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Source: National Post (Politics)

Vladimir Guerrero Jr., right, and Ernie Clement celebrate the Toronto Blue Jays 6-1 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 5 of the World Series on Wednesday night. The series is far from over, but some may be wondering if the Blue Jays will be invited to the White House if they win it all.

You likely won’t find a Toronto Blue Jays fan anywhere in Canada ready to count their chickens before they hatch when it comes to the team’s chance to win this year’s World Series.

But if the Blue Birds can finish off the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 6 on Friday night — or in Saturday’s winner-take-all Game 7, if necessary — they’ll claim the organization’s first World Series title in 32 years.

Long after a victory parade through downtown Toronto and throughout the off-season, a question may linger in the minds of many fans: Will Canada’s only Major League Baseball team visit the White House like so many sports organizations before them?

Moreover, given the current tensions between Canada and the U.S., will President Donald Trump even extend one.

Here’s what we know.

What has Donald Trump said about the World Series?

After learning of Ontario’s anti-tariff ad campaign last week — one that aired to U.S. audiences during the first two games of the World Series before being pulled by Premier Doug Ford — Trump called off trade negotiations with Canada. He then promised to increase the tariff on unspecified Canadian goods by an additional 10 percent.

The president’s Truth Social and X accounts have been devoid of any World Series mentions, and he doesn’t appear to have made any comments since the series began, other than lamenting the advertisements that used the voice of former president Ronald Reagan from a 1987 radio address.

The White House issued

an official presidential message

ahead of Game 2 on Saturday in Toronto, celebrating the importance of the American tradition and the “two exceptional teams” that have made it this far.

“As the Los Angeles Dodgers and Toronto Blue Jays compete for the Commissioner’s Trophy, they remind us why baseball brings friends and neighbors together,” it reads.

“Melania and I send our best wishes to the players, coaches, and fans for a fun and safe series. May the best team win, and may God bless our national pastime and the United States of America.”

Trump, who has attended sporting events such as the Super Bowl and UFC fights since his inauguration, was not present for any of the three games played at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles this week.

U.S. President Donald Trump shakes hands with the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani during the team’s visit to the White House in April.

Have Canadian teams visited the White House in the past?

The 1992 Toronto Blue Jays were, in fact, the first and last North American professional sports team from Canada to visit the White House.

The team was invited the day after defeating the Atlanta Braves in six games that October and made their trip to Washington in mid-December, as recounted in an article by Mark Davis from

We Are, We Can, We Will: The 1992 World Champion Toronto Blue Jays.

“Our free trade agreement with Canada did not mean that the United States would trade away the world’s championship,” joked then-president George H.W. Bush about the North American Free Trade Agreement to be signed by himself, then-Canadian prime minister Brian Mulroney and Carlos Salinas de Gortari, Mexico’s president at the time, the following day.

“By winning Canada’s first World Series … you did it with class … and class, of course, has marked the entire Blue Jays history. In 16 years, you’ve gone from the doghouse to the penthouse.”

When the Jays won the 1993 World Series, an invite was reportedly extended to the club on behalf of new president Bill Clinton, according to

Sports Illustrated

, but the team never attended.

Sports Illustrated

also reported that the Montreal Canadiens, winners of the 1993 Stanley Cup — the last Canadian team to win an NHL championship — were invited but also chose not to go.

It was almost another quarter-century before a Canadian team won a major professional championship, when Toronto F.C. claimed the 2017 MLS Cup, but there’s no record of them having been invited or attending.

After the Toronto Raptors won the 2019 NBA Finals, Trump, while seated next to Justin Trudeau following discussions in Washington regarding the new Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA), said an invite to the champs was under consideration.

“So we’ll think about that, if they’d like to do it, we’ll think about that,” he said, as reported by

CBC

.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau meets with U.S. President Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House, June 20, 2019.

Then-Raptors guard Danny Green doubted that his team would accept an invite.

