Your middle-of-the-week summer haze ...
At the time of writing it takes 138 Canadian pennies to purchase a single American Greenback. That matters because most commodities which we consume are priced in U.S. dollars. So when I work on CAE’s gas price predictions — a project we’ve undertaken to help save Canadians money in a very concrete way — I have to continually multiply the commodity price of gasoline and diesel by 1.38 (or whatever the difference is at that moment) to get the cost in Canadian dollars.
The fact of the matter is, our diminished dollar functions as a drag on our economy, decreasing our purchasing power and raising the cost of doing business across the board.
Now, I know that there’s a common counterargument here, which is that a weak Loonie makes Canadian sourced goods and produce more attractive abroad. And that’s not wrong, but there are a few problems with the idea.
First, it’s less true in the highly integrated global economy of the 21st century than it’s been in the past. Maybe some of our farmers will make more money selling livestock and crops across the border, but they’re also spending a lot more on equipment and even phosphate-based fertilizers, which Canada imports to the tune of billions per year, particularly from the U.S.
Second, it’s short sighted. While it might bring about some benefits to exporters, especially in the short term, the lower the dollar falls, and the longer it remains low, the slower our economy is going to run. In the long run, a depressed Loonie is going to harm all of us.
So what is to be done to recover some value and get our currencies closer to parity? Well, one thing we could do is unleash the Canadian energy juggernaut.
Our country has been blessed with abundant natural resources, especially oil and natural gas, but the Trudeau-Carney Liberals who have been running the country since 2015 have bent over backwards to appeal to the Keep-it-in-the-Ground Net-Zero activists in their base. They’ve pushed legislation like Bill C-69, the “no new pipelines act;” Bill C-48, the Oil Tanker Moratorium Act which significantly reduces our ability to export our natural resources; and Bill C-59, which bans businesses from touting the environmental positives of their work if it doesn’t meet a government-approved standard.
They’ve enacted the so-called Clean Fuel Standard, which requires fuel suppliers to reduce the carbon intensity of their products, elevating the cost to the consumer. And then there’s the whole bait-and-switch they’ve pulled on the Carbon Tax, zeroing out the public-facing Consumer Tax, while doubling down on the Industrial Carbon Tax.
Talk about a drag on the economy!
It shouldn’t be this way. The oil and gas industry is Canada’s “golden goose,” in the memorable phrase of economists Philip Cross and Jack Mintz, which drives “exports, productivity, incomes, and government revenue.” They are, in short, the backbone of our economy.
At a time when that economy is faltering, we should be doing everything we can to grease the wheels, to pump up production, and get things humming again.
Name a country other than Canada that keeps it resources under wraps.
Federal election managers knew the approximate date of the 2025 campaign call months before it was public, Access To Information records show. Elections Canada to date has not explained numerous irregularities in the vote given the ample warning: “It appears we will have an election call on March 25 or 26.”
And:
A new survey suggests more than half of Canadians believe they didn’t have enough information or needed more to cast their ballot in the last federal election.
The Ipsos poll says 57 per cent of respondents either believed they didn’t have enough local news or could have used more to assess candidates back in April.
Many respondents pointed to social media as among their most influential news sources, with 14 per cent specifically citing Facebook even though the social media site banned news content in Canada.
The online survey of 1,000 Canadian residents was conducted July 11 to 21 and is part of a study by the Public Policy Forum on access to local news.
The think tank concludes that a steady erosion of local news outlets leaves many Canadians “wading through the toxic waters of social media.”
No, they're just stupid.
Don't blame this on the bribed press and then ask for more censorship and media control.
Ten years of bad Liberal governance is not only education enough but there were also plenty of resources and candidates' material to sift through.
Skittish, gullible Canadians were freaked out by Trump and abortion.
The decline isn't going to happen.
It already occurred, and the above voted for it.
Vaguely related - I read that is completely defunded and gotten rid of because they are enormous wastes of time and resources:
As the federal Liberal government publicly rejected the idea of splitting CBC and Radio-Canada, Canadian Heritage officials pondered whether it was worth exploring, a newly released document shows.
