OTTAWA — Nova Scotia’s highest trial court has struck down the province’s sweeping summer 2025 ban on entering the woods.

Nova Scotia Supreme Court Justice Jamie S. Campbell found in a decision released on Friday that the wildfire season activity restrictions unduly limited the Charter-protected mobility rights of Nova Scotians to “move freely around the province.”

Campbell said in a 17-page decision that there was no evidence of forethought of how the ban would affect the Charter rights of Nova Scotians, making it impermissible on administrative grounds.

“There was no evidence in the record… there was any consideration given to mobility rights, how the ban could limit those rights and how the ban could be drafted in a way to to minimize (those) limitations,” wrote Campbell. “As a matter of administrative law, the travel ban was unreasonable.”

Campbell qualified that his objection was to the way the ban was proclaimed, not necessarily the ban itself.

“A travel ban in the woods may have been an entirely justifiable limitation on mobility rights given the extraordinary circumstances that presented themselves in the summer of 2025,” he wrote. “But the Minister had to have considered that before the proclamation was issued.”

Then-natural resources minister Tory Rushton placed extensive restrictions on travel and recreation in wooded areas on Aug. 5, after weeks of dry, hot weather created an extreme wildfire risk. The near-total ban made the woods off-limits for hiking, trail running, camping and other recreational activities. The ban was mostly lifted on Sep. 18 with some areas remaining closed until Oct. 15.

Premier Tim Houston announced the same day that the penalty for violating the order would be $25,000.

The so-called “hiking ban” quickly sparked criticism across Canada, including from some conservative politicians . One of its most visible opponents was Canadian Armed Forces veteran Jeffrey Evely, who videotaped himself defying the ban on August 8. Everly was handed a $28,872.50 fine for the stunt.

Evely was one of the plaintiffs in Friday’s decision, joined by civil rights group the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF).

Campbell also criticized the government for not communicating more clearly which areas and activities were off limits.

“The case has been decided on other grounds. Had it not been, there is a compelling argument that the ban was so vague as to be incapable of being interpreted at all,” wrote Campbell.

The ruling didn’t direct the government to take any action, since the order has already expired.

Marty Moore, one of Evely’s lawyers, said the ruling reaffirms governments must respect personal freedoms, even during emergencies. He also expected the decision to lead to Evely’s fine being invalidated.

“We hope this judicial rebuke will lead to more reasonable decisions by the government of Nova Scotia in the future,” said Moore.

Inquiries to Rushton and the premier’s office weren’t immediately returned.

National Post
rmohamed@postmedia.com

• Man walks into Nova Scotia forest, walks out with $28K fine: 'I want to challenge this order in court'
• Conservative MP says federal inaction on wildfires led to Atlantic Canada forest bans

Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark nationalpost.com and sign up for our daily newsletter, Posted, here.

Canadians won’t have to pay the federal excise tax on gasoline starting Monday, but it turns out most or all of the savings will get eaten up by the annual increase in summer fuel costs.

“Canadians are in desperate need of relief at the moment,” said Dan McTeague, the executive director of the advocacy group Canadians for Affordable Energy, in a news release . “But this is a drop in the bucket.”

Prime Minister Mark Carney announced this week that the federal excise tax on gasoline and diesel will be suspended for five months starting on April 20. That should lower the cost of gas by 10 cents per litre and diesel by four cents.

However, Canadian gas stations are required to switch to summer blends starting April 15, and these are typically 10 cents more per litre, McTeague said.

“It won’t make much of an impact on prices resuming their upward trek based on the fact that this war is going to continue. Even if there is end in sight, the reality is that we have a massive draw down of supplies,” McTeague said.

The winter blend, which is used from Sept. 15, includes different components that help cars start efficiently. In the summer, the formula includes additives that cost more and prevent sparking in warm conditions.

American Gasbuddy analyst Patrick De Haan agrees with McTeague.

“Motorists will still get a 10 cent drop (when the tax is suspended), but instead of it pushing prices down, it may simply prevent them from going up further,” said De Haan. “Motorists may not see a visible 10 cent decline, and they may not see a decline really at all.”

McTeague believes there are two key factors driving up the cost of gas: The Iran war and the weak Canadian dollar.

“The fact that it takes 137 to 138 pennies to buy a U.S. dollar means it’s adding an extra 34 to 35 cents a litre,” said McTeague.

On Friday, Iran announced that it had reopened the Strait of Hormuz, which caused oil prices to fall US$13 to US$83 a barrel, still much higher than the price before the war. However, late Friday, Iran was already threatening to close the strait again, making the situation uncertain.

McTeague said he would rather see the government suspend all federal taxes on fuel and permanently eliminate the Clean Fuel Standard.

“Clean Fuel Standard is already seven cents a litre, going to 20 cents a year by 2030,” said McTeague. “That’s where refiners are required to buy carbon credits to drop their emissions 30 per cent. But since it’s impossible — no such technology exists — they have to buy carbon credits from the carbon market, which they’re passing on to consumers.”

“We content ourselves with believing we have lots of oil, but we do, except we spent a lot of time restricting it,” he said.

For both McTeague and De Haan, an end is not in sight for Canadian gas prices.

“The tax decrease will be passed along, but you may not necessarily see it,” said De Haan. “Because the volatility in oil prices may push oil prices up at the exact time that taxes may be going down.”

Even if the U.S.-Iran war ends soon, an end to high gas prices would still take months according to McTeague.

• Ireland cutting gas tax after wave of blockades and protests cleared
• Will gas prices go up in Canada if war on Iran continues? Energy expert says they already are

Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark nationalpost.com and sign up for our daily newsletter, Posted, here.

An Ontario man facing 14 murder charges will have those charges dropped by Crown prosecutors and will in turn plead guilty to the lesser charge of counselling or aiding suicide, his lawyer told National Post.

Kenneth Law was arrested in May 2023 following a Times of London  investigation  into his alleged crimes, and charged with 14 counts of second-degree murder in December of that year. Peel Police also charged Law with 14 counts of counselling and aiding suicide.

On Saturday, his lawyer, Matthew Gourlay of Henein Hutchison Robitaille LLP, confirmed to National Post that the murder charges will be dropped and that Law will plead guilty to counselling or aiding suicide.

