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MONT-LAURIER, Que. – Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet is taking criticism from all sides after declaring Canada “an artificial country.”

Blanchet said in French on Thursday he felt he was a member of a “foreign parliament.” And on Friday morning, at a campaign stop in Shawinigan, Que., Blanchet added another layer, saying: “We are, whether we like it or not, part of an artificial country with very little meaning, called Canada.”

“It’s a foreign parliament because this nation is not mine,” Blanchet explained. “I feel no more at ease in the Canadian Parliament than (Alberta Premier Danielle) Smith would in Quebec’s National Assembly.”

His remarks have set off a swarm of reactions from English-speaking politicians outside Quebec. Yet, the initial salvo came not from Premier Smith, but from her Nova Scotia counterpart, Tim Houston.

In a letter sent to Blanchet and posted to X Friday night, Premier Houston said he was “dismayed” by Blanchet’s “insulting” comments, and invited the Bloc boss to “reflect on what it means to be Canadian and take more pride and honor on being an elected official in Canada.”

It’s hard to believe Mr. Blanchet would describe Canada as “an artificial country with very little meaning.” Say what you want about our challenges, but don’t insult the country we all call home. pic.twitter.com/WHGg1E7Bvg

— Tim Houston (@TimHoustonNS) April 26, 2025

 

“If you can’t do that, I would ask you to step aside in favour of those who put country first,” he wrote.

On Saturday, three federal leaders also denounced Blanchet.

In a message on X , Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre called Blanchet’s comments “insulting and false.”

“Canada is a strong, proud and sovereign country with a rich history,” he wrote.

“I reject (his comments) completely,” said Liberal Leader Mark Carney at a press conference in Greater Toronto. “This is an incredible country. I’m incredibly proud to be Canadian. We have done incredible things. Those who came before us have done incredible things to create this kind of diverse, ambitious, humble country,” he said.

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh called the comments “offensive.”

“We’ve got Donald Trump attacking us. We don’t need attacks from the inside like that. People are showing so much solidarity in Quebec, across Canada, saying we will never be the 51st state. We’re proud of our nation,” he said.

Blanchet doubles down

Yet at his own campaign stop on Saturday afternoon, Blanchet showed neither remorse nor regret. In fact, it was quite the opposite, with the Bloc leader repeating his claim that “Canada is an artificial country.”

But he objected to Houston’s characterization of his remarks as an insult to Canadians.

“It isn’t meant as an insult. Daily politics in Canada shows that,” Blanchet said.

“It’s meant as an observation of a fact that the different regions of this country have different issues pulled together in order to serve mainly Ontario, and an intention from Ottawa to concentrate powers in Ottawa instead of respecting regions.”

Over the years, Blanchet has often stated that Canada is a “foreign nation” to him, particularly for linguistic and cultural reasons. As a separatist, he wants to make Quebec a country because he does not feel at home in Canada.

Quebec is a recognized nation “within a united Canada,” according to federal legislation.

On Saturday, Blanchet added his position is supported by nearly decade-old comments by Justin Trudeau. In a 2015 New York Times interview , the former prime minister claimed that Canada was “the first post-national state.”

“It’s a non-nation, a country which denies its own identity,” said Blanchet, underlining that Quebec “is a proud nation.”

The Bloc leader said he wouldn’t be responding to Premier Houston’s letter, which asks rhetorically: “What is it about Canada you don’t like? You have been a politician since 2008, paid by Canadians, why haven’t you done your part to work towards improving this country we should all love so dearly?” he asked.

Blanchet was first elected to the National Assembly in 2008 under the Parti Québécois banner, and later served as Minister of the Environment under former premier Pauline Marois. He became leader of the Bloc and was first elected as an MP in 2019.

He has repeatedly stated the federal government represents an existential threat to Quebec, particularly regarding protection of the French language.

It’s unclear exactly what are the motives behind Premier Houston’s letter. The Progressive Conservative premier recently made headlines for his patriotic stance in the tariff war against the United States.

President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to annex Canada and make it the “51st state.”

Some observers have suggested Houston might seek the leadership of the Conservative Party of Canada if Pierre Poilievre fails to win the election Monday night.

In Quebec, the Bloc held the largest number of seats at the time of dissolution, but it is poised to lose ground, according to polls and poll aggregators.

However, the party could well find itself with the balance of power if the election produces a minority government.

On Friday, Blanchet said that “as long as we are part of Canada, and we get elected in this Parliament, we are entitled to any right and privilege and opportunity being provided by the persons who vote, and I will relinquish none of them.”

National Post

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A massive explosion rocked a port Saturday in southern Iran, killing four people and injuring more than 500 others, supposedly linked to a shipment of missile propellant.

VAL-D’OR, Que. – Yves-François Blanchet makes no bones that he wants Quebec to become a country, and he believes that sitting in a “foreign parliament” will help the cause.

But before tearing apart what he describes as an “artificial country with very little meaning,” he wants to hold the balance of power in the next House of Commons.

The Bloc Québécois campaign has been troubled for some time now, and for several reasons.

The ballot question surrounding the Canada-U.S. relationship and the fear of American annexation, plus the fact the Liberal leader interrupted his campaign three times to act as prime minister, are problematic for them. Advancing the party’s narrative has been a challenge in the last five weeks.

Plus, there is the independence project, the Bloc’s “ raison d’être .” Its electorate is composed primarily of separatist voters, but also of nationalists who find in this party a tool to defend their nation on the federal stage.

And even if those nationalist voters don’t want secession, they are proud of their representatives who defend them at every opportunity, particularly on issues of language, immigration, and state secularism.

“I want to be home, and for a large number of Quebecers, for the past 30 years at different times, being home means being with the Bloc Québécois,” Blanchet told supporters at a Châteauguay restaurant Friday evening.

