Federal Government: 1)Carney says his stance on Iran war shifted as Trump’s goals ‘evolved’; 2)Canada commits $270M to Ukraine as Carney addresses European summit in Armeni; 3)Joly unveils $1.5 billion in tariff relief after Trump ratchets up trade war; 4)(Updated) Former Supreme Court Justice Louise Arbour named as next governor general

1)Carney says his stance on Iran war shifted as Trump’s goals ‘evolved’

Courtesy Barrie360.com and Canadian Press

By Dylan Robertson, May 2, 2026

Canada’s initial position supporting Washington’s war in Iran shifted over the subsequent days as U.S. President Donald Trump’s objectives became more clear, Prime Minister Mark Carney told The Canadian Press.

“The scale of what the objectives were, or the clarity about what the objectives were, were not there at the start and have arguably evolved over time,” Carney said in a Friday interview.

On Feb. 28, the day the U.S. war on Iran began, Carney expressed unequivocal support for the action. A few days later he expressed regret that Washington did not consult the United Nations on a conflict that he said likely violates international law.

The shift prompted widespread criticism from multiple quarters. Some of Iran’s opponents argued that Carney had watered down a principled stance, while some advocates for international law said Carney was contradicting his speech at Davos about rejecting hegemonic behaviour by great powers.

“Our first comment was within hours of it beginning,” Carney said in his West Block office Friday.

Ottawa has long held the view that Iran is “the largest exporter of terror, state-sponsored terror, in the world. It’s murdered hundreds of Canadians,” Carney said. He added the Iranian regime is already causing suffering around the world and must not be allowed to acquire nuclear weapons.

“From the perspective of an action, that we’re going to reduce that, we’re supportive of those objectives,” Carney said.

“Now, there’s objectives and there’s how you pursue those objectives, and the clarity was around how they were being pursued and the extent to which they were consistent with international law.”

While Canada has stayed out of the conflict so far, the prime minister has said Ottawa might send support to restore shipping access in the Strait of Hormuz if there is a functional ceasefire. Carney’s government is seeking investment from Gulf countries.

Carney is set to be in Armenia this weekend for the European Political Community summit, which primarily focuses on how countries from Iceland to Azerbaijan co-ordinate on politics, security and infrastructure in the wake of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Carney said “one of the reasons” he is going to the summit as the only non-European leader is that he will join colleagues who “have banded together to provide assistance once a durable ceasefire is established.”

Carney said that, despite Washington’s claims that it has paused the conflict, there is not a “durable” ceasefire.

“We’re not in that position now, to be absolutely clear,” he said.

2)Canada commits $270M to Ukraine as Carney addresses European summit in Armenia

Courtesy Barrie360.com and Canadian Press
By Alessia Passafiume, May 4, 2026

Prime Minister Mark Carney says his government will contribute $270 million to help Ukraine secure critical military capabilities in its defence against Russia’s full-scale invasion.
Carney made the announcement in Armenia on Monday, where he is meeting with world leaders at the European Political Community summit, a gathering focused on strategic co-operation in politics, security and infrastructure.

Prime Minister Mark Carney says his government will contribute $270 million to help Ukraine secure critical military capabilities in its defence against Russia’s full-scale invasion.

Carney made the announcement in Armenia on Monday, where he is meeting with world leaders at the European Political Community summit, a gathering focused on strategic co-operation in politics, security and infrastructure.

The money will go toward buying items from a NATO list and brings Canada’s total monetary support for Ukraine to $25.8 billion.

“It’s part of a bigger puzzle in a conflict where Ukraine is gaining some advantage,” Carney told reporters.

In opening remarks before meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Carney said “all of Canada” is behind Ukraine. He said this latest contribution will help strengthen Ukraine and ensure prosperity for its people when peace comes.

“And it will come,” he said.

Zelenskyy expressed gratitude for the moral and financial backing.

“We are thankful to Canadian friends, to all the people for such strong support,” he said.