“I try to respect everybody in every field that they do, regardless of how crazy things are. But he makes it really hard. He makes it very, very tough to respect how he goes about things and does things,” he said on

Yahoo! Sports’ Inside the Green Room.

“To put it politely, I think it’s a hard no.”

The invite did come, according to

NPR

, but Green and the Raps never went to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

National Post has contacted the White House to inquire whether the World Series winner will be invited.

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Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre speaks at an event in Toronto, on Thursday, Oct. 30, 2025.

OTTAWA — Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said the sacrifices made by the current generation have not been seen since the Second World War, in a speech on Thursday evening, made in rebuttal to Prime Minister Mark Carney’s upcoming budget.

Poilievre addressed a room of young conservatives and other supporters gathered in Toronto. The event was organized

in response to Carney’s speech

last week where he cautioned Canadians that they should prepare for “sacrifices” as his government put the finishing touches on a budget that attempts to both respond to the ongoing Canada-U.S. trade war and rein in government spending.

The Conservative leader, whose party has enjoyed a healthy support among those aged 40 and younger, responded to Carney’s words by pointing to the challenges faced by the country’s youngest generation, who have struggled to afford housing and land a job.

“Gone were the grand promises, replaced with grim warnings,” Poilievre said of the prime minister’s speech to Thursday’s crowd, which included members from local university conservative campus clubs.

“He said that things are going to get worse and the change will take a very long time, after he had promised to move at unimaginable speeds.”

Such has been the line of attack Poilievre’s Conservatives have mounted in the House of Commons, pointing out how Carney has yet to secure a trade deal with U.S. President Donald Trump — a fact the Tories hope to exploit, given Carney’s emphasis on his resume during the April election as a two-time central bank governor, which he argued made him best suited for the current moment.

“(Carney) said young people are going to have to make more sacrifices. More sacrifices,” Poilievre said, as a chorus of boos echoed in the room.

“Mr. Carney, the young people in this room and across this country have already sacrificed enough. They have worked hard. They’ve done everything right, and they deserve a bright future,” the Conservative leader said to cheers.

While Carney and his finance minister, François-Philippe Champagne, have compared the current period to the rebuilding efforts that took place after the Second World War, evoking the memory of C.D. Howe, the businessman-turned-Liberal cabinet minister credited for transforming a post-war workforce into a more industrialized one, Poilievre used that time in history to make a different point.

He said the young people of today have “sacrificed more than any generation since the Second World War.”

“There is no doubt in my mind that all of you are working harder and longer for less than your parents and probably your grandparents,” Poilievre said, adding that, “it hasn’t been since the heroes that won us our freedom in the (1940s) that we have seen a generation work so hard and so long for so little.”

The Conservative leader, who stood behind a podium emblazoned with the words “jobs,” “home,” and “hope,” laid the struggles they faced today at the feet of the Liberals, whom he accused of overspending as well as mishandling the immigration system to the point of allowing too many new entrants to Canada without sufficient housing.

Poilievre’s speech was not unlike a campaign-style event, a stage he might find himself in, in a matter of weeks, should opposition parties decide to vote against the Liberals’ upcoming budget, set to be tabled on Nov.4.

The Liberals have warned they lack the votes needed to pass Carney’s first spending plan, with Poilievre demanding the Liberals table what he calls an “affordable budget”, which he defines as containing a litany of tax cuts and capping the federal deficit at $42 billion, despite the Parliamentary Budget Officer, an independent watchdog of Parliament, predicting it could soar to $70 billion.

That includes Carney’s promise to spend billions more on defence and infrastructure.

The Liberals would only need to find a handful of MPs either willing to vote for their budget or abstain to prevent Canadians from having to go to the polls for a second time this year.

Poilievre is due to face his own leadership review in January.

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Federal Energy and Natural Resources Minister Tim Hodgson, left, speaks at the G7 Energy and Environment Ministers’ Meeting in Toronto, on Thursday, October 30, 2025.

TORONTO – The American and Chinese presidents may have struck an agreement to ease China’s sharp curbs on exporting critical minerals, but G7 politicians meeting in Toronto said Thursday they’re still pushing ahead with plans to find alternative supplies of the crucial resource.

