Van Koeverden denies underfunding of Olympians
Global News
Canada's Secretary of Sport knows what it is to be an Olympian, albeit in a summer sport.
MILAN – Canada’s Secretary of Sport knows what it is to be an Olympian, albeit in a summer sport.
Adam van Koeverden, an Olympic kayak champion, said the fan came out in him at the Milan Cortina Winter Games, particularly while watching his favourite winter sport of cross-country skiing.
“Not just Canadian athletes, but all athletes,” he said Friday at the Canadian consulate in Milan. “I watch them, and I have a degree of educated awe that I can feel.”
The Liberal MP for Burlington North-Milton West, who was the 500-metre champion in 2004 and owns three more Olympic medals, was handed the sports post in Prime Minister Mark Carney’s first cabinet just under a year ago.
Van Koeverden served six years as parliamentary secretary to successive sport ministers after first being elected in 2019.
Canadian athletes, and by extension the national sport system, are under a hot spotlight at the Olympic Games as successes and misses are magnified in the biggest multi-sport stage on the planet.
With three silver medals and four bronze, Canada had yet to win gold on Friday, which was the deepest a Canadian team had gone, not standing atop the podium since the 1988 Olympic Games in Calgary, where the host team was shut out of gold.
The Canadian Olympic and Paralympic committees have lobbied the federal government on behalf of national sport organizations (NSOs) for an increase in core funding, with the latest ask a $144-million raise in 2025.
Two days after the first day of spring, parts of Atlantic Canada and Quebec will see another blast of winter with Environment Canada forecasting several centimetres of snow.
UNESCO recognized several Maritime historical groups including the executive director of the Black Loyalist Heritage Centre for their work on the Black Loyalist archive.
Aid shipments are beginning to arrive in Cuba and a Russian oil delivery is expected this month, but fuel shortages remain critical.
Tensions flared as CAQ leadership rivals clashed over Quebec’s “third link” project in the first debate to replace Premier François Legault.
Toronto police have charged a 60-year-old man with second-degree murder in connection with the death of Xian Wei Shao, whose remains were discovered in a north end home last week.
Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne says the government has found ways to cut spending by $60 billion but cautions that published spending cuts require important context.
Three Canadians from Quebec who were stranded in the Persian Gulf since Feb. 28 have returned home following a coordinated repatriation effort.
Federal departments announced that they plan to cut more than 12,000 jobs over three years as part of the Carney government’s spending review plan.
Canada’s Integrated Threat Assessment Centre says the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran has heightened an already present threat against Jewish Canadians and public officials.
Edward Warner, his wife Tania and his seven-year-old step-daughter Ayla were coming back from a friend's baby shower on Saturday when they went through an ICE checkpoint in Sarita.
A fire chief from a village that battled flames during Saskatchewan's destructive wildfire season last year says the province's latest budget does not provide enough funding.
Manitoba’s upcoming budget will include more child care funding and a smaller deficit, as the NDP government aims to balance finances by 2027.
A member of the Royal Canadian Air Force in Winnipeg has just been crowned the World's Strongest Firefighter, outlifting athletes from around the world.