Some Friday Funnies, plus Trade War Dispatches, Canadian News, and Signs of the Apocalypse

Friday Funnies

I was today years old when I saw this great cartoon from August 26. 

And it reportedly ended cartoonist Sue Dewar's career at the Toronto Sun, as described by Hamilton Spectator cartoonist Graeme MacKay, because the PostMedia papers told her they had to pixilate that beaver finger and she refused to work for cowards. 

I've read lots of speculation about PM Carney getting the Nobel Peace Prize and/or the Time magazine Person Of The Year - with the discussion first on how much he deserves both, and second on how delightful it would be to make Trump absolutely furious.

 Carney's reluctant remarks to the New York Times about the "extreme tail risk" of a US invasion caused headlines across the country

In the meantime, Canada's other political leaders can't keep up.

Finally, if Trump wants an apology, here it is

Dispatches from the Trade War

#CanadianNews 🇨🇦 - As Canada diversifies its exports away from US's Convicted crook Donald Trump 🏴‍☠️🩸🚺🤢, P.M. Mark Carney designated today a proposed $44 Billion West Coast oil pipeline, project of national interest redirecting exports away from US 💪 financialpost.com/commodities/...

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— The Torontonian🍁🇨🇦 🇪🇺 🇬🇱 🇮🇱 🇲🇽 🇺🇦 🏒⚽️ (@thetorontonian.bsky.social) October 1, 2026 at 6:05 PM

PM Carney announced that the Pacific Link pipeline was a national interest project. And for too many people, the immediate knee-jerk reaction seemed to be "we're against it!".
The route hasn't even been settled yet, nor the ownership, its all still up for negotiation. But the expectation that governments are determined to screw us all and that everybody must endorse every detail before anything can happen ...well, that the kind of thinking that got Canada into this mess in the first place.

The Prime Minister invited our Nations to co-develop the conditions that must be met before the proposed project can proceed. He also committed to continued consultation and identified protection of the Athabasca River as a priority. #FirstNations #pipeline #oilandgas #majorprojects

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— Windspeaker.com (@windspeaker.bsky.social) October 1, 2026 at 6:09 PM

Trump says he's teaching Canada "a little lesson." He's right. We learned a lot. We learned we're bigger and stronger than we thought. When this country is patriotic and united, we're damn near unstoppable. We learned that ignoring you works. The less we play along, the louder you get. We learned that standing up to you is the only move that ever worked. We learned that every dollar we send somewhere else costs you leverage. A year ago, nearly 73% of our exports went to the U.S. In July it was about 66%. That's not a blip. That's a country changing its habits. We learned that Canadians staying home and leaving American bourbon on the shelf hits your tourism and your spirits makers hard, and their members of Congress hear about it. And keep an eye on the border states in the midterms. That's where your little lesson comes due. Class dismissed. https://youtu.be/NHi6mSdmtLk?si=SEfX0cbpkiF32iJ1

- Kevin Boucher

Read on Substack

The Canada-EU story is getting a lot more concrete. A draft plan says Canada and Europe have deals on critical minerals, digital trade and energy, plus a joint purchase of 50 CANADIAN-built water bombers. Whatever “associate membership” means, this relationship is moving fast. 🇨🇦🇪🇺

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— Pat G🇨🇦 🍁🏳️‍🌈🍉 (@pguist.bsky.social) October 1, 2026 at 4:23 PM

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— The Globe and Mail (@theglobeandmail.com) October 1, 2026 at 8:16 PM

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— Unofficial CBC News Mirror (@cbcnews-mirror.bsky.social) October 2, 2026 at 2:03 AM

More Canadian news
First, here's a fascinating column by Justin Ling about how Carney is running the government these days - and "running" really is the word. It's lengthy and detailed but worth the read. Ling concludes

...If Carney can get everyone doing their jobs, [gkft link] get the engine tuned up and explain the bumpy ride ahead in a way that prevents his passengers from screaming, he might just get us to where we’re going in one piece.
Alternatively, if he can’t even communicate the nature of his own government, things could go awry...

