Tag Archives: Danielle Smith

Roundup: Countdown to a trade deal?

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Even before the G7 summit officially got underway, prime minister Mark Carney had his bilateral meeting with Trump, and it was this somewhat awkward situation where Trump defended having a “tariff concept” and said that Carney had a “more complicated” plan (how could “free trade” be more complicated?”) but there was word that talks were “accelerating,” and later in the day, we got a readout from that conversation that said that they were aiming to get a trade deal within 30 days, so no pressure there (not that you could really accept such a deal for the paper it’s written on because this is Trump and he doesn’t honour his agreements). Trump also claimed to have signed a trade deal with the UK (which he called the EU at the time), and held up a blank page with his signature on it. So that…happened.

Holy crap. The US-UK trade deal is a blank sheet of paper and only Trump signed it. (Genuine screen grab).

— Justin Wolfers (@justinwolfers.bsky.social) 2025-06-17T00:13:56.113Z

The rest of the summit took place, and then suddenly Trump decided he needed to leave early, right after the Heads of Government dinner, citing important business in Washington, with allusions to the Israel-Iran conflict, but he did wind up signing a joint communiqué that calls for de-escalation in said conflict, so we’ll see how that holds up. Trump leaving early does mean that he won’t be around the arrival of either Volodymyr Zelenskyy or Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum, who had hoped to have bilateral meetings with Trump on the sidelines of the summit, so that does blow a hole in what they expected to come for, particularly for Sheinbaum who rarely travels.

Meanwhile, here are some of the highlights of the day. Tsuut’ina Nation council member Steven Crowchild spoke about his meeting with Trump during his arrival in Calgary. EU officials confirmed that Carney is likely to sign a defence procurement agreement with them during his visit to Brussels in two weeks.

— Effin' Birds (@effinbirds.com) 2025-06-16T22:08:16.537Z

Ukraine Dispatch

A Russian drone and missile attack struck Kyiv in the early morning hours, wounding at least twenty. Ukraine received another 1,245 bodies, ending this repatriation agreement, bringing the total to over 6000 war dead.

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Roundup: The G7 summit begins

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It’s the big G7 leaders’ summit today and tomorrow, so expect wall-to-wall coverage on that for the next 48 to 72 hours or so, depending if we have any eruptions (which could very well happen). Here’s a piece setting the stage for the event, where the side conversations with the additional leaders invited are also going to play a key part in the event. The ongoing Israel-Iran conflict is likely going to also feature in the discussions. Here is a look at some of the agenda items that Carney had laid out, including quantum technologies. Here’s a look at the security in the region, which is helped by the fact that it’s an isolated location with no local services.

Things got off to an early start with Keir Starmer arriving on Saturday evening for dinner with Mark Carney, before the pair went to a local pub to take in the hockey game together (which was apparently on mute in the local Royal Oak, because of course it was a Royal Oak). They had a formal meeting in West Block on Sunday morning, and talked about more trade and bilateral cooperation on a number of files. Carney will have a sit-down with Trump this morning before the summit begins formally.

The rest of the leaders began arriving in Calgary Sunday afternoon. So far we’ve had one civilian aircraft enter the restricted airspace and needing to be chased down by CF-18s. And on his way to the G7, French president Emmanuel Macron had a stopover in Greenland to offer support against American aggression.

Ukraine Dispatch

Russians struck the Kremenchuk oil refinery in the Poltava region, which provides fuel to Ukrainian forces. A recent attack also damaged the Boeing office in Kyiv. Russia handed over another 1200 Ukrainian war dead on Sunday.

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Roundup: Historical revisionism of federalism in the past decade

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Last week had largely been spent trying to determine what the love-in with the premiers all means, so much so that Danielle Smith is losing her grip on reality as she insists that she’ll convince BC premier David Eby to let another pipeline cross his province (in spite of there being no actual proposals for one), while also claiming that Albertans have the “lowest living standards in the world,” and I just can’t even.

Meanwhile, I’m seeing comments from the pundit class that I’m just finding hard to square with reality. This one quote from the weekend dispatch of The Line is a good example of these pundit narratives that are completely ahistorical.

The Liberals under Justin Trudeau were so fantastically uninterested in working with the provinces, and so relentlessly hostile to basic economic growth, that having a prime minister simply acknowledge (as Carney has) that we are in an economic emergency seems like a massive step forward.

