In the news today: Liberals table budget, blue wave reaction, Kutryk spacewalk

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

Here’s what you need to know as the Liberals prepare to table Budget 2026

The federal Liberals will lay out next steps in their plan to fortify Canada’s economy when the 2026 budget is tabled today.

Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne says the budget aims to make Canada more resilient to external shocks like U.S. trade aggression and other global disruptions.

Champagne has suggested measures to remove common irritants from Canada’s tax code for small- and medium-sized businesses.

While most fiscal watchers expect months of higher global oil prices to leave the government’s deficits a little lower this year, some worry Ottawa is running out of bandwidth to respond to future shocks.

—

U.S. midterm results spark joy among Canadians but trust in America remains shaky

Many Canadians welcome the Democratic sweep of U.S. Congress, but have mixed views on whether voters’ strong rebuke of President Donald Trump’s administration will change their attitude toward America amid the ongoing trade war.

Trump’s punishing tariffs on Canadian goods, repeated musings about making Canada the 51st state and escalating tensions that include changing the name of Lake Ontario to Lake America have had a profound impact on the relationship between the two countries.

The response from Canadians has been strong, with many avoiding cross-border travel and U.S.-made products, and reconsidering the long-standing cultural and economic ties with their American neighbours.

Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc said Wednesday that Ottawa’s push to diversify trade won’t change as Democrats take control of Congress, and that recent talks with Trump’s administration have been productive.

—

Here’s how the U.S. midterm election results could affect Canada

Control of both chambers of the U.S. Congress will shift to the Democrats next year, after Tuesday’s midterm elections saw a blue wave wash over even some of the most reliably Republican states.

Here are some ways the change in the distribution of power in Washington could affect Canada.

When the Democrats take control of the House of Representatives and the Senate in January, they may introduce legislation to rein in U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs on Canada.

Hope is also emerging among some Canadian and American politicians that the shift in power will lead to the end of the U.S. war on Iran.

And politicians on both sides of the border are looking at the midterm elections results as an opportunity to rebuild the Canada-U.S. relationship.

—

Canadian astronaut Joshua Kutryk set to carry out second spacewalk

Canadian astronaut Joshua Kutryk is set to venture outside the International Space Station today for his second spacewalk in two weeks.

On Oct. 29, Kutryk became the fifth Canadian to perform the feat when he and NASA astronaut Anil Menon successfully installed seven of eight new solar arrays needed to upgrade the station’s power capacity.

The duo will install the eighth and final solar array today on the starboard side of the truss, which serves as the station’s structural backbone.

The Canadian Space Agency says spacewalks are among the most difficult and dangerous tasks for astronauts, but are needed to repair or install equipment or carry out manual work.

—

Court certifies class action alleging negligence at LTC home led to COVID-19 deaths

A lawsuit alleging that gross negligence at a Toronto long-term care home led to hundreds of deaths from COVID-19 has been certified as a class action.

An Ontario Superior Court judge granted the certification last week with the consent of the defendants, the Downsview Long-Term Care Centre Limited and the company that owns it, Gem Healthcare Group Limited.

The lawsuit alleges Downsview and Gem were grossly negligent in their response to the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in multiple outbreaks at the home between late January 2020 and early May 2023.

It alleges those outbreaks caused at least 1,966 residents to get COVID-19 and at least 244 to die from it.

—

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 5, 2026.

The Canadian Press