Canada is the first non-European country to attend the summit, which has taken place twice a year since it began after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Ahead of the announcement, Carney addressed the summit of European leaders, saying countries must take on the world as it is and not through the lens of nostalgia.

Carney told the gathering that Canada is at the summit because of the “immense potential” for partnerships with Europe.

“The world is undergoing a rupture across several dimensions. In technology, in energy, in commerce and geopolitics,” Carney said.

“We have to actively take on the world as it is, not as we wish it to be. We know nostalgia is not a strategy, but we don’t think that we’re destined to submit to a more transactional, insular and brutal world.

“And gatherings such as these point to a better way forward.”

Carney said it is his “strong personal view” that the international order will be rebuilt, and that it will be rebuilt out of Europe.

Earlier Monday, Carney met with European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and Antonio Costa, president of the European Council. A readout from the Prime Minister’s Office says the leaders discussed deepening collaboration in areas such as supply chains, critical minerals, energy and technologies.

After the meeting, Costa said Canada’s invitation to the summit was partly due to Carney’s speech in Davos, which he described as “great inspiration.”

“Because, as Mark Carney said in this very important speech in Davos, the like-minded countries around the world need to keep together, to strengthen their relationships, because this is essential to stabilize these very challenging moments in the world,” he said.

Costa said Canada shares a vision of the world based on multilateralism and the rule of law. While Europe and Canada will continue to deepen trade and defence ties, he said, there is a “geographic problem” with Canada joining the EU.

Carney met Sunday with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and thanked him for the invitation to attend the summit at a “crucial time” for Europe and European values.

He also has meetings with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez on Monday.

3)Joly unveils $1.5 billion in tariff relief after Trump ratchets up trade war

Courtesy Barrie360.com and Canadian Press

By Kyle Duggan, May 4, 2026.

The federal government said Monday it will put another $1.5 billion toward tariff relief in response to the United States expanding the range of businesses its metal tariffs will damage.

The announcement includes the creation of a new $1 billion program under the Business Development Bank of Canada to bolster the manufacturing sector, along with a $500 million top-up to the regional tariff response fund.

The new BDC programming is meant to shore up factories hit by U.S. tariffs affecting exports of products containing steel, aluminum and copper.

President Donald Trump signed a proclamation on April 2 to strengthen his steel and aluminum tariffs and added copper derivatives.

That has made it more expensive for Canadian manufacturers to export to the U.S. and has added dizzying complexity to the way tariff rates on goods are assessed, sowing confusion among customs brokers and small Canadian firms.

In response, Ottawa will make available three-year, low-interest loans of up to $50 million for the aluminum, steel and copper sectors. The loans don’t have to be repaid until after the three-year period is up.

Industry Minister Mélanie Joly and Digital Innovation Minister Evan Solomon announced the new measures Monday morning, saying businesses need quick access to liquidity in the short term and medium-term assistance to find new markets for export.

“We’re in a trade war. We are on the front lines and the goal is to protect workers and actually keep companies afloat,” Joly told a news conference.

“Our goal is really to make sure ultimately that the businesses keep their workforces and that we can help them pivot, and it’s not an easy task.”

Joly added the government is in talks with softwood and forestry companies about further financial supports.

Monday’s news conference was held at the Les Ateliers Beau-Roc dump truck manufacturing facility, on the outskirts of Ottawa. It was attended by several Liberal MPs from ridings hit hard by tariffs, including Hamilton’s Lisa Hepfner and Sarnia’s Marilyn Gladu.

Dominique O’Rourke, the MP for Guelph — one of the most tariff-exposed regions in Canada — said the number 1 thing affecting businesses in Ontario’s manufacturing belt is uncertainty.

“This new interpretation of the section 232 tariffs has really been significant because companies that were exporting under one assumption, things have turned on a dime for them,” she said.

“It’s a huge challenge for companies to be keeping track of the tariff changes.”