Canada’s Criminal Code carries an automatic sentence of life in prison for first- or second-degree murder, with no chance for parole for 25 years. However, the charge of counselling or aiding suicide carries a maximum sentence of 14 years.

According to news reports , a date for the plea will be scheduled in May when Law appears before a judge in Newmarket, Ont., on Monday.

Law’s trial had been expected to last eight weeks, after several delays pushed its start date to January 2026 and then to this month. Earlier reporting said Law was expected to plead not guilty to the murder charges.

Law is accused of running websites that sold sodium nitrite, a food additive that is deadly if consumed, and other items that can be used for self-harm, including gas masks.

Investigators believe more than 1,200 packages were sent out globally, and about 160 were sent in Canada.

British police have said they identified 232 people in the United Kingdom, 88 of whom died, who bought products from Canada-based websites allegedly linked to Law.

Authorities in the United States, Italy, Australia and New Zealand have also announced their own investigations.

Police in Canada said 14 alleged victims in this country were between the ages of 16 and 36 and died in communities across Ontario, as far north as Thunder Bay and as far southwest as London.

If you’re thinking about suicide or are worried about a friend or loved one, please contact 9-8-8: Suicide Crisis Helpline by calling or texting 9-8-8 toll free. The service is available 24/7. If you or someone you know is in immediate danger, call 911.

• Who is alleged serial killer Kenneth Law and what is he accused of?
• Toronto rabbi vows to replace torn-down menorah at Yorkville Jewish Centre

Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark nationalpost.com and sign up for our daily newsletter, Posted, here.

Nine in ten Iranian Canadians “strongly or somewhat support regime change in Iran,” according to a new community survey.

The survey was conducted by the Metropolis Institute (a division of the Association for Canadian Studies) on behalf of the non-profit Advancement of Human Rights Organization for the Middle East (AHROME). Metropolis Institute distributed 1,768 surveys between March 29 and April 13, most of them at large Iranian community gatherings in Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal, and 1,166 were fully completed.

Kevin Rod, president of AHROME, told National Post the findings were to be expected.

“Knowing our diaspora community, I was not surprised by any of the responses,” Rod, a practising physician and member of the Iranian Canadian community, said in a written statement.

The figures were even higher when it came to levels of “very unfavourable opinion of the current Iranian government” (92.3 per cent), and reached near-unanimous levels among respondents agreeing that the “regime mostly does not or does not represent the will of the Iranian people” (98.4 per cent) and those expressing a desire for “at least normal diplomatic relations with Israel in the future” (95.9 per cent).

The survey found similarly high levels of support for the joint Israeli-American military campaign against Iran, which began in late February. An overwhelming majority (90.2 per cent) of Iranian Canadians “strongly or somewhat approve of international military actions against the Iranian government,” and a similar number (89.4 per cent) believe “such actions contribute at least somewhat to political change in Iran.”

Rod called on the Canadian government to listen to the voices of Iranian Canadians when deciding how the country responds to the ongoing conflict. “Given the large Iranian diaspora in Canada and Canada’s history of supporting human rights around the world, the Canadian government is well placed to lead the way in raising awareness and supporting the people of Iran (in) their struggle to change this regime,” Rod said.

According to a Statistics Canada census from 2021, there are roughly 200,000 Iranian Canadians in the country and another 80,000 who identify as “Persian,” the largest ethnic group in Iran.

Most of the community survey respondents said they are “very or somewhat attached to Canada” and 84.2 per cent said “yes or probably” to having a “long-term future in Canada.”

The majority of Iranian Canadians arrived following the 1979 Iranian Revolution, which saw the overthrow of the monarch Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and the rise of Islamic cleric Ruhollah Khomeini. Before 1980, Statistics Canada data shows just over 2,000 people born in Iran had immigrated to Canada.

Support for the Shah’s son, Reza Pahlavi, currently living in the United States, remains high among Iranian Canadians, the survey noted. Nearly all (98.6 per cent) members of the community are “very or somewhat familiar” with Pahlavi and 89 per cent have a “very or somewhat favourable overall opinion” of him. Similar rates were found when respondents were asked whether Pahlavi should “play a political role in Iran’s future” (90.2 per cent) and 89.4 per cent feel he is “suitable as a unifying figure for opposition.”

“There is no confusion about who the Iranians inside Iran and the Iranian diaspora want as their leader,” Rod said. “This leader is Prince Reza Pahlavi, this is the only name called by the people of Iran and his name was written by their blood on the walls of their cities.”

Rod encouraged Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government to play a proactive role in the community’s ongoing struggle to remove the current regime.

“Any acts of giving legitimacy to the regime of Iran, like voting in favour of them joining a human rights committee in (the) UN (United Nations) after they killed tens of thousands of their own citizens” would alienate Iranian Canadians, he said.

Although support for regime change remains very high among the Iranian Canadian diaspora, the vast majority (93.6 per cent) of respondents were “somewhat or very concerned” about the wellbeing of family members back in Iran.

“The Iranian Canadian community echo the voices of their relatives and compatriots in Iran and they see this campaign as a historic liberating campaign against a regime that has indiscriminately killed tens of thousands of unarmed protesters just to stay in power,” Rod said.

The survey is a non-probability sample, so a conventional margin of error does not apply. A probability sample of the same size would have a margin of error of plus or minus 2.9 per cent, 19 times out of 20, but cannot be applied in this case.

• Gen Z Canadians more likely to support terrorist-backed Iranian regime: poll
• FIRST READING: Iranian-Canadian activist threatened with criminal charges for posts

Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark nationalpost.com and sign up for our newsletters here.

The University of British Columbia said it “does not condone” recent comments by a First Nations leader but did not indicate if it would take any action after the guest speaker at one of its events expressed her desire to see her political opponent get beaten and raped.

UBC’s response comes after Charlene Belleau, an elder in the Esk’etemc First Nation in B.C., appeared at a virtual event earlier this week hosted by Derek Thompson, the university’s Indigenous initiatives advisor. During the virtual talk, Belleau recalled comments she made toward Frances Widdowson, an academic focused on economics and Indigenous policy, when she had approached Widdowson in person at a campus event in late 2025.

“I told her: ‘I wish our people could grab you, drag you over to the Kamloops residential school, put you into the basement, speak our language to you — nothing but Secwepemctsín — beat you, rape you, hurt you,’” she recalled at the UBC event. “‘And maybe you’d understand what our people went through.’”

