Tag Archives: Trade

Roundup: The premier has no clothes

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Alberta premier Danielle Smith is threatening to invoke her so-called “Sovereignty Act” next week to shield power companies from federal clean energy regulations—but that will do absolutely nothing. The province doesn’t enforce federal environmental regulations, so it can’t shield the power companies from said regulations. Smith might as well get up in the legislature and perform some kind of magical incantation, because it’ll have pretty much the exact same effect.

This being said, a lot of journalists seem to either believe that the Act is going to somehow do what she’s claiming, or they’re just both-sidesing it, because guess what—this is all performance. Smith has woven you the most extravagant outfit that is so magnificent that you can’t even see it. Right? “The Emperor Has No Clothes”? Or in this case, the premier has no clothes. Don’t take this invocation at face value. Point out that it does nothing, and that she is trying to pull a fast one to keep rage-farming.

Ukraine Dispatch:

Ukraine launched one of its biggest drone attacks on Russian positions in occupied Crimea, while Russians made a renewed push to take Avdiivka. Russians also launched a massive drone attack on Kyiv, where debris has caused injuries. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has ordered reform proposals to the country’s troop mobilisation programme as the war drags on.

https://twitter.com/defenceu/status/1728127516299481335

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Roundup: Trying to falsely blame CTV

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At his media availability yesterday, Pierre Poilievre was asked if it was responsible for him to declare the explosion on the Rainbow Bridge in Niagara Falls to be “terrorism” before anything was confirmed. And what did Poilievre do? True to form, he attacked the Canadian Press reporter asking the question (including lying about the substance of the corrections that a recent CP story made to a story about comments he had made), then lied about why he said “terrorism.” Poilievre claimed this was from CTV reports, and tried to get the CP reporter to try and denounce CTV. The problem was that CTV didn’t publish anything before Poilievre began his questions in QP. And what we do know is that Fox News was definitively calling it terrorism, as were several disinformation merchants who pose as journalists over Twitter. But rather than admit that these were his sources, Poilievre lied, continued to lie, and then post the video of him attacking the CP reporter to his followers, because right-wing populism has a huge hard-on/wide-on for putting people in their place (particularly if they’re vulnerable minorities or someone they suffer no repercussions for attacking, like media).

And then things got stupid online, as Poilievre’s fans and apologists kept trying to “prove” that CTV was still the source, really, relying on screenshots that came from a different time zone. And at least two MPs shared these screenshots before they were called out and deleted them.

I will say that between these lies, and the ones he has been telling about the Canada-Ukraine trade deal legislation, it seems to finally shaking up some legacy media outlets to actually start calling him out on them. Somewhat. Some outlets are still egregiously both-sidesing the lies, as they always do, but you had Power & Politics host David Cochrane finally interjecting in places saying “That wasn’t true,” or walking through the timeline of lies in the case of yesterday’s attempt to blame CTV. It’s not nearly enough, but it is a start, but we’ll see how long it can actually last.

Ukraine Dispatch:

A daytime cluster bomb attack in a suburb of Kherson in the south killed three people. Ukraine’s farmers are hoping that the Black Sea trade corridor will help them get exports to market so that they can survive.

https://twitter.com/ukraine_world/status/1727681997076644088

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QP: Goading the Conservatives on Ukraine

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The prime minister was off to meet EU leaders in Newfoundland and Labrador, while his deputy was doing photo ops in Toronto. Even Pierre Poilievre was away today, as were every other leader. Andrew Scheer led off, and after giving the new “time’s up” slogan, he misquoted the Scotiabank report and demanded the government balance the budget. Randy Boissonnault got up to denounce the Conservatives for the voting against the Ukraine trade deal. Scheer repeated the lie that the government is forcing a carbon price on Ukraine, before repeating his demand for a balanced budget. Karina Gould pointed out that there was no carbon price in the trade deal, and brought up that Poilievre falsely called yesterday’s Rainbow Bridge incident a terror incident. Scheer demanded the government support their amendment to send more weapons and energy to Ukraine before rambling about the so-called “replacement” temporary foreign workers at the Stellantis plant, which again, has been debunked. Bill Blair got up to pat himsefl con the back for the billions in military aid sent to Ukraine. Gérard Deltell got up to repeat the demand for a balanced budget in French, to which François-Philippe Champagne praised the government’s efforts. Deltell railed that the government would force our great-grandchildren to pay the price for their mistakes, and Champagne implored for them to pass their affordability bill.

