Chrystia Freeland is continuing to release policy ideas, and yesterday there was another list of them—a Middle Class™ tax cut (aimed at the upper end of that middle class, I would say), which seems to be about keeping pace with Mark Carney’s pledge; she is talking about cutting GST on new homes for first-time homebuyers, which echoes Pierre Poilievre’s pledge (and this particular policy has had the stamp of approval by people like Mike Moffatt); not only capping certain grocery prices, but going after the consolidation and monopolisation in the food chains before they reach the grocery oligopoly (the NDP howled that she was trying to steal their grocery cap idea, which they in turn took from France); capping credit card interest rates at 15 percent; and thousands of more early learning and child care spaces (which, I remind you, requires the cooperation of the provinces). It’s a lot, and some of them I find a bit dubious (such as the grocery price cap), but she did get the nod from experts in the field like Vass Bednar, so maybe I need to keep a more open mind about it. Nevertheless, she is coming out with a lot of proposals, and speaking to a lot of Canadian media, including in Quebec, unlike certain other leadership candidates.
Double click on this announcement, and you'll see a very Isabella Weber-esque commitment to strategic price controls, and a pledge to make shrinkflation illegal (France did it!). Small changes that would really mean a lot for everyday people + help rebuild trust in the economy. https://t.co/XOijbToDY2
— Vass Bednar (@VassB) February 11, 2025
Encouraging to see Freeland focusing not only on breaking concentrated power in Canada's food system but also encouraging the entry of new players. https://t.co/ESHM5GqccJ
— Keldon Bester (@KeldonB) February 11, 2025
Meanwhile, I continue to be completely underwhelmed by Carney, while everyone fawns over him. I am somewhat incredulous at this interview that he did with a columnist at the Winnipeg Free Press, who titled it “Mark Carney pitching answers, not slogans,” but he didn’t actually provide answers! Carney has pitched his Middle Class™ tax cut (which will inevitably disproportionately benefit the very wealthy), and then gave the platitudinous “It’s time to build … homes, building clean energy infrastructure, using all of our energy resources to maximum effect, helping to build the industries of the future now.” That actually says nothing. We know we need to build more homes and infrastructure, the question is how you’re going to do it in a way that is faster and more effectively than we’ve done to date, and that’s the real kicker that he doesn’t answer.
I also find his admission that he didn’t want to jump into politics until the top job was open to be completely off-putting. There are skills in politics that you don’t learn just jumping in at the very top, and it smacks of a particular kind of arrogance that Carney doesn’t see that. Nevertheless, the polls are suddenly swinging in his favour, so he’s clearly convinced a whole lot of people based on his resumé (a resumé that should preclude him from ever going into politics at that), and that single interview he did with John Stewart, but it feels like a whole lot of unearned credit at this point in the race.
Big #cdnpoli energy here. https://t.co/1dW9t5H0j6
— Dale Smith (@journo_dale) February 11, 2025
Ukraine Dispatch
An early morning Russian missile attack on Kyiv killed at least one person and injured at least three others, while sparking several fires. Overnight Russian attacks on the Poltava region damaged natural gas production facilities in the region.
The General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces confirms the destruction of the occupiers' oil refinery in the Saratov region of #Russia. The enterprise is involved in supplying the Russian army.
"Strikes on strategic targets involved in the Russian armed aggression against… pic.twitter.com/ohDHIdG3CK
— UkraineWorld (@ukraine_world) February 11, 2025
Foreign Ministry denounces corruption allegations made by Tucker Carlson.
"This is a lie," spokesperson Heorhii Tykhyi said in response to Carlson's unfounded claims that Ukraine resold U.S. weapons on the black market.https://t.co/p1G8Y5Fqlf
— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) February 11, 2025