Chief Charlene Belleau speaks about her interaction with me (and to some extent @Dallas_Brodie) @thompsonriversu: "I wish that our people could grab you [Frances Widdowson], drag you over to the Kamloops Residential School, put you into the basement, speak our language to you,… pic.twitter.com/Bc1sHBrqGc

— Frances Widdowson (@FrancesWiddows1) April 14, 2026

Belleau is a long-time activist focused on Canada’s former Indian Residential Schools and what she views as the generational harms that the schools inflicted on Indigenous peoples. In particular, she has advocated for claims made by the former Kamloops Indian Band, now the Tkʼemlúps te Secwépemc, which has alleged that 215 “missing children” are buried in unmarked graves on the site of a former residential school there.

Widdowson, a former Mount Royal University professor, has for years questioned the validity of those claims, and has pointed out that the First Nation’s ground-penetrating radar surveys have not yet confirmed the remains of missing children.

“The UBC faculty of medicine does not condone any speech that endorses or promotes harassment or violence of any kind,” said Mieke Koehoorn, vice dean of academic affairs for UBC’s Faculty of Medicine. “An invitation for a community member to participate in an event does not constitute endorsement of their specific remarks or views.”

However, the university did not respond to the National Post’s questions about whether Belleau would be asked to apologize, or whether non-Indigenous speakers at UBC events would ever be permitted to make similar statements.

Belleau and Thompson could not be reached for comment through their publicly available email addresses.

The UBC event was hosted by the “Office of Respectful Environments, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion” under UBC’s medicine faculty. The event was called “My name is Charlene: Perseverance and poise in an era of truth, reconciliation, anger and rage.”

“I think they’re deplorable comments, and it reflects the fact that Aboriginal leaders are pandered to constantly and never challenged, so they become more and more unhinged as time goes on,” Widdowson said in an interview with the National Post.

Even so, Widdowson said Belleau’s comments still fall within the limits of free expression, and therefore don’t rise to the threshold of hate speech.

“I don’t think they’re a threat,” Widdowson said. “I think there’s a lot of comments about how she should be charged and punished in various ways, and I’m opposed to that, because I think people should be able to speak freely about everything, as long as they don’t incite violence or engage in threats.”

Widdowson said UBC, however, is an “absolute disgrace” that has failed to uphold any commitment to open academic debate on the topic of Indigenous unmarked graves in Canada. Widdowson said she and Chawathil First Nation Chief Aaron Pete have offered to have an open debate on the topic at UBC and other universities, but have thus far been rejected.

“UBC has an obligation to open up discussion on the unmarked graves question after all they’ve done to promote misinformation and stand behind violent activities and wishes for violence,” she said. “They really are not an academic institution anymore.”

In 2021, the Tkʼemlúps te Secwépemc first claimed that 215 children — “some as young as three years old” — were buried in unmarked graves at the Kamloops site. Months later, Saskatchewan’s Cowessess First Nation said it had found 751 potential unmarked graves.

The claims were based on the results of radar scans that detect underground disturbances. While the remains of hundreds of bodies have not yet been confirmed or exhumed, many First Nations and the Canadian government have adopted the claims as evidence of the country’s alleged genocide against Indigenous peoples. The 2021 allegations set off a wave of reproachment across the country, with some major cities cancelling or paring back their Canada Day celebrations that year.

On Friday, B.C. Indigenous Relations Minister Spencer Chandra Herbert declined to answer a question in the legislature about Belleau’s comments. The minister instead accused the member who asked the question, independent MLA Tara Armstrong, of “trying to further divide us over an issue that is very emotional, troubling and challenging.”

“I’m not sure what the member is referring to, but I do know what she’s tried to do in the past, insisting that the bodies of children who died at residential schools should be dug up. Something that you would never insist at any other place in the world where holocausts or genocides occurred. That’s not how we do these things.”

In 2021, the B.C. government allocated $12 million toward helping First Nations to investigate potential unmarked grave sites. Belleau was quoted in a B.C. government press release announcing the funding, saying it was an “important first step in supporting the resiliency and healing of B.C. First Nations people.”

Widdowson, who made a YouTube documentary in 2025 questioning the Kamloops claim, has repeatedly clashed with First Nations for her research on the topic of unmarked graves and doubts about their validity.

Last week, Widdowson attended hearings in the Court of King’s Bench as part of her legal challenge against the University of Lethbridge, who cancelled her planned talk at the university in 2023 following pressure from First Nations groups. She has had similar clashes at the University of Winnipeg and the University of Victoria, where she said she received a $115 trespassing ticket in 2025.

In 2021, the Canadian government awarded Belleau the British Columbia Reconciliation Award for her work in “supporting residential school survivors” and for her role as a “vital bridge between governments and First Nations.”

• Frances Widdowson argues academic freedom at stake in court battle with University of Lethbridge over cancelled talk
• Almost two-thirds of Canadians say more evidence needed to accept 'unmarked graves' report in Kamloops

Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark nationalpost.com and sign up for our daily newsletter, Posted, here.

OTTAWA — Political parties, particularly those that are close enough to smell power, are quick to describe themselves as “big tents.”

With the addition this week of Conservative MP Marilyn Gladu, the Liberal party’s new tent — to riff off a crack going around some Parliament Hill circles — is now big enough to drive a truckers’ convoy through.

While Gladu was the fourth Conservative MP to cross the floor and join Mark Carney’s government in recent months, the Tory caucus wasn’t the Liberals’ only source of growth. Gladu’s defection came less than a month after the NDP’s Lori Idlout made her own journey across the floor to join the government.

Carney’s side also added a trio of new MPs this week by sweeping three byelections being held to replace two departing Toronto legislators and one in the riding of Terrebonne, north of Montreal. One of the new Liberal MPs is Doly Begum, former deputy leader of the Ontario NDP.

The additions have given the Liberals a majority of two in the House of Commons, which will make it easier for them to advance the government’s agenda and pass legislation without worrying too much about an election coming any time soon. But the new MPs, particularly Gladu and perhaps Idlout and Begum from outside the Liberals’ normal ideological range, also raise a fresh question: Is there such a thing as a political party’s tent becoming too big?

Specifically, are there potential problems when a party stretches itself so far ideologically than it becomes less of a big tent, more like a political pavilion?

What’s wrong with a big tent?

