Not The Beaverton? Not the Onion? Sure sounds like the August crazies are here!

I can't remember whether August has always been so bizarre -- maybe this craziness happens every year and we just forget all about it after school starts again. 

Maybe its the Perseids - their peak time is next week.
Or the phase of the moon - the Sturgeon Moon (AKA Wild Rice Moon) will rise just after sunset on both Saturday and Sunday this week.
But whatever the cause, we're seeing some truly funny stuff happening. It is to laugh....

Here in Canada, so little is going wrong with the Carney government (that is, unless they dump Pharmacare!!!) that MPs have to get mad about stuff the federal government didn't actually do.

Dale Smith reports on the handwringing about upgrading BC Ferries:

On Friday, the Commons transport committee met to wring their hands and express their dismay at BC Ferries’ decision to buy new ships from a Chinese firm, and lo, there was much wailing and gnashing of teeth. Chrystia Freeland expressed her dismay. Gregor Robertson expressed his disappointment. The representative of the Canada Infrastructure Bank pointed out that they don’t make any decisions on procurement, and that their loan was secured before that decision was made. And the head of BC Ferries pointed out, once again, that no Canadian shipyard bid on these ships, if they did, it would take them a decade to deliver them (at least), and that the Chinese bid was $1.2 billion cheaper than any of the others.
That of course didn’t stop opposition MPs from doing the performative song and dance. Conservative Dan Albas demanded the government cancel the loan—which the government can’t do because the Infrastructure Bank is arm’s length. And now they want all documents and emails released, which is going to tell them yet again that no Canadian shipyards bid on this contract. Perhaps most galling of all was Bloc MP Xavier Barsalou-Duval wanted an apology from the government and from the Canada Infrastructure Bank because it’s “unacceptable” that the government plans to invest in foreign infrastructure when our own steel industry is facing tariffs from Trump—but the federal government isn’t investing. BC Ferries, a provincial Crown Corporation is, and the loan from the Infrastructure Bank is a fully repayable loan. You would think the Bloc of all people would rather the federal government respect a decision by a provincial body, but apparently that only matters if it’s in Quebec...

Random Roundup: that canny Carney; the diddler on the roof; no-seat Poilievre

Just a few commentaries tonight, mainly about how well Carney is dealing with Trump and the tariffs, as the American economy begins to collapse. 

Guy Lawson / Rolling Stone 

Why Canada Isn’t Sweating Trump’s Mob Tactics 

The Gang That Couldn’t Govern Straight: Under Trump, Canada’s most-favored-nation status endures, suckers 

Keeping a straight face has been perhaps the greatest achievement of Mark Carney's brief tenure as the prime minister of Canada. For months, Donald Trump has railed against Canada, threatening to turn America’s ungrateful northern neighbor into the 51st state, come what may, an achievement worthy of his visage gracing Mount Rushmore — in the same way Trump will annex Greenland, reclaim the Panama Canal, free Brazil’s corrupt former President Jair Bolsonaro, repeal the laws of climate change and gravity, and then impose tariffs on all of America’s nefarious trading partners, like the evil-doer Canada.
The only hitch, as the canny Carney has known all along: America has a thing called a “treaty” with Canada. Not one of Trump’s “deals,” the chaotic, almost certainly worthless and delusional transactions that involve the president imagining himself astride the world, TV remote in hand, a colossus of reactionary stupidity and cruelty finally delivering his promised revenge.
...The pervasive terror displayed by American institutions has disguised the fact that it is actually possible to stand up to a bully — as unassuming Canada just proved with its support for a Palestinian state. The truth is that under the terms of the USMCA, 95 percent of the goods and services that Canada exports to the United States arrive duty free, leaving a relatively small five percent subject to Trump’s imperial 35 percent tariff. But even that doesn’t capture the absurd reality. While Trump imposes across-the-board tariffs on countless countries, for reasons that escape any rational economic explanation, Canada is now perhaps the single most favored trading nation on earth. While scores of countries face Trump’s punitive tariffs, Canada largely trades tariff free with the United States because it doesn’t need a “deal” — it has a treaty.
Canada's prime minister Carney possesses degrees in economics from Harvard and Oxford, and they likely provided him with sufficient education to see the truth behind Trump’s nonsense — and ensure he has the social graces and political intelligence to not laugh out loud when the president imposes symbolic tariffs like a carnival barker. Leading the Bank of Canada during the global financial crisis of 2008 and the Bank of England through the Brexit catastrophe of 2016 certainly have endowed Carney with the fortitude to quietly keep an eye on the larger prize and persist through times of economic lunacy.
In recent months, Canada has come to occupy a unique place in the world. Sent as a canary into the coal mine of Donald Trump’s addled mind, Canada has emerged from the toxic subterranean atmosphere alive and with the urgent news that it is possible to survive the craziness that has besieged the American body politic. Lay low and say as little as possible is Canada’s message, denying Carney the cheap political thrill of telling Canadians how incredibly fortunate they are that Trump is so stupid — and risk riling the vengeful and easily humiliated Trump.

