Roundup: No, that’s not how inflation works

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Because some of you at the back still don’t get it, no, carbon pricing does not contribute 16 percent of inflation. It contributes 0.15 percent, because inflation is a year-over-year measure, and when the increase is steady and holding, the actual impact on inflation is negligible, because that’s how inflation works. But several of you you keep insisting that your math is correct when it’s not, and so here’s economist Trevor Tombe to try and get it through to you:

https://twitter.com/trevortombe/status/1720919364172697678

Ukraine Dispatch:

Ukrainian missiles struck a shipyard in occupied Crimea, damaging a Russian warship there. There are conflicting reports about the state of the counter-offensive in the Zaporizhzhia region, where Russia claims they have halted any advance, while Ukrainians say that they continue to advance, albeit slowly. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy pushes back against the notion that they have entered into a stalemate, and says they need more air defences so that Russia can no longer dominate the skies. Here’s a look at Ukrainian soldiers who have turned to jiu-jitsu after losing limbs in the war.

Good reads:

  • It was Sean Fraser’s turn over the weekend to defend the carbon price “pause” on home heating oil, and the goal to eliminate it as a heating fuel.
  • Canadians trapped in Gaza were not able to leave on Sunday as had been hoped, and are now expecting to be able to on Tuesday.
  • Documents show that CSIS Director David Vigneault told staff that he had full confidence in them after the leaks to media on foreign interference.
  • The CBC has a rundown of what we’ve heard so far in the Cameron Ortis trial, but his claim he was acting on foreign intelligence doesn’t make any sense.
  • Speaker Greg Fergus talks about the (relative) improvement in decorum, and that MPs themselves need to lead the way (which is a little bit precious).
  • The Liberals are testing ads that compare Poilievre to Trump, and Conservatives are already crying “What happened to sunny ways?”
  • Pierre Poilievre attended the Saskatchewan Party’s convention over the weekend to praise their resistance to the carbon price.
  • Danielle Smith is going along with the “parental rights” moral panic after strong votes around those policy resolutions at the UCP convention over the weekend.
  • Kevin Carmichael has high hopes that AI can improve our country’s sluggish productivity growth, if employers can embrace it.
  • Shannon Proudfoot marvels at the display the Liberals put on when they announced their “pause” on the carbon price home heating oil, and what it signalled.
  • Althia Raj wonders where our political leaders are as divisions mount over the war between Israel and Hamas (as though anything they would say could matter).
  • Susan Delacourt takes a deeper dive into the polling numbers about how Trudeau is personally weighing down the Liberals, and why replacing him may not help.
  • Paul Wells ruminates on the state of leadership in the Liberal Party, and what that particular debate is shaping up to be.
  • My weekend column looks at those poll results where Canadians feel that parliamentary debate is “posturing,” “useless” and “dishonest.” (Because it is).

Odds and ends:

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