Tag Archives: Space

Roundup: More gas-fired electricity, just because

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Prime minister Mark Carney announced his national electricity plan yesterday, which he’s calling Powering Canada Strong™ (and I swear to Zeus, I am so tired of branding everything “Canada Strong™” by this point). He wants to double production by 2050, as well as connect provincial power grids with interties, build the skilled workforce necessary, and manufacture the technology to do so in Canada. And it all sounds well and good, but to get there, he plans to weaken the Trudeau-era Clean Electricity Regulations in order to allow a lot more natural gas-fired production. You know, for “flexibility.”

At this point you have to wonder how Carney can keep up the pretence that he is still going to meet our climate targets, and yet, he keeps saying that’s what’s going to happen. Sure, he’ll “adjust them,” but if you say we’re weakening them, he gets testy and huffy. But the notion that by “building up we can drive emissions down” is farcical on its face. It relies on the same logic of reducing emissions intensity while increasing the overall volume of production (and it was a tell that he used emissions intensity when talking about gas-fired electricity)—you’re still increasing overall emissions, albeit at a slightly lower rate. And to be clear, Canada was making progress in driving emission down, and we had an actual path to meeting our targets, but that has been completely blown out of the water now.

I’m also getting increasingly tired of this being billed as “pragmatic,” when it’s not in the longer term. The climate crisis is already here, and it’s reflected in the dramatic increase in wildfire season, extreme weather events, and increasing droughts that have pushed up food prices, at home and abroad. We can’t just keep ignoring this and treating climate goals or environmental protection as a luxury add-on. It’s essential to ensuring we have a stable economy of the future, and the fact that Carney and nearly everyone else is ignoring this fact is a really, really big problem, because the costs for kicking this down the road are already being felt. It’s only going to get worse from here, and they keep insisting that they want to make that future pain as bad as it can possibly get.

— Effin' Birds (@effinbirds.com) 2026-05-14T19:08:01.779Z

Programming Note: I am taking the full long weekend off from the blog. See you Wednesday, and happy Victoria Day.

Ukraine Dispatch

Russia’s massive drone attack continues, with the count at over 1567 drones since Wednesday, and the death toll now over 37 as an apartment building was struck. Zelenskyy’s former chief of staff has now been arrested in relation to money laundering charges. Meanwhile, the government of Latvia has lost its parliamentary majority over the handling of the incident where a Ukrainian drone accidentally flew into their territory.

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Roundup: Quashing a petition, neutering the carbon price

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The Alberta Court of King’s Bench ruled yesterday that the separatist petition did not engage the duty to consult with First Nations, given that it directly affects their interests, and it is effectively quashed, before the signatures were validated. It’s big news, and this could or should have been the off-ramp from the referendum that Alberta premier Danielle Smith could use to keep the situation from spiralling. But that’s not what’s happening.

This basically kills 301,000-signature petition separatists delivered to Elections AB to force referendum on independence.Premier Smith could still call referendum as gov't act, like separatist groups want her to. But lack of Indigenous consultation would still be problem. bsky.app/profile/mark…

— Jason Markusoff (@markusoff.bsky.social) 2026-05-13T20:09:36.464Z

Smith has instead declared that this decision is “anti-democratic” (which it absolutely is not, and this is populist rot), and that she will appeal it, because she wants this referendum to happen, either under the bullshit justification of a “relief valve” (which never works—it just makes things worse), or to get leverage from the federal government, not that it’s good leverage because it’s just driving away investment from the province because nobody wants to put money into a separatism situation where the uncertainty cranks up to eleven. But this will also mean that the separatists who control Smith are going to demand she just do a government-initiated referendum, which she has absolutely no democratic legitimacy to do, and which also can’t get around the duty to consult. After all, it’s treaty land, and the treaties are with the Crown, not the province of Alberta, which was not even in existence when those treaties were signed. Nevertheless, Smith has proven she is a separatist, in spite of her protestations, and this is

https://bsky.app/profile/emmettmacfarlane.com/post/3mlrcdwaag223

Entirely predictable.This was the endgame: give the appearance of collecting signatures. Whether or not you meet the threshold (legally) matters little if they'll never be counted.Then pressure the premier to call the vote.Will the premier call the big bluff?

