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Wednesday, March 05, 2025

Mid-Week Post

Your middle-of-the-week fake spring …

How strange that this isn’t in the news cycle:

Canada has already been sold.

Did anyone react when China rigged elections in Canada, or arrested Canadian citizens, or operated secret police stations, or flooded the market with its crappy steel and other slave labour products?

No?

I didn’t think so.

But, please, pitch a fit because Trump said something! Not good!

The childish,reactionary anti-Americanism is the greatest coping device and deflection and probably will still be when this country’s economy goes completely belly up:

It is a remarkable sight to watch, hear, and read Canada’s myopic “intelligentsia” drape themselves in the Maple Leaf while urging the country to “buy Canadian” and fashion other systemic and structural ways to try, belatedly, to curb its dependency on the United States to stave off becoming – officially – America’s 51st state.

It is a remarkable sight because, since the early 1980s, the reactionary elites have devoted – without hesitation or regret – their considerable powers and influence to backing every calculated step towards Canada morphing, in effect, into America’s 51st state – economically, culturally, militarily, and diplomatically. …

The "Canada First" response to decoupling with the 🇺🇸 is totally ridiculous once you dig beneath the surface.

Around 20% of Canada's GDP comes from trade with the USA. So, here's the problem with "decoupling"

1. Even if the regulatory hurdles could be cleared, it would take…
— Julius Ruechel (@JuliusRuechel) February 27, 2025

The MP who tried deleting her support for a Ukrainian Nazi tries distancing herself from the never-resigning prime minister:

Liberal leadership candidate Karina Gould yesterday said she often “raised my voice” against Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and cabinet. “We didn’t get things right,” said the Burlington, Ont. MP who spent eight years as a cabinet member: “Why didn’t you help stop that?”

The Anointed One cannot be questioned:

As a data analyst, I’ve compiled a list of Mark Carney’s relationships with globalists, political organizations, NGOs, and lobbyists based on available information. Carney, a prominent economist and former central banker, has held numerous influential roles that connect him to international networks and agendas. Below is a structured overview of these relationships, focusing on his affiliations and roles without reproducing copyrighted text or relying solely on unverified claims.
Relationships with Globalists and International Organizations
World Economic Forum (WEF)
Carney served as a member of the WEF’s Board of Trustees, a position that placed him among key decision-makers shaping the organization’s globalist agenda. The WEF, known for its annual Davos meetings, promotes economic integration, public-private partnerships, and policies like the "Great Reset."
He is also listed as an Agenda Contributor on the WEF website, indicating ongoing involvement in shaping its initiatives, even after stepping down from the trustee role.
His participation aligns with his advocacy for climate-focused financial systems, a priority echoed by WEF leaders like Klaus Schwab.
United Nations (UN)
Carney was the UN Special Envoy for Climate Action and Finance, appointed to mobilize private sector investment for climate goals. This role tied him to the UN’s global sustainability agenda, particularly the Paris Agreement and Net Zero targets.
He resigned from this position in January 2025, prior to launching his Liberal Party leadership campaign in Canada, suggesting a shift from global to national focus, though his prior work reflects a strong globalist orientation.
Financial Stability Board (FSB)
As Chair of the FSB from 2011 to 2018, Carney oversaw international financial regulation efforts among G20 nations. The FSB, established to coordinate global financial stability post-2008 crisis, reflects his deep ties to transnational economic governance.
His leadership emphasized climate risk disclosure, influencing global banking standards like the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD), which he helped establish.
Group of Thirty (G30)
Carney is a member of this independent body of economic and financial leaders from public, private, and academic sectors. The G30’s focus on global economic issues reinforces his connections to an elite network of policymakers and thinkers advocating for coordinated international financial strategies.
Bilderberg Meetings
He attended the secretive Bilderberg Meetings in 2011, 2012, and 2019, gatherings known for convening influential figures from politics, finance, and industry. While agendas are not public, his participation signals alignment with a discreet, high-level globalist network.
Relationships with Political Organizations
Liberal Party of Canada
Carney joined the Liberal Party and became a special adviser and chair of its task force on economic growth in September 2024. He launched his campaign for party leadership in January 2025 following Justin Trudeau’s resignation.
Previously, he informally advised Trudeau during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, shaping economic recovery policies, and was recruited unsuccessfully by Trudeau for roles like Finance Minister. This ties him closely to Canada’s governing party and its establishment.
Department of Finance Canada
Before his central banking tenure, Carney served as Senior Associate Deputy Minister and G7 Deputy from 2004 to 2007, working under Liberal and Conservative finance ministers. His role in overseeing policies like income trust taxation and Petro-Canada’s sale highlights his influence within Canadian political-economic structures.
Relationships with NGOs and Lobbyists
Brookfield Asset Management
Carney was Vice Chair and Head of Impact Investing at Brookfield, a global asset manager with over $600 billion in assets, until resigning in January 2025. His focus on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing aligned with NGO priorities around sustainable finance.
Brookfield’s partnerships with institutional investors and its Global Transition initiative suggest indirect lobbying influence on climate and economic policies, though specific lobbying activities are not detailed.
Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD)
Carney founded and chaired the TCFD under the FSB, an initiative pushing companies to disclose climate risks. While not an NGO itself, it collaborates with NGOs and advocacy groups like the Climate Disclosure Project (CDP), amplifying his influence on corporate behavior through quasi-regulatory pressure.
Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ)
He co-chaired GFANZ, launched in 2021, to align financial institutions with net-zero goals. This coalition, involving over 450 firms, acts as a lobbying force within the private sector, bridging NGOs, governments, and corporations to enforce climate commitments.
Additional Notes
Goldman Sachs: Carney’s 13-year tenure (until 2003) at this global investment bank, where he held senior roles, connects him to the financial elite often associated with globalist interests. His work on South Africa’s bond markets and Russia’s 1998 crisis reflects early exposure to international finance networks.
Bloomberg L.P.: As Chair of its board until January 2025, Carney linked to a media and financial data giant that influences economic narratives, though direct lobbying ties are less explicit.
Climate Advocacy: His public stance as a “climate czar” (e.g., pushing programmable central bank digital currencies tied to carbon footprints, as speculated in some analyses) ties him to environmental NGOs and lobbyists, though specifics vary by source.
Summary