Alain Therrien led for the Bloc, and he decried the plan for interprovincial labour mobility for healthcare workers, and railed that this would disadvantage Quebec. Boissonnault pointed pivot that the federal government transfers hundreds of millions of dollars to Quebec to help francisise immigrants. Therrien insisted that all the federal government needed to do was increase transfers so that Quebec could hire more doctors on their own, to which Pablo Rodriguez said that Canadians can work together, whether the Bloc likes it or not.

Alexandre Boulerice rose for the NDP, and he accused the industry minister of not doing anything about the grocery CEOs. Champagne insisted that he stared down those CEOs and he forced them to stabilise prices, before imploring them to pass the affordability bill. Alistair MacGregor gave the English version of the same question, and Champagne accused the NDP of not doing anything for consumers and again implored them to pass that bill.

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QP: Outright lying about the Ukraine trade deal

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The prime minister was present while his deputy was not. All other leaders were in the Chamber, so it was going to be a spectacle. Pierre Poilievre led off in French, and asked for an update about the incident in Niagara Falls, which he attributed to a terrorist event (which was far too early to determine at the time, which seem to have been disproven), to which Justin Trudeau stated that a vehicle blew up on the Rainbow Bridge, and they were still gathering information, but that the border has been closed at additional locations. Poilievre repeated the request in English, but slipped in a “bring home” slogan in there, and got the same response, and then excused himself to go get further updates. Poilievre returned to French to decry that the $20 billion in new spending from the economic update would keep fuelling inflation. Randy Boissonneault insisted that the update would be good news. Poilievre got back up and asked “what’s up?”, paused, then listed things that he insisted were up before declaring “time’s up” for the government, and decried that $20 billion in English. Boissonnault repeated his good news points before lambasting the Conservatives for failing to vote for the legislation on the trade deal with Ukraine. Poilievre declared that the federal government “betrayed Ukraine” with a list of mostly falsehoods, but didn’t actually ask a question. Gould noted that if that were true, they would have voted for the bill, but they didn’t because of a red herring.

Yves-François Blanchet led for the Bloc, hoped that the situation at the border would be as un-dramatic as possible, before decrying the empty box that was the economic update. Boissonnault gave his own well wishes for the situation the borders before deploying his good-news talking points. Blanchet then demanded that the government stop intruding in provincial jurisdiction around housing, to which Sean Fraser praised the deal with the Quebec government.

Jagmeet Singh rose for the NDP, and asked for his own update on the border situation, to which Karina Gould gave some fairly bland assurances as there were no further details. Singh switched to French to decry that the housing funds in the fiscal update were backloaded two years. Marci Ien got up to praise the tax-free housing savings plan, insisting that it was working for young people.

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Roundup: No, Kovrig wasn’t a spy

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The Globe and Mail kicked off the weekend with an “explosive” report that says that Michael Spavor is trying to sue Michael Kovrig for getting him imprisoned in China because Kovrig was passing along information as part of the Global Security Reporting Program, which *gasp!* gets information that is sometimes of interest to CSIS! The problem, of course, is that this is largely nonsense. Kovrig, who was on leave from Global Affairs at the time, was not a spy. The GSRP is not espionage. It’s diplomats talking to persons of interest out in the open, and their diplomatic reports get read by a lot of people, including CSIS, because that’s what CSIS does—they read reports, and fit them into bigger pictures.

While there is some debate about the GSPR and what role it contributes to intelligence, I would have to once again remind people that we really should take much of the reporting from the Globe with a grain of salt, and a dose of perspective sauce, because they torque absolutely every story that has anything to do with China, because it’s what they do, and they do it without any particular self-reflection. No matter how many times that Robert Fife and Steve Chase were confronted with the facts that in their reporting on intelligence leaks about foreign interference, that they were being fed very selective pieces of information, they absolutely refused to consider the possibility that they were likely being played by their source, who wanted certain narratives put out there for their own reasons. Fife and Chase have been absolutely allergic to any of that self-examination. And it should colour how we read any of their other reporting (which is how media literacy works). So yeah, they took some innuendo and a few facts and spun a big story that got the overall picture wrong, yet again. Let’s keep some perspective.

https://twitter.com/StephanieCarvin/status/1725916218987548927

https://twitter.com/StephanieCarvin/status/1725916989477048663

Ukraine Dispatch:

Russian drones targeted Kyiv, as well as the capitals of the Cherkasy and Poltava regions over the weekend, while intense fighting continued near Avdiivka, as well as Kupiansk in the Kharkiv region. Ukrainian forces say they are pushing back Russians now that they are on the east bank of the Dnipro river. Here is the tale of an orphaned Ukrainian teenager taken to Russia last year, who has now been reunited with family back home.

