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Carney travels to Europe for security, defence talks with EU, NATO

Global News

an hour ago

Global News

Carney travels to Europe for security, defence talks with EU, NATO

Prime Minister Mark Carney will depart for Europe on Sunday for back-to-back summits where he is expected to make major commitments for Canada on security and defence. Carney will be joined by Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand, Defence Minister David McGuinty and secretary of state for defence procurement Stephen Fuhr at the EU and NATO summits, where military procurement and diversifying supply chains will top the agendas. The international meetings come as Canada looks to reduce its defence procurement reliance on the United States due to strained relations over tariffs and President Donald Trump's repeated talk about Canada becoming a U.S. state. Carney will fly first to Brussels, Belgium, starting the trip with a visit to the Antwerp Schoonselhof Military Cemetery where 348 Canadian soldiers are buried. He will also meet with Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever, European Council President António Costa and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. Story continues below advertisement At the EU-Canada summit, Anand and McGuinty are expected to sign a security and defence agreement with the EU in what one European official described Friday as one of the most ambitious deals Europe has ever signed with a third country. The agreement will open the door to Canada's participation in the ReArm Europe initiative, allowing Canada to access a 150-billion-euro loan program for defence procurement, called Security Action for Europe. An EU official briefing reporters on Friday said once the procurement deal is in place, Canada will have to negotiate a bilateral agreement with the European Commission to begin discussions with member states about procurement opportunities. A Canadian official briefing reporters on the summit Saturday said the initial agreement will allow for Canada's participation in some joint procurement projects. However, a second agreement will be needed to allow Canadian companies to bid. 1:48 Carney to increase U.S. steel, aluminum tariffs if trade talks with Trump stall At the EU-Canada summit, leaders are also expected to issue a joint statement to underscore a willingness for continued pressure on Russia, including through further sanctions, and call for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza. Story continues below advertisement After Brussels, Carney heads to The Hague in the Netherlands for the NATO leaders' summit on Tuesday and Wednesday. Get daily National news Get the day's top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day. Sign up for daily National newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy There, Carney will meet with the King of the Netherlands and later with leaders of Nordic nations to discuss Arctic and transatlantic security. At the NATO summit, Carney will take part in bilateral meetings with other leaders. The summit agenda includes a social dinner hosted by the king and queen of the Netherlands and a two-and-a-half hour meeting of the North Atlantic Council. NATO allies are expected to debate a plan to hike alliance members' defence spending target to five per cent of national GDP. NATO data shows that in 2024, none of its 32 members spent that much. The Canadian government official who briefed reporters on background says the spending target and its timeline are still up for discussion, though some allies have indicated they would prefer a seven-year timeline while others favour a decade. Canada hasn't hit a five- per- cent defence spending threshhold since the 1950s and hasn't reached the two per cent mark since the late 1980s. NATO says that, based on its estimate of which expenditures count toward the target, Canada spent $41 billion in 2024 on defence, or 1.37 per cent of GDP. That's more than twice what it spent in 2014, when the two per cent target was first set; that year, Canada spent $20.1 billion, or 1.01 per cent of GDP, on defence. Story continues below advertisement In 2014, only three NATO members achieved the two per cent target — the U.S., the U.K., and Greece. In 2025, all members are expected to hit it. Any agreement to adopt a new spending benchmark must be ratified by all 32 NATO member states. Former Canadian ambassador to NATO Kerry Buck told The Canadian Press the condensed agenda is likely meant to 'avoid public rifts among allies,' describing Trump as an 'uncertainty engine.' 'The national security environment has really, really shifted,' Buck said, adding allies next door to Russia face the greatest threats. 'There is a high risk that the U.S. would undercut NATO at a time where all allies are increasingly vulnerable.' Trump has suggested the U.S. might abandon its mutual defence commitment to the alliance if member countries don't ramp up defence spending. Story continues below advertisement 'Whatever we can do to get through this NATO summit with few public rifts between the U.S. and other allies on anything, and satisfy a very long-standing U.S. demand to rebalance defence spending, that will be good for Canada because NATO's good for Canada,' Buck said. Carney has already made two trips to Europe this year — the first to London and Paris to meet with European allies and the second to Rome to attend the inaugural mass of Pope Leo XIV.

