Dear @MarkJCarney, the EU-Canada story is one of friendship, trust and standing side by side.
I look forward to writing its next chapter with deeper cooperation on trade, investment and defence.
See you in Canada for the G7 Summit and welcome you later in June in Brussels ↓ pic.twitter.com/ZFMtEjgcA9
— Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) May 17, 2025
h/t Mauser
A 2024 diplomatic mission to the West Bank has come under renewed scrutiny following revelations that Canadian officials described the controversial visit as “pleasant and friendly,” despite the fallout that cost former Addictions Minister Ya’ara Saks her job and eventually her seat in Parliament.
Blacklock’s Reporter says Saks, who represented York Centre, Ontario — one of Canada’s largest Jewish ridings — faced a wave of criticism after being photographed holding hands with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, a known Holocaust denier.
A comprehensive external review of the RCMP’s response to the 2022 Freedom Convoy describes the “highly politicized” invocation of the Emergencies Act.
The 92-page National After-Action Review, codenamed Project NATTERJACK and led by retired Assistant Commissioner Eric Slinn, reveals significant shortcomings in four main sectors: command, intelligence sharing, mobilization, and employee wellness.
Bloomberg reported on Thursday that Canada’s food industry is now facing fewer counter-tariffs when importing products from the United States, except for orange juice, coffee and alcohol. For many, this came as a surprise. According to the federal government’s own records, on April 16 — in the middle of the election campaign — Mark Carney, not yet elected, opted to eliminate most of the retaliatory tariffs imposed by his predecessor, Justin Trudeau.
The first notable act of our newly-minted culture minister, Steven Guilbeault, was to recite to media scribes the myth of peak oil. Asked whether pipelines would continue to be a disruptor to Alberta-Ottawa relations, he replied:
“The Canadian energy regulator, as well as the International Energy Agency, are telling us that probably by 2028, 2029, demand for oil will peak globally and it will also peak in Canada.”
Dominic LeBlanc, president of the King’s Privy Council for Canada and minister responsible for Canada-US Trade, Intergovernmental Affairs, and One Canadian Economy, has expressed opposition to oil pipelines, highlighting a rift with Alberta’s energy priorities.
Exemptions announced by Prime Minister Mark Carney have effectively nullified most of the retaliatory tariffs Canada had imposed on trade with America despite previously pledging to support “maximum impact” trade measures.
According to Oxford Economics, the carve-outs cancel out nearly all of the retaliatory tariffs that Trudeau and Carney both introduced in response to the Trump administration.
MAJOR BREAKING
Here is Mark Carney's order that he submitted to the GG MID-ELECTION
that NULLIFIED MOST counter-tariffs on the USA
He MADE NO MENTION OF THIS
and it didn't get published for the public to see until May 7th (after the election) pic.twitter.com/yiMies0FGB
— Tablesalt (@Tablesalt13) May 16, 2025
Elbows Up, Food Prices Up — Until Ottawa Quietly Backed Down
“With many counter-tariffs gone, it’s time for Ottawa to stop playing politics and start telling Canadians the truth — the tariff narrative no longer matches economic reality.”
Elbows Up, Food Prices Up — Until Ottawa Quietly Backed Down
Bloomberg reported this week that… pic.twitter.com/8pChEHdqEz
— The Food Professor (@FoodProfessor) May 16, 2025
Our new prime minister attracted some criticism in March when he staged an unfamiliar piece of American-style political theatre, inviting cameras to record him signing an official-looking instrument to knock out the federal carbon tax on consumer fuels. What I should say is that he attracted a surprising and encouraging amount of criticism, and not just from my fellow wacko Tristin Hopper. Canadians are not exactly hyper-aware of the distinction between a head of state and a head of government, and even opposition politicians could not necessarily have been expected to bristle at Mark Carney’s attempt to role-play as the ultimate executor of law. I would, in fact, expect them to take notes and prepare to steal the idea.
Ladies and gentlemen, we have been had.
Cast your mind back two months, to March 14. On that day, just five days after he had won the Liberal leadership, Mark Carney was sworn in as Prime Minister, at the same time appointing a new cabinet. The air was thick with talk of “new realities” and “existential crises.”
In keeping with the tone of seriousness the Prime Minister was anxious to cultivate, the new cabinet was sharply reduced in size, from the 39 ministers it had averaged in Justin Trudeau’s last government to just 24 – the smallest it had been in decades.
Coyne alert
There have been concerns about the “presidentialization” of the Canadian prime ministership for years — worries that have been exacerbated by Mark Carney’s tendency to sign Trump-style legislative orders to grant tax cuts.
Academics have suggested that the cabinet has become nothing more than a focus group for the prime minister, who instead of being primus inter pares (first among equals) is now merely primus .
On the evidence of the new cabinet’s first day in office, that may be no bad thing.
The world is hurtling forward but under Prime Minister Mark Carney’s ‘new’ Liberal government, Canada seems stuck in neutral. Listening to CBC’s fawning coverage of Carney’s cabinet shuffle, I was struck not by the predictable nods to gender and regional quotas, but by the breathtaking arrogance of keeping some of the Liberal Party’s most incompetent figures in power.
This shuffle signals more of the same from a party that’s governed with platitudes and failures for a decade.
New foreign minister says Israel using lack of food as ‘political tool’ in Gaza
Newly named Foreign Minister Anita Anand accused Israel on Wednesday of using a lack of food as a political tool in its Gaza operation and urged further work on a ceasefire with Hamas, the militant group that controls the Palestinian enclave.
Israel has sealed off the Gaza Strip since early March and resumed its military campaign against Hamas following the collapse of a ceasefire deal during which thousands of aid trucks entered the enclave.
The new Foreign Minister of Canada Anita Anand is accusing the Jewish State (Israel) of using food as a weapon against civilians in Gaza. The facts are that Hamas steals this humanitarian food. Anita Anand refuses to condemn Hamas. The statement from Anita Anand is a blood… pic.twitter.com/q9aDcsHPUh
— Israel Now (@neveragainlive1) May 15, 2025
OTTAWA — Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said Thursday that Liberal cabinet minister Steven Guilbeault posed an imminent danger to Confederation, one day after Guilbeault’s off-the-cuff comments on pipelines set off a firestorm in Alberta.
“Yes he is. Absolutely,” Poilievre said when asked by reporters if Guilbeault was a threat to national unity in his current role as Minister of Canadian Identity and Quebec Lieutenant.
Historian Eric Foner of Columbia University, in an article titled “Lincoln’s Lesson,” deplored the fact that the Soviet Union allowed its constituent republics to secede without firing a shot, arguing — so far as I understand him — that secession could devolve into a kind of fractal or Matryoshka Doll of endlessly nested, repeating parts.
Honda’s decision to delay its $15-billion Electric Vehicle project in Alliston, Ontario for two years is a reminder of the enormous financial stake federal and provincial governments have made in EVs, committing to larger taxpayer-funded incentives than the industry is investing in itself.