- Cathie from Canada

Read on Substack

About that wildfire smoke: "The rest of our lives will be smoky"

 Our weather here in Saskatoon wasn't too bad today, but CTV News was certainly covering the hell out of the smoke in Toronto -- in Canada, the weather is not "news" unless its happening in Toronto! -- and the forecast is more smoke  - here's the latest wildfire map I could find.

The anti-Canada sentiment on X because of wildfire smoke in the northeast US is crazy tonight. 

Some seem to want Trump to invade Canada to put out the fires and stop the smoke from affecting their nice summer. 

Yeah, right. Poor babies!

Here's a few posts I saw on X (which now deletes the poster name on embedded posts, I don't know why...)

Fuck Canada: The Air Quality In Chicago This Weekend Will Be "The Worst In The Entire World" Thanks To Canadian Wildfires https://t.co/i2uMpb4ERF pic.twitter.com/IWuS5ocde8

— Barstool Sports (@barstoolsports) August 1, 2025

I'm almost in support of Canada becoming our 51st state just so we can start prosecuting the arsonists and put an end these never ending Canadian wildfires! pic.twitter.com/wzYEBDJunR

— MNRick 🇺🇸 (@MNRick_v3) July 31, 2025

We the USA need to annex Canada by force and only let Alberta vote because:
-they’re poisoning our skies with their wildfires
-they tolerate greater security threats
-their people need to be liberated from tyranny
-many Albertans are based

— Ben LeNeave (@Ben_LeNeave) August 5, 2025

Sunday Funday: Windmills, doomscrolling, and all the other crazy stuff going on, plus TrumpWatch and Animal Crackers

A good idea for responding to the tariffs:

Here's a good one, too:

 

These ugly windmills are killing the motherf*€king whales 🐳 😂😅🤣

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— 🍁🇨🇦Team Canada Forever🇨🇦🍁 (@teamcanadaforever.bsky.social) July 31, 2025 at 4:07 PM

Canada should cut off electricity to USA for 35 minutes per day, everyday, in retaliation for the 35% tariffs, and at a different time every day to mirror Trump’s erratic decision making

— No Guns In Canada 🇨🇦 🇺🇦🟧 (@NoGunsInCanada) August 1, 2025

I think America finally understands they may be completely f*cked

These days I often think of Paul Simon's American Tune:

...For we lived so well so long
Still, when I think of the
Road we're traveling on
I wonder what's gone wrong
I can't help it, I wonder what's gone wrong...

View on Threads

Elbows Up, Canada!

Well, that's that. 

And Canada says "fuck you very much" to Trump:

This is Canadian diplomatic speak for "Trump can go puck himself"

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— White Rose Resistance (@whiteroseresistance.org) July 31, 2025 at 11:06 PM

Living Well is the Best Revenge

I cut my finger cooking today and its a little sore for typing. 

So just a short post tonight -- I thought this was such a great story of how living well is Trudeau's best revenge:

I cant help but laugh, while Pierre Poilievre was fighting for a seat in Battle-river Crowfoot, Justin Trudeau was out swooning Katy Perry. Also in his most recent pic on instagram he wore a Late Night with Stephen Colbert shirt. A nice big fuck you to Donald Trump. I said it before and I will say it again JT has always been the GOAT!