SIMMONS SAYS: The Florida Panthers are one of hockey's greatest teams

Calgary Herald

an hour ago

Calgary Herald

SIMMONS SAYS: The Florida Panthers are one of hockey's greatest teams

Article content HEAR AND THERE Article content The 2025 Hockey Hall of Fame Class will be introduced on Tuesday. So here's my Hall of Fame class a few days early: I'll start with the long-overdue Alexander Mogilny and then add the three first-time eligible Carey Price, Zdeno Chara and Joe Thornton. And apologies to Duncan Keith, who deserves first-ballot Hall of Fame entry but there's only room for four players … My Builder, who has been passed over for far too long, is women's hockey executive Fran Rider. And my choice from the women's side as a player, Jennifer Botterill, who also should have been added by now …. So how exactly did lower taxes in Florida help GM Zito trade for Sam Reinhart, Matthew Tkachuk, Bennett, Seth Jones, Brad Marchand and Brandon Montour? Anybody anywhere do better trading than that? And how did lower tax rates in Florida help the Lightning draft Steven Stamkos, Victor Hedman, Andrei Vasilevskiy, Nikita Kucherov and Brayden Point over a short period of time? Do they have an accountant as their chief scout? By the way, the Dallas Stars have been in a state without taxes long before the NHL went to a salary cap. They have won the Stanley Cup only once — and that came on an illegal goal in 1999. One more thing: Nashville has won no Stanley Cups in 26 years in business and might be the best place to live in America. How have the tax laws helped the Predators, who had a Hall of Fame general manager in David Poile? … The last three teams to win back-to-back Stanley Cups had terrific third lines: Florida had Anton Lundell centring Eetu Luostarinen and Marchand; Tampa had Yanni Gourde centring Blake Coleman and Barclay Goodrow; And before that, Pittsburgh had Nick Bonino centring Phil Kessel and Carl Hagelin. The Lundell-Luostarinen-Marchand line finished these playoffs with 57 points. The HBK line had 56 in 2016 … The best defensive defencemen in hockey: 1. Jaccob Slavin of Carolina; 2. Gustav Forsling of Florida; 3. Chris Tanev of Toronto … How great is the combination of Barkov and Forsling on the Panthers? Well, add this up: McDavid had just four even-strength points in the Stanley Cup final and was a minus-7. Last year, he had eight even-strength points and was plus-5 … Washington's Brian MacLellan did not get nominated for the Jim Gregory Award as general manager of the year for one simple reason. He wasn't the general manager of the Capitals this season. Chris Patrick was. But MacLellan was GM last June and early July when the Capitals made eight roster changes to vault them into a first-place season. If there was a GM of the year award for someone no longer a GM, it would go to MacLellan. Article content Article content SCENE AND HEARD Article content Sunday night is Game 7 of the NBA Finals that will not end. And possibly it willl be history in the making. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander could become the first Canadian basketball player to win the MVP, the championship with the Oklahoma City Thunder, and win the Finals MVP all in the same year. Steve Nash has won MVPs but never won a title. Other Canadians, most notably Jamal Murray and Andrew Wiggins, have been significant parts of championship teams. But to win all three, if that happens Sunday night against the Indiana Pacers, is something that may only happen once. And you can pencil Gilgeous-Alexander in as Canadian athlete of the year if all this goes his way … Mark Walter, soon to own controlling interest in the Los Angeles Lakers, is already the majority owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers and the owner of the Professional Women's Hockey League. The league championship trophy is actually called the Walter Cup … As big as Shohei Ohtani may be to American sports and as a large a figure as Patrick Mahomes may be, Caitlin Clark may well be the most significant sporting figure, not necessarily the richest, in North American sports . When she plays, WNBA television audiences are huge. When she doesn't play, and she was injured recently, audiences are tiny. No single athlete moves the needle at this time the way Clark does, and watching her play, she brings a Gretzky-element to her sport. She