O’Rourke sits on the House of Commons industry committee and chairs the Liberal automotive and southwestern Ontario caucuses.

She said large firms have seen their production slow down, while assemblers and fabricators down the supply chain are seeing both shop floor slowdowns and job losses.

The Commons industry committee recently heard testimony from industrial mould makers warning Trump’s surprise strengthening of the tariffs in early April could result in Ontario bleeding jobs and losing firms, since factories are unable to pivot on their own.

Representatives of the sector, which is heavily involved in cross-border trade, warned MPs in recent weeks that businesses could shrink, close or quickly leave the country — and any potential recovery would be a long, uphill battle.

4)(Updated) Former Supreme Court Justice Louise Arbour named as next governor general

Courtesy Barrie360.com and Canadian Press

By Kyle Duggan and Anja Karadeglija, May 5, 2026.

Prime Minister Mark Carney named retired Supreme Court justice Louise Arbour as Canada’s next governor general on Tuesday, hailing her as a storied defender of human rights.

The accomplished former jurist is fluently bilingual, and has served as UN human rights commissioner and chief prosecutor at The Hague.

Arbour, 79, was chief prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, and made history when she became the first to indict a sitting head of state, president Slobodan Milosevic, for crimes against humanity.

The Montreal native also secured the first conviction for genocide since the establishment of the 1948 Genocide Convention, and became first to prosecute sexual assaults as crimes against humanity.

Carney said Arbour gave voice to the powerless and “those whose dignity was denied, in places where the powerful preferred silence.”

“Across more than five decades, in every role she has held, the honourable Louise Arbour has carried the same conviction: That a free society depends on institutions being properly held to account,” Carney said at an announcement at the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa.

He said Arbour will bring to Rideau Hall sound judgment and the conviction that institutions are the “load-bearing walls of a civil society” and that they remain “trustworthy only as long as someone is willing to hold them accountable.”

“In a more dangerous, more divided and less civilized world, institutions are more important than ever,” the prime minister said.

The governor general is appointed by the sovereign on the advice of the prime minister and represents the Crown in Canada. Arbour is expected to be installed as Canada’s 31st governor general in early June.

Arbour said she acknowledges that she is accepting a profound responsibility by stepping into the role.

“Canada is a wonderful country shaped by its diversity of people of perspectives and experiences, but I think shaped also mostly by a common respect for strong public institutions and for the rule of law,” Arbour said Tuesday.

“Above all, we all strive to provide for each other in the spirit of equality and generosity.”

Asked by reporters about how she would respond to ascendant sovereignty movements in Alberta and Quebec, she said the governor general’s role is largely constitutional in nature, but there is a “space” for the viceregal to be “conducive of Canadian dialogue.”

“I’ve mentioned the diversity of our people, diversity of views, of opinions, of experiences, but all that, I think, in a spirit of respect and moving the country forward in an ambitious, united way,” she said.

The role is non-partisan and carries many responsibilities, some largely ceremonial while others are core constitutional functions.

Her official duties include swearing cabinet ministers into office, proroguing and dissolving Parliament, making appointments on the prime minister’s advice, and granting Royal Assent to turn bills into law. The governor general also serves as commander-in-chief.

Arbour will replace Mary Simon, who became Canada’s first Indigenous governor general when Justin Trudeau tapped her for the role in 2021.

Governors general typically only hold office for five years, and Simon would reach the five-year mark of her tenure in July.

Simon speaks English and Inuktitut but attracted controversy for not being fluent in French.

Carney had promised the next governor general would speak both official languages.

Carney spoke to Simon’s legacy on Tuesday as well, calling her a “steadfast representative of Canada and our institutions at home and around the world.”

“As the first Indigenous person to serve in this role, she’s carried forward a lifetime of advocacy for Inuit rights, for Indigenous self-determination and for the preservation of our Indigenous languages, cultures and identities,” Carney said.