— Jared Wesley (@jaredwesley.ca) 2026-05-14T02:49:22.510Z

https://twitter.com/andrew_leach/status/2054710644705022101

Meanwhile, word is out that the pipeline agreement will be signed with Alberta on Friday, and it rests on a significantly reduced industrial carbon price, and if Alberta is getting a special deal, well, that’s going to become the floor for the rest of the country because the whole reason the national price is constitutional, per the Supreme Court of Canada, is to ensure uniformity so that provinces can’t undercut one another on a race to the bottom. And to add to that, Carney’s rationale for cutting the consumer carbon levy was that they could make the industrial price more effective, and now he’s gutting that. And what will he get for this capitulation to Alberta? Nothing. It won’t appease the separatists, because they thrive on invented grievances and conspiracy theories. We’re going to blow up our environmental plans, build a pipeline to the coast on diminishing returns once the situation in Iran is cleared up and the world returns to a supply glut position, and the planet will burn. It’s a wonder that Liberals can look themselves in the mirror.

No lies detected.

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2026-05-13T15:25:58.917Z

— Effin' Birds (@effinbirds.com) 2026-05-13T19:08:01.569Z

Ukraine Dispatch

Russia hit Kyiv with a massive drone and missile barrage early this morning, killing at least one and injuring at least sixteen others. This followed a daytime drone attack that struck close to the borders of NATO countries, killing six in the process. Ukraine has resumed targeting Russian oil and gas facilities.

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QP: Taunts about a Conservative-Liberal merger

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The PM was meeting with Princess Margriet of the Netherlands, while Pierre Poilievre was also absent from QP yet again. That left Carol Anstey to lead off, going full Karen, as she listed the things she wanted to speak to the manager about, like gas prices and the gun buyback. Steven MacKinnon got up to say he still hasn’t received a list from the Conservatives on things they would cut. Anstey cited consultants and the gun buyback as cuts, And again demanded gas taxes be cut. This time Wayne Long got up to deploy his line about being “laser-focused.” The very masculine Jacob Mantle got up to quote the CEO of Cenovus for claiming that carbon prices have driven projects out of Canada. Tim Hodgson said that he should listen to the CEO of Shell, who praised developments in Canada. Hodgson demanded a pipeline today, and Hodgson listed those which got approved, along with other projects. Gabriel Hardy quoted a Fraser Institute study on youth unemployment, to which Joël Lightbound pointed to the training funds for skilled trades in the spring economic update. Hardy then groused that the Major Project Office has not approved any project before bellyaching about taxes, and jammed in a reference to the “national credit card.” MacKinnon repeated the points about skilled trades, and noted Conservative opposition to projects like Alto.

Christine Normandin got up to raise the story about the government fast-Tracking more oil projects, and wondered how any environmentalists could be left in that party. Julie Dabrusin pointed to their methane regulations and insisted the government was showing leadership. Normandin taunted that the Conservatives must be itching to cross the floor as a result of the Liberal love for oil, to which Dabrusin wanted to assure the House that they were putting in the work on the environment. Mario Simard took over to continue the taunts about the environment, and this time MacKinnon got up to say that major energy projects can transform an economy, which included conventional energy. 

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QP: Justin Trudeau with a better LinkedIn account?

