Say a prayer to the Baseball Gods! Plus comparing Carney and Trump at the UN, and comments on the BC snap election

This post is mainly about Canada politics. 

But first, I have to ask the Baseball Gods to bless the Blue Jays on Wednesday and let them win their double-header against Baltimore. The first game starts at 1:30 pm and the second at 6:30 pm. They are almost eliminated now, unless we get an improbable combination of Blue Jays wins plus lots of other teams losing. But if the Jays lose on Wednesday, its over.

I'll never forget seeing a woman at Fenway holding up her little "Believe" sign in the bottom of the ninth with two out, when Boston was on the cusp of being swept by the Yankees in the 2004 ALCS. One of the greatest comebacks in sport history, and the Sox went on to win eight straight games and the World Series. 

So yes, I still BELIEVE! 

Carney at the United Nations
Carney didn't speak to the General Assembly because he couldn't fly into New York in time. But he did hold a press conference on Wednesday -- and I guess he really is a cat whisperer!

"Canada is predictable, reliable, principled, in a world that is anything but."

👇PM Carney speaking to media at the UN meeting. Our PM spoke of 'value-based realism'; meaning he wants to stick to good democratic morals, but is willing to make practical compromises when dealing with real-world politics. Basically, it's balancing what's right with what actually works. 😊💪🇨🇦

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— 🇨🇦Sandy: No narcissistic leaders!🇨🇦 (@sandydz.bsky.social) September 22, 2026 at 9:17 PM

PM Carney speaks at UN event on two-state solution for Israel-Palestine conflict – Sept. 22, 2026 www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPIU...

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— UncoverTheNews (@uncoverthenews.bsky.social) September 22, 2026 at 4:17 PM

Carney’s endorsement of “values-based realism” is a sick burn on Trump. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/22/w...

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— Dan Froomkin/Press Watch/Heads Up News (@froomkin.bsky.social) September 22, 2026 at 11:15 PM

The New York Times posted this article by Ian Austen prominently on its website tonight.  

At U.N., Carney Lays Out a Broad Plan for a Divided World 

Mark Carney, the Canadian prime minister, said the world is now at a point ‘that comes once or twice a century.’ [gift link]

Prime Minister Mark Carney of Canada expanded on his vision for international cooperation on Tuesday, outlining how nations can safeguard their mutual interests following a “rupture” to the world order by the United States and China.
“This is, in many respects, a time that comes once or twice every century,” Mr. Carney said during a news conference at the United Nations in New York, where he was attending the General Assembly. “What comes ahead, it’s not wishful multilateralism, which defends only the status quo, nor a cold realpolitik that dismantles the status quo altogether.”
He added: “The alternative that Canada and many others are pursuing, is values-based realism, an approach that’s both principled and pragmatic.”
In a highly publicized address to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland in January, Mr. Carney called on the world’s “middle powers” to band together to protect their interests from the decline of the “rules based order.” But he offered little detail what form that might take.
Until he was delayed by air traffic control disruptions on Monday, Mr. Carney had been scheduled to join leaders from the European Union and six other nations to launch an initiative he called “Partners for Multilateralism.”
This is not a bloc or a bureaucracy,” he said in French on Tuesday. “It is a new forum that looks at universal institutions, practical coalitions and capacities that exist outside of governments in order to build trust and bring people together.”
He added: “The real choice is not between trying to preserve an international order established after the Second World War or abandoning it.”
He said that the plan acknowledges the impossibility of consensus among nations and suggested that alliances formed through the new group will be ad hoc and with changing memberships.
“Groups formed around problems rather than geography or size,” Mr. Carney said. “Not as an alternative to multilateralism, but as an instrument of it.”

Trump at the United Nations

"Do I ANNIHILATE the Islamic Republic?"

🇰🇵 Nobody Buys the Sneakers from North Korea! Americans watching that speech saw their president. The rest of the world saw something else entirely: an old man rambling from the podium of the United Nations about driving ninety million people into hell, in the cadence of a dictator from a country we normally pity. Strip away the flag and the seal and you would swear it was Pyongyang talking. In most democracies a man who spoke like that in public would be met by police, or by a doctor, not by a motorcade. And here is the part Washington refuses to grasp. America is not only a country, it is a brand, arguably the most valuable ever built. It is Coca-Cola and Levi's and the iPhone, it is Hollywood, jazz, the road trip and the promise that anyone can arrive with nothing and make it. That brand was worth trillions precisely because the world wanted to be a little bit American. Nobody wants to be a little bit North Korean, which is why nobody buys sneakers from Pyongyang however good the stitching. A product cannot be separated from the country that makes it, and neither can a speech. So every time the president stands before the world and muses about annihilation, the mud splashes onto 340 million people who never asked for it, Christians and non-Christians, believers and sceptics, every one of them now walking around with a small stain of embarrassment on the passport. Nor do the quiet ones get to wash it off. A Russian does not object to his president, a Chinese citizen does not object, a North Korean certainly does not, and we all know exactly why. Stay connected, follow @Gandalv

