Tag Archives: National Security

Roundup: A last-minute trip sans journalists

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Prime minister Mark Carney took a last-minute trip to Egypt over the weekend to attend the Middle East peace summit, where he did things like praise the release of hostages, and commend the “leadership” of Trump in reaching this moment (which ignores a whole lot of what has happened up until this point). But a lot of things about this trip were unusual. For one, he ended up chartering a private plan because no military aircraft were available on short notice, which is odd in and of itself (and I can’t wait for the pearl-clutching when the Access to Information request is released about the costs of said charter). For another, he did not alert the media to the trip until he was taking off, and no accredited journalists accompanied him on the trip.

Statement from the president of the Parliamentary Press Gallery:

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2025-10-14T23:14:12.452Z

This is a very big warning sign about how Carney is treating the office, and his obligations to transparency. Perhaps more egregiously was the fact that the PMO comms team spent the long weekend emailing journalists and pointing them to links to his posts on Twitter, as though that was some kind of substitute. It’s not. Social media posts are carefully curated and present a very stage-managed view of the world, which is not a substitute for journalism. In fact, it’s usually a form of propaganda, because it delivers a carefully crafted message in a way that is intended to influence the voting public in a certain way.

To be clear, Carney is not the first prime minister who has tried to limit media access in favour of his in-house photographers and media team, and these photographers and videographers are given privileged access to both document history, and set up carefully curated narratives. And yes, the press is going to complain about it because it’s our job to present a wider view than what the PMO wants us to see, and the public expects more transparency, which has been in retreat under Carney’s leadership because he still thinks that this is like being a CEO where you don’t say much because it might affect your stock price. That’s not how you behave in the top political office of the country, and he needs to get that message.

Ukraine Dispatch

Russian glide bombs hit a hospital in Kharkiv in the early morning hours of Tuesday, while attacks on the energy grid continued. A UN humanitarian convoy in southern Ukraine was also hit by Russian drones. Ukrainian authorities have ordered the evacuation of dozens of villages near the city of Kupiansk given the deteriorating security situation, while Russia claims they took control of another village in Donetsk region. President Zelenskyy says that Ukrainian troops have advanced in their counter-offensive in the Zaporizhzhia region.

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QP: Parade of the newbies

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Thursday, and the novelty had worn off for journalists in the gallery, which was once again nearly empty. Mark Carney was elsewhere meeting with the mayor of Toronto, while Andrew Scheer was also absent. Stephanie Kusie led off with some nonsense concern trolling about the lack of a budget. François-Philippe Champagne loudly praised their tax cut, the GST removal on certain houses, and the removal of the consumer carbon levy in law. Kusie again repeated this same nonsense, increasingly breathy and melodramatic, and Champagne reminded her that Canadians chose the Liberals in the election. Kusie tried her first question again in French, and Champagne praised their “ambitious plan” that includes the aforementioned tax cuts. Adam Chambers took over, and he too concern trolled over the Estimates, with a focus on consultants like McKinsey. Champagne insisted that they are focusing on results, and praised the tax cuts and wondered if the Conservatives would support them. Tamara Kronis gave the same performance,and this time, Joël Lightbound took a turn to praise the tax cuts that they are delivering on “day one.” We got another go-around of the same from Carol Anstey, and Lightbound chided the Conservatives about supporting the tax cuts.

Christine Normandin led for the Bloc, and decried plans to “control the Quebec economy from Ottawa,” and wanted a commitment to respecting Quebec’s jurisdiction when the first minsters meet on Monday. Chrystia Freeland praised her meetings with her Quebec counterpart. Normandin tried again, insisting that the Quebec nation was not a barrier to trade, and Freeland agreed that they are working together with Quebec. Patrick Bonin took over, and he decried the possibility of a pipeline going through Quebec only getting a federal assessment. Julie Dabrusin praised her party’s Quebec caucus and said that they would always take Quebec’s interest to heart.

Blake Calkins heckles Freeland “Two more years and you’ll be a parl sec.” #QP

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2025-05-29T18:27:08.710Z

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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: Holding confederation hostage

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Mid-afternoon Alberta time, premier Danielle Smith gave a live address which had all of the appearances of some kind of hostage video, where she is promising to kill confederation if her demands aren’t met. Those demands are largely outrageous in and of themselves—guaranteed pipeline access, killing all federal environmental protection laws that would affect Alberta, perverting equalisation to give them a “per capita share” (it doesn’t operate on a per capita basis), and taking any kind of export tax off the table that could be used as leverage against Trump if we needed it. It was grievance porn, and largely just riling up her base of lunatics—whom she also defended—as they gear up to force some kind of separatism referendum, even though that wouldn’t actually mean what they think it does.