Trudeau did work with the provinces a lot in his first parliament—he had the first face-to-face meeting with them as a group in years after Harper refused to, and they got big things done—the agreement on carbon pricing, enhancing CPP, a suite of health measures that Jane Philpott negotiated with the provinces. None of this was inconsequential, but there was a very different group of premiers in 2015 than there was in 2024. And let’s also be frank—the premiers didn’t want to work together with the federal government anymore. They wanted to gang up on him for more money with no conditions (those health transfers that Philpott negotiated didn’t go toward fixing anything), while the pleading that everyone was making around finding exceptions to the carbon levy was very unproductive (not that Trudeau did any favours in his “pause” on the price for heating oil rather than a better system of rebates in areas where energy poverty was a problem). But seriously, the premiers get away with blaming Trudeau for all of the things that they refused to do that were their responsibility, and somehow he was the problem?

As well, the notion that Trudeau was hostile to basic economic growth is, frankly, unhinged. How many trade deals did he sign or push over the finish line? What was the whole attempt to stand-up a North American EV supply chain? What were the billions spent to keep the entire economy afloat during COVID? If you’re going to cite the capital gains changes as being “hostile,” then congratulations—you’re a gullible numpty who bought the lines of people who engage in tax arbitrage and want that sweet roll to continue. If you think environmental regulation was killing economic growth, just wait until you see what climate change is already doing to the economy and is going to get exponentially worse. Just because Trudeau didn’t bow to the tax-cut-and-deregulate crowd, it doesn’t mean he was hostile to economic growth. Yes, he and his government had problems. A lot of them. But let’s not make up things that are blatantly ahistorical or outright fictional just to help put a shine on Carney.

— Effin' Birds (@effinbirds.com) 2025-06-07T21:10:14.180Z

Ukraine Dispatch

Russian drone and missile attacks killed four people in Kharkiv on Saturday. Russian forces claim to have crossed into the Dnipropetrovsk region, while a row is now brewing over an agreement to exchange bodies of dead soldiers, which Ukraine says they are not delaying. Meanwhile, a drone attack on a Russian electronics factory has forced them to suspend production.

https://twitter.com/ZelenskyyUa/status/1931395337958084711

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Roundup: The confidence vote that wasn’t

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Debate on the Address in Reply to the Speech From the Throne was due to wrap up, meaning a final vote. Media outlets insisted that this would be the first major confidence vote of the new Parliament, and that if the Liberals lost it, we could go back to an election, and there was all this building drama because of how they lost the vote on the Conservatives’ amendment (to “urge” the government to table a spring budget). And my headache started.

The vote on the Address in Reply is not automatically a confidence vote. It is if the opposition amendments explicitly state that they have no confidence in the government, and sometimes that happens because this is the first opportunity to test the confidence of the Chamber, especially in a minority parliament or legislature, but again, that was not the case here. But along the way, the NDP decided that they were going to play tough and declare that they would vote against it for specious reasons (and because Don Davies is an idiot, and has a long track record of being an idiot and a blowhard), while the Government House Leader, Steve MacKinnon, told reporters that this would be a confidence vote. So, if the government says it’s a confidence vote, it’s a confidence vote, and it was likely intended to be something of a bit a put-up-or-shut-up dare, which can be risky in a minority parliament, but sometimes you also need to play hardball with the opposition. This was likely going to mean that the Bloc would either vote in support or abstain (because they did say they would give the government a year before they started to seriously oppose anything, given the Trump situation), but the government was never in any serious danger of falling. If, by some fluke, they did lose a vote they declared to be confidence, they could simply hold another vote and basically say “Did you mean it?” and chances are they would win that vote, and all would go back to normal.

And in the end, there wasn’t even a vote. News of Marc Garneau’s death reached the Chamber just before the vote was to be taken, and it seems like the appetite for drama was gone, and it passed on division, meaning that they agreed to disagree, that they were going to let it pass, but not bother with a recorded vote. And thus, the least exciting outcome happened.

I must advise the beings of Bluesky that, in a truly only-in-this-particular-Canadian-parliament twist, the much-anticipated will-they-or-won't-they-trigger-an-election over it motion on the Throne speech as amended — has been adopted on division.

— Kady O'Malley (@kadyo.bsky.social) 2025-06-04T22:25:39.121Z

— Effin' Birds (@effinbirds.com) 2025-06-04T22:02:26.904Z

Ukraine Dispatch

Russian drones struck an apartment building in Kharkiv, injuring at least seventeen. Russian forces have also pushed further into Sumy region. Here’s a look at how Operation Spiderweb was carried out.

