By Don Newman

September 30, 2026

For Prime Minister Mark Carney, yesterday was the sort of day he might look back on fondly from the other side of his political honeymoon. As he stood in Vancouver and announced that LNG Canada is moving forward with its $33 billion Phase 2 expansion project in Kitimat, B.C., Carney’s approval rating had just hit a new high of 62 per cent.

While that political honeymoon seems to be stretching on indefinitely as a fixed feature of his prime ministership, the run of nosebleed approval ratings by which its duration is measured is about to be tested.

That test is the proposed federal legislation Bill C-39, or the Building Canada Strong Act. Introduced on Monday September 21^st, the first day of the fall sitting, C-39 is the Carney government’s road map for getting big, important, nationally significant projects built in Canada. The LNG Canada Phase 2 project Carney announced on Wednesday is one of those projects.

C-39 is the effective legislative sequel to last year’s Bill C-5, the Building Canada Act. Both provide the framework for significantly accelerating Canada’s approval process for major infrastructure and energy projects, in keeping with both Carney’s policy of economic self-sufficiency in the face of a newly hostile United States, and his plan to vastly increase foreign direct investment (FDI) in Canada.

The projects in the approval pipeline will be those identified by the Major Projects Office as being in the national interest, many of which were shopped to investors two week ago at the International Investors Summit in Toronto.

Since becoming prime minister, Carney personally and, by association, his government, have had an almost magnetic pull on public opinion, largely based on Carney’s economic credentials and competence in a world of upheaval.

Carney’s mastery of policy has produced political dividends.

His approval ratings have climbed as floor crossings and by-election victories have lifted Carney and his Liberals from a minority Government into a majority, guaranteeing four years of Parliamentary time to reshape the economy, find new trading partners and dramatically increase defence spending and capability.

From a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos last January warning that the geopolitical and economic order that had existed since the end of the Second World War was now “ruptured”, to walking away from trade negotiations with the Americans in August and his recent warming of relations with the European Union, the connection between Carney’s choices and public sentiment about them has propelled him in one direction; upward.

But now begins the hard part, where policy may collide with another level of politics.

When C-39 was introduced, it was billed as the “most important economic legislation” the government will present during the current session, presupposing among other possible things legislation flowing from the budget that will be tabled in November.

Despite the fact that Canadians have embraced the Carney doctrine of building a new Canada that is self-reliant, economically secure, and playing a global role, Bill C-39 could make clear that there will be costs to be paid in political capital.

Bill C-39 seeks to make good on the promise to have just one approval process for major protects, instead of the myriad federal and provincial regulatory approvals now required. And instead of the five or more years the current regulatory approach requires, approvals will have a one-year time limit.

As well, the new legislation gives the government more flexibility to intervene in labor disputes in federally regulated industries, appointing arbitrators and imposing settlements more quickly than is now the case.

Both major changes are designed to answer the chronic complaint that in Canada, it is impossible to “get things done.” Investors and businesses are — not surprisingly — approving. That is not the case with labour unions, environmentalists or Indigenous groups.

Predictably, each see the bill as a threat: to the right to strike, to the survival of wildlife and habitat, as well as encouraging global warming, and to territorial treaty rights. Already, each of those groups has signalled they will oppose the legislation.

However, with Carney’s parliamentary majority, getting Bill C-39 should not be difficult. The Conservatives have criticized it but have not said they will vote against the bill. The New Democrats and their leader Avi Lewis are opposed. But with only six MPs and lacking official status in the Commons, their ability to oppose the bill will be limited

But outside the Commons, the government could face protests, strikes and civil disruption. One approach to dealing with land claims has been for Ottawa to offer equity stakes in controversial land claims projects. Not enough equity to exert control, but enough to guarantee a steady source of income for the affected Indigenous group going forward.

In the case of the LNG Canada facility, the first phase was delayed by a series of protests by First Nations in B.C. and groups supporting them across Canada. In Phase 2, five First Nations have acquired an equity position in the Kitimat project.

Alvin Hamilton, a cabinet minister in the government of John Diefenbaker 60 years ago, once explained political protests this way: “It all depends on whose ox is being gored.”

Despite the fact that Canadians have embraced the Carney doctrine of building a new Canada that is self-reliant, economically secure, and playing a global role, Bill C-39 could make clear that there will be costs to be paid in political capital.

One of those costs may be the depletion in public approval that comes with the goring of oxes.

Policy Columnist Don Newman is an Officer of the Order of Canada, and a lifetime member and a past president of the Canadian Parliamentary Press Gallery.