National News

A new poll suggests the vast majority of Canadians are proud of their home and native land, but our sense of national pride is lower than it was a few years ago.

Polling firm Leger surveyed 1,607 people last weekend, asking how they're feeling about being Canadian ahead of Canada Day. The firm posed similar questions to a group of 1,003 Americans ahead of the Fourth of July.

The results suggest the vast majority of us — 76 per cent — would call ourselves proud Canadians. 

WestJet cancelled nearly 700 flights as of Sunday, upending plans for close to 100,000 passengers as an unexpected strike by plane mechanics entered its third day on the busiest travel weekend of the season.

Some 680 workers, whose daily inspections and repairs are essential to airline operations, walked off the job on Friday evening despite a directive for binding arbitration from the federal labour minister.

Since Thursday, tracking service FlightAware shows WestJet has cancelled 687 flights scheduled to fly between then and the end of the Canada Day long weekend.

Canada's unofficial national colours will be on full display Monday as Canadians don patriotic T-shirts, wave hand-held flags and hang bunting to celebrate their country. But while the red-and-white flag for the most part unites Canadians, the colours' meaning is open to interpretation.

Xavier Gélinas, a curator at the Canadian Museum of History, said there is no authoritative source that explains why the country drapes itself in red and white.

Thousands of Canadians are having their long weekend travel plans upended and WestJet says it expects "significant disruption" after mechanics walked off the job Friday night despite the Minister of Labour ordering both sides to arbitration earlier this week.

The Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association announced on Friday evening that mechanics would begin strike action at 6:30 p.m. CDT.

One Liberal MP who is not seeking re-election has sent an email to fellow caucus members calling for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to step down as party leader.

Another suggested it may be time to put that question to the party's membership.

But the prime minister showed no signs of blinking Friday as he was greeted by happy throngs of supporters at both a party fundraiser and a campaign-style stop at the Taste of Asia festival in a Toronto suburb.

Federated Co-operatives Ltd. has become the latest target of a cybersecurity incident.

In a statement released Thursday evening, the company says it is "experiencing a cybersecurity incident that is impacting some internal and customer facing systems at local retail Co-ops and cardlock fuel locations."

As a precaution, the company says they have shut down some of the systems. The incident is impacting several locations across the prairies.

The first debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump may not have brought the surge of excitement among voters that both leaders were looking for ahead of the November election.

The matchup saw the current president and his political rival exchange personal barbs as well as criticism over their legacies in the Oval Office. 

But some Democratic supporters showed concern over portions of 81-year-old Biden’s uneven performance, which included a raspy voice and rambling responses. 

WestJet is cancelling flights ahead of a possible strike by its mechanics' union.

The Calgary-based airline says in a statement the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association has provided them with another notice of strike action.

WestJet says that as a result, it has preemptively cancelled 25 flights between Thursday and Friday, affecting about 3,300 customers.

Police will not be laying charges in a bus crash that killed 17 people in western Manitoba.

RCMP say they do not expect to be able to talk to the bus driver, who was severely injured in the crash.

And they say officers have found no explanation as to why he pulled into an intersection when it wasn't safe.

The bus, carrying seniors to a casino, collided with a semi-trailer while crossing the Trans-Canada Highway near the town of Carberry last June.

A historic defeat for the Liberals in a downtown Toronto byelection has put a glaring question mark on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's political future. 

Insiders warn the Conservative victory could be a sign portending a Tory blue wave when the rest of Canada goes to the polls.

Here's a look at the options Trudeau and the Liberals face as they enter a summer of soul-searching. 

Liberals look for a new saviour