Vibrant diversity strikes again.
Canada
Trump has Canadian voters tuned in. But on election day, who will turn out?
A week can feel like a lifetime in an election campaign.
Over the past several days, candidates from all parties have traversed the country, delivering carefully honed messages on everything from job creation to national security. But as I’ve said before, amid the headlines and horse-race chatter, there are often subtler signs of where things might be headed. With the second week of the campaign winding down, I see three polling numbers worth paying special attention to.
MORGAN: This election could shatter Canada
Canadian unity is always a consideration in federal elections. As a federation, Canada has independence movements in both Quebec and Alberta. Support for those movements has had ebbs and flows but they can’t be dismissed.
In Quebec, the province came within 1% of a positive vote for leaving Canada in a 1995 referendum. In Alberta, support for independence was high enough for Gordon Kesler to win a legislative seat with an independence platform in response to Pierre Trudeau’s National Energy Program in the 1980s.
How should Canada define its relationship with the U.S.? Start with a “Safe Word”
In these disorienting days, Canadian leaders are responding in real time to a deeply uncertain world.
On the day the president of the United States launched a global trade war, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith chose to look on the bright side. The United States, she wrote, had decided to “uphold the majority of the free trade agreement … between our two nations.” And while some tariffs remained in place, “it appears the worst of this tariff dispute is behind us.”
More ginned up scare mongering from Carney’s CBC.
Food for thought …
The final days of British Steel.
Chinese owners are preparing for its closure.Britain invented the steel industry. A key part of a powerhouse industrial base. But sadly, Britain’s industries have been hollowed out, sold off & communities left to rot.
— James Melville (@JamesMelville) April 5, 2025
h/t Mauser
Canada and Mexico shouldn’t fear Trump’s tariffs
“One of the messages that I’d like to get out tonight is: everybody, sit back, take a deep breath. Don’t immediately retaliate. Let’s see where this goes. Because if you retaliate, that’s how we get escalation.” So said Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Wednesday amid the global upheaval caused by Donald Trump’s sweeping tariff rollout. Bessent’s call for serenity is landing on deaf ears, but for panicked allies in North America, his advice may be worth heeding.
The Frozen North – Canada’s Economic Stagnation
On March 24, Canada’s newly appointed Prime Minister Mark Carney called a snap election for April 28. If the economic record of his Liberal Party, which has been in office since Justin Trudeau’s victory in 2015, is a major factor in voters’ decisions, bookies would be giving you pretty long odds on them.
❓HOW MUCH WILL CARNEY COST?
Canadians are broke & fighting to afford basics
How much will it cost for Carney to:
Keep 80% of oil & gas in the ground?
Make Carbon Tariffs?
Choke Alberta oil & gas?
Block pipelines?
Hit Canadians with the Industrial Carbon Tax? pic.twitter.com/ehXIHiFhwB
— Kris Sims (@kris_sims) April 4, 2025
Shelter in place …
“Ottawa, Parliament Hill police on scene for a ‘barricaded man’ in East Block Area”
An emergency lockdown is in effect near Parliament Hill’s East Block in Ottawa, Canada, as of April 5, 2025. The Parliamentary Protective Service declared it at 111 Wellington,housing parliamentary offices. Shelter in place, lock doors,and hide; stay away if nearby. Cause unclear pic.twitter.com/llKtTQo1bA
— Plus Logic (@pluslogicweb3) April 5, 2025
Lockdown declared at East Block on Parliament Hill
MAJOR police operation on Parliament Hill in OTTAWA fully taped off. People told to seek shelter and hide. Great video footage from @chrisdacey pic.twitter.com/JfiEB3c9pr
— Melissa (@MelissaLMRogers) April 5, 2025
GM increasing production at U.S. plant that makes same vehicle as Oshawa facility
General Motors says that it plans to hire an unspecified number of temporary employees at its Fort Wayne, Indiana, assembly plant in the wake of a U.S. tariff on imported vehicles that took effect this week.
The assembly plant in Fort Wayne manufactures the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra pickup trucks.
The Silverado is currently the only vehicle produced at a GM assembly plant in Oshawa that employs more than 3,000 people.
GM also produces the Silverado and Sierra at its Silao Assembly Plant in Mexico.
Poilievre says Canada, not U.S., will set its own defence budget as Trump pushes for 5% NATO spending target
Pierre Poilievre said under a Conservative government Canada would make its own, sovereign decisions on increasing military spending as U.S. President Donald Trump once again puts pressure on NATO allies to boost defence budgets to 5 per cent of GDP.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio at a meeting of NATO foreign affairs ministers in Brussels said Washington expects all alliance members to commit to raising defence spending to 5 per cent of gross domestic product.
Ford CEO: Tariffs Give Us ‘Better Chance‘, But Must Work Out Details on Parts
On Friday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “Ingraham Angle,” Ford CEO Jim Farley stated that he’s “very encouraged that we will have a better chance for a fair and square fight,” but there do need to be details ironed out on tariffs to ensure that the parts from its vehicles that are made in other nations don’t increase in cost in a way that harms the price of vehicles.
The distance between Pierre Poilievre and Mark Carney is shrinking when it comes to Donald Trump’s tariffs
OTTAWA — Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre says he supports keeping one of the biggest trade irritants identified by President Donald Trump, specifically the Liberal government’s three per cent digital services tax on tech giants like Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft.
Speaking on a French language election show hosted by three Radio-Canada journalists, Poilievre said the imposition of the tax on global digital giants is “fair.”
Toronto police spent nearly $20 million to deploy officers to protests related to the Israel-Hamas war
Toronto police spent nearly $20 million to secure protests related to the Israel-Hamas war and to conduct community outreach within the city’s Jewish and Muslim communities last year, a new report shows.
“Maintaining public order is integral to core service delivery and adheres to provincial standards of adequate and effective policing,” the report, which will go before the Toronto Police Services Board next week, states.
The report says that in 2024, the service responded to over 2,000 “unplanned events” and that more than half of those were associated with Project Resolute, which was launched after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel and saw police ramp up their presence throughout the city via command posts and community engagement.
It’s not as if the city rolled out the welcome mat for Hamas.
h/t Patti Jo
Trump’s talk of a Canadian “faucet” has Columbia River Basin residents on edge
The September backdrop was drought and the 2024 California wildfires. The location was Donald Trump’s expensive Los Angeles golf course. The words uttered by the Republican presidential candidate were that the Columbia River Basin was “essentially a very large faucet” and if all that water was diverted from the Pacific Ocean, “all of that water would come … right into Los Angeles.”
Here’s How The Media Are Lying Right Now: Tariffs ‘A Tax On Consumers’ Edition
Much like every other major story, the dying news media have managed to take a really interesting topic and thoroughly dumb it down to a limited set of monotonous slogans. In this case, variations of “tariffs hurt working people the most” and “the cost is passed onto consumers.”
SNELL: Rogan confirms Canadians’ worst nightmare — malevolence in Ottawa
Internationally recognized podcaster Joe Rogan, who has more viewers than most American mainstream media outlets combined — says he won’t return to Canada even though he thinks Canadians are “f—ing lovely.”
Rogan called-out the communist-like seizure of Canadians’ bank accounts without due process during the COVID-19 Freedom Convoy — later ruled illegal by the Federal Court of Canada, during an episode of the The Joe Rogan Experience.