Tag Archives: RCMP

Roundup: Danielle Smith’s weapon of mass distraction

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Alberta premier Danielle Smith continues to be in increasing hot water—and oh, look, her justice minister is related by marriage to someone at the centre of the healthcare procurement scandal—so she has decided to go full-bore into her weapon of mass distraction, which is to attack the federal government and to try and call out Mark Carney for…reasons. She’s asking Carney for a “reset” of relations with Alberta (translation: Give me everything I want), because of course she is. One of the things she announced was a new court challenge of the clean electricity regulations, because of course she is. Nothing like making the lawyers a bunch more money.

https://twitter.com/maxfawcett/status/1917945085674791322

Throughout this, Smith insists she’s not stoking separatism *cough* and that these are just “hypotheticals” about the group of loons in the province itching to trigger a plebiscite by starting to gather signatures (before the bill has even passed), but the fact that she is lowering the threshold for just this eventually is a sign that she knows she’s doing it deliberately. And hey, she even says that there’s no appetite in the province for their own separate pension plan after all (because she got spanked by the reality that she couldn’t raid the majority of the CPP on the way out), so that must mean she’s serious about not stoking separatism, right? Does she think we’re all stupid and can’t see through her transparent bullshit?

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Of course, because Scott Moe can’t help himself, he said that he’s a “true Canadian” but wouldn’t stop a public vote on separation if they triggered a plebiscite under provincial legislation. So…as premier he’s willing to also drive out investment and opportunity from companies that have no interest in dealing with this kind of nonsense? Wow, that’s some smart politicking!

Ukraine Dispatch

A Russian drone attack late Thursday set houses ablaze in Zaporizhzhia and injured 14, but didn’t cause any deaths.

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Roundup: Leaders on the final push

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Day thirty-four, and leaders are all in the final push, making last-minute stops in key ridings that they either hope to keep, or win outright. Mark Carney was in Sault Ste. Marie to visit Algoma Steel, where he gave the Ontario-centric and, more importantly, steel-focused, version of his pitch to voters. He did say, in response to a question, that he was open to electoral reform but didn’t think that a prime minister should champion it because it politicises it. (I swear to Zeus, if this turns into another round of “citizen assembly” nonsense, I will lose my mind). He also said he’s open to reviewing the Access to Information regime (which every leader says), and called on Israel to end the blockade on food aid to Gaza. The then made stops in Georgetown, Cambridge, and London, Ontario. He also made his appearance at the virtual AFN forum, where he committed to implementation of UNDRIP. Carney is sticking in Ontario today with events in King City, Newmarket, Aurora, Markham, Mississauga, and then Windsor.

Pierre Poilievre was in Saskatoon, where he laid out his plans for his first 100 days in office (which is another imported Americanism), and it involved promising to sit through the summer in order to pass three massive omnibus bills that dealt with large swaths of his agenda. Part of his hundred days, however, was a promise to get a deal with Trump, which is not only ridiculous because nobody is getting an actual deal with Trump, but he’s been saying that Carney thinks he can control Trump but nobody can, and yet he’s simultaneously insisting that only he can control Trump enough to get a deal. It’s laughable that he thinks this is at all serious. Poilievre then stopped in Calgary for a rally, where he called for bigger voter turnout, before heading to Nanoose Bay, BC. Poilievre will be in Delta, BC, today for one of his finally rallies.

Poilievre is still peddling the fantasy that *he* can make a deal with Trump that will stick, after he says Carney is delusional for thinking he can control Trump.

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2025-04-25T15:44:59.656Z

Jagmeet Singh was in Toronto, where he just invented the threat that the Liberals will cut healthcare if there aren’t enough NDP MPs elected, which is outrageous bullshit. For one, the problem is with the provinces, and they have long-term funding agreements with the federal government, and two, the threats of cutting healthcare are at the provincial level. This is just outright mendacity from an increasingly desperate Singh. His campaign then stopped in Hamilton and London, Ontario. Singh starts the day in London, then heads to Windsor before flying to Vancouver and Burnaby.