Canada strives to mine and refine more of the substances — needed in everything from electric cars to fighter jets — and figures large in those plans, at least one of the G7 representatives indicated.

“The agenda (to broaden critical mineral supply) hasn’t changed,” Katherina Reiche, Germany’s minister for economic affairs and energy, told reporters a day after the Beijing-Washington accord. “It will be a hot topic.”

“Canada is one of our most interesting and important partners when it comes to critical materials. We will look into certain projects and discuss this with our Canadian friends over the next two days, which projects we can invest in … We need cooperation, we need diversification.”

An industry spokesman welcomed the statements, but said both government and industry in Canada need to be “bold” after decades of inaction on the critical-minerals front.

Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed in a high-stakes meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump Wednesday to pause for a year the tight controls it slapped on the export of rare-earth elements two weeks ago. Trump agreed in return to reduce tariffs imposed on China related to its role in the fentanyl crisis.

Rare earths are a basket of 17 substances required to manufacture magnets and other parts of widely used modern technology. China has a stranglehold on the supply of the materials, dominating 69 per cent of rare-earth mining, 92 per cent of refining and 98 per cent of magnet manufacturing, Goldman Sachs investment bank has estimated.

The accord struck by Xi and Trump puts on hold China’s latest restrictions on exports of the minerals, imposed in a dramatic escalation of its trade war with America. But it’s unclear if the deal affects the first round of limits Beijing imposed in April. Those curbs threw a wrench in global supply chains, causing some automakers to pause production at certain plants.

China also controls much of the market for other minerals critical to today’s technologies.

The G7 energy and environment ministers meeting in Toronto Thursday and Friday were expected to ink a more-detailed version of the “critical-minerals production alliance” that the countries’ leaders agreed on at the group’s June summit in Alberta.

Canada has indicated a desire to be at the centre of that program, with Prime Minister Mark Carney touting critical-mineral development as one of the “nation-building” projects he wants to encourage.

“These minerals .. underpin our industrial strength and our strategic security,” Canadian Energy Minister Tim Hodgson told his G7 colleagues Thursday. “There is little doubt our seven nations stand strong together. Canada, like all of you, believes that the whole is stronger than any one part. So let us leave this meeting not with promises, but with real concrete progress.”

Canada could, in fact, play a major role in weaning the West off its dependence on Chinese critical materials, said Ian London, executive director of the Canadian Critical Minerals and Materials Alliance.

It has vast resources of rare earths and other critical materials, as well as the expertise needed to exploit those natural assets, he said in an interview. But Canada must act now and quickly, with industry being more “bold” and government playing a lead role – perhaps by actually investing in companies, said London.

The country should also make sure it does more than just export raw material and mirror China’s role in value-added refining and processing of the materials.

“Currently when you look at the prime minister, you look at the minister of energy, they’re proactive and I like what I hear,” he said. “But it’s not what I hear (that’s important), It’s what they’ve actually accomplished.”

“We have a number of projects progressing, but slowly. We’ve also had this for the last 20 years. This is not a new story. Our challenge is getting on with it.”

But how exactly did the West land in the predicament of having to rely on a major strategic rival for what Hodgson calls “the indispensable building blocks” of defence and other modern technology?

London says the answer is simple. Western countries and industry are fixated on quarterly results and other short-term goals. They were happy to take advantage of a China that provided critical materials at a cheap price, while bearing the environmental costs of extracting and processing them, he said.

As Canada and others dithered, Asian nations like China and Korea thought long-term and began developing critical materials in the late-1980s, said London.

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Vladimir Guerrero Jr., right, and Ernie Clement celebrate the Toronto Blue Jays 6-1 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 5 of the World Series on Wednesday night. The series is far from over, but some may be wondering if the Blue Jays will be invited to the White House if they win it all.

As the Toronto Blue Jays verge on a World Series title, the organization is projecting the “biggest” 50/50 draw in baseball history.

