It’s now official—prime minster Mark Carney has announced his plan to name his friend Mark Wiseman to the role of Ambassador to the US as of February 15th. Wiseman has no prior diplomatic experience, but was a mergers & acquisitions lawyer before becoming an asset manager at Blackrock, and yes, he was a donor to Carney’s leadership campaign as well as his election campaign, donating the maximum for each.

There were immediate howls about this appointment from the Bloc and the Conservatives because of Wiseman’s involvement in the “Century Initiative,” which was a proposal to triple Canada’s population to 100 million by 2100, which we were on track to do regardless (before the current decision to halt immigration to the point where our population was in decline last quarter). The Bloc are treating this kind of thing like their own version of “Great Replacement Theory” because a) they are an ethnic nationalist party, and b) they see an expansion of the rest of the Canadian population as diminishing Quebec’s influence, because they heavily limit their own immigration (because again, ethnic nationalism) and their birth rate is very low. The Conservatives are treating it like Great Replacement Theory writ-large, and use it to scaremonger about Muslims and such, while also pretending to care about Quebec. There was also that stupid brouhaha about when Wiseman retweeted an Andrew Coyne column headline about said Initiative and people took it to be Wiseman insulting Quebec, so that’s great. Oh, and he apparently said he’s opposed to Supply Management, so of course Quebec and the majority of Conservatives are also opposed to his appointment.

This being said, I find myself increasingly uncomfortable by the fact that Carney keeps naming friends and former colleagues to top jobs, some elected (Tim Hodgson), some appointed (the head of the Defence Investment Agency), is a worrying trend because it’s starting to reek of cronyism. I also am reminded of the fate of Bill Morneau, who also did not grasp the ethical considerations in government of just calling up your friends and network to do things (in Morneau’s case, those friends were WE Charity), because that’s how you do them in the corporate world. Government is not the corporate world, and I know we’re all tired of hearing it, but no, you should not run government like a business or a corporation. Nothing good can come of this.

Programming Note: And that’s it for 2025. I’m taking a break from the blog until the first week of January, so enjoy your holidays everyone.

— Effin' Birds (@effinbirds.com) 2025-12-22T23:08:01.593Z

Ukraine Dispatch

There was yet another strike on Odesa, the second within twenty-four hours. President Zelenskyy says those kidnapped villagers from Sumy region had long had dealings across the border without incident. Here is a look at Ukraine’s new low-cost interceptor drones, taking out attacking Russian drones for much cheaper. (Gallery here).

Good reads:

• Tim Hodgson has been warned that while nuclear giant Westinghouse is Canadian-owned, the American government considers it their own for their purposes.
• Lina Diab has published new regulations that foreign students need provincial letters in order to get their study permits, while capping more immigration streams.
• Mandy Gull-Masty has presented her proposed reforms to First Nations child and family welfare systems to the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal.
• The government won’t release their decision on the Zero-Emission Vehicle Mandate until sometime in the New Year, long beyond the promised 60-day review.
• Here is a look at the trade headwinds coming our way next year as the review of the New NAFTA are likely to result in permanent tariffs, if it’s not torn up entirely.
• Canada Post has reached a tentative agreement with its main union, and a ratification vote is expected in the New year.
• Oilsands companies have stockpiled carbon credits, meaning their value will increase as the industrial carbon price does (because the system is too lax).
• A study shows that digital asbestos chatbots can change Canadians’ political opinions more readily than the can Americans (because we are far less tribal).
• Nova Scotia has started exploration for on-short natural gas wells, and the government has expressed an interest in taking an ownership stake in projects.
• Alberta separatists have their referendum question approved (under nerfed rules), so now they can start collecting petition signatures.
• The split in BC’s far-right OneBC party has been mended (for now).
• Mike Moffatt’s Christmas wish list is a list of ten policy solutions to help solve the housing crisis.
• Justin Ling suggests that if Poilievre wants to get ahead, he needs to log off and start listening to real people and not the howls of online edgelords.

Odds and ends:

New episodes released early for C$7+ subscribers. It's my final video of 2025, so I'm reflecting on a big lesson from the past year. #cdnpoli

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2025-12-23T00:17:27.168Z

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