Mark Carney’s relationships span globalist entities (WEF, UN, FSB, G30, Bilderberg), political organizations (Liberal Party, Canadian government), and NGOs/lobbying networks (Brookfield, TCFD, GFANZ). His career reflects a blend of public service and private sector influence, with a consistent focus on integrating climate action into global finance—hallmarks of a technocratic, globally oriented figure. These affiliations suggest deep ties to both formal institutions and informal elite networks, positioning him as a key player in international economic and environmental policy circles.

Cabinet supporters are dismissing criticism of Mark Carney over misleading statements he made regarding his involvement in relocating a corporate head office from Toronto to New York. However one minister said Carney should explain himself to Canadians: “You’ve got to ask Mr. Carney.”

Liberal leadership candidate Mark Carney has not yet resigned from his multiple international board positions, despite claiming this week that he had stepped down from all his roles to be “all in” on his bid to become Canada’s next prime minister.

National Post contacted nearly two dozen organizations that Carney had public links to until recently. While he resigned from most of them around the time he launched his leadership bid in January, he remains connected to at least five.

Earlier Tuesday evening, during the English-language leaders debate, Carney played up his economic bonafides by pointing to his tenure at the department of finance under Liberal deficit hawk Paul Martin.

“It was my privilege to work with Paul Martin when he balanced the books — and kept the books balanced,” said Carney.

The only problem is that Carney started out at Finance in 2004, according to his LinkedIn page, almost a decade after Martin’s ship-righting 1995 budget and well after Martin finished balancing the books in 1998.

In 2020, Carney stepped down from the Bank of England to become the United Nations Special Envoy on Climate Action and Finance.

Now, as LIberal leadership candidate — and frontrunner — Carney champions climate change activism and has embedded it into his energy policies with an “urgency” that demands “high-level solutions.”

“Ones driven by big private capital and partnerships with Chinese institutions like the AIIB,” says Cooper, linking the WEF, of which Carney is a well-known affiliate, to the financial arms of the CCP.

While head of the Bank of England over the course of 10 years, Carney “integrated climate risk into financial stability assessments, positioned himself as a leader in climate-focused central banking and materially deepened the UK’s financial ties with China,” wrote Cooper.

Mark Carney says he had no knowledge of Jeffrey Epstein or his crimes when he met with Ghislaine Maxwell at his sister-in-law's estate...

...Even though Epstein had seven different phone numbers to reach Carney's sister-in-law? 🤔 pic.twitter.com/noauzk85f1
— Canada Proud (@WeAreCanProud) February 27, 2025

Justin the Moocher:

Grocery expenses for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau topped an average of $1,515 per week billed to taxpayers, according to newly released documents.

That works out to $157,642 in household food expenses over a two-year period — $76,214 in 2021-22 and $81,428 in 2022-23, the most recent years in which records were available from the Privy Council Office.

“It’s one thing for the prime minister to bill taxpayers for government business, but taxpayers shouldn’t be on the hook for a single cent of the prime minister’s personal groceries,” said Franco Terrazzano, of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, who uncovered the documents.

His voters don’t have such a luxury but whatever.