But this time, U.S. President Donald Trump is changing everything. Fear seems to have given the Liberals the upper hand, and the rise of Canadian patriotism in the province has sidelined the independence idea.

Most of the hundreds of questions Blanchet fielded over the past five weeks focused on strategy and polls.

And then, independence came up.

“The day after (the vote), I promise you that I will not declare Quebec’s independence. I swear it. That is not the purpose of the campaign,” he said.

What Blanchet wants is a balance of power in a minority government, and then to work with the provincial party, the Parti Québécois, to elect a majority of sovereigntist members to the National Assembly of Quebec, “where independence can be achieved.”

In an interview with National Post, the director of the McGill Institute for the Study of Canada said that talking about independence would be a “strategic error” for the Bloc in this context.

“The fact that he doesn’t talk about sovereignty creates a certain opacity. But people know very well that they are sovereigntists,” said Daniel Béland. “If the Bloc holds the balance of power, it could create political instability and problems in Parliament, but also in Western Canada.”

Not everyone agrees. Denis Trudel is a staunch separatist. He’s always happy to talk about Quebec independence. According to him, the more you talk about it, the more support it will garner, and the sooner Quebec will join the community of nations.

It was therefore quite surprising that the incumbent Bloc Québécois MP and candidate in Longueuil—Saint-Hubert did everything he could to avoid discussing it when his leader visited him in his riding on Thursday.

“This is not what I’m hearing about in Longueuil-Saint-Hubert right now,” he told us as he was waiting for his leader.

Suddenly, Trudel was rushed to Blanchet’s bus by a Bloc staffer, abruptly interrupting our conversation. A tight schedule, we were told.

After lunch, Trudel refused to speak to the national media, who were asked to return to their bus. Inside the restaurant, the candidate was speaking to a local reporter. The journalists turned around and went inside, even though the staffers threatened to leave without them.

The scrum lasted a minute, and the question of Quebec independence was posed to him.

“People aren’t talking about sovereignty, they’re talking about the cost of living,” he repeated, before the encounter was interrupted.

Trudel is in a close race with the Liberal candidate. He is also known for his outspoken positions, such as when he suggested that the Liberal party posed a greater threat to Quebec than U.S. President Donald Trump.

The media were then directed to their bus, where they sat in silence for more than 10 minutes. Tensions were running high. The Bloc campaign, arguably the most open to the media of all the federal parties, kept saying the schedule was tight. But that wasn’t the case.

At his second press conference of the day, Blanchet knew the question would be asked: Why does there seem to be less appetite in talking about sovereignty?

“There is a trial of intent in the question. Who tells you that we absolutely must not talk about sovereignty?” he replied, irritated.

No one did. But the awkwardness was real.

Shefford MP and candidate Andréanne Larouche was not pleased when asked about this during a subsequent media scrum.

“We are not putting (the issue) aside, as Yves-François said; it is not in the House of Commons that it will be decided,” she said.

Once again, the meeting ended abruptly. The schedule was tight, they said.

Bloc supporters are aware that Quebec’s sovereignty will not be on the ballot. Of course, they want independence, but they also understand that Monday’s election will primarily be about Canada-US relations.

The Bloc Québécois is a separatist party, the federal cousin of the Parti Québécois, the main vector for independence in Quebec. This provincial party has led the polls for more than a year and may form government in 2026. Moreover, PQ leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon is one of the most popular politicians in Quebec.

However, St-Pierre Plamondon has been seen little during this campaign. In September, the man nicknamed PSPP headlined a large Bloc Québécois rally during the LaSalle-Émard-Verdun byelection. The Bloc won a surprise victory in this Liberal stronghold.

“It’s not in our plans (to have him campaigning with us). But he supports me like I support him, it’s public,” Blanchet said, without adding if he would benefit from his presence on the campaign trail.

A few hours later, PSPP published a long letter on social media in support of the Bloc and pleading that “Mark Carney poses an existential threat to Quebec.” He argued that Carney “would set Quebec back” with his policies on immigration, government spending, and interference with provincial language and state secularism laws.

“I don’t see in what parallel universe we would come to the conclusion that we can trust him enough to give him a blank check,” he wrote.

“Achieving Quebec independence is a matter of linguistic and cultural survival for Quebec. This is what I am working toward and will continue to work toward in the coming years,” he continued, adding that he is unequivocally supporting the Bloc and that Quebecers should give Blanchet’s party the balance of power.

The PQ did not answer an interview request.

In this election, Blanchet has been presenting himself as the ultimate watchdog for Quebecers. What is good for Quebec, he will defend. What isn’t good, he will oppose.

“As long as we are part of Canada, and we get elected in this Parliament, we are entitled to any right and privilege and opportunity being provided by the persons who vote, and I will relinquish none of them,” Blanchet said.

National Post
atrepanier@postmedia.com Get more deep-dive National Post political coverage and analysis in your inbox with the Political Hack newsletter, where Ottawa bureau chief Stuart Thomson and political analyst Tasha Kheiriddin get at what’s really going on behind the scenes on Parliament Hill every Wednesday and Friday, exclusively for subscribers. Sign up here.

MARKHAM, Ont. — Lionel Loganathan says he has probably spoken more Tamil in the past two-and-half years than he has his entire life. 

Seated in his campaign office, the Conservative candidate describes how his parents’ story of immigrating from Sri Lanka in the 1980s makes his upbringing like the thousands of others who call Markham, and more specifically the riding of Markham-Thornhill, home.

“This has actually helped me connect back with my roots.”

