Start your day off right with five things you need to know this morning.
Five things you need to know
More joy for the Liberals: Mark Carney's party swept all three by-elections held in BC, Ontario and Quebec on Monday. The Grits previously held the Toronto and Vancouver seats, but the Chicoutimi-Le Fjord riding in the Saguenay area had been held by the Conservatives since 2018. In a catastrophic result for the Tories, however, the party's candidate came a distant third with a little under 4,000 votes (compared with more than 17,000 in 2025).
‘A great time to be a Liberal’: PM Carney sweeps all three byelections, holds onto majorityhttps://t.co/b9QNkytXTi
— CP24 (@CP24) September 1, 2026
Ontario Premier Doug Ford was responsible for Canada walking away from a trade deal with the US last month, according to a report. John Ivison, writing in the National Post, said a "Canadian official" told him: "We really pulled out because Ford was not on board." That's because the Ontario premier, according to Ivison's telling, refused to return US alcohol to liquor store shelves unless the Americans agreed to drop all tariffs on Canadian autos. Mark Carney, the report adds, then "grasped gratefully" at a dispute over "discoverability" of Netflix content to terminate the deal.
John Ivison: Doug Ford’s veto of a U.S. trade deal cannot stand https://t.co/KWPdLYZ3eK pic.twitter.com/dLKW9s53CT
— National Post (@nationalpost) September 1, 2026
The Liberal government's plan to retaliate against US tariffs will increase costs and leave many sectors of the economy worse off, according to a new Oxford Economics study. Counter-tariffs of between 15 and 50 per cent on products worth about $27.5 billion are due to go into effect on Sept. 8. “Canada’s new retaliatory tariffs will help some industries but hurt most and weaken economic growth across the country by raising costs for producers and consumers," the new report explains. Taxpayer cash set aside for affected industries "will briefly cushion the negative economic impact but won’t offset the overall drag," the analysis adds. Separately, Wells Fargo analyst Timna Tanners said Canada's retaliatory tariffs on US steel and aluminum are "pretty irrelevant," adding: "It’s very much for show, as many of these announcements are."
Wells Fargo analyst Timna Tanners dismissed Canada’s latest retaliatory tariffs on US steel and aluminum as largely symbolic https://t.co/gsnRVzODjS
— Bloomberg (@business) August 31, 2026
The CBC will not have access to the Republican Party's midterm convention in the US this year after the national broadcaster's media accreditation was revoked. It comes after the CBC was sharply criticized by US officials over an internal memo telling reporters not to call the 9/11 terrorist attacks terrorist attacks without "attribution."
Republican Party revokes CBC/Radio-Canada media accreditation for upcoming midterm convention
— Canuk2006 (@canuk2006) September 1, 2026
CBC official says public broadcaster hopes 'disappointing' decision will be reconsidered https://t.co/SMNaXNnA5L
The "gap" in living standards between the US and Canada has "more than doubled from 1999-2024," according to a new report from a Canadian think tank. The Fraser Institute's analysis points out that, between 1999 and 2025, labour productivity in Canada increased by 26.7 per cent, while in the US it ballooned by 67.9 per cent. It adds: "In 1999, inflation-adjusted gross domestic product (GDP) per person in the US was CA$10,766 higher than in Canada. By 2024, that gap had more than doubled to CA$23,757 ... Prior to 2014, Canada largely kept pace with, or in some cases exceeded the US, across multiple measures."
