Updates

Flooding the Zone | Broadbent Bulletin – October 2026

In 2025, newly elected Prime Minister Mark Carney remarked on the usefulness of the Trump Administration strategy of “flooding the zone” – a political strategy of inundating the public and opponents with media attention to easily push forward a policy agenda. Out of the collapse of US-Canada trade negotiations, sub-national elections, and threats to national unity, a private Investment Summit and new legislation to speed up the federal government’s Major Projects agenda faced little public scrutiny. Beneath the maple glaze of Carney’s European Parliament speech were airport sell offs and attacks on workers’ rights. 

With the deluge of news, there is certainly a public policy undercurrent making its way beneath a disorienting torrent of news and events. Last month, through international media appearances and Perspectives Journal explainers and analysis, the Broadbent Institute attempted to filter through the downpour and clarify what’s at stake for Canadians

This Means Trade War

Broadbent Institute Executive Director Jen Hassum appeared in several international outlets at the onset of Canada’s retaliatory tariffs, made effective at midnight, ET, on September 8 after the August collapse of Canada-US interim trade negotiations. At the midnight deadline, Hassum explained what was at stake for Canada’s working class live on Al Jazeera’s ‘News Hour’ followed by an explainer segment later that morning on the BBC in the UK. Hassum was later interviewed by TalkTV UK on where US-Canada relations stood for a segment on September 16, and explained to Sunday Times South Africa what this meant for Canada’s relations with other countries for the September 20 edition.

Perspectives Journal presented new views, explainers, and analysis on the trade war and Canada’s current approach to economic defense. In a new opinion article, Christine Cooling, Hailey Baldock and Nir Hagigi highlight Canada’s concessions on digital policy to the Trump Administration in this trade war and ask: “If the US finds that this red line can be crossed, what other economic concessions will the Trump Administration demand?”

Perspectives Journal editor Clement Nocos interviewed Daniel Drache, political economist and Professor Emeritus at York University, for an explainer on the escalating crisis in Canada-US Trade Negotiations. According to Drache, “The red lines for tariff relief and other key objectives of Carney’s negotiations were never very clear to the Canadian public.”

Under the cover of trade war, the Carney government just introduced Bill-39, the Building Canada Strong Act. In an explainer, Professor of Work Law and Industrial Relations David Doorey writes that though C-39 adopts a philosophy that labour rights are important, it also finds them an impediment to “building Canada.”  That is not a great message for labour rights.

Rounding out the trade war, Nocos wrote a review of Broadbent Research Fellow Alex Himelfarb’s Breaking Free of Neoliberalism in Trump Times (Lorimer, 2026) noting the new book’s timely predictions of the Carney government’s neoliberal direction. While the trade war may have set off a new wave of “elbows up” Canadian patriotism, Himelfarb warns that, “patriotism comes with risks.”

Airport Sell Off, Alberta Separatism, and New Arrivals

Just before Prime Minister Mark Carney announced his government’s airport privatization push, the Canadian Labour Congress released a new report entitled: Public Runways, Private Profits: Why Airport Privatization Would be Risky and Costly for Canadians. Airport privatization has not succeeded in lowering costs and increasing service, so why is it happening in Canada?

DT Cochrane, Senior Economist at the Canadian Labour Congress spoke to Clement Nocos about the CLC’s new report and what this means for Canadians.

Watch & Listen to the Podcast

Public Interest Alberta’s Brad Lafortune and Broadbent Leadership Fellow Trevor McKenzie-Smith break down what’s at stake in the upcoming October 19 Alberta Referendum in an explainer of the full ballot and their campaign to “Vote No.” It is not just Alberta separatism that is on the table: there are 10 questions on the ballot this fall that target immigrants and the province’s legal authority over the federal government.

In a new opinion, Akash Ramaswamy highlights how Alberta separatism is being used to leverage grievances that are rooted in dissatisfaction with the way democratic decision making has gone in the province. While in Alberta, Edgardo Sepulveda demonstrates in a new analysis why Premier Danielle Smith’s push to add massive energy demand through AI data centres will mean even higher electricity prices for Albertans who already pay the highest rates in Canada.

Lastly,  researcher Themrise Khan criticizes a new immigration report by RBC that seeks to put a ‘magic number’ on immigration to Canada. In her opinion, this is a very wrong approach to immigration that only repeats Canada’s policy failures. Instead, Canadian immigration policy should be based on a human-rights framework.

Broadbent Institute Joins Global Progressive Network

The Center for International Policy is delighted to welcome Canada’s Broadbent Institute and Chile’s Rumbo Colectivo to CIP’s Global Progressive Network. They join The Australia Institute and Japan’s New Diplomacy Initiative in connecting progressive organizations across regions for shared analysis and practical collaboration.

“To help build a progressive and internationalist vision for the world, the Broadbent Institute is pleased to become a part of the Center for International Policy’s Global Progressive Network. In championing human rights-led and democratic relationships between Canada and the nations of the world, the GPN is a new and important nexus for building international solidarity,” says Jen Hassum, Executive Director of the Broadbent Institute.

Network members have already exchanged research and expertise, shared resources, convened public discussions, appeared on one another’s podcasts, and collaborated on emerging policy challenges. The Center for International Policy, the Broadbent Institute, and Rumbo Colectivo have already collaborated, including as part of the 2026 Panamerican Congress.

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In solidarity,

Clement Nocos
Director of Policy & Engagement, Broadbent Institute