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Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem waits to appear before the House of Commons finance committee in Ottawa on Nov. 23. Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press Parliamentarians questioned Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem about inflation and historic financial losses at the central bank on Wednesday, with top opposition politicians looking to frame the bank’s continuing dilemmas to their political advantage. Mr. Macklem used his appearance before the finance committee in Ottawa to reiterate the central bank’s core message: Inflation remains too high and interest rates need to keep rising. The Bank of Canada has raised interest rates six times this year, and is widely expected to announce another interest rate hike on Dec. 7. The most pointed questions for Mr. Macklem came from New Democrat Leader Jagmeet Singh and former Conservative Party leader Andrew Scheer. Neither politician is a regular member of the finance committee, and their presence highlights how central monetary policy has be...

New Democratic Party leader Jagmeet Singh walks through the Foyer of the House of Commons on Oct. 26. Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press Canada is finally getting its act together on an Indo-Pacific strategy. It would be a shame if NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh fouled it up. Although the Trudeau government’s plan for that region has yet to be released in its entirety, the preliminary details suggest it is headed in the right direction on both economic and national security issues. Diversifying trade away from China and fighting foreign interference in Canada’s internal affairs are among Ottawa’s objectives. Success, of course, hinges on Canada forging stronger ties with a number of Indo-Pacific countries, chief among them India. With its fast-growing economy, India is a promising market for Canadian businesses, but bilateral relations have been suboptimal since Mr. Trudeau’s gaffe-filled trip there in 2018. Ottawa and New Delhi want to turn the page on the past and focus on shared goals, incl...

The Bank of Canada said it remains 'resolute' in its commitment to tackling high inflation, which is eroding wages and making life less affordable for Canadians. Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press The Bank of Canada increased interest rates for the seventh consecutive time on Wednesday, surprising markets with another oversized move while signaling that it may be nearing the end of its historic rate-hike cycle. The bank’s governing council raised the benchmark lending rate by half a percentage point to 4.25 per cent, the highest level since early 2008. This is the latest step in a nine-month dash to increase Canadian borrowing costs, which has driven mortgage expenses sharply higher and plunged the housing market into a deep funk. The central bank is squeezing Canadian finances in an effort to slow spending throughout the economy and get the highest inflation in four decades under control. Investors were expecting a more dovish quarter-point increase. But even as the bank def...

Telus has waged an aggressive campaign to keep Rogers and Quebecor out of its home turf in British Columbia and Alberta. Fred Lum/the Globe and Mail Is there any better evidence of the consumer-friendly competition coming to Western Canada’s telecom market than Telus Corp.’s T-T relentless opposition to takeovers that would reshape the industry? Telus chief executive Darren Entwistle and his team have pulled out all the stops to block Rogers Communications Inc.’s RCI-B-T planned $20-billion acquisition of Shaw Communications Inc. SJR-B-T, along with the sale of Shaw’s Freedom Mobile wireless business to Quebecor Inc. subsidiary Videotron. Court filings and government hearings have pulled back the curtain on “Project Fox” – as in fox in the henhouse – Telus’s name for its aggressive campaign to keep Rogers and Quebecor out of its home turf in British Columbia and Alberta. Let’s be clear: Mr. Entwistle is doing exactly what Telus shareholders pay him to do. He’s defending the company’s...