Immigrants make up more than half of Markham’s population, a city of around 350,000 outside of Toronto. It is part of the vote-rich Greater Toronto Area, which any federal party must win in order to form government.  

Stories like Loganathan’s are what Poilievre is counting on to resonate with voters, as the campaign concludes its final stretch.

The inroads Poilievre has tried making with immigrant and cultural communities, focusing on crime and the cost-of-living, will also be put to the test.

Markham-Thornhill, where Loganathan says more than 350 languages are spoken, are among the most ethnically diverse, like ridings in Brampton, Scarborough and B.C.’s lower mainland.

“When I started doing this, my board would say to me, you know, we’ve got to go to the mosque, or we got to go to the temple, or we got to go to all these places to do outreach.”

“And I was like, you know where I go to see people from the Jewish community, or people from the Muslim community or people from the Hindu community? I go to No Frills. I go to Costco.”

Now a software sales executive, Loganathan was born in Canada after his parents’ arrival. Growing up, his father worked as a limousine driver, his mother in the back office of a bank. She travelled to and from downtown everyday on the 53 bus, he remembers.

Loganathan also grew up as Canadian as it gets, he says,  playing street hockey and backcountry camping with friends.

“I’m a son of this riding, and I always will be, and it’s a part of who I am.”

In Markham, those of Chinese descent make up the largest demographic of any ethnic group, followed by South Asians.

Federally, the city is divided into three ridings: Markham–Unionville, Markham—Stouffville and Markham–Thornhill. The Liberals currently hold all three. 

The latter, where Loganathan is running, is where the Liberals recruited a candidate who could very well find himself in cabinet, should Liberal Leader Mark Carney win Monday. 

Tim Hodgson served as special advisor to Carney during his time at the Bank of Canada. Like Carney,  Hodgson worked at Goldman Sachs. And like Carney, he has corporate business experience from both New York and London. 

Hodgson was most recently chairman of Hydro One and remains on a leave of absence. He was named the Liberal candidate the day after the campaign got underway.

A spokesperson for his campaign declined an interview with National Post, citing Hodgson’s “over committed schedule.”

Their response suggests they feel confident.

“We would be happy to discuss this again after the election though.”

Polling aggregator 338canada.com suggests the Liberal seat to be safe. 

Hodgson is running in a riding last held by former cabinet minster Mary Ng, who announced back in February she was not seeking reelection.

Ng, as well as other former Toronto-area minsters, such as Gary Anandasangaree, who is himself Tamil, Anita Anand and Bill Blair have campaigned for him, as have incumbents like Ali Ehsassi and Maninder Sidhu.

Hodgson is running on the same issue all Liberals are: Mounting a defence to U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade war and his comments about annexing Canada.

Donning a Canadian hockey jersey, Hodgson calls Trump’s actions “economic war” in a video recently posted to social media and says that his candidacy reflects his sense of duty, not ambition. 

He highlights the riding’s diversity as part of the Canadian story, and calls himself both a “centrist” and “pragmatist.”

It’s a pitch Carney himself made when he first declared he was running for Liberal leadership, successfully replacing former prime minister Justin Trudeau — part of a series of events that led to a dramatic reversal of fortunes for the Liberals.

Watching that swing has been Loganathan himself. Like other Conservative candidates, his chances of capturing the riding increased as Trudeau weighed down the Liberals. 

Now things have changed.

Loganathan, who became the nominated candidate in February 2024, estimates his team having knocked on more than 60,000 doors. 

He says he has not seen a shift in his percentage of support. Loganathan is also honest and acknowledges that, “maybe there’s a few more folks that are telling us they’re undecided.” 

“And look,” he says. “I don’t blame them. There’s a lot of uncertainty in the world, but we have not seen our supporter rates shift.”

Like other Conservatives, he says core issues like crime and housing have not disappeared. Trump’s comments have served as a “distraction,” he adds.

In terms of support, Loganathan says he’s had more than 3,000 lawn signs requests and has gone to the printer three times now, but will not be able to meet demand.

That is a massive improvement from previous Conservative candidates who ran, due in part to Loganathan’s efforts to build up the party’s presence in the riding, which historically finishes a distant second to the Liberals. 

Lawn sign requests and rally sizes have been something Conservatives have pointed to throughout the campaign as proof the party is onto something.

Meanwhile, successive public opinion polls suggest the 20-point lead Poilievre enjoyed for the past 18-months has collapsed into a near dead-heat with the Liberals, or shows them to be trailing.

Loganathan says polls do come up at the doors. As does Poilievre himself. 

“People are just curious about, who is he, what’s he like, how’s he going to be.”

Having worked as a riding captain for Poilievre’s successful 2022 Conservative party leadership bid, Loganathan shares how he has come to know the leader. 

“I tell them that he’s a very thoughtful man. He’s somebody that cares deeply about Canada. He’s somebody that, you know, cares deeply about his family, and that he is more like us in this riding than any of the other options are.”

Poilievre will be hoping his personal story of having been adopted and raised in an average Canadian family resonates over the image his critics paint of him, and that many voters already see, which is a likeness to Trump.

Loganathan says he tells voters who are curious that Poilievre is blunt.

He also tells them Poilievre deserves a shot, pointing to his effectiveness as Opposition leader, having s ingle-handily “shifted the entire country’s perception on the carbon tax to his vision.” 

“He’s earned a chance at government and that’s what I tell people.”

National Post.

staylor@postmedia.com

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The most extraordinary aspect of the funeral Mass for Pope Francis was its astonishingly beautiful ordinariness.

With the great and the good gathered from around the globe on Saturday in St. Peter’s Square, what unfolded for the most part was a religious observance that could be found on any given Sunday in the humblest Roman Catholic parish on earth.