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Roundup: Saskatchewan wants to play constitutional chicken

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The government of Saskatchewan tabled their bill to “protect” SaskEnergy from repercussions if they go ahead with their threat to not collect or remit the federal carbon price on natural gas, and well, it is hilariously ineffective. Why? Because the federal legislation makes it very clear who is responsible for the collection and remittance of those funds, and this bill is trying to use provincial legislation to change a federal definition. You can’t do that. Provinces do not have that ability. This is just setting up SaskEnergy and its directors to face these penalties, because the provincial government can’t say that they’ll accept the responsibility instead. Again, it doesn’t work that way.

The minister, Dustin Duncan, then went on Power & Politics and was pressed on this issue, and he flailed for a bit before trying to make this a game of chicken—they’re going to essentially dare the federal government to follow federal law, and hold the persons responsible for collecting and remitting those funds to account. Because this is the level of maturity we’re dealing with. At this point, I wouldn’t be surprised if the CEO and the board of SaskEnergy all walked off the job in protest of being put in this kind of legal jeopardy because Scott Moe is a child.

Ukraine Dispatch:

The death toll from the Russian strike on Selydove in eastern Ukraine doubled as more bodies were found in the rubble. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says that Ukraine has seized the initiative in the Black Sea thanks to their fleet of naval drones which has pushed back the Russians toward the eastern coasts. New UK foreign minister David Cameron visited Ukraine as his first trip on the job.

https://twitter.com/zelenskyyua/status/1725054494969373168

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Roundup: A conspicuous lack of self-reflection

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It has not gone unnoticed that while Conservatives have been decrying the rise in antisemitism, there has been absolutely zero introspection about the kinds of deeply antisemitic conspiracy theories that they have been promulgating in an attempt to win the far-right fringe votes that they think will push them over the edge to electoral victories.

 

It wasn’t that long ago that there was a song and dance about how Kerry-Lynne Findlay’s tweets about how “shocking” it was that Chrystia Freeland interviewed George Soros when she was a journalist, were supposed to result in some kind of apology to Jewish groups, but nothing really came of it. Findlay is now the caucus whip, and the party is still sending out mailers about the dangers of the World Economic Forum, which Poilievre himself has denounced for incredibly stupid reasons. And yet, there is absolutely zero self-awareness that their pushing conspiracy theories is helping to feed this. And while there is a tonne of equivocating about how it’s really the “left” that is antisemitic and dangerous, they refuse to look at themselves in the mirror. This all remains so deeply stupid.

Ukraine Dispatch:

A Russian missile struck an apartment block in the eastern town of Selydove, killing two and wounding three. Ukrainian forces have confirmed that they have established a beachhead on the eastern banks of the Dnipro River, which is a milestone in the ongoing counter-offensive. Civil society groups in Ukraine estimate that the death toll on their side is around 30,000 troops.

https://twitter.com/ukraine_world/status/1724784115210428863

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Roundup: The premiers want their cut

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I have to say that it’s extremely precious to see the premiers getting bent out of shape because the federal government has started taking action on the housing crisis by dealing directly with municipalities and using the Housing Accelerator Fund to incentivise them to get rid of restrictive zoning practices that limit housing development. They’re claiming that the federal government is encroaching on their jurisdiction, but these very same premiers have abdicated this responsibility for decades now. They have the ability to eliminate these zoning restrictions with provincial jurisdiction, and they have time and again refused to. So, the federal government stepped in, and now they’re getting huffy about it. And to their credit, the federal ministers are pushing back on this, as well they should (especially because once again, they’re being blamed for the provinces’ failure to act on this crisis).

One of the excuses is that Quebec had a deal for money that flows to the province and not municipalities, because the province has legislation that forbids the federal government from cutting such deals. Okay, but what’s the motivation here? Are they sore because they’re not being invited to the photo ops when these deals are signed? Or are they sore because they can’t take a cut of those funds and use them for their own purposes, you know, like they have done with health transfers for decades now, or how they took funds meant for pandemic supports and simply applied them to their bottom lines so that they could run surpluses while letting their health care systems collapse around them? Because neither is a good look.

