Roundup: Promising to capitulate to the oil companies

Posted on by
Reply

Day ten, and things felt a bit more on track today now that the Paul Chiang situation didn’t loom over everything. Mark Carney was in Winnipeg, and re-announced his party’s affordability measures, such as the cancellation of the consumer carbon levy (though I’m not sure how losing the rebates after this quarter will help most households with affordability), his tax cut plan (which disproportionately helps the wealthy), and their various home building pledges along with the previously announced expansion of dental care this summer. That said, he also said expanding pharmacare likely wasn’t going to be a priority (but remember that pharmacare done in the dumbest way possible because the NDP insisted, so maybe it’ll give it time to negotiate a better system? But only if the premiers actually want to play ball, mind you, and they were reluctant beforehand. Carney is back in Ottawa today for “meetings” in advance of the tariff announcement this afternoon.

Pierre Poilievre was in Petty Harbour, Newfoundland and Labrador, and announced that he was going to cave to five demands from the oil industry, including repealing the Impact Assessment Act, scrap the emissions cap, the industrial carbon price, guarantee “six-month approvals” for projects (and good luck with that), and increase Indigenous loan guarantees for resource projects. Of course, the justifications he keeps pointing to are things that predated Trudeau and the IAA, and there are a tonne of approved projects on the books that aren’t moving ahead for market-based reasons. He’s selling a fiction about the need for more oil and gas projects which the market has not moved on, and is convinced this is the way to fight Trump. It’s baffling. Poilievre also insisted that the Liberals were going to bring the consumer carbon levy back once the election is over, just like Andrew Scheer and Erin O’Toole also insisted that the Liberals were going to tax the capital gains on your home. He later made an announcement in PEI about removing the automatic escalator on beer, wine and spirits, which…is a fraction of a cent every year. Honest to Dionysus… Poilievre will be in Toronto this morning, and heads to Kingston for the evening.

Jagmeet Singh was in Edmonton, and promised changes to the Canada Health Act to ensure that American corporations can’t buy Canadian healthcare facilities, and to put stronger controls on provinces who allow cash-for-access services. He later headed to Winnipeg and met with Wab Kinew. Singh remains in Winnipeg today.

In other campaign news, the Greens have qualified to be in the leaders’ debates, but Maxime Bernier and his vanity party have not (as it should be). Here is a comparison of the various carbon pricing (or not) policies as we now appear to be in a race to the bottom based on false premises. Here is an analysis of the various housing promises. And stories of frustration continue to leak out from the Conservative ranks.

Ukraine Dispatch

Russians claim to have captured a new village in eastern Donetsk region. President Zelenskyy is meeting with a small number of countries about contributing troops as part of the security guarantee in the event the conflict does end.

Continue reading →

Roundup: Chiang overshadows the day

Posted on by
Reply

Day nine, and in spite of the big plans that some of the leaders were trying to put forward, the issue of Paul Chiang loomed over everything. Mark Carney was in Vaughan, Ontario, and pitched a very bold plan to stand up a new Build Canada Homes organization, which would see the federal government take charge of building houses, with a goal of reaching 500,000 new homes per year, and using the market power to stand up a pre-fabrication industry that would have the certainty that these orders are coming in. (They also had to quietly change the French name of the proposed organisation after the initial version was grammatically incorrect). He also promised a number of things around development charges and permitting that are not within federal jurisdiction, so questions remain as to how he expects to reach those goals. Carney will be in Winnipeg today.

Pierre Poilievre was in Fredericton, New Brunswick, pitching a national energy corridor, without saying how he plans to actually achieve it over the provinces and First Nations. (Yes, Carney talked about this with the premiers, but there have been no details yet). When asked about the mounting frustration within the campaign, Poilievre avoided answering the question, but defended his platform under the rubric that the Liberals weakened the country. Poilievre will be in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador this morning, and hold a rally in Borden-Carleton, PEI, in the evening.

Jagmeet Singh was in Victoria, and promoted energy retrofits that would create “good union jobs,” which continues to feel hopelessly behind the curve. We also saw Singh’s messaging strategy start to shift as well, insisting that electing more NDP MPs mean more people fighting for the “little guy” in negotiations around the future of the country and yeah, I’m not sure that’s not quite how it works. Singh remains in Edmonton today.