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The PM was off to Mirabel for an aerospace announcement, while back in the House of Commons, Pierre Poilievre was absent, leaving it to Sandra Cobena to lead off, complaining about the deficit as a way to demand the government cut all gas taxes. Wayne Long got up to recite the growth rates and the fact that wages are outpacing inflation. Cobena listed supposed scandals, before demanding the gas tax cut again. Steven MacKinnon got up to demand a list of programmes the Conservatives want got cut which they consider “inflationary spending.” Andrew Lawton took over to list more examples of supposed waste, and MacKinnon congratulated him on the number of empty slogans in a single question. Lawton retorted on the record of hot air from a transport minister, and tried the same again with some emphasis on their mocking the space launch facility lease. David McGuinty took this one, and he praised sovereign space launch capabilities. Dominique Vien took over in French to raise the issue of costs of food on the prime minister’s plane, and McGuinty turned this around that when talking about planes, the prime minister was in Mirabel to announce the largest aerospace order in Canadian history. Vien demanded gas taxes cuts, to which Joël Lightbound listed tax cuts they have already made, along with other benefit programmes, and the trade surplus recorded in March.

Christine Normandin led for the Bloc, and she demanded a wage subsidy for firms affected by the new U.S. tariffs, and MacKinnon reminded her of the supports they announced this week before patting himself on the back for the record airplane order again. Normandin was not satisfied, and again demanded a wage subsidy, and MacKinnon repeated the same response, and added that the Bloc should have offered congratulations for the order. Gabriel Ste-Marie took over to ask the same again, and Lightbound repeated that they are always there to support workers.

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Roundup: Overplaying the ethics committee report

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The Commons committee on access to information, privacy and ethics released their latest report yesterday, reviewing the Conflict of Interest Act, and it was, well, a doozy. This is one of those kinds of reports that was always going to be a problem because it’s so highly partisan, and the fact that the committee reflects a minority parliament made this even more so. Reading through it, it was quickly obvious that this was mostly an exercise in the Conservatives (and Bloc) looking to score points based on Mark Carney’s past, and trying to suggest a whole bunch of new rules that would essentially target him personally, which goes against pretty much every principle of good governance. Remember that bad facts make bad case law, and well, this is terrible all around.

It was also quite striking just who the majority on the committee was listening to, which was mostly “Democracy Watch’s” Duff Conacher, whose only credibility is that he branded himself a one-man watchdog who answers media requests, so he gets phoned all the time and provides quotes on too many stories. He’s also lost pretty much every court battle he’s ever waged, and thinks that he should be the only arbiter of parliamentary ethics in this country. They also listed to disgraced “journalist” Sam Cooper (who is so credulous he once believed that a clip from a Hong Kong film was secretly obtained proof of a Canadian official being compromised by Chinese agents), who pretty much was only there to back up Conacher. Experts who warned the majority that they were creating more problems than they were trying to solve were largely ignored, because they didn’t fit the narrative. Unsurprisingly, the Liberals had a nine-page dissent at the end of the report that called these kinds of things out, for all the good it will do.

Why? Because looking at the reporting of the report’s contents and recommendations, it was framed in such a way that the committee agreed to these points when in fact it was only the Conservative and Bloc members of the committee and not the Liberals, which then distorts the report because it makes it sound like it was more unanimous than it was. Mention of the Liberal dissent was waaaaaaay down in the copy, and doesn’t really spell out that this was the Conservatives and Bloc trying to use the committee to attack Carney and the Liberals, which is pretty relevant information when you’ve got a report of this nature. And while I don’t want to give the reporter on this piece a hard time, you can’t really consider what the main body of the report says as what the committee believed—only what the opposition members believed.

— Effin' Birds (@effinbirds.com) 2026-04-23T19:08:02.093Z

Ukraine Dispatch

The Russian strike on Dnipro early Thursday killed three people and injured another ten. Ukraine is boasting that their new interceptor drones can be controlled over thousands of kilometres.