The take-home prize is predicted to top $7.5 million.

The deadline for buying tickets is Sunday.

Joe Carter, the five-time MLB All-Star who hit a walk-off home run to win the 1993 World Series for the Blue Jays, is slated to call the jackpot winner.

As of Thursday afternoon, the jackpot draw in the popular 50/50 had topped $6.3 million.

The team holds the raffle to fund the Jays Care Organization.

“Jays Care’s 50/50 raffle is the biggest 50/50 in Major League Baseball and the ultimate win-win for you,” according to a primer about the event.

“When you purchase a 50/50 ticket, half the proceeds will be allocated to the grand prize, while the other half will go directly to Jays Care programming in communities across Ontario and Nova Scotia.”

The foundation “uses the power of baseball to help level the playing field and improve the lives of youth facing barriers across the country,” according to organizers.

“This includes children living with physical and cognitive disabilities, Indigenous youth, and young girls and boys who may not otherwise have the chance to participate in organized sports. Through its life-changing programming, Jays Care is building a Canada where kids of all backgrounds and all abilities have a place on a team where they belong.”

Jays Care promises “every dollar of net revenue, after prize payouts and raffle-related expenses are deducted, goes directly to supporting kids in Jays Care programming. We provide clear, publicly accessible financial summaries so our supporters know exactly how their contributions are used.”

To buy tickets, people must be 18 years or older, and they must be located in either Ontario or Nova Scotia.

Five tickets can be purchased online for $10, with greater discounts available for larger buys.

After winning two in a row against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Dodger Stadium, the Jays are back to Toronto with a 3-2 Series lead and an opportunity to wrap up the title before a home crowd Friday night at the Rogers Centre.

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Players and fans watch as Davis Schneider hits a solo home run off Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Blake Snell one the first pitch in Game 5 of baseball's World Series, Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2025, in Los Angeles.

It wasn’t quite the shot heard round the world, but Davis Schneider’s first-pitch-of-the-game home run on Wednesday was certainly seen and heard by his dad, who was at the game in Dodger Stadium. And Steve Schneider made sure everyone around him heard about it.

In a video that has gone viral for all the right reasons, Schneider’s dad caught the entire play with his Meta glasses — wearable tech that allows the user to record video, among other things — from his seat high up behind home plate at the L.A. stadium.

The Jays went into game five of the World Series playoff tied two games apiece against the Dodgers, reigning champions and overall favourites to win this year.

Steve’s video, framed by an azure California sky and a backwards-facing Jays ballgame on the fan in the row in front of him, captures the stadium announcer introducing his son, the first pitch by Blake Snell, the crack of the bat — and the ball sailing over the left-field fence.

It also records Dad’s reaction. “Oh. Oh no! No way! No way!” he shouts, before launching to a chorus of “Oh my God!” as fans around turn to offer high-fives and handshakes. “You’ve got to be kidding me!”

Hours later, after Vladimir Guerrero Jr’s third-pitch-of-the-game homer had cemented the Jays’ eventual 6-1 victory over the Dodgers, Schneider was asked if he’d seen his father’s modern-day home movie of the event.

The 26-year-old left fielder couldn’t help but take a little dig at his dad.

“His Meta glasses are a little bit — they’re kinda dumb,” he said with a grin. “I don’t know why he wears those all the time. But yeah, those were the glasses he was wearing, but it’s great to have my family out here and get to experience the World Series.”

He continued: “It’s their first time being here. We’re from a small town in New Jersey, and they deserve it just as much as me. And I couldn’t be more grateful for them to be here.”

According to Blogto

, the glasses were a gift from one of Steve Schneider’s four children, though Davis didn’t say which one.

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Brad Marchand during a recent visit with patients at the IWK Children's Hospital in Halifax. This week he stepped behind the bench for a Halifax friend and local hockey coach who lost his daughter to cancer.

Florida Panthers forward Brad Marchand stepped away from the NHL this week to help a Nova Scotia friend who lost his daughter to cancer.