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Roundup: King home on Canadian soil

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Following the Speaker’s election in the morning, the King and Queen of Canada arrived home on Canadian soil, to begin their all-too-brief visit. Stops were made at Lansdowne Park, both for a walkabout and for the King to meet local producers at the farmer’s market, being as this is one of his interests, and from there, they headed to Rideau Hall for a tree-planting, followed by audiences with the Governor General, the prime minister, leaders of the Assembly of First Nations, Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, and the Métis National Council, as well as provincial lieutenant-governors and territorial commissioners. And then an early night, as the royal couple try to remain on UK time. (Write-ups from The Canadian Press, the CBC, the Star, and the Ottawa Citizen, with a few photos here).

Home on Canadian soil. #MapleCrown

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2025-05-26T17:37:48.786Z

The Sovereign’s Flag for Canada flying over Rideau Hall, denoting that King Charles III is in residence

— Patricia Treble (@patriciatreble.bsky.social) 2025-05-26T23:23:58.610Z

Today will make the first official use of the modified Canadian Royal Standard of the sovereign. It was changed following the death of EIIR and will remain the same for each future reign. It is an expression of Canadian sovereignty and is drawn from the Arms of Canada.

— (@rberthelsen.bsky.social) 2025-05-26T11:30:03.223Z

I have to say that there was a pretty big reception at every event—the airport at the arrival, at Lansdowne Park, and at Rideau Hall, and while the weather (mostly) cooperated, I do think that there is always an outpouring of affection at these events that takes some people by surprise, because we spend the week ahead of the event running stories about how “indifferent” everyone is to the monarchy, or interview the usual suspects (republicans, separatists, people who can’t read their bloody history or civics textbooks and know what a constitutional monarch actually is), and paint a dour picture and lo, the people turn out and are enthusiastic, even though we were constantly told that people weren’t going to warm up to Charles, or that he wasn’t going to live up to his mother. We’re not seeing that, which is nice to see for a change.

https://twitter.com/RoyalFamily/status/1927145761646485658

This all being said, there was one bit of a hiccough, where Rideau Hall put out a tweet that talked about the “meaningful bond between our nations,” with emojis for the Union Jack and the Canadian Flag, after Mary Simon earlier put out a statement welcoming the King of Canada home. I have my suspicions that her social media team are, well, the b-team after Julie Payette chased the good staff out of Rideau Hall, but some on, guys. Your moment to showcase the King of Canada is here, and you treat him like a foreign curiosity? For. Fuck. Sakes. (Yes, Rideau Hall deleted the tweet and sent out a revised one a short while later, but come on!).

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2025-05-26T21:54:54.426Z

Ukraine Dispatch

There were more Russian attacks against Kyiv and other targets, with injuries reported in Odesa. The governor of Sumy region says that four more settlements have been captured by Russian force.

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Roundup: Signing decision notes as performance art

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It was Mark Carney’s first Cabinet meeting yesterday after the election and the shuffle, and hoo boy, is there a lot to talk about, starting with the fact that Carney once again called the media into the Cabinet room so that they could film him signing a “decision note” about implementing his planned tax cut. This is pure theatre—essentially this note is to instruct the civil service to prepare the legislation that will make this happen, but having the media witnessing him signing a document is both very Trumpy, and also a continuation of Trudeau-era politics by comms exercise. It’s not how things work in our system, and this is a very bad sign about how they’re doing things “differently” from Trudeau.

I have to say, I'm really not a fan of this new performance art of calling the media into the Cabinet room so that Carney can sign a mysterious document in front of them, Trump-style.

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2025-05-14T17:29:26.165Z

Oh, look, it's another "Decision Note." Glad that this is now a vehicle for policy performance.

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2025-05-14T17:40:41.329Z

And then there was the gauntlet of ministers saying things unfiltered to the press, with no message discipline. On the one hand, it’s pretty glorious to finally have ministers unleashed. On the other hand, the kinds of trouble that they are inviting is exactly why iron-fisted message discipline has been implemented for the past two decades. First up was François-Philippe Champagne saying that there won’t be a budget tabled in the short spring sitting, but that there will be a “comprehensive” fall economic update. He could have articulated that there simply isn’t time for the civil service to put one together in those four weeks or to talk about how the private sector forecasts are pretty much unusable in the current trade war uncertainty, but he went on about the Speech from the Throne, because reasons.

