The Ones Who Walk Away

illustration from Sam Woolfe

So tonight I was reading some Rodger Sherman posts about sports - one of the American journalists I follow because of his wide sports knowledge - and his last Olympic newsletter was mentioned. People liked this part especially:

But you know, I just couldn't accept this statement.

Here we go again -- another Poilievre re-set

Here we go again. Another Poilievre "re-set" is underway.

This time, he's Serious!!! Calm!!! Statesman-like!!! Thoughtful!!!
The occasion was a speech in Toronto to the Economic Club of Canada on Thursday. 

The At Issue panel starts talking about it at the 8:20 mark:

TLDW -
Raj: "good speech, good politics...need to focus on the relationship but this too shall pass. We need to use our leverage... Mark Carney has failed to live up to his promises..."
Hebert: "a lot of Canadians have made up their minds about Poilievre... but its good news about not giving away the country. He's playing the long game, that I'm a serious person, going on trips outside the country..."
Coyne: "it depends on the follow-up...it was a change in tone, it was statesman-like after a week of demagoguery on the refugee file...more emphasis on getting successful trade negotiations...he's overestimating our trade advantages..."

Today's News: SOTU follow-ups, #ETTD, Epstein Scalp-watch, and the war in Ukraine plus other wars

State of the Union Follow-ups

I found some good posts today about that SOTU:

PM Carney about the State of Union address: “I didn’t watch it.” 😂🤣😅 I love this guy 😅🤣

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— 🍁🇨🇦Team Canada Forever🇨🇦🍁 (@teamcanadaforever.bsky.social) February 25, 2026 at 6:50 PM

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Definitely the first State of the Union where the president talked about the military killing unarmed fishermen as a laugh line

— Tom Scocca (@tomscocca.bsky.social) February 24, 2026 at 9:44 PM

"Holy shit, did WE ever make the right decision" - The US Women's Hockey Team

— The Daily Show (@thedailyshow.com) February 24, 2026 at 10:01 PM

Today's News: Playing politics against refugees in Canada, the State of the Union and the state of the NHL

Poilievre and the Conservatives have apparently decided their fortunes could improve if they can convince Canadians to play politics against refugees:

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We’re back to the racist and MAGA scapegoating of immigrants and asylum seekers for the failing healthcare systems. #QP

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) February 24, 2026 at 1:34 PM

Today's News: Some interesting stuff that isn't politics, plus Olympic Wrap-up

The State of the Union is tomorrow and we do NOT plan to watch even a single moment.
In fact, I am mostly "politicked-out" for now. So I thought tonight it would be interesting to sample a wider range of interesting stuff.

Just as Cory Doctorow invented "enshittification" to describe the inevitable decline of social media, so Ryan Broderick has invented "pre-deplatformed" to describe the new generation's intention to reject social media restrictions of artistic guerilla creativity.
At Garbage Day, Broderick writes The only taboo left is copyright infringement The Future Of Media Is Pre-Deplatformed

....if everything is just attention now, and attention is completely commodified by algorithmic tech platforms, how can you push back against that? Well, I am slowly coming around to a theory on the new cool: You have to essentially pre-deplatform yourself.
Culture right now is determined not by human teams of editors and producers picking and choosing what youth culture gets the spotlight, but, instead, by the unthinking algorithms that power YouTube and TikTok. Which means the only things that have the level of scarcity and danger required to be seen as cool by young people will, slowly, but surely, be whatever is unacceptable on those platforms.
... But politics, left or right, is actually not actually the most subversive thing you can do right now. It’s copyright infringement.
In 2022, filmmaker Vera Drew created a movie called The People’s Joker, which turned the story of The Joker from Batman into a trans allegory. Drew received a cease and desist from Warner Bros. and held guerilla screenings of the film until the rights were worked out. And this trend, of filmmakers using the corpse of the theater system to bypass the world of algorithms, has only continued. The 2022 film Hundreds Of Beavers had a similar renegade quality to how it was screened. Hell, even Taylor Swift was savvy enough to screen the Eras Tour concert in theaters directly through AMC. And you could argue that’s what YouTuber Mark “Markiplier” Fischbach just did with Iron Lung, which bypassed the studio system entirely and caused such a stir in Hollywood its massive ticket sales were removed from box office charts.
In fact, just this week, filmmaker Matt Johnson released Nirvanna The Band The Show The Movie. It had the biggest opening ever for a live-action Canadian film and not only is the film itself a massive copyright rats nest, but the web series it’s based on is completely illegal to watch on streaming platforms currently. Johnson, at a screening I attended last week, said he was excited to find out if they were going to get sued once the film debuted this week. (They haven’t yet, it seems.)
... The culture that feels the most dangerous, and, thus, exciting to young people, will be what you can’t see online. And the most dangerous thing for platforms is not racist garbage. It’s unmonetizeable content. The “metric” that will matter most going forward will not be the numbers at the bottom of a post or video, but the human beings in a room that left their house to experience something. Which, of course, will be filmed and put back online. You can’t escape the matrix entirely.

