Trudeau's Friend Blames the Internet For Canadians' Mistrust of a Failed Government

It's those pesky Tik-tok videos, I assume:

Heritage Minister Marc Miller in a letter to MPs says political organizers are using the internet to undermine Canadians’ trust in public institutions. He did not identify any by name: “The needs of protecting public interest journalism are urgent.” 

 

I don't need to see online how utterly corrupt and useless the Canadian governments in all their incarnations are.

I live it everyday.

Blotting out these alleged political organisers will do nothing. 

How is that Bombardier deal coming along?

 

Foreign Students Hired By Government

Wave any flag but the Canadian one:

Records show federal managers hire more than 800 foreign students a year while lamenting high jobless rates for Canadian students. The Treasury Board noted federal employers were supposed to hire Canadians first: “The Public Service Employment Act gives preference to eligible veterans first, then Canadian citizens.”

 

 But none of you matter.

"Co-operate" They Screamed

Why do people have to be so difficult?:

A senior Liberal MP yesterday complained cabinet is unable to pass most of its bills despite winning the 2025 general election. MP Kevin Lamoureux (Winnipeg North), parliamentary secretary to the Government House Leader, blamed Conservatives: “We have a Prime Minister who was just elected.”

 

I think he meant to say installed. 

 

Digital ID Plan Is Said to Be Voluntary

Just like wearing masks and getting jabs of questionable value:

Digital identification is a convenience that will never be mandatory in Canada, says cabinet. The Department of Employment overseeing digital ID development at a cost of billions said it had “no plans” to force Canadians to use the technology: “Using this online will be completely voluntary.”

 

 

I'm Sure They Do Remember

How they long for those halcyon days of diabolical fascism:

The Minister of Industry yesterday said cabinet needs new powers to protect Canadians in a “chaotic and dangerous world.” Opposition MPs in response recalled cabinet’s unlawful 2022 crackdown on the Freedom Convoy that saw anti-terrorist laws misused to freeze peaceful protestors’ bank accounts: “Why should Canadians trust you with these extraordinary powers given your government’s record?:

Indeed, but they do.

Also:

A Conservative MP sounded the alarm that Liberals might be flip-flopping on a promise not to ban Elon Musk’s X social media platform after Canada’s Artificial Intelligence Minister said the government is now “investigating” it yet again.

Speaking to reporters last Friday, Artificial Intelligence Minister Evan Solomon told reporters that the “Privacy Commissioner has started an investigation into X.”

“And again, there was already an investigation before, but he’s added an investigation.”

Conservative MP Dean Allison warned in a post on X last Friday regarding Solomon’s X comments that the Liberal minister’s tone is “lingo” for his true intentions to ban the social media platform.

“A week ago, I said the Liberals will ban @X. They denied it,” he wrote.

“Now they’re back to ‘investigating it’ which is government lingo for ‘give us enough time for the story to die down, then we’ll ban it.’ Liberals censor speech. Conservatives support free speech. Simple as that, folks.”

It's Just Money

Not the government's money, of course:

Cabinet’s failed Two Billion Trees Program cost nearly a half billion dollars before it was wrapped up last November 4, documents show. The program fell 89 percent short of its tree planting target: “How many trees were planted?”

**

Cash grants to Ukraine war refugees cost taxpayers $839 million, says the Department of Immigration. Ukrainians offered free flights from the war zone were paid $3,000 per adult and $1,500 per minor child on landing in Canada: “There is a perception of unfairness.”

**

Free counseling, nursing, home visits, transportation, eyeglasses and other “supplemental health services” for illegal immigrants and refugee claimants cost hundreds of millions last year, new records show. Expenses tabled in Parliament followed a Commons health committee vote to audit the $884.6 million a year Interim Federal Health Program: “Six and a half million Canadians don’t have a family doctor.”

Mid-Week Post

Your middle-of-the-week snowmaggedon ...

Carney didn't say anything to Trump because he had already left before Trump arrived.

Then Carney tried smoothing things over with Trump.

So much for standing up to him:

Prime Minister Mark Carney told reporters on Tuesday he stands by his recent Davos speech that implicitly criticized the United States, after U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent told Fox News the prime minister walked back his remarks while speaking to the U.S. president.

