OTTAWA — Referendum talk is heating up in both Quebec and Alberta to start the year, but the pro-independence talk is coming from opposite sides of the political spectrum. Read More

PARIS — Ukraine's Western allies on Tuesday agreed key security guarantees for Kyiv including a U.S.-led monitoring mechanism and a European multinational force that would be deployed after a ceasefire in Russia's war against its neighbour. Read More

It is unfortunate that Chrystia Freeland decided to accept an economic-development position from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy with a quintessentially flaky Trudeauvian flourish: Instead of resigning her seat in the House of Commons immediately after taking on a role in a foreign government, as anyone halfway sane would have advised her to, she first said nothing about it, and then 12 hours later said she would step down “in the coming weeks.” So the MP for University—Rosedale is now at least nominally in a position of stewardship over the economic redevelopment of a war-ravaged country halfway around the world with roughly the same population as Canada’s. Read More

Police have charged a 47-year-old Barrie woman with first degree murder in the death of a 10-year-old child. Read More

In the past days and weeks, we have witnessed the Finlandization of Canada. Read More

A video taken on a WestJet flight leaving Edmonton has passengers decrying the shrinking size of airplane seats, but a passenger rights advocate says that aside from a change in the law there's little travellers can do except fight back. Read More

Air Transat and its pilots have announced the ratification of a new five-year contract that represents the groups' first negotiated agreement in more than a decade. Read More

Holiday party libations are fancier than the rest — so why not amp things up and support one of these classy Canadian brands while you’re at it? Cheers. Read More

U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday accused Nicolas Maduro of imitating his dancing, among other crimes, as he celebrated the capture of the Venezuelan leader in a freewheeling speech to Republican lawmakers. Read More

It might seem counterintuitive, but American Airlines is experimenting with making travel faster and more efficient by sometimes delaying its flights. Read More

A Canadian man was arrested in Florida last week after allegedly molesting a nine-year-old boy at an oceanfront hotel while his mother sat nearby. Read More

The lawyer defending deposed Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro is a veteran trial attorney who previously represented WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. Read More

Red swastikas were spray-painted on the windows and walls of a synagogue in Winnipeg on Friday, a move that its executive director says was a "a very cowardly act" that was "meant to intimidate us." Read More

Marie-Philip Poulin prepared for the Beijing Olympics four years ago without a team. Read More

When U.S. naval officer Matthew Perry showed up in Edo Bay in July 1853, his "black ships" were not bringing a message of peace but a simple ultimatum: trade or deal with our gunboats. Over 200 years of Japanese isolation under the Tokugawa shogunate was swiftly concluded. Read More

Happy New Year. Or not, depending on where you find yourself these days. If you’re deposed Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro, that’s in a cell in Brooklyn, N.Y. If you’re U.S. President Donald Trump, that’s on the catbird seat in Washington, D.C. And if you’re Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, that’s on a tightrope in Ottawa, trying to strike the right note with an ally that looks more like an aggressor every day. Read More

President Donald Trump’s push to unlock Venezuelan crude is strengthening the political case for a proposed pipeline that would allow Canada to ship more oil to China and other Asian markets. Read More

In a chilly rebuke shared on Facebook, Vernon—Lake Country—Monashee MP Scott Anderson says the Liberals are “pulling out all the stops” to attract more Conservatives to their ranks. Read More

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced Monday that he appointed former finance minister Chrystia Freeland as an economic advisor based on her "extensive experience in attracting investment and implementing economic transformations." Yet it's hard to see how Freeland's economic experience would benefit war-stricken Ukraine. Worse, she accepted the position without informing her constituents first. Read More

The new year is often a time when people like to reset their lives. New diets, exercise schedules, day-to-day routines — and a newly clean and clear home. A good decluttering session can help you achieve the latter, but we sometimes hold on to certain things “just in case.” Read More

First Reading is a Canadian politics newsletter curated by the National Post’s own Tristin Hopper. To get an early version sent directly to your inbox, sign up here. Read More

Some Canadian Jews refuse to refer to themselves as Zionists, but it's not because they don't support the right of self-determination for Jews and the existence of a Jewish state, according to a newly published study. It's largely due to a perceived negative connotation associated with the term, notably since the Oct. 7, 2023 terrorist attacks in Israel by Hamas. Read More

Donald Trump's weekend airstrikes, and kidnapping of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, were not only a violation Venezuelan sovereignty, they were a violation of the president's longstanding opposition to unnecessary war and American military adventurism. Read More

Leave aside the question of whether President Donald Trump has the unilateral authority to depose foreign heads of state — U.S. presidents have a lot of leeway, but not that much — the removal of socialist thug Nicolás Maduro from power is a boon for long-suffering Venezuelans. Under Maduro and his predecessor, Hugo Chavez, Venezuela went from being a relatively free and increasingly prosperous country — albeit one with a corruption problem — to becoming an unfree pseudo-democracy ruled by collectivist dictators. When you see Venezuelans emigres around the world taking to the streets to celebrate the snatching of Maduro by U.S. troops, it’s because they have good reason. Read More