It’s just money:

The federal government has vowed to reform its $145 million-a-year Arctic grocery subsidy, Nutrition North, following years of criticism and multiple audits that found the program ineffective and costly.

“We will take decisive action,” said Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Gary Anandasangaree. “I won’t make any qualms about it. We will take decisive action.”

Blacklock's Reporter says Nutrition North was designed to offset the high cost of food flown into remote Northern communities, where the Department of Crown-Indigenous Relations estimates that, without subsidies, essentials like milk could cost $10 per liter and eggs $14 per dozen.

However, numerous reports have concluded that the subsidies have failed to deliver meaningful savings to consumers. A 2020 evaluation of the program found that while prices for select goods were controlled, many Northern households could still not afford a full, nutritious diet.

Between 2012 and 2018, grocery subsidies totaled $442.9 million, increasing at an average rate of 5% per year. Despite this, MPs and senators have long criticized the program for failing to bring down Arctic food prices.

The government appointed Aluki Kotierk, former president of Nunavut Tunngavik Inc., as a special investigator to conduct another review of Nutrition North, with a final report due in 2026.

“I think there have been a lot of questions about how the subsidies have actually reached the consumer,” Kotierk said. “It’s really important that there be a review.”

Her investigation will examine the program’s effectiveness and explore alternative ways to ensure Northerners have access to affordable, nutritious food. However, it will not include public hearings.

“So many of us travel around with big Rubbermaid tubs because any opportunity we have to go to the south, we fill it up with groceries to bring back home,” Kotierk said. “That’s a very common experience.”

Launched in 2011, Nutrition North replaced the postwar Food Mail Program, which offered subsidized shipping rates for food flown to remote communities.

Despite increasing subsidies, a significant number of Northern households — especially those earning less than $55,000 with school-age children — continue to struggle to afford a balanced diet.

In 2015, the House of Commons rejected a proposal to replace grocery subsidies with direct consumer assistance, similar to the U.S. food stamps program, which provides pre-loaded debit cards for purchasing fresh food.

Well, bye:

For Sarah Jama, the incumbent independent MPP for Hamilton Centre, the night was over within minutes.

The onetime NDP member, expelled from caucus for airbrushing the October 7 atrocities, came a distant fourth, with less than 5,000 votes, by the time the seat was called for the NDP’s Robin Lennox, an assistant clinical professor of family medicine at nearby McMaster University.

There are simply no words for this kind of posturing:

The number of applicants applying to Canada’s “LGBTQI+ refugees resettlement program” is up 1,100% year-over-year, with more than $50 million of taxpayers' cash doled out to a single charity so far.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberals in February 2025 updated the program first rolled out by Stephen Harper’s Conservatives in 2011. Since then, the Canadian government has partnered with more than 60 organizations and brought in more than 330 gay refugees.

People who say they are persecuted in their home countries for identifying as gay, trans, queer, etc., can come to Canada, where they will receive a full year of financial “support” — and longer if they can’t support themselves after a year has passed.

No, Your Eminence, Justin cannot be trusted not to be a disgusting creep:

Cardinal Francis Leo of the Archdiocese of Toronto is expressing “profound concern” over the Trudeau government’s desire to strip pro-life groups of their tax charity status.

In a letter dated February 21, 2025, addressed to Canadian Minister of Finance Dominic LeBlanc, Leo called upon the Liberal government to stop its planned attacks against the charitable tax status of pro-life groups.

“I write today to express my deep concern regarding the recent Finance Committee’s pre-budget report. The committee proposes to remove advancement of religion as a charitable purpose,” wrote Leo, who was elevated to cardinal late last year.

Specifically, Leo cited the report’s “recommendation 430” which reads, “Amend the Income Tax Act to provide a definition of a charity which would remove the privileged status of ‘advancement of religion’ as a charitable purpose.”

Additionally, Leo brought up section 429, which recommends the government “no longer provide charitable status to anti-abortion organizations.”

“I strongly urge the federal government to reject these recommendations… If you wish to discuss tangible examples of how religious charities are strengthening our country, I would be most pleased to meet with you along with those on the front lines of care, ministry, and accompaniment,” he wrote.

Leo noted to LeBlanc that when it comes to religious charities in Canada, they “strengthen the very fabric of our nation through their dedicated service, outreach and care.”

“The recommendation itself to strip away official charitable status from these organizations demonstrates a lack of understanding of the critical role religiously-affiliated groups offer in every corner of our nation,” he wrote.

Leo also noted to LeBlanc that it is “astonishing to think that a pro-life approach to public living is no longer seen as acceptable in a country that enshrines freedom of religion and belief in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.”

Oh, that garbage document?