“I said this to the president, I meant what I said in Davos,” said Carney. “It was a broader set of issues that Canada was the first country to understand the change in U.S. trade policy that he initiated, and we’re responding to that.”

You preached to an accommodating audience.

Enough already.

Canada was a middle power once:

While this notion of middle powerdom may seem like a novel approach in an era dominated by two superpowers, it’s in fact an echo from more than a couple of generations ago, an era that many international affairs specialists refer to as “the golden era of Canadian foreign policy.”

Foreign policy specialists, however, warn that the two eras are very different and a return to that so-called golden era, where Canada punches above its weight by leaning into its role as an honest broker and middle power, is unlikely. 

The key difference, said Fen Hampson, a foreign affairs specialist at Carleton University in Ottawa, is that Canada no longer has a special relationship with the U.S.

(Sidebar: or the world, really.) 

“The golden age was very different,” said Hampson, also co-chair of the Expert Group on Canada-U.S. Relations at Carleton. “We’re not in the middle — we’re on the menu.”

That past era, usually seen as a two-decade stretch from the end of the Second World War to roughly the mid-1960s, is nostalgic for many Canadians who were around at the time, or have studied foreign policy from that period. North America was the envy of the world in its prosperity, life for tens of millions on this continent seemed to be on the constant upswing, and much of the world – pretty much every key region outside China, the Soviet Union’s Eastern European bloc and a few satellite countries – was under the leadership of the U.S., Canada’s neighbour and closest ally.

That gave Canada some pull and prestige on the international stage. Ottawa used the leverage of that relationship for its own political, economic and security benefits, while choosing its moments to act as broker between the U.S. and other countries, particularly the European powers, to advance stability and other aims. That golden era for Canada in the world reached a zenith in 1957 when then foreign affairs minister Lester B. Pearson won a Nobel Peace Prize for his role in preventing war during the Suez Crisis a year earlier and in creating the first United Nations peacekeeping force.

For those intrigued by the idea that Carney’s speech may be the start of a return to this era where Canada plays a special middle-power role, foreign policy specialists say it’s highly unlikely. 

There are similarities, however. Canada is once again pushing back against a superpower. Today, it’s of course Trump’s America, whereas during the Suez Crisis, it was mostly two weakened, post-war European powers: Britain and France. Another overlap is that Canada’s response in both cases was to emphasize the need for a rules-based international order and the potential for middle powers to collaborate.

But foreign policy specialists say that’s pretty much where the comparison ends. The critical difference between the two periods, Hampson said, is not just that Ottawa has lost its special status in Washington, but that the two North American neighbours are clearly at odds.  

(Sidebar: Canada lost its special status in the world. Do not mistake global dislike of Trump as a sign of Canada's seriousness.) 

“The problem we face now is there’s zero respect and it’s mutual,” said Hampson. “What’s different now is that Washington is the problem: it’s gone rogue.”

The U.S. was arguably the biggest beneficiary and leading creator and enforcer of the rules-based world after the Second World War. Washington led the way in designing international institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank and the United Nations itself, locating each on home turf. 

But Carney said the world needs to face that that is now history.

“Nostalgia is not a strategy,” he told the international crowd.

Then don't rely on it.

Once you start killing people off to save a Weimar buck, well, there is no way that a civilisation comes back from that:

After Parliament legalized assisted suicide in 2016, 2,838 Canadians killed themselves with the help of doctors the following year. By 2024, that number had risen almost six-fold to 16,499.

Assisted suicide (euphemistically mischaracterized as medical assistance in dying, or MAID) is now the fourth-largest cause of death in Canada, accounting for 5.1 percent of Canadian deaths in 2024, and a shocking 7.9 percent of deaths in Quebec. After the Netherlands, Canada comes in second place as the global leader in assisted suicide, even dwarfing ever-progressive Belgium, where assisted suicide was responsible for 3.6 percent of deaths in 2024.

Across Canada, patients are routinely and repeatedly offered assisted suicide as a “treatment” option—including veterans. In March 2027, Canadian law will change again to allow doctors to help mentally ill Canadians kill themselves. Mental illness alone, even without physical suffering or a terminal illness, will be reason enough for Canadian doctors to legally help their patients to commit suicide.