New Secretary of State Wayne Long says that it sounds like government is going to be run “like a corporation,” and I cannot even. This kind of thinking never, ever works out in government because it doesn’t have a bottom line to deliver to shareholders—it has to do the things that companies won’t, and government is set up to be held to account, whereas corporations are explicitly set up in a way to limit accountability and liability.

There was Gregor Robertson who stumbled on his very first outing, saying that housing prices don’t need to come down and that more supply will make housing affordable—except the math on that one is that it would take 20 to 40 years to do so. This is a tightrope to walk because of the number of people who have their nest eggs in their home equity, but he’s going to have to do better than what he answered.

The Housing Minister suggested that home prices don't need to go down to restore affordability. We examined this, and it's technically true. They don't. However, in large parts of the country, it would take 20-40 years to reach affordability.Read here: www.missingmiddleini…

— Dr. Mike P. Moffatt (@mikepmoffatt.bsky.social) 2025-05-14T15:50:37.000Z

And Steven Guilbeault. Oh, boy. Guilbeault was asked about Carney’s comments around building more pipelines, and Guilbeault—whose new job is “Canadian identity” (and good luck to him on that Pandora’s box)—said that we should actually use our existing capacity for building more. And he’s right—but he got the current TMX values wrong. He also pointed out that both the Canadian Energy Regulator and the International Energy Agency have said that peak demand is going to happen is around 2028-29 (so it may not make sense to build a bunch of assets to be stranded), but man, did this go over like a lead balloon. And of course, Danielle Smith pounced on it, while every TV pundit declared that Guilbeault should have just shut up since it’s not his portfolio anymore. But he has a point—there are no pipeline projects waiting to go ahead, and there is no demonstrable market demand for more, so everyone is getting hot and bothered over a fantasy or a dead letter (such as Energy East), which absolutely nobody is asking for. We’re twisting ourselves into absolute knots over imaginary projects.

https://twitter.com/maxfawcett/status/1922731670043517191

https://twitter.com/maxfawcett/status/1922722025291858017

Feds bought & built TMX. Complain about the cost but it’s operating. They delivered. This was supposed to be a bargain. Tidewater in exchange for meaningful reductions in GHGs.Has the oil industry delivered there? That’s the starting point for discussions about further pipelines. #ableg #cdnpoli

— Martin Z. Olszynski (@molszyns.bsky.social) 2025-05-15T00:21:34.144Z

Ukraine Dispatch

A Russian missile killed three people in Sumy. President Zelenskyy looks to still be headed for Istanbul to continue to call Putin’s bluff on “peace talks”, and it looks like Trump won’t be there either.

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Roundup: Lots of new faces, but a few questionable choices

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The Cabinet shuffle proceeded apace yesterday morning, and Mark Carney put together a Cabinet of 28 ministers and ten secretaries of state (as opposed to ministers of state, meaning they are subordinate to ministers). Some of the big names stayed in—Dominic LeBlanc, François-Philippe Champagne, Chrystia Freeland, while Anita Anand and Mélanie Joly swapped roles. Sean Fraser is back in Cabinet as justice minister, but Nathaniel Erskine Smith is out, and everyone was all over the fact that he was the mildest bit sore about it considering that he decided to run again for the sake of taking on the housing portfolio, and he probably would have been better staying there than giving it to former Vancouver mayor Gregor Robertson, who has been accused of being asleep at the wheel as housing prices in Vancouver skyrocketed and their housing crisis accelerated on his watch. There is gender parity in the Cabinet itself, but not the secretaries of state, but there are a number of indigenous ministers, including Mandy Gull-Masty as the first Indigenous minster of Indigenous Services. Carney says that this new Cabinet will work with “urgency and determination” to bring about the greatest economic transformation since the Second World War, but those are a lot of expectations. (Photo gallery here).

I’m genuinely pissed Nate Erskine Smith is out at housing — and all together from Cabinet. It’s a terrible call. Whatever you think of Robertson — not much, for me — NES was a perfect fit for housing. He knew what he was doing. He could communicate it well. Own goal.