In other campaign news, here’s a comparison of how the party leaders are each dealing with the Trump threats, and how that is reflected in their policies. On the Paul Chiang question, Carney said that he spoke with Chiang and that he still has his confidence, which raises big questions about Carney’s political judgment. Chiang posted that he had resigned as candidate around midnight, which takes the issue off the table, but leaves the questions around Carney’s judgment hanging in the air.

Ukraine Dispatch

President Zelenskyy says that Russia has committed over 183,000 war crimes in Ukraine since the start of their invasion, and that they need to be punished for it.

Continue reading →

Roundup: Reviving an abandoned capital gains plan

Posted on by
Reply

Day eight of the campaign, and in spite of there being policy announcement, it was another fairly low-key day, or maybe it just felt like that without the usual wall-to-wall coverage. Mark Carney continued to hold private events in his riding, and took to media questions. There was no announcement of where Carney will be today.

Pierre Poilievre was in the GTA, and announced a plan to waive capital gains taxes if they are re-invested in Canadian companies. If this sounds familiar, it was because the Conservatives floated this in 2006, only to abandon it because it was impractical. Poilievre insists that this could be “economic rocket fuel,” but there is no lack of irony with the fact that it comes with an absolute mountain of red tape in the form of compliance paperwork. Poilievre heads to Fredericton, New Brunswick, later today.

https://twitter.com/MikePMoffatt/status/1906432179493883989

https://twitter.com/MikePMoffatt/status/1906433266069963227

https://twitter.com/JohnPasalis/status/1906408130826674682

Jagmeet Singh was in Port Moody, BC, and promised to have CMHC offer low-cost loans to first-time home buyers, yet another demand-side solution to a supply-side problem. Singh is campaigning in Victoria today, before heading to Edmonton.

Meanwhile, the Paul Chiang controversy continues to simmer as the Liberals refuse to turf him, in spite of the fact that there can be no justification for the kind of behaviour he exhibited in instructing people to turn over his would-be Conservative rival to Chinese authorities for a bounty. (That would-be rival is now the Conservative candidate in nearby Don Valley North). That Chiang himself has not resigned is as much of a problem. The cut-off for nominations has not been reached yet, and they could still find a replacement in time (though not much time) rather than continue to let this complete lapse in political judgment continue to haunt them throughout the campaign. Carney is not Teflon, and the Liberals shouldn’t treat him as such.

Ukraine Dispatch

Russian drones attacked Kharkiv for a second night in a row, injuring two and damaging a kindergarten and private houses.

Continue reading →

Roundup: Meeting the local volunteers

Posted on by
Reply

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

Continue reading →

Roundup: Carney’s first call with Trump

Posted on by
Reply

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).

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

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.

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

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

Continue reading →

Roundup: The relationship with the US has ended

Posted on by
Reply

Day five of the election campaign, and two of the three leaders changed their plans in response to Trump’s tariff announcement—the Conservatives did not, and they can’t pivot because they don’t have media on their plane who can follow them if they have to change plans to respond to events, which is all the more reason why they never should have left them off.

Mark Carney returned to Ottawa to meet with his Canada-US Cabinet committee, and call several premiers including Doug Ford, before addressing the media. There were no campaign announcements today, and said that retaliatory measures will be announced next week when more tariffs are supposed to be coming from Trump, but his remarks were stark, and have been blowing up across a segment of American media—that the relationship we used to have of deepening economic integration and cooperation on security and defence is now over. That’s going to mean a significant retooling of our economy for “strategic economic autonomy,” and that this will be difficult, with no silver bullet. That also means shifting the auto sector for more global trade, which is apparently part of what he discussed with union leaders yesterday, so we’ll see if we get more details about what that could mean. Carney did say that Trump’s office has reached out to talk, so that will likely happen in a couple of days. Afterward, he headed to Montreal for a rally, and today, he plans to have an emergency virtual meeting with the first ministers.

