The federal government has released the title and theme for its upcoming budget set to be tabled on Nov. 5, which the finance minister’s office says reflects a period of “profound change and uncertainty.”
Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne posted on social media Thursday morning revealing the title “MASTERS OF OUR DESTINY: BUDGET 2026,” with the cover of the budget document, showing power lines suspended over a forested valley landscape.
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Champagne’s office also released a statement explaining the significance of the chosen theme and title.
It was inspired by the 1962 Quebec electoral campaign of then-premier Jean Lesage, where the slogan was “Maîtres chez Nous,” loosely translated to “Masters of Our Own House.”
The note from Champagne’s office says the slogan at the time was “a defining expression during a moment of profound change and uncertainty,” as the Lesage government was planning to build up hydroelectric resources and institutions that would support the economy.
“Today, Canada faces a moment of profound change. Trade relationships are redefined. Old alliances are being tested. The forces reshaping the world are challenging our economy, our sovereignty and our sense of who we are,” the note said.
“Through Budget 2026, we reinforce that we are masters of our destiny. That we build our economic strength. That we are there for Canadians. That we defend what makes us Canadians.”
It added: “That is the ambition at the heart of Budget 2026: Maîtres chez nous. Masters of our destiny.”
Ottawa’s latest budget comes as Prime Minister Mark Carney‘s government has been focused for over a year on rewiring Canada’s economy and trade relationships in order to reduce reliance on a more volatile United States.
U.S. tariffs and trade tensions continue to impact Canada’s economy and job market, while geopolitical conflicts lead to rising oil and gas prices and pose a risk that inflation could continue to rise as a result.

The federal government will beef up Canada’s intelligence-gathering capabilities and “prepare for all contingencies up to and including war” under a new national security strategy that says protecting sovereignty now requires building “strategic capabilities” in eight sectors from critical minerals to defence and emerging technologies.
The Plan for a Stronger Canada, released Thursday, is the first national security strategy from Ottawa in more than two decades. Only 13 pages long, it’s a framework guiding the development of five new detailed national policies for defence, foreign affairs, economic security, public safety and intelligence. A new foreign policy will be released in about one month with others to follow, the government says.
Senior officials at a briefing Thursday said threats facing Canada are increasingly complex, ranging from climate change, terrorism, pandemics to cyberattacks, cutting-edge artificial intelligence and the increasing possibility of a major war. The Globe and Mail is not identifying the officials, who were not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.
Officials did not say where specifically war might break out but some European leaders and military commanders have said that by 2029, Russia will have the capacity to attack another North Atlantic Treaty Organization country.
Prime Minister Mark Carney’s office in a statement said he plans to convene a first ministers’ meeting on national security to strengthen co-ordination with provincial and territorial governments. Ottawa will also introduce legislative proposals to modernize national security legislation within a year, it said.
A major theme of this new strategy is “strategic autonomy,” an expansive view of security that Mr. Carney has previously defined as a country’s ability to act independently for its own national and economic interests rather than being vulnerable to coercion from superpowers.
The strategy does not name any countries as risks but the Prime Minister’s Office, in an accompanying statement, said threats now include the “weaponization of trade deals,” an indirect reference to how the United States has used protectionist tariffs and hindered access to its massive market to extract concessions from allies such as Canada.
Canada making progress on defence strategy, but key aspects remain a challenge, industry members say
The strategy is the first overarching national security policy since 2004, when former prime minister Paul Martin’s Liberals released Securing an Open Society.
Mr. Carney, speaking in Montreal, said the last national security strategy was written for a different world.
“Today’s reflects profound new realities,” he said. “It is not enough to feed, fuel and defend ourselves. Sovereignty now requires secure access to semiconductors, critical minerals, payment systems, clean energy technologies, vaccines, space-based communications and artificial intelligence,” he said.
These capabilities will ensure Canada can be sovereign, and, finally, “maîtres chez nous,” – able to “live our lives as we choose,” the Prime Minister said, invoking the historic Quebec political slogan “masters in our own house.”
