Business
New Towns Offer a Solution to Canada’s Housing Crisis

The postwar Canadian Dream: Don Mills, unveiled in 1953, was Canada’s first self-contained, suburban New Town. The brainchild of industrialist E.P. Taylor (top right), it offered young Canadian families the opportunity to abandon hectic downtown living for a more bucolic lifestyle in the suburbs.
By John Roe
Prime Minister Mark Carney says his plan to end Canada’s interminable housing crisis is to “Build Baby Build”. We can hope.
Unfortunately, Carney’s current plan is little more than a collection of unproven proposals and old policy mistakes including modular homes, boutique tax breaks, billions of taxpayer dollars in loans or subsidies and a new federal building authority.
The enormity of the task demands much broader thinking. Rather than simply encouraging a stacked townhouse here, and a condo there, Canada needs to remember what has worked in the past. And what other countries are doing today. With this in mind, Carney should embrace New Towns.
Also known as Garden Cities or Satellite Cities, New Towns are brand-new, planned communities of 10,000 or more citizens and that stand apart from existing urban centres. These are more than the suburbs reflexively loathed by so many planners and environmentalists. Rather, New Towns can offer a diverse mixture of living options, ranging from ground-level housing to built-to-purpose rental apartments and condominiums. As self-contained communities, they include schools, community centres along with shopping and employment opportunities.
New Towns represent the marriage of inspired utopianism with pragmatic realism. And they can provide the home so many of us crave.
Originally conceived in Britain during the Industrial Age, Canada witnessed its own New Town building boom during the post-war era. Communities built in the 1950s and 1960s including Don Mills, Bramalea, and Erin Mills in Ontario were all designed as separate entities meant to relieve population pressure on nearby Toronto. Other New Towns took advantage of new resource opportunities. Examples here including Thompson, Manitoba which sprang up around a nickel mine, and Kitimat, B.C., which was built to house workers in the aluminum industry.
While New Town development largely died off in the 1970s and 1980s, it is enjoying a revival today in many other countries.
Facing his own housing crisis and building on his country’s past experience, British Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer has established a New Towns Taskforce that will soon choose 12 sites where construction on new communities will begin by 2029.
On the other side of the Atlantic — and the political spectrum — U.S. President Donald Trump — has proposed awarding 10 new city charters for building New Towns on underdeveloped federal land.
Meanwhile, several Silicon Valley billionaires are backing Solano, a planned city 60 miles east of San Francisco with a goal of creating a new community of up to 400,000 people by 2040. And Elon Musk is already building a New Town at Starbase, Texas as the headquarters for his SpaceX rocket firm.
To be fair, not every New Town has been a success. In the late 1960s, Ontario tried to build a brand-new city on the shores of Lake Erie known as Townsend. Planned as a home for up to 100,000 people, the project fizzled for a variety of reasons, including a lack of proper transportation links and other important infrastructure, such as schools or a hospital. Today, fewer than 1,000 people live there.
Despite the lessons of the past, there are three compelling reasons why Carney should include New Towns as part of his solution to Canada’s housing crisis.
First, by starting with a blank canvas, a New Town offers the chance to avoid the stultifying NIMBYism of existing home owners and municipal officials who often stand in the way of new development. The status quo is one of the biggest obstacles to ending the housing crisis, and New Towns are by their very nature new.
Second, because New Towns are located outside existing urban centres, they offer the promise of delivering ground-level homes with a yard and driveway that so many young Canadians say they want. Focusing growth exclusively in existing urban centres such as Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal – as Carney seems to be doing – will deliver greater density, but not fulfil the housing dreams of Canadian families.
Third, New Towns can herald a more prosperous and unified Canada for the 21 st century. New Towns could be built in regions such as Ontario’s Ring of Fire, rich with minerals the world demands. New Towns could also tighten the east-west ties that bind the country together. Further, this growth can be focused on areas with marginal farmland, such as the Canadian Shield, which in Ontario starts just a 90 minute drive north of
Toronto.
New Towns are already beginning to pop up in Canada. In 2017, for example, construction began on Seaton Community, a satellite town adjacent to Pickering Ontario that will eventually grow into six neighbourhoods with up to 70,000 residents. And this spring, the southwestern Ontario municipality of Central Elgin unveiled plans for a New Town of 9,000 residents on the edge of St. Thomas.
Having promised Canadians fast and decisive “elbows up” leadership, our prime minister should throw his weight behind New Towns. To begin, he could appoint a New Town Task Force, similar to the one in Britain to get to work identifying potential locations. Even better, he could simply say his government thinks New Towns are a good idea and let the private sector do all the heavy lifting.
If the millions of Canadians currently shut out of the housing market are to have any chance at owning the home of their dreams, New Towns need to be in the mix.
John Roe is a Kitchener, Ont. freelance writer and former editorial page editor of the Waterloo Region Record. The original and longer version of this story first appeared at C2CJournal.ca
Business
Trump confirms 35% tariff on Canada, warns more could come

