Prime minister Mark Carney held a presser on his way into the Cabinet Retreat Planning Forum (because corporate-speak), and said that he spoke with Trump on Monday but not to expect any “white smoke” on tariffs, even though the Clerk of the Privy Council is currently in Washington right now (because there is no deal to be had, and I wish he’d stop pretending there was). The thing is, there was no readout from his office about this call, which is really not good for transparency.

Carney also used the term “austerity” when talking about his plans to rein in spending, but he was also talking about “efficiencies,” which is a magical term that politicians like to claim they’ll find. How did that work out for Doug Ford? He won’t say just what spending he plans to rein in, of course, but the neat trick in politics is that everyone expects that spending on everyone else is going to be cut, but not the things that they rely on, because that’s necessary and everyone else is waste or fat, until suddenly their programmes are cut and they feel it intensely. Meanwhile, Carney remains incoherent about cutting spending in order to invest, which ignores the fact that austerity comes with its own costs, and they can be significant over time, and some of the damage it causes can take decades to recover from, if it can be recovered at all.

The more troubling aspect, however, was that Carney invited the head of the Christo-fascist Heritage Foundation, which authored Project 2025, to address Cabinet because he knows what Trump’s agenda is. Erm, excuse me? I mean, if they wanted to read the playbook, they could do that, but what utility does it serve to invite a far-right authoritarian to your meeting? So that he can tell you that you need to be more fascist to get on with Trump? Really? Talk about an utter lack of judgment.

I can't decide which is worse: either our government doesn't understand that these guys are Nazis, or they think it's a good idea to invite Nazis to their cabinet retreat.

— Kate Heartfield (@kateheartfield.com) 2025-09-03T23:12:27.419Z

— Effin' Birds (@effinbirds.com) 2025-09-02T14:08:03.486Z

Ukraine Dispatch

The attacks on Ukraine early Wednesday morning consisted of over more than 500 drones and dozens of missiles, targeting energy and transport infrastructure, demonstrating yet again that Russia has no interest in ending the war. Russia claims that they have captured half of the city of Kupiansk, which Ukraine denies.

Good reads:

• The Public Sector Integrity Commissioner says her office is overwhelmed with complaints, and needs more staff (including lawyers) to tackle the backlog.
• Here is a brief look at the issue of digital asbestos chatbots and the threats they pose, and the lack of regulation on them in Canada.
• Here is a recap of the first day of the AFN’s general assembly in Winnipeg.
• The Q-Anon so-called “Queen of Canada” was arrested in Saskatchewan along with fifteen of her cultists as part of an ongoing investigation.
• Amid rumours that Bill Blair is going to get a diplomatic post, John Tory’s son is apparently sussing out running to replace him for the federal Liberals.
• Pierre Poilievre and Michelle Rempel Garner say they want to scrap the Temporary Foreign Workers Programme (which they helped birth during the Harper years).
• The head of BC Ferries made some particular remarks about the state of Canadian shipbuilding at the Ferries and Rail Summit in Hamilton.
• Stephen Saideman posits that red lines have been crossed in the US with soldiers obeying illegal orders, which means another guardrail is gone.
• Martin Patriquin remarks on François Legault’s appearance at the inquiry into the provinces auto insurance overruns, and accountability for some and not others.
• Emmett Macfarlane suggests that Quebec’s proposed ban on public prayer falls out of the province’s jurisdictional authority and would be struck down as a result.
• Andrew Coyne pans Poilievre’s proposed “Stand on Guard” bill about making a more permissive system for defending one’s home.
• Paul Wells makes some observations of his own about the Cabinet retreat, and absolutely nails how Carney “speaks in cue cards” (because he absolutely does).

Odds and ends:

Chuffed to lean that my story from @cba-nationalmag.bsky.social was cited by the Law Society of Alberta in their decision to disbar John Carpay and Jay Cameron. #cdnlawStory here: nationalmagazine.ca/en-ca/articl…

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2025-09-03T20:12:48.926Z

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