Would like to hear more from the Alberta Premier about how the industrial carbon price is "crippling" in Alberta.A year ago, it was "working."www.theglobeandmail.com/business/art…

— Aaron Wherry (@aaronwherry.bsky.social) 2025-05-05T21:30:03.882Z

https://bsky.app/profile/emmettmacfarlane.com/post/3lohiwnqoyk2y

The whole issue of the separatism referendum is also predicated on her being too-clever-by-half, saying she doesn’t believe in separation and believes in “sovereignty within a united Canada” (which is mostly horseshit), but she’s still going to game the rules to make it easier for the loons to force a referendum. “Oh, there’s no blood on my hands!” she insists, while she bought the knife and handed it to the loons. Politicians who use referendums as diversions or as a clever way of trying to defuse a situation have often seen that situation blow up in their faces, whether it was the capital flight from Quebec in 1980 and again in 1995, or Brexit. And like Brexit, she is willing to tell a bunch of lies to support it, Naheed Nenshi is denouncing this move and correctly pointing out that she is taking Albertans for fools, but Smith is slippery, and that’s going to be a problem the longer this is allowed to continue.

David Cameron thought he was being clever too.

— Stephanie Carvin (@stephaniecarvin.bsky.social) 2025-05-05T22:23:27.486Z

Without popular support for separation, she has seriously limited options. But Moscrop is exactly right: this is live ammo-stuff now, the way Brexit was, the way Trump as a candidate was. She is reckless, and part of a political movement of delusion and dishonesty. Very dangerous

— Bruce Arthur (@brucearthur.bsky.social) 2025-05-05T22:19:08.305Z

Meanwhile, Alberta’s acting Chief Medical Officer of Health spent yesterday morning passive-voicing the decline in vaccination rates as he called for people to step up and get measles vaccinations. If only Danielle Smith and her hand of swivel-eyed loons didn’t boost vaccine hesitancy in order to “own the Libs.” Honestly…

Ukraine Dispatch

Russia launched 116 drones overnight, targeting mostly Sumy and Donetsk regions. President Zelenskyy visited the Czech Republic to get commitments on more artillery shells, and pilot training.

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Roundup: The King is coming!

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Mark Carney gave his first post-election news conference yesterday, and he ensured that it was something of a news tsunami, but also that the tone and tenor of his government is vastly different from that of his predecessor. (Well, his predecessor post-2017ish. For the first couple of years, Trudeau was still trying pretty hard to hold to the things he campaigned on in a promise to be a generational change). This included some timelines for the next few weeks, and it’s a lot. So with that in mind, Carney goes to Washington on Tuesday to meet with Trump, the new Cabinet will be sworn in on the week of the 12th, Parliament will be recalled on the 26th for the election of a new Speaker, and then the 27th will be the Speech From the Throne, and it will be delivered by the King, for the first time since 1977 (and the first time a monarch has opened our parliament since 1957). In addition, he says we have the biggest reorientation of our economy to accomplish since the Second World War, and he’s going to balance the operating budget within three years with no cuts to services (indeed, the rollout of full dental care is continuing on schedule), and he’s not going to enter into any kind of formal arrangement with the NDP as there is no point in doing so. Here are five of the priorities outlined by Carney.

https://twitter.com/RoyalFamily/status/1918325678144884794

There will, of course, be a bunch of grumbling about the King arriving to deliver the Speech, but the thing we need to get out of the way is that he’s the King of Canada, not the King of the UK (or England, which hasn’t had a separate Crown since 1707) as far as we’re concerned, and so he’s not a “foreign monarch.” Canada has had a separate Crown from the UK since the Statute of Westminster in 1931, and even before that, the Crown in Canada manifested in very different ways from the UK since Princess Louise was the Chatelaine of Rideau Hall. (I have more on this in the Crown chapter of my book). The fact that we are bringing out the King to play a bigger role as our sovereignty is threatened is a reflection of just how different we are from the US, and why we will never be part of them, and because Trump idolises the royals, this becomes a thumb in his eye. We cannot forget that.

The other major development yesterday was that Conservative MP Damien Kurek has offered up his seat to Pierre Poilievre, so that he can return to the House of Commons, and surprising nobody, it’s one of the most conservative (and indeed, whitest) ridings in the country, where he got 81.8 percent of the vote in Monday’s election. While Carney said he would call the by-election at the earliest opportunity, Kurek can’t actually resign until a certain point because of rules in place, after which it’s a five-week campaign, and so that means it probably won’t happen until early July, so Poilievre will be out of the Chamber for the entire spring sitting (which is only slated to be about four weeks long). Kurek was six months away from qualifying for an MP pension, so one imagines that the party will work to compensate him in some way.

