The lead-up to this Memorandum of Understanding with Alberta is becoming politically fraught for prime minister Mark Carney as a whole bunch of his caucus, not the least of which is the party’s BC caucus, are getting pretty angry about the whole thing. And so, natural resources minister Tim Hodgson is supposed to go to BC caucus this morning to explain things and calm them down, but that seems like something that should have been done ages ago when this was first being discussed, so that they could both hear their concerns and alleviate any anxieties earlier in the process. And it doesn’t help that the message keeps changing from “BC has to agree,” to “We’re not giving them a veto,” and back to “BC has to agree, and so do the coastal First Nations.” But again, this is sloppy.

There was a pretty good explanation for this yesterday, on Power & Politics, when columnist Emilie Nicolas said that Carney needs to learn how to “be a leader and not a boss,” which is exactly it. Carney is still operating in CEO mode, and that’s just not how politics works. And this mentality keeps exposing Carney’s many blind spots, not the least of which has been his ignoring human rights violations and atrocities when he thinks he can get a trade deal with some dollars attached, or the debacle with the end of the “feminist foreign policy.” And yes, it’s been over six months now that he’s been in charge, and there are a number of lessons he’s still learning, but how much he’s internalising these lessons is up for debate.

Meanwhile, we are back to the discussion of what this MOU is supposed to accomplish, particularly considering that Alberta didn’t live up to the last “grand bargain” that they agreed to in 2017 with the Trans Mountain pipeline, so I’m not sure why Carney thinks they will this time. There have been suggestions that this is a way to try and defuse the situation by looking like Danielle Smith is being given a win even though the conditions for this fictional pipeline proposal are never going to be met, but the danger there is that a future government will start waiving these conditions (and let the litigation commence). Again, I’m not sure that Carney understands the political game here, but we’ll see.

— Effin' Birds (@effinbirds.com) 2025-11-25T22:22:02.600Z

Ukraine Dispatch

Russian drones have attacked Zaporizhzhia, starting fires and injuring at least twelve people. Ukrainian drones hit a Russian oil refinery in Krasnodar, and an oil terminal in the port of Novorossiysk. President Zelenskyy says he’s willing to work with Trump on that “peace plan,” while Trump is now saying there is no firm deadline to reach an agreement.

https://twitter.com/Denys_Shmyhal/status/1993350012848197980

Good reads:

• Mark Carney is set to announce more measures for the steel sector today.
• Carney admitted that his “who cares?” remark about not talking to Trump were a “poor choice of words.”
• The country has collected $5.4 billion in cannabis taxes since it was legalised, and Alberta has the highest per capita tax revenue of any province.
• The Official Languages Commissioner is concerned that language programmes will be affected by budget cuts.
• The Office of Public Service Accessibility is unsure about its future when its funding runs out next year, after they were critical of the government’s lack of progress.
• The Centre for Cyber Security says that our country’s water systems are under threat from malicious foreign state and non-state actors.
• Women’s groups are criticising the government for not enacting legislation they passed two years ago that would remove firearms from domestic abusers.
• The Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport is becoming Sport Integrity Canada to reflect increased responsibilities around safe sports.
• The Globe and Mail charts 29 ways that Trump changed Canada over the past year.
• Meta thinks that the government should legislate age verification by way of app stores (leaving them off the hook, regardless of desktop access).
• At committee, Tim Hodgson defended AECL awarding an American company with the contract to manage its nuclear laboratories.
• The status of women committee is calling on the government to criminalise coercive control in domestic relationships.
• Here’s a look at who Steve Outhouse is now that he’s Poilievre’s new campaign manager, and which campaigns he’s run in the past.
• The new premier of Newfoundland and Labrador wants to renew the push for more oil and gas extraction in the province.
• Quebec is tabling a new “secularism” bill that’s even more draconian than their last one, and of course they’ll invoke the Notwithstanding Clause again.
• Ontario plans to roll out tougher penalties for dangerous driving which could actually include a lifetime driving ban. (Unheard of!)
• Wab Kinew is working with municipalities to tackle the meth trade.
• The number of UCP MLAs facing recall petitions is now up to 14.
• Justin Ling suspects that the gong show around just who was responsible for that so-called “peace plan” for Ukraine is a sign of a Trump regime power struggle.
• Paul Wells hears from Tim Hodgson at committee, and the metaphor that Hodgson kept reaching to, over and over again.
• My column corrects that Carney didn’t abandon virtue-signalling when he ended the feminist foreign policy, but that he shifted the virtue-signalling to appeal to CEOs.

Odds and ends:

Justice Côté stood in for the GG today to accept letters of credence from foreign diplomats. She did not write a dissent to any of those letters. #SCC

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2025-11-25T22:34:00.121Z

Hey BSers! Need a copy of my book, for yourself or for a holiday gift? @dundurnpress.bsky.social is having their holiday sale! Use code HOLIDAY25 to save 25% on this, or any Dundurn book. Check out my book #UnbrokenMachine, or the book I contributed a chapter to, #RoyalProgress.

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2025-11-19T02:01:04.435Z

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