Pierre Poilievre was in Surrey, BC, and his daily announcement was about raising the TFSA limit so long as it was tied to Canadian funds—but he made it sound like government would top-up funds (they won’t), it really only benefits those who can add another $5000 to these accounts, and more to the point, it adds a bunch of bureaucratic reporting mechanisms to prove the funds are Canadian. (Sounds like someone is adding red tape!) He did have a message to Trump to “knock it off,” which was weak and too late, but he keeps talking in terms that the relationship can simply go back to what it was if the tariffs get called off, when it can’t. Democracy has died in the US. There is no ability to trust this administration, and probably the next one. He is off to Nanaimo, BC, today.

https://bsky.app/profile/jrobson.bsky.social/post/3llefekfd522e

https://bsky.app/profile/jrobson.bsky.social/post/3llefekff3k2e

https://bsky.app/profile/jrobson.bsky.social/post/3llefekfkx22e

Jagmeet Singh, having pivoted his campaign stop, went to Windsor to announce his plan for entirely Canadian-made cars, and that he’d waive the GST on Canadian-made autos. The promise is likely impossible because supply chains were integrated for a reason, and we have too small of a market to support a purely domestic auto market (and cue all the jokes about Canadian Ladas). He is headed back to Toronto today.

In other election news, former Conservative strategist Kory Teneycke ripped Poilievre a new asshole at an Empire Club event on Wednesday about Poilievre’s inability to meet the moment in the campaign, which was why his poll numbers are tanking, and why he is heading for defeat—particularly because Poilievre has adopted way too many Trump habits to appeal to a certain segment of voters he wants to keep on-side. This as Doug Ford’s personal pollster has made it known that Poilievre’s numbers are grim in Ontario.

Ukraine Dispatch

Russia launched 86 drones plus a missile overnight Wednesday, which sparked fires and injured 21 people in Kharkiv, while shelling in Kherson killed two and damaged power supplies, in contravention of the supposed partial “ceasefire.” Russian forces have also been stepping up attacks on Sumy region. Putin wants a “temporary administration” to allow for elections in Ukraine to end the war, when all that needs to happen for him to end it is to simply send his soldiers home.

https://twitter.com/ukraine_world/status/1905252833827364873

Continue reading →

Roundup: Return of the tariff threat

Posted on by
Reply

It was day four of the election, and this was the day Trump made his comeback. Before that happened, Mark Carney was in Windsor, and with the Ambassador Bridge as his backdrop, promised a package of measures to help build up more of a domestic supply chain for the auto sector in the face of tariffs, as well as a $2 billion strategic response fund for the fallout of tariffs on the economy.

It was in the evening that Trump made his announcement that 25 percent tariffs would apply to vehicles and major parts not made in the US, which is pretty fuzzy when it comes to the integrated nature of the industry. This was just before Carney’s rally in Kitchener, but he found an appropriate backdrop, and with Unifor president Lana Payne (whom he had already been meeting with when Trump made the announcement) came out to call this a direct attack on the country, and vowed to have a response, but also stated that he would be returning to Ottawa tonight in order to meet with Cabinet and his Canada-US committee in order to determine next steps in the response.

Pierre Poilievre was in Montmagny, Quebec, and laid out some measures to allow working seniors to keep more income tax free, keep savings in RRSPs longer, and now says he will keep retirement age at 65 if he forms government—a pander to wealthy Boomers. He also released his Quebec-specific platform that promised “responsible federalism,” and pledges to keep Radio-Canada intact (but outside of Quebec, they rely entirely on CBC infrastructure). He then headed to Quebec City for a rally, but when the Trump tariffs were announced, he made a statement that essentially blamed the Liberals for “ten years of economic weakness” and for “pushing” investment out of the country, and demanded that any counter-tariffs go to tax cuts (which is copying Trump). Today he’s off to Surrey, BC.

Jagmeet Singh remained in Hamilton, where he proposed his own tax cuts—increasing the basic personal amount, selective GST cut (which benefits high-income earners), restoring the capital gains increase, doubling the disability benefit (which will do little), and increasing GIS. It was entirely unspectacular, but that’s what we’ve come to expect from Singh. Post-tariff announcement, echoed Carney’s statement about it being a direct attack, then retreated to his previous canned line about needing to “fight like hell,” and complained that EI won’t do enough for any affected workers. He changed his plans to head to Windsor for the day after being called out by reporters.