The controversial question was raised when officials prepared a set of worksheets for members of an advisory committee appointed by the former minister to provide input on the future of the public broadcaster.
“Nearly 90% of Canadian lumber exports currently go to the United States, leaving us disproportionately exposed to their trade actions,” Carney said.
For steel and aluminum, roughly 90% of those exports head to the United States and in both categories, they are currently subject to a 50% tariff. According to data released by Statistics Canada on Tuesday, steel exports are down 41% since January and aluminum exports are down 38% over the same time period.
We also have high tariffs on automotive parts and finished products as well as tariffs on copper and softwood lumber.
“As we shift from reliance to resilience, Canada’s new government will ensure the industry can transform to seize new opportunities in Canadian and international markets,” Carney said on Tuesday.
Read: handing our resources to China and Europe.
This picking the carcass clean.
The Department of Social Development yesterday said it is hiring researchers to study actual impacts of its $200 million-a year school lunch program. Then-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced the program 16 months ago on claimed benefits that appeared to be inflated: “The goal is to build a strong, evidence-based program.”
Canadians voted for the "free things" they paid for and will pay for this waste of time, too.
Gracias for doing our jobs for us, Spain:
Spanish police say they have dismantled a criminal network that facilitated illegal entry into Canada and the U.K. using forged passports and travel documents.
In a press release by Spain’s National Police, the smuggling operation primarily targeted Yemeni nationals and involved more than 40 migration attempts.
The network allegedly charged each migrant up to $4,400.
According to Spanish authorities, the investigation began in September 2024 after the Canada Border Services Agency tipped off Spanish police about several Yemeni citizens attempting to travel to Canada from airports in Spain using fake documents. Eleven people, including the alleged ringleader, have been arrested across several areas in Spain.
Spanish police worked in collaboration with Europol and law enforcement agencies from countries including Switzerland, Finland, Austria, Germany, Ireland and the U.K.
Police said migrants would first obtain refugee documents in Greece then travel to a European airport. Once inside the international transit area, the migrants would allegedly receive a boarding pass and counterfeit passport from a member of the network.
Spanish police co-ordinated raids in Madrid and the northern towns of Santoña and Torrelavega.
During the searches, officers seized 10 mobile phones, a forged passport and documents related to flight bookings.
Spanish police say the investigation remains ongoing.
What is it that Canada owes you?
Turning down your bed before you go to sleep?:
Watching the violence in Gaza unfold for the last 22 months has been painful, traumatic, and a "continuous nightmare" for Palestinian-Canadians in Windsor — and according to some advocates, the last several weeks have gotten even worse.
The Gaza death toll has hit 60,000, with reports of widespread starvation, malnutrition and disease after months of an Israeli-imposed blockade and almost two years of Israel's military offensive.
On July 29, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), which monitors hunger around the world, issued a famine alert for the enclave.
Advocates say the Canadian government and international community need to do more to end the violence and the starvation.
"It's like nothing you've ever imagined humanly possible," described Maher El-Masri, a Palestinian-Canadian living in Windsor with family still in his homeland of Gaza.
"To see the sheer level of suffering and trauma, not only in Gaza, but also to us living here," he said. "In my household, we haven't had a normal day. You don't have a normal day."
I feel so guilty worrying about those hostages your people have tucked away in tunnels.
The ingratitude and self-absorption of the above are mind-blowing.
And:
Immigration Minister Lena Diab yesterday said she was extending special permits for Gazan refugees but would not specify if a cap of 5,000 will remain unchanged. Diab’s department also declined to discuss costs of tax-free grants that pay $3,000 per adult and $1,500 per minor child: “The humanitarian crisis in Gaza is devastating.”
Reasons why no one like the above should ever be let into the country - ever:
The largely Druze town of Suwayda was shaken in mid-July by clashes between Druze and armed Bedouin. Reuters reports execution-style killings of unarmed Druze civilians and home-to-home massacres, with about a thousand believed killed in the bloodshed. A medical examiner said he had seen about 500 bodies, including a decapitation, close-range gunshots, and teenage girls with throats slit.
