Craig Lord, The Canadian Press

The Conservatives and NDP spent the weekend hunting votes in British Columbia — a key late-campaign battleground that one pollster says may offer Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre his best shot at victory.

Both Poilievre and NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh addressed Canadians' cost-of-living concerns at campaign events in B.C. on Sunday.

Singh was asked if he was advocating strategic voting to shore up the party's flagging support against possible Conservative inroads in the region.

The Bank of Canada left its benchmark interest rate unchanged Wednesday as it waits to get a clearer picture of how global trade uncertainty is going to impact the Canadian economy.

The central bank held its policy rate steady at 2.75 per cent, the first time it has left the key rate unchanged following seven consecutive cuts since June.

That decision arrived in the midst of the United States' ever-shifting global trade war, and Bank of Canada governor Tiff Macklem made clear that the disruption from south of the border was the clear focus of Wednesday’s decision.

Canadians got a break on inflation in March as gas prices fell and a slowdown in travel to the United States helped cool airfare costs, Statistics Canada said Tuesday.

The annual rate of inflation slowed to 2.3 per cent last month, down from 2.6 per cent in February. A poll provided by LSEG Data & Analytics ahead of Tuesday’s release had expected yearly inflation to hold steady month-to-month.

StatCan said gas prices fell 1.6 per cent year-over-year in March, coming off a hike of 5.1 per cent in February.

Ottawa police have released the name of the person they say was behind a massive security incident on Parliament Hill over the weekend.

Police say Tyler Hall-Worthington, a 31-year-old Ottawa man, has been charged in connection with the lockdown Saturday afternoon at East Block, a building in the parliamentary precinct that mainly houses offices for senators and their staff.

An Ottawa police spokesperson told The Canadian Press that the suspect was still in custody as of Monday morning.

Police say they've charged a 31-year-old Ottawa man with several offences following an incident that placed an area of Parliament Hill under lockdown on Saturday.

Ottawa police said in a media statement Sunday that a man entered East Block in downtown Ottawa at 2:40 p.m. Saturday and started issuing threats to those inside.

Security officials isolated the man in a security screening area while police evacuated the building, which mostly houses offices for senators and their staff.

Police said the man surrendered peacefully after hours of negotiations.

Canadians can expect to feel the absence of the consumer carbon price at the pumps immediately but it may take longer to notice a difference in the price of other goods, a new report released Wednesday suggests.

The analysis by Desjardins Economics comes less than a week after Prime Minister Mark Carney and his new Liberal cabinet ordered that the consumer levy be set to zero on April 1.

The carbon price came with a quarterly rebate to offset the cost of inflation; the final rebate will come in April.

The annual rate of inflation accelerated sharply to 2.6 per cent in February as the federal government’s temporary tax break came to an end mid-month, Statistics Canada said Tuesday.

That marks a sizeable jump from the 1.9 per cent increase seen in January, when Canadians saw GST and HST taken off a variety of household staples, common gifts and restaurant bills for the entire month.

The Bank of Canada lowered its benchmark interest rate by a quarter point on Wednesday as the tariff battle with the United States starts to weigh on the Canadian economy.

The policy rate stands at 2.75 per cent after the central bank’s seventh consecutive rate cut.

The move was widely expected by economists.

Bank of Canada governor Tiff Macklem said in prepared remarks Wednesday that signs of stability in inflation and momentum in the Canadian economy driven by previous rate cuts are at risk amid the trade war with the U.S.

The Bank of Canada's interest rate announcement arrives on Wednesday in a cloud of uncertainty thanks to a shifting trade war with the United States.

Most economists expect the central bank will deliver another quarter-point rate cut while it waits to see how long the dispute with Canada's largest trading partner lasts.

The Bank of Canada faces a difficult task: setting monetary policy at a time when inflation has shown signs of stubbornness and the economy picks up steam, while risks of a sharp downturn tied to U.S. tariffs loom on the horizon.

A new poll suggests the trade war with the United States is now the biggest source of political anxiety for Canadians, knocking inflation out of the top spot.

Leger's new poll, released Wednesday, says that 28 per cent of Canadians believe dealing with President Donald Trump's tariffs and U.S. aggression is the most important challenge facing Canada today.

The cost of living dropped to second place in the latest polling; 21 per cent of Canadians ranked it at their top concern, followed by health care and housing affordability.