Canadians rightfully fear dying alone and lonely, in a sterile and bleak hospital environment, separated from loved ones and from the comfort of home. Many Canadians would choose palliative care and spend their final days at home, or in home-like and agreeable surroundings in a hospice. Yet government policies fail to respect terminally ill patients who wish to spend their final days in care environments that affirm life.

In B.C., the government withdrew funding from the Delta Hospice Society over its refusal to offer assisted suicide as part of the palliative care it provided to patients. The same society is now intervening in a B.C. Supreme Court action in which Dying With Dignity Canada seeks to force a Catholic hospital in Vancouver to provide suicide-as-treatment to patients.

St. Paul’s Hospital is operated by Providence Health Care Society, which describes itself as “a Catholic health care community dedicated to meeting the physical, emotional, social, and spiritual needs of those served through compassionate care, teaching, and research.” The court action maintains that St. Paul’s willingness to provide information about assisted suicide, and to transfer suicide-seeking patients to other facilities, is not an acceptable compromise. Dying With Dignity seeks to compel this Catholic hospital to assist patients in committing suicide. The goal here is coercion, not autonomy and choice.

No country for anyone:

Holocaust survivor Hedy Bohm says there are similarities between the time leading up to Nazi rule in Germany, and eventually Europe, and antisemitic incidents that are happening in Canada now.

Already this year, swastikas were spray-painted on the windows and walls of a synagogue in Winnipeg, a message calling for the death of Jews was graffitied under a bridge in Toronto and an Alberta MP pushed for investigations into Canadians who served in the Israeli Defense Forces, which a Jewish advocacy group condemned as an “antisemitic witch hunt.”

Bohm said that during the Second World War, in her small town in what is now Romania, she didn’t know what was happening to Jews in the rest of Europe. “And didn’t believe it, even if we were told about it,” she said. Upon reflection, even though she was unaware at the time, she said she does notice parallels between the hate being aimed at the Jewish community back then, and in Canada now. But she is hopeful for the future of the country.

“Canada is more aware of the world and what is going on in the world … than it used to be, which is wonderful,” said Bohm, in a written interview with National Post.

No, madame, it is not.

Canada has gone full Himmler (which one should never go).

Also - if you can distort, you can deny and if you can deny, you can forget:

Today, on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, we honour the victims and survivors of the Holocaust and mark the 1945 liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp. Eight decades later, the challenge of passing on the lessons of the Holocaust is ever more daunting, with the danger being less its outright denial than its distortion or revision — efforts to minimize or reframe the systematic murder of six million Jews. Recent surveys reveal an alarming number of young people in North America believe the Holocaust has been exaggerated, a reflection not so much of disbelief that it happened, but of the subtle erosion of the truth.

One of the most consequential forms of historical revision appears in those academic and pedagogical settings where the Holocaust is framed primarily through the lens of imperialism and colonialism. In such accounts, Jews and other victims are presented as part of an undifferentiated mass, with their suffering attributed less to the Nazis’ deliberate “final solution” than to yet another historic manifestation of European power and domination. Nazi perpetrators are portrayed as another authoritarian or colonial regime and Nazism cast as another chapter in the continuum of imperial violence. Regrettably, this perspective downplays the unique, ideologically driven obsession with Jews that defined Nazi policy and practice.

The insulting piggy-backing is not done to draw parallels but done by intellectually dishonest and academically bereft ideologues desperate to keep their pet causes in some sort of spotlight.

Imagine a population intellectually capable of calling such things out.

**

OH?:

Cabinet yesterday in an abrupt climbdown suspended MPs’ study of what it touted as a key bill to combat anti-Semitism. The quick withdrawal by Liberals on the Commons justice committee came only minutes after the Government House Leader demanded passage of Bill C-9: “This is about making Parliament work.”

**

Oh, they'll try again:

The Canadian Constitution Foundation (CCF) welcomes today’s news that Bill C-9 has been put on hold, calling it a necessary response to serious and unresolved conflicts between the proposed hate crimes legislation and Canada’s Constitutional protections for free expression.

Bill C-9 was unsound from the start. Rather than narrowly targeting violence or threats, it would have expanded criminal law into the realm of ordinary expression, lowered the threshold for criminal speech, and stripped away long-standing safeguards designed to protect Charter rights. As the bill developed, its problems only became more glaring. A December amendment to the bill even threatened to remove good-faith religious belief as an exemption from hate speech.

