I will confess that my patience for these constant Stellantis stories is wearing mighty thin, because so much of it is theatre on the part of all players. The government is theatrically upset that Stellantis took their subsidies and then did nothing with them after spending years caterwauling about how the government needed to pay up if they still wanted an auto industry in this country. The opposition is theatrically demanding that the government should have done something to stop the sale or to somehow force Stellantis to restart operations in this plant, but won’t exactly say how, or using which federal powers. And the union is equally theatrical in again saying that the government should have “done something” before it reached the point of this sale, but again, won’t say what.

I really have to question exactly what the expectation was. How does a government force a private company, even one that they have subsidised, into doing work at this plant when they haven’t come to any decisions on what model they want to assemble there? But rather than have anyone answer that question, we are instead engaged in conspiracy theories about what the federal government knew and when, and the threats to sue by the government (even though Stellantis has effectively said they will return the government’s money). And there may be an added point to the lawsuit about damages or penalties for breaking the agreement, which would need to be substantial in order to actually make it hurt and not just be the cost of doing business, but again, how do you force a private company to do something they obviously don’t want to do?

I think there is also an underlying current here about the auto sector writ-large, and the fact that we went full-on into interdependence and integrated supply chains, which is now being weaponised against us. I know that it made sense at the time, because of the nature of the North American auto market, but maybe we need to start questioning those assumptions and start looking at moving to something new, being EVs and being serious about the transition, or making cars that will appeal to foreign markets (which means a lot smaller—we don’t export vehicles overseas mostly because they are simply too big for their roads/infrastructure. The attempt to start that transition was also met by a whole lot of bellyaching from the Big Three, who have slowed the transition to a crawl and one of whom has now broken their agreements. So what really is the point of sticking with this dying model? Why can’t we have that discussion without trying to prop up the dying model? That’s my question in all of this.

— Effin' Birds (@effinbirds.com) 2026-11-12T20:08:01.875Z

My Latest:

• My column cautions the in spite of the midterm results, we still can’t trust the Americans to do the right thing, particularly when Trump is still there.
• For National Magazine, I take a deeper dive into provinces who are pushing the boundaries of the constitution, and a permissive federal government that lets them.
• My Xtra column looks at the $60 million for the LGBTQ+ Action Plan™ in the federal budget, and the need to transition to more sustainable funding models.
• My column looks at some of the by-election candidates coming up and notes the problems they herald for the two big parties, especially with no open nominations.

Ukraine Dispatch:

Russia launched another massive overnight barrage against Ukraine, claiming they were “military factories” when they were in fact apartment blocks, and lo, Starshield has throttled speeds again, making defences more difficult. The “peace talks” (ahem) in Abu Dhabi have agreed to a major prisoner exchange, but not much else.

The peace talks are failing because Putin still believes he can win the war, and because Trump, Kushner and Witkoff encourage this belief. By pressuring Ukraine, not Russia, they are prolonging the conflict, which will kill more people.

— Anne Applebaum (@anneapplebaum.wsocial.eu) 2026-11-12T15:07:01.171Z

Noteworthy:

• Mark Carney is set to sign two trade deals on his current travels, while he plans to “warn” China about foreign interference—in private, where it will do no good.
• Althia Raj is puzzled by the federal government’s decision not to challenge the Alberta Court of Appeal decision on their changes to the Impact Assessment Act.
• Justin Ling is hopeful a new government in Israel can reset relations.
• Susan Delacourt suggests that tweaks to the Accountability Act could do more to foster people in the private sector to do some public service than interchanges.

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