Roundup: Moving onto the dairy front

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The trade war seemed slightly more stable yesterday as the reprieve on most goods seemed to be holding, but it took no time at all for Trump to start musing about new, invented grievances and irritants. The latest is the dairy sector, for which there are limits as to how much the US can export to Canada tariff-free, but again, Trump has blown this out of proportion in his own mind. And as a result, he threatened 250 percent tariffs on Canadian dairy…but we don’t really export to them, certainly not liquid milk in large part because of the Supply Management system, so that would have very little impact on our industry.

The thing that did have people worried was fresh news out of the New York Times that Trump’s annexation talk has moved into threats about tearing up boundary treaties, particularly around things like the Great Lakes and cross-border river systems, and moving into things like shared military operations and NORAD, and after the floated threats about the Five Eyes a couple of weeks ago, it’s hard to ignore any of these threats, and why there needs to be a very concerted effort by the government to make plans for how we’re going to deal with this once it happens, because we know that nothing is off the table with Trump any longer.

I’m generally not into White House drama, but following it becomes more necessary than I’d like to admit these days. To that end, here is a look at an explosive meeting in the Cabinet room where several cabinet secretaries unloaded on Elon Musk, which wound up reining him in (somewhat, for now). But oh, man, the absolute stupidity of what is happening in that administration is boggling. As well, here’s a look at how framing the Trump presidency through the lens of reality television helps to make some of the chaos make a little more sense.

https://twitter.com/josheakle/status/1898212255604568305

Ukraine Dispatch

After the US cut off military aid, including access to satellite imagery for Ukraine, Russia launched a major missile attack, which targeted energy infrastructure, killed four in the eastern town of Dobropillia, while another five died in attacks in the Donetsk region. The Ukrainian forces within Kursk region appear to be nearly surrounded by Russians, though there have been counteroffensives in the past few days. Ukrainian drones did attack the Kirishi refinery.

Good reads:

  • Justin Trudeau named five more Senators, bringing the Chamber up to the full complement of 105 senators for the first time in years.
  • A $6.5 billion aid package that includes temporary changes to EI has been assembled in order to help respond to the effects of the trade war.
  • David McGuinty signed a $50 million-over-five-year contract with the Ottawa Police Service to beef up their presence around Parliament Hill. (Yes, *that* OPS).
  • Terry Beech is implementing new service standards for Passport Canada, which includes a guarantee of processing applications in 30 business days or it’s free.
  • Ahmed Hussen has pledged another $675 million for the Gavi vaccine alliance to immunise children in developing countries (as the Americans defunded USAID).
  • The federal government has now banned another list of assault-style rifles, and is moving ahead with other measures like a yellow-flag system.
  • PEI is the latest province to sign onto the pharmacare deal. (It was the only province to have signed onto the government’s previous pharmacare attempt).
  • The federal government awarded a $3.15 billion contract to Seaspan yards in Vancouver to build two icebreakers for the Coast Guard.
  • Two ministers’ recommendations to issue an emergency order to protect the southern resident killer whales has been rejected. (By whom?)
  • The Canadian Forces’ modernisation team is looking at how to adapt the military to changing global conditions, and personnel constraints.
  • It turns out that US customs officials are busting more people for smuggling eggs from Canada and the US than fentanyl.
  • The CBC did a major investigation into CRA scammers, and tracked down some of the fraudsters after locating various victims and correlating information.
  • Hudson’s Bay Company is seeking creditor protection to restructure.
  • The Supreme Court of Canada ruled 5-4 that Doug Ford’s limits on third-party election spending were unconstitutional because they were so disproportionate.
  • Pierre Poilievre is proposing changes to the Conflict of Interest Act which appear to be tailored to targeting Mark Carney specifically (as the desperation mounts).
  • The RCMP have identified the human remains found in the Winnipeg landfill as belonging to one of the murdered women, Morgan Harris.
  • The UCP government in Alberta kicked out a backbencher for threatening to vote against the budget, and put the former minister who quit Cabinet “on probation.”
  • The BC Conservative caucus has started to fracture, with ejections and walkouts after a flashpoint of residential school denialism.
  • For The Line, Clarke Ries goes through some of the deeper aspects of the “deal” Trump wanted Zelenskyy to sign, and how Zelenskyy exposed Trump as impotent.
  • Philippe Lagassé gives his thoughts on the Federal Court’s prorogation decision, and in particular the things the court got wrong about Responsible Government.
  • Emmett Macfarlane adds his own remarks on the same decision, particularly on the issues of justiciability, and the courts getting the unwritten constitution wrong.
  • Justin Ling offers some ideas for how Canada should pivot and play a new international role in the face of America abandoning its allies.

Odds and ends:

For National Magazine, I delved into the Supreme Court’s ruling on Doug Ford’s advertising limits, and why not everyone was convinced by the reasoning.

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