The CCF was at the forefront of opposition to Bill C-9. Litigation Director Christine Van Geyn spoke before the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights in November, and submitted a comprehensive written brief, warning that the bill posed an unjustified threat to freedom of expression. The CCF consistently called on Parliament to withdraw the bill entirely, including by mobilizing public support through a widely-circulated email campaign that helped more than 7,000 Canadians write their MPs.

“Bill C-9 threatened Constitutionally-protected expression and would have led to the chilling of necessary public debate across Canada,” said Van Geyn. “Shelving it for now is an important step toward preserving free speech, which we hope leads to the full abandonment of this deeply flawed legislation.”

The CCF hopes the Carney government will now recognize that legislation built on such deep constitutional defects cannot be salvaged and should not be pursued.

Israel Declares That There Are No More Hostages Remaining

A sad chapter is finished:

Israel will reopen Gaza's Rafah crossing with Egypt for the passage of people only after an operation to locate the body of the last remaining Israeli hostage in the enclave is completed, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said late on Sunday.

The border was supposed to have opened during the initial phase ​of U.S. President Donald Trump's plan to end the war, under a ‍ceasefire reached ⁠in October between Israel and Hamas.

However, Israel conditioned ‍the reopening on the return of all living hostages held by Palestinian militant factions in Gaza, as well as a "100% effort" by Hamas to locate and return the bodies of all deceased hostages.

All have been returned except for the body ‍of police officer Ran Gvili. The Israeli military said on Sunday it had launched a "targeted operation" in northern Gaza to retrieve his remains, while an Israeli military ‌official said there were "several intelligence leads" regarding his possible location.

The Israeli military "is currently conducting a focused operation to ​exhaust all of ‌the intelligence that has been gathered in the effort ‌to locate and return the fallen hostage, Master Sgt. Ran Gvili, ​of blessed ‌memory," Netanyahu's office said in a statement.

It added that when the operation is complete, "Israel will open the Rafah Crossing."

Make Gaza dust again.

We Don't Have to Trade With China

To wit:

A majority of candidates questioned following the 2025 general election said they were convinced foreign agents tried to influence voters, says Elections Canada research. And almost half believed illegal money was funneled into the campaign: “Forty-nine percent thought there were problems with foreign money.”

It's a good thing that we're not trading with China, right?

Oh, wait:

Prime Minister Mark Carney says Canada does not intend to pursue a free trade agreement with China, after U.S. President Donald Trump said Canadian goods would be hit with 100 percent U.S. tariffs if Canada “makes a deal with China.”

Carney told reporters ahead of a Liberal caucus meeting in Ottawa on Jan. 25 that Canada has commitments under the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement (USMCA) “not to pursue free trade agreements with non–market economies without prior notification.”

“We have no intention of doing that with China or any other non–market economy,” Carney said. “What we’ve done with China is to rectify some issues that developed in the last couple of years.”

**

Industry Minister Mélanie Joly says Canada should pursue free trade with other countries, including China, in the face of rising U.S. protectionism.

Joly made the comment in Beijing on Jan. 15 after a day of meetings in the Chinese capital, which included the signing of bilateral agreements and a meeting between Prime Minister Mark Carney and Chinese Premier Li Qiang.

“To counter the rise of protectionism, certainly the rise of U.S. protectionism, Canada must be able to work with different countries on free trade approaches,” Joly said. “Certainly with Europe, certainly with Asia, and also with China, because if we can’t work in a multilateral way with multiple countries, we’re going to be even more dependent towards the United States.”

**

China’s Zijin Gold International Co. Ltd. has struck an all-cash deal to acquire Toronto-based Allied Gold Corp. in a deal announced on the same day that the price of bullion smashed through US$5,000 per ounce for the first time ever.

Zijin will pay $44 per share, a 27 per cent premium to Allied’s weighted average 30-day trading price last week. Allied’s stock rose above $43 on Monday morning.

Gold mining equities are gaining strength with investors as they finally catch up with the underlying commodity that has been pushing through new records for three years and is up 82 per cent in the past 12 months.

The deal still requires approval under the Investment Canada Act, but it would cap a remarkable year for Allied, an intermediate-sized gold producer with assets in African countries, whose share price has surged more than 260 per cent surge in the past year.