Some opponents and analysts predict the Liberals will pay a price down the road for their poaching and ideological flexibility.

Fred DeLorey, a Conservative strategist and the party’s former national campaign director, said the Liberals crossed a line when they invited Gladu into their caucus because her core beliefs are simply incompatible with those of the Liberal party. “She’s a transplant the host body may violently reject,” he wrote in a Substack post

While adding MPs or party supporters is a core goal of any political party or movement, many analysts say parties that become so vast or whose values are ill-defined face risk.

Those risks include a watering down of the party’s identity or brand to the point that voters don’t know what the party actually stands for, greater difficulty and efficiency in landing on policy positions, increased odds of internal conflict, and added vulnerability to challengers — from within the party or outside — who are clearer about what they stand for.

Carney may be able to manage his new, expanded coalition, DeLorey wrote, but “he’s also creating an environment where the internal contradictions are so vast they could devour him if he isn’t careful.”

DeLorey added that Gladu is so far away from the Liberal centre that she would have been right at the bottom of his list if he were to have ranked the Tory caucus members according to most likely to bolt to the Liberals. Not because of her attributes, he says, but “because I never thought in a million years the Liberals would ever accept her.”

Carney, for his part, has suggested that MPs in the Liberal caucus will need to support Liberal policies and values, not the other way around.

But the critics of the Liberals’ ideological flexibility, like the poaching targets, are also on the left.

Avi Lewis, the New Democatic Party’s new leader, said Liberals’ ideological malleability has reached a new level, particularly with the addition of Gladu, who he says has taken positions from the “furthest reaches” of the social conservative wing of the Tory party.

“If Marilyn Gladu is a Liberal, what does being a Liberal mean?” asked Lewis. “At what point does a tent get so big that the fabric is stretched beyond recognition?”

Lewis has also said out in recent days that the Liberals’ attempts to secure a majority through floor-crossings are undemocratic and disrespectful to voters. If an MP wants to cross the floor, Lewis said, he or she should resign and face voters in a byelection.

The Liberals’ big-tent flexibility has never been more stark. Beyond the poaching MPs from the left and right, the party is still benefitting from making a dramatic shift early last year in its leadership, from the uber-progressive Trudeau to Carney, widely seen as a business-oriented Liberal.

With the exception of former environment minister Steven Guilbeault, who resigned from cabinet late last year after Carney struck a deal with Alberta to support a new pipeline, none of the more than 100 Liberal MPs in the current caucus who were also part of the Trudeau government seemed to have expressed any reservations over the massive agenda shift.

Liberal flexibility

The Liberals’ ability to shapeshift with the times is the source of much dispute, and sometimes derision, around Parliament Hill. Partisan Liberals view it as a strength, giving the party the breadth and agility to respond to the issues of the day and Canadians’ changing needs.

Party officials tend to believe they’re attracting new supporters because they’re doing a good job and reflecting Canadians’ views. They also argue that Liberals, one of the democratic world’s most electorally successful political parties over the last century or so, are pragmatic and less beholden to any ideological position, unlike their rivals on the left and right.

Carney himself is also a prime example — perhaps even the personification — of this flexibility.

After years of rumours, he finally entered politics last year by winning the helm of a progressive government that was down in the polls by more than 20 points. After he claimed leadership, the party’s new face was a former banker who had never been elected to office.

After the Liberals won the election in April, Carney wasted no time in cancelling a number of progressive policies from the Trudeau era, while switching the agenda to one focussed on increasing trade, competitiveness and infrastructure in the shadow of the Trump tariffs.

Within striking distance of a majority government, meanwhile, Carney hung a big, clear sign on his party’s front door: Opposition MPs welcome!

But the willingness to expand the tent didn’t stop there.

Just four years before becoming prime minister, Carney wrote a book that emphasized how markets sometimes fail, notably when it comes to the environment. After gaining power, one of his first moves was to cancel the consumer carbon tax, a signature piece of legislation from Justin Trudeau’s green emphasis.

The Carney mantra was clear: Big, flexible tents are better.

The Liberals’ opponents, however, tend to roll their eyes at such claims about the advantages of flexibility, saying there’s only one thing that binds Liberals together: the pursuit of power.

Sanjay Jeram, a political scientist at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, said the Liberals’ flexible and big tent is nothing new. The history of the Liberals, and the federal Progressive Conservatives prior to 1993, he said, shows “a remarkable capacity to shift, expand and contract its ideological core in pursuit of the electoral centre.”

Will the Liberals pay a price?

But at the end of the day, how likely is it that the Liberals will pay a price for their flexibility?

Analysts say there’s risk in watering down any brand, whether it’s that of a political party, a company, or a product that is supposed to represent something.

Lori Turnbull, a political scientist at Dalhousie University in Halifax, said it’s more difficult to maintain the cohesiveness of a big-tent political party. The Mulroney government (1984-93) was a prime example of this challenge, Turnbull said, because the Conservative party had expanded its tent by luring in a wider range of supporters, including even Quebec sovereigntists.

For a variety of reasons, including regional differences and the variance of views with the government’s caucus, that alliance blew up, leading to the formations of both the Reform Party and the Bloc Québécois. “He could not keep that coalition together,” said Turnbull.

In the case of today’s Liberals, there are very few public signs so far, beyond the Guilbeault resignation, of discontent. But that could change as it becomes clearer which Liberal backbenchers are unlikely to get promotions and if progressive Liberals who may have entered politics to champion such causes as child care or the environment start to question what they’re doing in their own caucus.

“There could be a tent that’s too big,” said Turnbull.

André Lecours, a political science professor at the University of Ottawa, said the risk to the Liberals will be minimized if the government continues to focus largely on issues such as economic restructuring that are unlikely to expose rifts within their big tent.

Jeram said the stretching of the Liberal tent represents minimal risk, as long as the party doesn’t show evidence that their policies or views are becoming more radical in a way that might reflect the newcomers’ influence.

But the Liberals’ bigger tent may also create opportunities for opposition parties to try to shift discussions to policy areas, such as climate change or perhaps vaccines, that could expose divisions with the Liberal ranks.

Jeram said the Liberals should be on safe ground for a while, as long as the separatist movements in Quebec and Alberta don’t gain too strong a foothold.

If there’s a big down side to the Liberals’ poaching, it doesn’t seem to have shown itself yet.