— David Moscrop (@davidmoscrop.com) 2025-05-13T20:04:24.898Z

https://bsky.app/profile/jrobson.bsky.social/post/3lp2tf65jnc2j

https://bsky.app/profile/jrobson.bsky.social/post/3lp3n3fhvk22h

https://bsky.app/profile/jrobson.bsky.social/post/3lp3n3fii3s2h

https://bsky.app/profile/jrobson.bsky.social/post/3lp3n3fij322h

I am going to spend a minute to rail about the fact that Evan Solomon was named minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Transformation, because there is something so absolutely grubby about it. Solomon is forever ethically tainted from the manner of his departure at CBC, but Carney was one of the people he brokered art sales for, and the two are good friends. So Carney found him a safe seat in a city that Solomon hasn’t lived in for over a decade, and then slid him into Cabinet in a bullshit made-up portfolio (that a bunch of the Canadian tech sector are projecting their hopes and dreams on), while at the same time Carney pats himself on the back for how “pared down” this Cabinet is. Pared down except for this made-up portfolio for his friend (and a few other questionable decisions, like a secretary of state for “nature.”) This is exactly the kind of thing that makes people cynical, and that’s even before we get to the problematic nature of the state of AI, the fascism of tech bros, and gullible people believing that this technology will solve all kinds of problems when there is little proof that plagiarism machines can actually do so. This whole thing just gives a complete sinking feeling about the judgment involved.

So was including Evan fucking Solomon.

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2025-05-13T21:19:59.501Z

I thought this was supposed to be a pared-down, gimmick-free cabinet.Canadian digital policy is about to take three enormous steps backwards, as Mark Carney confirms what’s I’ve suspected since I read his leadership platform: he’s 100% on board the AI hype train.

— Blayne Haggart (@bhaggart.bsky.social) 2025-05-13T16:13:15.407Z

As was expected, Pierre Poilievre responded to the shuffle, and while he made a few contrite remarks off the top about working together for the country and not “reflexively opposing” everything, he then turned to gratuitous swipes about the people chosen, and implored Carney to “steal his ideas,” even though they were incoherent, and his platform was made up of fantasy math. Frankly I’m not seeing much of a change in tone, nor do I actually expect there to be a real one, because that’s not who Poilievre is, and him trying to show his softer side is going to be impossible for him to maintain.

In other reaction, here is The Logic’s analysis about what this Cabinet says about Carney’s economic plans for the country. My colleague Mel Woods at Xtra notes that Rechie Valdez is the new point person on LGBTQ+ issues, and it remains to be seen what that is going to look like in an age where you have provinces like Saskatchewan and Alberta who are legislating attacks on trans youth, while we look at what is happening south of the border. Susan Delacourt remarks on how Carney is carefully trying to construct distance from Trudeau with this Cabinet, but some of the Trudeau-era impulses remain. Justin Ling is much more critical of some of the choices made in this shuffle (and some of them were a choice).

Ukraine Dispatch

Continuing to call Putin’s bluff, president Zelenskyy is prepared to head to Istanbul for “peace talks.” And if Putin doesn’t show, the EU is prepared to tighten sanctions even more, which is going to really squeeze the Russian economy, which is in worse shape than they like to claim.

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Roundup post: Shuffle expectations

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It’s Cabinet Shuffle Day, and the “leaks” and PMO lines are that it will be more than 50 percent new faces, though it sounds like some of the key players—Dominic LeBlanc, Chrystia Freeland, David McGuinty, Anita Anand—are staying put. CTV had two sources tell them Freeland was out before being told that no, she’s staying. It also sounds like Sean Fraser will get back in, as it was the understanding for him running again after saying he was going to retire to spend more time with his family. One also has to wonder about Nathaniel Erskine-Smith in a similar boat, so we’ll see. New faces are supposed to include Gregor Robertson and Carlos Leitao, and you can bet that Buckly Belanger from Saskatchewan will have a role, as will either of the two Alberta MPs. (More rumours and speculation from the National Post, The Canadian Press, CBC, the Star, and the Globe and Mail).

It was also confirmed that it will return to a tiered structure, with a smaller core of ministers, with other portfolios likely being given to secretaries of state (who are subordinate to ministers) rather that ministers of state (who can have their own departments like regional development portfolios or certain agencies). This is in part where the commitment to gender parity will become apparent—will there be women leading in major portfolios, or will there be a disproportionate number of women relegated to secretaries/ministers of state? Trudeau decided to make everyone ministers to ensure that they were all equal in rank and salary, and that there was less of a “pink ghetto” effect with second-tier appointments. Carney will have to work to avoid playing into that effect (which is also an example of formal versus substantive equality.

Meanwhile, Jennifer Robson has some thoughts on the probable structure of Cabinet we’ll see.

