In spite of it being an exhaustingly packed news week, The Canadian Press took time out to get some reaction to Pierre Poilievre’s trolling tweets about prime minister Mark Carney’s many international trips of late. Yes, it’s summit season right now and there is a lot more travel coming up, but he has made a number of trips since he was appointed PM, and we have to ensure that it’s not “excessive” or something. Never mind that we’re in a moment of global crisis as the United States has turned into an authoritarian regime that is upending the post-war international order and tacitly siding with other authoritarian regimes, and this requires a global realignment of liberal democracies, but is he travelling too much? Guys.

The one thing that irked me the most in the story was the point about Carney having only attended three Question Periods since Parliament resumed last week, and only nine in the four-week spring session. There was no context to this, which is that it means once or twice per week, which is perfectly normal for any sitting prime minister. Once or twice a week was all Stephen Harper could deign to attend. Justin Trudeau started out with three a week, but then fell back to two on most weeks, but sometimes was just once. The difference of course was that Trudeau made it his practice to answer every question on Wednesdays, which no previous PM had done, and which Carney has not kept up (possibly because he may not have stamina enough to pat himself on the back for a full forty-five minute). In other words, Carney’s QP attendance is fully within the norm, and you would think that the national wire service could point this out, but that might mean that they would have to have someone with enough institutional knowledge and memory to know this, but pretty much every bureau on the Hill no longer has either. (As a reminder, I am the only journalist who goes to QP every day, because someone has to).

This being said, I think we need to once again have a discussion about the kind of insular nativism that Poilievre is stoking by making it sound like foreign travel by the prime minister is somehow illegitimate, or that every trip must come with some kind of signed agreement (even though we may already have signed agreements with countries like Mexico, and forging stronger ties is important beyond just a signed piece of paper). Trying to create this false expectation that the PM can’t go anywhere so long as there is “crime and chaos” at home is juvenile and frankly troubling, because it means that they have absolutely no idea how the real world works, and are playing with fire, especially if they ever want to form government one day.

— Effin' Birds (@effinbirds.com) 2025-09-26T13:24:02.797Z

Ukraine Dispatch

The front line in the conflict has grown to nearly 1250 km in length, as Russian forces have shifted tactics to try and make breakthroughs. That said, both president Zelenskyy and his top military commander say that Russia’s 2025 offensive has failed to meet their goals, and suffered heavy losses in the process. Meanwhile, Ukraine’s assessment of the drone incursions into NATO airspace is that Russia is trying to stoke fatigue in Ukraine’s allies in the hopes of drawing down military support.

Good reads:

• In London, prime minister Mark Carney attended the Global Progress Action Summit, and talked up trade and defence partnerships.
• David McGuinty reintroduced the government’s attempt to reform the military justice system to fully remove sexual assault to civilian courts.
• Evan Solomon has unveiled his digital asbestos task force, and it’s largely executives in the industry, because of course it is. (We are so boned).
• The Fiscal Monitor shows the federal deficit to be $7.8 billion between April and July of the current fiscal year.
• Federal officials say the review of Chinese EV tariffs is “informal,” so they don’t have any kind of timeline around when it starts or finishes.
• Trump has put up new tariffs on a bunch of new things, because of course.
• CFIA officials are staying on that benighted ostrich farm in BC until the SCC rules on a leave to appeal, but are now facing threats from the (unhinged) supporters.
• The RCMP have closed their investigation into two locations in Montreal that were accused of being secret Chinese “police stations” and have not laid charges.
• The Canada Post strike is going to affect the provincial election taking place in Newfoundland and Labrador right now.
• First Nations chiefs in Saskatchewan want answers after an audit found $34 million in spending from the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations was questionable.
• Danielle Smith plans to legislate the authority to not enforce international agreements Canada signs, which she…pretty much can already do. (Squirrel!)
• David Eby is promising “involuntary care beds” for people with severe mental illness and additions. (Remember when he defended civil liberties?)
• Éric Blais decodes the emotional triggers that Doug Ford is tapping into with his ban on traffic enforcement cameras. (Always appealing to drivers).
• Martin Patriquin suspects that the government’s building goals are going to be hampered by the “haphazard” construction industry in Quebec.
• Jessica Davis delves into that headline claiming left-wing terrorism is on the rise, and shows why this is a data problem turning into dubious reporting.
• Justin Ling calls on Canada to join with the EU to help break up big tech, because they cannot be trusted to police themselves or fix their own problems.

Odds and ends:

https://bsky.app/profile/emmettmacfarlane.com/post/3lzrifzrcqc2d

https://bsky.app/profile/emmettmacfarlane.com/post/3lzrih6pwic2d

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