National
Did the Liberals Backdoor Ruby Dhalla to Hand Mark Carney the Crown?

She was surging in the polls—so why was she secretly disqualified? Was this a race or a coronation?
She Wasn’t Supposed to Win
Ruby Dhalla wasn’t supposed to be a problem. When she entered the Liberal leadership race, she was treated as an afterthought, an outsider with no chance of breaking through. Mark Carney was the clear favorite—not because he had some overwhelming grassroots movement behind him, but because the Liberal swamp had already crowned him as Trudeau’s successor. The decision had been made long before the race even began. But then, something happened that the elites didn’t see coming: Dhalla started gaining traction. She started signing up thousands of new members. She started climbing in the polls. And that’s when the Liberal machine kicked into overdrive to shut her down.
If you’ve been paying attention to Canadian politics, none of this should be surprising. This is how the Liberal Party operates. The leadership race was never about choosing the best candidate; it was about making sure their pre-selected golden boy, Mark Carney, strolled into power without opposition. Dhalla’s rise threatened that plan, and as we’ve seen time and time again, the Liberal establishment has no patience for democracy when it gets in the way of their backroom deals.
Who Is Ruby Dhalla?
Unlike Carney, who spent his career bouncing between bureaucratic positions and the boardrooms of global financial institutions, Ruby Dhalla actually had experience winning elections. She wasn’t a puppet installed by the elites—she had built her own career in politics. Born in Winnipeg to Punjabi immigrant parents, Dhalla had been politically active from a young age. At just 14, she made international headlines for standing up to India’s Prime Minister over Sikh violence, proving early on that she wasn’t afraid to challenge powerful figures.
In 2004, she was elected as Member of Parliament for Brampton—Springdale, becoming one of the first Sikh women in Canada’s Parliament. For seven years, she fought for causes that mattered to working-class Canadians—pushing for foreign credential recognition, better healthcare access, and policies that helped immigrants integrate and succeed instead of being stuck in low-wage jobs.
But the Liberal Party, especially under Trudeau, doesn’t like independent thinkers. Dhalla lost her seat in 2011, took a step back from politics, and then, in 2025, decided to make a comeback. This time, she wasn’t just running on her record—she was running to take back the Liberal Party from the corporate elites, career bureaucrats, and political insiders who had hijacked it. And for a brief moment, it looked like she might actually succeed.
Dhalla’s Platform Was A Direct Threat to the Liberal Swamp
Let’s get one thing straight: Dhalla wasn’t just another Liberal politician running on empty platitudes. She was actually taking on the biggest failures of the Trudeau era—the very policies that have driven the country into the ground.
She was the only candidate willing to take a hard stance on illegal immigration, promising to deport those who entered Canada illegally and crack down on human trafficking networks that had turned Canadian cities into a magnet for asylum scams. This was a direct rebuke of Trudeau’s open-border policies, which flooded major urban centers with asylum seekers while leaving legal immigrants—the ones who actually followed the rules—waiting years in bureaucratic limbo.
She also had the guts to address Canada’s crime wave—something the Liberal establishment refuses to even acknowledge. Under Trudeau, violent crime, carjackings, and organized theft rings have exploded across the country, while the justice system has been hijacked by radical left-wing activists who care more about “rehabilitating” criminals than protecting innocent people. Dhalla called for stronger sentencing laws, increased funding for law enforcement, and an end to the revolving-door justice system that lets repeat offenders walk free. This was a direct challenge to the Liberal Party’s activist wing, which has spent years prioritizing criminals over victims.
Economically, she focused on the cost-of-living crisis that Trudeau’s reckless spending had fueled. While Mark Carney was busy rubbing elbows with globalist elites, Dhalla was actually talking to working-class Canadians who were struggling to afford basic necessities, being crushed by inflation, and priced out of homeownership. She proposed tax relief for small businesses, homeownership incentives, and policies to lower the cost of essential goods. Most importantly, she vowed to end corporate influence over government policy—something that would have put her in direct conflict with the very donors bankrolling Carney’s campaign.
