Wednesday, March 11, 2026

Today's News: Carney adds another MP, more Canada love, plus updates on the US/Israel/Iran War, the Epstein Files Scandal, and the Paralympics

That rumbling sound you hear across the country tonight is a major floor-crossing in Ottawa. 
Lori Idlout will cross the floor from the New Democratic Party to the Liberal Party of Canada, according to confirmation from the Liberal Party.
Idlout has represented Nunavut since being elected in 2021.
Her move adds to a growing list of MPs who have recently left their parties to join the Liberals. In total, three Conservative MPs and one NDP MP have now crossed the floor to the Liberals.
With three upcoming byelections scheduled for April, the floor crossing makes it increasingly likely that Mark Carney and the Liberals will secure a majority government in the House of Commons.
Idlout's statement is focused on Canadian political involvement and respect in the North:

Statement from new Liberal MP Lori Idlout, which was just released moments ago:

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— Luke LeBrun (@lukelebrun.ca) March 10, 2026 at 11:16 PM
It is particularly apt that this happened tonight, I think, because once again today Trump called Carney "governor" - with a majority government, Carney can focus on his agenda to strengthen Canada and keep us out of Trump's clutches.
And Carney made it clear today that "Canada is not participating in the offensive operations of Israel and the United States and will not, ever!"
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More news:
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This was an interesting interview:

Mark Carney gave an interview to Tyler Brûlé from the Monocle. In Tokyo. Monocle just posted it. I’m listening now, and so are you: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2gyqs-AN8A

- Paul Wells

Read on Substack
TL,DW: "Monocle’s editorial director and chairman, Tyler Brûlé, interviews Canada’s prime minister, Mark Carney, at the Embassy of Canada to Japan in Tokyo. Carney outlines how investments into defence not only protect Canadians from growing threats in the Arctic but also benefit the country’s economy at large. Plus: how to cultivate the appeal of brand Canada."

And this is some marvelous Canada Love:


Next, updating the US/Israel/Iran War
The news is that its still an incoherent mess.
Soon after I started this blog, during the Iraq War, an American father made a comment on one of my posts that I have never forgotten -- he said war is a pact between Americans and their President. The people are willing to send their children to war if they believe their country is justified in fighting it.
I don't know how any American parent could support this chaos now.

I finally found a video that could explain what a fellow human here and I were talking about. I didn’t know anything about Iran. As it was explained to me; I was still wrong. So here it is. THESE IDIOTS IN THE DEPARTMENT OF WAR DONT KNOW WHAT THEY ARE SAYING!!!

- Upliftofy

Read on Substack

Chris Murphy: "I Just came from a two hour, closed door classified briefing on the war. It just confirmed to me it's totally incoherent. We are not gonna be able to achieve any of our stated objectives ... this is a disaster of epic proportions, a 10 day debacle"

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— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) March 10, 2026 at 2:30 PM
In Heather Cox Richardson's March 10 letter, she reports:
Today, administration officials gave a classified briefing to the Senate Armed Services Committee about the war in Iran. Democrats who spoke to the press afterward appeared to be furious.
Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) told reporters he was coming out of the briefing “as dissatisfied and angry, frankly, as I have from any past briefing in my 15 years in the Senate. ...
“So, the American people deserve to know much more than this administration has told them about the cost of the war, the danger to our sons and daughters in uniform, and the potential for further escalation and widening of this war, a war of choice made by this president, not chosen by the American people, with potentially huge consequences to American lives.”

Iran made it explicitly clear that any country that allows attacks to start from its territory is an enemy. The US's Middle Eastern allies already suffered the consequences. This isn't some unknown unknown. Even if they're not British planes doing the fighting, Starmer still put us all in danger.

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— Edwin Hayward (@edwinhayward.com) March 11, 2026 at 1:52 AM

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And by the way, here is a substack account that provides nightly Iran War updates: Iran War Dispaches with Tim Mak

Moving on to the latest in the Epstein Files Scandal

In Britain, the first tranche of Peter Mandelson files will be published today. They should shed light on what Keir Starmer knew about the peer’s links to Jeffrey Epstein before appointing him as envoy to the U.S. London Playbook knows what to expect 👇

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— POLITICO Europe (@politico.eu) March 11, 2026 at 2:29 AM

can make the Statue of Liberty vanish but not his name from the Epstein files

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— Steve Held (The People's Fabric) (@peoplesfabric.bsky.social) March 9, 2026 at 9:03 AM
I have found a new source for analysis of the thousands of documents released so far - a substack called The Ink is publishing a series of articles about the files, under the general title Cutting through the fog of war Trump wants to move the conversation away from Epstein. We won't let him
President Trump may or may not have started a war in Iran — a war that is quickly becoming a global conflagration — to squelch the Epstein story. But whatever his motivations, at The Ink, we are very clear. We are not going to stop reporting on the historic revelations of the Epstein files, making sense of them for you in ways many other outlets will not, because of a war. The war matters — and we’ll keep covering it. And so does the Epstein story.
That’s the story we’re following in our new Epstein Class series. You’ll find links to the first two chapters below — the next chapter is in the works now....
The first two chapters in the series cover how Epstein's wide network of "bystanders" who gave him credibility, and how Epstein's treatment of women is a metaphor on the inner workings of the operating system of power - it is fascinating stuff.

Finally, today's Paralympics Catch-up 
Natalie Wilkie now has a complete set of medals - she wins bronze in Para cross-country skiing women's sprint classic standing


BRONZE FOR CANADA 🇨🇦 NATALIE WILKIE WINS A THIRD PARALYMPIC MEDAL AT THESE GAMES Wilkie now has 10 Paralympic medals in her career. And she went and congratulated the gold and silver medal winners. Canada now has 8 medals at Milano Cortina 2026

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— Devin Heroux (@devinheroux.bsky.social) March 10, 2026 at 6:45 AM

There is some magic around this Canadian wheelchair curling team. A massive two-win day against China and Sweden. Scored three in the final end to beat Sweden. Canada is all alone in first place at 6-0 here at the Paralympics.

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— Devin Heroux (@devinheroux.bsky.social) March 10, 2026 at 2:25 PM

I thought this was interesting too:

At the Paralympics, an international team repairs prosthetics, wheelchairs, and sports equipment – free of charge for all, often shortly before the competition.

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— heise online English (@heiseonlineenglish.bsky.social) March 11, 2026 at 1:59 AM

2 comments:

Northern PoV said...

The latest floor crossing is very likely related to Avi's pending take-over of the NDP. Expect more of the same. Not bad news really, just folks showing their true colours and reinforcing the idea that we have 3 or 4 parties all chasing the same center-right voters.
Avi could fail to revive the NDP ... or he could bring in a ton of non-voters when his bold positions become front page news. Its worth risking the future of the current Layton-inspired, milquetoast, non-status, opposition party.
We'll see.

Cap said...

I can't believe that Tony Blair managed to convince Starmer to be Trump’s lapdog. British involvement in ME conflict worked out so well last time did it? When is Britain going to learn that the US has only one "special relationship," and it's with the war criminals of Israel.