Federal Government: 1) Carney follows up speech in Davos with trip to India, Australia, Japan; 2)(Updated) Ottawa spending $3 billion to boost military housing stock

1) Carney follows up speech in Davos with trip to India, Australia, Japan

Courtesy Barrie360.com and Canadian Press

By Anja Karadeglija and Dylan Robertson, Feb. 24, 2026.

Prime Minister Mark Carney leaves Thursday for a 10-day visit to India, Australia and Japan — his first international trip since his headline-making speech in Davos that called for middle powers to band together.

It will give Carney a chance to put that speech into action as he visits three “powerhouses of the region,” Asia Pacific Foundation vice-president Vina Nadjibulla said in an interview.

“The Indo-Pacific is where the centre of gravity for geopolitics and economic growth … is increasingly converging,” she said.

In his speech to the World Economic Forum in January, Carney urged middle powers to work together against “American hegemony” and the efforts of great powers to coerce and subjugate smaller countries.

“In Asia, Canada is having a moment. Prime Minister Carney’s speech really was quite an important development in how Asia sees Canada,” Nadjibulla said.

University of Waterloo political science professor David Welch said the trip is a “clear follow” on the speech, since India, Japan and Australia are all important middle powers. He said Canada’s “stock has risen dramatically globally since the Davos speech.”

But it’s still not clear how much Carney will be able to accomplish with the trip, beyond symbolism.

“Whether he comes back with deals that do significantly enhance Canada’s economic relationship or security relationship with any of these countries, that remains to be seen,” Welch said.

At the G20 summit in South Africa last year, Carney launched a partnership on emerging technologies with India and Australia.

“We don’t have a lot of details but I’m hoping that we will see some announcements connected to the trilateral during the prime minister’s visit,” Nadjibulla said, noting the agreement came after India hosted a global summit on AI.

Carney will land in Mumbai on Feb. 27, then head to New Delhi on March 1, where he will meet Indian President Narendra Modi. He will then fly to Sydney March 3 before stopping in Canberra on March 5 and then Tokyo on March 6.

While Canada has a good relationship with both Australia and Japan, Carney has set out to reset Canada’s relations with India after a diplomatic crisis that erupted in 2023.

In September 2023, then-prime minister Justin Trudeau told the House of Commons Canada was pursuing “credible allegations of a potential link” between India and the assassination of Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar.

A year later, the RCMP accused New Delhi of playing a role in a network of violence linked to domestic homicides and acts of extortion.

Both countries recalled their high commissioners and diplomatic ties were suspended for months.

Then Carney invited Modi to the G7 summit in Alberta last June and the two countries have since reappointed high commissioners.

“We both decided that this is too important a relationship to let go, for it to meander the way it was meandering,” India’s High Commissioner to Canada Dinesh Patnaik said in an interview last week.

The two countries have relaunched trade negotiations that have stopped and started since 2010. Patnaik said he’s optimistic about the chances of reaching a deal in just 12 months of negotiations because both countries want stability in a turbulent world.

Both Canada and India are looking to diversify their trade links away from dependence on the United States. Sushant Singh, a lecturer on South Asian studies at Yale University, said Carney and Modi are being driven by the same motive.

“Very clearly there is a desire to close the previous chapter or whatever happened with the previous government … and to start afresh,” he said.

After India, Carney heads to Australia, where Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has been in power since 2022. Carney will address Australia’s Parliament during the trip, government officials said in a background briefing.

Both Canada and Australia are Commonwealth countries and partners in the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing alliance, along with the U.S., U.K. and New Zealand.

Nadjibulla said there is a lot of goodwill and trust between the two countries, along with strong investment ties, but the “defence and security relationship is one that absolutely needs to be strengthened.”

Canada and Australia signed an agreement last year to deploy an over-the-horizon radar system.

Welch said Canada’s relationship with Australia is good but the opportunities for interaction are limited.

“They’re a commodity exporter. We’re a commodity exporter. They’re an agricultural powerhouse. We’re an agricultural powerhouse,” he said. “Just trying to figure out what we could sell them that we don’t sell them now and vice versa is a bit of a trick.”

