Capital Dispatch: Duelling Trump talks, Open AI scrutinized, calls for Carney to fire a minister

Prime Minister Mark Carney responds to questions from journalists as he arrives on Parliament Hill to chair a meeting of the federal cabinet, in Ottawa, on Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang

This was one of those weeks in Ottawa where a little happened on a lot of different files. By the end of this week’s Dispatch, you’ll be caught up on all of it.

From the tale of two keynote addresses on Canada-U.S. relations, and intensifying AI scrutiny, to calls for Prime Minister Mark Carney to fire his immigration minister.

Here’s what you need to know.

The week that was

The marquee event(s) of the week were the dueling keynote addresses by Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc and Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre on Thursday.

Both taking place over the lunch hour in Toronto on Thursday, the two men spoke at length to different business crowds about the state of Canada-U.S. relations as they see it.

As the federal Conservatives continue efforts to come across as cooperative and collaborative, Poilievre rolled out a series of proposals for how he’d handle Trump and the trade file, while making his case for why “the best leverage we have is to be united here at home.”

He also drew a stark line of differentiation from Carney on economic diversification, stating that despite the ongoing trade war, Canada should not substitute the U.S. with China.

“We should not declare a permanent rupture from our biggest customer and closest neighbour in favour of a strategic partnership for a new world order with Beijing — a regime the prime minister himself said was the biggest threat to Canada just a year ago,” he said.

Meanwhile, LeBlanc offered new insight into how he’s approaching the coming Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) review, why he thinks a trilateral deal will stand the test of these talks, but could also come in tandem with bilateral arrangements, and confirmed he’ll be heading to D.C. next week.

All of what he had to say on this file, and why major project designations could be coming “very soon,” is in here.

Oh, and if you missed his passing quip, when asked what he made of Trump’s marathon State of the Union address, Prime Minister Mark Carney said he didn’t watch it.

According to the latest polling from Nanos Research released this week, Trump and U.S. relations is the second top issue amongst Canadians, following jobs and the economy. The issue has remained among the top three concerns for Canadians for more than a year.

This comes as Poilievre continues to lag in the polls, with the Liberals several points ahead of the Conservatives, and Carney far exceeding him on the preferred prime minister question.

There was also considerable attention this week on artificial intelligence oversight, after it came to light that OpenAI— which owns ChatGPT — failed to warn law enforcement about Tumbler Ridge shooter Jesse Van Rootselaar after identifying troubling posts on Van Rootselaar’s account.

Artificial Intelligence Minister Evan Solomon summoned top officials from OpenAI to Ottawa and emerged from Tuesday’s meeting disappointed.

“We expected them when they came to not only give us details about escalation thresholds and their safety protocols, but we expected them to come with some concrete solutions so Canadians could feel comfortable that this kind of tragedy may be avoided,” Solomon said ahead of Wednesday’s caucus meeting.

“We didn’t get into the details of the case for obvious reasons, and we are disappointed that they did not provide any concrete proposals.”

My colleague Judy Trinh tracked down head of policy Chan Park on his way into the meeting, and if you missed it, her one-on-one is one to watch.

As the week continued, the case prompted broader conversation around the federal government’s so-far undelivered promises to legislate new guardrails and was followed by a late-in-the-week open letter from OpenAi indicating they will be taking steps and admitting the shooter evaded the initial ban with a second ChatGPT account.

Lastly, there was parliamentary progress this week on the budget implementation bill.

After the House finance committee cleared through its hundreds of clauses – agreeing to amend the section regarding new cabinet powers – it was passed through report stage Wednesday after a late-night session.

Bill C-15, as it’s called, then had a brief round of third reading debate on Thursday, and instead of another high-stakes, closely-watched confidence vote, it passed with little fanfare “on division.”

Not to be missed

New Liberal MP defends decision to cross floor

The newest member of the federal Liberal caucus is standing by his decision and says he wouldn’t speak ill of his former Conservative colleagues, despite their vocal criticism of his floor crossing. “I have no bad words to say about people on the other side of the aisle,” MP Matt Jeneroux said on his way out of his first-ever national Liberal caucus meeting on Parliament Hill Wednesday. “Many of them are friends, deep friends, and a lot of them continue to text me.” As colleague Spencer Van Dyk reports, Jeneroux went on to say, “Certainly it wasn’t an easy decision to do this.” Though, potentially helping soften his political reclamation, Jeneroux is joining Carney on his nine-day international trip under his new banner as a “special advisor on economic and security partnerships.”

Carney pledges sanctions, $2 billion for Ukraine

Marking four years since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, on Tuesday Carney promised another $2 billion in military aid and more sanctions on Moscow. “Four years on, Russia is failing militarily, strategically and economically, and we are in it for the long term,” Carney told reporters. “The sooner they come to the table and actually participate in peace negotiations, the better it will be.” As The Canadian Press reports, Carney said the new sanctions will target 100 vessels in the “shadow fleet” which are involved in attempts to evade sanctions on Russian oil sales.

Asylum health care debated, minister under fire

And, a debate over asylum seekers receiving health care that some Canadians struggle to access came to a head in the House of Commons on Wednesday, amid renewed calls for Carney to fire Immigration Minister Lena Diab. For all those details, I’ve got you covered here.

Quote of the week

The week ahead

MPs are back in their constituencies next week, and the prime minister will be spending his week overseas.

What I’ll be watching for during the first portion of Carney’s trip will be how he and those travelling with him handle the domestic discontent over a suggestion from an unnamed senior government official in the pre-trip background briefing for reporters: the prime minister would probably not travel to India if the Canadian government believed India was actively interfering in the Canadian democratic process.

After India, Carney and his travelling delegation will be off to Australia, and then Japan.