The Liberals and Carney himself are riding high in the polls, less than 18 months after the Conservatives held a lead of more than 20 points and seemed poised to cruise into power.

In his first year in office, Carney focused largely on a centre-right agenda that emphasized infrastructure, expanding trade, tax cuts and defence spending. He also cut the emphasis on climate change policies, leading to the cabinet resignation of Guilbeault, feminism and symbolic progressive gestures.

“Taken together, it is difficult to imagine a more favourable party system configuration for sustained Liberal dominance under Carney,” said Jeram.

Those events have left the Liberal prime minister and his team in a position to increase the size of his party’s tent – through both byelections and luring floor crossers.

Shifting positions

And internal shifts among the Liberals’ opponents, meanwhile, may also be playing a role in providing the Liberals some cover from the risks of their tent growing too big.

Analysts say the Liberals can probably make the bigger tent work, at least for now, because the centre of Canada’s political spectrum is less crowded than usual.

All signs seem to be that the NDP has taken a clear step or two to the left with the election of Lewis, showing little interest in trying to take advantage of the centre-left that appears to be an underserved market.

The Conservatives, meanwhile, remain further to the right under Poilievre than the party’s traditional core.

While it’s unlikely that many MPs would be tempted to cross the floor to an opposition party from the government side, analysts say it’s possible that the opposition parties could try to show a little ideological flexibility of their own if they want to expand the size of their own tents.

Possible, but not particularly likely.

While the Lewis-led NDP may be less likely now to lure disaffected centre-left progressives, their focus seems to be more focussed on attracting new voters to their base.

The Conservatives’ Poilievre, meanwhile, has made a concerted effort his entire career to establish his brand as an authentic, true-blue conservative. Tacking to the centre wouldn’t seem to be his thing.

Carney and the Liberals, meanwhile, are riding high in the polls, fuelled in part by their unapologetic efforts to do what is necessary to expand the size of their party’s tent.

The big question is whether the big-tent government will be able to use its new majority to execute a plan to make the country stronger – or will the expansion of its political tent create problems.

The Conservatives’ DeLorey said the Liberals are creating a “Frankenstein” party, a reference to Mary Shelley’s nameless monster who was inelegantly stitched together from various body parts.

The challenge for the Liberal majority, stitched together with the help of various byelections and floor crossers, is whether they’ll be able to stay cohesive.

Or, like Frankenstein’s monster, who begins the novel with a welcome attitude towards new people, will the Liberals turn hostile once exposed to challenges?

National Post

• Carney tells Liberals that 'unity does not mean uniformity' in closing convention speech
• Liberals say the party is 'bigger than one person,' as Gladu unsettles progressives

Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark nationalpost.com and sign up for our daily newsletter, Posted, here.

OTTAWA — Asked Friday for his thoughts on Canada’s negotiating strategy with the United States, U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick didn’t mince words : “Good for them. That’s like the worst strategy I have ever heard. They suck.”

Lutnick appeared to be responding to comments by Steve Verheul , who was Canada’s chief trade negotiator for the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement during the first Trump administration, who said “in many ways, time is on our side because the pressures on the U.S. are only going to increase over time.”

Asked at Semafor World Economy about Canada’s former trade chief suggesting time is on Canada’s side in upcoming trade talks, @howardlutnick tells @semaforben:

“That is like the worst strategy I’ve ever heard. They suck." pic.twitter.com/4KHODAxUSZ

— Semafor (@semafor) April 17, 2026

Lutnick didn’t agree.

“We are a $30 trillion economy. We are the consumer of the world. (Prime Minister Mark) Carney has a problem with us. He gets on a plane and he goes to China. Does he think the Chinese economy is going to buy his stuff?” said Lutnick, at the Semafor World Economy summit. “China is an entirely export-driven economy. So what did he do? He came back and said, ‘we’ll take their electric cars.’ Is this nuts?”

White House officials later told the New York Times that the commerce secretary was “being misquoted.”

Lutnick also took a shot at former minister Chrystia Freeland, who was also involved in talks with the U.S. on CUSMA during the first Trump administration.

“Who? Chrystia Freeland, who’s like the worst?” said Lutnick, when asked about Verheul’s comments.

CUSMA is up for review this summer, with the deadline for the beginning of talks set for July 1.

In mid-March, United States Trade Representative Jamieson Greer told Fox Business that Canada was behind Mexico on trade discussions. Greer has also said it’s unlikely the U.S. administration will resolve all its trade issues with Canada and Mexico by the July 1 deadline.

This week, Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc said there is no “drop dead date” for the review and that Canada “certainly won’t be the source of any delays.”

National Post, with files from Jordan Gowling.

• Canada should expect 'hostility' with U.S. trade talks less than three months away, trade analysts say
• Trump is running out of tariff cards to play ahead of CUSMA review

Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark nationalpost.com and sign up for our daily newsletter, Posted, here.

New images on Facebook have been shared showing recovering 12-year-old Tumbler Ridge shooting victim Maya Gebala interacting with her little sister in hospital.

The pictures show Maya and Dahlia operating a touchscreen together, their hands touching. Dahlia is wearing a hoodie with Maya’s name on the front and back, and in the second photo she is turned away to show off the back to her sister.

The photos were posted by her father, David Gebala, with a simple heart emoji above them. Her mother, Cia Edmonds, who posts as “Cia Later,” then reposted the images and added: “My girls amaze me everyday.”

The pictures are also available on Maya’s Path of Resilience , a public Facebook group with close to 80,000 members.

Comments were enthusiastic, including one follower who wrote: “OMG, this is amazing! Seeing the focus in her eye and the expression on her face. She is so absolutely there. 1000 thank youse for sharing with us David. People in Canada and across the world just genuinely care, and want to see Maya find her way back to life. I am thousands of others continue to pray for Maya and for all of you each day. Love from Vancouver.”

Maya suffered significant brain damage after being shot by 18-year-old Jesse Van Rootselaar during a mass shooting on Feb. 10 in Tumbler Ridge, B.C. Six people were killed at a school and two others in a home that day.

In a post from March 30, Cia wrote about the notion of Maya as a hero, writing that while her daughter is a hero to her, “She just doesn’t need that badge.”

Instead, Cia called out the many heroes from that day and its aftermath.