The Fix Was In—And the Liberal Establishment Didn’t Even Try to Hide It
While Dhalla was out winning over actual voters, Carney didn’t have to lift a finger—at least, that’s how she sees it. According to Dhalla, the Bay Street donors, the Liberal bureaucrats, and Trudeau’s inner circle had already decided he would be their next puppet. But her unexpected momentum was throwing a wrench into their plans.
She claims her campaign signed up over 100,000 new members—a surge that, in her view, proved just how many Canadians wanted an alternative to the establishment. Internal polling allegedly showed that she was running neck and neck with Carney, challenging the idea that he was the inevitable frontrunner. Most importantly, she says she was calling out corruption within the party—something the Liberal insiders simply couldn’t tolerate.
That, she argues, is when the knives came out.
According to Dhalla, her campaign faced deliberate obstruction at every turn. She says she was denied access to crucial party membership lists, while Carney’s team faced no such restrictions. She also claims the party handed exclusive control of voter data to Data Sciences, a company with deep ties to both Trudeau and Carney—giving the establishment free rein over the internal mechanics of the race.
Then came what Dhalla describes as a financial ambush. Leadership candidates were required to submit a $350,000 deposit to stay in the race. Her campaign, backed by thousands of small-dollar donors, met that requirement in full. But just days later, she says, the party suddenly hit her with a six-page letter listing 27 allegations—none of which had been raised before she made her final payment. Despite fully cooperating, answering every question, and providing every requested document, Dhalla was disqualified behind closed doors.
But were these serious concerns about party rules and ethics? Or were they just serious concerns for Mark Carney’s leadership bid?
They didn’t even bother waiting for a debate. They removed her just before the first leadership debate in Montreal, ensuring that Carney wouldn’t have to answer a single tough question. The only real challenger was gone. And just like that, the “race” was over.
A Staged Leadership Race
With Dhalla and Chandra Arya—the only two South Asian candidates—mysteriously vanished from the race, the Liberal Party has officially dropped the mask. This is not a party of “inclusion” or “diversity” or whatever meaningless buzzword they trot out when the cameras are rolling. This is a party of insiders, where Trudeau’s handpicked elites play musical chairs with Canada’s future while pretending to hold a fair contest. And now, with the competition conveniently wiped off the board, Mark Carney—the globalist banker with a resume straight out of the Davos job fair—is all but guaranteed his coronation.
And let’s take a moment to acknowledge who’s left. Chrystia Freeland—who doesn’t even bother hiding her ties to Carney (he’s literally her children’s godfather)—isn’t running against him, she’s running as his insurance policy. If, for some reason, Carney stumbles, Freeland will be right there to catch the baton and carry on the exact same elite-driven, Canada-last agenda. And then there’s Karina Gould, a candidate so irrelevant to this race that her sole purpose seems to be testing the waters for the Liberals’ shiny new Marxist project: Universal Basic Income. Because if there’s one thing Trudeau’s Liberals love more than taxing Canadians into the ground, it’s making them dependent on government handouts.
This was never a leadership race. It was a staged coronation, a laughable farce cooked up by the same Liberal swamp who have spent the last decade running Canada into the ground. If this had happened in another country, Canadian politicians would be tripping over themselves to condemn it, talking about how democracy is under attack. But because it happened inside the Liberal Party, the media just shrugs and moves on, pretending this is all perfectly normal. Because, in their world, it is.
And that’s the real story here. If this is how the Liberals run their own leadership race, what do you think they’ll do in the next federal election? If they’re willing to purge their own candidates, rig their own nomination process, and outright silence anyone who dares to challenge their elite-controlled puppet show, then what chance does the average Canadian voter have?
This isn’t just corrupt. It’s disgusting. It’s a slap in the face to every Canadian who still believes in fair elections, free debate, and the basic idea that leaders should be chosen by the people—not installed behind closed doors by Trudeau’s golfing buddies and Bay Street billionaires.
The Liberal Party isn’t a political party anymore. It’s a gated country club for the ruling class, where power is passed around like a family heirloom. And if no one stands up to stop it, they’ll keep getting away with it. The fix is in, the swamp is deeper than ever, and the only question left is: Are Canadians going to do anything about it?