finds players open that no one knows are there … One year, Mike Krushelnyski scored 88 points playing alongside Gretzky in Edmonton. The rest of his career, he averaged 48 points a game … The WNBA is damn foolish if it doesn't start protecting Clark better than it has through a season and a half … Just when you think you've seen everything in the CFL,. along comes Friday's Argo game. Trailing the entire night, the Argos tie the game in the final seconds against Saskatchewan with a touchdown and a two-point conversion. And they kick off and you expect overtime, not a 99-yard touchdown return to win the game for the Roughriders. Honestly, there is nothing in sports like the last three minutes of a CFL game. Even if you don't care who wins … This is the strangest Blue Jays season I can remember. The Jays spent $15 million on Max Scherzer, $92 million on Anthony Santander and inherited the oversized contract of Andres Gimenez — all of them the kinds of deals that could get a GM fired — and here are the Jays are in position to challenge for the American League East. Go figure. Article content Article content AND ANOTHER THING Article content The next time you hear Mitch Marner talk about his close friends Auston Matthews and William Nylander, understand this. One of the apparent reasons Marner wants out in Toronto is he truly believes he gets more heat for Leafs troubles than either Matthews or Nylander get. Can you say Mitchell Petty? … The NHL free agent class, Marner aside, is rather limited. The Maple Leafs' needs are many. It's easy to have doubt about where the Leafs are headed. But I'll go to a year ago on this: Leafs needed a goaltender and signed Anthony Stolarz for $2.5 million a year. They needed a lead defenceman and signed Tanev for $4.5 million a year. GM Brad Treliving spent $7 million for near all-stars in goal and on defence. That's value buying. Can he do it again? … If the Leafs have Matthews and Matthew Knies on one line, John Tavares and Nylander on another, what they still don't have is anything resembling the third line of the Panthers, assuming that Florida re-signs playoff star Bennett, which I'm assuming. I had been hearing since mid-winter in Florida that the Panthers would be re-signing Bennett but not likely defenceman Aaron Ekblad. I still believe that to be the economic case … Does the possibility of a Matthews-Knies-Marchand line excite you? I still wonder about Marchand. He looked rather lost at the 4 Nations tournament playing for Team Canada, then finished second in Conn Smythe voting in the playoffs. So which player will he be next year or in the future? If the Leafs commit to Marchand in free agency, it remains something of a gamble … What a nice pickup Jonathan Toews is for the Winnipeg Jets, no matter how much he has left. The Jets are a team that has to learn how to win when it matters. Toews is a professor on the subject … Who would have ever believed this would happen: The Edmonton football team, now foolishly known as the Elks, are the saddest in-stadium, ticket-selling team in Canadian football. We expect all that in Toronto. We should never expect that in Edmonton … The greatest teams in Canadian sports history (modern version): The five-time Grey Cup champion Edmonton Eskimos with Tom Wilkinson, Warren Moon and Dan Kepley; The Scotty Bowman-Guy Lafleur-Ken Dryden Montreal Canadians; The Pat Gillick-Cito Gaston-Roberto Alomar Toronto Blue Jays. The Glen Sather-Gretzky-Mark Messier Edmonton Oilers; The Masai Ujiri-Kawhi Leonard-Kyle Lowry Toronto Raptors. The Mike O'Shea-Zach Collaros Winnipeg Blue Bombers … Best way to win a Stanley Cup. Fire Dale Tallon. All Tallon left behind when he was let go by the Panthers as general manager: Barkov, Bobrovsky, Ekblad, Lundell, Jonathan Huberdeau and MacKenzie Weegar (traded for Tkachuk) and Spencer Knight (traded for Seth Jones Jr.). When he was fired by the Blackhawks, all he left behind was Keith, Toews, Patrick Kane — three Hall of Famers — Patrick Sharp, Dustin Byfuglien, Brent Seabrook, Nic Hjalmarsson and several other quality players … Happy birthday to Paul Beeston (80), Scottie Scheffler (29), Josh Naylor (28), Tyler O'Neill (30), Danny Green (38), Dustin Johnson (41), Clyde Drexler (63), Richard Jefferson (45), Kurt Warner (54), Ron Low (75) and Bob Bourne (71) … And hey, whatever became of Ilya Bryzgalov?