Ukraine Dispatch

A mass drone attack late Friday hit an apartment block in Kharkiv, injuring 46 people. The US State Department has approved the sale of $310 worth of training and sustainment for Ukraine’s F-16 fighter jets.

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Roundup: Singh says he’s not dead yet

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Day thirty-two, and we are reaching the phase of the campaign where resources and people are being shifted to ridings that they are most concerned about, and the leaders’ stops will reflect this. There is also talk that the Conservatives are pouring resources into Poilievre’s own riding because it increasingly feels in jeopardy, in part because the Liberal challenger has been working the doors for four years.

Mark Carney was in Victoria, where he gave the BC-centric version of his campaign pitch, before making stops in White Rock, New Westminster, and Surrey, which is a direct play for the NDP seats in the area. Carney will start the day in Port Moody, BC, before heading to Winnipeg.

Pierre Poilievre was in Stoney Creek, Ontario, where he thanked police associations for their endorsement before reiterating his plan to give them new powers to dismantle tent encampments (as though that solves any of the underlying problems that has led to their rise). He then headed to Trenton, Nova Scotia, for a rally. Poilievre will start the day in Halifax before heading to Saskatoon, as he has not yet stopped in Saskatchewan this election.

Jagmeet Singh was in Edmonton to re-announce his “plan” for national rent control, which is exclusive provincial jurisdiction, and to declare that he’s not dead yet, and there are still five days left. He then headed to Winnipeg to shore up their two seats there. Singh participated in an AFN virtual meeting, where he made a tonne of promises he can’t keep.  Singh will start his day in Winnipeg before heading to Toronto.

In other campaign news, the after it was pointed out that the Conservatives left out their promise to “fight woke ideology” from their platform document, they said that was a publishing error and put it back in. The Logic has their longread profileof Poilievre. Mélanie Joly has openly called for a majority parliament while Carney has been cagey, so cue the tut-tutting about “arrogance” and so on. The Star fact-checks Carney’s statements last week (and this remains the dumbest possible fact-check methodology).

Poilievre says he doesn't watch TV, but "a little bit of UCF on my YouTube." That…tracks, actually.

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2025-04-23T14:54:48.403Z

Ukraine Dispatch

A massive missile and drone strike hit Kyiv overnight, killing nine and injuring at least 63. Russian drones killed seven in a strike on the city of Marhanets, while an energy facility in Kherson was destroyed by Russian artillery and drone attacks. A Ukrainian drone strike damaged a Russian drone production site in Tatarstan. President Zelenskyy is rejecting any “peace” proposal that would surrender Crimea to Russia permanently.

https://twitter.com/ZelenskyyUa/status/1915005378225373500

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Roundup: A “fun with numbers” platform

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Day thirty-one, and the Conservatives swallowed up the news cycle with the release of their “costed” platform at long last, and well, it soon became clear as to why that was the case. (Some campaign photos here). Mark Carney was in Quebec City to reiterate his plans focused on Quebec in particular, especially as they relate to Quebec identity and the economy, before lambasting the Conservatives’ “costed” platform (more on that below). Carney then had stops in Shefford, Saint-Bruno, and Laval.

Pierre Poilievre was in Woodbridge, Ontario, where he finally unveiled his “costed” platform, and the term is used very loosely because hoo boy. It was mostly full of magical mystery math that books phantom revenues—including from resource projects that don’t exist and likely won’t exist in a four-year timeframe—and from cuts to things like consulting services or government IT, which rarely actually delivers real savings. Oh, and it doesn’t actually eliminate the deficit like they’ve been touting, even with the overly optimistic phantom revenues. (For contrast, the Liberals’ platform doesn’t include revenue assumptions). There was a promise to hold referendums for tax increases, which a) neuters the role of Parliament, b) has blown up in the faces of those who instituted this in places like California, and c) is empty posturing because you can’t bind a future government, so the law is easily repealed. And then, to distract from the faulty promises and bad math, Poilievre veered into a performance about a document from Policy Horizons Canada which he claimed were doomsday forecasts when they are actually a number of largely implausible scenarios to force policy-makers to consider some various worst-case scenarios, and are not in fact forecasts at all, not that he would tell you differently. (Write-ups from CBC, The Star, The Logic, the National Post, CTV, and the Globe and Mail). At some point in the day, Poilievre attended a “virtual forum” with the AFN, but remained cagey about his criticisms of UNDRIP. Poilievre later held a rally in Vaughan. He’ll be in Stoney Creek, Ontario, this morning, before heading to Trenton, Nova Scotia.

