Another Trump deadline, and another Trump deadline passed.
But really, what does it all mean? Is any possible deal now dead? Are they still talking, and if they’re not, why are the Canadian negotiators still in Washington? What happens now? What do I know, I’m in BC fishing. So over to you, please, Globe and Mail:
🔒 Carney says Ottawa is disappointed with raised 35% U.S. tariffs, remains committed to CUSMA
You’ve got to love the inconsistencies in Trump’s thinking. When the Carney government decided to begin the process of recognizing a two-state solution in the Middle East, Trump initially said that would make it very hard to make a trade deal with Canada. Strange, it didn’t seem to have an impact with the UK or certain members of the European Community who did the same thing and still cut a trade deal. But then, why would we try to figure out the way Trump thinks now?
Okay, moving on. The trade thing gives me a headache. Wake me when it’s over, one way or the other.
Whenever someone new arrives on Parliament Hill, veteran observers start wondering: How long will it take this person to fall prey to the ways of Ottawa? So many arrive convinced they’ll change the place, or at least they won’t let it change them. And we are not just talking members of parliament, or bureaucrats, you can add journalists too. I remember when I arrived on the Hill from Regina in the mid-seventies. I was going to be different than all those I’d watched before me. Didn’t happen. It’s funny how the place just takes hold of you.
So, how about Ottawa’s newest big-time player, Mark Carney? Who’s changing whom? Matt Gurney wrote this for The Hill Times:
🔒 Carney has three more months to make his mark on Ottawa before Ottawa changes him
Okay, I know I said I’d move on from trade, but allow me one more story.
Be honest. What do you really know about supply management and how it impacts so much of the US-Canada trade arrangement?
We hear about dairy quotas and supply management all the time, but do you understand how it works and how it affects you? Maybe it’s time to find out. I’m a big Mike Crawley fan, he’s a CBC reporter in Toronto, and he did this piece explaining what all this means and pointing out some misconceptions at the same time:
What the U.S. dairy industry really wants from Canada
SPONSORED
Canada’s forestry sector supports 200,000 jobs, contributes $21 billion to our economy, and generates $87 billion annually in revenue.
Yet U.S. trade barriers and Canada’s slow, overlapping regulatory processes are draining investment and blocking projects that prevent wildfires and drive economic growth.
We need action now—cut red tape, expand domestic wood use, develop biomass and pulp markets.
The Government of Canada has a clear opportunity to champion forestry, support workers, and grow our economy.
Let’s protect this critical industry and ensure it remains a foundation of our country’s strength and self-reliance.
Ever noticed that the federal government just keeps growing?
Year after year, the number of employees underlines that fact while opposition parties say things would change if they got to power. But that never, or rarely, seems to happen. I remember once, during a year-end interview with Stephen Harper in the first few years when he was PM, asking him why the government had grown under his leadership. He looked at me like I had three heads, but he didn’t challenge the fact.
But Harper was a piker compared with the record Justin Trudeau just laid out during his ten years as PM. Lorrie Goldstein has the numbers in his piece in the Toronto Sun:
GOLDSTEIN: Canada’s huge federal government bureaucracy needs to be downsized
There are times it seems that everyone on the world stage is afraid of Donald Trump.
They all talk a good game, and you know most of them consider Trump a con artist, a bully, and a liar. But when they’re sitting across from him, it’s all smiles, head nods, and handshakes. Most but not all. Especially not the President of Brazil, who says he’s ready to take on anyone, Trump included, when it’s the future of his country at stake. That was enough for the NY Times to order up a profile:
So, how does Trump 1.0 differ from Trump 2.0?
Trump, after his first victory, governed like a guy who hadn’t expected to win, and it showed. He cobbled together a cabinet where most didn’t listen to him and certainly didn’t follow his orders. 2024 Trump was very different. The people he picked this time, some of them simply Fox News “B” list anchors, did exactly what they were told. The rest were ideologues who drank the tariff concoction that Trump mixed for them. So, how did we get from Trump 1.0 to where we are now? This week, Yahoo News dug up this Atlantic piece that gives its view:
To See How America Unraveled, Go Back Five Years
For those who have visited Las Vegas, you know there’s one thing you get used to seeing happen.
Money disappearing from people’s pockets, wallets, purses, and hands. At the casino tables, in theatre halls, restaurants, hotels, golf courses, and the list goes on. But Vegas, like a lot of other US destinations, is not having a good year, and the finger of blame is pointed at Canadians staying away. You know who Canadians blame for that. But the Vegas story is getting a lot of attention, like this in the Wall Street Journal:
🔒 Where Did All the Las Vegas Tippers Go?
Trust the Daily Mail in London to come up with this world exclusive.
If true, it’s a hell of a story, and even if it’s maybe a little farfetched, it’s the kind of story that makes you imagine moments long ago, and how they still linger on today:
Mysterious message 'from Moses' found in ancient Egyptian mine could prove the Bible true