Singh is just literally making shit up at this point.

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2025-04-25T15:02:12.089Z

On a side note, Yves-François Blanchet made the statement today that Canada is an “artificial country with very little meaning,” in response to questions about previous remarks about sitting in a “foreign parliament.” While this is probably self-defeating at a time of heightened patriotism, what Blanchet is really trying to do is appeal to ethnic nationalism in Quebec. All countries are artificial, but a good many around the world are bound together by a common ethnicity and language, and Canada is not. Certain elements of Quebec would like to think that they have a common ethnicity and language, but this is the kind of ethnic nationalism that fuels racism and xenophobia. It’s what François Legault has been appealing to as he attacks the rights of religious minorities. And Blanchet is trying to appeal to it to say that Liberals can’t represent Quebec because only the Bloc can truly represent “ethnic” Quebeckers. But he’s also been hoping that he’ll get a bump in the polls like he did last time after Shachi Kurl raised (badly formed) questions about Law 21, which Blanchet was able to spin into “She’s calling us racists!” and that gave him the boost in the polls he needed. It looks like he won’t get that this time around.

https://twitter.com/acoyne/status/1916013202388721995

In other campaign news, Equal Voice’s tally shows that the Liberals, Conservatives, and Bloc are all running fewer women as candidates in this election. Elections Canada says that Poilievre’s riding of Carleton had the highest advance turnout in the country. None of the parties have been clear about how they plan to meet existing climate commitments. Singh is trying to convince George Stroumboulopoulos that their poll numbers are rebounding (really!) so they’ll come out of the election with “lots” of re-elected MPs. (Aside from the quarter of his caucus that’s not running again?)

For Canadians being inundated by riding-level polls right now:The data is crap if it has no dates, small samples (<800), high margins of error.The people showing them to you are trying to persuade you to vote for their own preferred party. It's sales pitch, not an evidence-based argument.

— Jared Wesley (@jaredwesley.ca) 2025-04-26T01:02:15.747Z

https://bsky.app/profile/emmettmacfarlane.com/post/3lnnrnrygrs2r

Yes. Yes I do.

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2025-04-25T13:35:18.917Z

Ukraine Dispatch

A drone attack on Pavlohrad killed five and injured at least eleven. A Russian general was killed by a car bomb, and Russia is blaming Ukraine (who have not yet claimed responsibility).

https://twitter.com/ukraine_world/status/1915669752787149047

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Roundup: Meeting the local volunteers

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Day seven of the campaign, and it was a quieter day, but things were still happening. It also looks like, despite previous campaigns usually having quieter Sundays for the parties to regroup, to let reporters swap in and out of campaign planes and so on, that some of the parties are having active campaign days today, because why let anyone catch up?

Mark Carney was in his riding, meeting his team and volunteers, and had along the way kicked out local media. Oops. He’ll remain in Ottawa today, meeting with local families and volunteers.

Pierre Poilievre was in Winnipeg, where he pledged to allow tradespeople to write off their expenses when they travel for work, because he’s trying very hard to secure the blue-collar vote, and to pretend that the solution to the trade war with Trump is to just expand the oil and gas sector. Poilievre also said he wouldn’t contest any controversial Quebec language law in courts, and presumably that means their “secularism” legislation either (because apparently he’s still trying to out-Bloc the Bloc). Poilievre’s campaign returns to the GTA today.

Jagmeet Singh was in Ottawa, and promised “emergency price caps” on certain grocery items in order to “tariff proof” them, which seems like it’s asking to defeat the purpose of counter-tariffs because Singh and his advisors don’t have a clue about how these things work, and refuse to listen to economists. He also wants a windfall tax on grocery giants and more powers to the Competition Bureau to enforce grocery prices—almost all of which are old policies just dressed up for the trade war era rather than the spike in inflation, meaning that the NDP has a box of “solutions” that they are seeking out problems for. The campaign heads off to Port Moody, BC, today.