A couple of other election notes:

https://twitter.com/MikePMoffatt/status/1904926061990735895

Ukraine Dispatch

Russia launched a mass drone attack on Kharkiv, injuring at least nine, with further attacks on Dnipro. Russia is claiming that Ukrainian drones attacked an electrical facility, while Ukraine says this is disinformation aimed at justifying continuing hostilities. Russia has attacked eight Ukrainian energy facilities since they said they were halting. Here’s an analysis of the Black Sea ceasefire, and how it is really a betrayal of Ukraine and of the US working in Russia’s interests.

Good reads:

  • Elections Canada is hiring 200,000 temporary positions for the election.
  • An Access to Information request shows how Justin Trudeau was preparing for his first call with Trump after he won the election.
  • The summary of the Bank of Canada’s deliberations show that they were prepared to pause any rate cuts, had it not been for the tariff threats.
  • The Atlantic published more screenshots from the group chat that their editor was inadvertently added to, in order to prove their veracity and classified nature.
  • The Globe and Mail’s sources™ say that Chandra Arya’s nomination was revoked because of ties to the Modi government, and some “troubling inconsistencies.”
  • Justin Trudeau is renting a home in the same neighbourhood as Rideau Hall, while his children finish out the school year, but plans to return to Montreal.
  • In Avalon, the Conservatives overrode an ongoing nomination race to appoint a candidate who had to resign from a city job over harassment allegations.
  • Two former Conservative MPs are joining a group of traitors citizens heading to the US to try and talk about statehood for Alberta post-independence referendum.
  • Dominic Cardy’s vanity “Canadian Future Party” is sliding into further obscurity.
  • Scott Moe is aiming to remove his province’s industrial carbon price, which is jumping the gun of the election outcome (and starting the race to the bottom).
  • BC has introduced new framework legislation for Indigenous consultation on mining claims…which First Nations leaders say is insufficient.
  • A US physician who moved to Canada and now practices here describes the differences in our systems that are less obvious than just for-pay.

Odds and ends:

Want more Routine Proceedings? Become a patron and get exclusive new content.

Roundup: Security clearances back in the spotlight

Posted on by
Reply

Day three of the campaign, and Mark Carney remained in Halifax, where he had an announcement at the Irving Shipyard about his plans to continue recapitalizing the Royal Canadian Navy, and pledged to fill all 14,500 vacancies in the Canadian Forces expeditiously (and good luck with that). He also promised to expand the mandate of the Canadian Coast Guard, and that’s a lot of expensive promises for someone who wants to balance the “operating budget” and still give a tax cut. Over the course of the day, Carney also mispronounced the name of one of his “star” candidates in Montreal, and misidentified the École Polytechnique as Concordia (where another shooting did happen), which she forgave him for, but these are more rookie mistakes creeping in. Up next on the tour will be Windsor, Ontario, then London and Kitchener.

https://twitter.com/MikePMoffatt/status/1904280770199347527

Pierre Poilievre was in the GTA and promised to expand his proposed GST cut on new homes to now cover all new homes under $1.3 million—a pledge that has both upsides and downsides. There was also a bit of a gaffe with the sign on the lectern, where it looked like two separate verb-the-noun slogans of “Axe the Sales!” and “Tax on Homes.” That wasn’t the case, but someone should have caught that. He also insisted that people wouldn’t lose their federal dental or pharamacare coverage, but was unclear on just who would be covered under his government (and I have a hard time believing that given the scale of cuts that need to happen to fund his promises). He then headed to Hamilton in the evening for another rally.

https://twitter.com/MikePMoffatt/status/1904565775353987257

https://twitter.com/MikePMoffatt/status/1904565818949538241

As for Jagmeet Singh, he was in Hamilton and mostly complained about Brookfield being capitalists as a way to talk down Mark Carney, and somehow that was supposed to tie into affordable housing, but I couldn’t see anything actually being announced. He did boast about union endorsements, but did admit that the party is facing challenges (as their poll numbers continue to plummet), but insist he’s still in the fight. Today he’s still in Hamilton for his announcement (trying to save the seats there, no doubt) before heading to London, Ontario.

