I have to wonder if the Conservatives and their proxies are exhausted from shifting goal posts over the past couple of days, and whether they remembered to lift from the knees and not from their backs, because hoo boy, the commentary coming out of the Carney meeting at the Oval Office has been something to behold. The common cry is that Carney promised on the campaign trail that he would be tough with Trump, and yet in the meeting, he engaged in flattery and didn’t object to things Trump said that were objectively wrong or offensive to Canadians. “He said the relationship was over and now he’s saying this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship!” has been a common refrain. Give me a break.

Can you imagine what they would have said if Carney went to the meeting and was combative with Trump, and put himself in a position for JD Vance to start piling on and creating the conditions for another Zelenskyy moment? Those same Conservatives would have howled that Carney was endangering the relationship with our closes trading partner. And the thing about the relationship is being mischaracterised (mendaciously)—Carney said that the old relationship of deeper ties and close cooperation was over. And that is objectively true. He also said this is the start of a new relationship with the US, which is also true—we can’t carry on like the old relationship is still there, and he has to start somewhere with the new one, and he’s managed to do so in a way that has placated Trump for the time being, which is an incredibly hard thing to do given his mercurial nature, and it may not last. But he had to sit there and say things that Trump thought was flattering (but really weren’t if you actually listened), and he did correct a number of Trump’s insane rants (like saying they don’t do much business with Canada when we’re their top export destination). But “getting tough” with Trump has to be done carefully given his volatile nature, and doing performance art isn’t the way to do it. Trying to insist that Carney was somehow misrepresenting himself or the task at hand in an election need to go give their heads a shake.

Meanwhile, Pierre Poilievre says he’s going to spend the summer “listening and learning,” but well, this is someone who has spent his entire adult life confirming his priors, so I don’t expect much in the way of introspection as to the reasons the campaign failed—particularly as Andrew Scheer was on Power & Politics saying they need to make “refinements” on their strategy, which sounds an awful lot like they plan on fighting the last war rather than actually learning  a single lesson. This being said, it sounds like Poilievre has reached out to Doug Ford’s office to try and mend some fences, so maybe they learned something? Maybe? We’ll see.

Unfortunately…

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2025-05-07T13:28:07.303Z

Ukraine Dispatch

Russia’s “three-day ceasefire” went into effect this morning, but there are reports that guided bombs were still launched against Sumy in the early hours of the morning (but we all know how well Russia lives by its agreements). Ukrainian drones kept interfering with airports around Moscow for a third straight day as foreign leaders were arriving for Victory Day festivities in Red Square.

Good reads:

• Mark Carney had a virtual meeting with the premiers, and announced there will be an in-person meeting in Saskatoon on June 2nd.
• Here is what the senior officials™ say that Carney and Trump talked about over lunch at the White House after the Oval Office gong show.
• “Human error” was responsible for 822 special ballots not being counted at a returning office in BC, but doesn’t appear to have affected any outcomes.
• Asylum claims doubled at Quebec border crossings in April (which is not a surprise at all given the authoritarian horror show in the US).
• I am shocked—shocked!—that energy CEOs think that Carney should weaken environmental regulations. Whoever would have guessed such a thing?
• Andrew Scheer doesn’t seem like he’s going to move into Stornoway, and sounds like he’ll let Poilievre and family keep living there.
• Yukon premier Ranj Pillai has decided to step down, in advance of the territory’s election in November.
• Danielle Smith appointed the Speaker of the Alberta legislature as her new “envoy” in Washington, meaning a new Speaker election needs to be held.
• David Eby thinks he can get some kind of softwood lumber deal from the US. Good luck to him, I say.
• Shannon Proudfoot gives a colourful sketch of the whole show in the Oval Office on Tuesday.

Odds and ends:

Very cool that they got Victor Garber to play Bora Laskin! #SCC youtu.be/K9iGFZLOuio?…

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2025-05-07T18:24:56.798Z

In which @clareblackwood.bsky.social channels Danielle Smith

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2025-05-08T03:17:45.269Z

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