Start your day off right with five things you need to know this morning.
Five things you need to know
Mark Carney has lured yet another Tory MP to join the Liberals. This time he's captured Matt Jeneroux, the representative for Edmonton Riverbend. It's the third such defection in as many months.
I am honoured to welcome Matt Jeneroux to our caucus as the newest member of Canada’s new government.
— Mark Carney (@MarkJCarney) February 18, 2026
Building a stronger, more resilient, and more independent country will require ambition, collaboration, and occasionally, sacrifice. I am grateful to Matt and his family that…
One of the favourites to win the federal NDP leadership race has denounced Mark Carney's defence strategy, saying it's "a destructive and nihilistic fantasy" to increase military spending to five per cent of GDP because it will pour "fuel on the climate fire." Avi Lewis, a former CBC journalist, also said spending two per cent of GDP on defence was unnecessary, explaining: "We need that money for other things, including the climate emergency." The NDP will announce Jagmeet Singh's successor on March 29.
"I don’t believe we need to spend 2% of our GDP on military spending, as we need that money for other things, including the climate emergency, which is costing us more money while destroying towns and filling our lungs with smoke. The idea that we should now move to 5% of GDP is…
— Avi Lewis (@avilewis) February 17, 2026
Automakers need to be very careful when it comes to China, according to a report in The Economist magazine, as the country's flagging domestic market will lead to even greater car exports to "more profitable markets abroad." Those exports have "surged in recent years," the famous liberal outlet explains, because it's becoming harder and harder to sell in China itself. The report warns: "That will heap even more pressure on incumbent carmakers elsewhere, a number of which have recently been hit by vast write-downs on EV investments that were intended to help them keep pace with Chinese rivals."
The Economist: Unfortunately for carmakers outside China, a slowing domestic market will lead to even greater vehicle exports from the country, says Tu Le of Sino Auto Insights, a consultancy.
— Sino Auto Insights (@SinoAutoInsight) February 18, 2026
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Beware China’s shrinking car markethttps://t.co/g3KtfvkwaP
Most people in Quebec want their province to stay in Canada, according to a new poll from the Angus Reid Institute. The survey found that 63 per cent of respondents would vote for Quebec to stay put, while 26 per cent would vote to separate. The poll comes as the separatist Parti Québécois remains ahead in the polls in the lead-up to the October provincial election.
The Israeli military has confirmed it was responsible for digging up Canadian graves in the Gaza War Cemetery. It was done to destroy a tunnel used by Hamas, Israel said, but CBC said Israel would not confirm whether "anything was done to preserve any disturbed remains." The remains of 22 Canadian soldiers were interred in the cemetery. The sister of one of the soldiers – who died during the Suez Crisis in 1956 – said it was "terrible" and "should never have happened."