Marchand went behind the bench as guest head coach of the Halifax under-18 hockey team, March and Mill Co. Hunters, for his friend JP MacCallum, reports

NHL.com

. MacCallum’s 10-year-old daughter, Selah, died last Friday from cancer.

Marchand’s outdoor apparel company, March & Mill Company,

sponsors the Halifax team

. And he has been friends with MacCallum since they were 12 years old.

The Wednesday night game was a fundraiser for the family. It included a raffle for an

autographed Marchand jersey

, reports TSN.

“This gesture reflects the true spirit of the hockey community in Nova Scotia, one built on compassion, loyalty, and connection that extends far beyond the rink,” said Nova Scotia U18 Major Hockey League president Paul Graham, NHL.com reported. “Our thoughts are with J.P., his loved ones, and the entire Hunters organization.”

Before the game, Marchand spoke about losing Selah, as well as the bond he has had with his longtime friend, in an interview with

High Button Sports

.

“She loved being part of this organization and team and her Dad. She’d be proud of us being here tonight supporting her and supporting her Dad.”

Marchand then took his place behind the bench.

In a video posted after the game, Marchand said Selah was, “an incredible girl, full of so much love and it was an honour to be in her life and know her.”

“Selah loved hockey. She loved her dad’s team more than

anything.

She loved going to the games. She was always there supporting them,” Marchand said. “We’ve known her since the day she was born, we’ve loved her since then. Selah would have loved nothing more than to see us behind that bench together.”

Marchand also pointed toward the family’s

GoFundMe page

, organized to support the McCallum family, urging fans to donate.

Multiple NHL figures have shown support for the family through their donations, including Colorado Avalanche forward, Nathan MacKinnon, who gave $2,790, reports

HockeyPatrol.com

.

Several fans have also shown their support. B.C. oncologist and researcher,

Dr. Rod Rassekh

, wrote in an Oct. 29 X post, “

As a Canucks fan I hated Marchand. As a pediatric cancer doc I then saw what he did for one of my patients during her treatment (and it wasn’t a one time thing — he kept supporting her over years and had her and family attend every game he played in town). He is an amazing human.”  

Marchand will rejoin the Panthers for their game against the Dallas Stars on Saturday.

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Erin O'Toole talk radio host in Northern Colorado, who hosts the program Colorado Edition.

OTTAWA — A case of mistaken identity has rocked the final stretch of the

New York City mayor’s race

, after British newspaper The Times published an area man’s comments, thinking he was former mayor Bill de Blasio because the two share a name, slamming Democratic front-runner Zohran Mamdani.

The mayoral mix-up is reminiscent of a few recent cases in Canadian politics. National Post caught up with Richmond, Va., marketing specialist Jason Kenney and Erin O’Toole, a radio host and producer based in Greeley, Colo., to discuss their brushes with celebrity, after being mistaken for Canadian political namesakes.

Kenney says that his first reaction to the

tale of two de Blasios

was wishing he’d made more out of his own 15 minutes of fame north of the border.

“There is a certain degree of making me think of missed opportunities. I will say I’ve never had an interview conducted over a ring camera,” said Kenney.

The

other

de Blasio, a 59-year-old wine importer based in Long Island, N.Y., was

tracked down by reporters

on Wednesday evening, after The Times

took down and apologized for

the bogus story. He wasn’t home when they showed up at his door, but did answer questions through his Ring doorbell, from his current location in Florida.

Kenney said his own experience sharing a name with a federal cabinet minister and later Alberta premier was more of a slow burn.

“The first instance I can remember was all the way back in the early aughts, when I got an email from this sweet old lady, sent to my hotmail account, thanking me for speaking at her church in some small town in Canada,” said Kenney.

Kenney, an early adopter to the digital world, was quick to grab “Jason Kenney” handles on Twitter (now X) and other social media platforms. He says he’d get the odd tweet from Canadians when the other Jason Kenney was still in federal politics, but saw a massive uptick around the middle of 2020, when the then premier of Alberta was navigating COVID lockdowns.