Even more to the point, the provinces keep insisting that Ottawa should be the one to pay for things cities need, like transit, or social housing, or major infrastructure, because they don’t want to have to spend the money. They keep crying poor and saying Ottawa has all of the money, but that’s also bullshit because the provinces have the same ability to raise revenues as the federal government does, but they choose not to because they don’t want to be the bad guy by raising taxes, even though it’s all the same taxpayer in the end. But this is how federalism has degenerated in this country, and it’s time people start holding the premiers to account for their failures (for a change).

Ukraine Dispatch:

Ukrainian forces say that they repelled more pushes along the various front lines and in particular around Avdiivka. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is calling for unity as he dismisses the notion of wartime elections, and when he has been publicly disagreeing with his top general about the current phase of the war.

https://twitter.com/ukraine_world/status/1721960135759741409

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Roundup: Alberta is run by children, example eleventy-four

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If you needed any more proof that Alberta is run by a group of petulant children, look no further than finance minister Nate Horner’s appearance on Power & Politics yesterday. While in the midst of grousing that during the (virtual) meeting with Chrystia Freeland earlier in the day on the subject of Alberta’s threats to pull out of the CPP (threats which are fairly transparently a pressure tactic to try and get out of other environmental obligations), and that Freeland was not entertaining any other carbon price exemptions, Horner said that he was going to launch a programme to subsidise anyone who wants to convert to heating oil in order to get the same break on carbon prices.

Heating oil generally costs about three-to-four times the price of natural gas for the same output. That’s the whole reason the “pause” was put into place as a stopgap to get more people switched over to heat pumps, along with a bunch of incentives to do so. If Horner actually thinks that people will pay more for heat in order to avoid paying the carbon price, and coming out at a net loss, for the simple thrill of “owning the libs,” well, that’s pretty much him telling on himself. And it’s so stupid because as the government has belatedly explained, there are actually more people who use heating oil outside of the Atlantic provinces than inside (mostly in northern communities), and they too get the “pause” in order to facilitate the switch over to heat pumps. The problem there, however, is that most of those provinces haven’t come to an agreement with the federal government in order to give the heat pumps for free to low-income households. So that may yet come, but right now, they’re still in full-on tantrum territory.

Ukraine Dispatch:

Russians launched a new wave of overnight attacks across ten of Ukraine’s regions, and the Ukrainian air defences were able to intercept 24 of 38 drones plus a cruise missile. Here is a snapshot of the counter-offensive on various fronts, while Ukrainian troops battle exhaustion as winter approaches.

https://twitter.com/defensiemin/status/1720176662942253228

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Roundup: A primer on inflation calculation

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Bank of Canada governor Tiff Macklem testified at the Commons finance committee earlier in the week, and a whole lot of people, including a certain “Food Professor” charlatan and numerous Conservative MPs, demonstrated that they don’t understand math or inflation as they all misconstrued the numbers that Macklem gave. And they’re the same number he has given before—that the carbon price has had a 0.15% effect on inflation, and if you removed it, going from $65/tonne to 0, it would have a temporary effect of reducing inflation by 0.6%.

A whole bunch of people–said charlatan, those MPs—insisted that because 0.6% is 16 percent of the 3.8% of headline inflation, that it means that the carbon price is responsible for 16% of inflation, which is wrong and not how inflation is calculated. Removing it wouldn’t actually mean inflation would go from 3.8% to 3.2% because the carbon price is not driving it. Energy and food prices are doing a lot of the driving there (and food prices are being hugely affected by climate change), and even if it did move to 3.2%, the Bank isn’t going to start lowering interest rates until it reaches the two percent target. Essentially, you’d be killing the carbon price and undoing the work it’s doing to lower emissions on the basis of a bad lie that it has made life unaffordable.

Meanwhile, here’s economist Stephen Gordon breaking down how inflation is calculated, with the inevitable conclusion that the carbon price is just noise—it’s not driving inflation, and it’s better to focus on the things that are.

A threat to democracy

A bunch of people got the vapours yesterday when Mark Miller called Pierre Poilievre a threat to democracy. Apparently these same people have convenient amnesia, or wishful thinking that he’s only kidding in what he’s doing and saying, because nobody learned a gods damned lesson from the Trump years.

Ukraine Dispatch:

While rallying Ukrainian troops, president Volodymyr Zelenskyy counselled patience and not to expect instant success (the latter comment directed primarily toward Western allies). A UN report says that 40 percent of Ukrainians need humanitarian support as a result of the conditions brought about by Russia’s invasion.

https://twitter.com/ukraine_world/status/1719348496640200777

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