The Conservative plan is out and, ooof, is this costing a disaster.There's a whole bunch of phantom revenues booked here, and the GST housing pledge is costed at under $2B. Given their proposed eligibility criteria, it should be more in the 4-6B range.

— Dr. Mike P. Moffatt (@mikepmoffatt.bsky.social) 2025-04-22T14:40:58.000Z

The Conservative plan books extra revenue from economic growth caused by their policies. The idea that economic growth will lead to improved finances isn't unreasonable. Budget 2024 shows that 100 bps of economic growth is worth $5B a year to the federal budget.

— Dr. Mike P. Moffatt (@mikepmoffatt.bsky.social) 2025-04-22T17:51:23.000Z

The Conservatives are booking anywhere from $3B-10B of additional revenue each year from economic-related growth. The average year sees an additional $6B+ in revenue, associated with 128bps in economic growth.This is a near doubling of TD Econ's growth forecasts.

— Dr. Mike P. Moffatt (@mikepmoffatt.bsky.social) 2025-04-22T17:51:29.000Z

The CPC platform books *extra* revenue of about $13B from their new capital gains deferral idea.But allowing people to defer capital gains will *cost* revenue.I'm guessing they assume *huge* new economic activity will be generated? You'd maybe need about $100B in new GDP to do that. Interesting.

— Kevin Milligan (@kevinmilligan.bsky.social) 2025-04-22T15:38:08.921Z

Or the whole debacle when the established Shared Services and cut their budget by the projected savings before they had done any of the enterprise transformation work.

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2025-04-22T15:33:29.326Z

A couple of other thoughts:-Repealing Bill C-75 won't do much for bail other than roll back tougher bail conditions for domestic violence-Repealing Bill C-83 will do nothing about Paul Bernardo because the bill was about solitary confinement-Repealing Bill C-5 won't stop auto theft.

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2025-04-22T19:13:59.627Z

https://twitter.com/maxfawcett/status/1914778670381838356

In all seriousness, I haven't seen "fun with numbers" costing like this in a Conservative platform since the 2014 Ontario PC campaign.

— Dr. Mike P. Moffatt (@mikepmoffatt.bsky.social) 2025-04-22T14:52:57.000Z

Jagmeet Singh was in Vancouver, where he mostly shit-talked Brookfield and Carney before begging people to vote NDP in order to prevent Carney from getting a “supermajority” (which is not a Thing in Canadian politics). Singh then headed to his home riding of Burnaby, and then to Edmonton. Singh remains in Edmonton this morning before heading to Winnipeg.

In other campaign news, Elections Canada says that a record 7.3 million people voted in the advance polls over the Easter long weekend. Former PBO Kevin Page rated the Liberal platform more favourably than the Conservatives’ (for fairly obvious reasons). Here are two more longread profiles of Carney, this time from the Globe and Mail and The Logic, and each covers different aspects of crises he’s faced in the past.

https://bsky.app/profile/blakeshaffer.bsky.social/post/3lnh54yn6gk2i

Ukraine Dispatch

Three people were injured in the Russian drone attack on Odesa overnight Monday. One woman was killed and some 26 others were injured in a guided bomb attack on Zaporizhzhia yesterday. President Zelenskyy indicated that Chinese nationals are working in Russian drone factories, and that Russia may have stolen Chinese drone technology.

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Roundup: The first Trump 2.0 salvo

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And so it begins. Donald Trump went on this Truth Social to declare that he’s going to impose 25 percent tariffs against Canada until we secure the border and stop letting illegal aliens and fentanyl across, and predictably, everybody lost their gods damned minds.

https://twitter.com/maxfawcett/status/1861241979834900615

Guys, he’s signalling he wants counter offers.Throwing someone under the bus is not an offer Doug/Danielle. He can do that without you. What do you have that he needs? Or, what do you have what ppl he needs/owes need? Hint ON: it’s not auto parts.

— Jennifer Robson (@jrobson.bsky.social) 2024-11-26T02:12:33.298Z

Justin Trudeau had a call with Trump apparently shortly after, and Dominic LeBlanc and Chrystia Freeland put out a bland, vaguely-reassuring statement, while Trudeau also had to call the premiers of the two largest provinces to calm them down (as they had already been demanding an emergency First Ministers’ meeting about Trump’s return). In amidst this, Jagmeet Singh was also being performative about demanding Trudeau fight, and so on.

It took less than three hours before the first of the Elder Pundits started demanding that we capitulate on a number of files to Trump while, delusionally, insisting that he can be bargained with in good faith. Honest to Zeus, you guys.