They included teacher Mark Deeley, who dragged a wounded student into the classroom; several students who tried in vain to keep that student alive; and student Christina Walker, who dragged Maya under a desk and also carried a message from a dying classmate: “Tell my parents I love them.”

Cia wrote: “This girl, this child… carried those words on her shoulders, and scarred them heavy in her heart, and brought them to Abel’s parents.”

She also called out Maya’s friend Abbison, who told police to grab Maya as she was still alive; and the officer on duty who did so and drove her to hospital.

She added: “THOSE are heroes… TRUE heroes.”

Outpourings of sympathy and support from around the world have included an offer from Ultimate Fighting Championship president  Dana White  to cover all medical costs at a top-tier L.A. hospital as well as the family’s accommodation if they choose to take her there.

The family has accepted the offer, but can’t move forward until Maya is able to handle a transfer from B.C. Children’s Hospital where she is currently recovering.

I sit beside you at your bedside, wrapped in a quiet kind of uncertainty unsure of what your life will look like, unsure of what lies ahead. Every single day I pray that you’ll be okay, that you don’t feel pain, and that the weight of what happened never lingers in your memory.… pic.twitter.com/8vIhW74o2c

— David Gebala (@DavidGebala) April 12, 2026

In a post from several days ago, shared on Facebook and X, David posted an image of Maya sleeping, writing: “I sit beside you at your bedside, wrapped in a quiet kind of uncertainty unsure of what your life will look like, unsure of what lies ahead. Every single day I pray that you’ll be okay, that you don’t feel pain, and that the weight of what happened never lingers in your memory.”

He continued: “My sweet Maya, I know you’re still in there, you show us in the most beautiful ways. I see it in your eyes… that little twinkle, that spark that has always been yours. The other day, when Dahlia placed the Labubu in your hand, you lifted it gently to your face, as if you wanted to really see it, to know it. And when I put lotion on your dry hands, you brought your hand up again, taking in the scent like it was something familiar, something comforting.

“It’s those little things, the ones that are actually so big that remind me, without a doubt, that you are still here. My firstborn, the big sister, the heart of the family… we will get through this together. There are so many people cheering you on, holding you in their hearts.

“Daddy loves you, my sweet Maya Bear forever and always.”

• Maya Gebala's parents taking UFC president's offer to pay for rehab at L.A. hospital
• Terry Newman: Maya Gebala has become everyone's daughter

Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark nationalpost.com and sign up for our daily newsletter, Posted, here.

During a recent talk at the invitation of the University of Alberta, Dr. Karine Khatchadourian offered a candid appraisal of the evidence underpinning Canada’s approach to treating gender-distressed youth.  

The field is in a highly consequential grey zone with contradictory findings at best, the Ottawa doctor told a virtual audience. The evidence doesn’t allow doctors to say with confidence whether puberty suppression has psychological benefits or not and today’s rapidly changing demographics — predominantly biological females with accompanying complex mental health problems and no known history of gender distress when they were younger — make it difficult-to-impossible to predict if someone’s gender dysphoria or incongruence will persist.

“We have to constantly be reassessing what we’re doing, what we’re treating, based on new evidence that’s coming forward,” Khatchadourian said.   

Doctors are encouraged to look at emerging data objectively, be open to scrutiny and pivot where necessary, she said. However, gender-affirming care is different; a field so turbulent and charged with emotion that providers are reluctant to express doubts for fear of being alienated by colleagues and condemned by activists as transphobic.  

Which is what makes Khatchadourian’s openness to share that her own messaging has changed so remarkable.  

“The message to patients, providers, the public has to include that what we’re seeing now with the data is this uncertainty of the evidence,” she told the February gathering hosted by the U of Alberta-based Women and Children’s Health Research Institute. Her assessment echoes the findings of a recent series of deep systematic dives into the literature that concluded the evidence supporting gender medicine interventions is, as the editor-in-chief of the influential British Medical Journal summarized, “threadbare, whichever research question you wish to consider.”

Khatchadourian was one of the first doctors in Canada to provide hormone treatments to transgender-identifying and gender dysphoric youth, in 2014. By her estimate, some 250 to 300 gender-distressed children and teens have been under her care over the years.  

After 12 years of experience, she said she now understands the population more. “I can say that, with everything I now know, as of now, I would challenge medicalizing the majority of youth that are presenting to clinics,” Khatchadourian, an assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of Ottawa, said in an interview.  

“I strongly believe in this care,” she stressed.

“But it must be approached with rigour and caution, given the high stakes in this field.”

McMaster University researchers faced persecution from both extremes of the trans debate last year after publishing two systematic reviews that found the evidence is of such low, or very low, certainty that it’s impossible to conclude whether puberty blockers are helpful or harmful.  

Lead author and celebrated scientist Dr. Gordon Guyatt and colleagues faced backlash from activists on one side over a funding source (the Society for Evidence-Based Gender Medicine, a group concerned with low-evidenced interventions that’s been accused of being an anti-trans think tank by transgender rights groups) and, on the other side, critics who accused Guyatt of shirking his own evidence-based approach to science by later issuing a letter criticizing opponents for using his work to justify treatment bans.  

“Everybody’s been kind of frightened,” Guyatt told National Post columnist  Michael Higgins . “I was not as vividly aware as to what an extreme political environment it is.”  

In their letter, Guyatt and four colleagues wrote that it’s misguided to cast medical interventions based on low-certainty evidence “as bad care or as care driven by ideology.”  

However, under the GRADE scoring system co-developed by Guyatt, “very low certainty” means it’s hard to have confidence where the true effect lies.

Privately, other Canadian doctors like Khatchadourian are becoming more cautious.  

Writing for  healthydebate.ca, scientist, gastroenterologist and U of Toronto professor of medicine, Dr. Laura Targownik, who is a transgender woman, said several providers working in the field have shared that they’re becoming “more circumspect, recognizing that they can no longer function as enablers of transition in all cases.”   

Public support for gender care for minors is in “free fall,” she wrote, “not only among conservative voters, but also among those who describe themselves as moderate or liberal.”   

But the issue has become such a political minefield doctors fear that any expressed concern will be weaponized and used to shut down “and rob youth” of all care, even for those who would benefit, Targownik said in an interview.  

Canadian physicians want what’s best for kids, she said. But they’re also concerned about leaving kids suffering from serious dysphoria with nothing.  