No one wore ribbons or waved flags when Putin annexed the Donbass:

The American people are, by and large, tired of subsidizing Ukraine’s end of this war. They are absolutely against American forces being involved. There is a lit fuse on America’s patience, and trying to stamp it out by shouting that anyone questioning perpetual subsidies of this war is Putin’s pal is not going to cut it. The fact is that Trump is probably Ukraine’s last chance to retain American support. The guy who follows Trump is going to be worse for Ukraine.

… China is a substantially greater threat to the United States than Russia in the macro. The fact is that right now, we can’t confront both powers. We need to focus on China. That’s the major threat to the United States.

… The Europeans should be taking the lead in supporting Ukraine and should be taking the lead in defending Europe. They are freaking out about this. It’s hilarious that their answer to Donald Trump telling them they need to step up and take charge of their own defense is to step up and take charge of their own defense to show Donald Trump what for. Typically, a threat involves promising to do something the person you’re threatening does not want you to do instead of exactly what he wants you to do.

It is pure hubris to think that the waning Europe can take up the military and political torch that it forced the US to carry for Ukraine.

But Europe will be seen to be trying.

That’s an excellent question:

What a breathtakingly vile comment. Hamas terrorists murdered nine month-old Kfir and four year-old Ariel with their bare hands and mutilated their bodies to conceal the crime. How could anyone equate this monstrous depravity with the fate of children in Gaza killed unintentionally in a war to defend Israel against genocide — killed, moreover, because Hamas uses Gaza’s children as human shields and cannon fodder?

Tuesday, March 04, 2025

This Is All the Liberals' Fault

When all one cares about is having power and the seeming-endless public purse, governance just holds no thrill.

Canada will be reduced to its mere skeleton, but as long as the Laurentian elite gets their pensions ... !:

In the fact-free world of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the Liberals, their screw-ups are always someone else’s fault.
They have been in charge of the federal government during every single day of Donald Trump’s two terms as president, from Jan. 20, 2017, to Jan. 20, 2021, and now from Jan. 20, 2025, to the present.
That means they wear the current dismal state of Canada-U.S. relations and the start of an economically devastating tariff war with the U.S. on Tuesday.
It happened entirely on their watch.
In that context, their absurd attempts to link Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre to Trump — even Trump has said he’s “not a MAGA guy” — is just another Liberal roadside distraction.
Another attempt by the Liberals to escape responsibility for their abject failure to manage the most important relationship Canada has with any country on the planet.
Simply put, we are where we are because of Trudeau and the Liberals, who are about to crown Mark Carney as Trudeau’s replacement.
And what has Carney said about the record of the Trudeau Liberals?
He’s said they’ve overspent and overtaxed middle-class Canadians — the same things Poilievre and the Conservatives were saying long before Carney decided he wanted to be PM.
Carney said the Trudeau Liberals lost control of both federal deficits and total public debt — same as Poilievre and the Conservatives were saying long before Poilievre became party leader in September 2022, more than two years ago.
Carney said the federal civil service has become too bloated, the same thing Poilievre has been saying for months.
Carney said Canada needs to build more pipelines — or rather he said that outside Quebec, while in Quebec he says the opposite — unlike Poilievre, who has been saying we need to build more pipelines for years.
Carney said the Trudeau government lost control of the immigration file, mimicking Poilievre, who’s been making the same point for so long that even Trudeau himself finally had to admit it was a mistake to let in so many people so quickly.
But when Poilievre made the same point as Carney is today, months ago, Trudeau’s attack dogs accused him of racism.
Because in the make-believe world of the Trudeau Liberals, soon to be Carney Liberals, facts simply don’t matter.

Some background information:

Canada’s economy has fallen behind its population growth for the fifth straight quarter, with real GDP per capita declining by 0.1 percent in Q2 2024, according to the latest data from Statistics Canada released last week.

Compared to the same period last year, per capita GDP is now down 2.2 percent. Compared to 2022, it’s down 3.6 percent. As RBC analysts correctly noted, this is a “recession-like” performance.

This downturn becomes even more striking when viewed in comparison to the United States, which continues to see gains.

Real GDP per capita there grew by 0.6 percent in the second quarter, a 2.6 percent increase from last year, and a 4.5 percent increase since 2022. If Canada had simply kept pace with the U.S. over the past two years, our economy would be 8.5 percent larger—that’s about $6,200 more income per Canadian each year.

If you can’t stand to bear ‘Tariff Tuesday,’ you can always send a message to President Donald J. Trump by buying a “Canada is not for sale” T-shirt, ball cap or tuque — made in China or elsewhere around the world.

Organizers of Mark Carney’s Liberal leadership campaign are shielding the candidate from media following criticism he lied about his record. News coverage of one invitation-only Carney speech was restricted to reporters instructed to “RSVP to receive location details.”

