Your middle-of-the-week wet and wild weather …
The paranoid classes are on high alert.
No one is worried about China for some reason but they DO
over-estimate their importance to the Americans:
As 2026 starts with high-consequence geopolitical events in Venezuela and Iran, Canada continues to present itself to the world as stable, prosperous, and benign. Yet the defining lesson of this past year is that our perceived strength is increasingly an illusion — a façade sustained by political denial, regulatory weakness, and the monetization of risk.
Across multiple fronts — land ownership, real estate, immigration, organized crime, and national security — the same pattern has repeated itself. Warnings were issued. Evidence accumulated. And Ottawa largely chose inaction.
The result is a country drifting further into vulnerability while congratulating itself on tolerance and openness.
Canada’s economy remains dangerously reliant on sectors that are poorly regulated and easily exploited: real estate, land, natural resources, and mass immigration. Throughout the year, investigative reporting and law enforcement intelligence continued to show how foreign capital — often opaque, sometimes criminal — flows freely into these systems with little resistance.
From farmland acquisitions on Prince Edward Island and the Prairies, to urban real estate markets untethered from domestic incomes, Canada has treated ownership and sovereignty as inconveniences rather than safeguards. Weak beneficial ownership registries and limited enforcement ensure that we often do not know who truly controls critical assets — and, worse, seem uninterested in finding out.
This is not economic growth. It is asset stripping disguised as prosperity.
The most brutal manifestation of these blind spots remains fentanyl. In 2025, Canada further cemented its reputation as a preferred destination for laundering synthetic drug profits. Chinese triads, Mexican cartels, and domestic gangs continue to exploit casinos, shell companies, and real estate — not because they are clever, but because Canada is permissive.
Each overdose death is more than a public health failure. It is a financial crime, a national security issue, and a policy indictment. While peer nations have hardened their anti–money laundering regimes, Canada remains slow, fragmented, and politically cautious — a combination that organized crime understands perfectly.
This year also reaffirmed Canada’s habit of strategic hesitation. Despite overwhelming evidence and allied action, the federal government continued to delay meaningful steps against hostile foreign actors operating within our borders.
Some critics charge that Mark Carney’s Liberals are already seeking to water down the long-delayed foreign agent registry, with fines of as little as $50 for non-compliance, while the government has estimated almost 1,800 entities would be expected to register, with 50 additions every year, if this future law were adhered to.
The failure to decisively confront Iranian regime proxies, foreign influence operations, and transnational criminal networks reflects a broader unwillingness to accept that Canada is no longer insulated by geography or reputation.
Our allies increasingly see Canada not as a leader, but as a weak link.
**
"We're a long way from a democratic transition here. This actually looks in many ways more like a presidential coup," said Max Cameron, a University of British Columbia professor who is president of the global Latin American Studies Association.
"If this current government doesn't want to issue press releases that are directly critical of the United States, at least behind the scenes (it can) put together the doctrinal basis for Canadian liberal internationalism that is counter to American aggressive unilateralism."
The grift goes on:
Prime Minister Mark Carney wrapped up a brief trip to Paris for these talks by promising Canada’s support for Ukraine alongside the more than 30 countries in the coalition — though it remains unclear whether Canada would deploy troops to Ukraine.
Did Carney debate this in the House of Commons before Trump
forges a peace plan?
Oh,
no! He
asked the fat expert on this:
Liberal MP Chrystia Freeland says she will step down as a member of Parliament and accept a position as economic advisor to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, she said in a social media post.
The position will be an unpaid one and will also involve her stepping down as Canada’s special envoy to Ukraine, she said.
“In accepting this voluntary position, I will be stepping aside from my role as the Prime Minister’s Special Representative for the Reconstruction of Ukraine,” Freeland said.
Freeland is the MP for the Toronto riding of University-Rosedale.
Still getting a pension, still skimming
from the
funds being given to Zelensky.
Change my mind.
