Back on Canadian soil, prime minister Mark Carney gave a speech to a domestic audience in advance of his Cabinet retreat, in which he used the location of the Plains of Abraham—where the retreat is being held, at the Citadelle in Quebec City—to praise the foundation of Canada (which the Bloc took exception to), our pluralism and shared values, and our choice to offer a vision of something different to the world. Oh, and he clapped back at Trump saying we live only because of the US. It might have been nice, but he kept veering off onto weird tangents about praising digital asbestos, or federal social programmes like pharmacare that he hasn’t done a single thing with in the past year and has outright stated he’s not interested in expanding. And if anything, the speech exposed a streak of hypocrisy—Canadian values, and pluralism, but we just signed a “strategic partnership” with a country genociding an ethnic minority. We’re going to create thousands of good-paying union jobs, but we just signed “strategic investments” with a country that employs slave labour. If you’re going to pat yourself on the back for your values, maybe try and at least pretend you’re trying to live up to them?

This Carney speech is giving me whiplash. Hooray for Canadian values! (But we’re also going to do deals with people who commit genocide and practice slave labour, and scapegoat immigrants).Hooray for our social programmes, but let’s do more digital asbestos!

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2026-01-22T19:04:50.878Z

Meanwhile, Pierre Poilievre released his own statement in response to Carney’s speech at Davos. The gist of Poilievre’s remarks is that of course Carney isn’t doing enough, that we shouldn’t alienate the Americans and by that we should engage with allies in the country who will help us post-Trump, and that he plans to move a motion next week to pass his ridiculous Canadian Sovereignty Act bill at all stages. (Transcript here).

And make no mistake—that bill is ridiculous. The primary gist of it is to tear up any and all environmental regulation to build more pipelines (who cares about a market case of First Nations consent?), to incentivise the reinvestment of capital gains in Canada (which was a plan so complex that Jim Flaherty walked it back after trying to do it during the Harper years), paying provinces a “bonus” for eliminating any remaining trade barriers, and to require the government to stop letting innovators in this country sell their intellectual property to Americans (and good luck with that one). It’s stupid and unfeasible and will only create a tonne of new problems while solving absolutely none, but he somehow thinks this is genius.

— Effin' Birds (@effinbirds.com) 2026-01-22T15:05:14.665Z

Ukraine Dispatch

Russian strikes hit locations in Zaporizhzhia, as well as Kryvyi Rih. At Davos, president Zelenskyy gave a speech highly critical of Europe’s indecisiveness and inability to organise enough to project any strength. (Transcript here).

Good reads:

• Trump has withdrawn his invitation to Mark Carney to be part of his “Board of Peace” grift after Carney started to balk at it.
• In spite of what was said about the deal with China, visa-free travel is not yet official on China’s end; China’s ambassador is calling for swift implementation of the deal.
• The government is asking the Federal Court to allow it to throw out 430 immigration applications en masse, saying they were all filled out by one person.
• Here is a roundup of proposed federal civil service job cuts to date.
• The Competition Bureau released the report on their consultations about algorithmic pricing, and the concerns around fairness and privacy.
• Canadian veterans who fought in Afghanistan are outraged that Trump has minimised and dismissed their sacrifices.
• Some First Nations leaders are calling out the fact that the MOU with Alberta has no mention of fresh water with regard to those pipelines.
• Inuit leaders in northern Labrador are standing in solidarity with Greenland.
• Here is reaction to Carney’s Davos speech from Mexico.
• The rules for the CAQ leadership contest have been released, and it at least requires candidates to have the support of at least 15 sitting MNAs.
• John Michael McGrath points out just how rich it is for Doug Ford to be concerned about Chinese EVs when he’s made it difficult to buy or charge domestic ones.
• Stephen Saideman offers a reality check about Canadian officers attached to American commands and subject to Trump’s orders.
• Justin Ling contrasts Carney’s Davos speech with Trump’s, and offers suggestions for how Carney can organise allies against American aggression.

Odds and ends:

On this day in 1901, Her Majesty Queen Victoria died. Canada's Parliament went into mourning — this is a photo of the building during that period.Credit: William James Topley/Library and Archives Canada/PA-008988

— Charlie Feldman (@parlcharlie.bsky.social) 2026-01-22T20:41:52.386Z

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