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QP: Just another Liberal

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Another day where the PM was in town but not at QP, while Pierre Poilievre had held a press conference in the Foyer earlier, and he was present. He led off in French, accusing Carney of being another Liberal with rising costs, crime, and “corruption,” before demanding that all taxes be cut on gasoline. François-Philippe Champagne responded by noting the cut in the gas excise tax. Poilievre whined that the question was for the prime minister, whom he declared was “hiding under the table” and received a caution by the Speaker for it, before he said that the reason the PM doesn’t respond because it would expose the illusion he has made thing worse. Champagne pointed out that they are helping Canadians, and that their economic update is coming next week. Poilievre turned to English, and called Carney “just another Liberal” before demanding all gas taxes be repealed. Champagne noted that Poilievre has been nowhere to be seen when they provided relief for Canadians before raising the economic update. Poilievre took a broad swipe at Carney, repeating the “hiding under the table” line, before pointing out that he “snarled” at a female journalist earlier in the day, and then denounced him in general. Hajdu said that if being just another Liberal means helping people, then sure, he’s just another Liberal. Poilievre listed Carney’s supposed sins as being “just another Liberal.” Hajdu tried another tactic and listed Poilievre’s supposed sins as being “just another Conservative.” Poilievre accused her of having imaginary conversations, before he went on a tear about the deficit and “printing money.” Champagne responded with his “take no lessons” line and listed supports they have provided while ensuring “sound fiscal management.”

Christine Normandin led for the Bloc, and she lamented that the tariff crisis had not yet been resolved, and wondered about whether the government would adopt their proposal on wage subsidies for affected industries. Champagne said that they have a strategic fund to help companies with supports, and that foreign exports are up. Normandin then demanded an enhancement to OAS for all seniors, as well as more supports for forestry. Joël Lightbound said that she was right to note the headwinds the country is facing, which is why the government is busy diversifying markets. Jean-Denis Garon took over to lament the planned reduction in health transfers, and said they could pay for it by taxing oil companies and web giants. Marjorie Michel patted herself on the back for how well she works with her Quebec counterpart. 

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Roundup: Moving the majority motion

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Government House Leader Steven announced yesterday that he will be moving a motion in the House of Commons today regarding changing the committee make-up for the remainder of this parliament in order to reflect the government’s new majority status, which feels a little bit like jumping the gun. While he does need to give notice of the motion, it won’t be debated until next week sometime at the earliest (because Thursday is a Supply Day for one of the Opposition Parties, and I doubt he would debate this motion on a Friday), but there’s no way the government can vote on it yet. Why? Because the three new MPs haven’t been sworn in yet, and it’s generally a three-to-four-week process for Elections Canada to fully certify the results and report back to the Commons so that the swearing-in can happen, and well, it’s only been a week-and-a-half.

I do find it interesting that they have decided to go the route of adding MPs to the committees to make them twelve members instead of ten, which may be a mistake on the government’s part. Yes, removing a Conservative instead of adding a Liberal to each committee might have seen them howl more, but the things is, we actually barely have enough MPs to go around when it comes to staffing committees properly (remember, this is the reason why official party status is twelve MPs—so that they can have coverage on every standing committee). During Trudeau’s majority parliament, committees were down to ten MPs, which meant that parliamentary secretaries didn’t have to be voting members, which is better for all because they couldn’t essentially be putting their thumbs on the scales on the government’s behalf, but when they were back to minority parliaments, committee memberships went back up to 12 in order to accommodate more opposition members, thus meaning parliamentary secretaries were back to voting members. It looks like Carney and MacKinnon have no problem with this, even though they should—it’s bad form for the independence of committees, but they don’t actually care about that.

It also looks like MacKinnon is doing this now and not later is a power move. I had previously suspected that this move wouldn’t be fully implemented until autumn because the last four sitting weeks before summer would have the committees slammed to get things passed before the break, but now they’re going to mess up their ability to work until the Procedure and House Affairs Committee can produce their report on the new committee memberships because the Conservatives decided to play stupid games on the Ethics committee and force a vote on making François-Philippe Champagne appear before them to answer theatrical questions about his non-existent conflict of interest with the Alto high speed rail project. By pushing this motion and vote to as soon as the government can make it, once the new MPs are sworn-in, it gives them a chance to try and head off the committee before Champagne appears for the sole purpose of having the Conservatives (and probably Bloc) call him corrupt on camera so that they can get clicks on their social media channels. Just ridiculous, and even more ridiculous that MacKinnon has to get in on the dick-swinging in the process.