Broderick follows up with a related piece this week An endless feed of celebrities eating chicken wings.
Both articles are worth reading.

Sunday Funday: Olympics Catch-Up, this week's funny posts, plus Carney Hat-trick, Epstein Scalp-watch, TrumpWatch, Animal Crackers

Olympic Catch-up
Hey everyone, if you google "olympics" you can watch Nazgul run across the bottom of your screen!

The Olympics are almost over -- Canada's Day 15 results here. For what is coming up on Day 16, click here.

Canada now has 19 medals at the Olympics after this Ivanie Blondin silver. And with guaranteed medals in curling and hockey, Canada will surpass 20 medals at the Winter Olympics once again. It’s a streak that started 20 years ago in Italy. And continues.

— Devin Heroux (@devinheroux.bsky.social) February 21, 2026 at 10:43 AM

Today's News: That SCOTUS Tariff Decision, Poilievre Doom-Scrolling, Epstein Scalp-Watch, Olympic Catch-Up

First,  a few tariff cartoons that I collected for everyone to enjoy:

KABOOM! That SCOTUS Tariff Decision
How bullies always react when someone tells them to cut it out:

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(On a side note, it always amuses me when reporters get so prissy about somebody swearing. Of course, if I had a job where I could be fired for dropping an f-bomb, I guess I'd be pretty careful about it too.)

Today's News: Danielle Smith demonizes Canada again; Poilievre's failed leadership; Epstein Scalp-Watch; Olympic Catch-Up

Danielle Smith is demonizing Canada again
Alberta premier Danielle Smith is desperate to rev up the Alberta Federal Grievance Industry again, in spite of Carney actually doing a lot of what Alberta says it wants. And she is grasping at any excuse to blame someone else for Alberta's likely-huge deficit. 

So on Thursday Smith decided to pander to her MapleMAGA base by announcing a fall referendum on immigration, with a few swipes at federal powers too (subtext: shiftless brown immigrants and Ottawa civil servants are costing you money!!!!)
So where did these "problems" come from? Just two years ago Smith was complaining to Trudeau that Alberta needed thousands more spaces in the Provincial Nomination Program, especially for Ukrainian refugees.
Now, all of a sudden, immigration is a Big Problem that Alberta should be Big Mad about.

The Breakdown describes it as Separatism By Any Other Name...