Chrystia Freeland is a lunatic and must be stopped:

Canada should seek closer ties with Britain because its nuclear weapons can help protect the country against Donald Trump, a female politician running to replace Justin Trudeau has said.
Chrystia Freeland, the former deputy prime minister under Justin Trudeau, said that Mr Trump is “clearly threatening our sovereignty” with his campaign to absorb Canada as the 51st state of America.
In order to “guarantee our security”, Ms Freeland said she would build closer security partnerships with European Nato allies and “I would be sure that France and Britain were there, who possess nuclear weapons”.

A newly-disclosed federal audit yesterday cited “confusion,” “lack of insight” and mismanagement at the passport office that cost taxpayers millions. Liberal leadership candidate Karina Gould was minister responsible at the time: “The entire service delivery model was temporarily disrupted.”

This money-grubbing hippo could force Parliament to resume.

But no ... :

Governor General Mary Simon yesterday in pointed remarks to foreign diplomats lamented a tense rise in “economic nationalism.” Her speech came as U.S. President Donald Trump confirmed a tariff war will commence today: ‘Canada understands respect.’

It's not like Marc is going to lose his job:

A tariff war with the United States will cost a million Canadian jobs, Immigration Minister Marc Miller said yesterday. The figure is in addition to unemployed who currently number 1,505,000 according to a February 7 Labour Force Survey by Statistics Canada: “A million jobs at risk is no joke.”

Why stay?:

Emigration rates soared to unprecedented levels in Canada last year driven by the ongoing housing shortage and the cost of living crisis, a new report suggests. One province in particular accounted for nearly half of these departures.
More than 81,601 residents left the country in 2024 and 39,430 of them were from Ontario, a report from rental platform liv.rent found. Ontario is the most densely populated province in the nation, but its 48 percent share of departures is notably greater than its 39 percent share of the total population of Canada.
Last year marked the highest level of emigration both Canada and Ontario have seen in several years. Emigration in Canada overall last reached that level in 2017, and in Ontario, the current levels haven’t been seen since 2011, according to the report, which is based on data from Statistics Canada.

Justin Trudeau Is a Worthless, Mouth-Breathing Money-Wasting Machine

But don't take my word for it:

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says his last day in office will depend on how long of a transition his successor needs.
Trudeau announced on Jan. 6 he would resign once the Liberal leadership race concludes, which will happen on Sunday.
Trudeau, who has served as prime minister since 2015, says the timing of his departure depends on the needs of the next leader.

Yes, Justin, hang on for as long as you can.

The next day, it's back to being Mr. Nobody again.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has made 104 federal appointments since announcing his resignation January 6, records show. Appointees include four senators, six ambassadors and 14 judges, and the reappointment of a former Liberal MP whose term at a federal agency did not expire until months after Trudeau leaves office: ‘I commit to transparency and merit-based appointments.’

Ensuring that no work in the House of Commons ever gets done.

WATCH: Trudeau encourages Canadians to continue booing the American national anthem.

“We’ll continue booing.”

What is wrong with that man? What a narcissistic sociopath.

Watch his face at the end 👇 pic.twitter.com/1ohadpN2on
— mistersunshinebaby (@mrsunshinebaby) March 4, 2025

Wednesday, February 26, 2025

Mid-Week Post

Your middle-of-the-week reflection ...

Where are the orange shirts on this?:

For three years, Canadian officials used Inuit children as guinea pigs for an experimental RSV Palivizumab vaccine* injections program – without parental consent and without the knowledge or involvement of the Inuit population. This shocking revelation, buried in newly uncovered Freedom of Information (FOI) emails, is completely unrelated to COVID-19 – yet it raises damning questions about the government’s approach to public health experiments on Indigenous communities and all Canadians.

Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer, Dr. Theresa Tam, knew about the ethical concerns. So did other top public health officials. In a December 16, 2019, email to Tam and others, Dr. Tom Wong, Director General of the Office of Population & Public Health at Indigenous Services Canada, explicitly warned them that health care workers had raised serious red flags.

“Some ethical concerns were raised by health care workers regarding the guarantee of a free and informed consent from parents or caregivers, as well as the absence of involvement of Inuit population in the decision and implementation process.” — Dr. Tom Wong to Dr. Theresa Tam and others, December 16, 2019

Yet rather than halt the program, the government pressed forward. Parents were kept in the dark, as were Inuit leaders and the broader community. Worse, the experiment had already failed – the RSV Palivizumab vaccine* injections didn’t work as intended. But officials concealed this and continued using an Indigenous population as unknowing test subjects.

I would ask why this isn't on the CBC but, you know ...