— Effin' Birds (@effinbirds.com) 2026-04-21T19:08:01.767Z

Ukraine Dispatch

Russia claims to have captured 80 settlements and 1700 square kilometres since the start of the year, while Ukraine has recaptured some of that territory back. As Ukraine is about to resume pumping oil through the Druzhba pipeline to Hungary, now that repairs are completed, it looks like Ukrainian drone attacks have reduced Russian oil export capacity by 300,000 to 400,000 barrels per day.

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Roundup: The benefit of the doubt for Gladu

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The Liberal convention is happening this weekend in Montreal, and it’s in part a way that prime minister Mark Carney is putting his stamp on the party now that he’s been leader for a year. It’s a different kind of convention—claimed to be the largest policy convention in the party’s history, and there are no American Democrats giving keynote speeches for the party faithful to fangirl over for a change—the keynote was Canadian Rick Hansen, which again, is a marked shift from years past.

Of course, so much of the oxygen is being taken up by the recent floor-crossers, Marilyn Gladu most especially, and while you have news stories talking about a “mixed reaction,” there is nevertheless a sense that pervades the quotes across news stories that delegates are Carney fans, and that they’re giving him the benefit of the doubt for welcoming them into the party, particularly if it gets them to a majority parliament that will being some stability. Chris d’Entremont and Matt Jeneroux have made comments of their own about feeling secure in their decisions, while progressive Liberals like Karina Gould and Stephen Guilbeault are couching their reservations about Gladu into an optimism that she knew what she was signing up for when she crossed over. For her part, Gladu is also talking about how she hopes this move will benefit her riding, though governments aren’t really supposed to favour only ridings they hold (even though it happens, especially provincially).

As for policy, it has been noticed that there isn’t much talk about Trump, even though he continues to dominate the political airwaves and is giving Carney much of his raison d’être for what he’s doing. There are policy resolutions on banning social media for minors, or limiting use of chatbots (but nobody seems to understand the massive problems associated with age verification).

Ukraine Dispatch

President Zelenskyy says that they are facing pressure both military as spring arrives, but also diplomatically as allies want them to stop hitting Russian oil and gas facilities as prices are so high. Farmers in Ukraine are now being hit by high fertilizer prices thanks to the Iran conflict.

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Roundup: The most unexpected floor crossing

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To say that the announcement that Conservative MP Marilyn Gladu had crossed the floor to the Liberals was a surprise is an understatement. It was a genuinely gobsmacking moment because Gladu is, to be blunt, an absolute loon. She’s Maple MAGA—a Trump lover, who pushed Ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine as COVID cures. She was a hard-core “convoy” supporter whose seal for their cause had Poilievre create a portfolio of “civil liberties critic” for her to continue to espouse nonsense on their behalf. She opposed the banning of so-called “conversion therapy” and was open to members of her caucus legislating to restrict abortion. She would even talk about how, in her experience as a chemical engineer, she had to deal with Chinese corruption on projects, which is why she would not trust the regime. None of this would seem to endear her to the Liberals in any sense.

https://bsky.app/profile/emmettmacfarlane.com/post/3miyl5lk4422e

https://twitter.com/pothen/status/2041907679807918431

I’m going to write more about what his means for the Liberals in a longer piece later, but it cannot be understated what this means for Poilievre, because she was very much his people. She represented the base he was trying to court, and in the end, she walked away from him, and her statements once she crossed over were about needing a leader for this critical moment, which one could very much take to mean that Poilievre is not such a leader. The Star spoke to some Conservatives who claim that as many as 40 members of caucus are worried about their seats under Poilievre’s continued leadership, while Chris d’Entremont told CTV that he gets questions from Conservatives about what life is like with the Liberals, and they don’t sound like they’re turned off. If you’re Poileivre, that has to be a loud and clear message that in spite of the vote of confidence he received in his leadership review, his caucus is worried and history shows they won’t be mollified by a grassroots approval—nor should they be. Of course, they’re all busy pledging their loyalty to the party over social media, but things cannot be that comfortable in the caucus room, and it’s a real question as to whether Poileivre has self-awareness or EQ in order to read that room.