The strategy says Canada aims for a “cooperative, clear-eyed relationship with the United States” and will work to “maintain a relationship with the United States based on mutual respect, national sovereignty, and shared responsibility for the security of North America.”
It says Ottawa will “strengthen sovereign intelligence capabilities, collection and analysis,” meaning Canada will build up its ability to gather secret information rather than relying on others. It will bolster the capacities of the Communications Security Establishment, the country’s electronic eavesdropping agency, as well as the Canadian Security Intelligence Service and defence intelligence operations.
Canada will also diversify intelligence partnerships around the world – beyond the Five Eyes intelligence sharing alliance – the plan says.
Officials at Thursday’s briefing said they’re not on the verge of announcing a new foreign human-intelligence gathering agency such as Britain’s MI6 or the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency but are looking at how to expand capabilities among existing intelligence-collection operations.
The solution to reducing vulnerabilities and risks, according to the strategy, is building up Canada’s capacity in eight areas: emerging technologies such as AI and quantum computing, critical minerals, defence, energy, transportation, pharmaceuticals and biotech, food security and financial payments, transaction settlement and investment.
The language fits a theme Mr. Carney has embraced over the past year. In Davos, Switzerland, he described a “rupture in the world order” and argued that middle powers such as Canada are not powerless. In February, launching the country’s first Defence Industrial Strategy, he said Canada should never be hostage to the decisions of others on its own security.
Mr. Carney recently said that he plans to “diversify away from” billionaire Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite-internet network, citing instances in which Ukraine’s access to Starlink services was “turned on and off in a way that was not sovereign to the actors in the conflict.”
He said Canada cannot be reliant on critical technology such as Starlink.
“Once you realize that, as we have, this government has, it leads to a series of decisions and partnerships that are necessary in order to diversify and to build up sovereign capabilities within Canada or with partners,” the Prime Minister told reporters in Istanbul last week.
This will take time, he said, “because we’re starting from a position where we’re highly, highly reliant on certain systems in certain countries.”
The strategy also says the Canadian military will draw on Ukraine’s defence against a Russian invasion and will be given one clear central mission: the defence of Canada and Canadian interests. It says the Canadian Armed Forces will develop special capacities and training that enable Canada to defend against threats from space to cyberspace.
Ottawa said it wants to make Canada “a defence partner of choice,” meeting “our commitments to NORAD and NATO, strengthening partnerships in the Arctic, and demonstrating our ability to contribute to security and stability in the Indo-Pacific, Middle East and elsewhere.”

Quebec’s separatist premier says that he will boycott the EU-Canada summit that opens in Montreal on Thursday, warning European leaders that deals struck there without his government’s consent may not be applied in the country’s second-biggest province.
Paul St-Pierre Plamondon confirmed his absence late Wednesday in an open letter to the European delegation, which he posted on X. His announcement followed two days of public sparring with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney over Ottawa’s refusal to let him address the summit.
“This dynamic creates uncertainty as to the application of the agreements you could negotiate during the summit,” he wrote in French.
In the letter, St-Pierre Plamondon says Ottawa has “decided to sideline Quebec” from the talks. He says this leaves his government with “neither a chair at the negotiating table nor the opportunity to speak,” even though the summit is on Quebec soil.
Under Canada’s federal system, he argued, the provinces implement international agreements that fall within their powers. Without Quebec’s consent, a deal that runs against its interests “will simply not be implemented,” he wrote. He also accused Ottawa of withholding “critical information” on the negotiations.
He offered to meet European leaders “in the near future, in a more opportune context.” He will send Quebec’s chief diplomat, Pascal Paradis, to the summit in his place.
Carney said Wednesday his office had offered the premier the honor of welcoming the Commission president to Montreal, and a seat at the head table. “I hope he will reconsider,” he said. On Tuesday, the prime minister had accused St-Pierre Plamondon of choosing to “leave an empty chair again.”
