Tag Archives: Trade

Canada Strong to help MAGA?

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Prime minister Mark Carney was in New York yesterday to address the Economic Club of that city, and as part of his speech, gave the line that “Canada Strong™ will help Make America Great Again”—a line that was sure to get a reaction from the White House as much as it got a reaction from the American ambassador. Carney continues to believe he can outmanoeuvre Trump and company, and that he can be so clever as to keep with the talk about “ruptures” and diversifying trade while still trying to get “fortress North America” and even deeper integration with the Americans on other files. You want to assert sovereignty, but keep finding excuses to try and get even closer when the money is just right? Eventually something is likely to give, and it just might be Canadians’ patience.

This being said, I also noted the list of people that Carney met with, and it’s a lot of big money bosses, like Blackrock and JPMorgan Chase—the kind of money that is unconcerned that America has devolved into outright fascism. I will note that is also while the Canadian military signed an agreement with the Canadian branch-plant of an American techno-fascist’s digital asbestos firm, but justified it as being a “legitimate” procurement process. So much of this is starting to feel like the casino scene from The Last Jedi—a look at the monied class that is unconcerned that there is a war going on (or that the capital was obliterated days ago) because they are profiting by selling to both sides. Carney sucking up to this monied class in New York feels an awful lot like that right now.

The list of who the PM met with in New York today.

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2026-05-29T01:47:21.770Z

IYKYK

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2026-05-29T01:47:21.771Z

effinbirds.com/post/8132596…

— Effin' Birds (@effinbirds.com) 2026-05-28T13:08:05.261Z

My Latest:

My column points to the crisis in grassroots democracy that is brewing in the Ontario Liberal Party that the Scarborough Southwest nomination contest revealed.

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QP: Reruns of the “credit card” script

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The PM was in the building after attending a reception with the Olympic and Paralympic athletes, but did not stick around for QP before he headed off to New York later in the day. Pierre Poilievre was giving a press conference in the Foyer as QP got underway, leaving it up to Luc Berthold to lead off in French, reading the tired script about the supposed “national credit card.” Steven MacKinnon rose to proclaim the announcement from this morning about surveillance planes and the LNG deal with Germany. Berthold kept on with the same script, and Mélanie Joly took her own turn to boast about the aircraft sale. Carol Anstey read a variation of the same script, but in her typical Karen delivery that sounded like she wanted to speak to the government’s manager. MacKinnon got back up to loudly proclaim the same good news about the surveillance plane sale in English. Anstey read some nonsense about inflation, and Joanne Thompson took the opportunity to recite the good news talking points about the funding for small craft harbours. The very masculine Jacob Mantle tried to crack wise about the spaceport lease in Nova Scotia, and David McGuinty took his own turn to crow about the good news on those surveillance planes. Mantle demanded a copy of the lease agreement, and McGuinty read some good news talking points about the Canadian Forces.

Yves-François Blanchet led for the Bloc, and spoke about how those who have an environmental conscience must must Trudeau, and lamented the resignation of Steven Guilbeault. Julie Dabrusin patted herself on the back for the government’s nature strategy and methane regulations. Blanchet listed the government’s backtracking on the environment, and Dabrusin shrugged this off, saying his own record as environment minister in Quebec was nothing to brag about. Blanchet again wondered if there was anyone with an environmental conscience left in the Liberal Party, and Dabrusin took credit for our largely clean electricity grid (which this government has nothing to do with).

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QP: The Clarity Act is clear

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The PM was present today for the only time this week, while Pierre Poilievre was also present. He led off in English, and went on a rant about the Cowichan decision and his deliberate misreading of the litigation directive. Mark Carney declared that they defend private property which is why they appealed the decision. Poilievre carried on with his complete nonsense reading of the litigation directive, and Carney said the only person tossing and turning is Poilievre trying to come up with new ways to fear-monger. Poilievre switched to French to deliver his nonsense claims that it is Liberal taxes pushing up gasoline prices, and Carney pointed out how they already suspended the excise tax and the consumer carbon levy, while Poilievre opposed all measures to help people. Poilievre repeated the same nonsense claim in English, and Carney pointed to changes in refineries since the Harper days, and repeated his same swipe about Poilievre voting against help. Poilievre carried on his rant about how great things were in the Harper days, and Carney pointed to things they are delivering on like higher wages and greater participation of women in the workplace. Poilievre then read some stats from Equifax about people struggling, and Carney patted himself on the back for strength of the economy face of tariffs and global uncertainty.