“The announced transaction provides a highly attractive all-cash offer for Allied Gold at what represents an all-time high for the company’s share price, crystallizing significant and certain value for its shareholders,” Peter Marrone, chair and chief executive of Allied Gold, said in a press release.

Never forget that the Liberals and their voters sold this country to a Third-World communist dictatorship.

The Economy Someone Voted For

I certainly didn't:

🇨🇦 Canada This Year: A Country on Permanent Shuffle Mode

(Everything happening at once… almost none of it good)

• 💸 $200M in U.S. weapons bought — for Ukraine.
• 🏦 Big Banks pull in $16.45B in Q4 alone — must be nice.
• 🏚️ CMHC cut by $2.4B during the worst housing crisis…

— wealthmoose (@wealthmoose) December 6, 2025

Now, Carney is planning on bribing the public with its own money:

Introducing Poilievre to Ford has nothing to do with the fact that Statistics Canada reported just last week that grocery prices were up 5% compared to a year earlier, it was Carney’s way of getting a cheap shot at Poilievre. ...

“Mr. Speaker. Yesterday, before I had lunch with the Premier of Ontario, I had a long meeting with the Premier of Ontario, I would like to introduce the Leader of the Opposition to the Premier of Ontario so we can learn something about cooperation,” Carney said.

As the two went back and forth during Question Period, Carney pointed to his new program, the Canada Groceries and Essentials Benefit, a revamped GST credit and things like the school food program to say he was acting. The problem is, the new benefit program will go to 12 million people, but food prices are rising for everyone.

It’s also a problem that Canadians need government to help feed themselves or their kids. Most would rather feed themselves, look after breakfast and lunch for their own kids.

And once upon a time we did that.

Canada has a serious affordability problem and Carney’s plan won’t fix it, it’s a band aid. His sniping at Poilievre won’t accomplish anything either, it’s just raw politics.

It's not meant to.

Carney No Longer to Allowed to Join the "Board of Peace"

Aaawww  ... :

U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew on Thursday an invitation for Canada to join his Board of Peace initiative ​aimed at resolving global conflicts.

Trump's aboutface follows Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney's speech at ‌the World Economic Forum in Davos, where he openly decried powerful nations using economic integration as weapons and tariffs as ‌leverage.

(Sidebar: hardly. Canada has levelled many punitive tariffs against the US well before Trump was elected and for someone who thought that trampling people with horses and freezing their bank accounts wasn't going far enough, that's pretty rich. Petty, even.)

"Please let this Letter serve to represent that the Board of Peace is withdrawing its invitation to you regarding Canada’s joining, what will be, the most prestigious Board of Leaders ever assembled, at any time," Trump wrote in a Truth Social post directed at Carney.

Neither Carney's office nor the White ⁠House immediately responded to Reuters requests ‌for comment on Thursday evening.

Last week, Carney's office said he had been invited to serve on the board and planned to accept.

 

It must be the weasel things Carney said and did.

 

Mid-Week Post

Your middle-of-the-week snow-pile ...

 

For as long as I can remember, Canadians (mostly leftist, in the education profession, and especially the obnoxious political class) laughed at being under the American military umbrella. It was argued by the staunchly arrogant that such a thing would allow Canada to have the social safety net that it did and still give the smugger among leave to criticise the nuclear power south of us.

Well, our healthcare scheme sucks and Trump is sick of your sh-- :

Prime Minister Mark Carney left the World Economic Forum in Davos without meeting President Donald Trump Wednesday as the U.S. leader warned Canada should be more “grateful” for its southern neighbour.

“Canada gets a lot of freebies from us by the way,” Trump told a WEF audience, after mentioning the U.S. plan to build a missile defence system called the Golden Dome. “They should be grateful also but they’re not.” …

Trump said he watched Carney’s address. “He wasn’t so grateful,” said Trump. “They should be grateful to us, Canada — but they’re not. Canada lives because of the United States. Remember that Mark, the next time you make your statements.”

Carney left Davos around 2 p.m. local time, almost exactly when the U.S. president arrived to deliver an over hour-long speech at the glitzy international summit. Carney’s office confirmed that the prime minister did not meet or talk with Trump Wednesday.

 

(Sidebar: it’s called cowardice.)

Before Trump is reflexively attacked, how is he wrong? Has Canada not enjoyed the military protection of the US while claiming to craft a social safety net that works?

Do tell. 