Carney’s last stop will be in Japan, also a close ally. His visit comes after Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, the country’s first female prime minister, was re-elected in a landslide earlier this month.

“In some ways, the trip is long overdue given how significant Japan is as a partner for us in the region,” Nadjibulla said. Former prime minister Justin Trudeau visited in 2023.

A side-trip to Japan was considered when Carney travelled to Singapore, Malaysia and South Korea last fall, but the timing did not work out.

Canada launched an Indo-Pacific strategy three years ago. Nadjibulla said that strategy has led to a deeper relationship with Japan.

She described it as a “full spectrum partnership” that includes strong economic relations, commercial investment, partnerships on energy and critical minerals, “alignment around values and deep people-to-people ties as well.”

But Nadjibulla noted that because the relationship is in a very good place, “it’s easy to overlook it and to not give it the kind of attention that it deserves.”

Welch said Canada and Japan have grown closer as global volatility and uncertainty have increased.

“Canada and Japan in the past few years just seized on each other as stable, like-minded countries that are committed to a rules-based international order and committed to a liberal international order,” he said.

2)(Updated) Ottawa spending $3 billion to boost military housing stock

Courtesy Barrie360.com and Canadian Press

By Nick Murray,Feb. 26, 2026.

The federal government will spend $3.7 billion to build 6,000 more housing units for Canada’s military, Defence Minister David McGuinty said on Tuesday.

McGuinty made the announcement at CFB Uplands in Ottawa, but could not provide a timeline for when the new units would be built other than saying it will span “several years.”

The units will be spread out across 25 communities, and build on the 800-some new units already under construction.

“Our bases are more than just workplaces, they’re neighbourhoods, they’re places where members access essential services, raise their families, get the care and support they need, and build a sense of belonging,” McGuinty said.

“Today’s announcement is also about more than building just new housing. It’s about strengthening the readiness of the Canadian Armed Forces.”

A report from Canada’s auditor general last year said the military’s housing units are getting older and are in poor condition. It also said the military had a shortfall in available housing across multiple bases.

“That might mean that buildings didn’t have safe drinking water … toilets weren’t working, or there was structural damage to the exterior walls of the building,” Auditor General Karen Hogan told a news conference in October after the report’s release.

“These are the kind of conditions that you and I wouldn’t want to live in, and the kind of conditions I don’t think we should expect our Canadian Armed Forces to live in.”

CFB Gagetown in New Brunswick is slated to get 500 new units from Tuesday’s announcement, Kingston, Ont., is set to get 900 units, while Valcartier, Que., Petawawa, Ont., and Edmonton will each get more than 1,000 new units.

Liberal MP David Myles, whose riding encompasses CFB Gagetown, said the funding for housing is “great news,” but Canadian Armed Forces members in his riding say other major infrastructure upgrades are also badly needed.

“Go on a base, check it out and you’ll see the needs are great. Many of these buildings haven’t been touched since the 1960s,” Myles, who accompanied McGuinty at the announcement, told The Canadian Press.

“There’s roads, and many of the large infrastructure buildings that house a lot of the equipment haven’t been updated. It’s like asbestos — that you wouldn’t really want in a building.”

McGuinty said the extra funding will help with recruitment for the Armed Forces. He said recruitment is up by 13 per cent over the last eight months.

Asked by reporters if 13 per cent was “good enough” McGuinty replied, “that’s pretty good.”

“Thirteen per cent is 13 per cent more than it was a year ago,” McGuinty said.

“I think applications are up because Canadians want to serve. Canadians are, I think, they’re very engaged in the project called ‘Canada’ right now. I think they want to make sure that Canada remains a secure and sovereign country.”

Conservative defence critic James Bezan said while his party welcomes the increased support for building homes, they remain skeptical the Liberals will actually deliver.

“As reported by the National Defence committee, in 2023-2024, there was a wait-list of over 6,700 Canadian Armed Forces members waiting for military housing,” Bezan said in a statement. 

“The lack of housing availability combined with the Liberal cost-of-living crisis resulted in numerous reports of troops living rough or in unsafe housing conditions to make ends meet.”

— With files from Kyle Duggan