Also:

The Federal Court has thrown out a class action lawsuit claiming negligence by the Public Health Agency in failing to maintain its emergency stockpile of pandemic medical supplies. The Court was no substitute for a inquiry, ruled the judge: “The plaintiffs are asking the Court to embark on an exercise akin to a public inquiry.”

The Liberals are coasting on a wave of anti-Americanism, not patriotism (as, apparently, Canadian identity can be defined what it is decidedly not). It is what will give them a foothold that they do not deserve:

Not long ago, our lame duck prime minister, his would-be successors and much of the mainstream media seemed to be strong believers that our next prime minister should be a “progressive” who’s committed to climate change mitigation, carbon taxes, pipeline prohibitions and a woke social agenda. Then, suddenly, not in response to Canadians but in response to U.S. President Donald Trump, all seem to have made a 180-degree turn. Now they boldly proclaim that Canada’s next leader must be a reactionary — reacting to Trump’s tariff agenda with a hastily concocted package of counter-tariffs and fanning the flames of anti-Americanism to return a heretofore discredited Liberal party to office.
At the moment, Liberal leadership front-runner Mark Carney is of course being hailed by the unthinking as the reactionary of choice.

(Sidebar: this Mark Carney.)

But not all the cards are on the table: not the yet-to-be-announced negotiating team and long-term strategy of the official Opposition to address the tariff challenge; not the internal pressures on Trump and the U.S. Congress when Trump’s populist constituents, who were promised actions to decrease their cost of living, suddenly discover it increasing as a result of tariffs; and not the election campaign, which will test the sincerity of the deathbed conversion of the Liberal party to policies they’ve denounced for the past decade.

Apparently, the last nine years did not happen.

We don't have a DOGE program in Canada and it vexes me:

Canada’s Liberal government could save $10.7 billion this fiscal year alone by eliminating eight ineffective federal spending programs, says a new report by the fiscally conservative Fraser Institute.
The study, “Identifying Potential Savings from Specific Reductions to Federal Government Spending” by Jake Fuss and Grady Munro, cites eight federal programs where it says “government spending does not appear to be accomplishing its stated goals, or where government spending is unnecessary.”
“Canada’s federal finances have deteriorated markedly over the last decade largely due to a rapid run up in spending, deficits and debt,” said Fuss.
“A comprehensive line-by-line review of Ottawa’s spending is required to identify those programs or initiatives that are not fulfilling their purpose, or are not providing good value for tax dollars.”
The eight programs with their current annual budgets identified by the Fraser Institute as failing to do what Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the Liberals claimed they would, totalling $10.7 billion in the 2024-2025 fiscal year are: Regional Development Agencies ($1.5 billion); federal Two Billion Trees program ($340 million); federal support for electric vehicle production and purchases ($586.7 million); Canada Infrastructure Bank ($3.5 billion); Strategic Innovation Fund (S2.4 billion); Green Municipal Fund ($530 million); federal support for journalism ($1.7 billion); Global Innovation Clusters ($202.3 million).
Among other criticisms of these programs, the Fraser Institute study notes that, “despite research suggesting business subsidies do little to promote widespread economic growth, the seven regional development agencies (with 1,977 full-time staff) report vague objectives and results that make it difficult for government officials or Parliamentarians to assess the efficacy of the spending.”

Oh my God! Rationality!:

Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston has followed through on his promise to introduce a bill aimed at reducing interprovincial trade barriers, in an effort to boost the economy amid tariff threats by the U.S. president.
However, he said Tuesday, provisions in the bill would only be extended to provinces or territories that adopt similar legislation.
“It’s a common sense change that I think Canadians are expecting,” Houston told reporters after tabling the bill. “We are comfortable being the leader on this, but of course we need other provinces to follow and to co-operate.”

Good luck with that (cough-Quebec-cough).

One must ask with all of these Liberals no longer running - what is coming down the pipe?:

Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Andrew Furey is stepping down, ending his nearly five-year term in office.
Furey announced his resignation during a Feb. 25 press conference in St. John’s, less than one week after Prince Edward Island Premier Dennis King announced his retirement from politics.
Furey said he would continue to serve as premier until a successor is appointed, adding that his resolve to avoid becoming a “career politician” path has never changed.
He said the time has come to focus on his family and return to his role as an orthopedic surgeon.
“This job has been like one five-year-long shift. You go to bed with it on your mind and it’s your wake-up call every single morning,” he said.
“It is with a heart full of pride and hard-earned confidence in the future of Newfoundland and Labrador, that I must now move on.”

Yes, but Justin et al DON'T want the pipeline:

Republican U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday he wanted the Keystone XL Pipeline built and pledged easy regulatory approvals for the crude oil project, which was opposed for years by environmentalists before its permit was revoked by the Biden administration.

opens new tabThe $9 billion pipeline was first proposed in 2008 to bring 830,000 barrels per day of oil from Canada's Western tar sands to U.S. refiners and was halted in 2021 by then-owner TC Energy (TRP.TO)
after former Democratic President Joe Biden revoked a key permit needed for a U.S. stretch of the project.

