Prime minister Mark Carney met with Alberta premier Danielle Smith Friday morning in Ottawa, and by all accounts, they made progress on finalising the terms of the MOU that would see a west coast pipeline built, with Smith saying that their final sticking point is the industrial carbon price but she expects they will get to a “win-win” deal. I don’t actually believe it will be win-win because every deal so far has been an abject capitulation where Alberta gets to flout the rules, either with longer timelines than everyone else, or a weaker effective carbon price (because the province keeps instituting new credits that lower the price). Smith also keeps saying that this deal will help “quell separatism,” which is also bullshit because they don’t actually care policy (which you’ll see in a moment), and the fact that she is encouraging them is not exactly doing anything to quell the movement—quite the opposite, in fact. Everything she has done has encouraged them.
And then by mid-afternoon, the government released their consultation documents for their planned “streamlining” of environmental assessments, which pretty much involves gutting the systems worse than Stephen Harper did, puts unrealistic timelines on consultations (particularly for Indigenous communities which lack the resources to do the work in an expedited manner), and gives a whole lot of power to individual ministers to approve projects with fewer safeguards, which is ripe for abuse and corruption. None of this is good or positive, in spite of the whinging of certain industry executives because they simply don’t want to put in the work. Everything just feels like we’re going backward, and we’re back to “pollution is fine because we’re in a trade war,” as if there aren’t long-term costs and consequences.
Meanwhile, Richard Warnica of the Star went to Alberta and spent time with the separatists, and it’s a swamp of conspiracy theories and fabrications (which he performatively fact-checked a bunch of, and lo, it’s all false. All of it). It’s an absolutely disturbing read, but it also skirts some of the underlying issues—that this is a movement that is steeped in white and Christian nationalism (and these people were deliberately marginalised back in the seventies and eighties by the Lougheed and Getty governments), that has festered in a poisoned information ecosystem and a political ecosystem that has relied on scapegoating Ottawa for the past five decades rather than dealing with the reality of their situation (they’re price-takers for oil, and the fact that they’re a virtual one-party state has invited all manner of corruption in their system). So no, any regulatory changes that Mark Carney might push through won’t mollify them. Another pipeline will make no difference—the last one didn’t, and the province absolutely reneged on the “grand bargain” it was supposed to represent. This is a quasi-cult whose brains have rotted on social media and Fox News, and simply giving them everything they say they want won’t actually solve any problems. It will likely just make things even worse.
Ukraine Dispatch
A three-day ceasefire and 1000 prisoner exchange has apparently been agreed to, while Russia plans a scaled-back Victory Day parade (because they have no tanks left and they are paranoid Ukraine will attack). Ukraine is running short of air defence missiles after the massive assault over the winter.
Good reads:
- Mark Carney says he “expressed concern” to Danielle Smith over that voter list leak, as thought that is going to do any good with her.
- Documents show the barrage of threats both direct and indirect that Carney has been subjected to over the past year, almost immediately since he became PM.
- Senior Government Sources™ say that Carney won’t be inviting any senators back into the Liberal caucus. (Independent voices would diminish his authority).
- The government has stripped Conservative amendments from the military justice bill that would give military sexual assault survivors a choice of court system.
- The government has begun flowing money to Ontario First Nations for child and family services per their agreement approved last year.
- Here is more about the Defence Investment Agency legislation, and the fourteen exceptions allowed to the minister for sole-sourcing contracts.
- Cabinet authorised another $673 million for Canada Post to keep operations going.
- The current suggested layout for the permanent House of Commons does away with desks for everything but the front row, while the rest get benches and tray tables.
- Keldon Bester suggests that when it comes to trying to increase competition, pledging to simply “cut red tape” is not going to get the job done.
- Lindsay Tedds dismantles the various narratives about the Spring Economic Update, and looks at what the numbers say about Carney’s ultimate plans.
- Jessica Davis outlines why we need the new Financial Crimes Agency, and what standing it up is going to entail for the government.
- Philippe Lagassé ponders last week’s Supreme Court decision in Alford, and what it says about NSICOP’s entire structure and inherent contradictions.
- Althia Raj hears from Liberals and environmental groups that the government’s proposed “streamlining” is worse than anything Stephen Harper proposed.
- Shannon Proudfoot listened to Poilievre’s Formerly Manning Centre speech, and hears someone listlessly reheating his same scripts, vowing not to change.
Odds and ends:
Finally had a chance to read @lindsaytedds.bsky.social's latest, and well… deadfortaxreasons.wordpress.com/2026/05/08/s…
— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2026-05-09T02:48:47.162Z
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