True, few parishes regularly attract an estimated crowd of 250,000 inside and overflowing onto surrounding streets.

No, the College of Cardinals, resplendent in red and white vestments under a Mary blue Roman sky, isn’t normally on show all in one go.

The dean of the College, Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, is rarely – okay, never – the principal concelebrant at the local RC church on the corner.

The choir of St. Peter’s hardly ever pitches up to sing the entrance antiphon as the Bishop of Rome’s simple wooden coffin is borne down the steps of a St. Joachim’s or a St. Joseph’s or a St. Maximillian Kolbe’s as they struggle to survive in the heart of every downtown.

Yet the words that formally began the Mass were, for faithful and even occasional Catholics, as familiar, as homely, as the homily that goes on too long, as the making of the sign of the Cross that is a deeply ingrained mark of identity and community.

“Let us acknowledge our sins and so prepare ourselves to celebrate the sacred mysteries. I confess to Almighty God, and you, my brothers and sisters….” Cardinal Re began the Mass.

The resonance of the two sentences undoubtedly ran through every listening Catholic heart even as the reference to “the sacred mysteries” must have caused secular puzzlement for many in the 170 delegations present, including heads of state and heads of government.

What they signaled, however, was that all were present in Rome for a Roman Catholic Mass, not a cleverly orchestrated political masque where just showing up to be seen was the whole point of the exercise.

It was a reminder, too, that the deceased for whom the Requiem was being said and sung in plainchant was a pastor of souls. He was the apostolic successor to the first Apostle, Peter, not a geopolitical figure or garden variety ideologue whose life and purpose could be captured in the fatuous binaries of right wing-left wing, conservative-progressive, liberal-reactionary.

As Francis himself said repeatedly, his mission was the spreading of the Gospel, not trying to win a competition for good-better-best forms of government.

In his homily at the Mass, Cardinal Re noted the undertone of that admonition in the day’s Gospel. According to John, Jesus, at a post-breakfast test, asks three times whether Simon Peter loves Him. Each time, Peter insists he does. Each time, Jesus says: “Feed my sheep.”

Cardinal Re pointed to the parallel of Francis’ self-giving service to Christ over the decades of his priesthood.

“Francis gave his life for the sheep,” Cardinal Re said.

Indeed, in his very first encyclical after becoming Pope 12 years ago, Francis famously used that very metaphor to insist that those involved in Christian evangelization must take on the “smell of the sheep” in carrying forward Christ’s formative directive to Peter.

The meaning, he spelled out in Evangelium Gaudium (the Joy of the Gospel) is inherent in the Mass itself, which is nothing if not a community in communion, something subtly reflected in the very seating arrangements employed by the organizers of Saturday’s Mass. The world’s dignitaries, for example, were organized by name, in alphabetical order, according to the French alphabet. As a result, President Donald Trump ended up extending the peace of Christ to nearby seatmate Emmanuel Macron.

They thus lived out concretely – at least for a few moments, willingly or not – the liturgical obligation that Francis expressed as an apolitical imperative when he said: “An evangelizing community is supportive, standing by people every step of the way no matter how difficult or lengthy this may be.”

Impolitic, idealistic, naïve, zany as that might seem in a world of zero-sum advantage seekers, it is what Francis called the “missionary key” of Christian faith. It was inherent in the juxtapositions of the Mass that 250,000 attended in St. Peter’s Square, and millions more watched on TV.

Whether they discerned it not, they were immersed in what the Catholic liturgy offers each time a Mass is said -– whether in the greatest cathedrals and basilicas or at the gathering of a few greying heads unsure how their building committee is going to pay to fix the church’s leaking roof.

Sacrifice begets thanksgiving. Victimization becomes oblation. Death offers reconciliation with God.

Above all, which Francis preached from the very start of his pontificate, suffering yields joy. Or at least, within Catholic life, the possibility for such transformation is always and everywhere available through the Mass.

It’s why, Francis urged in Evangelium Gaudium, “an evangelizer must never look like someone who has just come back from a funeral,” and Christians must not live out their faith “like Lent without Easter.”

Fittingly – Francis like – the Pope who authored those word came back from near death only weeks ago to fill St. Peter’s Square with his joyful spirit on Easter Sunday. Then he passed from this life the following day. The great and the good, the simple and unadorned, gathered en masse to bid him goodbye and pray for the repose of his soul. And in the Mass itself, an extraordinarily ordinary beauty was yet again reborn.

Peter Stockland is Publisher-Editor of The Catholic Register

• Raymond J. de Souza: Francis remained faithful to the truth during 'pilgrimage' to Canada
• Why Pope Francis's signet ring must be destroyed with a silver hammer

Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark nationalpost.com and sign up for our daily newsletter, Posted, here.

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VATICAN CITY — World leaders and Catholic faithful bade farewell to Pope Francis in a funeral Saturday that highlighted his concern for the “most peripheral of the peripheries” and reflected his wishes as pastor. Though presidents and princes attended the Mass in St. Peter’s Square, prisoners and migrants will welcome him at the basilica across town where he will be buried.

Some 250,000 people flocked to the funeral, held on a brilliant spring day that was supposed to have been a special Holy Year celebration for adolescents. Perhaps because so many young people were on hand, the somber ceremony still had a festive mood, with mourners taking selfies amid the hymns as Francis’ simple wooden coffin was brought out of St. Peter’s Basilica at the start of the Mass.

Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, the 91-year-old dean of the College of Cardinals, delivered a lengthy, spirited and highly personal homily, or sermon. He eulogized Francis as a pope of the people, a pastor who knew how to communicate to the “least among us” with an informal, spontaneous style.