By the way, a
loop-hole allows MPs to betray Canada.
Getting
the stink eye from across the aisle:
A B.C. Conservative MP says the Liberals recently asked him to cross the floor to join their party, a move he says he has “no intention” of making.
“I have no intention of crossing the floor today, tomorrow or ever, regardless of what you offer me. It would be a betrayal of my constituents, a betrayal of the office to which I have been elected, and a betrayal of my own personal core beliefs,” Tory MP Scott Anderson said in a Jan. 5 post on Facebook.
Anderson said the Liberal Party is “pulling out all the stops to lure Conservative Members of Parliament to cross the floor so they can have a majority,” and have been promoting the idea that there is a movement within the party to get rid of Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre.
Carney
knows what is at stake.
He simply doesn’t care, even about the cleanest
oil in town:
Donald Trump said the Venezuelan oil industry could be booming again in 18 months. Here in Canada, we might have finished the first round of consultations on a new pipeline, but we won’t have concluded the court challenges to it.
This is the dilemma Canada is facing: We are still moving at Ottawa speed, meaning slow, while the Americans are talking about a breakneck pace in restoring Venezuela’s oil industry. …
Those doubting Trump’s ability to move at speed, those counting on any rebuilding taking a decade are relying on hope and hope is not a strategy. Both Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre have called on Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government to move with a sense of urgency on issues like pipelines. …
That’s the kind of urgency we need, but speaking to reporters in Paris where he was attending meetings, Carney showed all the urgency of a bureaucrat on lunch break.
“It’s been our view, and we’re working towards this, that Canadian oil will be competitive because it is low risk,” Carney said.
He went on to say that Canadian oil will also be competitive because it is low cost and low carbon.
I want to support out industry as much as possible, but lying to ourselves that we are low risk is a bad idea. It’s true that the risks are different than in Venezuela, where the issue is corruption, but the risk in Canada is due to uncertainty from bureaucratic red tape, protesters being given free rein to block projects, endless court challenges and a government apparatus that allows all of this.
Justin Trudeau’s government didn’t buy the Trans Mountain Pipeline because he wanted to, he bought it because the company was walking away in frustration over endless delays caused by either government policy or indifference. We could argue that Carney is different, that he’s promising to move quickly, but he hasn’t shown that to be true yet.
All that the agreement Carney signed with Smith does is promise to declare a pipeline to the Pacific Coast a priority that can be referred to the Major Projects Office by July 1, 2026. As Carney himself said in November, getting a project referred doesn’t mean it will get built.
“Referring to the MPO — or the Major Projects Office — does not mean the project is approved. It means that all the efforts are being put in place from the federal government in order to create the conditions so it could move forward,” Carney said.
So Trump promises that he can get Venezuela’s oil industry up and running again in 18 months and Carney says he can get a pipeline project sent for consideration by July 1. From there, the MPO will take six months to a year to consider the proposal, then there would be First Nations consultations and court cases, so we are talking several years before anything begins.
The biggest threat to Canada’s oil industry in the short term isn’t Venezuelan oil replacing Canadian barrels, it’s Venezuela taking up all the capital investment dollars that Canada needs to compete.
Speed and urgency are of essence and we seem to be lacking both.
Canada
will be paying for the village idiot’s government for generations to come:
Rapidly changing global events make clear that Canadians are now paying a steep price for the lost decade of economic growth under the government of former prime minister Justin Trudeau.
Where the previous Liberal government should have focused on making Canada an energy superpower by expanding our energy infrastructure, given our vast oil and natural gas resources, it instead downplayed them, using the ridiculous argument that the age of fossil fuels was ending.
Now we have to play catch-up on selling our oil to the world instead of selling almost all of it at a huge discount to the U.S., currently our only major customer, where U.S. President Donald Trump just took over Venezuela, giving the Americans access to the world’s largest oil reserves. …
A decade of neglect of our military was another key failing of the Trudeau government, where Canada now has to play catch-up not only to meet our NATO commitments, but to ensure our own security, especially given the interest in Canada’s resource-rich Far North by the U.S., China and Russia.