Several European countries and American states are already pulling back. Puberty blockers have been banned indefinitely in Britain for under 18s after the country’s health service declared them an “unacceptable safety risk.” Alberta invoked the Charter’s notwithstanding clause to uphold its bill p rohibiting doctors from prescribing puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones to under 16s.

Meanwhile, numerous medical organizations, including the Canadian Paeditric Society, continue to endorse an affirming approach to gender dysphoria.

Khatchadourian was one of the first pediatric endocrinologists to train in the field of pediatric gender medicine in Canada. She was the first author of the first Canadian study (and second paper in North America) on the medical management of youth with gender dysphoria, published in 2014. Between 2022 and 2024, she was co-medical lead of the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario’s (CHEO) gender diversity clinic.  

While still relatively small, the number of children and adolescents identifying as transgender or gender-diverse has grown dramatically over the last decade. Pediatricians and family doctors across Canada are seeing them in their practices. Kids are being treated not only in specialized hospital-based clinics, but also by primary care providers in the community, some after virtual assessments.

In an interview, Khatchadourian said she worries that the increase in teens (mostly natal females) identifying as non-binary — neither identifying as female nor male — may be socially driven. “We know social media and peers have greater influence during adolescence,” she said.  

 “I didn’t see anyone identifying as non-binary ten years ago when I was training.” She questions the influx now.  

“It’s so hard to know when you see a patient how much of this story is really that person’s story and how much is based on the influence of peers and social media,” she said.   

“We get to a point where we accept certain definitions and certain things, but we should continuously ask why: ‘Why is this happening? What are your theories? Does this warrant medical treatment?’”   

In the pre-social media era, kids who might have struggled with low level dysphoria or transient feelings might have found other ways to deal with it or allowed it to pass, Targownik said.   

“But now they’re connecting with people who are telling them, ‘Hey, I did this and it’s working for me. This may be why you’re feeling disconnected from society. Maybe the reason you’re having trouble fitting in with other girls is not because you’re autistic, or because you’re marching to your own beat. It’s because you are actually a boy inside.’”  

Youth can instantly connect with dozens of others who feel the way they do and start down a medical transitioning path. But Khatchadourian worries “we’re changing trajectories for these youth” based on unconvincing and limited data, and with too few mental health assessments by psychologists or psychiatrists trained in the child and adolescent medicine space.  

“The expertise has not kept pace with the demand, and that worries me,” said Khatchadourian. She’s advocating for a national review in Canada — one involving those working in the field, trans-identified individuals, parents and families and, as well, de-transitioners — to ensure practices are aligned with the best available evidence.  

Targownik also supports getting better data because, whether a populist or pragmatist, government leaders “are going to start asking for receipts,” she said.  

“Someone is going to come and say, ‘I know you believe this care works. If you believe so strongly in this, show me that it actually works. Show me your outcomes. Show me that the kids you’re transitioning are doing well a year later, two years, five years later. Give me your best estimate of what the detransition rate in the modern cohort actually is, and the risk factors.”  

There’s been a reluctance to ask those questions in the past when the practice was completely unhindered and support for gender care at its peak, she said.  

Now, more countries are questioning that blanket, blind “just affirm” approach.

Khatchadourian favours aligning with Sweden and Finland’s approach, where puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones are reserved for children and teens with a history of gender dysphoria that started in early childhood and has persisted for many years.  

For others, she recommends a more holistic approach, supporting youth as they’re going through identity development. She rejects accusations that she’s against gender affirming care. “Gender care means I’m addressing the distress. Of course that is a concern. ‘You have needs. I’m here to support your needs.’ But we haven’t asked the right question: What is the best way to address your needs?’  

“We need to take a high level of risk approach, given the uncertainty of the evidence” and medication risks, she said. For her, the biggest stake is irreversible infertility.   

“The most challenging conversations are always around fertility,” she said. “Most of the time you’re going to hear youth say they don’t want children, they don’t want biological children, or if they do at some point, they will consider adoption. You have to ask yourself, is that a mature response? Have they really given it considerable thought? Have they truly demonstrated capacity to consent?”   

Early in her training, Khatchadourian spent a month in the Netherlands, the origins of pediatric gender medicine and birthplace of the so-called “Dutch Protocol” that saw doctors begin offering medical transitions for gender dysphoric teens in the early 1990s.   

Back then, most of the gender distressed Dutch kids were biological males with a history of childhood-onset gender dysphoria that persisted into late adolescence.

Since then, the sex ratio has shifted dramatically, with 70 per cent of children presenting at clinics now natal females, many with co-occurring  conditions such as autism, depression and anxiety that make it crucial to separate gender-related distress from other sources of distress or trauma that might mimic or add to the gender incongruence, Khatchadourian said.  

“You really need good mental health providers to assess and diagnose from that lens.”   

However, one study found that only four of 10 gender clinics in Canada required a psychiatric or psychological assessment before blockers or hormones were started.  

Medical transitioning can begin once puberty starts, with drugs that block the physical changes of puberty. Older teens can receive cross sex hormones so that they develop the physical features more in line with their gender identity. Gender reassignment surgeries in Canada are restricted to those 18 and older, though mastectomies have been performed on girls as young as 14.  

Concerns have been raised that doctors are misusing the principle of autonomy by prioritizing affirming a child’s self-declared identity and giving children the treatments they want to change their physical body to align with their expressed gender. It prioritizes the child’s goals. “But what if those goals shift,” she said.  

There’s no clear picture of the natural course of gender dysphoria among the cohort of kids seeking gender-affirming care today, she said. “It’s well accepted that gender incongruence in childhood is usually a sign of later emerging same-sex attraction,” she said.  

She also worries about the risk of regret in, for example, a 15- or 16-year-old biological female who has identified as non-binary for a few years who now wants a mastectomy. “These are major decisions that require careful consideration.”  

There’s sometimes an urgency of expectations from parents and youth as well, she said. Many are unnerved by the dominant and stark narrative that these kids have a high risk of suicide, but the weight of the evidence suggests blockers and hormones do not decrease suicidality, she said. “This is important for families to know.  

“You need to identify and treat the mental health disorders in adolescents experiencing gender dysphoria to prevent suicide.”  

