Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney has put forward his first federal budget, which lays out an ambitious plan to transform Canada’s economy and deal with the challenge of US tariffs.

Billed an “investment budget” by the government, the fiscal plan increases Canada’s deficit to C$78bn ($55.3bn; £42.47bn), the second largest in history.

The spending is offset by plans to attract C$1tn of investment into Canada over the next five years, with the federal government arguing more restrained spending would eliminate “vital social programmes” and funding for Canada’s future.

The budget does outline cuts, however, including slashing the size of the federal workforce by some 10% in the coming years.

The budget was presented by Canada’s finance minister, François-Philippe Champagne, in the House of Commons late on Tuesday afternoon.

In his budget speech, Champagne warned that Canada is facing “a time of profound change” and that “bold and swift action is needed” to ensure the country prospers.

Peppered throughout the budget are references to uncertainty and the need for protectionist measures as a result of US tariffs on Canada. President Donald Trump has placed a broad 35% levy on Canadian goods not covered by an existing free trade agreement, and has tariffed specific sectors like steel, aluminium and automobiles.

These levies, enacted earlier this year, have already led to Canadian job losses in those sectors, and business leaders have warned of a chill on investment in Canada due to trade uncertainty.

To counter this, the budget proposes spending of C$280bn over the next five years “to strengthen Canada’s productivity, competitiveness, and resilience”.

These include updating ports and other trade infrastructure with the goal of doubling Canadian exports to non-US markets over the next decade, as well as direct financing to support firms impacted by tariffs.

The fiscal update also outlines a plan to boost Canada’s competitiveness, with the goal of making Canada a more attractive place to do business than the US.

Rebekah Young, the head of inclusion and resilience economics at Scotiabank, said the budget lays out a plan to reduce timelines and smooth regulatory hurdles with the hopes that it will boost private investment in Canada over the years.

But she cautioned that parts of the budget might be a hard sell for Canadians struggling immediately with the cost of living.

“They’re going to open this budget and not see any new (supports),” she said.

And while the budget delivers on its promise of generational spending, Ms Young said it remains to be seen if it will be as “transformational” as Carney hopes.

“We want to unlock a trillion dollars based on this investment here. A lot has to happen to get to that trillion,” she said.

On defence, the budget pledges nearly C$82bn over five years—the largest funding in decades—putting Canada in line with its Nato commitment to spend 2% of its gross domestic product (GDP) on its military by this year.

The Carney government is also betting big on AI, proposing nearly C$1bn to boost integration and use of the rapidly growing technology, including in government operations.

Carney warned Canadians ahead of the budget of “sacrifices”. Among them is a reduction of the size of the federal government that would result in 40,000 job losses by 2029. International aid is also slated to be cut to pre-pandemic levels.

Immigration targets have been lowered slightly over the next three years to “stabilise” new admissions to the country, including a significant cut to student visas.

The budget will need to be passed by Canada’s parliament before it’s implemented. Carney’s Liberal government is three seats shy of a majority, meaning it will need the support of other parties to enact its fiscal plan.

Failure to pass the budget could risk a federal election.

According to multiple reports, one Conservative MP, Chris d’Entremont, is no longer in the party’s caucus after he told news outlet Politico on Tuesday that he was considering crossing the floor to the Liberals, and that he would decide “in the next few days” after reviewing the budget.

​​If he does, it would narrow Carney’s razor-thin minority at a critical time.

Meanwhile, Conservative opposition MPs have criticised the budget for increasing Canada’s deficit while doing little to address affordability for Canadians.

Yves-Francois Blanchet, the leader of the separatist Bloc Québécois party, said his caucus does not see how they could support the budget.

Members of the left-leaning New Democratic Party said they will take the time to study it, but have criticised planned public sector cuts.

With the projected larger deficit, Carney’s fiscal plan maintains that Canada’s still has the lowest deficit-to-GDP ratio in the G7, behind only Japan.

New York City – For Jessica Dejesus, deciding who to vote for as the next mayor of New York City came down to the final minutes.

The 40-year-old resident of the Mott Haven neighbourhood in the Bronx admittedly had not been following the race closely, but planned to vote for former Governor Andrew Cuomo. She recalled his near-nightly television appearances when he was governor of New York State amid the ravages of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“He was our guy during the pandemic,” she reflected.

But a day before the election, Dejesus saw a video on TikTok detailing US President Donald Trump’s endorsement of Cuomo.

While her feelings towards the candidates in the mayoral race may be ho-hum, Dejesus knows she is no fan of Trump. The nod made her give upstart candidate Social Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist, a closer look.

“We can’t have that. I don’t disagree with everything Trump does, but he cut back on food stamps, and that affects a lot of people,” she said, referring to restrictions on US Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits in a bill passed by Trump and Republicans earlier this year.

“I understand you have to stop bad people coming over the border, but there are a lot of good immigrants here as well,” she said, referring to Trump’s mass deportation drive.

Walking into her voting site, she told Al Jazeera she still had not made up her mind. “I’ll have to wait until that paper’s in front of me,” she said.

Moments later, she emerged: “I voted for Mamdani!” she said.

‘You really have no choice’

A neighbourhood like Mott Haven, which was solidly mixed during the June primary in its turnout for Mamdani and Cuomo, shows just how reactive Trump’s endorsement could be to the race: a poison pill for some and a final nail in the coffin for others.

