Here we go! Some comments about what happens next

First, a few good comments about the US Mid-Terms results - we spent the last two years appalled and terrified, and today we saw the sun came out.

For one thing, the two largest cities in North America now have Democratic Socialist mayors - Zoltan in New York and Nithya in Los Angeles. And they're both great.

I can’t believe Los Angeles will finally have a mayor that knows what the inside of a bus/train looks like that’s not for a photo op 😭😭😭

— bottomfishers for Nithya Raman (@cahsrslut.bsky.social) November 4, 2026 at 7:07 PM

I don't think it succeeds anymore to use pejorative labels to undermine charismatic candidates, particularly with younger voters now. Socialist? What's that and who cares anyway?

🚨🚨 leftists born in the 1980s are now running Los Angeles and New York City 😭😭😭😭😭😭

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— Molly Knight (@mollyknight.bsky.social) November 4, 2026 at 7:05 PM

"Lawyer Up!" and enjoy the schadenfreude

America sent the Republicans a message:

Official statement from incoming chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform @robertgarcia.house.gov:

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— Oversight Dems (@oversightdemocrats.bsky.social) November 3, 2026 at 9:25 PM

Of course Trump solemnly told the New York Times that he would respect the election results, which means the whole gang in the Patel FBI and the Blanche DOJ will be flying all over the country trying to get the courts to overturn elections all over the country, between now and January 3.
As well, I fully expect that choosing a new Speaker and a new Senate Majority Leader will be a shitshow, because Hakeem Jefferies and Chuck Schumer will be following their usual script telling everyone just calm down and ease off and reconsider and reach across the aisle and think about the long-term interests of the party and all their usual BS.  A good percentage of the incoming House and Senate will just tell them "fuck that!"

So there is going to be a big fight about what the Dems will do.

But in the meantime, let's enjoy Tuesday night's schadenfreude.

Today's News: America decides the Midterms, and Canada decides between Europe and Trump

Waiting for the Midterm Results

If you think Trump hates America now, just wait till Nov 4th.

— Tea Pain (@teapainusa.bsky.social) November 2, 2026 at 4:26 PM

Scott Reid: "What Canada needs from these midterms is an absolute, complete drumming of the idea that you can go to economic war with Canada and have it work out well. We need that to be permanently politically radioactive."

- Scott Robertson

Read on Substack

Sunday Funday: Thriller + More Halloween, Interesting Posts, Funny Posts, Laughing about Politics, Carney Hat Trick, TrumpWatch, Animal Crackers

Thriller! 

In honour of Halloween, I have to post the Thriller videos I found.

First, the one and only original


Next, a group of 12-14-year-old dancers at Betsy Ross Arts and Design Academy in New Haven, Connecticut

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Betsy Ross Arts & Design Academy (@betsyrossarts)

Happy (mostly) Halloween!

I have collected quite a batch of Halloween cartoons so I thought I would post them tonight instead of waiting for my Sunday Funday column.  Enjoy!

"It just goes to show you, it's always something — if it’s not one thing, it's another."

(I made this cartoon using ChatGPT)

I really have to feel for our Prime Minister Mark Carney these days.
Canada had one hell of a summer didn't we, with a thousand wild-fires, and those Trump threats and tariffs, and US trade negotiations blowing up.
(On a side note, doesn't it feel like the World Cup and the Olympics were in the ancient past?)
So here we are finally in October.
And Carney finally gets Danielle Smith and her stupid referendum out of the way. Whew!
But now he finds he has to deal with egotistical temper tantrums from the new Quebec premier Paul St-Pierre Plamondon. Plus he must be worried that those white supremascists and residential school denialists in the new BC premier Lorne Doerkson's party will screw up economic development for BC First Nations.
And we all still have to listen to opposition leader Poilievre confuse painfully-dated Seinfeld references for sparkling repartee in Question Period.
Lord, give Carney strength!
Our Prime Minister must be starting to wonder if Canadian politics are always going to be like this.
The short answer is, likely yes!
Because it just goes to show you, it's always something — if it’s not one thing, it's another, as Roseanne Roseannadanna used to say.
But Carney isn't letting it get him down.

 

Today's Good Cartoons, plus Signs of the Apocalypse, Trade War Update, and Hooray for the Brewers!

Wednesday News: Stelco update, some thoughts about likeable politicians, and "Shove that ballroom up your fat ass!"

Stelco Update
The news of the day was when Cleveland-Cliffs CEO Lourenco Goncalves told CBC's David Cochrane that he had actually bought Hamilton's Stelco Steel two years ago to stop it from competing with his US steel businesses.
Oops!

He's basically daring governments to expropriate at this point.

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— John Michael McGrath (@jm-mcgrath.bsky.social) October 27, 2026 at 4:32 PM

Catching up with the news: Signs of the Apocalypse, Trade War Update, and some World Series comments

Turned out to be a busy weekend, didn't it.

Flavio Bolsonaro has been ordered to surrender his passport. Russia no longer has an ally in Serbia. The Milwaukee Brewers might win the World Series. Maybe the Universe is trying to turn itself rightside up again. BUT there's work to be done. Get some rest. Gnight, little Earth.

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— Spike Page🌋 (@spikepage.wsocial.eu) October 26, 2026 at 10:33 PM

Signs of the Apocalypse - a regular round-up of the crazy stuff happening down south
The closer the Mid-Terms get, the nuttier Trump is getting.
He wrote a 1,300 word post on Sunday about Bill Maher, FFS. 

Now he's furious about Obama calling his White House decor a Cheesecake Factory. 

Way to stick to the point, guy.