“He was a pope among the people, with an open heart towards everyone,” Re said. He drew applause from the crowd when he recounted Francis’ constant concern for migrants, including when he celebrated Mass at the U.S.-Mexico border and travelled to a refugee camp in Lesbos, Greece, and brought 12 migrants home with him.

“The guiding thread of his mission was also the conviction that the church is a home for all, a home with its doors always open,” Re said.

The Argentine pontiff choreographed the funeral himself when he revised and simplified the Vatican’s rites and rituals last year. His aim was to emphasize the pope’s role as a mere pastor and not “a powerful man of this world.”

It was a reflection of Francis’ 12-year project to radically reform the papacy, to stress priests as servants and to construct “a poor church for the poor.” He articulated the mission just days after his 2013 election and it explained the name he chose as pope, honoring St. Francis of Assisi “who had the heart of the poor of the world,” according to the official decree of the pope’s life that was placed in his coffin before it was sealed Friday night.

Despite Francis’ focus on the powerless, the powerful were out in force at his funeral. U.S. President Donald Trump and former President Joe Biden, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer joined Prince William and European royals leading more than 160 official delegations. Argentine President Javier Milei had the pride of place given Francis’ nationality, even if the two didn’t particularly get along and the pope alienated many Argentines by never returning home.

Trump and Zelenskyy met privately on the sidelines of the funeral. A photo showed the two men sitting alone, facing one another and hunched over on chairs in St. Peter’s Basilica.

After the Mass, Francis’ coffin left the Vatican en route to his burial place in St. Mary Major Basilica.

The white facade of St. Peter’s glowed pink as the sun rose Saturday and hordes of mourners rushed into the square. Giant television screens were set up along the surrounding streets for those who couldn’t get close. The Mass and funeral procession across town — with Francis’ coffin carried on the open-topped popemobile he used during his 2015 trip to the Philippines — were also broadcast live around the world.

Police helicopters whirled overhead, part of the massive security operation Italian authorities mounted, including more than 2,500 police, 1,500 soldiers and a torpedo ship off the coast, Italian media reported.

Many mourners had planned to be in Rome anyway this weekend for the now-postponed Holy Year canonization of the first millennial saint, Carlo Acutis, and groups of scouts and youth church groups nearly outnumbered the gaggles of nuns and seminarians.

“He was a very charismatic pope, very human, very kind, above all very human,“ said Miguel Vaca, a pilgrim from Peru who said he had camped out near the piazza. ”It is a very great emotion to say goodbye to him.”

The poor and marginalized welcome him

Francis, the first Latin American and first Jesuit pope, died Easter Monday at age 88 after suffering a stroke while recovering at home from pneumonia.

Following his funeral, preparations can begin in earnest to launch the centuries-old process of electing a new pope, a conclave that will likely begin in the first week of May. In the interim, the Vatican is being run by a handful of cardinals, key among them Re, who is organizing the secret voting in the Sistine Chapel.

Francis is breaking with recent tradition and will be buried in St. Mary Major, near Rome’s main train station, where a simple tomb awaits him with just his name: Franciscus. As many as 300,000 people are expected to line the 6-kilometer (3.5-mile) motorcade route that will bring Francis’ coffin from the Vatican through the center of Rome to the basilica after the funeral.
Forty special guests, organized by the Vatican’s Caritas charity and the Sant’Egidio community, will greet his coffin at the basilica, honoring the marginalized groups Francis prioritized as pope: homeless people and migrants, prisoners and transgender people.

“The poor have a privileged place in the heart of God,” the Vatican quoted Francis as saying in explaining the choice.

A special relationship with the basilica

Even before he became pope, Francis had a particular affection for St. Mary Major, home to a Byzantine-style icon of the Madonna, the Salus Populi Romani, to which Francis was particularly devoted. He would pray before it before and after each of his foreign trips as pope.

The choice of the basilica is also symbolically significant given its ties to Francis’ Jesuit religious order. St. Ignatius Loyola, who founded the Jesuits, celebrated his first Mass in the basilica on Christmas Day in 1538.

Crowds waited hours to bid farewell to Francis

Over three days this week, more than 250,000 people stood for hours in line to pay their final respects while Francis’ body lay in state in St. Peter’s Basilica. The Vatican kept the basilica open through the night to accommodate them, but it wasn’t enough. When the doors closed to the general public at 7 p.m. on Friday, mourners were turned away in droves.

By dawn Saturday, they were back and ready to say a final farewell, some recalling the words he uttered the very first night of his election and throughout his papacy.

“We are here to honor him because he always said ‘don’t forget to pray for me,”’ said Sister Christiana Neenwata from Biafrana, Nigeria. “So we are also here to give to him this love that he gave to us.”

• Raymond J. de Souza: Humble, but determined, Francis bent the papacy to his will
• End of the papacy? Pope Francis's battle with the conventions of the Catholic Church

Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark nationalpost.com and sign up for our daily newsletter, Posted, here.

Eric Trump is promoting a “Trump 2028” hat as part of a new merchandise rollout from the Trump Organization’s official online store. Retailing for $50, the hat features the slogan “Rewrite the Rules.”

It has generated significant buzz and debate because it implies a potential third presidential term for Donald Trump, despite the clear constitutional prohibition under the 22nd Amendment ratified in 1951, which states: “No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice.”

Eric is a senior executive at the Trump Organization. He shared a photo of himself wearing the “Trump 2028” hat on social media, publicizing the new product line. The Trump campaign’s “War Room” posted images of Eric modelling the hat, amplifying its visibility among Trump supporters and the media.

.@EricTrump rocking the new Trump 2028 hat! ???????? pic.twitter.com/5EsCkvHORI

— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) April 24, 2025

The timing of this merchandise launch follows recent comments by Donald Trump, himself, who has openly mused about the possibility of a third term.