“In 2020 it kind of reached a peak. He was in what seemed like a bit of a no-win situation (and) was getting hit on all sides,” said Kenney.

Kenney said that he was especially piqued by a slew of posts

calling on him to resign

over his management of the pandemic.

The two would finally meet

in person in May 2022

, just days before Kenney the premier was forced out by an anti-COVID lockdown splinter group in his party.

Kenney, who describes himself as a “pre-Trump Republican,” called his namesake a “nice dude” and says it was sad to see him go out on such a low note.

O’Toole also looks back to mid-2020 as her breakout moment, albeit for different reasons than Kenney.

She remembers her phone “overheating with notifications” in the summer of 2020, after her Canadian namesake, then running for Conservative leader, debuted the

Trump-esque slogan “Take Back Canada!”

It didn’t take long for Canadian news outlets to find her.

“This was during the pandemic lockdowns, and I do think that people were kind of looking for something fun,” said O’Toole.

O’Toole said her namesake’s team reached out to her after she’d made a handful of Canadian media appearances, leading to a

one-on-one interview

on her radio show.

“I said, well how about would Mr. O’Toole be willing to come on my program? Because I think my listeners would be interested too,” recalled O’Toole.

She would later return the favour by appearing on

O’Toole’s “Blue Skies” podcast.

Five years on, O’Toole says she still feels a close connection to Canada.

“At first it had me scratching my head … and then it just became this wonderful experience that I had. Getting to know so many Canadians over social media, people sending me Canadian candy bars. It was amazing!” said O’Toole.

She added that she’s still in touch with some of the Canadians she met through the experience.

“I still have my emotional support Canadians,” said O’Toole.

O’Toole, a veteran broadcaster herself, says that she can’t help but feel for the staff at The Times after the massive fact-checking error.

“I have to say that I’m still cringing after reading about that deleted story … that is every journalist’s worst nightmare,” she said.

National Post

rmohamed@postmedia.com

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An aerial view of steel coils sitting in the yard at ArcelorMittal Dofasco's steel mill on June 9, 2025 in Hamilton, Ont.

The United States’ Senate approved a resolution on Wednesday seeking to block President Donald Trump from further imposing tariffs on Canada.

It was the second vote this week on Trump’s tariffs. The first came on Tuesday, with regards

to Brazilian tariffs

. A third was held on Thursday regarding tariffs that affect global trade.

Each time, four Senate Republicans joined Democrats in seeking to end the tariffs, giving the anti-tariff side a narrow majority.

However, the vote was largely symbolic. Here’s why.

What happened in the Senate?

When Trump first initiated tariffs against Canada, he did so under an emergency declaration. Technically speaking, tariff power is a power reserved for Congress. In order to get around that, Trump needed to declare a national emergency.

The Senate’s resolution sought to

end the declaration of a national emergency

, which would, in effect, end the tariffs.

But in order to pass, it needed Republicans to vote alongside the Democrats in the Republican-controlled Senate.

There are 53 Republicans in the Senate and 45 Democrats. Two senators sit as Independents. In order to secure a majority, the Democrats needed the two Independent votes plus four votes from Republicans. As it turned out, four Republicans did break with their colleagues.

They were Kentucky’s Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul, Maine’s Susan Collins and Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski.

Why did this happen now?

In response to Ontario’s ad depicting Ronald Reagan criticizing tariffs when he was president, Trump promised to ratchet up tariffs on Canada by a further 10 per cent.

McConnell specifically spoke about the ad in his justification for his vote.

“The economic harms of trade wars are not the exception to history, but the rule. And no cross-eyed reading of Reagan will reveal otherwise,” McConnell said in a statement on Tuesday,

according to Politico

. “This week, I will vote in favour of resolutions to end emergency tariff authorities.”

U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) speaks with Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) during a luncheon in the Rose Garden of the White House on October 21, 2025.

The Senate had also previously tried to end the declaration of a national emergency back in April.

Will it matter?