The row has soured the upbeat mood around the summit, which Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President António Costa have billed as a milestone. Leaders will launch an “Alliance for the Future,” a framework for shared prosperity and economic security.
St-Pierre Plamondon’s letter says many of its topics fall under Quebec’s responsibility, including health, education and natural resources.
The premier has also pursued his own contacts with European leaders.
He spoke by phone with French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday, and said the two had agreed on a possible meeting in France in the coming weeks.
At working level, ties have held so far, and officials describe the relationship as constructive.
Hélène Drainville, Quebec’s delegate general in Brussels, told POLITICO last week that Quebec was in talks with the European Investment Bank and the Commission, and that “all the signals are green.”
Carney, Costa and von der Leyen are due to hold a joint press conference on Friday.

For decades, Canada-EU summits took place without much fanfare – but that’s not the case for this coming two-day meeting in Montreal.
Thursday and Friday’s summit will be closely watched for details on how Canada and the European bloc deepen their ties.
Last month, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen proposed “opening the door” to Canada for what she called an “associate membership” – a status that does not currently exist.
The overture came after Prime Minister Carney addressed the European Parliament in Strasbourg, telling EU lawmakers that Canada and Europe were “stronger together” in the face of “geopolitical rupture”.
Von der Leyen, speaking to reporters after landing in Montreal on Wednesday, said the two sides will “start discussing how to make Canada the first associate member of the EU”.
“Our ambition is to build the closest partnership we have ever had with a non-European country,” she said.
Carney and many EU member states welcome closer ties, but not all are on board with what to call this new relationship.
Some, like Germany, are questioning the “associate member” term, fearing that Canada is getting preferential treatment ahead of other nations who also want in.
According to reports by multiple news outlets, Germany and other nations successfully lobbied to remove mention of the title in a draft statement ahead of the summit, opting instead for softer language that references an “ever closer association”.
Germany’s ambassador to Canada, Matthias Lüttenberg, told CTV News on Tuesday that some member states were “a little surprised” by von der Leyen’s announcement last month.
The concept of “associate membership”, he added, is something that is not clearly understood as it pertains to Canada.
“Germany has been using the term of associate membership for something completely different, which is the relationship of the EU to Ukraine and potentially Moldova”, he said, both of which have been trying to join the bloc for many years.
Lüttenberg noted, however, that neither Canada nor the EU is seeking full membership for the North American country.
Rather, both want to bring Canada “as close as possible” to the bloc without membership.
On the first day of the summit, Carney and von der Leyen and business leaders from both Europe and Canada will gather for a business forum.
Canadian officials said they also expect agreements to be hammered out on defence, critical minerals, research and trade over the two days.
Speaking to reporters earlier this week, European officials downplayed the possibility of a major announcement on Canada’s new relationship with EU, saying much will be sorted in the coming months.
But both Canadian and EU officials have provided some clues on what the relationship could look like, including closer business ties and allowing more students to study on either side of the Atlantic.
Canada also does not plan on paying a membership fee similar to other EU nations, Canadian officials have said. Instead, it is looking at participating in different EU programmes that would benefit both Canada and member states.
And despite some disagreement about the wording, both have signalled they are fully on board with deepening ties.
“The wording is emblematic of the ambition,” said one senior Canadian official who was granted anonymity to speak to reporters at a briefing ahead of the summit.
Since taking office last year, Prime Minister Carney has pushed Canada closer to Europe as his country continues to deal with an ongoing trade war with the US, its neighbour and largest trading customer.
US President Donald Trump has called the idea of Canada becoming an associate member of the EU “laughable”, and has threatened “very serious tariffs” on Europe if he considered it a “hostile act”.
Canadian officials stressed on Wednesday that their pivot to Europe is not meant to offend anybody, but rather to build on work that was already underway.
Canada recently signed an agreement that gives its defence companies procurement access to the EU’s Security and Defence Partnership programme.