In a social media post on Monday, Trump urged the company that was building the pipeline to "come back to America," saying his administration would offer easy approvals and an almost immediate start, though the company said on Tuesday that it had moved on from the project.

"The Trump Administration is very different (from the Biden administration) - Easy approvals, almost immediate start! If not them, perhaps another Pipeline Company. We want the Keystone XL Pipeline built," Trump said in the post.

Charge this cow with terrorism.

I mean -really!:

Three Canadian Forces personnel were injured last year after being targeted by a high-powered laser during a military exercise in Alaska.
A woman from the Alaskan city of Delta Junction has been sentenced to three years’ probation for the incident involving a laser repeatedly being pointed at a Royal Canadian Air Force helicopter, according to a Feb. 20, 2025 news release from the U.S. Justice Department.

No one had a problem with Chinese interference:

A south Edmonton split-level with a brick facade and a spruce out front is the unlikely Canadian headquarters of the Indian conglomerate the Srivastava Group.
Run by a New Delhi family, the company claims to have offices in Belgium, Switzerland and Canada, where it owns newspaper and oil and gas businesses.
But Canadian national security officials have alleged the Srivastava Group and its senior executive have also been involved in more secretive activities.
According to public records released to Global News, in 2009 India’s intelligence agencies “tasked” the Srivastava Group’s vice chair to influence Canadian politicians.
Indian intelligence wanted Ankit Srivastava to identify “random Caucasian politicians and attempt to direct them into supporting issues that impacted India,” the Canadian Security Intelligence Service wrote.
Srivastava was told “to provide financial assistance and propaganda material to the politicians in order to exert influence over them,” CSIS added in the 2015 report.
In a subsequent report in 2021, CSIS wrote that Srivastava’s company had been accused of registering fake websites that presented themselves as news outlets, some of them Canadian.
“The objective of these fake media publications is to push a pro-India rhetoric and publish content that is critical of Pakistan,” added the CSIS report, which was classified secret.

Removing Canada from Five Eyes would be removing China from it:

A top White House official has proposed expelling Canada from the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing network as Donald Trump increases pressure on the country he talks about turning into the 51st US state.
Peter Navarro, one of the US president’s closest advisers, is pushing for the US to remove Canada from the Five Eyes — which also includes the UK, Australia and New Zealand — according to people familiar with his efforts inside the administration.

Once a beacon of cheap labour and shady goings-on, foreign companies are now withdrawing from China:

Law firms and real-estate developers appear to be at the forefront of the exodus from China, but other industries are also considering their options as overall profits slipped by almost 18 percent over the past three years. Some foreign firms are evidently concerned that they cannot lower their prices enough to contend with domestic competitors, a concern made worse by the Chinese government’s tendency to bend the rules in favor of domestic companies.

The SCMP found it easy to measure the size of the foreign exodus by looking at how much office space has suddenly become available in Beijing at cut-rate prices. Foreign companies make up about 20 percent of the market for office space in China’s capital city, and at the end of 2024, over 20 percent of that space had become vacant.

Also:

China’s recent deployment of three warships to waters east of Australia was "designed to be provocative,” a top Australian intelligence official has said, as Beijing looks to normalize this type of military presence in the region — a move that also has implications for Japan.

“This is the furthest south a PLAN task group has operated, and at least some of its activities seem designed to be provocative,” Andrew Shearer, Australia’s director-general of national intelligence, said in reference to the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy vessels.

Last week, the Chinese naval flotilla conducted an unusual series of live-fire exercises in the seas between Australia and New Zealand, forcing civilian flights to divert on short notice and prompting officials in the two countries to say that more advance warning should have been given.

Shearer, speaking to a parliamentary committee earlier this week, also said Canberra had surmised that the Chinese military’s moves were not limited to targeting just Australia, and were intended to “shape the responses of those in the region and observe and learn from our reactions.”

“The deployment demonstrates China's growing capability to project military power into our immediate region, now matched by an increasing intent to do so,” he added.

The Chinese military has been increasingly active near Japan — sometimes even entering territorial waters and airspace — in recent years. Last year, a Chinese military plane entered Japanese airspace for the first time, while one of the Asian powerhouse’s navy survey ships entered Japanese territorial waters just days later.

Appearances of Chinese warships, in particular, have surged, including dispatches through waters surrounding its Nansei Islands. Last year, Chinese naval vessels were spotted 68 times while sailing between the East China Sea and Pacific Ocean — a figure more than three times higher than that recorded in 2021, according to the Defense Ministry in Tokyo. The number has risen steadily in the past few years, from 21 in 2021 to 46 in 2022 and 53 in 2023.