 

Also:

Enduring countries have common interests and value systems, and feature strong institutions. During the English debate in the 2025 federal election, Yves Blanchet, the leader of the Bloc, said, “Canada is an artificial country.” He may be right.

(Sidebar: Quebec is an artificial province but I digress ...) 

Strong countries also have shared objectives.

The United States Constitution talks about “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” As has been the case over its soon-to-be 250-year history, highly divisive periods — the Civil War, the 1930s Depression, and the Vietnam War — come to mind — it will likely also survive its current challenges. Notwithstanding the competing visions and ping-pong presidencies reflecting differing values, the broader purpose prevails (so far). ...

Although Newfoundland came much later, Atlantic Canada joined Upper and Lower Canada in 1867 to protect each other in the face of American expansionist aggression, twice thwarted by Quebec City’s famous wall.

The rest of Canada joined for other reasons and with varying satisfaction.

It is fair to say that despite many amazing entrepreneurial stories, the Atlantic provinces have been and are comfortable with considerable dependency on the federal government. This also accommodates the centralized federal government’s desire for control and political support. ...

The politics of Quebec drive the leaders to ever more independence regardless of the constitution. In the fullness of time, Quebec is likely to gain country status — it is almost there except for the now nearly $14 billion gift from the unfair equalization program.

The other original province at the time of Confederation was Ontario, the heartland with the largest population and Toronto, one of the largest and most diverse cities in the world, and a demonstrated need for control of the country.

Continued pressure from the US led to the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway to Vancouver, an amazing accomplishment (one wonders how this could be accomplished without today’s regulators, especially Major Projects, yet another layer of federal government control on top of current regulatory overload). ...

Manitoba's history is also distinctive, and its significant hydroelectric resource distinguishes it from the two provinces immediately to the West. Like Minnesota, Manitoba is more of a Midwestern province with a history, interests, and values that distinguish it from other provinces.

In 1905, Alberta and Saskatchewan joined Confederation. Originally to be one entity named Buffalo, it was the wisdom of federal politicians that they should be separate to avoid a competing concentrated power base. Regardless, as polling indicates, on the big issues, including the future of Canada, they are of the same mindset.

As pointed out in the ‘Nine Nations of North America’, and everyone knows, the values, industries, and culture of the Prairie provinces are also distinct.

For much of the 120 years, the goal of the Prairies and most of Western Canada has been to gain a voice in policy formation. Its control of natural resources gained in the 1930s was compromised by the dramatic intervention by Pierre Trudeau and his National Energy Program (NEP). Exacerbated by broad economic circumstances and high interest rates, the NEP devastated the two provinces. 

The fears of the colonies were again realized when Justin Trudeau cancelled a fully approved Northern Gateway Pipeline as an early indication of his global warming agenda — or climate change, or a climate crisis — so confusing — what is threatening the planet is constantly changing.

Under the guise of the never-approved mandate that Canada should be a global leader in reducing CO2 emissions, the feds gained ever more control over the uppity colonies, which were becoming more demanding of full participation in the governance of Canada. Blessed by extensive resources (oil and gas, potash, uranium, food production, and more), and an entrepreneurial culture, even its significant financial strength has no influence on the current power flow — Quebec is permitted to do whatever and in turn supports the federal Liberal Party.

The federal policy framework has severely limited the future of many of the above industries, and by extension, of Canada. But, like Atlantic Canada, the federal government is still more interested in power than prosperity. 

What the economic illiterate Trudeau eventually learned, his policies also limited the economic strength of Canada and eventually his tenure as our prime minister. He will wear the “Lost Decade” legacy which over time will be more remembered than his nice hair and flashy socks. 

This review of history, superficial at best, is only to further understand why Canada has no central purpose, and how our values differ greatly based on our history, industries, immigration, definitions of democracy, reasons for joining Canada, and so forth.

(Sidebar: the same can be said of any formerly fragmented country that eventually unified.) 

 A strong, wise, and long-term strategic thinking federal government would acknowledge the obvious. Instead of characterizing those of us in the West who want full participation in Canada's affairs as “whiners”, prescient leadership would evolve our ineffective unitary form of government into a functioning federal state, like the country south of us, and attempt to seek more common purpose than winning the men’s and women’s gold medals for Olympic hockey that generate such patriotism.