With that, I’m going to give the last word to Andrew Coyne. And the Beaverton.

Five reasons MPs keep leaving my party that have absolutely nothing to do with me – Editorial by Pierre Poilievre

— The Beaverton (@thebeaverton.com) 2026-04-08T19:19:23.311Z

Ukraine Dispatch

Russian drones damaged a power substation in Odesa, as well as port infrastructure and a civilian vessel in Izmail. Ukrainian drones struck a Russian oil terminal in occupied Crimea.

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Roundup: Danielle Smith’s Soviet-style political neutrality

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Yesterday was Trans Day of Visibility, and because of the times we live in, it was treated as an excuse to attack trans rights. In the US, the US Supreme Court struck down Colorado’s ban on conversion therapy in an 8-1 ruling, under the ludicrous rubric that banning “talk therapy” was impacting free speech (even though talk therapy should be classed as medical services, as the dissenting judge pointed out). And in Idaho, the governor signed a bill to make it a felony for a trans person to use a public washroom that is not their assigned sex at birth.

Back in Canada, Alberta premier Danielle Smith tabled a bill that purports to “remove politics and ideology” from schools, which among other things, means ensuring there are no Pride flags ever raised at Alberta schools. (Noted is that the current ban on informing parents if a student joins a GSA is not being changed). There are a lot of questions around what this is supposed to mean, and whether it’s only in classrooms, or if teachers are allowed to post opinions online, or anything like that, but it’s a weird and troubling decision by Smith to pursue this particular line of attack, and especially because it’s going to create a system of surveillance and denunciations, which is starting to sound pretty Soviet for a self-professed “libertarian” like Smith.

This can be taken is so many dangerous directions. And once something like this is enshrined in legislation, it creates a culture of surveillance where educators are going to live in fear of being secretly recorded and reported (look at what's happening in the U.S.!!)

— Mel Woods (@melwoods.me) 2026-03-31T21:14:57.962Z

The bill seeks to "bar school divisions or employees from making statements on “political, social or ideological matters” outside the school division’s purview."Curious if the government will think a teacher talking about being LGBTQ2S+ issues at all is "outside the school division's purview."

— Mel Woods (@melwoods.me) 2026-03-31T21:07:49.094Z

"Nicolaides also wouldn’t say whether the flag limitation would apply to stickers or magnets or other imagery teachers might have in their classrooms, except to say they can’t have ideological symbols."In a similar vein, could teachers get in trouble having, say, a Pride flag sticker on desk?

— Mel Woods (@melwoods.me) 2026-03-31T21:09:05.569Z

For a government who loves free speech, this seems a massive affront to freedom of expression for teachers and school staff on like, a very basic level.Very curious what the unions will say about all of this …

— Mel Woods (@melwoods.me) 2026-03-31T21:10:49.732Z

This in and of itself is a problem—it treats straight, white men as the default norm, and everyone else as “political,” and when you are effacing queer and trans people in the dame of “neutrality,” that is very, very political and is not neutral in the slightest. And Smith is going to keep getting away with this kind of thing because nobody is protesting around the clock or organizing a general strike to stop her.

Ukraine Dispatch

Ukrainian drones struck the Russian oil terminal at Ust-Luga for the fifth time in ten days. European diplomats were in Bucha to commemorate the 2022 massacre by Russian forces there. President Zelenskyy is hoping the Americans can convince Russia to enter into an “Easter truce” (and good luck with that).

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