Meanwhile, the knives are out in the Conservative camp, with even more leaks and anonymous sources™ calling up more media outlets to discuss their concerns with the state of the campaign (CBC and Globe and Mail this time), painting even more of a picture of a campaign that is too centralised, too focused on weird, niche issues (including reporting of crowd sizes), bullying, and tone-deafness. This also includes the fact that some 90 ridings were set aside to have Poilievre and Jenni Byrne choose the candidates rather than allowing a nomination process, which is frankly happening across too many parties these days.

Ukraine Dispatch

Russian drones struck a military hospital, shopping centre, and apartment blocks in Kharkiv late Saturday.

https://twitter.com/ukraine_world/status/1905866120684319066

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Roundup: Carney’s first call with Trump

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Day six of the campaign, and things took a slightly different tone as the tariff issue still loomed large. Mark Carney remained in Montreal, where he had his first call with Donald Trump since becoming prime minister, and they both gave very civil readouts, but the tariffs are still coming, as are the retaliatory measures. Carney then had a virtual meeting with the premiers, before holding his announcement for the day, which was about a $5 billion fund for trade corridors and infrastructure, dedicated in particular to east-west trade and ports to different destinations than the US. Today, Carney will be back in Ottawa to meet his campaign volunteers in Nepean (but no word on any actual door-knocking).

Readout of Carney's call with Trump. #cdnpoli

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2025-03-28T16:50:03.092Z

https://bsky.app/profile/jrobson.bsky.social/post/3llh4c35vnk2a

Readout of Carney's virtual meeting with the premiers. #cdnpoli

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2025-03-28T21:56:12.976Z

Pierre Poilievre was in Nanaimo, BC, to essentially re-announce his previously revealed, completely unconstitutional promise of locking up fentanyl traffickers for life. This is just going to capture low-level users whose lives are already miserable, but sometimes the cruelty is the point. When asked about the latest tariffs, Poilievre continues to hope for a change in tone out of Trump (and is not facing the reality of a dead relationship), but then went into a rant about how only the oil industry can make us economically viable. Poilievre will be in Winnipeg today.

Jagmeet Singh was in Toronto to announce a policy about banning corporate landlords from buying affordable units and jacking the rents, and tried to tie it to Carney and Brookfield. Of course, Singh’s plan is mostly unworkable because much of it lies within provincial jurisdiction, so that’s not unexpected. He’ll be in Ottawa today, canvassing with local candidates.

Aside from this being weaksauce, I fail to see how they can stop corporations from buying rental properties (especially as property transactions and landlord-tenant legislation are provincial responsibilities).

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2025-03-28T14:14:56.337Z

I'll just point out the obvious that not-for-profit corporations are… corporations. So are condo corporations and corps that own apartment buildings since individuals rarely have the cash to build or buy them. As for the constitutional division of powers, Singh has had a longstanding problem.

— Stephen Lautens (@stephenlautens.bsky.social) 2025-03-28T16:51:51.036Z

In the wake of Kory Teneycke’s pillorying of Poilievre’s campaign, other Conservatives on the campaign are coming out the woodwork to talk about how the campaign is shambolic, the leader isolated, and that the wheels have already come off of it. In other campaign news, the National Post dug up Mark Carney’s PhD thesis and got an academic that they run op-eds for—and who donates to the Conservatives—to declare that aspects were “plagiarised.” They weren’t really, and the only real plagiarism here is the lifting wholesale of far-right US tactics (see: Claudine Gay at Harvard), but hoo boy, the stench of desperation coming off the Conservatives as every one of their candidates screamed over social media about this non-scandal. In a similar example of the media pushing a non-story comes word that one of the funds Poilievre invested in holds Brookfield stocks, after all of his grief about them (but again, they’re funds, he doesn’t direct them Meanwhile, Breach Media found evidence that Poilievre’s wife helped her uncle stay in the country after he was deemed inadmissible and was ordered to be deported, and contrasts it to Poilievre’s rhetoric about “illegal border crossers” needing to be deported.

https://bsky.app/profile/emmettmacfarlane.com/post/3llhfo4w3vc26

Migrant Workers Alliance for Change just fired a shot across Poilievre's bow.

