Today is the big day, as prime minister Mark Carey is departing on his big ten-day tour to China, Qatar, and Davos, Switzerland, but before he leaves, he will be making a stop in Prince Rupert, BC, for a meeting with Coastal First Nations, months after he signed his MOU with Danielle Smith about a pipeline that they intend to push through their territory over their objections. (Carney says no project will go ahead without them, but I would not put much stock in that particular promise).
We have also learned that Scott Moe will be joining Carney on the trip, because if there’s one thing that Carney needs, it’s Canada’s smoothest-brained premier to bleat on about canola. The federal officials who briefed reporters ahead of the trip suggested that there may be some relief from the current tariffs being imposed by China on canola, beef and seafood, but for the dispute not to be at an end just yet. Apparently there are “active discussions” about dropping the EV tariffs, which some people still think would be a good idea given that we are no longer counting on a North American EV strategy, but that presupposes that China’s intentions with the EV market are pure, which they’re not—they would be collecting massive amounts of data from Canadians, and they could cripple those EVs through software if they wanted, beyond the economic damage they would be doing to our auto industry by displacing it with product that they have subsidised at uncompetitive rates.
Meanwhile, two Liberal MPs cut short their trip to Taiwan to “avoid confusion” with Carney’s upcoming trip, which seems like bad form, and of course, they are being accused of “kowtowing” to the Chinese government. It’s hard to say whether this should be interpreted as a gesture or as “clarity,” or whatnot, considering that the Chinese government may not understand the nuances of who is a backbencher and who is government (and to be frank, there are plenty of Canadians, including those within parliament, who don’t understand the difference), but it does leave a bad taste to look like they are complying in advance with yet another authoritarian (and Carney seems to be doing a whole lot of complying).
Ukraine Dispatch
There has been another intense bombardment of Kyiv and Kharkiv overnight. Russian drones hit two foreign-flagged vessels in port near Odesa, which were carrying corn and vegetable oil. The UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine says that civilian casualties were up sharply last year.
Good reads:
- Mark Carney is also planning on a trip to India in the coming weeks.
- Gary Anandasangaree insists the gun buyback pilot programme was successful, even if it only netted 25 guns from 16 owners.
- Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem has offered his support to embattled US Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell.
- NASA has released their launch window dates for Artemis II, which Canadian Jeremy Hansen will be aboard, with dates starting on February 6th.
- Members of the Canadian Forces have touched down in Pimicikamak Cree Nation to assist with the frozen water crisis in the community.
- Greenpeace is looking for more transparency and accountability from pulp and paper giant Domtar after all of the money they got from government.
- Women and children’s advocates are calling for an online regulator in order to deal with issues like the Xitter deepfake/CSAM problem.
- Given that Conservative MP Chak Au is both elected federally and municipally, there is a call for rules to ensure MPs can only hold one office at a time.
- Emmett Macfarlane worries that we are becoming “morally leaderless” as our government doesn’t stand up for democracy, or show up for the small fights.
- Matt Gurney is encouraged that Canada is returning to sea power thanks to its ambitious defence procurement programme.
Odds and ends:
Passifiume update:
— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2026-01-13T04:48:32.828Z
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