Mark Carney delivered his speech to the European parliament in Strasbourg, and got heckled by a far-right MEP, because of course he did. Most of the speech was pretty standard Carney fare, with a historical anecdote, talk about upheavals and ruptures, sovereignty and digital asbestos, praising what Canada has to offer. He then moved toward welcoming the “ambition” of what Ursula von der Leyen spoke about with “associate membership” without actually saying that it’s what he wants, and spoke about things like the Erasmus+ programme, and other opportunities for cooperation.
Of course, everything remains up for negotiation, and what shape this kind of new agreement will look like is yet to be discussed, but Carney promises a vote in Parliament on whatever the final package is, which is not unexpected. Any treaty accession requires parliamentary approval regardless, but expect much caterwauling about this from certain suspects. There will no doubt be more threats from Trump and certain segments of this country who will insist that we’re just trying to provoke Trump, or that we’re somehow abandoning the US (we’re not) or that this is has something to do with Beijing (it doesn’t), but that’s also a reflection of the state of discourse.
Meanwhile, Pierre Poilievre is trying to insist that this alliance of the future, which hasn’t even begun negotiation, is a done deal and that Carney has been lying about it all the time, while he rails about “EU taxes, EU bureaucracy, and EU migrant crisis,” even though this has nothing to do with this kind of alliance because we’re not becoming members of the EU, and more to the point, we’re not sitting next to Syria or North Africa, so we don’t have boats of migrants coming over. Of course, Poilievre and his caucus will raise these things because they have a voter base whose brains have been rotted on Fox News and the like, and have been conditioned to rail about how Europe is being overrun by Muslim migrants who are “killing its culture,” and yes, Poilievre and his MPs are playing directly to these racist tropes. (Poilievre then slipped out the back from his caucus retreat rather than take reporters’ questions, so there’s also that).
Gods bless David Cochrane for trying to push back against the dumbest of Conservative talking points on this EU stuff, while new critic Eric Duncan is just mindlessly repeating the three talking points his leader gave him. #PnPCBC
— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2026-09-17T21:30:27.904Z
Noted media critic Andrew Scheer is currently having a toddler meltdown.
— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2026-09-17T19:47:28.443Z
Ukraine Dispatch:
Russian attacks are now increasingly during daylight hours, hitting Kyiv, Zaporizhzhia, and Dnipro in the latest barrage. The attacks early Thursday morning hit very near the Polish border, and again targeted energy infrastructure.
Noteworthy:
- Justin Ling suggests that Carney and Canada need to do more to wake Europe up to the fact that Trump is coming for them next, especially via far-right parties.
- Paul Wells ponders what happened in Europe, and the fact that a whole lot of people are over-reading the situation for what it is.
Even if the Democrats won both houses and the presidency in 2028, they wouldn't make any changes, and they would likely keep most of the tariffs in place. The vested interests would say "See, what did we tell you? The pendulum swung back."And nothing would change.The world can't trust you.
— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2026-09-18T01:06:23.374Z
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