The independence party leader from Quebec is more perceptive, or at least more honest, than our government in Ottawa. Power drives policy and the hell with the West, dividing a country that already lacks a common purpose.

 

Cynical and simplistic.

An overview of the US, for example, would show that the original thirteen colonies repudiated British rule and the gradually amalgamated states focused on growing themselves.

Canada may have been formed piecemeal and is even fractured now but that is not to say that there is now common purpose, even if not articulated. 

 We need to stop being regions, fiefdoms, really.

 

 

Did she get free swag?:

I’m at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland where I saw Chrystia Freeland, the disgraced former MP and cabinet minister. Actually, I think she saw me first and tried to hide from my sight.

So I decided to ask her some questions.

Now, if I had been in Canada, she would have had me arrested. That’s what she did to our reporter, David Menzies. And of course, she had no compunction about seizing bank accounts from hundreds of her political enemies during the trucker protest.

In fact, that’s something I asked her about, because three judges on the Federal Court of Appeal recently upheld a lower court ruling that Freeland broke the law and violated the constitution by doing those bank seizures.

It will not surprise you to learn she is absolutely unrepentant, even though four judges in a row have called her a lawbreaker.

I also asked her about her accepting a job working for the Ukrainian government, while also working for the Canadian government. Isn’t that an obvious conflict of interest?

Needless to say, she was absolutely vicious, saying that anyone who would dare question her must be working for Vladimir Putin. I’m serious, she said that!

You may know that a week ago, we sent a legal letter to the Ethics and Conflict of Interest Commissioner, demanding that he look into her misconduct. Well, I think we learned a lot more about her ethics today, don’t you think?

 

 

 It's just money:

A self-described ‘watchdog for homelessness’ billed taxpayers nearly $14,000 for a business class junket to Cairo, records show. Employees in Access To Information emails questioned expenses charged by Marie-Josée Houle, cabinet’s $213,000-a year Housing Advocate: “It’s my job to be a watchdog for housing and homelessness in Canada.” 

 

Did the homeless go with you? 

 

 

You dangled a "free" carrot in front of the masses.

What did you think would happen?: 

Costs to manage the Canada Dental Care Plan have jumped to nearly 9 percent or almost $860 million since the program was launched, records show. Health Minister Marjorie Michel’s department disclosed the program has already been audited but would not release the findings: “The report is confidential.” 

 

Imagine if people were allowed to keep their money.

Why, they could do anything they wanted with it, even use it for dental care.

But that would be nutty.

Let's not get carried away. 

 

Also:

That is the story Statistics Canada’s December 2025 Consumer Price Index quietly tells, even if Ottawa would prefer Canadians stop reading after the headline number.

Officially, inflation rose 2.4 percent year over year, up from 2.2 percent in November. Government-friendly commentators will call this “stable.” That word does not survive contact with the details. The increase had little to do with newfound price discipline and everything to do with a temporary GST/HST tax break that artificially lowered prices in December 2024 and has now vanished from the annual comparison. Roughly 10 percent of the CPI basket was affected by that tax holiday. When the distortion disappears, inflation mechanically rises.

Strip out gasoline and inflation jumps to 3.0 percent, well above the Bank of Canada’s target. This matters because gasoline prices fell 13.8 percent year over year, masking the real cost pressures facing households. Energy prices declined because global oil markets are oversupplied and crude prices are at their lowest level in more than four years. This is not the result of domestic policy brilliance. It is the result of forces entirely outside Ottawa’s control.

Food prices continue to punish families. Grocery prices rose 5.0 percent year over year. Coffee climbed an astonishing 30.8 percent. Beef increased 16.8 percent. Meat overall rose 8.5 percent. Restaurant prices surged 8.5 percent, up sharply from 3.3 percent the previous month. Statistics Canada itself identifies restaurant food as the single largest contributor to the acceleration in inflation. That means eating at home is expensive and eating out has become a luxury.

Shelter costs remain elevated. Overall shelter inflation sits at 2.1 percent, with rent up 4.9 percent, making it one of the largest upward contributors to the CPI. Statistical offsets like homeowners’ replacement cost declining 1.6 percent soften the headline but do nothing to reduce monthly rent cheques.

Services inflation tells the deeper story. Services, which make up 55.5 percent of the CPI basket, rose 3.3 percent year over year. Services inflation is slow-moving and stubborn. It reflects wage pressure and embedded costs.

