After all of the build-up, the managed expectations, and all of the blustery accusations in Ottawa that prime minister Mark Carney is an inept negotiator, he came away from his “working lunch” at the White House with pretty much nothing. Carney gave Trump his usual quasi-flattering/quasi-shady “transformational president” line (because once Carney has a line he likes, he sticks with it), and he laughed off another annexation “joke” from Trump, and Trump rambled some nonsense about competing in the same ecosystem for cars, but that was about it.

Carney later on had dinner with couch-fucker vice president JD Vance, while Dominic LeBlanc was sent out to deal with the press, and said pretty much nothing other than the fact that they’re going to negotiate further and hoping for some “quick deals” on a few specific issues, which we’ve heard so many times now, and capitulated on so many particular issues that it just feels all the more meaningless. And it is meaningless, because everyone knows that there is no deal to be had because Trump will not live up to any “agreement” he signs. So naturally, the auto sector is concerned that they’re going to be thrown under the bus because Trump refuses to give up the notion that Canada stole auto production from the US, in spite of facts and evidence to the contrary. Nevertheless, we’re in for another round of QP where the Conservatives denounce Carney as the incompetent negotiator when Trump is not a rational actor who can be negotiated with, because why unite against a common enemy when you could be scoring Internet points?

There wasn’t much in the way of pundit reaction so far, but Shannon Proudfoot points out that Keir Starmer figured out the key to flattering Trump before everyone else did, and how it reflected in Carney’s meeting. Althia Raj correctly calls this a cringe-worthy performance on both sides, which accomplished nothing.

— Effin' Birds (@effinbirds.com) 2025-10-07T14:08:04.476Z

Ukraine Dispatch

Putin claims that Russia has seized 5000 square kilometres of Ukrainian territory this year, and that they retain the strategic initiative; Ukraine says they have failed to seize any major settlements and that their initiative is stalled.

Good reads:

• Interim PBO Jason Jacques says there are good aspects to the proposed changes to the budget framework, but doesn’t like its definition of capital spending.
• The Logic profiles Doug Guzman, Carney’s former banker pal whom he appointed to lead the Defence Investment Agency.
• Foreign aid agencies are bracing for the budget and the cuts likely therein.
• Two of the leaders of the so-called “Freedom Convoy” received sentences of house arrest instead of jail time. Poilievre wished them a “peaceful and happy life.”
• Five conservative premiers want the federal government to withdraw their “Law 21” factum at the Supreme Court, never mind it’s consistent with a SKCA judgment.
• The Commons transport community is undertaking a study on labour standards in the trucking industry, including classifying driers as independent contractors.
• The head of the Longest Ballot Committee nuisances was at committee to be grilled about their methods, as MPs contemplate changes to the Elections Act.
• The Commons immigration committee added language to Bill C-3, which aims to restore citizenship to “Lost Canadians,” but those changes confuse the issue.
• Witnesses at the Senate Aboriginal Affairs committee called for amendments to Bill S-2, which aims to end sex-based inequities in the Indian Act.
• Here is a longread profile of Carney, which includes some behind-the-scenes details like how his thin skin led him to sidelining Karina Gould entirely.
• Animal welfare is a provincial responsibility, but Doug Ford demands that the federal government deal with Marineland’s belugas instead of him. Of course.
• Ford refuses to consider letting municipalities keeps speed cameras under any circumstance (because his ministers have been repeatedly caught by them).
• The Manitoba legislature voted to levy former premier Heather Stefanson and two of her former ministers with fines for violating conflict of interest rules.
• Danielle Smith continues to promise more tinkering with Alberta’s industrial carbon price, further undermining it.
• David Eby continues to push back against Danielle Smith’s imaginary pipeline.
• Jennifer Robson looks into how the government is defining “capital” in their new budget measures, and finds the lack of human capital to be an issue.
• My column points out that the “Alberta Next” panel was not an exercise in democracy, but of manufacturing consent for her separatist nonsense.

Odds and ends:

https://bsky.app/profile/emmettmacfarlane.com/post/3m2mp5go6tc2m

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