In the news today: Trump escalates tariffs, Manitoba lab strike ends, Quebec debates

Here is a roundup of stories from The Canadian Press designed to bring you up to speed …

Canada to blame for Washington’s escalation of trade war, says Trump trade czar

U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer says Canada is to blame for Washington’s decision to escalate the trade war with its northern neighbour.

President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed new executive orders to bar imports of certain Canadian goods after Canada imposed its latest set of counter duties on the United States.

Greer says the escalation was a “natural consequence” of Canada discriminating against American exports and choosing “senseless retaliation” over a near-final trade deal.

Prime Minister Mark Carney has warned that Canada’s pivot away from the United States will come at a cost, but that the alternative would be far worse.

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Canada’s reciprocal tariffs unlikely to hit grocery bills, economists say

Most grocery items have escaped the wrath of trade tensions so far as Canada’s tit-for-tat tariffs took effect Tuesday, but economists say some items, such as health and beauty products, could see prices rise in the short term.

About 20 per cent of all items affected are consumer products, small enough to keep a lid on overall inflation in the coming months, said KPMG chief economist Ali Jaffery.

The majority of the retaliatory tariffs are on intermediate inputs, or raw materials that are used in production as opposed to items that consumers see on store shelves.

Jaffery says most of the targeted U.S. imports can be swapped out relatively easily for items produced within Canada.

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Medical lab workers in Manitoba ordered back to work after one-day strike

Several hundred medical lab workers are to return to work today after the Manitoba Labour Board ordered them back to their posts.

Lawyers for the provincial government argued the Dynacare workers, who hit picket lines earlier Tuesday, were too valuable to the functioning of the health care system to be allowed to strike.

A private operator, Dynacare is the province’s primary collector of routine lab work, including blood samples, urinalysis and prenatal testing.

It says it is grateful the labour board intervened, while the union representing the 350 workers says it will abide by the decision, but has lost trust in Premier Wab Kinew’s government.

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Quebec political leaders to appear in TV interviews on day 14 of election campaign

The leaders of Quebec’s five main political parties are continuing on the campaign trail today ahead of the election set for Oct. 5.

They are heading to Quebec City, where they will face a crucial test this evening with back-to-back interviews on Radio-Canada’s airwaves.

Tariffs, the cost of living, education and language are among the key issues dominating the election campaign so far.

Polls show voters are paying close attention to how leaders are addressing affordability, which has become a central theme in the campaign.

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25 years ago, Canada faced a ‘dramatic change’ as it headed for war in Afghanistan

Twenty-five years ago, the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, forced Canadians and their armed forces to confront both a new world and a new war.

Soon after the attacks on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon, Canada found itself at war with a Taliban insurgency halfway around the world.

Eugene Lang, a former chief of staff to two defence ministers, said Ottawa believed it would be a short-term conflict that later became Canada’s longest armed conflict to date.

The Afghanistan war taught harsh lessons about how ready the Canadian military was for war, and how much it had let things diminish in the years leading up to it.

Gen. Rick Hillier, who led a multinational NATO force in Kabul, says the war also forced Canada to stop operating as a country isolated from upheaval, hatred and violence.

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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 9, 2026.