Ottawa Citizen

2 hours ago

Ottawa Citizen

SIMMONS SAYS: The Florida Panthers are one of hockey's greatest teams

Article content HEAR AND THERE Article content The 2025 Hockey Hall of Fame Class will be introduced on Tuesday. So here's my Hall of Fame class a few days early: I'll start with the long-overdue Alexander Mogilny and then add the three first-time eligible Carey Price, Zdeno Chara and Joe Thornton. And apologies to Duncan Keith, who deserves first-ballot Hall of Fame entry but there's only room for four players … My Builder, who has been passed over for far too long, is women's hockey executive Fran Rider. And my choice from the women's side as a player, Jennifer Botterill, who also should have been added by now …. So how exactly did lower taxes in Florida help GM Zito trade for Sam Reinhart, Matthew Tkachuk, Bennett, Seth Jones, Brad Marchand and Brandon Montour? Anybody anywhere do better trading than that? And how did lower tax rates in Florida help the Lightning draft Steven Stamkos, Victor Hedman, Andrei Vasilevskiy, Nikita Kucherov and Brayden Point over a short period of time? Do they have an accountant as their chief scout? By the way, the Dallas Stars have been in a state without taxes long before the NHL went to a salary cap. They have won the Stanley Cup only once — and that came on an illegal goal in 1999. One more thing: Nashville has won no Stanley Cups in 26 years in business and might be the best place to live in America. How have the tax laws helped the Predators, who had a Hall of Fame general manager in David Poile? … The last three teams to win back-to-back Stanley Cups had terrific third lines: Florida had Anton Lundell centring Eetu Luostarinen and Marchand; Tampa had Yanni Gourde centring Blake Coleman and Barclay Goodrow; And before that, Pittsburgh had Nick Bonino centring Phil Kessel and Carl Hagelin. The Lundell-Luostarinen-Marchand line finished these playoffs with 57 points. The HBK line had 56 in 2016 … The best defensive defencemen in hockey: 1. Jaccob Slavin of Carolina; 2. Gustav Forsling of Florida; 3. Chris Tanev of Toronto … How great is the combination of Barkov and Forsling on the Panthers? Well, add this up: McDavid had just four even-strength points in the Stanley Cup final and was a minus-7. Last year, he had eight even-strength points and was plus-5 … Washington's Brian MacLellan did not get nominated for the Jim Gregory Award as general manager of the year for one simple reason. He wasn't the general manager of the Capitals this season. Chris Patrick was. But MacLellan was GM last June and early July when the Capitals made eight roster changes to vault them into a first-place season. If there was a GM of the year award for someone no longer a GM, it would go to MacLellan. Article content Article content SCENE AND HEARD Article content Sunday night is Game 7 of the NBA Finals that will not end. And possibly it willl be history in the making. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander could become the first Canadian basketball player to win the MVP, the championship with the Oklahoma City Thunder, and win the Finals MVP all in the same year. Steve Nash has won MVPs but never won a title. Other Canadians, most notably Jamal Murray and Andrew Wiggins, have been significant parts of championship teams. But to win all three, if that happens Sunday night against the Indiana Pacers, is something that may only happen once. And you can pencil Gilgeous-Alexander in as Canadian athlete of the year if all this goes his way … Mark Walter, soon to own controlling interest in the Los Angeles Lakers, is already the majority owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers and the owner of the Professional Women's Hockey League. The league championship trophy is actually called the Walter Cup … As big as Shohei Ohtani may be to American sports and as a large a figure as Patrick Mahomes may be, Caitlin Clark may well be the most significant sporting figure, not necessarily the richest, in North American sports . When she plays, WNBA television audiences are huge. When she doesn't play, and she was injured recently, audiences are tiny. No single athlete moves the needle at this time the way Clark does, and watching her play, she brings a Gretzky-element to her sport. She finds players open that no one knows are there … One year, Mike Krushelnyski scored 88 points playing alongside Gretzky in Edmonton. The rest of his career, he averaged 48 points a game … The WNBA is damn foolish if it doesn't start protecting Clark better than it has through a season and a half … Just when you think you've seen everything in the CFL,. along comes Friday's