Probably not. It’s unlikely to pass in the House of Representatives. The Republicans have a 219 to 213 majority over the Democrats in the House of Representatives.

But maybe it would. If it passes both houses of Congress, it would then go to the president to sign into law. Trump would almost certainly veto it, though.

However, if two-thirds of Congress voted in favour of scrapping the national emergency declaration, Trump’s veto would be overridden.

Is that all?

No, the National Emergencies Act, which Trump used to declare the national emergency to apply tariffs against Canada, must be congressionally reviewed every six months.

Procedural rules state that if a resolution to terminate a national emergency is introduced, it must be brought to the floor within 15 days and voted on within three calendar days.

However, House Republicans just

changed the definition of “calendar days.”

They did so in March and again in April.

In the case of the April measure, the Senate

voted in favour of a joint resolution

to terminate the national emergency. This resolution was then to go to the House of Representatives. (Another resolution failed because McConnell and Sheldon Whitehouse, a Democrat,

were not present for the vote

.)

A clause inserted into a routine vote on budgetary measures says that the days from April 9, 2025, to Sept. 30, 2025, “shall not constitute a calendar day” in reference to the National Emergencies Act and therefore no vote would be held.

That procedural tactic has

since delayed any vote until March 2026,

after Congressman Gregory Meeks attempted to force a vote on Trump’s tariffs against Brazil. (There is some talk that a vote could be held in January.)

What does this mean?

It means that unless the House of Representatives changes its rules, there will not be any votes on the Senate resolutions on tariffs, which means there will be no chance of legislatively blocking Trump’s tariffs.

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March 2025 saw the highest number of visits to Canadian food banks in history.

As the cost of essentials such as shelter and food has increased in Canada, so have the number of employed people, children, two-parent households, recent immigrants and seniors who turn to food banks. In March alone, food banks recorded an unprecedented 2.2 million visits, according to Food Banks Canada’s 2025

HungerCount

.

Food bank usage has doubled since 2019 and is 5.2 per cent higher than it was last year. “It took decades to reach one million visits in a month, and it has now taken half a decade to double that,”

Food Banks Canada

notes.

According to the report, which encompasses the country’s 5,500 food banks and community organizations, poverty and hunger are “normalizing” in Canada.

Food banks increasingly serve as lifelines and are seeing growth across the board, but the number of employed people accessing them has been growing. Nearly one-in-five (19.4 per cent) food bank clients have jobs, compared to just over one-in-10 (12.2 per cent) in 2019.

“That is very much reflective of the cumulative impacts of the cost of living, increased cost of living, and how that’s affected people’s purchasing power,” Richard Matern, director of research at Food Banks Canada, told

Global News

.

Canadians continue to pay more for groceries as food inflation

climbed four per cent

in September. Food Banks Canada identified clients in a variety of jobs, from construction workers to receptionists, who now stop at a food bank on their way home from work instead of a grocery store.

“It’s really shocking to see just how far people are falling behind every single month,” Kirstin Beardsley, chief executive officer at Food Banks Canada, told

CTV News

. “This is becoming the new normal in Canada, and it can’t be. We need to see this number reverse next year.”

HungerCount found that

newcomers

to Canada who have been in the country for 10 years or less account for nearly 34 per cent of food bank clients. While stable compared to 2024, this is a 161.5 per cent increase compared to six years ago, when they represented 13 per cent.

Precarious work arrangements

and lower wages are the two factors driving food insecurity among newcomers, according to the report. This group is also less likely to access employment insurance or provincial social insurance due to eligibility requirements.

Food bankers also reported seasonal or casual work, low hours, closed work permits for

temporary foreign workers

and work restrictions for international students as reasons for visits. HungerCount doesn’t break out international students, but food banks in some cities, including

Waterloo

and Brampton in Ontario, have reported an uptick in recent years, with some

turning them away

because of the overwhelming demand.

Food banks have also seen more seniors — 8.3 per cent versus 6.8 per cent in 2019 — and two-parent households with children under 18, which increased from 18.8 per cent before the pandemic to 23.1 per cent today. As with employed people, these groups are grappling with the high cost of living and affordability issues.