**
Pakistani Christians continue to be arrested and receive harsh sentences, including life imprisonment and even death sentences, for “blasphemy” accusations. On July 19, for instance, police arrested and charged another Catholic, Amir Peter (60 years old), with blasphemy after he accused a Muslim shopkeeper of overcharging, reported the news website Christian Daily.
Peter of Nishat Colony in Lahore, capital of Punjab Province, was charged under Section 295-C of the country’s blasphemy laws pertaining to disrespect of Islam’s prophet, Muhammad (a charge punishable with death) following the complaint of a Muslim, Sanor Ali.
Another recent case involving Pervaiz Masih, a Christian, revolved around an accusation that he wrote blasphemous content that later sparked violent riots in Jaranwala in August 2023. He was sentenced to death along with other harsh penalties this past Good Friday (April 18). The anti-terrorism judge sentenced him to the death penalty under Section 295-C.
The Jaranwala incident that destroyed at least 20 churches and forcibly displaced hundreds of Christians in August 2023 is just one illustration of violence resulting from the blasphemy laws.
People do not acclimate to the culture of countries they are fortunate to find themselves in.
They resent the larger culture and the people in it.
They are enabled by the statist iron-fists who would rather certain parties just go away:
A recent document by a European think tank decries the “accelerating financial expansion of movements working to dismantle decades of hard-won sexual and reproductive rights across Europe.” The report, published by the Brussels-based European Parliamentary Forum for Sexual & Reproductive Rights (EPF), highlights the “anti-rights and religious extremist actors in Europe,” but focuses mostly on just one religion: Christianity. Through this inherent bias, the organization admits the one institution that its members and their allies fear—the Catholic Church—as the organizing force behind the “religious ideologues [who] are executing meticulous, long-term strategies for power.”
(Sidebar: what the hell is even that?!)
**
First, as reported by the Fraser Institute on Dec. 10, 2024, Canadian generosity hit its lowest point in 20 years. Nationally, the percentage of Canadian tax filers donating to charity has fallen over the last decade from 22.4% in 2012 to 17.1% in 2022. The percentage of aggregate income donated to charity by Canadian tax filers has decreased from 0.55% in 2012 to 0.50% in 2022. This decline in generosity in Canada undoubtedly limits the ability of Canadian charities to improve the quality of life in their communities and beyond.
(Sidebar: the seeds of socialism.)
Second, the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada (EFC) is a national association comprised of over 7,000 churches, as well as 32 post-secondary institutions and 86 ministry organizations. On March 10, 2025, the EFC made a submission to the federal Department of Finance noting that religious charities play a significant role within the charitable sector and the life of our country.
The EFC stated that of the 73,000 charitable organizations registered with the Canada Revenue Agency, more than 30,000 fall under the advancement of religion — roughly 42% of the charitable sector. Many religious traditions teach their adherents to care for their neighbours — to reach out in compassionate ways and care for those who are vulnerable. ...
In conclusion, the proposed amendment to revoke charitable status based on religious beliefs contravenes the Charter guarantees of freedom of conscience, religion, thought, belief, opinion and expression.
The above is written by a Liberal who claims to be Christian.
No one who calls himself a Christian can ever be a Liberal and they know damn well why.
It wasn’t supposed to happen.
The nurse’s hands trembled, just a little, when the tiny shoulders slid free. Twenty-three weeks gestation, maybe twenty-four. Her skin was red, waxy. Eyes fused shut. But the chest was rising and falling. A flutter, then faster. Her lungs sucked in the hospital air, like a whispered prayer for life no one intended to answer.
A weak cry came out — a sound halfway between a squeak and a whimper. Not loud. Fragile, but insistent. A child asserting her will to live in a place that had no plan for her survival.
There was no incubator waiting. No crash cart. No neonatal specialists. Just a stainless-steel basin, a warm towel, and a room too quiet for what had just happened.
She wasn’t supposed to be born alive.