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2025-03-28T14:11:35.328Z

I mean, Carney's french isn't good. But I would hardly describe it as satanic. (Rusty anglo bureaucrat is more accurate)

— Jess Davis (@jessmarindavis.bsky.social) 2025-03-28T19:24:09.953Z

Ukraine Dispatch

A Russian drone attack on Dnipro killed four late Friday, and drone attacks on Poltava damaged warehouses owned by the state gas producer, in spite of the “energy ceasefire.” Russia claims Ukraine destroyed a gas infrastructure unit in Sudzha, but Ukraine said Russia did it. Now that Ukrainians are out of Kursk region, they have started fresh incursions into the Belgorod region. Ukrainian intelligence, corroborated by two G7 allies, suggests that Putin is planning a fresh offensive on three regions in order to strengthen Russia’s negotiating position with the US.

https://twitter.com/ukraine_world/status/1905766350825607175

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Roundup: Election 2025, Day One

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Around noon on Sunday, prime minister Mark Carney visited Rideau Hall and advised the Governor General to dissolve Parliament for an election. She agreed, signed the proclamation, and the 45th general election was underway. The election will be held on April 28th, making it a short five-week campaign.

Message from the Office of the Speaker of the House of Commons:

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2025-03-23T18:16:45.323Z

Remember: Writs are drawn-up. 343 of them, in fact—one for every riding, because a general election is 343 separate but simultaneous elections, not a single event. Nothing gets "dropped," and certainly not a singular writ.No, it's not a "turn of phrase," and no, it's not allowed. #cdnpoli

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2025-03-23T17:38:11.308Z

Mark Carney spoke afterward, and immediately promised a “Middle Class™ tax cut,” because clearly what’s needed in a time of economic uncertainty, and when we need to ramp up our defence spending and response to the economic predations of Trump, is a tax cut that will disproportionately benefit top income earners. Carney then headed to St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, for his first campaign stop.

Sigh. Is it possible for everyone to remember that Cutting the lowest tax rate means 1. all tax credits are now worth less 2. And high earners benefit much more from the rate cut than anyone else. Don’t make me break out SPSD/M

— Dr Lindsay Tedds (@lindsaytedds.bsky.social) 2025-03-23T18:37:33.520Z

Pierre Poilievre got his message out early, and he took a couple of mild jabs at Trump, before doubling down on his usual nonsense about “open border” creating crime (which is completely false), and insisted that his campaign offers hope and change, and insisted that they will “restore” the promise of the country. He then headed off to Toronto for a “Canada First™” rally.

Jagmeet Singh accused the Liberals of letting the country “rot from the inside,” and that he’s about people and not billionaires. (All tens of them in Canada?) From his initial Ottawa launch, he then headed to Montreal for his first stop.

And the Green co-leaders Elizabeth May and Jonathan Pedneault called for unity during the election in order to stand up to Trump and the global oligarchs that are seeking to destroy democracy.

In the background of all of this was an interview that Danielle Smith gave to Breitbart News in the US, where she claims that she told members of the Trump administration to hold off on tariffs in order to help get Poilievre elected, because he would be more in sync with them. This is pretty shocking, if she is indeed telling the truth and not just giving some kind of boast to make herself look good for the Breitbart crowd. Poilievre insists that Trump wants Carney to win because he’ll be a pushover, and I mean, come on. Carney gave his usual points about needing respect from Trump before they’ll talk. Nevertheless, the fact that we have premiers freelancing foreign policy like this is a Very Bad Thing and they need to be reined in.

In sync with authoritarianism?Yes. Yes he would be.