...Many pundits and observers have clearly stated that Smith wants, and maybe even needs a campaign. She’s at her best when she’s meeting with people directly, not in the legislature.
A polarizing referendum gives her the opportunity to control with certainty what she wouldn’t be able to control in an early election, the election question.
And with a referendum, she gets complete control over what the questions are, how they are framed, where she gets to place herself, and perhaps most importantly, where she gets to place her opponents.
The referendum she announced tonight has two major themes.
The first is immigration.
Even Smith acknowledged that because she is attempting to alter the social fabric of the province so drastically, she needs a mandate to do so.
How does she intend to alter it?
On October 19, 2026, Smith will be asking Albertans for a mandate to...
-Giving Alberta greater control over immigration in order to decrease it and prioritizing Albertan jobs to Albertans first.
-Introducing a law to limit access to services to only Canadian citizens, permanent residents or people that Alberta approves of.
-Introducing a low requiring 12 months of residency in Alberta before accessing Alberta social programs.
-Charging fees for non-citizens or non-permanent residents to access healthcare and education.
-Requiring proof of citizenship, such as a passport, birth certificate, or citizenship card to vote in provincial elections.
So while many Americans are preparing for midterms that many expect will be the first major repudiation of MAGA, Danielle SMith is embracing some of their core principles.
But that’s not all...
Smith is also bringing forward 4 questions on constitutional changes.
Despite the requirements for constitutional change being outside of the reach of a single province, Smith will be asking Albertans if they...
-Believe that provincial governments should appoint all judges at all levels.
-Believe that the senate should be abolished.
-Believe that provinces should be allowed to opt out of federal programs “intruding on provincial jurisdiction such as health, education, and social services, without losing any of the associated federal funding” for use in their own provincial social programs.
-Believe that provincial laws should be given supremacy when they are in conflict with federal laws.
It is the last two that Albertans should be paying closest attention to in this bunch.
Smith has framed the relationship between the provinces and the federal government as one being locked in eternal conflict and is creating a de facto state of administrative separation instead of a literal one that separatists are advocating for across the province (albeit in smaller numbers than they would like to admit).
Again, any of these constitutional changes are outside of the reach of a single province to enact and if Alberta’s last referendum on equalization is any kind of barometer on the direct weight and consequence of what these questions can accomplish, they are likely of little concern in that context.
But that’s far from the real point, or the real risks.
Canada is under attack economically and under threat geographically from it’s former best friend. Donald Trump and his ilk have repeatedly made threats of taking over Canada and making it the 51st state.
At perhaps one of the most important times in Canada’s history for national unity to be a priority, Smith is seeking a mandate to drive a wedge directly into the heart of Confederation.
Make no mistake, with this last batch of questions, the subtext of all of these questions is, “Are you an Albertan first or a Canadian first?” There’s no room in this referendum for those identities to be equally weighted.
And that fact alone shows a fundamental failure to meet the demands of the moment on behalf of the people she has been elected to represent.

Today's News: Carney wins, Poilievre loses; the Epstein files get hotter, Minneapolis is still ICEed; and Olympic Catch-up

Carney wins, Poilievre loses
Wow!

Alberta MP Matt Jeneroux has joined the Liberal caucus, making him the third Conservative MP to break with his party since November – a move that puts the Carney government on the cusp of a majority.
Though they now hold 169 seats in the House of Commons, the Liberals are expected to pick up two more when by-elections are called in two safe Liberal ridings.
To attain a majority government, they would still need a seat in addition to those two. They have a chance to secure one in a third by-election, set to be called in the Quebec riding of Terrebonne. But the Liberal candidate won there by just a single vote in last April’s elections. The Supreme Court recently annulled that result, making the by-election necessary.
Another path to a majority could come about if Prime Minister Mark Carney recruits another MP from a rival party to join his caucus.

But what everyone is talking about tonight isn't Carney's success in (almost) achieving a majority government, but rather Pierre Poilievre's weakened leadership.

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Roundup of comments on Canada's Defense Industrial Strategy, those radical mainstream environmentalists, the Epstein conspiracy, and Olympic Catch-up

I found some good posts and commentary today on a random assortment of topics:

Comments about Canada's Defense Industrial Strategy
First, some background - in her February 17, 2026 newsletter on Tuesday, Heather Cox Richardson references the Munich conference and how the world is moving on without the US:

...Foreign affairs journalist Anne Applebaum noted that the word in Munich was that “Europe needs to emancipate itself from the U.S. as fast as possible.” In Germany, Der Spiegel reports plans to bring Ukrainian veterans to teach German armed forces drone use and counter-drone practices the Ukrainians are perfecting in their war against Russian occupation. Canada’s prime minister Mark Carney is working to reduce Canada’s defense dependence on the U.S., ramping up domestic defense production.
Carney has advanced a foreign policy that centers “middle powers” and operates without the U.S. That global reorientation has profound consequences for the U.S. economy, as well. Canada is leading discussions between the European Union and a 12-nation Indo-Pacific bloc to form one of the globe’s largest economic alliances. A new agreement would enable the countries to share supply chains and to share a low-tariff system. Canada also announced it is renewing its partnership with China. As of this week, Canadians can travel to China without a visa.
Today France’s president Emmanuel Macron and India’s prime minister Narendra Modi upgraded Indian-French relations to a “Special Strategic Partnership” during a three-day visit of Macron to Mumbai. They have promised to increase cooperation between the two countries in defense, trade, and critical materials.
Trump insisted that abandoning the free trade principles under which the U.S. economy had boomed since World War II would enable the U.S. to leverage its extraordinary economic might through tariffs, but it appears, as economist Scott Lincicome of the Cato Institute wrote today for Bloomberg, that the rest of the world is simply moving on without the U.S....

