SpankyMcFarland

Our current predicament illustrates a problem inherent in sharing a monarch. Britain may welcome Trump on a royal visit while that nincompoop is openly threatening another of Charles’s realms.

Carney isn’t a natural politician and he’s no experience in retail politics but he’s blessed with an enemy like Trump who has galvanized the country and an opponent like Poilievre who hasn’t pivoted nearly enough yet to face the crisis.

Lutnick actually compared Canada to Ukraine. Which would make his country what? https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/doug-ford-donald-trump-howard-lutnick-united-states-tariffs

Dreadful businessman, skilled salesman, brilliant criminal. This is whom we have to deal with. He heard some nonsense about tariffs decades ago and has been given the opportunity to try out these absurd ideas on the world. What a gift for China.

So how harshly should Pierre Poilievre criticize Mr. Trump in the coming campaign and would you agree with him if he does?

It would be surprising to me if there wasn’t a cover-up of sex crimes in an organization like the SBC. Sex crimes happen everywhere and religious bodies conceal them everywhere. Anyway, dear reader, you be the judge: https://religionnews.com/2022/05/22/sbc-abuse-report-for-decades-southern-baptist-leaders-denied-abuse-misled-trustees-mistreated-survivors-guidepost-johnny-hunt/ Here’s the report. The executive summary is more than enough to get the flavour of the problem. https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/22031737-final-guidepost-solutions-independent-investigation-report/

Do you support the Conservatives? I’m presuming you live in Canada.

There’s a very basic fallacy in what you have posted there. Let me illustrate it this way. If a man convicted of beating his wife lived next to you, would his past crime justify your theft of his car or his house? If you want the gold standard for misogyny look at South Asia, eg the Hindu and Sikh rate of sex-selective abortions which considerably exceed the Muslim rate. Would that have justified the British staying there?

Europe is not ‘warmongering’ here. Defending a democracy from invasion is what neighbouring countries should do. I can’t understand how anybody who isn’t Russian can have such a warped view of this conflict but now a large proportion of Canadians see the war this way which amazes and dismays me.

Why? In a word, Trump.

Never have started it? What??? How could any Ukrainian trust a balloon who would come out with flat-out falsehoods like that?

Let’s see how tough they are with Putin first. They seem very anxious to browbeat Zelenskyy but coy on what the Russians will have to give up. Trump’s tone about recent stepped up Russian attacks on Ukraine is deeply disturbing. Claiming that anyone would have done it is a flat out lie. For a start, most countries would not invade their neighbours.

Apparently, Canada doesn’t import US farm produce ‘for the most part’ and yet still managed to land up with $28.4 billion of the stuff last year. This is the sort of uninformed nincompoop we have to negotiate with: https://www.cnn.com/2025/03/10/politics/trump-canada-dairy-tariffs-fact-check/index.html Another issue I rarely hear discussed by Trumpsters - the number of undocumented workers in the agricultural sector down there. Both dairy and the rest are utterly dependent on them. Essentially, Trump is insisting we import even more proceeds of crime. Will these workers be getting a visit from Kristi Noem any time soon?

The market is delivering its verdict on Tesla. Here’s a new Kia ad:

I don’t condone violence at all but Musk has chosen to become an extremely controversial political figure and consumers can decide not to buy products associated with him. He has certainly been no friend of Canada.

Go back in time and ask any nation resisting Hitler why it’s being unreasonable and prolonging the slaughter. We live in a topsy-turvy world where those who saw reds under every bed want to sleep with them instead.

I mean patients or companies directly paying somebody to provide care without government in between. I came to this conclusion after having to scramble for a GP for several years.

Any Albertans here? What’s the local reaction to the RCMP getting involved in the health care kerfuffle? https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/ahs-rcmp-investigation-1.7476869

Sweet music to mine ears. At last I can utter the words “Churchill Falls” without risking a stroke. I have bolded the worst and best bits. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/article-hydroquebec-says-newfoundland-and-labrador-power-deal-is-clean-break/?login=true#comments

I think it’s prudent to assume that Trumpism isn’t going away and will be part of their make-up going forward. Leftist and socialist are losing their meaning as adjectives. The MAGA movement isn’t libertarian, for example. Most of its supporters like the benefits big government provides. If Musk and his oligarch friends actually go ahead with radical cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and social security, for example, they will split Trump’s coalition.

America has to manage its external relations better if it intends to keep willing allies in the world which it will certainly need as China’s critical mass of scientists, engineers and entrepreneurs really gets going. If it retreats to a Fortress North America policy we may be doomed but the rest of the world will have more options.

I would suggest there is a middle way between being an enemy and a colony. We still want good relations with them but we are separate countries with different worldviews and interests.

The forces that impelled Trump to the WH and empowered similar populists across the West aren’t going away any time soon. He may not be a blip. It is prudent to start thinking about the possibility of a grim new reality becoming permanent. Yes, military procurement happens on a glacial scale in Canada but there is no harm in starting the discussion about what we should do if the US has changed permanently.

So what are you advocating here? No change at all? I would say that as in everything else we have to diversify over time and move away from complete dependence on one foreign country whose policies have just changed radically.

Everybody has baggage. If Trump keeps his economic war on us going, or even talk of it, I don’t think it will be as important as usual. Carney’s work experience is relevant to the moment at hand. He can’t be dismissed as an out of touch academic like Ignatieff.