Khatchadourian no longer sees many young people herself, though she still has a few she follows in clinic and acts as a consultant on gender care for primary care providers for the province of Ontario. She no longer helps lead CHEO’s gender diversity clinic. “It was deemed that my expertise would be better suited to focus on other clinical and academic responsibilities,” she said, including her diabetes patients.  

Considerable research has been published since she first began in the field of gender medicine. It’s a field that’s evolving rapidly. What one might have believed even a year ago might not hold anymore, she said.  

“I need to trust the data,” she said. “Trust what we’re doing. And there was a lot of confusion for me with understanding the evidence.  

“If I didn’t trust the evidence, how could I instill confidence in my patients?”   

National Post 

• StatCan seeking advice on how to share secret census data on transgender children 'O to 14'
• 'Ghosted by the one who did the mastectomy': Detransitioners face 'detransphobia,' study finds

Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark nationalpost.com and sign up for our daily newsletter, Posted, here.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Work teams around the world have seen their numbers dwindle, thanks to economic uncertainty , political volatility, and the adoption of AI, leading to layoffs and unfilled vacancies.

As a result, a former team of eight might now be down to just four or five, and if a couple of them dare to take a vacation or call in sick, that leaves just a couple of people to juggle a workload once handled by the bigger team.

Those who remain are feeling overworked, underappreciated, and are more burned out as a result. But they also feel stuck in a softening labour market where the threat of layoffs looms, which is keeping voluntary turnover low.

As a result, global employee engagement was down in 2025 for the second year in a row, hitting its lowest point since 2019, according to a new Gallup study . Canada and the U.S. continue to outperform most other countries, leading the world at 31 per cent employee engagement, but those levels have dropped five percentage points since the pandemic.

Job-market optimism in the two countries, however, fell 10 points in 2025, and the region is now second-to-last globally, down 23 points since 2019. Workers — and especially managers — are feeling squeezed by smaller teams and fewer resources.

“The big change for the U.S. and Canada,” said Jim Harter, chief scientist of workplace management and well-being for the Gallup Management Practice, “is the percentage of people who say it’s a good time to find a quality job.”

Amid the “no hire, no fire” environment, staffers feel less confident looking for better jobs and want to avoid being the “last hired, first fired” if layoffs hit.

Harter said much of that is caused by the economic situation, which has some overlapping causes in both Canada and the U.S. related to low hiring rates, low firing rates, college-educated people struggling to find jobs, and an oversupply of workers.

“You could point to a lot of different factors, but clearly the biggest drop was in how people perceive the job market,” he added.

Unemployment remains low in the U.S., falling from 4.4 to 4.3 per cent in March, and it is much lower than Canada’s 6.7 per cent.

Firms are holding on to workers but not expanding, said Elise Gould, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute, owing to economic uncertainty brought on by tariffs and policy volatility.

Employees, she said, sense that even a modest upswing in layoffs could “translate into a spike in unemployment pretty rapidly.”

Geni Peters, director of research at ECO Canada, acknowledges that demand in the Canadian job market is falling, so job vacancies are declining. But she doesn’t think that’s the reason for lower job-market optimism.

For that, she blames “political, economic, and geopolitical uncertainty.”

Pessimism over the job market and engagement can be attributed to many factors, according to Wayne Hochwarter, a business administration professor at Florida State University, including geopolitical tensions, higher gas prices, AI, the war, and other pressures. But he said the root problem is simple: inadequate and inept leadership.

“That’s a perfect storm in a lot of ways with the economy and everything else, but this is just leaders not doing their job.”

Managers are the weak spot, according to Harter, and their engagement has fallen faster than that of individual contributors.

“When manager engagement drops, it really affects the commitment of the workforce because they kind of lead the way,” he added.

Companies can improve engagement by choosing and training better managers, ensuring they are leaders who can “motivate teams, build relationships, support AI adoption, set goals, give regular feedback, and hold employees accountable.”

Peters also thinks better training could help, but she says managers are facing pressure to do more with fewer resources while often lacking the authority and support they need to succeed.

She and Hochwarter noted how most managers don’t know how to manage remote and hybrid teams, for example, which hurts performance and leads to greater disengagement.

This is all exacerbating post-pandemic burnout, leading to something Hochwarter has dubbed “ quiet cracking ,” a situation where workers who feel stuck just do the bare minimum to keep their jobs.

“It’s similar to quiet quitting, but you don’t quit. Because the job market is not really too supportive of people leaving,  people look at their job descriptions, and they look at what are the very basic things I need to do here to keep my job.”

Gallup isn’t alone in pointing to disengagement and lost optimism.

Sandra LaVoy, regional VP with staffing firm Robert Half in Canada, said she is concerned by rising burnout levels, a trend driven by heavy workloads, long hours, and shrunken teams post-COVID.

Burnout in Canada has risen to a whopping 62 per cent, according to a new Robert Half survey, which is up from 47 per cent in 2024.

The fields and demographics hit the hardest, LaVoy said, include legal (tops the list), human resources, working parents, millennials, and finance/accounting.

“I hear more about burnout now than ever,” she added.

Younger workers are among the most pessimistic, according to Gallup. Just 20 per cent of workers aged 18 to 34 say it’s a good time to look for a job, compared to 41 per cent for those 65 years old and older. For younger workers in both countries, unemployment is nearly double the national rates, which explains some of the pessimism.

“Thirty years ago, clients would … go to the universities and recruit for the summer,” said LaVoy.

But now, junior commodity transactional roles, she said, have been reduced by AI , so those junior roles aren’t there for summer hires, she added.

So how do we boost engagement and job market optimism to turn things around for everyone?

Food, energy, and housing-price stability would help people feel more confident overall, said Peters, freeing workers to take on more career risks.

Hochwarter stresses the need to make resilient hires, train them properly, build trust through transparency, and build a culture that applauds lifelong learning with incentives.

“I think you have to set up that environment, and you have to motivate people, but you also have to reward it,” he said.

Many of the experts pointed to the need for stronger communication and building of trust between employers and workers.

LaVoy noted that sometimes just having some communication from leadership can go a long way.

“Just that little extra to acknowledge … ‘I know you’re working really hard’ until things turn around.”

National Post

• The U.S. economy is ailing, meaning 'one hell of a cold or the flu' for Canada, economists fear
• Americans are confused — and fatigued — by Trump’s trade war

Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark nationalpost.com and sign up for our newsletters here.