Pierre Poilievre is at it again, railing about food price inflation, but lo, he can no longer blame it on the carbon levy because that was never actually the problem or the cause of food price inflation, but he certainly vilified it, and Mark Carney capitulated and allowed Poilievre’s vilification to work. Poilievre is now blaming government spending on food price inflation, which is hilariously wrong, but Carney has also capitulated to that as well and is ushering in a new wave of austerity, because why actually explain things when you can just surrender to the bullshit?

Meanwhile, here’s Andrew Leach walking you through why it wasn’t the carbon levy and never was the carbon levy.

Ukraine Dispatch

Russians broke through the front lines near Dobropillia, but were quickly contained (but it’s a poor narrative for the upcoming Trump-Putin talks). Ukraine has also been regaining territory in Sumy region. President Zelenskyy says that Russia wants the remaining 30 percent of Donetsk region for a ceasefire, which they won’t give him.

Good reads:

• China has imposed new canola tariffs, because China always targets canola when bullying Canada, and you would think premiers would have learned this lesson.
• The federal government says they’re trying to provide reassurance for investors with the fall budget.
• Anita Anand has condemned Israel’s killing of journalists, and says that the famine in Gaza is reaching “unimaginable levels.”
• The Commissioner of Elections’ latest report says there was no evidence any laws were broken in that Han Dong nomination contest that everyone melted down over.
• Police chiefs are demanding more powers to violate Charter rights, such as are in the border bill, in order to “fight crime” (which is a very bad idea).
• Liberal MP Pauline Rochefort is sponsoring a petition for the Military Honours Review Board to review Afghan veterans’ cases to see if any merit the Victoria Cross.
• Yukon has signed an agreement with Alaska to address the issue of missing and murdered Indigenous people.
• Doug Ford will have a meeting with Mark Carney on Monday to plead for him to lower taxes, because of course he will.
• Dan Gardner takes on the legal fraud that American conservatives perpetuated in their distortion of the Second Amendment.
• My column calls out those premiers who created the crisis with international students who are now demanding even more immigration powers.

Odds and ends:

My Loonie Politics Quick Take on why we probably don’t need a national firefighting agency or a Canadian FEMA, provided premiers do their jobs.

It's @clareblackwood.bsky.social's latest!

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2025-08-12T23:10:04.484Z

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