- Cole Bennett

Read on Substack

Former PM Trudeau enjoying Switzerland with his son Xavier. So glad to see him happy and enjoying his children after everything he did for #Canada and all the unwarranted abuse he and his family endured ❤️🇨🇦

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— Alexandros 🇨🇦 (@alexandros2112.bsky.social) July 28, 2025 at 10:35 AM

TMZ releases photo of Katy Perry & Justin Trudeau having a drink on terrace.

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— Pop Crave (@popcrave.com) July 29, 2025 at 2:25 PM

we need to evacuate montreal immediately. we could be moments away from justin trudeau appearing at a katy perry concert, an event that would represent the creation of a pop culture black hole

— QuoProQuid (@quoproquid.bsky.social) July 29, 2025 at 10:11 AM

Too late!

Justin Trudeau spotted at Katy Perry’s Lifetimes Tour in Montreal, Canada.

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— Pop Base (@popbase.tv) July 30, 2025 at 10:11 PM

Does Canada need a "Homecoming Czar" to get our people back from ICE custody?

The news came out last month that at least 55 Canadians are being held in US immigration detention.
And that's just about all that we still know.

Global Affairs says they're "urgently seeking more information."
Well, guys, seek harder!

On July 4, CBC reported:

Relatives of Canadians detained by ICE in the United States say they're furious and frustrated by the treatment of their loved ones and the battles they're having to fight for even the most basic information.
Global Affairs Canada said it's aware of roughly 55 Canadians in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody, though it said that the numbers can fluctuate.

I haven't seem any other numbers since. 

Who are these people? What does the US think they have done? Or, actually, who cares what they did. What can we do to help them?

Its not even clear if Canada has a complete list -- all we have seen is scattered, tragic stories from families trying to get their relatives home. And apparently no one can tell them where their loved ones are, and why they haven't already been deported. Canadian media have been covering the individual stories, but haven't pulled it all together.

I think its time Canada created a "Homecoming Czar" with authority to fly our people back from whatever hellhole ICE has shoved them -- this seems to be a terminology that Americans respect, and the media love to talk about "czars" too.

Here are a few of the Canadians trapped now:

Like Cynthia Olivera, Kiaza Paul:

And Paula Callejas:

 

At least Edouard Lallemand got home, traumatized but safe:

A Canadian man was detained by US border patrol for fishing NEAR American waters. No due process. No explanation. Thrown in a cell in wet clothes for doing something he’s done every summer for years. Edouard Lallemand is sounding the alarm for all Canadians who may fish or boat near American bodies of water. Once again, do not travel to the US. It’s not safe. Do not support fascism and cruelty.

- Broadwaybabyto

Read on Substack

Breaking: Trump’s border thugs waded into Canadian water, rammed his boat, arrested and detained a Canadian fisherman this week. My latest on America’s increasing aggression at the Canadian border…

- Dean Blundell

Read on Substack

Johnny Noviello died:

 
In this story, immigration Lawyer Richard Kurland also says Canada should implement a Special Canadian Protocol so that when Canadians are arrested by ICE they get put onto a plane to Canada as quickly as possible.

This would be exactly the kind of thing a "Homecoming Czar" could implement and administer.  
Immigration consultant Eivy Joy Quito writing on her ImmigCanada blog says:

The stories of Olivera, Callejas, and others reveal how Canadians in ICE detention are slipping through the cracks, caught in a system that offers little legal protection and even less compassion. With pressure mounting from families, lawyers, and advocacy groups, the Canadian government must prioritize transparency and urgent support for citizens held abroad. For now, these families are still waiting. For answers. For help. For someone to care.

Yes. For someone to care. 

Canada Cheer! Here's some good Canada stuff to help us through the next week.

I know you are worried about what is happening in the United States, and what might happen in Canada as a result. I'm worried too.

