Over the long weekend, prime minister Mark Carney released another one of this “Forward Guidance” videos, to talk about the current moment we find ourselves in with the trade war. Some of this was a good bit of history in that one of the reasons for confederation was to guard against American predation, though he didn’t fully spell out that Sir John A Macdonald was very concerned that a newly militarized US post-Civil War would turn their attention northward. And yes, American tariffs did force the newly-united Canadians to better develop their own internal markets because yes, we did a lot of north-south trade at the time as well. He brought up the “iron spine” of the trans-Canada railway with some lip-service as to the human cost of it (more than he has in the past), but from there his metaphors started to drift again. The thing is, that “iron spine” has weakened considerably since free trade, and it’s been a whole lot of north-south trade once again, and his trying to say that the new north-south iron spine would be around energy, both electricity and crude oil, didn’t really make a lot of sense.

More than that, however, Carney was engaging in some revisionist history of his own, insisting that building up our industry domestically and to export to more markets was “always Plan A” didn’t really mesh with his stated desire during negotiations to have a stronger security and defence relationship with the US. He lamented in the video that the Americans were trying to force dependency, but Carney’s own goals included a stronger comprehensive relationship, so it feels a lot like he’s trying to play both sides here. He also said that there’s no going back to “normal” with the US, but again, this has been his whole strategy up until two weeks ago. It feels like he’s only just started saying things he was supposed to be saying all along two weeks ago, and is now pretending like it’s what he was always saying.

And then, of course, he brought up digital asbestos, because it’s “important,” and insisted that Canada would be maintaining its values and sovereignty with it. Erm, really? How? This is just lip service while he continues to swallow the CEO hype around it rather than waking up to the fact that this is garbage tech that is burning cash and the environment, and like he’s trying to be the last guy in before the bubble bursts. It’s getting cringey how much Carney and Evan Solomon are still enthralled by the false promises, like their lives depended on it.

My Latest:

• For National Magazine, I got some reaction to the news that the Ontario Courts’ case management system suffered a hack.
• My weekend column wonders if it’s time that we get serious about domestically-built EVs, as the age of the integrated North American auto industry appears to be over.
• My column on the Conservatives on the Remain side of the Alberta referendum trying to have it both ways by blaming Liberals, playing into Separatist hands.

Ukraine Dispatch:

Following a pause while the US “peace negotiators” were in Kyiv, Russia resumed strikes over the weekend, and has since also hit Sumy, the border with Moldova, and have been trying to push harder into Donetsk. Ukrainian drones have now hit Russian gas infrastructure in Siberia. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is in Canada today and tomorrow.

We finally have confirmation of Zelenskyy's visit to Canada. 🇺🇦🇨🇦

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2026-09-09T23:58:34.431Z

Noteworthy:

• Here is a preview of the “deal book” that Carney will be offering investors at his $1 trillion investment summit next week.
• The federal government will be weakening their environmental assessment regulations, but claim they are backing off on Species at Risk changes.
• Economist Kent Fellows offers a defence of counter-tariffs.
• Stephanie Carvin and Jessica Davis make the trenchant point that people have been more concerned about calling things terrorism than in having capability to counter it.
• Emmett Macfarlane takes apart that Derek Fildebrandt justification for Alberta separatism (to which I will remind you is a white/Christian nationalist project).

A network of deceptive, AI-generated websites is promoting Alberta separatism, and the people behind it are trying to influence more than just human readers.@supriya.bsky.social digs into @nationalobserver.com's troubling exposé.👀 FULL: rtrj.info/090826Supriya🎧 FULL: rtrj.info/090826 #cdnpoli

— Ryan Jespersen (@ryanjespersen.bsky.social) 2026-09-08T21:58:04.890Z

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