- Gandalv

Read on Substack

Among the many bonkers things Trump said at the UN, one really stood out to me: “To the victor belong the spoils,” he said about his military operation in Venezuela. Three things to know about that. First, he is openly bragging that he subjugated a sovereign nation and is now stealing its oil. Second, under international law, seizing “the spoils” is an open-and-shut war crime. The President of the United States stood at the podium of the United Nations — an institution created by the US to create and enforce international law — and bragged about committing war crimes. And finally, even though Trump has repeatedly made the same claim, most Americans have no idea he is bragging about war crimes. And/or they don’t care. Think I exaggerate? Look below to see how the New York Times reporter commented on it at the time: It violates “a norm,” says the Times — because normally American presidents have said their actions are more high-minded. That’s it. That’s all that matters, apparently. Then Trump promised to overthrow the government of another sovereign country (Cuba). Which would amount to waging aggressive war — the crime we hanged the Nazis for at Nuremberg. Everything that was built post-World War Two is being destroyed at lightning speed. Openly. Proudly. Ignorantly.

- Dan Gardner

Read on Substack

Other comments:

In the Toronto Star, columnist Susan Delacourt writes At the UN, a tale of two world orders — and the growing divide between Canada and Donald Trump’s America [gift link]

...[Carney says] “What comes ahead? It’s not wishful multilateralism, which defends only the status quo, nor a cold realpolitik that dismantles the status quo altogether. The alternative that Canada and many others are pursuing is values-based realism,” Carney said. “Progress can be signalled through monologue, only achieved through dialogue and action.”
That just might have been a slight dig at Trump’s self-referential monologue.
...Ever since Davos, a view has been emerging of Carney as the unofficial leader of nations united against Trump. In July, the Wall Street Journal dubbed him in a headline: “The Canadian Who Steered Europe Away From the U.S.”
The “new alliance” announced last week when Carney addressed the European Union was another step in that emerging international reputation for this prime minister. Trump called that “laughable,” but no one was laughing on Tuesday when [retiring UN Secretary General]Guterres laid down the new world order as he sees it, and it sounded an awful lot like what Carney has been saying.
They both said on Tuesday, without mentioning Trump, that the future of the world won’t be written by just one nation. They both said multilateralism still is that best future. Guterres said history argues for that view; Carney said that realism makes that true.
Carney and Trump arrived at this general assembly meeting with two different objectives. For Trump, it was a flying visit, as is his practice, arriving in the room after Guterres spoke and staying just long enough to put himself at the centre for a day.
For Carney, this is a networking occasion over multiple days, loaded with low-profile meetings, and eschewing the opportunity to take centre stage himself.
The differences between these two leaders, and their world views, grow sharper every day.
Tuesday at the UN was a vivid snapshot, again. No one at the UN general assembly will be asked to vote between Trump and Carney, but Guterres’ speech was a strong hint of how that vote would turn out.

And in other news, BC premier David Eby has called a snap election 

And conservatives are PISSED!
Of course, they've done worse in the past, I guess...

Most breathtakingly cynical move? Kenney ran a kamikaze candidate and became UCP leader in an election that involved voter fraud. Then he was replaced by Danielle Smith who dumped the Wildrose and crossed the floor to join the Conservatives.

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— Charles Rusnell (@charlesrusnell.bsky.social) September 22, 2026 at 11:28 PM

As usual, the media are complaining about Eby taking advantage of the Conservatives being in disarray. How dare he act like a politician?  

Not defending the BC conservatives--in their various iterations--because they seem pretty awful... HOWEVER... there is something unseemly about the NDP Premier calling a snap election 2yrs in to a 4yr mandate. It appears an abuse of power, frankly. #BCpoli #CDNpoli www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

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— RealMattHopkins (@realmatthopkins.bsky.social) September 22, 2026 at 6:27 PM

This is an NDP premier trying to keep the conservatives out The conservatives in BC are a frickin mess right now. So the media is saying Eby is taking advantage and using a wrong headed justification But I’m thinkin: hell ya he’s right to call an election and get rid of those cray MLA while he can

— Totes McGotes 🇨🇦 📎🐾 (@beccaroob2.bsky.social) September 22, 2026 at 2:38 PM

Remember how pissed off the media was that Trudeau called a snap election in 2021? Thank heavens he did. 

Because if Trudeau hadn't done that, he would have been forced to call an election in 2023 or early 2024, and he would have lost, and then Erin O'Toole would have been our Prime Minister when Trump was elected .  And yes, O'Toole is sort of OK but I think his capacity for leadership is suspect (remember the policy flip-flops? the outhouse stunt? the muscle shirt?) and likely Carney would never have become Liberal leader and Canada would have been so screwed. 

Goes to show you never can tell...

Anyway, here's the list of parties in BC, as of a few days ago:

It may be changed now, because the Conservatives are trying to get the band back together

BC poli today: • Eby calls Oct 24 snap elx • Critics say opportunistic, risks integrity of Oct 17 muni elxns • 7 CentreBC MLAs rejoin Conservatives • Sturko now CentreBC leader • Findlay not running for Cons • Findlay husband, Chapman, leaves Cons, joins OneBC www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/artic...

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— Andrea Woo (@andreawoo.bsky.social) September 22, 2026 at 8:05 PM

Stay tuned....