A nation that can’t competently patrol its own territory is not a sovereign nation in any real sense of the word.
Alright.
This wasn’t a paternal decision; it was a political one made
by a government that thinks it knows what is good for the public it rules over:
As of January 1, 2026, milk sold in Canada contains more vitamin D. This is neither a new product nor a marketing innovation, but rather a quiet regulatory adjustment that has largely gone unnoticed by the public.
At first glance, the change appears technical. It stems from a well-documented reality: A significant share of Canadians do not consume enough vitamin D, particularly during months with limited sunlight. Nothing sensational there. And yet, in food policy, the quietest interventions are often those that carry the strongest signals.
By strengthening the mandatory fortification of milk, the regulation does more than address a nutritional deficiency. It clearly positions part of the agri-food sector as a contributor to the solution, rather than as a problem to be regulated or criticized.
That said, it is worth clarifying what “fortifying” milk actually means.
Contrary to what some may assume, the vitamin D added to milk is not synthesized by the cow, nor is it “boosted” through animal feed. It is added after milking, during processing, in the form of vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol) — the same molecule naturally produced by human skin when exposed to sunlight.
This vitamin D is typically dissolved in a small amount of fat to ensure uniform distribution in the milk. The process is tightly controlled: Quantities are precisely measured, monitored, and adjusted to meet regulatory standards, without affecting taste, texture, or overall composition.
Is it natural? That depends on the frame of reference.
From a chemical and biological standpoint, the added vitamin D is identical to naturally occurring vitamin D. From a regulatory standpoint, it is a deliberate and well-governed technological intervention, comparable to fortifying flour with folic acid or salt with iodine. Milk itself is not being transformed — rather, a structural limitation of a northern diet is being corrected.
Still, perhaps a touch more transparency would help reassure consumers.
The choice of milk is grounded in very practical considerations. It is consumed regularly, in predictable quantities, across all income groups. It has been subject to mandatory fortification for decades, reducing regulatory risk and transition costs. And crucially, it naturally combines calcium and vitamin D — two nutrients whose complementarity is essential for bone health.
Beyond these technical arguments, the policy sends a broader message: Nutrition policy cannot rely solely on individual responsibility or food education. It can also be built through structural interventions embedded directly in the food supply.
In other words, consumers are not being asked to change their habits. Instead, the nutritional quality of what they already consume is quietly improved.
We can’t be trusted, apparently.
We
don’t have to trade with China:
A security guard hired by the Chinese Consulate in Los Angeles was arrested on Jan. 4 after pepper-spraying several pro-democracy activists who had held a peaceful protest outside the diplomatic mission to celebrate the U.S. capture of former Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro.
Wu Xian, 38, was handcuffed and arrested by local police after pepper-spraying eight protesters, five of whom received hospital treatment, according to the protesters.
Wu owns California-based professional security service company JK Patrol SVC. He holds multiple titles, including chief executive officer and chief financial officer, and also holds a private patrol operator license issued by California’s Bureau of Security and Investigative Services, according to a database run by the California Department of Consumer Affairs.
The protest, organized by the China Democracy Party International Alliance and the Hong Kong Liberal Democratic Party, was attended by about two dozen activists. During a two-hour rally, they denounced the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and its leader, Xi Jinping, while carrying American and Venezuelan flags.
Chanting anti-CCP slogans, the protesters called for Xi to be put on trial and said that the Chinese people want freedom, not tyranny. They also drew comparisons between Xi and Maduro, shouting, “Today it’s Maduro, tomorrow it’s Xi Jinping.”
Jie Lijian, head of the China Democracy Party International Alliance, said the Chinese Consulate’s security guards began taunting the activists before the rally started at 1:30 p.m. local time on Jan. 4.
And to one's Orthodox friends, a merriest of Christmases to you!
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