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2025-03-23T01:52:45.612Z

 

Ukraine Dispatch

Russia launched 147 drones at several cities across Ukraine overnight Sunday, and killed at least seven. On Saturday, Russian shelling killed three in Pokrovsk. The blaze at Russia’s Krasnodar oil depot has been burning for over five days now.

https://twitter.com/ZelenskyyUa/status/1903740311689363767

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Roundup: Delusions about Canadian defence industry capabilities

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On Sunday, following NDP leader Jagmeet Singh’s trip to Nunavut, he released an Arctic sovereignty and defence policyin a bit of pre-election posturing. The actual Arctic sovereignty stuff was reasonably fine, which mostly involves better investments in Northern and Inuit communities, but the defence part? Hoo boy. To start off, it was poorly worded in talking about “repatriating” the F-35 contract to “build the jets” in Canada, but it wasn’t immediately clear if he thought they could build the F-35s in Canada (nope), or if it meant restarting the entire process for selecting a new fighter, which again, isn’t really possible at this stage as the CF-18s are at the absolute end of their lifespan, and we can’t just turn procurements off on a dime.

As Philippe Lagassé explains, yes, we need to pivot away from American platforms, but that needs to be done in a managed and methodical way that is going to take years, and the NDP need to realise this (and so, frankly, to the Liberals given the kinds of crazy things all of the leadership contenders were saying during their debates). But seriously, guys, you can’t just claim we’ll meet all of our military obligations with Canadian industries alone. That’s not even wishful thinking—it’s full-on delusion. You may think that Bombardier’s vapourware promises sound great, because Canadian jobs, but when they can’t deliver? Those are some pretty hefty consequences to face.

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Carbon levy gaslighting

In amidst a bunch of “trutherism” about the document that Mark Carney signed on Friday to zero out the consumer carbon levy (for which they published an extra edition of the Canada Gazette to enact), the Conservative continue to insist that Carney is just going to raise it back up after an election, which seems to be admitting that he’s going to win, which is kind of funny.

Meanwhile, the Liberals are doing themselves no favours by spending the weekend praising Carney for “getting it done” in ending their own signature environmental policy. And Liberal MPs were all over social media patting themselves on the back for “listening to Canadians,” and making up outright Orwellian excuses for defeating their own gods damned policy. And then their supporters were in my replies offering up straight-up revisionist history about the carbon price and trying to blame it on Stephen Harper, I shit you not. I really, really not appreciate being gaslit about your stupid political moves, especially when they refuse to own why it became so divisive, particularly when they refused to properly explain or defend their own policies.

Ukraine Dispatch

Russian drones hit a high-rise building in Chernihiv. Contrary to the Russian propaganda that Trump has been reading, Ukrainian troops in Kursk region are not encircled, even though the Russians are pushing forward to move Ukrainian troops from the region.

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Roundup: Carney’s transition races out of the gate

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The day after the leadership race concluded, the transition began. Mark Carney had meetings with Justin Trudeau, and met with the caucus, albeit fairly briefly, as things got underway. We learned that he’s chosen MP Marco Mendicino as his chief of staff, which sounds like it’s on an interim basis (because Mendicino apparently has designs on running for mayor of Toronto), but so long as it means Katie Telford is out of the job, that’s what matters. Carney promised the transition would be swift, and it sounds like he wants a pared-down PMO. We also learned that Carney has already put his assets, minus personal real estate, into a blind trust and submitted all of his disclosures to the Ethics Commissioner, well ahead of schedule, which blunts the Conservatives’ attacks on his wealth. (To be clear, the rules state he has four months to disclose after being sworn-in, and he’s now disclosed even before being sworn-in). The one thing I found surprising was that Carney has reached out to Jean Charest to offer him some kind of senior role, including possibly a ministerial portfolio, and that Charest declined, with talk from the reporters saying that he may also be reaching out to Christy Clark.

As for Trudeau, he held his final Cabinet meeting, and was photographed carrying his chair out of the House of Commons (as the rules allow MPs to buy their chair when they leave politics).

Photo du jour. Crédit : Reuters.

