Prime minister Mark Carney held a (virtual) Cabinet meeting yesterday, followed by a virtual meeting with the premiers, and so far, the signs aren’t terribly encouraging. It was ostensibly about an update on trade talks with the US, given that the deadline passed and we’re not only no closer to any kind of resolution, but Trump raised the tariffs they are charging on non-New NAFTA items (which does nevertheless effectively mean we’re still one of the lowest tariff-rate countries overall), if you ignore all of the other sectoral tariffs that are having the biggest impact. And the premiers have also started to drift in their positions, whether it’s Doug Ford demanding more retaliation (even though he immediately backed down on his electricity export retaliation), or Danielle Smith and Scott Moe preferring to lick fascist boots instead.

Nevertheless, the tone coming out of Carney and the Cabinet is increasingly one where they are openly laying the groundwork for reducing or removing retaliatory tariffs or other measures, because really, appeasing Trump is clearly the way to go. Look at what pulling back on the Digital Services Tax got us. The question then becomes what happens to the increasingly large fiscal hole that eliminating these counter-tariffs will do to the balance sheet, because they booked a bunch of revenues from them, while they’re already promising deep cuts to government spending.

Just keep making concessions. That'll clearly get us a favourable deal.

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2025-08-06T21:26:09.762Z

Meanwhile, the Conservatives have decided to go full-bore on the notion that Carney has broken his signature campaign promise because he has not only failed to reach a deal with Trump, but that tariffs have increased since then. Of course, this is premised on the completely false notion that Trump is a rational actor, but pretty much the entire Conservative caucus was tweeting variations of this very thing all day, because absolutely everything they do has to be about social media posts. Even more eye-rolling was Roman Baber lying about what the president of Mexico said about Anand and Champagne’s visit (her comments were that we don’t need a bilateral trade deal because the New NAFTA is still in effect, and even if it wasn’t, we’re both signatories to the CPTPP), because this is the state of the Conservative Party today.

Ukraine Dispatch

Russian strikes killed two people and wounded at least ten in Zaporizhzhia, while shelling killed three and injured at least four in Nikopol. Russians also hit a key gas interconnector, which Ukraine says was about trying to undermine their preparations for winter (when Russia always attacks power supplies).

Good reads:

• Mark Carney will meet with some Métis groups today about Bill C-5, but one of the largest groups is sitting out the meeting because of others who were invited.
• CSIS says they’ve been swamped by a spike in request for immigration security screenings, which is causing more delays in the system.
• The Canadian Forces are trying to learn lessons from Ukraine about drone warfare.
• Here’s a behind-the-scenes look at the advisory committee process about the future of the CBC/Radio-Canada that the former Heritage minister undertook.
• Trans and non-binary Canadians can no longer use an X gender marker on Nexus cards, and will have to choose either M or F as their maker.
• Canada has been working to insert UNDRIP-related language into the UN resolution around stop plastics pollution.
• The special representative on combatting Islamophobia is critical of the government’s weak pushback of anti-Palestinian racism.
• Here’s a look into why Canada and Mexico don’t have closer ties.
• Doug Ford didn’t bother to read the court ruling on bike lanes, and has decided to petulantly lie about it instead, because that’s Doug Ford.
• Anne Applebaum has a longread in which she went to Sudan to not only observe the nihilistic civil war, but also what the breakdown of the liberal world order looks like.
• Kevin Carmichael laments that Canada’s food superpower potential has slipped due to an overall lack of attention and investment (to say nothing of climate change).

Odds and ends:

Both the Star and CP just wrote up Ford's comments, and left out the fact that he obviously didn't read the ruling and just decided to petulantly lie about it. Neither story pointed out the judge said that Ford's government didn't try to make their case, and blatantly lied in what they did say.

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2025-08-07T03:00:24.580Z

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