I turn on the TV to hear Trump babbling about windmills while Rubio or some foreign leader sits frozen beside him with a "deer in the headlights" stare. Then I see another video of masked ICE Gestapo rounding up brown people to ship to the gulags. Then I read about SCOTUS abusing its shadow docket to manufacture constitutional permissions for fascism. Meanwhile US media owners are knuckling under, as are US universities and US industrial leaders.
It seems like the only effective opposition to Trump now are the commedians.
Its discouraging, disheartening, exhausting.
The gleam of hope I see is here, in Canada -- where hundreds of thousands of us, millions of us, have joined together to declare our love for our country and our determination to keep our own country, our own future, somehow.
So far, at least, all of our politicians are with us.
And Mark Carney is leading the way.
So here are some moments of Canada Cheer:
First, a great article to foward to anyone you know who wants to move out of the United States:

Having a back up exit strategy, even if you never want to use it, is important. View it like insurance. Now is the time to prepare one. Here are 6 actions you can take right now to make such an exit possible later.

- Canada Resists

Read on Substack

Sunday Funday: How about those BlueJays? The lighter side of the news - Coldplay memes, Hunter's interview. And some more funny stuff, plus TrumpWatch and Animal Crackers

How about those Jays!

...The Blue Jays’ spectacular second half continued as they picked up their seventh win in eight games since the all-star break, and took over top spot in the major leagues, by taming the Tigers 6-2 at Comerica Park on Friday night. ... [pitcher José Berríos said] "the way we are playing, we deserve to be in that position. We are winning ball games, we are having fun and we are happy and motivated to come to the ballpark every day.”... 

Its great to watch the team playing so well:

When facing Tarik Skubal, the best approach is to pray. If those prayers aren’t answered, it’s time to grind. Story on the #BlueJays’ big win against a true ace… which they’ll need to do plenty of in October: www.mlb.com/bluejays/new...

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— Keegan Matheson (@keeganmatheson.bsky.social) July 26, 2025 at 8:28 PM

Davis Schneider with a candidate for the #BlueJays' catch of the year. Wow.

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— Keegan Matheson (@keeganmatheson.bsky.social) July 26, 2025 at 4:22 PM

Carney is in no hurry to sign a bad US trade deal

As August 1 approaches, the Trump administration is announcing eleventy-billion trade deals and patting themselves on the back about how gosh-darn terrific they are.

And if you believe that, maybe you'd be interested in buying a bridge in Brooklyn...

The trade deals are going to be announced along with Trumps big beautiful health care bill and the findings of his team down in Kenya investigating Obama’s birth certificate, I don’t know what all you liberals are getting keyed up about.

— Oliver Willis (@owillis.bsky.social) July 22, 2025 at 6:07 AM

Trump and his boys are hyping the shit out of tariffs now:

The British trade deal wasn't what they said it was, the Vietnamese are still yet to confirm Trump's announcement, and the Japanese say they're not signing a binding agreement. The White House has released the text of ZERO (0) deals, and maybe it's all just social media posts all the way down.

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— Justin Wolfers (@justinwolfers.bsky.social) July 25, 2025 at 1:41 PM

View on Threads

Decoding the MAGA Universe - "Now it looks like he's not their criminal. He’s just a criminal, same as the rest."

It seems like an innocent age, in retrospect. 

Back in 2016 we all laughed about Pizza-gate - that crazy story about how Comet pizza restaurant was the global headquarters of a Democratic party pedophile ring. And QAnon got involved in there somehow too. And the mugging of Seth Rich. And how Obama was secretly running the country. And something called Frazzledrip about a snuff film on Anthony Weiner's laptop -- notice how mysterious laptops seem to keep popping up in MAGA conspiracy theories? 

Now we are finding out that millions of Americans apparently believe all this tripe. And more. Crazy more. And they believe in it sincerely.

 
Steve M / No More Mr Nice Blog

CONSPIRACIES: REPUBLICANS LIKE 'EM BIG AND STUPID
If you want to understand Republican voters, you can read a half-dozen New York Times focus groups ... or you can watch this podcast clip featuring former 60 Minutes correspondent Lara Logan and stuntman turned conspiratorial religious-right documentarian Mike Smith:

I will never get over the fact that this woman was once a respected 60 mins correspondent!

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— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yasharali.bsky.social) July 24, 2025 at 6:39 AM

Steve M also gives us another clip from this bananapants interview - "Did you open any fridges and see a baby's head?" 