Ukraine Dispatch

Russia launched over 100 drones overnight after president Zelenskyy called Putin’s bluff on peace talks in Istanbul.

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Roundup: Wheedling for official party status

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The official party status debate seems to be moving ahead without any consideration of logic, or why the rule exists, or the importance of rules actually being followed. And so, Don Davies says he’s reaching out to Carney to try and get official party status, but insists that he’s not going to try and threaten quid pro quo about it. I’m going to point back to my column from earlier in the week that there is no reason they should qualify for it—or to trust the “no quid pro quo” line either, but I’m really, really not swayed by all the capital-p Pundits who think that the Liberals should give them that status just because, or because they feel bad (or perhaps grateful?) that all those NDP voters switched to Liberals to stop Poilievre and Trump (even though that’s not what the data shows in most ridings), and it lets the NDP off the hook for running a poor campaign with a leader who was past his best-before date, and for their inability to present a vision for voters to believe in. If they want to have their official party status, they need to earn it back in the next election. (A few more details on the state of the party here).

One of the other things the big-P Pundits keep bringing up is the issue of the number of staff that would be lost, and the fact that there wouldn’t be salaries for a party whip or House Leader, but again, they’re seven MPs. You don’t need a staff to wrangle those MPs, to get them onto committees and ensure that if they’re absent that they’re covered off, and so on. It’s not a consideration. Does it suck? Yes. But let’s be realistic about just what those seven MPs are going to be contributing and how much staff they need to do it. They are not actually owed anything here, and perhaps we need to be a little hard-nosed about it. You can bet that if the situation was reversed, the NDP would be ruthless about it (and they were in 2011 when they formed the official opposition and broke established courtesies and rules around seniority for offices in Centre Block and so on in their fit of triumphalism). And the Bloc remember that the NDP refused to extend official party status to them after 2015 when they had ten seats.

There were also news stories about the supposed “feelers” that Liberals have allegedly put out for any NDP floor-crossers, but in the conversations I’ve had with staffers, it has been a lot of “Erm, we don’t want them. Especially that crew.” So, while maybe someone made a few phone calls, or “feelers,” I would seriously doubt that there is an honest effort being made here, but this is merely what I’ve heard, so take that with a grain of salt.

My life reporting on #cdnpoli, basically.

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2025-05-09T13:31:29.079Z

Ukraine Dispatch

Russians hit 8 settlements in Zaporizhzhia region 220 times during their so-called “ceasefire.” Some 40 world leaders, including Canada, are supporting the creation of a special international tribunal to prosecute Russia for their war of aggression. President Zelenskyy is hosting leaders from the “coalition of the will” today.

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Roundup: Hinting at ballot shenanigans

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A Conservative fundraising email suggests the Liberals are somehow trying to tip the scales on the election results with the upcoming judicial recounts on close election races, so that they can get a majority, and I am both unsurprised, but also shocked and appalled. Anyone in this country with a handful of functioning brain cells should recognise that casting doubt on Elections Canada and its processes is nothing short of democratic poison, because we are already at a point where people believe conspiracy theories at the drop of a hat, or are too willing to make up conspiracies to fit their priors.

One also has to ask if the Conservatives are capable of learning a single gods damned lesson from the current moment, where they have a cohort of voters who are itching to swallow MAGA lines whole, and who cannot wait to start applying Big Lie ideology to this country’s elections, and try and claim that the Liberals have somehow “stolen” the election. To couple with that, we have accusations that Poilievre lost his seat in Carleton because the Liberals had gerrymandered the riding to include more urban dwellers, which is the opposite of what happened—to say nothing of the fact that redistribution efforts are led by judicial panels, not political actors. It’s the exact opposite of what happens in the US, but when you consume so much American media, you recreate the world in their image. (I will grant that some of the demographics in the riding may have shifted over the past election cycle, but it was not what re-distribution did in the riding, but rather ongoing housing issues in this province).

Suffice to say, it’s a Problem that someone thought this kind of fundraising appeal was a good idea, and they should get spanked for it, preferably by Elections Canada. This kind of democratic poison should never be used, regardless of your partisan stripes, because undermining trust in the system when you’re being a crybaby is never, ever acceptable.

Ukraine Dispatch

Ukraine says that Russia has violated their own “ceasefire” 734 times between midnight and midday Thursday, proving the whole thing to be a farce. Russia claims that Ukraine made two attempts to cross into Kursk region during the “ceasefire.”

https://twitter.com/ZelenskyyUa/status/1920358258268639512

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