In a March 2025 NBC News interview , Trump stated he was “not joking” about the idea, claiming there are “methods” that could theoretically allow him to pursue it.

The provocative nature of the hat and its slogan may be intended to energize Trump’s base, generate media attention, and drive merchandise sales, which are a significant fundraising tool for the Trump Organization and political apparatus.

Some observers interpret the merchandise as a form of trolling or political messaging, testing the boundaries of political norms and stoking conversation about Trump’s enduring influence and the possibility — however remote — of a third term.

Notably, the hat does not specify which “Trump” it refers to, leaving open the possibility that it could be referencing another family member’s potential candidacy, though the current context and Eric Trump’s promotion suggest it is about Donald Trump himself.

Reactions to the “Trump 2028” merchandise have been mixed and highly polarized, reflecting broader political divisions and debates about the idea of a third Trump presidential term . The merchandise has generated significant media attention, indicating strong interest regardless of the constitutional questions it raises.

While the constitutional prohibition on a third presidential term is well-known, this has not dampened enthusiasm among many supporters , who appear to appreciate the provocative nature of the merchandise as a form of political messaging or symbolic defiance.

Critics emphasize the 22nd Amendment’s two-term limit, with remarks such as “Not going to happen, we’re MAGA but we draw the line on this ” and calls to “start looking NOW for someone to get voted in.”

Pro-Trump users celebrate the merchandise as a bold statement, with White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt calling it “cool” and predicting it will be “highly popular.”

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Analysts don’t see a whole lot of difference between the defence platforms of the two major parties vying to govern Canada.

Liberals are promising to boost defence spending over four years by $18 billion to meet the two per cent NATO spending target. The Conservative platform pledges to accomplish the same by adding $17 billion to the defence budget between 2025-2029.

“Really it’s kind of some nuance more so than huge differences; I see a lot of commonalities really,” said David Perry, who heads the Canadian Global Affairs Institute.

“I think the Conservatives are going a little heavier on the Arctic, or at least in a different way. Their Arctic plans feature more permanent presence. At least that’s how I interpret the commitment to build three bases rather than just have the forward operating locations. A base, to me, implies permanency and having troops stationed there on a more full-time basis, whereas the Liberal plan talks about Arctic enhancement and some of the infrastructure … and investments in things like the Arctic over-the-horizon radar, but not as much of a permanent station.”

The Conservatives are also pitching “a kind of bolder and more ambitious plan in terms of what they would do for the commercial infrastructure in support of strategic objectives, both with a base in Churchill as well as their Arctic corridor idea,” Perry said.

Liberals “have more of an emphasis of working with Indigenous communities … as part of their Arctic plan,” he said.

In the “big picture, the Liberal plan talks more about working with Europe,” Perry said. “The Conservative one has got more of a focus on (Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom) — the other members of the Five Eyes beyond the United States. So, a bit of a differentiation there in terms of other partners to collaborate with.”

The other “notable difference,” Perry said, is “a bit of a different emphasis on how they’d approach fixing procurement. Liberals are proposing the creation of a single agency, not for the first time. They did that in the 2019 platform as well but didn’t actually implement it. The Conservatives are focused on bringing back a cabinet committee focused on defence procurement and setting up a structure in the Privy Council Office to organize procurement, which for my money, is the smarter proposal — less disruptive and would focus on some of the key coordination issues that aren’t necessarily going to be fixed just by creating a separate agency. But I think in both cases you could say that there’s some commonality of looking to have more central focus to procurement.”

While both parties are promising to bolster defence spending, Perry does not expect much to change during the next mandate, no matter who takes the country’s reins.

“I think we need to be prepared to be underwhelmed by how much can change in just the next four years, because the current defence procurement cycle, as an example, runs about 15 years from projects starting to being completed.”

No matter who wins, even if they’re “astonishingly effective and they reduce the procurement time to one third of what it currently is, well that’s basically like an entire new mandate,” Perry said.

Canada currently spends 1.37 per cent of its gross domestic product on defence — about $41 billion annually.

“Our investments will be spent wisely and effectively to put Canada on track to exceed our NATO defence spending target before 2030,” according to the Liberal platform.

Liberal Leader Mark Carney is promising his government will give pay raises to the military, “rapidly (increase) the stock of high-quality housing on bases across the country and (ensure) access to primary child care and health care — including mental health supports — for serving members and their families.”

The Liberals are pledging to modernize the military’s recruitment process “by streamlining security clearances and applying online, so that more applicants can get trained, faster.”

The Liberals also plan to “integrate the Canadian Coast Guard into our NATO defence capabilities” to “exceed our commitment to spend at least two per cent of GDP on defence.”

That makes sense, according to Ken Hansen, a military analyst and former navy commander.

“The coast guard has been very defensive about this; their leadership and their people are not thrilled about it,” Hansen said. “But I think it’s essential. There has to be some kind of common working arrangement with the coast guard and the military.”

Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives are promising to fix the recruiting “crisis” by increasing the reserve force to 30,000 and the regular force to 71,500 within 18 months.

Conservatives plan to “double the size of the 1st Patrol Group of the Canadian Rangers from 2,000 to 4,000,” and acquire two new heavy icebreakers for the navy.

The Conservative platform also includes promises to “rapidly build 6,000 new homes on Canadian Forces bases,” as well as acquire new submarines and tactical helicopters.

While both the Conservatives and Liberals are promising defence spending will reach two per cent of GDP, that target could soon be shifting upward, said Richard Shimooka, senior fellow with the MacDonald-Laurier Institute.

“We have a NATO summit coming up and the talk is that the floor is going to go to three per cent,” Shimooka said.

