What's Happening?

It was a busy week in Canadian politics. Here's what you need to know:

Alberta

• 🎒Strike Standoff: 51,000 teachers who went on strike on Monday are now also locked out by the Teachers' Employer Bargaining Association (TEBA). The Alberta Teachers’ Association (ATA) confirmed that formal bargaining with a mediator is set to resume on Tuesday, following productive side talks.
  • ✍️ Policy Petition: A citizen initiative proposal application seeking a provincial referendum on de-funding private schools has been approved by Elections Alberta. This proposal–launched by Calgary teacher Alicia Taylor–requires over 177,000 signatures within 120 days to advance to the next step of having a legislative or policy proposal introduced in the legislative assembly, or to have a constitutional referendum conducted.
• ✉️ Ministerial Mandates: In new mandate letters, Premier Smith tasked Ministers Matt Jones, Adriana LaGrange, Jason Nixon, and Rick Wilson with transitioning non-acute hospital patients into assisted living, tracking and publishing surgical wait times, and advancing the 2027 rollout of the Compassionate Intervention Act. New mandate letters outline collaborative goals across the four health portfolios, including refocusing health care and upcoming legislative priorities.
• PSI Purse strings: Alberta's expert panel on post-secondary institution (PSI) funding delivered a report with 11 recommendations to modernize and strengthen the post-secondary system.
• 🛢️ Pipe Dreams: Alberta will invest $14 million to develop a proposal and act as a proponent leading a technical advisory group of companies with Indigenous participants to advance a West Coast Pipeline application. Premier Smith says they hope to submit a formal proposal to the federal Major Projects Office (MPO) by Spring 2026. 
• 🎤 Mayoral Matchups: With the October 20 Alberta municipal elections fast-approaching, mayoral races in the big cities are heating up.
  • 📍 Calgary held a debate on October 8 with five mayoral candidates including Jyoti Gondek, Jeromy Farkas, Sonya Sharp, Jeff Davison, and Brian Thiessen, hosted by the Calgary Chamber of Commerce.
  • 📍 Edmonton held a debate on October 9 with 10 mayoral candidates, hosted by the Edmonton Public Library and Taproot Edmonton.
  • 🗳️ Advance Voting for mayor, councillor, and school board trustee candidates for this election is available until October 11 (tomorrow) in both Edmonton and Calgary.
• 📜 Clause Clash: Premier Smith (Alberta), Doug Ford (Ontario), François Legault (Québec), Scott Moe (Saskatchewan), and Tim Houston (Nova Scotia) have called on the federal government to withdraw its factum with the Supreme Court of Canada outlining Canada's position on the constitutional issues raised with the notwithstanding clause (section 33 of the Constitution). 
• 🗳️ Project Pitch: Voters in the County of Northern Lights and the Town of Manning will be asked during the October 20 municipal election to weigh in on the proposed Peace River Nuclear Power Project through a non-binding plebiscite. 
• 📊 Unemployment Uncertainty: Alberta's unemployment rate climbed to 8.4 per cent in August, the second-highest in Canada and the highest unemployment rate since 2017 outside of the pandemic. 

Canada

• 🇺🇸 Oval Overtures: Prime Minister Carney and President Trump met in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday to discuss tariffs, trade, and foreign policy and....possibly Keystone XL, though no deals were finalized. This was the second Carney-Trump Oval Office rendezvous, though the pair have interacted several times over the past few months.
• 🤑 Budget Changes: Canada's federal budget timing and structure.
  • ⏰ Timing will move from Spring to Fall, beginning with Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne’s upcoming November 4 budget. Fiscal updates will shift from Fall to Spring to align with this new schedule.
  • 📈 Framework will now separate operational spending from capital investments–with a goal to balance the operational budget–while maintaining a single, overall deficit.
• 📨 Production Plan: Canada's Minister of Industry, Mélanie Joly announced a three-point industrial strategy on Thursday, designed to counter the impact of tariffs by stabilizing key sectors, fast-tracking major projects, and using federal purchasing power to boost domestic production through three initiatives: (1) the $13-billion Build Canada Homes program; (2) a new Buy Canadian procurement policy; and, (3) a Defence Investment Agency.

📽️ TL;DR in Markets and Politics 

In this week's episode of TL;DR with Reformed Millennials: AI and content creation, the power of storytelling, U.S.-Canada relations, gold prices, K-shaped recovery, energy and infrastructure, and (of course) the new Taylor Swift album 👇 

Why it Matters.

Let's unpack the details of what happened this week and why it matters.