Today's News: Olympic Catch-up, plus Canada's trade moves

Olympic Catch-up

Canada's Day 9 results here, and our Day 10 results here. For what is coming up on Day 11, click here.

Gold!


Gold!


Silver!

Sunday Funday: Olympic Catch-up plus some funny and lovely posts, and Carney Hat-trick, TrumpWatch, Animal Crackers

Olympic Catch-up

Click here for Canada's Day 8 results and click here for what is coming up on Day 9. 

Bronze

And some other achievements:

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This isn't a Canadian win, but I'm posting it anyway:

What a great photo of Brazilian alpine skier Lucas Pinheiro Braathen, the first South American to ever win a medal at the Winter Olympic Games.

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— Jerad Walker (@jeradwalker.bsky.social) February 14, 2026 at 3:06 PM

Round-up: Tumbler Ridge Vigil; commentaries from Coyne & Smith; observations about US-Canada relations; Olympic Catch-up

First, some posts about the Tumbler Ridge Vigil

CARNEY: "When you wake up tomorrow, and the world feels impossible, know that millions of Canadians are with you ... Because Canada is a community that relies on each other's grace. And may that grace bless us all."

- Scott Robertson

Read on Substack

Pierre Poilievre reads a short poem for the victims of Tumbler Ridge.

- Scott Robertson

Read on Substack

EBY: "Things are going to be different but there are going to be things that are familiar and one of those things is the courage and the bravery and the amazing kids, the students, the young adults, the people of Tumbler Ridge."

- Scott Robertson

Read on Substack

Weekly Wrap: Tumbler Ridge Strong, Minnesota is winning, the Trump administration is losing all over, and Olympics Catch-up

Tumbler Ridge Strong
Stories of courage will be coming

Stories of brave students, teachers emerging after Tumbler Ridge shooting, B.C. premier says

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— CTV News Vancouver (@ctvnewsvancouver.bsky.social) February 13, 2026 at 1:00 AM

Meanwhile, Canada's political leaders are gathering together in Tumbler Ridge.

#CanadianNews - Prime Minister Mark Carney and other federal party leaders will travel to Tumbler Ridge, B.C., to attend a vigil commemorating the victims of Tuesday's shooting. I by CBC news - via The Torontonian Magazine 🇨🇦🍁 www.cbc.ca/news/politic...

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— The Torontonian🍁🇨🇦 🇪🇺 🇬🇱 🇮🇱 🇲🇽 🇺🇦 🏒⚽️ (@thetorontonian.bsky.social) February 13, 2026 at 12:14 AM

Today's News: Mourning with Tumbler Ridge, plus Olympic Catch-up

The people of Tumbler Ridge gathered to mourn together on Wednesday night.

Prime Minister Carney says "All of Canada stands by you":


The BC Government has set up a Condolence Book in the Parliament Building in Victoria, with an online form posted here.
When I was searching for news, I found that the Vancouver Sun has detailed coverage of the tragedy on its main page here ,and also that the CBC has excellent coverage on its CBC main page here.

Today's News: Carney deserves a medal for dealing with Trump, plus Tuesday Olympic catchup, and our tragedy at Tumbler Ridge

I think our Prime Minister Mark Carney deserves his own medal - gold, of course - for having to deal so often with Trump and his fantasies.

Prime Minister Carney on Trump's bridge threat: "I explained that Canada of course paid for the construction of the bridge, that the ownership is shared between the state of Michigan and the government of Canada ... This is a great example of cooperation between our countries."

- Scott Robertson

Read on Substack

I so wonder what Carney said to Trump on that Gordie Howe Bridge call. "No, Mr. President. Bridges go over water. Yes I'll bring you a new choo choo next time I come."

