentagon in February as part of Hegseth’s monthly Christian worship service.

The pastor’s appearance was controversial.

Wilson is a self-described Christian nationalist who wants to repeal a woman’s right to vote, has defended slavery and believes homosexuality should be a crime.

His beliefs are extreme, and not long ago they were considered fringe. But today, Wilson’s teachings are entering the mainstream, according to religion and history scholars, including Kristin Kobes Du Mez, author of Jesus and John Wayne.

That’s why Morning Edition‘s Leila Fadel sat down with Wilson at his Moscow, Idaho, church for NPR’s Newsmakers video podcast.