So wrong on so many levels:

The people of Argentina either failed to hear or declined to heed the warning.
On Nov. 19, voters elected as their next president the wild-haired Milei, who defeated his Peronist opponent by a 10-point margin. Milei was inaugurated on Dec. 10 and wasted little time implementing his laissez-faire agenda, which included an immediate 5 percent (chainsaw) slash in government spending.
More reforms followed.
Public work programs were put on hold, welfare programs were slashed, and subsidies were eliminated. State-owned companies were privatized and hundreds of regulations were cut. Tax codes were simplified and levies on exports were lifted or reduced. Labor laws were relaxed. The number of government ministries was reduced from 18 to nine (¡afuera!), and a job freeze was implemented on federal positions. Tens of thousands of public employees were given pink slips.

On the monetary side, the currency was sharply devalued and the central bank was ordered to halt its money printing.
These actions were not painless. Indeed, Milei himself had described them as a kind of “shock” therapy that was necessary for economic healing. Argentina was battling triple-digit inflation, economic sclerosis, and mass poverty.
“I will make a shock adjustment and I will put the economy in a fiscal balance,” Milei said following his win. “As I pledged not to raise taxes, this means I will do so by cutting spending.”
Milei recently completed his first year as president, and the results are not what Piketty and company predicted. Duke University economist Michael Munger, a contributor to these pages, recently pointed out that Argentina’s economy outperformed any reasonable expectation under Milei. He’s right.
Inflation, which had peaked at an annualized rate of 300 percent in April 2024, nosedived, reaching a four-year low in November 2024. In his first month in office, the Associated Foreign Press reported, Milei oversaw a record 25.5 percent inflation rate. By November 2024, inflation had fallen to 2.4 percent.

“In just 12 months we pulverized inflation,” the Economy Ministry wrote on X.
GDP grew by nearly 4 percent in the July-to-September quarter of 2024 after a sluggish first half, and the International Monetary Fund forecasts growth of 5 percent in 2025 and 2026. Meanwhile, Munger noted, there is a strong likelihood of foreign investment, as evidenced by the JP Morgan “country risk index.”

Leftists attempt to make fiscal conservatism sound ruinous when it is not.

No country for anyone:

The surviving member of the Bibas family, Yarden, shared a poignant eulogy at Kibbutz Nir Oz on Wednesday for the burial of his wife, Shiri, and their two children, Ariel and Kfir who were murdered by the hands of Hamas terrorists in Gaza.
Yarden recalled his deep love for Shiri, remembering their first moments together and their bond as best friends, a wife, and a mother. He expressed deep sorrow and regret for not being able to protect them, especially during the tragic events on Oct. 7 when Gazans snatched them from their home.

“Lived a hero and died a hero,” York University student Somar Abuaziza wrote on Instagram following the death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar last October.

(Sidebar: no, he died like a punk. Nice cope there.)

Last Tuesday, Abuaziza became president of the York Federation of Students (YFS), representing nearly 50,000 undergraduates and boasting an almost $2 million annual budget, raising concerns from students and others who question the leadership of a student leader with views they see as toxic.

Stunning and brave but not crazy, so I'm told:

A Grande Prairie resident allegedly stabbed their two young children on February 19, leaving one with severe throat injuries that will require months of tube feeding.
Michael Attwood, who also goes by Alice Attwood, allegedly attacked both children with a knife.
One child remains at Alberta Children's Hospital in Calgary with a severed esophagus, while the grandmother of the children has been granted temporary custody of the child who has been released from the hospital.
Attwood, who is described as being approximately 6-ft., 7 ins., and 250 pounds, was initially held under medical supervision in a psychiatric ward but was released within 26 hours of being admitted.
While in the hospital, Attwood took a photo of themselves smiling and wrote “I’m pretty sure I met a queen in emergency tonight. She was so beautiful. And I just had these ratty old clothes on.”

Probably the last thing a fish sees:

Divers hanging out with a school of tiger sharks in the Bahamas had a wild run-in with one particularly curious specimen.
A video shared by diver Andrea Ramos Nascimento on Instagram shows a shark gobbling up an Insta360 underwater camera, leading to incredible views from inside the sea creature's cavernous mouth — before it spits it back up as it reconsiders its choice of prey.
Amazingly, the shark even manages to capture a glimpse of three nearby divers, framed by the inside of its maw. While it seems like the shark had an enviable flair for cinematography, the framing was likely the result of some clever video editing; the Insta360 takes 360-degree videos, allowing editors to reframe the footage as they please after the fact.

Whatever.com

Wednesday, March 05, 2025

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No Country For Anyone