Sunday Funday: BC Gloom, US Election Funnies, Interesting Posts, Funny Posts, Getting Old(er), Trumpwatch, and Animal Crackers

BC Doom and Gloom

I guess BC premier David Eby got his wish for a majority government.
Unfortunately, its Conservative.
Basically, I think Eby took his voters for granted, and they punished that disrespect. 

What will happen now? Lots of performative bullshit, I expect, along with some poor economic and social policies, and some cruel and unnecessary conflicts with First Nations.

Dear BC Voters… I know you were angry at the NDP, but voting for the Shoot-BC-in-the-Foot Party is as unforgivably stupid as @davidebybc.bsky.social calling the election in the first place. Enjoy your reduced services, higher instance, and racist, Trump-friendly government, you brainless assholes.

— CrankyCanucksFan 🇨🇦🏒 (@crankycanucksfan.bsky.social) October 24, 2026 at 10:43 PM

Wow, what a map. I took this screenshot at about 11 pm BC time.

 

And with 91% of the vote now in

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— Polling Canada (@canadianpolling.bsky.social) October 24, 2026 at 11:33 PM

Holding the cards

It's beem 18 months since I first saw this great Dave Whamond cartoon.

At that time, when Trump talked about how Canada "didn't have the cards", defying him felt sort of like whistling past the graveyard - we hated him but we didn't know what would happen to us.

But now, Canada is more confident. We know what we're doing, we have a leader who keeps calm and carries on, and we can't be intimidated anymore.

So when I heard Trump say again on Friday that Canada didn't have the cards, I just thought "Wrong!" and changed the channel.

But now that I have listened to it again, it struck me how scared Trump really is.

Trump: "Canada is working very hard to make a deal with us, and I hate to say this, but we have all the cards. We have all the cards, just like I told Zelenskyy, we have all the cards."

- Scott Robertson

Read on Substack

Look who blinked first. www.cbc.ca/news/politic...

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— Andrew Kurjata (@akurjata.ca) October 23, 2026 at 7:40 PM

TACO indeed:

TACO Tuesday comes early. He's terrified. www.youtube.com/shorts/NDTKa...

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— Cbaboween (@cbab.bsky.social) October 23, 2026 at 11:33 PM

Comments on the passing scene: Staying together, Ending homelessness, Hating Canada because it works, That Notwithstanding clause, Trump rallies, Selling winter

Taking a step back to catch up on some interesting comments and views that have been flying under the radar lately, if my metaphors aren't getting too mixed up. 

We're all in this together

First, cartoonist Graeme MacKay makes a valid point:

Tariffs Don’t Stop at Provincial Borders Ontario has clearly felt the brunt of Trump’s attacks, especially in auto and steel. Alberta has its own legitimate grievances and hasn’t been untouched by tariffs, but it has had the nation’s attention for weeks and remains one of Canada’s wealthiest provinces. Meanwhile, other regions are taking serious economic hits too. So it’s hard to read comments dismissing support for Ontario’s workers as “corporate welfare,” especially when the western oil sector has also benefited from major public support, including subsidies and pipeline deals. We can debate how governments help industries, but let’s apply the same standard everywhere and not leave Ontario’s auto and steel sectors to fend for themselves. This isn’t a regional contest. Alberta’s concerns deserve a hearing, and so do the workers and communities facing the brunt of Trump’s trade war elsewhere. At a time when Canada’s sovereignty and economic security are under pressure, we need less scorekeeping and more solidarity. My rough sketch for the Oct 23 edition of The Hamilton Spectator:

- The Graeme Gallery

Read on Substack

Thingummy Thursday: some good cartoons and posts about the news

A thingummy is when you can't think of what to call something. So that's what I'm calling this column, because its just a random collection of good cartoons and good posts about recent events.

First, some final clips and comments on the Alberta referendum:

David Herle: "Turnout in Quebec in 1995 was 95%. Turnout on the Alberta separation question is going to hit 70%. The nine, I think the turnout's in the 30s. This was a fucking nothingburger. This was an internal UCP party management exercise."

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— Scott Robertson (@sarobertson.bsky.social) October 21, 2026 at 11:20 AM

Talking about Alberta: The separatists lost but the racists won

I thought it might be useful to do a roundup about the Alberta votes. So here are some comments from inside Alberta and from outside it, plus the terrible impact of the anti-immigrant support.

First, what Albertans are saying.

We Rocked the Indigenous Vote on Separation. Alberta Is Indian Land. indigenousinsider.substack.com/p/we-rocked-... "None of this came out of nowhere. First Nations leaders have stood against the separatists, and the provincial government that enabled them, all year long."

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— tikabean.bsky.social (@tikabean.bsky.social) October 20, 2026 at 9:13 PM

Naheed Nenshi on Indigenous turnout in the Alberta referendum: "The very people who've been hurt more by the mistakes of Canada than anybody else, stood up as the proudest champions of Canada."

- Scott Robertson

Read on Substack

Catching up with the news: Are we finally done with that damned referendum? Plus some Wainwright updates

From Theo Moudakis

That lengthy and confusing damned Alberta referendum is finally over. But likely never to be forgotten. I just hope it will never be repeated.

Here is the Poliwave vote page for all of the Alberta referendum questions.
With half the vote counted, Alberta is showing a Remain landslide of 76+ per cent - hopefully that will hold up.
Here is the Poliwave map showing the Remain/Leave vote so far - the red colour shows which answer leads in each riding. Deeper colour, bigger lead. (The only place showing majority support for Leave is that blue patch around Grande Prairie but its misleading because less than 4 per cent of that vote had actually been counted so far.)