It also signed a landmark energy deal with Germany in May that would see the first-ever long-term shipments of liquified natural gas from Canada to Europe in the coming years.
Carney said earlier this week that the summit would “launch further formal discussions” between Canada and the EU on deepening ties and creating new opportunities for both sides.

The EU and Canada are betting they can deepen their partnership while Donald Trump looks inward at the U.S. midterms — and before European elections upend the political calculus.
Their strategy is to push for the broadest possible upgrade and hope Trump is too busy campaigning to respond, four EU officials and two Canadian diplomats familiar with preparations for this week’s summit in Montreal said.
Trump, whose Republican Party is fighting to retain control of Congress in next week’s midterms, has called the EU’s offer of associate membership for Canada “laughable” and threatened “serious tariffs” if the two sides get too close.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President António Costa will join Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney for two days of talks on trade, security, energy, education and the Arctic on Thursday.
The summit “is a very strong statement,” said Mark Camilleri, president of the Canada and EU Trade and Investment Association. “I don’t think there’s any feeling that this is going to be some discreet get-together.”
Canada is also looking to move before Europe’s politics shift. Ottawa wants changes to the partnership that will outlast Trump and Marine Le Pen, whose National Rally is polling ahead in France and has criticized the EU-Canada trade pact, CETA, said a Canadian diplomat. All the officials and diplomats in this article were granted anonymity to speak frankly about the summit preparations.
Avoiding Trump’s ire
Brussels and Ottawa are pushing to strengthen their relationship, including by cooperating more closely on trade and defense, international engagement and institutional links, according to a draft joint statement obtained by POLITICO.
In her September State of the Union speech, von der Leyen emphasized that the EU-Canada alliance is “not against anyone else.” Yet officials acknowledge that a stronger alliance risks triggering retaliation from Trump.
Von der Leyen, Costa and Carney “are fully aware that the eyes of the world are upon them,” said Camilleri.
The Europeans and Canadians know “the U.S. is watching,” a senior EU official said, adding that the bloc and Canada were nevertheless proceeding with business as usual and pushing for the most expansive possible relationship with Ottawa.
Another possibility is that the summit yields only “nice pictures” and little substance, a third senior official said, making it less likely to “trigger” the president.
European capitals, EU institutions and Canada’s provinces are all waiting to see what von der Leyen and Carney agree on in their meeting, the Canadian diplomat said, adding it was impossible to pre-judge how Trump would react.
Shadow of Le Pen
For Ottawa, pressure comes from another direction: Europe’s electoral calendar and the rise of the far right.
With Spain, France, Poland and Italy all set to go to the polls in the next year, Canadian officials want to secure concrete gains while EU governments remain receptive to closer cooperation and keep the topic front of mind, before elections across the bloc risk shifting priorities and upsetting the political balance.
When Carney came to Strasbourg to lay out his vision for a closer alliance in September, he was heckled from the gallery by the far-right Alternative for Germany MEP Siegbert Droese, who led chants of “USA!”
But it’s France’s presidential election in April — and the prospect of Le Pen in office — that is causing the most concern, according to a second Canadian diplomat.
“It’s very fortunate we’re doing this summit now and not in six months,” the diplomat said, referring to the French election date.
Canada is pushing for big, bold “structural changes” in its relationship with the EU now that will outlast Trump and Le Pen, the diplomat added. Carney has grasped the moment’s rarity and urgency and will not leave the summit without securing major wins, the first Canadian diplomat said.
Another question is whether Brussels and Ottawa can upgrade their partnership without eventually drawing the U.S. president’s ire. The midterms might buy them some time, but the vote will not keep Trump busy forever.
Trump might be even more dangerous and more likely to take out his anger on the EU and Canada after the election, given that he will retain many of his tariff and foreign policy powers even if the Republicans lose Congress, the second Canadian diplomat warned.
“At the end of the day, his reaction could be anything,” Camilleri said. “We can only control what we can control.”
Mathieu Pollet contributed reporting.