Today's News: A round-up with some good news videos; an update on inter-provincial trade deals; Poilievre is playing stupid about the Convoy; and finally a few comments about fascism

Today, just a roundup of interesting news: 

Good news videos from YouTube:

Piston Pundit: the new Canada-Mexico trade corridor  

MeidasTouch: Ben Meiselas reports  

Top 10list: Top 10 American Companies Quietly Relocating to Canada in 2025

Canadians? Nasty? You ain't seen nothing yet...

So the American ambassador Pete Hoekstra described Canadians as "nasty" on Monday, at the annual Pacific NorthWest Economic Region Foundation summit in Bellevue Washington:

The ambassador made the remarks in answer to a question from a conference moderator about what could be done to get people travelling again as Vancouver and Seattle prepare to host games as part of next year’s FIFA World Cup.
“Canadians staying home, that’s their business, you know. I don’t like it, but if that’s what they want to do, it’s fine. They want to ban American alcohol. That’s fine,” he said
“There are reasons why the president and some of his team referred to Canada as being mean and nasty to deal with, OK, because of some of those steps.” ...

Hmmm....
Nasty? Mean? B-b-b-baby, you just ain't seen nothing yet....

We've been called worse by better.

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— Canada's National Observer (@nationalobserver.com) July 22, 2025 at 6:08 PM

www.cbc.ca/news/politic... "Do they think Canadians are not going to respond when the president says, 'I want to turn you into the 51st state & begger you economically unless you bow to the US?” "Obviously, Canadians are outraged." Outraged is putting it mildly My #BoycottUSA is forever #NastyUSA

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— 🇨🇦🇨🇦 Proud Canadian 🇨🇦🇨🇦 (@beppil007.bsky.social) July 21, 2025 at 9:31 PM

Canada gets back to summer as usual -- complaining about the Liberals!

(Remembering summer evenings - a mural in Kipling, Sask.)

After the breakneck pace of patriotism and panic of the past seven months - Trump's 51st State threats and TACO tariffs, Trudeau's resignation, the hockey game, "Elbows Up!", Carney winning the leadership and then the election - its almost a relief that Canada seems to be taking its own version of a summer break now by getting back to complaining about the Liberals.

I'm reading posts about First Nations leaders feeling insulted by Carney, right-wing think tanks blaming inflation on the Liberals, Poilievre complaining about Liberal spending priorities, city mayors arguing about housing and cycling paths, people saying government spends too much or cuts too much, people worried about the CBC -- sounds just so typically Canadian, doesn't it.

For example:

Here is Dale Smith's column on Monday about the Usual Suspects blaming inflation on the Liberals. Again.
And on a side note, Smith's daily column really is a must-read - he always makes sense.

Dale Smith / Routine Proceedings

Roundup: Spending vs inflation
Last week, the CD Howe Institute put out a report on the recent bout of inflation, and tried to pin it either on government spending or the Bank of Canada, and in the process ignored a whole lot of things that happened during the pandemic that were material to those price increases. Or the fact that early in the pandemic, we had deflation, and that the Bank of Canada needed to act fast to ensure that it did not continue lest it turn into a spiral that would lead to a depression, because that’s what deflation does.
Naturally, however, the moment Pierre Poilievre saw that they were pinning blame on government spending, he had to jump on that because it’s his entire central thesis for inflation, in spite of all evidence to the contrary. I report on economic data on a regular basis, and that includes the Consumer Price Index (or inflation) data every month, and the Bank of Canada’s Monetary Policy Report every quarter. I can tell you what prices increased and where, because that’s in the data every month. None of the causes had anything to do with government spending.

Government spending did not cause the shortage of semiconductor chips.
Government spending did not bottleneck shipping canals, or cause the shutdown of global supply chains.
Government spending did not cause avian flu to devastate poultry farms across North America.
FFS.

— Dale Smith (@journo_dale) July 20, 2025

I also have to take some exception to the notion that government supports like CERB were driving demand. CERB was not extra spending money. It was survival money for low-income people who were out of work because of the pandemic. It staved off a wave of bankruptcies and even more demand on provincial social services or food banks (and the lack of provincial social services is the main driver behind increased food bank use, per their own reports). The “excess demand” was coming from higher-income households who had plenty of money to spend when they couldn’t go out to restaurants or go on vacations. They were not the recipients of government support, and trying to conflate the two is disingenuous, and frankly smacks of a great deal of ideological bias.