The big story of the day, however, was the revelation in the Globe and Mail that CSIS did allege that India organised support for Poilievre’s leadership campaign (not that he really needed it), but also that they couldn’t brief him on this because he refuses to get his security clearance. Poilievre insisted this was a partisan smear, spun a conspiracy theory about a trip Carney took to Beijing after he was made the Liberal economic advisor, before returning to the falsehood that getting his clearance would be a “gag order,” and seemed wholly unaware that the bigger issue for him to be briefed on was who in his party may be compromised so that he, as party leader, can deal with the matters internally. This having been said, there are questions about the timing of this leak, but we can’t be sure that this was someone trying to put their thumb on the scales in the election when it’s very possible that the Globe sat on this for a while with the intention of dropping it during the campaign so that they can be seen to be setting the agenda, and not the parties. It certainly wouldn’t be the first time a media outlet has done that.

Ukraine Dispatch

Russia launched 139 drones and missiles at Ukrainian targets overnight Monday, with damage and injuries in the Poltava region. A partial truce on energy and sea attacks was reached with American help, though the Americans are looking to ease sanctions on Russian fertilizer (which only helps their war effort, guys). President Zelenskyy warns, however, that Russia is already trying to manipulate and distort those accords, not that this should be a surprise.

Continue reading →

Roundup: Duelling tax cut offers

Posted on by
1

Day two of the campaign, and the first full day of campaigning. Mark Carney began in Gander, Newfoundland and Labrador, where he played up the Canadiana and the fact that Gander hosted passengers from aircraft stranded on 9/11 (which became the basis for the musical “Come from Away.” This was part of his appeal to Canadian values in the face of Trump and the trade war, before he jetted off to Halifax. (Day one recap here, and more about the fishers protesting his speech.). Carney also released a second, more earnest ad with Mike Myers, who officially endorsed him in it. Carney also added that he hasn’t spoken to Trump yet, but he suspects Trump is waiting until after the election to call.

Pierre Poilievre was still in the Greater Toronto Area, where he had pledged his own, larger income tax cut, and gave a faux assurance that it would be paid for with “cuts to bureaucracy, consultants, and foreign aid.” (Yeah, that’s not going to get you the money for this kind of a tax cut, it will absolutely disproportionately benefit the wealthy, and you can bet that social programmes will be on the chopping block). He also regaled the crowd with a stupid meme tale about telling a child that income tax is a “punishment for doing well,” rather than the entry fee for civilization. Because Poilievre is fundamentally an anti-government conservative (in spite of having spent his entire life in public office). (Day one recap here).

The NDP started off in Montreal, where he promised to set aside even more public land for rent-controlled homes, but didn’t exactly spell out how this would be different than what the federal government is already doing about leasing public lands (nor did he address the fact that a lot of that “government-owned land” are actually contaminated sites). He also took some jabs at a punching bag in an outdoor gym—because he’s spent the last few weeks trying to burnish a tough-guy image—before the bus went down the 401 to Toronto. (Day one recap here). He’ll spend much of the day there today, before heading to Hamilton later afternoon.

Given the two promises around tax cuts, here are some analyses of what it might mean, once we get more details. Economists, however, are pretty sceptical thus far that the maths are going to work out for these cuts.

The Leadership Debates Commission announced the dates for the two official “consortium” debates as April 16th and 17thin Montreal, French first, then English, each with a single moderator after the complete gong show of the previous two election cycles. There will not be a TVA “face-à-face” debate this time, as they planned to charge the leaders $75,000 each to “offset costs,” and the Liberals balked, so it won’t go ahead. The other campaigns are trying to say Carney was too afraid of a second French debate, but charging the parties to hold it was a very, very bad precedent, and it’s probably for the best that it wasn’t’ allowed to take hold.

Ukraine Dispatch

Russian missiles hit a densely-populated part of Sumy, wounding 88 people, while there were further air attacks on Kyiv, wounding one and damaging houses. A Russian cyberattack also hit Ukraine’s state railway service, adding to the chaos of the situation.

Continue reading →

Roundup: Election 2025, Day One

Posted on by
1

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.

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.

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.

 

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

Continue reading →