— Louis Blouin (@icilouisblouin.bsky.social) 2025-03-10T19:00:30.490Z

On the trade war front, Doug Ford went ahead with the 25 percent “surcharge” on electricity exports (but it’s not a tariff, because that would be a federal trade power), and insists he’s looking into turning off the electricity if things get worse (which may actually be impossible given the interconnection of the grids). In response, Trump’s commerce secretary continued to threaten further tariffs on steel and aluminium, dairy, lumber, and “reciprocal” tariffs where they misunderstand that the GST is on all goods and not just imported ones. BC premier David Eby wants the federal government to drop their tariff fight with China, citing farmers and BC industry being hit on both sides (but seriously, do you think China is a good-faith actor here?).

Ukraine Dispatch

Russia has launched airstrikes overnight in Kyiv, while their troops are attempting to break through in the northeastern Sumy region, across the border from Kursk. In Kursk, Russian forces continue to advance, but Ukraine’s top general insists they are not at risk of being encircled. Ukraine claims that they have hit oil refineries in two Russian regions.

https://twitter.com/ukraine_world/status/1899104651527524818

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Roundup: Carney chosen, now the transition begins

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The Liberal leadership race has concluded, with Mark Carney winning by 85.9 percent on the first ballot, winning in every riding including those held by Chrystia Freeland and Karina Gould. The results were announced after Justin Trudeau’s farewell speech, and a barnburner from Jean Chrétien, and then Carney delivered an utterly bland speech, which has become par for the course. (Another Carney bio is here).

With Carney now having won the contest, now the transition begins, which won’t happen overnight, and he won’t be sworn in as PM at Rideau Hall for a few days, while this gets sorted. That won’t stop the constant drone of the concern trolling that he’ll be PM without facing an election (because apparently nobody knows basic civics in a Westminster parliamentary system), and because they want to argue in bad faith about what this means. If you need some convincing, here is a look back at previous prime ministers who didn’t have a seat in the House of Commons when they took office (though two examples were senators at the time).

In reaction, Susan Delacourt points out that Carney also has the job ahead of reinventing the Liberal Party for the next generation, as has tended to be the case for most leaders. Paul Wells muses about Carney’s brand of change, and the what it says about his competition with Poilievre to lead the country in the upcoming federal election, whenever it kicks off. Colin Horgan looks back to Carney’s past performances, particularly when he got outflanked by Poilievre at a committee appearance. As well, Trudeau’s official photographer for the past 15 years, Adam Scotti, reflects on the journey.

Ukraine Dispatch

Russia launched another heavy aerial attack on Saturday that pounded Dobropillya in the Donetsk region, killing at least 22 people. There were another 14 killed and at least 37 wounded in Kharkiv the same night. Russian forces have also recaptured three settlements in the Kursk region, trying to drive Ukrainians out. Ukrainian drones made a long-range strike against an industrial facility overnight Saturday.

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Roundup: Moving onto the dairy front

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The trade war seemed slightly more stable yesterday as the reprieve on most goods seemed to be holding, but it took no time at all for Trump to start musing about new, invented grievances and irritants. The latest is the dairy sector, for which there are limits as to how much the US can export to Canada tariff-free, but again, Trump has blown this out of proportion in his own mind. And as a result, he threatened 250 percent tariffs on Canadian dairy…but we don’t really export to them, certainly not liquid milk in large part because of the Supply Management system, so that would have very little impact on our industry.

The thing that did have people worried was fresh news out of the New York Times that Trump’s annexation talk has moved into threats about tearing up boundary treaties, particularly around things like the Great Lakes and cross-border river systems, and moving into things like shared military operations and NORAD, and after the floated threats about the Five Eyes a couple of weeks ago, it’s hard to ignore any of these threats, and why there needs to be a very concerted effort by the government to make plans for how we’re going to deal with this once it happens, because we know that nothing is off the table with Trump any longer.