“There’s a big push, not just by the Trump administration, but by European allies to actually spend more on defence.”

The military has always been a pricey budget item for Canada, said Hansen. But he cautions promises made on the hustings don’t always pan out for the Forces, no matter who’s in power.

“When the pinch is on for money due to things like COVID or trade wars, then that’s where they’ll squeeze to get some money out so they can smear it around somewhere else,” Hansen said.

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Manitoba's Progressive Conservatives are slated to announce a new party leader following a six-month campaign that was overshadowed during its home stretch by the federal election.

The Montreal Canadiens took advantage of the series switching back to Bell Centre and swarmed the Washington Capitals all game long for an impressive Game 3 victory.

Following Pope Francis’s death, 135 cardinals from around the world will gather at the Vatican to elect a new leader for the Catholic Church. Candidates for becoming the new pope must be male and a baptized Catholic.

This election is known as the conclave, and its members, cardinal electors, are sworn to secrecy about the proceedings within the election itself. Cardinals have to be under 80 years old to vote.

Of the 135 cardinal electors, four Canadians will help find the new pope. They will be joined by 12 other cardinals from North America, two from Mexico and 10 from the U.S. Canada has another cardinal, Marc Ouellet, who retired in 2023. He turned 80 last June and is no longer eligible to vote, though he could still be elected pope.

The conclave traditionally starts 15 to 20 days after the death of the pope. The election will be held until one candidate has a two-thirds majority vote. This will be signalled by white smoke from a chimney visible from St. Peter’s Square in the Vatican.

Here’s what we know about the Canadian cardinals joining the conclave.

Cardinal Thomas Collins

Cardinal Thomas Collins, born Jan. 16, 1947, was the Metropolitan Archbishop Emeritus of Toronto from 2007 to 2023. Ordained as a priest on May 5, 1973, Collins later studied in Rome, receiving a doctorate from the Pontifical Gregorian University specializing in sacred scripture and the Book of Revelation.

Collins received episcopal ordination in May 1997, becoming a Bishop on June 30 of the same year. He has worked as president for the following organizations: the National Theological Commission of the Bishop’s Conference, the National Commission of Ecumenism, the Conference of Bishops of Alberta, and the Saint Joseph’s College Board of Governors at the University of Alberta.

In 1999, he became coadjutor Bishop of Edmonton, and then Archbishop of Edmonton months later. He was appointed Archbishop of Toronto on Dec. 16, 2006.

Collins was created and proclaimed Cardinal by Pope Benedict XVI on Feb. 18, 2012.

Collins was a part of the conclave back in 2013, which elected Pope Francis. He retired in 2023, but is still eligible to vote.

Cardinal Michael Czerny

Czerny was born on July 18, 1946, in Brno (now the Czech Republic). When he was two years old, his family moved to Montreal, Quebec. In 1973, he was ordained a priest.

Czerny was awarded a doctorate in Human Sciences, Social Thought, and Theology from the University of Chicago in 1978. One year later, he founded what is now known as the Forum of Jesuits for Faith and Social Justice. He was the forum’s first director until 1989. Afterwards, he substituted for the six Jesuit priests who were killed at the Central American University of San Salvador in El Salvador.

While in El Salvador, Czerny was vice rector of the university. Later he contributed as a mediator for the United Nations in negotiations that ultimately led to the end of the 12-year-long civil war in El Salvador.

In 1995, Czerny joined a commission of inquiry by the United Nations to Haiti to help in the crisis after a military coup d’etat. During his stay in Africa from 2002 to 2010, Czerny founded the African Jesuit Aids Network to help find solutions to the HIV pandemic.

On Oct. 5, 2019, Pope Francis proclaimed Crerny as Cardinal, and in 2022, he was appointed by the Pope as prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development.

Cardinal Gérald Lacroix

Lacroix was born on July 27, 1957, in Saint-Hilaire de Dorset, Que., and is the Metropolitan Archbishop of Quebec.

In 1980, he became a missionary and travelled to Columbia. After returning home, he studied at the University of Laval and completed a Bachelor’s degree in theology. Later, he was ordained as a priest in 1988.

Returning to Columbia from 1990 to 1998, he became a missionary in the Archdiocese of Popayán. He also was a member of the diocesan pastoral council, and presbyteral council, and was the director of the commission on the liturgy.

In 2011, he was appointed Archbishop of Quebec.

On Feb. 22, 2014, Lacroix was proclaimed Cardinal by Pope Francis.

Lacroix was accused in 2024 of abusing a 17-year-old girl decades ago, but a Vatican investigation said it found no evidence, as reported by The Catholic News Agency.

Cardinal Frank Leo

Leo was born June 30, 1971, and is the Archbishop of Toronto. He was ordained as a priest on Dec. 14, 1996. Leo obtained a bachelor’s degree in philosophy in 1992, and a doctorate in 2005, specializing in Marian studies at the International Marian Research Institute at the University of Dayton, Ohio.

He served as deputy parish priest of Notre-Dame-de-la-Consolata; administrator of the Parish of Saint-Joseph-de-Rivière-des-Prairies; chaplain for the Roscelli School; religion teacher for the Collège Reine-Marie; and parish priest of Saint-Raymond-de-Peñafort.

Leo also served in the Apostolic Nunciature in Australia from 2008 to 2011. He then joined the Holy See Study Mission in Hong Kong in 2011.

In 2015, Leo was the secretary general of the Canadian Episcopal Conference. In 2021, he became the vicar general and moderator of the Archdiocesan Curia of Montréal.

On Dec. 7, 2024, Pope Francis proclaimed Leo as Cardinal.

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OTTAWA — Mark Carney’s Liberals are taking a four-point edge over Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives into election day on Monday, according to the last Postmedia-Leger poll of the campaign .