Trump, meanwhile, hoped his endorsement, soon followed by that of billionaire Elon Musk, would help rally conservative New Yorkers who came out in atypically large numbers in the city’s 2024 presidential election.

“Whether you personally like Andrew Cuomo or not, you really have no choice,” Trump said in a social media post on Monday.

“You must vote for him and hope he does a fantastic job. He is capable of it, Mamdani is not!”

Cuomo has also been explicitly reaching out to Republicans, hoping to court their votes. About 11 percent of New York’s 4.7 million voters were registered with the Republican Party in 2024.

Recent polls have shown Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa carrying about 14 percent of the vote – not a huge amount, but potentially enough to close Mamdani’s lead over the former governor.

It remained unclear how successful the action from Trump – who has also threatened to target city funding if Mamdani was elected – would be. But for some staunch supporters of Sliwa, Trump’s intervention did little to change their minds.

“[Trump’s endorsement] doesn’t change my vote. Sliwa is for the people and I have faith in that,” said Artemio Figuero, a 59-year-old city street cleaner, who spoke to Al Jazeera in Jackson Heights, Queens.

“He was a protector of the neighbourhood,” Figuero added, referring to Sliwa’s stewardship of the vigilante anti-crime Guardian Angels group.

Other Republicans who had long grown accustomed to voting outside of their party in the liberal-dominated local elections saw Trump’s support as a positive development, if not a game-changer.

“I like that Trump endorsed him,” Lola Ferguson, a 53-year-old social worker and registered Republican who was already planning to vote for Cuomo, told Al Jazeera in Mott Haven.

“He knows that [Cuomo’s] the better match for the city,” she said.

Cuomo, for his part, has denied Trump’s endorsement counts, noting that Trump had referred to him as a “bad Democrat” compared to Mamdani, whom he falsely called a “communist”.

Still, for Mamdani supporters, Trump’s move was not unexpected. Cuomo has been supported by an array of the city’s wealthiest residents, including billionaires like Bill Ackman and Miriam Adelson, who have also backed Trump.

“Birds of a feather flock together,” said Andre Augustine, a 33-year-old who works at a college access nonprofit, who voted for Mamdani.

“I feel like the signs were already there. All the folks that were financing Trump’s campaign were also financing Cuomo’s, and I feel like [Cuomo] just wouldn’t be honest about it,” he said.

For others, Trump’s endorsement was the feather that broke the camel’s back.

Dominique Witter, 39, a healthcare tech consultant, respected Cuomo’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic in the city, but had been gradually shifting towards Mamdani.

She did not decide on Mamdani until the final sprint of the race.

“It took me a while to get there, but I’m voting for Mamdani,” she told Al Jazeera as she prepared to vote in Mott Haven.

“I’m not gonna lie; the Trump endorsement did not help. Because that’s not what we want, right?” she said.

“Oh no, that’s not an endorsement you want.”

A Philippine military helicopter crashed during search and rescue operations, killing all six people on board.

The death toll from Typhoon Kalmaegi in the Philippines has reached 46, including six people on a military helicopter that crashed during the powerful storm that unleashed heavy rains and floods across the central region of the country.

Floodwaters trapped many people on their roofs and submerged cars on Tuesday, and entire towns on the island of Cebu have been inundated.

At least 39 people were killed in the central province of Cebu, local authorities said. One person was reported dead on the nearby island of Bohol.

The Huey helicopter went down in Agusan del Sur on the island of Mindanao, where it was conducting a humanitarian disaster response mission, the military said. Six bodies of the crew were recovered and an investigation was under way.

In the 24 hours before Typhoon Kalmaegi, locally named Tino, made landfall shortly before midnight on Monday, the area around provincial capital Cebu City was deluged with 183 millimetres (seven inches) of rain, well in excess its 131-millimetre monthly average, state weather specialist Charmagne Varilla told AFP.

“The water rose so fast,” Don del Rosario, 28, told the news wire AFP from Cebu City. “By 4:00am, it was already uncontrollable — people couldn’t get out [of their houses].”

“I’ve been here for 28 years, and this is by far the worst we’ve experienced.”

In a Facebook post on Tuesday, provincial governor Pamela Baricuatro called the situation in Cebu “unprecedented”.

“We were expecting the winds to be the dangerous part, but … the water is what’s truly putting our people at risk,” Baricuatro said on Facebook. “The floodwaters are just devastating.”

Although the storm gradually lost strength on Tuesday, it continued to lash the country with winds of 120km/h (74.5mph) and gusts of 165km/h (102.5mph) as it swept across the Visayas islands headed for northern Palawan and towards the South China Sea.

Tens of thousands of residents were evacuated across the Visayas region, including parts of southern Luzon and northern Mindanao, authorities said. The typhoon was expected to leave the Philippines late on Wednesday or early Thursday.

“Due to interaction with the terrain, Tino may slightly weaken while crossing Visayas. However, it is expected to remain at typhoon intensity throughout its passage over the country,” state weather agency PAGASA said in a morning bulletin.

The Philippines is hit by an average of 20 storms and typhoons each year, routinely striking disaster-prone areas where millions live in poverty. The Philippines was hit by two major storms in September, including Super Typhoon Ragasa, which killed at least three people and forced thousands to evacuate from villages and schools in Northern Philippines.

Kalmaegi is forecast to make landfall on Thursday night in Vietnam’s central regions, which have already suffered heavy floods that killed at least 40 people and left six others missing over the past week.