Argo game. Trailing the entire night, the Argos tie the game in the final seconds against Saskatchewan with a touchdown and a two-point conversion. And they kick off and you expect overtime, not a 99-yard touchdown return to win the game for the Roughriders. Honestly, there is nothing in sports like the last three minutes of a CFL game. Even if you don't care who wins … This is the strangest Blue Jays season I can remember. The Jays spent $15 million on Max Scherzer, $92 million on Anthony Santander and inherited the oversized contract of Andres Gimenez — all of them the kinds of deals that could get a GM fired — and here are the Jays are in position to challenge for the American League East. Go figure. Article content Article content AND ANOTHER THING Article content The next time you hear Mitch Marner talk about his close friends Auston Matthews and William Nylander, understand this. One of the apparent reasons Marner wants out in Toronto is he truly believes he gets more heat for Leafs troubles than either Matthews or Nylander get. Can you say Mitchell Petty? … The NHL free agent class, Marner aside, is rather limited. The Maple Leafs' needs are many. It's easy to have doubt about where the Leafs are headed. But I'll go to a year ago on this: Leafs needed a goaltender and signed Anthony Stolarz for $2.5 million a year. They needed a lead defenceman and signed Tanev for $4.5 million a year. GM Brad Treliving spent $7 million for near all-stars in goal and on defence. That's value buying. Can he do it again? … If the Leafs have Matthews and Matthew Knies on one line, John Tavares and Nylander on another, what they still don't have is anything resembling the third line of the Panthers, assuming that Florida re-signs playoff star Bennett, which I'm assuming. I had been hearing since mid-winter in Florida that the Panthers would be re-signing Bennett but not likely defenceman Aaron Ekblad. I still believe that to be the economic case … Does the possibility of a Matthews-Knies-Marchand line excite you? I still wonder about Marchand. He looked rather lost at the 4 Nations tournament playing for Team Canada, then finished second in Conn Smythe voting in the playoffs. So which player will he be next year or in the future? If the Leafs commit to Marchand in free agency, it remains something of a gamble … What a nice pickup Jonathan Toews is for the Winnipeg Jets, no matter how much he has left. The Jets are a team that has to learn how to win when it matters. Toews is a professor on the subject … Who would have ever believed this would happen: The Edmonton football team, now foolishly known as the Elks, are the saddest in-stadium, ticket-selling team in Canadian football. We expect all that in Toronto. We should never expect that in Edmonton … The greatest teams in Canadian sports history (modern version): The five-time Grey Cup champion Edmonton Eskimos with Tom Wilkinson, Warren Moon and Dan Kepley; The Scotty Bowman-Guy Lafleur-Ken Dryden Montreal Canadians; The Pat Gillick-Cito Gaston-Roberto Alomar Toronto Blue Jays. The Glen Sather-Gretzky-Mark Messier Edmonton Oilers; The Masai Ujiri-Kawhi Leonard-Kyle Lowry Toronto Raptors. The Mike O'Shea-Zach Collaros Winnipeg Blue Bombers … Best way to win a Stanley Cup. Fire Dale Tallon. All Tallon left behind when he was let go by the Panthers as general manager: Barkov, Bobrovsky, Ekblad, Lundell, Jonathan Huberdeau and MacKenzie Weegar (traded for Tkachuk) and Spencer Knight (traded for Seth Jones Jr.). When he was fired by the Blackhawks, all he left behind was Keith, Toews, Patrick Kane — three Hall of Famers — Patrick Sharp, Dustin Byfuglien, Brent Seabrook, Nic Hjalmarsson and several other quality players … Happy birthday to Paul Beeston (80), Scottie Scheffler (29), Josh Naylor (28), Tyler O'Neill (30), Danny Green (38), Dustin Johnson (41), Clyde Drexler (63), Richard Jefferson (45), Kurt Warner (54), Ron Low (75) and Bob Bourne (71) … And hey, whatever became of Ilya Bryzgalov?

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Carney travels to Europe for security, defence talks with EU, NATO

SIMMONS SAYS: The Florida Panthers are one of hockey's greatest teams

SIMMONS SAYS: The Florida Panthers are one of hockey's greatest teams

Fidelity Investments Canada expands All-in-One ETF lineup with two new income-focused ETFs Français

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Carney travels to Europe for security, defence talks with EU, NATO

SIMMONS SAYS: The Florida Panthers are one of hockey's greatest teams

SIMMONS SAYS: The Florida Panthers are one of hockey's greatest teams

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