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Alberta
Albertans need clarity on prime minister’s incoherent energy policy

From the Fraser Institute
By Tegan Hill
The new government under Prime Minister Mark Carney recently delivered its throne speech, which set out the government’s priorities for the coming term. Unfortunately, on energy policy, Albertans are still waiting for clarity.
Prime Minister Carney’s position on energy policy has been confusing, to say the least. On the campaign trail, he promised to keep Trudeau’s arbitrary emissions cap for the oil and gas sector, and Bill C-69 (which opponents call the “no more pipelines act”). Then, two weeks ago, he said his government will “change things at the federal level that need to be changed in order for projects to move forward,” adding he may eventually scrap both the emissions cap and Bill C-69.
His recent cabinet appointments further muddied his government’s position. On one hand, he appointed Tim Hodgson as the new minister of Energy and Natural Resources. Hodgson has called energy “Canada’s superpower” and promised to support oil and pipelines, and fix the mistrust that’s been built up over the past decade between Alberta and Ottawa. His appointment gave hope to some that Carney may have a new approach to revitalize Canada’s oil and gas sector.
On the other hand, he appointed Julie Dabrusin as the new minister of Environment and Climate Change. Dabrusin was the parliamentary secretary to the two previous environment ministers (Jonathan Wilkinson and Steven Guilbeault) who opposed several pipeline developments and were instrumental in introducing the oil and gas emissions cap, among other measures designed to restrict traditional energy development.
To confuse matters further, Guilbeault, who remains in Carney’s cabinet albeit in a diminished role, dismissed the need for additional pipeline infrastructure less than 48 hours after Carney expressed conditional support for new pipelines.
The throne speech was an opportunity to finally provide clarity to Canadians—and specifically Albertans—about the future of Canada’s energy industry. During her first meeting with Prime Minister Carney, Premier Danielle Smith outlined Alberta’s demands, which include scrapping the emissions cap, Bill C-69 and Bill C-48, which bans most oil tankers loading or unloading anywhere on British Columbia’s north coast (Smith also wants Ottawa to support an oil pipeline to B.C.’s coast). But again, the throne speech provided no clarity on any of these items. Instead, it contained vague platitudes including promises to “identify and catalyse projects of national significance” and “enable Canada to become the world’s leading energy superpower in both clean and conventional energy.”
Until the Carney government provides a clear plan to address the roadblocks facing Canada’s energy industry, private investment will remain on the sidelines, or worse, flow to other countries. Put simply, time is up. Albertans—and Canadians—need clarity. No more flip flopping and no more platitudes.
Economy
Carney’s Promise of Expediting Resource Projects Feels Like a Modern Version of the Wicked Stepmother from Disney’s Cinderella

From Energy Now
By Tammy Nemeth
Canada’s ongoing saga around interminable delays for infrastructure and resource development has not necessarily improved under Mark Carney’s Liberal government. Hopes were raised in oil, gas, and mining boardrooms with the seemingly sensible words coming from Natural Resources Minister Tim Hodgson and Prime Minister Carney himself about expediting projects and developing Canada as a (clean) and conventional energy superpower. But that “clean” part is usually whispered like a corporate secret, possibly in the hope that Alberta and others won’t notice. This situation feels like a modern version of Cinderella, where promises come from the wicked stepmother with impossible conditions: The big “IF”.
In Disney’s 1950 animated film Cinderella, there is a scene where Cinderella presents an invitation to the royal ball to her stepmother, Lady Tremaine. Despite Cinderella’s eligibility, Lady Tremaine imposes a condition: She may attend only IF she completes an overwhelming list of chores. This disingenuous offer, cloaked in fairness, ensures Cinderella’s exclusion, much to the delight of her jealous stepsisters. Similarly, Canada’s resource development process appears to promise opportunity while imposing conditions that may prove unattainable.
The premiers from all the provinces were invited by the Prime Minister to come cap-in-hand with a list of projects they feel are in the “national interest”. Some suggested it was like giving a business pitch to the panel at Dragon’s Den. Hardly an appropriate situation to be in for the First Ministers of the Federation. It is a revealing indication of how far the consideration of the Premiers has fallen in the esteem of Ottawa and its media mouthpieces. Nevertheless, the Premiers duly arrived in Saskatoon to have a conversation about Ottawa’s ambitions for Canadian resource and industrial development and presented their list of projects. Most left the meeting hoping for the best.