Christine Normandin led for the Bloc, and demanded Carney respect the referendum questions put forward by provinces. Carney said that he is the prime minister, that he heard back from his advisory council and Alberta’s question doesn’t trigger the Clarity Act, but any question needs to be clear. Normandin went on a rant about “democracy” and demanded the Clarity Act be repealed, to which Carney said that under the Act, the House of Commons needs to consider the clarity of the question and the majority, which is not just fifty percent plus one. Rhéal Fortin took over rail about fifty percent plus one, and claimed it was an “authoritarian overreach,” and Carney said that “the Clarity Act is clear.”

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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: Mixed messages about deeper integration

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Late last week, prime minister Mark Carney was at the Global Progress Action Summit in Toronto, and gave a speech that seems to be a bit of a Rorschach test about how you feel about him and the job he’s doing. While I believe he’s correct in saying that the loss of control people feel with affordability and the rise of digital asbestos leads to a “politics of grievance,” I am less convinced the same is true for immigration, and that it has proven a reliable scapegoat by everyone, Carney included, which is absolutely dangerous—especially when he uses phrases like “taking back control.” He also says that the current moment has been “seized by politicians who seek to destroy and dismantle and progressives must answer by building,” but he has been eroding and quietly dismantling the actual progressive programmes brought in by his predecessor. The fact that he is calling himself a “progressive” is stretching the definition to its breaking point.

Amidst this, there was another statement that raises even more eyebrows, which is that “Like Mexico, Canada remains open to deeper integration, including options for fortress North America in (certain) sectors. And to be clear, those offers are on the table.” Deeper integration? Fortress North America? So, after all of the talk about how being solely dependent on the US as a single trading partner has been a strategic weakness and that we need to diversify so that we have options and can’t be held hostage, we want to integrate even more closely in strategic sectors with the same country that has been trying to hold us hostage, threatening our sovereignty, and which has taken to bullying us because they think they can get away with it without consequence? I mean, I get that we cannot fully decouple from the US because of geography (and even Taiwan trades mostly with China, because of geography), but this message seems at odds with everything happening, and it’s really hard to see how he can promise this without some pretty heavy caveats up front, and I’m not exactly seeing anything that inspires me with confidence.

— Effin' Birds (@effinbirds.com) 2026-05-10T23:08:01.480Z

Ukraine Dispatch

Russia violated the ceasefire by making drone strikes on the front lines, and Ukraine launched a few drones in response. Putin claims the war will be winding down soon, but said they will be victorious, but are even further away from their aims, so we’ll see. Here is a look into the dispute between Ukraine and Israel over shipments of stolen grain, and why Israel is uncomfortably close to Russia.

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Roundup: Preparing to gut environmental laws

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The federal government is openly musing about changes to the Impact Assessment Act and the Fisheries Act in order to speed up project approvals, which sounds like it could be a dubious proposition. Federal Sources™ still insist that they will need Indigenous consultations and “robust” environmental assessments for projects, but if they keep “streamlining” these processes, they’re not robust. And then you just get more litigation. They don’t seem to learn this lesson.

The Conservatives, meanwhile, continue to demand that all environmental laws be repealed as “anti-development,” and continue to propagate falsehoods about projects that didn’t move ahead for reasons that have nothing to do with the assessment regime. They seem to have no concept of the fact that there are other factors at play, whether it’s the crash in oil prices in 2014, or the fact that there were no customers willing to sign long-term contracts that would make these projects viable enough to pursue.

https://twitter.com/andrew_leach/status/2052386968798118276

And then there are the oil companies themselves, who continue to try and flex their influence in order to scrap environmental laws. While whinging that any carbon pricing makes them uncompetitive (blatantly untrue given the credits in the system), Canadian Natural announced yesterday that they are moving ahead with two steam-driven oilsands projects, but still holding off on expanding one of their mines. Looks like they can still operate within the regulatory environment, even while grousing about it. These companies are not fragile babies who are one look askance away from insolvency, and government needs to stop treating them as though they were (while the Conservatives really need to stop credulously believing everything that these companies say).

Ukraine Dispatch

Ahead of its ceasefire, Russia fired dozens of more drones into Ukraine, hitting a kindergarten in Sumy, claiming Ukraine violated their own ceasefire first. President Zelenskyy has warned that if Russia continues to violate the ceasefire, then Ukraine will carry on with its long-range strikes.

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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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Roundup: Taking what advice on appointments?