Now she wasn’t supposed to live. Policy made sure of it.The nurse wrapped her up and held her — not to help, not to heal, but just to keep her still. Someone mentioned the words “comfort care.” It sounded gentle. It sounded clean. But what it really meant was this: no oxygen. No incubator. No intervention. Just wait — and let her die.
(Sidebar: think of what it takes to let an infant die.)
Die quietly. That was the plan.
The only problem? She didn’t follow it.
Then and now — Alberta hasn’t changed.
Danielle Smith knew this was happening twenty-five years ago, when she was a columnist for The Calgary Herald. In words that still sting with moral clarity, she wrote:
“…Second- and third-trimester abortions are a horrific practice. Recently, Calgary’s Foothills Hospital changed its policy for how it deals with late terminations. Nurses used to induce labour then withhold fluids from the baby until it died. Now they inject sodium chloride into the fetus’s heart, killing it before inducing labour.”
— Danielle Smith, Calgary Herald, Nov. 23, 2000She didn’t look away. She didn’t stay silent. She put it in print for all to see.
But today — the horror continues. The methods may have changed. The outcome has not: babies are still being born alive after failed abortions — and still being left to die. Quietly. By design. Under Alberta Health Services policy.
Alberta Health Services’ Policy PS-92 officially permits:
Abortions after 21 weeks — the age when a baby may survive outside the womb
Induced cardiac arrest before delivery, to ensure the baby is not born alive
“Comfort care” if the child does survive — not life-saving treatment
Advance consideration of a “Do Not Resuscitate” (DNR) order in anticipation of a possible live birth
This is not health care. It is the quiet death sentence for babies labeled “unwanted” — even after they’re born. Even while hundreds of hopeful couples wait for a child to adopt.
Premier Smith recognized this evil then. She described it in detail. She didn’t just name the methods — she named the place: Calgary’s Foothills Hospital. She called second- and third-trimester abortion a “horrific practice.”
She was right.
And now she is Premier.
She no longer needs to warn us. She can act.So why, when the same horror plays out under her leadership, does she remain silent?
Does she really need a citizen initiative to tell her a baby born alive shouldn’t be left to die?She once called for citizen initiatives because politicians wouldn’t confront hard truths.
But this isn’t a hard truth — it’s an obvious one.A newborn crying on a table isn’t a policy debate. It’s a test of our humanity. And no civilized society needs democratic consensus to know that a baby born alive must be helped, not left to die.
Premier Smith was a visionary in bringing forward citizen-initiated legislation. But this — this — is not a matter for public consultation. It is a matter of moral urgency.
A government that can’t protect a child gasping for air on a metal table isn’t neutral. It’s complicit.Premier Smith, you knew the truth in 2000. You know it now. You had the courage to expose this injustice then. Now you have the power to end it.
Suspend all late-term abortion procedures in Alberta hospitals and clinics, pending a full review of AHS Policy PS-92.
Launch a transparent public investigation into born-alive cases.
And implement clear, binding protocols to ensure that every child born alive receives emergency medical care — no matter the circumstances of his or her birth.
This wouldn’t regulate or restrict abortion. It would simply ensure that a newborn child is treated as a patient, not a problem.
The child in that room had a heartbeat — and for anyone with a heart, that should be enough.
A country does not come back from such things.
Also:
A New York Times op-ed advocates for taking organs from people who are in comas to improve transplant rates.
In a July 30, 2025, op-ed, the authors say that we should broaden the definition of death “to include irreversibly comatose patients on life support. Using this definition, these patients would be legally dead regardless of whether a machine restored the beating of their heart.”
Cardiologist Sandeep Jauhar posted the column on X, stating, “Death is not simply a biological fact, but it's also a social choice. To increase the number of donor organs, we should expand the definition of death.
How could this go wrong?
A lawyer at the Department of Finance in Ottawa, Timothy Huyer, is the first federal employee to withdraw tweets under a new Treasury Board policy prohibiting vulgar and partisan social media posts. Huyer tweeted 9 to 10 times in a typical workday including messages ridiculing Conservatives and profane posts like one that boasted: “The nice thing about being in government is being able to introduce laws that allow you to f—k up without people being able to sue you for it.”
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