The day was largely dominated by the fallout of Trump’s declaration that he was terminating negotiations with Canada in the wake of that Reagan ad after the Reagan Foundation—which is being run by a Trump loyalist—falsely claimed that the material was misleading and that it was used without permission. It was neither misleading, nor is permission required for presidential speeches (transcript here). Doug Ford had insisted that he was going to keep airing them, and Wab Kinew egged him on while David Eby said that BC was preparing similar ads of their own. But then Ford had a conversation with Mark Carney and decided to back down on the ads as of Monday (which means they will still run over the weekend, during the first two games of the World Series).
Yep. Never forget that Doug Ford is, above all else, an idiot.
— Emmett Macfarlane 🇨🇦 (@emmettmacfarlane.com) 2025-10-24T13:52:34.523Z
Meanwhile, Trump’s loyalists are on American TV badmouthing Canada, saying that we’re not collegial and difficult to work with, when what they mean is that we haven’t unilaterally capitulated to them like everyone else has, which is a problem for them. The point has also been made that while there seems to be a strategy at play to try and energize the Reaganite Republicans against the MAGA Republicans, this is ultimately a losing strategy because the Reaganites have long-since capitulated and have no energy or will to have that fight, so Canadians trying to make that their strategy seems self-defeating in the long run.
The thing is, there is no deal to be had with Trump, and never has been. This was never about ads—it was about finding an excuse to end the negotiations, because this was never about a trade deal, but about trying to dictate terms of our economic capitulation. Trump ending negotiations just rips that band-aid off—we need to stop pretending that there is an achievable end-goal here, or that we can somehow get a better deal when there are no deals to be had—only capitulation. Carney needs to send the signal to Canadian industry that we can’t count on things returning to status quo, and wasting our time trying to get to that outcome because it won’t happen, and everyone is better off spending their energy and capital transitioning to whatever is next.
I think Ford possibly blundered into a good thing: forcing Mark Carney to see there is simply no deal to be had with Trump, and to get us pivoting away from the US with more seriousness, urgency, and comprehensiveness than whatever the hell he's been doing.
— Emmett Macfarlane 🇨🇦 (@emmettmacfarlane.com) 2025-10-24T13:23:53.488Z
Trump is posting on Truth Social that he's terminating negotiations with Canada over a "fake" ad criticizing tariffs (that was run by Ontario, and which isn't fake.)It's all theatre. There was never a deal to be gotten. Trump just wants to claim victory. #giftlink www.thestar.com/opinion/cont…
I broke things down further here.I'm starting to think we're wrong to even say that Trump's trade negotiations are getting "deals." They're not deals. They're the terms of other countries' economic capitulation. #giftlinkCanada is lucky not to have signed!www.thestar.com/opinion/cont…
Ukraine Dispatch
Russia claims to have taken control of three more villages—one in Kharkiv, one in Donetsk, and one in Dnipropetrovsk regions. President Zelenskyy was at a coalition of the willing meeting in London, calling for deep-strike weapons, and saying that Ukraine will need to find a way to produce more of its own air defences.
Good reads:
- Mark Carney has departed for his first Asian trip in office, first to the ASEAN and then APEC summits.
- Anita Anand has asked her department for an updated Indo-Pacific strategy.
- David McGuinty says that the defence-industrial strategy will be released the week after the budget.
- Evan Solomon is considering age restrictions on digital asbestos chatbots (for all the good that will do as those restrictions tend to be easily enough circumvented).
- Trump has ended Canadians’ access to the Stanstead, Quebec library that straddles the Canada-US border.
- The Canadian military’s space division thinks that we should develop sovereign space launch capabilities. (I agree!)
- Statistics Canada has to delay publishing trade data in November because the US government shutdown means they’re not getting required data.
- Michael Kovrig is warning of China’s “diplomatic wrapping paper” as Carney hopes to meet with Xi Jinping at the APEC summit.
- Three men accused of murder had their charges stayed because of abuse suffered by guards at the Maple hurst prison during pre-trial detention. (Jail not bail, right?)
- Doug Ford has tabled legislation that will let landlords end secure tenants and circumvent rent controls, because of course he did.
- Alberta is spending another $95 million to settle another coal mining lawsuit.
- Heather Scoffield makes the necessary point that we don’t need to cut corporate taxes again, but that there are better tools to attract business and innovation.
- Paul Wells weighs in on the Reagan ads, the attempt to cleave differences in the Republican ranks, and the place we’re in with the threat of Trump.
- My weekend column points out that the Liberals have set themselves up for failure with their bail reform bill because the problem has always been the provinces.
Odds and ends:
For National Magazine, I look into the Supreme Court of Canada’s ruling on the “Good Samaritan Law” and what it means for police powers.
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