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Prime minister Mark Carney once again said on Wednesday that Senate appointments will be made “in due course,” which doesn’t help when nearly ten percent of the Chamber’s seats are vacant or will be before summer is out, but for the first time, he indicated that he would be preserving the independent appointment committees. Sort of. (Currently only the federal members of these committees remain in place, and those for Nova Scotia, but none of the other provinces). “I will take into account the advice of the independent advisory committee that was established by my predecessor,” was what Carney said.

The problem is that’s not actually saying anything. Taking advice into account? Either these committees will be providing short-lists for appointments that Carney will choose from, or they won’t be. That was the point—they took the applications (which was always a mistake—they should have been doing the searching for worthwhile nominees to tap on the shoulder), vetted them, and honed them down to the short-lists, which Trudeau would then choose from, because he remains constitutionally responsible for those appointments. But what “advice” are they supposed to be offering if not a short-list of candidates? Will he look at their list and then decide to choose one of his friends from another hedge fund or big bank? Will he give them a list to do due diligence on? Maybe. None of this is clear, and it looks like he either doesn’t understand this responsibility that is part of his office, or he doesn’t care, and I’m not sure which is worse at this point when he’s been in office for a year now.

Meanwhile, Carney also said that he’s waiting on the joint parliamentary committee report before coming to any decision on the MAiD expansion for irremediable mental health issues, but it cannot be understated that said committee has been an absolute sham process. The two co-chairs are hostile to MAiD and have stacked the witnesses to be overwhelmingly against it, and have sidelined groups like major national psychological and psychiatric organisations who might actually argue that they can provide adequate safeguards. This is just going to result in more Charter litigation, and so many people will continue to suffer needlessly because a bunch of MPs and senators were too squeamish to actually listen to evidence that they didn’t want to hear.

— Effin' Birds (@effinbirds.com) 2026-05-06T19:08:02.023Z

Ukraine Dispatch

In spite of Ukraine giving Russia an early start to their Victory Day ceasefire, Russia attacked several cities in eastern Ukraine, killing at least 27 people. The new Hungarian government returned to Ukraine the confiscated $82 million USD in cash and gold that was seized while transiting the country.

https://twitter.com/ukraine_world/status/2051983745297617183

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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: The new GG, Louise Arbour

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Yesterday morning, at the National Gallery, prime minister Mark Carney announced that the King had approved of his choice of Louise Arbour to be the next Governor General. Arbour is a former Supreme Court of Canada justice, but has had a long and varied career both in Canada and internationally. Highlights include working with the Law Reform Commission, associate dean at Osgood Hall law school, appointment to the Ontario Superior Court and Court of Appeal, war crimes prosecutor at the Hague, prosecuting Rwanda and Yugoslavian war criminals, and secured the first genocide conviction since 1948. She was then appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada, and after a few years, left that post to become the UN Human Rights Commissioner for a term, where she was attacked for calling out Israel’s actions during the war with Lebanon in 2008, even though she also criticised Palestinian militants’ rocket attacks against civilians. (She has also been portrayed on film by Wendy Crewson).

In the time since, she has served in a number of other capacities including working on several reports for the federal government, most recently around the transformation of military justice, particularly as it relates to sexual assault. At 79, she is the oldest appointee to the office in Canadian history, however that’s not necessarily a bad thing—we have had a spate of appointing Governors General who are too young, leaving them with a big question mark of what to do when their term ends when they should fade quietly into retirement. (Seriously—Ed Schreyer was made GG in his thirties, and he tried to run for office afterward, which is very bad form).

Most of the grumbling that did come from this appointment seemed to come from the fact that she is from Quebec and not from out west (even though by tradition, this was to be a francophone appointment), though I’m not sure how many reasonably high-profile Franco-Albertans/Saskatchewanians/British Columbians that had the right combination of experience and other factors there are out there. Regardless, this could have been something that a properly constituted vice-regal appointment committee might have tried to address, but we have no idea what kind of search mechanism was used to come up with this appointment, so that kind of black box doesn’t help in trying to understand Carney’s thinking here.

Starting with Massey, the birthplaces of governors general:Toronto, OntMontreal, QueLacombe, NWT (now Alberta)Saint-Anicet, QueBeausejour, ManPrud'homme, SaskSaskatoon, SaskMemramcook, NBVictoria, Hong KongPort-au-Price, Haiti Sudbury, OntMontreal, QueFort Severeight, QueMontreal, Que

— Aaron Wherry (@aaronwherry.bsky.social) 2026-05-05T21:45:00.042Z

Ukraine Dispatch

Ahead of Russia’s ceasefire, they made a glide bomb attack on Kramatorsk, Zaporizhzhia and Chernihiv, killing at least 17 civilians and wounding 45 others. There was also an attack on Dnipro that killed four.

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