— Jaye Rich (@thesurplusjayerich.bsky.social) February 11, 2026 at 12:16 AM

Today's News: Olympic Catch-up, Bad Bunny and the grasses, Trump take bridge, and the Epstein Tsunami

Olympic Catch-up

Megan Oldham bronze!

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The family and friends reactions one of my favourite parts of the Olympics. They’ve been on this journey too. And they couldn’t be in Beijing for Megan Oldham’s debut. But they’re here today for her bronze medal for Canada. Outstanding.

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— Devin Heroux (@devinheroux.bsky.social) February 9, 2026 at 6:58 AM

Sunday Funday: Olympic catch-up, lots of funny posts, Carney Hat-Trick, TrumpWatch and Animal Crackers

Congratulations Valerie Maltais - Bronze Medal

Catching up with the Olympics:

So say we all.

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— Sister Golden Bear (@sistergoldenbear.bsky.social) February 7, 2026 at 4:53 PM

Friday night wrap-up: Stephen Marche on Canadians, Paul Krugman on Americans, plus Greenland, Olympic cheers & boos, ICE Gestapo, Trump racism, Minnesota brave, Ian McKellen does Shakespeare

Ken Danby - At The Crease

Starting tonight with some good news stories.

In the New York Times, Stephen Marche writes a brilliant opinion piece: We Are All Canadians Now (gift link)

...American aggression and American decline are of a piece. As Mr. Carney has announced a slew of measures aimed at boosting Canada’s electric vehicle industry, nobody has argued for a moment that American equivalents could compete. By ending E.V. tax credits, Mr. Trump may have all but ensured that the American electric vehicle will one day be a thing of the past. America has decided not to compete. It would rather pose. If you are integrating yourself into the American sphere of influence, or whatever Mr. Trump’s national security apparatus calls it, you are integrating yourself into antiquity — or worse.
At the same time, America is becoming synonymous with dangerous randomness. The constitutional system is in collapse. The legislative branch, made up of both Democrats and Republicans, is missing in action. The Supreme Court debates the legal equivalent of how many angels can fit on the head of a pin, while the legal order that has held the country together for 250 years sputters toward an ignominious end. Nobody knows what America is anymore — not Americans, not their enemies, not their friends.
Coming to terms with this reality has not been easy in Canada. American exceptionalism is a hell of a drug; it’s hard to break the habit of thinking of Americans as the good guys. For Canadians, what is unfolding in Minnesota and elsewhere is happening to our friends, our neighbors, our colleagues, our kin — it is happening to people we love and understand better than anybody. But “the rupture,” as Mr. Carney calls
And now, the work begins. For better or for worse, what people most admire in Canada, certainly more than success, is the capacity to endure — no doubt a product of the brutality of the landscape. Atanarjuat, the hero of Inuit legend, survived a murderous plot by running through the snow naked. Terry Fox, as every Canadian schoolchild knows, ran a marathon a day for 143 days on a single leg to raise money for cancer. The idols of our national sport spit out their teeth and get back in the game. Mr. Carney’s speech offered a glimpse of that spirit, too. What liberal democracies need now, more than ever, is the sheer will to go on, without nostalgia for what once was. The West is feeling its betrayal turn into rage. The world is waking up to both its vulnerability and its value. But better late than never: We’re all Canadian now.

As the weeks go by after Carney's Davos speech, we are seeing even more clearly what an impact it is having on the world.

Crowd sings Oh Canada as Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand raises Canadian flag to officially open Canadian consulate in Nuuk, Greenland 🇨🇦🇬🇱 🎥 Credit CBCOlivia / via 𝕏 ❤️🍁🇨🇦TEAM CANADA FOREVER🇨🇦🍁❤️ ❤️🍁🇨🇦VIVE LE CANADA 🇨🇦🍁❤️

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— 🍁🇨🇦Team Canada Forever🇨🇦🍁 (@teamcanadaforever.bsky.social) February 6, 2026 at 5:50 PM

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Today's News: The Olympics!!!

Canadian curler Brett Gallant (photo Carmen Mandato Getty Images)

There was lots of actual news today -- bitcoin crashing, Trump making a fool of himself at a prayer breakfast, Poilievre desperately trying to change his stripes, the CBC At Issue panel grudgingly agreeing that maybe Carney's new EV strategy actually might work, also Canada and France opening consulates in Greenland. And, of course, the continuing Epstein fallout.