I’m generally not into White House drama, but following it becomes more necessary than I’d like to admit these days. To that end, here is a look at an explosive meeting in the Cabinet room where several cabinet secretaries unloaded on Elon Musk, which wound up reining him in (somewhat, for now). But oh, man, the absolute stupidity of what is happening in that administration is boggling. As well, here’s a look at how framing the Trump presidency through the lens of reality television helps to make some of the chaos make a little more sense.

https://twitter.com/josheakle/status/1898212255604568305

Ukraine Dispatch

After the US cut off military aid, including access to satellite imagery for Ukraine, Russia launched a major missile attack, which targeted energy infrastructure, killed four in the eastern town of Dobropillia, while another five died in attacks in the Donetsk region. The Ukrainian forces within Kursk region appear to be nearly surrounded by Russians, though there have been counteroffensives in the past few days. Ukrainian drones did attack the Kirishi refinery.

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Roundup: Another month of reprieve—maybe

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Less than a week into the trade war, and the Americans have somewhat recanted? But only somewhat. Yesterday they decided to suspend the tariffs on New NAFTA “compliant” exports from Canada until April 2nd, but no one is quite sure what that means. Nevertheless, the Canadian government is still maintaining its first tranche of retaliatory tariffs, and will not remove them until the threat is gone, but they are holding back the second tranche of retaliatory actions until April 2nd, or until Trump abandons his tariff nonsense (which could be never).

We also got word about the call that Trudeau had will Trump earlier in the week, and how heated it got, particularly on the question of dairy imports to Canada, where Trump got profane. More telling was the fentanyl question, where Trudeau pointed out the low seizures (and remember that 43 pounds seized last year was not actually all coming across the border, but apprehended within a certain radius of said border), to which Trump is apparently using a secret metric regarding progress on stopping it—proving yet again that this isn’t actually about fentanyl, and that it remains a legal fiction for Trump to abuse his authority. Also, when asked about Mélanie Joly terming the current state of affairs a “psychodrama,” Trudeau responded that he calls it “Thursday.” So, there’s that. And Trump is now posting on his socials that Trudeau is trying to use the tariffs to stay in power, which is again just him pulling it out of his ass, and MAGA-types in this country are already saying “See! That’s what I’m afraid of!” *sighs, pinches bridge of nose*

Reporter: "Your Foreign Affairs Minister [Melanie Joly] yesterday called all of this a psychodrama. How do you how do you characterize it?"Trudeau: "Thursday."#cdnpoli

— davidakin (@davidakin.bsky.social) 2025-03-06T15:21:57.509Z

Meanwhile, Doug Ford declared that he’s going to impose a 25 percent tariff on electricity exports to three American states as of Monday—but I’m not sure that he can actually do that, because trade and commerce powers are federal jurisdiction. Imposing tariffs is federal. Electricity exports are federally regulated by the Canadian Energy Regulator. But people are also insisting that Ontario’s Independent Electricity System Operator, which is a government-created entity, can apply a surcharge, which again raises questions about how this doesn’t run afoul of federal trade and commerce powers. And this is Ford we’re talking about, who always talks a big game and very rarely does he actually back it up with anything. I would remain incredibly skeptical of the whole thing.

He does, in fact, have that power: the IESO (which manages electricity sales to other jurisdictions) is wholly-owned by the Ontario government and answers to cabinet directives, in this case including a 25% surcharge to the two US grids in question.

— John Michael McGrath (@jm-mcgrath.bsky.social) 2025-03-06T20:03:28.613Z

I mean, who starts a trade war?

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2025-03-07T01:35:08.662Z

Ukraine Dispatch

Russia launched another mass drone attack on Odesa, damaging energy infrastructure. Russia claims to have captured another village in eastern Ukraine, Andriivka, but there is no confirmation. While Trump’s lackies are holding meetings with opposition politicians in Ukraine, opposition leader Petro Poroshenko says he’s opposed to a wartime election. Trump is also talking about revoking the temporary protected status for some 240,000 Ukrainians in the US, and could start deporting them.

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