And here's our first sighting of a capitulationist argument. John advocates that we gather and sit down and negotiate "in good faith" with the incoming administration, and then lists a bunch of things where we should just concede.

— Kevin Milligan (@kevinmilligan.bsky.social) 2024-11-26T04:47:28.634Z

Well, I see that Alaric has brought a lot of Visigoths with him to the gates of Rome. Maybe we should sit down and negotiate with Good King Alaric in good faith and he will agree to sack only half of Rome.

— Kevin Milligan (@kevinmilligan.bsky.social) 2024-11-26T04:54:19.405Z

I mean, had this strategy succeeded even once with that guy? "Say what you want about Trump, but he sure does respect and respond to people who come and negotiate in good faith." Haha, no.

— Kevin Milligan (@kevinmilligan.bsky.social) 2024-11-26T04:57:16.619Z

Once everyone calms down and breathes into a paper bag for a few minutes, we need to be clear-eyed about this, and one of the most important things to be clear-eyed about is that if Trump does this, that means he raises gas prices in the American Midwest overnight. Maybe we need to let him discover some consequences for his actions instead of capitulating? It might be a novel approach, and we might suffer some collateral damage, but it might be less than we think.

What action should we take to a threatened 25% tariff?Some thoughts….www.theglobeandmail.com/world/articl…

— Kevin Milligan (@kevinmilligan.bsky.social) 2024-11-26T02:14:27.371Z

https://bsky.app/profile/josephpolitano.bsky.social/post/3lbsuq6etic26

I mean seriously if the guy is about to jam a stick in his own damned wheel we don't need to have an emergency Team Canada summit and capitulate our way into offering sacrifices. We should just say…go ahead, and enjoy the pain you're inflicting on yourself.

— Kevin Milligan (@kevinmilligan.bsky.social) 2024-11-26T02:41:01.591Z

You all MOCKED George Lucas and said this was boring or dumb but who’s laughing now???

— Happy Nute Dawn (@nutedawn.bsky.social) 2024-11-26T01:00:33.647Z

Ukraine Dispatch

Russia once again launched a massive drone assault, targeting Kharkiv, Odesa, and Kyiv, mostly damaging residential buildings. Russian forces are also rapidly advancing toward Kurakhove.

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QP: Call an election/Get your security clearance ad nauseam

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Wednesday, and what sounds like a less exciting caucus meeting for the Liberals, in spite of the talk going around. The PM was present and ready to take all of the questions today, while his deputy was absent. Not all of the other leaders were present, unusually, and Pierre Poilievre led off in French, recited his talking points about the supposed “promise” in Canada that was “broken,” and wanted the government to adopt his plan to cut the GST on new homes under $1million. Justin Trudeau noted that the problem with any of Poilievre’s proposals is that they come with cuts, and in this case, it would cut $9 billion in transfers to Quebec to build affordable housing. Poilievre insisted that the government only builds bureaucracy and not homes, and again wanted them to adopt his GST cut. Trudeau listed investments the government is making, while Poilievre only offers cuts. Poilievre switched to English to give a paean to a very white, middle-class “Canadian promise,” which he claims the government broke and demanded they adopt his GST cut plan. Trudeau gave a longer soliloquy about the Conservatives only offering cuts and not help for people. Poilievre insisted that the current plans only build bureaucracy and that his plan was “common sense.” Trudeau noted that one of the fundamental responsibilities of any prime minister is to keep Canadians safe, but since Poilievre refuses a security briefing to keep his own caucus safe, he instructed security services to find a way to offer himself a briefing. Poilievre accused this of being a “tin-pot conspiracy,” before returning to the insistence that his plan was just common sense. Trudeau again repeated that Poilievre only offers cuts, and that he asked security services to figure out a briefing. 

Alain Therrien led for the Bloc, and accused the government of abandoning seniors by turning down the Bloc’s OAS bill. Trudeau listed ways in which they are helping seniors, which the Bloc opposed. Therrien took some swipes at the NDP before repeating his demand, and Trudeau linked the Bloc to the Conservatives in voting against measures to help seniors.

Jagmeet Singh rose for the NDP, raised Alberta turning over the administration of some hospitals to Covenant who refuses to provide abortions, and wanted Trudeau to do something. Trudeau noted that they have clawed back transfers to provinces who don’t provide services, and raised their motion to penalise pregnancy support charities that don’t offer the full suite of supports or options. Singh flubbed his attempt at a clip of “It’s her body her choice, not her body Conservative Party’s choice,” before switching to French to complain about housing transfers. Trudeau focused on the abortion aspect, and failed about the anti-choice MPs in the Conservative ranks.

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