Regionally, inflation accelerated in nine of ten provinces. Manitoba led at 3.7 percent. Quebec posted 3.2 percent. British Columbia recorded 1.7 percent, largely due to a one-time collapse in traveler accommodation prices following last year’s Taylor Swift concert-driven spike.

Prime Minister Mark Carney once told Canadians to judge his government by their experience at the grocery store. The December report delivers that judgment clearly, and it’s damning.

Canada’s headline inflation numbers are being artificially held down by plunging energy prices and the fading echo of a brief tax holiday. Meanwhile, food, rent, services, and everyday family essentials continue to climb faster than incomes. If energy prices turn upward again, the whole mirage collapses in an instant.

For Canadians who feel their bank accounts shrinking despite the comforting headlines, the explanation is staring them in the face. Inflation hasn’t been defeated. It’s been cosmetically concealed.

 

 

Then why did you make a deal with China?:

Canada had no choice but to repeal a 100 percent tariff on Chinese battery electric cars, Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe said yesterday. Moe acknowledged his province was a winner in trade talks with Beijing but denied it came at the expense of others: “To say this is favouring one province or another, that is just simply not a true statement.” 

 

Also - it will get worse:

Former national director of the RCMP’s proceeds-of-crime program Garry Clement says Ottawa’s new agreement with Beijing on public safety is concerning because it potentially opens the door for the Chinese regime to “capitalize on intelligence.”

Prime Minister Mark Carney made several agreements with Beijing during his visit to China last week as part of a broader effort to establish closer ties with China and boost non-U.S. exports.

The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) said on Jan. 16 that Canada and China will pursue “pragmatic and constructive engagement” in public safety and security through cooperation of law enforcement agencies.

The PMO said this cooperation would “create safer communities” for people in both countries by combating “narcotics trafficking, transnational and cybercrime, synthetic drugs and money laundering” more effectively. The government has not yet released details on what the agreement involves, and in the absence of clarity, Clement is raising concerns about how it could turn out.

Clement said in an interview that such an agreement is worrying because the Chinese regime’s law enforcement is “inseparable” from the state security apparatus acting on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

“The reality of it is [the CCP] does not respect human rights, and so what we’re doing is opening the door for them to capitalize on intelligence,” he said.

 

 

A country that has pride in itself doesn't allow a communist dictatorship take over it:

The Navy yesterday said it will pay the Royal Canadian Geographic Society $300,000 to develop “Navy-themed lesson plans” for schoolchildren. It follows declining membership in youth programs like the Royal Canadian Sea Cadets: “Being a cadet promotes pride in Canada.”

 

 

Moral posturing at its most impotent:

A Toronto city councillor says that antisemitic graffiti calling for the death of Jews in the city’s west end has been cleaned up.

A spokesperson for the office of Amber Morley, the councillor for Etobicoke-Lakeshore and deputy mayor for Etobicoke, where the graffiti was located, told National Post that city staff went to the area and painted over the hateful message.

“Our office does not tolerate antisemitism or any form of hate,” the spokesperson said. The spokesperson added that the office had also been in touch with police.

City councillor for Beaches-East York Brad Bradford said he was disgusted by the graffiti after he saw a post on X about it by Toronto resident Christine Van Geyn. She posted a video on X on Monday that showed the words “Kill Jews for peace” scrawled in black under a bridge at Royal York Rd. and Dundas St. W.

Bradford said Toronto’s Jewish community has been “subjected to a shocking increase in antisemitism,” in an emailed statement to National Post.

“Jewish restaurants have been firebombed, Jewish girls schools have been shot at, and Jewish neighbourhoods have been targeted by hateful protests. Hateful graffiti litters our streets, parks and sidewalks. It’s disgusting, it’s abhorrent, and it needs to stop,” he said.

Bradford shared the post on X and said that “we are far too used to seeing disgusting antisemitic graffiti like this” in Toronto.

 

A country that prides itself in banning the execrable online screeds of some ill-bred and ill-educated ignoramus, silencing teachers and censoring school libraries (some books included books about the Holocaust, the world wars and The Diary of Anne Frank) has nothing to say about appeasing Hamas, crimes against its Jewish population and even morons who should be disbarred for defacing a Holocaust memorial.

How strange.