The Liberals were the preferred choice of 43 per cent of respondents, with 39 per cent saying they backed the Conservatives.

Andrew Enns, an executive vice-president at Leger, said that there’s been little movement between the top two parties over the campaign’s final stretch.

“You have two heavyweight political opponents slugging it out. Nobody’s giving an inch, but no one’s getting one either,” said Enns.

Support for both parties held steady from last week , with neither gaining or losing any ground.

The Liberals were in the lead with all age cohorts except for 35 to 54 year olds, where the Conservatives led by a 44 to 38 margin.

Eight in 10 respondents said their choice was final or they’d already voted at the advance polls.

Forty per cent said that Carney would make the best prime minister of any party leader, giving him a nine-point edge over Poilievre.

Carney beat Poilievre across all age groups, eclipsing him by 20 points among respondents 55 and older.

Carney’s personal appeal transcended party lines, with 24 per cent of NDP voters and 30 per cent of Bloc voters saying he would do the best job as prime minister.

Fifty-four per cent said they expected the Liberals to win Monday’s election. Exactly half that, 27 per cent, said they expected the Tories to win.

The NDP and Bloc Québécois were well behind the top two parties, polling at seven and five per cent, respectively.

Both parties were one point down from last week’s poll , showing little evidence of any movement from left-leaning voters who flocked to the Liberals at the start of the campaign to prevent a Conservative win.

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh and Bloc Leader Yves-François Blanchet have both retooled their pitches to voters heading into the campaign’s final stretch, pointing to the likelihood of a Liberal win and arguing that their respective parties will play a critical role in keeping a Carney-led government in check.

A quarter of respondents, including almost half of Liberal voters, said the NDP would be their second choice. The Liberals were the second choice for 14 per cent, with the Conservatives and Bloc both in the single digits.

The survey was taken between April 21 and 25, using a sample of 1,502 adults recruited from a Leger-founded panel. Online polls are not considered representative samples and thus don’t carry a margin of error. However, the poll document provides an estimated margin, for comparison purposes, of plus or minus 2.53 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

National Post
rmohamed@postmedia.com

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Travel to United States is a decision more academics are grappling with as they deal with changing immigration policies in the United States and threats to academic freedom from President Donald Trump. 

If you're still undecided on who to vote for, here's a breakdown of everything you need to know before election day on April 28, including promises made on the top issues.

Caution must be used when interpreting opinion polls during the election. They’re not all created equal. Dismissing them outright is as foolish as trusting them blindly.  

Pope Francis was to be buried at the Papal Basilica of Saint Mary Major in Rome on Saturday following a funeral mass in St. Peter’s Square. The ceremony began at 10 a.m. local time (4 a.m. ET). Among the oldest traditions that mark the funeral preparations for Pope Francis is the destruction of his signet ring, the Ring of the Fisherman, one of the most storied pieces of papal regalia. Kissing the pope’s ring as a sign of respect is such a famous gesture that is has become a general expression for deference to authority, and the practice occasionally bothered Francis so much on grounds of hygiene and infection control that he would sometimes withdraw his right hand when people went to kiss it as they met him. Each pope gets his own new ring made at his investiture, which is then destroyed at the end of his papacy, which usually but not always coincides with his death. The National Post runs through the history and significance of this ring that is known in Latin as the “Anulus piscatoris.”

Why does the pope have a ring?

Originally, in about the 6th century, the ring was intended as a unique seal for private correspondence and other papal writings that were less formal than a “papal bull,” the grand official pronouncements that are so called because they are authenticated with a lead seal called a “bulla.” That practice is no longer in use, but the ring tradition remains.

Why is it destroyed after his death?

This practice of destroying the ring ensured there could be no faked letters that might conveniently emerge during the period when there is no pope. The tradition is carried out after confirmation of a pope’s death by the “camerlengo,” a cardinal who manages Vatican affairs, who destroys the ring with a ceremonial silver hammer. When Benedict XVI resigned the papacy in 2013, his elaborate gold ring was not destroyed but rather defaced by cutting a cross into the gold. Francis’s ring is a simpler piece than Benedict’s, and was repurposed from a gold-plated silver ring already owned by the Vatican, with an image of Saint Peter holding the keys to heaven. When Francis appeared in public, however, he more commonly wore an even simpler silver ring with just a cross on it.

Where do popes buy their jewellery?

These are almost always custom pieces, although Francis’s ring was not newly made for him. It had previously been owned by Archbishop Pasquale Macchi, the private secretary of Pope Paul VI, a key force behind the mid-20th century reforms of the Second Vatican Council. It was made by the late Enrico Manfrini, an Italian goldsmith and sculptor who is known for major works including a door to the Cathedral of Siena and statues of several popes.

Why is it called the Piscatory Ring?

The Piscatory Ring, or the Ring of the Fisherman, is a direct nod to Peter, the first Bishop of Rome, the seat held by popes. Peter was a fisherman in Galilee when he first followed Jesus, so the image on the papal ring is often of Peter in a boat. But it also refers to the significance of fish in Christian symbolism. For example, early Christians were persecuted in the Roman Empire, and Peter himself is reputed to have been crucified by the Emperor Nero, and buried on what is now the site of Saint Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican. In that climate of fear, the sign of the fish became a secret symbol of Christianity in reference to Peter and the apostles, whom Jesus had encouraged to be “fishers of people,” and also for the Greek spelling of the word fish, “ichthys,” which can be seen as an acronym for the Greek expression “Jesus Christ, Son of God, Saviour.” The symbol carried on into medieval literature. In some renderings of King Arthurian legend, for example, the wounded Fisher King is the mysterious keeper of the Holy Grail.

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