About the BC election
Evan Scrimwshaw writes an excellent piece about the BC election so far -BC: Is David Eby Going To Blow It? Spoiler: I Am Unconvinced

...It is very important to know the difference between losing because you’re getting outplayed and losing because you’re playing like shit. The NDP aren’t being outplayed, they’re playing like shit, and they’re the political equivalent of being down 1-0 at the first intermission because they turned the puck over 77 times against the worst team in the league. All they have to do is remember how to do the basic blocking and tackling of political campaigning.
Maybe Eby and co are so up their own asses they can’t do it. Maybe they’re so convinced of their own genius that they’ll actually blow this race. But fundamentally, the Conservatives are an untested entity with an unknown leader, a chaotic history, and no clear plan or vision for government. The NDP would have to be the most incompetent party in modern Canadian history to lose to them.
It’d be really funny, but it won’t happen.

Catching up with Residential School Denialism
Manitoba premier Wab Kinew talks about residential school denialism and the Brandon school

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Wab Kinew (@wabber)

Fuck Around..... 

"Oh boy! I'm gonna trigger the libs on the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation!" - John Adair, Sooke Brewing Company

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— Alan Ranta (ꜱᴏ ᴡʜᴀᴛ?) 🇨🇦 (@alanranta.bsky.social) October 1, 2026 at 6:31 PM

And Find Out.

a lot can happen in six hours

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— Justin McElroy 🇨🇦 (@jmcelroy.bsky.social) October 1, 2026 at 4:30 PM

Signs of the Apocalypse - a regular round-up of the crazy stuff happening down south

Trump continues to bully the world. 

Its funny until it isn't

He’s going to use nukes before it’s all over. People need to wake up

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— Asha Rangappa (@asharangappa.bsky.social) October 1, 2026 at 7:00 PM

To My Fellow Americans: We Sanctioned a Canadian Judge The Short Version "I went home and Alexa wouldn't talk to me." Kimberly Prost said that on NPR this week. She grew up in Fort Rouge, in Winnipeg. Her father worked at a brewery. As a lawyer for Canada, she helped negotiate the treaty that created the International Criminal Court. Today she sits on it as a judge. In 2020 she voted to let the court investigate alleged crimes in Afghanistan, a small part of which might have involved Americans. In August of last year my country sanctioned her for that vote. She was not charged. She was not tried. Washington says its consent was needed. The treaty says Afghanistan's was enough. Her credit cards, issued in the Netherlands and Canada, were canceled. Amazon closed her account, and the little speaker in her kitchen went quiet. The court's French insurer stopped paying her claims. She is sixty-eight. None of those companies had to do it. Our sanctions bind American companies only. But they all need our door, so they did more than the rule asked. Auditors call that over-compliance. I spent thirty years in that trade, and I'd have passed every one of them. I'd sign off on most of them again. I can't tell you which ones I wouldn't. Nine of the court's eighteen judges are on the list now. Washington is reported to be preparing sanctions against the court itself, the court we helped build. We sanctioned a Canadian judge for doing her job. Asked whether she'd quit, she said, "I will never quit my job as a judge." Americans, ask your representatives in writing: Do you support sanctioning the judges of allied democracies? Yes or no. Keep their answer. And if you're Judge Prost, I'm sorry about the speaker. Ross Boulton Louisiana

- Ross Boulton

Read on Substack

Of all the crimes committed by the Trump administration, I feel the worst is the policy of deporting people who have completed their prison sentences to some of the most brutal places on earth, places which they have no connection with whatsoever, so they can be subjected to unimaginable horrors, possibly for the rest of their miserable lives. And now the six conservatives of the Supreme Court have given the administration the green light to go right on doing it until they, eventually, get around to judging its legality.

- Dan Gardner

Read on Substack