People on social assistance or disability-related supports represent 40 per cent of the food bank population. “Grossly inadequate provincial social assistance remains the most common source of income for food bank clients,” Food Banks Canada says.

The report’s policy recommendations include modernizing the employment insurance system by expanding support for precarious, gig and self-employed workers, making life more affordable by investing in housing, and introducing a groceries and essentials benefit for low-income Canadians, as well as addressing food insecurity in the North.

Though the proportion of children under 18 accessing food banks is holding steady at 33 per cent, this percentage now represents nearly 712,000 monthly visits. That’s a 91 per cent increase since the pre-pandemic period, with far-ranging effects.

“Kids who go to school hungry are not focused, they aren’t attentive, they can’t have the same sorts of relationships with their friends. There’s some shame associated with not having the food. So seeing the school food programs made permanent is a critical step,” Beardsley told

CTV News

. “We need to make sure that this country is a place where everyone has an opportunity to thrive, including kids, so that we have the future we need as a country.”

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Matt Rife attends the Los Angeles premiere of Sony Pictures' The Machine at Regency Village Theatre on May 25, 2023, in Los Angeles.

U.S. comedian Matt Rife took to social media to complain about a problem with Air Canada, and received a very direct response from the airline that amounted to: Not our fault.

On Wednesday, Rife posted to X: “F— you. I hate

your guts. So, your website crashes and won’t allow me to check in. So upon arrival to the airport I’m told ‘ah yeah, you weren’t checked in in time, we can’t give you a boarding pass.’ Yeah…because of YOUR website.”

He continued: “Absolutely nothing stopping me from making it on the plane, pleeenty of time to make it to the gate, not even an issue. You just won’t let the person who bought a ticket get their ticket because of your system error. Go f— yourself. Never flying with yall again and i hope nobody does.”

Just over three hours later the airline replied: “Hey Matt, we’re sorry about your experience. The issue you’ve encountered was not caused by our website. Please DM us and we would be happy to have a conversation about the issue.”

Several users on X noted how strange it was that the airline would disavow any responsibility before looking into the problem, with one from Ottawa posting under the name Chris West joking: “Gaslighting you in the reply is on brand.” And BitLux, a private jet charter company operating out of Florida,

responded with

: “We have a solution for this.”

National Post has reached out to Air Canada and Rife for more details.

This is hardly Rife’s first beef with airline service, however. The 30-year-old from Columbus, Ohio,

posted to X

in 2023: “How long is too long to roast flight attendants in my new show?” That show was the Netflix comedy special Natural Selection, and it did include a lengthy segment on flight attendants who insist on enforcing the rules.

It was not well received by critics. A review in
Cracked magazine
noted: “The most off-putting segment of the special is its last bit, a long diatribe about a flight attendant who insisted Rife stow his bag under the seat. It’s a long story that starts out defensive and then gets… more defensive.”

Rolling Stone

also commented on his “banal” humour about flight attendants before concluding: “Rife’s is a garden-variety strain of American contempt: cheap, lazy and sure to find broad agreement.”

Vulture also found

his flight attendant rant unfunny, saying “it notably lacks the kind of humorous reframing or conscious construction that would make any of it into material,” and adding: “If he’d given more thought to it, the realization that he comes off as an enormous a–hole might’ve been an exciting opportunity to twist the story into new directions.”

A

TikTok video

posted last February on a Matt Rife fan page finds the comedian doing crowd work at a comedy club and being told by an audience member that she works for American Airlines. His response: “You work for American Airlines? Oh, f— you! Where are my bags?”

On Thursday, Air Canada announced that it had been voted the North American winner for Employee Experience Strategy in the sixth annual ARCET

Global Customer Centricity World Series Awards

in Dubai.

“The awards celebrate companies from around the world for superior customer and employee experiences, and Air Canada was recognized for its innovative ‘Care & Class’ initiative,” the airline said in a press release.

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