Later that day, Prime Minister Carney released his criteria for acceptable projects, which are quite vague—the devil is always in the details. From the Prime Minister’s website:
“As a first step, First Ministers discussed projects of national interest which fit the following criteria, subject to consultation with Indigenous Peoples whose rights may be affected:
- Strengthen Canada’s autonomy, resilience, and security.
- Offer undeniable benefits to Canada and support economic growth.
- Have a high likelihood of successful execution.
- Are a high priority for Indigenous leaders.
- Have clean growth potential, such as the use of clean technologies and sustainable practices.”
These general statements leave a great deal open to interpretation and much of it is in the eye of the beholder. For example, Quebec will not join a consensus or support any project for which it doesn’t receive a direct benefit in terms of ongoing employment, royalty sharing, or other revenue.
As for conventional energy, Prime Minister Carney said he supports decarbonized oil. This would be a nod to the proposed Carbon Capture Storage (CCS) project of the Pathways Alliance, an incredibly expensive proposition for which the alliance is seeking various tax breaks and inducements to commit to the multi-billion dollar endeavour. It seems that support for an oil pipeline to the east or west would only tentatively come once that CCS project is complete or nearing completion.
Carney also says that there needs to be a “national consensus” on projects in order to be short listed. Who decides what is in the national interest or if a “national consensus” exists? Well, that would be the Prime Minister’s squad in Ottawa. What criteria or metrics will be used for those determinations? No one outside Carney’s circle knows. Prime Minister Carney said recently there would be a “process put in place to arrive at a [national] consensus” on projects.
If the Premiers thought these important details might be clarified in the implementing legislation, then they thought wrong. Bill C-5, the One Canadian Economy Act, merely codifies the five generic principles, mentions “energy” generally (which can be interpreted many ways), and does nothing to solve the problems with existing legislation that has created the regulatory morass for projects in the first place. Creating a “fast track” for only certain politically select projects, to bypass issues with the “regular track”, proves the existing system is too slow and ought to be corrected: Politically selected exceptions do not solve systemic problems.
The legislation also grants Cabinet sole power and discretion without any scrutiny or transparency on the decisions: “in respect of a project, the Governor in Council [Cabinet] may consider any factor that the Governor in Council considers relevant…” [emphasis added]. That is a very broad power that can be wielded in any number of ways, including forcing uneconomic high voltage electricity interconnections from eastern Canada to western provinces like Saskatchewan and Alberta. Essentially, Cabinet can do whatever it wants with respect to so-called “national” projects and is protected by Cabinet confidence in making those decisions.
Canadian premiers and the oil, gas, and mining companies are being confronted with a whole lot of “IFs” for potential projects all of which will be left to the arbitrary and secretive discretion of Cabinet. Which company will put the investment of time and money into an application process that has so many potential arbitrary and capricious ways to be rejected? So far, Canada’s process under its net zero by 2050 framework has been like betting on Cinderella to make the ball without a fairy godmother.
Prime Minister Carney is saying he encourages resource development applications but is offering several conditions that may prove impossible to meet for Alberta, Saskatchewan, and resource companies. Resource companies, wary of investing in a process rife with uncertainty, may hesitate to commit resources to projects that face rejection on subjective and capricious grounds. If Canada wants to dance at the global energy ball, it needs clear procedural and regulatory rules, not a wicked stepmother’s to-do list.
As Jess Kline of the National Post says, the criteria, “pretty much gives politicians licence to reject any project for any reason at all.” While many may be cautiously optimistic that such arbitrariness will be overcome by pragmatism and the realities of an economy hungry for reliable affordable energy, could it be that Canada’s resource development is facing the veiled meanness of a wicked stepmother?
Ambiguity is the enemy of action. Canada needs a clear, fair, timely approval process that balances environmental goals with economic needs. Without it, provinces and industries may stay stuck in an ongoing story where opportunities are promised but never delivered.
Tammy Nemeth is a U.K.-based energy analyst
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