Quick Hit:
President Trump on Thursday confirmed a sweeping new 35% tariff on Canadian imports starting August 1, citing Canada’s failure to curb fentanyl trafficking and retaliatory trade actions.
Key Details:
- In a letter to Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, Trump said the new 35% levy is in response to Canada’s “financial retaliation” and its inability to stop fentanyl from reaching the U.S.
- Trump emphasized that Canadian businesses that relocate manufacturing to the U.S. will be exempt and promised expedited approvals for such moves.
- The administration has already notified 23 countries of impending tariffs following the expiration of a 90-day negotiation window under Trump’s “Liberation Day” trade policy.
Diving Deeper:
President Trump escalated his tariff strategy on Thursday, formally announcing a 35% duty on all Canadian imports effective August 1. The move follows what Trump described as a breakdown in trade cooperation and a failure by Canada to address its role in the U.S. fentanyl crisis.
“It is a Great Honor for me to send you this letter in that it demonstrates the strength and commitment of our Trading Relationship,” Trump wrote to Prime Minister Mark Carney. He added that the tariff response comes after Canada “financially retaliated” against the U.S. rather than working to resolve the flow of fentanyl across the northern border.
Trump’s letter made clear the tariff will apply broadly, separate from any existing sector-specific levies, and included a warning that “goods transshipped to evade this higher Tariff will be subject to that higher Tariff.” The president also hinted that further retaliation from Canada could push rates even higher.
However, Trump left the door open for possible revisions. “If Canada works with me to stop the flow of Fentanyl, we will, perhaps, consider an adjustment to this letter,” he said, adding that tariffs “may be modified, upward or downward, depending on our relationship.”
Canadian companies that move operations to the U.S. would be exempt, Trump said, noting his administration “will do everything possible to get approvals quickly, professionally, and routinely — In other words, in a matter of weeks.”
The U.S. traded over $762 billion in goods with Canada in 2024, with a trade deficit of $63.3 billion, a figure Trump called a “major threat” to both the economy and national security.
Speaking with NBC News on Thursday, Trump suggested even broader tariff hikes are coming, floating the idea of a 15% or 20% blanket rate on all imports. “We’re just going to say all of the remaining countries are going to pay,” he told Meet the Press moderator Kristen Welker, adding that “the tariffs have been very well-received” and noting that the stock market had hit new highs that day.
The Canadian announcement is part of a broader global tariff rollout. In recent days, Trump has notified at least 23 countries of new levies and revealed a separate 50% tariff on copper imports.
“Not everybody has to get a letter,” Trump said when asked if other leaders would be formally notified. “You know that. We’re just setting our tariffs.”
Business
Trump slaps Brazil with tariffs over social media censorship

From LifeSiteNews
By Dan Frieth
In his letter dated July 9, 2025, addressed to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Trump ties new U.S. trade measures directly to Brazilian censorship.
U.S. President Donald Trump has launched a fierce rebuke of Brazil’s moves to silence American-run social media platforms, particularly Rumble and X.
In his letter dated July 9, 2025, addressed to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Trump ties new U.S. trade measures directly to Brazilian censorship.
He calls attention to “SECRET and UNLAWFUL Censorship Orders to U.S. Social Media platforms,” pointing out that Brazil’s Supreme Court has been “threatening them with Millions of Dollars in Fines and Eviction from the Brazilian Social Media market.”
Trump warns that these actions are “due in part to Brazil’s insidious attacks on Free Elections, and the fundamental Free Speech Rights of Americans,” and states: “starting on August 1, 2025, we will charge Brazil a Tariff of 50% on any and all Brazilian products sent into the United States, separate from all Sectoral Tariffs.” He also adds that “Goods transshipped to evade this 50% Tariff will be subject to that higher Tariff.”
Brazil’s crackdown has targeted Rumble after it refused to comply with orders to block the account of Allan dos Santos, a Brazilian streamer living in the United States.
On February 21, 2025, Justice Alexandre de Moraes ordered Rumble’s suspension for non‑compliance, saying it failed “to comply with court orders.”
Earlier, from August to October 2024, Moraes had similarly ordered a nationwide block on X.
The court directed ISPs to suspend access and imposed fines after the platform refused to designate a legal representative and remove certain accounts.
Elon Musk responded: “Free speech is the bedrock of democracy and an unelected pseudo‑judge in Brazil is destroying it for political purposes.”
By linking censorship actions, particularly those targeting Rumble and X, to U.S. trade policy, Trump’s letter asserts that Brazil’s judiciary has moved into the arena of foreign policy and economic consequences.
The tariffs, he makes clear, are meant, at least in part, as a response to Brazil’s suppression of American free speech.
Trump’s decision to impose tariffs on Brazil for censoring American platforms may also serve as a clear signal to the European Union, which is advancing similar regulatory efforts under the guise of “disinformation” and “online safety.”
With the EU’s Digital Services Act and proposed “hate speech” legislation expanding government authority over content moderation, American companies face mounting pressure to comply with vague and sweeping takedown demands.
By framing censorship as a violation of U.S. free speech rights and linking it to trade consequences, Trump is effectively warning that any foreign attempt to suppress American voices or platforms could trigger similar economic retaliation.
Reprinted with permission from Reclaim The Net.
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