But the Olympics are getting underway so that's what I'm going to post about tonight -- politics will always be with us, but the Olympics are only around for a few weeks.

First, I did get a chuckle out of this

My mom watched some news story about new sports at this year’s Olympics and said “you can’t just make up sports!” Mom, all sports are made up!

— David Shiffman, Ph.D. 🦈 (@whysharksmatter.bsky.social) February 5, 2026 at 7:44 AM

To follow the Olympics, I joined CBC Gem so I could watch their extra coverage -- provided, of course, I can ever get their sign-in page to work!!! 

I will also be following the Canadian Olympic page, The Globe and Mail Olympics, plus glancing at the Olympic Event Calendar, and Reddit Olympics.

Updates: Our Teflon prime minister, some Epstein updates, Elon's despair, and admiring American courage

Just a random bunch of updates tonight.

I think we can call him Teflon Carney
As Canadians get to know Prime Minister Carney, we're seeing that he is becoming one of those Teflon politicians - negative news just doesn't stick to him, he just shrugs it off. 

The most recent example is that ballyhooed trip of Conservative MP Jamil Jivani to visit his BFF Vance and Washington, purportedly about the CUSMA negotiations. The initial media reaction was to make this a big problem for Carney. But Carney just pushed it right back at them:

I like that he calls out Jivani’s action for the publicity stunt it is.

- Joanne Pettis 🇨🇦

Read on Substack

Epstein files reveal the scum who think they can do whatever they like

In a comment on my post yesterday, Cap writes:

Three Canadian billionaires have been accused of serial rapes of young women/girls in the last couple of years: Robert Miller, Peter Nygard and Frank Stronach. How many more are revealed in the latest tranche of Epstein files?
What we know so far is that large numbers of political and business elites in the US, the UK and Israel were taking advantage of Epstein's services, raping girls, and being recorded and manipulated. We have no reason to assume Canada was immune. Why aren't Canadian media outlets doing the grunt work of finding out? Why aren't they even reporting the most vile documents uncovered so far? They're planning to let this blow over, just like the Panama Papers blew over without Canadians being prosecuted for tax fraud. It's hard to imagine a resilient economy controlled by these kind of depraved monsters.

The only recent Canadian stories I can find about Epstein concern denial of permission for Epstein to visit Canada in 2018 though apparently he did get to Vancouver in 2014 and 2016 by masking his identity; an Epstein invite to a seminar in Austria in 2014, which was supported by the foreign ministries of Canada and Norway though they weren't involved in the guest lists; and a friendly relationship in 2008-9 between Epstein and someone who worked for CBC Edmonton.
MAGA was just delighted to find Mark Carney name in the Epstein files released last Friday. 

But it was a bust....

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Today's News: Building Capacity and Resilience

1942 map

I'm reading so much lately about how Canada and other countries are building military and economic capacity and resilience to withstand hegemon pressure, so I thought I would share a few of these tonight. And then I also found this map from eight decades ago - isn't it fascinating to see what has changed and what hasn't?

Last week, Carney and the Premiers met about what is next:

TLDW: This is the press conference where Kinew and Ford joked about their Heated Rivalry. Anyway, Carney also announced a "Team Canada" trade and investment office plus monthly progress meetings about the CUSMA review and the Port of Churchill plan.. 

In other Canadian economic news:

Score one for the red and white. www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/art...

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— Charlie Angus (@charlieangus104.bsky.social) January 28, 2026 at 1:50 PM

Looks like Japanese automakers are stepping quite easily into the breach. Looking forward to other car makers signing up to do business in a stable country Report suggests Ottawa reward companies that have shown commitment to making cars in Canada #cdn www.cbc.ca/news/busines...

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— TopKat_GlassDragon (@topkatglassdragon.bsky.social) February 2, 2026 at 8:37 PM

Sunday Funday: Poilievre's win, Epstein's pals, Melania's movie, Trump's blather; random funny stuff; Carney hat-trick; Trump Watch; and Animal Crackers

I can't resist sharing these funny posts about Poilievre's big win this weekend:

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